“Under maintenance my foot,” I said back at him. “Get out.”
“No! No! Under main….”
“I’ll under-maintenance you!” I threatened, grabbing him by his greasy little neck, yanking him out of my engine and flinging him onto the grass beside where the car was parked. I’d learned from experience that it didn’t pay to be kind or gentle with these guys. They took advantage of every sign of weakness and exploited it to the hilt.
“Get out of here and don’t come back, or I’ll tell the gremlin wrangler. He gave me a guarantee of no more gremlins.”
He glowered at me. “Under maintenance,” he repeated sadly. “You don’t play fair, you.”
“Neither do you. Your boss doesn’t like his gremlins going off the reservation. You’d better get back to the farm.”
He glared at me, then tossed his greasy denim bag over his shoulder and slouched off, grumbling as he went and throwing back a few harshly dirty looks. I was going to have to remember to tell Brick about him. I wasn’t sure what a gremlin out for revenge might be capable of doing.
But I didn’t have time to mull that over. It was going to be dark soon and that would make it twice as hard to find Mandy. I tried the engine again and this time it turned over in its normal way.
And off I went.
Chapter 6
The sun was rapidly descending toward the sea, painting a huge part of the sky a fiery peach color, leaving the ocean silver blue. I pulled into the parking lot by the pier, keeping my distance from where the police vehicles were congregating. I wanted to find Mandy, but I was hoping not to run into Shane.
I’d just spent half an hour cruising up and down the road from town, stopping to explore likely areas where there was access to stands of trees or heavy brush. So far, nothing.
Going back to the beach where we’d been earlier was sort of a last resort. If I didn’t find her here, I didn’t have a clue where else to look. I sat in the car for a few minutes, just watching. There was no unusual movement in the grass that led back to the bike path, nor in the low shrubs that lined the path itself. Nothing moving in the trees that started further back.
Meanwhile, there was plenty of movement on the pier. Officers were talking to small groups of people while technicians worked on the cabin cruiser which had been pulled up alongside the pier. Gathering evidence, I supposed.
I stared at the boat. It certainly looked like the one I’d tried to hail when the shark attacked me. Or didn’t. It was creepy to think the man was probably in troubles of his own at the same time I was trying to get him to help me. I got out of the car and paused, not sure what I was going to do.
“Hello Miss Greco,” a rough voice said behind me. “Looking for Deputy McAllister?”
I jumped a foot. The voice was close and familiar. I spun and faced the Sheriff, Shane’s boss and the man who had never seemed to trust me very much. Now that I was learning more about my past, I thought I was beginning to understand why.
“Hello Sheriff Hayes,” I said, smiling brightly. “I’m not looking for Shane, actually. I…I just thought I would drop by and see what all the commotion was about.”
His mouth twisted. He didn’t believe me. He was right, of course, but that didn’t make me like him any more.
“We’ve got a murder scene here, Haley,” he said evenly. “Someone was killed on board that boat.” He nodded toward the cabin cruiser, then squinted his eyes as though trying to analyze me and my reactions. “Ever seen that boat before?”
That came out of the blue and I made the fatal hesitation that told him all he needed to know. Silently cursing myself for my lack of preparation—it was a cinch he knew about my disappearance and how I got caught in a rip tide near here by now--I answered as quickly as I could get the words out.
“You know, I might have noticed it today as I was swimming. I saw a boat rather like that anyway. And right after I spotted the thing it disappeared into the fog bank that was lurking off shore all afternoon.”
“Is that right?” He was chewing on a toothpick, looking bored. “Interesting.” He paused, and I swear, I really think he was hoping to give me a quiet moment of discomfort so I might get nervous and spill the beans.
What beans? Who knows.
“Know anything about a man named Sam Wellington?” he said at last.
I shook my head. “Never heard of him.”
He stared at me for a long moment.
I smiled.
“Uh huh,” he said, then gave me a nod and touched the visor on his cap. “Keep in touch,” he muttered, then headed on toward the pier.
I made a face at his back but that was childishly unproductive, wasn’t it?
After a quick glance to make sure Shane wasn’t anywhere in sight, I strolled as casually as I could toward the stand of trees and began a zig-zaggy walk through the little forest that rimmed the inside edge of the beach, calling Mandy’s name now and then, listening intently, and jumping when a bat flew overhead and made a swerving dive that practically took off my nose. I was having no luck at all.
Finally I gave up and went back to my car, trying to be anonymous and all, which shouldn’t have been too hard, as the place was crawling with law enforcement but also various vendors and such. But that was when Shane saw me.
He was too close. I knew I couldn’t manage brushing him off with a friendly wave and hopping into my car to make a clean getaway, so I stood there and waited while he sauntered over.
He stopped an arms length away and looked at me levelly with those starburst blue eyes. They always knocked me out. Even when I was mad at him.
He sighed. “I know you’re savvy enough to understand why I told you not to come here,” he said softly. “And yet, here you are. What’s the deal, Haley?”
I flushed. I know it seems like I’m always doing things against his advice, but I really hate to disappoint him. It’s just that it always seems to work out that way.
“I didn’t come here because of the murder,” I said quickly, hoping he could tell I really, really meant it. “Honest. I just…Mandy is missing and she was supposedly coming back here to look for Shrimp. So I came to…”
He closed his eyes and threw his head back in a way that made me shiver, my voice trailing off.
“You came to drive me crazy,” he said so softly I could barely hear him. “Yeah, I know.” He lowered his head and looked at me again. “But Haley, there are going to be consequences. You’ve caught the Sheriff’s eye now.”
“Oh big deal,” I said with more bravado than sense. “Who’s this guy who got killed, anyway? I don’t know any of the details.”
“Sam Wellington. He runs charters down the coast. He was well-liked around here, but he played it close to the edge and he tended to be a bit nosy. Might have gotten too interested in something he was shipping for someone. Who knows?”
“Not I.”
“Somebody does.”
“Not anyone I know either.”
He turned and hit me with those eyes again. “How can you be so sure?”
I sighed in a bit of frustration, but to tell the truth, I was feeling guilty now. After all, I had seen strangers in town, hadn’t I? Normally, I would mention them to Shane, even if I didn’t think they were all that important. And with Marcus and crew, I knew they were important. At least to my life. Hopefully, not to the murder investigation. But still, I ought to tell Shane.
Okay, I was going to tell Shane. I would make it sound simple, largely irrelevant, and nothing to get excited about. But I would tell him and therefore zap this guilty feeling and leave us all happier and relieved. Right?
“Look,” I began, “I don’t even care about this man. I didn’t know him. I didn’t have anything to do with his murder. In fact, I was on the beach at the time, meeting some stranger who…“
But he wasn’t listening.
“You were out in the water, swimming around his boat,” he said didactically, stabbing the air with his index finger to emphasize words.<
br />
I stared at him. “You can’t possibly think I had anything to do with this.”
He looked at me for a long moment before he spoke again. “I don’t think. I just follow my instincts. And right now, my instincts tell me that you are nothing but trouble around here. Now go.”
I backed off. I knew I couldn’t fight him this way. And anyway, I didn’t have time. I had to find Mandy before it got dark. It would be much smarter to use subterfuge, wouldn’t it?
“Why yes, Haley,” I murmured to myself as I turned back to my car. “Yes it would.”
Shane started to go, but before he took more than a step or two, a voice rang out.
“Deputy McAllister.” The Sheriff himself was coming our way again. “Mind if I have a word with Miss Greco for a moment?”
Shane gave me a look, as though to say, “See what you’ve done?”, then turned and deferred to his boss. “Of course not. I’ll leave you to it.” And he walked back out onto the pier. Leaving me to the inquisitor.
Thanks, pal.
I glared at his retreating back.
The Sheriff took his place and stared at me, not speaking for a long moment. This seemed to be one of his favorite ploys these days. I tried not to act like a bug under a magnifying glass.
“You see, Haley,” he said. “There’s something about you. You always seem to appear near murder scenes. Why is that?”
I opened my mouth to respond, even though I hadn’t thought of anything good to say yet, but he beat me to it.
“I’ll tell you why. You’re just like your grandmother. You think you’re a mover and a shaker and you want to be in on the ground floor on everything that happens around here. Don’t you?”
I stared at him with my mouth hanging open. What? Of all the cockamamie ideas about me I’d ever heard, this was the worst! I didn’t know what to say.
This sheriff was a hard one to puzzle out. I’d wondered from the beginning if he had any essence or sense of the supernatural in his makeup. I still wasn’t sure. The fact that he didn’t seem to respect my grandmother like he should made me think he might not. Still, that might just be because his particular background was with another super sub-group. Who knew?
“Listen, my dear,” he went on, and now he was waving a finger at me. “We’ve had a man killed on board a cabin cruiser, killed right out in our own ocean, right off our own beach, very near our own pier. Meanwhile, you were considered missing, swimming in that very same ocean, right near that same pier. And yet you showed up unharmed and unfazed within that very same time frame.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Do I think that was a coincidence? No I do not. I think you were somehow involved. Do I think you killed the man? Not necessarily. But I think you have a pretty good idea who did. And eventually, you are going to tell me.” He narrowed his eyes. “Oh, I don’t think you’ll do it real soon. But I have ways of making life tough on those who try to put one over on me. I think you’ll find that very uncomfortable very quickly. And once you’re ready to confide in me, I’ll be ready to listen.”
He started to turn away, but looked back.
“Don’t take too long about it, Haley. I’m a patient man, but I don’t like being trifled with. And I can make things miserable, not only for you but for your grandmother….and for Deputy Sheriff McAllister, if I have to. Don’t leave town. I’ll be talking to you soon.”
I stared after him as he went back to where the law officers were gathering on the pier. I hadn’t gotten one word out the whole time he was talking. That wasn’t like me, but I was so startled by what he was saying, I knew I needed to mull things over and decide on what my stance was going to be before I committed myself in any way.
Wow. It looked like I might be in big trouble this time.
I glanced over at the cabin cruiser one more time, then got into my car and sank into the driver’s seat, started the engine and quietly slunk out of the parking lot, trying hard not to be noticed by anyone else. I still had the problem of finding Mandy and I was wondering where on earth I could look next.
“Ahem,” said a voice from the back seat.
I nearly jumped out of my skin for the second time in an hour. I pulled over to the side and tried to calm my wildly beating heart.
“Mandy!” I cried, twisting to look at her. “Oh I’m so glad I found you!”
“Well, I think I found you,” she said sensibly. “But I suppose I couldn’t have done that if you hadn’t come out looking for me.” She gave me that half-shy, half-devilish grin she was so good at. “You were looking for me, weren’t you?”
“Was I ever,” I admitted, heaving a sigh. “Are you okay? What about Shrimp?”
“Got him.”
As she said the words, a cute little face appeared at the opening of her shirt pocket. I swear that little animal grinned at me.
“So what happened exactly?”
She shrugged. “Shrimp went on a journey. He told me he was going. But when we got the word that you had drowned…”
“Fake news,” I said, laughing as I shook my head.
“It didn’t seem so fake at the time. That’s what they told us when we tried to report you missing. Hit by a jet skier and drowned.” She shook her head. “Haley, we were in a terrible state when we heard that. You wouldn’t believe how awful that was.”
I bit my lip. “Why would they say such a thing?”
She made a face. “Who knows? We gathered our stuff and went roaring back to town, and I was hoping Shrimp might have beat us back there, but no. He wasn’t anywhere. And in the midst of feeling so horrible about you, I really couldn’t stand to think Shrimp was…..”
Her voice choked and she shook her head. “Anyway, I went back to look for him and I found him sneaking around in the police car.” She gave him a mock glare. “That was a little hard to explain to the officers.”
“I’ll bet.”
“Then I saw your car here and we jumped in to wait for you.”
“I’m glad you did.” I smiled at them both. “So where were you Shrimp?”
They both looked a little chagrinned for a second or two, but didn’t answer. Okay. I got it. Shrimp had gone looking for me and he’d seen me with Marcus and the others. He’d told Mandy, but she didn’t want to bring it up until I said something. Smart girl.
But things were getting serious and Mandy was one of the few people I felt like I could talk to about this. At least to some extent.
“So what did Shrimp find out on his scouting trip up and down the coast?” I asked lightly.
Mandy hesitated but I knew she was going to tell me.
“Okay,” she said, as though checking with Shrimp first. “Okay. He heard the cops talking about the murder.”
“Oh.” That wasn’t what I’d been expecting.
“This Sam Wellington guy was a small time crook, I guess. He was hit in the head with a two by four, then tossed overboard, but his body got caught in the anchor chain and he was still floating when they found him.”
“Oh,” I said again, shuddering a little. “No suspects? No witnesses?”
“They say four people were seen leaving the beach just off the area where someone leaving the boat would have come in to land. They were driving north toward town in an old VW bus. The police are looking for them.”
I looked at her. She looked at me. We both knew I’d been in that bus. And so had Marcus. Could Marcus be the killer? Or those two others? But if it was something to do with them, what was I doing there? That had to be going through Mandy’s mind right now.
But that was something I didn’t really want to talk about until I knew more myself. My heart was beating so hard I almost felt I had to get out of the car and walk around for a moment. But I kept it together and did some deep breathing as inconspicuously as possible, then started the car and turned toward town.
Mandy’s explanation had opened up new avenues of questionable issues, lots of which I would sure love some information on, but I was biting my tongue for now. We
all had our secrets. After all, I was pretty sure Mandy had shifted into her little red fox form for the run back down to the beach, and maybe even for searching for Shrimp.
And that was one thing that always puzzled me. What did she do with her clothes while she was in animal form? How come she always seemed to have some with her when the time came for human modesty? Or even the human need for warmth?
Some day I was going to get the nerve up to ask her about those things. But not now. Instead, I started talking, filling her in on my grandmother’s visit and the things she’d said to Rennie.
Chapter 7
Half an hour later, Rennie and I were back in my car. This time I brought Toto along. I hadn’t been paying enough attention to that little guy lately. He was jumping around in the back seat, excited and happy to be one of the gang again. We were preparing to head out to collect those vital ashes. Wherever they might be.
“Do you have the address?” I asked Rennie.
“The address?” She looked at me in surprise. “I thought you knew where they were.”
“Rennie. I’m the one who lost her memory of all things that happened before yesterday. Remember? How would I know where they are?”
She sighed. “Okay. I think I have the address in my bag.”
I shuddered. Her bag contained items from as far back as high school along with every bit of paperwork she’d collected for the last five years. I knew this could be a long search.
I looked at my watch. I was hoping to get this done soon so that I might have some time to look for Marcus and his friends, but something told me that wasn’t going to work out. Not tonight, anyway.
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