The Coral Killer

by Anna Travis

  “Or murder people,” Ruby interrupted. “And Grannie! The cleaning lady had a card scanner in her purse. Why would she need that? The Cove bills people for her work. I bet the maid and her boyfriend were scoping out tourists and sneaking into the rental houses to swipe cards.”

  Ruby let her board glide for a few moments.

  “I think the boyfriend might have put the poisonous snake in her bag, and she just happened to find it while she was scoping out a place,” Ruby said. “I think I’ll go talk to him at Gilligan’s tomorrow, where there’s plenty of people around.”

  “Good idea, about the people,” Grannie said. “But take Kylie with you, or Timothy. Or maybe Ian—”

  “No. Way. Not. Happening.”

  “Okay, fine. Not Ian,” Grannie said. “But make sure you’re back at three, to help me with Joe’s campers, okay?”

  Ruby nodded. They paddled for a while longer as Ruby told her grandmother the other things she had learned, and then turned the boards around.

  The sky started to change colors and a salty breeze pulled at Ruby’s hair. She smiled. Sunset was one of her favorite things.

  Grannie smiled, too.

  “You know,” the older woman said softly. “Sometimes I think it’s easier to feel close to God out here in the quiet than it is sitting in church… God just seems, well, greater, when you’re surrounded by His works.”

  Ruby looked at her Grannie. She took a deep breath and watched the blazing red sun sinking down to the mainland.

  “That sure beats the heck out of concrete and traffic!”

  They laughed, and then paddled quietly on. Ruby watched the rings splashing around her paddle as the river grew calmer with evening, feeling that her Grannie was very, very right.

  Chapter Eight

  T he next day, Ruby was tucked away in the bay window in her room, reading the last page of another Eastman novel. Charlotte had discovered the killer, but only after she had managed to get herself trapped in an abandoned mine. Just as she closed the book and tossed it onto her “done” pile, Ruby’s phone started chirping like a bird.

  Ruby snatched up the phone and answered it.

  “Hey, Kylie. What’s up?”

  “Hey, Sis! Want to get lunch together?”

  Ruby’s eyes lit up. This was the perfect chance to head over to Gilligan’s. Maybe, if she got lucky, Patrick would be on shift.

  “Sure thing! How about Gilligan’s?” Ruby asked. “My treat.”

  “Well, all right,” Kylie said. “But only if I drive. See you in a bit.”

  Ruby hung up and did a little happy dance. Then she grabbed a long, sleeved shirt to throw over her shoulders in the restaurant and headed downstairs to kiss Grannie goodbye.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “This is a nice treat,” Kylie said, grinning at her sister as they scanned the lunch menus.

  “Well, we did pretty well in rentals the last couple of days,” Ruby said. “And with Joe on a camping charter, the rentals are just icing on the cake. How’d you do today?”

  “Plenty of tourists,” Kylie said with a smile. “I’ll be upgrading from the Rookie Mobile in no time, if you and Grannie will let me take some more shifts!”

  “Well, if Joe keeps up with the charters, I’m sure Grannie won’t mind you taking some more beach shifts,” Ruby said, her smile slipping a bit.

  “This would have been a great trip for you to have started helping Joe, huh?” Kylie said.

  “No kidding,” Ruby said with a sigh. “Could have skipped out on that whole murder suspect deal.”

  “Well,” Kylie said. “We can just forget about the whole thing and have a nice lunch, right?”

  “Um, sure,” Ruby said. She lifted her menu up to hide her guilty face.

  After that the waitress arrived and the two sisters ordered their meal. While they waited for their Super Conch Fritter Salads, the girls chatted about life back at the Nest.

  “Well,” Kylie said. “Peter’s up to his usual antics. He was researching funeral pyres, and I’m afraid Timothy had to rescue Hen Solo from him. I know Mom loves the whole chivalry thing, but, man, sometimes I think boys and medieval history are a dangerous combo.”

  Ruby laughed and took a sip of her iced tea.

  “That reminds me,” Kylie said as she dug in her purse and pulled out Ruby’s clean shirt. “Here’s your shirt from the other day. Sans egg, of course.”

  “Thanks,” Ruby said, shoving the shirt into her little backpack. “How’s everybody else? I didn’t exactly stick around to see how everyone’s doing this week.”

  Kylie shrugged. “I’d have been out too… Course, I don’t think I could have thrown tea in his face—”

  Much to Ruby’s great relief the waitress arrived with their food. When the woman left, Ruby changed the subject. “What about Tim, and Phoebe?”

  “Fine, fine,” Kylie waved her hand. “Phoebe’s making lasagna this week, try not to miss. And Tim, well, I hardly understand anything he says anymore, but I think he’s cool.”

  Ruby grinned and took a bite of her salad. A couple years ago Timothy had found a book about computer coding, and when he decided it was fascinating, their Dad had insisted that Mom let him learn as much as he could for schoolwork. Timothy was only nineteen, but he had learned three computer languages by the time he got his diploma. Last time Ruby saw him he was trying to explain to her that he was working on writing an app that would blast spam texts with return messages about two hundred times.

  Ruby had not understood half of what he was talking about, but Tim was happy, and had certainly found a promising line of work to go into.

  Kylie chatted on while Ruby ate, filling her in on the family, but Ruby noticed that her sister gracefully skirted around Judah, Joe, and their new roommate. She also said nothing about David, much to Ruby’s relief.

  After a bit, the waitress came back with the bill.

  Ruby pulled her wallet out and started to hand the lady her card, but stopped suddenly. Her conversation with Mr. Cameron had her a bit freaked about having her identity stolen and her debt go crazy, so she put the card back and paid with cash instead.

  “That credit company guy has you spooked?” Kylie asked.

  Ruby nodded, and lowered her voice.

  “I’m pretty sure the person running the scam was the murder victim, but…” Ruby’s voice trailed off.

  “But what?” Kylie pressed.

  “Her ex-boyfriend kinda works here,” Ruby admitted. “He could have been in on it.”

  “What?” Kylie’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait? Is that why you wanted to have lunch?”

  “No, no!” Ruby said quickly. “You wanted to have lunch, remember? I just sort-of suggested we come here.”

  Kylie crossed her arms and frowned. Ruby avoided her sister’s eyes, instead focusing on the returning waitress.

  “Everything good today?” the waitress asked.

  “Oh, yes, it was great,” Ruby answered. “Um, you wouldn’t happen to know if Patrick’s on shift today?”

  The waitress gave Ruby a serious look.

  “Yes, honey, but that man is trouble,” she said. “Always into something. I don’t know how he keeps this job!”

  “Oh, well, um, the gate guard over at the Sandy Turtle Cove has some of his girlfriend’s old things,” Ruby said. “I thought someone should tell him, since they don’t have his number…”

  The waitress shoved her bill folder in her apron.

  “You mean ex-girlfriend, don’t you?” She made a clicking noise with her teeth and gave both the girls a hard look. “I’ll send him out here. But like I said, he’s trouble. I wouldn’t talk to him anywhere alone if I were you.”

  The waitress darted away and Kylie shot her big sister a look.

  “Have you lost your mind?” she hissed. “You really are investigating! Ruby! You heard that lady—”

  Kylie’s mouth snapped shut suddenly, and Ruby looked up as a rough looking fellow shuffled over to their table. His h
air was greasy and his shirt was stained. No wonder they kept him in the back.

  “What do you want?” he said.

  “Oh, um, are you Patrick?” Ruby asked, not sure how to start.

  “Yeah.”

  “Oh, well… I was over at the Sandy Turtle Cove the other day and—”

  “You tourists?”

  “No,” Ruby said quickly. Suddenly she sat up. “Look, I have some information for you. Maybe we better step outside?”

  Behind his back, Kylie waved frantically and mouthed No! but the guy nodded, and the three of them got up and headed out the front door. Ruby stopped right there, certain it was safest where the other employees could see them.

  “Look,” she said. “It’s probably not a big deal, but the gate guards have some of Nancy’s things. Thought you might want to come get them.”

  Patrick spit at the ground.

  “Don’t want her nasty stuff,” he growled.

  “You don’t sound upset that she’s dead,” Ruby said, allowing a hint of accusation to creep into her voice.

  “That’s cause I ain’t!” Patrick said. “We had a good scam going! And then she got all sloppy and started trying to take more for herself, and tossed me! Turned out she was the dead-weight though, didn’t it?”

  Patrick laughed, but then his face changed, and he jabbed a finger at Ruby.

  “Wait. Why you asking questions, Ginger?”

  Ruby bristled at the slur at her hair, but she tried to hide it.

  “Why does anyone ask questions?” she countered with a shrug. Trying to look tougher than she felt, she asked another question. “What do you mean she got sloppy?”

  “Nancy screwed up,” he spat. “Started getting info off the residents, not just the tourists. I don’t really know how she was doing it, you know? Gadgets aint my thing.”

  Ruby glanced at her sister in triumph. The cleaning lady really was the credit thief!

  “Anything else, Ginger?” Patrick asked in a mocking voice.

  “Yeah, just one more thing,” Ruby said with a frown. “Did you kill her?”

  The greasy man actually laughed again. It was a cold, hollow sound, and it chilled Ruby to the core.

  “I thought about it,” he said. “But I would’a strangled her lousy, cheatin’ neck, not risked my own self catching some dang snake!”

  “Cheating?”

  “Well, she said she was ditching me ‘cause she had somebody else to deal with,” Patrick laughed. “But I guess they dealt with her.”

  Patrick ruffled his greasy hair, laughed again, and walked back into Gilligan’s.

  Ruby grabbed her sister by the arm and headed for the Rookie Mobile. She jerked the door open and pushed Kylie in. Slamming the door, Ruby marched around to the other sided got in. Ruby heaved a sigh of relief to be away from that man. She turned on her sister, and shook a finger at Kylie.

  “Don’t you ever come here again,” Ruby said, as if Gilligan’s had been Kylie’s idea. “Least not till they fire that creep, okay?”

  Kylie shoved her key in the ignition.

  “No kidding,” she said, and the two girls drove off.

  Chapter Nine

  T he Rookie Mobile rumbled along as Kylie turned the headlights on and drove over the bridge back to Leyenda Island.

  “What a total creep!” Kylie said as she rolled the windows down.

  “Sorry, Sis,” Ruby said. “I had no idea he’d be that kind of…”

  Ruby’s voice drifted away as a piece of paper fluttered down from the visor and landed on her lap.

  “Since when did you start keeping papers up here?” Ruby asked as she unfolded the paper.

  “I don’t keep stuff there!” Kylie said in surprise. “You know the AC doesn’t work in this old thing. I’m always driving around with the windows down. Ruby? Ruby, what’s wrong?”

  “Did you lock the car?” Ruby asked, swallowing at the lump forming in her throat.

  “Come on, Ruby, you know I don’t bother locking this thing—”

  “Pull over!” Ruby shouted. She held the paper up for Kylie to see. “Pull over, NOW!”

  Ruby waved the page at her sister.

  QUIT POKING AROUND AND YOU’LL QUIT FINDING SNAKES.

  Kylie caught some of the waving letters and a look of horror came over her face. She swerved wildly into the right-hand lane. Red and blue lights flashed behind them as Kylie slammed on the brakes, pulling the car into the grass.

  Ruby looked down at her feet just in time to see a small, black head poking out from beneath her seat.

  “SNAKE!” she screamed, stomping at the floor. “Get out, Kylie!”

  Kylie threw the Rookie Mobile into park and both girls flung their doors open. A siren whooped, but Ruby ignored it. Shaken with her worst childhood terrors, she ran for the mangrove trees.

  Ruby felt the world tilt around her. The trees spun, and Ruby threw up every last bit of the lunch she had just eaten.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  “Ruby!” Kylie shouted. Ignoring the flashing lights, Kylie ran into the mangroves to collect her big sister. “Ruby, it’s okay!”

  Ruby looked up and grabbed Kylie’s arms.

  “Are you okay?” Ruby gasped. “I’m… I’m sorry, I left you…”

  Kylie wrapped her arms around Ruby.

  “Are you kidding?” she said. “I was right behind you!”

  “Are you two crazy?” A stern voice called into the mangroves. “What’s going on?”

  Ruby froze in place, her eyes closed tight as she wiped her mouth on her sleeve. She took a deep breath. Of all the cops on this planet, it had to be him.

  Kylie let go of Ruby and ran over to deputy Prescott.

  “Ian!” she cried. “I’m so glad it’s you! Someone put a snake in my car!”

  Ruby was hurriedly checking to make sure there was no conch fritter in her hair, and she missed the anxious look he threw at both of them.

  “What?” he asked. “What are you saying, Kylie?”

  “There was a note in the visor, with a threat!” Kylie said, leading him back out towards the car which was wide open and still running. Ruby stopped at the tree line, unwilling to go any closer.

  Kylie reached inside, grabbed the note and slammed Ruby’s door shut.

  “Look!” she said.

  The deputy took the paper, and this time Ruby did not miss the look on his face. He grabbed his phone and started tapping buttons.

  “Did you see a snake?” he asked.

  Kylie shook her head no, but Ruby nodded.

  “What kind?” he asked. “Was it poisonous?”

  “No, just black, I think,” Ruby said, her voice cracking. She rubbed her arms, chilled. She wished her extra shirt was not in the Rookie Mobile. Ruby stared at her sister, wondering how on earth she was taking this so calmly.

  “Are your keys in the car, Kylie?”

  She nodded, and Ian marched around to the driver’s side. He closed all the windows, turned the heat full blast, then shut the door.

  “What’s he doing?” Kylie asked, coming to stand by Ruby.

  “He’s getting the snake out,” Ruby said quietly. “It has to come out, or die from the heat.”

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  While they waited for Kylie’s car to heat up, Ian took his phone out again.

  “Now what?” Kylie asked.

  “I’m letting dispatch know where I am,” Ian said. “There’s no way I’m leaving you two stranded like this, Judah will kill me.”

  “Awe, I’m fine as long as it comes out,” Kylie said. She lowered her voice. “I wasn’t around when that whole thing happened with Ruby and Judah. Snakes don’t really bother me.”

  “Fine,” Ian said. “But I’m still gonna follow you home. And I’m going to need a statement from you.” He waved the paper she had given him. “I’ll have them run it for prints, but I doubt they’ll get anything useful.”

  Ruby felt all the blood drain out of her face, but at least the world was not spinning
. She pointed at the car, where a black racer was tapping at the window.

  “Go get in the truck,” Ian said to her.

  Ruby clenched her teeth. Help from this man was the last thing she wanted, but she had reached her limit. There was no way she was getting back in the Rookie Mobile. Ever. But she didn’t want to leave her little sister.

  “I’m fine, Rubix, really,” Kylie said. “I’ll get your stuff.”

  Ruby nodded and dashed for the truck. She climbed into the cab and shut the door against the mosquitoes. The truck was still running, and the AC was blasting, along with Mozart’s Requiem. Where on earth had her brothers found this guy?

  She bit her lip and watched Ian open the Rookie Mobile door. The snake slithered out, and Kylie stuck her tongue out at the black racer as it slithered off into the trees.

  Ruby watched in disbelief as her little sister popped back into her car and drove off towards the Nest.

  “Unbelievable,” Ruby muttered as she put on her seat belt. Of course, Kylie might not have bounced back so quick if the thing had slithered down her seat belt and onto her shoulder.

  The deputy turned and marched back toward his truck, carrying Ruby’s backpack. He pulled onto the road, switched off his police lights, and followed Kylie towards the Nest.

  Ruby sat there, for a minute or two, and then finally sighed.

  “Thanks,” she said. “I could not have gotten back in that car.”

  “Yeah, well, that’s understandable,” he said, glancing at her. “I’m going to make sure Kylie gets home okay, and then I’ll drop you off. I hope Mozart’s okay?”

  “He’s not Bach, but I can deal,” Ruby said, and Ian chuckled a little.

  They were quiet another minute, and then Ian spoke up.

  “Did your mom really burn the van?” he asked. “The one from when you and Judah were kids?”

  Ruby managed a small smile. “She wanted to. Every time we went anywhere, Judah and Joe and I wanted her to run the heater before we’d get in. Tim was just a baby, so he didn’t care. And when dad got in and found we’d put Duct tape over all the vents and seatbelt tracks, well, he sold it. Said we needed a bigger van anyway.”