Family Can Be Murder

by Karen Singer

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  They weren’t the last ones to enter the restaurant, but they were close to it. This time when they walked in, Sally led them directly to a table where her older brother Greg and his wife Lili were sitting. “Mind if we join you?” Sally asked. The angry look she got back from both Greg and Lili surprised her.

  “Go sit somewhere else!” he told Sally. The look he gave directly toward Jenni was full of hatred too.

  “What’s up with you tonight?” Sally asked.

  “As if you didn’t know.”

  Sally saw the way he was still looking at Jenni. “You mean because of Jenni here?”

  “What do you think?”

  Sally shook her head. “Get over it,” she mumbled. “Come on Jenni, we’ll find our own table.”

  Jenni was very glad. Together, they found a table at the back of the room. They had just sat down when her grandmother and grandfather made their grand entrance. Like the night before, Jenni watched as they went from table to table, talking politely with everyone in the room. Was it her imagination, or was everyone being extra nice to her grandmother today? She figured it had to be her imagination.

  And then her grandmother came towards them.

  “Sally,” Judith greeted her daughter. “Did you enjoy shopping this afternoon?”

  “Very much,” Sally replied. “I’m surprised you didn’t go.”

  “Not today,” her mother replied. “I was much too tired.” She turned her attention towards Jenni. “And you…Kyle. Did you go shopping too?” Despite her words, the tone of her voice was anything but kind.

  Jenni immediately got angry. What did she have to do to get it through everyone’s head that she wasn’t Kyle anymore?

  Sally saw the anger rising in Jenni. “Jenni, don’t…” But it was too late.

  Jenni spoke softly but angrily. “I’m not Kyle! I should never have been Kyle. You and everyone else have been nothing but cruel to me my entire life.”

  “Cruel? Why shouldn’t we be cruel? You’re a freak!” Judith replied nastily.

  “Go to hell!” Jenni replied back.

  But this time, it was his grandfather who got on his case about it. “Kyle! What the hell is wrong with you that you can’t say two nice words to your grandmother?”

  Jenni heard his words, and they did nothing but make her angrier than she already was.

  “Jenni! Calm down,” Sally said quickly, noticing how red Jenni’s face was becoming. But once again it was too late, Jenni went ballistic.

  Jenni stood up angrily and faced him. “I’ll kill the next person who calls me Kyle,” she said loudly and angrily. “I’m not Kyle anymore. I left Kyle behind years ago. I never should have been Kyle in the first place. Can’t you all get that through your thick heads? My name is Jenni now. And I spell that with an i on the end. So get it right! It’s Jenni! Don’t ever, anyone, call me Kyle again!”

  “Jenni! Calm down. Stop that!” Sally tried. But nobody was listening to her.

  “I’ll call you whatever the hell I want!” her grandfather shot back. “And your name is Kyle, not Jenni…with an i or anything else!”

  Jenni had had enough. She angrily stomped out of the restaurant, hoping never to see anyone in the family again.

  “Jenni!”

  She heard her Aunt Sally calling her, but she didn’t even turn around. She kept heading towards her room.

  “Jenni. Stop! Wait!”

  Jenni kept going. All the way back up the path to the far end of the island. All the way back to her room. She continued to hear her aunt calling behind her, but she ignored her.

  “Jenni. Stop!”

  Jenni didn’t stop until she got to her door. As she pulled her key from her purse, Sally finally caught up to her. “Jenni, you’ve got to stop being so angry with them.”

  “And they’ve got to stop calling me Kyle. I should have never come on this trip.”

  “Me either, but we’re here now, so let’s try to make the best of it.”

  “No thanks! Goodnight Aunt Sally.” Jenni opened her door and entered her room. Sally followed her in.

  “So, this is your room?” Sally asked.

  “What do you think?”

  “Jenni, be nice. I’m not the one being nasty to you.”

  Jenni immediately felt bad. She turned and headed toward her aunt. “No,” she said as she wrapped her arms around her. “You’re the only one who likes me. And maybe Ashley too. But I haven’t had a chance to talk to her much yet.”

  “Her mother and father don’t want her hanging around with you.”

  “No surprise there!” Jenni stated as she let her aunt go. “Why don’t we just go home?”

  Sally stared at her for a moment. “I’ll…think about it,” she promised.

  “Really?”

  “I’ll think about it,” Sally told her. “That doesn’t mean I’ll agree.”

  “Well think hard about it then,” Jenni told her. “I can’t tell you how much I hate it here.”

  “I know,” Sally replied sadly. “I’m not having the best time either. It seems everyone hates me more than I expected for taking you in.”

  Jenni went back to her and hugged her again. “I don’t hate you,” she told her. “I love you more than anyone else Aunt Sally. And I mean that.”

  “I love you too Jenni,” Sally replied. “Very much dear.”

  “Then take me home!”

  “I’ll consider it,” Sally said as she pulled away from Jenni’s nice hug. She looked around the room again. It was nice but very basic. Not at all like the beautiful suite that she had. And a far cry from the suite her mother had. “See you in the morning for breakfast?” she asked.

  Jenni smiled. “Sure, Aunt Sally. I’d love to.”

  Sally smiled and walked out, but as she got through the door, she looked around. “Who else is staying out here?”

  “According to one of the hotel people, I’m the only one.”

  “Just you, way out here alone?”

  “Just me.”

  Sally shook her head. “I’ll give a little more thought to leaving tomorrow.”

  “Thanks Aunt Sally,” Jenni told her happily.

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  After spending most of the day doing research on the Grangers, there was little else that Jenni could do that night. She spent several hours trying to find something new, but she finally called it quits. She sent a file of things she had dug up to Shirley and closed down her computer.

  She sat in her room for a while, but since she hadn’t eaten anything for dinner, she was getting hungry. She never ate big meals anymore, trying to keep her body as thin as possible and still remain healthy. But to remain healthy she did have to eat. Hoping she could find something to kill her hunger, either at the restaurant or perhaps at the hotel lobby, she left her room.

  The dimly lit path cast a rather romantic glow over everything. The sun had set already, so other than the lights along the path, everything else was dark. The sound of music and laughter drew her onto another path for a few minutes. She followed it around until she could see the bar on the beach. It was crowded with family members, all of whom looked to be having a very good time. Why couldn’t she? Because they all hated her, that’s why. They hated her, and she hated them because of it.

  She took one of the paths she had found earlier in the day that she knew would lead her directly to the lobby, the one that went past the bird cage. In moments, the music and laughter behind her seemed much more in the distance and she all but ignored it. Now where were those birds? She finally saw the lights up ahead and she knew she was close to the big bird cage. But the soft muted glow of the lights ahead also caused her to see something else along the path. Something that made her stop and stare. Something that caused her no end of alarm.

  “Oh…shit!” Jenni exclaimed as she stared at the body on the path. The knife sticking out of its back could only mean one thing – murder! A moment later, she reali
zed something else. Someone was going to blame her for it. Because the person lying dead on the path, was her grandfather.

  Chapter 5

  “Someone’s going to kill me next!” Judith Finch screamed desperately at the policeman. “Mark my words, they’re coming for me next! You’ve got to protect me. You’ve got to take care of me. All they want is my money – all of them. That’s all they’re after. And now that he’s out of the way, they think they’ll be able to get it all.”

  “Calm down Ma’am,” the policeman told her, trying to placate the overly distressed elderly woman. She looked like she was about to have a nervous breakdown or something. “We’re right here. We’re not going to let anything happen to you. I promise.”

  “And what about when you’re not here? What then?”

  “If you like, I’ll have someone posted right outside your door until you leave to go home.”

  “And what’ll I do then?”

  “Then I suggest you take the matter up with your local police station. Where do you live?”

  “Palm Beach.”

  The policeman nodded. It figured. The rich suite meant a rich person, who probably lived in a rich house, in a very rich city. And Palm Beach certainly filled that bill.

  “I want to leave tonight! I want to leave right now!” Judith decided.

  “I’m sorry Ma’am but I can’t let anyone leave the island until the detectives say they can.”

  “And when will that be?”

  “I’m not sure they’ve even arrived yet.”

  “Well find out!” Judith screamed.

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  Only when the last picture had been uploaded to Mr. B’s Dropbox account did Jenni dial his number. It was late, nearly midnight. He was going to be livid that she was calling him so late, but she couldn’t help it. She needed to tell him. And…she was scared. She sat on one of the benches in front of the bird cage and held the phone to her ear while she waited for him to answer. “Come on Mr. B. Pick up.”

  She glanced again at the body of her grandfather. She had taken as many pictures as she could of the body and the entire area around it – before she had run to the lobby to try to get help. Then, when the hotel manager on duty had tried to get her to leave the area where her grandfather’s body was, she had remained firm that she wanted to stay there to talk to the police as soon as they arrived. The manager couldn’t stay with her since he had to run and call the police.

  She had started to upload her pictures then, but before she could finish, the manager had been back again, this time with her grandmother. Talk about hysterics. But more than that, the only thing her grandmother seemed to be able to focus on, was her. And over and over again she screamed that Jenni had killed her husband. Jenni of course had screamed back that no, she didn’t, she had only found the body. And then it seemed like most of the family had shown up. She guessed everyone from the bar anyway. The manager had to do everything possible to keep them all away – except Jenni who had been there to begin with.

  With little else to see, everyone had finally gone away, either back to the bar or back to their rooms. The manager led Jenni’s sobbing, hysterical grandmother back to her suite. Jenni felt nothing but relief at her being gone. She had immediately gone back to uploading the pictures she had taken to Mr. B’s Dropbox account.

  Eventually, two policemen had come running down the path with one of the hotel people. Jenni had stayed as far away as possible while they looked over the body, but it was clear to Jenni that all they really did was look to see if he was dead. Really? What good were they? Stupid. And then they had finally talked to her. She had stressed to both of them that she didn’t do it, and she told them that most likely everyone was going to try to blame her. The policemen didn’t seem to care. They only seemed to care that nobody went near the crime scene. But as luck would have it for her, they didn’t want her to go far since she had been the one to find the body.

  One policeman hurried off to try to find her grandmother, the other had stayed to watch her for a few minutes, then he too had taken off somewhere back toward the lobby. She immediately went back to uploading her pictures, and finally finished. Now she really needed to talk to Mr. B.

  She was about to hang up, when she finally heard his sleepy voice. “Jenni? What’s up?”

  “Mr. B, I didn’t do it. But I found the body. But they’re going to blame me!”

  “Jenni? What the hell?”

  “Mr. B, someone killed my grandfather, and it wasn’t me!”

  “Okay,” Robbie Bosch said, suddenly sounding wide awake. “Calm down Jenni. Did you call the police?”

  “Yes, they’re here. Well, I’ve seen two of them so far. I don’t know where they are right now.”

  “And where are you, in your room?”

  “No. I’m at the birdcage still.”

  “The birdcage?”

  “Where I found his body.”

  “Okay, but the police know you’re there.”

  “Yeah. They told me to stay here until the detective gets here.”

  “Okay, that’s good Jenni.”

  “Mr. B, I took lots of pictures of everything I could, and I uploaded them to your Dropbox. I didn’t want them to get lost.”

  “You did? That’s fine Jenni. But now try to calm down. Start at the beginning. What were you doing when you found the body?”

  “I was hungry. I wanted to try and find something to eat. I didn’t get dinner tonight.”

  “Why not?”

  “I had an argument in the restaurant with my grandfather right before dinner. I kind of…got angry at all of them and ran out.”

  “Jenni, that temper of yours is going to get you in big trouble!”

  “I know. But I can’t help it Mr. B.”

  “Okay. So what did you do?”

  “I went back to my room to keep working on the Granger case. I sent Shirley my latest file.”

  “Yeah, thanks. She got it Jenni. But I mean after that, when you found your grandfather dead.”

  “Oh. I was heading for the restaurant to see if they were still open, but I heard a lot of noise coming from the bar on the beach, so I took that path instead to see who was out there. But just before I got to the bird cage, I found my grandfather lying dead in the middle of the path. Mr. B, he was murdered!”

  “Okay Jenni. What makes you suspect murder?”

  “There’s a knife still stuck in his back.”

  “Uh…yeah. That might be a pretty good indication. But you said that everyone was going to blame you? Why? Just because you found him?”

  “No! Because I pretty much threatened to kill him, or anyone else, while I was in the restaurant earlier.”

  “Jenni! You didn’t!”

  “Don’t go telling me that now Mr. B. It’s too late.”

  “Jenni, okay. Now, did you touch the body?”

  “No. I just took lots of pictures. I took pictures of everything I could think of.”

  “That’s fine Jenni. Just don’t touch the body or even go near it now. Leave it for the police. You don’t want things to get even worse for you.”

  “Worse? How much worse can things get?”

  “Jenni, as I see it, you saying you were going to kill him, and you finding the body like that, are all circumstantial. They’re not things they can actually convict you on. At least, not usually.”

  “Not usually?”

  “Jenni, I’ve got to tell you, from what little you’ve said so far, it doesn’t look very good for you.”

  “But I didn’t do it!”

  “I know that, but it doesn’t mean the police won’t look at you first. And Jenni, to be honest, we’ve sent criminals to prison with a lot less evidence than they’ve already got to look at.”

  “Oh gee! What am I going to do?”

  “Jenni. Calm down. We’re not to that point yet.”

  “What should I do?”

  “Be honest with the police. Totally honest! Do you unders
tand? Lying can only get you in more trouble, and trust me, you don’t need that.”

  “You don’t have to tell me.”

  “Okay Jenni. Just try to stay calm and objective. You’re smart. Real smart…usually. But not always. And saying you’re going to kill someone, in this case, is about as bad as it can get!”

  “You’re not helping!”

  “I know, but I’m just trying to be honest with you. Use your head Jenni. Be smart. And for heaven’s sake, stay calm. Don’t go blowing a gasket over anything at all.”

  “I’ll try,” she replied. “But it’s not so easy with my family all here.”

  “Try!” Robbie Bosch told her.

  “I will Mr. B.”

  “Okay. I’ll call you in the morning…and I hope I can get you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I hope they don’t arrest you first.”

  Jenni sat and fumed for nearly twenty minutes before one of the policemen showed up again. “Is the detective here yet?” she asked.

  “Not yet. Not till morning now.”

  “Morning!”

  “They’re sending someone down from Miami. It’s closer than Key West. And Key West doesn’t have that much of a detective presence anyway.”

  “But Miami is hours away!”

  “It’s only an hour and a half. I’m sure someone will be out pretty early. I’m here to send everyone back to their rooms for the night and to keep an eye on the body. Now no more waiting around. Go back to your room and stay there. Someone will talk to you tomorrow.”

  Back to her room. Yeah right. They were already blaming her for it, and the police just wanted to send her to her room. Like a child. But she supposed, from his point of view, it was all he could do. The policeman was just doing his job. It would be the job of whatever detective showed up to do the real work.

  The closest path to get away from the area led directly to the beach. She took it. The beach bar was deserted. The entire beach was deserted and dark. Hungry and not really wanting to go back to her room, she sat down in the sand and stared out to sea. She had gotten angry again. Once again her temper had gotten the best of her. But this time, it had gotten her into deep trouble. Very deep trouble. What was she going to do about it?