Key Lime Blues (A Wes Darling Mystery)

by Mike Jastrzebski

  “I’ve got a lot to tell you.” Tanya led me back to the swing and we sat down next to each other. “Just after you left this morning, a cop paid a visit. She told me Billy’s dead—murdered. For some reason she suspects you. I told her you stayed here last night. She had a thousand questions. Things like how well did you know Billy, and did the two of you get along.”

  “Woman by the name of Davies?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She’s working on Nick’s murder too. Seems a little uptight, but likable enough.”

  “Likable? She practically came right out and told me she thinks you killed Billy.”

  “I think she knows I didn’t do it. I was here, remember?”

  “I know, I…” Tanya’s phone began to ring and she looked over, hesitated, and grabbed for it. “Sorry, I’ve got to take this. I’ve been on the phone since Detective Davies left. I’m trying to find a replacement for Billy.”

  She answered it before I could reply, and then stood and walked across the porch out of earshot. When she returned, she refused to meet my gaze.

  “I know it must seem a little callous to you,” she said.

  I reached out and touched the back of her hand. “You’ve got a business to run. Find someone?”

  “I’ve got a local guy who does karaoke for the next two nights, and I booked an oldies band from Marathon for the next week. Beyond that, I’ll have to see what happens.” She reached for her coffee cup. “So tell me how your morning went.”

  I gathered my thoughts before launching into a condensed version of my visit with Elvis. I told her he’d denied knowing anything about the diamonds, but didn’t mention Celine. I didn’t feel like going through the entire story again. I also left out my coffee break with Brenda. When I finished, she took a final gulp of her coffee and set the cup back down.

  “I wish we were sitting here under different circumstances,” she said. “I never cared much for Billy, but I’d never wish him dead. And I’m worried about Gail.”

  “With good cause. I don’t think either of the twins will hesitate to kill her if they don’t get those diamonds back.”

  “So now what?” she asked.

  “Now I keep looking for Destiny.”

  “I almost forgot.” Tanya leaned toward me. She smelled of apples and vanilla and the scent made me want to smile. “Gail’s called looking for you. When I told her you’d be coming back here, she asked me to let you know she’s made arrangements to pick up the diamonds tonight. She said she’d stop in at the bar around closing. She wants you to meet her there.”

  “Did she leave a phone number?” I asked.

  “I’ve got her cell number.” Tanya opened her phone and waited until I got mine out before reading the number to me. I punched it in, hit send and waited while Destiny’s phone rang. When it switched over to her voice mail I left a message asking her to call me, repeated my number twice, and hung up.

  “I don’t trust her.” I jumped up and began pacing back and forth along the width of the porch. “She’s already taken me for a couple of grand. I need to find her before tonight. I suspect she’s stalling. For all I know she’s already got the diamonds and is on her way out of town.”

  “It would be like her to leave her mess for someone else to clean up,” Tanya said. “You know what they say, like mother, like daughter.”

  I crossed the porch and sat back down. “I thought it was like father, like son.”

  “Same difference,” she said.

  Sitting here with Tanya made me want to forget about work. I looked around, rested my elbows on my knees, and took a deep whiff of paradise. Key West is a mixed bouquet of scents and sensations. Flowers bloom year round, saltwater, diesel fuel and fresh rainwater permeate the air, and the wind disperses the fragrance throughout the island. A guy could get used to this, I realized. Especially if there was a good-looking woman around to share the experience.

  I shook off those thoughts and forced my mind back to the subject at hand. “Exactly how well do you know Destiny? I’m not quite sure I understand your relationship with her.”

  Tanya’s eyes took on a faraway look. As I shifted my body to get a little more comfortable, our arms brushed, sending a shiver through both of us.

  “I think I told you my father and her mother were an item for awhile, didn’t I?” Tanya chewed on her lower lip, something she seemed to do whenever she was bothered or worried.

  “You did.”

  “Gail and I were in seventh grade when Dad moved them in here with us. I’m pretty sure he really loved Shelly. She was a beauty, but she had a haunted look about her. She was pretty messed up. Dad once referred to her as his broken angel.”

  “Shelly is Gail’s mother?”

  “Right.”

  “And she was a stripper?”

  “Yeah. She was into drugs and she was turning tricks.” The tips of Tanya’s teeth worked her lip furiously as she chose her words. “Dad never told me about those things, of course. But I overheard enough arguments to figure out what was going on.”

  “Did Gail know her mother was an addict and a whore?”

  Tanya shrugged. “Hard to say. We shared a room. She heard the same arguments. But I think she was in denial. What girl wants to admit those things about her mother?”

  “How long did they live with you?”

  “About two years. I think Dad figured if he loved Shelly enough he could get her to stop the drugs. When he refused to give her money to buy drugs, she started selling herself. Dad told me years later why he finally kicked her out of the house. He didn’t want me being exposed to the drugs and the lies.”

  “What happened to Destiny?”

  “She went with her mother. Dad offered to let her stay, but Shelly wouldn’t have it. After she left, Shelly drifted from man to man. I think Gail may have blamed me for the whole thing.”

  “Why blame you?”

  “About that time I started getting a little wild. I began hanging out with Gail and her friends. My grades went down and one night Dad came home from work and caught me smoking pot with this guy, Bennie Hall. I thought Dad was going to kill him. The next day he told Shelly she was going to have to leave.”

  “Sounds to me like he did the right thing.”

  “Yeah. But Gail always figured if I hadn’t gotten caught, Dad never would have thrown them out.”

  “What do you think?”

  “Dad told me my getting high was the icing on the cake. He was considering telling Shelly to leave anyway, but he felt if he waited any longer it might be too late for me.”

  I digested what she’d said, but didn’t see how it could help me find Destiny.

  “Could she have gone to stay with her mother?”

  Tanya shook her head. “Shelly died from an overdose a few months before we graduated. I’ve always wondered if I should have tried to convince my dad to let them stay. Maybe he did kick them out because he caught me with the pot.”

  “Where’d you get the pot?” I asked

  “Gail stole it from her mother’s purse.”

  I put my arm around her and gave her a gentle squeeze. “Then I guess she’s really the one to blame for what happened, isn’t she? Besides, it wasn’t your decision to make. You were a child. Your father did what he thought was best for you.”

  “I guess, but somehow I feel responsible.”

  I knew the feeling well and wasn’t sure I could say anything to ease her pain, so I turned the conversation back to Destiny. “What happened after her mother died?”

  “Like I told you, she won a scholarship to Michigan State. I don’t know how she managed it living with Shelly. Dad was happy. He figured she was going to make something of herself. But Gail tried to make a buck and she screwed up. She ended up back here stripping, just like her mother. Things don’t look good for her, do they?”

  “No they don’t.” I was afraid that when this was all over, Destiny might very well be dead. I was going to have to get damn lucky in order to keep her
alive, or myself for that matter.

  Chapter 13

  I hung around the house and waited until Tanya headed off to work before walking back to the dinghy docks. It was almost four-thirty and I was supposed to meet my mother at six, so I needed to pick up my van. I’d bought the six-year-old cargo van after moving aboard my boat.

  I hate clutter, and there’s not much room to store things aboard a thirty-six foot boat. The van became my storage shed. I’d built shelves along either side in the back and filled them with tools, books, my banjo, and clothing I had only occasional use for, such as my winter jacket and my suit. I’m not a packrat, but there were some things I couldn’t get rid of.

  Smathers Beach was on the way to the airport, and since that was where Detective Davies told me they found Nick’s body, I decided to stop and take a quick look around. I didn’t expect to find anything useful, but I needed to see where Nick had died.

  It was late in the afternoon and I was able to find a parking space in the small lot across from the beach. I kicked off my shoes, set them on the passenger seat, and walked barefoot across the street.

  It was the weekend and although the water was cool at this time of the year, the beach was still crowded. Families picnicked and young girls in bikinis walked in packs giggling and showing off to the boys. There were a fair number of older women strutting around who should have packed up their skimpy suits years ago, and even a few aging Lotharios.

  You find these guys at every beach in Florida. They’re often in their fifties, or even sixties. They wear their long graying hair in ponytails, are in reasonably good shape, and spend long hours cultivating tans that are eventually going to help kill them. Often they wear Speedos, and hit on young women half their age. I suspect the ones with money are more successful than the ones without, but what the hell do I know.

  There was no sign anyone had been murdered on the beach. No police tape, no cops, no bloody sand. Davies had told me bodies were bad for business in a tourist town like Key West, so I didn’t expect to find anything. I just wanted to get a feel for the place.

  I wandered the beach and wondered what had drawn Nick here. Was he meeting a woman? Was he working his case? Had he stopped to take in the island’s ambiance and wandered across something he shouldn’t have. While I walked along the water’s edge and headed back to my van, I realized these were all questions that would never be answered to my satisfaction and it made me angry.

  I kicked at the sand with my bare feet and stubbed my toe on a rock that shouldn’t have been there. I swore, which earned me an evil look from a nearby mother who was building a sand castle with her son.

  My foul mood was still hanging over me like a swarm of hungry gnats when I walked through the corridor of the airport to the baggage pickup where my mother stood waiting for me. She was dressed in a thin, colorful pantsuit that clung to her trim body, and was pacing along the outskirts of a small crowd of people fighting for their luggage.

  From a distance she could have passed for my sister. Her long blond hair draped her shoulders and hung halfway down her back. It wasn’t until you got close that her age became apparent. Too many years of smoking and sun worship had turned her skin to a leathery brown. Her eyelids had been lifted, her cheeks sculpted by a skilled surgeon, but all that work only accentuated the fine lines around her mouth and eyes.

  When she saw me she stopped pacing and put her hands on her hips. “You’re late,” she said.

  I glanced at my watch. “Your flight was early. Which bag is yours?”

  She turned and pointed at a large blue suitcase when it dropped down the chute. I moved around her and squeezed through the crowd, but when I reached for it I missed. I waited until it made its way around the turntable, grabbed the case and carried it over to where my mother stood waiting.

  “Did you see the body?” she asked.

  “I saw a picture. It’s Nick all right.”

  Up close I could see the stress in her face. I knew she had loved Nick in her own way, but she was the strongest woman I knew, so I was surprised when she started crying.

  “I was hoping it wasn’t him. I mean I haven’t heard from him in two days so I knew, but I didn’t want to admit it.” She looked up. “After you left we spent a lot of time talking. He was going to move back into the house after this case. We were even talking about getting married. Nick was going to stop and see you before he flew back to Detroit and let you know about it.”

  “I’m sorry.” I was racked with guilt, and fighting to hold back my own tears. I draped my arm around her shoulders, and she laid her head against my chest and wept, harder than I’d ever seen her cry before. I hated being a detective and I knew I could never go back to work for the firm, but I couldn’t avoid feeling I’d let her down.

  People walked by and stared at us, whispering to each other while they moved along through the corridor. I knew my mother would not let her guard down for long, but I held her until she pulled away from me. She looked around the concourse, straightened her shoulders, and pulled a tissue from her purse. “Let’s go. I don’t need to stand here making a spectacle of myself.” She grabbed my arm and led me toward the exit. “I’m staying at the Pier House Resort. You can take me there and I’ll clean up a little before we go out for dinner. Why don’t we eat at that little bar where you work? I’d like to see the place.”

  Dirty Alvin’s would have been my last choice for dinner with my mother, but I wasn’t up to arguing the point with her. I shook my head no, but she refused to look at me so I grunted my assent and led the way out to where I had parked the van. I set her suitcase down, unlocked the passenger door, and stood aside to let my mother in. That’s when I realized she had stopped several feet away from me.

  “You don’t expect me to drive around Key West in a delivery van, do you?”

  “It’s what I drive, Mother.”

  “What happened to that cute little convertible you used to drive back in Detroit?”

  “I needed more space,” I said. “Are you coming or not?”

  “That would be a not.” She turned and started back across the lot. “Leave the van here and I’ll rent a decent car.”

  “Mother, I can’t leave it here, I don’t want someone breaking in and stealing my belongings.” My mother pretended not to hear me, and strutted away from my van. I was pissed and started to climb into the van anyway, thinking I’d drive away and let her fend for herself. I couldn’t do it. Instead, I slid out, slammed the door shut, picked up her bag, and trailed after her.

  ***

  I waited while my mother changed into a pair of jeans and a frilly white top. As we walked along Duval I filled her in on my search for Destiny. She didn’t say anything for the entire six block walk from her hotel to the bar. I wondered if she was feeling bad about Nick, or trying to come up with a way to get me to come back to work for her. Knowing my mother’s ability to multi-task, I suspected it was a little of both.

  It was nearly eight by the time we got to Alvin’s, and it was packed, even more so than usual for a Saturday night. I figured the word about Billy’s death was out and the curious and the ghoulish were gathering. I introduced my mother to Tanya and Marissa, and then we moved to the far end of the room when a young couple stood and vacated one of the tables.

  My mother took a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from her purse, and when I reminded her she couldn’t smoke inside, she ran her tongue along her upper lip and gave me an agitated look. I ignored her, stood, and walked over to the bar. I waited for Tanya to finish with her customer, ordered a Miller Lite for myself, a glass of Merlot for my mother, and at the same time ordered a couple of burgers with onion rings.

  When I returned to the table, my mother was scanning the room. I knew she was registering everyone and everything in her mind for future reference. She appeared amused by the crowd, and when her gaze settled on Tanya she said, “She’s quite attractive for a black woman.”

  “Her father was white,” I said.

&
nbsp; “Still makes her black.”

  I shrugged. “I guess so. And yes, she’s very attractive.”

  “I wondered what would keep you tending bar in a place like this. I should have known it was a woman.”

  “She’s my boss—nothing more.”

  My mother laughed. “You seem to forget, Wes. I’m also a detective. I saw the way you looked at her when you introduced us.”

  I felt myself turn red and I looked away. “And you object to my being interested in a black woman?”

  My mother studied me for a moment. “Not at all. But I don’t think she’s as sweet as she appears. I think you need to be careful with her.”

  “Is that the detective talking in you, Mother? Because to be honest, you don’t know her.”

  “I know we’ve had our disagreements, but I don’t want to see you get hurt. I think she’s got it in her to hurt you.”

  “Now you’re a psychic?”

  To my surprise, she gave her head a little shake, reached over, and laid her hand atop mine. “Not a psychic, a mother. Just so you know; I’ve had a lot of time to think about things these last couple of days. You may not believe it, Wes, but I do want what’s best for you.”

  I was shocked, and a little suspicious of my mother’s attitude. I was saved from having to cope with this new side of my mother by the arrival of our burgers.

  Tanya set them on the table before us, added a bottle of ketchup, and looked at my mother.

  “I’d love to sit and talk with you, but you can see it’s swamped in here.”

  My mother turned on her most gracious smile. “I can see that. Perhaps we can get together for lunch before I leave?”

  I groaned and spoke up before Tanya could reply. “I think you’re going to be pretty busy, Mother, what with making arrangements for Nick and all. Besides, Tanya’s got a business to run.”

  I’ve never experienced two women turning on me at the exact same time and it wasn’t pleasant. They both glared at me so I shut up. They continued to glare until I picked up my burger, then my mother reached for her purse.

  “Here’s one of my cards. My cell phone number’s on there. If you want to call me tomorrow, we can make arrangements.”