by Duffy Brown
I headed for the Cupola Bar on the other side of the hall, perched on top of the hotel facing the lake. The lounge was dimly lit with intimate round tables occupied by couples, and here I was the conspicuous single. So much for blending in. I took a table off to the side and ordered a glass of Chardonnay. What I really wanted was a burger, fries and a Bud Light.
Big windows all around offered a terrific view of town below and the long sweep of the Mackinac Bridge twinkling in the distance. There was a really cool white bar with floral padded stools, a glass chandelier overhead made in Venice back when gondolas were more than a tourist attraction and a dance floor. On a small stage toward the front, a trio was playing Duke Ellington. The Duke was before my time, but Grandpa Frank had a collection of thirty-three-and-a-third vinyls. I never got the number thing, but the music was great and—
“Hi there, gorgeous,” a man said, standing beside my table. I looked around for the person he was talking to but . . . but . . .
“You’re talking to me?”
He laughed and sat down. “Humor, I like that.”
Idle came out on stage, introduced herself and opened with “You’re Nobody Till Somebody Loves You.” The guy signaled for the waiter and ordered champagne. I was a Nutty Buddy connoisseur to be sure; champagne not so much, but it sounded French and expensive and I couldn’t place this guy to save my life. He was in his fifties with salt-and-pepper hair, and his suit could probably pay for my bike shop. Maybe I’d run into him over at Doud’s or here at the Grand? Why would he buy me champagne?
“My wife’s off at some lilac lecture this evening,” the man explained. “And here I am all alone.”
“So, you came over for the lilac festival. Ah, you’re a customer. The island is a great place for a good time and a nice ride.” I held out my hand. “Evie.”
“I’m . . . Johnson and I’m always up for a good ride.” He put his hand on mine and smiled, except it was kind of a weird smile, and he laughed deep in his throat, and why hold my hand? I reclaimed my hand and Idle ended the “Nobody” song and started in on “Georgia on My Mind.”
“Hey,” Sutter said to me, drawing up to the table as the waiter poured the champagne. “Who’s your friend?”
Sutter had on a jacket and it wasn’t the black Windbreaker with the I AM THE POLICE patch. It was a blue blazer and he had on a tie. Sutter owned a tie? “This is Mr. Johnson,” I explained. “He’s a customer of mine and here on the island for a good time and a nice ride of course, and he bought me champagne, isn’t that sweet.”
“I was here first, buddy,” Johnson said good-naturedly, holding up his glass to Sutter. “Better luck next time. Get lost.”
Sutter looked from me to Johnson, a slow grin breaking across his face like he was really enjoying the moment. “Mind if I join you?” Sutter didn’t wait for an answer and took a seat. “I’m Nate Sutter, chief of police on the island, and there will be no riding.”
Johnson froze with his glass halfway to his mouth, eyes bulging. He choked and sputtered, then jumped up, knocking his chair backward on the floor, and raced for the door.
I looked from Johnson to Sutter. “You know him?”
Sutter’s smile broadened. “You really don’t get what’s going on here?”
“Holy cow! He’s on the most wanted list?”
“You’ll figure it out.” Sutter righted the chair, took the champagne from my hand and set it on the table. “We should dance.”
“You . . . dance?”
“On occasion. I think this is one of them.”
Sutter led me onto the floor as Idle broke into a swing version of “All of Me.” Okay, I’d taken dance lessons as a teen; it was one of the social graces in the Bloomfield household along with what fork to use when and how to select the best 401(k). I could shuffle my way around, but Sutter . . .
“How’d you get so good at this?” I asked as he added some footwork and gave me a twirl. I hadn’t twirled in years.
“Practice.” Idle flowed into “Old Devil Moon” and Madonna strolled out on the stage with her, the two of them now singing a duet.
“Madonna said she had plans, but I never suspected this.” And another thing I hadn’t counted on tonight was my hand in Sutter’s, his hand at my back and us together . . . close. Chest to chest close. His chin touched my cheek. He’d shaved . . . close. And he smelled like . . . a man. My leg brushed his. My hip grazed his. My stomach flipped and I couldn’t breathe. I went hot all over. Okay, I said to myself. Get over it. I’d had these feelings before with Sutter and they went nowhere. No follow-up phone calls, no texting, no stopping by for a cup of sugar or anything else that came to mind. Not that the guy ever said he would. It was me; I was reading too much into a few kisses and a dance, a really sexy dance.
“The woman can sing,” Sutter said, his warm breath across my cheek. “Who would have thought?”
And that was the problem; I couldn’t think about anything but Sutter. “What are you doing here?”
“I want to talk to Idle after the show. What brings you here?”
“The elevator. I need to powder my nose.”
I cut across the dance floor, leaving Sutter alone in the middle. I needed to get a grip. And I needed to warn Fiona. If Sutter found her and Idle together it would look like they were up to something. IMO they were, but Sutter didn’t need to know that.
I took the steps to the second floor and spotted Penelope at the bottom of the red-carpeted staircase, jacket and purse in hand, walking across the lobby. She was leaving now? No, no, no! What happened to her shift ending when Idle finished the show? Hey, the show wasn’t finished! Do I warn Fiona about Sutter or follow Penelope?
I crossed my fingers that Fiona had already left, and I headed down the steps and out the front door. Penelope climbed into a taxi, the one headed to the East Bluff and Mission Point and up to Arch Rock.
Huffing and puffing and stumbling in heels . . . blast heels . . . I power-walked beside the taxi as it circled to the back of the hotel to catch Annex Road. I needed a bike. What I needed was a car! How was I going to keep up with the taxi?
“Evie?”
I spun around to Mother running after me, though with auburn curls flowing out behind her and her lovely red dress swishing at her knees she was definitely more Carman than Mother tonight.
“Where are we going?” she panted. “And we’re going somewhere for you to be following that taxi like a hound on the scent.”
“This might be one of those questionable situations, and you’re a lawyer,” I said to Mother. “You uphold the law. This might be more breaking the law. You don’t want to get involved in that.”
“I’m your mother first, dear; I’m involved and have been for thirty-four years, and if there’s no question, then where’s the fun? And as for upholding the law or breaking it, that’s always a gray line, take it from a lawyer. Besides, Angelo is inside having drinks with Luka, and I know they want to get rid of me and talk shop. Spill it.”
I pointed to the wagon fading into the night. “I’m following another suspect in the Peep Show, but we can’t keep up and we’re going to lose them in the dark and. . . . Shakespeare! Just what we need.”
“If you say so, dear, but I never did get Othello. How does Shakespeare figure into this?”
“Horse.” I ran over to Shakespeare, tied casually to a post by the back entrance of the hotel ’cause no one would be stupid enough to take the sheriff’s horse. I gave Shakespeare a pat, put my foot in the stirrup and shimmied up. I slid my leg over the saddle, very unladylike considering I had on a dress, hiking the thing up to my thighs. Thank heavens for the dark, and I never thought I’d be glad I had on pantyhose.
Mother held out her hand to me.
“Uh, this is horse stealing; no gray lines, just a big black one in law books everywhere.”
“They have to catch us fir
st.”
“I think that’s what Bonnie said to Clyde.” I grabbed Mother’s hand and she slid up behind me with her dress cascading over her legs. Mother always knew how to dress for the occasion. I flipped the reins. “Giddyup.”
Shakespeare didn’t budge. He flicked his tail and snorted and tossed his head.
“Giddyup, you handsome gorgeous stud,” Mother said in a sweet sexy voice, and Shakespeare trotted off at a fast clip. “Sometimes it’s not so much about the facts but how you present them.”
Mother held on to me and I held on to the saddle, both of us bobbing along; we weren’t exactly a proficient equestrian mother/daughter team. “Who are we tailing?” Mother asked, her voice bouncy with the horse’s trot as we passed under a canopy of trees leading into the woods.
“Penelope. She’s a desk clerk at the Grand. Peep was blackmailing her and I wanted to find out why. Everything she does at the hotel seems normal, so I thought I’d check out her life away from the place.” I pulled on the reins to slow Shakespeare so as not to get too close to the taxi. “We don’t want to be conspicuous.”
“We’re in evening dresses riding the sheriff’s stolen horse,” Mother said with a laugh. “The conspicuous ship has sailed, dear, probably to Fiji by now, knowing how fast the gossip mill is here on the island. The best we can hope for is that this Penelope person doesn’t catch on.”
The taxi took the turnoff to Mission Point Condos, where the long stretch of buildings was outlined against the night sky in the distance. I guided Shakespeare into the trees. More likely he went there on his own when he spotted a patch of nice grass. “That’s Penelope, in the red jacket getting off,” I whispered, as the night quiet closed in around us.
Mother and I slid to the ground, our feet crunching the leaves. Penelope started down the lit brick sidewalk. Mother and I tiptoed after her as Shakespeare trotted off in the other direction, back to the Grand. “I guess I should have put him in park and turned off the engine,” I said. “Now what?”
“Now we walk back and hope we find something juicy here to justify ruining really expensive shoes.”
Penelope opened the door to a condo that had a view of the woods out the front and the lake out the back. We slunk across the neatly mowed grass, kept to the shadows, climbed up on a decorative urn and held on to a window box. We peeked in at Penelope and the forty-something hotel manager guy from the Grand playing a rousing game of tonsil hockey with a little Twister thrown in just for sport.
“Whoa. So that’s what they’re up to.” I staggered and fell backward into the bushes, knocking over one of the urns when I landed. The porch light flipped on and Mother and I squished down behind the bushes as the door flew open. I froze; Mother was dead still beside me as forty-something grumped, “Blasted deer.” He slammed the door.
I started to run for the woods and Mother took hold of my hand. “Running draws attention. If we walk nice and slow we’re just two lovely ladies out for an evening stroll.”
“Do you think they saw us?” I asked as we strolled. I spit out a leaf and picked bark off my blue dress, which was probably ruined.
“They saw something, and there are deer around here.” Mother looked as if she just walked out of a Macy’s ad. “You know, these are really expensive condos out here. They have porches and crushed-stone paths, nice views, custom doors and windows, good curb appeal, perfectly maintained. I’d say they go for a half mil and up. In my book that’s kind of steep for a desk clerk. Maybe the guy’s the one with the money?”
“He’s a hotel manager. They do okay but not this okay. Maybe one of them inherited money? But then why work at the Grand?”
“We’re on to something, Evie, and I smell a rat.” Mother’s eyes twinkled. “Make that two rats, and whatever they’re doing it’s paying off very well indeed. And Peep caught them at it or at least figured out what they were up to. I wonder how he found out so fast? What did Peep do that we haven’t done? Something between the time he checked in and taking a swan dive off the porch.”
“That’s about three hours. He and Zo took the carriage to the hotel, then probably had dinner. It’s a long trip from L.A. to the island, so they were probably tired. My guess is they never left the hotel.”
“Okay, so whatever Penelope and her honey have going on, it definitely involves the Grand. We got that much, but right now it’s the least of our concerns, dear.”
“Because deep down you really think Fiona’s guilty of knocking Peep off?”
“Because there’s a murderer on the loose, and when Shakespeare shows up and we don’t, the chief of police and a certain retired Italian tough guy are going to go berserk wondering where we are.” Mother nodded up ahead. “And guess who’s headed our way right now.”
Terrific. My scrapes were worn raw under my panty hose, and my behind situation had not improved thanks to our recent horse bouncing. Sutter would be pissed and I wasn’t in the mood. “We should tell those two that we don’t need them worrying about us, we don’t need being saved and we’re doing just fine on our own except for walking in heels.”
Mother laughed. “You really think all that advancing testosterone is going to buy that line? And then there’s the little fact of stealing a horse to deal with.” Mother paused, a grin still on her lovely face. “You know, I had a case once where a woman stole her boyfriend’s Mercedes. She didn’t get the car, but she didn’t go to jail either. I have an idea, dear, just follow my lead. Like I said before, it’s all in how you present the facts.”
14
“You found Shakespeare!” Mother gushed as Angelo and Sutter drew up beside us. “That’s just wonderful. Evie and I were so worried, weren’t we, dear? We heard he was missing and we’ve been searching all over for him, the sweet little darling.”
Angelo looked from Mother to me. “And did you hear that two dames in fancy dresses rode off on him heading this way?”
“We did.” Mother gasped and hooked her arm through Angelo’s. “They took that nice horse for a joyride, of all the nerve.”
“Nerve you got in spades, I’ll give you that.” Angelo shook his head and kissed Mother on the cheek.
“It’s late and I’m tired,” Sutter grumbled. “And somebody left me standing in the middle of the dance floor. So if all the BS is out of the way, what were you two looking for up here? And it wasn’t my horse.”
“Of course it was, and it’s a nice night for a stroll.” I waved my hand toward the woods speckled in moonlight, the sounds of crickets all around us.
Sutter put his hands on my shoulders. “Do you know what they do to horse thieves in this state?”
“It wasn’t a theft, it was a borrow, a short borrow, not even a long one,” I sighed. I hated just handing info over to Sutter like this, but it might get him to focus on someone besides Fiona. “Penelope, that clerk at the Grand, and the hotel manager have a condo around here. They’re up to something shady at the Grand, making good money at it, and Peep found out about it.”
“And like any astute businessman this Peep guy wanted a piece of the action,” Angelo chimed in as the five of us started for the Grand. “Then Penelope iced him to shut him up.” Angelo held up his hands in surrender. “Not that I would know about such things, you understand; I’m just doing a little speculating here, is all.”
“And what about Idle Summers,” I added, facing Sutter. “What did you find out talking to her tonight? There’s more to her than singing at the Cupola Bar. She and Fiona are friends, but she’s the one hiding something, and Peep knew what it was. Like Angelo said, Peep wanted part of the action.”
Looking concerned, Sutter rubbed his chin as we walked along, the gravel crunching under our feet and moonlight playing hide-and-seek in the treetops over our heads. “I didn’t talk to Idle about the case; I wanted to see if she’d sing at Mother’s wedding. They’ve gotten to be friends over this dress thing.”
; Sutter glanced at his watch. “It’s after midnight and today’s her wedding day. Idle said she’d sing and get some of the guys to play, at least till nine when she has her show at the Grand. So now we have music but that’s all we have. There’s still no minister, or venue, flowers or a dress or food. Mom’s really happy about marrying Rudy, and they’ll get married later on, but today was the day she had circled on her calendar. I’ve let her down; I should have been able to pull this off.”
Angelo stopped walking. “Have you looked around this place? Are you seeing what I’m seeing? We got ourselves an island full of pretty little posies. Not that I’m suggesting anything, I’m just speculating, is all. A few flowers from here, a few from there, what’s to be missed?”
Mother yawned as we all started walking again. “I got one of those online certificates last year from Mother Earth Ministries. I can do weddings.”
We all stopped dead in our tracks. “Hey,” she said. “I had six divorces in a row and got tired of tearing lives apart. I married the two janitors in our building right there in the boiler room where they met. The whole maintenance staff came; they served boilermakers and the best pulled pork I ever ate.”
“Least they had a place to get married,” Sutter continued as we started walking again. “Everywhere on the island is booked, and we can’t ask the Stang or the Village Inn to shut down and host the wedding on one of the busiest weeks of the year just because we’re all friends.”
“And we don’t have a cake or food or the dress,” I added when we pulled up to the Grand, where the last of the night crowd was lingering on the porch or catching taxis. “There’s nothing we can do now except reschedule for later in the summer when things settle down. I’m really sorry,” I said to Sutter. “I have no idea how to fix this for Irma and Rudy.”
