“No, we’re not. This is public land.”
“No. Private,” he said.
“No. Public,” she retorted.
“Private.”
“Public.”
I kind of liked this one-word dialog of Nancy’s. Much better than her usual long diatribes full of citations of applicable rules and regulations.
Then she reverted to type. “This land is public as per section 714 of the land use code. It was designated as such in 1862 by Coconut Carl himself and ratified by the Kalverleifde Council in 1867. We have every right to be on this beach. Are we clear, dear?”
The chief was silent.
“I didn’t hear you,” she said.
He continued to stare at her impassively.
“Your mother was an Abbott, wasn’t she?”
He narrowed his eyes.
She narrowed hers right back. “The Abbott family was known for their charitable donations to organizations who protect public lands such as these.” She made a sweeping gesture at the beach. “They wanted the public to be able to enjoy beautiful nature spots like these, even people who aren’t residents of Destiny Key. What would she think of you trying to chase us off this land?”
He folded his arms across his chest. “What’s your point, lady?”
“The Coconut Cove Regatta has been anchoring in this bay and using this beach for as long as I remember, and it’s going to stay that way. Understood?”
I was impressed with how Nancy was managing the situation. This was one of those times when her knowledge of rules and regulations, not to mention her stubbornness, was an advantage. She had the scrawny man under her thumb. I decided to take advantage of the situation and press the chief for answers to more concerning matters.
“Why are you covering up Gregor’s murder?” I asked.
Nancy shushed me. “Let’s stay focused on the issue at hand.”
“The cover-up is the issue,” I insisted. “He wants us off the island so we don’t expose him.”
Scooter grabbed my arm and pulled me back. “What are you doing? Nancy has this under control.”
“He’s going to get away with it,” I said.
Ned whispered, “I thought we had agreed that it would be better to pretend it had been an accidental death.”
“It wasn’t an accident,” I said loudly. “It was murder.”
The chief stroked his chin. “Fine. We can play it your way. Mr. Smirnov was murdered.”
“Great,” I said. “Now you need to conduct a proper investigation. Go through the evidence, carry out an autopsy, and interview witnesses.”
“The investigation has already been completed,” he said.
“How could you have finished it already? Up until ten seconds ago you were claiming it was an accident.”
“We’re very efficient in Destiny Key.” He gave me a cold smile. “So efficient, in fact, that I’m going to arrest the killer right now.”
“But she’s not here,” I said.
“Of course she is,” he replied, pointing at Anabel. “Take her into custody,” he said to the two goons.
As they grabbed her, the chief looked at me and asked, “Happy now?”
9
The R2-D2 Pencil Holder
We all stood in shock for a few moments, then I sprinted toward the path. “Come on, we have to go after them,” I said over my shoulder.
Scooter raced up behind me and grabbed me by my waist. “Stop. Those guys have guns.”
I tried to squirm out of his grasp, but he held me tight. “These goons are too intimidated by Nancy to use them,” I said.
“They might be, but I don’t think the chief would hesitate to draw his. You heard the stories about him. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt, especially you.” He turned me around so that I faced him and kissed me gently on the forehead.
“We need to call Chief Dalton and let him know what happened,” I said.
The dispatcher was reluctant to put my call through, claiming that I wasted too much of the chief’s time reporting UFO sightings. Then she hung up on me. It wasn’t until my third attempt that I was able to spit out what had happened to Anabel. She put me straight through after that.
“This better not be one of your calls asking the department to contribute to that organization of yours,” he said gruffly.
“No, it’s about the mother of your fur babies,” I said impatiently. “We were on the beach having a picnic when Chief Tyler arrested her.”
I held the phone away from my ear while he screamed a few choice words about Chief Tyler. Then I heard a loud crash, followed by a deep breath.
“What was that noise?” I asked.
“Something might have flown across the room,” he said.
“I hope it wasn’t that R2-D2 pencil holder I gave you.”
“It wasn’t. But that’s a good idea,” he said, followed by another loud crash.
“Chief, you need to focus,” I said. “Breaking things isn’t going to help.”
“What I need to do is get Anabel back and wring Tyler’s neck. How could you let this happen?”
“Me? It wasn’t my fault,” I said with a mixture of defiance and guilt. Had it been my fault that Chief Tyler was trying to pin Gregor’s murder on her? Should I have tried harder to talk Nancy out of having a barbecue on the beach?
“I know it wasn’t your fault,” the chief said softly. “It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have let Anabel go to Destiny Key. Bad things happen there.”
“I did try to stop them, but Scooter was worried someone would get shot. He wouldn’t let me go after them.”
“That was smart. He did the right thing. He was protecting his wife. Something I failed to do with mine.” After a pause, he said, “I mean my ex-wife. Where are you now?”
“We’re still on the beach.”
“Who’s ‘we’?”
“Ned, Nancy, Scooter, Mrs. Moto and me. Everyone else already went back to their boats.”
“I’m surprised that cat of yours didn’t try to attack Tyler,” the chief said. “She’s been known to go after bad guys before.”
“She was on the other side of the beach chasing lizards.” I smiled as I watched Mrs. Moto try to persuade Nancy to pick her up. The older woman kept trying to shoo her away, but the calico persisted in rubbing against her legs.
“That’s probably a good thing. Frick and Frack would never forgive me if anything happened to their friend. Okay, let me think.” After a moment, he said, “Go back to your boat and wait by the phone. I’ll call you later.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Borrow my buddy’s boat and get Anabel back,” he said firmly.
I looked at the anchorage. The sun was starting to go down. When we had sailed over from Coconut Cove on the first day of the regatta, it had taken us hours. By the time Chief Dalton got here, Anabel would have been rotting in a cell for hours. When I explained as much to the chief and suggested that we might have to break her out of jail ourselves, he laughed.
“I’m not taking a sailboat. My buddy has a powerboat. It will take less than an hour to get from town to the public dock on Destiny Key. It’s on the other side of the island from where you are. Besides, they don’t have a jail on the island. Tyler will probably have her stowed away at the ferry terminal. He has an office there.”
“Well, in that case, do you think we should head back to Coconut Cove tonight?” The thought of sailing in the dark terrified me, but if he thought we could do more good there, I’d swallow my fear.
“No, you stay there in case I need back-up.”
“What about Chief Tyler? Do you think he’ll come after us?”
“No way he’ll try anything with all those boats anchored there. The only thing he cares about is getting you off Destiny Key.”
“Doesn’t that strike you as odd?” I asked. “I know they don’t like strangers on the island, but his reaction seems to be a bit extreme.”
“Everything about him is extr
eme. Look, I need to get going. I’ll phone you later.”
After the chief hung up, I explained the situation to the rest of the gang.
“Well, I, for one, will be glad to get off this island,” Ned said. “We’ll need to think about doing something differently for next year’s regatta.”
As we walked to the dinghy, Nancy said, “Do you need any help with the investigation?”
“Help? Investigation?” I said with surprise. “You were the one who told me in no uncertain words to drop it.”
“That was before,” she said.
“Before what?” I asked.
“Before that horrible man arrested your friend, dear. Sure, Anabel is ditzy, but she couldn’t hurt a fly. We all know she’s innocent. Now, you just have to prove it. It’s about time the world knew what happens on this island.”
“You know what this means, don’t you?” I said. “I have to get Victoria to confess to what she did and turn herself in.”
* * *
As Ned steered the dinghy toward Marjorie Jane, Mrs. Moto leaned over the edge and yowled.
“Do you think she wants to go swimming again?” Ned asked.
“I think that was her ‘Where’s my after-dinner snack’ cry,” Scooter said.
“I’m surprised that cat doesn’t weigh more considering how much she eats,” Nancy said.
“She gets a lot of exercise—spider squashing, lizard hunting, seagull chasing, and now swimming.”
After Ned pulled alongside our boat, he said, “Call us the minute you hear anything from Chief Dalton.”
“Will do,” Scooter said as he lifted the admiral on deck.
Melvin and Ben were sitting in the cockpit playing cards. “You guys stayed at the beach for quite a while,” the older man said.
“It’s a long story,” I said.
“Gin and tonic?” Scooter asked.
“Please. A large one,” I said.
Melvin set his cards down. “What’s going on? You look upset.”
“He’s right,” Ben said. “You have that wrinkle thing between your eyebrows going on. The one you get when something’s not right.”
“Where’s Victoria?” I asked.
“She’s lying down,” Ben said. “She said she has a headache coming on.”
I rubbed my temples. “Yeah, I know how she feels.”
Melvin looked around the cockpit. “Wait a minute. Where’s Anabel?”
I sighed. “I don’t even know where to begin. Let me have my drink first and then I’ll fill you in.”
After a few minutes, Scooter handed up bowls filled with pretzels, almonds, and potato chips. “The G&Ts are coming up. Melvin? Ben? Want one?”
Ben grabbed some nuts. “I’ll take a beer if you have one.”
“I wouldn’t mind a G&T,” Melvin said.
A voice behind Scooter said. “Ooh, gin and tonics. My favorite.” Victoria pushed past Scooter and climbed into the cockpit. Ben scooted over to make room for her. “Can I have lemon in mine?”
“I thought you had a headache,” I said. “Are you sure you should be drinking?”
“I did, but I took my magic pill and now it’s gone. A gin will help make sure it stays away.” Her eyes looked a little unfocused. I wondered exactly what kind of magic was in the pill she had taken.
“And now that you’re a sailor, the lemon in your drink will help prevent scurvy,” Ben joked.
After Scooter passed our drinks around, Melvin said, “So, tell us about Anabel. Where is she?”
Victoria looked around, perplexed. “What do you mean? Isn’t Anabel here?”
“No, she’s not,” I said. “Chief Tyler arrested her.”
“Arrested?” Melvin said. “For what?”
I fixed my gaze on Victoria to gauge her reaction before saying, “Gregor’s murder.”
She looked at me blankly, then squeezed lemon into her drink.
After we explained what happened, Ben said, “I should have stayed there with you. We could have overpowered them, right Scooter?”
“They had guns,” he said defensively.
“You made the right call,” I said, squeezing his arm. “That’s what Chief Dalton said.”
“I have a handgun for protection, but I don’t know if I could ever use it,” Victoria said. “They scare me.”
“What about knives?” I asked.
Scooter whispered in my ear, “Real subtle.”
I took another sip of my drink. “I’m way past subtle,” I whispered back. Then, in a louder voice, I said, “Victoria, I’ll put it on the line. You need to confess to Gregor’s murder and turn yourself in.”
The hazy look in her eyes vanished. She took a gulp of her drink. “I didn’t murder Gregor.”
“Yes you did. We have proof.” I bit my lip. “Or at least we did.”
“Proof?” she asked. “What proof?”
“Your hair,” I said, looking at the long brown locks cascading down her back.
She put a hand up to the scarf she had tied around her head. “Why would my hair be proof?”
“Because we found it on Gregor’s body.”
She gave a brittle laugh. “Everyone has hair on their clothes. I probably have some of yours on mine and vice versa.” She made a dramatic showing of plucking a hair off her shorts. “See.”
“That’s cat hair,” I said.
“Humans shed just like cats,” she said.
“This was different. It wasn’t just a stray hair. It was a clump of hair. Gregor must have pulled it out during your struggle.”
Her eyes got moist. “He didn’t pull it out. It fell out. I have alopecia. My hair has been falling out. Why do you think I’m always wearing a hat or a scarf?”
“I figured it was your sense of style,” I said.
“No, it’s a disease. Not a fashion choice,” she said angrily. She whipped her scarf off, twisted her head and pulled her hair up. She pointed at a bald patch. “See? My hair comes out in clumps.”
“Oh.” This was awkward. While she retied her scarf, I realized that the alopecia didn’t explain everything. “We also found some strands of hair stuck in Gregor’s signet ring. They were separate from the matted hair we found.”
“He was stroking my head to help me fall asleep that night. It might have gotten caught then.” Her eyes welled up. “It was a sweet moment together and my last memory of him alive.”
“Hmm.” I felt even more awkward. Not only had I made Victoria reveal her hair loss, I’d also made her cry.
“Was that your only evidence?” she asked.
“Well, there was the knife,” I said reluctantly.
“It wasn’t mine. The only knives I own are at home and I use them for eating, not killing people.” She looked at her left hand as though imagining the engagement ring he had promised her. “We were going to be married. I wouldn’t have killed him.” After a beat, she held up her glass and shook it at Scooter. “How about another one?”
After my husband got us another round, Ben asked, “Well, if Victoria didn’t do it, who did? It had to have been someone at Warlock’s Manor. The road was cut off. No one else could have gotten there.”
“That’s a scary thought,” Melvin said. “Kind of like that Agatha Christie novel. Which one was that again?”
“Oh, I know the one you mean. Ten—”
Ben interrupted. “Do you think we’re all going to get knocked off one by one?”
“I don’t think the killer is a homicidal maniac,” I said. “Whoever killed Gregor had a specific motive. They’re not going to go around randomly killing other people.”
“Whatever you say, boss,” Ben said, giving me a mock salute. “You have more experience in this area than the rest of us. So what do we do next?
“Well, there are only three other people who could have done it,” I said.
“Three?” Victoria said. “I count six.”
“How do you get six?” Scooter asked.
“There’s Thomas, Sawyer, Oli
via, and the three of you. That’s six.” She pointed at Melvin. “You stayed on Marjorie Jane so it wasn’t you.”
Melvin shifted uncomfortably on the seat.
“It wasn’t us,” I said.
“Says the woman who tried to pin the blame on me because I’m losing my hair,” Victoria replied.
“I’m really sorry about that,” I said. “But you can see how it looked.”
“Ben has long brown hair. It could have been his,” Victoria said.
“Tell you what, why don’t we assume it wasn’t him, me or Scooter. We didn’t even know Gregor and there was an alarm system in the bunkhouse. It would have gone off if any of us had tried to leave.”
“An alarm system?” Scooter said. “I didn’t see one.”
I pointed at the sleeping cat. “Her. If any of us had woken up, she would have screamed her head off to get her something to eat.”
“True. That’s an alibi that will hold up in court.” Scooter smiled. “Can you imagine her testifying? She’d roll over and demand that the judge rub her belly.”
“So that leaves Thomas, Olivia, and Sawyer,” Melvin said. “Not that I ever believed any of you could have done it.”
“It wasn’t Thomas,” Victoria said. “I’ve known him forever.”
“I’ve known people forever who’ve ended up surprising me,” I said.
“Why don’t we put Thomas to the side for now?” Melvin said diplomatically. “What do you know about Sawyer and Olivia?”
Ben leaned forward. “It wasn’t Sawyer. I’ve known her forever.”
“So you’re saying it was Olivia?” I asked Ben. “What motive could she have? She didn’t know Gregor until this weekend. Sawyer at least knew who Gregor was.” I gave Victoria a cautioning look. She seemed to understand what I meant and didn’t say anything about Gregor and Sawyer having been romantically involved. The last thing I wanted was for Ben to get upset about Sawyer’s love life, especially when the young woman had told me she only thought of her high-school classmate as a friend.
I also wasn’t sure that what Victoria had said about the two of them was true. Gregor might have made up that story about dating Sawyer as a way of emotionally manipulating Victoria. But, on the other hand, Sawyer had changed the subject when I tried to ask her about her relationship with Gregor. Olivia had also mentioned something about how her friend liked older men, and Gregor had been way older than the young woman. Definitely something I would have to follow up on later.
Dead in the Dinghy Page 12
