by Rose Pressey
“So you will help me?” she asked.
“Yes, I’ll help you.”
As if I could say no now. The curiosity was overwhelming me. I had to know who was responsible for this.
“Thank you so much,” she said.
“You’re welcome,” I said.
She stood from the chair and headed for the door.
“I’ll call you soon if I have any information.”
“Thank you,” Milla said again as she stopped at the door. “I hope you find the killer.”
“Don’t worry, I always get the job done.”
Chapter 23
“I certainly had a strange encounter today,” I said.
“You had a strange encounter?” Jake asked. “I find that hard to believe.”
I walked up and down the beach as I spoke with Jake on the phone. My toes sank into the wet sand as the warm water lapped at my ankles. Somehow it always felt as if I was all alone out here. Just the way I liked it. Maybe it was just because I tried to ignore the people around me.
“A friend of the victim contacted me. She just popped up out of nowhere,” I said as I watched a young couple stroll by hand in hand.
“Just out of nowhere?” he asked with suspicion in his voice.
“Honestly, I had nothing to do with it. She found me on her own this time.”
“Okay, I believe you,” he said. “But what did she want?”
“She wants me to find the real killer, of course,” I said.
“Of course,” he said. “Something seems fishy.”
“The only thing fishy is that fisherman who just walked by me,” I said.
“Are you leaving the beach now?” Jake asked.
“I’m walking to my car now.”
“Good, I’m worried about you.”
“No need to worry about me,” I said.
***
One of the people on Milla’s list of suspects was Jessica’s new love interest. He was a guide on a boat tour, so naturally I had to take that boat tour. Dorothy was feeling well enough to join me for this. She had finally decided that enough was enough. She wanted to get to the bottom of this as well. I was so thankful to have her back with me. She was my assistant and I needed the help. Okay, she didn’t really do much other than knit and crossword puzzles, but it was nice not being alone. I needed someone to talk to and to watch my back.
She was meeting me in the parking lot and then we would take the tour from there. I checked the time on my phone. It was unlike Dorothy to be late. Of course, it had only been a minute after the time we’d agreed on, but when I said she was never late, I meant never. Not even a minute. If she didn’t arrive in another minute, then I would start to worry. I stared at my phone, checking the time.
Thirty seconds passed and the screeching of tires caught my attention. Dorothy had whipped her car into the parking. Thank goodness she was here, even though it was a bit of a chaotic entrance. What was going on with her? When she was safely parked in a spot, I got out of my car and walked over to her car as she got out.
“Dorothy, what’s going on with you?” I asked.
She blew a strand of gray hair out of her eyes. “I’ve just been so flustered with everything going on that I’ve been out of sorts.”
“Well, that’s understandable,” I said. “You’ve been through a lot. Hopefully we’ll learn something new today.”
“I certainly hope so,” she said as she grabbed her pocketbook.
“We’ll get over to that boat tour and see what we can find out.” I took Dorothy by the arm to help her up onto the sidewalk.
Even though we were doing the tour right now, I wondered if Dorothy was too preoccupied by Morty. I just wanted my normal Dorothy back—the wild and wacky Dorothy, not the sad Dorothy.
“So why is this woman suspicious of this man?” Dorothy asked.
“It has something to do with a real estate transaction. I think Jessica had a property that a developer wants to buy.”
“I suppose that would be a reason for murder. It seems like it’s drastic though, don’t you think?” Dorothy asked.
“Well, all reasons for murder seem a bit drastic to me.”
“That’s true,” Dorothy said as we walked along.
We walked past the palm trees and down the pier toward the boat. Ropes from the many boats creaked in the wind and the boats rocked back on forth on the water at the marina.
“What type of tour is this?” Dorothy asked.
“It’s a dolphin tour,” I said.
“Oh, I like dolphins,” she said.
Finally, a hint of a smile crossed her lips.
“Me too,” I said with a smile.
Dorothy and I had almost made it over to the boat when a shot rang out. I grabbed Dorothy and shoved her to the ground as I fell down with her. I managed to get my gun from my purse.
“Stay down, Dorothy,” I yelled.
I rolled onto my back but stayed on the ground so that I could figure out where the bullet had come from. I needed to get to cover quickly. Plus, I wanted to get Dorothy out of danger. Everybody screamed and ran. As I looked to my left, I spotted someone with a gun aimed right at us. I fired a shot before they had a chance to fire again. The woman turned and ran away. I knew it was a woman, though her identity was concealed. I wanted to stay with Dorothy, but I had to go after this woman. As dangerous as it was, this was my job.
“Dorothy, stay right there. Don’t get up. I’m going after her.”
“No, Maggie, I don’t want you to do that,” she called out. “I can’t lose you too.”
The distress in her voice was heartbreaking, but I had to do my job. This woman was trying to kill us. Who else would she try to kill? She had to be apprehended and put behind bars immediately. I jumped up from the ground and took off down the path with my gun at my side. Everybody had pretty much cleared the area since there were people shooting. What would Jake say when he heard about this? I didn’t like the way that this had happened, but I hadn’t been the one shooting first.
As I grew near the corner of the building, I knew that I couldn’t just run around there. I had to take cover. For all I knew she was lying in wait for me. I didn’t want to leave myself open to another gunshot. Breathlessly, I raced over to the building and pressed my body against it. Surely someone had already called the police by now. Unfortunately, I heard no sirens.
On the count of three, I would look around the side of the building. My heart was beating so fast now that my hands even shook. One. Two. Three. I peeked around the side of the building and scanned around. There was no sign of the woman. Had I really scared her away with my return fire? I had a feeling that this wouldn’t be over that easily.
This woman had obviously wanted me dead. Therefore, she would come back until she achieved that goal. I released a deep breath. I had escaped this time, but I wasn’t sure about the next. I needed to go back and check on Dorothy right away. I lowered my gun and then raced back over to Dorothy, who was just now getting up from the ground.
“Are you all right?” I asked as I helped her to her feet.
“I am fine. Don’t you worry about Dorothy. What I want to know is if you’re all right?”
“Oh, I’m fine,” I said as I picked up my bag from the ground.
People were just now starting to peek out and look around. Sirens sounded in the distance. The police would be here soon.
“Thank goodness Jake will figure all this out,” Dorothy said.
“Hey! What about me?” I asked. “I’m a detective.”
“A private investigator who just got shot at,” Dorothy said.
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I said.
I secured my gun and put it back in my bag. Just then movement caught my attention and I looked over my shoulder to see Jake headed our way. Other cops were scattered across the area. I met Jake halfway.
“What’s going on, Maggie?” he asked. “We just got a call about shots fired. I suppose I am not shocked to see
you here.”
“Someone was shooting at us,” I said. “I returned fire. The person got away even though I chased her.”
“Thank God you’re all right,” he said. “Did you get a good look at her?”
“Sadly, no. It was kind of far away. Plus, she had on sunglasses and a hat. Her hair was pulled back too, so it was hard to get a look at her face. She was probably five foot six and a hundred and twenty pounds.”
“Is there anything else you can tell us about her?” Jake asked.
“Nothing that stands out right now, but maybe it will come to me later. It was all so fast. The adrenaline was pumping of course.”
“Do you know anyone who would want to do this to you?”
“Well, a lot of people and some of them aren’t happy, so it could be anything, I suppose.”
“Well, we’ll get to the bottom of this,” he said.
“Oh, trust me, I certainly will,” I said.
“What are you two doing here?” he asked.
“We were taking a tour.”
He raised an eyebrow as if he were suspicious. He knew there was a reason for everything I did, and it usually wasn’t something innocent like wanting to see cute dolphins. Not that I didn’t want to see dolphins, because I certainly did, but with a murder case on the line there wasn’t time for leisurely trips.
“We’ll look for any shell casings and see if we can get any information from that.”
“What about surveillance video?” I asked.
He nodded. “Yes, we’ll be looking for that as well. Hopefully with the surveillance we’ll get somewhere with this. In the meantime, you may want to be cautious. I know that’s something hard for you to do, but in this situation, you might want to try.”
“How do I do that?” I asked. “By not investigating? That’s not possible.”
“Do you think it has something to do with the murderer and Morty?” Dorothy asked.
“Yes, it does,” I said before Jake answered. “And I’m going to find the real killer.”
“I’m with you one hundred percent on this, Maggie. Maybe you don’t think so, but I really am.” He looked over at Dorothy. “Tell her, Dorothy.”
“I guess he is trying to help,” Dorothy said, not sounding completely convinced.
Now that Jake had allowed us to leave the scene, I wasn’t sure what my next move would be.
“I suppose this has put a kink in our plans of taking a dolphin tour,” Dorothy said.
“Yes, considering everyone has left the area, I suppose we’ll have to wait, but I really want to talk to that guy. We can come back tomorrow. If I haven’t scared him off permanently.”
“It does seem kind of odd that when we got up here by the boat was when we were shot at. Do you think there’s some kind of connection?” Dorothy asked.
“It’s a possibility. I’m going to check it out,” I said. “I’ll leave no stone unturned.”
“I know you won’t,” she said as she pulled out a peppermint candy.
“Wait.” I held up my hand. “What’s going on here?”
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“You’re eating a candy. I thought you had given them up.”
“I’m back, baby.” She stuffed a candy into the palm of my hand.
Chapter 24
When I surveyed the surroundings, I spotted a silver Jaguar in the distance of the parking lot.
“Dorothy, do you think that’s the same car that followed us?”
“Well, I don’t know. I don’t have my glasses.” She squinted. “But it looks the same.”
“Do you think he followed us here?”
“At this point, I would believe anything,” she said.
“Should we go check it out?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. It could be dangerous.”
“Do you think this has anything to do with the fact that we were just shot at?”
“It could be, but why? I don’t know if you should call Jake back over here. He just left, and you told him we were leaving this area too,” Dorothy said.
“Yes, I suppose he would be furious with me,” I said.
“He would be so mad that he wouldn’t play bingo with us for a month,” she said as she sucked on her candy.
I hardly think Jake would punish us that severely. An entire month of no bingo? That was just downright cruel.
“Wait, the car’s leaving,” I said. “Should we follow it?”
“I don’t think we have time to catch up to it now. The parking lot’s kind of far away. I don’t move that fast,” Dorothy said.
Dorothy moved pretty fast, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she was able to reach the parking lot in record speed.
“I guess we should just leave and forget about the car,” I said around a sigh.
“Probably so.” Dorothy said around the candy in her mouth.
I caught movement to my left and noticed a muscular dark-haired guy walking toward the tour boat.
“Hey, do you think that could be Joe Delgado?”
“Let’s go ask him,” Dorothy said.
Dorothy and I made our way over to the dock. The guy was busy doing something boat related and didn’t notice we were standing there. Finally, I cleared my throat and he turned around.
“Oh, sorry the tour’s canceled today.” His eyes widened as if he recognized us. “What can I do for you?”
“We came for the tour,” I said. “But if it’s cancelled…”
He studied my face for a moment. “I do private tours if you’re interested.”
This was odd. I saw no mention of private tours on the brochure.
“Are you Mr. Delgado? The tour guide?” I asked.
“Yes, that’s me and you are?”
Should I give him my real name? Probably not.
“This is Maggie and I’m Dorothy.” Dorothy gestured.
What? So much for not giving him my real name. I had to fix this mishap.
“Maggie Jones and Dorothy Smith,” I said with a smile.
I seriously needed to work on my lying technique. I didn’t sound convincing, but maybe it was just me being paranoid.
“Nice to meet you, Maggie and Dorothy.” He flashed a big grin.
The way our names rolled off his tongue sent a shiver down my spine. Being alone with him in the middle of the ocean didn’t seem like a good idea. Unfortunately, I would have to turn down his offer for a private tour. Nonetheless, I still wanted to ask this guy questions. How could I come out and ask him if he was dating a woman who was recently murdered? There wasn’t exactly a great way to segue into that topic.
I suppose going out on the tour with him would offer more opportunities to ask questions versus just standing here on the dock, but I was torn about that creepy look he’d given me. I definitely didn’t want to put Dorothy in danger either.
“Since the other tour was cancelled, I have available time if you’d like to go out now,” he said.
Now he was just trying to sound charming. Was he doing that to lure me out to the ocean? But what would be his reason for that? I had no idea who this guy was other than he was attached somehow to the murdered woman. I was just being paranoid because I’d just been shot at. I looked at Dorothy for guidance.
“Why not?” she said with a shrug. “I want to see the dolphins.”
“How much does it cost?” I asked.
Having a private dolphin tour had to be expensive.
“How about this? I’ll just charge you for the cost of what it would have been on the other tour. I’m not doing anything anyway.”
This seemed too good to be true. What was this guy up to? I hoped I wasn’t making the wrong decision.
“Okay, that sounds good,” I said reluctantly.
“Come aboard,” he said with a wave of his hand.
“Do you think this is a good idea?” I whispered.
“He seems nice and you want to ask him questions?” Dorothy said.
Yes, I did want to ask questions,
but I didn’t want to get us killed in the process. Because then those questions wouldn’t matter. Nevertheless, we continued toward the boat. I helped Dorothy on and then I climbed on too. I hoped I didn’t regret this decision.
“You can have a seat anywhere you’d like,” he said.
I thought about sitting at the back just because I wouldn’t be up close to this guy, but then he wouldn’t be able to hear me ask questions either. So probably it was better to sit closer. Dorothy and I picked the seats right behind him.
“What about life preservers?” I asked.
He looked at me as if I was asking some outrageous question. Didn’t he have people wear those normally?
“Well, it’s safe but if you prefer to wear them, okay,” he said.
Since I was going to be in the open water, I figured it was a good idea to wear one. After the predicaments I’d gotten myself into in the past I realized that sometimes I needed to take precautions.
He pointed out the life preservers, so I took one for Dorothy and me. After helping Dorothy put hers on, I slipped mine on and then sat back down ready for the trip.
“All right, if you’re all set,” he said.
I guessed I would be as all set as I would ever be, so we’d get this boat on the ocean so that I could ask some questions. I knew Jake would definitely frown upon this move. Nevertheless, had already gone through with this much of it so I had to finish it out.
At least the water was relatively calm. The last thing I needed was for Dorothy to get seasick. Joe Delgado was being awfully quiet. Wasn’t he supposed to talk to us? Point out the dolphins or something? Dorothy was staring out at the expanse of blue sea waiting for a sighting. I was waiting for my chance to ask questions.
“Have you been giving these tours long?” I asked. That probably sounded like some kind of pickup line.
He glanced over his shoulder. “About six months.”
Well, that question had been pointless. What would I say next? Asking if he had a girlfriend was completely out of the question. I couldn’t believe I was all out of ideas. What kind of private investigator was I, anyway? Come on, Maggie, you can do better than this.
