by B R Snow
“Really?”
“What?” Josie whispered. “You want the last one?”
“You’re unbelievable,” I said.
“Relax. He’s not going to shoot us here,” Josie said.
“We’ll be heading out soon so just kick back and try to enjoy yourself. Eat all the doughnuts you want,” John said. “But Josie’s right. Shooting you here at the dock isn’t an option.”
“I told you,” Josie whispered.
“But later on tonight, you’ll get a chance to experience just how cold Lake Ontario is this time of year,” John said.
“Do you remember that day when you mentioned going waterskiing one last time for the season?” I said.
“Sure,” John said, nodding.
“You didn’t go waterskiing, did you?”
“No, actually I was in the water right below where you’re sitting,” he said. “I needed to make sure the draft measurement instrument I was using was accurate. As I’m sure you can understand, I have a lot at stake financially and just can’t run the risk of running aground on the Waterway.”
“It’s a good plan, John,” I said.
“Yes, I know,” he said. “It’s brilliant.”
“Most people carrying that much heroin would be doing everything they could to stay out of sight. But your plan is to be out on the water in plain sight hoping everyone sees you and this beautiful boat. You’ll probably even give tours to people who want to take a look.”
“Sure,” he said, laughing. “I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“John, I have a question,” Jackson said.
“Sure, Jackson. Shoot.” Then he cackled and glanced back at Alice. “Oh, that’s right you can’t because I have your gun.”
“Funny,” Jackson said. “My question is why? You don’t need this sort of trouble.”
“Actually, Jackson,” John said. “The truth is I do. I’ve made some business decisions over the past several years that could be considered questionable. But this one deal will put an end to my money worries forever.”
“And what about you, Alice?” I said.
“What about me?” she said, pointing the gun in my direction.
“Are you doing this because of him?” I said, nodding at John.
For some reason, they both found my question particularly funny.
“No, Suzy,” Alice said. “John and I have an understanding, and I’m sure that situation will continue throughout our trip, but then I’m sure we’ll both go our separate ways.”
“Absolutely,” John said. “And I have to admire your integrity and restraint, Jackson. This girl is amazing. You don’t know what you’re missing.”
Josie and I looked at Jackson.
“You didn’t sleep with her?” Josie said.
“Of course I didn’t sleep with her,” Jackson snapped. “She was my summer intern.”
“I certainly gave it my best shot,” Alice said. “But he’s so resolute. Jackson is a cop’s cop. It was shortly after that I decided a career in criminology wasn’t for me and I started to consider John’s offer.”
“But why?” I said.
“I told you before, Suzy. I like the lifestyle. A lot.” She looked at John. “Can we please get going? I need to get out of this town.”
“It won’t be long,” John said. “But I’d like to hear Suzy’s thoughts about the rest of it.”
“You mean the murders?” I said.
“I prefer to call it the removal of two staff members who’d outlived their usefulness, but sure, let’s go with murder,” John said, chuckling.
“Did you hear that, Alice?” I said. “I hope you’ve got a good contingency plan for when you arrive in Florida.”
Alice glanced at John, who waved my comment off.
“She’s got nothing to worry about. And unlike those two other idiots, Alice knows how to keep her mouth shut. Go ahead, Suzy. Dazzle me with your detective abilities.”
I sat back in my chair and composed my thoughts. Then I launched in.
“Let’s start with Captain Bill since he’s the easy one. We saw him with Alice at the Water’s Edge that afternoon,” I said.
“I didn’t kill him,” Alice said, vigorously shaking her head.
“I know you didn’t,” I said. “John did. Millie confirmed that you left the Water’s Edge sometime before she cut Captain Bill off at five. But before you left, you told him to meet you back at the boat later that night. I think you had a little thing going on with him. But I’m sure you did that as a way to control him rather than any real attraction you had for him.”
“You’re good,” John said.
“I have my moments. And you both knew that Captain Bill would kill time until he was supposed to meet you by drinking some more. By the time he reached the boat, he would have been easy pickings for John, who was probably hiding on the boat or somewhere on the dock. Now that I think about it, it was probably the dock because you wouldn’t want to run the risk of getting blood on the boat.”
“Continue,” John said, nodding.
“You hit him on the back of the head and made sure he got wedged between the boat and the piling. By the time his body was discovered, the bump on his head was logically written off as just one more bruise.”
“Fascinating,” John said. “Are you sure you don’t want to come to work for me, Suzy? You’d make an awful lot of money.”
“I have enough money, John,” I said. “What I never have enough of are dogs and friends. And I’m down one good friend at the moment.”
“Yeah,” John said. “I’m truly sorry about that. You’re a good woman who means well. Pity you can’t stop sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong.”
“I guess we all have our minor imperfections, right?” I said.
Josie snorted.
“But we were good friends, weren’t we?” John said softly.
“Yes, we were.”
“Well, I guess stuff happens,” he said, shrugging. “But I know you’ll put that three hundred grand to good use.”
“We were thinking about naming the rescue program after you,” Josie said.
“What about now?” John said, laughing.
“Only as a memorial,” Josie said.
“I’m going to miss you, Josie,” he said, staring at her. “You truly are one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met. We could have had a lot of fun together.”
“Put the gun down, and we’ll see if there’s still a chance,” Josie said.
“Funny,” John said. Then he turned back to me. “So, tell me, Suzy. What are your thoughts about what happened to Roger?”
“I didn’t have a clue until the other night,” I said. “Now I think I’ve put the timeline together. You killed Roger at some point during the time Summerman was playing. The way he holds an audience’s attention, nobody would have been paying attention to you and Roger heading for the boat.”
John slowly nodded his head.
“Go on,” he said.
“But you needed two things to happen. First, you needed the body to be found. If Roger just disappeared, that could have caused a serious manhunt with cops and investigators on both sides of the River hanging around for a long time asking a whole bunch of questions. Maybe they would have wanted to do a close inspection of the boat. And it might have delayed your departure for weeks. Who knows? But it was certainly a risk you didn’t want to take. So you decided to put the body on display. Second, you needed an alibi.”
“Yes, I did,” he said, grinning. “And how did I manage to pull that off?”
“That was the tricky part,” I said. “And I have to commend you. It was brilliant.”
“Yes, it was,” he said.
“You killed him during Summerman’s show, and then you hid the body. After the show, I remember you made a big deal of taking a bunch of people on a tour of the boat before the check presentation. You showed everyone this area and the stateroom in the back. But there wasn’t a body on the bed during the tour,
was there?”
“No,” John said, grinning.
“And when you escorted everyone back from the boat, you headed straight for the stage and the check presentation. You were in plain sight the entire time.”
“Yes, I certainly was.”
I wanted to reach out and slap that stupid grin off his face. But since he and Alice were still pointing guns at me, discretion won out.
“During the check presentation, we all heard the scream. And, yes, as you said on the boat that day, it was muffled. But the scream was a mistake, wasn’t it?”
John glanced at Alice, whose face was now completely drained of color.
“Yes, it was,” John said. “I’m intrigued. How do you know that?”
“I figured it out the other night when Josie and I were crammed into the storage area in front of the wheelhouse.”
“Can I ask you why the two of you were in there?” John said.
“Does it matter?” I said.
“No, I guess not,” he said, shrugging. “Continue.”
“You put Roger’s body in the storage area and gave Alice instructions to use the trap door to drop the body onto the bed down below after you finished giving people the tour. By the way, is that an emergency exit?”
“Yes, it is,” John said. “But I discovered that it’s useful for other things.”
“Like hiding a dead body?”
“Exactly.”
“So my guess is that you gave Alice instructions to slip away during the check presentation and head to the storage area and release the latch. The ceiling drops away, Roger’s body falls harmlessly onto the bed below, and Alice heads back to the party. It shouldn’t have taken more than a couple of minutes.”
“Five minutes max,” John said.
I glanced at Alice. I assumed she realized she was about to take a trip down bad memory lane.
“But neither of the latches worked very well. I think Alice crawled into the storage area, closed the door behind her, but then couldn’t get the latch that released the floor to work. Then she couldn’t get the door to the storage area back open, and she was trapped in that very tight space with a dead body.”
Tears started streaming down Alice’s cheeks.
“I remember your reaction to the two dead bodies you saw during the summer when you were Jackson’s intern. You couldn’t handle it, could you?”
“No,” Alice whispered.
“And when you found yourself trapped in that space with Roger’s body, you freaked out and screamed, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I was terrified,” she said.
“It’s okay, Alice. It all worked out in the end,” John said. “Try to relax. We’ll be out of here soon, and these three certainly won’t be telling anybody.”
“I wish he’d quit reminding us,” Josie whispered.
I patted her hand and continued.
“You finally managed to get the door open, but the floor latch wouldn’t work. But since you’d screamed and knew that people had heard it, you knew you had to move fast. You raced below deck into the stateroom. There must be another latch somewhere in there you needed to fiddle with that would make it possible for the ceiling to release. Whatever it was, you figured it out and headed back upstairs. By now, you were completely freaked out, and when you saw Jackson standing there, you panicked and hit him in the back of the head.”
“It was dark, and I swear I didn’t know it was you, Jackson,” Alice said, sobbing uncontrollably. “I could never hurt you. I just saw your silhouette and reacted.”
Jackson listened without reacting.
“But you did remember to wipe your prints off the wrench, right?” I said.
“Yes, I did,” Alice said. “John has drilled that into my head time and time again.”
“You knew that others were undoubtedly on the way, and you raced back to the storage area.”
“Yes, I could already see them heading down the dock. I almost stepped on Sluggo on my way out.”
“I was wondering about that, Jackson,” I said. “Sluggo couldn’t have climbed that stairway by himself.”
“I carried him up,” Jackson said. “I heard him running along the dock and waited a few seconds until he got to me. I didn’t have a clue what was happening, and I wasn’t about to leave him by himself on the dock. Sluggo is pretty fast when he wants to be.”
“You got back into the storage area and, this time, the latch worked, and you dropped the body,” I said to Alice. “Then you were able to get it reclosed before anyone made it below deck.”
“Barely,” Alice whispered. “It was so close.”
“The suspense is what makes it such a great story,” John said, his eyes wild. “Not that any of us will ever be telling it to anyone.” He cackled. “For obvious reasons, of course.”
“You stayed in the storage area until everyone had arrived and then you made your way below deck and hung out in the back with the rest of the onlookers. I remember seeing you there. You were just one more party guest wondering what the heck was going on.”
Alice nodded and exhaled loudly. She wiped her eyes with the back of her gun hand and looked at John.
“Can we please go now?” she said.
“Sure. I’ve heard enough. Why don’t you head up on deck and see if the snuggle-bunnies are ready to go?” John said, then glanced at the three of us and shook his head. “Those two. They’re like rabbits.”
Alice started to leave but paused to look back at John.
“What should I do with this?” she said, glancing down at her gun.
“Yeah, you should probably leave that here. There’s no reason to scare the rest of the crew yet.”
Alice handed the gun to John, and he slid it into his jacket pocket. He sat down across from us at the table and smiled.
“Don’t worry, folks,” John said. “We’ll be getting out of here soon.”
“I seriously doubt that,” Jackson said.
“What?”
Jackson nodded toward the stairs that led to the top deck. John’s mouth dropped when he saw the two guns pointing at his head. Then Jackson nodded toward the stateroom. John slowly turned around and saw Detective Abrams and two of the biggest state policemen I’d ever seen also pointing their guns at him.
“Okay, John,” Detective Abrams said. “Let’s try not to make any more bad memories. Drop it, then very slowly get your hands way above your head.”
John considered his options, then dropped the gun on the floor and slowly raised his hands. Seconds later, he was face down on the floor and handcuffed.
“Did you get all that?” Jackson said.
“Every word,” Detective Abrams said. “It was like we were in the room with you.”
“I guess the decision to put the device in the flowers was a good one,” Jackson said.
“You’re welcome,” Josie said.
“Well, I’m sure glad we didn’t decide to hide it in the doughnuts,” I said, shaking my head at the empty box.
“Hey, what can I say?” Josie said. “Getting held at gunpoint always makes me hungry.”
Chapter 25
I came to a stop in front of a large two-story brick building that was vacant but located within walking distance of downtown. I turned the SUV off and smiled at Josie who was sitting in the passenger seat.
“I thought we were going to have breakfast at the Café,” Chef Claire said from the backseat.
“We are,” I said. “We just need to make a quick stop to see my mother.”
Chef Claire glanced out the window at the structure that was in need of repair.
“We’re meeting your mother here?” Chef Claire said.
“Yes,” I said, pointing across the street. “And there she is, right on time. Wonders never cease.”
I hopped out of the car and waved to my mother who was crossing the street heading our way.
“Good morning, Mom.”
“Hello, darling,” she said, bussing my cheek. “Josie, Chef Claire. I ho
pe you ladies are doing well.” She looked around at the setting. “It looks like we’ve hit the peak of our fall foliage. Isn’t it beautiful, Chef Claire?”
“Yes, Mrs. C. It is,” Chef Claire said, seeming a bit bewildered by my mother’s exuberance.
I had to admit that, at first, it caught me off guard as well. But then I remembered that my mother was working, and nothing improved her mood like the prospect of closing a deal.
“Shall we get started?” my mother said, removing a set of keys from her coat pocket.
“Sure, let’s do it,” I said, following her up the stairs that led to the massive verandah that wrapped around three sides of the building.
“What’s going on?” Chef Claire said.
“I just thought you three would be interested in taking a look inside,” my mother said, pushing open the front door.
“No offense, Mrs. C., but why would we want to do that?” Chef Claire said.
“Because I just bought it,” my mother said.
“Okay,” Chef Claire said, shrugging as she stepped inside. She glanced around at the place and shook her head. “It’s your money. I guess you can spend it however you please.”
“Look at these beautiful hardwood floors,” my mother said.
Actually, they were far from beautiful at the moment, but I knew that with some work they would be.
“Oak,” my mother said, gently bouncing up and down. “Do you feel that?”
“I don’t feel anything,” Chef Claire said.
“Exactly,” my mother said. “The bones of this place are rock solid. They don’t build them like this anymore.”
I’d lived in Clay Bay my entire life and had driven by the building thousands of times but had never been inside. I stared up at the rotunda ceiling that was at least thirty feet high at its peak. I tried to calculate the floor space but gave up. I was done with math for a while.
“What’s the square footage, Mom?”
“Downstairs is about five thousand,” she said. “And the living quarters upstairs is about two.”
“Living quarters?” Chef Claire said, laughing. “Don’t tell me you’re thinking about living here.”
“Oh, of course not, my dear,” my mother said, chuckling at the thought.