A Fatal Visit (A Harbor Cove Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Emily Page Page A

before her brought bile to her stomach.
     
    A man lay before her on the ground, staring face down at the floor tiles. His brown hair was cut short and styled. He had a chiseled jaw, and his lips were pushed apart a fraction. In his hand he clutched the strap of a brown leather satchel. Money had spilled from it and lay scattered across the victim and the bathroom tiles. Protruding from the jugular vein was golden feather quill. There was another puncture hole from where it had first sunk into his flesh.
     
    A sense inside her clicked on, and Skyler found herself snapping photos. People she assumed were more staff entered. As she raised her arm to try and get a surveying shot of the whole scene, she was knocked to the side by someone who was pushing people aside to get past. The woman who jostled her had short, clipped blond hair, and she froze when she saw the scene.
     
    From the door, Skyler heard someone shout, “Everyone, out of here! This is a crime sce—”
     
    “No, Chase. No!” It was a shriek of utter despair.
     
    “ Out! Now.” The command was issued from a solemn-faced police officer at the door to the bathroom.
     
    Skyler obliged. The woman with the short blond hair rushed past and then suddenly sagged, sliding down to the floor against a wall. Tears fell from her eyes in small streams, and she wept as a young waitress put a tentative hand on her shoulder.
     
    Skyler saw another officer consoling her date. Bill trembled, his eyes red. Walking over to him, she knelt down. She attempted to comfort him, but she wasn’t quite sure where she should place her hands. She settled for patting him on the shoulder.
     
    “I’m sorry, Bill,” she said, “but I need to get out of here. Are you going to be okay?” He nodded, and she stood.
     
    After looking back at Bill, she took one long deep breath in, and another out, before heading for the door. Cold air hit her as she stepped out onto the street, and her phone began to ring.
     
     

Chapter Two
     
    Steam curled from the cup on the coffee table. Morning light filtered into the room, bouncing off the small television in the corner. Skyler stretched her legs out onto the cream leather loveseat and yawned. She had immunized herself to the grotesque scene depicted in the photographs on her phone, and so she flicked through them all once more. Resting her phone on her knees, she pulled her long, bright red hair into a ponytail, using the band that had been around her wrist. A sudden ping alerted her to a text. Her brown eyes flashed to her phone. Her mother: “Busy Body’s Book Club is cancelled today.” Then another ping. “I’ve heard the news. I’m on my way over.”
     
    Nichole entered the room, shoulder-length brown hair still wet from her morning shower. She stretched her arms above her head and then flopped into the armchair and turned on the television. The local station was abuzz with the news of the previous day’s incident.
     
    A blond woman in a red pantsuit dully read out the facts of the case as it stood: “Out-of-town millionaire, Chase Myers, was found dead yesterday in the Harbor Point Restaurant. Myers, who was undergoing a divorce at the time of his murder, had been away from his family for some time. They were reportedly looking for him before the incident took place.”
     
    “Big news for a small town,” Nichole muttered.
     
    Skyler nodded and tapped the man’s name into Google. Several articles appeared. Apparently, he would occasionally call his family to tell them he was fine, but they said the divorce had left him stressed and haggard. Another site purported that his credit cards had not been in use since he had left, and yet another discussed the rumors of controversy over his estate.
     
    “Listen to this,” she said, and Nichole turned to her. “So it seems that the primary beneficiary after Chase Myers’s death was to be his ex-wife. Hours before the murder he had called his lawyer, stating that he wished for