“I guess that leads us to your family, then.” I tried to control my victorious grin, and Molly tapped my foot with hers under the table.
“Yes, it does.” Camille let out another awkward giggle. “I’m married to Bull Steyer, the mayor of Bryce Beach, as you know. We don’t have any children of our own, but he has two from a previous marriage.”
“And what are their names?” I jotted down little notes to make it look legit.
“I already mentioned his daughter, Melody. He also has a son named Dylan.”
“And what does he do?” Molly piped up.
I shot her a nasty look. I wanted to talk about Melody first before she started grilling the poor woman about Dylan.
Camille’s face twisted up. “Well, Dylan recently moved back to the area, and he’s…what does he call it? In between opportunities?” She blinked several times in rapid succession.
“What field does he work in?” Molly continued, as though she were the one doing the interview.
“He’s an entrepreneur,” Camille replied.
I flashed Molly my most fervent glare. “I was actually wondering about Melody too.”
“You were?” Camille’s brows furrowed. “What about her?”
“Oh, I just wondered what she does at my alma mater?” I lied. I was never a student at the state university, though I did attend a summer camp there once. I did my undergrad at a private Christian college, then I went to one of the top schools in the nation for my library science degree, but Camille didn’t need to know that.
“Oh, you went to State too?” Her eyes widened, along with her smile.
“Go Ducks!” I formed my hand in front of my mouth like a duck’s bill—the school’s mascot. “Quack, quack!” It was a “school spirit” thing, for lack of a better term.
“Well, Melody didn’t go to school there—she and Dylan grew up in the Midwest with their mother, once she and Bull got divorced. But Melody moved back here after getting her master’s degree, and now she’s working on a PhD in marine biology and works at the school’s lab,” Camille explained.
“Wow, that’s fascinating!” I gushed, really pouring it on. “I always wanted to be a marine biologist when I was little.” I turned to Molly, who was pouting because I cut off her opportunity to ask questions about Dylan, and tapped my finger on my chin. “Now, didn’t I hear something about the marine biology lab at State in the news recently?”
For a second I didn’t think Molly would play along, even though she knew darn well what had happened and what was at stake. Thankfully, her pout faded as she asked, “Oh, yeah, didn’t they run some tests after those dead fish washed up on the beach?”
Camille shook her head, her eyes wide and innocent as she lifted her hands, palms facing us. “I really don’t know anything about that.” Whether or not it was an act, I had no clue.
“Is Melody married?” I hoped to glean as much information as possible before being forced to change the subject. Melody’s social media presence was slim to none, and the one account I found said absolutely nothing about her personal life.
“No,” Camille answered, “not married, but she is dating someone, and they’re getting kind of serious.”
“Oh?”
“Yes, his name is Daniel Summer. His father is the governor’s deputy chief of staff.”
I nearly choked on my sweet tea. Jesus, take the wheel! This fishy case just got even fishier!
Once we were safely back inside my car, I let out a giant, “Wow!”
Molly’s eyes went wide. “Do you mind telling me why you nearly spit sweet tea all over the mayor’s wife?”
“Remember that night we went to Josie’s together—you, me, Evangeline and Jada?”
“Yes?” One of Molly’s blonde brows arched.
“That man you saw Dylan Steyer with was Robert Summer, who is Daniel Summer’s father, apparently.”
“It is?” She scrunched up her nose. “How do you know?”
“Because when I went down to the marina the other day to poke around, I saw him again, but this time he was with a different man. He was talking about how he could help out with state issues, but not federal, and then he said he thought the crab traps would solve all their problems. I suspect it’s related to the case, so I waited till they left, then I nabbed his credit card receipt off the table to see who he was. And then I stalked him.”
“Wow!” Molly seemed duly impressed. “But…how do you know it’s connected to the dead fish? They could have been talking about any number of business deals.”
“So I’ve seen Bob Summer down at the marina twice now,” I told her. “And his office is in the capital—over an hour away. He said he could help out with state issues—so maybe he meant the state university and the Department of Natural Resources, which is a state agency. But he couldn’t help out with federal ones—possibly the Coast Guard? Why would he be here if he didn’t have something to do with the case?”
Molly pursed her lips, deep in thought. “Well, I don’t think it proves they’re connected.”
“But his son is dating Melody, who conveniently destroyed the evidence at her lab about the dead fish. And he works for the governor, so he likely has some sway at the DNR.”
“So?”
“So, he might have also had the evidence destroyed at the Department of Natural Resources.”
“Oh…okay…” Molly tapped her fingers on the edge of the console as she stared out her window.
I pulled into the library lot and searched out the tiny sliver of Bryce Cove that I could see from my parking space. The library was a few blocks from the ocean, but it was on a slight slope that gave a smidge of a view if you knew where to look between the trees. The water was a dark blue with white-crested waves as it basked under the afternoon sun.
“So what killed the fish again?” Molly finally broke the silence.
“Narcotics,” I reminded her. Geez! Keep up, Molls! “My guess? Someone is transporting drugs near our beach, dumped some in the water, and Bob Summer knows about it. And he’s trying to cover it up.”
“Whoa, that sounds dangerous, Sunshine!”
She was the second person to tell me that. “We have to figure out what he knows and where the drugs are coming from.”
Molly wrung her hands as she looked at me, her eyes bouncing back and forth between mine. “Can you go to the police?”
“I don’t know how to prove any of this. I’m just piecing together a giant puzzle. I’ve gotta get out on the water.” I already knew that, of course, but now I was even more adamant that was my next step.
“How are you going to do that, though? You don’t have a boat…” she echoed Evangeline’s concerns.
“Jada’s boyfriend’s family owns the seafood distribution place in Moon Point, right? They fish in our cove. I saw one of their boats out there the day I was at the marina. I’m going to try to get onboard.”
“How are you going to pull that off?”
Didn’t she know I had an answer for everything? “Simple. I’m writing a book about a fisherman, right?”
My best friend laughed. “Girl, you are too much sometimes, you know that?”
I wasn’t too much. I was just enough.
And I had just enough brains and patience to figure this out.
Ten
Jada was on vacation this week, and I didn’t think I could wait until Monday to talk to her about how everything went with Mr. and Mrs. Boxbury. Knowing she was just doing a “staycation,” I decided to give her a call and ask if she wanted to hang out. But I didn’t want it to be weird, so I invited Molly and Murphy to come too. We all decided to meet at the boardwalk and get ice cream.
“Wow, I guess I didn’t realize it would be so crowded down here,” Molly grumbled as she struggled to keep Murphy from jumping up on every single person we passed. It was a gorgeous summer day, and it looked like the entire state had decided to spend it on the beach. Perhaps even neighboring states had gotten in on the action.
“Do you want me to take him while you order your cone?” I asked her when we stopped in front of Here’s the Scoop, the cleverly named ice cream shop about a block up the boardwalk from the candy store. Nothing like having your sugar fixes in close proximity, eh?
“Would you, please?” She shot me an exasperated smile as she handed the puppy’s leash over to me. I pulled the little guy to a bench and hung on tight as he went wild sniffing everyone who walked by.
Jada sat down beside me. “So…no Evangeline today?”
I stared at her in disbelief. “Uh, you’ve met Evangeline Dupree, have you not?”
Our colleague shrugged, her slim, bare shoulders rising toward her chin. She cocked her head, and a gust of wind ruffled her springy burnished curls. “She doesn’t like the sun, does she?”
“That’s the understatement of the century! She doesn’t like the sun, the beach, people… Heck, she probably doesn’t even like ice cream!” I laughed, trying to envision our interim boss camped out in the shade while we strolled down the sun-dappled boardwalk with sweet, sticky, dripping ice cream cones in hand.
“Your turn!” Molly bounced toward us holding a double scoop of something that looked mighty tasty.
“Don’t I need to hold him while you eat it?”
“Nah, go ahead,” she insisted, so Jada and I went up to the counter to order.
It was the perfect time to broach the subject of how the parental meet and greet had gone. “So…you went to Moon Point?”
Her eyes widened, and at first I couldn’t tell if it was in response to my question or just the view of the rows and rows of ice cream choices—her eyes were glued to the glass case. “Their house is…amazing!” she gasped, and I realized the big eyes were for the Boxburys.
We both placed our orders, and while we were waiting, I delved a little deeper. “So what are his parents like?”
“They seem pretty down-to-earth for being mega rich,” she said. “They are really well-traveled, of course. His mom goes all over the world scuba diving, and his dad is an avid golfer. You gotta have cash for that sort of thing. I think they liked me? I don’t know. Oh my gosh, Sunshine, I was so nervous!”
“What did Carlton say about it?” I pressed a little more insistently. “Did he think it went well?”
“He said his parents like me, but he could just be trying to spare my feelings, you know?” Her narrow shoulders lifted into a shrug.
“I’m sure they do,” I reassured her. The young man in the lime-green Here’s the Scoop t-shirt handed us our cones, mine first, and then Jada’s. We headed back to the bench where Molly was waiting with Murphy.
“His mom…” She sighed and bit her lip. “I don’t know, she just…seems like she’s a tough nut to crack, you know?”
“How so?” I took a lick of the creamy deliciousness, savoring the cold, sweet flavor on my tongue.
Jada cocked her head. “So here’s what happened. She walks with a bit of a limp…and I....”
I took another lick, then another, then chastised myself for going too fast because I was starting to get brain freeze.
“Well, I hope she didn’t think I was mocking her because…” She frowned as she looked off toward the water, the memories of her visit to the Boxbury’s apparently flooding back.
“Because why? What happened?” Molly asked.
Jada sighed again. She didn’t seem very interested in her ice cream cone, and it was starting to drip. A few pink splatters landed on the concrete sidewalk. “I sat with one foot under my leg during dinner. I don’t know why I did such a stupid thing—I guess I was just super nervous. And when I got up to go into the living room, my foot was asleep. So I was limping…and she totally caught me.”
“Oh,” I couldn’t help but laugh because, c’mon, that’s kind of funny. Innocent, yes, and also a little amusing. “I’m sure she didn’t think you were mocking her.”
“Carlton told me he’s sure she didn’t notice, but I swear she was scowling at me the rest of the night,” Jada insisted. “I guess it’s an injury from childhood, and she’s sensitive about it. Doesn’t stop her from scuba diving though, apparently.”
“Does Carlton work for the family business?” I continued navigating in a big circle around where I wanted to end up.
“Yeah, he’s working in their HR department right now, but he really wants to work in their R&D department,” she sighed. “He’s going back to school for his MBA, so he thinks, after that…”
“They have an R&D department?” I was sort of surprised to hear they put money and talent into research and development. The company had been around for generations, and from the research I’d done online, it seemed like they just processed, packaged, and distributed seafood, pretty much sticking to their traditional methods. What were they researching and developing?
“Yeah, it’s a brand-new thing!” she gushed. “He’s really excited about it, and so is his dad. They talked about it all through dinner.”
“Oh, okay.” Well, I couldn’t help but be curious now.
It looked like Molly had given up on her cone and surrendered the rest to the pup. Murphy was one excited doggo, licking away at the sweet, creamy goodness as she held it down at his level. “Peanut butter flavor,” she clued us in. “His favorite.”
We strolled down the boardwalk, the crashing waves serving as the perfect backdrop to our conversation. I was trying to steer it back toward the Boxburys, but I really wasn’t sure how.
Jada stepped a bit ahead of us, then skipped up to the wooden fence that separated the dunes from the boardwalk. She scanned the water, the skirt of her blue-and-white-striped sundress blowing in the breeze. “No Coast Guard boats out there today,” she said, turning back toward us.
Hearing “Coast Guard” immediately threw my guard up, no pun intended. “Oh, you’ve been noticing a lot of them in the area too?”
“Yeah.” She frowned as she looked toward the lighthouse, then the marina, and then back to us again. “Mr. Boxbury—he said I should call him Carl, but it just feels too weird—he said the Coast Guard has really been cracking down on stuff this summer.”
“What kind of stuff?” This was the perfect segue way; I was golden now!
“Oh, they check things like the number of crew on board and whether they have the right kind of lifesaving and firefighting equipment. He said they even check to make sure the captain isn’t drunk. Oh, and they check their commercial fishing licenses and permits, that sort of thing,” she enumerated, clearly repeating it from the list of things Mr. Boxbury must have said. “They’re supposed to check boats randomly, but they’ve really stepped it up this season, I guess. He said it doesn’t seem random—that it seems like the Boxbury boats are being targeted.”
“Huh, I wonder why…” I let the question float in the air to see if either of them would bite. Again, no pun intended. Wow, mysteries sure lend themselves to fishing metaphors!
“He said it’s because of those dead fish and that whale that washed up,” Jada ended my suspense.
Wow, so it was connected! I was totally right about that!
I had to see what was going on in the water.
“Hey, do you think Carlton could do me a huge favor?” My chest tightened with worry about what I’d do if she said no, and I had to come up with a different plan.
“What kind of favor?” Her nose scrunched up as she looked at me.
“Well, I wanted this to be a surprise to everyone, but I’m writing a book,” I revealed. Molly frowned as soon as she heard the words come out of my mouth. She didn’t like to hear me lie, but I was sure God would forgive me if it was part of solving this mystery. It totally counted as a disguise, right? Disguises were a tool…a means to an end.
“A book!” Jada gasped. “I didn’t know you’re a writer.”
“Oh, yeah. Bigtime writer. I’ve always written.” S
igh. There went another one. “Anyway, my book is about a commercial fisherman.”
“Oh…that’s…uh, ironic,” she said.
“I think it’s only a coincidence,” Molly interrupted. “Not irony. Irony would be if—”
I shot her a glare before turning back to Jada. “Anyway, I wondered if it would be possible for me to go out on one of the Boxbury boats sometime? Just to see what it’s like? I want my book to be realistic, of course, and I’m willing to put in the research.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Jada said, her brows knitting. “I guess I can ask.”
“Would you?” I didn’t mean to sound desperate. Okay, maybe a little desperation would go a long way. “It would mean a lot to me if you could hook me up.” My head jerked back with sudden, awkward laughter. “Hook me up! Get it?”
Jada and Molly exchanged a look, the look Molly and Evangeline often exchanged when I was being a little “extra.” It was always disappointing when people failed to find me as hilarious as I actually was.
In any case, it seemed like I was on the right track to figure this out. Meanwhile, I needed to know more about Bob Summer, his son Daniel, and Melody Steyer…
I went back to Bob Summer’s webpage on the governor’s site. There was a resume of sorts that listed where he’d done his undergrad, where he’d gotten his law degree—some university I’d never heard of. It detailed his military service. Before he was the deputy chief of staff, he’d been a legislative assistant, and then a campaign manager. He’d worked in politics since he got his J.D. If he’d practiced law, it didn’t say so on the page. Maybe he couldn’t hack it in the courtroom?
“Hey, Liz?” I called over to the desk where my summer intern was putting the finishing touches on the database I’d asked her to build for the summer reading program. “When you’re finished with that, can you come here?”
Dangerous Curves Boxed Set 1: 3 Cozy Christian Mysteries Page 25
