A Corpse at the Cove

by Blythe Baker

  The man’s bald head was red and sweaty, his neck throbbing with anger. It looked as if he were going to burst any second. Quickly, I jogged across the yard.

  “Is there a problem?” I asked, forcing a smile across my face.

  The man whipped around and ran his eyes over me, scrutinizing my holey jeans and off the shoulder t-shirt. “It isn’t any business of yours,” he snapped.

  “Actually,” I said, clearing my throat. “I’m co-owner of the Sunrise Bed and Breakfast, so I fear it is my business. What seems to be the trouble?”

  “Your partner gave my room away without any warning!” he said, pointing an accusatory finger in Page’s direction.

  Page rose up on her toes, neck outstretched as she tried to explain. “I left several messages, sir—”

  “No consideration for my plans at all,” the man continued as if Page hadn’t spoken. “What am I supposed to do now? The last ferry has already left, and I’m stuck on the island until morning without a place to stay.”

  Working directly with customers had never been my strong suit. Even as a bank teller, I would run and grab the manager anytime someone had a complaint. But with Page looking at me, frustrated and clearly out of patience, I didn’t really have a choice. I was the manager.

  “If your payment didn’t come through, there really isn’t anything we can do. I’m so sorry for the inconvenience, but we can’t give away a room for free if there is a paying customer ready and waiting,” I said in my most professional voice, trying my best to hide the nervous tremble in my fingers.

  The man’s mouth opened and closed several times as he processed what I said, trying to work out what to say in response. Then, he released a loud, angry exhale, snorting like a bull before it charges. “Don’t make me out to be some free loader! I am more than capable of paying, but my wallet was stolen on the ferry. I’m going to call my bank right now and sort this whole thing out, and when I do, you’ll be looking at a lawsuit!”

  “That isn’t necessary, sir,” Mason said, stepping forward. “I’m sure we can work this out.”

  Just a few months prior I would have given anything for there to be a man in my life willing to step forward and protect me, but at the moment, I just wanted Mason to stay out of it. This was the first complaining customer Page and I were facing, and we had to deal with it ourselves. We had enough doubts in our life without adding customer interaction to the list. Besides, after being attacked by two different murderers and coming out both times with little more than a few scrapes and bruises, I could handle a disgruntled customer.

  “There isn’t anything to work out,” I said, my voice stern, eyes warning Mason to back off. “We are a new business, and as much as we’d love to help you out, sir, there just isn’t anything we can do.”

  The man opened his mouth to speak, but Mason cut him off. “These ladies want to help, but their hands are tied. I, however, have a studio in the back of my house that is open if you need a place to stay. It’s small and full of painting supplies, but it’s free and it’s a roof over your head.”

  I huffed, annoyed that Mason had continued butting in, despite his offer actually being a good option. It would give the man a place to stay and keep him from taking any legal action against us—even though I didn’t truly believe he had a case, the business still didn’t need the bad press.

  The man, however, didn’t seem as impressed. He turned up his lip at Mason, nose in the air. “I’d rather sleep in one of the caves along the coast than take anything from you manipulative people. You come out here and gang up on me. You just watch and wait. People will hear about what a horrible place this is, and you’ll be closed down for good.”

  With that, he grabbed his suitcase and tore off through the yard towards his bright red rental car.

  Page shouted apologies after him, but I placed a hand on her shoulder and shook my head. “He isn’t worth it, sis. He’s a grouch and he isn’t going to shut us down. He doesn’t have that kind of power.”

  “You don’t know that!” Page said, her voice rising in a panic. “We have no idea who he is or who he knows or what connections he has. I shouldn’t have given away his room.”

  “You were just doing your job,” I said, trying to calm her down. “Our job is to keep the rooms full of paying customers and you did that. Job well done.”

  Page looked at me, unsure, and I could tell she wanted to say something. After a few seconds, however, she turned away, her eyes downcast for a second before she seemed to find her composure.

  “You’re right. It will all be fine.”

  “That guy was a jerk, mom,” Blaire said, moving forward to loop elbows with her mom and lead her back towards the house.

  I watched them walk away.

  “Very dramatic evening,” Mason said, pulling me into him, wrapping a hand around my waist.

  I wanted to lean into him. It had been a few days since we’d seen one another. He’d been commissioned for a huge mural that would act as the centerpiece for a new urban park in Houston, and with the bed and breakfast only being open a few weeks, I barely had time to think about anything else. Still, though, something held me back. Perhaps it was the need to prove to him that I could stand on my own, both figuratively and literally. That I didn’t need him defending me or protecting me.

  I gently pushed away from him and picked up my shopping bag, which, in the midst of the argument, I’d dropped on the grass. He looked a little spurned, but didn’t mention it, and I was relieved. The fight with the guest had drained me, and I didn’t want to launch into my ‘independent woman’ speech just then.

  “What are we going to do tonight?” Mason asked, his face expectant, blue eyes wide.

  I bit my lower lip. “I was actually thinking I’d hang around here tonight.”

  He groaned, and grabbed my hand, his thumb tracing a circle around the bone at my wrist. “But we haven’t seen each other in ages.”

  “I know,” I said, “but Page has been running the place by herself all day, and with that guy who just left…”

  “Will things ever be calm enough for us to hang out again?” he asked, lip jutting out in a pout.

  “It’s just me and Page. We do everything around here—cooking, cleaning, guest interaction. Life is going to be crazy for a while.”

  His lips turned up in an almost imperceptible smile, his eyes softening, creasing at the corners. He nodded. “I know. You two work really hard, and I understand that. I just miss you.”

  My stomach fluttered. I still wasn’t entirely certain when Mason and I had decided that we were “a thing.” After the crazy night spent in Robert Baines’ mansion, eluding death and hunting down a killer, we simply kept in touch. He dropped by the bed and breakfast unannounced to check in, and I’d swing by his studio on my way to run errands to see if he was working on any new paintings and check his progress on the mural. Things had just fallen into a natural rhythm, and now that life was throwing a few obstacles in the way, I wasn’t really sure how to get back to that.

  “I miss you, too,” I said, meaning it. Despite everything I was feeling, I did miss him. But more than anything, I missed what we could have been had our relationship not been, from the outset, surrounded by so much morbidity. I missed the meeting we could have had, where rather than being caught trespassing on his property looking for clues to solve a murder, I could have accidentally backed my cart into his at the general store or driven over to his house to deliver some of his mail that Ed accidentally put in my mailbox.

  “I’d tell you to stick around if you wanted, but I’m going to be cleaning bathrooms and serving elderly couples dinner. It’s not exactly a glamorous date night,” I said.

  “Besides,” Mason said, “I wouldn’t want you to think that counted as quality time. Perhaps a few more days apart will convince you to take a night off and hit the town with me for a real glamorous date night.”

  “Hit the town?” I asked, imagining the dark, empty stretch of road Sunrise Island
considered Main Street. The coffee shop was overrun with teenagers on any weekend, and the next best date place, the General Store, closed at 7 PM on Fridays and Saturdays.

  “The city,” he said, clarifying, his mouth quirked to the side, amused. “Staying on the island would hardly classify as glamorous.”

  We talked for another ten to fifteen minutes, the sky over the water rapidly turning pink and then blood orange red before slipping into a pool of inky blacks and blues. Finally, as the lamps inside the bed and breakfast began blinking on one at a time, dousing the lawn in golden light, Mason kissed me on the cheek, reiterated our need for a serious date night, and left.

  I made my way across the lawn and up to the porch, hauling the plastic bag of décor I’d bought on the mainland. I could hear a flurry of voices coming from the open sitting room windows. Once it got too dark to be at the beach, the b&b was abuzz with bored, sunburned guests with nowhere else to go. Page had taken to hosting game nights in the sitting room. I was so busy praying they weren’t playing Monopoly again and making a mental note to expand our board game collection that I didn’t notice the man sitting in the shadow next to the front door.

  CHAPTER 4

  “Hey there.”

  I jumped at the sound of the deep voice, nearly dropping my bag through my startled fingers, but just managing to catch it with my hooked index finger before it hit the floor. My lungs had leapt into my throat, and I threw my free hand over my heart, doing my best to regulate its beating.

  A man was sitting in one of the low metal deck chairs just to the left of the door. His long legs were relaxed, stretched out in front of him so they nearly reached the edge of the porch. An open book sat in his lap, though I couldn’t make out the faded lettering on the spine. He had vivid blonde hair that practically glowed in the darkness, framing his long, square face. Had I not been so terrified, I would have had more energy to appreciate his good looks.

  His mouth opened into a small ‘o,’ matching the wide circles of his eyes.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, half laughing at my expense. “I didn’t mean to startle you.”

  “What exactly did you mean to do then?” I snapped, my surprise immediately shifting into annoyance. It had to have been clear that I didn’t know he was there. Couldn’t he have coughed or stamped a foot to alert me to his presence? That was the polite thing to do. Then I had to wonder how long he had been sitting there. Had he seen the argument we’d had with the previous guest? Or had he only come out after Page and Blaire had gone inside, when I was too distracted talking to Mason to notice anyone else come through the front door? Though Mason and I hadn’t done anything embarrassing, I felt my cheeks redden at the thought of being watched without knowing it.

  The smile faded from his lips, though it didn’t fade from his eyes. There was a light behind the caramel brown irises that couldn’t be extinguished, even with my clear disapproval.

  “I just meant to introduce myself,” he said, rising to his feet. “I wanted to meet the person who is so kindly hosting me during my time on the island. You are Piper, are you not?”

  I’d noted the length of his legs when he was sitting in the chair, but I was still surprised by his height when he stood up. He towered over me, his head only a foot or so away from brushing against the ceiling. I took a subconscious step back, wondering for a brief second how he knew my name.

  Then, I realized he had to be a guest. Though the Bed and Breakfast had been open for a few weeks, I still found myself surprised by the sight of strangers lounging on my sitting room sofa or coming out of the half bath on the first floor. As that realization washed over me, another one followed closely behind. He was a guest, and I’d just been supremely rude to him. That wouldn’t be good for the online reviews.

  “Oh, gosh,” I said, unable to keep my embarrassment to myself. “I’m so sorry. You just surprised me, and my customer service skills aren’t great yet. Wow…”

  Words seemed to fail me, so I decided to stop speaking, and instead extended my free hand. He offered up a warm smile, his teeth white and straight, and extended an equally warm hand to grasp mine. We stood there for a few seconds longer than was normal, shaking hands and looking at one another. Then, remembering myself (and Mason), I pulled away from him and shoved the traitorous hand in the back pocket of my jeans.

  “I didn’t catch your name?”

  “Jude,” he said, running a hand through his wavy blonde hair. “Jude Lawton.”

  As if his good looks weren’t enough, even his name made him sound like the lead character in a romance novel. I tried to ignore all of this, though. Partly because fawning over a man I’d just met strictly based on his good looks made me feel like a teenager, and partly because Mason’s soft smile and bright blue eyes kept flashing in my mind like a self-imposed guilt alarm.

  When I failed to say anything in return, Jude continued. “Like I said, I didn’t intend to startle you. I just wanted to meet you and extend my gratitude for your hospitality.”

  I smiled at him, hoping it looked more business professional than it felt. “Of course. That is what the Sunrise Bed and Breakfast is here for—to make every guest feel welcome and at home.”

  “I absolutely feel welcome,” he said, nodding his head fervently. “Not too many places would be willing to take in a guy off the street and give him a room without any payment up front. I seriously can’t thank you and your sister enough for taking a chance on me. I was afraid I was going to be sleeping in the sand tonight.”

  Without any payment.

  His words floated around in my head like alphabet soup, jumbled, nonsensical. I tried to make sense of it, but kept coming up empty. Hadn’t we just kicked a guest out for that exact same reason?

  “Right,” I said, reluctantly agreeing with him, slowly shaking my head.

  I needed to talk to Page.

  “Would you excuse me?” I said, lifting up my single bag in explanation. “I need to get this stuff inside.”

  Jude thanked me again and reclaimed his seat next to the door, picking up what I now realized was a battered copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

  As soon as I walked through the door, Page was on top of me, her hands on my shoulders, spinning me around to face her.

  “It’s about time. I was afraid I was going to have to go out there and hose you and Mason down to get you to come inside,” Page said.

  “We were just talking.”

  “Whatever,” she said, waving me away. “It’s totally your turn to entertain the guests. I’ve been in customer service mode all day and I need a break. Plus, I want to catch up with Blaire. Did everything go okay today? Did she have fun?”

  I’d almost forgotten about my scare with losing Blaire just a few hours before, but I knew it was no longer worth mentioning. It would only lead to an unnecessary lecture from Page that I didn’t have the energy to deal with. Besides, I had a strong suspicion it was finally my time to lecture Page.

  “Everything went fine,” I said. “But I actually need to talk to you.”

  Page was already turning towards the stairs, and she responded over her shoulder. “Can it wait?”

  “What’s with the guy on the front porch saying he didn’t have to pay for his room?” I asked.

  Page’s shoulders stiffened as she slowly turned back around. The skin under her eyes looked bluer than normal, contrasting with the sudden paleness in her cheeks.

  “You met Jude?” she asked, her voice high-pitched in a forced kind of casual.

  I nodded. “I met Jude. Who is he? Why isn’t he paying?”

  “Okay,” Page said, taking a step towards me, her voice lowering. “I know what you’re thinking.”

  “That we just kicked a man out for not paying and now we have another one?”

  “Yes,” Page said, nodding. “That. I know that’s what you’re thinking, but Jude is different.”

  “If by different, you mean Jude looks like the clean shaven single dad in a romcom while the o
ther guy looks like a used cars salesman, then yes, they are different. In every other way, though, they are the exact same. We don’t make any money by either of them staying here.” I was still talking quietly, but my whisper had grown harsher and harsher as I spoke until I sounded like the hiss from a hot kettle.

  “You aren’t listening,” Page said, using her mom voice on me, trying to make me feel like I was overreacting. “You’re jumping to conclusions.”

  “And you’re giving away rooms for free,” I snapped. “You’re meant to be the responsible one between us, remember?”

  I rarely ever pointed out this dynamic between us, but it was mostly because it didn’t need to be pointed out. Anyone who spent any amount of time with the Lane sisters knew that I was the free-spirit, the screw up, and Page held everything together. What was going to happen to the Sunrise Bed and Breakfast if Page forgot that?

  “I’m not giving it away,” Page said, finally raising her voice, apparently not used to being the one on trial. “He’s going to pay us tomorrow.

  I paused, waiting for her to continue explaining, but she didn’t elaborate. Page crossed her arms over her chest protectively and alternated looking at me and the floor.

  “And why didn’t he pay today?” I asked.

  Page hesitated. “He didn’t have the money today.”

  Once again, I waited for her to elaborate, and once again, she stayed silent. I sighed. “You’re going to need to explain this situation to me more fully if you want me to understand, Page. Why didn’t he have the money today?”

  Her posture unfurled like a scroll, and the words spilled out of her.

  “He showed up unannounced just after you and Blaire left this morning. He was looking for a place to stay while he did some work on the island. If he’d shown up even an hour earlier I would have had to send him away because we were full, but I’d just discovered that Mr. Bergeron’s payment had failed to go through, so, based on policy, his room was available.”

  Page paused, as though waiting for my confirmation that she had done nothing wrong in giving Mr. Bergeron’s room to Jude. I, however, remained stoic, aware that I was enjoying Page’s vulnerable position a bit more than I probably should be. Seeing that she still had a long way to go before I was convinced, Page quickly resumed her story.