“Good morning, bright eyes,” she said pushing away a load of college paperwork off the table. Some of it was literature for the fraternity. She glanced at it for a second before turning her attention to Dawson.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“Just being neighborly. Wanted to see if you needed any sugar.” She lifted the small bag of what looked like coke. “But I see you’ve already got some of your own.”
She grabbed a hold of him and hauled him to his feet and dragged him out onto the deck and pointed in the direction of the Vagabond.
“You want to tell me which of you broke in last night?”
“Lady, I have no clue what you are on about, but if Gabriel catches wind of you on his boat you are going…”
“To be in a lot of trouble? Kid. All of you are in a lot of trouble. Now you see those boys in blue over there? I’m sure they would be very interested in knowing about your little sugar problem. You get my drift?” she said holding up the baggie. “Now I think there is enough here to put both of you away for a while. I’m sure that would screw up your chances of landing whatever career it is you want. So how about you cut the crap and tell me what happened that night and maybe I’ll make this baggie go bye-bye? And while you’re at it. Where is Gabriel?”
“He’s at the beach house.”
“Did you break in last night?” she asked.
“No.”
“Oh officers!” she yelled out.
“Okay, okay. Gabriel wanted to know what you asked me yesterday and I told him but I swear I was not involved in whatever break-in happened and if he was behind it, I wasn’t involved.”
She decided to use some reverse psychology on him.
“It doesn’t matter. I mean the owner was smart enough to use an online backup service so all the recordings were sent to the cloud. Which means, in a few minutes from now we’ll have a clear idea of what happened, or you can just tell me.”
He sighed and dropped down onto one of the deck seats. He reached for a pack of cigarettes in his pocket and sparked one up.
“Come on, Dawson. Matt was your friend, right?”
He nodded. “Look,” he said wiping his lip. “I’m really not supposed to be talking to you without speaking to Gabriel or our fraternity president.
We did go for drinks and Matt drank more than he should, at least, he was given more than I think we were.”
“He was given more?”
He sighed again. “We came down here for a pledge ceremony. There were six of us that were going to be involved. The rest were there to help out. It was to be held at the beach house.”
“And?”
“Like I said, things got out of hand.”
“Did you dump his body at Alligator Point?”
“No. That’s not what happened.” He took a hard drag on his cigarette and the other guy emerged from the boat.
“What’s your name?” she asked, turning to him.
“Greg Gibson.”
“Were you involved?”
He looked at Dawson and Skylar caught him shake his head.
“Take a seat over there,” Skylar said. “Here’s what’s going to happen. If you don’t tell me what occurred that night, all of you will be arrested for obstructing an investigation. Now if you weren’t involved then it’s best you tell me what happened.”
“We need to speak to Gabriel,” Greg said.
“Oh give it up, man. He’s not going to help us. It shouldn’t have happened.”
Skylar’s brow pinched. “What shouldn’t?”
Dawson turned back to Skylar and started to unload everything he knew. “A part of the ceremony required pledges to wear a backpack filled with forty pounds of sand and drink heavily until we puke on one another. They had us walk blindfolded with nothing on through a maze at the back of the house.”
“A maze?”
“Of hedges,” he said. “Before they do this we had to take a freezing cold shower, and then have vinegar squirted into our eyes. After that the backpack goes on us and we are led to the start of the maze. Those who make their way out are welcomed.”
“Into the fraternity?”
“The brotherhood,” Greg said.
Dawson continued. “Anyway, when we were running the gauntlet, the rest of the fraternity tackles us and prevents us from making it by spinning us around, kicking legs, and at times punching them.”
She scoffed. “So that’s what caused the injuries to his body.”
Dawson looked at her and nodded.
“Do you know you might have been responsible for his death,” Skylar said.
All the blood in his face drained away. “We didn’t kill him. I swear. I was just like him, one of those running the gauntlet. I didn’t even know he was having problems breathing until I made it to the other side.”
“Breathing?”
“He collapsed a few times. They carried him back into the house and put a pair of shorts on him and Gabriel wanted me to drop him off at the hospital.”
“So you own the red Honda?”
He ran a hand over his face and nodded. “I swear he was breathing okay when we arrived at the hospital.”
“But you didn’t stick around, did you?”
“No. We headed to the boat, and then got ready to head to the bar. I thought he would sober up in the hospital. They’d fix him up and he’d be back the next day laughing about it.”
“Laughing about being hit?”
“I was hit.”
He lifted his top and showed some of the bruises.
“But not as bad as him.” Skylar shook her head. “So, was everyone present at the bar?”
“Yeah. You can ask the girls.”
“What about Iris?”
“She was there. I mean I didn’t keep track of her all night. You gotta remember, I drank a lot.”
“And then drove to the hospital?”
“I wasn’t driving, one of the other guys was.”
She had him give her the address for the place in Apalachicola and then turned to leave.
“You think I can get that baggie back?” Greg asked.
“I’m keeping it. Call it insurance.” She turned as she walked away. “Oh and don’t go anywhere. I might need to speak to you again.”
Dawson dropped his head.
Chapter 10
There were few things that pissed her off more than liars and something about what Dawson had told her didn’t add up. Okay, he’d lied about them being at the boat and was obviously trying to cover up for the fraternity, but why go to all the trouble of obtaining the surveillance footage unless they were covering up something more? Skylar headed to the station to meet up with Harvey. Two heads were better than one and right now she could barely process a few thoughts. She was exhausted after not getting much sleep that night. The amount of hours she was putting in was starting to catch up with her and if she didn’t get a break soon she was liable to lose it. What didn’t help was that she needed the money. She didn’t want to stay on the boat forever. Even though she liked living down at the harbor, the boat was Scot’s and as long as she stayed on it, she would always feel indebted to him. No, she had plans to squirrel away money and find a place nearby, a small beach house, something that gave her a good view of the ocean. The only problem was they cost an arm and a leg. Beachside properties were for the rich and famous, or folks who had deep roots, she had none of that.
When she arrived at the department she found Harvey having his own mental breakdown. He was in the lunchroom wading through a stack of college brochures and making phone calls. She got herself a coffee from the vending machine and took a seat across from him. He made a gesture to say he would only be a minute. The conversation he was having got a little heated and eventually he hung up, telling them thanks for nothing.
“I see your morning is going well,” she said.
“Oh it’s a nightmare. You know what, I don’t need all this additional crap on my day. I have enough things to ha
ndle and then this. I have asked Elizabeth to make phone calls to these colleges and look into financial aid but she’s too busy with the shop. Like, I don’t have a job to do?” He shook his head.
“Why are you looking into this now? Doesn’t your son have a year before he heads off?”
“Yes but you know how these things work. If I don’t get on top of it now we will be a few months away and then everyone will be panicking and decisions will be made in haste. And you know what that means? I will get the blame for it all. No, I have to get a jump-start on it. But to be honest I have no idea how I’m going to afford to do this. We only recently paid out for a truck. I might have to take the damn thing back.”
“I would love to help you but I barely have two cents to rub together.”
He tossed her a confused expression. “What are you spending your money on? It’s not like the department pays us chump change.”
“Hospital bills.”
“For who?”
“My father back in New York. He’s been in and out of the hospital for all manner of issues and he’s not working.”
“But doesn’t he have his pension from his time with the police?”
“From what I can tell it’s not enough. At least that’s what he tells me.”
“And you don’t have any brothers or sisters to carry the slack?”
“Nope.”
“Insurance?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know what he’s done with his money. All I know is that it’s down to me to help out and so I have more money going out than coming in the door. Besides, I have to pay Scot to stay on his boat and that isn’t cheap.”
“But he’s your friend.”
“Friends want to get paid. Before I moved onto the boat he was renting it out and making good money. He thought I was going to come to Carrabelle for a couple of months, clear my head and return to New York.”
Harvey rocked his head back. “Everyone has their expectations.”
They both sat there nodding.
“Well, I do have some good news.”
“Great. Anything right now would be good,” he said.
“I’ve found out what happened to our Matt guy. At least up until around nine forty.”
Harvey tapped his fingers against the table, then got up and pushed coins into the vending machine to get himself a cup of coffee. “Reznik already told me.”
“Ah but did he tell you what happened prior to that?”
Harvey twisted around and she brought him up to speed.
“A hazing?”
“Seems so.”
“Well that’s all well and good but that doesn’t answer the question of who killed him. Unless of course Iris ducked out of the bar and did it. Which is what I would put my money on based on the fact that she has a record and the gun was hers.”
“It’s possible but there is a chance that someone took the gun from her in order to incriminate her.”
“But why?”
“Unrequited love, jealousy, hatred, or payback by the guy who got a restraining order against her.”
“Well I think before we start heading off on a tangent we should at least find out if all of them were there at the bar. I think the bar will have surveillance footage.”
“Speaking of surveillance footage. I’ve been giving some more thought to this break-in at Vagabond and I figure whoever did that had to have been within the group that I spoke to the day before.”
“Right, but that might have been to cover up for their involvement in the hazing. They might not have been responsible for the murder.”
“I know but it doesn’t look good.”
Harvey looked down and reached for his cup. “Oh you have got to be kidding me.”
He pulled out his plastic cup from the vending machine and showed her. It was half full.
“Well if that isn’t a sign I don’t know what is,” he said. He banged the machine with an open hand and then tossed the cup in the garbage.
Harry’s Bar and Package was the oldest bar in Franklin County, dating back to 1942. Providing the county with some of the cheapest prices on food and drinks, it was usually busy from sunup to sundown. Catering mostly to locals but always welcoming newcomers, it looked equally as good on the outside as it did inside. Skylar had been there a few times and even met a couple of guys over the past two months. Located just off Marine Street in the south part of Carrabelle, it was hard to miss with its green siding and weathered wooden paneling. Above the doors was a large colorful logo of a ship and the words: Harry’s Bar. They still hadn’t got around to tacking the second part of the bar’s name on the end, and according to Harvey it would likely never happen as everything moved at a snail’s pace in Carrabelle. Still, folks didn’t seem to care. All that mattered to them was what it had to offer. A warm sun beat down on them as they climbed out of Harvey’s truck and made their way in. It was five after eleven, a few minutes after they’d opened up. The aroma of beer lingered. Radio tunes played over the speakers at a low volume, and the lights were dimmed ever so slightly to give the place some ambience. There was only one patron inside sitting at the bar, an old-timer with a red bandanna on his head. It would soon fill up.
“Hi guys, table for two?” a perky, full-bodied waitress said holding some menus in hand.
“Actually we were hoping to speak to the owner,” Harvey said flashing his badge.
“Oh, sure, one moment.”
She scooted away and disappeared behind the bar and returned a moment later with a large guy in his late fifties. He had a stomach that hung over his belt and he was dressed in a nice dark shirt, and black pants.
He beamed. “Harvey. How are you doing?”
“Pete? You running this place now?”
“Managing it. I don’t own the place.”
“But what happened to the garage?”
Pete Summers had been a local mechanic who’d operated out of the north part of Carrabelle. According to Harvey he’d been there as long as the town itself.
“Closed up three weeks ago. Yeah, a lot of the business was getting eaten up by that new garage in town.”
“Farloughs?”
“That’s the one. I swear I can’t compete with their prices. They are like the Walmart of garages. I tried to speak to the owner and see if we could come to some arrangement but the owner is never around. They have young guys running it. Of course I fully expect to hear complaints soon when they start charging folks more money than they should but that’s what happens when the mayor decides to expand the town. All the big guys move in and squeeze out the little guy.”
Harvey tossed Skylar a look and mouthed the word Vagabond.
She just rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, I saw a position come up here and being as I’m in here every night, and helped out a few times when things were busy, they just offered me the job on the spot. Anyway, what can I do for yah?”
“Pete, we had a recent murder.”
“The college kid. I heard. Terrible what this world is coming to. I caught the papers this morning. Any luck finding whoever did it?”
“That’s why I’m here. I was hoping to look over the surveillance footage from two nights ago. You think you can bring that up?”
“The surveillance… um….” After a second he turned. “Right, come this way.”
He led them around the back of the bar and down to a small room that doubled as a lunch area for the staff. There was a small table with two chairs, a kettle with a couple of containers of tea, a microwave, a small fridge and a wash basin with a faucet.
“Now let me see. I haven’t used this before but it must be like the one I had at my place.”
Pete fumbled around with the computer and recording software and cursed a few times under his breath.
“Pete, were you working two nights ago?”
“I was on, yeah.”
“Do you recall this girl coming into the bar?” Harvey showed him a mug shot of Iris.
“Harv
ey, have you seen this place at night? It’s packed. We are run off our feet. I’m lucky if I can remember my own name let alone one person’s face in a darkened room. Sorry.”
“No worries.”
It took him a few minutes to locate the footage from that night. Over the next ten minutes they scoured through the footage. Sure enough, Iris wasn’t lying, she showed up on time with her gal pals and had drinks, danced and sat in a corner booth until around nine fifty when a rowdy group of college guys streamed in. Skylar immediately recognized Gabriel who rushed over and put his hands around one of the girl’s eyes before groping her. Dawson was the last in the door at just after ten with another guy. He looked downcast and Gabriel must have noticed as he came over and put his arm around him and muttered something into his ear then pointed to the women and burst out laughing. At around five past ten, Iris looked as if she was getting a text from someone as she glanced down at her phone and then got up and excused herself. She went outside the building and joined a small crowd of smokers. She lit a cigarette and proceeded to stare at her phone. Five more minutes passed and two friends of hers stepped out, they said something to her and she replied then they went back in leaving her out there.
Right then three motorbikes pulled up across the street, all of the riders were dressed in black leather and wearing helmets.
As if waiting for them, Iris crushed the cigarette under her boot and hurried over. A few words were exchanged with one of them and she hopped onto the back and all three bikes tore away.
“Pete, are you able to zoom in? I want to see if we can get a license off one of those bikes.”
“Sure. Let me see.”
As he continued to play around with the software, Harvey piped up. “She didn’t look like she had a lot to drink.”
“No, so either she is lying or she consumed it later.”
“Or she thinks that was a lot for her,” Harvey added.
Pete twisted. “Here we go.”
Both of them leaned forward and squinted as the footage was dark.
“Does that look like an M or an N?” Skylar asked with a notepad in hand.
“M. Definitely M,” Harv and Pete both said.
Skylar got on to Lt. Lucy Wyner who handled dispatch and asked her to run a license plate. It didn’t take her long to get back with an answer.
Death Blow Page 8
