by Karen Singer
“Thank you, Kaylee,” Sally replied. “That means a lot to me.”
Jenni smiled. “Thanks,” she said.
With a smile, Kaylee got up and went back to where she had been sitting before.
“That was nice,” Sally said.
“Yeah. But is she the only one who’s sorry?”
“Probably not, but I have no doubt that a few of my brothers aren’t sorry in the least.”
“Like my father?”
“Him…and Greg. I don’t know what got into Greg, but trust me, he was never like that.”
Jenni opened her book and tried to read. She tried, but she didn’t get far. How could she concentrate on a romance, something wonderful and magical, when prison and despair were looming over her shoulder? She gave up and put the book away. She pulled her laptop out instead. She opened it and tried to work, but she couldn’t. “Ugh! This isn’t working!” she complained.
“What’s wrong?” Sally asked.
“I’m trying to work, but the sun is so bright I can’t see the screen.”
Sally opened her eyes and looked over at Jenni. “Why are you working? Just lay there and enjoy yourself.”
“How can I enjoy myself when I keep expecting Detective Pierce to show up and arrest me?”
“Okay. Good point. But try anyway. Take a break.”
“I can’t take a break. I’ve got to figure this thing out.”
“It’s not your job.”
“It is if I’m the one they’re going to arrest.”
“Another point for you,” Sally said, her voice full of exasperation.
“I’m going back to my room.”
“No! Stay here! I need you here.”
“I can’t work here.”
“I need you here! We’re showing everyone today that they’re not going to frighten us off.”
“You maybe, but they’re sure frightening me away. And I didn’t want to come here in the first place.”
“Which is why you absolutely need to stay!”
“But Aunt Sally…”
“Stay Jenni. Don’t let them scare you away.”
“But I can’t work. The sun is too bright.”
“Then don’t work.”
“Ugh!” Jenni wasn’t sure what she was going to do. She looked around. At least not everyone was looking at her. Her grandmother sure was though. And her grandmother didn’t look happy to see her there at all. Why had her grandmother been so insistent that she come on this trip? Grandma had even booked her into a room as far from everyone else as she could get.
She saw two of the pontoon boats coming back into shore. Ryan and his wife Jillian. Was Ryan spending all his time on those boats on this trip? It sure seemed like it. She saw Ashley leading their daughter Hailey over to the boats. Evidently Ashley had been watching the baby while they were out on the water. Jillian picked Hailey up and carried her back to a grouping of beach towels. She saw Logan, Kaylee, and their daughter Arianna nearby. Jenni guessed that the two babies had been playing together in the sand. Good for them. At least some kids got a happy childhood.
She watched as Ryan left his wife and walked through everyone else. For a moment she wondered if he was going to come and talk to them, but he didn’t. She saw him look at her, but he kept going…all the way to the bar behind her. She turned around and watched him standing in the cool shade of the bar. Cool shade! She watched him get two drinks, then carry them back out onto the beach in the direction of his family. Cool shade!
“I’m heading back to the bar to work, Aunt Sally,” she said as she got up from her chair.
“Jenni…”
“I’m just going to be right back here at the bar. It’s shady there and I can work. I’ll still pretty much be right here with you.”
“Okay,” Sally finally gave in. She considered herself lucky that Jenni wasn’t going back to her room.
Jenni carried her laptop up to the bar and set herself up on the corner of it, pulling one of the tall stools over to sit on. The bartender asked if she wanted a drink and she ordered a diet soda. A minute later, with the cold drink beside her and her laptop in total operating condition, she was ready. Much, much better! If it wasn’t for the rest of her family being around, she could almost like working there.
She pulled up her list of social media sites she had put together the day before. It was time now to start digging deeper. She went to the first one, her Uncle Greg’s wife Lili’s Facebook page.
“Two beers!”
Jenni looked up to see her brother Brian standing at the bar. Brian looked over at her, then looked away.
“Are you still in school?” she asked.
“So far,” Brian replied.
“When do you graduate?”
“Not till next year.”
“Oh.” Not helpful. She figured that while he was there, maybe she should try to dig a little deeper. “Were you here at the bar the night Grandpa was killed?”
“Don’t remind me,” Brian replied. “What a night!”
“You don’t have to tell me! I found his body. Talk about miserable!”
“I bet,” Brian replied.
“Do you have any idea who might have killed him?” Jenni asked.
“Other than you? No. Not a clue. How about you?”
“I know the police are very interested in some of the hotel workers now.” She saw Brian perk up at that one.
“Really?”
“Really! It seems that Grandpa was having a bit of a fling with one of the girls who works here.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Gee!” Brian said with a laugh. “For an old geezer…good for him!”
Jenni didn’t know if she should laugh or smack him for that remark. She chose to ignore it instead. “We’re you here all night?” she asked next.
“Pretty much. Except when I had to run back to my room to go to the bathroom a few times.”
“You did?”
“Kyle…”
“Jenni!”
“Whatever. I can’t drink that much and go that long without having to…go. You know?”
“So you weren’t the only one who was running back and forth all night to their rooms.”
“Huh! What are you stupid or something? No, I guess you are! For your information, I have no doubt that a lot of us were going back and forth. We were having a great time that night…until you spoiled it.”
“Me?”
“You! When you killed Grandpa.”
“It wasn’t me!”
“Sure. We’re all just waiting for the police to arrest you. And nobody can figure out why they haven’t yet.”
“You’re really getting to be just as stupid as Mom and Dad.”
“Takes one to know one.”
“Flake off!” Jenni replied disgustedly. She watched as Brian grabbed the two beers and walked away. What a jerk!
She took a sip of her cold soda and went back to her computer. Back to looking into Aunt Lili’s Facebook page. Pictures, pictures, pictures. Pictures of two-year-old Hailey. Pictures of Kaitlyn. More pictures of Hailey. Pictures of Ryan, Jillian, and Hailey. More pictures of Kaitlyn. Pictures of Hailey and Arianna together (she knew those two kids were going to be friends). Pictures, pictures, pictures. But nobody realized that to someone with as much training and experience as Jenni had, that she could learn a lot from just pictures. Especially when they included captions. Over the next twenty minutes, Jenni learned a lot about the life of Lili and her entire family.
One thing she came to a conclusion about that puzzled her, was the fact that as far as she could see, four-year-old Kaitlyn didn’t appear to be having any medical problems that were mentioned anywhere. From the look of the pictures and where a lot of them appeared to have been taken, it didn’t look like her Uncle Greg and Aunt Lili were hurting that badly for money at all. Those pictures didn’t make it look like Chris and Emily were hurting for money that badly either. So why was her Uncle Greg continuously ha
rping about Grandma not giving them any money for Kaitlyn’s medical problems? Maybe she’d learn more when she got to Chris and Emily’s accounts.
“Two rum and cokes and two plain cokes.”
And speaking of Chris and Emily…Jenni looked up to see Chris at the bar ordering drinks. “Hi Chris. How’s Kaitlyn?” she asked.
Chris looked over at her. Jenni didn’t know whether he looked embarrassed to be talking to her or angry that she was there and trying to talk to him. “She’s fine,” he replied.
“And Tyler?” Jenni asked referring to their son who was a few years older than Kaitlyn.
“He’s fine too. We’re all fine.”
Not very chatty. “Chris, were you down here at the bar the night Grandpa was killed?”
“Some,” Chris confirmed.
“Were you here when everyone went up to see what was going on?”
“Yeah. I was here. Why?”
“I was just wondering what you saw.”
“I saw Grandpa’s body with a knife in his back, and you being held by the police.”
“I wasn’t being held by them. I was there because I found his body. That’s all!”
“It sure looked different to me.”
“Well it wasn’t! Who the hell decided that I was the one who killed him anyway? Huh?”
“Who?” Chris seemed to think about that for a moment. “Everyone!” he finally replied.
“Everyone?”
“Yeah. Everyone.”
“And who started that rumor?”
“I don’t know. It seemed plain enough to me.”
“Well maybe you should open your eyes a bit more and look around.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means your stupid! How about Emily? What did she see?”
“Em wasn’t there. She was back in the room with the kids.”
“Oh. Good.” Well, that eliminated one person anyway…or did it?
“Hey Chris, that night when Grandpa was killed, what happened. Did you just hear Grandma yelling and screaming so you all came up to look, or what?”
“Hear her? With the music playing that loud? No way. Someone told me…all of us I mean.”
“Who?”
“Uh…I’m not sure. It might have been Ashley. I saw that she was back.”
“Back?”
“Yeah. She was there, then she was gone for a while. But a lot of us were going back and forth to our rooms that night.”
“Bathroom breaks,” Jenni replied.
“Uh…something like that,” Chris replied, frustrated with all the questions. Especially from…her. “What the hell are you doing down here anyway. Nobody wants you here.”
“And I for sure don’t want to be here. But I didn’t kill him, and I’m not going to let the rest of you push me around anymore!”
Chris shook his head. “Suit yourself. I just hope the police arrest you soon.”
“They’re not going to!” Although the truth was, it was still very possible. “They’re looking at the hotel employees now. They’ve got a different lead that they’re following.”
“How would you know?”
“Because…” But Jenni didn’t want to tell them she was loosely working with Detective Pierce. “Because…Detective Pierce told me they were looking elsewhere.”
“And why would he do that?”
“Because…because before that, I was his primary suspect. He let me know he was looking at someone else now.”
Chris stared at her for a moment. He shook his head then grabbed the four drinks from the bar in front of him. “They still should have arrested you.” He turned and walked back to his family.
Jenni grunted softly with frustration as her mind started turning over the brief conversation. Chris had been with everyone else, but his wife was tending the kids back in the room. Ashley had come back to the bar later and told everyone that Grandpa was dead.
She took another sip of her drink and went back to her computer. Who’s next? Oh. Chris and Emily Finch. Their Facebook account was listed as both of them together. She was betting though that it was Emily who did most of the entries. It only took a second to pull up that page. Guess what? Pictures, pictures, pictures. Many of them she recognized as ones she had seen on Lili’s page. No surprise there. She saw a lot of pictures of their entire family on the beach here at the hotel. She saw a long sad posting about Grandpa being murdered as well. Actually, the piece was nicely written. Jenni was particularly happy because nowhere in either that message or anywhere else did she see a mention of her name or the possibility that she had done it.
“Rum on the rocks and a strawberry margarita.”
Jenni looked up to see her father glaring at her.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Andy Finch asked. “You ought to be too ashamed of yourself to keep on living.”
“Nice to see you too, Dad!”
“I can’t imagine anyone as embarrassing as you!”
“I can. You! And Mom! Both of you!”
“I should have killed you the day you were born!”
“And the police should have arrested you the day after I was born for child abuse!”
“You’ve got no respect!”
“You don’t deserve any respect!”
“I ought to kill you right now!”
“Like you killed Grandpa?”
Andy was taken by surprise. “I didn’t kill him!”
“How am I supposed to know that? You sure seem angry enough with the rest of the world. Why not him too?”
“He didn’t bother trying to help me out either when I needed it. He could have loaned me some money instead of Mom.”
“I’m betting he probably didn’t have the money to give you. From everything I’ve seen, Grandma kept such a tight fist on all of it that she probably gave him almost nothing to spend for himself. Or not much anyway.”
Andy thought about that for a moment. “That would be like her.”
“Yeah. It would. Were you here at the bar the night Grandpa was killed?”
“Where else would I be?”
“Was Mom here with you?”
“Of course! Why?”
“While you were here, did you happen to notice if Chris was here too?”
“Chris?”
“Yeah, you know, Uncle Greg’s son.”
“Don’t get smart with me you…pervert!”
Jenni ignored his rude comment. “Was Chris here?”
“Yeah. I think so.”
“How about before Grandpa was killed. Do you know if he was here, then went back to his room for a bit, then came back again?”
“How the hell would I know? I didn’t keep track of him. We were partying!”
“Did you party the entire time? Or did you go back to the room for a bit too?”
“Me? What is this? Twenty questions?”
“Did you go back to your room at any time that night?”
“Just to pee, you little shit. Then I came right back to the party…where I could get drunk and try to pretend that you never existed!”
Jenni smiled. “Gee thanks. That’s how I try to think about you and Mom too – like you never existed! Because I wish you didn’t!”
“You foul mouthed perverted piece of shit. Get the hell out of here.”
“No way…Daddy! No way!”
“Piece of shit!” He picked up his two drinks and left, cursing as he went.
Jenni sat and watched him go back to her mother. She saw the two of them turn and look at her. She waved her fingers sarcastically at them. Her father was kind enough to shoot her a bird! Such a great father…may he rot in hell! With her mother!
She looked at the drink on the counter next to her. She looked up at the bartender. “Can I get something stronger please?”
“No problem,” the guy replied. “Can I see your ID?”
“Forget it. I’ll stick with this,” Jenni told him. Her driver’s license was one of her biggest points
of embarrassment. It still said Kyle on it. She hated it. If she could have changed it already, she would have. It wasn’t worth bringing the stupid thing out and trying to answer all the questions it would cause over a simple drink.
She took another sip of her soda and turned back to her computer. Okay, who was next. Ryan Finch. Her uncle. One of the few men in the family with a Facebook account.
“Are you okay?”
She looked up to see Sally approaching. “Sure. Why not?”
“I’m pretty sure everyone on the beach heard you arguing with your father.”
“Everyone?”
“Probably.”
Ugh! “Sorry.”
“Don’t blame yourself. My brother…your father is a drunken ass!”
Jenni raised her eyebrows. “I’m surprised you would say that.”
“Jenni, I’m just calling it like I see it. I know the way he and Cassie abused you growing up. He’s an ass, and so is your mother.”
Jenni smiled. “Thanks for agreeing with me on that.”
Sally turned to the bartender. “Something cold and icy please. Surprise me.”
The bartender smiled and headed for his blender.
“How’s it going back here?” she asked Jenni.
“Pretty good. It’s actually a nice place for me to work. And instead of me trying to go to everyone else to ask questions, they’re coming here to see me.”
Sally laughed. “Sure they are,” she said sarcastically.
“Well hey, if they want a drink…I just happen to be here.”
“Jenni,” Sally said, turning a little more serious. “Thanks for sticking to your guns and insisting that we have just as much of a right to be here as the rest of them. I appreciate that.”
“No problem,” Jenni replied with a smile. “I’m sick of everyone treating me like shit.”
“Me too, Jenni.”
The bartender delivered a Daiquiri to Sally. She took a sip. “Mm! Good! Want a sip?”
“Sure.”
Sally held the drink out and Jenni took a sip through the straw. “That is good,” she said. “Nice and cold too.”
“What are you drinking?”
“Diet soda.”
“Why don’t you get something else? You’re not exactly going to be driving anywhere today.”