Previously in Niceville: Carrie Cooper discovered her friend and local business owner, Sylvia, dead on Sylvia’s coffee shop floor. With a request for investigative help from the local police, Carrie and Mandy set out to question citizens of Niceville. After a rough night, Carrie learns some news about the local Chief of Police. The following day, she has a date withe Connor. While on the date, she gets a text from Mandy, who thinks she’s being followed. Upon arriving at Mandy’s house, she finds a mess. While waiting on the deputy, she and Connor kiss. Then, they get down to work. After looking around Mandy’s house, they accidentally meet with the chief.
Season 1: Caramel Macchiato Murder
Episode 13: The Dream Team
The tension was thick in the air, but it felt like we had put the water under the bridge to rest. I was still hoping that meant we could make progress in a faster manner. Mandy’s safety was now my top priority, and to be honest with you, I’d have worked with the devil himself if I could get her back safely. As I looked around the room, I pondered where we should start.
“So this truce, does it mean we can get to work finding Mandy? I don’t think we have any bit of time to waste. Something in my gut says we need to hurry,” I said.
“Agreed,” said Chief. “Let’s get our asses to work. I’m just glad we are back on the same page.”
“Right then. Let’s have a look at that evidence we gathered and go over what Carrie has done so far. It might give us some clues,” Danny said.
Connor nodded, but I could tell he wasn’t sure if he was okay to be here or not. “Chief, Connor is sort of mixed up in all this now. If I vouch for him, would you mind if he stayed and helped us out?”
“Connor is good. He’s helped the department several times when we had lockouts. He’s fine.”
“Good,” I said, turning to Connor. “If you want to stay, feel free. If you aren’t comfortable, then I completely understand. What do you say?”
“I already told you, Carrie. I’m here as long as you are. I’m not leaving you to handle this situation alone.”
Well if this man didn’t give me the warm and fuzzies. I didn’t know what to say. I decided I’d stick with a smile.
“All right,” I said. “I think we should start with the suspects. I think I’m down to one real suspect.”
“Becky?” Chief asked.
“Yeah,” I answered.
“So what about the other dude?” Danny asked.
“He’s homeless and trying to keep it a secret. Sylvia didn’t know why he’d been running out on his bill, or she would have fed him. She accidentally embarrassed him, but Mrs. Pinky said the guy has been calm and nice around her since then. My bet is that he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“Hmm… sometimes a homeless person has nothing to lose,” Danny said.
“Yeah, don’t we all?” I replied. “Sometimes we could all have nothing to lose. I don’t think he’s the guy. He doesn’t fit the killer type. I know, I know. There isn’t a killer type. But we both know that psychologically speaking, there most certainly is a killer type.”
Chief nodded at me. “There is.”
“Thank you,” I said. “What do you think?”
“I know the guy, or I’m pretty sure I do. He’s very unlikely to be the problem. I’d say let’s focus on Becky right this second. What do you know about the situation?” Chief asked.
“Well, apparently she was stealing money from the cash register. I guess Sylvia had been worried about it for a bit, watching her, and then she caught her. She confronted her, fired her, and had a nasty fight with her in front of customers and stuff. How it didn’t make the rounds in this town, I don’t know.”
Connor snorted while the other two nodded at me.
“Anywho, I wonder if that has anything to do with her having my card on her desk. Either she had been gonna hire me to watch Becky, or she wanted my advice on what to do now that she knew she was the one that was stealing from her. It’s not impossible that I’m off base, but my gut is telling me it had to do with the Becky stuff. What do y’all think?” I asked.
The room was dead quiet for a moment. We were all thinking things over, trying to decide if we were missing anything obvious. You know the old saying you could cut the tension with a knife? Well, it would have been far too thick in the room to use a knife. We’d need a damn chainsaw.
“I think Becky has everything going against her,” Chief said. “She didn’t mention having been fired. She was stealing money. She was seen fighting with the victim. On the other hand, why would she go after Mandy?”
“That’s what stumps me,” Danny said. “Is it possible that we have two unrelated cases going on?”
“That doesn’t feel likely,” I said. “But let’s think about this Becky thing. Mandy and I stopped to talk to her. We were just wanting to know if she already knew or if she didn’t. Mandy was a bit short with her because she was sobbing. Maybe that made her mad. I kind of doubt it though.”
“It just feels like she has no motive to bother Mandy,” Chief said.
“Look, i’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m saying I don’t know why, but I’m sure it’s her. She is the key,” I said.
“Fair enough. Let’s talk evidence. We can bring her in for questioning if we have some evidence,” Chief said.
“Okay. Besides what we covered here, we can talk what we found at Mandy’s house. The mess. If it had been some large man, chances are they could have kept that mess from happening. The thing I don’t get is that Mandy is not the type to run from someone that she thinks she can take on. And she is tough as nails, so I’m wondering what made her feel that Becky was a threat?” I said.
“All fair points. Not enough to bring Becky in,” Danny said. “But if that fight was caught on tape, now that’s enough. I know we were having some trouble with the security footage. Maybe we can give that another go?”
“I can probably help with it. We use the same system,” I said. “We both upgraded at the same time.”
“Perfect. We’ll head down to Corner Coffee in a few minutes. If you feel like you can go in there after the other day,” Chief added.
“I will do anything to get Mandy back safe. I wish I could change things for Sylvia, but I still have a chance for Mandy.”
“I know. We’ll get her back safe, Carrie,” Chief said.
I didn’t reply. I just had to have faith. Now, WWMD. That’s what would Mandy do. She always had a level head. And she was patient, so she wasn’t likely to move off in the wrong direction without thinking things through. I needed to channel my inner Mandy. I could do that for her.
Connor tentatively spoke up. “So do we think that we will be able to get what we need from the tapes to bring Becky in? If so, it would give us time to find Mandy.”
“Assuming she isn’t locked in a trunk or something,” Danny said.
I turned to him in horror.
“I’m sure she isn’t,” he went on. “Sorry. I just meant we should be fast. I wasn’t assuming something like that.”
Chief and Connor looked at him like he was an idiot. To tell you the truth, sometimes he was, but he was a good hearted one.
“Okay. I think the best possible move is to go ahead and go over the photos. Then, we head down to Corner Coffee. Sound like a plan?” Chief asked.
We all nodded.
The next thirty minutes was spent looking through the photos we took at Mandy’s place. There wasn’t anything particularly useful there besides the fact that we needed to get CSI down there to fingerprint. But that took time. We needed results now.
We also looked back at the crime scene photos from Corner Coffee. That proved a little more enlightening. As hard as it was to look at them, it was helpful. There isn’t anyway that whoever killed her wasn’t someone she knew well. They must not have had to break in. They either had a key and were waiting for her, or they walked right in the back and she didn’t think that much of it.
If it was Becky, even having fired her, she wouldn’t have thought anything of her walking in. She might have assumed she was coming to ask for her job back. That would be my first thought as well. And even though I’m not sure, I feel like it’s likely that Becky had keys. She could have been inside hiding when she got there.
We really needed that footage that should have been long processed. Good job local LEOs. Really on top of finding the killer they were.
The thing I kept remembering was the timer that went off as I entered that morning. Nothing was in the oven. Why was a timer going off? It just didn’t make sense unless someone took what was in the oven out before they left as not to start a fire. Chances were, I was fixating on a useless detail, but I wanted anything that would be helpful.
Finally, I asked, “Can we just go down there so I can try and get the footage from her security system? I feel like we need to hurry faster than we are.”
“Agreed,” said Chief. “Let’s go.”
As we all got up, I turned to Connor.
“Don’t even start. I’m still coming with you. Now, go get in my car you crazy woman.”
Despite the circumstances, I laughed at him. “Yes, Sir. My apologies for giving you so many outs before you entered a gruesome murder scene.”
“Well, when you put it that way, it makes more sense…” he said, trailing off with a laugh.
Good point by Danny - might be two separate things going on. Or not.