by Kathi Daley
The house was exactly where Jemma had described. When I pulled up, the boat was already at the dock. The three of us piled out and headed toward the boat. As planned, Jemma, Josie, and Parker were with Booker, who was at the wheel. We settled into the cuddy cabin while Booker pulled away from the dock.
Once we were settled, Sophia took a few minutes to make sure her mother was okay and then began to speak. We figured we could use this time to get the story. Once we arrived at the island where we were to meet Coop, the chopper could take off.
“As I told Jemma, my mother has worked for the Davenports for a long time. I grew up living at the estate, and Brody and I were actually friends when we were young. As he got older, the sweet kid I’d played with as a child grew into a monster. By the time I was a teen, he was forcing himself on me, and I couldn’t do anything about it. He told me that his dad would send my mom back to Mexico, and I’d never see her again, so I kept quiet.”
I placed a hand over my mouth in order to prevent the outrage I felt from escaping.
“Eventually, I was able to get a job and move away from the compound. I still saw Brody all the time when I visited with my mother, but by that point, he’d moved on to other girls and mostly left me alone. I’ve wanted to grab my mom and run for a while now, but I could never scrape together enough money to get out of town. Although the Davenports allowed me to move off the compound, I think it was mostly due to the fact that Harrison knew what his son was doing and wanted to stop it, everyone in the area knew I was Davenport property, so no one would help me do what needed to be done to get away from them.”
She paused to take a breath, but no one spoke. I wasn’t sure how much of this Sophia’s mother understood, but there was no denying the tears running down Gloria’s face.
“I finally found a man who told me he could help me leave the area. Mama too. But he wanted money for the trip which I didn’t have. I managed to save up eight hundred dollars, but he wanted a thousand dollars per person, and I wasn’t leaving without mama. I was feeling pretty desperate, but then I told Cammy my story one night, and she told me she could get me twelve hundred dollars.”
“The twelve hundred she took out of her savings,” I said.
“How did you know Cammy?” Parker asked.
“She dated Brody for a while, so I knew who she was. I even tried to warn her that he was bad news, but she didn’t believe me at first. And then he hurt her. She realized I’d been trying to help her all along, so we became friends after she broke up with Brody. I’m not sure why she would give me so much money. I guess she felt sorry for me. Anyway, for the first time in a long time, I felt hope. I told the man who’d said he’d help me that I had the money and wanted to execute the plan right away. Somehow, Brody found out what I’d planned to do and that Cammy had helped me. I really have no idea how he found out. He seems to have eyes and ears everywhere.”
“Nothing goes on in the area without the Davenports knowing about it,” Parker agreed. “Go on.”
“Brody went to see Cammy at the store on the night he killed her. While they were talking, he made a comment that led Cammy to believe that he might suspect what I was planning, and that she was helping me. He warned her that he was keeping an eye on things. Cammy had given me a cell phone earlier in the day when she’d given me the money. She said she was the only one with the number, so we could safely stay in touch. I didn’t really expect her to use the phone unless there was an emergency, so I was surprised when she called to let me know that we might have a problem. She told me that Brody had stopped by the store and that it seemed as if he might have figured out what we’d planned. She said that I should be careful and that maybe I might want to wait to let things cool down before actually doing anything. I was so scared so I told her I wouldn’t do anything until she got back to me. She indicated that she needed to look into things so it might be a few days. Then later that same night she texted me.”
“And what time was that?” Parker asked.
“I guess around ten o’clock. She told me that she’d been thinking about things and had replayed her conversation with Brody over and over in her mind. The more she thought about it the more certain she was that Brody was onto us. Again she warned me to be careful.”
“Did you text her back?” Parker asked.
“No. I didn’t do anything. She said to wait so I decided to give it a few days and see what happened.”
“And then?” Parker prodded.
“And then she texted me an hour and a half later and told me to meet her at the marina. She told me it was important. Life and death important. I thought that was odd since she’d just told me to wait and to do nothing but she’d been so kind that I didn’t want to let her down so I went. It was a mistake. It was a trap.”
“Trap?” I asked.
“Somehow, Brody had managed to get Cammy onto his boat. I still don’t know how exactly. He must have met up with her somewhere and forced her on board since she would never have gone with him willingly. Anyway, when I showed up to meet Cammy, Brody was there. He forced me onto his boat as well.” A tear hovered on the edge of her lower lid and then slid down her cheek. “Once Brody got us out in open water, he went into a rage. He told me that he knew what the two of us had been planning, and then he made it clear that two skank local girls weren’t going to get away with trying to pull the wool over the eyes of a Davenport. He tried to strangle me, but Cammy jumped on him from behind. He slugged her in the face and then tossed her overboard.”
“Oh, God,” Josie said, looking much paler than she had just a few minutes ago.
“I didn’t know what to do,” Sophia cried. “I couldn’t help her. It was dark, and even if I could have overpowered Brody, I would never have been able to find Cammy in time. Brody seemed to feel bad about what he did after he did it. He even dove in to try to save her, but it was too late.”
“So then what happened?” I asked.
“Brody was totally freaking out by this point. He wasn’t thinking clearly. Eventually, he came up with the idea to take the body to the rocks at the bottom of the bluff near where the full moon party had been going on. He said that everyone would think Cammy had committed suicide. He said he had a plan, and then he threatened to kill both my mother and me if I told anyone what had occurred that night. He made me swear I wouldn’t. I was scared, so I promised. I liked Cammy. She tried to help me, and I felt like I owed her, but I’d grown up around the Davenports, and I knew that if I did tell anyone what I knew, my mom and I would end up dead, and Brody would get away with it anyway.”
No one spoke for several minutes. Booker had slowed the boat. I supposed we were nearing the island.
“You said you have proof of all of this.”
Sophia nodded and handed a phone to Parker. “This is the burner cell Cammy gave me. Not only does it have the two texts from Cammy’s cell, but there are also photos I took the night Brody forced us onto his boat. He didn’t know I had the phone, so he didn’t take it. He was busy driving or ranting at Cammy for much of the time, so he wasn’t paying attention to me. The photos aren’t great, but they will show that we were all on the boat. I guess you can compare the clothes Cammy had on when her body was found with the photos I took if you want to verify that she was with Brody on the same night she died.”
Parker accepted the phone from Sophia and turned it on. She smiled when she saw what Sophia had managed to record.
“There’s also a video,” Sophia said. “It’s pretty bad and mostly focused on the floor, but the audio is good. I managed to hit record once Brody stopped choking me and turned his attention to Cammy. You can hear him throwing her into the water. You can’t see him doing it, but based on what he said to me after, I think you have the confession you’ll need if you want to pursue this.” She looked out the window as the boat pulled onto the sand. “But not until mom and I are safely tucked away with my family. Promise me.”
“I promise,” Parker said.
We’d ma
de it to the island safely, which was something, but Coop hadn’t arrived yet. There was an old wooden cabin on the island someone had built years ago. Booker assured us that no one had ever lived on the island due to the lack of fresh water, but folks did camp there from time to time. The cabin was next to the open field where Coop planned to land, so we decided to go ahead and move everyone inland.
“Damn,” Booker said after we’d all settled in next to the ruins of the structure.
“What is it?” I asked.
“There’s a boat heading straight for us.”
He handed me the binoculars. I felt my stomach flip.
“Maybe we should return to the boat. Make a run for it,” I suggested.
“At the speed that boat is traveling, it’ll be here before we can pull away from the shoreline.”
“What do we do?” Josie asked.
“I’m not sure.” Booker looked around. “There aren’t a lot of places to hide, and if the boat belongs to Brody, which I’m sure it does, he somehow knows where we are and why we are here.”
“How can he know?” I asked.
Booker frowned. “Eyes and ears everywhere.”
The island wasn’t all that large, and there was nowhere to go, so no reason to run. There was also nowhere to hide. There was the old cabin that was half-decayed, but that would be the first place Brody looked. Sophia was sitting on the ground, hugging her mother, who was sobbing. I felt so bad for both of them. We’d gotten them into this. We needed to get them out. “How long do we have?” I asked.
“Five minutes until they reach the island. Maybe less,” Booker said.
I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt so helpless. “What did you do with Sophia’s phone?” I asked Parker.
“I hid it on the boat.”
I glanced out toward the sea. The boat was getting closer and closer. Booker was right. We’d never outrun it. I knew that hiding in the cabin would do no good, but I decided to look inside to see if I could find something I could use as a weapon. All I found was a case of tequila. Unopened tequila that someone had left behind. I wasn’t sure how I could use tequila as a weapon, but maybe a bribe. Unlikely.
“It looks like Brody is alone,” Booker said. “At least I don’t see anyone with him.”
I supposed that was something. It would be seven against one, but if Brody had a gun, one gun against no gun would win out every time.
I was seriously thinking about trying to run for Booker’s boat even though I had zero chance of reaching it before Brody arrived when I heard the sound of a chopper nearby.
“It’s Coop,” I gasped.
Everyone seemed to let out a breath of relief when the chopper appeared on the horizon. By the time Coop landed, Brody had made it to the shallows leading up to the island. We couldn’t all fit in the chopper, so we loaded Sophia and her mother into the bird, and told Coop to take off and complete the plan. By the time Coop was in the air, Brody had anchored and was rowing a dingy to the shore.
“What are we going to tell him?” Josie asked.
I remembered the tequila. “We tell him we came out here to party. We tell him I was late meeting up with you guys, so Coop dropped me off, but had to get back. We lie like we’ve never lied before.”
“He’ll never believe us,” Parker said.
“Maybe not,” I replied, heading into the old cabin for the tequila. “But what do we have to lose by trying?”
As Parker predicted, it seemed obvious that Brody didn’t believe that we’d come all the way out here to party, but given the lack of evidence to prove otherwise, he seemed to come to the decision to let it go. At least for now. I could tell by the look in his eyes that he wasn’t done with Sophia Barrera, but I supposed that was something to worry about another day.
We waited until Brody’s boat disappeared beyond the horizon, and then we returned to Gooseberry Bay to retrieve our cars and go home.
Chapter 15
By the following day, Brody Davenport was in jail for killing Cammy Collins. I had to hand it to Parker. The girl had moxie. After having Jemma make a copy of everything on the phone, she’d actually taken the phone to Harrison. Once he’d viewed what she had, she’d been able to convince him that the only way he was going to save face and come out on the side of law and order, was to turn Brody in, which amazingly, is exactly what he did. I was speechless when I found out. According to Parker, Brody had been in and out of trouble for a lot of years and taking a gamble on the fact that Harrison would value his reputation above his son’s freedom, she offered him the chance to do the right thing and call Deputy Todd himself before she ran the story. It was a hell of a gamble on her part, but in the end, it was a gamble that paid off.
“To Parker, who has more balls than any guy I know,” Jemma said as she, Josie, Parker, and I toasted a job well done.
“Here, here.” We all clinked glasses.
“It seems like you took a huge risk,” Josie said.
Parker shrugged. “What is life without risks?” She looked at me. “You must have taken risks as a PI.”
“Some, but I worked with my dad, and since he’d been a cop, he took most of the risks. Still, as crazy as this whole thing has been, when we were under the gun out there on the island, I felt a rush I have to admit I’ve really missed.”
“It was rewarding to know that we were helping someone escape a bad situation and hopefully move onto a better life,” Josie said.
“And, of course, anytime I have an excuse to carry out a hack is a good day,” Jemma added.
“I’m glad you all said that.” Parker grinned. “Because I think the four of us make an excellent team. I have a project I’ve been thinking about digging into, and I wondered if the three of you would be willing to help me.”
“What sort of project?” Josie asked.
Parker paused and then answered. “I’m not sure if you remember, but five years ago, I was assigned a story about a family that went missing on Thanksgiving Day. There was no sign of forced entry, nor was there any blood present or sign of a struggle. Nothing was disturbed, the Thanksgiving meal was even still on the counter waiting to be transferred into serving dishes. Deputy Todd spent weeks investigating after receiving a call from the neighbor stating that she’d stopped by to drop off a pie only to find that the family seemed to have just vanished.”
“I remember,” Josie said. “Whatever happened with that?”
“Nothing. The family never showed up, and as far as I know, no one ever picked up the trail. Cadaver dogs were brought in after the theory was floated that the family was murdered and buried on the property, but they never found anything. If the family left willingly, they didn’t seem to have taken anything with them. Even their toothbrushes were still in the bathroom. The car was still in the garage, and the wife’s purse and wallet had been left behind. The man’s wallet was never found, but it was speculated that he may have had it in his pocket when he disappeared.”
“So, what are you saying?” Jemma asked. “Are you planning to look into the case again?”
“I was thinking about it,” Parker answered. “It’s two weeks until Thanksgiving. My idea is to take that two weeks and really dig around. It’d be fun to see if I can find anything that wasn’t found then.”
“If this happened five years ago, it’s going to be nearly impossible to pick up the trail especially given the fact that there wasn’t a trail to follow back when it happened,” Jemma pointed out. “Do you have any leads? A place to start?”
Parker nodded. “I do have a few things. Observations I made at the time, leads I had that didn’t pan out, potential witnesses who said they didn’t know a thing, but I suspected at the time might have been lying. I know this is a longshot, but when this story came around the first time, I was brand new on the job and didn’t have the experience I have now. This case is the one that got away. It’s the story I was never able to tell. I figure that even if we don’t solve it, I can still get an article out of our atte
mpt to find the answers no one else was able to. I’m going to do it whether you help me or not, but I would really appreciate your help. You each bring something unique to the table. Ainsley is an experienced PI, who used to be a reporter, so I’m sure she has a few tricks up her sleeve. Jemma is a god when it comes to digging information out of the dang computer, and Josie can charm the socks off anyone if we need a distraction or need to convince someone to come clean about what they know. Between the four of us, I feel good about our chances of coming up with something new. What do you say? Will you do it?”
“I’m in,” I said, realizing that helping Parker sounded like fun.
“Me too,” Jemma and Josie both said.
“Awesome.” Parker smiled. “We’ll start tomorrow. We can meet here. I’ll bring takeout. Is Chinese okay?”
We all agreed that Chinese food was perfect. As I watched the two kittens playing on the floor with my two dogs, I took a moment to appreciate the fact that, although I’d only been in Gooseberry Bay less than two weeks, I’d not only found the house in the photo, but was well on my way to remembering what I’d come here to discover. In addition, I not only had friends, but I’d just become one-quarter of a team.
Life, I decided, had just gotten a whole lot more interesting.
Coming Next Month from Gooseberry Bay
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USA Today best-selling author Kathi Daley lives in beautiful Lake Tahoe with her husband Ken. When she isn’t writing, she likes spending time hiking the miles of desolate trails surrounding her home. She has authored more than a hundred books in twelve series. Find out more about her books at www.kathidaley.com
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