Costa Rica Beach Cozy Mysteries Box Set: Books 1 to 3 Read online

  “You’ve been to Berkeley, Benny?” Courtney asked.

  “He went to law school at Hastings,” Dana answered for him.

  “Oh, you never told me that,” Courtney said, sounding surprised.

  “UC Tenderloin,” Benny said, grinning. He was referring to his alma mater by its nickname for being in the nefarious, rough-and-tumble San Francisco neighborhood known as the Tenderloin.

  “Small world,” Courtney said.

  “Dana’s uncle wanted a local lawyer that also knew about California law. I’m a member of the Costa Rican and California bar. There aren’t too many of us around.”

  “That explains why you speak English so well,” Courtney said.

  “My parents made sure I learned English at a very young age. They sent me to a bilingual school in San José to make sure I learned English well, since it’s a very beneficial language to know from a business perspective. It comes in very handy now, since most of my clients are Americans and Canadians. And even the European clients all speak English, so that’s the default language for communicating with most of the clients.”

  “So, what’s Benny short for? Benjamin? Bernard?” Courtney asked.

  Dana could see it in Benny’s face that it was a question that had been asked a lot and that he still found it a tad bit embarrassing to answer.

  “So you’re wondering why a grown adult, an attorney, asks to be called Benny?”

  Courtney fidgeted, hemming and hawing for a moment as Dana smiled widely. Courtney struggled, saying, “Well, no. I didn’t mean to offend…um, insinuate.”

  Benny mercifully put her out of the awkward bind.

  “I’m joking. Benny is my given name. My mother was a huge Elton John fan, and ‘Benny and the Jets’ was one of her favorite songs. So there you have it. I guess I could have gone with Ben, but I figured I would go with the name she gave me.”

  Dana hadn’t heard that story, since she was not as big of a digger into people’s personal lives as Courtney loved to be.

  “Oh, wow, so you’re named after an Elton John song?” Dana said. She could hardly finish saying it without laughing out loud.

  “It could be worse. If your mother was into Johnny Cash, you could have been a boy named Sue,” Dana said.

  They all shared a laugh over the silliness as Dana shrugged and looked out the window at the brightly colored buildings and funky signs on the businesses and retail stores.

  Courtney was also looking out the window, taking it all in. “It does have a Berkeley vibe here. And here you thought you were getting away from the Bay Area.”

  “We’re headed to Playa Mariposa Azul, which means Blue Butterfly Beach in English. Everyone just calls it Mariposa Beach. Nice and short. Mariposa Beach is more secluded, but it’s a wonderful, tight-knit beach community. More Santa Cruz than Berkeley,” Benny explained.

  “That’s probably why my uncle fell in love with the area. He was a surfing hippie. He first came to Costa Rica in the seventies to surf,” Dana said.

  “He was a smart man. Bought land down here in the early eighties when it was dirt-cheap. It’s now worth a princely sum,” Benny said.

  “Is it called Blue Butterfly Beach because there are a lot of blue butterflies down here?” Courtney asked.

  “They named it after the morpho butterfly, but they are not commonly seen down by the beach. You usually have to go into the forest up in the mountains to find them, although now and then one of them might make it down to the beach, but I wouldn’t hold my breath hoping to see one in town.”

  “Sounds like false advertisement to me, then,” Courtney said as they all laughed.

  To Dana, the drive down to Mariposa Beach seemed bumpier than the flight down. As they pulled into town, Benny asked if they were hungry.

  “Starving,” Courtney replied.

  “Me too.”

  “There is a great place to eat in town. It’s nothing fancy, but they serve excellent typical tico food at tico prices,” Benny said.

  “Sounds fantastic,” Dana said.

  “So what’s the deal with that word, tico? I hear it all the time. At first, I thought it was a derogatory slur against Costa Ricans, but Dana tells me it’s not.”

  “Not at all. After pura vida, tico is a word you will hear a lot from the locals,” Benny explained.

  “Where did that word come from, and what does it mean, exactly?” Dana asked.

  “Well, it’s a made-up word, really; it has been around forever, way before my time. I guess Costarricense sounded too formal and proper. Supposedly, the word originated from our predilection to add a diminutive suffix to everything we say. For example, it’s not chiquito, but chiquitito; it’s not amor, but amorcito. Who knows the saying’s true genesis, but everyone uses it.”

  They parked at Soda Linda. Benny had explained that a soda in Costa Rica was like a cafe or diner in the states. And like a diner back in the states, Soda Linda offered counter service, meaning you sat at the counter to order and eat your meal. It was open air, and they didn’t have tables, just nine stools at the counter.

  “Place is small,” Dana said as she looked around.

  “During breakfast, lunch, and dinnertime, there can be a long line, and forget about finding a spot at the counter. You get your food to go. Lucky for us it’s two in the afternoon, so we can even sit together,” Benny said, sitting down on one of the stools. Dana and Courtney did the same.

  “Hey Benny, who are your friends?” the woman on the other side of the counter said with a smile.

  Benny introduced them to Linda Orozco, the owner.

  “Oh, you’re the Linda from Soda Linda,” Dana said, smiling.

  “That’s me, and you must be Blake Kirkpatrick’s niece. Nice to meet you.”

  The place had a limited menu. Its specialty was the casado, which was a typical Costa Rican dish that consisted of a mélange of rice, beans, plantains, salad, and chicken, beef, or fish. Benny ordered the casado with steak.

  “What did my uncle like to eat?”

  Linda smiled. “The fish casado was his favorite.”

  “I’ll have that, then.”

  “And I’ll have the chicken one just to be different,” Courtney said.

  For a beverage, Benny ordered a fresco de cas.

  He explained, “We’re known for our tropical fruit drinks down here, and cas is the official fruit of Costa Rica. It’s natural, just the fruit, water, and sugar.”

  Dana had never heard of the cas fruit. She looked at Courtney and they both shrugged at almost the same time, so they ordered the same fruit drink.

  “When in Rome,” Dana said.

  The food was delicious and the cas fruit juice was marvelous. Dana thought it tasted like grapefruit, but Courtney thought it tasted more like a lemon, but not as sour. Regardless, they both thought it was a real treat.

  “We’re mere minutes away from your new home,” Benny said as they prepared to leave.

  “It’s not my home according to my cousin.” Dana sighed.

  “You have the paperwork to prove it, regardless of what Roy Kirkpatrick thinks,” Benny replied.

  “Don’t even think about him,” Courtney said.

  “You’re right. Let’s go check out my new place.”

  Four

  It was a quick drive from the restaurant to Casa Verde. Dana’s face was glued to the window, taking in her new surroundings.

  They had to drive through the entire town, which was so small that it didn’t take too long, but she could take it all in.

  To her right, she could see the beach with its white sand and turquoise-blue waters.

  “Can’t wait to take a dip in there,” Courtney said. Dana just nodded her head as she continued looking around. She felt like an excited puppy looking out each window and finding something new to wag its tail over.

  It was a single-lane road, but suddenly the road was divided by a raised median. Large palm trees lined the median. Dana looked up at the trees. The large fonds at t
he crowns of the palm trees seemed to wave at her like they were welcoming her to town. The trees were wrapped with twinkling lights, and she couldn’t wait to see the beautiful palm trees lit up at night. Both sides of the median were lined up with standalone shops that looked like cottages.

  “How adorable,” she cooed.

  “That’s Ark Row on Main Street,” Benny said.

  “Ark Row?”

  “Some of those shops used to be ark boats where local fishermen lived way back when. Eventually the municipality ordered the boats brought in from the peninsula, so they sort of just dropped them there. It took some time, but someone used one of the old ark boats to open a shop, and soon others did the same. When newer shops were built, they were forced to keep the look and feel of the original ark boats, and so now the retail center of town is known as Ark Row,” Benny explained.

  “Well, I’m glad they did that, because it looks so quaint and just darn adorable,” Dana said. She had lowered the window down even though the car AC was blasting, but she wanted to take it all in—the looks, sounds, and smells of her new town.

  After a few minutes, they had driven through the town, and Benny turned onto rough unpaved road as they began to make their way up the mountain. Dana felt like she was riding shotgun on one of the moon buggies as it made its way on the moon’s surface.

  It was only a few minutes until they arrived at Casa Verde. He stopped the SUV in front of a tall wall and green metal gate.

  “We’re here,” he announced.

  Dana looked around anxiously for a moment, then she heard the gate’s motor coming to life as it slowly opened inward to reveal what was on the other side.

  “It’s like the gate at Jurassic Park,” Courtney said, laughing.

  On the other side of the gate, they could see luscious greenery, a lot of trees, and a man smiling eagerly at them.

  He was in his early fifties and wore a long-sleeved blue coverall and a white wide-brim field hat. He waved wildly like one of the Clampetts at the end of The Beverly Hillbillies.

  “He seems excited we’re here,” Dana said, waving back at the man.

  “That’s the caretaker, Ramón Villalobos,” Benny said.

  She had been told about Ramón and his wife, Carmen. They were campesinos, as they were referred to in Costa Rica—hard-working people that toiled the land as farmers, gardeners, caretakers, and just about any outdoor labor job that needed to be done.

  Ramón’s family had worked the lands around Mariposa Beach for generations.

  Dana wasn’t sure she could get used to having a live-in caretaker. Back in San Francisco, she had a cleaning service that would drop by every two weeks to clean her house, but a full-time arrangement, with them living on the property, made her feel awkward.

  “He comes with the land,” Benny had joked.

  “Please don’t put it that way, makes me feel all sorts of wrong inside,” Dana had replied.

  It wasn’t just that having Ramón working and living on the property that made her wince, but she would live there by herself. So there was that added concern for her.

  She wished she could run a background check, but then she would remind herself, You’re not in the States anymore, girl.

  Benny had reassured her that Ramón was a “salt of the earth” type of person who had been very loyal to her uncle Blake, who had hired him over twenty years ago and had become his trusted man Friday. Blake even built him a nice, modest home on the property.

  “It would be a mistake to let someone like Ramón go,” Benny had told Dana during one of their video calls a few months back.

  “He’s honest, hardworking, and he’s always there taking care of the property, keeping it secure. There is a lot of value to that in Costa Rica. His wife Carmen is a wonderful woman; she cleaned the house and cooked for your uncle. Just you wait, she’s an amazing cook,” Benny had explained.

  Ramón and his family lived in a bungalow-like home behind the property.

  Benny explained that he kept the house and land well maintained and protected from thieves and squatters that might have pounced once word got out that Dana’s Uncle Blake had become ill and had gone back to the States for medical care.

  “Your uncle was adamant that Ramón received his full salary and Christmas bonus for the entire two years he was away and too sick to travel back to Costa Rica,” Benny had told Dana.

  It had been one of the first pieces of advice Benny had given to Dana when they first spoke about the property she was inheriting, and that was to keep Ramón and Carmen on salary and in their home so he would continue to watch and take care of the property.

  Benny had explained that it was not uncommon for heirs to have properties stolen from under them by crooked lawyers and greedy developers.

  Knowing that Ramón and his family lived on the property provided the needed normalcy to keep the shysters and burglars away.

  “Well, I’m not too keen to toss them out of their home, and I want to honor my uncle’s wishes,” Dana had told Benny back then.

  “I’m glad you feel that way, because that hasn’t stopped other families from evicting campesino families from properties they’ve inherited,” Benny had explained.

  “Well, I’m willing to give it a shot,” she responded.

  Dana shook off those memories to bring herself back to reality as Benny slowly drove up through the gate and up a narrow gravel driveway.

  Dana and Courtney looked around in awe; the property was brimming with trees and other lush vegetation. She had seen photographs of the property and even a video tour that Benny had recorded for her, but that didn’t give the property’s natural beauty its due justice.

  “Wow, it’s like a jungle out there,” Courtney said, looking around.

  “That is the jungle out there,” Benny replied, smiling.

  The driveway, from the front gate to the house, was about fifty feet.

  Benny pulled up to a carport in front of the house.

  Dana saw a red Willys Jeep parked in the carport, waiting for her.

  It was her uncle’s pride and joy, an updated and rebuilt 1948 Willys Jeep that had been decommissioned after decades of service in the U.S. Army.

  The Willys looked brand new, all shiny and clean.

  “That’s your car?” Courtney asked. “It looks like those jeeps from MASH,” she continued, referring to the iconic television series.

  “Yeah, isn’t that cool? And it looks brand new,” Dana said.

  “It’s mostly been parked for the last two years. Looks like Ramón has taken good care of it, and I’m sure he put in an extra effort to make it shine for you,” Benny said as he parked the truck and turned off the ignition.

  They climbed out of the Land Cruiser and looked around. It was so green, so luscious, and so peaceful.

  “That’s your house!” Courtney squealed.

  Dana nodded and quickly wiped a single tear from her eye.

  “Dusty,” Dana said, smiling.

  Courtney hugged Dana as they heard footsteps scraping on the gravel. They turned and saw Ramón making his way up the driveway.

  “Hola,” he said cheerfully.

  Benny made the introductions.

  Ramón didn’t speak English, so Dana and Benny spoke to him in Spanish, while Courtney, who didn’t speak the language, looked around the property, kicking gravel.

  “He seems sweet,” Dana said to Courtney after a few minutes of chatting out in front of the house.

  Dana looked up at the house and was surprised how well it looked from the outside. She breathed out nervously.

  “Are you ready to go inside?” Courtney asked.

  “Ready,” Dana said. She looped her arm around Courtney’s and they skipped forward on the gravel road like Dorothy and the Scarecrow as they broke out singing the chorus from “We're off to see the Wizard.” They sang that a couple times, then they both stopped and laughed out loud.

  Benny and Ramón looked at each other and shrugged with smiles on
their faces.

  The house sat back on a slope and was surrounded by many trees: palms, bananas, citrus fruits like oranges and lemons, and other kinds that Dana didn’t recognize. The trees and vegetation were well trimmed and kept, and she began to realize that Ramón was a godsend. The house would have long been overgrown by the wild vegetation after two years, if not outright stolen by some nefarious title pirate.

  Dana looked up at the wraparound front porch overhead. There was a door next to the carport. The main door to the house was up some steps to the right of the carport.

  “That’s your main door,” Benny said, pointing towards the steps. “That door by the carport leads to a set of stairs up to the main house, it’s like the mudroom concept back in the States. There is also a laundry room and a maid’s room back there,” Benny said, pointing at the area behind the carport.

  “Maid's room?” Dana asked.

  “That usually throws off Americans. It’s typical in Costa Rican construction to include a maid’s quarters, and not just for the rich; just about every home in Costa Rica middle-class on up has a maid’s room with its own bathroom inside the main house. Usually built out back, so it's separate for privacy, like a mother-in-law suite you see back in the States sometimes. Room and board is part of the deal,” Benny explained.

  “Well, la-di-da, you told me your uncle’s name was Blake. I didn’t realize it was Blake Carrington,” Courtney said, giggling.

  “Ha ha. Funny, but, I’m not having a live-in maid,” Dana said, sounding defensive.

  “You don’t have to if you don’t want that. Carmen can clean your home, and you can use the maid's room for storage or another guest room or an office—whatever you want, it’s your house,” Benny said.

  “Okay, I’m dying to walk inside,” Dana said, changing the subject. She went up the short flight of front steps that led up to the door with the house keys in her hand.

  She opened the door slowly. She half-expected some wild animal to come rushing out, but nothing happened.