by Mara Webb
“Derek?” he said.
“Yeah, Derek! What do you know about him?” I asked.
“He’s in with the lawyer crowd. I can’t remember what he does exactly but he’s friendly with all the law guys,” Fitz replied.
I couldn’t see Susan’s husband anywhere, so maybe now was my opportunity to speak to Derek. The problem with the current situation was that I couldn’t run to catch up to the group and I was not able to sneak anywhere either. I managed to get down from the stage using the stairs, even though I’d needed to limp around Kate who was still curled up with laughter.
“Are you helping me today?” I asked.
“Give me a minute!” she cried, wiping more tears from her cheeks.
“It really wasn’t that funny,” I muttered. The crutch was making little dents in the grass and I wondered if Kieran would be annoyed that I was messing up his golf course.
“What happened?” I turned to see Emmy with a small camera hanging from a strap around her neck. She was looking at my leg.
“I had an accident,” I replied. “Nothing to worry about.” She looked concerned and I wasn’t sure if that was because of my leg, or something else. “Are you okay?”
“I was actually hoping to speak to the sheriff, have you seen him anywhere?” she asked.
“No,” I said.
“Do you know when he’ll be back?” Well, wasn’t that the million-dollar question? I shook my head.
“Can I help?” I offered.
“I just…” Emmy paused and looked around to see if there was anybody close enough to hear what she was about to say. The coast was clear. “I saw something last night that really bothered me, and I just thought it was best that I come forward with the images.”
I looked over at Kate who had stopped laughing, finally, and was making her way to my side. Had she seen Miller shift into a wolf? He must have done it beside the pool, and I hadn’t considered that someone might have seen him. It was one thing to do it on the main island in front of a bunch of people that knew about magic, it was another to shift in front of tourists. I could feel my hands getting clammy with nerves.
“W- what did you see?” I asked nervously. I had also been carried back to the side of the pool by Ryder, my leg was sliced open, and I had no doubt that I was screaming at the top of my lungs.
“After that woman was found in the pool, everyone was making their way outside to look, right?” Emmy began. “It’s weird that people are freaked out by death and misery, but they always want to get a better view of it. I had been in the restaurant by myself, tucked away in the corner to get some editing done. That’s when I saw this…”
She turned on her camera and turned it to show the digital screen on the back. She was showing me a photograph of Susan’s husband and Derek sat at a table looking through some paperwork.
“Why did you take that picture?” Kate asked. That was a good question, there were plenty of people in the restaurant last night and on the face of it, these two men didn’t look like they were doing anything sinister.
“This guy,” Emmy said, pointing at Derek, “kept looking towards the pool when people were shouting and screaming. The other guy never looked up from the documents on the table. It was as if he couldn’t hear the noise. It was weird, that’s all. I felt compelled to get a picture of that moment, then I packed up my stuff and went out onto the pool side.
“As the night went on, I realized that this was the dead woman’s husband. I thought I should tell the sheriff because I know these little details can be important, right?”
“Thanks,” I nodded. “I think maybe we should send that to the police department, I don’t know when Sheriff Miller will be back on the island, but I’m sure the rest of his team are working on this. I should probably call them…”
Saying Miller’s name out loud, hearing it in my own voice, had felt strange. I had no idea what the police were doing, I always did these sorts of investigations with one person. I didn’t even know the names of the other officers.
“Do you have an email address or something?” Emmy asked. I stared blankly at her for a few moments.
“Here,” Kate answered, pulling a piece of card and a pen from the back pocket of her shorts. She scrawled down an email address and handed it to Emmy.
“Great, thank you. It feels like a weight off my chest,” Emmy sighed. “I’ll go and get this sent over now. I have to get back to get some action shots of the golfers for the website.” She smiled and ran back in the direction of the building.
“Will I ever run again?” I mused.
“Really? That’s your takeaway from all that?” Kate tutted. “This Derek guy is clearly up to something with the husband. Or the husband is up to something, or both!”
“Fitz said Derek is in with the lawyer crowd, so why don’t we just go and ask him? Lawyers aren’t allowed to lie, right?” I said.
“Yeah, in court! Like, under oath they are supposed to be truthful, but even then, it’s questionable. He can totally lie to you on his day off!”
“Should we get in the cart? I can’t walk that far,” I complained. Kate helped me back on to the vehicle, refused to let Fitz join us as he would, in her words, ‘weigh the thing down too much so she couldn’t go top speed’. The top speed was about five miles per hour, but Kate didn’t want anything less than that.
By the time we made it to the group of people waiting to golf, it seemed that Kieran had only just finished his briefing. I was glad we missed it. Derek was standing with a group of similarly dressed men in snow-white shirts and bland shorts. He looked nervous as I hobbled in his direction.
“A word?” Kate yelled. He looked downright terrified now, Kate could be scary when she wanted to be.
“How can I help you?” he smiled. He was gesturing for us to step away from everyone to talk, but it took me a while to limp to his chosen location.
“Drop the act,” Kate snapped. “You’re up to something, and I can prove it!”
“Kate, what’s gotten into you? Jeez, this isn’t Miami Vice,” I said.
“What’s Miami Vice?” she asked.
“That’s a conversation for another time.” I rolled my eyes. “Look, Derek, you came to say something to us earlier and got interrupted. What was it?”
“I can’t…” he hesitated. “I don’t know how to say this without breaking some confidentiality.”
“Susan’s husband is your client?” Kate asked.
“Rick Colter has been good to me for many years, and yes, I represent him,” he replied.
“What is your specialty?” I asked. “Family law? Personal injury law? Tax stuff?”
“I do whatever Mr. Colter requires of me,” he said. I felt as if he was shutting us out now. What had Rick said to him after he found Derek talking to us at breakfast?
“There is a photograph of you two being weird after Susan’s body was found, you had papers on the table, and you were looking all twitchy,” Kate announced. “You can’t hide the truth forever.” She had a scowl on her face, and I suspected that the last comment was prompted by her inability to access his thoughts. Whatever he was thinking about, he was determined to keep it to himself.
The sky rumbled and grew dark, clouds circled above us and the color of them suggested rain was imminent. Great. If I had to guess, I’d say that Ryder’s attempts to fix his own mess with the weather weren’t going all that well. Kate started running back to the cart, and the other golfers all began to hurry back to the shelter of the building. Within a few seconds I was the only one stood out on the grass as the sky opened.
I hobbled as fast as I could to the passenger side of the cart, but by the time I got there I was absolutely soaking wet.
“Why didn’t you summon an umbrella?” Kate asked. I shot her a look.
“I didn’t think about that,” I sulked. In the chaos, we’d lost sight of Derek. I had a bad feeling that things would get worse before they got better.
12
We had r
etreated to my bedroom again. Kate had used magic to dry us both off and then we had both collapsed onto the bed.
“Is it too early to get room service to bring us lunch?” she asked.
“We ate our body weight in food this morning, I don’t even think it’s been two hours since breakfast,” I replied.
“I’m not hearing a no,” she grinned. The phone on the nightstand rang and I looked at Kate suspiciously, who knew we were here? Maybe it was the reception desk, maybe this was the sign from the universe that it was fine to get room service. I could really go for another coffee right about now. I reached over to answer.
“Hello?” I said.
“Sadie, there you are.” It was Effie. “I’ve been trying to get hold of you all morning.”
“What’s up? Is the IRS guy there?” I asked.
“Well, that’s the thing… I think there’s something weird going on,” she said.
“I’ve got enough weird of my own, I don’t need any of yours today, thanks,” I replied.
“He arrived last night and came straight here, like, it was still dark out and I wasn’t expecting to see him until this morning,” Effie explained.
“Did you get the paperwork sorted in time?”
“Yeah, that’s not the problem. He arrived and I thought he was going to black out, he was all sweaty and pale. I’d offered him a BLT when he got here, I know how bad the plane food can be. So…”
“What are you getting at?” I pressed.
“I think I’ve given him food poisoning. He didn’t look all that great when he got here, but he looked way worse when he left. He normally gets here as soon as the café opens and bosses me around for an hour, then heads out to sunbathe. He hadn’t shown up yet. What if I’ve killed him?” The panic in her voice was clear. I was at a loss for words.
“I don’t think you’ve killed him. You said he looked off when he arrived, so he was probably already sick,” I reasoned.
“I’m pretty sure that the person that called the IRS is Susan, by the way. In between episodes of dry heaving, he said that he’d received a slew of calls from an anonymous tipster and that they’d mentioned frozen lasagna. I swear, I might kill her the next time she comes in,” Effie ranted.
“She died last night, so I guess you’re in luck?” I said. “I’m having a total nightmare here too.”
“Miller go wolf-loco on you, huh? I figured when I saw the moon last night that some freaky stuff was about to go down. That moon wasn’t due for another couple of weeks. I considered that the moon was why Kane was being so weird, but I honestly have no idea,” she sighed.
“I haven’t seen Miller since,” I said. “Ryder did some weather magic and—”
“So, I’ve got him to thank for this rain right now, is that right? You’re love triangle is the reason why my laundry is currently getting wet out in the back yard of my house! That’s the last time I try to air-dry my clothes.”
“Do you know anything about Rick Colter?” I said, steering the conversation back to something useful.
“Susan’s little lapdog husband?” Effie asked. “All I know is that the guy is a total player, which seems surprising really, but facts are facts.”
“What do you mean?”
Kate reached over and pressed a button on the base unit of the phone, this seemed to activate the speakerphone mode. “I felt left out!” Kate shrugged. “And I want to know what Effie said about Rick.”
“Kate, do you remember when we had that Cinco de Mayo party and Rick showed up with Susan on his arm? I don’t think he was single then, if you get what I mean,” Effie teased.
“Oh yeah!” Kate gasped.
“Hello? I wasn’t there,” I said, waving my hand in front of Kate.
“Rick was married before, he was still married when he started dating Susan,” Effie said.
“When was that?”
“Maybe two or three years ago. His wife went nuts, she keyed his car and cut all the sleeves off his best shirts. I would have done the same thing, cheaters never learn,” Effie mused.
“Do you know where the ex-wife is now?” I asked.
“I haven’t seen her around for a while, give me one second.” I heard a strange noise as if Effie had put her hand over the mouthpiece of the phone. “Tara!” Effie shouted.
“Yeah?” Tara responded in the distance. The exchanged words for a minute or two but it was far too muffled for me to make out what they were saying. Finally, Effie came back to the phone.
“Well, I don’t think you’re gonna like it,” Effie said.
“Tell us anyway,” I replied, bracing myself.
“It looks like she’s dead. So, if you were working on the theory that the jealous ex-wife had shown up and stabbed Susan, or whatever, then you’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board.”
I hadn’t really considered that the ex-wife was a suspect, I hadn’t even known Rick had been married before until five seconds ago.
“Two wives dead in only a few years, that’s messed up,” Kate said. I agreed. The clouds outside were so thick and dark that it looked almost totally black, like night had come early. Hardly any light was breaking through now.
“Oh great, Kane is here,” Effie announced. She sounded genuinely thrilled, probably because his arrival let her know she hadn’t accidentally killed him with a sandwich. “He looks worse than yesterday, how is that even possible? I’m gonna have to go. Speak to you guys later!”
She hung up.
“I’m not looking forward to getting back to the café to deal with the audit guy,” I moaned. “I don’t know what’s worse, the IRS or this golf tournament.”
“Well at least it’s dark and a storm is rolling in,” Kate sighed. “We should go find that Derek guy, if he isn’t in the reception area then we can ask one of the staff for his room number. If he isn’t there when we knock, we can kick the door down and look through his stuff.”
“Why don’t we at least pretend you are interested in finding him, instead of immediately getting giddy at the idea of snooping?” I smiled. I tried to climb off the bed but the pulsing pain in my leg stopped me in my tracks.
“You should stay here, I’ll go look for him,” Kate suggested. If he’s there, I’ll drag him up here. If he’s not, then I’ll find out which room he’s in and come back to tell you. Just stay still.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. Kate left the room and I rolled over on the bed to find a more comfortable position to rest. I wondered how much longer the pain would last. Had Miller experienced this when he first became a wolf? I just wanted to know that he was alright. I should have been waking up with him this morning, instead I’d woken up to find Ryder in my shower. Speak of the devil and he doth appear.
A knock on the door was followed by a timid, “Sadie?” It was Ryder.
“It’s not locked,” I said. I heard the handle turn and he stepped into the room, closing the door behind himself.
“How’s the leg?” he asked.
“How’s the weather?” I asked back, my face mushed into the pillows.
“I’m working on it, I promise. I just got a little turned around, I’m not usually this useless,” he said.
“I know. I don’t blame you, much,” I teased. I looked over and caught a smile on his lips. “Susan’s husband has been married before; did you know that?”
“Yeah, I’d heard that before Susan he was married to a woman that came from money. I think her dad owned a bunch of cargo ships or something,” he said.
A piercing alarm sound began to scream out from the ceiling. It was the fire alarm. I rolled onto my back so that I could look around the room quickly in panic. Was the building on fire? Ryder opened the door, and the alarm was ringing out in the hallway.
“We need to get out of here,” he said. “The elevator button has a red light on it, it must automatically shut off.”
“I can’t get down the stairs like this,” I shrieked, pointing at my leg. I tried to sit up and winced.
“Obviously I’m going to carry you,” Ryder said.
“Is it normal that you pick me up this much? I feel like I’ve never been picked up by a guy until I moved here and now it happens at least twice a day,” I replied.
“I don’t think I’ve picked a woman up before you. Greta tripped over a couple of times when we would go hiking in the hills, but she always just walked it off. You seem more disaster-prone,” he smiled, scooping me up and taking me to the door.
“Do you think this is a fire drill? Who comes to deal with a fire if this is a real fire? How fast can a fire burn up a whole building? Are we going to die?” I rambled. Something about my total helplessness in the situation was adding to my nerves and Ryder was doing his level best to just get us to safety.
“I don’t know if it’s a drill, but if it’s real then the fire department will come. It’s more of a volunteer service around here, we only have the big trucks with the ladders on the main island. It will probably be a handful of strangers with some buckets of water, if we’re lucky,” he said. Was that a joke? I grabbed onto him tighter.
How high off the ground was the Honeymoon suite? Why was it taking so long to get to the ground floor? Where was Kate? I should never have come to this golf thing; this is what you get for trying to lie about an interest in sports.
“I’ve got you, Sadie,” Ryder whispered. I felt a slight pang of guilt as I thought back to the size of the breakfast I’d eaten that morning, maybe I wouldn’t be so heavy if I’d stuck to a bowl of cereal or something. When we finally got to the reception area, I spotted Kieran in a bright yellow safety vest with a clipboard in his hands.
“Everyone outside!” he ordered. “Check in with a staff member, we are all wearing these yellow things.”
“I can probably walk from here,” I muttered.
“Yeah, but it would be quicker for me to just take you,” Ryder replied.
Kieran had followed us out. “The peacekeeper is safe!” he bellowed. I buried my head into Ryder’s chest, hoping to keep my own humiliation to a minimum. I hoped that the hotel wasn’t actually on fire, I suspected it would give me a lot of jobs to do if it burned down.
