Scales of Justice

by Jessa Archer

  The sounds of a siren coming down along the beachfront road added another frantic note to the scene. The man pumping at the victim’s chest kept pushing, but his pumping action seemed a little more resigned. One of the construction workers placed his hand above the victim’s mouth, evidently to feel for breath. He looked around at the other guys and then shook his head.

  Two police cars pulled up with a measured screech in front of the mansion. First out of a car was my long-ago boyfriend Logan, the sheriff. I had to stop myself from smiling and waving, both because the smile would be inappropriate for the occasion, and because, well, I really shouldn’t be breaking into a smile every time I saw him.

  He was married. And not to me.

  An ambulance showed up right on the tail of the police. Two EMTs jumped out, carrying bags, and raced over to the man lying on the ground.

  The men around Winthrop parted to let the medical personnel and police officers through. I could hear some conversation about how long it had been since he had fallen, and I watched as one of the EMTs seamlessly took over the CPR. It was evident that everyone watching understood this was likely to be a futile effort. As the medical guys continued with their movements, others backed away from the little group on the ground.

  “And there goes my new job. Kaput!” Mrs. Grumbauer said.

  I looked at her, startled to realize that she was still standing there. She clutched her purse more tightly under her arm and stepped out to the sidewalk, clearly ready to go.

  Since I was the only gawker left and didn’t have any particular reason to stand there, I decided to go back to my side of the hedge. But first I looked around for Jared.

  I spotted him standing with some other construction workers on the side of the house, smoking. The day had turned hot, and it made sense to stay in the shade. I raised my eyebrows at him and nodded, hoping he’d come over and talk to me. If he saw me, he didn’t take the hint.

  “Pepper,” said a voice right beside me.

  I turned to find Logan standing to my right. Of course, I blushed immediately, even though it was ridiculous to imagine that he could know what I was thinking about. He turned to discover where my gaze was focused and saw Jared. That only made me feel more foolish. Did he think I was checking out Jared while Roger Winthrop was lying there... possibly dead?

  “I’ve been told that you’re dating one of the construction workers on the job here,” Logan said.

  It almost seemed as though he was a little jealous. Why would he care about who I dated? We hadn’t been an item since high school. Which was about... I did the math in my head. From senior year to now was about seventeen years. He couldn’t possibly still care. Could he? After all, he was the one who was married.

  As I turned to him, I felt the rush of blood coming back into my cheeks. He might be the sheriff of Misty-on-the-Sound, but he really didn’t have any right to ask about my love life. Such as it was.

  “And how are you, Sheriff Bateman?” I said, trying to give him a disapproving face, but I could immediately see the beginning of a smile coming to his lips. It reminded me so much of how he looked at the tenth grade prom that I almost smiled back.

  “I’m fine. Thank you, Pepper.” Now he did smile a little bit, his blue eyes crinkling. He probably could tell that I was annoyed at him. He always could read me.

  “How’s your wife?” I asked. It was sort of random, and it was stupid, because it made it look like I was interested in how his marriage was going. And I wasn’t. I definitely wasn’t. I wasn’t at all annoyed that when I had first moved back to Misty just a few months ago, Logan had told me he was separated from his wife. And I hadn’t been excited about that one kiss we shared the night I moved into my new house. Plus, I positively didn’t care that he had now apparently gone back to her, after teasing me with the possibility that there was something still left between us.

  I glared at him as though he had done it all on purpose.

  His face tightened. He didn’t look like he intended to answer my question about his wife at all.

  “Listen, Pepper, we have a serious incident here, so I’m going to have to reserve the personal chatter for another time.” He pulled a small notepad and pen out of his pocket. Sliding the top off the pen with his teeth—another thing I remembered from tenth grade—he started to ask me a question.

  Of course, before he could, the pen fell to the grass, and both of us leaned down to retrieve it. We nearly bonked heads, and as he grabbed the pen and straightened up, I saw his eyes glance across my chest as I rose.

  And now his face was flushed. This really did feel a lot like high school. He averted his gaze and adopted a serious tone.

  “I’m going to have to have a more in-depth conversation with you regarding this situation back at the station, but for right now, I just want to get a few notes down while the circumstances are fresh in your mind.”

  I opened my mouth in surprise. Did he think I had something to do with Winthrop falling off the balcony? I had an ironclad alibi. Trixie and Buddy could definitely attest to the fact that I had been in my office next door when it happened. And so could Mrs. Grumbauer.

  I put my hands on my hips and faced him. “You think I was trying to kill Roger Winthrop?”

  He didn’t answer me. “How long have you been dating the worker here?” he asked.

  This was getting ridiculous. “He has a name.”

  “And his name is?”

  “His name is Jared. Jared Grant. As to how long we’ve been dating, we’ve gone out on exactly two dates.” I was feeling guilty for some crazy reason, and the shock of seeing Winthrop lying there had rattled me. I could hear my voice getting louder, but I didn’t care. “Would you like to know what we did?”

  Logan looked startled. What I’d meant was whether we’d gone to a movie or to dinner, but I realized that my question could be taken in a far more intimate way. Before he could let his mind wander any further in that direction, I decided to cut right to the chase.

  “On the first date, we went to the Mermaid’s Tail and had a pretty good dinner. We split the check, if you want to know who paid. Because it was our first date, and I didn’t want to take advantage of him.” I then immediately shut my eyes, humiliated and definitely regretting this. I decided just to finish my recitation and put myself out of misery. “And the second time, we went to the movies. We saw something that I hoped would be good, but it wasn’t that great. Afterward, he came back to my house.”

  I was getting angrier and angrier as I went on, feeling like I shouldn’t be getting the third degree here but smarting at the same time because my first dating relationship in several years was going to look pretty dull when held up to public scrutiny. It was in that state that I exclaimed emphatically, “And no. We haven’t had sex yet!”

  Every pair of eyes in the yard, including the doctor, all of the construction workers, the four police officers, and the two EMTs turned to look at me. And, of course, Jared.

  I looked over at the guy on the ground. Winthrop, who was mercifully no longer being pounded at by the dedicated medical workers. He was the only one who wasn’t staring at me.

  Because Winthrop was dead.

  Chapter Four

  Time to take a walk on August Beach and chill out with Mr. Woogles.

  Poor thing. He’d been through a lot today. I’d had to shut my darling beagle upstairs in my bedroom while Trixie and Buddy were meeting with me. Most days I was alone in my office doing work online, researching case law, writing up legal documents, or just taking care of the usual endless business of checking emails. And Woogs sat under my desk, snoring happily on top of my bare feet. I only banished him when clients came in, which wasn’t all that often.

  But today he had been stuck on the second floor when the ruckus with Grumpy went down. And then the scream, the sirens, the police asking questions... my poor pup was a nervous wreck!

  I had him on the leash, and he padded along beside me now, happy to be heading for the beach a
nd freedom. We went across the road and down the grassy bluff, feeling a mild wind that was just right for July.

  A walk on the beach was usually enough to calm my nerves, but today I figured I might need more than that. Strolling along the water, I tried to turn my thoughts to something more pleasant. My sandals were in my hand, and the sand felt delicious under my bare feet.

  Misty-on-the-Sound was full of charm and color, and the homes across from August Beach were the most sought after of all. They ran the gamut from grand old mansions with towers and porticos to little beach bungalows originally built for summer use only. There were homes on stilts built right on the sand that looked like trendy condos and single-story houses spread out on country-club-sized lots.

  Many of the original structures had been razed to make way for something bigger—and taller. It wasn’t unusual to see a tiny cottage demolished and replaced by a three-story, multi-balconied home with a final “widow’s walk” level atop the roof. The newest homes boasted spectacular views and even more impressive taxes, but somehow no one ever actually wandered around up there, gazing out at sea and dreaming of a beloved sailor.

  As for my house, it was located directly across from the grassy bluff overlooking the Sound. And also right across from where the Johnson-Dingle wedding had taken place on Saturday.

  I turned to my pup. “I feel sad about Roger Winthrop, Mr. Woogles. I mean, he was an awful guy. Nobody liked him. And he cheated everybody. It’s kind of amazing that he was still able to practice law with all his dirty dealings.”

  The tide was coming in, and I watched as one of the chilly waves approached my toes. I stood there bravely when it reached me and stifled a shiver as my feet were surrounded by the cold water. When the wave was sucked back into the sound, the wet sand beneath my feet compacted, and I sank lower. “You know what, Woogs? I don’t think I really do feel sad. I mean, in a theoretical sense, I’m sorry that he’s dead, but I won’t miss him. Should I feel bad about that?”

  He tilted his head and looked at me with his warm brown eyes. Clearly, Woogie was absolving me from feeling any guilt over the demise of the devious Winthrop. Then he turned and barked at the surf, eager to be free. I leaned down and unhooked him.

  Mr. Woogles dashed into the water and ran back out again, watching me while frisking around on the sand. He was the person—well, animal—I could always share my honest thoughts with. Sometimes the only one. He gave me another short bark and was off running down the beach.

  I laughed. Mr. W always knew how to get me out of a funk. I started running after him, once again reminding myself that I needed to get more exercise. Here I was, living right across the street from this gorgeous beach, and I sat at my desk most of the day. And it wasn’t as though I had too much work to do. The truth was that I didn’t have enough.

  I had been spending a lot of time sitting at the computer, trying to drum up new ways to attract business. I was a good lawyer, but people in town either didn’t know me or thought of me as that high school girl from Misty who had come back to live near her mother.

  It hit me then that Roger Winthrop was permanently out of the picture, clearing the field for me to be Misty’s only lawyer.

  Which made me feel awfully guilty. What kind of a person was I to be thinking about my professional advantage when the man had just fallen off a balcony and died?

  Mr. W dashed back to me, his expression showing that he was gloating about his superior speed. “Okay, you big showoff. I know you can run faster than I can. But you have four legs, and I only have two! No wonder you can beat me.”

  He flopped down in the sand for a second, catching his breath. He wasn’t a puppy anymore, but he sure had a lot of energy. It was getting warm, and I was glad that I had brought my big hat to protect me from the July sun. With my strawberry-blonde hair and freckles, I burned in moments.

  I sat down beside Woogs. “So, now not only do I have to troll for more legal clients, I have to prove that I wasn’t part of any plan to do away with Winthrop. I mean, I did have reasons to dislike him.”

  I thought back to the scene earlier in the morning, when Trixie and Buddy Dingle had heard me shouting loudly about how Winthrop was a crook and had cheated me. Which was true, of course.

  When I’d bought my beautiful and dilapidated old house, Winthrop had tried to lock me out on the grounds that there was a $1,700 lien that hadn’t yet been satisfied. He made me pay him in cash—cash that I was still slowly paying back to my friend Bryce and to my mom—as I was standing there in the living room with my newly delivered furniture and my friends.

  To add to the disrespect, he got Logan to insist that I pay. And then it had turned out that there was no money due. He’d either lied or... Well, I was sure he’d lied, probably just to inconvenience me and pocket the money. The thought of it still made me seethe.

  I’d been mulling over what to do about it for a couple months—and I had finally brought a complaint against Roger Winthrop to the local bar association just two weeks ago. But that was a moot point now. The man was dead.

  I spotted a heart-shaped rock shimmering in the sand close to my feet. Reaching down to scoop it up, I decided it was a good sign. “Hey, Woogie! Another heart rock to add to our collection.”

  I stood up and brushed the sand off the back of my shorts. Immediately, Mr. W gave a mighty shake and sprayed sand all over me again. “Thanks, buddy,” I said, reaching down to stroke his silky ears. “I think you managed to get sand in my pockets.”

  As we started walking down the beach, I remembered what Logan had said about needing to talk to me at the station. I couldn’t believe that he thought I would kill Winthrop. They weren’t even sure yet if his death was an accident or deliberate sabotage. But remembering the height of that balcony, I had a feeling somebody had set a trap for him.

  I turned to my pup. “You know what, Mr. Woogles? You and I know that I didn’t kill Winthrop. But I would definitely do better in drumming up business for my new law firm if I didn’t have a murder charge hanging over my head, don’t you agree?”

  He looked up at me and barked.

  “Absolutely,” I said. “You are a very sensible doggy. So what I have to do to clear my name, and as a gift to the dearly departed Attorney Winthrop, is to find out who did. And that’s my mission from this point on.”

  I crouched down beside Mr. W. He gave me a sloppy dog kiss.

  “You can help me. We’re going to find out exactly what happened to Roger Winthrop, and who—or what—killed him.”

  Chapter Five

  I stood in the shower, letting the water stream over my face and shoulders. It was good to get the gritty sand off. Beach living was wonderful, but it came with certain inconveniences, like sand in your shorts. At least, that’s what happened if you sat down on the beach with your doggy and had heart-to-heart talks like I did.

  Stepping out, I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my wet hair. My cell phone rang just then, so I pulled on a robe and headed out to the bedroom.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey, Pepper. It’s Jared.”

  I felt a little leap of my pulse as I heard his voice. “Hi, Jared.” We weren’t a regular thing yet, but I was starting to believe that it was going in that direction.

  “I was thinking of stopping by. Maybe I could bring some dinner. Some beer.”

  “Sure. What time are you are thinking?” I tried to stay cool and not seem too thrilled at the prospect. But I was pretty thrilled.

  “How about now? I’m right nearby, and I’ve got a couple of hamburgers.”

  A couple of hamburgers? So he was just hanging out in his truck and decided to share one with me? This was not quite the elegant takeout meal I had been imagining.

  “Um... give me five minutes, okay? I just got out of the shower.” It seemed wise to be dressed when he came over. This would be our third date. Sort of. But I had no plans to jump into the sack.

  I heard a low laugh on his end. “That sounds perfect. Just out
of the shower...”

  I blushed a little and was glad that he couldn’t see me. “See you in five,” I said, “after I’ve had a chance to dress.”

  “Okay. But your hamburger is getting cold.” He was laughing again as he hung up.

  I pulled on a summer dress and gave my hair a quick blow-dry. Mr. W was lying on the bed, and he seemed to approve of my outfit. I wasn’t sure yet if he approved of Jared. Apparently the jury was still out on that subject.

  I glanced out the front window—the one that looked right over the water—and saw Jared walking up to the front of the house. Woogie and I headed downstairs together, and I opened the door. Jared leaned down, all six feet of him, and gave me a kiss. I stepped back.

  “Mmm. Beer and hamburger. That’s a manly smell.”

  Jared looked at me as though he was a little bit insulted. “You don’t like the way I smell?”

  I shook my head. “You smell fine. I was just joking.” I stood there for a minute feeling awkward. “Come on back to the kitchen.”

  I could see him looking around as we walked through from the foyer, which was my waiting room, to the dining room, currently serving as my office. He’d been here before briefly, after our second date. For some reason, he was really giving it a good look this time.

  “Nice house. Looks like it could use some work, though.”

  I stifled the urge to defend my house. I adored this crazy place, old as it was. I hadn’t been long, but it already felt like home. Mr. W and I had worked out an arrangement with what I suspected was a friendly spirit—if such things existed, and I still wasn’t sure—to occupy the house in peace. That was the reason I’d gotten such an amazing deal on the place. Everyone in Misty thought it was haunted. And maybe it was.

  “Yes. It’s from 1892. I love the house, but it definitely needs a little bit of loving attention.”