Nick ignored Lola’s rude response. “So, what are you all up to?”
“We are writing a report in school about one of the island’s mysteries.” Mary had apparently gotten over her initial embarrassment. “Have you heard about the Jamisons that disappeared from this room 20 years ago?”
“Of course. Is there anyone on the island that hasn’t heard about it?”
Nick had a point.
“We are trying to figure out how to get into the room, just so we can look around,” Frankie explained. “Lola here,” she gestured toward her friend, “thinks that maybe she can break in. You won’t tell anyone, will you?”
Frankie smiled as Nick took her in from head to toe. She was a very cute girl, with curves in all the right places, and would probably be drop dead gorgeous as she got older, Nick thought to himself.
“Why don’t we just use my key?” Nick pulled a set of keys from his pants pocket.
“What? You have a key? Why didn’t you say that in the first place?” Lola exclaimed.
Nick smiled. “I don’t know. I just wanted to find out what you all were doing first. Since you just want to take a look, I guess it’s okay if I use my master key. I’ll stay here with you.”
As Nick opened the door for them, he continued talking. “Don’t touch anything. I could get fired for even letting you in here. And be quick.”
“Do you think it’s safe to go in there? I mean, after what happened and all?” Mary asked as she very slowly walked toward the open door and peered inside.
“Don’t be dumb. A million people have probably stayed in here in the last 20 years.” Piper pushed her sister forward.
Mary decided not to resist. She didn’t want to look like a child to the cute boy standing next to her.
The girls piled in the room while Nick held the door open for them. Once everyone was in, Nick stuck his head out the doorway and peered down the hall, first left, then right. Once he was satisfied that no one saw them enter the room, he quietly closed the door behind him and walked over to where the girls were standing in the middle of the room.
“So, now that we are here, what exactly are we looking for?” Piper asked.
Lola shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. Let’s just look around. We’ll know it when we find it.”
At that point, they split up. The room wasn’t that large, but each took a different spot, including Nick, and investigated it. Mary started lifting up and looking under knickknacks. Lola stuck her head into the fireplace and looked up the chimney. Frankie went into the bathroom and peered into the shower. Piper looked under the bed. Nick wasn’t quite as detailed as they were. He kind of just stood there looking around at the whole picture, not really knowing what to do.
A couple of minutes later they all convened back in the middle of the room.
“Anyone find anything?” Nick asked.
Everyone’s response was negative.
“What did you really expect to find after all these years, anyway?” he asked.
“Nothing really,” Piper explained. “We just thought we would try.”
A few minutes later, the girls said goodbye to Nick as they all stood in front of the Miranda Inn, at the valet area. One of the other valets went to fetch their car. Nick was off duty by then.
“Hey, I heard you girls were looking into the disappearance of that couple way back when. Well I know stuff.”
Chapter 27
All five turned to see a strange looking man standing next to them. Not one of them responded as they all took him in, from head to toe. The man had a black and white bandana wrapped around his head, long, stringy hair and a beard, even a seashell necklace. He also had a billowy white shirt and a vest. Brown trousers and several sailor type tattoos rounded out his look. There was no parrot on his shoulder or wooden leg, but the girls thought he looked like he was headed to a costume party as that guy from those pirate movies. None of the girls could think of his name at the moment.
“Hey buddy, you need to move along,” Nick said to him.
Nick walked over to him and took his arm, and started to nudge the man toward the parking lot.
“No, wait,” Lola said. “Maybe he can tell us something.”
“He doesn’t know anything. He’s always hanging around here, bothering people. And he’s always drunk. Aren’t you, Corun?”
“I don’t bother no one,” the pirate responded.
“See, he’s drunk. We call him Corun, The Drunken Pirate,” Nick explained.
“That’s not very nice,” Frankie responded. She gave Nick a glare. Suddenly he wasn’t as cute as she thought he was. “Lola’s right. Maybe he does know something. It can’t hurt to listen, can it?”
Frankie gave Nick a look that made him let go of Corun’s arm. She then walked up to him.
“What stuff do you know about the couple that disappeared?” Frankie asked him directly. Then she took a pace back because the whiskey on his breath was overwhelming.
“Ya know, I was here that weekend,” he started.
“Of course you were.” Nick shook his head back and forth slightly. He couldn’t believe that the girls actually wanted to talk to that bum.
Frankie gave Nick a warning glance. He shut up and stepped back so she could question him.
She turned her attention back to Corun. “You were here that weekend? Do you remember the Jamisons?”
“Yes I do.” His nod was exaggerated. “The missus was a beautiful woman. Hard to forget. Still is, from what I can tell.”
“What do you mean?” Frankie asked. “Have you seen her lately?”
“Well, yeah, I saw her a few weeks ago, when they checked out. They disappeared all them years ago, then they came back and checked out. I saw them. They look exactly like they did back then. I was a lot younger then.”
“Okay, now that’s weird,” Piper chimed in.
“He doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” Nick interjected.
“Seriously, can you just back off and let us talk to him?” Frankie was in no mood by then to deal with the constant interruptions from Nick.
He walked over and stood next to Mary. Somehow he knew that she would not confront him. Mary smiled when he stopped next to her. Nick was pretty sure that Corun was just a harmless drunk, but he wanted to stay close by just in case. He felt that the group of girls was entirely too trusting of strangers.
“Please tell us exactly what you know from the weekend they disappeared,” Piper asked him.
Corun looked over at Piper, as if he was just noticing her for the first time. “Well, young lady, I’ll be happy to tell ya what I know. I’m actually kinda hungry though. Can you spare a few dollars?”
“See, this is exactly what I mean. Don’t give him any money. He’s a bum and he doesn’t know anything.” Nick couldn’t help himself. He couldn’t let that ridiculous pirate wanna-be take advantage of the girls.
Frankie narrowed her eyes at Nick. If looks could kill…
Mary saw the look and figured she better do something. Fast. “Come on Nick. Let’s you and me go for a little walk.”
She took Nick’s arm and led him away, toward the beach. The others could handle the questions. She wasn’t helping much anyway. Besides, she would much rather be walking arm in arm with a cute boy.
Though she was still a teenager, Frankie had seen a lot in her young life, and she was no fool. Once Nick and Mary were out of earshot, she turned back to the pirate.
“Sir, we can’t give you any money. I think that would be a bad idea.” She could still smell the foul odor of old whiskey on his breath, even though she had backed away a couple more feet. “But I will be happy to buy you some food from the cafe when we are done talking here. Would that be all right with you?”
Corun contemplated her offer. He would have rather have the cash, and spend it how he saw fit, but wasn’t about to be stupid enough to turn down a hot meal from a beautiful girl.
“Well I guess that’ll be all right with me.”
He then looked her right in the eyes. “Ya all aren’t gonna swindle me outta my dinner after I tell ya all I know, are ya?”
“No, I promise. I will personally make sure you get plenty to eat,” Frankie told him, with a reassuring smile.
He gave her the side eye, not quite believing her, but what did he have to lose?
“Okay, I’ll tell ya. I was here that weekend, all them years ago. I saw that couple. Like I said, she is a beautiful woman and I noticed her right away. The two of them looked like they were in love. I couldn’t help but see that. I saw them a bunch of times over the days they were here.”
Frankie, Lola, and Piper were hooked on every word. Corun could see that and it made him happy.
“Then there was the big storm. Biggest storm I ever saw. The next day they were gone. Lots of people thought they drowned in the ocean during the storm, but that didn’t happen. I saw them inside the lobby of the Inn the night of the storm. They never left the building. I know, cause I was huddled over there.” He pointed to a spot under a patio cover, near the right side of the building. Everyone turned in the direction he was pointing. “I was trying to stay dry. It wasn’t workin’ so great. But I had nowhere else to go, so I was there all night. A few people, mostly employees, went outside, but not that couple. I know it. I got no sleep that night.”
“So, what happened the next day?” Piper asked him.
“I saw a bunch of the staff looking everywhere for them. Sam, he was the owner ya know, he was frantic. I think that’s the word. He even came over and asked me if I’d seen them. I told him I hadn’t seen ‘em. Then a while later, the sheriff showed up. I didn’t go inside. I’m not allowed. So, I don’t know exactly what happened, but I hear things.”
“Like what?” Piper was mesmerized with his story.
“Like there was blood in their room.”
Down at the beach, Mary and Nick walked along the water.
“Sorry about all of that,” Nick said sheepishly. “That guy just bugs me. He’s always hanging around the Inn, getting into people’s business.”
“Yeah, I get it. But truly, it can’t hurt for us to talk to him. If he doesn’t give us any new information, then there’s no harm done,” Mary explained.
“I suppose.”
“So, how long have you worked at the Inn?” she asked, changing the subject.
“Just a few weeks. I live there too. The owner is a friend of my dad’s, so he lets me stay in one of the rooms, really cheap. It’s not a bad deal at all.”
“That’s pretty cool. You know, I live at an Inn also,” Mary told him. “My parents own the Wildflower Inn, on the other side of the island, by the ferry port.”
“Oh yeah, I know where that is. I’ve had lunch there with my parents a few times on our way off the island. It’s a good place to stop while waiting for the ferry.” He paused for a moment. “Oh, that’s where I know you from. I thought you looked familiar.”
Mary smiled at the fact that he remembered seeing her. Well, she did have to admit to herself that it could have been Piper he saw. But, who cares, she thought. He was walking on the beach with her, not her sister.
They walked a bit longer, with Nick telling her stuff about his friends and the school he went to. They grew up on opposite ends of the same island, but had lived completely different lives.
Chapter 28
“Blood in the room?!” Piper’s voice was raised as she asked the question. “We didn’t know about that.”
“Do you think that’s why they arrested Sam?” Frankie asked the girls.
“Yeah, probably,” Lola answered.
“He didn’t kill ‘em though,” Corun told them. He looked at them with a pleased expression on his face.
“We know,” Frankie responded. “They are back home with their family now. No one killed them.”
Corun let out a heavy sigh. “Oh.”
“Sorry, we thought you knew,” Piper explained.
“I did know. I just didn’t know everyone else knew. I saw them here just a few weeks ago. They were checking out. I tried to tell the owner that they shouldn’t be here, but he wouldn’t listen to me,” Corun explained. “He didn’t even give me a chance to tell him who they were. He just seemed annoyed with me. He shoulda listened.”
“He knows now,” Frankie spoke up. “We told him at lunch. He looked kinda freaked out when he heard.”
“I have no doubt about that,” Corun responded. “Ya know, there’s something else ya might want to hear about.” He gave them a smug look, as if he had held onto the best secret for last.
“Yeah? What’s that?” Lola was doubtful.
“Well, I know ya promised to buy me a meal when we were done talkin’ here, but a man’s gotta eat tomorrow too.”
He looked into the eyes of each girl. Frankie let out a huff and spoke up first. “Fine, I’ll buy you breakfast for tomorrow. Will that do?”
“Breakfast would be a nice start.” He looked expectantly at Frankie.
“Listen Mister, don’t press your luck,” Lola challenged him.
He backed away. She was a little rough around the edges. Even for a seasoned pirate like himself.
“Okay, okay,” he told her, raising his hands up, palms toward her. “I’ll tell ya.”
Corun reached into the bag he carried. The strap hung on his left shoulder and it was draped across his front section, with the bag balanced on his right hip. He pulled out a bottle containing an amber liquid. The way it was turned, the girls could not see the label. But, they didn’t need to. They understood what the contents were. All three of the teens stood there and watched him take a long swallow of the whiskey. When he finished, he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and smiled at the girls that were watching him so intently. Then he carefully replaced the cap on the bottle and placed it gently back in his bag, closing the flap when done.
“Okay, where were we?” he asked the girls.
It took everything Lola had not to roll her eyes at him. But she knew that he might actually know something that would be useful. It would be in their best interest to humor him. “You were going to tell us something else that we might want to know about,” she said slowly and deliberately. She didn’t know how much of that whiskey he had consumed that day and she didn’t want to have to repeat herself.
“Oh yeah, that’s right.” He looked around. “Hey, can we sit down first? I need to get off these old dogs.”
“We should probably be getting back up to the Inn,” Nick spoke up. “They might be wondering what happened to us.”
Mary knew he was right. They had been gone for a while. She was just having such a nice time walking on the beach with him that she didn’t want to go back. She hoped that Nick was enjoying himself as much as she was.
Mary nodded and the two of them headed for the Inn. They had removed their shoes when they arrived at the beach, so they stopped and sat down on the concrete to put them on. Nick stood up first and reached his hands out to Mary. She smiled as she took them and he pulled her to her feet. They stood there for just a moment, looking into each other’s eyes, before they both remembered they were holding hands and dropped them simultaneously. They smiled uncomfortably at each other and continued on up the sidewalk leading to the Inn.
Nick and Mary found the group still standing in the same place that they had left them in.
“What’s going on? You guys find out anything new?” Mary asked them.
“We were just about to,” Frankie replied, not taking her eyes off of the pirate. She shuffled back and forth from foot to foot.
“Those people were not the first ones that this happened to,” Corun finally told them. There was nowhere for him to sit nearby, so he continued standing.
Lola suddenly perked up with interest. “What do you mean by that?”
“Have ya all not done any snoopin’ around at all?”
The girls looked at each other uncomfortably. He had a point. They had done a little, but not much. He was the bigges
t part of what information they had gathered so far.
“That’s what we’re doing now,” Lola responded. “Do you want to explain what you know, or not?”
The pirate smirked her way. He was getting irritated at all the badgering. He almost wished he had not even talked to them. But, he was hungry and they were going to help with that problem. Besides, he actually enjoyed all the attention he was getting from the pretty girls.
“Well, ya know, I wasn’t around for all the others, but I hear things around here. I listen.”
The girls had all eyes on him. The pirate was holding court, and he liked it.
“Seems like over the last couple hundred years or so, lots of people have gone missing from this here place. Some have even come back. So, your friends were not the first ones this happened to.” Corun stood back on his heels, with his hands in his trouser pockets, clearly satisfied with what he had just revealed.
“How can you know that?” Piper was suspicious of his story.
“I told ya, Missy, I hear things. There’s gotta be records somewhere. Folks are keen on writin’ stuff down.”
“You know, he’s right,” Mary added. “We should go check the library for old news stories. There has to be something there.”
“Anything else?” Lola asked the pirate.
“Ya gonna buy me lunch or not?”
“Yeah, we’re gonna buy you lunch,” Frankie answered. “Come with me.”
Frankie led Corun into the cafe, ignoring the sideways glances they got from the staff and guests. She found Chelsea and paid for his lunch in advance, as well as breakfast and lunch for the next day.
As the girls started driving out of the parking lot, Mary glanced back to see Nick. He was gone, but she did see Heath, the owner, standing in front of the Inn watching them. He didn’t wave. He just stood there. It sent a chill up Mary’s spine.
Chapter 29
Over the next few weeks the Jamison family, all seven of them, did their best to settle in to their new circumstances. Every one of them had been affected by Steve and Claire’s return, as well as Dustin’s release from prison.
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