Family Can Be Murder

by Karen Singer

  “Uh…I’d rather not get my ID out and have to try and explain things.”

  Sally stared at her for a moment. “I can’t imagine how frustrating your life is for you.”

  Jenni got up from her seat and hugged her. “Love you too, Aunt

  Sally.”

  “Hey,” Sally said brightly. “As soon as I finish this, I’m going to get wet. Join me?”

  “Uh…no. Besides, you know I don’t have a bathing suit.”

  “I know, but there’s no reason why you can’t wear just what you’ve got on.”

  “Uh…I don’t think so.”

  Sally stared at her for a moment. “Are you concerned about some of the things you’re wearing under that getting wet?”

  “Um…actually, I hadn’t even thought about that. But now that you mention it, the salt water may not be exactly the best thing for them.”

  Sally nodded, then hugged her again. “Anytime you want to try going in, with or without everything you’re wearing, just let me know. I’ll be there with you. Okay?”

  “Thanks, Aunt Sally,” Jenni replied with a smile. Why couldn’t Aunt Sally have been her mother instead? Things would have been so much better.

  While Sally sipped at her daiquiri, the two of them stared out from the shade of the bar to watch everyone on the beach, and those in the water. Jenni noticed her grandmother calling Ashley over to her. Once Ashley got there, she watched as her grandmother reached around to her back for a moment. Then Ashley smiled and helped Grandma get to her feet. The two of them left the beach together.

  “What was that all about?” Jenni wondered.

  Sally had been watching them too. “Grandma probably needs someone to put some ointment on the scar on her back again. I’m sure the salt air and sand aren’t the best things in the world for it.”

  “Scar?”

  “She had that tumor removed a few months ago. Remember?”

  “Oh yeah. I guess I didn’t exactly pay much attention to it. I think you said it was benign though.”

  “Yes. Fortunately.”

  “But that was months ago. Shouldn’t it be healed yet?”

  “I guess it is, but according to Mom…Grandma, it left a scar that bothers her sometimes. Grandpa used to treat it with an ointment of some kind for her. Now that he’s gone, I guess maybe she picked Ashley to help her out.”

  Jenni watched as the two of them headed toward Grandma’s room. “Why Ashley?” she wondered softly.

  “Jenni!”

  Jenni turned and saw Detective Pierce heading towards her.

  “I finally found you,” Pierce said.

  “I wasn’t trying to hide,” Jenni replied.

  “I know. I just checked your room first, and then your aunt’s room there,” he said as he nodded toward Sally.

  “What did you need?”

  “Before I get out of here, I wanted to let you know that I checked on those dates you asked about, for when your grandparents had stayed here before.”

  “You did? Great!”

  “Yeah. I probably shouldn’t tell you, but you did try to give me some good information about some other things. I’m hoping that by telling you, you’ll continue to share anything pertinent with me.”

  “I promise I will,” Jenni confirmed.

  “Good. Anyway, the last time they were here was about four months ago, and the time before that was this month last year. Evidently, they took a trip for your grandmother’s birthday last year too.”

  “Hm!” Sally grunted a little laugh. “I guess she liked the place enough to come back.”

  “Grandpa too,” Jenni added, thinking about the affair he had with the girl from the hotel store.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Shirley Bosch looked up as two men strode into the office. Her face lit up at the sight of the first one. His handsome light chocolate face and his clean-cut look were very familiar to her. “Philly!” she exclaimed happily as she came out from behind her desk to give him a hug. “When are you going to sweep me off my feet and finally take me away from all this?”

  “Ah Shirley. I would if I could, but my wife would shoot me.”

  “And I’ll kill you first, and then tell your wife,” Robbie called from his office as he walked out. The two men shook hands.

  Philly looked around. “So this is how retirement looks. I think I’ll keep my job for a while.”

  “This isn’t retirement, trust me,” Robbie replied. “I can only dream of retiring someday…if I can ever afford it.”

  “Ya gotta win the lottery Robbie. That’s the answer to everything.”

  “Yeah. Fat chance.”

  “We buy our tickets every week,” Shirley told him. “But so far…they don’t seem to like us. Who’s your friend?” she asked, referring to the man who had come in with him.

  “Hey, this here is Detective Gonzalez. I call him Gonzo, but I don’t recommend you try it. I’ve got seniority on him so I can get away with lots of stuff you can’t anymore. Gonzo wanted to meet the great Robbie Bosch, so we drove up here instead of calling.”

  Robbie laughed and shook hands with Gonzalez as he took him in. Mid-twenties. Latin, probably Cuban descent. He looked intelligent enough.

  “Gonzo,” Philly said. “This here is the famous Robbie Bosch I’ve told you about.”

  “Nice to meet you,” Gonzales said.

  Robbie noticed the faint trace of a Spanish accent in his speech. “What can I do for you gentlemen?” Robbie asked.

  “We think that tip you gave us on the hard drive may have been a very solid lead. We went and talked with the company Granger works for and they nearly hit the roof when they found out. Come to find out, one of their external drives was missing, and it was signed out to Granger himself. They’ve suspended Granger and sent him home. When we left, they were so concerned about it they were talking about calling in the FBI. They had no way of knowing exactly what was on that drive, but from what they told us, it potentially could be worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the right company.”

  “What was Granger doing with it at home?”

  “We don’t know, and his lawyer doesn’t seem to think we need to talk to him.”

  “That’s stupid.”

  “Yeah, but it puts us in a bind…for now. We basically don’t know where to look next.”

  “I’m sure the company is going to go after Granger.”

  “Goes without saying,” Philly replied. “But our primary problem is the homicide of Granger’s nephew. That’s what we’re assigned to. If the FBI wants to come in and bounce all over Granger, that’s their business. Ours is finding out who killed his nephew, Todd.”

  “But we know it has to be connected with the robbery of the drive,” Robbie pointed out.

  “We think it’s connected to that,” Gonzalez corrected him. “We have no proof of that at all. It may be something else entirely. The kid didn’t exactly hang with a good crowd of people.”

  “True,” Robbie admitted. “How about the other two that committed the robberies with him?”

  “We never found them, and Todd refused to give them up.”

  “And you got nothing from the pictures?”

  “Nothing we could put any names to.”

  Robbie thought about it for a few seconds, then shook his head. “Do you still want me to keep looking?”

  “Absolutely!” Philly replied.

  “Even with the FBI coming in?” Robbie asked. “And if the drive is worth that much money, then I have no doubt that they’ll be there.”

  “Yeah. Most likely. But I still think Todd’s death is related.”

  “Okay. I’ll keep my ear to the ground,” Robbie agreed.

  “Uh…Mr. Bosch,” Gonzalez started.

  “Yeah?”

  “Um…exactly how did you find out where their warehouse was? That was good work.”

  Robbie smiled…and lied. “Just good clean detective work.” He wasn’t about to admit that it was Jenni who got that
information, not him.

  “And how did you find out about the hard drive?” Gonzalez asked next.

  The smile vanished from Robbie’s face. “Deduction and research.”

  Philly nudged his body against Gonzalez. “Didn’t I tell you he was good?”

  Chapter 11

  One by one, Jenni continued down her list of social media sites that the family members were engaged in. Most of them revealed pretty much nothing. But the biggest things she was getting out of them, was the basic way everyone in the family seemed to live. She got the impression that most of them seemed to be better off than they let on…at least around her grandmother. So why were they all making such a big deal about everything? Was it just to try to get some of Grandma’s money?

  Surprisingly, or not surprisingly, the Facebook page her mother had, was useless. It hadn’t been updated in a very long time. And what was on it, was mostly stuff that her mother had liked and reposted from someone else. No help at all.

  There were very few people left on her list when she finally pulled up the Facebook page her grandmother had. As she had done with all the other sites, she went through it picture by picture, slowly going back in time for months. Her grandmother appeared to like showing off her house in Palm Beach – a lot! But it wasn’t long before she got to the posts about her post surgery recovery. And one of the first pictures Jenni found was one of her grandmother and…. “Oh my God!” Jenni breathed softly.

  Very slowly, she kept going back in time through her grandmother’s Facebook page, while the pieces of the puzzle started matching with each other in her head. She went back through the announcement that the tumor was benign. Back through the surgery that Jenni was sure wasn’t nearly as horrendous as her grandmother made it out to be. And back through her previous visit to the island four months ago. There was a picture there of her grandmother sitting on the beach and a caption where she had labeled it her favorite beach in the world.

  But that one picture she had found – that had been the key. That one picture had seemed to open the door to everything. Or almost. She went back and stared at it as her mind continued to try and fit everything into place.

  The knife? Maybe.

  The opportunity? Definitely.

  She stopped. Where was the motive? She quickly closed that Facebook account and opened one from one of the few she hadn’t gotten to yet. She looked through everything, and found nothing. But there was one more place she could look. That person, and that person alone, was the only one in the family who had a SnapChat account. The problem with SnapChat was that it automatically deleted every message as soon as it had been viewed. Except…that wasn’t always the case. Sometimes users set certain messages as public so everyone could see them. Most of the time that was done when someone wanted to share something with a lot of different people…or…when they were emotionally upset about something. The public messages didn’t get deleted. They stay out there. And that’s where Jenni struck gold.

  Motive! Without a doubt!

  Her mind reeled with trying to figure it all out. Why? How? When? She closed her laptop and went back to her aunt on the beach, who was again lying in the same lounge chair, soaking up the sun. She absently set the laptop down on her chair and walked off toward the water. Her mind was going crazy trying to wrestle with the facts and put it all together. Who? When? Where? That was the only thing on her mind as she stood ankle deep in the warm crystal-clear water.

  “Jenni?”

  Jenni turned as her aunt came up to stand next to her, but she didn’t say anything. Her mind was too much in shock, too focused on only one thing. Who had murdered her grandfather? She knew now. She was sure she did. Or at least, she thought she did.

  “Are you okay?” Sally asked, seeing the strange look on Jenni’s face. She had never seen Jenni look like that. Never!

  “I know who did it,” Jenni told her very softly.

  “Who?” Sally asked quickly.

  Jenni shook her head. “Later!” she replied.

  “Jenni…tell me!”

  Jenni shook her head. “I can’t, Aunt Sally. Not now.” She turned and walked back to her chair. “I’ve got to go,” she said. “I’ve got to call…a few different people.”

  “Jenni…who did it?”

  “I can’t tell you yet,” Jenni replied. She picked up her bag and her laptop and hurried off.

  Sally watched her go. Had Jenni really figured out what the police couldn’t? It didn’t sound likely. Jenni had said she knew who did it, but she had refused to say who. Did she know? Was it possible? And if she did know, when was Jenni going to tell the rest of the world?

  She went back to her chair and checked the time. It was time to go back to the room and get cleaned up. A good shower was going to be necessary to wash the sand and salt off her body. Then…should she attempt to go down to dinner again with the family or not? She had purposely been trying to make a statement all day, staying out on the beach where she knew most of them didn’t want her. She had planned on forcing the issue with dinner too. Her, and Jenni together. But now…. Would Jenni be there? Would Jenni agree to go?

  Did Jenni really know who had murdered Grandpa? Her father? Grabbing her things, she headed back to her room.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Detective Pierce was getting frustrated. He had talked to everybody on the island, and then some. Family members and hotel staff both. All of them “claimed” they didn’t do it. And other than a useless knife, he had no direct evidence at all. The closest thing he had other than the knife was all the circumstantial evidence against Jenni. So could she have done it?

  In his frustration, he pushed the speed of his car more than he should have as he sped his way back over the bridge toward Miami.

  His frustrating mood was interrupted when his cellphone rang. “Hello?” he said as his car connected to the phone call.

  “Detective Pierce?”

  “Jenni? What now?”

  “I know who did it. I know who killed him. And I know why?”

  As fast as he was going, Pierce slammed on his brakes. The car skidded and threatened to hit the barrier at the side of the bridge that separated the road from the vast ocean underneath. He got his car under control, and finally stopped. “Jenni. Who?”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Jenni pushed the buttons on her phone again and called the next number. “Hello? Mr. B?”

  “Jenni! What’s up?”

  “I figured it out, Mr. B. I figured out who killed Grandpa!”

  Robbie Bosch listened to the whole thing. “That’s great Jenni. Brilliant! Really good! But Jenni, you’ve got to be smart now. Don’t go doing anything stupid. Call that detective and let him know right away.”

  “I already did Mr. B. He’s on his way back to the island now.”

  “Good Jenni. Just stay in your room until he gets there.”

  “I can’t Mr. B. I can’t. Everyone thinks I’m stupid. Well I’m not. I’m going to show them all!”

  “Jenni…don’t! Don’t do it. Stay in your room until the police get there!”

  “Sorry Mr. B. I’ve got to do this.”

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  Jenni’s phone rang. “Jenni?”

  “Hi Aunt Sally.”

  “Jenni, are you alright? You looked really strange when you left the beach.”

  “I’m fine,” Jenni replied. “Maybe better than fine.”

  Sally wasn’t sure if Jenni sounded fine or not. Her voice still sounded strange. “Won’t you tell me what’s going on?”

  “No, Aunt Sally. Not yet.”

  Sally wanted to scream. “Are you coming to dinner? Please say you’re coming to dinner. I need us both to be there in front of everyone again. Just like at the beach. I’m not going to let those moron brothers of mine cheat me out of having dinner again.”

  “I’ll be there Aunt Sally. I promise. Seven o’clock. But I may be a few minutes late. There’s something I’ve g
ot to do first.”

  “What?” But Sally was surprised to find that Jenni had hung up. What the heck? At least Jenni was going to dinner. She’d have some moral support in front of the rest of the family.

  Jenni couldn’t tell her aunt that while she would definitely be going down to dinner, once again, it was very unlikely that she was going to get to eat with the rest of the family.

  --- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

  “I can’t believe Jenni worked it all out,” Shirley said to her husband as they left the office together.

  “Me either,” Robbie replied. “But…. Damn the girl! She does come up with a lot of stuff all the time.”

  “I keep telling you how good she is at what she does.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  The two men came out of nowhere, and neither Robbie nor his wife could miss the guns pointed right in their faces. Robbie was not only surprised, he was shocked. The last thing he needed was to get mugged tonight! There was something familiar about the men though, and that worried him almost as much as the gun in his face. “What do you want?” he asked, watching the men closely for any opportunity he might get to disarm them. The fact that there were two of them and one of them had a gun trained on his wife was limiting his options greatly. Never mind the guy who was holding a gun on him.

  “Answers!” the one holding the gun on him replied.

  “What answers?”

  “Turn around first,” the man replied, gesturing with the gun towards the car parked at the side of the road. “Put you’re your hands on the car and back your feet up.”

  Robbie realized that the guy was more experienced than he first thought. He was making it more difficult for him to fight back. He did as he was told and turned toward the car, putting his hands on the hood of it and moving his feet back so he was resting his weight on his hands. Another thing that concerned him was the slight accent in the man who has spoken to him. The guy hadn’t said much yet so he couldn’t place it.

  He heard his wife scream and despite the man holding a gun on him, he turned quickly to find the gun almost touching his face now. The other one had grabbed his wife and had his gun stuck right against her face while his other hand held her by the hair on top of her head. If he moved wrong, both of them would be killed…and now he remembered why he recognized them. They were the ones that the police hadn’t been able to find. They were the men who had worked with Todd Granger. They were the ones who Jenni had photographed at the storage facility. He backed up a single step, but continued to face them instead of putting his hands back on the car. “What do you want?” he asked again.