by GP Gardner
The relative absence of civilian vehicles and people suggested the rest of the Harbor Village staff was already gone.
“Notice you don’t see any residents out? Naptime.” Emily laughed. “Even if there was a drowning.”
Patti joined in. “But let the cable go out and it’s like an ant hill here, everybody running over to complain, wanting to know how soon FOX will be back on. That’s the biggest complaint we get. That and the dining room.”
“Be nice,” I chided them, just as I’d do with Stephanie. “You’ll be old one day, if you’re lucky. Have a good weekend.”
I went back to the apartment, cut open the wardrobe box and moved all my hanging clothes to the closet. And when I finished that, I hopped into the shower and prepared for a game of dominoes and the inevitable rehashing of the day’s events.
At five, I was dressed and ready to go to the Bergens’ apartment, but with twenty minutes to spare. I sat down at the computer and searched for veterinary offices in Fairhope. I found the one Nita had mentioned, in the shopping center next door, and dialed the number. Voice mail told me they’d be in again on Monday or, if this were an emergency, I could press 1 and be connected with the weekend on-call vet.
I hung up and my phone beeped.
I listened to a message from Travis McKenzie. “Cleo, I need to talk with you. Call me back at this number.”
Oh, great. Stephanie’s father was the last person I wanted to talk to, and there was no time now anyway. I got my purse, checked the doors and stroked the cat a few times before walking over to Nita’s.
Chapter 5
There were four players for Mexican Trains, and Jim had already retired to his office when I arrived.
“This isn’t a normal occurrence for Harbor Village.” Nita seemed embarrassed and a little angry, as though a drowning were an assault on civility.
“No, it’s normally as dull as dishwater here.” Dolly looked at me. “Don’t expect anything exciting to happen here, not ever again.”
Riley chuckled and kept turning dominoes face down on the vinyl pad. “Is Ada not coming?”
“She canceled,” Nita said.
“We ought to disinvite her,” Dolly said.
“We can’t do that.” Nita frowned.
“She doesn’t come half the time,” Dolly complained. “And she’s always so gloomy. Cleo’s got all the gossip, I’ll bet. What’s going on?”
I did a mental check for anything I knew that would interest them. “The police closed off the main building. I guess you know that. And Jamie’s leaving.”
Riley looked at me, raised a finger to his lips and then pointed toward Jim’s office.
Jim was speaking loudly, and I whispered back to Riley, “Is he on the phone? Can he hear us?”
Riley gave a quick headshake.
“Are we starting with sevens tonight? What did we get to last week?” Dolly swirled the tiles around on the table.
Riley consulted his notepad. “I think we should start fresh, since Cleo wasn’t here last time.”
“Yes, let’s do that,” Nita said.
“Looky here, looky here,” Jim sang out from the doorway.
I looked over my shoulder and saw him leaning heavily on his cane.
“Do you know all these people, Chief?”
Chief Boozer stepped out of the hallway behind him and scanned our group around the table. “Ms. Mack, Mr. Meddors.” He acknowledged us with a nod of his head.
“And this is Dolly Webb.” Nita patted Dolly’s arm. “She’s lived at Harbor Village for years.”
“Yes, we met this morning,” Dolly said. “You probably don’t remember.”
“You’re a swimmer,” Chief Boozer said.
Jim didn’t seem to listen. “Hard to keep all the little old ladies straight, isn’t it, Chief? You have to focus your attention on people who could pose a threat, not the ninety-pound octogenarians.”
“Anybody who swims laps five days a week is in better shape than I am.” Chief Boozer raised his eyebrows and gave us a smile and a nod. “Good night, everybody.”
“I got a call from Travis McKenzie,” I said, loudly. My new philosophy called for full disclosure. I didn’t want any more embarrassing confessions.
Chief Boozer turned back, tipping his head to the side. “Oh?” He waited.
“He left a message and wants me to call back. I haven’t done it yet.”
He nodded. “I suppose he doesn’t know many people here.”
“Apparently he knows I’m here.”
After a brief moment of silence, the chief said, “I didn’t tell him. Well, good night, folks.”
Jim went to the door with him but came to the table after a few moments. “Did somebody order the sandwiches? Want me to do it?”
“It’s already done,” Nita said.
“Good, good. Call me when they get here.” He went back to his lair.
“Was I just insulted?” Dolly asked. “I believe Jim thinks I’m insignificant.”
“We all know better than that,” Riley soothed.
“Yes.” I changed to a gruff voice. “Where were you at midnight, Ms. Webb?”
“Drowning the CEO.” Dolly laughed. “Or whatever she is.”
“Was.” Nita managed to squelch the levity with a single word.
But not before I learned something. If they had heard about any inconsistencies with drowning, they weren’t mentioning it. Maybe I’d misunderstood Officer Montgomery’s whispered report.
We played dominos until 6:25, when the doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it.” Jim charged out of the back room and headed for the door like a shot. Or like a shot with a walking cane.
Conversation during dinner focused on the day’s events.
“A lot of excitement,” Jim called it, and Dolly agreed.
“I prefer boredom,” Riley said.
“That poor woman,” Nita said.
“When do you suppose it happened?” Dolly inspected the sandwich platter before selecting turkey with Swiss and lettuce. “I thought the pool was closed until six every morning, and I was there by six.”
“It’s never closed,” Jim said.
I looked at him. “Doesn’t a pool have to be locked? I thought there was a law.”
“I don’t know about laws, but I know that gate’s never locked,” Jim said. “What I don’t know is why anybody would go in there at night, wearing street clothes. I made my usual patrol of the premises at ten thirty and there was nobody in the area.”
Dolly licked her fingers discretely. “Did you look in the water?”
Jim ignored her.
“We saw her in the lobby at eight thirty,” Riley glanced at me for confirmation and accepted the sandwich platter from Nita. “So she was on the premises after dinner. Probably in the water by the time you went out.”
That got Jim’s attention. “Really? You and Cleo saw her?”
“Well, Cleo did. Ms. Ferrell was sitting in the lobby when we got back from dinner. Right, Cleo?” He took a couple of sandwich pieces and held the platter for me.
I nodded and selected a big segment with hot, sautéed vegetables.
“Very interesting,” Jim looked from me to Riley. “I didn’t realize you knew Ms. Ferrell, Riley. Don’t think I ever saw her before.” He looked back at me. “Did you give this information to Chief Boozer?” He motioned for the platter.
“Yes.”
Riley said, “Maybe I should.”
Jim frowned. “I guess he just forgot to mention it, but I’d better be sure he knows. I’ll phone him after we eat. Sitting in the lobby, huh? By herself.”
“I didn’t see anyone else. But when I saw her late in the afternoon, she was looking for the handyman. I guess he might’ve been there somewhere, working on the lights. They were on, and L
ee was looking at them.”
“I haven’t gotten in the habit of checking the pool every night. I suppose I should.”
Wouldn’t he love to discover a body? I hoped he’d never get another chance.
At eight thirty we wrapped up our game and prepared to depart. The bill for sandwiches was cheaper this week.
“I ordered one less than last time, since Ada wasn’t coming,” Nita said.
We got out our money and swapped bills until everyone had appropriate change, and Jim collected the payments.
“Go back to the larger order next time, honey.” He arranged the bills and stuck them into an already bulging wallet. “Doesn’t hurt to have a little extra food. Cleo, you want me to walk you home?”
“No. I’ll be fine. It’s just across the street.”
“And I’m going that way,” Riley said.
“We can’t just assume it’s safe here now.” Jim led the way to the door, sounding pleased with the turn of events. “I’ll do a late patrol in a couple of hours.”
Dolly paused at the door. “What do you mean it’s not safe? It’s never safe to go falling around a swimming pool, and there’s no evidence of anything else.”
“Well, maybe, maybe not. Things aren’t always what they seem. Have to keep an open mind.”
“You know something, don’t you?”
Jim shrugged and grinned, and looked past me to Riley. “Riley, I meant to ask. What do you know about the financial condition of Harbor Village?”
Dolly was out on the porch. “You think somebody drowned her because she didn’t pay the bills?”
Riley said, “I haven’t reviewed anything recently. Maybe I should.”
“Maybe Cleo will have inside access.” Jim looked at me with a hopeful expression.
“Maybe, but I don’t know anything yet.”
Dolly reappeared in the doorway. “Cleo, earlier tonight—did you say somebody is leaving?”
“Jamie. She’s transferring to Charleston.”
“What!” Jim squawked. “Where did you get that?”
“From the office staff. She may be gone already.”
Jim took a step backward and bumped against the wall. “She hasn’t said a word. Does Chief Boozer know? I’ll call him right now.”
We said our good nights to Nita, and Dolly went in the main entrance to the building. Riley and I walked across the boulevard.
“If you don’t mind my asking, who is Travis McKenzie?”
I told him. “We’ve been divorced twenty-three years, but he married Lee Ferrell a few weeks ago.”
“And you didn’t know that?”
“I knew he got married. I just learned this afternoon that his new wife was the administrator here. But she knew who I was.” I told him about the remark she’d made in the lobby.
We were at the front door of my building and he followed me through the sitting room, where the mailboxes were located.
“I got part of that last night. That’s why you wanted Stephanie to see her.”
“Right. And just think, if Stephanie had seen her, they would’ve recognized each other and talked. The sequence of events would’ve been altered. Maybe Lee wouldn’t have gone to the pool.” I sighed. “Have you heard anything about the cause of death?”
“Drowning?”
“I thought I heard something else, but I must’ve misunderstood.”
At the door to my apartment, I got out my key. He produced a flat brown wallet and pulled out a business card.
“My number is on here and I’m in the next building. Call if you need me.”
I thanked him and wondered what use he’d be in an emergency. Fortunately, I didn’t intend to have any emergencies.
Stephanie called an hour later. I was already in bed, working a Sudoku puzzle to stay awake.
“Did you have fun playing dominoes?” There was a tease in her voice.
“Yes. Nobody’s died since you left.”
“Did Dad call you?”
“Yes. What does he want?”
“Mom. You didn’t even talk to him?”
“He left a message for me to call back and I haven’t done it yet. What’s up?”
“He thought he might be arrested and wanted me to arrange to bail him out. I told him you’re there.”
“Great. Why would he be arrested?”
“Oh, Mom. He hasn’t got a clue. They don’t arrest you just because your wife drowns. I tried to tell him that. I don’t know what he’s thinking. That’s the problem, I guess; he’s not thinking, he’s just bouncing around. Grieving, I suppose, or going nuts. He’s so irrational, I almost wonder if he has done something.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“No, of course not.”
I woke early Saturday and couldn’t get back to sleep. Ten minutes before six, the clock said when I gave up and rolled out of bed. The cat stood, arched her back and stretched then meowed for attention.
I put on the jeans I’d left lying across the dresser, with the last clean T-shirt in the suitcase, and slipped into sandals. This would be a good day to catch up on the laundry I’d generated before and after the move. But first I went out to the kitchen and started the coffee.
While I waited, listening to the coffeemaker’s sizzles and grunts, I added food to the cat’s dish. Then, with a cup of steaming coffee in hand, I decided to see what Harbor Village looked like in the early morning, when it wasn’t the scene of a fatal accident. I got my keys and phone, stuck a tissue in a pocket and went out through the screened porch.
The lights were on at Ann’s next door and in the apartment at the other back corner of my building. I couldn’t think of the name of the woman who lived there, but I knew she had short gray hair and a slow-walking Pekingese and had told Barry he looked like her grandson. And around the corner from her was Gloria, a chubby little blonde with gold-framed glasses, who looked like Mrs. Claus and had brought me a welcome gift, a loaf of homemade bread. I made a mental note to return her plate today.
It had rained sometime during the night and the sidewalk was still wet. A few shallow pools of water stood in low spots. I stopped at the corner of the garages, where I had a view of the big house. The lights were off and everything looked calm and quiet. Yellow tape still looped in scallops from one porch post to the next, barring admission.
I walked along the south side of the big house, sipping my coffee and taking in my surroundings. The silver SUV was right where I’d first seen it two nights ago. If it belonged to the night watchman, as I suspected, he must park in the same space every night. Such predictability didn’t strike me as an ideal trait for a security guard, who was supposed to observe things people didn’t want seen. But would a guard own a Lexus? I wasn’t so sure.
There was a sign on the side of the building, big letters saying “ballroom.” Sounded grand, but I wondered what it was like inside. Elegant or utilitarian? And what was it used for? I couldn’t picture many Harbor Village residents dancing a tango.
At the back of the main building, I found a pretty little koi pond, with not-so-little orange and white fish that followed me as I walked around their pool to look in the windows of an arts and crafts room. The fish were sort of creepy, but the art room looked inviting. I could see easels and finished paintings displayed along the back wall. There was more yellow tape across the back doors to the lobby, but with the reflections on the glass, I couldn’t see inside the lobby.
I retraced my path to a lush vegetable garden, where radishes shouldered up out of the earth and giant leaves of squash plants held little pools of rainwater. The cherry tomatoes looked like Christmas balls. I wished Barry could see the green tunnel the plants made, growing up and across the top of a bamboo frame. He would’ve raced right through it, but I didn’t because of the dripping water. Instead, I took a gravel pathway that ran between r
aised beds. My footsteps crunched and loose gravel slid into my sandals.
Fern-like dill plants were loaded with sparkling drops of water and gave off their distinctive smell as I brushed against them. I half-remembered that they served as a host plant for some butterfly species, but I didn’t see any caterpillars crawling around.
The yellow Assisted Living building had three cars parked out front. The porch was crowded with love seats and rockers and a swing, but no one was out yet.
I considered going in and looking for Jamie, in case she was still in town, but her BMW wasn’t among the parked cars. Anyway, the staff would be busy at this hour, serving breakfast and morning meds and helping residents get up and dressed.
I turned toward the front of the complex and walked past the recycling shed, where I was supposed to deliver my flattened moving boxes. Across the street was a row of attractive small condos, with individual garages and tiny porches. Lights were on in one unit and a bird feeder swung from a Japanese maple.
Next came the pink building with the indoor pool, and beyond it the wrought iron fence around the outdoor pool. And there was Dolly, just exiting the outdoor pool area and closing the gate behind herself.
“Good morning,” I called softly then again more loudly. “Dolly!”
“What?” She looked around, startled. “Oh, it’s you.”
She was wearing her white bathrobe, juggling a phone and a key ring while she closed the gate. Today she had a pink towel and it was wrapped turban-style around her head. “Are you coming to swim?”
“No. Just walking. It’s so quiet today.”
“And no corpses in the pool. Except me, that is. I don’t usually swim on Saturdays, but I had to make up for yesterday. Oh, Cleo! I want to give you something.”
“What?”
She stopped walking and dug in the pocket of her robe then stretched her hand out to me. “It’s a good thing you showed up. I didn’t know what I was going to do with it.”
I stuck out my hand and she dropped in a phone.
“I found it. Just now.”
“Where?”
She pointed to her pocket. “In here.”