Pie Peril and a Peculiar Murder Read online

  David put his hand up. “Or even just the last year, for that matter. The sad fact is, Treasure Cove didn’t have nearly this big of a drug problem twelve months ago.”

  “If a drastic change like this isn’t bad enough, imagine how I feel right now,” Elizabeth said. “I know I’m going back decades here, but when I was a little kid, this was an idyllic peaceful town on the coast. It is stunning just how different things are now.”

  I took a deep breath before replying, “If only things could go back to the way they used to be.”

  “Wouldn’t that be great?” my stepfather asked.

  Elizabeth nodded. “It sure would.”

  “Make no mistake. I constantly pray for the old days to return. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like that’s ever going to happen,” I said.

  “I definitely wouldn’t hold your breath,” David said.

  “Trust me. I won’t,” I replied.

  “That said, even though the good old days seem to be long gone, I even miss my early days of being on the police force. My first few years as an officer, the most I had to worry about was investigating a home burglary every now and then. These days, my shifts are filled with all sorts of wild cases,” David said.

  “Tell me about it,” I said. “If it isn’t a homicide, it’s a drug bust—”

  “Which brings me back to Jessica’s point from earlier. What’s going to happen next?” David asked.

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. But I have a really bad feeling in my gut.”

  Elizabeth grimaced and replied with a deadpan tone in her voice, “Well, this is turning into quite an uplifting morning.”

  “Look. I hope I’m wrong,” I said. “Unfortunately, I have a sinking feeling that I’m right.”

  “On that note, does anyone have some good news to share?” Elizabeth asked. “It doesn’t matter how small it is.”

  Jessica stepped forward. “A drug dealer is off the streets. In my book, that’s a big deal. And if things go according to plan, a number of other dealers will be behind bars soon.”

  My eyebrows rose. “Wait a minute. Does that mean you’re planning on being a part of more drug busts in the future?”

  Jessica nodded. “Of course.”

  “I can’t say that I like that plan,” I replied.

  “Mom, you need to step back and let me do my job,” Jessica said.

  “That’s easier said than done,” I replied.

  “I’m sorry if it’s hard for you. But it’s also necessary. I mean, this is one of the reasons that I joined the police force in the first place. To clean up the streets. To make this a safer place to live. To make a real difference. It’s what I was born to do,” Jessica declared.

  “I understand that. I just hope you don’t die in the process,” I said.

  “I’m right there with you when it comes to that. I certainly don’t have a death wish. Instead, it’s a sense of duty that drives me. And sometimes, for justice to be served, risks need to be taken,” Jessica said.

  I opened my mouth to respond, but I wasn’t able to get any words out. My daughter was insistent about getting her thoughts off of her chest.

  “You, of all people, should understand that,” Jessica added.

  Sooner or later, I knew that my daughter would bring up that point. It was certainly a valid statement. For years, both David and I had poured our hearts into solving cases. In the process, we had stared danger in the face on multiple occasions. During that time, there had been a number of close calls.

  Even though David and I both managed to survive those ordeals, our sleuthing had scared the living daylights out of my poor mother.

  Now the tables were turned.

  I was a worried mother with a stubborn daughter.

  And it was safe to say that I was not handling the situation well. As I struggled with my emotions, my mother had a knowing look in her eyes.

  “Things have really come full circle,” Elizabeth said.

  I could only imagine what a surreal scene this was for my mom to witness. She had every right to relish in the fact that I was getting a taste of my own medicine. My mother wasn’t that kind of person, though. Rather than taking pleasure in this conversation, Elizabeth looked like her stomach was tied into knots.

  Jessica wasn’t nearly as emotionally torn. If anything, she was bothered by the direction of this discussion. “You’re right about one thing. This conversation is definitely going in circles.”

  “You can say that again,” I replied. “My head is practically spinning.”

  Just as it seemed like we had reached a stalemate in the discussion, David received a call on his police radio.

  David immediately excused himself from the conversation to take the call.

  Rather than spending more time arguing with my daughter, I stared at my husband. At that point, David had walked far enough away that I couldn’t hear the details of his radio conversation. I impatiently waited for my husband to finish his call.

  A minute later, David put his radio away and walked back toward me. My husband usually had a pretty good poker face, but right then, his eyes were wide.

  In my mind, it was pretty clear that something big had just happened. The question became, what? Was it a murder? Or some other kind of crazy development. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait very long to find out.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “I have some good news,” David said.

  “That’s nice to hear.”

  “It sure is.”

  “Well, are you going to tell me what it is? Or do I have to guess?”

  “It’s about Paulie,” David said. “Apparently, he did a lot of thinking in his jail cell last night. He’s ready to make a deal with us.”

  Chapter Five

  What a difference an evening in prison made. Suddenly, Paulie had plenty to say. In fact, by the time he was done spilling his guts to David, the police department had more than enough ammo to take his boss, Eric Hobart, down for good.

  Once David finished speaking with Paulie, my husband set his sights on Eric. David began by getting a warrant for Eric’s arrest. From there, David assembled a strike team. The odds were that Eric wasn’t going to turn himself in without a fight. Truthfully, things could get nasty in a hurry. A standoff at gunpoint wasn’t just possible, it was likely.

  Because of that, David knew that he had to go in heavily armed and ready for the worst. He was also going to bring plenty of backup with him. Each member of the strike team would be wearing a bulletproof vest. A helmet was also mandatory for everyone involved. Finally, they were bringing along a battering ram in case they needed to break Eric’s door down.

  Before David and his team left the police station, there was one more wrinkle to deal with. Given the potential danger level of this operation, David insisted that Jessica sit this one out. Despite Jessica’s protests, David refused to give in. He didn’t want to see his daughter risk her life two days in a row.

  Jessica hated being left out, but she didn’t take up too much of David’s time. My daughter knew how important this operation was. Time was of the essence. David couldn’t spend his morning arguing with Jess. So, she let her father carry on with his job.

  A few minutes later, the strike team headed out. Since it was a weekday morning during the offseason, the police didn’t encounter any traffic on their way to Eric Hobart’s house.

  Cashew Circle was a quiet street that was lined with oak trees and Victorian-style homes. It looked like the last place that would ever be home to a drug kingpin. But perhaps that was why Eric had decided to buy a house here in the first place. The ability to blend in was a useful skill for a drug dealer.

  The strike team parked on the street in front of Eric’s blue-colored house. As a number of officers approached the front door, David spotted a sports car in Eric’s driveway. In my husband’s mind, that was a good sign. It meant that Eric was probably at home.

  Once a number of deputies were standing at Eric’s front d
oor, David directed the rest of the members of the strike team to head into the kingpin’s backyard. If Eric attempted to flee the scene, the strike team would have all of their bases covered.

  When David got word that everyone was in place, my husband went to work. He knocked on Eric’s front door and waited a few seconds for Mr. Hobart to open up.

  Unfortunately, Eric’s door remained closed.

  After a few more seconds of waiting, David decided to ring the doorbell.

  When he received no response, David pounded on the door again and yelled, “This is the police. Come out with your hands up.”

  Unfortunately, Eric didn’t follow David’s orders.

  David gritted his teeth and then yelled at the door again, “Hobart, this is your last warning. If you don’t come out in five seconds, we’re coming in.”

  David slowly counted down the seconds, only to receive no response from Eric.

  At that point, David had an officer come forward with the battering ram.

  It took a few attempts, but the officer was able to break down Eric’s front door.

  From there, David and his fellow deputies entered the home with their guns drawn.

  Since they were unsure what to expect, they moved slowly and cautiously into the living room.

  That was when David saw something that made his jaw drop.

  It suddenly became incredibly clear why Eric hadn’t answered the door. Despite all the energy that David expended worrying that he was walking into an ambush, it turned out that Eric wasn’t waiting in the living room ready to pump my husband full of lead.

  Instead, David found himself staring down a much different situation. Much to David’s surprise, Eric’s lifeless body was on the ground in the middle of the living room. If that wasn’t shocking enough, there was a bullet wound in Eric’s chest.

  Chapter Six

  So much for making an arrest. Instead, David reached for his police radio. He had a call to make to the coroner. This case had homicide written all over it.

  As David waited for the medical examiner to arrive, he couldn’t believe what a crazy twist this case had taken. Just a few minutes before, David had firmly believed that his strike team would be able to arrest Eric. That Mr. Hobart would grow old in jail.

  Instead, David was dead wrong. Apparently, someone had gotten to Eric first. Someone who had a serious beef with Mr. Hobart. Someone who was willing to resort to murder. If that wasn’t disturbing enough, that person was out there somewhere.

  When the coroner arrived a few minutes later, he did a preliminary exam of the body. In addition, a forensics team was called in to dust the scene for fingerprints and uncover any clues that the killer may have left behind.

  ***

  By the time I pulled up in front of Eric’s house, the medical examiner was ready to share his preliminary findings. According to the coroner, the time of death was between nine and ten o’clock last night. Meanwhile, the cause of death was just as expected. Eric had died from the gunshot wound in his chest. Other than that, the coroner wasn’t able to tell us very much. Although, perhaps after performing an autopsy on the body, some new information would come to light.

  After finishing up his conversation with the medical examiner, David spoke with a member of the forensics team. Unfortunately, that forensics specialist did not have good news to share. The team wasn’t able to find anything in the way of clues. In addition, despite the house being covered with fingerprints, the odds were that they all belonged to the victim. When the specialist got back to the crime lab, some tests would be performed, but there didn’t seem to be any reason for David to get his hopes up about case-breaking evidence turning up anytime soon.

  If this case hadn’t started off on a depressing enough note already, there was actually more bad news making the rounds. After David discovered the body, he told a number of deputies to speak with Eric’s neighbors. With any luck, someone on Eric’s street might have seen or heard something out of the ordinary. Perhaps one of the neighbors might have even spotted the killer and could provide a description of them.

  Much to David’s chagrin, that didn’t prove to be the case. According to Deputy Wilton, none of Eric’s neighbors had any useful information to share. Apparently, a number of those neighbors weren’t home between nine and ten o’clock last night.

  David’s streak of bad luck didn’t end there, however. In the age of technology that we were living in, it wasn’t a stretch to believe that someone on the street might have a security system installed. One that included a camera on their porch. Depending on the coverage area of that camera, perhaps some surveillance footage might have been recorded yesterday evening.

  Unfortunately, that was just wishful thinking on David’s part. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t a security camera in sight. What an absolute shame too. That could have led to a big break.

  At that point, David could have gotten frustrated. After all, he seemed to be striking out at every turn. But what he lacked in clues and evidence, he more than made up for in leads. You see, a drug kingpin like Eric Hobart knew how to make enemies. So, when it came time to make a list of potential suspects, David was able to think of a number of different names. And my husband knew just who he wanted to interview first.

  Chapter Seven

  Statistically speaking, it was amazing how often a homicide was committed by the victim’s spouse. That was why David and I elected to interview Valerie Hobart first. Valerie was Eric’s estranged wife.

  Even if it turned out that Valerie had nothing to do with the murder, speaking with her was still a good starting point for this investigation.

  Ever since Eric broke things off with Mrs. Hobart a few months ago, she had been renting a place on the south side of Treasure Cove. When David and I pulled into the driveway of the red-brick townhome on Euclid Avenue, it was nearly impossible to avoid comparing her former residence to her current one.

  Eric’s Spanish-style home on Cashew Circle was spacious and luxurious. Meanwhile, this rental townhome that Valerie was living in looked cramped and rundown. And I hadn’t even seen the inside of it yet. For someone like Valerie, who was accustomed to the finer things in life, residing in a townhome like this was probably a real culture shock for her.

  I kept that thought at the forefront of my mind as David and I approached the suspect’s door. After two sets of knocks, the tall blond forty-six-year-old opened the door for us. Valerie had an athletic body, a square face, and long hair.

  I stared deep into Valerie’s crystal-blue eyes as David introduced himself and revealed that Eric was dead. At that point, I fully expected Valerie’s face to fill with sadness. Surprisingly enough, it didn’t. Instead, the opposite was the case.

  Valerie didn’t express any remorse. In fact, she didn’t seem to be broken up by the news at all. If anything, hearing about Eric’s death almost brought a smile to her face.

  “Good riddance,” Valerie said.

  David’s eyebrows rose. “Wow. That was not what I was expecting.”

  “I’ll bet,” Valerie said. “You probably thought I was going to break into tears, didn’t you?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Eric has already made me cry enough over the years. To the point where I don’t have any tears left.”

  “Is that so?”

  Valerie nodded. “Absolutely. That’s why my eyes are staying completely dry.”

  “You’re not holding anything back, are you?”

  Valerie threw out her arms. “What can I say? I’m really honest when it comes to my emotions.”

  “Clearly,” David replied.

  I stepped in. “Speaking of which, you didn’t seem surprised to hear that Eric had been murdered.”

  “Why would I be? He was a drug dealer. He lived a dangerous life. People like that don’t ever have a quiet death,” Valerie said.

  “It’s hard to argue with that,” David said.

  “If anything, given the line of work that he w
as in, it’s more surprising that someone didn’t kill that scumbag sooner,” Valerie said.

  “You sure don’t seem to have any shortage of bad things to say about your ex,” David replied.

  “Why would I? That man was a total slime ball,” Valerie said.

  “I agree. That said, given the current circumstances, I figured that you would dial down your anger. If only to keep from looking overly suspicious.”

  “Detective, I have nothing to hide,” Valerie said.

  “In that case, you shouldn’t mind answering a few questions for me,” David said.

  “Fire away,” Valerie replied.

  David reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen and a pad of paper. “All right. When did you first move here?”

  “When we separated a few months ago.”

  “And whose idea was it to separate?”

  “Mine.”

  “Why did you leave him?”

  “Because he was cheating on me.”

  “With who?”

  “Angela Thorne.”

  “That must have been a tough blow for you.”

  “Not as big as the blow that I was going to give him in divorce court.”

  “You’re a bold woman, you know that?” David said.

  “Why? Because I refused to let him treat me like garbage?” Valerie asked.

  “Don’t get me wrong. No one wants to be treated like trash. But given Eric’s line of work, a lot of women would be too afraid to break things off with a dangerous man like that, much less duke things out in court with him.”

  “Because he was a drug dealer?”

  David nodded. “Yes. I mean, didn’t you worry that he might try to have you killed?”

  Valerie shook her head.

  “Why not?” David asked.

  “Eric knew better than to do something like that.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “A woman like me knows how to cover her back. I was privy to all kinds of sordid details about his life. The sort of things that he didn’t want getting out. That’s why he kept me alive. Because he knew that if he tried to kill me, I would release all of that information to the press.”