by Leena Clover
The girls crowded around Heather and stared at the screen as she flipped through dozens of photos.
“Wait! Go back!” Jenny squealed.
They stared at the girl in the picture, standing next to the victim.
“Isn’t that Mandy?” Molly cried.
“Keep going, Heather,” Jenny said grimly. “We need to be sure.”
They found Mandy in a few more photos, posing among a group of people or talking to the victim.
“How does Mandy know the guy?” Molly voiced what everyone was thinking. “And why didn’t she tell us?”
“What is she hiding?” Heather asked, looking around at the girls.
“Come on, girls,” Jenny argued. “You don’t really think Mandy had anything to do with this?”
“She was at the Halloween party,” Heather pointed out. “And she knows the man. So she must have seen him there.”
“The man was in costume,” Jenny reminded them. “Mandy might not have noticed him.”
“Or,” Heather mused, widening her eyes, “she arranged to meet him there.”
“You mean like a rendezvous?” Molly asked eagerly.
Heather nodded enthusiastically.
“It could have been a date.”
She turned to Jenny.
“Why did Mandy come to town anyway? Isn’t she like super busy all the time?”
“She came here for the Halloween party,” Jenny sighed. “I invited her. Actually, I am sure Barb must have invited her too.”
Molly banged her hand on the table.
“Pelican Cove is the perfect place for a secret assignation. Maybe this man was married and Mandy was having an affair with him.”
“That’s a wild theory,” Jenny argued. “Why are you two so eager to throw Mandy under the bus?”
“Hello!” Heather said, rolling her eyes. “Have you met Mandy? She’s mean.”
“She’s not mean,” Jenny protested. “She’s just … intense. She takes her job very seriously.”
“She’s mean alright,” Molly quipped. “Have you forgotten all those nasty comments she made about the Boardwalk Café? She was ready to tear the place down.”
“That was part of her job, I guess,” Jenny said lamely.
“I don’t know why you are siding with Mandy all of a sudden,” Heather scowled. “But you need to tell Adam about these photos.”
Jenny agreed to do that. The girls gossiped a bit about the people in town and went home.
Star and Jimmy had gone out for dinner. Jenny heated some leftovers for herself and ate in the kitchen. She watched TV for a while and then laced up her sneakers, ready to go for her walk. Part of her hoped she would run into Adam. The other part wanted to avoid him for as long as possible.
She stood on the beach outside her house, staring at the waves pounding the shore. The air was perfumed with the roses and gardenias from Seaview’s garden. Jenny rubbed the tiny heart shaped charm that hung around her neck, thinking of her son. He had gifted her a tiny gold charm every year for Mother’s Day since he turned eight. Jenny wore the charms around her neck now. They made her feel close to her son who was away at college. She wondered when he would come for a visit.
A moist wind off the ocean ruffled Jenny’s hair as she set a brisk pace. Tank and Adam appeared in the distance. Jenny allowed Tank to give her his customary welcome. She looked at Adam uncertainly.
The expression under his hooded eyes was guarded.
“Jenny.”
“I am so sorry, Adam,” Jenny burst out spontaneously. “I didn’t mean to …”
“It’s forgotten,” Adam said curtly.
Jenny hastened to tell him about spotting Mandy in the photos.
“You need to ask her how she knew that guy, Adam.”
“Are you telling me how to do my job?” Adam asked drily.
She detected a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
“Are you sure the man was killed at the café?” she asked.
“We are fairly certain,” Adam sighed. “The theory is that someone bashed him in the head at the café and then dumped him on the beach.”
“But who carried him there?” Jenny voiced the obvious question. “And how or why didn’t anyone notice?”
“Do you think people were that engrossed in the party?” Adam asked.
“Surely not?” Jenny mused. “Surely people would have noticed someone dragging a life-size body through the café?”
“We are going to start interviewing all the people who were there on Halloween night.”
“You can talk to the locals,” Jenny said, “but what about the tourists or outsiders who attended the party? How are you going to track them down?”
“There is no easy way to do that,” Adam agreed. “I just hope one of the locals spotted something.”
“What if Mandy spoke to that guy?” Jenny asked. “She might be able to tell you something.”
“Forget about this for a moment, Jenny,” Adam said. “Why don’t we talk about us?”
Jenny sidled close to Adam and leaned against him. They walked hand in hand, Tank trotting along beside them.
Chapter 7
Jenny breezed through the breakfast rush. She was getting better at running the café by herself. But she knew she needed to hire some permanent help.
“I never trusted that Mandy,” Betty Sue declared after taking a bracing sip of her coffee. “She’s a bit too smart for her own good.”
“Let’s not write her off just yet,” Jenny reasoned. “She might be completely innocent.”
“Innocent or not, she has to be involved in this somehow,” Heather remarked.
Jenny had to agree with that.
She wondered if Adam had talked to Mandy James yet. She packed a lunch basket and decided to go over to the police station to bend his ear.
Nora, the desk clerk at the station, greeted her cheerfully. Jenny handed over a box of cookies.
“Chocolate chip and marshmallow with hazelnuts,” she told Nora.
“Thanks!” Nora grinned. She tipped her head at Adam’s office. “You can’t go in yet. He’s talking to someone.”
“Who?”
“That hotshot consultant who goes around with Barb Norton.”
“Oh? Then I’m just in time. Let me handle this.”
Jenny knocked once and pushed Adam’s door open.
“What is it, Jenny?” Adam scowled. “I’m busy.”
Mandy James was sitting at the edge of a chair, dressed in one of her formal suits. She perked up when she spied Jenny.
“I want Jenny to sit in on this,” Mandy said. “She’s working on this too.”
“I don’t have to listen to you,” Adam snapped. “Jenny has no official capacity here.”
“Maybe not,” Mandy agreed. “But she’s my friend and I trust her.”
Jenny placed her basket on the desk and pulled up a chair before Adam could say anything more.
“I won’t say a word,” she promised. “Pretend I’m not here.”
Adam muttered something under his breath and sighed deeply. His resigned expression clearly conveyed his state of mind.
“So why am I here?” Mandy asked.
Adam quickly brought her up to speed.
“I am warning you, Miss James. It’s in your best interests to come clean.”
“Can you show me what pictures you are talking about?”
Jenny had saved some of the pictures on her phone. She handed it over to Mandy. Mandy flipped through the images, shaking her head.
“This is the guy who died? What was he doing in Pelican Cove?”
“We thought you might be able to explain that,” Adam said.
“I barely knew him! I didn’t even know he was here the night of the party.”
“Can you tell us what your relationship was with the deceased?”
“I met him while working on a project in the city,” Mandy explained. “He was one of the volunteers, I guess.”
Adam p
ointed to the pictures on the phone.
“You seem pretty close.”
“Those are just PR photos,” Mandy dismissed. “Taken while we were working together, you know. As you can see, there are plenty of other people around us. It was a group activity and I asked them to take the photos to post on a website.”
Adam didn’t look convinced.
“I don’t even remember the man’s name,” Mandy burst out. “You have to believe me.”
“What more can you tell us about him?” Adam pressed.
Mandy looked thoughtful as she reflected on the question. She leaned forward suddenly.
“He was a scumbag! He was hitting on me all the time.”
“Did you reciprocate?”
“Of course not. I don’t mingle with my clients.” She gave Jenny an apologetic look. “Pelican Cove is an exception. You have all made me feel at home here.”
“Anything else?” Adam asked impatiently. “This is important.”
“There was a girl who was hanging out with him. I think they were together. He was leering at me inspite of that. He was a scoundrel alright.”
“She didn’t gouge his eyes out?” Jenny joked.
Mandy snapped her fingers.
“They did have a fight. The girl was waving her arms around, yelling at him. I didn’t know what it was about at the time, but maybe she was tired of him ogling other women.”
“Would you recognize this girl if you saw her again?” Adam asked.
Mandy wasn’t sure of that.
“Do you know why this man might have come to Pelican Cove?”
Mandy had no answer for that either.
Adam had to let Mandy go.
“I got you some lunch,” Jenny told Adam, pointing toward the basket.
Adam took a big bite of Jenny’s famous autumn chicken salad sandwich. He was looking thoughtful.
“Why don’t I check out the people on the beach?” Jenny suggested. “Get an idea of how many tourists are still around?”
Adam rolled his eyes.
“How is that going to help?”
“You never know,” Jenny shrugged. “Someone might have noticed something.”
“Make sure you don’t harass anyone, Jenny. I don’t want any complaints.”
Jenny enjoyed her brief walk back to the Boardwalk Café. It was a light and breezy day and the smell of burning leaves mingled with the salty tang of the ocean.
Mandy sat on the deck of the Boardwalk Café, tapping her foot impatiently. She sprang up when she saw Jenny coming up the steps.
“You believe I’m innocent, don’t you, Jenny?”
“I don’t think you have any motive,” Jenny said honestly. “Unless you wanted to kill the man for hitting on you.”
Mandy’s face fell.
“Relax, I’m joking.”
Mandy gave her a watery smile.
“How can I help?”
“I was planning to talk to people on the beach.” Jenny waved her hand at the people lounging in camp chairs and strolling around.
Mandy folded her arms and nodded.
“Count me in.”
Chapter 8
Jenny and Mandy went around the beach, showing people the man’s photo. No one recognized him.
“There was a big crowd here that day, you know?” a wizened woman lying on a cabana said.
She was wearing a black one piece bathing suit that showed off her curves. Jenny secretly admired her muscle tone.
“The main thing you gotta remember here is that almost everyone was in costume. Some people had painted faces. Others wore masks. And it was dark! I wouldn’t know who they were in the light of the day.”
“What if someone dragged a body around,” Jenny asked. “Would you notice?”
“I might,” the woman offered.
She didn’t sound confident.
Jenny spotted a makeshift ticket booth by the corn maze. A man was sitting there, scratching his face. He waved them over. Jenny had seen the man around town and served him at the café so she knew he was a local.
“Anything I can help you with?”
Mandy thrust the phone in his face and pointed at the dead man’s picture.
“Seen this guy around town?”
The man shook his head.
“I never forget a face. This man sure didn’t buy a ticket for the corn maze.”
“Were you here on Halloween night?” Jenny asked him.
“Right until midnight,” the man said, bobbing his head. “Joined the party at the café after that. Man, that was some shindig.”
“You didn’t see anyone dragging a body to the beach, did you?”
The man rubbed at a spot on his face. Jenny figured he was coming out with a rash.
“No, Ma’am. I didn’t see anyone dragging a body. But I saw someone carrying a skeleton on their shoulders.”
His shoulders shook as he cackled at his own joke.
“Say that again,” Jenny said sharply.
“I figure it must have been a couples’ costume,” the man offered. “You know, like Sonny and Cher? That man must have been a great actor. He wasn’t moving at all. One time, the witch stumbled over something. The skeleton slid down her body, like dead weight. Don’t know how he managed that.”
Jenny thanked the man and grabbed Mandy’s hand. Her eyes could barely hide their excitement as she hurried back to the café.
“We need to look at all the witches from the party. Didn’t you take some photos too, Mandy?”
“You think it was the witch?” Mandy asked. “But there were at least a dozen witches, Jenny. Even your aunt was dressed as a witch.”
“We can strike her off,” Jenny panted. “And a couple other local women too.”
They sat down on the deck and went through Jenny’s pictures.
“I have a hunch,” Jenny said. “It’s a wild guess, really, but I have a strong feeling about it.”
Jenny flipped through all the pictures on her phone. They came across a few witches. Neither Mandy nor Jenny recognized them.
“We’ll set these aside for now,” Jenny said. “Show me your photos now, Mandy.”
Mandy paused when she came across a young witch.
“This girl looks familiar.”
She stared at the photo for a minute and banged a fist on the table.
“I know! She’s the one that dead guy was hanging out with. Remember I told you how she was yelling at him? She punched him and broke his nose.”
“You didn’t mention that before!” Jenny cried.
“It’s just coming back to me,” Mandy apologized. “It was almost a year ago.”
“We need to tell Adam,” Jenny sighed, getting up. “Do you want to come with me?”
Adam’s reaction was predictable.
“That’s a fantastic theory, Jenny!”
“Do you have any other leads?” Jenny demanded. “I doubt she’s still in the area but she might have rented a room at some local inn.”
Adam solicited Heather’s help. Heather was a member of a local innkeepers’ association. She forwarded the young witch’s photo to the group. Luckily, one of them responded a couple of hours later.
“Looks like she stayed in a neighboring town,” Adam told Jenny. “The woman said she’s left some stuff behind. Want to go with me?”
Jenny wasn’t about to refuse such an offer. She couldn’t believe Adam was actually offering to take her along with him.
They found two costumes in the girl’s room.
“Young people today are so careless,” the old woman who owned the inn lamented. “I suppose she doesn’t have any use for these costumes. In my day, we wore the same costume year after year. Didn’t waste money on frivolous things, you know.”
Jenny and Adam let the woman prattle on for a few minutes. Then they took the costumes and turned back.
“A witch and a skeleton!” Jenny looked at Adam triumphantly. “Do you believe me now?”
Adam had taken the girl’s co
ntact information from the inn’s records. He put the word out.
“We should be bringing her in any time now.”
“You think she used her real name?” Jenny mused. “That’s either too bold or too foolish.”
“She may not have come here with intent to kill.”
“So what? She just came here for the Halloween party?”
Adam shrugged.
“We’ll know soon enough.”
Epilogue
The Magnolias were assembled on the deck of the Boardwalk Café. Jenny had just brought out a plate of warm pumpkin spice muffins. Betty Sue was busy knitting an orange scarf. She set down her needles and took a sip of her steaming hot coffee.
“You did it again, Jenny,” Heather squealed, clapping her hands.
“Bravo!” Molly spoke, chewing on a piece of muffin.
Jenny’s aunt Star patted her on the back.
“Tell us the whole story,” Betty Sue ordered.
Barb Norton came up the boardwalk with Mandy.
“Hold on, Jenny. I want to hear this too.”
Jenny blushed.
“I didn’t do much.”
“Don’t be modest,” Star said. “Tell us what happened.”
“It was the girl,” Jenny explained. “She was kind of obsessed with the dead guy.”
“I thought they were together?” Molly asked.
“He was a villain himself,” Jenny told them. “The girl said he hit on other women all the time. They had a fight and he dumped her. But she couldn’t forget him. She stalked him. She found out he was coming to this party. She came here, hoping to make up with him. Then she saw Mandy here. She remembered Mandy from last year.”
Mandy spoke up.
“She thought the man came here to hook up with me.”
“She was already on edge, I guess,” Jenny went on. “She flipped. She bashed him on the head in a fit of anger. Then she panicked. She found a skeleton costume lying in a closet.”
“How did she manage to put it on him?” Heather wondered. “And how come no one noticed?”
“People were busy enjoying themselves,” Jenny guessed. “It was all spur of the moment. Maybe that’s why she was successful. She dressed the man in the skeleton’s costume and carried him on her shoulder.”
Mandy backed Jenny up.
