Long Islands and Larceny

by Sara Bourgeois

  Long Islands & Larceny

  by

  Sara Bourgeois

  Chapter One

  “You two have got to be kidding me,” Starla said and slammed the door on Holden and Kane. “I can’t even with this,” she called through the door.

  “Come on, Starla,” Holden pleaded.

  “Quit whining,” Kane said to him, and it made her smile. His brusque nature had intimidated Starla at first, but he’d recently begun to grow on her.

  “You’re right,” Holden said, and Starla almost opened the door. “I’m sorry, Starla. We’ve intruded on your evening, and it was rude.”

  Starla stood there for a moment, contemplating what to do next. Presto appeared in the hallway and planted himself. He stared at her in a way that was both unnerving and judgmental. She put her finger up to her lips and said “Shhhh” very softly.

  “If I let you two in, do you promise to behave?” Starla asked, without opening the door.

  “Big mistake,” Presto said.

  “Shhhhh.” Starla chastised him again and he turned tail and headed for the bedroom. “If you don’t want my council, I’ve got better things to do.”

  “Is there someone in there with you?” Kane sounded worried.

  “No, that’s just a video playing on my laptop.” Starla said and cracked the door. “Come in and sit down while I go shut it off. Behave.”

  She walked down the hall, and Starla closed her bedroom door. Presto was lying on the bed with his tail swishing happily over the cerulean blue bedspread.

  “You shouldn’t have let them in. They’re like dogs. You feed them once and they’re never going to go away,” Presto said.

  “Please, Presto. Please. Just be a regular cat while they’re here. Okay?”

  “Fine.”

  Starla opened the bedroom door and closed her laptop loudly. She wanted to make sure to sell the whole my laptop is on and I don’t own a talking cat thing.

  Back in the living room, Holden was sitting on her sofa, thumbing through something on the phone, and Kane was in the kitchen, examining the contents of the refrigerator.

  “Oh, sorry,” Kane said and shut the door. Starla could swear that she saw a hint of blush on his rugged cheeks. “That was rude. I apologize. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “It’s okay.” Starla said and joined him in the kitchen. “Would you like a beer or soda?”

  “I’m off duty for right now, so how about a beer?”

  “How does the island’s only sheriff get a night off?” Holden asked from his spot on the sofa. He didn’t peel his eyes from the phone.

  “It’s a pretty well-kept secret because most of the good folks of Clownfish Cay are sleeping or with their families when they work, but I actually have two part-time deputies now that cover me so I can sleep and have time off,” Kane said with a smile as he took the frosty bottle from Starla’s hand.

  “I thought you had one,” Starla said and ignored Holden’s jab at Kane. That, of course, led Holden to finally put down his phone and make his way into the kitchen.

  “I did, but I just hired on one of the island’s volunteer firefighters too. They don’t work many hours, and I doubt you’ll see them out and about. It’s more about us taking turns being on call.”

  “Fascinating,” Holden said in a voice drenched in sarcasm.

  “Play nice,” Starla said. “I won’t tolerate any of that alpha male posturing in my kitchen. We’re all friends here.” The crestfallen look on both men’s faces let Starla know they’d picked up on her emphasis of the word friends.

  Starla and the two men finished a beer each and made uncomfortable small talk about the weather and the tides. “There’s a big storm brewing a few hundred miles away,” Kane said.

  “Really? Should I be worried? I don’t think I’ve been here long enough to be ready for a huge storm,” Starla said. What she meant was that she didn’t have her powers yet to deter the storm.

  “Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for Shimmering Holm, it’s supposed to hit the next island over.” Holden said.

  “Oh no.” Starla looked concerned.

  “Don’t worry. Shimmering Holm is only used as a tourist stop for one of the cruise lines. The only thing there is gift shops, chain restaurants, and semi fake ruins. The island will be evacuated and the scheduled cruises will stop at a different port until the storm passes.”

  “That’s a relief,” Starla said.

  After another half hour or so of talking about cruise lines, Starla had never been on a cruise, and storm surge, both men watched as Starla stretched her hands up over her head and yawned dramatically. Fortunately, they both took the hint.

  “Well, I should get going. Thank you for the beer,” Kane said and stood up.

  Holden didn’t immediately stand, so Starla let out another exaggerated yawn. Kane glared at him and tapped his foot. It was obvious to Starla that Kane was feeling a little jealous and didn’t want to leave her alone with Holden.

  “Oh yeah, I should let you get back to what you were doing.” Holden finally stood.

  Starla showed them to the door and issued both a quick goodbye. Once they were gone, she retreated to her room and found Presto laid out on his belly in front of the open laptop. His fuzzy paws were on the keyboard, and he looked to be researching siren history.

  “I think I might have found something.” Presto said.

  “Oh yeah?” Starla said. “What did you find?”

  “I found a drawing of a nautilus that is alleged to be a tool to transform humans,” Presto said. “It’s just a legend, but we both know that legends are true more often than not.”

  Starla sat on the bed and looked at the picture. “Well, we have a better idea of what we’re looking for. Have you found anything about where it might be located?”

  “Nothing more than references to a cave, but we already knew that. It doesn’t help,” Presto said.

  “We’ll find it, Presto, and when we do, at least we know what it looks like. I’m sure there are a lot of nautilus’s out there, but we’ll know right away if we’ve got the one we need.”

  Presto didn’t say anything back. He looked at Starla, but she didn’t see anything behind his eyes. Her heart dropped in her chest because Starla realized that Presto was just a cat, and Damek Dred was gone.

  “Presto?” she said, but the cat just swished his tail and purred. The witch inside was either somewhere else, or he was no longer able to communicate. “I’ll fix this. I promise,” she said and petted the nearly sleeping cat.

  A housekeeper’s cart sat outside of a room in the middle of the Paradise Port Resort’s fourth floor. The housekeeper was inside cleaning a room and thought nothing of leaving one of her master keys on the cart. In the years that she’d worked for the resort, no one had ever even so much as swiped a roll of toilet paper from her cart.

  That was about to change. The would-be thief looked up and down the hallway to ensure that they were alone. When they were confident that no one would catch them in the act, the thief walked quickly and quietly to the cart.

  The key was tucked between the housekeeper’s pocketbook and the side of the cart’s top tray. The thief briefly considered opening the pocketbook to see what was inside, but decided against it. The few dollars that were most likely inside weren’t worth the extra seconds of time.

  Once they had the key, they slipped it into their pocket and walked past the room the housekeeper was busy cleaning. They turned left when the hallway came to a T. A few feet, and the door to the room they desired to enter was on their right. The key slipped into the lock and the thief twisted the door handle so quietly that, had a person been standing right next to them, they probably wouldn’t
have heard it move.

  Inside, the room was tidy and smelled as though it had been freshly cleaned recently. Good, the thief thought. It meant the housekeeper for the floor was moving in the other direction.

  A leather suitcase sat atop a dresser in the room’s bedroom area. The thief popped the shiny chrome latches and lifted the lid. There were two items of interest inside the suitcase, and the thief slipped them both into a fanny pack secured around their waist. Blending in with the other tourists ensured that the thief wouldn’t be questioned about their presence in the resort.

  When they were about to close the suitcase, something else contained in the suitcase caught the burglar’s eye. It was a nondescript gray folder that they’d originally mistaken for a shirt. The contents of the folder made the thief’s eyes light up. They couldn’t stuff it into the fanny pack, but it was worth the risk.

  With the suitcase lid closed, the burglar made their way out of the room and back down the hall. No one was the wiser.

  Dr. Krueger had checked into the Paradise Port Resort that very day. He’d set one of his cases upon the dresser in the suite’s bedroom area and put the other on the bed.

  The one on the bed contained his vacation clothes. He didn’t like to travel in shorts or sweatpants the way so many younger people did, but instead he wore a lightweight suit when he flew. It was just the way things were done when he was raised, and Dr. Alder Krueger held fast to some of his traditions.

  After a quick shower, Alder was dressed in khaki shorts and ready to hit the beach party the girl working the front desk had told him about when he checked in. He’d been a bit worried that he wouldn’t have anything to do on the night of his arrival, but Helen had been more than helpful. There was the resort’s concierge service as well, but Dr. Krueger felt the beach party at the Starfish Sprocket Restaurant and Bar was as good a reason as any to get out of his room for a few hours.

  Never once did it cross his mind to place his valuables in the room’s safe.

  Later that evening, when Dr. Krueger returned to his hotel room, he found the items missing from his suitcase. He picked up the phone on the bedside table and dialed the front desk.

  “Yes, I need to report that someone has broken into my room and stolen some of my valuables,” Alder said.

  “Oh, Dr. Krueger, I’m so sorry. I’ll phone the sheriff for you right away. I will send him up to your room when he arrives and give you a ring,” the girl at the front desk said.

  “Thank you. I appreciate it.”

  “Is there anything I can do for you right now?” she asked nervously.

  “No. Please just let me know when the sheriff arrives.”

  Dr. Krueger had a slight buzz from drinking a couple of Long Island Iced Teas at the party. It wasn’t the standard beach party drink fare, but it was one of his favorite cocktails. He only allowed himself to have them once or twice a year because they were so strong, and he was definitely feeling the effects.

  His cheeks burned with heat, and Alder could feel himself sweating a bit even in the air conditioning. He walked over to the wall and turned the thermostat down a couple more degrees. It wasn’t his house, and he wouldn’t be paying the air conditioning bill, he thought with a chuckle.

  Ten minutes later, the phone in the living room area rang.

  “Dr. Krueger, the sheriff is on his way up in the elevator.”

  “Thank you very much,” Alder said and replaced the phone in its cradle.

  A minute later, there was a rapping on the door. Dr. Krueger opened the door and Sheriff Orion Kane stood in the hallway dressed in jeans and a black V-neck t-shirt. He had his badge clipped to his belt and in his hand was a black case.

  “Are you Dr. Krueger?” the sheriff asked.

  “I am. Please come in. I need to make a report.”

  Thirty minutes later, Kane had taken Dr. Krueger’s statement and dusted the dresser around the suitcase for prints. He explained to Alder that the prints probably wouldn’t help much since it was a hotel, but that he’d put them in the system anyway.

  “So it was a watch and fossil that were stolen from your case?” Kane asked as he filled in the details on the report.

  “Well, it was more a timepiece than a watch, and yes, an ammonite fossil,” Dr. Krueger said as he typed something on his phone. “It looks a little something like this,” he said and showed Kane the photo he’d found. “Except mine was a delicate shade of ocean blue. It’s a remarkable piece, and I hate myself for not locking it away in the safe. The timepiece was a family heirloom as well. Oh my.” Dr. Krueger dropped onto the bed and ran a hand through his hair. It appeared to Kane that he’d just realized the weight of what had been stolen. “I’m so foolish.”

  “You’re not foolish. We don’t see much crime on Clownfish Cay. I’m quite surprised this happened, actually,” Kane said. “But the good news is that since we don’t have much crime here, your case will have my full attention. I’ll do everything in my power to get your family heirlooms back to you.”

  “Thank you, sheriff,” Dr. Krueger said, but he had serious doubts.

  He also made no mention of the folder or its contents.

  Chapter Two

  “Have lunch with me, Starla,” Holden said over the phone. “I find myself missing you more than I expected.”

  “You’re too much,” Starla responded, but she wanted to go. “You just saw me last night.”

  “I did, and I was rude. You’ve been through a lot since you arrived on the island, and I want to make it up to you.”

  “You want to make it up to me on behalf of the entire island of Clownfish Cay?” Starla teased.

  “Yes, I do. I’ve got my lunch break coming up and the resort’s restaurant is serving fresh fish tacos for lunch today. I want to buy you some tacos.”

  “Now you’re speaking my language,” Starla said, but she cast a wary eye at Presto.

  She felt bad about going on a lunch date when Presto was slipping away. Sitting around the house fixated on the problem wasn’t going to solve anything, though. Starla could go back to the cave or the witch circle, but she wanted Blossom with her for that. Blossom had to work that day.

  “I could send the resort shuttle to pick you up,” Holden said.

  “Shouldn’t the resort shuttle be used for resort business?”

  “I’m the boss. That has its perks. Or I suppose you could walk if you really want to.”

  “No, I’ll accept the ride.”

  “Good,” Holden said. “The shuttle will be there for you at 11:30.”

  “See you then.

  When Starla hung up the phone, she looked at the clock and realized that didn’t give her a ton of time to get ready. She scrambled to the closet and pulled out two dresses. After hanging them both on her bedroom mirror, Starla took a step back and examined them.

  The dresses really did sum up her life situation, but she pushed those thoughts out of her head. One dress was flirty and fun with a tiny palm tree pattern printed on soft cream fabric. The other was also what you could consider flirty, but it was a deep shade of crimson red with intricate floral embroidery across the bust.

  “Who am I today?” Starla asked and turned to look at a sleeping Presto on her bed. “I should stay home with you. I need to figure it out.”

  Go

  “What was that?” Starla asked the air.

  Go

  Starla wasn’t sure if she was crazy or if that had been her intuition. It had been such a long time since she’d heard it. How could she be sure that it wasn’t just the copious island sunshine driving her crazy? She was supposed to have a dark witch’s heart, after all.

  “I’ll go,” she said and reached for the crimson dress.

  Starla had just swiped lip gloss across her bottom lip when she heard a car horn in her driveway. The shuttle was there to pick her up, so she gave her hair a fluff with her fingers, slipped on her sandals, and headed out.

  When the shuttle pulled up in front of the resort, Holde
n was waiting outside for Starla. His perfectly tailored linen suit made her pulse quicken a fraction. She wasn’t sure yet if his personality was loveworthy, but the man was good-looking for sure.

  “Hi,” Starla said as she stepped out of the minivan.

  It was then that she realized that while both of her sandals were black, they didn’t match. Men don’t notice shoes. Don’t make a big deal of it, she told herself.

  “Hi,” Holden said and took a step forward. “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  Starla knew he’d noticed her embarrassed blush. If she still had her powers, it wouldn’t have been an issue. A little glamor spell and only the most powerful of witches would have been able to tell her shoes apart.

  “My shoes don’t match,” Starla blurted. “I wasn’t paying attention when I put them on.”

  So much for not making a big deal, Starla thought.

  “I wouldn’t have noticed if you hadn’t said anything,” Holden said. “I’m sure no one else will either.”

  “If you’re sure,” Starla said.

  “I am. Now let’s go get some lunch.”

  Holden took Starla’s hand and led her to the resort’s restaurant. “The patio area looks quiet.”

  “My thoughts exactly,” Holden said.

  They took a seat on the edge of the patio area in the shade. Starla thought it would be hotter outside, but the shade kept the heat at bay. A soft sea breeze teased her hair as a hostess brought them menus.

  “Lorelei is your waitress; she’ll be out in a few minutes to take your order. Can I get you some drinks to start?”

  “Sure,” Holden said. “I’ll take an iced tea.”

  “I’d like a Diet Coke, please,” Starla said as she looked over the menu.

  “I’ll get those right away,” the hostess said.

  “Thank you, Mackenzie. I think we can order now too. We’ll both take the special.”

  “I will let Lorelei know,” Mackenzie said and took their menus.

  “Thank you,” Starla said with a half-smile. She waited until the hostess was gone and turned her attention to Holden. “What if I’d wanted something else?” she teased.