by Leena Clover
“That’s harsh,” Jenny said.
“I’ve been alone all these years,” Star said. “I’m used to it. Why complicate things?”
“Do you like Jimmy?” Jenny asked.
“I like him,” Star nodded. “The question is, should I let him uproot my life?”
“That depends on how much you like him,” Jenny said sagely. “You told me yourself – he has to take it one day at a time. I think that applies to you too if you want to support him. Every day is going to bring fresh challenges for the both of you.”
“Do you think I’m too old?” Star asked miserably.
Jenny read between the lines.
“You’re never too old for love,” she smiled. “You are a strong woman, Star. I know you can do this.”
A tear rolled down Star’s cheek. Jenny got up and hugged her aunt.
“You can do this,” she whispered as she kissed the top of her head.
Jenny stepped out for her walk, hoping to run into Adam.
Jenny breathed in the familiar scent of roses from Seaview’s garden. She decided she would invite Star to live with her at Seaview. They could always rent out Star’s cottage.
Adam was throwing a ball for Tank, his yellow Labrador. Tank abandoned the ball as soon as he saw Jenny. He put his paws on her shoulders and licked her nose.
“Get off me, you brute,” Jenny laughed, kissing Tank on the head.
“How was your trip to the city?” Adam asked Jenny. “Any luck?”
“Too soon to say,” Jenny said, trying to sound noncommittal. “What about Todd, Asher’s son-in-law?”
“He’s our top suspect now,” Adam said grimly. “You’ll probably hear this through the grapevine so I don’t mind telling you. Todd had a big argument with Asher the day before the party. This was at the Rusty Anchor. Dozens of people saw them.”
“So what?” Jenny asked.
“He warned the old man to lay off or else…”
“What does the family think?”
“That old guy came to see me,” Adam said. “The one who lives in Florida?”
“Walter?” Jenny asked.
“Right. The siblings are not too keen on Todd. They think Dawn married down. She’s better off ditching him and coming to live with Linda.”
“That’s all fine,” Jenny said. “But what about Dawn?”
“I’m talking to her tomorrow,” Adam told her.
“You mean you’re bringing her in?” Jenny asked. “Is Dawn a suspect too?”
“You know how the police work,” Adam sighed. “Everyone is a suspect until I clear them.”
“This whole Asher business might take a different turn,” Jenny said.
“Are you still thinking this is a hate crime?” Adam burst out. “That’s a fantastic theory, Jenny.”
“I don’t know what to think any more,” Jenny admitted. “This whole thing’s a big mess.”
“My money’s on the family,” Adam said. “There’s just too many of them, and they had plenty of reasons to kill the old man.”
“Let’s forget about them for a while,” Jenny said.
She sat down in the sand and stared at the ocean. The waves came up to her toes and receded, leaving a layer of foam behind.
Adam settled down next to her. Tank squeezed in between them and Adam pushed him away.
“Why haven’t we had dinner again?” he asked her.
“That’s because you haven’t asked me out on a second date, Adam Hopkins.”
Chapter 19
“I sent an email to the group,” Heather told Jenny.
The Magnolias were having coffee and tasting a batch of warm donuts Jenny had just fried up. It was a new recipe she was working on.
“Add sprinkles on top,” Molly advised. “Donuts always look good with sprinkles.”
“They don’t really add any taste,” Betty Sue argued. “What’s wrong with a plain glazed donut?”
Jenny ignored the usual chatter and pulled Heather aside.
“When do you think you will hear back from them?”
“Hard to say,” Heather said with a shrug.
“I better go see Linda,” Jenny said resolutely. “You fancy a swim?”
Jason ended up accompanying Jenny to the Cohen estate that afternoon.
“What’s your excuse to come with me?” Jenny asked.
“I need Linda’s signatures on some papers,” he said. “And I don’t need an excuse. She’s my aunt.”
Linda was happy to see them. She wore a cheery smile that day and Jenny was glad to see her looking so buoyant.
“Anything new?” she asked Jenny. “The police are talking to Dawn today. As if my Dawn would do anything to harm her father.”
“I want to show you some pictures,” Jenny told her.
She pulled up the photos on her phone and handed them over to Linda.
“Who are all these people?” Linda asked, bewildered.
“They might have been Asher’s friends,” Jenny said. “From way back when he was in Germany.”
“He never talked about that time,” Linda said. “I already told you that.”
“I know,” Jenny soothed. “But some of these people might have come to America, just like Asher did. Why don’t you take a look?”
Linda peered at the photos, shaking her head.
“Boy, these folks look weird.”
“Anyone you know?” Jenny prompted.
She held herself from actually pointing out the real Asher. She didn’t want to bias Linda.
“Never laid eyes on any of these.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Jenny, I’m sure.”
Jenny tried to hide her disappointment.
“What’s special about these pictures?” Linda asked. “And where did you get them?”
“It’s a long story,” Jenny mumbled.
Jason led her to the pool. Walter, Emma and Heidi sat under a canvas awning, sipping sundowners. Todd Buckler was in the water with his little girl. He glared at Jenny and turned his back on her.
“What’s the story behind those photos?” Jason asked her as he slipped on his goggles.
“Let’s talk on the way back,” Jenny promised.
Jason whistled when he heard Jenny’s story.
“Do you think it’s all too farfetched?” Jenny challenged him.
“It’s amazing what you come up with, Jenny,” he said. “Are you saying Linda’s name isn’t Cohen?”
“I don’t know about that,” Jenny admitted. “Linda’s husband may have entered the country with this name. So it’s his official name alright. You’re the lawyer, Jason.”
“I know,” Jason groaned. “But this is all so convoluted.”
“I’m going to try and get to the bottom of this,” Jenny promised. “Heather might have some update.”
“Let’s go to the Bayview Inn then.”
Jason and Jenny hurried inside the inn. Heather shook her head as soon as she saw Jenny.
“Most of the group members have replied,” she told her. “None of them had David Gold as a guest.”
“What if he registered under a false name?” Jenny demanded.
Heather grimaced. “Don’t make this more complicated.”
“I’m just thinking of the possibilities,” Jenny shot back. “I think David Gold is involved.”
“Want me to do a background search?” Jason offered. “I can get someone to do it for me.”
“Not yet,” Jenny stalled. “I’m going to try an ordinary Internet search first.”
“Why don’t we grab some dinner and go to your place?” Jason suggested.
The trio headed to Mama Rosa’s, the best and only pizza place in town. Jason ordered two large pies. Jenny forced him to add some salads to the order.
“What about dessert?”
“I have some leftover chocolate cake at home,” Jenny told him.
Jimmy Parsons was back on the porch of Star’s cottage. Jenny was relieved to see them both
smiling. Her aunt had apparently reconciled with Jimmy.
Jimmy mouthed a silent thank you when she handed him a plate piled with salad and pizza. She knew he was thanking her for more than the food.
“Why don’t we finish eating first?” Jason suggested between bites of pizza.
Jenny finally fired up her laptop and ran a search for David Gold.
“It’s a common name,” Jenny wailed as she stared at the thousands of results the computer threw back at her. “There seems to be a David Gold in every profession.”
“Calm down,” Jason advised. “You know where this guy lives, right? Why don’t you narrow it down by location?”
“Forget all this,” Heather said. “Just check on social media.”
Jenny surrendered and loaded up a popular social media portal. After a few attempts, she hit pay dirt.
“This is him alright,” she said, looking at a young man with a familiar aquiline nose.
He was smiling into the camera, holding a baby in his arms.
“We are in luck,” Heather squealed. “He has posted plenty of photos.”
Jenny clicked through photos of David and his family. There were photos of him and his wife on vacation in various exotic places. Then there were photos with the baby. Jenny could watch the child growing up in the photos.
“Looks like they haven’t taken too many vacations since the baby was born,” Jason observed.
“A baby ties you down,” Jenny said knowingly.
“They just drove to nearby places,” Heather said, reading the comments on the photos. “Look, here they are in Ocean City.”
“Ocean City!” Jenny exclaimed. “That’s close enough.”
“That was a month ago,” Heather pointed out.
“It proves nothing, Jenny,” Jason winced.
“It shows he is familiar with the area,” Jenny said.
“You are grasping at straws,” Jason warned. “What are you looking for anyway?”
“I want to see if David Gold ever came to Pelican Cove. He told us he didn’t.”
Heather was clicking wildly on David Gold’s profile, reading the names of his family members and friends. Jenny sat back and rubbed her temples, irked at reaching another dead end.
“Stop!” she cried suddenly.
She pointed at the photo of an older man.
“I know that man.”
“You do?” Heather quizzed. “David has listed him as a friend.”
Jenny seemed uncertain.
“I mean, I have seen him somewhere.”
Jason peered at the photo Jenny was pointing at.
“Looks pretty ordinary to me, Jenny. Are you sure you saw the same man? Where did you see him?”
“I saw him recently,” Jenny maintained. “It must have been at the café.”
“He could have been a tourist,” Jason offered.
“I’ve never seen him,” Heather said firmly.
“Let’s ask Star,” Jenny pleaded. “She gets around a lot.”
Star and Jimmy were summoned and shown the photo.
“What’s he doing here?” Jimmy exclaimed. “That’s the guy who lives in one of my cottages,” he told Star. “The one who’s writing that book about birds.”
“Ira Brown!” Jenny gasped. “How could I forget him.”
“That’s right,” Jimmy nodded. “He was really impressed by the lunch you gave him at the Boardwalk Café.”
“You’ve actually met this guy?” Jason asked.
“And I’m going to meet him again tomorrow.”
“I need to get home, Jenny,” Heather said, stifling a yawn. “I have to cut up the fruit for tomorrow’s breakfast before I turn in.”
The group broke up after that.
Jenny tossed and turned all night, eager to talk to Ira Brown the next day. Jimmy had agreed to get her an appointment with the man.
Jenny was just sitting down to eat a bite herself when Jimmy called. He had promised Ira another free lunch at the café. Ira had readily accepted.
“When are you meeting that man?” Heather asked as soon as she came in for coffee with her grandma Betty Sue.
“Soon,” Jenny said. “Are you free later today? I might go talk to David Gold again.”
Ira Brown came in for lunch. He chose a window table and sat down, rubbing his hands in anticipation. He licked his lips and looked at Jenny greedily.
“What are you serving today?”
“Fish tacos,” Jenny told him. “We got some white fish this morning.”
“I can’t wait,” he said greedily.
Jenny set a platter down before him and sat down.
“Where do you live?” she asked. “I think you mentioned Maryland?”
Ira took a big bite of his taco and nodded his head.
“How do you know David Gold?”
“David who?” Ira asked, wiping his mouth with a paper napkin.
He seemed a bit miffed at the interruption.
“David Gold,” Jenny repeated. “I met him last week when I was in the city. I noticed he has marked you as a friend.”
“Don’t remember the name,” Ira said.
He took another big bite of his taco and chewed it slowly. Jenny let him eat.
“People know me because of my profile,” he said finally. “I don’t always know them.”
“It’s a two way connection,” Jenny explained. “You don’t appear as a friend unless you have accepted someone’s invite.”
Ira Brown’s face cleared.
“Oh! I get dozens of friend requests every week. I accept all of them. Don’t want to appear standoffish, you know. I have a certain image.”
“So you’re saying there are plenty of people out there who have listed you as a friend. But you don’t know them.”
“Exactly!”
“Isn’t that risky?” Jenny asked. “I took you for a private person.”
Ira Brown chomped on the last piece of his taco.
“You got that right,” he said. “I value my privacy a lot. Why do you think I am spending my summer on this remote island?”
“I thought you were here for the birds?”
“That too,” Ira Brown said quickly.
Jenny pulled up David Gold’s profile on her phone. She thrust it in Ira Brown’s face.
“You really don’t know this guy?”
Ira Brown glanced at the photo and shook his head.
“I’m sorry. Looks like this guy’s important to you.”
“Not really,” Jenny said with a smile. “Thanks for coming here to talk to me.”
Ira smiled solicitously.
“I came here for this delicious lunch. It was worth every bite.”
“How about some dessert?” Jenny asked. “I have lemon cake with berry compote.”
Ira Brown lingered for a while, enjoying his dessert over two cups of coffee. Jenny watched him from behind the counter as she served other customers. He looked so calm it was hard to believe he was hiding anything.
Jenny picked up Heather and Molly and drove to the city. David Gold opened the door, holding his son in his arms.
“This is a surprise!” he said. “We were just going out.” He turned around and called out to his wife. “Look who’s here, honey.”
“I’m sorry we didn’t call before coming,” Jenny apologized.
She was hoping David would invite them in. David didn’t disappoint.
“Come on in,” he said. “We were just going on a grocery run. It can wait.”
His wife came out with a tray of lemonade. She took the baby from David and went in.
“I was hoping to ask you a few questions,” Jenny began. “We found your social profile…”
“Were you trying to look me up?” David said with a laugh. “I don’t mind. I do it too.”
Molly was staring at David with her mouth open. She was clearly besotted with the handsome young man.
“You went to Ocean City, didn’t you?” Heather blurted out.
“That was over a month ago,” David nodded. “We didn’t want to go too far from home with the baby.”
“So you’re familiar with the Eastern Shore?” Jenny asked.
“We were planning to drive down the peninsula,” David nodded. “But that never happened. My son had an ear infection the first day out. We had to come back immediately.”
“You have an admirable number of friends,” Jenny began. “I might know one of them.”
Chapter 20
David Gold didn’t hesitate for a second after he saw Ira Brown’s photo.
“Professor Brown? He comes here all the time.”
“He said he didn’t know you,” Jenny informed him.
“He’s writing a book about the Holocaust,” David told them. “You remember that group I told you about? He comes to our meetings.”
“Would he have access to those boxes you showed us?”
“He sure does,” David said. “He’s even planning to use some of those photos in his book.”
“Why would he lie to me?” Jenny mused. “Did you have some kind of falling out?”
David looked bewildered.
“Ira’s a bit whimsical. But surely he couldn’t have forgotten who I am? He’s coming here this weekend for our quarterly meeting. I just got his RSVP.”
“He must have been joking,” Jenny soothed.
She wanted to go confront Ira Brown as soon as possible.
Heather and Molly both protested when she passed into the exit lane for the highway.
“I have a date!” Heather exclaimed.
“Now?” Jenny burst out. “When were you going to mention that?”
“Duster texted me while you were talking to David,” she said. “He’s here for an errand. I’m meeting him for coffee.”
“What are we supposed to do while you meet him?” Jenny asked.
“I don’t know…go shopping or something.”
“I could use some coffee,” Molly said with a gleam in her eye.
“You are not coming to the same coffee shop,” Heather cried. “I don’t need chaperones.”
“Who said we are with you?” Molly teased. “We’ll get our own table and do our thing. Maybe I will meet a gorgeous hunk.”
“How can you think of guys at a time like this?” Jenny moaned. “I feel I’m close to solving this.”
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Heather scoffed. “So what if that old man lied to you? He doesn’t owe you anything.”
