Key West Interlude

Key West Interlude is the first in the Paulette Marshall Murder Mysteries series. She has just been granted a final decree for the dissolution of her marriage to Christopher Marshall M.D. F.A.C. S. Exposed to the outside world after having “a cloistered life of luxury, protected from coping with real issues,” she is literally starting over at age forty-four. Her first visit is with cousin, Doug, and his wife Flower who live in Key West. During a stop-off in Key Largo, she witnesses her first murder. Slow, seemingly motionless shadings of nightfall were moseying along the open sky at its own summertime pace. Paulette’s timing was perfect. She was ready to shed her L.A. court suit for a bright, flowery Lilly Pulitzer dress and matching sandals. “What could be more Florida than that?” Top down on her rented, yellow Ford Mustang its five speed transmission and V8 engine purring, her stereo system blasting, Paulette pulled over at Mile Marker 88 to buy finger foods and to change from her courtroom suit. Crossing the street, she casually glanced up as a huge, athletic-type guy dressed in black pants and wearing a white Cuban shirt, hammering on the jalousies of a room half way down the open walkway. He pulled out a small automatic handgun and went into the motel room. Two shots and he ran down the stairs to a waiting car with darkened windows ready to head north on U.S. 1. Paulette dialed 911. “We have an emergency here.” Returning to her Mustang, she discovered her suitcase nearly empty; her clothes and purse gone. Shaking in disbelief, she reviewed her steps. She had definitely locked the car. She even clicked the lock and waited for the sound like a wounded animal before she crossed the street for a second time. “Oh, great. Just great!” she moaned, collapsing on the side of her dream vacation car. “I came here for some r and r. Now look what’s happening!” ‘Call Chris’ was her first instinct. She stopped dead in her tracks. Her ex-husband would be in surgery or in bed with Miss Bippy. Paulette was on her own. She phoned her cousin Doug. “Don’t waste your time,” he told her. “That sort of thing happens in the Keys all the time. Between the natives, shopkeepers and tourists, the cops can’t keep up,” adding, “A couple thousand isn’t worth the hassle. No sunset for you tonight, dearie. You gassed up?” “I’m full.” “Good. We’ll settle everything in the morning. I know people up there. I’ll fix it so you can report your losses from Key West.” “You can do that?” “Cous’ this is The Keys. We can do anything we want. You into boats?” “Not really.” “You can’t live in Key West and not be into boating,” he said proudly. “Otherwise you might as well live in Kansas where it’s a whole lot cheaper.” Key West High School has hired Paulette as a counselor. Her job is to counsel certain at-risk students who knew Captain Maxwell Hernandez, the victim, leaving them to express their feelings to someone who did not know the captain. Over time, Paulette learns that this captain had his own agenda. Further, the young woman he left his fortune to, rather than his wife and five children, has stolen money out of his safe and left the trip before his drowning. The murder of Captain Maxwell is filled with intrigue until its resolution which is neither predictable nor expected, but definitely entertaining! Ariel Costas, the heir of Captain Maxwell’s fortune, turns to Paulette who convinces Ariel there is only one way to rid her of Catholic guilt. “Make an appointment with Detective McKenna. Tell him the truth. All of it,” she emphasizes. “Otherwise, this will be too much to carry.” Ariel decides to show up at Police Headquarters. At this, her second visit to see Chief of Detectives McKenna, Ariel admits she knew about “Captain Maxy’s” money; however, she is pregnant and wishes to abort her baby, and is convinced he would want to assist her in going to a Miami clinic her classmates recommend. At this second visit, Ariel has promised to tell the truth: McKenna and a twelfth grader are sitting across from each other in his office. “You told me you went up to Islamorada with Captain Maxwell and the two suspects now in custody. Then you caught the bus back to Key West. Is that the truth?” “No, sir. That’s a lie. I called Jose Rodriguez and we went to South Beach. I had this envelope full of Max’s money and I spent some of it.” “Do you want to return what was in the envelope you took?” “Yes, sir.” McKenna waited as she unzipped and then went to the very bottom of her backpack, bringing out a kotex bag. Inside was a roll of hundred dollar bills. “Do you have any idea how much there is?” he asked. “Twenty-eight thousand dollars. My daddy would say it is witch’s gold. Can I give it to you—the rest after I have a job?” She did not tell him about the five thousand dollars tucked under her mattress at home next to the back wall where her mother could not reach. As McKenna continued the interview and as the details became more and more convoluted he was grateful he had sons. A reader commented, “I’d compare Lois Richman’s writing to those of the early James Patterson days. Her writing is so alive it literally lifts off the page, taking the reader not only into another world, but inside the most intimate details of her characters’ lives.”