Lenses, Lust, and Murder: A Crystal Coast Case (Crystal Coast Cases Book 2)

by A M Ialacci

  “I’m looking,” he said, holding her phone close to his face. “What am I seeing?”

  “Keys,” she said.

  “Keys?” he repeated.

  She rummaged in her purse for her lock pick set. “C’mon,” she said as she stood and hustled out the door and down the hallway.

  Cruz followed. “Allie, wait! Where are we going?”

  “The locker room!” she shouted from ahead.

  By the time he arrived, she had located the locker she wanted and began to pick the padlock. The tumblers fell into place and she pulled on a pair of gloves before yanking the lock off. Allie opened the locker door and rummaged around a bit, finding a false bottom and lifting it up.

  “Et voila,” she said, opening the file on top. “I believe these are the missing performance reviews.”

  “Whose locker is this?” Cruz gaped.

  “Jenny’s,” Allie said with a spark in her eye and a smile on her lips.

  “I have to call the team in to process this,” he said, stabbing the screen of his phone.

  “Good. You stay here, I’m not done.”

  “But—” Cruz started.

  “Nope,” she said. “You stay here with the evidence. I’ll be right back.”

  He glared at her as she looked back before leaving the locker room.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Allie went up the stairs, and just as she reached the top, all of the lights went out in the Visitor Center.

  “Allie?” She could hear Cruz calling to her but knew that it was unlikely the power went out on its own. And if she called out, whoever else was there would know where she was. She waited a moment for her eyes to adjust and continued on her journey, pushing open one of the office doors, checking to make sure she was alone, and feeling her way to the large desk. She had been in this office once before and thought she remembered the drawer in question being on the left. She felt her way around and used the lock picks in the lock on the drawer.

  After a few minutes, she heard a click and pulled the drawer open. Carefully, she felt inside the drawer until her gloved hand came across something thick and bulky. She pulled it out, laying it on the desk. She listened again to make sure she was alone and pulled her phone out of her pocket to use the flashlight.

  From a dark corner of the room, a low growl and a whoosh of air alerted Allie of the attack moments before the fisted hands reached her. She ducked and maneuvered out of the way, and the form crashed into the desk chair.

  Allie backed up toward the door, but her attacker quickly righted and came at her again. This time, she aimed a perfectly timed punch at what she thought might be the face of the person, heard a sickening crunch, and her attacker dropped to the ground, moaning.

  “Allie?” She could hear Cruz calling for her again, fainter now that she was further along the hallway. She turned her head at another noise. How many people are up here? she thought. Allie crouched into a defensive stance, but nothing came at her. She advanced toward the spot where she thought the sound had come from but found nothing. Then she heard a creak further down the hallway. Glancing back at the office she had left, she made her way toward the most recent noise. Determined to flush out anyone else bent on stopping her in her mission.

  From behind her now, the moans of her injured attacker became louder.

  Why? Allie thought.

  She retraced her steps to the office, but it was empty, and the moaning was getting further away. Allie followed it to the top of the steps and could see the faint outline of someone who had heaved her attacker onto his back and was carrying them out the front door.

  She ran back to the office, retrieved the bulky item from the drawer and descended the steps two at a time, running smack into Cruz at the bottom.

  “What are you doing here? What about the evidence?” Allie hissed.

  “I called in your tail from the parking lot. He can wait for the ERT. What happened up there? I heard crashing!”

  “I’ll fill you in on the way. Get this to your guy and meet me outside,” she said, handing him the item and racing to the door. Once outside, she scanned the area, spotting an NPS boat speeding toward the Cape. “What is he planning?” she asked aloud.

  Only the ferry boats were left behind, and she had no key. She ran to the side entrance of the ticket booth and picked the lock, grabbing several sets of boat keys and running to the closest one.

  “Allie! What are you doing?”

  “Going after him!” she shouted. “C’mon!”

  Cruz ran down the gangway and pulled himself up onto the deck of the huge catamaran. “Do you know how to drive this thing?”

  “I’ve driven a boat before,” she said hesitantly as she tried each of the keys in the ignition. Finally, one turned and the motor roared to life.

  “Can you navigate these waters in the dark?” Cruz asked.

  “Do we have any choice?” she barked.

  “Point taken,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  Allie threw the gear into reverse and turned the wheel carefully until she was clear. Then she moved it into forward and pushed it as fast as it would go, wakes be damned. Whatever the second attacker was doing, she knew they had to catch them.

  The boat caught a few waves, bouncing hard and then stalled.

  “What the hell just happened?” Cruz said, still gripping the railing with white knuckles.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I have to go back and look at the engines.”

  “You know we’re drifting, right?” Cruz said.

  “Can’t do anything about it until I fix the engine,” she said. “It’s not like we have oars!”

  She hustled to the aft of the boat and lifted the engine caps in turn. Unsure of what she was looking for, she began to panic.

  “Hey, isn’t your boyfriend a marine mechanic?” Cruz asked.

  “Oh, my God, yes! Mike!” she said. She pulled her phone from her pocket and face-timed Mike, praying he would pick up.

  “Hey, babe! What’s up?” he asked. “Where are you?”

  “Okay, listen. Don’t ask too many questions, but I need your expertise. This boat just stalled and we really need to get it going again.”

  Cruz approached and turned the flashlight on his phone toward the engine so Allie could show Mike.

  “Are you in danger?” Mike demanded.

  “We will be if we don’t get your help, like now,” Cruz shouted.

  “Okay, show me,” Mike said.

  Allie aimed the phone at the engines, and Mike directed them to screw the spark plugs back in.

  “Must have come loose when we hit that wave,” Allie said.

  “They don’t come loose on their own,” Mike said. “They must have had help first.”

  Allie glanced at Cruz. “That bastard.”

  “Who?” Mike asked.

  “Okay, listen, Mike. You have to trust me, okay? Cruz and I are chasing someone, but I will be all right. This is what I do. Please trust me.”

  Mike hesitated. “Okay, Allie. Go be your badass self. Just be careful. And call me, please.”

  “I will,” she said and hung up. She restarted the engine and they sped away into the night.

  Chapter Forty-Five

  When they reached the dock, they saw the NPS boat parked on the end of it. Allie did her best to pull the boat in, but it took several tries and much too much time. In the end, Cruz jumped onto the dock and pulled her in with the tie-off ropes. Allie hopped off and they raced down the dock toward the lighthouse.

  The gift shop, bathrooms, and covered shelter were empty as expected. They veered off to the right and continued toward the beacon in the sky. When they reached the grounds, they could see the Keepers Quarters doors were still closed, but the door to the lighthouse itself stood open.

  “He’s going to throw her over the side, just like Harriet,” Allie said. “Do we both go after him?”

  Cruz hesitated. “Yes, I think we do.”

  They took precious time to be car
eful on the skinny steps up to the door and entered the darkened interior. There were no lanterns to help them tonight, and no full moon. Using the railing and keeping to the left and wider part of the steps, they made good progress, and could hear the one they were chasing struggling above them.

  “I think we’ve got him,” Cruz said. As they neared the top, light from the beacon spilled downward, allowing them to see the figures they were chasing. Cruz pushed past Allie as they reached the ladder-like steps of the service room, just below the watch house. He heaved himself up through the narrow opening and grabbed the figure by the ankle. As the person tried to bring his foot up, Cruz yanked and he lost his balance. Allie felt and heard a loud thud as the figure fell along with the attacker he was carrying. The moaning grew louder, and Cruz never let go of the ankle as he crawled through the opening. Allie was right behind him, blocking the opening onto the gallery.

  Cruz drew his gun and aimed it. “Special Agent Cruz, FBI. Hold still.”

  Both of them stopped moving.

  “Don’t even think about charging us. I will shoot you both without hesitating.”

  Allie pulled out her phone, turned on the flashlight feature, and shined it into their faces. Dwight Goodwin was closest to Cruz, and Jenny Dowling, with a bloodied and broken nose, was moaning on the floor behind him.

  “You don’t have a pair of cuffs on you, do you?” Cruz asked.

  “No, but I always have zip ties,” she said, pulling them from her back pocket.

  Cruz smiled. “Perfect. Grab my cuffs and secure him first, then zip tie her, would you?”

  “I’d be glad to.”

  “And when you’re done with that, try to raise the alarm. I know reception is spotty out here, but call Charlie. He’ll know who else to call from the task force.”

  Allie did as he asked while Cruz got them up and onto their feet and marched them back down the stairs. Allie helped Jenny who appeared to be woozy and unable to maneuver on her own, especially with her hands bound.

  When they reached ground level, Cruz urged them toward the dock.

  “Wait!” Jenny moaned.

  “What is it, Jenny?” Allie asked.

  “I need to show you something.”

  Allie glanced at Cruz, who shrugged. “I’ll take her. You stay here.”

  “Nope. I’ve seen what she can do to another woman. We’re all going,” Cruz said and gave Dwight’s shoulder a small shove in the direction Jenny was already heading, back toward where Harriet had been found.

  Jenny wandered around for a little while but soon found what she was looking for. “Right here, under that bush.” She did her best to point with her head.

  “Here?” Allie pointed.

  Jenny nodded.

  “Something buried?”

  Jenny nodded again. Allie looked at Cruz again, who shrugged again.

  Allie knelt down and pushed dirt away from the base of the bush Jenny had indicated. After a few moments, a piece of fabric poked out of the ground. Allie yanked on it, and it came free from the sandy ground around it. She held it up and shined her light on it. “An NPS jacket?”

  “Yes,” Jenny said. “Dwight’s. With blood on it. He loaned it to me on the way over in the boat that night. Harriet’s blood is on it. In case he says he wasn’t involved.”

  Allie raised her eyebrows at Cruz as Dwight’s face turned purple with rage. He started toward Jenny who whimpered, but Cruz grabbed his cuffs and yanked him back, holding his gun to his jaw. “Try it again and see what happens.”

  Dwight’s face went from purple to white and he swallowed hard. Cruz spun him around, and Allie tucked the dirt-covered jacket over her arm as she guided Jenny behind them.

  Chapter Forty-Six

  After checking to make sure Ryan was tucked in and sound asleep in the guest room at Charlie and Sheila’s, she returned to the kitchen table. Charlie sat in his uniform next to his wife in her bathrobe and poured coffee for the three of them.

  “They’re being held in our county jail until morning when Cruz will take them to New Bern and hand them over to the Marshall’s at the District courthouse,” Charlie said.

  “Did they confess?” Allie asked.

  “Jenny was very helpful, and we used that to our advantage with Dwight. Eventually, he broke down, too, and told us everything.”

  “Do tell,” Allie said, sipping her coffee.

  “You don’t want to guess first?” Charlie smiled.

  “Well, I figured out Dwight was lying about his missing keys because he had them on his belt in the picture from the night of the murder. And that got me thinking about what Tim Douglas had said about Dwight wanting a text when all the visitors had been taken over. Why would he need to know that unless it was for an alibi?” Allie said.

  “Go on,” Charlie said.

  “Ryan kept scripting about the broken arcade game whenever he saw that NPS boat with the Out of Order sign on it. And then Mike told me he had seen muddy footprints in it, which had to be from the day or night of the murder. And they were prints from men’s dress shoes. The only rangers who wear dress clothes to events are administrators. That meant Dwight had taken that boat, and it wasn’t really out of order, just like Ryan’s arcade game.”

  Charlie nodded. “How did you connect Jenny with Dwight?”

  “I wondered how Dwight would have found out about the baby, which was obviously his. It was unlikely that Harriet had told him herself, although that could have been the case. But maybe he had found out from his newest conquest, Jenny, who figured out her mentor was pregnant early on. The mentor she secretly hated for putting her in front of people which she couldn’t stand. And then she found out she was a lesbian, which also disgusted her. And then there was the varsity jacket.”

  “Oh, yes. I had forgotten about that!” Charlie said. “The jacket on his office chair. You mentioned it when we first met with him.”

  “He claimed it was his, but you said he went to NC State. The letter on a jacket from there would have been an S, not an N. And the jacket would have been black and red, not gray and red. Jenny went to Nebraska, whose colors are gray and red, so the jacket was hers and she had given or loaned it to Dwight. Why would he lie about it, unless there was something to hide in his connection to Jenny?”

  “You’re spot on, so far. Dwight told us it would ruin him if Harriet went through with having the baby. Not only his reputation, but his retirement was in jeopardy. He pushed Harriet to end it, and she didn’t want to, avoiding him as much as possible. He finally pulled rank and told her if she didn’t meet him at the lighthouse, he would make her professional life hell. When she arrived, she confirmed that she hadn’t ended the pregnancy, so he got Jenny to attack her. He claims he never told her to kill her, but Jenny says different.”

  “Why would Jenny do it, though?” Sheila asked.

  “Jealousy. Harriet had something Jenny would never have of Dwight’s in that baby. Also rage over being pushed to speak publicly which terrorized her. It solved so many of her problems,” Allie said.

  Charlie nodded. “And Dwight is a narcissist. It’s amazing what someone like Jenny will do under a narcissist’s spell.”

  “Extremely manipulative,” Allie agreed.

  “Harriet’s day planner had been locked in Dwight’s desk since the night of the murder when Jenny had retrieved it from her office for him. It confirmed what happened in the days leading up to the murder,” Charlie said.

  “And while she was in Harriet’s office, she must have seen the performance reviews and stolen them, hiding them in the bottom of her locker and blackmailing Becca and Greg into giving her an alibi,” Allie said.

  “They knew Dwight was near retirement and would likely give them much better reviews because he had checked out already and didn’t care. It was in their best interests to make sure they stayed gone,” Charlie said. “Which is why Greg sold Jenny out when he was the lead suspect, but Becca wouldn’t.”

  “So Jenny must have taken the ATV
that Les heard out there, hoping to move the body, but had to stash it when she realized the other rangers had arrived,” Allie said.

  “Yes, and later, she put Harriet’s phone and the knife she had used in Greg’s locker to throw suspicion as far away from her and Dwight as possible.”

  “But Greg said that his lock had been taken off several days earlier,” Allie pointed out.

  “Jenny knew Dwight was meeting with Harriet and knew what might happen. She was hedging her bets,” Charlie said.

  “And tonight? How did they know I would be there?” Allie asked.

  “They were watching the security cameras. They could tell by your body language that you had figured it out, and when you found the files in Jenny’s locker, they knew they had to do something. So Dwight sent Jenny after you and tampered with the ferry boat. Then, he came inside and figured out Jenny hadn’t been up to the task. He couldn’t risk her talking, so he grabbed her, intending to finish her the way she had finished Harriet.”

  “But Jenny had a backup plan in that buried jacket,” Allie pointed out.

  “She did. Must not have trusted Dwight all that much deep down inside,” Charlie said.

  “Saw how he treated his exes,” Allie said, eyebrow cocked.

  “And now?” Sheila asked.

  “They’ll be charged in Federal court. They are likely both going away for a long time.”

  “As they should,” Allie said.

  “Oh, and Dwight’s neighbor said he used to have a late-model white truck, but sold it a few weeks ago.”

  Allie furrowed her brow. “That means…”

  “That means it probably wasn’t him that ran you off the road.”

  “Shit,” Allie said.

  “Don’t worry,” he said. “We’ll be keeping an eye on you.”

  “Who’s we?” Allie asked.

  “The Department and the FBI. The task force is supposed to do a press conference on the courthouse steps tomorrow at one pm.”

  “Mike will be home in a few hours,” Allie said with a smile. “We’ll see if we can make it up there tomorrow.”