by Karen Singer
As he read through the final portion of Jenni’s email again, he realized that maybe Jenni could be useful after all. There was one other thing he realized. Despite everyone pointing their fingers at her, he’d bet his ass that Jenni didn’t do it.
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Robbie Bosch shook his head as he read through what Jenni had sent. The girl didn’t talk to any of them. He’d bet anything on that. All she had done so far was the first little bit of cursory work she would do for any of the cases she worked for him. Nothing else. But then, that was all she really knew about investigating something. He realized that as good as Jenni was, she was way out of her comfort zone here.
The information on the possible divorce and that her grandfather was still fooling around was good, but hardly proof of anything. Unless she talked more with people and found things out, she wasn’t going to find any proof of anything.
And then he got to her question as to if it was more likely to be done by a man or a woman. A very good question. One he had already spent a while thinking about, because the truth was, while it would have more likely been a man to do it, because of the way it had happened, it could have just as easily been a woman who had killed him.
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“The police know about the hard drive. They even think they know what’s on it.”
“Do they?”
“Pretty close.”
“How did they get that information?”
“Some private eye that Philly knows. The same guy that first broke the entire house burgling scheme to the police and told them where the storage garage was.”
“And now that same man told them about the hard drive?”
“Evidently.”
“How did he get that information? How did he find out about the house robberies? Or where the storage place was?”
“I have no idea. Philly knows him, but I’ve never heard of him. Evidently he used to be a bigshot detective a few years back.”
“Do we need to do anything about him?”
“I wouldn’t. Especially since he used to be with the police. The problem is that Granger kept hounding everyone, including him, about that missing drive. I think the way he carried on about it raised too many suspicions about what was wrong, so I think the guy kept digging.”
“So in other words, Granger told them.”
“Granger only told the police that he was missing a personal hard drive that contained his personal financial information. Nothing else.”
The voice laughed. “Even I wouldn’t believe that! Kill him! Kill the private investigator. And while you’re at it, find out how he knew everything he did.”
“Not me! I can’t. Not in my position.”
“True. Don’t worry, I’ll arrange it. And while we’re at it. I think Granger has also lost his usefulness to us. What’s the investigator’s name?”
“Bosch. Robbie Bosch.”
“Okay. Keep your ears open.”
“Don’t I always?”
Chapter 9
“It’s called, ‘testing the water.’”
“It’s what?”
“Testing the water.”
“Aunt Sally….”
“Come on Jenni. I refuse to hide in my room any longer, and neither should you.”
“But Aunt Sally, after last night.”
“I know. And the moment any of those moron brothers of mine give me the first bit of trouble…. Jenni, trust me, I can’t wait to tell them off. Again!”
“Ugh! Aunt Sally….”
“Come on Jenni. It’s just breakfast. We’ve managed that fine every day so far. And after what happened last night…”
“You mean after what I did last night.”
“Same thing! But after last night, it’s time to see just how the rest of them will react. And like I said, I’m sick of staying cooped up in my room and not doing anything. Today I’m going to go down and eat breakfast like I want, and then I’m going to the beach, whether anyone else likes it or not!”
“Good for you Aunt Sally.”
“Good, now I’ll meet you down there in ten minutes.”
“Uh, I was planning on ordering room service today. Or maybe not eating breakfast.”
“Ten minutes, Jenni! Ten! No more!” Sally hung up the phone. If Jenni didn’t show up in ten minutes, she was going to go pound on her door and drag her down, one way or another.
Jenni stood there fuming at the dead phone in her hand. Aunt Sally wasn’t taking no for an answer today…about anything! Or so it seemed. That’s the impression she was getting anyway. Ten minutes. She expected her to get dressed and… Ten minutes? Ten? Jenni was suddenly having a fit. Ten minutes? Didn’t her Aunt have any idea how long it took her to get ready? She hadn’t even shaved yet! Ten minutes? She ran for the bathroom. Ten? Minutes? Ten hours would be more like it.
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Sally stood out in front of the restaurant and stared at her watch. She had purposely not given Jenni much time, just so Jenni would have less of a chance to back out of it. If she wasn’t going to hide away in her room all day, then neither was Jenni…whether Jenni liked it or not. They had come on this little “vacation,” not willingly, but they were there. They could at least try to enjoy one day. Now where was that girl?
She was about to head for Jenni’s room, when Detective Pierce walked past her heading into the restaurant. He was back again on the island. But then, he should be there. Someone had killed her father, and so far, it didn’t look like the police had done much of anything…except perhaps to get the entire family looking in the wrong direction, not to mention stir up a lot of hard feelings between all her family members.
She was about to go looking for Jenni again, when Pierce came out of the restaurant. He headed directly toward her.
“Sally Withers? Did I get that right?” Pierce asked as he stopped in front of her.
“Yes. That’s right,” Sally replied tentatively. “What can I do for you?”
“Have you seen Jenni yet this morning?”
“Jenni? I was just waiting for her.” She glanced at her watch. “In fact, I was just about to go looking….” Movement caught her attention. “There she is,” she said as she saw Jenni hurrying toward them. She noted that Jenni was once again wearing those long, loose fitting shorts she seemed to like so much. She wondered if Jenni had a better body, if Jenni wouldn’t go for the more skimpy and fitted clothes. In fact, now that she thought about it, she was absolutely certain that she would.
Jenni stopped hurrying the moment she saw Detective Pierce with her Aunt Sally. She walked up slowly. “Did you get my email last night?” she asked.
“Yes,” Pierce replied. “Is there somewhere we can go to talk about it?”
“Sure,” Jenni replied. “Let’s go back to my room.”
“Oh no you don’t!” Sally butted in. “We’ll go to my room instead.”
“But Aunt Sally,” Jenni started.
“I think it would be better if Jenni and I talk alone,” Pierce stated.
“I don’t care!” Sally told them both. “Jenni has been living with me for two years now. I’m more like a mother to her than her own mother is…or ever has been. And if there’s some kind of problem, then I want to know about it.” She paused for a moment. “Besides, Jenni and I had a long talk yesterday about what she does for a living, and I know all about it now.”
Pierce turned to Jenni. “It’s up to you of course, but this could be a discussion for you and me only.”
Jenni looked at her aunt. She thought about the discussion they’d had about her job, and she thought about the discussion they’d had about their unique mother-daughter relationship. A relationship she treasured very much. “Okay Aunt Sally.”
“Good!” Sally said. “Besides, my room is much closer. And when you’re done, we’re still having breakfast in the restaurant together.” She didn’t appreciate the look of frustration over that issue that Jenni
gave her.
Five minutes later, they each took seats around the table in Sally’s suite. “So what didn’t you like about what I sent last night?” Jenni asked.
“Most of it,” Pierce replied. “Most of it was totally useless to me, but the last part, the part that didn’t list just useless facts about who everybody was or what websites they frequented, that was much better. Very useful. And because of it, I’ll be paying a lot of attention today to the hotel employees.”
“Really?” Sally asked. “You mean one of them could have done it? Not someone in the family?”
“The possibility has always been there. The likelihood of it just went way up though.” He looked to Jenni. “Thanks to something Jenni saw and was good enough to pass on to me.”
“And what was that?” Sally asked.
“Grandpa kissing that girl that works here at the hotel,” Jenni replied.
“Oh. You told me about that,” Sally said.
“Yeah, and you called him a letch.”
Sally shrugged. “He was my father, but the truth is, he was.”
Jenni knew now that there was more truth in that statement than she had realized before.
Pierce needed to move forward. “Jenni, last night you asked if this was a crime that could be more likely committed by a man or a woman.”
“Yes!” Jenni replied, interested in the answer.
“The truth is, because of the way the knife was buried into your grandfather’s back all the way to the hilt, that would more likely point to a man.”
“Jealousy then,” Jenni mused as that thought turned itself over in her mind.
“But since it was a sharp knife from the restaurant and fairly hefty too, then a woman could have done it as well. Especially a woman who was motivated and angry.”
Jenni stared at him for a moment. “Okay, so we’re back to square one with that. We’ve got to look at both men and women.”
“Yes. I’m afraid so.”
“Okay,” Jenni replied. “It was just a thought.”
“Jenni, if you’re going to keep sending me things, that’s the kind of information I need. Not the stuff about who’s who in your family that I already know from asking them.”
“I know,” Jenni replied. “But Mr. B doesn’t know.”
“You sent all that to your boss as well?”
“Yes. Of course. No offense Detective, but I trust him to help me more than I trust you.”
“Jenni, I’m here, and he’s not!”
“That’s why I sent him all that information, so he could know exactly who’s who in my family.”
“Oh,” Pierce said. “I didn’t realize you’d be sharing everything with him too.”
“Sorry,” Jenni replied, “but like I said, I trust him.”
Pierce nodded. “Okay. Can’t hurt…hopefully. But if he passes anything back that he thinks should be looked into, then I want to know about it. Understand?”
“Yeah, sure. No problem,” Jenni agreed.
“Good!” He stared at Jenni for a moment. “Now, let’s get down to business.”
“Huh?”
“Jenni, the knife that killed your grandfather came from the hotel restaurant. It’s an exact match to the ones they use for all their meals.”
“So? You said that a few minutes ago.”
“There were no fingerprints at all on the knife.”
“None? How can that be?” Jenni replied. “Unless someone wiped the thing off afterwards.”
“No. I’m sure they didn’t. With the knife still in his body, there would have been blood smears indicating that, and there weren’t any. Which means that someone either wore gloves, or they only held the knife with some kind of cloth to avoid getting their prints on it.”
“I can’t see anyone wearing gloves here in Florida,” Jenni mused.
“I can’t either,” Pierce replied, still looking seriously at Jenni. “Jenni, since the knife is the same kind used in the restaurant, then the most likely scenario is that someone didn’t carry it out of the restaurant. If they tried that, it’s very possible that someone would have noticed.”
“Unless it was a woman and she stuck it down in her purse,” Jenni countered.
“Possible,” Pierce replied, “but even then, someone might have noticed her doing it at the table.”
“So how else would they get it?” Jenni asked.
“Room service.”
“That makes sense,” Jenni replied. “I can see that easily. I’ve ordered room service for myself a few times already.”
“I know.” Pierce stared hard at her. “Guess who has more room service bills than anyone else in your family.”
Jenni looked at him suspiciously. “Who?”
“You!”
Jenni thought about that. “Well, that figures.” She looked up at him. “Are you accusing me?”
“Am I? You had more room service than anyone else. You were the one who found him. You were the one who declared you were going to kill him. And everyone in your family thinks you did it!”
“Wait!” Jenni exclaimed. “I didn’t say I was going to kill him.”
“You didn’t?”
“No. I said I’d kill anyone who called me Kyle again.”
“So did you meet with him later, and he called you Kyle?”
“You know I didn’t!”
“I don’t know anything!”
“You sure don’t! Besides, before that, I didn’t even have any room service. And I for sure couldn’t have taken a knife from the restaurant that night. I didn’t even get to eat my dinner there that night. In fact, I never got anything to eat that night at all. I walked out of the restaurant before we even ordered! I only found him because I was hungry and was on my way to find something to eat.”
“You didn’t eat in the restaurant or order room service that night?”
“No! Ask anyone!”
Pierce turned toward Sally, who looked rather shocked. “Did she?”
“We walked out,” she confirmed. “Neither of us ate anything or even had a chance to order what we wanted. In fact, since then, every time we’ve tried to have our evening dinner with the family, something has happened to prevent it.”
“What?”
“Just…things.”
“Like what?”
“Like me taking all my clothes off in the restaurant last night,” Jenni supplied.
Pierce was shocked. “You what?”
“I stripped down to my panties right there in front of all of them.”
“You did?”
Sally was the one who answered though. “They were all being morons. All my brothers. They were all accusing Jenni of having operations to turn her into a woman.”
“Which is exactly what I want,” Jenni added.
“But they all thought my mother had paid for them already, and I’m afraid it caused a lot of hard feelings throughout the family.”
“I stripped down to show them that I haven’t had any operations yet,” Jenni told him.
Pierce shook his head and smiled. “I’m sure that was very interesting.”
Jenni rolled her eyes while Sally shook her head.
“So are you arresting me now?” Jenni asked.
“Not yet,” Pierce replied. “Unless you want to give me a good reason why I should.”
“I didn’t do it!” Jenni stated emphatically.
“That’s what you said. But right now, I don’t have any firm reason to suspect anyone at all yet. And that includes you.”
“Good!” Jenni replied. “I didn’t do it.”
“So you’ve said. Now, can you tell me anything else about the girl you saw with your grandfather that night?”
“What about her?”
“Was she young, old, not a girl but a woman? What did she look like? Would you recognize her again if you saw her?”
“Oh,” Jenni said as she tried to remember. “She was fairly young, but I’m sure she was older than high school age. She had long stra
ight brown hair that came down to about her shoulder blades.”
“Would you recognize her again if you saw her?”
“Probably.”
“You said long brown hair? Like the girl who works in the gift shop during the day?”
“I don’t know. I was only in there once when I first arrived,” Jenni replied.
“Then why don’t you take a trip with me and let’s go find out.”
The offer surprised Jenni. “Sure!”
“And afterwards, we’re going to the restaurant for breakfast!” Sally stated firmly.
The three of them walked into the large gift shop. It took them no time to spot the only hotel employee there. “That’s her,” Jenni confirmed right away. “I’m sure of it.”
“Okay,” Pierce replied. “You two go get your breakfast. And thanks Jenni. I appreciate your help.”
“Come on Jenni,” Sally said. “Let’s go.”
Jenni followed her aunt as far at the door. “You go ahead, Aunt Sally,” Jenni told her. “I’ll be there in a minute. I want to…check on something.”
“What? I’ll wait.”
“No. You get a table or something. I’ll be along. I promise.”
“You’re sure!”
“Yes. I promise I’ll be there. Order me some coffee.”
“Okay,” Sally agreed.”
While Sally went out through the door, Jenni moved closer to where Pierce was talking with the girl. She spent some time looking at the bathing suits she desperately wished she could wear, but what she was really doing was listening.
“So that wasn’t the first time he was here?” Pierce asked.
“Um…no,” the girl admitted.
“So he was here before?”
“Uh…yeah.”
“And you spent some time with him before?”
“Uh….” The girl said, but went no further.
“In other words, yes,” Pierce supplied. “How many times?”
“I think this trip was his third time to the hotel.”