COFFIN COVE a gripping murder mystery full of twists (Coffin Cove Mysteries Book 1) by JACKIE ELLIOTT (books for new readers .TXT) 📕

The body was male, Andi was certain. He was face down on the concrete, an arm thrown out to his side at an impossible angle. Andi tiptoed around him, making sure not to step in the blood. She crouched down to get a closer look. One side of his face was mottled with patches of purple lividity.

Andi gasped as she saw the other side of his face and head was reduced to clumps of shattered bone and bloody tissue.

Andi swallowed hard, trying not to gag, but she let out a small cry as she realized she knew the dead man. Although his face was destroyed, she recognized his jacket.

A gunshot wound? Andi looked around to see if there was a weapon lying near the body. Could he have done this to himself? She couldn’t see a gun, but she felt her stomach heave again when she saw dark patches of blood splatter on the wall in front of the body.

Andi covered her mouth with her own jacket and steadied herself with two deep breaths.

“Be professional,” she muttered to herself as she pulled out her phone and took two photos. She had just changed the mode to video recording when she heard footsteps.

“Hey, get away from there!”

Andi looked up to see a police constable standing over her. Even in the dim light, she could see his young face was white. He was holding his hand over his mouth. Andi was instantly sympathetic. It had taken enormous willpower for her not to vomit or run from the building.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” The young constable bent forward, and put his hands on his knees. For a moment, Andi thought he might be sick again.

“I’m Andi. The door was open . . .”

“You have to leave,” he said, his voice shaky.

Andi didn’t argue. She could see the constable was distraught, and Andi knew he’d be in trouble. He’d left a dead body lying in an unsecured building and allowed a reporter to trample over a potential crime scene.

“I’m going right now.” She had everything she needed anyway.

* * *

Jim got to the fish plant just as RCMP officers from the Nanaimo detachment were cordoning off the parking lot. So they’d already called out the big guns, Jim mused. It was more than the small Coffin Cove detachment could handle.

Three police cruisers were blocking the entrance. Jim could see one older officer with his hand on the shoulder of the constable from Coffin Cove. The young lad was bent over slightly.

He must have been first on scene, and judging by the way he looked, it must have been bad. Especially if this was his first dead body.

Jim looked around for Andi but couldn’t see her. He frowned. This was a chance for Andi to shine. Was she hung-over again?

A group of people had gathered around Peggy Wilson, who was sitting in a chair outside Bill Richard’s bait store. Bill gestured for Jim to come over.

“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.” Peggy’s voice was agitated. “I thought Rocky was chasing a rat so I went in the fish plant to get him. And then . . . then I saw the body.” Her voice dropped to a dramatic whisper. “I felt frozen, I couldn’t move. And then I just screamed at Rocky to come now, and then I just ran here.” She buried her head in her hands.

Jim knew this wasn’t the first time Peggy had told her story. Anything she was saying now would be embellished as more people joined her audience. Too late for any accurate information from a key source for the story. How irritating.

“Jim!”

Andi touched his elbow and gestured for him to move away from the crowd. Jim followed her, hoping she had questioned Peggy before the crowd had gathered.

“It’s Pierre Mason,” Andi said.

“The dead body? Is that what Peggy’s saying?”

“No, that’s what I’m saying. And look for yourself.”

Andi thrust her cell phone under Jim’s nose.

“How the hell . . .” he began to say, horrified at the image he was seeing, but Andi interrupted him. “Never mind that. It’s Mason, isn’t it? Is that a gunshot wound?”

Jim looked closer and couldn’t help flinching. It wasn’t pleasant. Eventually he looked up.

“Yes, I think it is Mason. Hard to tell for sure, not with most of his face blown off.”

“But the wound? Is it a gunshot wound?”

Jim ignored Andi’s impatient tone and looked closely again.

Eventually he nodded. He’d seen the aftermath of a hunting accident once before.

“I’m sure as I can be from a photo. The coroner will confirm, of course. And the crime scene guys.”

Andi was looking at him strangely. It took a minute before he realized what she was thinking.

“You didn’t see a gun,” he stated.

She shook her head.

“Pierre Mason was murdered.”

Chapter Thirteen

Adrian Palmer slammed his cell phone onto his desk in irritation. Another fisherman whining about payment. How the hell did these calls get through to him anyway?

“Everything OK?” Brenda, his secretary, appeared at the door. She had a bored expression on her face and they both knew that she didn’t care if he was OK or not. Brenda was the one non-negotiable that Nikos, Mr Palmer senior, had insisted on before signing Hades Fish Co. over to his son.

Adrian had hoped that Brenda would leave of her own accord, but dear old Dad had virtually guaranteed that she would be a fixture for the next twenty years. He’d even made her salary and yearly increases non-negotiable.

“I’m fine, thank you, Brenda.” He smiled as winningly as possible. “Maybe just a fresh coffee?”

No way was he going to tell her about the call. He was certain that she spied on him and reported back to Nikos.

“No problem, dear.”

He winced.