A Cup of Murder (Roasted Love Cozy 1)

I glanced at the report and asked him to explain it all.

"It states John died as a result of an extreme asthma attack. It also says bruises were found on his body, especially around the head and shoulders. The date, time of death and where it happened is here, too."

I scanned the document quickly. I depended on Daniel for interpretation and that was enough.

"Then Michael must have fought with him over something and caused his death," I said. "Did I tell you he gave John’s mother a hefty check the day before he was murdered?"

"You haven’t told me anything about your visit with Marianne Andrews. So no, you didn’t tell me that. What was the check for?"

By now, I was into the whole story of what I knew so far. I told Daniel all about the visit, the check, the reasons unknown for it according to Marianne and my own take on it all. I didn’t leave out that Sunrise was now owned by Marianne.

"Wow! You found out a lot of news," said Daniel. "I’m not really surprised Michael left Sunrise to her. After all, he and John were good friends."

"Nevertheless," I said. "I really think Michael Simms had something to do with John Andrews’ death. The report says there were bruises on him. I think John made Michael mad and they got into a fight."

Daniel leaned back and scrutinized my face. "What could they have been fighting about? From all reports they were good friends. Good friends usually work things out verbally, not with fists."

"There’s more," I said. "I found a photo of Michael, John and James on the ground next to Roasted Love’s trash bin. On the back were their names and under that the word ‘redemption.’"

"That’s interesting. I mean that the trash had belonged to Michael and was there on the ground next to Roasted Love’s trash bin."

"I thought so, too. What do you think the bruises on John meant?" I asked.

I knew I jumped from one thought to the next but wasting time wasn’t in the cards. We could discuss the trash later.

"The report states most likely due as a result of some roughhousing before his death."

"He was twenty years old. That sounds like someone looked at him as a kid. What kind of roughhousing would have been going on in the office? I thought he was alone when he died."

"It is all quite a mystery. John had only been working for James for a few months. It was James’ second campaign. He was older by a couple of years, you know."

"I wonder if Marianne had it out for Michael," I said, ignoring his latest comment. "Maybe she found belladonna someplace, met him at Sunrise and put the poison in his coffee the night after he went to see her."

Daniel leaned back again and gave a low whistle. Humor flooded his eyes. "You sure know how to draw conclusions."

"It is possible," I said.

"Anything is possible. We just don’t know. From what you have told me, Michael still held John’s mother in high regard. He did leave his business to her to say nothing of the hefty check. Besides, the autopsy report doesn’t say anything about anyone causing the asthma attack, so where do you get murder out of it?"

O.k. so I was grasping at loose straws. I dug into the cheddar cheese grit cake. Gathering a small spicy shrimp on top, I popped the bite into my mouth.

After allowing for time to think while I savored the sautéed shrimp, I said, "Why else did Michael think he needed to write ‘redemption’ on the back of that picture? That could mean he felt guilty about something."

"From what I understood of Michael’s personality changes, he probably had reasons to be guilty about a lot of things," said Daniel.

It hadn’t taken long for me to realize Daniel’s methods consisted of playing the devil’s advocate. It did add interest to the process of solving the mystery.

"How about some dessert?" he asked me.

I held up my hands in the negative. "I couldn’t eat another bite, but help yourself if you can do it."

He declined the server’s card displaying a variety of sweets. While Daniel paid the tab I thought of more reasoning behind Marianne committing the murder of Michael Simms. Her motive sounded more likely than an unknown argument between two good buddies.

I thanked Daniel for the dinner. We rode in silence for a few blocks.

"What are your real thoughts regarding John Andrews’ death?" I asked him.

"I’ve always felt there may be something more to his death than what is on paper. I just don’t know." He navigated the traffic well. Of course, he was a paramedic and knew how to do that easily. "I want you to be careful in meeting with people you don’t know. We still don’t know who murdered Michael Simms."