A Wrongful Drift (Seagrove 8)

by Leona Fox

“Sam? No. I haven’t seen her since she threatened to turn us in. How did you find me?” Holly asked.

  “Bullied the registrar into giving me the information,” Betty said.

  “Guess you’ll have to bully the registrar again,” Holly said. “It seems to work.”

  She frowned at Sadie. “You don’t think the press is going to hunt me down?” she asked.

  “I don’t know,” Sadie said. “But you can always just not answer the door. They can’t barge in without your permission.”

  “Oh. I hadn’t thought of that. Thanks.”

  She leaned down and petted Mr. B on the head. “Take it easy, Mr. Bradshaw,” she said and disappeared back into the cottage.

  “What an odd girl,” Betty said. “Brains, but no common sense.”

  “I liked her,” Lucy said. “She seems brutally honest.”

  “It’s too late to track down Samantha Vitt,” Sadie said. “Let’s pick up a pizza and take it back to the shop.”

  Mr. Bradshaw lay under the table in the back room while Lucy, Betty, and Sadie ate pizza and split a bottle of Gilroy White, a wine Sadie had picked up at the Thomas Kruse Winery in Gilroy, California on her last trip out west. The taste of the wine reminded Sadie of hot, dusty days in the central valley of California where she'd found some wonderful items in the basements and attics of the old farm houses.

  "Let's put a trip to California on our list of things to do after we get back from our Europe trip," Sadie said. “We should go in the spring or fall when it's not too warm there."

  She sipped her wine. "I need to pick up some more of this."

  "If we go to California," Lucy said, "I think we should spend some time at the beach taking a real vacation. Rooting around in dusty barns is fun and all but it's not relaxing."

  "We could do both, spend a week in the dust and then a week in the ocean washing the dust away," Betty said through a mouthful of pizza. "That would be nice. Pack everything up and ship it east, and then go put our toes in the Pacific Ocean for a while."

  "It's a plan," Sadie said. "And I can't wait. Meanwhile, should we head to Italy or Spain for our next buying trip? I want to close the shop, leave Mr. B with Zack, and have all three of us travel together. The shop can pay."

  "I think we should bring Mr. Bradshaw with us," Betty said, slipping her foot from her shoe and rubbing his belly with her toe as he thumped his tail once. "He needs some beach time, too."

  "He hates to fly," Sadie said. "Believe me, he'll be much happier here with Zack."

  "I'd be happier if he came with us," Betty said. "He's good company."

  Mr. B groaned and stretched his hind legs out straight, giving Betty better access to his belly.

  "I guess we could drive to California," Sadie said. "But it would add two weeks to our trip. The shop would be closed for a month."

  "Never mind," Betty said. "I'm sure Mr. B will be fine without us. But it will be different not having him around."

  "If that's the way you feel, imagine how Sadie feels," Lucy said. "He's practically her bodyguard."

  "What do you mean 'practically'?" Sadie asked. "He is my bodyguard."

  She glanced under the table to see him shamelessly roll closer to Betty. "Traitor," she said and smiled.

  Affection for the little creature swelled in her heart and some of the dissatisfaction of the last few days fell away. As long as Mr. B was in her life all was right with the world.

  "I feel like we're following the breadcrumbs," Lucy said. "Everywhere we go leads to another crumb of information. That leads to another, and another and none of it leads to anything substantial. It's frustrating."

  "Tomorrow I'm going to find Samantha and see where that leads us," Sadie said. "And maybe we can get Justin released."

  "I've got work to do here," Betty said. "So I'll pass. What about you, Lucy? Will you go with Sadie?"

  "I will," Lucy said. "I have to get ready for a trunk sale, but I can do it tonight and be ready to leave when you're ready to go, Sadie."

  "Ok, it's a plan, then," Sadie said. "But are you sure, Betty? It doesn't seem right to leave you here."

  "Are you kidding me? You're taking me to Spain or Italy. I'm not complaining," Betty said. "And someone has to keep this shop running or there won't be money for trips to go anywhere!"

  "You get an extra day at the beach while we rummage in the dust when we get to California."

  "That could be two years from now, Sadie," Lucy said. "That doesn't seem fair."

  Sadie got up and gathered up the napkins and the pizza box and tossed them in the recycling bin in the alley. Betty was dividing up the wine when she came back in.

  "It's not fair," Sadie said, referring to Lucy's last comment, "but I can't think what to do instead. A special dinner?"

  "How about a visit to Vatican City?" Betty asked. "I'd like that."

  "You got it," Sadie said. "Vatican City here we come. You'll have to figure out what we should see before we get there."

  "Absolutely, I will." Betty grinned. "You won't have to ask me twice."

  She slipped her shoes back on. "I'm heading home, and I'll be back in the morning." She hugged the other women, grabbed her purse and jacket and skipped out the front door.

  "Betty sure is happy," Lucy said, gathering up her purse and jacket.

  "Betty is the best," Sadie said. "Nothing gets her down, and she works like a demon." Sadie walked Lucy to the door and locked it after her.

  "Come on Mr. Bradshaw, let's go upstairs."

  Mr. Bradshaw came out from under the table and shook all over before trotting up the stairs to their apartment with Sadie coming up behind him.

  The next morning found Lucy and Sadie back at the registrar’s office of the college with Mr. Bradshaw making friends with the administrative assistants. The woman behind the counter didn't even protest this time around, just took the name and came back with a phone number and address. Sadie thanked her, made Mr. Bradshaw say goodbye and the three headed back out to the car.

  "This is just like chasing breadcrumbs," Sadie said. "A little clue here, a hint there. Hopefully, we'll eventually hit the jackpot."

  "Perseverance is everything," Lucy said. "We just need to keep at it. Have you heard anything about Justin? Have they charged him?"

  "I haven't heard," Sadie said.

  "But who knows? There could be enough circumstantial evidence to take him to trial. I saw the pictures he had of Sylvia in his apartment. It's pretty creepy. If they didn't have those, I'd be over at Steve Ryan's lock-up kicking up a fuss. But I don't know how to explain the pictures. Either he had a serious crush or something creepy is going on."

  She shuddered. "I'd be freaked out if someone had that many photos of me."

  "I'm sure he'll tell you why when he gets let out," Lucy said. "He tells you everything. I swear he talks to you more than he talks to his own mother."

  "I'm not as judgmental as his mother." Sadie shrugged again. "I mean, if my mom treated me like that, I probably wouldn't talk to her either."

  "Are we going back to the sorority house?" Lucy asked, looking around as they turned up a familiar street.

  "No, it's not the same address," Sadie said. "But you're right, it's the same neighborhood."

  They pulled up and stopped at a house just across the alley from the sorority house. They could see the upper stories over the little ranch where Samantha lived.

  "Maybe they ran out of room at the main house and created an annex," Lucy said.

  "There's only one way to find out." Sadie grabbed Mr. B's leash and slid out of the car with the terrier at her side.

  "Let's find out if she's home." Lucy knocked and Sadie rang the bell, but no one answered.

  "We could sit on the step and wait," Lucy said.

  "We could," Sadie started, but then Mr. Bradshaw gave a bark and ran to a gate in the fence that surrounded the backyard. Sadie reeled him in and knocked at the gate.

  "Is anyone in there?" she called out.

  A sleepy
looking redhead came to the gate and peered through the ornamental cutouts. "Who are you?" she asked.

  "Sadie Barnett and Lucy Shylock," Sadie said.

  Mr. B barked. "Oh and my dog, Mr. Bradshaw."

  "You've got a dog?"

  The gate swung open and the girl sat down on the walkway to say hello to the terrier. He was a small dog, but the young woman was slight and he was able to put his paws on her shoulders and lick her face. Secretly, Sadie hoped this wasn't Samantha because she clearly had Mr. Bradshaw's stamp of approval.

  "Do you know Samantha Vitt?" Sadie asked. "I'd like to talk to her."

  "I'm Sam." She picked up Mr. B and held him under one arm while she tickled him under the chin. He made growly noises of approval.

  "Wow," Lucy said. "Mr. Bradshaw sure likes you."

  "I love dogs," Sam said. "I can't have one here, the landlady is an old cow. But I will when I graduate."

  "What's your degree?" Lucy asked.

  "I'm going to be a vet," Sam said. "After Seagrove, I'm going to apply to Albany. They have a great veterinary school there."

  "You won't have trouble creating a rapport with your patients," Sadie said, as Mr. B started to wriggle.

  "Here, I'll take him back." She liberated Mr. Bradshaw from Samantha and set him on the ground to sniff around her feet.

  "What did you want to ask me about?" Sam asked.

  "Sylvia Jones," Sadie said.

  "Syl Jones is vile. What did she do now? Make the pledges shave their heads? I swear she's evil." Sam's face turned hard.

  "She's dead," Sadie said, watching Sam's features closely. "She was murdered."

  "You're kidding," Sam said. "No one would dare murder that cow."

  "No, I'm not. I was there when she was found."

  "I guess there is justice in the world after all," Sam said, lifting a shoulder. "She should have been nicer to people."

  Sadie couldn't hide the shock on her face and Lucy looked like she smelled something rotten.

  "What?" Samantha said. "You want me to lie and say how sorry I am? I'm not a liar, and she was not a nice person. She enjoyed humiliating other people. People like that are bound to make enemies."

  "How come you haven't heard about her death?" Lucy asked. "It's been all over the news."

  "I've been in Mexico for the last four weeks. Just got home last night."

  Mr. Bradshaw was right, Sadie thought. Sam wasn't a murderer. At least, she didn't murder Sylvia.

  "What were you doing in Mexico?" Lucy asked.

  "The oil spill. A few of us finished the semester early so we could join the cleanup crew. We were saving sea life and birds. At least, that's what we thought, but when we got down there, we found dogs and cats that were affected, and livestock. And when that was done there was a herd of horses that were starving and we had to do something about that before we could come back. It was grueling, but I think we did a lot of good. I wasn’t around to murder Syl. But if I'd met up with the owner of the tanker that spilled the crude, I would have gladly murdered him."

  "The very rich are certainly becoming infamous," Sadie said. "So many seemed to be greedy and so few generous. I'm glad you were able to help in Mexico."

  "And it gave me an alibi for the murder of my archnemesis," Sam said. "So I win twice."

  "I guess so," Sadie said. "Lucky you. A word of caution, you live very close to a house full of distraught women who don't believe Sylvia deserved to die. I'd keep my sentiments about her to myself if I were you."

  "I won't lie about how I feel," Sam said, straightening her back.

  "I'm not asking you to lie," Sadie said. "Just to have some compassion for the people who feel differently about her than you do. I'd hate for you to get hurt in the backlash. And I don’t think they deserve to have their feelings belittled."

  "I take your point. I'll be circumspect," Sam said. "You can bring Mr. Bradshaw over to visit me any time. He's got spunk."

  "Yes, he does. I'm glad you like him." They said their goodbyes and got back in the car.

  "Breadcrumbs," Lucy said as they headed back down the hill. "We seem to have run out."

  "I know," Sadie said, glancing from the road to Lucy's face. "We’ve reached a dead end."

  "What do we do now?"

  "My plan is to see what I can get out of Zack, and then return to the sorority if I can't get any useful information out of him. What about you? Do you have any ideas?"

  "Not a one," Lucy said. "This case seems to be chock full of people who hated the dead woman, but who couldn't have committed the murder."

  "Samantha's alibi seems airtight, and easily checked, but some of the others might not be as tight as they seem. The problem is I don't know exactly when Sylvia died. That makes it difficult to pin down anyone."

  3

  That evening Sadie was intent on pinning down Zack. He had to know more than he was saying. So rather than wait for him to come by her apartment, she put a leash on Mr. Bradshaw and walked him down to the station house.

  They found Zack in his office buried in stacks of paper. Mr. B jumped onto one of the two chairs in front of Zack's desk and curled up. Sadie sat on the edge of the other one and waited until Zack looked up.

  "You are like a vulture waiting to pounce," Zack said and closed the file he was reading.

  "What have you discovered?"

  “Absolutely nothing,” Sadie said. “We’ve been following the crumb trail to nowhere. I'm vulture-like because I'm determined to find out what you know. So go ahead and spit it out, has there been any progress?”

  “It’s not really my case, Sadie, and I’m not convinced it wasn’t Justin Ives.”

  He caught her glance. “Don’t look at me like that. You saw those photos.”

  "Mr. Bradshaw likes him," Sadie said. The dog twitched one ear when he heard his name.

  "Even Mr. Bradshaw makes mistakes," Zack said. "He's not clairvoyant."

  "Mr. Bradshaw never makes mistakes about people. And for all we know he is clairvoyant. I don't think you are giving him enough credit."

  "You may be right," Zack said, "but even if he is, I can't go to Steve Ryan and tell him he's got the wrong guy based on what my girlfriend’s dog says. It just won't fly, Sadie."

  "Fiancé," Sadie said.

  "Huh?" His face went blank.

  "I'm not your girlfriend, I'm your fiancé," Sadie said. Zack grinned.

  "Why, yes you are. And based on that I can talk to Steve." His eyes sparkled.

  "Stop teasing," Sadie said, but her mood had lightened. "I know you can't reference Mr. B. But you could put a bug in his ear. Couldn't you?"

  "I can put a bug in his ear, and the next time I see him, I will." He smiled again and shook his head. "Only for you."

  Sadie returned his smile, feeling warm inside. "What are you working on?"

  "Someone keeps breaking into the art studio and stealing paint. Then they use that to paint graffiti the wall around the mayor's home. They are sneaky little vandals and I haven't been able to catch them at it. There are worse things going on, but I've had to take this on myself, it being the mayor's wall and all."

  "Too bad, I know you'd much prefer to be working on a nice juicy murder. Or maybe a gang war."

  "There aren't any gangs in Seagrove," Zack said. "Although there was an altercation at the high school, and the groups broke roughly on race lines."

  "Who'd you assign that to?" Sadie asked.

  "I had to tell the principal we didn't investigate food fights," he said. "The poor woman was very disappointed. I think she was hoping we'd scare the kids into good behavior."

  "I can't blame her," Sadie said. "I'd be hoping for that, too, if I were her."

  Zack settled himself back in his chair. "What are you up to next?" he asked. "Going to consult Mr. Bradshaw on the whereabouts of our murderer?"

  "Nope. If he knows, he's not telling." Sadie shrugged. "What I'm going to do is go back to the sorority and see what's surfaced in the last couple of days."


  "I thought you were talking about going to Spain?" Zack said. "What happened with that?"

  "Oh, I'm still going, but not until this case is closed."

  "And what if that takes years?" he asked.

  "I'll cross that bridge when we come to it," she said. "But I've got a feeling we'll find the bad guy soon now. I'm betting before the end of the week."

  "Did Mr. Bradshaw tell you this?" he asked, eyebrows raised.

  "No. I have a hunch." She stood up and Mr. Bradshaw stood up, shook, and jumped off the chair.

  "Are you coming over for dinner after work tonight?" she asked.

  "Does it matter if it's late?" he asked.

  "Not a bit, I'm cooking a take and bake pizza. Give me a call half an hour before you leave and it will be hot when you get there." She went to step out the door.

  "Wait," he said and stood up. He came around the desk and wrapped his arms around her before dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

  "Be safe, okay?"

  "Always," she said. "Mr. Bradshaw insists on it."

  Rather than go to the shop Sadie headed straight to the sorority house. She felt bad for not asking Betty or Lucy, but sometimes it was easier to get people to open up when you didn't bring a posse. Also, she was a sorority sister, which engendered trust, while Betty and Lucy were outsiders. At least, that was Sadie's thinking.

  The sorority mother let Sadie in and led her back down to the social room where about a dozen girls were hanging out, listening to music and snacking. The house mother slipped away back down the hall and Sadie brought Mr. Bradshaw into the conversation area. He hopped onto a dark-haired girl's lap and all the girls in the room came over to see him.

  Before many minutes the word was out and there were at least twenty girls in the room, all gathered around the spot where Mr. Bradshaw was holding court. He allowed himself to be patted and passed around and Sadie vowed to herself she would give him extra treats tonight because he was behaving so well. He didn't growl once.

  "How are you all doing?" Sadie asked. "Are you recovering from the shock of losing another sister?"

  She looked carefully into their faces, not only to give the impression she was concerned, but because she was. These were her sorority sisters, the latest in a long line of connected women that strove to make the world a better place.