Miz Scarlet and the Vanishing Visitor (A Scarlet Wilson Mystery)

by Sara M. Barton

  Chapter Three --

  “Let’s have it,” said the gruff, middle-aged billy goat with the chin whiskers and the blue eyes below a tuft of graying hair. Kenny introduced him as Sarge. Jenny looked at me for direction, so I nodded affirmatively, encouraging her to hand over the evidence. In his enormous fist, Sarge held a magnifier, and used it on the opaque soap.

  “Lookie-here,” he said to his three colleagues. They all leaned in over his shoulder as he sat at Kenny’s kitchen counter under a very bright pot light. The former assistant director of Princeton University public safety leaned against the refrigerator, arms crossed, glaring at me. I felt my face burn. Had it really only been four hours ago he was kissing my lips and telling me how much he would miss me when I was back in Connecticut? I flashed back to the early morning, when all was right with the world. Kenny’s daughter, Kendra, and her fiancé, Duff, went off for a run just after sunrise. Kenny and his youngest, Jake, went fishing. Knowing everyone was due back at the rented cottage by eight, I had read the New York Times front to back, swept the sand from the front porch, collected shells on the beach, and then wandered into town for a trip to the bakery. I should have known that glorious feeling would have to end.

  “What are those?” said the youngest of the troopers. The name on the tag was Duggan. “They look like crystals of some kind.”

  “Maybe bath salts,” another suggested.

  “Or crystal meth, Rollo,” said the third. Lonnie seemed like Sarge’s senior man.

  “Or not,” replied Sarge, an odd note in his voice. “Ken, you got a knife I can use?”

  “Steak, butcher, or paring?”

  “Paring,” was the answer, “and a cutting board. A camera and a ruler would be helpful, too.”

  Sarge laid down the bar of soap on the wooden surface, still studying it. He photographed it from several angles, the ruler next to it. Then carefully, with the precision of a surgeon, he began to cut away a corner of the bar of soap.

  By now, Jenny was showing signs of curiosity. The blood had dried on her arms and face, leaving her looking stained. I thought about the poor dog who sacrificed his life. Where was the monster that had cut short the canine’s life? Had the cops gotten him? No one from the state police was spilling the beans. Instead, they were all focused on the purple bar of soap.

  A single cube of soap fell away from the bar, no more than an inch and a half by an inch and a half. The lawman moved in to examine it more closely. He skewered it with the tip of the paring knife, held it up to the light, brought it to his nose and sniffed, and then plopped it down on the board once more.

  “Let’s nuke this puppy,” he decided. “If the crystals are drugs, I expect they’ll melt.”

  “Might as well find out,” said Duggan, the second trooper. He looked all of about twenty-six.

  “Here,” said Kenny, handing his friend a microwave-safe cup. The little purple cube went in and Kenny turned to pop it in the microwave above the range.

  “Aren’t you going to cover it with plastic wrap?” I wondered.

  “You think it’s necessary, Miz Scarlet?” He still sounded annoyed with me.

  “I would. And I’d vent it, too. If it does melt, it could splatter all over the place. And if those crystals don’t, they could pop up and damage the inside of your oven.” I actually caught Kenny rolling his eyes at his buddies as they all tittered at the thought of an outsider like me offering a professional opinion. Birds of a feather.

  “Right.” He reached into a drawer by the refrigerator, pulled out some plastic wrap, and encased the little Pyrex cup tightly. As he started to put it into the oven, I stopped him.

  “Poke a hole in the top,” I said.

  “You want to do the honors, Miz Scarlet?”

  “Sure.” With that, I took the cup from him and the paring knife from Sarge. One tiny prick on the clear surface big enough to let the heat escape was all that was necessary. Into the oven it went. I figured I’d start with just thirty seconds of cooking time and go from there.

  We all gathered around the window and watched the purple cube melt. It took a couple more rounds before it was a puddle of soap base and doodads. I grabbed a pot holder and pulled it out, setting it on the cutting board for Sarge.

  “The crystal didn’t melt,” Rollo announced. The young trooper seemed rather surprised. We all watched Sarge’s adept hands lift out a rough crystal about the size of blueberry. He carefully washed it in the sink and dropped it back onto the board. Poking it here and there with the blade of the knife, the man grunted and mumbled a few times before looking up at Jenny.

  “Where did you get this soap?”

  “Paolo gave it to me.”

  “Just this one bar?”

  “No, there were boxes of them in a back pack.”

  “Talk to me,” he commanded. Twenty minutes later, we learned that Jenny had met Paolo at the New Dawn Meditation Center in Dover after she left the campground. She was passing through on her way to Pennsylvania, where her mother’s best friend, Paula, lived with two cats and her husband, the oral surgeon. The center was offering a free aura cleansing to the first fifty people who walked through the doors.

  “Paolo bought me a bus ticket to Philadelphia and promised me that Richie would give me a hundred bucks. But Richie tried to kiss me, so I slapped him. And then, when I told him I wanted my money, he told me I’d have to...you know...if I wanted it.” She went red from the neck up and we adults all got the gist of the exchange.

  “When did he kill your dog?” Rollo asked. “And how?”

  “Mozzie was barking at him, because he grabbed me, and he just took out his knife and sliced open his...thro-o-at!” It hit her then, that lonely memory. Her only companion, her best friend from home, the last connection to her childhood, had died trying to protect her.

  “Bastard,” mumbled Lonnie, the third trooper.

  “How did you get away?” I noticed that Duggan kept silent as Rollo continued to question the girl.

  “I kicked him in the nuts and ran into the street.”

  “What were you doing in Bay Head, if you were supposed to deliver the soap to Richie in Point Pleasant?”

  “Richie picked me up at the bus station and took me to a house on the bay. He said he had to make a delivery to some guy before he could give me my money, so we’d just wait till the guy got home.”

  “How did you get your dog on the bus?” demanded Sarge. “I know for a fact that there are no dogs allowed, unless they’re service animals.”

  “Okay, well, I hitched!” she snapped, defiant. “Save the lecture!”

  All eyes were on the miserable, blood-soaked runaway. She couldn’t leave her dog behind, could she? That stepfather probably would have taken Mozzie to the pound.

  “Where was the house? You think you could find it again?” That was Sarge.

  “I don’t need to find it. I know exactly where it is.”

  “You do?”

  “Yeah, because Richie creeped me out. I put the address in my Smartphone address book, in case I had to find directions out of Bay Head on my own.”

  Already winning points for being bright, Jenny triumphantly handed her Smartphone to Sarge, who jotted down the address, and then she hit another winner. “The house was under construction. All the rooms were torn up. Richie called some guy named Hinson and told him he wanted his money for the merchandise. Hinson told him he’d be back by nine and to stay put. That’s when Richie decided he was going to make me...you know!”

  A house under construction. I took that information and tried to match it to the homes I had seen on my walk around Bay Head. On the bay side, Jenny had said. Funny, most homes were normally not under construction during the summer season, but with Hurricane Sandy, a lot of folks were still waiting on repairs.

  “Kenny, I need a glass, one that you don’t really care about,” Sarge informed him. I watched my lanky love interest reach into a cupboard and pull out a glass mixing bowl.

  “Will th
is do?”

  “Yeah.” The seasoned New Jersey state trooper turned the bowl over, and with the crystal in his right hand, made a scratch on the bottom.

  “Is that...” Rollo started to ask. Sarge answered, nodding.

  “A diamond? Yeah, definitely.”

  “No way!” I couldn’t help myself. Why would there be a diamond tucked into a bar of soap?

  “I’m afraid so,” was the confident reply. No way he was afraid in any way, shape, or form. Sarge was already holding up the remainder of the lavender-scented bar. “Let’s get this to the lab. Duggan, call the DA and get a warrant for the property.”

  “You think there are more diamonds?” That was Jenny. She sounded thrilled.

  “Possibly. We won’t know until we do a search. Kenny, you’ll keep an eye on the ladies?”

  “Sounds like you two will be using my guest room tonight.” I noticed the reference to the sleeping arrangements and suddenly felt a big pang of rejection. Was Kenny kicking me to the curb, all because I had stopped to help the girl? Twenty minutes after Sarge and his boys left, I had my answer.

  “Make sure she doesn’t vanish in the middle of the night, Scar,” Kenny whispered in my ear as he bade me sweet dreams.

  “How am I supposed to do that?” I answered him, my lips pressed close to his cheek.

  “She won’t go if she thinks we’ll look after her,” he promised me. “Mother the girl. Make her feel safe.”

  Pulling out sheets, Kenny and I made up the twin beds in what once was Kendra’s bedroom. Apricot walls, floral drapes, and a handful of stuffed animals were the remnants of her college years. White furniture kept the room feeling young and fresh, but not childish. Kendra’s marriage plans had been put on hold after her mother’s death, but she and Duff still planned to marry later this year. Would she be staying here in the days before the ceremony?

  “I think I have something for you to wear, Jenny.” He opened up the dresser and pulled out an oversized blue night shirt with an owl on the front.

  “Temple University,” she said, recognizing the university’s mascot.

  “Very good. That’s where one of my daughter’s boyfriends went. She dumped him when she met Duff.”

  “I thought about going to college in Pennsylvania, but it was too far from my mom after she got sick.”

  “Where were you planning to go?” I probed gently.

  “Rivier. They have undergraduate and graduate nursing programs. I wanted to...take care of my mom.” Looking at those eyes, I felt my throat constrict. Jenny wiped away a tear with the back of her hand and it was all I could do to blink hard and keep from doing the same.

  “She must have been very proud of you,” said Kenny gently. “I’ll bet you took good care of her while she was sick.”

  “I did. I learned to change her bandages after her surgery and the nurses showed me how to bathe her, so I wouldn’t damage her skin. She had radiation treatment, so I put the cream on to soothe the burn.”

  “You were headed to Pennsylvania after your stepfather mistreated you?” Kenny was sitting at Kendra’s desk, watching the girl. “You said your mother’s best friend lives there. Would you like to call her? We could drive you there tomorrow, and make sure you’re settled.”

  “Honest?” Those big eyes wanted to believe Kenny was one of the good ones.

  “Honest. Do you have her number? You could call her now, even though it’s late.”

  What was Kenny up to? Was he playing a hunch? Jenny dialed her Smartphone and waited for an answer. The conversation didn’t go well.

  “Hi, is Paula there? When will she be back? January? But...oh, I see. But...um, okay. No, no message.” The shoulders slumped and the head fell forward. So much for Jenny’s plans.

  “Paula and Max are in Lausanne, Switzerland. He’s working on a research program for Drexel University and they won’t be coming home until the end of January. They rented the house to a family.”

  “Oh, that’s too bad,” I responded, seeing her disappointment.

  “What am I going to do?” Such a forlorn sound to those words.

  “Don’t worry, we’ll figure something out.” Kenny sounded upbeat, but it didn’t fool Jenny, who had lost her mother and her dog. One of life’s new realities for the orphan was that she was responsible for her own welfare. She was no longer anyone’s baby girl.

  “We could use you at the Four Acorns Inn,” I blurted out. Don’t ask me what prompted that. Maybe it was that I had three guests coming to the inn this week and two of them needed care. Maybe it was that I couldn’t bear the thought of sending this waif out into the cold, harsh world to fend for herself. “If you want a job, I’ll make one for you.”

  Kenny looked over at me. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, and frankly I didn’t care. I just didn’t want Jenny to run off, to vanish into thin air, never to be seen again. I wanted to help her find her way in this world. She was so vulnerable and there were other men like Richie out there.

  “I don’t know anything about working at an inn, Scarlet,” she confided.

  “Oh, don’t worry about that. I can teach you. Mrs. Blevins is coming for her niece’s wedding. She’s got Parkinson’s and uses a wheelchair to get around. I think she’d appreciate having the help. You could practice your nursing skills.”

  “Really?”

  “Really,” I promised. “And Mr. Hornblower is having surgery on his ACL. He tore it when he fell down his cellar stairs. I have the VNA scheduled to check on him daily, but I’m sure the nurses would be delighted to have your help.”

  “What kind of inn do you run?” Jenny wondered. “Do all your guests need nurses?”

  “Actually, many do. My mother is handicapped, so our house has an elevator. She and her cousin, Lacey, brought home one friend after another as their health failed and they needed care, and the next thing you know, I was running an inn for people with special needs.”

  “Wow. But where would I live?”

  “Oh, heavens. We have a room for you, with your own bath. And I’ll pay you a salary. It won’t be a huge salary, mind you. You don’t have your nursing degree yet. But you’ll be able to save some money for college. At least we can look out for you until Paula and her husband get back. In fact, we’ll help you get in touch with them in the meantime.”

  There was the carrot, and the hungry little bunny took that first nibble. “You think I could take a college course?”

  “I’ll tell you what. You work hard and I’ll help you get into a good school. I might even sponsor you for classes. Let’s see how it goes. If you feel you’ve got something to offer the Four Acorns Inn, we’ll get you on the right track.”

  “Honest?” There was hunger in that voice. I pushed back a little, wanting to know more about her.

  “Did you graduate from high school?”

  “With honors. I had a 3.8 grade point average. It would have been higher, but my mom really needed a lot of care during her last year.”

  “Well, that sounds pretty good. I’m sure there’s something we can do to get you where you need to be. Right now, why don’t you go take a long shower and get that gunk off of you?” With a firm hand on her shoulder, I walked her out to the hallway and pointed her towards the bathroom. She seemed so small, so vulnerable, as she padded off, her bare feet barely registering on the wooden floor.

  Kenny was sitting on one of the beds when I went back into Kendra’s room. He wore a wry smile on his face.

  “You do know you’re getting in over your head, don’t you? You know next to nothing about this girl, Miz Scarlet.”

  “I had to make the offer, Captain Peacock,” I said, using his high school nickname. “She’s in dire need of supervision. We can’t just send her off to Pennsylvania if her mother’s best friend isn’t available for another six months.”

  “No, we can’t. But you’ve forgotten something, babe. The New Jersey state police might be building a criminal case. Jenny might be a major witness.”

&nbs
p; “So? It’s not like she won’t be available. And she has to live somewhere in the meantime, doesn’t she? What better place than the Four Acorns Inn?”

  I should have known it wouldn’t be that easy. Of course, if I had a premonition of what was to come, who knows what I might have done differently.