by Cindy Bell
“I know that’s a risk, but it’s not as if we don’t have reason to suspect him. He’s given us plenty…” She paused and looked into his eyes. “Simon looked me in the eye and threatened me, while you sat right there next to me. That is what I believe. That is what all of the evidence is pointing to.”
“Maybe you see it that way, but I need more. I do trust you, Suzie, I do. But I know Simon, and the thought of him hurting Robbie just blows my mind. I need some actual proof that I can’t argue with.”
“So, let’s get it.” She folded her arms across her chest. “The best way to find out for sure is to follow him.”
“Follow him?”
“Yes. Let’s track him. Let’s see what he does when no one else is looking. I’m not going to ask you to risk your friendship if I can’t prove it to you. So, let’s find that proof, one way or the other.”
“When do you want to plant a tracker on his boat?”
“Do you have one?”
Paul pursed his lips. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. “Yes. I do.”
“Should I ask why?”
“I picked it up earlier today.”
Suzie’s eyes widened as she waited for further explanation. He sighed and shook his head.
“Maybe I had the same idea you did.”
“Seriously?”
“I got it just in case. I thought maybe, if Simon kept acting strange, I’d just see for myself.”
“But you weren’t going to tell me?”
“It’s not because I don’t trust you, Suzie. It’s because I was trying to be loyal to a friend. But, now I see it’s better that we do this together. I’ll go grab it.”
Suzie watched him hurry off to his car. As she waited for him to return it occurred to her that he had a strong moral code. Even though he suspected his friend, he still did his best to protect him, that was something that she admired.
When he returned, his eyes met hers. “What?”
“Hm?”
“You’re smiling.”
“Oh, just thinking how lucky I am to be with you.”
He shook his head with a short laugh. “Let’s get this figured out.”
Chapter 16
As Suzie and Paul set off on the boat Suzie kept her attention on the water. It wasn’t long before they arrived at Simon’s place. His boat was docked, the house up the hill had lights on.
“I think he’s home. It’ll only take me a second to get this in position. If you see Simon coming, duck down, don’t let him know you’re here.”
“I’ll just warn you.”
“No.” His tone grew firm. “Don’t let him know that you’re there, if he spots you, this could turn ugly.”
“Okay. But you have to be careful, too.”
“I can come up with a good explanation for why I’m on the boat. Don’t worry.”
Suzie nodded, but she did worry, from the moment that he stepped onto the other boat she worried. As she waited for him to return she watched the hill that led up to the house. If there was any sign of Simon, she fully intended to warn Paul. However, he was back on the boat within minutes.
“Okay, it’s done.” His cheeks flushed.
“It was the right thing, Paul. If nothing comes of it, we’ll get the tracker back, and Simon will never know.”
“But I’ll know.” He frowned. Suzie ran her fingertips along the curve of his shoulder until he looked into her eyes.
“It’s the right thing, Paul, I promise.”
He nodded and eased the boat away from Simon’s house. “Now we wait. If he moves, it’ll alert us.”
The sun began to set as the boat drifted through the water. The tracker remained silent. Suzie began to think that Paul might have been right. All the time she sat there on a quiet boat, in the middle of the ocean, she could be helping Mary with the guests. As a surge of guilt flooded her, the tracker came alive.
“Here, he’s on the move.” Paul glanced at his watch. “Rather late, too.”
“Can you follow him without being spotted?”
“Yes. I can keep a good distance and the tracker will still work. But let’s keep it quiet, just in case.”
Suzie nodded. Within a few minutes her heart sank. Just as she suspected Simon headed for the pearl farm. He had no reason to go there. He claimed he had no association with them. So why did he stop right at the dock?
“We need to get close, Paul.”
“Why?”
“I have a bad feeling. We need to see what he’s doing.”
“Okay, just keep quiet and still.” He turned off the lights on the boat and eased it to a stop not far from the dock. Suzie saw Simon step off his boat onto the dock. There was another figure there, short-statured and hidden by a hoodie. Her skin grew cold as she guessed that it was April. When Simon stepped onto the dock April shied back. His voice carried far enough for them to hear.
“I know you met with the cops today. What did you tell them?”
“Nothing. I didn’t tell them anything. I don’t even know how they knew to come to me. I don’t even know who told them that I knew Robbie.”
“Don’t worry about that. What did you say to them?”
“Nothing! I wouldn’t tell them anything. I can’t believe this happened. How could you let this happen?”
“Keep quiet. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know that Robbie wasn’t in on this!”
“You don’t know anything. What happened to Robbie happened. Now, it can either get worse, or we can all walk away from this. So what is it going to be? Do I need to worry about what you might do?”
“No. You don’t. I didn’t say anything. I won’t say anything. But this has to end. It’s out of control.”
“It’s over. Okay?”
“Is it?” Her voice cracked. “I don’t think it is.”
“It will be. I’ll take care of it.”
“Is that what you told Robbie?”
“Quiet. Just keep quiet about that.”
“Okay, I didn’t say anything.” She held up her hands and backed away from him.
Simon walked back onto his boat and sped back towards his house. Paul leaned on the railing and closed his eyes.
“I can’t believe it. But I have no other choice.”
“We don’t know everything yet, Paul. But we do know that he was involved, and so was April.”
“I need to talk to Simon.”
“Paul, no. That’s a very bad idea.”
“I need to.” He looked over at her. “I owe him a face to face conversation.”
“No, you don’t owe him anything. He’s not the man that you thought he was, Paul. Please, let’s just go back to the docks.”
“You’re right.” He nodded. “Let’s go.”
Their ride back to the docks was quiet. Suzie glanced over at him a few times, but his stoic expression made her think that he wasn’t up for talking. It didn’t seem appropriate for her to say anything. She just lingered close to him and took his hand when she could. When they were close enough Suzie called Jason. There was a lot of noise in the background.
“Hey Suzie, I’m at dinner, like you told me to be.”
“Good, that’s good. Do you think you can send someone to pick up Simon? We found him at the pearl farm and saw him get into a confrontation with April.”
“What? Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
“Did he actually put his hands on her?”
“No. But he warned her not to talk to the police.”
“I’m not sure that we have enough to pick him up. But we might be able to get a search warrant. Not likely until morning.”
“Get it as soon as you can. I’m afraid he might take off. He knows that you spoke to April, so he’s spooked.”
“All right, I’ll see what I can do. But even if we get the warrant that doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll find anything,” Jason said. “I should have known that you wouldn’t stay out of this.”
He hung up before she could reply.
Paul docked the boat. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Okay, I’m just a phone call away if you want company,” Suzie said as she climbed off the boat.
Paul leaned close to kiss her, then turned to the cabin. Suzie hesitated. She wondered if she should try to stay with him. But Mary had so much on her shoulders with all of the guests that she knew she needed to get back to Dune House.
Chapter 17
By the time Suzie arrived at Dune House, Jason and Summer had already left. Mary was elbow deep in a sink full of dishes.
“Here, let me take over.” Suzie stepped up behind her.
“Oh, thank you.” Mary yawned. “I could use a sit down.” She sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and plopped her feet down on the other.
“How did the dinner go?”
“Fantastic. Everyone got along well, and Summer was so pleased that Jason was here.”
“I’m glad he was, too.”
“Now, what about you? Jason mentioned something about you going off on an adventure and never listening.”
“Something like that.” Suzie frowned as she ran a sponge across a plate. “Paul and I followed Simon.”
“You did? What did you find out?”
“I’m pretty sure he was involved in the thefts at the pearl farm and maybe even Robbie’s death.”
“Wow. How did Paul take it?”
“It’s hard to say with Paul. Sometimes he’s hard to read. I know that it’s bothering him.”
“Is Jason arresting Simon?”
“Not yet, he said that he wouldn’t even be able to get a search warrant until morning.”
“Ugh, that is cutting it close to the wedding.”
“I know, but it’s procedure.” Suzie frowned. “I just hope that Simon doesn’t take off before Jason has a chance to arrest him. It would have been so nice if all of this was done and taken care of today.”
“Yes, it would. Too bad for Paul though.”
“It is. I think he’s starting to realize his friendship with Simon wasn’t what he thought it was.”
“Better to know, I suppose.”
“I just hope he doesn’t feel like I’m attacking him.”
“I’m sure he doesn’t. You have to trust him a little, to know your heart.”
“You’re right.” She finished the dishes and turned around to face her. “So, what’s on the agenda for the morning?”
“I’ve offered everyone breakfast, but they’ve made arrangements to have breakfast at that cute little café on the water. So it should be pretty quiet here in the morning.”
“Oh good, that will give us some time to go over what still needs to be done for the wedding.”
“Actually, we’re pretty good on that. The centerpieces are done, the decorations are ready to go up, I double-checked on the reservations for the chairs, and I double checked the new order of shellfish with the fisherman that Paul recommended.”
“Wonderful. You are amazing, Mary.”
“Really? I’m not the one solving a murder.”
“No, you’re the one pulling off the perfect wedding for two very busy people while your best friend, who you should be able to rely on, is off running around town.”
“Suzie, I know that I can always rely on you. Don’t ever think that I don’t.”
Suzie hugged her and smiled. “Ditto Mary. I guess we’d both better get some sleep and hope that everything goes smoothly over the next couple of days.”
“Good idea.” Mary stretched and yawned again. “I’ve got the calls forwarded to my room if any of the guests need anything.”
“Okay, if there’s any crisis, feel free to wake me up.”
“You’ll be the first to know.” Mary laughed and headed to her room.
Once Suzie was in bed she tried to sleep, but her mind was too revved up with what she saw that night. If Simon hurt Robbie, would he hurt April, too? The thought of the young woman being harmed made her restless. At some point she fell asleep because her cell phone woke her up early the next morning.
“Hello?” She mumbled into the phone.
“Suzie, it’s Jason. I got that search warrant, but there’s a problem.”
“What?”
“We went to Simon’s place and he isn’t there. It looks like he might have cleaned some things out so he can take off.”
“Oh no.” She sighed.
“I’ll update you if anything happens, but I just wanted you and Paul to be on the lookout.”
“Thanks for the heads up, Jason. I’ll let Paul know.”
She hung up the phone and dragged herself to her feet. It seemed to her that she hadn’t slept at all. She met Mary in the kitchen just as she set up a pot of coffee.
“Mm, perfect timing.” Suzie smiled. She called Paul’s number as she waited for the coffee to brew. Paul didn’t answer. She sent him a text. Again, he didn’t respond. Paul was always up earlier than her. If the sun was up Paul was up and often long before the sun was up, he was up. So, why wasn’t he answering? Her heart started to race. What if Simon confronted Paul? Or the other way around?
“Here Suzie.” Mary handed her a cup of coffee.
“No, no thank you. I have to go.”
“What? What’s wrong?”
“I think Paul might be in trouble.”
“Then I’ll come with you. All of the guests are out and Summer is with them, I gave her a spare key in case she needed to organize something for the wedding and we weren’t available. I’ll call her on the way so she knows that they can call me if they need anything. We’ll go find Paul.”
“Are you sure?”
“Absolutely. Here, I’ll pop some coffee into a thermos. Then Paul can have some, too.”
Two minutes later they headed out the door towards the docks.
Chapter 18
As Suzie drove with Mary towards the docks her heart raced even faster. Nightmare scenarios played through her mind. Sure, she was overreacting, but for some reason she couldn’t stop it. She parked and jumped out of the car. Suzie surveyed the boats at the dock. She looked twice before she admitted to herself that Paul’s boat wasn’t there.
“Mary, something’s not right. Paul must have taken the boat out without telling me.”
“Do you think he would do that?” Mary frowned. “Maybe he went to Simon himself?’
“Oh no, I hope not. If Paul goes to Simon and hints that he knows he was involved somehow, then he could be in grave danger. We have to go after him.”
“But how? We can’t just go out on a boat ourselves.”
“No, we’re going to need some help.” Suzie looked over at Mike’s boat. She noticed him near the edge of the boat. He tried hard to pretend that he wasn’t looking at them. “Mike!” She strode towards him with as much confidence as she could muster. “I need your help.”
“I don’t want to be involved.” He turned his back to her.
“Mike, please. Paul’s life might be in danger. I’m sorry that we suspected you, but now I know that you weren’t involved. But there’s only one way to prove it. Right now you’re still a suspect. You have no alibi, you have a history of conflict with Robbie. But we need to prove who did do it so you can stop being on the suspect list.”
He sighed and turned back to face her. “How do I know this isn’t some trick?”
“If I really thought that you were a murderer do you think I would ask you to help me and my best friend? Do you think I would ever put her in that kind of danger?”
Mike looked past her to Mary, who stood a few feet behind Suzie. Mary held up a hand and waved a little. “I’m the best friend. Trust me, she is very overprotective.”
He shook his head again. “Fine, you don’t suspect me, but it sounds to me that you’re trying to get yourself tangled up in something very dangerous, and that’s not something I want to be involved in. Why would I put my life at risk, my boat at risk?”
“It’s Paul, Mike. You
two have been on these docks together for a long time.”
“And maybe if he had listened to me from the beginning none of this would have happened. He wanted to believe that Robbie was so innocent, I tried to warn him to not get into someone else’s business, but he didn’t want to hear me. He also suspected me and I might not be the most liked fisherman around here, but I am trustworthy, and Paul should have known that.”
Mary met his eyes. “Mike, he did. If you were in trouble you know that Paul would have helped you. Are you really going to put Paul’s life at risk, all because you want to make a point?”
He frowned. “I try to follow a policy of staying out of business that has nothing to do with me. But you’re right. I don’t want the police to keep sniffing around me. Eventually they’ll find something to pin on me. So I will take you out, but the first sign of trouble, we are turning back.”
“Absolutely.” Suzie smiled. “Thank you, Mike.”
Mike clenched his jaw and reached his hand out to her to help her onto the boat. Then he reached out to Mary. As Suzie saw Mike grab hold of Mary’s hand she wondered if she’d made the right choice.
“Are you sure you’re okay to go out on the water?” Suzie asked Mary.
Mary nodded yes. She didn’t like being on a boat nearly as much as Suzie, but she was getting used to them and she couldn’t let Suzie go out there alone.
A jolt of fear shot through Suzie as the possibility that she was wrong about Mike played through her mind. But it was too late to change her mind. The engine roared and the boat lurched away from the dock.
Mary clung to the railing so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She looked out over the water. Suzie moved into place right beside her. She scanned the horizon. Maybe she would spot Paul’s boat. Maybe he hadn’t gotten as much of a head start as they expected he did. However, the wide open ocean was empty. Not only was Paul’s boat not there, she didn’t see any other boats on the water either.
“So, where are we headed?” Mike looked over at her with a scowl. “I need to make this fast, I have other things to do.”
“To Simon’s place.”
“Simon?” Mike raised an eyebrow. “Why?”