A Deadly Slice of Lime: A Key West Culinary Cozy - Book 6 by Summer Prescott

detective dropped the bombshell.
    She
was speechless, her mouth hanging open in shock. “Now wait, are you trying to
tell me that Daniel’s cockamamie story about Captain Bob being the killer is
true?” she exclaimed.
    “I
didn’t believe it any more than you did, but the evidence here pretty clearly
shows that business associates with whom he doesn’t get along have a strange
way of dying or disappearing. You gave me a heads up on this days ago, and I
should have followed up on it then,” the muscles in the detective’s jaw
twitched.
    Marilyn
put it together. “Daniel’s knife was found on Captain Bob’s boat, Brad’s body
washed up on shore, which means that it had to have been taken out to sea at
some point, and Daniel had no way to transport a body. But…what motive would
Bob have had for killing Brad? He barely knew him, right?” she asked, confused.
    “This.”
Bernard gestured at the extensive history on the table in front of them. “Brad
had enough dirt on Robert Jensen to put him away for good, and according to
some emails that I found in here,” he shuffled through some clippings to find
the emails. “Brad was blackmailing the captain, threatening to expose his shady
past dealings if he didn’t practically give him the charter business,” he
explained, scanning the series of emails.
    Marilyn
swallowed hard, past the lump in her throat, surprised at her reaction. “So, if
Brad had these materials and was killed for them, and then Daniel had them…do
you suppose that Daniel disappeared because…because…” she couldn’t go on.
    “Because
Robert killed him?” the detective finished her sentence for her while she tried
to compose herself, feeling foolish at crying over the possible demise of her
ex-husband. “I don’t know. It certainly seems possible, and I intend to find
that out,” he promised, determined. “I need to take this with me…and you’ll be
safer without it hanging around,” he assured her.
    “Do
you think Daniel knew that he might be putting Tiara in danger by giving it to
her?” Marilyn asked softly, sniffling.
    The
detective bit back his instinctive response. “Hard to say,” he took a breath,
then wanting to lessen the blow, graciously added, “maybe he knew that his
daughter was a young woman of profound integrity whom he could trust to do the
right thing.”
    She
nodded, staring down at her untouched piece of poundcake. “Yeah, I’m sure that
was it,” she said numbly. “Now, what Captain Bob said about Elizabeth Melman’s
death makes sense. He didn’t really attach a great significance to the lives of
people whom he didn’t like, so death really wasn’t a big deal to him,” she
murmured, remembering the uncomfortable moment when he’d seemed to be happy
about the old woman’s demise.
    Bernard
gave her a questioning look and she told him what had happened at her
appointment with the contractor, when Bob had popped in for a visit.
    “So…now
what?” Marilyn asked.
    “Now…you
and Tiara need to stick together and try to relax in the most publicly visible
place possible…a crowded restaurant, a souvenir stand, a shopping mall,
something like that, and I’m going to go pay a visit to Mr. Jensen at the
marina,” he replied, telling rather than asking.
    “How
will I know when it’s safe to come home?” she asked, suddenly frightened that a
ruthless killer might be stalking her and her daughter.
    “I’ll
let you know. You can always go to the police station if you feel uncomfortable
in public,” he advised. “Go pick up your daughter – I’ll contact you as soon as
I know something.”
    Marilyn
nodded, throwing away the cake, turning off the coffee pot and quickly stashing
the cups and plates in the dishwasher before grabbing her keys. As she forced
herself to do the speed limit while driving to Tiara’s apartment, the dam of
emotion that she’d been so successfully holding back, suddenly and dramatically
burst, tears flowing freely down