A Zen For Murder (Mooseamuck Island Cozy Mystery Series Book 1) (17 page)

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Authors: Leighann Dobbs

BOOK: A Zen For Murder (Mooseamuck Island Cozy Mystery Series Book 1)

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“Well, you wouldn’t,” Norma said gruffly. “You young people don’t understand things like loyalty. I gave Anna my word all those years ago, and I ain’t be going breaking it now.”

“Even though you ended up in jail?” Lucy asked.

Norma snorted. “Jail doesn’t scare me. The food's actually pretty good, you know. But if I'd known Kenneth would kidnap Ben, I might have said something.

When I got out of jail, I knew Ben was missing and I looked everywhere for him. I just thought he was hiding. It never occurred to me Kenneth might try to kill him.”

“So Anna never wanted Ben to get any money from Silas?” Mae asked. “Seems like she would have wanted that for him. I mean, the Barrett’s have a bundle.”

Norma’s eyes took on a faraway look. “Anna’s judgment was clouded when it came to Silas Barrett. He was a good guy when we were young. He and Anna were head over heels. But when his father died and he took over the Bennett family fortune, he changed into a hard, angry man. He would hardly give us the time of day, anymore. I guess he thought we were beneath him.

“Anna had one indiscretion with him after that and the result was Ben. But she never told Silas Ben was his son. I’m not sure how Silas found out, but Anna didn’t want anything to do with him and she didn’t want Ben soiled by his money. She was afraid Ben would end up a spoiled brat, like Kenneth.”

“Will Ben get all of it now?” Mae asked.

“With Kenneth in jail, he’ll be in charge of the estate. I hired some smarty pants financial folks from the mainland to help him,” Norma said. “At least he won’t hurt for money, which should actually give Anna some comfort. And being the same sweet old Ben, he’s putting a lot of money into Kenneth's defense. He said that Kenneth is his family now and family does what it can to help out family.”

“So it looks like Anna’s worries over money changing Ben were for nothing.” Claire sipped her red rooibos tea. “I just hope Kenneth appreciates what Ben is doing and treats him like a real brother.”

“Just how did you figure out they
were
brothers?” Tom asked.

“It took a while for my old noggin to process the clues,” Dom said. “But then they all came together. In the end, it was really one thing that stood out. Zoila had called Kenneth out to the cabin to give him some old family photos and paintings she’d discovered in the cabin. But Kenneth didn’t take them. When Claire and I went out to investigate the cabin, we found them in the shed. The paper backing of one of them was split and it didn’t dawn on me until later that people used to hide important documents behind pictures like that. I guess Silas must have had something documenting Ben’s parentage and Zoila stumbled across it when she was handling the picture.”

“That’s right,” Norma mumbled around a mouthful of pancake. “I guess old Silas had some sort of proof and a codicil to his will. I’m not sure why he had it hidden in the picture, but my guess is he was waiting for the right time to drop the bomb on Kenneth. Or maybe he wasn’t even sure
if
he wanted to make it public at all. If you remember, he died suddenly and I guess he never got a chance to show it to anyone.”

“And Zoila thought it should be made public … or was she blackmailing Kenneth?” Mae asked slyly.

“Oh, no. She thought Ben should get his share. In fact, she tried to get me to help her persuade Kenneth to tell Ben himself.” Norma looked at Claire. “That’s what you saw us arguing about that morning.”

“In the jail when you were sketching Zoilas cabin, were you trying to give us a clue?” Dom asked.

“Maybe.” Norma looked at Dom with a twinkle in her eye. “I figured you’d be too dense to catch on, though.”

“But we
did
catch on. Sort of. We did go to the cabin, which led to Dom figuring it out,” Claire said. “Well that and a few other clues.”

“Oh, what were they?” Jane asked.

“One thing that really stuck with me was that we thought Shane had lied about the time he visited Zoila the day before the murder. We couldn’t figure out why,” Claire replied. “And then we realized that wasn’t the case at all. It was
Kenneth
who had lied.”

Jane’s brow creased. “Why would he do that?”

“He wanted to place Ben at Zoila’s that day so we’d think they had some kind of argument. He knew Ben only delivered food between noon and two, so he had to lie and say he was there during that time.”

“He sure did a lot of planning to frame Ben,” Tom said.

“He did,” Dom agreed. “He planted the murder weapon in Ben’s shed, too. Except he made another mistake there. He’d taken the zen garden rake home and hidden it among the tools in his barn right after he killed Zoila. He figured no one would notice it there and he could keep it until an opportune moment presented itself to plant it at Ben’s place. Except when the time came, he didn’t know which one was the rake from the zen garden. So he took all the rakes to Ben’s. Claire and I were there when Zambuco pulled the murder weapon from Ben’s shed. I saw the rake with the Bennett family colors in the pile and I knew something was off, but not exactly what that
something
was.”

“But he wasn’t going to just frame Ben for the murder,” Claire added. “He was going to have Ben write up a fake confession saying he killed Zoila because she ‘saw’ something he didn’t like in her vision, and then he planned to kill him and make it look like Ben had killed himself because he couldn’t live with the guilt.”

“That would solve both his problems. No one would be around to tell that Ben was Silas’s son and even if someone did find out years later, Ben wouldn’t be around to stake a claim on any of the Barrett money,” Jane said.

“Yep. Kenneth had already burned the paper that Zoila found.”

“But didn’t Kenneth realize that Norma would have told the truth if anything happened to Ben?” Tom asked.

“He actually didn’t know that Norma knew about it,” Dom replied. “He was too busy implementing his plan and abducting Ben to pay attention to what was going on in town, so he had no idea Norma and Zoila had argued or even that Norma had been arrested.”

“That’s right,’ Claire chimed in. “Zoila had asked Ben to meet her at the zen garden that morning. She’d already given Kenneth the ultimatum to tell Ben himself. She made the mistake of telling Kenneth where and when she was meeting Ben, and Kenneth got there first and killed her. Ben came along after and found her dead. He left his footprint in the sand and dropped the take-out bag from
Chowders
that Banes found in the woods as he ran away. He said he’d been taking a donut to Zoila.”

“Meanwhile, Kenneth came into the diner to gather information,” Dom continued. “Then he waited until he knew Ben was at home alone, brought the rake over and kidnapped Ben.”

“Well, you guys certainly are brave, risking a run-in with a killer,’ Mae twittered.

Dom waved his hand dismissively. “We have special training.”

Claire pushed up from the table as the others kept talking. She needed some quiet time and there was a bench outside the restaurant that overlooked the cove, which was the perfect place for quiet reflection.

She curled her hand around her tea mug and sat on the bench, watching the boats sway on their moorings and listening to the seagulls’ call. The smell of salt air and fried food made her lips curl in a smile. Investigating the murder had been fun, but she was glad things had quieted down.

“
Meow.
”

Claire looked down to see Porch Cat meandering through the colorful impatiens that were planted alongside the front of the restaurant.

“Hey, kitty.” Claire held out her hand and the cat came over. Claire noticed she was carrying something in her mouth.

“What do you have there?”

Porch Cat sat in front of Claire and gazed up at her. Claire noticed that in the sunlight, the cat’s green eyes were loaded with gold flecks which sparkled in the sunlight.

Porch Cat flicked her tail, then bent over and spit something out on the ground.

Claire looked down to see that it was a plump, juicy blackberry, which was odd since blackberries didn’t come into season for another month. She remembered how Porch Cat had spit out the smooth winterberry holly leaf from Anna’s rare plant on her patio and wondered if the cat had been trying to tell her something.

Maybe she’d been trying to lead her to Anna’s. And if so, was this blackberry a clue? But a clue to what? Zoila’s murder had already been solved.

Claire felt a mixture of trepidation and excitement as she remembered Dom’s words about Mooseamuck Island being ‘due’ for a few more murders. Maybe the cat was trying to tell her another murder lay just around the corner.

That’s silly
, Claire thought as she watched the cat disappear under the leaves of a lush rhododendron. Porch Cat was just your average Maine Coon … she didn’t have any powers of premonition and stray cats didn’t go around dropping clues at your feet.

Claire settled back on the bench and took another sip of tea as she eyed the empty space where Porch Cat had been a few seconds ago. Zoila’s murder investigation had taken a lot of energy and she needed to rest up and replenish her strength.

She made a mental note to beef up her health regimen. She wanted to be sure she was in top condition with lots of energy to spare … just in case another murder investigation happened to come her way.

The end.

A Note From The Author

Thanks so much for reading, “
A Zen For Murder”
. I hope you liked reading it as much as I loved writing it. If you did, and feel inclined to leave a review, I really would appreciate it.

This is book one of the Mooseamuck Island Cozy Mystery series. I plan to write many more books with Dom and Claire. I have several other series that I write, too - you can find out more about them on my website
http://www.leighanndobbs.com
.

Also, if you like this book, you might like my Mystic Notch series which is set in the White Mountains of New Hampshire and filled with magic and cats. I have an excerpt from the first book “Ghostly Paws” at the end of this book.

This book has been through many edits with several people and even some software programs, but since nothing is infallible (even the software programs), you might catch a spelling error or mistake and, if you do, I sure would appreciate it if you let me know - you can contact me at:
[email protected]
.

Oh, and I love to connect with my readers, so please do visit me on facebook at
http://www.facebook.com/leighanndobbsbooks

Signup to get my newsletter and take advantage of my early buyer discount:

http://www.leighanndobbs.com/newsletter

If you want to get a text message on your cell phone when I have a new release text
COZYMYSTERY to 88202

(sorry, this only works for US cell phones!)

About The Author

Leighann Dobbs has had a passion for reading since she was old enough to hold a book, but she didn’t put pen to paper until much later in life. After a twenty-year career as a software engineer with a few side trips into selling antiques and making jewelry, she realized you can’t make a living reading books, so she tried her hand at writing them and discovered she had a passion for that, too! She lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Bruce, their trusty Chihuahua mix, Mojo, and beautiful rescue cat, Kitty.

Find out about her latest books and how to get discounts on them by signing up at:

http://www.leighanndobbs.com/newsletter

Connect with Leighann on Facebook

http://facebook.com/leighanndobbsbooks

More Books By Leighann Dobbs:

Mystic Notch

Cats & Magic Cozy Mystery Series

* * *

Ghostly Paws

A Spirited Tail

Blackmoore Sisters

Cozy Mystery Series