I turned the doorknob of the cottage, and to my surprise, it opened. Robert and Apple sat on the couch, watching television.
“Hello, you two,” I said. “Just like old times.”
“Hello, cuz. You’re looking good.” Robert winked. His mama would describe him as a good-sized boy, tipping the scales at close to three hundred pounds. His passion was clothes, and he’d adapted to Florida beach style in his shorts and T-shirt.
“Why was Jax arrested?”
“Don’t know. I wasn’t here,” Robert said.
“You were here.” I pointed at Apple. “What did they say?”
Apple slumped back against the cushions, a deer in the headlights look on her face, bloodshot eyes, and long dirty hair hanging in her face. “I don’t know,” she mumbled. She got up and ran into the bathroom in her stained T-shirt worn over a g-string.
“She’s weirder than ever,” I said. “Did she tell you why Jax got arrested?”
“I don’t talk to her.”
“Here’s the deal. Apple leaves today, and if she doesn’t, then all three of you are out. I’m going to wait to find out what’s happening with Jax before kicking your ass out of here. In the meantime, don’t withhold information, or I’ll have you tossed into the street by someone bigger than your ass.”
He looked at me and laughed. “You’re looking good, Red.” He acted like a man without a care. He expected life to take care of him without any effort on his part. For the most part, he had a knack for finding people to sponge off of.
“As of now, the parties and the loud noise stop. If the sheriff comes to this unit again for any reason, your free ride gets terminated on the spot. Understand me?”
“I hear you.” He looked me over in a way that made me want to slap him.
“What are you doing here in Florida?”
“You know Jax and I are inseparable. He asked me, I’m here, simple as that.”
Jax and Robert were like conjoined twins. They had grown up together and formed a bond. They were known to sleep with each other’s women, beat each other up, and do other things sane people would have turned their backs on. They would go their separate ways only to find they couldn’t live without each other.
“Don’t get used to this.” I closed the door behind me. He had a way about him that some women found charming, but it only irritated me.
I walked by Joseph’s, and his door was closed. I had almost made a clean getaway when I saw Miss January sitting half-in and half-out of the hedge across the street.
“Ignore this,” a little voice told me.
“Go away, I’d never do that,” I responded mentally. “Hi, Miss January, do you need some help?”
She poked her head out the hedge. “I need help getting Kitty out of here.”
Of course, it would be about her dead cat. “Let me help you up, and I’ll see what I can do.”
I hooked my arms around her chest and pulled gently. She was bony and frail, and I didn’t want to hurt her. It took a few minutes, but I was finally successful. “Are you okay?”
“Kitty,” she cried, pointing at the bushes.
“Don’t get upset.” I looked in the hedge, and sure enough, there it lay, still as dead as the last time I had seen it. “How did it get in here?”
“I was out pushing her in the doll carriage Angie gave me. Kitty loves to ride. I saw that dreadful Kyle boy coming down the block. He tried to take Kitty once before, but I started screaming and he ran off. I knew I couldn’t get away, so I hid her in the bushes.”
“Why did Kyle want Kitty?”
“He said for target practice. He told me I was crazy. I’m not!” Her eyes filled with tears.
“I promise you Kyle won’t ever bother you or Kitty again. You stay here, and I’ll go get something to wrap Kitty in to get her out of the bushes.”
“Oh, honey, you don’t have to worry about that. Kitty likes to be held.”
There was no way I was picking up that animal with my bare hands. “I really need to get something. I don’t want to hurt Kitty pulling her out.”
“Here, use my sweater,” she said, pulling it off and handing it to me.
I crawled part of the way through the same hole Miss January had used. I tossed the sweater over Kitty and was able to drag her out. I wrapped her in the sweater and handed her to Miss January.
“You don’t mind carrying her back for me do you?” She handed Kitty back to me. “I don’t want to put her in the carriage. You’re nice, just like your Aunt Elizabeth.”
I didn’t think about what I was doing; I just did it. I carried Kitty under one arm and guided Miss January and the carriage with the other. I wanted to run back to her cottage, but I was afraid she’d fall.
I breathed a sigh of relief when we made it to her porch. “Here we are.” Miss January settled into her chair, and I handed Kitty to her. She pulled a cigarette from behind her ear and lit up, taking a long drag.
“If you need anything, you call me. Don’t worry about Kyle.” I practically ran to my SUV. I needed to get home and shower.
For a woman who might die any day, according to the doctors, she appeared to be doing better. I wasn’t sure what kept her alive. I thought it would be funny if it turned out to be the vodka.
CHAPTER 20
Fab squealed around the corner and screeched to a stop in front of me. “Get in. I need backup.” She had turned in her months-old Thunderbird for a black Corvette.
“For what?” I jumped in, pulling my seatbelt tight.
“This is a quick job for Brick.”
“That explains the new car.” The black leather seats were comfortable, and the dashboard had every gadget new to the market.
“I’m going to plant a tracking device on a woman’s car before she leaves work. A friend of Brick’s wants a clean and easy divorce,” Fab said. “The soon to be ex-husband wants his wife to agree that they each take their own toys and go their separate ways. He says it’s been the worst two years of his life. Nice guy marries high maintenance.”
“Are we following her?” I asked.
“Brick is handling this one.”
“He doesn’t strike me as a hands-on guy.”
“This is a favor for a friend,” Fab said. “Besides, he got his PI license when he opened the bail bonds business. He used to track his own skips back in the beginning.”
“What will I be doing?”
“Run interference. It doesn’t take that long to attach it to the underside of the car, and I don’t want to attract any attention.”
“Do I get paid?”
“You haven’t worked off your current IOUs,” Fab reminded me.
“Will I ever?”
“You have to ask for them back.”
“There’s nothing written down.”
“Hard to keep track of then, huh?” Fab smiled.
I shook my head and made a mental note get my own IOUs. “What have you heard about Jax?”
“I called Kevin. Jax was picked up because he’s on Harder’s ‘person of interest’ list. Originally, they were going to hold him on the probation violation. But guess what? South Carolina said the case was closed. Harder’s plans to hold him in jail indefinitely fell through.”
“So sometime tonight, he’ll be back at The Cottages,” I said.
“How do you feel about that?”
I sighed. “I’ll be glad when this case gets solved.”
“Kevin said Harder was going to jerk Jax around, and it would be an all-night interview. I asked him to let me know when they let him loose.” Fab paused. “Do you mind if I spend the night?”
“The guest bedroom and bathroom is free of Jax cooties. You can stay tonight and any other night. It’s not as if you need a key. Is everything okay with Marco?”
“He’s never home. Besides, I like your couch, and I don’t feel like driving.”
I sat there running through my options of what to do about Jax.
“What are you thinking about?” Fa
b asked.
“You’ll think I’m crazy.”
“Seriously? Crazy? Tell me already,” Fab said.
“Life gets back on track when we figure out who killed Pavel. Harder chasing Jax is a waste of time.”
“We? Do you have a plan?”
“Not entirely. That’s where you come in.”
“So you need me, do you?” Fab swung into the parking lot and jerked a ticket out the machine.
“What do you want me to do?”
“The car’s right over there, one row over and three cars down.” Fab pointed in that direction. “Stand guard in the aisle and let me know if anyone comes this way.”
I pulled my keys from my purse.
“What are you doing?” Fab asked.
“If I see anyone coming, I’ll act like I’m looking for my car. Then, I’ll alert you and walk this way.”
“It’s a bad sign when you start coming up with your own ideas.”
Fab planted her tracker in less than five minutes, and we left the garage and were back on the street.
“Since this is Brick’s case, why didn’t he plant his own tracker?”
Fab laughed. “Brick doesn’t crawl under cars.”
“You’re the one experienced at this investigation thing,” I said. “I need your help.”
“You need to leave this to Zach.”
“Why? It’s the same old song. Protect Madison from herself. Guess what? I’ve proven I can take care of myself. Keep your damn eyes on the road.” I pointed through the windshield. “So I’m not you. I could be a Fab-in-training.”
She laughed, but her expression told me she was thinking about the idea. “Who would want Pavel dead?” She slammed on the brakes at a red light. “I think we can cross off the four who were on the boat. They didn’t know him, the exception being the girlfriend, and I can’t see that pale, boozy girl killing someone without maiming herself.”
“There’s no evidence Pavel was killed on the boat. It didn’t look like a bloody crime scene to me.”
Fab pulled up to my house and parked, blocking the driveway. “I called Dan today at the Coast Guard, and he told me no blood was found on the boat, inside or out. You don’t blow off a guy’s head without blood and tissue ending up everywhere.”
“What if Pavel jumped overboard? Only this time, the joke doesn’t have a happy ending. He swims to shore and someone shoots him.” We got out of the car and walked into the house.
“That makes more sense than him being murdered by Jax.”
Tossing my purse on the kitchen counter, I looked at Fab. “I say we conduct our own investigation. I want the truth so it doesn’t haunt me for forever.”
“Zach and your mother will hate this when they find out.”
“We don’t tell anyone.”
“It’ll work for a while.” Fab shook her head. “Then it will explode on you.”
I ignored her words of advice. “We need to talk to Pavel’s friends to see if they can give us more information than the reports Anoui sent over. What kind of reports were those anyway? Three reports, one on Pavel and what a regular guy he was, the one on Jax said nothing, and a copy of the initial accident report. They’re sitting on my desk. Help yourself.”
“That surprises me. I know Anoui, and she’s good.”
“I better not get a bill.”
“What did Pavel do for Byce?” Fab asked. “All kinds of illegal activity goes on up and down the docks in the Keys.”
“He was a full-time employee. When the fishing boats docked, he unloaded them into the warehouse. The fish was then sent to Byce’s seafood stores and restaurant.”
“I say we start there. We need to be careful Byce doesn’t find out,” Fab said.
“What do you know about Sid Byce? I’d never heard of him before the accident and hadn’t eaten at his restaurant, though I’ve heard good things about the food.”
“His family ran this town back in the day. When his father died, his mother took control of the family holdings. The Byce family is all about power, and they get what they want. Mrs. Byce controls the family with an iron fist. I met his mother once, a tall, big-boned woman with beady eyes, and a lot tougher than her son.”
“Dickie told us Byce blames Jax and wants him to pay,” I reminded Fab. “Why wouldn’t Byce want the real killer behind bars and not the first guy he can pin it on?”
“When the cops arrest someone and it makes headlines, then ‘Oops, sorry, wrong guy,’ no one believes it. The mentality is if he was arrested, then he’s guilty. First one accused is the culprit, and lots of people never change their minds.”
“It’s all fun with the finger-pointing until it happens to someone you know,” I said.
“Where did Pavel live?” Fab asked.
“He lived in an apartment behind the Pass boardwalk; the only access is from the alley. We also need to ask around about Kym. I think it’s a long shot, but maybe there’s a link to her.”
“We don’t have much to go on here,” Fab said.
“We know he wasn’t killed on the boat.”
“Look, Fabulous-wannabe, we have to be careful who we ask questions. There’s a killer out there, and a real possibility of kicking the proverbial hornet’s nest.”
“I’m not going to be a ‘Wannabe’ because we both know that’s what you’ll shorten it to.”
“Fabulous Two. Is that better?”
“Madison’s good.”
“You’re no fun,” Fab said. “We need to find someone else to get the information. We ask one question ourselves, and it’ll be all over town in an hour.”
“We need our own Information Specialist. I want information on Kym and Byce without Zach finding out and putting a stop to it.”
“It has to be someone connected to the local area and who won’t attract attention. We need a dock connection, and that will probably cost. I’ll check around,” Fab said.
“I just realized I have my own Anoui, and he always has way better information than what I read in her reports.”
“I’m afraid to ask.”
“Joseph can get us the info we need,” I said.
Fab sniffed. “He’s unreliable and always has his own agenda.”
“If you’d have sex with Joseph, we wouldn’t have any problems with him,” I managed to say with a straight face.
She glared at me. “You’re lucky we’re friends, or I’d shoot you.”
“I am lucky.”
“Have you skipped down the road in that thought process of yours, 007?” Fab continued. “What happens when we find the murderer? You do remember that we’re chasing someone who has killed at least one person, right?”
“At that point, we give the information to Kevin or Zach.”
“And that’s where Zach kills us both,” Fab said.
“Zach can just get over himself.”
“And the rest of your family?”
“We agreed we tell no one. Especially my mother and brother. There’s always going to be the issue of me not doing what I’m told.”
“You’re walking a thin line. They’re all going to find out, and being the good friend that I am, I’ll be the first to say I told you so.”
Fab was right. My family cared about the outcome, but not at the expense of my getting hurt. The others had agendas having nothing to do with truth. “Once we find the killer, then I’ll blame it all on you,” I told her.
“I’m glad you think that’s funny because I don’t.”
“If we’re going to be partners, you need to know I’m a regular comedian.”
CHAPTER 21
Fab’s phone rang. “Hi, Kevin. Any news?” The called lasted under a minute.
“Jax was released,” Fab told me. “He was questioned by Harder for a couple of hours, along with his attorney, Tucker.”
“Tucker Davis? How in the hell did those two hook up?”
“I imagine Tucker salivated over the thought of representing your ex-husband.”
“Tu
cker would love to serve up a huge payback to me, ever since the shopping mall project got scrapped. And his fixation on owning this house goes back to when Elizabeth died.”
“You shouldn’t have gone against him at the city council meeting.” Fab shook her head. “Your impassioned speech on his mall project being not only a blight in The Cove but the entire Keys had people listening. Plus, you organized all the store owners to show up en masse. You were so good even I paid attention.”
“I wish I could take credit for the project being dumped. I heard from Zach that Tucker lost a lot of his influence when his seedy reputation turned into headlines. His backers pulled out. They were scared their names would get muddied in all the negative publicity Tucker was generating.”
“I wonder if Tucker found Jax, or the other way around,” Fab said. “I’m putting my money on Tucker doing the finding.”
“Insert Tucker into the Jax fiasco and everything makes sense. How some unknown lawyer found out where I moved to, about the house, and my life in general. Jax is a smart man, but he’s not a scammer. He wouldn’t do this on his own. Enter Tucker using Jax against me.”
Fab grabbed a waffle from the freezer and popped it in the toaster. “The upside for Jax is that none of the plan so far has been illegal, just a nuisance.”
“My aunt lived in The Cove her entire life. It astounds me that she used Tucker to draw up her will. She had to know his reputation.”
“Elizabeth probably didn’t know how obsessed Tucker was with her, or how he’d insinuate himself into your life after her death,” Fab said.
“I’m confident Tucker will get Jax off if there’s something in it for him. You and I both know that ‘something’ is my house.”
I left Fab feeding Jazz waffle pieces that he chewed on and spit back at her. He knew the difference between waffles and turkey.
* * *
I pounded on Jax’s door like an impatient cop with a warrant in my hand. I knew the blood drained from his face when he heard the knock. The thought put a smile on my face.
The blinds moved. “Why in the hell do you knock like that?” Jax said, opening the door.
Madison Westin 02-Deception in Paradise Page 12