She watched Vanessa park her car in front of the silver metal warehouse building, and her heart pounded when she saw a man emerge from the shop’s office door. She immediately recognized his face from the criminal record she had read with Sam.
It was John Rowe.
Vanessa got out of her car and the two began talking. Vanessa was crying and John offered a consoling hug. They spoke some more and John reached up and wiped a tear from her face.
Carla’s stomach turned. She felt dizzy. She tried to think of a million excuses that would give her sister the benefit of the doubt.
John nodded in agreement to something and the two hugged once more before Vanessa got back in her car and drove away. A stunned Carla started to follow and almost pulled out right in front of passing traffic. She hit the brakes hard and let the car pass. It was just enough time for Vanessa to disappear from sight.
Carla groaned in frustration and sat back to figure out her next move. Looking back at the garage, she saw another car pull into the parking lot. And she gasped when she recognized the woman who stepped out of it.
48
It was Gina. The nurse who had told Carla about Jane’s pregnancy.
What a small world, thought Carla. Then again, there probably aren’t too many auto mechanics on the island. Plus, if Gina was Jane’s best friend, she surely knew John.
Gina was wearing her nurse scrubs and was all smiles as she almost skipped up to John, who was still standing in the parking lot. She said something to him and he nodded, grinning from ear to ear, watching as Gina walked past him and inside the office door. John looked around and then followed, flipping the OPEN sign over so it read CLOSED.
Carla could feel her curiosity getting the best of her. She quickly rationalized Gina’s presence and even the fact that they went into his shop and locked the door. After all, they were both grieving over the loss of Jane. Although, from both of their smiles, neither seemed particularly grief-stricken. Before she even really thought about it, Carla found herself getting out of the truck to get a better look.
Luckily, there were no windows on the front of the shop, so Carla didn’t have to worry about being seen as she walked up the road. Still, she walked lightly and weaved behind bushes and cars. Just to be safe. She quietly snuck around to the side of the shop in hopes of finding a window or an open door, and was relieved to see one about halfway down the building.
She crouched below the window and lifted her head slowly to look inside. The room was dimly lit, except for several shop lights over three cars in various states of disrepair. Carla craned her neck to see if she could see the office, but rows of auto parts and tools were blocking her view.
Then she heard a woman laughing and saw Gina walk out of the office towards one car. It was a red sports car similar to the Mustang Sam had back in Texas. Gina leaned on the trunk of the car and looked toward the office, motioning for John to join her.
John walked over and stood in front of her as the two talked and laughed. Then Gina put her hands around John’s neck and pulled him toward her. He pressed against her as the two locked in a passionate kiss.
Carla’s jaw hit the floor. These two were clearly more than friends, and they were clearly not grieving. She watched a second longer, just long enough to see Gina start kissing down John’s chest until she dropped to her knees in front of him.
49
Sam walked out on the restaurant’s second floor deck, which looked out over Oak Bluffs Harbor. It was one of a string of restaurants along the harbor that Sam imagined was packed with people in the busy summer months. But right now, there were only a handful of people, including Carla, who was waiting at the bar. She had called him earlier and asked if he could return to the island as soon as possible. Sensing the urgency in her voice, he and Jude returned as quickly as they could and Jude had dropped Sam off.
He gave her a kiss and then motioned to the bartender to order a drink. Carla motioned for him to follow her to a table.
“What’s going on that you couldn’t tell me on the phone?” Sam asked.
Carla looked around to make sure no one was listening.
“I knew Jude or the police were going to be around you,” Carla said. “I wanted to make sure this was just between you and me.”
She then proceeded to tell Sam about what she had seen at John’s Auto Shop. Sam took a second putting together all the pieces.
“Gina. That’s the nurse that was Jane’s best friend?” he asked.
Carla nodded.
“The one that told me about Jane’s pregnancy,” Carla said.
Talking excitedly but as quietly as possible, Carla told Sam her theory that John and Gina were having an affair. Maybe John was planning on breaking up with Jane. But then Jane got pregnant, which obviously complicated things. So John killed her to solve the problem.
“But then Norm walked in and caught him in the act,” Sam said, picking up on the theory.
“That’s why he was hiding,” Carla said. “John was probably looking for him, and he finally caught up with him at the mobile home. He must have followed you.”
The possibility that he had led a killer to Norm turned Sam’s stomach, but it also strengthened his resolve to make sure the bastard didn’t get away with it. He mulled the theory over in his head.
“What about your sister?” Sam asked. “You said she had disappeared.”
“She went to the beach,” Carla said.
“And the knife under her mattress? Here’s a theory,” Sam offered. “Your sister thought Norm and Jane were having an affair. She confronted Jane and things got out of hand. And in a fit of rage, she killed Jane. Unfortunately, Norm saw it. They were already having problems. He had abandoned her, so there was no love lost between them. She knew what she had to do to cover up her crime. But that was something she couldn’t do on her own. She’s not cold-blooded. So she hired John to do it.”
Carla shook her head. “Why would she kill the man that she had just killed someone else over?”
Sam shrugged. “She panicked?” he asked. “People do some pretty messed up shit to cover up a crime of passion. Things they wouldn’t normally do.”
“Out of those two theories, which do you think is the most plausible?” Carla asked.
Sam thought about it.
“I don’t know,” he finally said. “But it doesn’t really matter. Both roads lead to John Rowe.”
He stood up.
“It’s at least enough to bring to Turner,” he said.
Sam could see Carla’s surprise that he wanted to involve the detective.
“It’s not like I’m going to make a citizen’s arrest based on theory,” he explained. “I’ve gotta go by the books at this point.”
Carla also remembered the conversation Sam had with his boss.
“Sam, they’ve already complained about you once,” she said. “If you involve yourself again, you’re going to be putting your job at risk. Let me talk to Turner.”
Sam grinned.
“And miss all the fun?” he teased. “Not on your life.”
She started to protest, but Sam stopped her.
“I need to back off and let him take it from here,” Sam said.
“And if he doesn’t?” Carla asked.
Sam grinned.
“Then we fall to Plan B,” he said, kissing Carla on the forehead. “But I’ve got to give Turner first shot at it.”
“And I need to talk to my sister,” Carla said.
50
Vanessa sat on the couch, sipping hot lavender tea from a mug. After her manic round of errands, she came home and realized she couldn’t run from her reality any longer. Her world was different now. It was a hard adjustment to make. Vanessa had gotten used to feeling a sense of hope that he would return at any moment. That hope still lingered in her mind, and she had to keep reminding herself that hope was gone. Norm was never coming back.
Carla curled up next to her on the couch, sipping her own tea. She looked at
her sister, wondering what thoughts were going through her head. She had always felt she knew her sister and now she felt like the woman sitting at the other end of the couch was a complete stranger.
“So what’d you do today?” Carla finally asked.
Vanessa was so deep in thought, it took a while for the words to pull her into reality.
“I had to go to the funeral home, pick up some supplies for the farm, get gas,” she said. “Honestly, anything I could think of to stay occupied.”
No mention of John’s Auto Shop, Carla noted.
She decided she just needed to rip the Band-aid off and go for it.
“Nessie, I need to ask you something and I don’t want you to get mad at me,” she said.
A look of confusion and concern swept over Vanessa’s face as she turned toward her sister. Carla took a deep breath and spun out the lie she had created to get to the truth.
“I was cleaning yesterday, and I put some clean clothes in your room,” she said, shifting in her seat. “And I made your bed for you.”
Carla paused to see if her sister would react, but her sister just seemed more confused.
“There was something sticking out from under the mattress,” she continued. “I couldn’t help but check to see what it was.”
Vanessa took another sip from her tea, seemingly unvexed by the story.
“Nessie, it was a knife,” Carla finally said.
The words landed between them like a heavy accusation. Vanessa smiled sadly.
“Norm put that there,” she said softly. “He said I needed some kind of self-defense when he was off on fishing trips. He wanted to give me a gun, but I refused. I had completely forgotten that knife was there.”
Her words were soft and melancholy, not nervous at all. Normally, Carla would believe her. But now she didn’t know what to believe anymore. But that was just one of her questions.
“There’s something else I was wondering about,” Carla said. “When you went to the beach last night, you were gone a really long time.”
Vanessa nodded. “I’ve been thinking about that.”
She sat her mug of tea down.
“I think I somehow knew,” she said. “I mean, I was sound asleep and then I woke up feeling overwhelmed with sadness and feelings I didn’t understand. I had to get some air. And then, for some weird reason, I felt this urge to go to the beach.
“You know, that’s the beach where Norm and I went on our first date,” she continued. “It’s where we went to celebrate getting this house. It was our place, I guess. And I sat there, watching the waves, and suddenly felt so, so sad. So empty. For no reason. I can’t explain it.”
She leaned forward and grabbed her sister’s hands.
“And I know this sounds stupid, but then I felt this lightness. Just out of the blue. It was just for a few seconds, but it literally took my breath away.”
Vanessa’s eyes had welled up with tears.
“I think it was Norm,” she said. “I mean, that’s around the time when he must have…I think he was saying goodbye.”
She smiled weakly, then crumbled under her sadness. Carla put her tea down and pulled her grieving sister to her as she sobbed uncontrollably into her shoulder. Carla felt horrible for Vanessa and also incredibly guilty for ever even entertaining the thought that she could be a killer.
Carla held her sister and comforted her for over a half hour, never saying a word. Just letting her grieve. Letting her know she was there for her. Vanessa’s sobs slowly lightened, and she finally pulled away, wiping away all the tears. She was just about to say something when they were both startled by a loud knock at the door.
51
Detective Turner tapped on the passenger window of Norm’s work truck. Sam had parked it down the road from John’s Auto Shop in the same spot where Carla had parked earlier. He nodded at Turner as he opened the passenger door. The detective climbed inside, immediately flinching at the fish smell.
“Holy shit,” Turner said. “At least roll the windows down, man.”
“You get used to it after a while,” Sam said, complying to Turner’s request and rolling down the windows.
“You know, that’s not a good thing,” Turner said. “So what is this all about?”
“Thanks for coming,” Sam said.
“Yeah, well, I only did it because I felt guilty about my chief calling your boss,” Turner said. “I didn’t mean for him to do that.”
Sam shrugged it off.
“No big deal,” he said. “I had it coming.”
He pointed up toward John’s shop and was about to tell his theory, but Turner interrupted.
“No, it is a big deal,” he said. “I’ve been thinking and I owe you an apology.”
“Great. Fine. Apology accepted,” Sam said impatiently.
“You’ve been trying to help and I’ve been an asshole,” Turner said.
“I overstepped my bounds,” Sam said, wanting to get to the task at hand. “But it was nothing personal. Just a bad habit of mine. Anyway…”
“I’m sorry if it got you in trouble,” Turner said.
Sam sighed, giving into Turner’s need to hash this out right now.
“I’m always in trouble with that asshole,” Sam said. “And after the whole thing with Norm, I definitely had it coming.”
“True,” Turner said. “But you’ve been trying to help and I’ve been treating you like an annoyance instead of an ally. This is a big case, and it’s got me a little stressed out.”
“Speaking of the case,” Sam said, steering the conversation back to why he had asked Turner to meet him.
“I’m saying that I could use your help,” Turner said, impatient with Sam’s seeming denseness.
“That’s great and we’ll all sing Kumbaya around a campfire later,” Sam said. “But right now I need you to listen.”
Sam told Turner about how Carla accidentally caught John and Gina together at his auto shop.
“Gina?” Turner said, clearly surprised. “The nurse?”
Sam nodded and shared his theory about John wanting to get rid of Jane, especially with her now being pregnant.
“Jane was pregnant?” Turner yelled. “Hang on. How do you know this and I don’t?”
“Gina told Carla,” Sam said. “I figured you knew by now from the autopsy.”
Turner shook his head, clearly angry.
“I haven’t heard jack shit from those assholes,” he said.
He pushed his anger down and concentrated on Sam’s theory, finally shaking his head.
“I’ve known John my entire life,” he said. “I know his faults–and he’s got a lot of them, to be sure. But he’s not a murderer. I know this for a fact.”
Sam started to protest, but Turner interrupted him.
“John was at my house on the night Norm was murdered,” he said. “He had come over earlier and had had a lot to drink. Pretty upset about the whole Jane thing.”
Not too upset to start banging her best friend, Sam thought.
“I didn’t want him driving drunk, so I let him sleep it off,” Turner continued. “When I got the call about the murder, he was still sleeping in the guest room. He’d been there all night.”
Sam was shocked. Talk about your perfect alibi.
“Still, I would like to talk to him,” Turner said, stepping out of the truck. “This whole thing with Gina raises some flags for sure.”
As he walked toward the auto shop, he turned and looked back at a stunned Sam.
“You coming or not?” Turner asked.
The two men walked up the hill to the auto shop. Sam’s mind was spinning as he tried to find any shrapnel left after Turner had blown up his theory. When they reached the office door, Turner knocked. When there was no answer, he tried to open it, but the door was locked. The two men walked to the garage entrance as well, but, even though it was the middle of the day, everything seemed locked up.
“Where the hell is he?” Turner asked.
�
�Hey, Turner,” Sam said. “How much do you know about Gina Moffet?”
52
As Vanessa scurried to her bedroom to clean up her tear-stained face, Carla got up to answer the knock. When she opened the door, her stomach did a flip.
It was John Rowe.
He seemed as confused to see Carla standing there as she did to see him.
“Is, uh, Vanessa here?” he stammered.
“She’s busy,” Carla answered, blocking the doorway so it was clear she had no intention of letting John in.
Suddenly, a realization hit John, and he smiled.
“You’re the sister,” he said. “I’m John…”
“I know who you are,” Carla interrupted. “Like I said, my sister’s busy.”
“If you wouldn’t mind telling her I’m here,” he said gently. “She’s expecting me.”
Expecting him? Carla thought. Not likely.
“John?” Vanessa said from behind Carla.
Carla turned as Vanessa walked toward them. Even though she had tried to clean up, her eyes were still puffy. She smiled at John and waved for him to come inside.
“Come in,” she said.
A confused Carla stepped to the side, glaring at John as he walked past her. John smiled weakly and offered a slight nod, as if to reassure her he meant no harm. Carla couldn’t help but notice the sadness in his eyes. Not that he was mourning Jane’s death. He clearly seemed to have moved on with that. It was the permanent sadness of a person who had lost in life too many times.
“I’m sorry to barge in,” he said. “I forgot your sister was here.”
He extended his hand to Carla.
“I’m John.”
Carla shook his hand and introduced herself.
“Do you want some tea?” Vanessa asked. “A beer?”
John shook his head.
Dark Harbor Page 12
