Setup in Savannah: A Made in Savannah Cozy Mystery (Made in Savannah Cozy Mysteries Series Book 7) by Hope Callaghan (best fiction novels txt) 📕

“She was in here earlier.  She said she had some errands to run and that she’d be back right after lunch.”

“I forgot she had a lunch date.” Carlita whacked the palm of her hand to her forehead.  “Duh.”

The front doorbell chimed and Carlita watched as Detective Wilson stepped inside the store.  He strode to the back.  “Hello Mrs. Garlucci.”

“Hello Detective Wilson.”

“Looks like you got a nice operation going here.”

“My son, Tony, has done an excellent job.”

“I see.” Detective Wilson cleared his throat.  “This isn’t a social visit.  I’m here to take a look at the guns you have on hand.”

Chapter 6

“You can’t be serious.” Carlita said the first thing that popped into her head.  “My daughter didn’t kill this Luis fellow.”

“Mrs. Garlucci, I need to follow up on all leads.  Your daughter was at the scene of the crime.  She admitted she arranged to meet a stranger, after dark, in an out-of-the-way location and Mr. Luis made a point of checking your daughter out.  Something isn’t adding up.”

“My daughter writes Maf…er, crime novels.  She was doing research.  Mr. Luis was investigating high profile, unsolved murders. My thinkin’ is that someone out there didn’t want Mr. Luis’ investigations to see the light of day.”

“There’s always that possibility, but in the meantime I would like to check out your gun collection.”

“They’re over here.” Tony led the detective to the gun case.

Detective Wilson removed several guns from the case and studied each one before jotting notes in a notepad.  He slipped his notepad into his pocket, pulled out his cell phone and snapped several pictures of the guns.  “Do you have any other guns here?”

“A couple, to protect the business.” Tony led him to the office desk and showed him the guns.

After Detective Wilson inspected the guns, he headed toward the exit and Carlita hurried after him.  “You didn’t find a match, did you?”

“I can’t discuss the case,” the detective said as he reached for the doorknob.  “I can appreciate your daughter’s enthusiasm, and I admire anyone who can put pen to paper and come up with a story that doesn’t come out sounding like a jumbled mess.  In fact, I would love to write a book.  Boy, have I got some stories to tell.”

“I bet you do,” Carlita murmured.

“Sometimes it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie, if you catch my drift.” The detective made his way out of the store.  He shoved his hands in his pockets and casually strolled past the front window.

Carlita retraced her steps and watched as Tony carefully placed the guns back in the case and locked it.  “What’s your take?”

Tony shrugged.  “I don’t think he found anything.”

The back door to the store flew open and Mercedes darted inside.  “I think I mighta opened up a can of worms with this Madison Square murder investigation.” She tugged her helmet off and fluffed her hair.  “Zachary, I mean Detective Jackson admitted that after I told him about Jon Luis’ death and my research into the murder, he decided to do a little digging around in the police department’s records.”

“And?” Carlita prompted.

“The Madison Square murder investigation records are sealed.”

“Sealed as in no one gets to look at ‘em?” Tony asked.

“Exactly,” Mercedes nodded.  “He said he’s never seen anything like it before.  Zachary is kind of a history buff.  He likes to go through old cases when he’s working desk duty and he said this was the first time he’s ever run across sealed records.”

Carlita leaned her elbows on the top of the gun display case.  “Well, Detective Wilson was just here.  He wanted to check out our guns for sale, probably because he’s tryin’ to pin this Luis’ death on you.”

“Great.” Mercedes wrinkled her nose.  “Did he find a match?”

“I dunno, but before he left, he said maybe you should let sleeping dogs lie.  In other words, stop digging around in the old murder investigation.”

“That makes it even more intriguing,” Mercedes said.  “Zachary told me the Honeycutt property is a restaurant, which I already knew, based on my research.  What I didn’t know is the owner offers tours.  It’s by invitation only.”

“I heard the same from Tori Montgomery,” Carlita said.

“Oh, I almost forgot you met with her.  Was Ms. Montgomery able to shed any light on the Madison Square murder?”

“Not much,” Carlita said.  “Tori told me she didn’t know the Honeycutts. They ran in different circles.  She did say she thought the police ended the investigation prematurely and she suspects someone greased the palms of officials to close the case quickly.”

“There’s one more thing Zachary told me in confidence,” Mercedes said.

“Oh?” Carlita lifted a brow.

“That Jon Luis recently filed a police report.  His apartment was broken into and ransacked just over a week ago.  From what he could see on the report, nothing had been stolen, but someone tore the place up.”  Mercedes glanced at the wall clock.  “The author group and I are having a special get together at The Book Nook this afternoon to discuss Luis’ death.  I thought maybe we could contact the owner of the Honeycutt place and see if we can snag a tour.”

“We, as in you and me?” Carlita asked.

“Yeah. I mean, unless you’re scared it’s haunted.”

“I’m not scared,” Carlita said.  “If I was, I woulda moved out of this place a long time ago.” Carlita’s home had once been a casket company and more than one local had told her they believed it was haunted.  There was also the fact that they’d discovered a body hidden behind a basement wall. Many people claimed numerous homes in the Savannah historic district were haunted.

“Why don’t you check with Autumn first?  If she doesn’t wanna go, I’ll go with you,” Carlita said.  “In the meantime,