Family Can Be Murder

by Karen Singer

  “It would be better if she was dead! Soon! What are your plans?”

  “We’ll try again later.”

  “Good. This is important. Much is at stake here!”

  “Don’t worry. It’s an island. And not much of one at that. We’ll try again later.”

  “Good!”

  “While we were there though…”

  “Yes?”

  “We took something from her room.”

  “What?”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  The daytime manager was usually among the first employees to reach the dock every morning, waiting to catch the boat that departed at six a.m. every day. The boat started it’s runs at six o’clock so the kitchen staff could be prepared for breakfast in the restaurant. He found it strange to find that the boat wasn’t there. Within minutes of his arrival, several other cars arrived bringing the staff that needed to be in the kitchen – soon!

  “Where’s the boat?” one of them asked.

  The manager shook his head. “I guess at the island. Maybe the police came early or something.” He pulled out his cellphone and called the front desk where the night manager should have been on duty. Getting no answer, he called the night manager’s personal cellphone. Again, no answer. He looked around at the people who were all waiting for the boat. They were all looking to him to tell them what to do.

  He called the direct line into the kitchen where people usually called if they ordered room service. Finally, he got someone…someone who was getting angry because the boat hadn’t come yet with the next shift of people. “You mean the boat’s not there?” he asked. He hung up to wait while the person he had talked with ran down to the dock to check. A few minutes later his phone rang. No boat. Where was it?

  He asked the person to run to the front desk and try to find the manager. Again, he waited for a call. This time when his cellphone rang, he listened for only a second before his blood ran cold!

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Despite not getting much sleep, Pierce was up early and was on his way to the island to get an early start on his work to finish up the last few details for Larry Finch’s murder. When his cellphone rang, he was mostly surprised that someone should call him so early. He didn’t think any more about how early it was, when his dispatcher told him about the new murder at the hotel. No police or anyone else had been out there yet. The shuttle boat was missing and the local police had just called their marine units in and were waiting for them to get into work. Pierce told the dispatch officer to please relay to everyone that nobody was to go out to the island until he got there. He stepped on the gas and soon had his car rocketing over the straight inter-island causeway at over a hundred miles per hour.

  Another murder. His brain was already trying to figure out what it had to do with the murder of Larry Finch. That case was closed now, or all but. Only some of the final details and paperwork needed to be finished. Both Larry’s wife and the granddaughter, Ashley, had admitted what they had done. And now there was a new murder. What was going on out there?

  He was travelling so fast that when he arrived at the parking lot for the boat pavilion, he had to step hard on his brakes and his car slid to a stop. A small police boat was tied up at the dock instead of the usual one. There was also quite a crowd of people waiting, including half a dozen members of the local police. He jumped out of his car and ran to the pavilion. He recognized the hotel manager. “What happened?” he asked before he even got there.

  “We don’t know where the boat is,” the manager replied. “When I called the hotel, I couldn’t reach the night manager, so I had to deal with someone from the kitchen. She said the boat wasn’t at the dock. Then I had her look for the manager and she found his body. I called the police. Their boat got here a little while ago, but they said we aren’t allowed to go out there yet. I’ve got guests on that island that need to be looked after.”

  “And it sounds like I’ve got another dead body to look into.”

  An officer from the local police hurried up to him. “Detective Pierce?” he asked.

  Pierce pulled his badge to show him.

  “Whenever you’re ready.”

  “Can we take any of the staff so they can tend to the guests?”

  “Only a few. No more than five or six. We don’t have room.”

  “Good enough,” Pierce replied. He turned to the manager. “Pick five, including yourself, and let’s go. You’ll have to find another boat for the rest of them.” He let the police officer lead him toward the boat.

  The police boat was faster than the shuttle boat, but not by much since they weren’t pushing to go fast. Halfway there, Pierce noticed the officer in charge of the boat getting a call. The officer hurried over to him. “We found the other boat drifting with the current. The captain’s dead. Someone slit his throat.”

  Now Pierce had another murder to deal with. And it sounded like someone was awfully desperate about something. “Can you have it towed to the dock where our crime lab people can go through it?”

  “Sure thing,” the officer replied before he turned back to his phone.

  Pierce pulled out his own cellphone again and called his dispatcher. “Better tell the crime lab boys we’ve now got two homicides for them to look at today. One of the police boats is bringing in another one for them.”

  The moment the boat touched the dock, Pierce was off it and running. The manager was right behind him. “Where was the body found?”

  “She said in the lobby!”

  “Damn!” Pierce swore. “I hope nobody touched it.” He ran into the lobby and found…nothing. “Where?” he asked the manager as he too ran in.

  “I don’t know.”

  They both looked around, but it took only a few moments before the manger exclaimed, “Oh my God!”

  Pierce saw him looking behind the counter. He pushed the manager out of the way and saw the body. “Close and lock the door. Nobody comes in except you!”

  He knelt down over the dead body. He noted the knife wound to the heart. His experience told him it was quick and professional. The poor man never stood a chance. He stood up and glanced around. He saw blood spatter on the counter. He guessed whoever had stabbed him had done it across the counter somehow, and then simply let the body drop behind where it would be out of sight. Instead of searching the victim for a wallet, he asked the manager, “What was his name?”

  Once the manager had told him everything he was able, Pierce did a careful walk around of the crime scene. He saw nothing other than the blood spatter and the dead body that looked out of place. He was guessing the killers had murdered the poor man and then left again in the boat, killing the boat captain in the process. So why kill the night manager? And what the hell did it have to do with the Finches?

  His eyes cast around the room again. “Do you have any security cameras here?”

  “Sure, but only one,” the manager replied.

  “Where is it?”

  The manager stepped over the dead body behind the counter and pointed toward a round black part of a wall sculpture. “The hotel owners didn’t want the guests to feel like they were being spied on, so it’s hidden in the sculpture.”

  “Is it working?”

  “I have no idea. I’ve never needed to know, and it’s not my responsibility. We’ve never really needed it before.”

  “Well I need it now. Where can I find those recordings?”

  “I think there’s a computer in the back office somewhere for it, but I’m really not sure.”

  “Who would know?”

  “We have a guy who comes out when we need him. He helps with the hotel wi-fi system too.”

  “Call him! Get him out here fast!” He went back to trying to piece together what he could…which was almost nothing. Both the night manager, and the boat captain had been murdered. Why? What were they after? Or…who? The thought that there could be a third murder on the island worried him more than anything else.

 
He was still contemplating it all when he saw a crowd of people walking past the lobby. He checked his watch and guessed it was the rest of the people arriving for their day’s work. He wondered if they had found another boat. Not knowing where to look next on the island, he decided to hitch a ride back with the new boat and wait for the police to bring in the missing one. Placing the manager outside the lobby with instructions to keep everyone out, he hurried back down to the dock.

  A few minutes later, he and some of the remaining night shift people were in a different boat on their way back to the parking lot. He questioned each of the night shift staff on the boat, but other than the woman who had initially found the body, none of them knew anything else. Dead end!

  It was only a short wait until a second police boat towed the missing shuttle boat up to the dock. Once it was tied off, Pierce was quick to get on it. No blood spatter except what had leaked out of the victim’s neck when he had fallen into the boat. Pierce searched the entire dock but saw nothing else to indicate where the boat captain had been killed. He realized he should have taken a closer look at the dock on the island. A few minutes later, he was being ferried back to the island again.

  The blood spatter on the island dock wasn’t easy to find. As far as Pierce could tell, there was almost none at all. He’d let the crime lab guys have a closer look later. Pondering what the heck was going on, he wandered back toward the hotel lobby where he let the manager lead him carefully around the room once again, looking for any other possible clues he might have missed earlier.

  Halfway through the room, the door burst open and one of the maids rushed into the lobby. “Police!” she yelled desperately. “Police!”

  “What is it?” Pierce asked as he hurried over, now more worried than ever that someone else had been murdered.

  “I was out doing one of the rooms, but when I got there, the room was all messed up like you wouldn’t believe!” the maid told him desperately.

  “Did you see the body?” Pierce asked, fully suspecting yet another murder now…probably the real reason why the captain and the night manager had been murdered.

  “No. I didn’t even go in. I came straight back here!”

  “Good. What room?”

  “D-1.”

  “D… Shit!” Pierce exclaimed as he pushed his way past her. “That’s Jenni’s room!”

  He saw several different family members coming down the path as he ran. “Move! Out of my way!” he shouted each time, making sure no one would slow him down. He was causing quite a commotion, but he didn’t care.

  He got to the building and looked around. Jenni’s room was the only one in that building that was occupied. The big window was broken. He found the door ajar, only held open because the maid had thrown a towel on the floor to keep it from closing tightly. He mentally thanked her for that as he opened the door and surveyed the damage inside. The room was a mess. An understatement really. Everything was toppled over onto the floor. Much of the furniture appeared to be broken. From where he stood, it looked like someone had even taken a knife and sliced through the mattress after they had pulled it off the bed frame.

  With his heart beating heavily, he cautiously entered, his eyes searching desperately for what he knew he had to find there. Except he soon realized there was no dead body in the room. He even lifted the mattresses to make sure she wasn’t hidden underneath. No dead body. No Jenni. So where was she?

  There were only a few possible conclusions that came to mind. They had killed her and dumped her body somewhere else. Jenni hadn’t stayed in her room at all that night, which after talking with her a few times, he somehow doubted. Or…she had been kidnapped. Why?

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  The loud desperate pounding on her door brought Sally out of a deep sleep. When the pounding came a second time, she forced herself out of bed. “If that’s drunken Andy again, I’ll kill him!” she swore as she remembered the way Andy had woken her up in the middle of the night to yell all kinds of trash at her. She had wound up slamming the door in his face. She threw a light silky robe over her and tied it. The pounding came again.

  “Police! Mrs. Finch! Are you in there?”

  “What the hell?” Sally opened the door to find Detective Pierce there.

  “Please tell me that you know where Jenni is,” Pierce said before Sally could say anything.

  “Of course I know,” Sally replied. “She’s…”

  “She’s not in her room!”

  “No. She’s here. She’s been here all night.”

  Pierce almost dropped with relief. “Thank God!” Not giving Sally a chance, he literally pushed his way past her. “Jenni! Where are you?”

  “She’s in the bedroom. We were sleeping. What’s going on?”

  Pierce hurried to the bedroom. “Jenni!”

  Jenni raised herself up from the other side of the big bed. “What have I done now…that I didn’t do?” she asked.

  Pierce looked at the “woman” whose head was the only part of her body he could see. “Are you alright?” he asked.

  “Uh…yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “When was the last time you were in your room. Your own room!”

  Jenni now realized that something serious was going on. She pulled herself up to a sitting position, pulling the sheets up with her to cover her embarrassing body. “Why?”

  “When was the last time you were there?” Pierce insisted.

  “Last night…sometime after we finished our dinner here,” Jenni replied.

  “How long after? What time?”

  “Uh…I guess somewhere around eight o’clock or so. I only went back there for a minute to grab some of my things for tonight.”

  “I insisted that she stay here last night,” Sally explained.

  “Why?” Pierce asked immediately.

  Sally was put off by the question. “Because I wanted her to. She’s all alone out there and I’ve got more than enough room here. Besides, I needed the company after…last night.” She didn’t bother telling them that both she and Jenni had held each other last night and cried. She for her mother, and Jenni, for some unknown reason, had been worried about how Ashley was doing in jail.

  “What’s the problem?” Jenni asked.

  “Stay here. Both of you!” Pierce told them. “Don’t leave this room!” He turned directly to Jenni. “And whatever you do, don’t under any circumstances go anywhere near your own room!”

  “Are we under arrest now too?” Sally asked.

  “No. It’s for your protection. Don’t answer the door for anyone – including the rest of your family. Is that clear?”

  “Why not?” Sally demanded.

  “Just stay here and don’t leave. Either of you!” With that, Pierce headed out, closing the door behind him. He was very relieved that Jenni was alright. Now the only problem was, who else might have been hurt…or killed?

  From Sally’s room, he started knocking on every door where he knew the family was staying. One by one, he did his best to account for everyone he could find. Some of them though, weren’t in their rooms. Those were the times he panicked. Fortunately, all of them had either gone down to the beach already, or to the restaurant. He sent them all back to their rooms with orders to wait there until someone called with more information. The only problem was, he didn’t have any information yet. He didn’t even know what questions to ask yet, or who to ask those questions to.

  Suddenly his little murder case on the island, that he had thought had been pretty much closed and finished last night, was wide open again. Because clearly, there was more going on than he thought.

  By the time he got back to the hotel lobby, he found a man there he had never seen before. The guy had a logo on his shirt that said, “Ray’s Island IT.”

  “You need to know about the security camera?” the guy asked.

  “Are you Ray?” Pierce asked instead, looking at the name on the guy’s shirt.

  “Yup! That’s me. What can I do fo
r you?”

  “Do you know if there’s a security recording of what happened here last night?”

  “Should be,” Ray replied. “The system’s on a loop. It makes a series of fifteen-minute recordings, and then overwrites them every twenty-four hours.”

  “How many cameras are on the island?”

  “Only two. One here, and one hidden down inside the roof of the bar.”

  “And you said they overwrite the recordings every day?”

  “There’s never been a need to keep them any longer. In the years since I installed the system, I don’t think anybody has ever even asked about it.”

  “Stop that system! I don’t want it to erase anything. I need to see what happened in here last night.”

  Ray led the way toward a back room, and then into a small closet inside that office. “This is it,” he said as he showed Pierce the small computer set up in there.

  “I need to see whatever you’ve got from last night.” He had to wait while Ray hooked up a keyboard, a mouse, and even a small monitor to the computer. Finally, he started to log into it.

  “You said you wanted the recordings stopped?” Ray asked.

  “Unless they won’t delete any of the files I want.”

  Ray shut down the recordings. “I just turned them all off.”

  “Can you show me some of what’s in there?”

  Ray clicked around inside the program with his mouse. “Found them,” he said as he studied the time each recording had been made. “What time are you looking for?”

  “I don’t know yet. Start with nine o’clock and let’s see.”

  The recordings weren’t great, but they were okay. It took no time before Pierce figured out they would have to view a lot of recordings before he found what he was looking for. “Keep going through them. Find me one that shows something,” he told Ray. He left him there to go out front where he found two of the men from the Miami crime lab now working with the body on the lobby.

  He watched them for a few minutes.

  “Detective?”

  Pierce turned to see Ray calling him. “Find something?”