“You didn’t like her?” Torie asked.
Torie’s tone was prickly, and Joe put a calming hand on her forearm. “It’s important. She was Torie’s best friend, and we believe she didn’t kill herself.” Torie shot him a glance with a question in her eyes, and he gave her a quick nod.
“She was a troublemaker, always questioning how things were done at the resort and trying to get Bella to break up with Jason. She had Bella buy her antidepressants on the street. I was with Bella when she bought them. I didn’t like her influence. Bella and I were the best of friends until Lisbeth came along.”
Amelia glared at Torie. “You should evaluate your choice of friends. It didn’t surprise me to learn she’d killed herself. She was always threatening to do it, and it kept Bella on edge every minute. She’d cancel out on dinners we’d planned because she was afraid of what she’d find when she got back to the cottage.”
Torie raised her chin and stared Amelia down. “I think Bella was lying to you. Lisbeth and I were friends for twenty years. I would have known if she was suicidal. She was the most cheerful, optimistic person I have ever known. And I heard from another source just this morning that Bella planted those pills. Lisbeth had never used them.”
Amelia blinked and braced her hands on her hips. “So Bella lied to me? That’s hard to hear. I will say that Lisbeth seemed to want Bella all to herself. At least according to Bella.”
“Then you’re making statements based on hearsay,” Joe said.
Amelia put an order pad on the counter with more force than necessary. “I’ll admit that much, but I knew Bella very well.”
“Did she ever talk to you about helping with some kind of plan?” Joe asked.
“What kind of plan?”
“We don’t know. According to the other source, Bella admitted she planted the pills to save some kind of plan. We have no other information.”
“Sketchy. I have no idea.”
Torie touched a suncatcher with one finger. “Did Bella tell you I wanted to talk to her about her claim Lisbeth was suicidal? She seemed very upset, almost scared, when I first asked to talk to her.”
“No, she didn’t. When was this?”
“The morning of the day she died. Right after I heard about her claims of Lisbeth’s mental state. I didn’t believe it then, and I don’t believe it now. There had to be some reason she would lie about it. Maybe it had something to do with the argument with the guy on the phone.” Torie glanced at Joe and told him about the phone call.
“What exactly did you hear Bella say?” he asked.
“Just that she was sorry, and he was overreacting,” Amelia said.
“The state police probably know who she was talking to. I’m sure they took her phone,” he said.
“I told them about the argument as soon as I heard she’d been murdered. I knew they’d want to talk to me anyway since I saw her just before her death.”
Torie turned from her perusal of a row of glass paperweights. “Any idea why she would have been in my hotel room? I thought maybe she wanted to talk to me in private about Lisbeth.”
“She didn’t mention you at all so I don’t know.” Amelia went to the door and threw the dead bolt, then turned on the glass Open sign in the window. “I see some customers coming this way, so that’s all the time I can spare. And I don’t know anything more anyway.”
At her terse voice, Joe took Torie’s elbow and moved toward the door into the workroom. “We’ll get out of your hair. Thanks for your time, Amelia. Appreciate it.”
Bella’s death was seeming even more strange. And who was right about Lisbeth—Bella or Torie?
Chapter 27
“It’s Craig.” Hailey handed Joe’s phone back when it rang as they left the glass shop.
Torie waited with Hailey and shamelessly listened in while Joe talked to the state trooper.
Joe ended the call and handed the phone back to Hailey. “Craig wants to meet up at the marina.”
Torie nodded and reversed direction. The marina was in the other direction, and she could already smell the water and hear the gulls.
It was going to be a beautiful day with lower than usual humidity. Puffy white clouds drifted across the blue sky, and the scent of flowers drifted their way along the walk to the wharf. She spotted the state trooper seated on a bench outside the boat excursions office.
Craig waved when he saw them and rose. “So you’re a Bergstrom.”
She bit her lip. “So you heard. I’m sorry, but I wanted to investigate without anyone knowing who I was.”
Hailey moved to the side of the wharf to dangle her feet over with her dad’s phone in her hand, and the adults moved away to talk.
“I’m the police, Torie. It was safe to tell me.”
“I thought about it, but once one person knows, it gets around. An innocent remark here or there, and the whole island knows.”
“I’m not a squealer.”
“I didn’t think you were. Look, I said I’m sorry.”
He gave an exasperated sigh. “Just don’t lie to me again. I won’t let it go so easily next time.”
She nodded and studied the trooper’s face. Why had he wanted to see them?
He answered the question without being asked. “So, you wondered about the bottle of antidepressants. The fingerprinting came back, and there are unknown fingerprints on the bottle. None of them are Lisbeth’s.”
“Bella?” Torie asked.
He lifted a brow. “Why would you think it was Bella?”
“Amelia claims Bella got the drugs for her on the street. And I have another source who claims Bella planted them.” She told him about her conversation with Felicia.
“But the prints don’t belong to Bella. We don’t know whose they are.”
“Maybe Bella picked up the bag with the bottle in it and never handled it,” Joe put in.
“How will you find out whose prints those are?” Torie asked.
“We’re running them through a database, but if the person has never committed a crime, we might not discover anything.”
“Could you talk to known drug dealers and see if anyone sold the drugs to Bella?” Joe asked. “I’m sure you’ve got some informants out on the street. And what about checking her phone? We heard she was arguing with someone too.”
“We have some informants, and we’re looking, but it’s a long shot,” Craig said. “I’ll request a list of her calls too.”
“Any surprises on Lisbeth’s autopsy?” Joe asked. “I know the preliminary seemed to indicate drowning, but is there anything new?”
“Actually, yes,” Craig said. “There was both seawater and fresh water in her lungs. We’re not sure what to make of that, but it does look like she might have been drowned in fresh water and put in the ocean.”
Torie frowned. “So she could have been partially drowned, then thrown in the ocean?”
“It’s possible she was assumed dead before she was put into the ocean.”
“So the state police is leaning toward possible murder?” Joe asked.
Craig shrugged. “It’s raised the likelihood.”
A figure came their way, and Torie recognized Amelia’s son, Noah, dressed in shorts and a tee. She sent an automatic smile his way, and he stopped beside them.
He nodded at the state trooper. “Hey, Craig. If I’d thought I’d run into you today, I would have brought the cap you left at my place last night.”
“I’ll get it one of these days.” Craig gestured toward Torie and Joe. “You guys know Noah? He’s Amelia’s son and is here for a month or so.”
“We met him at Amelia’s,” Torie said. “Good to see you again, Noah.”
Noah glanced toward The Wharf restaurant. “Mom will have my hide if I keep her waiting to eat. Nice running into you.”
Once Noah was out of earshot, Craig turned back to Torie. “I do have something else to talk about. Lisbeth had no family, and after consulting her will, I’ve been authorized to turn over her pers
onal effects to you.”
Torie straightened and inhaled. “Personal effects? What do you have that belonged to her?”
She longed to touch anything that belonged to Lisbeth, to remember her friend and all the time they’d shared.
“It’s everything the hotel turned over that was in her cottage as well as her car. If you want to follow me to the impound lot, you can take possession of all of it. We’ve loaded her vehicle with her belongings.”
Could there be a lead in the car or in the boxes of her things? Maybe the missing journal pages would turn up. Torie had begun to lose hope of finding Lisbeth’s murderer, but the prospect of some new directions invigorated her determination.
Joe took out his truck keys. “We’ll follow you there right now.”
She saw the light in his eyes. This new information was as exciting to him as it was to her.
* * *
The red Camaro sat in a forlorn lot beside a patch of weeds poking through the broken concrete. Scraggly pines lined the property and lofted their refreshing scent into the air.
Torie remembered the day her friend had driven the car over to show her. She’d washed it twice a week and kept the interior spotless. If Lisbeth could see the dust on it now, she’d be rushing to get a bucket and rag.
Joe touched her shoulder. “You okay?”
He must have seen her struggling to hold back the tears. “That car was the first new vehicle she’d ever owned. She worked hard for it, and it was her pride and joy. I’ve seen her so often sitting there behind the wheel, beaming. She didn’t have much growing up, and being able to afford something so nice was a sign to herself that her past couldn’t keep her down.”
“I wish I could have known her better. I only met her a few times.” He glanced back to check on Hailey, who was sitting in his truck with his phone with the door locked. The little girl had her head down as she stared at her dad’s phone. She’d be oblivious to anything said between the two of them.
Craig exited the building with a set of keys dangling from one hand and a clipboard in the other. “I need you to sign that you’ve taken possession of all this.”
She took the clipboard and signed without reading the paper. “Do I need to go through all the boxes?”
“There’s nothing of real value there, so it’s up to you if you want to tick everything off the list. It’s things like jeans, shirts, personal belongings. I double-checked everything of value like her laptop, iPad, watch, phone, those kinds of things.”
She took the duplicate copy he handed her and scanned through the list. The clothing was packed into two suitcases, and the electronics were in a plastic tub. It was a scant list to sum up the total of Lisbeth’s life.
She looked at Joe through tears. “Nothing here tells the story of her care for other people. Someone going through these things wouldn’t know she loved black-and-white movies or that she was learning to crochet.”
He squeezed her shoulder. “But as long as you remember all those things, she’ll always be with you. Nothing can take those memories from you and how much you treasured her friendship.”
Craig shifted from one foot to the other. “Well, if you don’t have any questions or want to go through things with me, I’ll leave you to it.”
She nodded. “Thanks for your help, Craig. If you get a match for those fingerprints, let me know.”
“I’ll do that.” He walked away at a fast pace as if to outrun the uncomfortable aura of grief around her.
“You want to drive her car or my truck?” Joe asked.
“Her car. Definitely. I’m going to move back into my cottage tonight. I want the time and space to go through her things and see if I can discover what happened to her.” She told him about the possible safe in the spare room.
He grimaced. “It’s a terrible idea to move back in, Torie. I get it—really. But this guy isn’t giving up just so you can take the time to grieve.”
“I sent my dad a text and asked him to move in with me for now. Everyone knows our relationship now so it doesn’t matter if he stays with me.”
“Does he have a gun? Know martial arts?”
“Well, no.”
“How do you expect him to protect you both?”
“I think his presence will scare our guy off. He’s not going to want to run the risk of being seen.”
Joe let loose a sharp bark of laughter. “Torie, this guy took my daughter in a throng of people. He’s probably killed two women. I don’t think anything but an AK-47 is going to deter him. Do you know how to shoot a gun?”
She wanted to tell him she was a crack shot, but she couldn’t lie. “I’ve shot a pistol a couple of times, but I didn’t hit anything with it.”
He sighed. “Is there anything I can say to talk you out of this idea?”
“Not really, Joe. I’m sorry. I know you’re worried about me, and your concern is touching, but I’m not getting anywhere by hiding away. I’d rather face this guy head on than huddle in my hotel room and be just as clueless about what happened to Lisbeth as I am right now.”
“You want company tonight in case the guy skulks around the house?”
Her pulse blipped. “Dad has a meeting and can’t come over until nine. We could order pizza for lunch and go through Lisbeth’s things. I-I don’t really want to do this alone.”
“Sounds like a plan. We can walk off the pizza with a stroll to the ice cream shop for dessert after we eat.”
She jangled the keys in her hand. “I’ll meet you at the cottage, and we can unload Lisbeth’s things.”
“I want to sweep the car too.”
“Sweep? The interior looks spotless.”
“I want to check for any bugs. The police would have gone over the interior well, but they weren’t looking for murder clues. They still think Lisbeth committed suicide. I want to make sure the guy wasn’t tracking her every move.”
“I should check her phone too. There are so many electronic ways he might have kept up on what she was doing and where she was going.”
Having a goal was a shot in the arm for her. The hours together through the afternoon and early evening might help keep her from dwelling on how she’d been failing in her goal. And this was one job she had to finish.
Chapter 28
Joe stared at the bug he’d found in Lisbeth’s car. It was more confirmation that she’d been killed. But why?
He put his phone away. “Craig will send someone by to get the bug.”
Torie nodded and bit her lip when the last piece of clothing was removed, leaving an empty suitcase. “No clues. I connected her phone to some software, and someone was tracking her through it, too, but they’re good, whoever they are. I couldn’t trace it. Maybe the police can though.”
The living room still held the faint scent of a sweet perfume from Lisbeth’s clothing. They’d both had so much hope when they carried the boxes and suitcases into the cottage. Now Torie’s dreams were in ruins along with the discarded remains of the pizza they had for lunch, and there wasn’t anything he could do about it.
Hailey was watching TV in the spare room, and the faint sound of Little House on the Prairie echoed down the hallway.
Torie dropped onto the sofa and stared down at her hands. “Nothing. We’ve spent two hours going through every pocket and poking into every crevice in the suitcases. We’re no closer to an answer than we were when I arrived on Jekyll Island. I don’t know where to look next.”
The quaver in her voice tugged at his heart, and he sat beside her. He moved to put his arm around her before reconsidering the idea. Things were still a little strained between them since he’d learned who she was. Maybe it was him or maybe it was her, but he couldn’t deny he felt constrained around her now that he knew she was the heir to a massive hospitality empire.
“We could search for that hidden safe.”
She got up, and he followed her to the spare room. The TV was too loud, and Joe told Hailey to lower the volume. At least she wasn’t payin
g any attention to them going to the closet.
He flipped on the closet light, and it shone into the dark crevices. On the back-left wall, he spied the safe. “There it is.” He knelt and tried to open it. “It’s locked. You find any strange keys around?”
Torie knelt beside him and yanked on the lever that didn’t budge. “Just the house key. I’ll ask at the hotel if there’s a key to this.”
They both rose and he trailed her back to the living room. “What was she working on when she was here? Any pet projects she took over at the resort?”
“I asked my aunt for a list of everything Lisbeth had been doing, but she never sent it over.”
“Maybe check with HR.” He glanced at his phone. “It’s only three. You should be able to get someone.”
“Good idea.” She reached for her laptop and typed up an email. “It’s done. I told HR I wanted it within the next fifteen minutes. Sometimes it pays to throw around the Bergstrom name.”
He wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to the kind of power she was used to wielding. Maybe her best bet of a lasting relationship would be with someone who had the same kind of power and money. He’d always taken pride in taking care of his wife and daughter, of providing for them, even if sometimes that provision wasn’t steak and caviar.
He wished he could believe he was reading too much into the inequality of their statuses, but it felt overwhelming right now.
“Tea or coffee?” she asked.
“Coffee sounds good, but I’ll make it.”
“So you can have it strong enough to dissolve the spoon?” she teased. “I can live with it. I’ll have you know I’ve started adding two more scoops of coffee to the pot every morning. You’re corrupting me.”
“That’s a good thing. There’s nothing worse than weak-as-dishwater coffee.”
He squeezed her hand, then rose and went to the kitchen where he ground coffee and filled the pot. The aroma of strong coffee began to percolate through the house as he got down mugs and pulled out cream for her.
He smelled the scent of her shampoo before he realized she’d joined him. How odd it was that she didn’t wear an expensive perfume like her aunt. She always smelled like soap and fresh air, and he liked it.
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