Word Games (Angie Gomez Cozy Murder Mystery Book 2)

  WORD GAMES

  ANGIE GOMEZ COZY MURDER MYSTERY, BOOK 2

  INES SAINT

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  CONTENTS

  Angie’s Unofficial Abridged Spanish and Puerto Rican Spanish/English Dictionary

  Angie Gomez Last Words (Book 1) Recap

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Before You Go…

  Words with Friends

  Also by Ines Saint

  About the Author

  ANGIE’S UNOFFICIAL ABRIDGED SPANISH AND PUERTO RICAN SPANISH/ENGLISH DICTIONARY

  Abandonado: abandoned

  Chiquita: little one (and used as an endearment)

  Coquito: Puerto Rican holiday drink, with cream of coconut and rum.

  Doña: Spanish prefix for matrons, Ladies, gentlewomen, etc.

  fufú: hex, in Puerto Rico

  hola: hello

  mio: my or mine

  muñeca: doll (and used as an endearment)

  nada: nothing

  nieta: granddaughter

  querido: loved or beloved

  ron cañita: distilled spirit made from sugarcane juice, referred to as "moonshine rum”

  si: yes

  tesoro: treasure

  Tía: aunt

  vela: candle

  velar: to watch

  ANGIE GOMEZ LAST WORDS (BOOK 1) RECAP

  Angie’s grandmother, Abuela Luci, reads Angie’s fortune: “Many changes are coming your way, Angie. A stagnant matter will begin to move, aided by a change in your professional circumstances and a discovery about yourself.”

  Disbelieving but hopeful, Angie visits the new Major Crimes Unit Supervisor, Lieutenant Brian Mahoney, to pressure him to reopen her parents’ decade-old murder cases. There’s an instant spark between Angie and the Lieutenant. At the end of their meeting, Angie learns for the first time that a witness had come forward years ago to say that Angie’s mom had been talking about wearing a valuable necklace the night she was killed. This witness bolstered detectives’ theory about a burglary gone wrong. Angie doesn’t believe it and is now determined to find out who this witness is since Lieutenant Mahoney can’t reveal their identity.

  As she is leaving the Sherriff’s department, Angie finds out that her last client, the city’s popular mayor, has been shot dead.

  Two days later, the mayor’s daughter, Brenda, shockingly asks Angie to restore her mother’s face. Brenda was pleased with the bust Angie, an artist, was hired to sculpt the mayor and wants her mother’s smile to be just as it was on that bust. Angie agrees to look at the mayor and think about it. While at the mortuary, Angie learns that when she is close to a corpse’s head, she can hear the echo of their last words. Pappa, the funeral homeowner, and his grandson, Anthony, are present when this happens, and Angie screams. Startled, she tells them what happened. They test out Angie’s ability with another corpse, one they happened to know in life. They believe her, and they agree to keep Angie’s unique ability a secret. The mayor’s last words were, “Bonnie is dead.”

  Angie works with Pappa and Anthony to determine if the mayor knows anyone named Bonnie. Through Pappa, Angie learns that the mayor, Tilly Sandberg, had a near-fatal accident years ago that made her reevaluate her life and repair her damaged relationship with her daughter, Brenda. Brenda accidentally provides the second clue; a baby picture of Tilly Sandberg at an orphanage with another baby named Bonnie. A distinctive birthmark is visible on Tilly’s head.

  Angie next discovers that Tilly no longer has this birthmark. Subtle questioning of the mayor’s best friend, Tessa, leads Angie to make the first big break in the case: the mayor wasn’t who she said she was. Like in a telenovela she and her grandmother once watched, the mayor, who everyone thought was Tilly Sandberg, was really Bonnie, her long-lost twin. Angie goes to the police with this discovery. She and Lieutenant Mahoney share a moment.

  Tilly Sandberg’s old and new hairstylists are now suspects because they may have noticed the missing birthmark and blackmailed her.

  Angie catches the attention of a local journalist who wants to trade information about the mayor’s case with information about Angie’s parents’ case. Angie finds out that the Air Force Office of Special Investigations took over her parents’ case years ago and that she’s been led on and lied to by people at the Sheriff’s office. She also learns that there might be a clue to the witness who lied about Angie’s mom at the home of Tilly Sandberg’s old hairstylist, Lillian Carlson, who is now married to Neil Carlson, a wealthy and powerful man.

  Angie and the journalist, Nalissa Jones, team up to infiltrate a fundraising gala held at the Carlson estate. They hope to learn more about Tilly Sandberg’s old enemies and the false witness Angie is after. At the gala, Angie runs into Lieutenant Mahoney. She’s furious with him, but he helps Angie and Nalissa avoid getting caught inside the Carlson home. Angie and Mahoney pretend to kiss, but the kiss becomes real. Nalissa is nearly caught anyway, but Pappa drives the ‘getaway hearse’ and hides her in a body bag.

  Angie soon realizes that sleuthing isn’t as easy as it seems. She must be ready to make enemies and mistakes and be more careful about whom she trusts. She is especially wary of Nalissa, who now knows the identity of the false witness in her parents’ case and has disappeared. This leads to a dark moment where Angie and Abuela Luci have a heart-to-heart.

  Angie is then called to the funeral home because Brenda has decided she forgives Bonnie, who is, in fact, her aunt, and wants to go through with the funeral. She wants to talk to Angie about changing Bonnie’s appearance first. Angie is careful because she now wonders if Brenda might be the killer. She makes sure Pappa or Anthony will be there, but she and Brenda are alone when she arrives. Pappa and Anthony were called away to pick up a body.

  Brenda and Angie talk, and Brenda leaves. Nalissa finally contacts Angie. She sends photographic evidence related to Angie’s parents’ case that also reveals something new about the mayor’s best friend, Tessa. Tessa walks in then, sees Angie is onto her, and tries to kill her. While saving hers
elf, Angie hears another corpse’s last words: “Remember. Shell.” Lieutenant Mahoney and the police show up soon after. Angie is confused because she sees Mahoney cares for her.

  Angie, Anthony, and Pappa decide to offer discounts to murder victims’ families so that Angie can get as close to as many victims as possible through her post-mortem reconstruction work, hear their last words, and help solve their murders. She also has new information on her parents’ case to pursue.

  ONE

  “To attain the impossible, one must attempt the absurd.”

  MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA, DON QUIXOTE

  “We’re agreed, then?” Anthony looked us each in the eye in turn. Pappa and I both nodded without hesitation, excitement buzzing between us.

  In the past two weeks, my life had changed in ways I had not yet begun to process. I had learned that, like many members of my dad’s side of the family, I had a special gift. Mine was that I could hear a dead person’s last words. Though I hadn’t been sure how I felt about this at first, my so-called gift had led us to solve a high-profile murder. Now, instead of using my artistic skills to sculpt busts, I was working as a postmortem reconstruction specialist. This allowed me to get close enough to murder victims to hear their last words and then use this information to try and solve their cases. Pappa, the owner of Riverside Funeral Home, and his grandson Anthony, an erstwhile criminal defense lawyer, were now my partners. They were the first people I had allowed myself to trust in a long time.

  Our misadventures also had us partnering with Nalissa Jones, a reporter now intent on solving my own parents’ long-ago murders. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about her or the new Major Crimes Supervisor at Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, Lieutenant Brian Mahoney. Both had helped me. Nalissa wanted a front-page story.

  I wasn’t sure what Mahoney wanted…

  Anthony raised his hand and used his fingers to tick off the points of our new pact. “We’ll attract murder victims to Riverside Funeral Home by offering discounts on services to their families, and then we’ll use Angie’s ability to hear a dead person’s last words, Pappa’s knowledge of dead bodies, and his connections in the community, and my criminal law background to help investigate each murder.”

  The word “murder” had us looking down at the corpse of Ronnie Martin, who was lying on the embalming table before us. “Our investigation will be different this time,” I said with hope. “We know we can trust my ability, and we know what each of us brings to the table.”

  “Wait.” Anthony glanced up with a sudden, arrested look in his eyes. “What if there’s more?”

  “More…what?” I prompted with a wave of my hand when his eyes glazed over.

  “More gifts, as you call them,” he explained with a shake of his head. “What if you can also feel a corpse’s last feeling or smell the last thing they smelled?” He began to pace around the embalming table, eyeing Ronnie, clearly trying to come up with possible gifts. “Who knows? Maybe you can even see the last thing he saw.”

  Pappa’s eyes widened. “Anthony! That’s an excellent notion!” He gave me an encouraging nudge toward Ronnie.

  My gaze darted from Pappa to Anthony before settling on Ronnie. “Just what do you expect me to do?”

  “Start with his nose,” Pappa said.

  I eyed Ronnie. “Start with his nose,” I repeated under my breath.

  “Sniff inside it,” Anthony instructed. “And then put your heart over his.”

  “Then gaze into his eyes and see if you get a vision. I’ll prop his eyelids open.” Pappa, who had been sitting on his work stool, went to stand by the body.

  I stifled a sigh, leaned back, and tried to decide how best to approach Ronnie’s nose. Their suggestions were perfectly sane after the week we’d had.

  “Like this.” Anthony leaned over the body and took a quick sniff into its nose. “See?” He tried to smile through his cringe. “Easy.”

  I rolled my eyes, but his gambit worked. I bent forward, sniffed the area around Ronnie’s nose, and sprung right back up. “Nothing!” I managed to squeeze out.

  “Now check his feelings like this.” Pappa stood on his tiptoes, angled his heart to Ronnie’s, and pressed his chest down until they were heart to heart. “See?”

  My lips twitched at their commitment. I pressed my heart to Ronnie’s to hide my grin and stayed there a long moment, making a solid effort to separate my feelings from anything new or foreign. I got up and shook my head. All I had felt was my own full heart.

  “Take the eye caps out,” Pappa instructed Anthony.

  “Eye caps?” I repeated.

  Anthony gave me a quick nod as he worked Ronnie’s eyelids. “You weren’t here for this last time, but we set the features before we embalm. We place these spiky eye caps‍—” he showed me what looked like spiky, flesh-colored contact lenses‍—"under the eyelids to keep them shut and give them their proper shape.”

  “A person’s eyelids remain partially open in death because their muscles relax,” Pappa further explained as he went to the front of Ronnie’s head to keep his eyes open. “I was regretting that Ronnie hadn’t donated his eyes, but now I see it was a good thing. We need to test the limits of your abilities. Now, look into his eyes, Angie.”

  This time, neither offered to demonstrate how to look a corpse in the eye. I bent forward with a shake of my head, opened my eyes wide, and gazed into Ronnie’s.

  At first, nothing. Then, the sound of metal slamming against metal. “Are we literally staring death in the eye now, Angie?”

  I glanced sideways to see my dad’s mom, Abuela Luci, standing at the open door. She was striving for humor, but her eyes were shadowed, and the edges of her mouth were tight. I recognized these as the signs of fear and worry that used to show up whenever my dad, a treasure hunter, would go on dangerous explorations. Abuela would never want to stop anyone from living their life, and she had learned that interfering could throw someone off their intended path, but it didn't mean she didn't feel. I wondered what I could do to take her mind off the fear.

  “I thought I saw him wink at me,” I explained as I straightened.

  Intrigued, Abuela took a few steps forward and studied Ronnie with interest. “You think he winked at you? As if the two of you were in on a secret?”

  “Mhm. Something like that.”

  Anthony gave me an exasperated look. “Uh, no. It was a spasm. Perfectly normal.”

  Pappa nodded. “And I was telling Angie how occasionally, people are declared dead even though they’re still alive. She wanted to make sure that wasn’t the case here.”

  Abuela nodded in understanding. “My third cousin twice removed, Monchito, got up during the middle of his wake and asked for a bottle of ron cañita. We gave it to him because we were too shocked to refuse, but his liver apparently couldn’t handle much more because that last drop was what killed him.”

  I gave her a look. “You had moonshine rum at his funeral service?”

  “Yes. We were going to drink a toast to him because that’s what Monchito would have wanted.” She paused for a beat. “So. Is he?”

  “Is he what?” I asked.

  “Dead-dead?”

  “Oh. Yes. Very much so.”

  Abuela was now studying Ronnie with a disturbed look in her eyes. “What happened to him?”

  “Apparent suicide,” I said, suddenly wanting to know what she was thinking.

  “It's possible,” she said. “His aura is greatly troubled.”

  Pappa’s head snapped back. “His aura? You mean to say dead people have auras, too?”

  Abuela shook her head. Her gifts were reading auras and fortunes. “Only when their life force departs amid great emotional trauma. The turmoil leaves disturbing energy that can be seen and felt if you’re attuned to these things. Did he leave a note or letter?”

  “No.” Pappa gazed at Abuela in awe before looking back down at Ronnie. “I wish I would have known all this sooner.” I knew what he was thinking. Befo
re me, someone might have told him, but he wouldn't have believed them.

  “Why hadn’t you told me this before?” I asked. “It’s fascinating. You love to fascinate!”

  “You never used to believe in my gifts. You pretended to, but I wasn’t fooled.” Her casual studied tone told me she knew better than to pry about why I’d had a sudden change of heart. Prying led to interfering, and one never knew where interfering could lead. I understood that now. Subtle machinations could change the course of a life.

  Abuela shook off whatever she’d been thinking and reached back to pull an object from a deep leather bag slung over her shoulder.

  Anthony whistled. “That’s a nice machete.”

  I smiled. He was right. It was nice. It was painted like the Puerto Rican flag. The wooden handle had a white star in a blue triangle, and the long metal blade had three red and two alternating white stripes. “How’d you get me one so fast? You only mentioned it today.” That statement had me glancing at the wall clock to see if it was, in fact, still “today.” It was. Just barely.

  “Manolo, an old friend who lives in the beautiful backwoods of Kentucky, makes them. Which is why I was away for six hours, and Albert couldn’t reach me to tell me that his police scanner mentioned you were in a fix.”

  “Albert Witherspoon has a police scanner?” I asked next.

  “His kids never visit him. He gets bored.” She lifted a shoulder. I gave her a knowing look. Albert Witherspoon was also sweet on Abuela, liked to make her feel sorry for him, and knew one way into her heart was to bring her gossip.