Panic Pond

by Cole Baxter

  Panic Pond

  A Liar’s Island Suspence - A Psychological Thriller With A Twist You Won’t See Coming…

  Cole Baxter

  Illustrated by Cormar Covers

  Edited by Valorie Clifton

  Edited by Elizabeth A Lance

  Copyright © 2021 by Cole Baxter

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Cormar Covers

  Edited by Valorie Clifton and Elizabeth A Lance

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locations is purely coincidental. The characters are all productions of the authors’ imagination.

  Contents

  Mailing List

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Preview of Prime Suspect

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  About Cole Baxter

  Also by Cole Baxter

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  Chapter One

  Amber's phone vibrated on the desk next to her mug of coffee, drawing her attention away from work. She'd been late this morning, so she hadn't stopped for her usual morning coffee and had to settle for what was in the breakroom of the Liar's Island PD. It wasn't great. She had a mountain of paperwork to finish from her last undercover job, but paperwork was her least favorite part of being a detective. Her phone vibrated again, and she picked it up.

  Save me! I'm being consumed by paperwork! ~ Leah

  Amber muffled a laugh behind her hand and texted her best friend back.

  You and me both! Ugh! I've got to finish writing up that last assignment. So boring.

  She set the phone down and sighed as she picked up her pen and made corrections to the report she was reviewing. Her phone buzzed again, and with a surreptitious glance around the office, she picked it up and read the reply.

  I say, after we both finish work tonight, we meet over at Fired Up and have pizza and beers! ~ Leah

  You're on! See ya then!

  She texted back and then set her phone down with a new determination to finish her work, but a glance at the time told her she had hours yet before she'd be able to leave. Hell, it wasn't even lunch time yet.

  Leah Cook, her best friend, was head of Parks and Recreation on Liar's Island, a small island just northeast of Bainbridge Island in the Puget Sound and forty minutes by ferry from Seattle, Washington. Liar's Island was home to about twelve thousand residents. Not all of them were full-time residents, though. About eighty percent of them were extremely wealthy and had multiple homes in various locations around the world, but all the residents, full-time and part-timers, valued their privacy, or rather their secrecy.

  Liar's Island, back before it was Liar's Island, had been a prime bit of real estate in the late 1800s and jointly owned by several of the wealthy men in the Seattle area. In 1871, a professional gambler by the name of Augustus Lyre set up a poker game with the three men who owned the island and got them to use it as collateral. He won it on a bluff and decided to name the island Lyre's Island, but the men he'd won it from felt cheated and took to calling it Liar's Island, which stuck.

  Augustus did manage to start a village on the island that grew to what it was today, though he'd been picky about who he had allowed to settle on the island—mostly wealthy families and their servants. Now, it was still very coveted real estate by the wealthy and considered some of the finest to be had in the Northwest.

  Amber had lived on Liar's Island for most of her thirty-four years, except for the short stint at college and a year or two afterward while she tried to make it big. She'd dreamed of being a Broadway star, but things hadn't quite worked out that way. She'd come back to the island defeated, but she felt she'd turned those lemons into lemonade with her job as a detective. Being a detective allowed her to go undercover and use her acting abilities for the good of the island. Granted, her parents had both been part of the police department, and it was through them that she'd even gotten the job, but still, she enjoyed it most days. Days she wasn't drowning in the reports she had to write.

  "Detective Smith."

  Amber looked up from her desk at her boss's head sticking out of her door. "Yes, ma'am?"

  "My office. Now."

  Amber hopped up and straightened her navy skirt so it fell to her knees properly. She wore matching navy heels and a white blouse, along with a matching blue blazer, the standard uniform of the Liar's Island PD. Her blonde hair was neatly pinned in a bun on top of her head. She always tried to look older and more professional when she was at the station because the other detectives always made her feel like she didn't quite belong, like she was too young. She wasn't—she was thirty-four—but she tended to look youthful, like someone fresh out of high school, much to her dismay.

  Amber hurried into Chief Lee's office. "Yes, ma'am?"

  "Take a seat." The Asian woman directed her to a chair across from her desk.

  Amber felt a little bit of fear flutter in her heart. What could she have done to warrant being called into Chief Lee's office?

  "I understand that you are on friendly terms with Ray Kelley?"

  That surprised Amber. Ray was an affable man, close to her dad's age. She wouldn't exactly call him a friend, but she did know him. If she recalled correctly, he'd been at school with her dad. She'd been going into his gas station, Kelley's Gas Station, ever since she was a kid. It was technically more than just a gas station, though, since it was also a convenience store and had an attached diner. She'd gotten to be on good terms with him over the years since coming back from Seattle. She always stopped by and chatted with him whenever she could, usually in the morning for a coffee on her way to work, but it was just superficial stuff like Hi, how are you? Great weather we're having, right? and those kinds of things.

  "Yes, I suppose. I mean, I know him enough to say hello. Has something happened to him?"

  Chief Lee nodded. "His place was robbed last night. We've been trying to get some information from him, but he's pretty tight-lipped."

  "Damn, I didn't stop in there this morning," she said with frown, now worried about the man. "Is he okay?"

  "Yes, he is fine. Apparently, he wasn't there at the time. It happened during the night shift, which is staffed by a couple of employees and his nephew. Do you think you could get him to talk?" The chief handed her the file.

  Amber took the folder and opened it. It looked as though two other officers had been in and done initial interviews with Ray and the night staff, but none of them had been too helpful, giving extremely vague answers to the deputies' questions. "Sure, of course. I’ll see what I can find out."

  "Great. Then you're in charge of the case. Just keep me informed. You can have Mahoney help with the investigation."

  Looking up from the file, Amber nodded. "Thank you, ma'am."

  "You may go."

  Standing, Amber hurried back to her desk and picked up her phone. She found the number to the gas station online and dialed.

  "Kelley's Gas Statio
n, this is Ray."

  "Hi, Ray, it's Amber Smith," she said into the phone.

  "Amber, sugar, is everything all right?" his deep timbre voice came across the line.

  "I'm the one who should be asking that, Ray. Your gas station was robbed!"

  "Oh, I'm fine. A little shaken up, I suppose . . . didn't ever expect anything like this. Not around here."

  Amber frowned. Something sounded off in his voice. "You don't sound like you're fine, Ray."

  "No, sugar, I'm good. No need to worry about me."

  "You do realize it's my job, right? You should have asked for me right away. Now tell me what happened. I have the report here, but none of you gave the deputies very much to go on, did you?"

  Ray sighed over the line. "Not much to tell, to tell the truth. Cameras were useless. They must have known how to avoid them and managed to black out the ones they couldn't avoid. Not sure what all was taken yet. Seems the alarm to the door in the back was off. And the cash from the cashbox was missing. Oh, and the alcohol aisle seems to be missing an abundance of liquor. Probably just those damned kids."

  "Are you gonna be there for a bit?" Amber asked.

  "Sure, I'm always here in the daytime, you know that."

  Amber nodded. "I do. Well, sit tight. I'm on my way over there now."

  "There's no need for that—"

  "Don't argue with me, Ray. I'll be there in ten minutes."

  "All right, then. I'll have a dark roast ready for you."

  "You're an angel. Be there soon."

  Chapter Two

  Amber dropped her phone into her purse, grabbed her keys, and picked up the folder. She knocked on the chief's door and waited patiently.

  "Come in."

  Amber opened the door. "Ma'am? I'm headed over to Kelley's Gas Station. I'll be back soon."

  Chief Lee nodded. "Take Mahoney with you."

  I looked over my shoulder at the man in question. "Yes, ma'am."

  Jack Mahoney was a stickler for detail, a good detective overall, but he could be a bit nosy and sometimes people didn't open up when he was around. Amber knew she'd have to fob him off with interviewing some of the rest of the staff while she spoke to Ray.

  "Mahoney, with me," she called as she headed for the door.

  Mahoney grabbed his jacket and followed her out of the building. He was a good enough looking man, handsome even, Amber thought, but he was stiff. He was a couple of years younger than her but had been on the job about a year longer than she had been, seeing as he'd started right out of the academy.

  "Where are we headed?" he asked.

  "Over to Kelley's. The chief put me in charge of the case, and I want us to re-interview the staff."

  Amber opened her car door, and Mahoney climbed in the passenger seat. He sat quietly while she drove. He was never a big talker.

  "I'll talk to Ray. You see what you can get from the rest of the staff, all right?"

  Mahoney nodded and pulled out his notebook as they went inside.

  "I see you brought company," Ray said crossly.

  Amber frowned. "It's the job, Ray. Now, how about we head on into the diner and you tell me everything?"

  Ray nodded and waved his hand for her to follow him. "Anything you wanting to see?"

  "After we talk, you can show me."

  "All right. Sit. I'll grab the dark roast."

  Looking back toward the store part of the building, Amber could see Mahoney talking to an uncomfortable looking Selma Waterson. She was a small, chubby, blonde single mother working two jobs. Amber didn't know her well. She didn't really know much of the staff well at all since Ray was usually the one on duty when she normally came in. Of course, she knew who his employees were. She just didn't spend time with any of them. She couldn't recall the last time any of them had waited on her.

  Setting those thoughts aside, Amber turned her gaze back to Ray. "So, how did this happen?" Amber asked as she picked up her coffee, her notebook out on the table.

  Ray shrugged. "Don't know. Cameras in the back room were out and the alarm on the door wasn't set. Don't know why. Should have been set since we weren't expecting any deliveries."

  Amber frowned. The alarm on the back door wasn't on and the cameras were turned off? That made her think there was more to this break-in than a couple of shoplifting teens, but she let it go for now. "And the other cameras? The ones in the liquor section?"

  "They blacked out two, avoided the other."

  "Ray, this is sounding more like it wasn't a couple of teens. This was organized."

  He shook his head. "Sugar, it was just those boys I caught in here Monday trying to steal some vodka and beers. I kicked them out, told them not to come back. This is just them paying me back for not letting them get away with it."

  "You don't know that's true, Ray." Amber sighed and finished her coffee. "Come on, show me where everything is."

  He nodded and led her to the back room. "Here's the door. Wouldn't have even known they came in through here except for the blacked out cameras and the missing cash from the box."

  "Where do you keep it?"

  "In the office. It normally sits on the desk till we get to the bank on Monday morning."

  Amber peered into the office. "You don't have a safe in here?"

  "Never needed one before. The cashbox worked just fine. Nobody messed with it."

  Amber sighed and looked at the one monitor for the security system. The screen showed several views of the store, the diner, and the parking lot. There were three cameras on the liquor section alone, but two were blacked out. And on the top part of the monitor, she could see two set up in the back room, one of them facing the delivery door, the one the burglars had supposedly used to get in. "Do you have a camera outside that door?" She pointed to the delivery door.

  "No, just inside, but it, along with the other one, wasn't on. Found the feed unplugged. Might have been loosened when one of the staff was shelving boxes back here."

  "Awfully convenient, Ray." Amber gave him a hard look.

  "Just a coincidence, sugar." He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and shrugged.

  Amber shook her head. Ray had a habit of calling her 'sugar', and normally, she didn't mind it, but right then, as she was working, it really kind of did. Still, it was just Ray, so she let it go. She followed the path from the door through the aisle and stopped as she noticed a couple of boxes on the shelf. They were oddly positioned, hanging half on the shelf and half off, which was curious. She reached for one, pulling it forward. It was empty. "Ray?"

  "Hmm?"

  "What . . . this box says this should be DVD players, but it's empty. That normal?"

  Ray moved closer and peered in, then pulled a couple of other boxes down, which were also empty. "Son of a bitch. These were full yesterday. Got a shipment in of DVD players, cellphones, and tablets for Christmas stock. Hadn't even put them out on the floor yet."

  Amber sighed. "So, still thinking it's teenagers?"

  He shook his head. "Can't imagine who else it could be."

  "Are they insured?"

  He nodded. "Yeah, everything in the store is, but I'm not sure I'll be able to get more in before the holidays. Probably going to hurt my bottom line."

  "Well, write it up, and if you have the serial numbers on them, we'll try to track them down." Amber continued on and headed around the corner, taking note of the camera that she slid underneath undetected. "You might consider moving this camera and pointing it at this back room rather than pointing it out at the store."

  "Noted."

  She looked over the liquor area, noticed the two cameras which still had black spray paint on them, and frowned. Someone surely had to have seen the cameras being sprayed. She looked around but then sighed. "How many people were on shift when this happened?"

  "Depends on when it happened. Three or four, I suppose. Diner closes at ten, so it's barred after that and my employees leave. So, it's just in here. Vince was in charge, so he was here, and then maybe tw
o or three others."

  "Who?" Amber asked, wanting to make sure they were the ones interviewed.

  "Nick was on till eleven, I think, and Bob and Ellie worked till five a.m. with Vince." Ray frowned. "But I'm telling you it was one of those boys. Bunch of degenerates, the lot of them."

  "All right, give me some names and I'll look into them."

  Ray nodded and gestured for her to follow him back to the office. "I wrote their names down and took their pictures off the video feed." He pulled out a file and handed it to her.

  Amber opened it to see grainy pictures of three different boys. She read the names Leonard Terenbrock, Fredrick Brandon, and Jake Thornwood.

  Great, Amber thought, three prominent families. She raised a brow at Ray and sighed. "All right, we'll check them out."

  Ray nodded.

  "I'll also need a full list of your employees and their contact information."

  "Sure." Ray sat down and typed into his computer, pulling up a full list of employees and printing it out. He handed it to her and said, "These seven here work over in the diner. The rest are gas station and convenience store employees. Generally, I come in at six a.m. and work till about six p.m. Vince works opposite me, and sometimes we overlap or work longer shifts."

  "Okay, do you have an assistant manager?" Amber asked, looking over the list.

  "Not really. Couple of them I'd trust watching the place for an hour or so—Nick or Selma in the convenience store, maybe Terry or Denise in the diner, but that's about it."