Family Can Be Murder

by Karen Singer

  “I’m here now, aren’t I?”

  Sally smiled. “And I’m very glad. I tried sitting with Jimmy and Madison a few minutes ago, and they wouldn’t let me. And you wouldn’t believe how rude to me Jimmy was about it.”

  “Huh! I believe it. We should have never come.”

  “Yeah. I agree. It was a big mistake. I’m sorry I pushed so hard to get you to agree.”

  The only reason Jenni had decided to go down and have breakfast at the restaurant, was because she was hoping to see her aunt. Not only was Aunt Sally the only person who was nice to her, but after talking with Mr. B last night, she had decided that maybe he was right. It couldn’t hurt to do a little digging on her own to try and figure out who had murdered her grandfather. And if she had to talk to anyone, she’d much rather talk to her aunt than anyone else. She had already tried phoning her aunt’s room and gotten no answer, so she had guessed she was at the restaurant. She was very relieved to be right. The waitress came and took her order, then left again.

  “So, what have you been doing?” Sally asked.

  Jenni didn’t want to tell her about the work she was doing for Mr. B. Not that she had accomplished that much all day yesterday. Mostly, she had only tried to dig a bit into Granger’s job and the company he worked for. She really hadn’t been able to think about much at all yesterday, except to worry about being arrested for something she didn’t do. “Sitting in my room and worrying,” she replied.

  “It doesn’t sound like much of a trip.”

  “It’s all I could to do. I don’t want to be anywhere around anyone else.”

  “I guess I don’t blame you. And I’d be tempted to hide in my room all the time too, especially after the way Jimmy was so rude to me this morning.”

  “And that cop I talked to yesterday, said we can’t go home until he figures out who did it.”

  “He told me the same thing.”

  “So we’re stuck here,” Jenni fumed.

  “Afraid so. But hey, at least we have each other. And Jenni, if you need me, you know where my room is.”

  Jenni smiled. “You too Aunt Sally. You know where I am too.”

  Sally smiled. “Maybe I’ll come out later for a visit,” she said brightly.

  Jenni smiled again. “I’d like that.”

  The waitress set a cup of coffee in front of her along with a huge blueberry muffin. Once she was gone, Jenni figured it was time to get down to some of the things she needed to find out. “Aunt Sally, I was thinking about Grandpa this morning.”

  “I think everyone has been thinking about him a lot,” Sally replied. “I know I have.”

  “I don’t remember much about him from before Grandma won that lottery. Wasn’t he a salesman or something?”

  “Yes. He was. He sold industrial equipment.”

  “Industrial equipment? What kind of stuff is that?”

  “Machinery. All kind of things that companies need to manufacture things.”

  “There can’t be that many people who want to buy stuff like that.”

  “More than you think. And of course, he travelled all the time. All over the country and often abroad as well.”

  “So he made really good money?”

  Sally shrugged. “It depended on what he sold. Some months were pretty good. Others, not so much.”

  Sally thought about that. “Industrial sales. I would have never thought of selling something like…” She stopped as a thought hit her. “Industrial…selling…” she mused softly.

  “Jenni?”

  But the lights had just come on in Jenni’s head. She quickly grabbed her cellphone. “Excuse me Aunt Sally. I’ll be right back.” She hurried out of the restaurant to make a phone call.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Detective Pierce had only gotten off the boat a few minutes ago. He had stopped in at the lobby to talk for a moment with the manager and was just walking out the door when he saw Jenni hurrying out of the restaurant. He was about to call her when he saw her turn away from him and stop in front of some of the plants. As he walked closer, he saw her put her phone to her ear. Not wanting to interrupt her phone call, he stopped a few feet away and waited.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “Mr. B,” Jenni said excitedly. “I just thought of something.”

  “Jenni, did you get a break in figuring out who killed your grandfather already?”

  “No Mr. B. Nothing like that at all. I had a thought on the Granger case.”

  “Jenni, forget Granger. You need to concentrate on your grandfather. You could go to prison for something you didn’t do!”

  “I know, Mr. B, but I was just talking about something else and this idea about Granger hit me.”

  “Okay, what is it Jenni?”

  “We know that Granger works as an engineer for that Proto Dynamic Industries. And I dug up a piece yesterday about him that had his picture with some other guys there and it said they were one of the teams that built prototypes of things. Mr. B, that hard drive that you said he was missing, I never really bought that it contained all his personal financial stuff at all. It didn’t make sense.”

  “I’m pretty sure nobody bought that either, Jenni,” Bosch replied.

  “But what if that hard drive contained plans for all the prototypes he was building? What if he put all that stuff on that hard drive to take it somewhere and sell it?”

  “You mean industrial espionage?”

  “If that’s what you call it. Is it possible he might have done that?”

  Bosch thought about that for a moment. “Jenni, it’s very possible. And it’s also possible that information like that could be worth a lot of money.”

  “Is it possible that Todd Granger stole that hard drive and then instead of giving it back to his uncle, he tried to sell it instead? Is there some way he could have been killed because of it?”

  Bosch thought about that too for a moment. “It’s a possibility Jenni. But it’s not something I’m sure I can get any real answers about in my position. I’ll call the police and let them know about it. They have more leverage than we do. Not to mention, if necessary, they can get warrants to get further information.”

  “Okay Mr. B. I just wanted to pass that on.”

  “Thanks Jenni. That was good work, and very good thinking. Now get those same good ideas working on who killed your grandfather! That’s what’s important for you now, not Granger.”

  “Yeah Mr. B. Thanks. I’ll call you later.”

  “Good Jenni. Just be careful.”

  “Okay, Mr. B. Bye.”

  “Somebody’s selling company secrets?”

  Jenni jumped and turned around quickly. She didn’t know anyone had been listening to her. Especially not Detective Pierce. “You heard?”

  Pierce shrugged. “It’s not my case. What did your boss say about it?”

  “He’s going to pass it on to the police for them to look into.”

  Pierce nodded, guessing that was the case that Philly had referred to the day before. “Jenni, since you’re here, can I ask you a question?”

  “Isn’t that your job?”

  Pierce smiled. “Have you had any surgeries or any procedures at all to turn you into a woman?”

  Jenni’s jaw dropped. “Don’t I wish! I’d give anything to have any of it. But before I can get any kind of surgery for it, I’ve got to go through years of therapy and hormone treatment, and I haven’t even been able to start any of that yet because I can’t afford it.”

  “So nobody has come forward and offered to help you get any of that?”

  “Like who? Nobody’s talked to me about it. If you know someone interested, please let me know.”

  Pierce shook his head. “Just wondering, that’s all. Thanks.”

  Jenni was about to let him go, when she remembered something. “Detective!”

  Pierce turned around. “Yes?”

  “Do you have a business card or something with your phone number? I think I’d e
specially like an email address for you.”

  “What for?”

  “In case I find out anything about who killed Grandpa.”

  “Jenni, I called your boss yesterday, so I know what you do for a living, and evidently, you’re pretty good at it. But this is my case, and police business.”

  “I’m already making a list of family members for you with as much information about them as I can put together.”

  “Your entire family is staying right here on the island and I got a room list from the manager.”

  “Oh. But does that list say who’s related in what way to who, or where they all live, or what kind of jobs they have, or anything else?”

  “No.”

  “Then wouldn’t my list help? Besides, that’s just my basic plan of people I’ll be looking into for information. I’ll be gathering a lot more information on all of them from there. I was going to send you everything I dig up, just like I do for Mr. B.”

  Pierce thought about that. “That’s my job, or the job of some of the people back in Miami.”

  “But wouldn’t it help if I sent it to you too?”

  Pierce again considered it, then he reached into his back pocket and pulled out his wallet. He took a business card and handed it over to her. “It can’t hurt. Send me everything you get.”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Sally waited a few minutes for Jenni to come back. When she didn’t, she got worried. She hurried out of the restaurant to find her, only to stop short just outside the entrance. She saw Jenni talking with the Police Detective there. She heard just the tail end of what they said to each other. What kind of work did she do? Evidently it involved the police. She saw the detective hand over a business card, then walk away. She hurried back to her table before Jenni could notice that she had seen…and heard.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Wouldn’t it make sense to find out as much as possible about everyone, before she actually tried to talk to any of them? That’s the way Jenni saw it. Never mind that she was really looking for any excuse at all to avoid talking to her family. That never entered her mind…much. But as far as she was concerned, it made total sense.

  She had told Pierce that she had already put together a basic list of who she was going to be looking into, but the truth was, that was only a thought. An idea as to how she should start. For the next few hours, she made a list of every family member, then did her best to go down that list and find every social media site each of them might be involved with. Most of what little she was able to find, was accounts on Facebook. But she knew from experience now that most people dealt with that and nothing else. There were a few people in the family who had other social media accounts as well, but the quick cursory glance she gave when she found the accounts left her with the impression that the Facebook accounts were the ones they used the most. She wasn’t surprised to find that the women in the family used social media more than the men. Many of the men seemed to have no social media presence at all, other than with their wives, or in their wife’s name.

  She didn’t look far at all into any of the media accounts she found, she only gave them a cursory glance. As Shirley had taught her, this part of the process was part of the organization stage. She only had to find those accounts and list them now so she could later go down that list much faster and dig deeper, and compare what she found on one site with what she found on other sites. And of course, once she had the list, it was much easier to go back down that list day after day to see what new things developed.

  After several hours of exhausting herself that way, she put her computer down and went outside just to change the scenery. She was tempted to wander the paths in the middle of the island, but the last time she had done that she had nearly tripped over the dead body of her grandfather, and she was still being blamed for his death. No. Better not wander the paths. Instead, she went around the side of the building and discovered a beautiful sitting area perched on a small cliff overlooking the ocean.

  She sat enjoying the ocean breeze that blew in her face. Much better than the beach! And she was alone. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of one of the hotel’s small sailboats as it came around the side of the island. The sailboat was soon accompanied by another one. She saw her uncle Ryan on the first boat and Ashley on the second.

  “Tack!” Ryan yelled. “Turn that thing at an angle to the wind.”

  Jenni watched as Ashley turned her boat and screamed in delight as it continued to go forward, only at an angle to where she wanted to go.

  “Now tack the other way,” Ryan yelled after a few minutes.

  Ashley turned the boat to zig-zag the other way. Once she got going in the right direction, she noticed Jenni on the shore watching her. “Jenni!” she yelled as she waved. “I’m sailing!”

  Jenni laughed, but what she really felt was jealousy. Ashley was having a great time. Her uncle Ryan was too. Jenni couldn’t even conceive of what people would say to her if she tried to do anything to enjoy herself right alongside everyone else. She simply couldn’t imagine it.

  She watched as the two small sailboats rounded the island until they were out of sight. As jealous as she was, and as depressed over her situation as she was, Jenni had still enjoyed the boats, and especially watching the joy Ashley seemed to feel. Ashley had been the closest one in the family to her. They had been friends…once.

  She tried to turn her head back to the problem of who killed her grandfather, but she was having trouble thinking about it. All she really wanted to think about was being cast out from the rest of the family, and how much she wasn’t wanted.

  She was surprised a little while later to see both boats back again. Evidently Uncle Ryan and Ashley were taking trips around the island.

  “Jenni!”

  She turned quickly and saw Aunt Sally approaching. “Aunt Sally!” she called happily. “You found me.”

  “I thought I saw someone sitting out here,” Sally replied. “I was guessing it might be you.” She took a seat right next to Jenni.

  “I think Uncle Ryan is teaching Ashley how to sail a boat,” Jenni told her as Ashley waved to both of them.

  “How’s she doing?” Sally asked.

  “This is their second time around, so I’m guessing pretty good.”

  The two watched the boats until they were out of sight, but just before Ryan’s boat disappeared, Jenni saw him sticking the middle finger of one of his hands up rudely in their direction.

  Sally sighed. “Come on,” she said. “Show me your room.”

  Jenni led the way back to her room and let her aunt inside. Sally looked around critically. “My sitting room is about twice this size,” she said. “My bedroom, without the bathroom, is bigger than this. Are you sure you won’t move in with me and keep me company?”

  Jenni hugged her. “I appreciate it Aunt Sally. I really do. But I think it’s better if I stay right here.”

  “I don’t know why. Besides, I could really use the moral support. I can’t believe how badly everyone seems to have turned against me. They weren’t nearly this bad when we first arrived.”

  “I didn’t kill him Aunt Sally. I promise.”

  “I’m sure you didn’t Jenni. But I sure would like to know who did.”

  “Me too!” Jenni sighed.

  “Come on,” Sally said bravely. “Let’s go get some lunch.”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “The waitress is different,” Jenni noted as she and Sally took a table by themselves in the mostly empty restaurant.

  “She is?” Sally asked as she turned to see.

  “I thought nobody was supposed to leave the island.”

  “Maybe that doesn’t apply to the hotel workers.”

  “That doesn’t make sense. One of them could have killed Grandpa too.”

  “Why would they?”

  “I don’t know. But it’s possible.”

  “I guess it is,” Sally agreed.

  “I no
ticed a few days ago that Grandpa…”

  The waitress interrupted what she was saying as she brought menus and took their drink orders.

  “What were you saying about Grandpa?” Sally asked once the waitress was gone.

  “Oh. The first full day we were here, I saw Grandpa out on one of the paths with one of the girls from the hotel.”

  “So?”

  “So…he seemed…well…he had his arm around her and…um…. Aunt Sally, he kissed her.”

  Sally looked at her skeptically, but replied, “I’m afraid that Dad was always something of a letch.”

  “He was?”

  Sally rolled her eyes. “I shouldn’t be telling you this, but before Grandma won that money, there were several times when she was talking about divorcing him. Including right before she won the money.”

  “She was?”

  Sally shrugged. “Daddy travelled a lot.”

  “So Grandpa…hmm!” she mused. “No wonder he seemed so friendly with her that night. I guess he never did change his ways.”

  “I think he did change,” Sally told her. “Grandma stopped talking about divorce after he quit working, and they’re still together.”

  “Or they were, until he was killed,” Jenni added.

  “Yeah. Until then. Fifty-six years.”

  “Wow! That’s a long time.”

  “Yeah. Pretty good. But they should have had a lot longer!”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  After lunch, Jenni agreed to go back to Sally’s suite with her. “See,” Sally said, “there’s more than enough room in here for both of us. And if you’re worried about sleeping in the bed with me, then the couch pulls out into a bed. Jenni, there’s more than enough room here for both of us.”

  “I appreciate it, Aunt Sally,” Jenni replied, “but I still think I’m better off by myself.” Once again, she went over and hugged her aunt. “It’s just…better this way.”

  “You’re sure, Jenni?”

  “I’m sure. Like it or not, I think I need to stay by myself.”