Playing with Bonbon Fire

by Dorothy St. James

  I’d forgotten that Stan and the congressman had been close, which, of course, explained his persistence in getting together with me. He, like me, wanted to do everything in his power to see justice prevail.

  “I’m sure I can use all the help I can get,” I said kindly. “Good luck with your meeting. And I’ll let you know right away if I hear anything new about the investigation.”

  “Thank you.” He gave my hand a squeeze. “I’ll give you a call so we can plan something. I might be able to see something important in the facts you know about Stan’s murder that you’ve been overlooking. After all, I’ve lived in this town my entire life. Until later.”

  Stella took the opportunity to bark like a maniac as the congressman hurried away. It was as if she was saying to him, “That’s right, buster, run. Come near me again and I’ll bite you.”

  Since I needed all the help I could get in figuring out why someone thought I needed to be silenced, I told Stella to stop trying to scare off a willing helper, especially someone as powerful and well connected and motivated as Trey Ezell. He might be the key to figuring out what had been going on in my favorite island town.

  Chapter 22

  As soon as I reached the end of Main Street, I kicked off my shoes and buried my toes in the warm sand. My gaze traveled over the vastness of the Atlantic Ocean. Beside me, the pier and pavilion reached toward the horizon. All around, people laughed, tossed beach balls, and read books as they lounged in the summer warmth. Just beyond the breakers, surfers floated on the water like a flock of shorebirds, bobbing up and down as the swells passed underneath their boards. In the distance, the old red-and-white brick lighthouse stood watch over it all.

  No one on the beach appeared worried that an armed madwoman might be loose on the island. I doubted many of them knew. I stood there wishing I could be one of them, relaxed and happy. But that wasn’t my world, so I called Tina on my cell phone.

  Stella, with several happy yips, started burrowing through the sand in much the same way she had through the scattered papers in the Chocolate Box’s office. Her white silky tail waved double-time as she used her nose like a little black bulldozer.

  Even though Stella was a handful and I would never have thought I wanted a dog in my life, I had to admit having her beside me made me almost as happy as those beachgoers I’d been envying. I smiled as I watched her.

  “Penn!” Tina shouted into the phone. “What’s going on? Why haven’t you been answering my calls?”

  “I’d have answered them if you’d been calling me,” I said. “No one has called me today.”

  “I have been calling you,” she protested.

  “No, you—” I started to say. I pulled the phone away from my ear to see if I’d missed any calls. I’d missed three calls from Tina and one from Granny Mae. How could that be?

  My ringer, that’s how. It had been turned off. I didn’t remember turning it off the previous night, but I sometimes did that on nights when I needed to get a good night’s sleep.

  “Sorry, Tina. I must have forgotten to turn my ringer back on this morning.”

  “Don’t do that! You had me freaking out that something bad had happened.”

  “Something bad did happen,” I said.

  “What! What happened? I knew I should have gone back to the shop. But Bixby insisted we’d only be in the way. He sent a member of his security team to check things out. But the only thing the guard could tell us was that there were tons of police and that no one was able to get close to the front door. Talk to me, Penn. Don’t leave me wondering. Are you okay? What happened?”

  “If you’d shut up for a minute I’d tell you,” I said with a chuckle. “Actually, where are you? I don’t want to discuss this over the phone.”

  After hanging up, I strolled a short way down the beach to where several oversized beachfront mansions elevated on wooden pilings had recently been built on undersized lots. One of the houses was the one we’d rented for Bixby. Tina waved to me from a lounge chair on the deck. Bixby was pacing the deck with a cell phone pressed to his ear.

  Down on the beach, a crowd of fans had gathered. They created a ring around the steps leading up to the house, alternating between gawking and taking pictures with their phones.

  “It’s okay,” he called to the security team guarding the steps. “We invited the girl with the dog. Let her come up.”

  The same two burly men who’d accosted Jody yesterday gave me a friendly nod as I passed.

  By the time I got to the deck, Bixby had stuffed his phone into his back pocket.

  Stella, excited at the sight of Tina’s and Bixby’s bare toes—toes ripe for biting—barked and tugged at the leash for several embarrassing minutes before giving up. With a huff, she started sniffing for crumbs that had fallen on the deck.

  I settled into a lounge chair beside Tina and told her what had happened.

  “Crazy Candy shot at you?” Tina jolted upright, clearly upset. Stella joined in on the excitement and started barking again. “Everyone knows that girl needs some serious help, but I would never have guessed she’d try to shoot you. Bixby, honey, fetch Penn a drink. I’m sure she could use one.”

  “Did her bullets hit anyone?” Bixby asked offhandedly.

  I frowned as I watched him walk over to the outside bar. How could he stay so calm about what Candy might have done? Was it because this was what superstars had to deal with on a daily basis?

  “My front window and several vintage teacups were the only casualty this time,” I told him. “The police are searching for her.”

  “She’ll deny doing anything wrong when they find her.” Bixby poured three vodka and tonics from the bar. “She always does,” he said after taking a long sip of his drink. He then carried the other two over to us.

  “I shudder to think what might have happened if you and Tina hadn’t taken the back way out. Where was your security team, Bixby?” I demanded as I accepted the cool glass. “Why didn’t they intercept her before she got close to the shop?”

  “That’s a good question.” Tina jumped up from the lounge chair and fisted her hands on her hips. “Bixby, where was your security team this morning?”

  He flashed one of his devastating smiles as he tried to hand Tina her glass. “You know how I hate having them follow me everywhere. If I’m going somewhere, you know, unexpected, I’ll tell them to take some time off.”

  “But coming to the shop wasn’t unexpected,” I pointed out. “Candy told me you’d texted her. She said you wanted to meet with her there.”

  “Preposterous. Why would I do that?”

  “Why would you?” I asked.

  “I wouldn’t. I didn’t,” he protested.

  “Someone texted her, which must mean someone knew where you were going,” I pressed, “or someone was following you.”

  “Unless she made up the part about getting a text,” Tina said. “Did you actually see it, Penn?”

  “No, I didn’t see it.” She’d showed me a blank screen, but she’d sounded so hopeful, so certain.

  “She didn’t get a text. She never does. I’m not even sure her phone is connected to a service.” Bixby abandoned his attempts to hand my nervous sister her drink. He placed the glass on a side table and got back on his phone. Whoever he was calling didn’t pick up. “Call me as soon as you can,” he snapped. “It’s important.”

  “Is everything okay?” I asked.

  “No.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Your friend Bubba is avoiding me. I think he’s doing it on purpose.”

  “That doesn’t sound like him.” Bubba was one of the most gregarious men I knew. “The man would talk to a pile of rocks if no one was around to listen to him.”

  “Perhaps I need to dress like some rocks, then. I’ve been trying to get in touch with him all morning. He’s not answering his cell phone.”

  “That’s odd.” And I still couldn’t get in touch with Bertie. “Have you tried calling any of the other band members? Perhaps one of
them knows where you can find him.”

  “That’s the first thing I did. They were supposed to have a practice session all morning, but Bubba canceled it and went running off on some mysterious errand. No one knows where he went.”

  Just like Bertie.

  “He’s been gone all morning,” Bixby said. He sounded truly vexed. Apparently, someone not returning his phone calls made him more upset than a stalker with a gun.

  If I stopped to think about it, his reaction made sense. Bixby was the kind of guy who craved attention. Candy gave him that attention and then some. I was beginning to suspect that one of the reasons he resisted reporting her antics to the police was that they might actually stop her from following him around the country with her unbreakable devotion.

  Still, the Bubba I’d known before Thursday would have given Bixby the same kind of attention. Heck, before Thursday, anyone you’d have asked would have told you that Bubba wouldn’t leave town without telling at least ten people where he was going. I’d never known him to take longer than a few minutes to return a phone call.

  What was going on with him? Had someone hit him over the head and stranded him on a boat again?

  And Bertie? What was she up to? And why did she continue to deny that she and Bubba had some kind of relationship when they clearly did?

  And then there was the question of why Bixby had dismissed his security team before coming to the Chocolate Box that morning. I didn’t believe for a minute that he’d done it because he liked to get away from the people who protected him. He wouldn’t do that, not while both a stalker and a killer prowled the island. He had to have had another reason for not wanting to be protected. Perhaps it was because he had texted Candy and had told her to come meet him. After all, she’d be the perfect person to use as a scapegoat for someone else taking potshots from the woods.

  I hadn’t thought anything of it at the time, but that first time I’d talked with Bixby, he’d told me how eager he was to get his hands on some fresh beach music. He’d said he wanted to get back to his beach music roots, but the way he kept calling Bubba so he could talk about purchasing the rights to the music, I wondered if something else was going on. How badly did he need that next big top-of-the-chart hit? And what made him think he’d find that hit here?

  I really needed to talk things over with someone.

  “I think you should leave,” I said abruptly.

  “What?” Bixby snapped. “Until next Tuesday, this is my place.”

  “Not you.” I held my hands up as if to hold him off. “Although if you wanted to cancel singing with The Embers to get away from Candy’s threat, I’d fully support your decision. I don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

  “You can’t get rid of me.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m not going anywhere until I finish what I came to do.”

  “And what exactly did you come here to do? Buy music from unknown musicians or sing?” I demanded.

  Tina gasped. “Penn, are you accusing him of something?”

  Bixby grimaced. “I’m here as a favor to you, in case you’ve forgotten. I’m here to sing.”

  “Good,” I said, my voice still crisp. “And I wasn’t telling you to leave. I was actually talking to Tina.” My sister was my main concern at the moment. If there was some nut out there shooting at me and whoever happened to be standing near me, I needed to get Tina out of the line of fire. Not only would my family murder me if I let something happen to their precious Tina, but I would never forgive myself. I loved the fashion maven fiercely.

  “You want me to leave? Now?” Tina cried. “When things are just starting to get interesting? Not on your life.”

  “It’s not my life I’m worried about,” I told her.

  “I’ll be fine.”

  I wasn’t so sure. “Someone shot at me today,” I reminded her. “With real, live bullets.”

  She folded her arms over her chest just as Bixby had. “Then that’s more reason for me to stay. You need me here.” Her gaze flicked over to Bixby and then back to me again. “Seriously, you need my help.”

  I didn’t need her help, not if she was still looking to fix me up with her ex. “I’d never forgive myself if anything happened to you.”

  “You’re not responsible for me.”

  “Tell that to Grandmother Cristobel,” I muttered before I could stop myself.

  Unfortunately, Tina had heard me. “Grandmamma knows better. I’m an adult. If she blames you for any decision I make, she’ll hear about it from me. I’m not going to put up with the way she treats you, not anymore. This nonsense has gone on for too long. Someone in our family needs to start standing up for you.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered. I was touched, truly touched. Very few people in my life had ever had the courage to stand up to my formidable grandmother.

  Tina pulled me into a tight hug. I tried to relax as I forced my arms to hug her back.

  “You’re too hard on yourself and everyone around you, silly bean,” Tina said after she let me go. “And I’m going to keep hugging you until you stop making your spine feel like a prickly pineapple.”

  “Got it.” I gulped. A few blinks washed away all evidence that a few stupid tears loomed. “Still, I’d feel better if you took the next flight back to Chicago.”

  “No way, big sis. You’re stuck with me until the end of the festival.”

  Clearly I wasn’t going to win this battle right now, so I chose to retreat. “I need to get back to the shop. I closed it to come here.”

  “You did? Where’s Bertie?” Tina asked.

  “I don’t know. She’s been gone all morning.”

  “How about your friend Althea? Did you ask her for help?”

  I hadn’t. “She’s trying to find her mother. Bertie has been acting strangely these past couple of days, disappearing without telling anyone where she’s going and snapping at anyone who so much as looks at her funny.”

  “Really?” Tina looked troubled by that revelation. Her perfectly groomed brows crinkled. “You don’t think …”

  “I need to get back to the shop,” I said forcefully.

  Yes, Bertie’s secretive behavior bothered me. I worried about what she’d gotten herself involved with. Was Bubba the reason she was running off again and again without telling anyone where she was headed?

  Certainly, she hadn’t run off to shoot at me. Although she had been gone when the bullets started to fly, I knew she couldn’t have been the one holding the gun.

  And Bubba, even though he was missing too, wouldn’t want to shoot me. After all, I was helping him make the music festival a success. And even if he had gotten some weird notion in his head that would make him send bullets flying in my direction, he wouldn’t have done it with his bandmates standing right next to me. He wouldn’t risk harming one of them.

  So who had pulled the trigger?

  Could Crazy Candy have done it?

  Tina hooked her arm with mine and started herding me toward the deck’s stairs. “I’m coming with you to the shop, since that’s why I’m here. I’m here to help you.”

  “You’re leaving?” Bixby said without looking in our direction. He’d been fiddling with his phone again. Was he sending texts? Or was he playing a game? “If you see Bubba, you’ll let him know I’m still trying to get in touch with him?”

  Tina didn’t wait for me to answer before dragging me down the wooden steps. I felt a little sick to my stomach as I looked in his direction one last time.

  There was one scenario I hadn’t considered. Bixby wanted to buy the song “Camellia Night.” And he seemed desperate to get in touch with Bubba so they could work out a deal. Bubba had acted eager to sell while Stan had balked at the idea. And now Stan was dead and Bubba was avoiding Bixby’s calls.

  I looked back at the beach house. Bixby had put away his phone. He stood at the deck’s railing and was watching us. Despite the day’s stifling heat, the grimace hardening his expression chilled me to the bone.

 
Chapter 23

  Three o’clock came too quickly. My hands shook—heck, my entire body was shaking—by the time I met Harley outside my apartment door. You’d think I’d be used to this: indifference and scorn from members of my family. Meeting with Florence should be business as usual, sort of like having Sunday dinner at my father’s house.

  It wasn’t as if I expected her to suddenly welcome me into the Maybank family with open arms. Given my past experience with her, I doubted Florence had anything nice to say to me.

  Still, the part of me that would always be that lonely child craving love and attention hoped Florence had set up this meeting today out of kindness. A foolish hope, and yet, because that hope kept whispering cloying “what-ifs” in my ear, my nerves were as jumpy as Stella at dinnertime.

  “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” Harley asked. He steadied my hand as I fumbled with the key in the lock.

  “Are you sure you want to be here instead of spending the day with Gavin?” I asked instead of answering a question I didn’t know the answer to.

  “Gavin and his friend Tom are running around the island like a pair of lost boys. They’ve been gone since right after gobbling down an early lunch.” Harley smiled as he said it. “It’s not been easy for him to find friends in town. There aren’t that many families living out here anymore. I’m glad he’s teamed up with Ezell’s nephew.”

  “Friendships during difficult times are priceless,” I said. “I’m lucky I can consider you a friend.”

  The sun hung like a big yellow beach ball in the sky. I could hear faint laughter and squeals of joy from tourists enjoying a day at the beach a few blocks away. Tina was downstairs helping out in the shop. Althea, who had searched all morning and into the afternoon for her mother, had also come by to help in the shop. Bertie and Bubba were both still missing.

  I’d wanted to talk to Althea more about what she knew about her mother’s past, but three o’clock arrived before that conversation happened, and I had this meeting.