by J A Whiting
Chapter 11
On Wednesday, Olivia rode her new bike into town to meet Brad at his bookstore. He wanted to be sure things were in order with his employees before he took off for the day. Olivia stopped in at the food market for some granola bars, and as she was putting them into her bike’s saddle bag, she saw Brad and a cute blonde girl standing in front of his store chatting. The girl was short, curvy, and in good shape. She was wearing little shorts and a tank top that showed off her curves to full advantage. She was smiling and laughing and she stepped closer to Brad. He didn’t seem to be minding the attention. A flash of jealousy jolted Olivia’s body. Olivia always felt common and plain and awkward around girls like that. She busied herself with her bike’s saddle bag so she didn’t appear to be spying. Olivia glanced across the street to see if the blonde had moved on, but she was still making eyes at Brad, her boobs all high and perky. Olivia decided she wasn’t going to wait all day, so she crossed the street with her bike.
“Liv. Hi,” Brad said. “I’m all set to go.” His cheeks looked flushed.
Brad’s bike was leaning against the wall of the bookstore and he turned to get it, saying, “Liv, this is Jen. She works here. Jen, this is Olivia.” The blonde eyed Olivia, sizing her up, and turned away disinterested and smiled at Brad with a look of confidence that indicated that she didn’t consider Olivia a threat.
“When will you be back?” The blonde batted her eyes at Brad.
“Not sure. Call my cell if you have any questions.” He straddled the bike.
Ugh, Olivia thought. Miss Perky Chest working for Brad.
“Ready?” Brad asked Olivia.
Olivia managed a smile. “Yes, let’s go.” They started up Route 1 and biked for miles, stopping occasionally to photograph whatever caught their eyes. They rode along the coast until they were hot and sweaty and decided to stop for lunch and a swim. They bought sandwiches and sat on top of some rocks overlooking the ocean.
“This is great,” Brad said. “I haven’t exercised for weeks. It feels really good to be out and riding.”
Olivia nodded. “I know,” she mumbled between chews of her sandwich. “I needed it. It helps to clear the head and get away from things for a while.” She had a drop of pesto sauce on her chin and Brad reached over and wiped it off with his napkin. The touch of his hand made her heart flutter and she looked down at her sandwich, hoping that her cheeks weren’t pink.
“You always ate with gusto,” he chuckled. Olivia swallowed and grinned.
“Look who’s talking,” she said. “Aggie used to say you ate her out of house and home.”
Brad stretched out on the warm rocks and closed his eyes. “This is the life. Maybe the bookstore will do really well and I can hire someone to run it while I just lay around.”
Olivia laughed. “I can’t see you just lolling around. You’d go crazy after a while. You seem real laid back but your mind is always racing. When we were kids you were always cooking up schemes, inventing stuff, starting businesses that I had to work at.”
Brad laughed. “Which business was the worst one?”
“Let me think,” Olivia said. “Oh, I know. The summer of mowing lawns.” She rolled her eyes.
“I knew you’d say that,” Brad chuckled.
“You got all those clients and then you broke your wrist so I had to do all the mowing while you sat there and ordered me around. And then you kept two-thirds of the money because it was your business, you said.” Olivia shook her head. “I should have quit.”
“Why didn’t you?” Brad asked.
Olivia crumpled up her face. “I don’t know why. I guess I was a wimp.”
Brad chuckled. He was still laying back on the rock with his eyes closed.
“You, a wimp? Not a chance.”
Olivia reached over and poured the cold water from her bottle all over his stomach. “That’s for being a brat.”
Brad yelled and lurched up. He reached for Olivia but she scrambled away down the rocks to the beach below. Brad chased after her as she ran in and out of the waves. They ended up body surfing in the ocean for an hour before returning to their bikes. Brad checked his phone and discovered a message from Jen at the bookstore - aka Miss Perky Chest - saying that the evening employee had called in sick and that they would be shorthanded unless Brad came back to work that shift.
“It’s okay,” Olivia told him. “Let’s head back. If we start now, you’ll only miss an hour of the last shift.”
Brad nodded and sighed. “It’s gonna be a long night.”
Olivia thought, I’m sure Miss Perky Chest will keep you company. An ache settled around Olivia’s heart and squeezed.
***
When she returned to her house, Olivia showered and turned on her laptop to check her mail. There was a polite reply from the Gorham Hotel, citing confidentiality, declining Olivia’s request for information regarding Martin Andersen and whether or not he had been a guest at the hotel. Joe was right. Olivia sat on the sofa, tapping a pencil on the coffee table, wondering what to do next. She put the tea kettle on and paced around the kitchen. The credit card. Olivia rushed to her laptop and typed an email to Rodney Hannigan asking him to check Andersen’s credit card statement to see what he had done in London and if he had stayed at the Gorham for the entire four weeks, and if not, to see if there were any other charges indicating where he had traveled. She hit enter and sent it.
***
Olivia was going through folders and documents that Aggie kept in the safes and in the file cabinets. There was insurance to file and final bills to pay. She was sitting at the kitchen table writing checks when her cell beeped. It was Rodney Hannigan.
“Olivia,” he said. “Is this a good time to talk?”
“Yes, I’m just paying bills, so I’m glad for the interruption.”
“I went through Martin’s credit card statement and it’s not what I was expecting. It seems that he stayed at the Gorham, but he checked out at the end of the third week. But there are no charges for the fourth week in London.”
“Are there charges made to a different hotel?” Olivia asked.
“No,” Hannigan told her. “There are only charges for the first, second, and third weeks. Nothing else at all for the last week he was there. Not for food, purchases, nothing at all. It seems Martin was only in London for those three weeks, not four.”
“Did Martin have a friend in London or nearby who he might have stayed with?” Olivia asked.
“No. At least, no one I knew of. He always stayed at the hotel.”
“He could have done some traveling, couldn’t he?” Olivia asked.
“Martin always told me his plans. He told me if he was going to travel somewhere else. In case of emergency.”
“There are no other charges to the card? For train travel or airline?” Olivia asked.
“Nothing,” Hannigan said.
“Did he have another credit card?” Olivia said.
“He did, but rarely ever used them. I’ve been checking them but none have had activity in ages.” Hannigan sighed into the phone. “This is a mystery, Olivia. Where was Martin during that fourth week?”
Olivia stood up and started pacing around her kitchen and living room. “Do you think it possible that he was trying to hide from someone? That he went to London to run from something? To get away from some danger?”
Hannigan was quiet.
“I’m just speculating here,” Olivia said. “I know you aren’t sure. I’m just thinking out loud. Did he seem nervous? Out of sorts?”
Hannigan said, “He did seem a bit snappish when I spoke to him on the phone the week before he left for London, but I assumed it was just the stress of trying to finish the book and handling some difficult client cases he was working on. When we had dinner at the airport, he seemed quieter than usual, but I didn’t think anything of it at the time. When he was in London we exchanged a few emails, but they contained nothing of substance. I have been extremely busy the past two months. I sho
uld have been more in tune to Martin’s feelings and moods. I should have pressed for details.”
“Did Martin email you during his fourth week away?” Olivia asked.
“Yes, but I thought he was in London and he didn’t say anything to the contrary.”
“Rodney, is it possible that he used cash during the other week? Was there a large cash withdrawal from his savings or checking accounts?”
“We had joint accounts. There wasn’t any unusual activity,” Hannigan said.
“I’m stumped,” Olivia said. “Are you able to check Martin’s emails? I wondered if he ever corresponded with my aunt. Her name was Aggie Whitney. Maybe they knew each other. Or maybe there are emails that can indicate where he was staying during the other week in London. Or wherever he was.”
“That’s a good idea,” Hannigan said.
“How did he pay his credit card bills?” Olivia asked. “Did he get paper statements or did he pay online?”
“He paid online. I’ll look into our bank statements more closely to see if there are payments from the account to a different credit card company,” Hannigan said.
“Rodney, have the police done any of this already? Looked at Martin’s laptop or computer accounts?”
“I don’t know. Not to my knowledge anyway. Martin’s laptop was destroyed in the car accident.”
“I ask because I can’t find my aunt’s laptop. All of the paperwork for her business would be on there. I can’t find the hard drive that she backed up her files to either. I wondered if the police took them as part of an investigation of her death.”
“If that were the case, the police would have informed you, wouldn’t they?” Hannigan asked.
“Yes, you’re right. I would think they would have to let me know if they had confiscated her personal property. In fact, there really wasn’t much of an investigation at all when Aggie died. A heart attack is what they believe. Case closed.”
“Olivia, I know Martin’s email password, so I will look for anything that might help us find out what went on during the weeks he spent in Ogunquit and London. And I’ll look into whether Martin was using another credit card,” Hannigan said.
“Do you have Martin’s cell phone?”
“I don’t know where it is,” Hannigan replied. “It wasn’t recovered from the accident, as far as I know.”
“I can’t find my aunt’s cell phone either. I wondered if you had Martin’s phone. We could look at his received and sent calls to see if he phoned my aunt.”
“What about phone bills?” Hannigan suggested. “They would indicate contacts made during the month.”
“Okay, right, good idea. I’ll check my aunt’s phone bills,” Olivia said. They exchanged cell phone numbers for Aggie and Martin. “Rodney, have you thought of any Julies in Martin’s life? His tailor, his hair stylist, his tax preparer? I don’t know. Anyone from the past?”
“I’m completely blank. I’ve stayed awake at night thinking about it. I just can’t think of any Julies at all.” His voice was tinged with hopelessness.
“I’ll keep thinking,” Olivia said. “I know I asked you before, but did Martin have any enemies? A client angry about something?” Olivia asked.
“No. There’s nothing like that.” Hannigan was quiet for a few seconds. “Just the beach house neighbor.”
“What do you mean? Who?”
“The Siderovs. The owners of the Victorian. They were relentless in their desire to purchase Martin’s beach house. One offer after the other. Martin wasn’t interested. He became angry with their obsessive pursuit.”
“Did they threaten him?” Olivia asked.
“No. It was more like harassment. They had never actually met. Proposals were made through an intermediary.”
“It doesn’t sound like a reason to kill him,” Olivia commented.
“No, no. It wasn’t like that. Just a major annoyance,” Hannigan sighed.
Olivia absentmindedly poked at the pile of papers she had been going through that she had removed from Aggie’s safe. Aggie’s passport slipped from under some documents. “Rodney…do you have Martin’s passport? If he left London and entered the European Union there would probably be a date stamp.”
“That’s a great idea” Rodney’s voice was excited. “The police gave me a box of Martin’s personal effects that they recovered from the accident. I haven’t gone through any of it. Can you hold, Olivia? I’ll go to the other room and see if the passport is there.”
“Yes, I’ll hold on.” Olivia paced back and forth across her kitchen. Several minutes passed before Rodney returned breathless.
“Olivia, his passport is here. There is an entry stamp that indicates that Martin left London at the end of the third week and went to Munich. Why didn’t he tell me?”
“Munich?” Olivia asked.
“I’ll keep digging through his credit card information,” Hannigan said. “I’ll call you if I discover anything else.”
Olivia kept pacing after she and Hannigan ended their call. She wondered why Martin Andersen had gone to Munich and why he didn’t tell Rodney. Could he have been running from something? Olivia wondered where Aggie’s laptop and cell phone could be. That laptop had all the shop’s receipts on it, the customers’ information, and the information regarding recent sales. Olivia had searched the house, the shop, and Aggie’s car. Joe had looked through his house for them as well. How could they just disappear?
Olivia stopped pacing. They would need help to disappear. A chill ran down her spine. Someone must have broken into the house. Or the shop. Someone must have taken the laptop and the backup drive and maybe the cell phone. Everything else in the house and the store seemed to be in place. What was on the laptop that someone would want? What were they looking for? Olivia’s hand started to shake at the thought that intruders had been in her house. She hurried to the front door and turned the deadbolt.
Chapter 12
When Olivia called Detective Brown to report Aggie’s missing laptop and cell phone and Martin Andersen’s unexpected business trip to London, he asked Olivia if she was a fan of crime television.
“I’m not,” Olivia replied. Her voice carried a tone of indignation.
“I don’t see the laptop’s relevance to your aunt’s death,” Brown explained. “Perhaps it will turn up. You say that there isn’t any sign of forced entry into your home or the antique shop, nor is anything else missing. Is that correct?”
Olivia wanted to groan. She knew how it sounded. Like some nervous girl imagining connections that weren’t really there. “That’s right,” she told Brown.
“And Mr. Hannigan reported that Mr. Andersen was called out of town frequently. And unexpectedly. So I don’t see how him rushing off to London has any significance either,” Brown said. “Am I missing something?”
Olivia held the phone to her ear but didn’t reply right away. “I guess not.” She didn’t report that Andersen went to Munich unexpectedly and without telling anyone and that there were no charges on his credit card for his last week away. She figured Brown would shoot holes in that too, and she already got the sense that he thought she was playing detective.
“Why don’t you go down to the Ogunquit police station and file your concerns about the missing laptop,” Brown said. “Then there will be a record of it in case it turns up as part of recovered property.”
Olivia knew he was trying to placate her. “I will,” she told him, even though she didn’t think she would. “Sorry to bother you,” she said.
“No bother,” Brown said. “If you need to get in touch again, you know where to find me.”
Olivia ended the call feeling small and unsettled. Brown wasn’t any help. Intuition told her the laptop was stolen.
Aggie always told her to listen to her intuition.
Chapter 13
Olivia wore a soft rose colored sundress that was fitted to the waist. The skirt was full and knee length. She wore beige strappy flat sandals and carried a bottle of white wi
ne. Alejandro Callas was having a party at his grandmother’s Ogunquit home. Brad and Olivia knew Alejandro and his sister Esme from when they were all kids, but they hadn’t hung around together because the Callases were several years older. Alejandro had been in to Brad’s café and he told Brad to invite any friends of his to come along to the party. There would be a DJ, beer and wine, and tapas. Brad had invited Olivia and two of his employees, and Olivia was meeting the others at Brad’s store after closing so that they could all walk to the Callases’ together.
Brad, Miss Jennifer Big Chest, and Sean, a new employee of Brad’s, were just coming out of the bookstore when Olivia arrived. Jennifer batted her eyes at Olivia in mock friendliness and turned to talk to Brad. Sean and Olivia walked side by side making small talk.
The Callases had a big sprawling white Colonial off of Shore Road which overlooked the Atlantic Ocean. As they approached, they could hear music and people’s chatter coming from the back yard. The back lawn had tiki torches lit along the edges of the property, and colorful paper lanterns hung from tree branches. Some guests were dancing and others were clustered in groups, talking and laughing. The girls’ spring dresses and the lights and music created a festive atmosphere. Olivia and the others mingled and danced with the guests, and she ran into several people that she used to know when she was a child. After several dances with different friends, Olivia carried a glass of white wine to the stone terrace overlooking the festivities and she stood watching the party. Brad was dancing with a shapely redhead who was wearing a tight mini skirt. His face was flushed from beer and dance and he was smiling and laughing with his partner. Olivia smiled watching him. A tingle jumped through her body. She realized that she wanted to be the one that Brad was smiling at and, for only a moment, her feelings surprised her. The song ended and the redhead said something to Brad and then headed toward the drinks table.
