Beaches, Blogging, and Bodies

by Stacey Alabaster

Chapter 8

  I was awoken by something licking my hand.

  I sat up with a start, wondering where the heck I was and what had happened to me and what that wet thing on my hand was.

  I blinked a few times, took a few breaths, and calmed down. Right, I was in Rosebud, and I had broken down by the side of the road, and that was Jasper, waking me up in that way. I rubbed my eyes, almost calmed down before the panic set in again. What time was it? I grabbed my phone that had been charging by the bedside and checked it.

  Shoot, shoot, shoot! 11:00 a.m.. The kind receptionist, Rebecca, had told me to be out of there by ‘first thing.’ Well, to me, 11:00 a.m. was pretty early and was pretty first thing in the morning. But I could only assume that her manager, Vance, had other ideas about that.

  I jumped out of bed and surveyed the room, expecting the worst. I’d fed Jasper that burger over twelve hours ago and I wasn’t feeling confident about what I was going to find. But there were no accidents, no ripped-up carpets, no paw prints. Nothing had been chewed up or ruined. He had been the perfect, well-behaved pet.

  “Oh, good boy, Jasper.”

  But we needed to get out of the room, and quickly.

  If I could sneak down the stairs—there was no elevator, it was only a three-story building—and out of the lobby quietly, then I might just get away with this. I walked over to the phone to call receptionist to make sure that Rebecca was there, on her own, before we left.

  There was a knocking at the door. I dropped the phone and quickly ran over to Jasper, placing my hand on his back to stop him from barking, and gave him a stern look. Behave.

  “House cleaning!” a cheery voice called out.

  Oh boy. I glanced around the room and wondered what to do. Was it possible to hide? No, not from house cleaning.

  I quickly put Jasper back in the bathroom and shut it, before I opened the door to the room. “That’s really fine. I don’t require room service this morning.”

  The cheery looking woman didn’t look so cheery once she’d heard that, even though she was wearing a cherry-pink uniform.

  “Oh, but I have to clean all the rooms. I can’t skip any.” She looked worried, like she would genuinely be in trouble if I didn’t let her inside. If this Vance guy really was as strict as Rebecca said he was, then she really might be.

  I thought I could offer a solution. “How about we just say you did it… I’ll give it a good going-over myself! No one will ever know the difference, I promise.” I gave her my best pleading smile.

  She shook her head. “Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly allow that, ma’am. Please, I need to get in.” She was starting to push her way through the door.

  I gulped.

  Jasper would only stay quiet so long. Especially if he thought it sounded like I was distressed. I tried to keep my voice calm.

  “Can you come back in half an hour, then?” I pleaded with her, still smiling. “I just need to do a few things…in private first. Um, put on my face, that sort of thing.”

  She still didn’t look so sure, but she sighed and agreed to this plan.

  “Okay then. But half an hour. No more.”

  “Thank you,” I sighed.

  She was about to turn and go, her bucket of cleaning supplies in her hands, when suddenly there was the unmistakable sound of clawing against the bathroom door. The maid stopped and turned around. “What was that?”

  “That? I can’t hear anything?”

  “There was a scratching noise.”

  “Well, maybe there are rats in your hotel.”

  She raised her eyebrows at me. She shook her head, about to turn around again, when this time, there was not just clawing. There was yapping. Barking. Fierce and unmistakable.

  This barking would have woken the dead.

  “Do you have a dog in there, ma’am?”

  I finally got to come face to face with Vance, and I couldn’t say I enjoyed the experience.

  The manager’s face was livid as I descended the stairs with my tail between my legs. Jasper, on the other hand, was wagging his, excited to meet all these new people as we did our walk of shame.

  But it didn’t last too long. As soon as the manager looked at us, and spoke to us in a threatening tone, Jasper’s tail stopped. We both stopped, dead, at the end of the staircase, as all the staff and the few customers checking in stopped, staring at us and the scene that was brewing.

  Vance was not a particularly large man. In fact, he was rather short and slight, and with a bald head. But his eyes were black stones and his voice was like venom. “This is beyond unacceptable behavior. How dare you bring a dog into my establishment?”

  Jasper stood behind me with his ears and tail down, not entirely grasping what was going on, but knowing that we were in trouble.

  The manager turned to the poor young receptionist who had so kindly done me a favor the previous night. “This was your final chance, Rebecca! How could you be so irresponsible!”

  Oh, gosh. It was one thing for me to be in trouble for keeping a dog in my room, but another entirely for Rebecca to bear the consequences. If she got fired over this, I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself.

  I stepped forward. “Oh, please, it wasn’t Rebecca’s fault. She had no idea I snuck the dog in. I promise. I never told her I had a dog with me. I waited until her back was turned and then I crept in across the lobby, quickly, without making a sound. I know it was wrong. I can’t apologize enough. But please don’t punish Rebecca for my mistake.”

  Rebecca just stood there with her head down, not willing to argue what I had said. Good, I was glad.

  “We will talk about this later, Rebecca,” he said to her in a low voice, before turning his attention back to Jasper and me. Rebecca scurried off through a side door and I hoped she wasn’t too upset. Hopefully, she wasn’t running off to cry in private. Though, she most likely was.

  “Get out,” he said to me, pointing toward the door before calling me back to charge me for two nights, seeing as I had stayed past checkout time. He then added an extra two hundred dollars to the bill for the dog. Pretty expensive night, in the end.

  “Come on, Jasper,” I called to him, pulling on his leash. “I can see when we are not wanted.”

  “You most certainly are not!” Vance spat back at me.

  It was humid when we got outside and even though I tried to keep my head up and stay cheery, I was struck by the realization that we were still stuck in Rosebud and I had no idea how to get out of there.

  And I had an even far more pressing issue. Jasper needed to do his business. Rather urgently. There was no time to leave the grounds of the hotel.

  I walked around to the side of the hotel, thinking that would be the safest place, where I came across Rebecca. Not crying, but doing something else entirely.

  She was smoking, which I was a bit surprised to find. I supposed she just didn’t look like the ‘type’ of girl who smoked cigarettes. Well, I supposed that was what you got for making judgments. As an amateur detective, I probably should have known better.

  “I’m sorry, nervous habit,” she said, coughing and putting it out with her heel when I approached, then lighting another. “I’m quitting today, honest. It’s just been a tough morning.”

  I let Jasper off the leash for a moment and let him roam the garden. Hey, it wasn’t like we were on good terms with management anyway.

  “I’m sorry about what happened,” I said to Rebecca as I joined her up against the wall. “I slept in. A terrible habit of my own, I suppose. I was planning to sneak out without anyone seeing us, but room cleaning arrived and Jasper barked, and, well. The game was up, I’m afraid.”

  “It’s okay,” Rebecca said, blowing smoke up into the air. “I’m planning to quit this job at the end of the summer anyway when school goes back.” She shook her head. “It would be all right working here, if it wasn’t for the strict management. I’m not even supposed to smoke on my breaks, but today, I don’t really care so much about following the rules
.”

  I nodded.

  “Still, I feel terrible, Rebecca. I wish I could make it up to you somehow.”

  She looked up at me. “You said you were looking for your friend?”

  I nodded. “Like I said, I think she’s somewhere around here, but I have no idea where.”

  Rebecca put her second cigarette out with the heel of her shoe. “What does she look like? If she’s local, or comes here often, I might recognize her.”

  I showed her a picture on my phone, one I had pulled from her blog. She was bright-faced and smiling with her long blonde curls. “Her name is Agatha.” I put the phone back in my pocket. “She has a British accent. Do you recognize her at all?”

  Rebecca shook her head. “Sorry.” She jumped a little when she heard a side door open. “Shoot. It’s Vance. I’m not supposed to be out here. I gotta go. Good luck, George.”

  I sighed and looked down at Jasper, who looked as ready to get out of there as I was. I put him back on the leash. “Now, boy. How exactly are we going to get out of here, then?”

  He pulled on his leash by way of an answer. Right. I supposed we would walk out. All the way back to Sandy Point, if we had to.

  It took half an hour for us to walk back to the spot where we’d broken down the day before. The truck was still not budging when I tried the key in the ignition, much as I had hoped it would magically fix itself overnight. No luck.

  I decided to call for road side assistance, much as I was afraid that Adam didn’t actually have membership. If he had never bothered to get the truck’s safety inspection, what was the chance that he had taken out roadside assistance?

  I had a bar of reception this time that was holding steady, so at least I was able to make the call without traipsing back to town.

  “It’ll take about three hours to get there, I’m afraid, miss,” the man on the phone said. He was coughing and sounded distracted.

  I threw my head back. “Three hours?”

  “Yep. That’s the best we can do today. Especially since you’re all the way out there. To be honest, it’s probably going to be closer to four hours.”

  Great. Even better.

  “I see.”

  “Are you the owner of the vehicle?”

  “No,” I had to admit. “And I’m not sure the owner has signed up for roadside assistance, to be honest.”

  “Hmm. That might make things even trickier.” He sounded sympathetic, but tired and busy. “You’ll have to sign up on the spot if that’s the case. Could end up being an expensive day for you.”

  I let out a small laugh. “You have no idea.”

  I asked if he could check the system. Of course, Adam didn’t have a membership. After the six hundred dollars I’d just forked over for the hotel room, I did not have any more money to pay for both assistance out of pocket, and an on the spot membership.

  “Now what?” I said to Jasper, who was happily digging a hole on the side of the road. He wouldn’t have cared if we’d stayed there indefinitely. I leaned against the truck and thought about my options. It was too far from Pottsville to call anyone I knew to rescue me. We were one hour away from Sandy Point, but four from Pottsville. Jasper caught sight of a rabbit and started to sprint after it toward the trees and I had to sprint after him before he was lost in the woods forever.

  That’s it. We gotta get out of here.

  I grabbed Jasper by the collar and made him walk with me back to the truck, then told him firmly that he was not to run away again. He lay down in the dirt looking firmly chastised while I tapped my phone in my hands and considered who we should phone next.

  I didn’t like my chances of getting rescued by the sheriff’s department in Sandy Point. Besides, I’d have to be dead in my grave myself before I asked detective Nicholas for any favors.

  I checked through my recent numbers. Well, Agatha certainly wasn’t going to come and get me, was she?

  Hmm. Mathew’s number was still in my phone.

  It was worth a shot.

  Chapter 9

  I was sitting on the ground, leaning against one of the giant tires of the truck and about to join Jasper in a nap, when I heard the crunching of stones under tires up ahead.

  Thank goodness.

  I stumbled to my feet. Gosh, maybe I had actually nodded off. I felt hot and groggy as I waved to Mathew coming up the dirt road.

  He pulled up in a massive black truck that towered over us and made Adam’s look tiny. I was so relieved that we were finally getting rescued that I leaned forward to catch my breath. We’d been sitting out in the summer sun for almost two hours and it was starting to get very warm. I longed for the cool sea breeze. In an hour, I’d be surrounded by it again. Bring on our return to Sandy Point.

  Mathew jumped out of the truck and laughed as he called Jasper over to him and knelt down to pet him.

  “I have to admit, I was a little surprised to hear from you…” Mathew commented, when he stood up and turned his attention to me.

  “I appreciate it, Mathew,” I said. “I’ll be forever indebted to you, trust me.”

  He walked over to the broken down truck and tried to start it, then popped the front open the check the engine. “Geez. I’m not sure there’s much use for this truck. I can’t get it started here.” He glanced around. “Not without the help of an actual mechanic.”

  “Oh no…” I said. “But I can’t just leave it here. It’s not my truck, it belongs to…” I stopped short of saying ex-husband, but I wasn’t really sure why.

  Mathew smiled at me. “It’s okay, I can tow it back to Sandy Point. There’s a local repair shop who might be able to take a look at it, just a little way out of town. I’m just warning you, don’t get your hopes up.”

  I smiled at him and shielded my eyes. As long as he could help me get it back to town, I didn’t care how he went about doing it. Tow it, drag it, push it there. It didn’t matter.

  “I have to admit that I don’t know many people out here,” I said. “Not many people willing to help, anyway. I hope I haven’t pulled you away from the newspaper at an inconvenient time. I know you have an issue coming out today.”

  Mathew shrugged a little. “Jason’s been stepping up and helping out a lot. I think he has his eye on a copy editor role.”

  Hmm. That guy certainly was ambitious. “You might have to watch out,” I said, climbing into the truck. “You might be the next victim.”

  “Next victim?”

  I paused for a second while Jasper jumped up into the back seat. “I mean, he might be coming after your job next.”

  We were quiet for a while. I felt bad about bringing the subject back to Jason yet again and tried to change the subject to the topic of the scenery. “I suppose there are worse places to get lost than Rosebud. I had some unpleasant experiences, but I need to remember it could have been far worse. I could have been trapped in a desert, or a snowstorm.”

  Mathew shook his head and laughed. “So, how did you manage to get yourself lost, all the way out here, anyway?” he asked. “What were you doing out here?”

  “Long story,” I said, choosing my words carefully as I stared out the window and saw Rosebud fade into the rearview mirror behind me. I kind of wondered whether I should tell him the same story. As a newspaper editor, he might be interested—and he might be able to help out. I was sure he had to possess the mind of an investigator just like I did.

  But until I knew for certain the reason Agatha was hiding, I didn’t want to give too much away. For some reason, I still wanted to protect her.

  “We’ll, I’ve got time to listen if it truly is a long story,” Mathew said.

  I sat up and sighed, laughing it off. “It was silly really. An ill-fated road trip. I fancied a trip to the famous Rosebud tea rooms, but completely forgot that my truck wasn’t up to the task and was well overdue for a servicing. It’s all a bit embarrassing really. Just my absentmindedness, I’m afraid, acting up again!”

  We drove in silence for a few miles.
>
  “So, looks like I might be stuck in Sandy Point for longer than I thought…” I commented, once the ocean was within view again and my sense of relief grew even wider. I felt like I could breathe again.

  “Is that such a bad thing?” Mathew asked with a little smile.

  I had to laugh. “Not in and of itself. But I have responsibilities back in Pottsville. A shop to run, and another dog who is waiting for me to get back.”

  “You have another dog?” Mathew asked. “Doesn’t Jasper miss his friend?”

  I laughed. “Those two are like chalk and cheese. They tend to exist in the same house while ignoring each other. Two separate little universes. But Jasper does have a sort of…” I stopped talking and laughed. “Wow, I feel incredibly silly saying this out loud. He has a girlfriend, I suppose you would call it. A dog girlfriend.”

  Mathew burst out laughing. “Oh, I’m sorry,” he said, trying to compose himself. “I really shouldn’t laugh.”

  We entered the turn-off to Sandy Point. “No, don’t worry, you’re in good company. I had the same reaction when I found out. It gets better though. They are going to get married. We are having a wedding and everything.”

  Mathew laughed even harder, though he was trying to hold back. I wasn’t offended. When Adam had come to me with the suggestion, I’d thought he was kidding. But he was deadly serious. In fact, this dog wedding was one of my pressing commitments. It was scheduled in two weeks’ time and I needed to get Jasper back to Pottsville safe and sound well before then.

  “Where will you stay now?” Mathew asked as we rounded the bend into town. Mathew stopped at the top of the cliff, waiting for my response before he decided which way to turn.

  I was a little surprised by the question. “Well, where I’ve been staying all this time,” I said. “Agatha’s cottage.” Why weren’t we turning to the right?

  Mathew looked a little surprised. “Even with her gone?”

  “Ah. So you do know what I was doing in Rosebud after all then.”

  Mathew shrugged. “I think that it’s great that you’re worried about your friend. Not everyone would have driven off like that and gotten themselves lost.”