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

“What did you and Joe think about Mason returning to Coffin Cove?”

Tara shrugged. “We wouldn’t have known about it, except that Harry came to tell Joe.”

“Harry?”

“Harry Brown. His father, Ed, was a friend of Joe’s once upon a time, and Hephzibah, his sister, was Sarah’s friend. Sarah’s only friend,” she added. “Harry went out on all the searches when Sarah disappeared, and he was the one to break the news when they found her body. I guess he feels an obligation to let Joe know if there are any developments. Not that there have been many over the years.” She said it in a non-accusing way, but Vega acknowledged her point anyway. Again, he felt a flash of recognition at the name.

“I know,” he said, “I’m sorry.”

“I never really believed that Mason did it, you know,” Tara confided suddenly. “I didn’t ever believe that Sarah was involved with him. She was very . . . innocent,” Tara tried to explain. “She’d led a very sheltered life with her mother and grandfather. Fred’s a religious zealot. He’s a mean old man,” she said fiercely. “Sarah had a very difficult childhood. We tried to make sure she did all the normal things that children do, but Sue and Fred would just go at her, refuse to let her dress like other teenagers or have fun. Everything was ‘the Devil’. She was even afraid of going to the movies, terrified that the roof would cave in because God was angry with her. She would never have gone with Mason. She would have been too frightened.”

Vega pressed her gently to continue. “But she did go to the protests, though. Wouldn’t Fred and Sue have disapproved of that?”

Tara shook her head. “I don’t know. Maybe they hated Joe more? The protests were hurting his business. Or maybe they didn’t know she was going? Hephzibah would have encouraged her. All the kids joined the protests back then. They didn’t even know what they were protesting about, not really. It was just something different, something to break the boredom.”

“But Sarah wasn’t there out of boredom?” Vega asked.

“No. She was passionate about the environment. She volunteered at the hatchery every spare minute she had. It was the only time she defied her grandfather, I think.” Tara smiled at the memory. “We even encouraged her to think about university. A degree in marine biology or something. She was smart enough. But after she argued with Joe, she refused to listen.”

Tara took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes.

“I’ve been over it a million times in my head, Inspector. I know that people around here still think Mason had something to do with Sarah’s death, but the problem with this small town is the gossip. People here love a bit of drama. We don’t have many outsiders, not like other parts of the island, so everyone knows everyone else’s business. And once a story takes hold — well, it’s hard to change people’s minds.”

Vega nodded. He understood this phenomenon. He’d seen people’s reputations ruined forever when they were falsely accused of crimes. Even after they were cleared, people still clung to the notion that there was no smoke without fire. It was one reason he strove to get every detail verified. It was imperative that they arrested the right person.

“You think someone in Coffin Cove knows what really happened to Sarah?” Vega was curious to hear this woman’s opinion.

“I think so,” Tara admitted. “I can believe that Sarah had some sort of crush on Mason, or a schoolgirl fantasy. He was quite charismatic, and the protests were a bit of excitement. Sarah may have felt some kind of connection to him because of their shared passion for the environment and all that, but I don’t think there was any kind of affair. She just wasn’t sophisticated enough. And she wasn’t a liar either. I wasn’t surprised when they cleared Mason. And you know what, Inspector?” She looked directly at Vega. “I don’t think Joe was surprised either.”

Vega finished his interview with Tara with one last question.

“Have you seen Brian McIntosh in the last few days?”

Tara shook her head. “No, Inspector, I haven’t. He knows better than to come here. I . . . well . . . we told him he wasn’t welcome years ago. And I promise you, if he does show up, I will contact you without hesitation,” she said vehemently. Vega believed her.

Tara laughed — an odd, almost disrespectful sound in a house shrouded in grief. “You know, Inspector, Brian McIntosh is probably the only thing that Sue and I agree on. We both wanted him away from Joe.”

A slight shake of the head from his sergeant who was waiting for him in the driveway confirmed that Brian McIntosh was nowhere to be seen on the property. Vega wasn’t surprised — he’d assessed Tara as a forthright woman with nothing to hide.

They drove away, leaving Tara standing with her hand on the hunched figure of her husband, watching them leave.

Vega swallowed a mouthful of the now lukewarm coffee as he processed his interview with Tara McIntosh and the subsequent visit to Joe’s first wife, Sue McIntosh. It had been a completely different experience.

Tara had given him directions. Sergeant Fowler drove their vehicle down the rutted track from the main road to the valley. She’d stopped briefly and pointed out the washed-out remnants of the hatchery.

“Do you want to have a look around, sir?”

It was raining steadily, and Vega looked at the sagging buildings, partially swallowed up by brambles, and reminded himself that he wasn’t investigating the death of Sarah McIntosh. He was pursuing the killer of Pierre Mason.

“No, that won’t be necessary,” he said.

Sue McIntosh wasn’t nearly as forthcoming as Tara. She sat on the edge of an old sofa, after moving several boxes to make room and finding two empty chairs for Vega