The next time I looked at the clock, it said four-thirty-two a.m. It was still dark outside, but it wouldn’t be for long. I got up and went looking in the other bedrooms for something black to wear. I found a black pair of gym pants that were about three feet too long but I rolled the pants legs up to made them work. I found a long sleeve black T-shirt, also extremely large. I needed something to cover my head in black. In a drawer with some heavier clothes for cooler weather there was a black watchman cap… wool and hot.
When I put it on, I realized the eyes and mouth were cut out and it looked like a ski mask, the kind terrorists or bank robbers wear. Odd article of clothing for Florida, I thought. Maybe one of Jiff’s brothers went snow skiing from Florida or maybe he just knocked off banks in his free time. Maybe he just left it here since it can get bitter cold on the beach on some winter days. I wondered how I’d bring this subject up to ask Jiff who it belonged to. I’d hate to have to tell Jiff how I found these clothes, rummaging around in his families’ dressers, and then ask if any of them were bank robbers or terrorists. This was a mystery for another day.
After changing clothes, I logged into Jiff’s computer and in less than a minute, I found out where Ashley Westlake lived, or the address of her home if she was the one who had been murdered. I wrote Jiff a note saying I was going to check out her address, but I’d call if I found anything and I’d be back before he woke up. Xoxo Brandy.
I really wanted to get back and return the covert wear before he woke up. At least, that was my plan. I took his car keys and drove to the address down the beach road. I found it quickly. It was only about a mile down the beach road away from Jiff’s high rise. The GPS had me turn into a small subdivision on the other side of the highway fronting the bay. I could’ve walked. I drove slowly past her house.
Ashley had a private home, waterfront, on the bay which was really nice. There were windows all around the living area with views of the bay and some of the gulf. The home was raised so you could park under it or in the case of a storm, flood waters could pass through leaving the home intact. At least that was the thought in planning these raised residences.
There was something that looked like a lift under the middle area of the house. It was encased in wire mesh to allow any flood waters to pass through it as well. The front entrance had a grand stairway up to the front door on the second floor. It faced the street. I could see a stairway on the back of the home that lead to the beach and bay. I drove past and parked back on the road about a block away. I walked back to the house via the bay front so no one would see me on the street.
There was no one parked under her house so I climbed the back stairs to look through the windows. There was the old conch shell at the back door with the key in it. Really? Everyone at the beach used a conch shell as a hiding place, so why not try a flower pot or the fake rock? The bonus was Ashley had a plastic key ring on the key with codes which probably turned the security system on and off.
Oh boy, this was going to get interesting fast if I went in, activated the alarm, and these were not the codes to turn it off. Normally, I’m not a breaking and entering kinda gal but this was too much of a temptation. I tried the back door, and it was unlocked. I took a deep breath. I thought I’d say I saw it blown open and came up here to close it. Maybe Officer Bev would buy it. No way Duffy or Sorenson would.
I listened for a beeping sound that alerted you when the security system needed to be disarmed. The panel looked a lot like the one in my parents’ home and it was near the door. The screen said ready to arm and there was no beeping. It had not been armed. I was good to go. If this was Abby and not Ashley living here, she, of all people, should use the security system. At the very least she should lock all the doors. It was becoming clear how she made a lot of her own problems.
The house was all on one level. The back stairs continued up to a flat roof to sunbath, watch a sunset or have cocktails. I didn’t go up there.
I looked around inside. The door that was unlocked opened into a large den and kitchen adjoining. It had a cathedral ceiling which looked to be twenty feet or higher. Off the living area, I saw three large bedrooms. One was the master with a king size bed and one a guest room, also with a king size bed, and one was set up like an office. There was a bathroom between the office and guest room. The master was made up and undisturbed. I went into the master bath. It was clean with fresh towels on the towel bars. One towel was in the hamper. There was a makeup mirror on the vanity. All the makeup was carefully and well organized in the drawer. It was spotless. The closet in the room had nice clothes carefully hung by type, skirts all together, suits, jackets and so on. There was a floor to ceiling shoe rack with neatly paired shoes on it.
The guest room on the other hand was a wreck. The bed wasn’t made, a suitcase sat opened on a luggage rack with clothes spilling out onto the floor all around it. Shoes looked like they had been kicked off and left anywhere from the front door to this bedroom. The hall bathroom that was a Jack and Jill type, accessible from both the guest room and the office. It was in shambles with towels on the floor. A travel make-up bag hung on the back of one door that opened into the office bedroom.
The vanity was cluttered with brushes and combs, haphazardly left where they were last used. Makeup powders dusted the vanity top. The closet held beautiful clothes on hangers in no particular order or grouping. There was a very nice white linen pants suit handing at one end. Had I not seen it recently, I would have known it had been worn by the wrinkles left in it.
The office where Ashley must have worked had a small computer desk with a MacBook open on it. A large square worktable stood in the middle of the room with a sewing machine at one end. It, too, was neat and tidy. I had snapped photos with my iPhone camera along the way.
It was clear to me who was who, and who came to the pier to meet us the other morning claiming to be Ashley. The thought struck me to take a hair brush from the master bedroom or bath and give it to Officer Bev. That was clearly Ashley’s room and bath. It seemed Abby started out in the guest room and stayed there. I was looking for a hairbrush in the mess on the countertop in what I believed to be Abby’s stuff in the guest room when I heard the front door open and voices. I ducked back into the office bedroom which was the furthest room from either front or back exit. I closed the door to the joint bathroom quietly.
It was a man and a woman’s voice, and they were arguing.
“I can’t believe you knew he ordered the hit on me,” the woman said raising her voice.
“I didn’t know. I never know what the money is paying for. He runs a tight ship, baby. I only tell one person where to drop the money. I had no idea it was for a hit on you,” the man said. “Donnato always told me the money was for favors someone did for him. Abby, you have to believe me.”
“How could you not put it together?” she said.
“You said he gave you no money in a settlement, so why would he want you dead?” the man asked. “Sounds to me like you were a gone pecan to him and he was moving on. Even if he knew you’d come here to be with your sister, you were out of his life. Why did he put a hit on you… unless… unless… did you take something of his and he wants it back?”
“No, I don’t have anything of his. The dog was mine, only mine so it can’t be that. Whoever he sent killed my sister by mistake and you had a part in it,” the woman said. “All the times we talked about why he used your places down here for drops, you knew what he was doing.”
Now I knew it was Abby Westlake, and I assumed the man’s voice was Big Al. I hid in the closet in the guest bedroom with half sewn clothing pieces full of pins.
“I didn’t know who it was supposed to be,” the man said. “I only drop the money where he tells me. He sends the people to do the job, and he tells them where to pick up the money. He tells me where to put it. I tell Daniel.”
“I know. I copied that list before I left. I had no idea I was on it,” Abby said and started crying. “If I knew he planned to kill
me, I would never have come here. I had no idea someone would mistake my sister for me. She didn’t deserve this.”
“Maybe he planned to kill your sister to scare you into returning whatever it is he thinks you have,” Big Al said. “Oh, God, I hope he doesn’t think you gave it to me. Who did you give that list to?”
“Ashley knew nothing about that. We went to some lawyer here she used and gave each other our Power of Attorney. I had a second set of flash drives with that list on it and I gave it to that attorney to mail if anything happened to me. Donnato thought he was killing me, so maybe he’ll stop looking for me now,” she said.
“You didn’t think this through. It’s all over the paper that everyone thinks it’s you who’s dead. That attorney will mail those drives to whoever you told him to,” Al said. “Your ex is gonna think you gave that list to me and I’m blackmailing him.”
“Not if we leave.”
“Look, we take the money from the drop before those two knuckleheads, Donnato sent down here, pick it up. I know where Daniel’s dropping it later today. It’s five-hundred large. That’s a good bit and I have a ton of cash I can get my hands on. We’ll get Daniel to take us to some island until all this blows over,” Al said.
“This will never blow over if we take his five-hundred large. He’ll figure out it was you, Al,” she said.
“Okay, maybe we leave his money,” he said.
“It will only be over when he’s in prison for life which might involve him implicating you, Daniel and me,” Abby said. “Did you think of that?”
“I’m gonna take a shower and think about this some more. You should think of moving into the master bedroom here in case anyone comes looking. That way you don’t look like you’re the guest,” Al said.
“I’ll do that if we stay. Right now, I think we ought to go on a vacation for a while. I’ve had a long day and just want to go to sleep,” Abby said.
I heard the water running and the squeaky shower door open and close. I stepped into the hall so I could see Abby’s reflection in the bedroom mirror. She was taking all her clothes off before she got into the bed. I heard the bed creaking as she made herself comfortable.
There was no better time to try to make my escape without being followed. I pulled the cap ski mask down over my face making sure my hair was hidden and I could see out of it. I took three deep breaths like I do in the gym before holding the really big breath to lift a weight or do the exercise. On the fourth breath, I jumped in front of her bedroom door and yelled so she saw what looked like a person breaking into her house. Abby started screaming and pulled the sheet over her head. I took off running out of the house down the front steps up the street to the car. I could still hear Abby screaming almost all the way to the car. There was no way she or Al was going to run up the street in a towel or call the police.
Chapter Sixteen
My heart was thumping like it was going to burst through the XXXL black T-shirt I still had on. It was five-thirty-eight a.m., when I got back to the condo and Jiff was still asleep. I put back the clothes and ski cap where I originally found them and went to make coffee. My heart was still racing and my hands still shaking by the time I got to the kitchen. I guess I’m a slow responder to a near miss or almost caught in the act.
I was well into my second cup of coffee studying the codes from the fifth flash drive when Jiff came into the kitchen. It was almost eight o’clock, and I felt like I had been at it all day. He had bed hair, and he was still groggy. I put a cup in front of him when he sat on a barstool at the island. He picked up the note I had left and read it.
“You didn’t?” he asked.
“I did and I have the pictures to prove it,” I said.
“Aren’t you afraid someone will call the police on you for breaking and entering?”
“No, because the back door was open. No breaking, just entering. Don’t you want to know what I found out?”
“Since I will represent you if you are arrested, this is considered attorney/client privilege. Go on,” he said with an over exaggerated exhale.
“Abby’s things were in the guest room. Ashley’s room is neat, bed’s made, no sign of her using it or her office. Don’t you think that’s odd if the gal we met was really Ashley? Why isn’t she staying in her own room? One used towel was in a hamper and the clean ones were on towel bars.”
“I don’t think anyone gets convicted based on clean or dirty towels or where you found them,” Jiff said sipping his coffee. “Unless there’s blood on them. Was there blood on them?”
“No, no blood. But… the guest room and guest bath were very much lived in with clothes, a man’s and a woman’s clothes, everywhere. That white linen suit we met the faux Ashley in on the pier was hanging in the guest closet, full of wrinkles.”
“Failure to iron is a fashion felony, not a real one,” he said taking a sip of his coffee.
“Here’s the photos I took,” I said and started to show him the photos on my cell.
“No, don’t show me that. In fact, get rid of those. I never saw them,” Jiff said a lot more awake now than he was a minute earlier.
It seemed to settle down when he thought I was deleting the photos.
“That’s not all,” I said.
“There’s more?”
“Yes, I was there when Abby and Big Al came back. I hid in the third bedroom. Do you want to know what I heard?”
“You’re gonna tell me anyway, right?”
“They were arguing. I heard Big Al call her Abby. She was angry with him for being involved with her sister’s murder because she thought he knew what he was making the payoff for. They mentioned Daniel, the ex-husband in New York and Big Al suggested she move into Ashley’s room in case anyone came snooping around.”
“Did anyone see you?” Jiff asked.
“Well, sort of,” I said. “That’s really the part I shouldn’t tell you.”
“There’s actually a part you don’t want to tell me?” he said and looked up from his coffee. “I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt, but I’m thrilled you didn’t get caught.”
I stood behind him and wrapped my arms around his neck. “I know when the money drop is with five-hundred large for Ashley’s murder and I’m pretty sure it will be close to here. I need to talk to Bev.”
We called Officer Bev who came over before the Cyber Crime tech arrived. The three of us sat in the condo kitchen at the island and I told Bev what I knew.
Jiff made it clear that he represented me. I was going to be a confidential informant as I came across information that was vital to the recent murder of the woman we found on the beach.
I told Bev everything I overheard Al and Abby saying at Ashley’s house earlier. I said my curiosity got the better of me and I wanted to see if I could look through the windows and tell whether it was Abby or Ashley living there. That part was true. I never lied about what I actually did and she never asked for specifics. I said I was there snooping around when I heard them come home arguing. I failed to mention I was inside the house, hiding in a closet, when I heard them.
“I’ll call my Captain and see if she found any sail plans filed with the Coast Guard on Daniel’s boat or any of Al’s boats. I don’t think he does it, but we’ll cover that base just in case,” she said. “The Coast Guard should know where he is docked with that size boat and that might give us a good idea where the drop will take place.”
“The time has been moved up from Wednesday to today. Wednesday was supposed to be the day Hot Rod overheard Al tell Daniel they had to change the day and place. I heard who I think was Al, tell someone who I think was Abby, that it was happening later today. This has got to be the same drop,” I said.
Bev agreed. “It’s more than what we’ve had to go on in the past.”
“That’s because information is relayed from one person to the next and no two people know more than one fact,” I said.
“It leaves only one person knowing how to run the entire process,” Jiff added.
“But now Abby seems to know more, says she has copied incriminating files, and she is no longer restricted by marital privilege. This could be your chance to bust this syndicate unless she marries Big Al in the next few hours.”
We all let out a groan. I hadn’t even thought of that, and I didn’t think the brain trust of Al and Abby had either.
Bev made a call to the FBI and the Coast Guard to update them. She asked the Coast Guard to find what port Daniel had In Your Dreams docked in currently. From the moment she hung up the day took off with everything happening faster than I would ever had imagined.
“This is how I think it works and after I see what the Cyber Crime guy comes up with, I might change my mind,” I said. “Here’s what I think…
“Abby’s ex-husband in New York calls someone to do a job, or as Big Al referred to it, a favor. When the favor’s done, NYC calls Al, says he needs money put at a location. Al could front the cash for NYC and get reimbursed from Daniel when he makes runs to the Caymans or B.V.I.”
“That’s how I think it works. Big Al gives Daniel the money to put in any one of a number of locations he owns, and the guys who did the favor pick it up,” I explained.
“Daniel can get the money via boat, deliver the money the same way to any location Al has a drop point. He has boats in marinas from Slidell to Panama City and one or two in marinas on the east coast of Florida and in the Bahamas,” Jiff said.
“Well, we’re going to find out soon enough,” Officer Bev said. “We’ll have to keep eyes on Al and Daniel. Either one could make the drop.”
Officer Bev got a call back a few minutes later and said Daniel’s yacht, In Your Dreams was currently docked at a marina close to Panama City Beach. I looked through the files and the closest date to today was Wednesday and the drop was supposed to be at PCBM202. That was Panama City Beach Marina, Slip 202, and the number was 500L/MP. That should mean five-hundred thousand dollars to be picked up or paid to someone with initials MP.
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