by Kathi Daley
Chapter 9
“The man at the bar down the street said to look for a man with long blond hair wearing a ratty old Yankees cap,” I whispered to Kyle as we entered the third bar in our attempt to track down Dilly.
Kyle tilted his head across the floor. “Looks like that could be him over there, playing pool.”
“Let’s just walk up and pretend we’ve met before and see what happens,” I suggested.
“I’ll follow your lead.”
I walked across the bar with Kyle walking closely behind me. “Dilly,” I said when I arrived at the table. “It’s Tj,” I added when he just stared at me. “From Gull Island,” I specified when he still didn’t respond.
He still looked confused, but he replied, “Oh, Tj. How are you?”
“Good. And yourself?”
“Hangin’ in there.”
“I didn’t realize you lived on Folly Island. It’s a great place, but for some reason I thought both you and Lambert lived in Charleston.”
“I did live there at one time, but I like to move around.”
Dilly had an odd look on his face. He was probably trying to place me while maintaining the conversation at the same time.
“I guess you heard about Buck.”
The man narrowed his gaze. “Yeah. What of it?”
“There’s a rumor going around that you might know something about his death.”
“Who’s saying that?”
I looked around the room. It wasn’t crowded, but this didn’t seem like the type of conversation to have at a pool table. “How about my friend and I buy you a drink?” I nodded toward an empty table in the corner.
“You a cop?”
“No, I’m not a cop. I heard some people say that you were considered a suspect in Buck’s murder, and when I saw you standing here, I figured the friendly thing would be to give you a heads up.”
“That is mighty neighborly, and I guess I could use a drink.”
I led Dilly over to the table while Kyle went up to the bar and ordered drinks for all three of us.
“Where do I know you from again?” Dilly was beginning to look even more confused.
“Sully’s. I’m not surprised you’re having a hard time remembering. You were pretty smashed the night we met. In fact, we were both pretty smashed.”
“Yeah, I guess I remember you now.”
“You were in the bar with Lambert and the three of us partied. I had a really good time, so when I was in Charleston today I stopped by Lambert’s place to say hi, but I guess he’s still out of the country.”
“Yeah. You know how it is with those tech guys. Always traveling.”
“I know what you mean. Based on what he said, it seems like he’s pretty swamped.” I knew I was laying on the lie pretty thick; I just hoped it wasn’t too thick. “I’m kind of surprised he took the time to come to Gull Island with you in the first place.”
“Lambert and I are friends from way back. We took different paths, but we still try to get together every now and then. He calls me his vacation-from-reality buddy. When we get together we do stuff he’d never do in his regular life.”
“Like go on a treasure hunt?”
“Yeah. ’Course, the treasure hunt Buck took us on was a fake. I’m pretty sure there never was a map. I felt kind of bad for talking Lambert into giving him all that money. Not that he can’t afford it. He just got a new job working with Apple.”
Kyle returned to the table and set down the glasses he was carrying in the middle of the hardwood surface. “I work in the software industry. I wonder if I know your friend.”
“Might. Daryl is really smart. He even developed a game a while back. He didn’t make a lot of money off of it, but it was pretty awesome.”
“I’d love to check it out sometime. Maybe when Lambert returns from his trip.”
“I got a copy if you want to check it out,” Dilly offered. “I live just down the street.”
“I’d like that.” Kyle smiled.
Dilly had obviously been drinking and I wasn’t thrilled about going to his house, but I wasn’t alone and I guess it wouldn’t hurt to take a look around and see if anything stood out as suspicious.
“We can just walk if you want,” Dilly suggested. “It’s really close.”
“Sounds good to me,” I answered.
Dilly chugged his beer before he got up from the table, waved to the bartender, and led us out of the building.
“So how long has Lambert been out of the country?” I asked as we made our way down the street.
“Long time. He left on May 15th, right after our trip to Gull Island. He should be back in a couple weeks.”
If that were true then Lambert at least couldn’t be the killer since, based on the timeline I’d put together, Buck had only been missing since May 30th.
“I know you said that Lambert does computer stuff. What do you do for a living?” I asked.
“Little of this, little of that. Right now I’m between jobs, but I just got back from visiting my cousin in Kansas. He gave me five grand to help him build a room onto his house. Not bad for a month’s work. Here we are.” Dilly stopped in front of a dilapidated old house. “It’s not much, but it’s home.”
Dilly’s house was old and rundown. The moment he opened the door I was hit with the stench of alcohol and rotting food. I really did want to solve Buck’s murder, but it sounded as if Dilly and Lambert were both out of town when Buck was killed, so if their alibis checked out, they couldn’t be the killer we were looking for anyway.
“You know,” I said as the overwhelming urge to gag overtook me, “I think I’ll just wait out here in the fresh air. I’m afraid I might be allergic to something in your house.”
Dilly shrugged. “Suit yourself.” He turned to look at Kyle. “You coming?”
Kyle glanced at me with a look of resignation on his face. “I’d love to take a quick look at what you have, although we can’t stay long.”
“Just a few minutes,” I warned, “or we’ll be late for that appointment we really shouldn’t be late for.”
By the time Kyle and I returned from Charleston, Doc had picked up the girls from camp. I prepared a light dinner for the others, after which Kyle and I tried to decide on our next move in what I was beginning to refer to as our murder case. I had to admit I was beginning to feel torn. Part of me felt I should be putting all my energy into trying to stop Greg Norton and Destination Properties’ plans, while another wanted to put all my efforts into figuring out what had happened to Buck. I supposed that until the renovation of the resort got underway I could try to do both.
In terms of the murder investigation I had two pressing questions: who had killed Buck and why the deputy was lying to cover up the fact that Buck’s death really had been a murder. Grandpa had been at the museum with Meg that day and he’d broached the subject of Deputy Savage’s reputation in the community. Meg had assured him the man was not only well liked but was a respected law enforcement officer who spent a good deal of his spare time volunteering for various organizations on the island.
After dinner was over and the dishes had been washed and put away, I settled the girls in front of the television so Kyle, Doc, Grandpa, and I could discuss the first matter at hand, which, as it turned out, revolved around the deputy.
“If we’re going to operate on the assumption that Deputy Savage knows who murdered Buck and is indeed covering up the murder, maybe the key to this whole thing is in figuring out who it is the deputy cares enough about to lie for,” Kyle suggested. “Is Savage married?”
“Meg said he’s single and childless, although he does have siblings: two brothers and a sister. One of the brothers and the sister live on the island and the other brother lives in Charleston,” Grandpa reported.
“Do you think Meg found it odd that you were asking all these personal questions about Deputy Savage?”
“No, because I didn’t just ask about him. It was slow at the museum today, so I took advantage of the downtime to ask about pretty much everyone I’ve met since I’ve been here.” My grandfather looked at Kyle. “Did you know Willow has a daughter?”
“Yeah, she introduced us. Cute little thing. Her dad is out of the picture, so Willow is raising her alone, although I have a feeling she might have her eye on someone to take on the dad role.”
“Do you know who that is?” I had to ask.
“She didn’t say and I don’t know her well enough to ask. You know, there’s a boy at the kids’ camp named Rory Savage. I wonder if he’s any relation to the good deputy.”
“Rory is his nephew,” Grandpa confirmed. “Deputy Savage’s brother has three children. The deputy coaches Rory’s baseball team.”
I wondered where Savage found the time to do so much volunteer work and said as much to the others.
“Meg commented that most of the time there isn’t a lot of crime to deal with on the island. I guess the low crime rate allows him to multitask. She made a joke about the fact that he’s been known to show up at a crime scene wearing his softball uniform.”
“You really did manage to dig up quite a bit of information in just a couple of hours,” I said.
“Meg likes to talk, and I was motivated to listen. The thing is, the more she talked about Savage, the more certain I became that if he’s covering up a murder he must have a really good reason to do it. He seems like an all-around good guy.”
“Yeah, something isn’t jiving.” I looked at Doc. “Are you sure the damage to the skull couldn’t have occurred as the result of a fall?”
“I’m sure.”
“Okay.” I looked around the table. “Now that we have all this new information, where do we start?”
“I talked to Meg some more about this Norton fellow,” my grandfather said. “She suggested that you might want to have a discussion with the mayor prior to Thursday’s meeting.”
“Okay. Who is the mayor?”
“A woman named Betty Sue Bell. Meg said she owns Betty Boop’s, a hair salon on Cove Street.”
“The contractor is coming by in the morning, but I’ll go by after that to see what she has to say about this whole thing.”
“Contractor?” Ben asked.
“A man by the name of Jack Long. When I spoke to Garrett just before we left to head east he mentioned that Jack would be stopping by on the morning of the twenty-first to discuss what needs to be done. It seems the two of them have already had a preliminary conversation, but Garrett indicated that Jack wanted to do a complete inventory of the existing infrastructure before they settled on a plan.”
“Makes sense. I took a walk around today and couldn’t help but notice that a few of the cabins are in really bad shape.”
We ironed out the details for the following day and then both Grandpa Ben and Doc headed into the house, while Kyle and I retired to the deck with glasses of wine. It really was a beautiful evening. The moon was shining on the water, creating a serene environment.
“Don’t let me forget to tuck Blackbeard in before we head in for the night,” Kyle said.
“Blackbeard asked about you this morning. I think he might have a little birdie crush,” I teased.
“He asked about me?”
“When I went in to feed him, he repeatedly asked for Captain Kyle.”
“I know parrots are supposed to simply mimic what they hear, but I swear, that bird has a mind of its own, although the Captain Kyle thing came from Gracie.”
I laughed. “Were you playing pirate again?”
Kyle blushed. “When we got home from camp yesterday I decided to take the dogs for a walk. Gracie wanted to go and she asked if we could bring Blackbeard. I found a tether that goes around his leg so you can take him outdoors and not worry about him flying away, so I agreed to take him. When I opened the door to the cage he said, ‘Play with pretty boy,’ and Gracie told him my name was Captain Kyle. He called me Captain Kyle for the entire walk. I’m not sure he has a crush on me though. He told me to walk the plank several times during the twenty minutes we were on the beach.”
“That’s funny. Garrett must watch pirate movies. Either that or he plays pirate with Blackbeard as well. It’s really amazing the way he seems to really be talking to us and not just repeating random words.”
“He actually has a pretty large vocabulary.”
“When I was a kid I had a friend with a parrot. The bird’s name was Rodney. Rodney could talk, but it never felt like he was communicating. To be honest I remember thinking the bird was a pest. He was loud and messy and I really couldn’t understand why anyone would want to own such a creature. But Blackbeard is different. If you told me that Blackbeard was really a handsome prince who had a spell cast on him turning him into a bird, I’d totally buy it.”
“Why is it that all the stories about people being turned into animals involved handsome princes?” Kyle wondered.
“I guess so the beautiful princess will have a strong enough motive to want to kiss a hundred frogs trying to find the right one. Personally, the prince would have to have a lot more going on for him than just being handsome for me to kiss a pond full of frogs.”
Kyle laughed. “Oh, and what qualities would this fairytale prince need to possess to get your attention?”
I took a sip of my wine and leaned back in my chair. “If I was going to kiss a frog to free a prince, I’d want the prince to be someone who was capable of being a partner in life and not just arm candy. He’d need to care about me and my sisters and he’d need to be interested in becoming part of a readymade family and not just riding off into the sunset with the beautiful princess. He’d have to love animals, have a good sense of humor, and embrace everyday moments like the first snow or a perfect sunset. He’d need to be open to possibilities and he’d need to find magic in the little things like stolen kisses and fuzzy mittens. And most of all, he’d need to have a kind heart and gentle spirit.”
“Anything else?”
“He’d need to be loyal and trustworthy like a dog, but a better kisser.”
“Sounds like you’ve thought about this.”
I frowned. “Yeah. I guess I have.” I turned my head to the side so I was looking directly at Kyle. “The thing is, that even if you find Prince Charming and he’s everything that you ever thought you’d want, sometimes that isn’t enough. My grandmother used to say that love isn’t logical, that sometimes you just have to trust your heart to find the other half of itself.”
Kyle leaned in until his lips were only inches from mine. “How will you know?”
“You’ll know.”
Chapter 10
Wednesday, June 21
When Jack Long arrived the next morning in his faded blue jeans, tight blue t-shirt, smoky gray eyes, and dark blond hair, I knew for certain that Kyle’s almost kiss had affected me more than I wanted to admit. Not only had I dreamed about that moment for most of the night, but Jack was exactly my type, yet I found I felt nothing when he smiled at me with his sexy grin or winked at me. Maybe Jenna was right. Maybe Kyle was the one I’d been waiting for. If Gracie hadn’t interrupted us at the exact moment of our almost kiss, maybe I’d know for sure whether or not it would be Kyle’s kiss that would break the curse and wake the dormant half of my heart.
“Ms. Jensen?”
“You can call me Tj.” I forced my attention back to the matter at hand. “I know you’ve spoken to Garrett and have a general idea as to what needs to be done.”
“We had a dialogue about the project, but I wanted to get a look at the place before I made my recommendations. Do you happen to know if the cabins are locked?”
&nb
sp; “They are. Just let me get the keys and I’ll show you around.”
“Thanks. I’d appreciate it. Are you enjoying island life so far?”
All three dogs wandered over to check out the visitor. Echo stayed by my side, but Trooper and Pumpkin went in for the scratch behind the ears, which Jack seemed happy to provide.
“It’s a beautiful place, and in spite of the body we discovered in the attic on the day we arrived, I’ve enjoyed my time here very much so far.”
“I heard you stumbled on old Buck. It’s a shame what happened to him. He was an odd sort, but a nicer guy you wouldn’t find.”
“Odd?” I asked as I opened the side door and let myself into the kitchen, where the keys were located in a cabinet.
“Maybe odd isn’t the right word. The guy was friendlier than most, but at times he appeared to be a bit too friendly, if you know what I mean.”
“Too friendly?” I found the keys we would need and we headed back out into the warm sunshine. I was beginning to see a pattern. Almost every person I’d spoken to had described Buck as too friendly.
“For example, we had a big scare last summer when Buck struck up a conversation with a four-year-old he came across while he was walking down the street. The carnival was in town and the child was crying because his mom said she was too busy to take him. Buck felt bad for the kid, so he offered to accompany him and even pay for the rides. The problem was that he didn’t think to inform the child’s mother of his intention. When she went outside to look for her son and couldn’t find him, she thought he’d been kidnapped. Luckily, he was found safe and sound at the carnival with Buck, but only after half the island had dropped everything to look for him.”
“Yikes.”
“Yikes is right. The woman was a visitor and wanted to charge Buck with kidnapping, but Deputy Savage managed to talk her out of it. He also had a long talk with Buck, who seemed to understand what he’d done wrong. At least, he hadn’t taken off with any more kids that I know of.”
