by Karen Singer
“Third time?”
“I think so.”
“So Larry Finch and his wife have been here twice before?”
“Uh…yes?”
“And you’re sure of that?”
“Pretty sure,” the girl replied. “I mean, his wife is kind of hard to forget.”
“I got that impression. And did Mr. Finch get friendly with you before?”
The girl didn’t answer. “Marie! Did Mr. Finch get friendly with you on any of his previous trips, or was it just this time? Answer me!”
“Okay! Yes! Kind of.”
“Kind of? How friendly?”
“Well…”
“Marie, did you, or did you not, have sex with him?” Pierce asked pointedly. “And don’t lie! This is a murder investigation. You don’t want to go to jail for lying to me about it.”
“Um….” But she still went no further.
“Marie, trust me,” Pierce said, “if you had sex with him, if he paid you to have sex with him, I don’t give a damn about it. Unless you killed him, then I’m not the least bit interested in you. I investigate homicides, not some hotel guest looking for a little bit of fun. Now did you kill him?”
“No! I’d never do that.”
“Then did you have sex with him?”
“Um…”
“Yes or no.”
“Um…yes?”
“How many times?”
“I don’t know.”
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“Well, this is the third time he was here.”
“Then you did it with him before? On both of his previous trips, or just one?”
“Both.”
“And did you do it more than once with him on any of those trips?”
“Yes. Of course.”
“So you must have enjoyed having sex with him to do it that much.”
“Not particularly.”
“But you still had sex with him every time he came?”
“Well, sure. Why not?”
“Why would you if it wasn’t that good?”
“Because he paid me really well!”
Pierce backed off. “So you’re a prostitute?”
“No! I just…well…he paid me. And he was…nice. Real nice to me.”
“I see.”
“You said you weren’t interested if I had sex with him or not!” Marie argued.
“Only so far as how it affects his murder.”
“But I didn’t kill him! Why would I? He paid me real good. Besides, like I said, he was nice to me.”
“I see,” Pierce replied. “Do you know if any others here spent time with Mr. Finch?”
“I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure. You know?”
“Marie, this is a very important question. Is there any chance that any of the other girls could have been the least bit jealous of your relationship with Mr. Finch?”
“Jealous?” Marie asked uncertainly.
“Jealous,” Pierce confirmed.
But just then Marie noticed Jenni out of the corner of her eye. She looked past Pierce towards her.
Pierce turned to see what she was looking at. “Jenni!” he said sternly. “Out! This is police business!”
Jenni leveled a very frustrated look at him.
“I said out! Now!” Pierce ordered.
With a frustrated huff, Jenni retreated. Pierce watched until she had left the building and the door had closed behind her. “Sorry,” he said to Marie. “Now, who might have been jealous of your relationship with Mr. Finch?”
“Well…I don’t know if anyone was really jealous. It’s just that…well…he paid me really good.”
“And some of the other girls here knew?”
“Well. Yeah. A few.”
“Marie, just how much did he pay you each time you had sex with him?”
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“What did you find out?” Sally asked the moment Jenni sat down at the table with her.
“Grandma and Grandpa have been here at this hotel twice before. And each time they’ve been here, Grandpa’s been having an affair with the girl who runs the store.”
“Well, that doesn’t surprise me,” Sally replied. “I’d guess that Grandma didn’t know about his affair at all, and I’m betting she must have really liked this place to not only come back again, but to pick it for her birthday trip as well.” She looked around the dining room. “You’ve got to admit, it is pretty nice.”
“Not to me.”
“No, and I guess you’ve got plenty of reasons not to think so.”
“I can’t wait until we can get out of here.”
“Me too, Jenni. Me too!”
The waitress had already brought Jenni’s coffee. Now she came back to take Jenni’s breakfast order. When she was gone, Jenni pulled out her cellphone.
“What are you doing?” Sally asked.
“Texting Pierce.”
“The detective? Why?”
“Because I’ve got a question I need him to answer.”
“You’ve got a question? Isn’t that his job?”
“Of course. That’s why I need him to get the answer for me.”
“No, I mean his job to get all the answers.”
“Right.”
Sally gave up. “What are you doing with yourself all day?”
“Working, I guess. What else is there?”
“The beach!”
“Hell no! You knew before I left that I can’t go sit on the beach. I can’t even wear a bathing suit yet.”
“Then don’t wear one. Just wear what you’ve got on. There’s no reason why you can’t sit with me on the beach and enjoy it.”
“Enjoy it? Around the rest of the family? You’ve got to be kidding!”
“No, I’m not.”
“Forget it Aunt Sally. I’m not going to the beach. Besides, I’ve got stuff to do.”
“Like what?”
“Like figure out who killed Grandpa.”
“Then do it at the beach. Stop hiding away in your room.”
“Wouldn’t you, with the way everyone’s treating me?”
“Probably. But that’s my point. Stop letting them push you away from everything. Get out of your room and make them put up with you for a change.”
“Huh! You make it sound like I’m the bad guy here. They are, not me!”
“Exactly! They’ve all been nothing but rude and annoying. I’m going to the beach whether they like it or not. If they don’t, then they can leave, not me. And I want you to do the same.”
“Aunt Sally….”
“Jenni! I don’t care what you think. The two of us are going down there together, and we’re going to make a show of force if we have to. But we’re going. Both of us!”
“But Aunt Sally…” Jenni whined.
“Both of us!”
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Pierce was annoyed when his cellphone signaled that a text message had come in for him. He was still finishing up with Marie in the gift shop. Since it was just a text, he ignored it. “Okay Marie,” he said. “So Mr. Finch never contacted you before he got here.”
“No. Never. The only reason I knew he was going to be here this time was because his wife had made arrangements to book the entire hotel for the whole week! That’s something we all knew.”
“Everyone who works here knew that?”
“Well, yeah. We kind of had to. Something like that would be hard not to know.”
“So if anyone had a beef with Mr. Finch, then they would have known in advance that he was coming.”
“I guess,” Marie replied hesitantly.
“Do you know if anyone who works here at the hotel might have had a problem with Mr. Finch in the past? Or even perhaps with Mrs. Finch?”
Marie was surprised by the question. “With Mr. Finch? No. Now Mrs. Finch. Um…that’s kind of a different question.”
“Why?”
“Well…um…she was always kind of…b
ossy. You know?”
“Bossy?”
“Rude! Very. All the time. To everyone! I don’t think there’s a single time she ever came in here when I didn’t want to run out so I wouldn’t have to deal with her.”
“Every time?”
“Pretty much.”
“Because she was rude.”
“More like impossible.”
“In what way?”
“She wasn’t nice. She demanded this. She demanded that. And most of the time it was against hotel policy. I mean, she thought I should give her whatever she wanted in here…for free. Just because she was staying in one of the expensive suites here. And, I mean…she wasn’t nice about it either. I tried as hard as I could to be nice to her each time, but she still wound up reporting me to the manager every time she came…even when I didn’t say one thing that wasn’t nice to her. And trust me, after the first time she did that, I really tried!”
“What did the manager do about it?”
“To me? I got yelled at the first time. After that, he didn’t do anything except tell me that she complained about me again.”
“Marie, do you think Mrs. Finch knew that you and Mr. Finch were having an affair?”
“I didn’t think so. Now? I really don’t know.”
Pierce nodded. “Okay. I’ll be back Marie. We’ll talk more.”
“But you said you weren’t interested in the fact that I had sex with him.”
“I’m not planning on prosecuting you for that. I’m only interested in finding out who murdered him. And right now, the fact that he was running around with you every time he came here has given me an awful lot to look into. So, you can bet that I’ll be back to talk later.”
Pierce walked out. That lead from Jenni last night had been hotter than he thought. As he exited the gift shop, he pulled out his cellphone to check the text message that had come in. From Jenni? What now? He read the short text. “Oh my God!” he exclaimed softly, totally frustrated that Jenni should ask him to find out that kind of information. A moment later, he thought better of Jenni’s request. Maybe, it might not be a bad thing to find out exactly when Mr. And Mrs. Finch had stayed on the island in the past, even though, right now, he didn’t see where that could matter. Larry Finch had been murdered on this trip, not his previous trips. Still, what could it hurt to ask?
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Jenni was absolutely NOT going down to the beach! At least not until she’d had a chance to shave her legs. Aunt Sally hadn’t given her any time to get ready that morning. It was amazing she had even made it down to see her that quick. So whether her aunt liked it or not, she was finally going to take the time to get ready – properly! Besides, she didn’t want to go to the beach anyway. What the heck would she do there? Sit on the sand and…do what? Feel out of place? Not her idea of fun.
Since she decided not to hurry, she started the water running in the bath tub. If she couldn’t enjoy herself later, she might as well relax and enjoy herself now.
A knock came at her door. She quickly turned the water off in the tub and answered it.
“Oh!” the maid exclaimed when Jenni opened the door. “I thought you were down in the restaurant still, so I was trying to get to your room right away.”
“Come on in,” Jenni replied. “I was just going to get a bath, but I’ll wait till you’re done.”
“Thanks,” the maid replied as she came into the room.
Jenni sat and watched her working, just as she had watched her a few times now on this trip. “Did you know my grandfather was having an affair with one of the girls that works here?” Jenni asked.
The maid never even paused as she made up the bed, but she did give Jenni a rather skeptical look. “You really want me to answer that?”
“Well…yeah.”
The girl grunted a laugh. “I don’t think there’s any of us girls that didn’t know it. Although I’m not sure if the management knew or not. But the rest of us, well, Marie didn’t exactly try to keep it a big secret…from us anyway. I’m sure she was pretty quiet about it everywhere else.”
“Do you know if she was the only one my grandfather was running around with?”
Once again the maid kept working, but she gave Jenni a look that told Jenni that she didn’t want to say anything. “I don’t think I should be talking about any of this.”
“He’s dead! He doesn’t care. But I’m being blamed for something I didn’t do, so I need to know.”
“None of us killed him!” the maid insisted.
“And you know that for a fact?”
The maid stopped working. “No. I just…know!”
“How?”
“Do you want fresh towels or not?” the maid asked, changing the subject.
“No. I’m fine.” Jenni replied, totally frustrated.
“Then have a good day,” the maid replied.
Jenni watched as she walked out. No help at all!
Chapter 10
Where the hell was Jenni? Sally stood at the end of the path and looked around at everyone on the beach. Almost everyone in the family was there already. Her mother was sitting right in the middle of all of them, sitting up in one of the hotel’s colorful reclining lounge chairs. From the back, Sally got the impression that her mother was trying to look like a queen in the middle of her court.
She stayed where she was for a few moments, hoping that Jenni would suddenly show up. She had even taken her time getting ready, trying to give Jenni that little bit of extra time as well, but a second look at everyone on the beach only confirmed that Jenni wasn’t there. She had a bad feeling that despite Jenni’s promise to be there, she wouldn’t come. Breathing a sigh of frustration, she walked down onto the sand.
She didn’t go toward the middle of the beach where her mother was, but she stayed off to the side, closer to the bar at the back of the beach. She chose one of the long lounge chairs halfway between the bar and the water. From the corner of her eyes, she couldn’t help but notice everyone looking at her. Let them! Where the hell was Jenni? She wanted to do this with both of them together. She pulled a second lounge chair over next to hers in the hopes that Jenni would actually show up…eventually. Purposely ignoring everyone else, she laid down on the chair to soak up some sun.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
What else would she need for the beach? Jenni didn’t have a clue. She certainly wasn’t planning on going in the water. She hadn’t planned on spending any time at all on the beach this trip, yet here she was, getting ready to go and…do what? Sit there?
On a whim, she picked up the hotel phone and called the front desk. A few seconds later, she happily hung up the phone. Her day had just gotten a little better. She stuffed her laptop computer into her backpack purse along with her romance novels and one of the big towels from the bathroom. At least the wi-fi connection covered the entire island. With work on her mind, she headed out of her room for the dreaded beach.
Walking the paths, as she often seemed to do, she prayed she wouldn’t run across another dead body…unless of course it was her mother or father that was dead. Both of them would be even better! She didn’t get that lucky, but at least she didn’t run into anyone else that was dead by the time she got there.
With just the family staying on the island, the beach wasn’t exactly crowded, but to her, it looked like the entire family was there. She spotted her grandmother right in the middle of everybody. Like a queen in the middle of all her admiring subjects. Except Jenni was fairly sure that none of those subjects liked her much, and most of them were pretty angry with her for being so stingy with her money.
She finally spotted her Aunt Sally. She noticed the chair that Sally had pulled up next to the one she was sitting in. Jenni so didn’t want to do this. With nothing but a gut full of worry and regret, she stepped down onto the sand and made her way behind everyone. At the bar, she turned and headed straight for her Aunt. She said nothing as she put her backpack purse down on the sand and s
at in the chair.
“You got here. Finally!” Sally said. “I was afraid you weren’t coming.”
“I shouldn’t have,” Jenni replied. “But I said I’d be here…although you weren’t exactly giving me much of a choice.”
Sally smiled. “What took you?”
“What took me? Aunt Sally, this morning you only gave me ten minutes to get ready and be there for breakfast. Ten minutes. It takes me hours to get ready every day.”
“Not that long!” Sally replied.
“No. But it still takes me a long time.”
“So what took you so long this time? You were already dressed when you came down earlier.”
“Aunt Sally, I can’t come out to the beach without shaving my legs. And then I had to get my makeup right. And…”
“Okay. I get it. From now on, I’ll try to give you a little more time.”
“Good! Any problems so far?”
“Not really. But I can almost feel everyone looking at me.”
Jenni glanced around. To her, it looked like most of the family was looking their way. “Yup! They’re all watching.”
“Good!”
Jenni sighed as she laid back on the chair. “I just love being the center of everyone’s attention.” From her bag, she pulled out one of the romance novels she had brought with her. She figured that if she was going to be stuck on the beach for a while, she might as well get some reading done…if she could read while trying to ignore everyone looking at her. She had just opened her book, when a shadow fell over her. She looked up to see Kaylee standing next to her Aunt.
“Hey Aunt Sally,” Kaylee said. “Hi Jenni,” she said nicely to Jenni as well.
“Hi Kaylee,” Sally replied with a smile. “How are you?”
Kaylee shrugged. “Good. I just wish we could leave and go home.”
“So do we!” Sally replied.
Kaylee sat on the edge of Sally’s chair. “Logan and everyone else is probably going to be mad as hell that I’m talking to you,” she started, “but I just wanted to let you know that I’m sorry if you thought I was being bad to you yesterday. If I was, it wasn’t really my intention.” She looked over at Jenni. “And to you too,” she said. “I just wanted to let you both know that I’m sorry if I gave that impression.”