by Sarah Fox
“Why don’t you leave the interview to me,” I suggested. “I’d really rather you didn’t get involved.”
“Marley, we already went through this,” she said calmly. “She’ll be way less suspicious of a teenager asking her questions.”
I sighed as I kept pace with her on the sidewalk. Her determination was eerily familiar. I’d have as much luck keeping her out of the investigation as I would keeping myself out of it.
It didn’t take long to reach the school grounds, but by the time we arrived I was wishing I’d stopped off at home to change into cooler clothes. I’d forgotten to pack a pair of shorts in my tote bag that morning and now I was ready to wilt. A teenage girl stood at the gate to the sports field, handing out competition schedules. I accepted the one she offered to me, not so much because I was interested in the events taking place that afternoon, but more because the sheet of paper gave me something to fan myself with.
“Maybe we should split up,” Sienna said as we stood near the edge of the field, taking in the sight of all the athletes, officials, and spectators. The bleachers weren’t completely filled, but there was still quite a good crowd.
“I think it would be better for us to stick together,” I countered. “I don’t want you talking to Felicia without me close by.”
“I promise I won’t ask her any questions until you’re there with me, but it could take us hours to search this place if we don’t split up.”
I knew she was right about that. “All right,” I relented. “But I’m holding you to that promise.”
Sienna traced an X over her heart and flashed a grin at me before disappearing into the crowd. I set off in the opposite direction, keeping my eyes peeled for Felicia.
I thought I spotted her on several occasions over the next few minutes, but each time I got closer I realized I’d honed in on the wrong fair-haired woman. I’d made it about a third of the way around the perimeter of the field when my phone buzzed in my hand.
Found her! A text message from Sienna read. By the long jump.
That was at the opposite end of the field. With longing, I eyed a nearby vendor who was selling canned drinks from a cooler filled with ice. The line to purchase beverages from him was five deep, so I passed him by with regret, continuing around the perimeter of the field.
By the time I spotted Sienna waving at me, my event schedule had gone limp. I stuffed it into the back pocket of my jeans.
Sienna grabbed my arm when I reached her.
“See? That’s her.” She pointed toward three women standing in a tiny patch of shade cast by the equipment hut in one corner of the field.
Sure enough, one of the women matched the photo of Felicia that Sienna had found online.
As we kept an eye on the group, the other two women walked off, leaving Felicia on her own, watching as the next competitor got ready to take a run at the long jump.
“This is my chance!”
Sienna darted off before I’d absorbed her words.
I hurried after her, but then slowed down as she walked right up to Felicia and started chatting with her. I sidled closer until I could hear what they were saying, all the while pretending that I was focused on the competition unfolding in front of me. In reality, I barely noticed what the athletes were doing.
Felicia had obviously bought Sienna’s story about working for the local paper. She happily answered questions about her experience at the games and how she’d become involved in track and field. The amiability between them continued until Sienna nudged the conversation in the direction she wanted it to go.
“I’ve heard you used to have a fierce rivalry with your fellow competitor, Yvonne Pritchard. Was that a thing of the past, or was it still going on when you arrived in Wildwood Cove?”
I gave up my pretense of watching the competition so I could focus on Felicia. The friendly smile had vanished from her face, and her gray eyes had turned flinty.
“I don’t want to talk about Yvonne Pritchard.” She nearly spat out the reporter’s name.
Sienna didn’t appear fazed at all. “Now that Yvonne’s been murdered, do you regret that you didn’t get along with her?”
“I regret nothing.” Felicia had lowered her voice, but each word practically sizzled and popped with the heat of her anger.
I edged closer.
“And like I said,” Felicia continued, “I don’t want to talk about that snake of a woman.”
“I’m sorry,” Sienna said with an innocent and apologetic smile. “My editor wanted me to ask these questions. She told me it would make for a juicy story.”
Felicia’s eyes flashed. “Then I suggest you look for a new summer job. Otherwise you’ll end up no better than Yvonne.”
Sienna typed something into her phone. “So you thought she was pretty bad?”
The fury on Felicia’s face set off alarm bells in my head. She looked like she wanted to slap Sienna. I quickly moved to the teenager’s side.
“Thanks for taking the time to answer some questions,” I said.
Felicia focused her steely gaze on me. “Who are you?”
“My mentor,” Sienna said before I had a chance to respond.
That only seemed to incense Felicia even more. “So you put her up to asking those questions?” She jabbed a finger at me. “You should be ashamed of yourself! Teaching this young lady to make disgusting insinuations!”
“I was just asking questions,” Sienna said, still managing to sound innocent. “It’s not like I was accusing you of killing anyone.”
“And you’d better not!” Felicia leaned closer and lowered her voice again, although it lost none of its heat. “Both of you, listen to me. If you print even the slightest suggestion that I had something to do with Yvonne’s murder, you’ll be facing a lawsuit.”
“We’re not accusing you of anything,” I said quickly, hoping to placate her.
“Good,” she said, although she didn’t sound any happier. “Because I didn’t care one whit about Yvonne. That was all in the past, and as far as I’m concerned that’s where it belongs.”
With one last, furious glare at us, she stormed off.
“Whoa,” Sienna said once she’d gone. “Touchy subject.”
I gave a vague nod of agreement, most of my attention elsewhere.
As Felicia had stalked off, I’d noticed Jay Henkel standing nearby, listening in. He was walking away now, but his shoulders were shaking with laughter.
Chapter Eighteen
“Marley?”
Sienna called my name as I took off after Jay.
“Excuse me!” I said as I jogged up to the photographer’s side.
He glanced my way without recognition, but then he did a double take and drew to a stop. “Hey, the pancake lady.”
“Um… sure.” I didn’t let that throw me off. “Do you know Felicia Venner?”
Jay blew a speck of dirt off the camera hanging around his neck. “Why are you asking?”
“You laughed when you overheard her back there. I was wondering why you thought what she said was so funny.”
Sienna appeared at my elbow, but Jay didn’t acknowledge her presence.
“I laughed because she was lying through her teeth.”
“You mean about her rivalry with Yvonne Pritchard being a thing of the past?” Sienna asked.
Jay finally glanced her way, if only for a split second, before focusing his attention on the latest woman getting ready to compete in the long jump. “Yep. Talk about a load of crap.”
I noticed he still hadn’t directly admitted to knowing Felicia, but he obviously knew something about her. “How do you know she was lying?”
His attention snapped back to me and Sienna, and he appraised us with cool eyes. “What’s your interest?”
“I’ve got a summer internship with the local newspaper,” Sie
nna piped up. “Marley’s my mentor. I want to write an article about Yvonne Pritchard.”
Jay let out a humorless bark of laughter. “And what? You’ll make her out to be a saint?”
“Not if she wasn’t,” Sienna said.
The way Jay stared at me then sent an unpleasant chill slithering up my spine. “So, let me get this straight. You work at the pancake house and the local newspaper?”
“Not exactly,” I said, hoping I wasn’t about to get tripped up by our fibs.
Sienna jumped in to save me. “She owns the pancake house. She volunteers at the paper.”
“I guess that’s small towns for you.” Jay didn’t sound impressed, but the cold suspicion in his eyes faded. He turned on the LCD screen of his camera and flicked back through a series of photos. “Does this look to you like Felicia’s feud with Yvonne was water under the bridge?”
He turned the camera so Sienna and I could see the screen. The photo had clearly caught the two women mid-argument, their faces contorted with anger. Felicia was pointing a finger at Yvonne, as if she’d been jabbing it at the reporter as she’d done to me moments earlier.
“When was that taken?” I asked.
“Last Friday. Not exactly ancient history.” Jay hit a button and several other frames of the women’s argument flashed across the screen. “They argued for several minutes before Felicia took off.”
Jay hit the button one more time. The last photo to appear didn’t feature Felicia and Yvonne. Instead it showed Levi and Pippa, their arms around each other as they kissed.
“Why do you have a picture of them?” I asked.
Jay turned the camera so he could see the photo. As soon as he did, he switched off the screen. “That’s another one who didn’t like Yvonne,” he said, failing to answer my question.
“Pippa Hampshire?” Sienna asked with surprise.
“Her boy toy,” Jay corrected. “I overheard the two lovebirds talking the other day, and he sure didn’t have anything nice to say about Yvonne.”
“Why? What did Levi have against her?” I asked.
Jay shrugged. “Who knows?”
His gaze drifted over my shoulder, and what little interest he might have had in our conversation seemed to go with it.
“Excuse me, ladies, but I’ve got work to do. Good luck with your article, kid,” he added without any sincerity.
“I don’t like him,” Sienna said as we watched him walk off.
“Neither do I.”
Jay had left me chilled and uneasy after I’d overheard his phone call at the pancake house, and now I trusted him even less. He’d obviously taken the photos he’d shown us without the subjects’ knowledge and they weren’t the type of photos a sports photographer would be expected to take. Did he make a habit of sneaking photos of people in their private or unflattering moments? If so, why?
* * * *
Sienna and I didn’t spend much more time talking about Jay. Within moments of the photographer walking away, we spotted a familiar face over by the track. A group of athletes had gathered near the start line in preparation for a semifinal round of the 100-meter sprint. Standing near some coaches and members of the media, Tommy snapped pictures of the competitors. As Sienna and I drew closer, the athletes took their marks and the starting gun fired seconds later.
“Whoa,” Sienna said as the athletes took off. “They’re as old as my grandparents and they run way faster than I can.”
“It’s impressive,” I agreed.
Within moments, the race was over. Tommy had jogged down the track to capture photos of the victorious runner, so we kept walking until we caught up to him. When Tommy lowered his camera and backed away from the athletes, Sienna called his name.
He grinned when he saw us. “Here to watch the races?”
“To investigate,” Sienna said.
“Who are you investigating?”
“A woman named Felicia Venner,” I said. “She’s the one who had her gear stolen. She and Yvonne had a rivalry going back decades.”
Sienna picked up the story. “She told us she didn’t care about that anymore, but then some photographer guy showed us a picture he’d taken of the two women arguing. They looked like they still hated each other’s guts.”
“And I think the photographer belongs on our suspect list too,” I said.
“We photographers aren’t above suspicion?” Tommy joked.
“Only you,” Sienna replied. “The other guy kind of gave me the creeps.”
“And you didn’t hear what he said earlier today.” Despite my previous plan not to mention Jay’s phone conversation, I shared what I’d overheard with Sienna and Tommy.
Sienna shuddered. “Wow. That’s cold.”
“It chilled me to the bone when I heard it,” I admitted.
Tommy was usually so laid-back that it was a surprise to see a hint of concern in his eyes. “Should you really have questioned him if he’s a cold-blooded killer?”
“We don’t know he’s a killer,” Sienna said.
“And we were questioning him about Felicia,” I added. “Not as a suspect.”
“Even though he is one now.” Sienna paused for a second. “But what’s his motive?”
I swatted at a bug that flew near my face. “I don’t know, but he clearly didn’t like Yvonne for some reason.”
“Maybe I can find out why,” Tommy said.
“By talking to Jay?” I didn’t like the sound of that plan. I wanted all of us to steer clear of the Seattle photographer in the future.
“Nah. I’ve got a better idea. Rob used to work in Seattle. Maybe he’s heard of Jay.”
“Rob the reporter?” Sienna asked.
“Yep.”
“It’s worth asking,” I said.
Tommy pulled his phone out of his pocket. “What’s his last name?”
“Henkel.”
Tommy made a note of that on his phone. “I’ll check with Rob the next time I see him.”
“Thanks, Tommy.”
“Let us know if you find out anything,” Sienna requested.
He gave us a mock salute. “I will.”
Sienna and I left Tommy to take pictures of the high jump competition that was just getting underway. As we passed through the gate and onto the sidewalk, Sienna scrunched up her nose.
“Now I’m confused,” she said.
“Me too,” I admitted. “We’ve got too many suspects.”
“Exactly! We’re leaving with more questions than we had when we got here.”
“That’s true, unfortunately. Our suspect list keeps getting longer. There’s got to be a way to cross off some names.”
“I still think our best suspect is the ex-husband,” Sienna said.
“I’d almost forgotten about him,” I admitted.
“It’s hard for me to forget about him when I see him around my house.”
“So he’s still in town?”
“Yep. I tried asking him some casual questions this morning. Like, how long he’s sticking around and what he’s doing while he’s here, but he kind of avoided the questions and my mom told me to leave him alone.”
“Did she know why you were asking questions?” I was worried Patricia might think I was encouraging her daughter to investigate crimes.
Was I encouraging her?
“I think she figured I was interested because the murder victim was his ex.”
“She knows you’ve got him pegged as the potential killer?” I asked with mild alarm.
“No, I’m pretty sure she doesn’t. I think she put it down to a sort of morbid curiosity.”
We waited for a couple of cars to pass before crossing the street.
“If only I could get hold of his phone for a while,” Sienna continued. “Maybe we could find out why he was in town last week
.”
My alarm resurfaced, far stronger this time.
“Promise me you won’t even try to get a look at his phone,” I said. “If he were to catch you…”
“All right, I won’t touch his phone.”
“Or any of his personal belongings. Any more of his personal belongings,” I amended, remembering that we’d already looked through his things at the B&B.
“We could be passing up a chance to get some really good clues.”
“Sienna…”
“Okay, okay. You win.” She sounded a bit disappointed, but not annoyed. “So what can we do to figure this thing out?”
“That’s a good question,” I said. “One I’m going to have to think about.”
Chapter Nineteen
By the time I arrived home, Brett was already there. Bentley and Flapjack were napping in the shade while Brett picked cherry tomatoes from the plants growing in one of the raised garden beds. After greeting the animals, I gave Brett a hand and soon we had a bowl full of the juicy little tomatoes. We headed for the back porch and snacked on our harvest while I told him about my afternoon.
“It feels like I’m losing my knack for solving mysteries,” I confessed as we sat on the porch swing. “I have so many suspects and no clue where to go from here.” Before Brett had a chance to say anything, I added, “And I know the police are working on it, but it really bugs me not to be able to figure anything out.”
“Would it help to tell me what you know so far?” Brett asked.
“Maybe.” I scrubbed my hands down my face, suddenly tired of thinking.
“Or we could go for a run. That usually helps to clear your head.”
“That’s probably what I need,” I said. In fact, now that he’d made the suggestion, I realized I was craving some exercise. I glanced up at the bright sun. “It’s still pretty hot, though.”
“We could go for a short run, then a dip in the ocean.”
“And then nachos for dinner?”
“You speak my language,” Brett said with a grin.
Bentley had been lying near our feet, but now he jumped up and gave an excited bark, his tail wagging as he watched us.