Sabotage on Solitude Bay

by M. J. Mandrake

  As a young girl who read too many Nancy Drew books, Kitty had dreamed of a bookcase that swung open to reveal a hidden room, or a mantel statue that one could pull to make the fireplace swing around. But those kinds of things only existed in mystery books. In real life, small doors only led to smaller closets full of dusty mobs and cobwebs. This was the first time she’d seen an honest-to-goodness secret staircase that wasn’t the old-fashioned version of a service elevator.

  On any other day, in any other place, Kitty would have been thrilled to see the manifestation of her ten-year-old self’s greatest desires.

  She met Leander’s gaze and knew what he was thinking. There was nothing fun or exciting about a secret door when there was a criminal on the loose.

  Chapter Six

  “Live your life, do your work, then take your hat.”

  ―Thoreau

  “Where does this end up?” she asked.

  “It goes around the back of the house, has one connection to a bedroom on the second floor, then down to the kitchen on the first floor. At least, that’s where we usually got out. It ends up down in the basement, near the root cellar,” Leander said.

  Luisa signed something to Leander in what Kitty assumed was Catalan. Leander rolled his eyes. Luisa went on, now laughing so hard she was having trouble signing.

  Kitty tried not to be sensitive about being left out of the conversation. A lot of people felt uncomfortable around the deaf community because they couldn’t understand American Sign Language and worried that someone would gossip about them. As Leander looked more and more embarrassed, Kitty cleared her throat. She wasn’t worried about gossip, but they had to admit it was a little bit rude.

  Leander’s cheeks were red. “Sorry about that,” Leander said, signing over Luisa’s last comment. “My sisters decided to give us the two connected rooms just so they could tease us about visiting each other without my parents knowing.”

  “Just don’t get locked out or you’ll have to do the three-floor walk of shame through a house full of relatives,” Luisa said.

  Kitty laughed, more at Leander’s obvious discomfort than Luisa’s teasing. “I wouldn’t mind a midnight visit from Leander.”

  His eyes went wide and he cycled through several expressions before settling on ‘deliberately nonchalant’. “Is that so?”

  “Sure. But if you aren’t bringing a midnight snack from the kitchen, I’m afraid I won’t open the door.”

  “I’ll be sure to remember that. You’ll have to give me a list of acceptable items.”

  “All right, if we’re all done flirting…” Luisa waved a hand.

  Kitty winked at Leander. It must be wonderful to be part of such a large, affectionate family. Most of the time.

  “Maybe the person who left the note came through the passageway and that was how they weren’t seen,” Luisa said.

  “But Solitude Bay is very popular, isn’t it? Maybe someone from the beach made their way up…” Kitty’s hands grew still. It was true that there were quite a lot of strange people in the world, but it strained belief that someone would simply decide to walk up the manicured lawns to The Golden Pelican, sneak in with a prepared note, make their way to a bedroom, stab it through a random pillow, and then return to the beach― all without being seen. Kitty would believe aliens were landing before she believed that scenario.

  “There you are.” Jorge smiled at the three of them from the doorway. He was holding a large mug and looked a little worse for wear. “Amor, you really must try the coffee. It’s delicioso.”

  “Thank you, but I already sampled the iced tea,” she said. Poor Jorge. He was used to living on a cruise ship where all the alcoholic products were clearly labeled. She was going to have to start watching his beverages or he wouldn’t remember any of the vacation.

  “Oh, and I was sent to tell you… I can’t remember what.” Jorge frowned. “Something about boats and one hour.”

  Leander closed the door to the passageway. “Probably headed out onto the bay. I’m going to clean up the Weber’s room and get ready.”

  “I’ll help,” Kitty said.

  “Do you need any―?” Jorge started to ask.

  “No, no.” Leander nodded to his sister. “Luisa is going back to the kitchen, though.”

  “Oh, yes, good idea,” Kitty hurriedly agreed. The man could stop traffic with his looks, but he didn’t have the best sense of direction. In his current state, he might wander into a broom closet and never make his way out.

  Jorge smiled with all of his teeth and held out his arm. “Señorita,” he said.

  “Are you two trying to get me out of the way?” Luisa signed, frowning. “Or are you trying to fix us up?”

  Kitty paused, not wanting to translate such an embarrassing comment.

  “I’m thinking about how much it would hurt for him to fall down four flights of stairs,” Leander signed back.

  “I see,” she said. “Well, please don’t tell me if he’s not very smart. I can’t hear a word he says and right now, I think he’s sort of perfect.”

  After they’d left the room, Kitty asked, “You’re very trusting of Jorge. Sometimes people who have had too much to drink make bad decisions, especially around beautiful women.”

  “I do trust him,” Leander said, smiling.

  “But you’ve never really spent any time together.” Kitty followed him out of the bedroom.

  “True.” He seemed to find something amusing.

  “Is it because Chica doesn’t mind him?”

  “No, but that’s also good point.”

  “You’re not going to tell me, are you?” Kitty folded her arms and blocked his way into the Webers’ bedroom.

  “I think my sister isn’t really Jorge’s type.”

  “Because she’s deaf? Honestly, sometimes I have trouble understanding the man and we have two languages in common.”

  He smiled at her. “Ok, we can call it a language barrier.”

  “But that’s not why, is it?” She’d had never really felt angry at Leander, but his refusal to explain himself was starting to get on her nerves.

  “Hey, are you mad?” he asked, trying to put an arm around her shoulder.

  Kitty side-stepped him. “I just don’t know why you think you know my friend better than I do. And when I ask why, you won’t explain.”

  He stared at the ceiling, as if searching for answers. “I can’t tell you exactly.” He held up a hand at her squawk of protest. “Okay, I can, but I don’t feel I should. That’s for Jorge to explain. But I will tell you something he said when we first met.”

  “I remember that day. Go ahead.”

  “Well, it was something he said when you’d turned your back. He leaned close to me and said in Spanish―” here Leander leaned close to Kitty so that his lips were touching her ear, and whispered, “Si tu la lastimas, hace que tu meurte paresca un accidente.”

  If you hurt her, I can make your death look like an accident.

  Kitty burst out laughing. Threats of violence weren’t usually a laughing matter, but coming from Jorge, it was sort of charming.

  “So, you see, I do trust someone who cares so much about their friends.”

  “But that’s not the main reason you don’t think he’ll make a move on your sister.”

  Instead of answering, Leander started scooping up feathers. “We have some sailboats moored down at the pier. Before dinner, a few of us like to head out and see what we can catch for dinner. My brother in law, Dave, has a nice big boat. Most of our guests prefer to be on something a little more modern, but I’d love for your to come with me on one of the sailboats. They’re old, but still seaworthy. I’ve been going out in them since I was little.”

  “You’re not going to tell me,” Kitty said, sighing. She dropped to her knees and started picking feathers off the carpet. “Rude.”

  “I know,” he said, his voice layered with regret. He stuffed the destroyed pillow into an extra case.

  They worked toge
ther in silence until the room looked clean and tidy.

  “I wonder if they’ll stay,” Kitty said.

  “My mother can be very convincing. I bet they give it another night.” He didn’t sound very happy about it. “I don’t know if that would be the best course of action. There are a lot of people in the house right now, but there are no strangers.”

  It had been the first thing Kitty had thought of when she’d seen the note. Someone had a personal grudge against the Webers, and it was almost certainly someone in Leander’s family. But if they hadn’t been to Solitude Bay before, how could they have encountered any of the Estornells?

  The note was sitting on the top of the dresser and Kitty looked it over once more. The letters were cut from magazines or a newspaper and the glue holding them was dark yellow and thick. She touched the shaft of the arrow, running her finger along the dark green fletch at the top. “Do you know where this came from?”

  “There’s an archery range for the kids. The targets are left out most of the time, but the arrows and bows are kept in the game shed. But there’s just one thing that I find odd.”

  “What?”

  He shook his head. “Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe they’ve replaced them since I was here last, but the arrows have red and black feathers. Not green.”

  “So, it didn’t come from the archery range.” Kitty felt a swell of relief.

  “No, it did.”

  “I thought you said―”

  “The green arrows are from a really long time ago. The original set, I think.” He turned the letter so that the wooden shaft caught the light. It was scarred and dented with use. “When we were little, we’d fight over the few green arrows we had. I haven’t seen one in almost twenty years.”

  Kitty felt a chill run down her back. She was starting to have a very bad feeling about the Webers and their promise to a dying man.

  “We’d better get ready to go out on the bay,” Leander said, sounding as if he were trying to recapture some of his holiday spirit.

  “See you down there in ten.” She gave him a quick kiss and headed back to her room.

  Penny and Elaine were just reaching the top of the stairs and Chica came bounding over to Kitty. She looked as if she’d had a wonderful time exploring the grounds, but Penny and Elaine looked like they needed a rest.

  “Not to be rude, my dear, but we’ll just text you from the bottom of the stairs next time.” Penny wiped her brow. “If I wanted to exercise, I would have signed up for fat camp.”

  “Thanks for bringing her back,” Kitty said. “Leander and I are headed out on one of the boats. Would you like to come along?”

  “No, no. We’ll grab a few of those Long Island Iced Teas and watch from the beach. We won’t interrupt your romantic sail on the bay.” Elaine gave a wave as they headed back downstairs.

  “Come on, girl,” Kitty said. “You haven’t seen the bed they have for you.”

  Kitty watched Chica closely as she explored Kitty’s room, sniffing the bed and walking the perimeter of the carpet. Kitty brought her over to the little door and opened it. Chica gave one look and her fur stood up along her back.

  “That’s what I thought,” Kitty said, shutting it again. “We’ll have to find a way to keep that locked.” Not even the promise of a visit from Leander could lure her into keeping that little door open.

  As she stripped out of her dress and into something more suitable for fishing, Kitty’s mind retraced the story of the two men who grew The Golden Pelican into a very successful resort years. She sifted through what little she knew, searching for some detail she’d missed. Kitty wasn’t a worrier and usually tried to shrug off the way humans acted toward each other, but she couldn’t this time.

  The clock was running in a race against a shadowy foe, and her Christmas holiday was about to take a very dark turn.

  Chapter Seven

  “Life is a great surprise. I don’t see why death should not be an even greater one.”

  ― Nabokov

  Kitty and Chica made their way down to the first floor, expecting to see the usual groups of children running through the living room and adults gathered in the kitchen. There was no one to be seen.

  She took a moment to admire the large main room of the old inn. Decorated with garlands of fresh holly and pine boughs, it looked like all the old pictures Kitty had seen of a Victorian Christmas. The tall blue spruce tree in the corner glistened with old fashioned tinsel and glass balls. There were quite a few wrapped presents under the tree and Kitty assumed more would appear tomorrow, on Christmas Eve.

  Walking to the wall of French doors that opened onto the back porch, Kitty was relieved to see Penny and Elaine heading down the steps. They were both wearing flowing beach cover-ups and straw hats. Kitty was thankful she’d chosen white shorts, a blue and white striped top and a red baseball cap because she’d nearly dressed in something very similar to the elderly women in front of her. Her little satchel held Jane Eyre, sunscreen and her sunglasses.

  Catching up with them, she said, “I thought I’d been left behind.”

  “Oh, we thought you’d already headed to the beach.” Penny glanced around the back yard. “Sure is empty out here, though. I wonder where everybody is.”

  “Leaner said they had a sort of family tradition of heading down to the beach, so it’s not just the ones who are going out on the bay.” Kitty tried to think of any Christmas traditions that didn’t involve a tree or hanging stockings by the fire, and couldn’t.

  The pool was empty and as they walked further, Kitty could see the archery range. Tall bushes lined the range on each side, an ingenious way of keeping the arrows from flying further than intended. Burlap targets stood tall at the far end and several arrows stuck out of the red centers. Squinting, she could see the feathers were red and black. No green. To the right and just past the archery targets was a well-made, weathered shack with cedar shingles. This must be the shed Leander had mentioned.

  The door swung open and Mr. Candlewick stepped out, startling all three of the women and their three dogs. Chica let out a bark and stepped in front of Kitty. “Yes, I see him,” she said. “A heads up would have been nice.” Immediately, Kitty felt remorse for her snappish comment. It wasn’t fair to expect Chica’s psychic abilities to be ‘on’ one hundred percent of the time.

  If his sudden appearance hadn’t been enough, his general demeanor would have set off alarm bells. He was dirty, scruffy, and wild-eyed. In his hands he carried a small can of paint that had dripped down the sides. Yellow, by the looks of it.

  As they came closer, he held Kitty’s gaze and as he passed he followed them with his eyes. Kitty glanced back and saw Mr. Candlewick still standing there. She shivered despite the warmth of the sun.

  “He’s making my heart race, and not in a good way,” Penny said.

  “Maybe another Señora Delores?” Elaine asked.

  “Let’s hope not,” Kitty said. On their last cruise, to Havana, they had encountered an ancient cleaning woman who turned out to be very much not what she appeared to be. “I can only handle so many shocks in my life.”

  They took the long, sandy path down to the beach and the manicured lawn turned increasingly wild the nearer they came to the bay. A white picket gate marked the end of private property and the beginning of the public beach. Despite the beautiful weather, the semi-circle of white sand that wrapped all the way around the bay was uncrowded. A wooden pier stretched far out into the bright blue water and ended at a place where the shoal dropped off into deeper water. A herd of sailboats rocked gently against their moorings. Kitty could pick out larger figures lugging supplies toward the boats while the children ran ahead.

  “Well, this is where we stop,” Penny said, motioning toward the row of multi-colored Adirondack chairs. Large umbrellas provided shade against the bright afternoon sun. “You have a good time and catch us some tasty fish.”

  As Penny, Jack, and Toto trekked off across the sand, Elaine hung back for a moment.
“Everything okay, Kitty?”

  “I think so.” Kitty reflexively put a hand on Chica’s collar. As long as they were together, she felt safe. “I hope that’s the end of the note business.”

  “Well, of course, but I meant with Leander’s family.” Elaine glanced around. “I know this kind of thing can be really stressful. You’re holding up so well.”

  “Oh. Thank you.” She wondered what Elaine had expected from her. Crying jags? Angry outbursts? Hiding in her room? To be fair, she had developed an eye twitch once when she was under extreme stress, but that had more to do with the dead body she’d discovered while scuba diving.

  “Just remember that he wouldn’t have asked you to visit if he didn’t think you were special. There’s no reason to feel insecure or inadequate.”

  “Right. Sure,” Kitty said, nodding. If Elaine meant to be encouraging, she was having the opposite effect. “I don’t usually feel inadequate. Do you mean because his sisters are all so beautiful?”

  “Sisters? Oh no. They’re not competition. I meant Tiffany. She showed up just as everybody was heading down here. I’m sure he didn’t intend for you both to be here at the same time. He’s not cruel.”

  Kitty frowned, trying to remember who Tiffany was, when she suddenly spotted a bikini-clad brunette strolling toward the pier. Her long, straight hair fluttered in the breeze and she moved with a dancer’s grace. Ohhhhhhh, Bambi.

  Kitty had the strange sensation of two very strong emotions battling for supremacy in her heart. One was amusement. Kitty had lived a full, independent life for years. She had sought out― and grasped ahold of― happiness. She didn’t separate women into camps labeled ‘friend’ or ‘foe’. People should be judged on their behavior, not their gender or appearance.