by Maci Grant
What she wanted, instead, was to dig deep into the murder. She wanted to find out if anyone had seen anything suspicious in the hours before the morning of the murder.
When she was a journalism student she’d learned a few tricks to get large amounts of information from people in a local area. Social media was usually the best bet.
She did a search for community groups for the local area. As soon as she found one with a large amount of members she joined it. After being automatically approved, she began sifting through the posts and comments from the day before the murder until the current date.
There were many complaints about the local bakery’s inability to make a decent cake. There were several posts about items for sale, as well as rants about the tourists on the beach. Her head began to swim as she read through so many posts.
Then she came across one that held her attention. It was regarding a late-night driver. The person who’d posted about it described bright headlights driving through town at around three in the morning. When the driver had turned on to the road that led to the beach, the lights had shone right through the person’s bedroom window, waking them up. It wasn’t much, but it did place activity near the murder scene around the time of the murder.
Blu wrote down the person’s name who’d made the post—Robin Carter. She did a search for Robin’s name and found a local address. With a quick glance at her watch, she figured she had about an hour before Rachel and the kids would be back from lunch. She grabbed her keys and hurried out to her car.
As she opened the car door her cell phone began to ring. She pulled it out of her purse.
“Hello?” She juggled the phone against her ear as she climbed into her car.
“Hey, Blu.”
It took her a moment to realize that it was AJ. “AJ, what’s going on?”
“I just wanted to touch base with you. I’m getting together with my uncle later to discuss the case. I need this settled. I want my bar and my beach back.”
“Is that an invitation?”
“Actually it’s a request. My uncle said he had some information that he wanted to share with you. So can we meet later?”
Blu glanced at her watch. “Well, I’m doing something right now, and I’ll probably have the kids later. Maybe we could meet at the park?”
“Sounds good. What are you up to?”
“Uh.” Blu glanced at the address on the seat beside her. “Just running some errands.”
AJ cleared his throat as if he might have sensed that she was holding something back. “Alright, so around two?”
“Sure. I’ll see you then.” Blu hung up the phone and backed out of the driveway. She wanted to make sure she had plenty of time to talk to Robin.
It wasn’t until she arrived at Robin’s house that she realized she had no idea what she was going to say to the woman. She wasn’t a police officer—or even a local. She was a stranger asking a bunch of questions.
Blu searched her mind for any ideas that might make the woman more comfortable with talking to her. She tucked in her shirt, smoothed back her hair, and did her best to look professional.
She parked in front of Robin’s house and strode up the driveway with purpose.
Chapter 18
When Blu reached the front door she straightened her shoulders and knocked three times, then stepped back. A moment later the door swung open.
A woman, whom Blu judged to be about in her forties, stared out through the screen door at Blu.
“Can I help you?”
“Are you Robin Carter?”
“Why?”
“Ms. Carter, my name is Donna Cash. I’m here to talk to you about your recent complaint.”
“Complaint?” She shook her head. “I think you have the wrong person.”
“I don’t think so, Ms. Carter. One of your neighbors saw your complaint on the Internet and reported it to my department. I’m just here to confirm the details.”
“I didn’t agree to make any report. What is this about? What department are you from?”
“Public Works. Actually, it’s a division of the Public Works department. My division deals with keeping the beach residents protected from the influx of tourists. Yes, we do need the revenue from tourism but our local residents are still entitled to a sense of safety and peace. From what I understand you had that sense of peace violated recently.”
“Is this about the headlights?”
“Yes. There’s no reason for someone to be out that late.”
“It wasn’t just the late hour. It was that the lights continued to shine through the window for so long.”
“About how long? Do you remember?”
“At least five minutes, maybe ten.”
“So the car was stopped?”
“I guess.”
“Which window is your bedroom window?”
Robin stepped out through the screen door and pointed to the window at the side of the house that faced the beach. “I’m used to the flickering of lights going by from people coming back from the beach, but this was more than that. I needed to get to work early the next day. I mean, I was mad about it then, but I don’t really care now. I don’t want to cause any trouble.”
“It’s important to report these things, Ms. Carter. If no one does, then it just gets worse and worse. Now, did you by any chance look out the window? Did you see the car?”
“Well, the headlights were bright, you know. So I couldn’t see too much.”
“But did you see anything at all?”
“It looked like it was a dark color. And maybe one of those SUV types. I couldn’t see the back of it, so I guess it could have been a truck. I’m not sure.”
“How about the driver? Did you get any glimpse of the driver?”
“Look, what good is any of this going to do? Even if I did see a face, it was probably a tourist that’s long gone. What’s the point of all of this?”
“One voice can make a difference, Ms. Carter. I’d just like to know if there was anything else that you noticed? Did you see the vehicle leave?”
“I almost didn’t. After the headlights were turned off, I started to go to sleep.”
“Wait, turned off?”
“Yes. After about ten minutes the headlights cut off. I figured whoever it was had found whatever address they were looking for. So I tried to go back to sleep. Just as I was falling asleep I heard the car drive past. I wouldn’t have noticed it otherwise.”
“Why not?”
“The driver never turned the headlights back on.”
“That’s strange.”
“Very. I don’t know how they were able to stay on the road without being able to see.”
“Thanks for the information. Any other little detail you might have noticed would help a lot.”
“I told you everything I know. Like I said, I don’t want to get involved. It was a one-time thing.”
“Thanks again. I’ll be in touch if I have any more questions.”
Robin nodded.
Blu walked back toward her car. She checked her watch again. She had maybe a half hour before Rachel would be back.
When she started the car, instead of turning around, she drove the path that the mystery car would have taken. She did so very slowly. When she reached the beach she turned her car around and backed the car up. Then she turned on her headlights. She could see the glimmer of them on the very window that Robin had pointed out.
Blu turned off the engine and the headlights. Then she stepped out of the car. The Beach Bum parking lot was a few feet away. The beach itself was mere footsteps away. She could see the crime scene tape flapping in the wind where the body had been buried.
It was clear that if the driver had backed the vehicle up to the sand, it would have been very easy to then drag the body to the spot where it had been found. Blu’s best guess was that the vehicle was some kind of SUV, which would have given the killer plenty of room to store and move the body.
She started to walk
toward the spot marked with the tape, but her phone buzzed before she got halfway across the sand. She checked it to see that Rachel had sent her a text.
We’re home. I’d like to go out for a massage if you can be back soon?
Blu texted back.
Be there in five minutes.
She tucked her phone back into her pocket. With one last look at the crime scene, she tried to focus her mind back on her real job.
When she opened her car door she noticed something on the ground. When she looked closer she could see that it was a feather—a dark blue decorative feather.
Chapter 19
Blu’s heartbeat quickened. She started to reach down to pick up the feather, then happened to think that touching it might be contaminating evidence. She leaned into the backseat of her car and pulled out a leftover disposable cup. She put the cup over the feather and dug it down further into the sand.
Then she sent a text to AJ.
I found something on the beach that your uncle should check out. I put a red cup over it in the sand.
Just in case AJ and the chief didn’t follow through, she snapped a picture for her own records.
As Blu started her car she looked once more in the direction of Robin’s house. There was no way to know for sure how long the car sat in front of the beach, but Blu imagined it couldn’t have been more than fifteen to twenty minutes.
There was no way someone could dig a hole and bury a body in that short amount of time. She was fairly certain that whoever had committed the crime had dug the hole at the beach first. This would have meant that the crime had been planned in detail.
Her stomach churned with disgust. She couldn’t fathom a mind that would piece together such a cruel act.
When Blu arrived at the house, the kids were just finishing a television show.
“Sorry I’m late, Rachel.”
Rachel grabbed her purse and smiled at her. “No problem. We had a nice time. Now I need to relax a bit.”
“Have fun.” Blu walked into the living room to join the kids. “Hey guys, you wanna to go to the park?”
“No beach?” Joey frowned.
“Not just yet, kiddo. But the park is just as good, right?”
“Not really.”
“You love the swings.”
“Good point.” Joey grinned.
“Alright, we’re going to just go for a bit, then we’ll have the rest of the afternoon to play some video games, okay?”
“Yes!” Joey raced to get his shoes on.
Blu helped Marley into her sneakers, then they headed out the door.
She checked her phone but still hadn’t received a text back from AJ. She had no idea if the feather had been collected or not. She was tempted to go back and collect it herself, but the kids were too excited to go to the park.
As they headed for the car in the driveway, a man walked toward them from the street. Blu tensed, as she didn’t recognize the man. She was highly protective of the children.
“You’re Blu, right?” He paused a few feet away from her and the children. He wiggled his fingers at the kids in a friendly way.
Blu placed an arm around the children to keep them from walking further.
“I’m sorry, we’re just leaving.”
“I can see that. I need to ask you a quick question. It will only take a minute.”
“What is it?”
“I’m Kirk’s manager.”
“I’m sorry for your loss.”
“Thank you. I tried to get some information out of the local authorities but they weren’t very forthcoming. So I tried to do a little investigating of my own, and to my surprise I discovered that someone had beat me to it. Your name kept coming up.”
“Oh? Kids, why don’t you go ahead and get in the car?”
Joey opened the door for Marley.
Blu looked back at the man in front of her. “So you know my name, but I don’t know yours?”
“Frederick.”
“Frederick, I’m just a nanny as you can see. I’m not sure what I can tell you.”
“Or what you’re willing to share?” He moved closer to her. “I can’t get a word out of the police, but you—I thought might be more reasonable. Kirk had a lot of fans and they’re demanding answers. I can’t exactly move on without knowing what happened.”
“Were you and Kirk friends?’
“No one was friends with Kirk.”
“Someone was. I heard that the night before he died, he was waiting for someone outside his hotel.”
“Who told you that?’
“Who was he waiting for? Was it you?”
Frederick narrowed his eyes. “You’re quite clever, aren’t you, Nanny Blu?”
“I don’t know. But I do know that you’re the only person who has shown up here interested in Kirk. Yet you claim not to be his friend. So you must be getting something out of this.”
“I’m going to lose a lot of money. I had tons of contests and appearances booked for Kirk. Now that he’s dead, I have to figure out what to do about those appearances. I can turn them into a memorial, honoring his memory, and likely make twice the money—but that won’t go down well unless the murderer is in custody. As it stands now—the way his body was found—people will be turned off by it.”
“Well, that’s a good reason to care.” Blu shook her head. “Was this guy really as bad as everyone makes him out to be?”
Frederick sighed. “He wasn’t a bad man—he just wasn’t quite human. Or maybe he had some kind of mental or emotional challenge. He cared more about his sand than he did about anyone else on the face of this earth.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t think I can help you.”
“Can’t or won’t?”
“I think you need to go back and try to speak to Chief Pitman again. I’m sure if there’s anything that he thinks you need to know, he’ll fill you in.”
“I bet.” He studied her for another moment. “I’ll be in touch, Blu.”
She watched as he walked away. The blare of the car horn made her jump.
“Joey! Get in the back seat!” She hurried to the car.
Chapter 20
The drive to the playground was filled with squabbling that Blu barely noticed. The arrival of Frederick had turned another wheel in her mind. He had confirmed that no one liked Kirk.
But then there was Naomi. Naomi, whom she still knew nothing about.
The kids hopped out of the car as soon as she parked.
“Go ahead and play. I’m just going to make a quick phone call.”
“You’re it!” Joey tagged Marley on the top of her head. Marley lunged after him.
Blu checked her phone yet again to see if she’d gotten a text back from AJ. There was still nothing. She flipped through to the picture of the feather. As she stared at it she heard the crunch of gravel from behind her.
“Hey there, Blu.”
She looked up at AJ. “Hi yourself. Did you get my text?”
“Yes.”
“Did you go get the feather?”
“Yes, that was a clever way to keep it contained.”
“I think it might be one of Yale’s.”
“That’s possible, or it could be anyone else’s.”
“Right.” She was about to tell him about the headlights and the early morning beach visitor, but before she could Chief Pitman pulled up. He walked over to the two of them.
“Not hunting any more feathers, Blu?” He winked at her.
“Did you hear from Frederick?”
“The manager? Yes. He was quite an interesting fellow.”
“What about Naomi?”
“Alright, take it easy there. I did a search on her, but I couldn’t find any information. I checked the local hotels and motels and they didn’t have anyone with a first name Naomi registered. I don’t have a last name to go on.”
“We need to find out who she is.” Blu snapped her fingers. “I’m sure she’s connected to this somehow.”
“
What did I tell you, AJ? We should just get her a badge.”
“Take it easy on her, Uncle Paul, she’s just trying to help.”
“I am.” Blu looked at the chief. “I want to know that the beach is safe for the kids to play on.”
“That’s my job, remember?” Chief Pitman raised an eyebrow.
“I do remember. But if I’m able to speed things along, that’s great. Summer only lasts so long, you know.”
“Well, so far we still have nothing to go on.”
“Then we need to do something to change that.” Blu narrowed her eyes with determination. “I know! Let’s have a party.”
“What?” AJ looked at her.
“That seems terribly inappropriate.” Chief Pitman shook his head.
“A celebration of life—a way to honor Kirk. If Naomi is the fan she claims to be, then she’ll resurface and we’ll be able to find out who she is. Besides, there’s no better way to find out the truth than by getting a group of people together with a little food and alcohol. I’m sure that Frederick will show, as well as Bianca and Yale.”
“That’s ridiculous.” Chief Pitman shook his head. “That’s not how we do things.”
AJ tilted his head from side to side. “She’s not wrong, Uncle Paul. I know far more than I want to know about anyone in this town.”
“So we can scatter some officers in the bar—in plain clothes—to listen in on the conversations and see if anything useful comes up.”
“But nothing they overhear will be evidence.”
Blu said, “Maybe not, but it might give you some direction. Right now we’re no closer to figuring out who killed Kirk than we were the day his body was found. Don’t you think we need to change that?”
“Sure we do, Nanny Detective, but that doesn’t mean that we can just throw a party.”
“Why not?” AJ shrugged. “She can use the bar. Just about everyone who was in town for the competition is still here, even the contestants. I think it’s a good idea.”
“Thanks, AJ.” Blu flashed a smile at him.
He smiled back.
Chief Pitman rolled his eyes. “Alright, you can have your party, and I’ll even send a few officers to attend, but if anything gets out of hand we’re going to shut it down. The thing that neither of you appear to be thinking about is that we don’t know if this killer is done. It’s pretty easy to inject someone with poison. How do we know getting everyone together won’t inspire the killer to knock off someone else?”
