Amber grinned mischievously as she brought the bid up to nine hundred dollars. She eyed Lydia with a taunting look.
Lydia went to bid again and realized that she had given her extra hundred dollars to Trina already. Not wanting Amber to win, Mona and Annette started taking out their money to count it.
However, Amber doubled down and raised her bid to nine hundred and fifty dollars. Lydia barely had a chance to see what she could add to her own bid with the help of her friends before the auctioneer declared that Daniel’s date was sold for the nine hundred and fifty dollars.
Lydia couldn’t believe it. She hadn’t just lost the only bid she cared about at the auction – but it had gone to the one person she didn’t want to win, her arch-rival who would love to have Daniel all to herself.
3
The Auction Heats Up
“I’m so sorry,” Trina said.
“Don’t be,” Lydia answered. “I bet Amber would have kept bidding until she beat me no matter what. I’m glad that you won a date.”
Trina still looked like she felt guilty and Annette and Mona also looked glum. Lydia put on a cheerful face because she didn’t want her friends to feel bad. She pretended to be interested in the rest of the festivities, even though she really didn’t care about the rest of the auction.
She watched as the auctioneer announced the next bachelor to an empty stage. The woman from the massage parlor poked her head backstage to look for the man.
“With a name like Phil Burns, this man’s calling was evident from the start. A local firefighter, I’m sure this man will be a hot date for a local lady. What should we start the bidding at?”
However, no bids were placed because the man still hadn’t come on stage. The woman looking for him shrugged and the man from the community center did his best to cover.
“Ah, the one problem with a firefighter is they are always called away when fires break out. But our next bachelor is from the opposite extreme. Next, we have a man who has been a part of our polar bear winter swim challenges for the past forty years.”
Lydia watched as an older man came onstage and struck swimming poses. She cheered as Annette joined in the bidding and eventually won a date with the man.
“Oh my goodness,” Annette said, blushing when she was declared the winner. “I’ve never dated a polar bear before.”
They all congratulated her and then watched the rest of the show. Lydia felt a tap on her shoulder and turned from the stage. Her brother Leo had joined her.
“I just got here, but I saw the list of winners. I saw Trina and Annette won dates,” Leo said. “I’m surprised you didn’t try and win the date with Daniel. You don’t like him anymore?”
“I do like him,” Lydia said.
“Sorry!” Trina repeated.
“It’s fine,” Lydia said to both of them. “I did bid on him, but Amber beat me.”
“The pretty ice cream shop owner?” asked Leo.
“That’s not the adjective that we would choose to describe her,” said Trina.
Lydia decided just to change the topic of conversation. She knew that Leo had been asked to be one of the bachelors on display when the committee was looking for single men in town, but that he had turned down the offer because he thought that he would be engaged to his girlfriend at this point. However, she had refused the proposal, and Lydia didn’t think that they had spoken since. She felt bad because she thought that Leo and Suzanne had been a great couple, even if she also thought that Leo had rushed into a marriage proposal because he had been spooked by how she had briefly been kidnapped. Lydia thought that being at this event would just remind him of why he turned down the offer to be onstage.
“So, what are you doing here?” Lydia asked.
“I have to support my partner,” Leo said. “He’s representing the force to the ladies.”
“Right,” said Lydia. “I forgot that he was going to do this.”
“I think it will be good for him too. He hasn’t been on a date in forever. He says that women find him too boring, but he’s a catch. A great detective and a good man.”
“You should be the one introducing him,” said Trina. “It sounds more sincere than what the announcer will say.”
They saw Detective Grey entering the stage. He looked as stoic as he usually did at the station, despite the introduction.
“Next, we have a detective from the Ocean Point Police Force. Don’t make him take out his handcuffs, ladies!”
Detective Grey stood in place in the center of the stage and observed the happenings. He didn’t walk around and show off or encourage the audience to cheer. He simply stayed still. This might have caused the bidding to start slowly.
“Come on,” Leo said. “They have to bid higher than that!”
Figuring that this was still supporting the community center and that if she went out with Detective Grey, it could be platonic, Lydia raised her arm up and bid a hundred dollars over the asking price.
She was glad to see that someone raised the bid, but was surprised to see that it was Brie Rankin who did it. Were she and Amber trying to take anyone who she showed interest in? Well, if that was the case, she could play that game and raise the price.
Lydia bid her highest amount of nine hundred dollars and waited to see if Brie would counter. Brie did indeed. She jumped to two thousand dollars, seeming to want to end this round of the auction. The representative from the community center seemed to jump with joy as he announced the winner.
“Good for Grey,” said Leo.
Lydia looked to see if Brie was going to give her a smug smile to taunt her about losing the date. However, her eyes were on the stage, watching Detective Grey. Maybe she hadn’t been bidding to annoy Lydia. Maybe she had really wanted to win the date.
“Next up we have a local celebrity,” the announcer continued. “We have Claudio Ozmore who needs no introduction. But I’m going to give one anyway! This singer originated from Ocean Point before gaining success across the country. Take out your wallets, ladies, because This Man Has Room for Love.”
“What’s that?” asked Lydia.
“I think it’s one of his songs,” said Trina.
“No,” Lydia said, pointing toward the building on the boardwalk. “What’s that? Is it smoke?”
“It looks like it,” Leo agreed.
“What should we do?” asked Annette.
“Are we in danger?” asked Mona.
“Just stay in the sand and be willing to head towards the water,” Lydia advised.
“I’ll check it out,” Leo said. “It looks too big to be a bachelor smoking inside, but no alarms have gone off.”
He started toward the building, and Lydia and Trina were still at his side when he reached the door.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked.
“Helping assess the situation,” said Lydia.
“Stay outside,” Leo ordered in his official policeman tone. “I will determine what is going on and what needs to be done.”
He ran inside the building, and Lydia and Trina grudgingly obeyed his order.
“It’s a shame that fireman that was mentioned at the auction didn’t show up,” said Trina. “It seems like we might need him.”
Lydia nodded. “I have a bad feeling about this.”
4
Stay Back
Lydia and Trina watched as several bachelors left the building. The men seemed surprised to see smoke coming out of the upper level’s windows.
“At least the fundraiser isn’t ruined by this,” Lydia said, still not certain what to make of the situation, but fearing the worst. “That singer is the last bachelor, so the event was able to finish.”
“We’ll just have to make sure that the crowd of crazed women doesn’t walk into a fire.”
“I don’t like the idea of Leo being alone in there if there’s danger,” said Lydia. “But there’s a good chance he’d kill me if I go in there after him.”
She bit her lip as s
he considered what to do besides wait. She saw the silver fox that Annette had bid on leaving the building and asked, “Excuse me. Do you know what’s going on?”
“How should I know?” the man demanded. “Some guy claiming to be a cop said that we needed to evacuate in case there was a fire. If there was a fire, wouldn’t Phil Burns be around to stop it? Or is he off shirking his duty again?”
The man walked away grumbling and Lydia began to feel bad for Annette on her date. However, her thoughts soon returned to the building in front of her. Women in the audience were cheering, signaling that the bachelor auction was winding down. However, the happy sounds were being mixed with the blaring of approaching sirens.
Detective Grey hurried up to the entrance, but Lydia stopped him.
“Did Leo call you for backup? Is he okay?”
“He’s safe. He believes he has the fire contained and has evacuated the building. The fire department should be here any minute to make certain it is safe.”
“Can I --?” Lydia began.
“No. You may not enter the crime scene. I know you’ve come to think of solving murders as another one of your fortes, but you may not accompany me to see the dead body. This is a police and fire department matter.”
“Dead body?”
“Someone died?” asked Trina.
“I’ve said too much. I just wanted to relay that Detective Doherty was safe.”
Lydia considered it. “You’ve found a dead body right next to the bachelor auction. Was it someone related to it? Was it the missing bachelor?”
“Even if I knew for certain, I would not confirm that for you,” said Detective Grey. “But just because we found a body, doesn’t mean that a murder occurred. There is no reason for you to get involved, and I need to go inside.”
“Maybe we could help?” suggested Lydia.
“It’s not like a bunch of killers are behind bars thanks to our efforts or anything,” Trina muttered.
“If you really want to help, you can make sure that no civilians enter this building until the other officers arrive in a moment,” said Detective Grey. “I need to find Detective Doherty.”
Lydia and Trina reluctantly agreed and stood guard outside the building.
“If he’s not certain it’s murder, then it’s possible that the body inside is the missing firefighter, but that he died fighting the fire,” Lydia said considering it. “But I suppose he also could have just said that to try and get us to stay away from their case.”
“Everyone on stage seemed really surprised that the firefighter, Phil, didn’t come out to be bid on,” said Trina. “They expected him to be there. Maybe something did stop him from making his appearance. Maybe it was the fire.”
“Maybe,” said Lydia. “But something seems strange about all of this. If the firefighter did miss his cue because he was fighting a fire – well, why didn’t he report it? Or call for backup? Or evacuate the building?”
“Like Leo just did,” Trina agreed.
“I also think it’s strange that no fire alarms are going off here. I thought commercial buildings on the boardwalk needed them.”
“The salon has them.”
“So does my taffy shop,” said Lydia.
A uniformed officer arrived and relieved them of their duty. They walked a few steps away, hoping to continue to have a good view of the action but to be away from the crowd about to leave the sand.
“I guess we can’t deduce anything else until we have more information,” said Lydia. “We don’t even know for certain that the victim is the missing firefighter. It might be someone else.”
“Who?” asked Trina. “We saw everyone leaving the building when Leo had them evacuate.”
Lydia nodded, but then her eyes widened with fright. “We didn’t see everyone leave. We haven’t seen Daniel recently, have we?”
Trina began to look nervous too but tried to hide it. “No. I didn’t see him leave. But that doesn’t mean that he’s in danger.”
“You don’t think he could have been the person who died, do you?” Lydia asked, wringing her hands together. “He’s also someone who saves lives. He might have put himself in danger to stop a fire. And we didn’t see him get to safety. Maybe he was killed, and that’s why Leo and Detective Grey won’t let me come inside!”
“Pull yourself together,” Trina said. “We don’t know that. Leo and Grey don’t like seeing us around a crime scene. It might not be because we know the victim.”
Panic was beginning to set in. Lydia worried about the safety of the man she cared for and also hated to think that the final interaction they had was her losing the dating auction. She began charging toward the building door, ready to ignore the uniformed officer’s warnings. However, then Daniel walked onto the boardwalk from the stage area.
“Lydia,” he said when he saw her. “What’s going on?”
It took a moment for Lydia to catch her breath. Her panic had changed to joy so rapidly at the sight of him safe and sound.
“There was a fire on the upper level of the building, and the police are securing it,” Trina explained since Lydia seemed momentarily incapable. “Apparently there’s a dead body inside. Now we think again that it might be the missing firefighter.”
“I thought you might have been in the building,” Lydia managed to say.
“I stayed backstage after my part,” Daniel explained. “I was there with your date, Trina. I told him that you were a friend of mine and he should be good to you.”
“Aww, thanks,” said Trina.
“And we were rooting for the other bachelors who were nervous. Most of them were. Except for that Claudio Ozmore singer.”
Then, Lydia rushed forward and embraced Daniel. She held him in her arms and said, “I’m just so glad that you’re okay. I started fearing the worst. And I don’t know what I would do if I lost you.”
“You don’t have to worry about losing me,” Daniel said, keeping his arms around her.
“Excuse me. Can you stop hugging him?” a nearby voice drawled.
Lydia released her hold and saw Amber standing nearby with a hand on her hip. She looked very pleased with herself.
“After all, he is my date,” Amber said.
5
Couples by the Crime Scene
Lydia gritted her teeth to prevent her from saying something rude in reply but took a step away from Daniel. He was very cordial with his reply.
“Thank you for bidding so high for the date. The donations will be a big help for the community center.”
“I care deeply about the community,” Amber said, placing a hand on her heart. “And I was happy to give back to it. And the reason why I was able to bid so much? Well, business has been going very well for me at Cones and Cola. The tourists really love my ice cream. And they must love it more than any other treats they could buy on the boardwalk if it allowed me to spend more than anyone else to secure this date.”
“The bids went up much higher than anyone on the fundraising committee expected,” Daniel said.
“I’m glad that I was able to compensate for it and win,” Amber continued with a smile. “The ice cream business must be much better than the salt water taffy one since I was able to go up so high.”
“The taffy business is just fine,” Lydia retorted. “I have many happy customers who come in every day.”
“Oh, so you just didn’t care about the date with Daniel as much as I did?” Amber challenged.
“No,” Lydia said. “That wasn’t it.”
“Maybe she just doesn’t have to pay close to a grand to see him,” said Trina.
Amber gave her a dirty look, but then was all smiles as she linked arms with Daniel. “I thought it sounded so delightful to have a picnic on the beach and walk along the shore together. And I have wanted to get to know you better. You seem to always get involved in those sordid murder cases that happen that you barely have any time for the sweeter side of things in town. And I think that should start with one of my ice
cream floats.”
Daniel looked uncomfortable with her arm around his but was trying to remain polite. “We can always have ice cream on that picnic. I hadn’t considered it because I thought it might melt.”
“Unlike taffy,” Lydia couldn’t help adding.
Almonds and Arson Page 2
