by Maci Grant
“Hey, Blu!” Maddie walked over to her. “Can you believe this?”
“I don’t think I want to.”
“I know, it’s over the top as usual. I’ve heard she’s got some seagulls somewhere that she plans to release.”
“How are you? Is everything okay with Penelope?”
“Penelope? Oh, yes. She’s just in a mood. She didn’t want to come to the memorial, so she’s at home with the kids. Brian brought me.” She smiled proudly.
“He brought you?”
“You know—he drove me. I guess he wanted to represent the family.”
Blu looked past Maddie to Brian Ross. He was dressed in a dark suit with his hands clasped behind his back as he spoke quietly to another man. Blu shivered slightly.
For some reason Mr. Ross always intimidated her. She’d covered for their old nanny a few times, and every time, she’d done her best to avoid Brian Ross. Maybe it was just his height and girth that made her uneasy. Or perhaps it was the way he looked at her while she played with the kids in the pool.
“How are the kids handling it? Did you tell them?”
“Penelope thought we should. Chrissa thought it was a big joke. She started talking about how the beach will be haunted now. Brennan locked himself in his room.” She sighed. “He’s getting worse, I think.”
“Twelve is a tough age for any kid.”
“I guess. Maybe if Brian spent more time with him…”
“Good luck. Brian seems to think his role is strictly management. I’ve never seen him play with the kids.”
“You’d think with Penelope being the one that makes all the money, he’d be more available to the kids.”
“Hello, ladies. Not talking about me, I hope?” Brian stepped up beside them.
Maddie’s face drained of all color and Blu quickly spoke, hoping he wouldn’t notice. “No, not at all, Mr. Ross.”
“Blu, I do wish you’d call me Brian. We’ve been over this, haven’t we?”
Blu nodded.
“She’s very polite.” Maddie offered Brian a sunny smile.
Blu noticed that Maddie touched the slope of Brian’s forearm.
“I’m going to take my seat. Want to join me?” Brian looked at Maddie. “Blu, you should sit with us a well.”
“Thanks, I think I’ll do that.” Blu narrowed her eyes. “I just need to speak to Maddie for another moment, if you don’t mind?”
“No problem.” He walked over to the front row of chairs.
Chapter 10
“Maddie!”
“What?” Maddie smiled.
“Just what do you think you’re doing with Brian?”
“Huh? Nothing. He’s so nice, don’t you think?”
“He’s also married—and your boss.”
“Blu, don’t be such a prude. Nothing is happening between us.”
“I warned you before I got you the job with them—it’s easy to get too close and too personal. What do you think Penelope would say if she saw you touching his arm like that?”
“Oh, please—like she would even notice. She’s barely home and when she is, she doesn’t pay Brian any attention. The poor man is lonely, can’t you see it?”
Blu looked over at Brian. He had his phone out. “Sure. They’re all lonely when they’re interested in the help.”
“Oh, stop worrying, I’m not going to do anything stupid. I promise.”
Blu met her friend’s eyes. She wanted to believe her, but her gut told her differently. Maddie had been ruined by a man who took everything from her. Brian could give her everything she ever dreamed of having. And he wasn’t exactly hard to look at.
“Just be careful, Maddie. I don’t know Penelope very well, but I do know that she’s a powerful woman. I don’t want you to get into something you can’t get out of.”
“Trust me, Penelope has her own fun.”
“What does that mean? You think she’s cheating on Brian?”
Maddie shrugged. “I don’t know for sure, but she’s not buying fancy lingerie to wear for Brian.”
“Maddie, that’s being way too involved!”
“I can’t help it, she has me go to the store and pick up the stuff she orders. I have to check to make sure it’s right. Anyway, let’s just drop it. Today isn’t about the problems in their marriage, it’s about Sam.”
Blu glanced over at Brian again.
She was certain that she’d seen Penelope on the beach the night before with Sam. Was he the person that she’d been having an affair with? Shawna had mentioned that there were rumors about his being with someone else.
“Some of the locals think that maybe Sam’s death wasn’t an accident,” Blu whispered to Maddie.
“Really?” Maddie’s eyes widened. Then she shook her head. “That’s just not possible. It’s clear that he drowned. How else could he have died?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go, it’s starting.”
Blu made a point of sitting between Maddie and Brian. To anyone else it might have looked like she was trying to be close to Brian, but she was only trying to keep rumors from buzzing about her friend.
It was tough being a nanny sometimes, and keeping enough distance from the family was even harder. She had no problem keeping her distance from Brian—or Marshall for that matter, especially since Marshall was rarely home.
The memorial started out as expected—Chelsea, with tissue in hand, talking about what an amazing person Sam had been. Blu wasn’t sure if Chelsea and Sam had ever even had a conversation, but the speech was touching nonetheless.
Just as Chelsea was finishing, there was a wild shriek from the back of the chairs. Blu turned around to see a very tiny blonde woman with her face twisted into an angry grimace.
“What do you know about him? What do you know?”
“That must be Kayla.”
“Kayla?” Maddie leaned close.
“Sam’s girlfriend.”
“Oh.” Maddie frowned. “She looks a little upset.”
“This should be interesting.” Brian turned around in his chair to watch.
Kayla stalked toward the podium.
“You! I don’t even know who you are! How can you know who Sam is? Why are you doing this without his family here? Who do you think you are?” She nearly screamed as she stalked right up to Chelsea.
Chelsea’s perky smile faded. “We all loved Sam.”
“Oh, you did?” Kayla spun around and stared at the people gathered before her. “You all loved Sam? No! I loved Sam! I did! I’ve loved him since we took our first surfing lesson together. None of you loved him. You took him from me!” Kayla started sobbing.
“It was an accident—a terrible, tragic accident!” Someone called out.
“Sure.” Kayla rolled her eyes. “You know something? If Sam were here right now, he’d throw all of you off his beach!” She kicked some sand into the air and stalked off.
“Well, that was shocking.” Maddie shook her head.
Chelsea wiped her eyes and began to speak about tragedy again.
“Excuse me.” Blu stood up and slipped past Maddie.
“Where are you going?” Maddie looked up at her.
“I’m just going to take a walk.”
Maddie shrugged and shifted into the seat that Blu had vacated. Blu cringed as she noticed the arm that Brian wrapped around her friend’s shoulders.
She followed the footsteps that Kayla had left behind in the sand. She did her best to keep her distance so as not to spook the young woman. It was clear that she was upset about Sam’s death, but Blu detected more anger than grief in her.
When she rounded the corner behind the small building that housed showers and bathrooms, she heard Kayla’s voice.
“Can you believe those nuts? Whatever. Here. This is the other half of what I promised you. Make yourself scarce, alright?”
“Is it all here?” A masculine voice questioned.
“Yes, it’s all there.” She sounded impatient.
Blu tr
ied to peek around the corner of the building, but she was afraid she’d be spotted. “If you ever breathe a word about this you’re going to be in for it, understand?”
“Sure, Kayla. You’re so scary.” He cleared his throat and Blu didn’t miss the sarcastic tone in the man’s voice.
Blu stuck her head around the corner just in time to see Kayla disappear around the other side. Whoever she’d given money to was gone as well.
Chapter 11
Blu looked around to see if there was anything left behind that would give her a clue as to who the other person might have been that Kayla had been talking to.
“What are you doing back here?”
She looked up to see AJ at the corner of the building. He leaned his shoulder against it. “Shouldn’t you be at the memorial?”
Blu felt her heart drop. Was AJ the one that Kayla paid off? What was the money for?
“Shouldn’t you?” She held his gaze.
“I was on my way. I heard Kayla stirred up a commotion.”
“She did.”
“Well, that doesn’t tell me what you’re doing back here.”
“Just walking.”
“Funny place to walk.”
“Didn’t know there were certain places that weren’t okay to walk.” Blu crossed her arms.
AJ grinned. “Good point. Want to walk back with me?”
“No, thanks. I’ve had enough sad music and fake tears.”
“Well, maybe you should come to the real memorial. It’s tomorrow night at the bar.” He tilted his head toward her. “Just do me a favor and don’t bring any of the tourists.”
“Alright.” Blu smiled.
She was sure she could find out a little bit more about Kayla at the real memorial. The only problem was, she wasn’t sure if AJ had invited her to be nice, or because he was the person whom Kayla had paid off.
She studied him for a moment. “AJ, have we met before? Before the Beach Bum, I mean?”
“No, I don’t think so.” He shrugged.
Blu nodded but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew him somehow. “Thanks for the invite.”
“I can see that you cared about Sam.”
“I wish I’d had the chance to get to know him better.”
“Me too. It’s funny—we lived in the same town for so long, but our lives didn’t really intersect very often.”
“I guess that’s just the way it is sometimes. Did you go to school together?”
AJ grinned. “No. I was done with high school before he was close to starting. I’m thirty-two.”
Blu’s eyes widened. “Wow, you look a lot younger.”
“Thanks!” He laughed.
“I’m sorry, I just meant that I didn’t think you were close to my age. Sometimes I feel like I’m the oldest person in the world here at the beach. I guess that comes from working with kids and being surrounded by nannies who are much younger.”
“Well, I’m here to tell you, Blu, you’re not the oldest person in the world. If you ever want to be reminded of that, stop by the bar any time.” He turned and started to walk away.
Blu considered stopping him to ask him a few more questions, but she decided against it. She didn’t want to risk having her invite revoked.
She walked back toward the memorial at a slow pace. With every step that drew her closer to the gathering, her mind grew more clouded. Sam would be buried soon. From what she understood, the local police didn’t think his death was anything more than an accident. Could someone really be murdered and no one ever know? If Sam had been seeing someone else, would that have been enough to drive Kayla to hire someone to murder him?
It made her sick to her stomach to even think about it. Her life was so idyllic that she found it hard to believe that these things even happened. In the small town where she’d grown up, nothing truly tragic ever happened. All of this was a bit much for her to take in.
She took a deep breath and thought about the classes she’d taken in college. The biggest rule of journalism was detachment. She had to be able to keep her distance if she was going to figure all this out. The first step was to go to the police and tell them her suspicions. She wanted to know why the local police were so determined not to investigate Sam’s death.
When she reached the chairs, they were already being folded up. The memorial was over.
She glanced around for Maddie, but didn’t see her. She did see Brian near the water. His hands were tucked into his pockets and his body seemed relaxed.
Blu reminded herself to have a serious conversation with Maddie. She knew enough about Brian Ross to be certain that he was a womanizer who liked to take advantage of his staff, and she didn’t want Maddie to fall into that trap.
As if he sensed her thoughts, Brian turned around to face her. He smiled and raised his hand in a small wave. Blu didn’t wave back. She pretended she didn’t even notice him.
Chelsea was collecting the remaining flowers from the ribbons.
“What a disaster.” She sighed as Blu walked up to her.
“Did you raise a good amount of funds?”
“Sure, but that woman put a real damper on the entire memorial.”
“Well, she was his girlfriend. Of course she was upset.”
“And that gives her the right to ruin my memorial?” Chelsea shook her head. “I don’t think so. I’m going to find out her name and make sure she gets a fine of some kind or something.”
“Chelsea, listen to yourself. This woman lost her boyfriend—the man she loved. So she went a little crazy, that’s bound to happen.”
“Oh, really? If she loved him so much then why did I see her slap him across the face just two days ago? I don’t know about you, Blu, but I don’t think of that as love.”
“She slapped him? You saw this?” Blu piled some flowers into the bin that Chelsea held.
“Yes. I was bringing some things to the dry cleaners and I saw the two of them outside that horrible bar. She looked a little drunk, to be honest. They argued and then out of nowhere she just slapped him really hard across the face. I could hear it from where I was and he even stumbled a little. What kind of person does that?” She clucked her tongue. “Love should never be violent.”
Blu frowned as she recalled Kayla’s conversation with the man behind the building a few minutes before. She had a pretty good idea about why Kayla was angry with Sam. He broke up with her and may have been cheating on her. But if she was angry enough to hit him, would she be angry enough to hire someone to take revenge for her?
“I have to go.” Blu shook her head. “Look, Chelsea—the memorial wasn’t a disaster. You helped Sam’s family, and that means a lot.”
“I hope so.” Chelsea scrunched up her nose. “Next time, I’m hiring more security.”
Chapter 12
Chelsea’s mention of security made Blu think of what Shawna had said about the police force in town. Blu hadn’t had any run-ins with the police, but she just assumed that they were there if she ever needed them. Were they? She decided to take her concerns straight to the source and find out whether or not Shawna had the right impression.
The afternoon light had begun to fade. Blu started to regret walking instead of driving to the police station. It was only a little further ahead, but the darker it got the more uneasy she became. She was accustomed to living in houses with high-tech security systems. She rarely went out in the evening alone any more. The town was quiet, but there was bound to be activity somewhere.
When she reached the police station, she walked right in. A very large police officer snoozed at the front desk. He snorted and woke himself up when she paused in front of him.
“Oh, hi. Excuse me.” He picked up a tissue and wiped at the corner of his mouth. “How can I help you?”
“I’m here to speak to someone about a possible crime.”
“A possible crime? Was there a crime or wasn’t there?” He opened up a notepad in front of him.
“Well, I think there might h
ave been. But I don’t have any proof of it.”
His gray eyebrows lifted and his forehead wrinkled. “What do you think might have happened?”
“It’s about Sam.”
“The lifeguard?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. What about him?”
“I just wondered if a thorough investigation was being done involving his death.”
“Well, we found his body on the beach, determined that he drowned, and notified his family. Is that thorough enough for you?”
“Did you ever consider that it may not have been an accident?”
“Now why in the world would we ever consider something like that?” The new voice came from an open office door behind the front desk and to the right of where she stood talking to the officer. The man stepped out of the office and crossed over to where Blu stood, extending his hand—looking less than pleased to meet her. “Paul Pitman—Diamond Bay’s chief of police.”
Blu shook his hand.
“I’ve heard from a quite few people that there is good reason to suspect that Sam’s death was a result of foul play,” she continued before she could think about her words.
“Let me explain something to you, miss. Nothing happens in this town. People don’t die, unless it’s of old age or sickness. When something like this happens—a handsome young man taken far too early—their imaginations start to run wild. It’s as simple as that.”
“What if some of their concerns are valid?” Blu frowned. “Have you even considered it?”
“Have I invented a crime where a crime does not exist? No, I haven’t.” He folded his arms across his chest.
“So it doesn’t seem odd to you that Sam, a strong swimmer, an athlete, an experienced lifeguard, would die in calm water? That just seems like poor police work to me.”
“Oh, does it?” He chuckled. “What do you do for a living again?”
“I’m a nanny.”
“And that makes you an expert on crime fighting?”
“I don’t have to be an expert on it to know when it’s not being done.” Blu’s heart pounded as the words slipped out of her mouth. Was she really getting into an argument with the chief of police? That was among the worst ideas she’d ever had.
