Gelato with a Side of Murder Read online

  Gelato with a Side of Murder

  Meredith Potts

  This book is dedicated to my wonderful fans. I wouldn’t have a career without you.

  “When chocolate and ice cream are combined, a smile is never far behind.”

  ~Sabrina Daley~

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter One

  “What’s this surprise you have for me?” I asked.

  “If I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise, now would it?” David Carlson replied.

  My boyfriend stared back at the road without saying another word. The less he told me, the more overactive my imagination became. After all, it wasn’t like David to be so tightlipped.

  Unfortunately, he’d been secretive ever since he picked me up from my house ten minutes ago. I had peppered him with a number of questions but had not gotten a single straight answer from him. While I was discouraged, I wasn’t about to give up. Like all the other mysteries in my life, I was determined to solve this one.

  I looked over from the passenger seat of his car and gave him the best puppy-dog eyes that I could muster. “Will you please just tell me where you’re taking me?”

  He held his pointer finger up. “Patience—”

  I folded my arms. “Is overrated.”

  “Maybe so, but you’re going to need some.”

  I groaned. “You’re really not going to tell me?”

  He shook his head. “No. But don’t worry. We’ll be there soon enough.”

  I scratched my chin as I looked out the window. “Hmm. What restaurants are close to here? It’s definitely not going to be Home Away From Home Cooking—”

  “Sabrina, why don’t we talk about something else?”

  I shrugged. “Like what?”

  “How was your day?”

  “It was totally fine until you picked me up without telling me where we’re going.”

  “I’m glad to hear there was no troubling brewing at Daley Buzz,” he joked.

  I squinted at him. “Are you just avoiding the subject now?”

  “I am happy to report that I had a pretty quiet day on the beat,” he said. “Crime is really down of late. I hope that trend continues.”

  I stared long and hard into his eyes. “You can keep trying to change the subject all you want, but you know how I am—”

  “Stubborn, you mean?” David asked.

  “I was going to say determined.”

  “Determined to be stubborn?” he joked.

  “Very funny,” I said. “But I’m sticking with determined.”

  He laughed. “You do that.”

  “Since you know how dogged I can be, why don’t you just tell me where you’re taking me?”

  “Fine.”

  I exhaled. “Good. It’s about time you stop leaving me in suspense. So, where are we headed?”

  “Right here,” he said.

  ***

  David pulled his car into the parking lot of Antonio’s Ristorante. Talk about a complete surprise. This was the last place in town I thought he would take me.

  On the nights that we went out for dinner, we typically headed to one of the casual restaurants in Treasure Cove. Antonio’s, meanwhile, was one of the most upscale places in town.

  David parked his car while I stared at the restaurant with my mouth agape.

  “Antonio’s? But we never go here,” I said.

  “Would you rather I take you somewhere else?” he asked.

  “No. This is great. I’m just wondering what the special occasion is.”

  “How about the fact that I love you?”

  “That’s reason enough for me.” I leaned in and gave him a kiss. “I love you too.”

  “What a delicious kiss.”

  “Speaking of delicious, I can’t believe we’re here.”

  He smiled. “See. Even after all these years of dating, I can still surprise you.”

  I nodded. “You sure can. Although, you didn’t need to keep me in quite as much suspense.”

  “I disagree. The look on your face when I pulled in here was priceless. You had no clue where I was taking you.”

  “Can you blame me for being floored? I can count on one hand the number of times in my entire life that I have eaten here.”

  “In that case, you were long overdue to come back.”

  “My taste buds agree.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I could really go for some chicken parmigiana.”

  “That sounds fantastic. But I’m going to look at the menu before I make any decisions.”

  “Fair enough,” he replied. “Now, let’s go dine in style.”

  I opened the passenger side door of the car.

  Before I had a chance to take a step out of the vehicle, David’s phone rang.

  My heart sank. I got a terrible feeling in my gut that our ritzy dinner was about to be rescheduled.

  David gritted his teeth, in no mood to answer the phone. Despite his resistance to checking his phone, he knew he couldn’t just ignore the call. A police detective was on call twenty-four hours a day, whether he liked it or not.

  He groaned and reluctantly checked the caller identification screen.

  “It’s work, isn’t it?” I asked.

  He grimaced. “Unfortunately. And, as you know—”

  I let out a sigh. “You have to take it.”

  “But look, hopefully it will just be something small.”

  David was just trying to make me feel better, but I couldn’t help but fear the worst.

  ***

  As he answered his phone, my eyes wandered. I stared out the window, hoping for the best.

  That was when I spotted something in the parking lot that caught my attention.

  About thirty feet away, local commercial real estate developer, Jake Williamson, was in a heated argument with a middle-aged, bearded man.

  It was no surprise to spot Jake outside this restaurant. The slender, slick-haired fifty-one-year-old was a regular at Antonio’s. As a matter of fact, he ate here so often that I was surprised he didn’t have an ownership stake in the place.

  It also didn’t give me any pause to see Jake arguing with someone. His penchant for buying up local businesses and replacing them with chain stores had ruffled a lot of feathers in town. With all the family-run shops that he had shut down in the last few years, there was an argument to be made that Jake was the most unpopular man in Treasure Cove. Just don’t tell him that. In his mind, this town owed him a debt of gratitude for the way he was transforming it.

  Even though Jake was no stranger to arguments, the one he was currently engaged in was more rancorous than I was used to seeing. So when Jake turned his back to the bearded man and began to walk away, I breathed a sigh of relief that things hadn’t gotten out of hand.

  Unfortunately, Jake was only able to take a few steps back toward his car before all tha
t changed.

  It turned out that while Jake was done with his conversation, the bearded man was nowhere near finished with Jake.

  As Jake continued walking to his sports car, the bearded man pulled out a large knife from a sheath that was attached to his belt.

  Even worse, judging by the way the man started walking toward Jake, the bearded guy had every intention of stabbing Jake.

  I grimaced, knowing that I was too far away to stop the man from attacking.

  But I could certainly warn Jake.

  I got out of David’s car in a hurry and yelled at the top of my lungs.

  “Jake. Behind you!” I screamed.

  From there, things got crazy.

  Jake whirled around as the man lunged at him. Jake tried to dodge the knife, but ended up getting stabbed in the stomach. He fell to the ground, writhing in pain.

  The bearded man stood in shock for a moment. He stared at Jake in disbelief that he had missed stabbing him in the heart. A look of complete rage then came over his face as he bent over to grab the knife from Jake’s stomach.

  “Hey, psycho!” I screamed. “What do you think you’re doing?”

  The bearded man didn’t pay any attention to me.

  David, meanwhile, could not be so easily ignored. My boyfriend got out of his car and drew his gun. “Treasure Cove Police Department. Put your hands up.”

  The bearded man’s eyes were as wide as saucers when he saw that David’s gun was pointed directly at him.

  Unfortunately, the man just kept staring and didn’t follow David’s orders.

  “I said, put your hands up!” David yelled.

  This time, the man reluctantly complied.

  With his gun still drawn, David dashed over toward the man then handcuffed him.

  While David was doing that, I rushed over and checked on Jake.

  As I reached Jake, I saw that he was still alive but in bad shape. Knowing that he needed medical attention right away, I pulled out my phone to call for an ambulance. While I waited for the 9-1-1 operator to pick up, I looked down at Jake once more. He was writhing around in so much pain that I had no idea if he was going to make it.

  Chapter Two

  Thankfully, it didn’t take an ambulance very long to arrive on the scene. The paramedics rushed over to Jake and did everything in their power to stop the bleeding. Unfortunately, Jake needed more intensive medical attention than the paramedics were able to provide.

  So, without delay, the medics loaded Jake into the ambulance and rushed him off to the hospital. It all happened in such a whirlwind fashion that I wasn’t able to ask the medics any questions. Of course, they were so busy treating Jake that they wouldn’t have been able to answer me, anyway.

  While the ambulance pulled away from the scene with its siren blaring, I was left staring down a huge question mark. Was Jake going to make it? Granted, I had no medical experience, but from what I saw, things didn’t appear to look good for him. He had lost a lot of blood. On top of that, the stone-faced looks on the paramedics’ faces did not inspire confidence in me.

  While I worried about whether Jake would survive to see another day, another scene unfolded on the other side of the parking lot. David had his hands full dealing with Jake’s attacker.

  A number of squad cars had arrived around the same time that the ambulance pulled into the parking lot. From there, David loaded the bearded man into the back of one of the cars. In short time, the attacker would be hauled back to the police station where he would be booked for attempted murder.

  Before that happened, David approached me with wide eyes. “What a crazy night.”

  “I know. I can’t believe it,” I said. “And it’s not even over.”

  “I’m certainly ready for it to be done. It has been traumatic enough already.”

  “I agree. The problem is that I wasn’t able to get a definitive answer about Jake before the paramedics rushed him off to the hospital.”

  “That stab wound certainly didn’t look good.”

  I shook my head. “No, it didn’t.”

  “Then again, I’m not a doctor and neither are you. Maybe he’ll pull through.”

  I winced. “Perhaps.”

  “You don’t think he will, do you?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. That’s the problem.”

  “I’m sure the doctors will do everything they can.”

  “What if it’s too late? What if he doesn’t make it?”

  “I think it’s a little too early to speculate.”

  “Is it?” I asked.

  He stared long and hard at me. “I know things don’t look good right now, but you never know what might happen.”

  I groaned. “No. In this town, you definitely don’t.”

  “That isn’t what I meant.”

  “I know. I’m just really rattled right now.”

  He pulled me in close and gave me a hug.

  “I’m so sorry this happened.”

  I let out a sigh. “Yeah.”

  David began to pull back from the hug, but I tried to stop him.

  “Sabrina, I hate to do this, but—”

  “You need to get back to work. I understand,” I said.

  He nodded. “Right now, the priority is to haul this perpetrator into the station.”

  I mustered as much resolve as I could. “Did you get him to talk?”

  David shook his head. “No. But it doesn’t really matter if he does. After what he just did, he’ll be going to jail for a long time.”

  “Yeah. Even the best lawyer in the world can’t save him now.”

  “That said, when I get him in the interrogation room, I’m going to try to get a motive out of him.”

  “Good luck.”

  David grimaced. “Look. About dinner—”

  “I know. We’ll reschedule it for some other time,” I said.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “So am I. Although, it turns out there are much bigger issues at play.”

  “True. But just so you know, I was really looking forward to this.” He gazed at me.

  I smiled at him. “So was I.”

  “Anyway, I really need to get this perp back to the police headquarters,” he said. “I’ll have a deputy drive you home.”

  I shook my head. “I’m not going home.”

  “Sabrina, there’s no reason for you to come to the station with me—”

  “I know. I wasn’t planning on going to the station.”

  He stared at me. “You’re planning on going to the hospital, aren’t you?”

  I nodded. “Don’t get me wrong. I hate Jake’s business practices, but I don’t want him to die.” I took a deep breath. “I need to know if he is going to make it.”

  “I understand,” he said. “I’ll tell you what. I was going to send a deputy over to the hospital, anyway, to get an update. Why don’t you ride over to Treasure Cove Medical Center with Deputy Carter?”

  Chapter Three

  Unfortunately, Deputy Carter and I sat in the waiting room at the hospital for over an hour without receiving a single update. Or, more accurately, Carter did the sitting. I paced back and forth relentlessly. To the point where I had probably taken five thousand steps in the last sixty minutes.

  I couldn’t help myself. My anxiety level was off the charts. A number of thoughts swirled in my mind. I wondered if anyone had notified Jake’s family about what had happened to him. Then again, I didn’t know if he even had any living family members. Or if they would even show up to visit him.

  Sigh.

  So many unanswered questions.

  While I was at my wits’ end, Carter was as stoic as could be as he sat back in his chair. The muscular, mustached, square-faced, twenty-nine-year-old didn’t even fidget.

  “How do you manage to stay so calm?” I asked.

  “It’s my job,” Carter replied.

  I chuckled. “They must grind that into you at the police academy. David says the same thing to me when I ask him t
hat question.”

  “Actually, that is part of our training. It’s essential to keep calm under pressure.”

  “That’s why you’re a professional—and I’ll always be an amateur sleuth. I’m a complete wreck right now. And I don’t even like Jake,” I said.

  I knew someone who did, though. Someone who should have been in the waiting room with me—Jake’s girlfriend, Daphne Lipton. The problem was that Daphne hadn’t picked up her phone when I had called her earlier.

  I decided to try her again.

  Three rings later, Daphne’s phone went to voice mail.

  I left a message. “Daphne. Where are you? Why aren’t you picking up? I have been texting and calling you for the last hour. This is an emergency. Jake has been stabbed and is at the hospital. Call me back as soon as possible.”

  I groaned as I hung up the phone. “I don’t get it.”

  “It has been a crazy night,” Carter replied.

  “I don’t mean that,” I said. “It doesn’t make sense that Daphne isn’t picking up her phone. It’s not like her.”

  “Maybe she’s at a movie. Or the battery for her phone died.”

  “Those are both possibilities. Then again, there’s also the chance that something bad happened to her.”

  “I would be careful jumping to conclusions.”

  “I can’t help it. Like you said, it has been a crazy night. And Treasure Cove is far from a normal town.”

  “That is the understatement of the century.”

  “I can think of some more colorful ways to describe this town, but I have a feeling that you already know what’s on my mind.”

  He nodded. “I have a pretty good guess. It turns out I have seen all kinds of colorful things on the job.”

  “Who is the one understating things now?” I asked.

  “Guilty as charged,” Carter replied. “That said, tonight has been pretty outrageous, even by Treasure Cove standards.”

  I groaned. “It sure has.”

  “Look. You know that you don’t have to be here, right?”

  “I understand that.”