“I do. It’s about Jon Luis’ murder.” Mercedes lifted the cup and the aroma of lavender swirled in the air as she took a sip. “I think the investigators believe I murdered Jon Luis. Have you ever heard of George Delmario?”
“I...” Cricket poured a packet of sugar in her cup and reached for her spoon. “Yes. George Delmario owned your property. He was murdered. His body was found out by the alley dumpster and the case was never solved.”
“Have you heard the rumor he had mafia ties?” Mercedes asked softly.
“Yes.” Cricket nodded. “I have a confession to make, too. The other authors, all of us, knew you and your family owned the property. Anyone who’s lived in Savannah in the last decade knew about Delmario’s murder and his alleged mafia ties. There was also a rumor about some gems.”
“I see.” Mercedes shifted in her seat. “I found out Jon Luis was in the process of working on another book, Unsolved Murders in Savannah: Mafia Ties, White Lies and Rush Into Murder. The Cold Case Files. The reason Jon Luis agreed to meet me was not to give me information about the Madison Square murder case, one of the cases he was working on, but to pump me for information about George Delmario’s murder.” She told Cricket the investigators not only found Mercedes’ name, but also her address scribbled on a yellow pad they found on Jon Luis’ desk.
Cricket’s eyes widened. “And the other case?”
“I’ve almost figured out the third one and was hoping you could help.”
“Maybe we should discuss it in our author group. If we put our heads together, we might be able to figure it out,” Cricket said.
“The only problem is that I think Jon Luis’ killer is someone in our group. This person set me up.”
“Oh dear,” Cricket clutched her chest. “That’s hard to believe.”
“Do you remember who brought up the subject of Jon Luis in the first place?” Mercedes asked. “For the life of me, I can’t remember.”
“No,” Cricket shook her head. “I don’t recall, either. Of course, we’ve discussed a lot of different cases since you write mystery, Tom writes thriller/suspense and Austin writes historical mysteries.”
“Here’s my theory. Someone knew Jon Luis was in the process of writing a book. Maybe he was getting close to cracking the cases. Luis already contacted Tierney Grant, the owner of the old Honeycutt Manor. He contacted me and set up a meeting to discuss George Delmario’s murder, which means he may have already made contact with the person or persons involved in the third case, as well.”
Mercedes went on to explain the killer or whoever was trying to keep the third case quiet, somehow knew Mercedes was part of Luis’ book research. “Jon Luis also wrote several books under another pen name…JL Cordele.”
“I’ve never heard the name,” Cricket said. “Do you recall the names of his books? Maybe that will jog my memory.”
“The books were older.” Mercedes slipped her cell phone out of her pocket, switched it on and flipped through the pictures. “There are three books written by JL Cordele - Crime in Corporate America, The Death Club and Savannah’s Mysteries Revealed.”
“None of those ring a bell. I do recall Jon Luis was receiving death threats years ago. That’s why he left town and went into hiding,” Cricket said.
Mercedes hesitated for a fraction of a second, wondering if she should tell Cricket she had a copy of the manuscript and decided she needed help. Cricket was her best bet. “I have the manuscript. I can’t tell you how I got it, though.”
“I probably don’t want to know how you got it,” Cricket said. “Do you have the details of the third mystery?”
“According to Jon Luis’ notes, Rush Into Murder was about Warren Paulson, a Savannah resident whose family was involved in local politics. Warren bounced from job to job and was eventually hired as a defense contractor. Not long after taking the position, rumors began to circulate that he was selling sensitive satellite information to the Russians. Jon Luis believed that Warren was getting ready to turn over the names of his Russian contacts when he disappeared. His family filed a missing person’s report and the investigators discovered Paulson’s boat was gone from the marina. According to Jon Luis’ research, Paulson went out on his boat, all alone and late at night and never returned. The Coast Guard eventually found Paulson’s boat, but no sign of Paulson.”
“So you’re telling me that Luis managed to stir up a hornet’s nest. He made contact with someone involved in either the Honeycutt or Warren Paulson case and that person ended up killing him,” Cricket said, “and you’re convinced this person is in our group?”
“Now that we’ve talked about it, I’m not sure,” Mercedes said. “It seems like an awfully big coincidence everyone knew where and when I was meeting Jon Luis and then he ends up getting murdered at our meeting spot.” She downed the last of her tea. “Thanks for letting me bounce my ideas off of you. I’m gonna head home and start digging around some more into Warren Paulson and the Russian connection.”
She thanked Cricket again for the tea and stood. “I plan to be at this week’s meeting.”
Cricket walked her to the door. “I know you didn’t kill Jon Luis. I’m not even sure I believe someone in our group killed Jon Luis. I’m going to go through my book inventory to see if I can find anything in stock written by either Jon Luis or JL Cordele.”
On the trip home, Mercedes mulled over the Russian connection. Perhaps it wasn’t someone in the author group. Maybe she’d just been in the wrong
