by Willow Rose
“McMillen?” I yelled and waved.
He stopped when hearing his name, then gave me an indifferent chuckle. “Miss Thomas. What are you doing here? Snooping around?”
I shrugged. “Maybe. What’s going on?”
“Food poisoning,” he said.
“But several are dead?” I asked. “What kind of food poisoning kills people instantly?”
“The dangerous kind,” he said. “Now, I have to go. Kind of busy around here.”
“You’re bleeding, Detective,” I said and pointed at his sleeve.
He looked down. “Oh, that, no, that’s not mine. One of the victims threw up blood on me.”
“What are their chances of making it?” I asked.
“I don’t know yet, little Miss Nosy; I’m not a doctor. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I should be going. And by the way, please stop going around pretending to be an FBI agent when you aren’t. You quit, remember?”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“What was supposed to be a joyous occasion ended tragically last night when at least five people died after celebrating here at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel on Amelia Island behind me. The group was celebrating after finalizing a deal selling their company for twenty-four billion dollars when they became suddenly ill and started to drop like flies. The police still don’t quite know what killed the five people and sent five more to the hospital, where they are still in critical condition. Food poisoning, they suspect, I was told when I spoke to Sheriff Evans earlier. He also added that it needs further investigating before they can say anything for certain. Back to you, John.”
I stared at the TV screen in my grandmother’s kitchen while she was making bacon and scrambled eggs for me. I had just gotten off the phone with the kids who were — once again — fighting about who should take care of the bunnies, and I had ended up telling them they’d have to figure out a schedule with their dad, and then stick to it. I was getting sick of this discussion, to put it mildly. It was ruining every chat I had with them on the phone, and I hated that. It wasn’t like I got to talk to them a lot these days. I missed them like crazy.
“Awful story,” Eileen said and served me a plate. “All those people getting sick from some food, was it?”
“Maybe,” I said pensively and drank my coffee, holding the cup tightly between my hands. Sydney was still upstairs in the shower. It always took her forever to get ready, and I had to wait to take my shower until she was done. She wasn’t used to living in an ordinary house and having to share a shower with others; it was obvious. And she always believed she had to look so perfect, even just for coming down to breakfast with her family. I told her she didn’t need to wear impeccable makeup or have her hair completely straightened or in perfect curls. I never did any of that, and my hair was fine. It was a little bit of both … curly and straight at the same time … and it worked great for me.
At least, I thought so.
When are we going home from this place? I miss my children and my love.
David had left early for the hospital, and Eileen was going out there soon too. Adam’s condition was status quo they said. There was still swelling, and that was why he wouldn’t wake up. I prayed that he would soon. Then he could tell us what really happened on that day when he was shot.
But of course, it wasn’t going to be that easy. Nothing ever was. At least, not in my experience.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I picked it up. It was Matt. I smiled, then rushed to the living room, holding it against my ear, then sat down by my laptop.
“Just the guy I was hoping to hear from,” I said and tapped my keyboard to wake it up.
“Hi there beautiful. Nice to hear that I’m wanted.”
I exhaled. “You’re always wanted, baby; you know that. And missed. I miss you like crazy. I just want to get to the bottom of this strange case and then get back home to you. I can’t wait to be with you again.”
He sighed. “I miss you too. A lot.”
“Did you get me what I need?”
“Yes. Check your email. It should all be there. Now remember, no one can know that I shared these documents with you, or I’ll be in trouble too.”
“What do you mean too? I’m not in trouble,” I said. “At least not yet.”
He chuckled, but it sounded a little strained. I knew that this brought back some terrible memories from this summer when I was in Miami. It had to be unpleasant for him. I was gone for three months, and he didn’t hear anything from me. I know he worried, and it was unbearable. Was I asking him to do the same thing again? Had this become some sort of pattern in my life?
“It’s not gonna be Miami all over again,” I said. “I promise it won’t.”
“I sure hope not,” he said.
“I just … well, I can’t just leave this alone. Not when I know something is going on that no one else sees.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well … did you hear what happened at the Ritz-Carlton?” I asked. “Last night?”
“Vaguely. Chief Annie briefed us on it this morning. Said we should look out for similar symptoms and react fast if we hear of something that looks like it. Food poisoning, they said it was?”
“That’s what they’re calling it, yes, but I’m not so sure. I mean something seems off with that too. Don’t you think?”
“How so?”
“Usually, you get sick from food poisoning and throw up or something like that. You don’t suffer instant heart failure.”
“If you have a weak heart, maybe, or another previous condition,” he said.
“True, but three of them died instantly. Three, Matt. That’s a lot of people. Two died in the hospital, and they fear more will follow. It’s just …”
“What?” he asked. “What is it?”
“Coincidental.”
“So?”
“You know I don’t believe in coincidences. It feels fishy.”
“Oh, well, by all means, we should stop the presses. Eva Rae thinks it feels fishy,” he said. He tried to sound like he was joking, but I heard the seriousness in his voice. A joke wasn’t always just that. Especially not when it contained sarcasm. And Matt usually never used sarcasm. It hurt me slightly.
“I mean it, Matt. Five people don’t just die like that. Something is going on. Just like something is off with Allyson’s murder and my brother’s case.”
“So, now you think that someone murdered them? The five men at the hotel?” Matt asked. He sounded like it was the most preposterous thing he had ever heard. This wasn’t how Matt usually talked to me. Had I made him mad somehow?
Maybe, but I didn’t have time to deal with him right now.
“Listen, thanks for the email. I’ll go check it out now, and then we’ll talk later, okay?”
I hung up before he could protest. I simply didn’t want to talk to him anymore. I was afraid of saying something I might regret later. I was sick of continually hurting everyone around me. It was like it was all I could do lately.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“You’re such an idiot, Matt!”
Matt slammed his hand onto his desk in frustration, then pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.
Why had he acted that way when talking to Eva Rae? Now that she finally called and wanted to chat, he had hurt her by not believing her?
Not smart, Matt. Not very smart.
It wasn’t that he didn’t believe her; it was just that he had gotten so annoyed with her and was resenting her priorities. The past couple of days, he had been so angry at her for leaving him again, feeling like it was Miami all over again. But it wasn’t. This time, she was actually calling him, and she had only been gone a few days. It wasn’t going to last three months this time, and she wasn’t going to put herself in that type of danger again.
Still, he couldn’t help himself. He worried about her and what she was up to now. If there was a killer on Amelia Island, then he was a clever one, and going up against him would be a huge risk.<
br />
Still, you can’t just close your eyes and not do anything when suspecting a crime has been committed. That’s how Eva Rae thinks, and you do too, remember?
“You have a visitor.”
Matt looked up and spotted Sgt. Mason.
“Excuse me?”
“At the front desk. Some guy was asking for you.”
“Really?” Matt asked as he rose to his feet and walked to the front desk. When he saw Chad waiting out there, he almost turned around and went back, but then decided against it. What if it was important? What if it had to do with Eva Rae?
“Chad, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Matt said and reached out his hand toward him.
Chad took it, and they shook, holding each other a little too tight, flexing their muscles.
Gosh, we are such clichés. It’s a wonder any woman can ever love us.
“Hi, buddy,” Chad said as their hands parted.
“What can I do for you?”
“I wanted to ask for your help with something,” he said.
“Me? Like what?”
“Well, the thing is, the kids miss their mother terribly, and so I … well, I want to take them up there this weekend. To Amelia Island. They have Monday off, so it’s a long weekend, and I thought we could surprise their mother with a visit since it doesn’t seem like she’ll be coming home anytime soon. And I was just wondering since Eva Rae’s mother is going to be out of town too, if you could feed the children’s bunnies for them?”
Matt stared at the man in front of him, blinking.
Feed the bunnies? Feed the bunnies while you go and be with my girlfriend? Feed the bunnies, while you’re off to do the one thing I want to do?
Oh, no, you don’t.
“I would,” he said, rubbing his forehead, “but I’ve kind of planned to go up there myself. I have a few days off and wanted to spend them with Eva Rae. Maybe explore Amelia Island with her, if you know what I mean.”
Chad looked surprised. “Oh, really? Oh, I didn’t know. Eva Rae didn’t mention it when I spoke to her this morning.”
“Yeah, well, I wanted to surprise her too. You know, be a little romantic. So sorry, buddy. You’ll have to find someone else to feed those bunnies.”
Matt patted Chad amicably on the shoulder, then turned around and left, the rush of victory running through him. At least until he realized he’d have to start begging Chief Annie for the weekend off.
Chapter Thirty
I had asked Matt to help me get access to the police report from Nassau County Sheriff’s Office from the day when my brother walked into Fernandina Beach High School with a gun in his hand.
I clicked the email, still feeling frustrated with Matt and battling with my own nagging sense of guilt. I hated being away from him like this again. It wasn’t fair to him or to us. But then again, he was the one who told me to look into the case; he was the one who encouraged me to do something about it, to try and help my brother if I could. Why was he suddenly angry that I actually did it?
He misses you, and you miss him.
I guess I could understand him. It just felt it so frustrating that he took it out on me. What was I supposed to do? Not go see my brother when my dad called? Not listen to my gut instinct and take a closer look at his case when they begged me to? Of course, he knew that I had no other choice, and that was why he was so frustrated. Because he had no right to be angry about it. Because he had encouraged me, and now, he couldn’t be the one to tell me it was a bad idea just because he felt it was harming our relationship.
Why did everything have to be so complicated?
I sighed and clicked to open the report. I opened a document and read through it, skimmed the areas that I already knew, then read a couple of eye-witness reports. I read Lauren’s and Chris’s testimonies and felt my heart drop for them both. It had to be tough to go through, seeing your best friend do something so awful. Both of them kept saying that they didn’t understand, and it was noted in a side remark on Lauren’s file that she was visibly in shock.
“Poor kids,” I mumbled, then looked at my brother’s picture on the shelf above the fireplace. He was posing with our dad, David, by a lake, holding up a big fish that he had caught, smiling from ear to ear.
“You had everything,” I said to the photo. “A father who loved you, a girlfriend, good grades, friends who adored you. You were doing so well. Why would you destroy that? What on this Earth, what evil, could make you ruin everything?”
I turned my eyes back to the screen, then opened the pictures taken at the scene. I scrolled through most of them. But then I spotted something that made me stop. I stared at the picture for a few minutes while my mind kept spinning.
Was this important? Somehow, it seemed to be.
“What are you looking at?”
It was Sydney. She had made herself a green smoothie and was holding it in her hand. Her hair was still wet from the shower. I stared at the drink in her hand, then pulled my face into a smile.
“Back on the wagon, huh?”
“Yeah, well, laugh all you want to. I’m gonna try and get back in shape. I have to do something. I’ll start running again tomorrow as well. They have great beaches here for just that. It’ll be good for me. Plus, my agent called. He has a part for me that they think I’ll be perfect for. It’s been a while, you know, since my last big movie. I fear that I’m getting too old for them, and they’re starting to bypass me for the younger girls out there. Younger and prettier. It’s a tough competition, you know. Especially when you’re past forty-five like me. I gotta be in better shape than the younger girls, or they won’t cast me. We start shooting three weeks from now, so I’ll have time to get healthy, at least a little bit. The thing is, she’s at least ten years younger than me, the character I’m playing and well … I have to look younger than I am. Fun.” She lifted the glass to salute me, then drank.
I chuckled and shook my head. “I don’t know how you put up with it. I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t last two days in that industry.” I said the last part while pulling my belly fat on the sides.
“You could get in shape with me. It would be fun; we could do it together like a sisterhood thing,” Sydney said.
I gave her a look, lifting my eyebrows. “Just when I thought you knew me so well. But to answer your first question, I’m looking through pictures from the evidence found on the day that Adam was shot.”
She took another sip of her drink and grimaced. “Gosh, I hate this stuff. Who loves kale? Seriously?”
“Look at this,” I said and pointed at the screen. “I want you to see this. I have a feeling it’s important.”
“What is it?”
“According to the report, it was found clutched in Adam’s hand when he was shot.”
Sydney came closer, squinting her eyes. “It’s Allyson, right? I recognize the long brown hair and the eyes.”
I nodded. “It’s a picture of Allyson when she was a little younger, I think. But you can tell he’s been squeezing it tightly in his hand. I want to know why he did that. Why did he carry that picture with him on the day he was shot?”
Sydney pointed at the next photo. “And what is that then?”
“It says here that it is something that was written on the back of the photo. You know on the backside.”
“What does it say?” she asked and put her drink down on the table. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to finish it.
“SYLM.”
Sydney wrinkled her forehead. “That’s an odd thing, isn’t it? Why was that written on the back of it? What does it mean?”
I shrugged. “Who knows? But I’m thinking it must be important since he was holding it clutched in the palm of his hand. And I kind of want to know what it means. Now, the police think he was carrying the picture because she broke up with him. They believe that is why he killed her and then went berserk at the school afterward.”
Sydney shrugged. “That is the logical conclusion.”
“Exactly,” I
said and grabbed my phone. “Let’s go.”
“But … where are we going?”
“You’ll see. Come.”
Chapter Thirty-One
I drove the minivan up to the front office and got out. Sydney was wearing her disguise, the wig and sunglasses, as always, and walked inside with me. At the front desk, I spoke to the same woman I had the last time I was there.
“I need to speak to Lauren Simmons,” I said.
The woman stared at me like I had told her I was visiting from the moon. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I can’t let you …”
That was when Principal Green came up behind her. “Oh, no, you don’t. You are not allowed to be on school property anymore. You lied to us. We had a visit yesterday from Detective McMillen from the sheriff’s office. He told us everything. We know who you are, and we can’t let you be on school grounds anymore. I’m sorry, but you have to leave.”
I exhaled. “I just need to talk to Lauren about something. Or Chris. I have one little question to ask them; that’s all. It’ll take all of five minutes.”
“If you don’t leave right now, we’ll have to call our SRO-officer to escort you off the premises,” Principal Green said. “Detective McMillen was very clear that we shouldn’t let you in again. He told us to call him if you came back.”
“Oh, come on,” I said.
Principal Green lifted her Walkie Talkie, then called in it. “Officer Conroy to the front office, please.”
I lifted both my hands in resignation. “All right. All right. I’ll leave.”
Sydney and I walked outside and got back into the minivan. I grumbled loudly when we closed the doors. I started the engine up, then took off. I made it out of the parking lot when Sydney spotted someone on a bike, driving up toward the school.
“Guess who’s coming in late today, huh?”
I looked at the girl and realized it was Lauren. “Thank God for the snooze button.”
