Cottage on Gooseberry Bay: Charmed Summer

by Kathi Daley

  “If we’re right about the usernames, and Kalen actually is Raith, then at least we know that Kalen was alive and well Sunday even though he hadn’t been seen since Saturday,” Parker pointed out.

  “That’s a good point,” I said. I thought about the man at the comic book and video game store. “When we spoke to the man in the comic book and video game store, I felt like he might know more than he admitted. Perhaps we should talk to him again. If nothing else, it would really be helpful to know who this Reaper is.”

  “I’ll go and talk to him,” Parker offered. “The two of you stay here and work on getting any useful information you can out of that video game console as well as that computer.” Parker grabbed her purse. “I’ll bring dinner back with me. Will Josie be here?”

  “Yes,” Jemma answered. “She’ll be home in about an hour.”

  “Is Chinese food okay?” Parker asked.

  “Chinese sounds good,” Jemma commented. She glanced at the computer on the table. “I don’t suppose you know either Kalen’s mother or one of Trevor’s parents.”

  “Not well,” Parker asked. “Why do you ask?”

  “If we had the video game consoles of the other two missing teens, it would give us a lot more information than having just one will.”

  “I’ll get them,” Parker said. “I’ll go and talk to the guy at the comic book and video game store, and then I’ll see if I can get the other two video game consoles. I’ll pick up dinner and then be back. I guess it might be a couple hours, so go ahead and have a snack if you’re hungry.”

  After Parker left, Jemma continued to work, and I put a cheese and fruit tray together. I figured Josie would be hungry when she got home, so it seemed like a good idea to have something ready.

  “It looks like Zane first entered the game four months ago,” Jemma informed me. “It took about two and a half months to get past the first fourteen levels. Once he managed to do that, he joined Hadron and Raith, forming an alliance of sorts. While it looks as if Zane played the game fairly often while working on the first fourteen levels, I don’t notice a real push until after he teamed up with the others.”

  “Do we know if Hadron and Raith started at the same time?” I asked.

  Jemma shook her head. “I don’t know when they started playing the game or how many hours they spent on the game until they joined forces with Zane. Zane’s video game console only shows me his playing history. It appears that the quest is more of a solo pursuit until level fifteen is reached.”

  “So the three have only been working together for a little over a month.” I stated.

  “About five and a half weeks based on what I can figure out from Zane’s gaming history.” She navigated through a few pages of the log. “It looks like they’ve been logging some serious hours. If their grades are falling or other interests have been ignored, I can see why.”

  “Does it appear that anyone else is on the team? Is it always just the three of them?”

  “It looks like it’s just the three of them on the same team, although there are messages between Zane and members of other teams.”

  Josie showed up a short time later. She ran upstairs to change out of her work clothes while I set the fruit and cheese tray out on the counter. Jemma was still surfing around in the video game console’s memory, but she had made the comment that she wasn’t coming up with a lot, so perhaps she’d turn her attention to the computer.

  “You’ll never believe who came into the restaurant today,” Josie said once she had changed clothes and joined us downstairs.

  “Who?” Jemma asked as she tried to figure out a way into Zane’s computer.

  “Prentice Caldwell.” Josie looked at me. “Prentice Caldwell used to live in Gooseberry Bay, but she left town after creating a huge scandal a couple years ago.”

  “Huge scandal?” I asked.

  “She was using her skills with the computer to hack into the email accounts of some of the local big wigs in order to find dirt that she could then use to blackmail them.”

  “Shouldn’t she be in jail?” I asked.

  “She should be,” Josie agreed. “The thing is that while what she was doing seemed obvious, the men she blackmailed refused to admit to the blackmail or testify in court. I guess they didn’t want to have their dirty laundry aired during the trial, so they all made statements about the money they’d been paying her being compensation for services rendered. Everyone knew what was really going on. Everyone knew that these men had decided to cover for her in order to save their own skin, but the DA didn’t have a case if the victims of the blackmail wouldn’t agree to file a complaint, so when Prentice decided to move away, the district attorney decided to drop it.”

  “So why’d she come back?” I asked.

  “She said she came back to talk to some people who she felt might be able to help figure out what had happened to Kalen.”

  “She knows Kalen?” Jemma asked.

  “I guess that Kalen’s father was one of her blackmail victims with whom she eventually entered into a physical relationship. According to Prentice, she continued to stay in contact with Kalen’s father after she left, and once Kalen’s parents split up, they even moved in together.”

  I remembered hearing that Kalen’s father had had an affair. I guess Prentice was the one he’d had it with. “It seems odd to me that this man would enter into a romantic relationship with the woman who’d been blackmailing him,” I said.

  “I totally agree,” Josie responded. “But that’s what happened, and when Kalen went missing, Prentice decided to see if she could find something out from one of her contacts.”

  “And did she find something out?” Jemma asked.

  “Actually, she did. Prentice told me that one of the men she knew from when she’d lived here before had seen Zane, Kalen, and Trevor together Sunday evening.”

  “Where?” Jemma asked.

  “Down at the marina. It was late. The marina staff had gone home, and the boat rental place was closed. This person told Prentice that the boys were sitting on the dock at the very south end of the harbor, talking. He’d come in late on his boat, so he didn’t talk to them. He just tied up and left. But he’s sure it was them since the dock has all those overhead lights, and he had to ferry his way right past them to make his way to his assigned slip.”

  “Okay, so if that’s true, then all three boys were still alive and together after Kalen had been missing a full day and Zane had left home with his paddleboard,” I said. “I wonder what they were doing.”

  Josie shrugged. “I don’t know. Prentice didn’t know, and neither did her contact. He just told her that he’d seen the three boys, but that was the extent of it.”

  “Hopefully, Parker will know more by the time she gets back,” Jemma said.

  “Where is Parker?” Josie asked.

  “She went to look into a few things and to grab dinner for us. She should be here in an hour or so.”

  “I’m starving,” Josie said. “I think I’ll grab a snack.”

  “I made a cheese and fruit tray,” I shared.

  “I was thinking something more filling. Maybe a few crackers to go with the cheese.”

  I joined Josie in the kitchen while Jemma continued to work on the laptop. Once Parker arrived with the food, we focused on the meal. It was after we’d eaten when I asked Parker what she’d been able to find out.

  “I was able to confirm that Kalen is definitely Raith and Trevor is definitely Hadron. I can also confirm that Zane is Trident and that all the boys had been logging a serious amount of hours before their disappearance. I also confirmed that the three boys had only been working together for the past five or six weeks.”

  “And no one you spoke to knew what sort of tasks the boys were facing in the game once they began their final quest?” I asked.

  “No, no one I spoke to knew that,” Parker confirmed.

  “I’ll poke around and see what I can find,” Jemma offered. “Maybe I can strike up a c
onversation with one of the other players who have surpassed level fourteen. I do have Zane’s video game console. It wouldn’t be all that hard to slip my way in. The trick will be to find something out before anyone realizes that I’m not actually Zane.”

  “I’ll ask around,” Josie said. “Maybe we can figure out who Reaper, Zork, Halo, and Nomad are. If they were signed up for the ranking system, then chances are they’re local.”

  Parker jumped in. “Oh, I meant to tell you that I spoke to Kalen’s mother, and she’s going to bring his video game console by the Rambling Rose tomorrow.” She looked at Josie. “You mentioned that you’d be working, so I figured that was easiest.”

  “I’ll watch for her,” she said.

  “I haven’t gotten ahold of either of Trevor’s parents yet,” Parker added. “I’ll keep trying. Other than that, we just keep doing what we do. We talk to people, and we look for clues.”

  “I’m volunteering at the kiddie carnival tomorrow,” I said.

  “Me too,” Jemma joined in.

  “And Josie and I are working,” Parker said. “How about we all meet up here again tomorrow evening.”

  Everyone confirmed that would work and we agreed to meet at five o’clock. Perhaps we’d get a break between now and then. The idea that the boys were out there, waiting to be rescued was one I couldn’t get out of my head, although given the fact that the boys were all seen together on Sunday after Zane left home also had me considering the fact that the three boys had simply taken off for some reason and were actually okay.

  Chapter 12

  Jemma and I decided to ride to the kiddie carnival in the park together the following day. The event was set to open at nine and run until two. There were carnival-type games such as a ring toss, a dart game, and a basketball toss, plus there were food vendors selling a variety of items that could be enjoyed on one of the long tables that had been set up. The event was a fundraiser for the elementary school, so it was mostly kids in the five to twelve age range that swarmed the area.

  “Oh, good, you’re both here on time,” Hope said when Jemma and I approached the table that had been set up for the volunteers.

  “We’re here and ready to work,” Jemma confirmed. “Where do you want me?”

  “The ring toss. You did it last year, so you know what to do.” Hope then looked at me. “I thought I’d have you work the ticket booth with Darla. She can explain the pricing options.”

  “Okay.” I looked around. “It looks like the tickets are being sold at that table near the park entrance.”

  Hope nodded. “If you have any questions, just ask Darla. The line is manageable right now, but it’s going to get busy once the lunch hour approaches.”

  Hope was right. It did get busier as the morning wore on. Thankfully, ticket sales was an easy gig and didn’t involve refereeing like some of the games, where determining whether someone won or not was often nothing more than a judgment call.

  “So, is this your first year helping with this event?” Darla asked after I’d introduced myself to her.

  “It is. I just moved to Gooseberry Bay in the fall.”

  “So how are you liking it?” she asked as she counted out twenty tickets for a woman with two young children.

  “I love it. Everyone has been so nice, and the area is simply gorgeous.”

  Darla handed the woman her tickets and then began counting out tickets for the next customer. “Are you working locally?”

  “Actually, I recently opened my own private investigation firm.”

  “Of course. I’ve seen that across the boardwalk. You’re next to Then and Again. I love poking around in there.” She handed the woman her tickets and then smiled at the next customer in line. “I imagine being a PI is interesting.”

  “It can be,” I said as a second line began to form, and I had my own customer to count out tickets for. Things got busy at this point, so our conversation paused, but once the line had been taken care of, Darla jumped back in.

  “So what sorts of things do you look into as a PI?” she asked.

  I shrugged. “A variety of things. I’m currently working on helping a woman track down the owner of a charm bracelet.” I took a few minutes to go over what we had and what we were looking for. I’d spoken to Ellery this morning, and she’d shared that she’d run into a bit of a dead-end as well. She’d been showing the bracelet around town, but while there were some who had theories relating to a specific charm, no one had been able to match a person with the bracelet. I’d told her when we spoke that I had plans to meet with the man at the ice cream shop once I finished at the event at the park, and she shared that she wanted to talk to few more vendors on the boardwalk this morning.

  Darla and I chatted about my cases, at least the ones I felt I could share, and her job as a bookkeeper for the town. She knew all about the missing boys, and she shared her concern that they might have met with foul play. I didn’t mention that I was looking into things, but I did ask questions about the parents of the missing kids, and some of her comments only served to cement the fact that there had been trouble in all three households before the teens disappearing.

  Around noon, Darla was sent to work one of the booths, and I was left alone with the tickets. By this point, the majority of folks who planned to show up were already there, so foot traffic at the ticket booth was minimal. At one-thirty, Jemma came over after being relieved of game duty.

  “How’s it going?” I asked.

  “Fine. I have to admit I’m beginning to get bored. It was more fun before Darla left.”

  “Only thirty more minutes, and then we’re done. I’ll sit with you until then.”

  “So you’re done for the day?”

  She nodded. “Things are slowing down. Most of the kids have used up their tickets and are eating or have even headed home. Did you ever get the chance to eat anything?”

  “No. I figured I’d grab something after I was done.”

  “I haven’t eaten either. Let’s pop by the ice cream shop like we planned and then we can head over to one of the restaurants on Main Street and grab some lunch.”

  Jemma and I tracked Hope down once we were given the okay by one of the other organizers to shut down the ticket booth.

  “Thank you both so much,” she said.

  “Happy to help,” I responded. “It was fun to see all the kids come through. Do they have this type of event often?”

  “Three or four times a year. There’s the fundraiser in May, the event in the park on the Fourth of July, and, of course, the harvest festival. Sometimes, they do an indoor event at the elementary school just before the Christmas break. Personally, I think four is a bit much. It’s a lot of work putting this all together.”

  “Maybe you should eliminate the July event since the traveling carnival comes through in July. It might not be here for the Fourth of July, but it does feature similar games.”

  “I might suggest that to the committee,” Hope said. “We could still have the fireworks and the picnic but skip the games. Of course, the kids won’t be happy about that. Maybe we could do another event that would engage them, but not be as much work.”

  The three of us continued to chat for a few minutes, and then Jemma and I said our goodbyes and headed for the ice cream shop. I’d been told that Tony Trauner would be on-site today. I just hoped he would be. The other employees I’d seen to date were much too young to have known or remember anyone who might have worked for the old shop back in the nineties.

  “There was a Naomi who worked here back in the nineties, but her last name was Swenson,” Tony informed us after we explained about the bracelet and the woman we were trying to track down.

  “So you don’t think she could be the woman who owned the bracelet we described?” I asked.

  “No. I don’t think so. Naomi Swenson was a local girl who worked summers for me all through high school. She never left the area and, in fact, still lives here, so I suppose you can speak to her, but I know for a fa
ct that she was never pregnant as a teen or young woman. She married two years ago, but she still doesn’t have any children.”

  Well, that was disappointing. We were running out of names, and I really wanted to get this wrapped up today.

  “Does the name Rosalie Watts mean anything to you?” Jemma asked about the last name on our original list.

  “Sure. Although, Rosalie went by Rose. I don’t know anyone who referred to her by her given name.”

  I glanced at Jemma. She lifted a brow.

  “So did Rose work here?” I asked Tony.

  He nodded. “Rose only worked here for one summer, but I remember her. She was such a sweet thing, who just happened to be going through a tough time.”

  “Rosalie Watts completed the Bay to Boardwalk Run, and she completed the Brewster’s Books Reading Challenge,” I said to the man. “She might be the one we’re looking for.” I pulled up the photos on my phone. “One of the charms is even a rose. We thought that the rose represented a flower shop or garden, but it could simply have been included due to her name.”

  “Rose was seventeen that summer. She lived in Seattle but came to Gooseberry Bay for the season. I seem to remember that she came with a church group that brought teens to the area to work at the summer camp just outside of town.”

  “Summer camp?” I asked.

  “It was a church camp serving underprivileged kids who were brought in for two-week stays. Teens from the city lived on-site and worked as counselors. Most of the teens who worked the camp also had part-time jobs in town, so they’d have spending money. The church group provided housing for the counselors, but not a wage, so Rose worked part-time for me.”

  “This could be her,” Jemma said. “What can you tell us about her?”

  “She was a quiet little thing. Shy. Sort of skittish. She worked at the camp in the mornings, but then she was free from mid-afternoon until the following morning. She worked about twenty hours a week for me. She didn’t seem to have a lot of friends, but she did participate. She volunteered for the movie nights, and I think she helped out with some of the local fundraising events. I seem to remember that she worked the carnival when it was in town. She stayed busy.”