by Karen Singer
“I want you to answer our questions,” the one holding the gun on him replied.
The man holding his wife pulled harder on her hair and pushed the gun harder against her face. His wife screamed, and he could do nothing about it. He was still trying to place the man’s accent, and he wasn’t having much luck. “What questions?” he asked as he watched the man holding his wife. He could see that the guy was crazy enough to really shoot her. And the one holding the gun on him looked capable of pulling the trigger and killing him too. “What do you want?” he asked again.”
“How did you know about the storage garage?” the man pointing the gun at him asked.
Robbie guessed he was the one in charge. “What storage garage?”
The man holding his wife jammed his gun deeply into Shirley’s cheek. Shirley screamed at the pain.
“You tell us, or she dies, and so do you,” the man told Robbie.
Robbie got the distinct impression now that he and his wife were going to die, one way or another. This wasn’t going to end well, no matter what.
“I said how did you know about the garage?” the man yelled threateningly.
Robbie shook his head. “Good detective work.”
“That’s not an answer!” the guy yelled.
Shirley screamed as the guy pulled her hair again and kept the gun shoved hard into her cheek. “Robbie…tell him!”
Robbie shook his head. “Shirley, these guys are going to kill us, one way or another.”
“Answer my questions or I will kill you,” the guy yelled as he moved half a step closer.
“No!” Shirley screamed as she thought he was about to shoot her husband. “It wasn’t us who found out.”
“It wasn’t?” the guy said, half turning his head in her direction. “Then who?”
“Don’t tell them,” Robbie told her.
“Jenni,” Shirley said desperately. “It was Jenni who found out.”
“Who is Jenni?”
“She works for us,” Shirley replied. “She does research for us.”
“And how did she find us?”
“She hitched a ride on the back of your truck when you went out there.”
“Of all the stupid!” the guy cursed angrily.
Robbie watched him closely, the one holding the gun on him moved back and in his anger stopped aiming it at him for a brief moment. He was half a heartbeat away from tackling him and taking the gun from him when the guy suddenly snapped his arm back and aimed the gun at his face again. Opportunity lost. Damn!
“And how about the hard drive? Nobody knew about that. Nobody! How did you find out?”
But again it was Shirley who answered instead of Robbie. “We didn’t! It was Jenni again. She figured it out.”
“How?”
“I don’t know,” Shirley replied, starting to cry now. “She researches things. She’s just got a talent for figuring things out. Please don’t kill us,” she sobbed. “Please…” She broke down crying.
“Where do we find this Jenni?” the man holding the gun on Robbie asked.
Robbie looked at him for a moment before answering. “She’s on vacation.”
“Don’t tell me that!” the man yelled as he again threatened with his gun.
“It’s true,” Shirley replied sobbing. “She’s gone to some kind of family get together down in the keys.
“Where?”
“It’s some hotel on an island. The whole family is staying there.”
“Where? What hotel? What island?”
“I don’t remember. Only that it’s off the coast of Islamorada.”
“Islamorada? Never heard of it.”
“It’s a town down in the keys.”
The guy shook his head. “Good enough.”
Robbie had a brief hope that they were going to let them go, until the guy said, “Kill her.” Before anyone could react, he jumped at the guy holding the gun on him and grabbed his gun arm. He heard his wife scream as he wrestled to get the gun away from him. A gunshot rang out, and he heard his wife scream again. Like it or not, he had to turn in her direction to see, but when he did, he saw the guy who had been holding his wife falling to the ground.
“Stop!” A voice yelled. “Put that gun down!”
The man Robbie was wrestling with, jerked desperately and violently and pulled his arm free. Before Robbie could react, he was running away. Robbie turned to see Philly running towards them.
“Stop!” Philly yelled at the fleeing man as he went after him.
Robbie hurried to his wife and pulled her away from the dead man at her feet. He held her tightly in his arms. “It’s alright,” he said. “It’s alright. We’re okay. Both of us. It’s alright.” His wife sobbed hysterically in his arms.
Philly walked back to them. “You two okay?”
“We will be,” Robbie replied. “Thanks. You don’t know how grateful we are.”
Philly nodded and knelt down over the body. He pulled out a pen and used it to pull the gun away from the dead man’s hand.
“He was going to kill us,” Shirley cried. “They both were going to kill us. They said they just wanted answers to their questions, but they were going to kill us anyway.”
“What questions?” Philly asked, now recognizing the face of the man he had shot in the back. He was one of the ones they had been looking for to question about the murder of Todd Granger.
“They were very interested in finding out how we learned about that storage garage, and also how we knew about the hard drive.”
“The hard drive!” Philly exclaimed as he stood up. “So this is all connected.”
“It appears so,” Robbie replied.
“What did you tell them?” Philly asked.
“That it wasn’t us that found out,” Shirley told him, still crying slightly. “It was Jenni.”
“Jenni?” Philly asked, not recognizing the name. “Who the hell is Jenni?”
Robbie shook his head. He hadn’t wanted anyone to know about Jenni. Besides, Jenni finding all the answers made him look bad, and it was his agency.
“She does research for us,” Shirley told him before Robbie had a chance to reply.
“Research!” Philly said, shaking his head. “And where the hell is she now?”
“On vacation down in the keys,” Robbie told him.
“In the keys.” Something snapped into place in Philly’s head. “Wait a minute. I got a call from a friend of mine down in Miami. He was working a case where your name came up and he wanted to check you out.”
“My name?” Robbie asked.
“He called me because his number one suspect said she worked for you. I take it that was this Jenni you’re talking about?”
“That was her,” Robbie confirmed.
“And now Jenni has solved the murder of her grandfather down there too,” Shirley added.
Philly looked at them. “Damn! She sounds like a regular Sherlock Holmes!”
“No,” Robbie said. “She just does research. That’s all.”
“But she’s good at it!” Shirley insisted. “Very good!”
Philly shook his head as he pulled out his cellphone. “I had stopped by to invite you both to dinner later tonight. I told my wife earlier that I had stopped in to see you and she suggested it. But now we’re all going to need to take a trip down to the station instead. I have a feeling that dinner for all of is going to be fast food tonight, and very late.” With Robbie and Shirley looking on, he called in his report.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Pierce had been almost back to the mainland when Jenni had called, now he raced for the island again, and he could only hope that the damn boat would be there so he wouldn’t have to wait for it. He needed to get back before Jenni could do something stupid! Damn that girl!
He sped into the parking lot, already noting that there was no boat at the dock. Damn! He hurried from his car to the dock. He could just see the boat in the distance, heading toward the island, not toward h
im. Damn!
He had to get that boat back! He pulled out his cellphone and called the hotel to get them to send the boat back. Once he had done that, he called the local police to come out for backup.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Sally stood at the convergence of the paths waiting for Jenni. She checked her watch. It was just after seven o’clock, and still no Jenni. From the beach side, she saw her mother approaching. “Hi Mom. Enjoy the beach today?” she asked pleasantly.
“What are you doing out here?” Judith Finch said nastily. “Dinner is scheduled for seven.”
“I’m waiting for Jenni.”
Judith grunted. “Why bother!”
“Because I love her, and she deserves to be there. More so than most of those stupid brothers of mine.”
“Those brothers of yours didn’t take that embarrassing perverted piece of shit into their homes.”
“Don’t start!” Sally warned. “Jenni is worth more to me than anyone!”
“Huh!” Judith replied. “You’re just as sick as he is. Don’t bother coming and ruining my dinner either!” With that she continued on toward the dining room.
Sally was upset. Her mother was impossible! Now where the hell was Jenni? She was about to pull her cellphone out and call her, when she saw her coming from far up the path. She waited. Jenni wasn’t hurrying. If anything, she appeared to be sauntering rather slowly. And…she realized that Jenni was dressed very nicely. What the heck? “There you are,” Sally said as Jenni got within talking distance. “I’ve been waiting.”
“I had lots to do, Aunt Sally,” Jenni replied as if she had no worries in the world.
“Like what? Dinner was scheduled for seven.”
“I know.”
“Even Grandma is there now.”
“That’s good,” Jenni replied as if she didn’t care.
“Jenni, what’s going on?”
“You’ll see,” Jenni replied. “Ready?”
“For what?”
Jenni only smiled and headed slowly and casually for the restaurant.
“I figured you would wear that dress tomorrow night for Grandma’s birthday dinner,” Sally noted.
“I was going to, but I decided to wear it tonight instead.”
“Why?”
“I think I needed to feel…more feminine,” Jenni replied.
That thought was something that Sally completely understood. It was also something that worried her.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
“Faster!” Pierce yelled at the boat captain. “It’s already seven o’clock!”
“I can’t go any faster,” the current boat commander replied. “This is as fast as she goes.”
Pierce cursed again. The moment the boat touched the dock, he jumped off. “Go back and get the police here as soon as you can.” He took off running for the restaurant. He was just in time to see Jenni and her aunt heading into it. “Jenni!” he yelled. He was relieved to see them stop and wait for him. “What are you doing?” he asked the moment he ran up.
“I told you what I was going to do,” Jenni replied. “Not only that, since I talked to you, I think I’ve figured the rest of it out too.”
“You have?”
“Mm-hm,” Jenni replied rather nonchalantly.
“What?”
“Nope. I’m going to tell them all. They all hate me. They all think I’m not worth anything. Now it’s my turn to get back at them.”
“Jenni! What are you talking about?” Sally asked, worried now about what Jenni was going to do.
“I’m going to talk to them Aunt Sally. So if you want to know exactly what happened to Grandpa, then stay right here and listen. But now it’s my turn to have it out with everyone else.”
“Jenni! Don’t!” Pierce said again. “This is police business.”
“Not yet, it’s not. And nothing I told you about is actual proof of any of it. It’s all just what I pieced together.”
“But Jenni, it all made sense. Total sense,” Pierce argued. “Let me do my job.”
“No. This is my family. My fight. And I’m hoping that if you just stay out of my way, I’ll get you all the proof you need. So just stay back here with Aunt Sally and listen.”
“Jenni, this is the wrong way!” Pierce tried again.
“Probably, but right now, I don’t care.” With that, she turned and headed into the restaurant.
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
“What happened?”
“Bijan is dead,” Pasha replied.
“Bijan! How? You assured me you two could handle this.”
“We could. We didn’t count on a cop showing up before we could kill them. He killed Bijan. I was lucky to get away from the other one.”
“So this was not only useless, but now your brother is dead and we’re one less here in Gainesville.”
“The trip wasn’t totally useless, Uncle Vahram. We learned where the private detective found out about both the garage and the hard drive.”
“Where?”
“He didn’t find any of it, even though we were told he did. One of his employees hitched a ride on the back of our truck out to the garage. That’s how she found it.”
“Stupid!” Vahram yelled. “You were stupid!”
“Yes Uncle. I agree. The fault is mine.”
“Yes it is! And the hard drive?”
“Evidently, this girl is a researcher. The private eye’s wife said she’s very good at what she does. She somehow found out about the hard drive and once again the private eye took the credit.”
“And where is this girl now?”
“On some kind of family reunion or something down in the Florida Keys.”
“Where? Did you find out?
“All she knew was that it’s at a hotel on an island off of someplace called Islamorada.”
Vahram thought about that. “We have brothers in Miami. I think I should call them. What’s her name?”
“Jenni or Jennifer. That’s all she said.”
“Okay. I’ll pass it on. Anyone who was able to dig that hard drive up could be even more of a danger to us. She must be eliminated.”
“I agree Uncle. And Uncle…I want a second chance at the private eye. It was because of him that my brother was killed.”
“Of course, Pasha. But this time, be more careful!”
--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---
Jenni strode calmly into the dining room. Grandma was just sitting down after talking with everyone at each of the tables like she usually did.
“You!” Grandma said. “What are you doing here? Go away.”
“Nope!” Jenni said calmly as she set her purse down on one of the empty tables. She turned to face as many of the tables that held her family as she could. “Did you all enjoy my little show last night?” she asked everyone. “Did you all find it entertaining? I hope so. Because tonight I plan on being your entertainment again.”
“Get out of here!” her father yelled. “We don’t want you.”
“Tough Daddy. I’m here and you’re all going to listen. Like it or not.”
“What’s this about?” her Uncle Greg asked angrily.
“What’s it about? I’m so glad you asked.” She spun around for a moment taking everyone in. “What it’s about, is letting you all know who killed Grandpa.”
“What?” Greg roared.
“Who?” someone else asked loudly.
“How would you know?” Someone else yelled rudely.
Jenni yelled right back at them. “You all think that just because I’m different, that I’m stupid! Well I’m not! And you want to know how I know what happened to Grandpa? I know because finding out things like that is my job.” She noticed that her last statement seemed to surprise everyone. “That’s right!” she continued. “Finding out things like that is what I do for a living. You see, I’m a researcher. I research things for a private investigation agency. And in the last few years I’ve gotten really good at it. Did any of you
know that with what I know how to do, I can find out things about each of you that I’m sure none of you thought was even possible? I can find out all kinds of things about each of you that you’d never believe. And guess what I’ve been doing since Grandpa died and you all blamed me for it!”
She stared around angrily at everyone in the room for a moment. She could see the looks of uncertainty on all their faces.
“So who killed him?” her father asked. Jenni didn’t miss the sound of disgust in his voice.
Jenni moved closer to her father. “Daddy, daddy, daddy. Did you know that you were my number one suspect? Do you have any idea how much I wanted it to be you…or Mom?” she asked as she turned her gaze on her own mother.
“I didn’t kill him!” Andy yelled. “How dare you say I did it.”
“I know…Daddy!” she said sarcastically. “I didn’t say you killed him. I only said I wanted it to be you. I still wish it was. Either you…or Mom. Or both! But the truth is, not only wasn’t it you, but neither of you has enough imagination to do what was done to Grandpa. You’ve both got your stupid heads stuck so far down into a bottle that it’s amazing you can even walk straight. You both really need to dry out and get your heads on right. But…I’ve known that my whole life.”
“So who did it?” Greg asked. “Who killed him?”
Jenni moved closer to him now. “Uncle Greg. You were on my suspect list for a while too.”
“I didn’t kill him!”
“I didn’t say you did. Only that you were one of my possible suspects. Tell me something Uncle Greg. Why have you been complaining so much about Grandma not giving you any money? You keep claiming you need it, but you and Aunt Lili aren’t nearly as bad off as you make it sound. Not even close.”