“What are you feeding him? An entire cow?” I laughed as he bounded toward the sand, no longer leery of it. He stopped abruptly and tilted his nose toward the air, sniffing the sea. He remembered where we were.
As we walked down to the water, I filled Molly in on some of the things I’d learned in my ongoing investigation, including my call to the Department of Natural Resources.
“So, I’m wondering if the results at the biology lab really disappeared or…if someone deleted them,” I pondered. “Because if they matched the DNR results and showed opioid poisoning, it could cause quite a stir. I wonder if it has something to do with the Coast Guard boats…”
“There’s no way the results would just disappear like that,” Molly agreed. “Especially since Melody seems like the type to want to stand up for innocent victims—like she did for me that night Amanda Taylor was such a raving you-know-what. You’d think she would want to protect more fish from being harmed.”
“I suppose mistakes can happen, but—”
“I do remember Melody was super smart in school. Straight A student,” Molly noted. “Doesn’t seem like she would make a mistake like that, but then again, I didn’t know her that well.”
“We need to find out more about the Steyer kids. Like, what is Dylan Steyer doing back in town, and what was he doing with Bob Summer at Josie’s that night we saw them? I told you Bob Summer is the governor’s deputy chief of staff, right? I feel like he’s involved in this somehow—as was the dude in the gray suit he was with at the marina bar. What if Dylan and Melody are both in on it too?”
Molly nodded. “Maybe Bob’s two meetings at the marina are totally unrelated, though. Maybe Dylan wants to get involved in politics and is talking to Bob about that?”
I tapped my index finger on my chin as I tried to work all the tangles out of this giant knot of clues. “That could be, but why would Bob tell Dylan the fishing was going to be good this summer? I guess it could just be a metaphor for something else?”
“As you’ve already proven, fishing puns are pretty easy to make.” Molly laughed at her own joke.
I continued to mull everything over when another idea hit me. “Maybe Melody is covering up the dead fish at Bryce Beach to make our town look better—for her dad and brother’s political careers.”
“That makes sense. More sense than her just losing the lab work…”
“Right? I think so too.”
I scanned the water, and today I didn’t see any boats at all out there, not even a sailboat or recreational fishing boat. That seemed weird to me. Maybe after the dead sea creatures showed up, no one wanted to fish in our cove anymore?
Another reason to solve this mystery…
Monday morning, I rushed to get ready. I planned on filling Evangeline in on what I’d discovered and see what she thought I should do. I didn’t just respect her opinion as a friend these days, but now as my boss too. Interim boss, but still. I had a feeling when the library board met later this month, she’d be confirmed as our full-time fearless leader.
After giving my kitties Bond and Paige some love and a few treats to get them through the day without me, I hopped in my Mazda and sped off to work. I was running early for a change—the library wouldn’t even be open for another twenty minutes, so I stopped at the coffee shop on the corner and paid a visit to my favorite barista, whom I’d been neglecting as of late.
“Hey, you!” Jennie called when she saw me heading inside with my cute pink-and-white-striped seersucker dress. Whoever said redheads can’t wear pink is just that, a seersucker, I thought when I slipped it on this morning.
“Hiya! Good morning, how have you been?” I greeted her. I didn’t even have to give her my order; she went to work right away on my café mocha.
“I’ve been well. How are things down at the library?” She sort of whispered it, as it was common knowledge we’d had a pretty big shakeup with the stolen Founders’ Bible and gala funds.
“Never better!” And that was the truth! We’d been blessed by amazing donations at our fundraiser, and we were in the process of putting them to good use, adding to our collections, creating engaging programming, and being the community center we strived to be in our mission statement. Huh, I sound just like a commercial!
I exited the coffee shop carrying a cardboard tray with my order and something for Evangeline. Stepping out into the lovely June morning, I spotted Willa Bryce Monroe, our library’s biggest benefactor, out walking her dog, Natty, named after her Great to the 10th Power (give or take) Grandfather, Nathaniel Bryce, who founded our town. I waved hello as I walked the three blocks to the library, killing time before it opened. Not that I couldn’t arrive early, but I was raring to talk to Evangeline, and she was more of a get-there-on-time-and-stay-late kind of person. I came bearing coffee, so I was expecting good things.
After exchanging pleasantries with Mrs. Monroe, I let myself in the front entrance with my ID card—part of the new security system we’d had installed after the Bryce Beach Bandit incident, and then I made my way up to Evangeline’s office on the second floor. Her assistant, Pam, who had also been the former director’s assistant, was perched at her desk, getting ready for the day.
I pointed to the door, and Pam nodded, knowing nothing she could say would keep me out. She learned that lesson the hard way a couple of months ago.
Evangeline was hanging up her purse and lunch bag on a shelf with hooks in the corner when I slid into her office. “Morning, Boss!” I sang. Then I handed her the cup of coffee I’d had Jennie make up for her. “You keep saying I owe you. I figure this is a start.”
She smirked, then took a sip before settling herself in at her desk. Meanwhile, I made myself comfortable in one of her guest chairs facing her desk. “Well? How is it?”
“Mmm…black…just like my soul.” She let out what was supposed to be a witch-like laugh. “But I’m gonna need about fifty of these to make up for the conversation I had last night.”
My eyebrows drew together. “What do you mean?”
“DW and I started texting. It was getting to be a long, drawn-out affair, and I was getting a cramp in my hand, so I ended up just calling him…”
“Oh…gosh, Evangeline, I didn’t mean to put you out…”
“Well, what am I supposed to do?” She scowled at me. “You’ve got us all invested in those poor dead fish and whale. We need to know what happened to them.”
I was fighting a grin but lost. “I’m glad you feel that way too. So what did he say?”
“So, yes, his colleague was Melody Steyer, and, yes, apparently he dated her for a bit after we separated.”
“Eww. Didn’t need to know that.”
“Yeah, I’m somewhat traumatized myself by this information.”
I shrugged. “Well, we must soldier on. It’s for the fish.”
She huffed out a sigh and cracked her knuckles before lacing them together on her desk. “So, basically, he asked her about it, and she feigned ignorance, like it was someone else’s gig. And now all the data is gone, when she was the one in charge of it, according to their director, whom I’m assuming wouldn’t lie,” Evangeline summarized.
“That sounds like the gist of it to me.” I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, preparing myself to deliver the next nugget of information I’d gleaned.
“Well, what is it?” she pressed, knowing me well enough to know I was purposely holding out on her.
“Remember Liz Cooper?”
“How could I forget?”
“Well, I hired her to do some work for me this summer, as you know—since you signed off on it—”
“Cut to the chase, Sunshine,” my interim boss implored me.
“Right. Well, I tried to call the Department of Natural Resources, and they gave me the run-around—in a very rude manner, I’ll have you know. She was unnecessarily rude, even. I mean, I know people have bad days sometimes, but—”
“Sunshine!” she scolded me.
“Anyway
, Liz just happened to do some work for them last summer, so she knew how to hack into their system, even though she made it impenetrable to everyone else. She was able to find the toxicology results on the whale.”
“What?! Are you serious?” Evangeline covered her mouth with her hand. “If anyone finds out about that, Sunshine…”
“I know, I know. So now I have a real dilemma…because the results definitely show foul play.”
Evangeline’s jaw dropped open, and her lips formed an O-shape. “Are you serious?”
“Narcotics,” I revealed. “Several times the toxic dose for humans. I have a screenshot of the evidence, but how can I get it to someone who can do something with it?”
“Wow, you’ve really backed yourself into a corner, Sunshine.” Evangeline shook her head and locked gazes with me. I could tell her wheels were turning, but I wasn’t sure if she’d be able to help me find a solution. This was very far outside either of our wheelhouses. This was in a wheelhouse on a different planet than librarianship.
“How did opioids get into a whale?” I wondered out loud. “I think the Coast Guard has something to do with it.”
“The Coast Guard?” Her black eyebrows quirked.
“Well, maybe not directly, but I do know they’ve been in our neck of the woods a lot. I haven’t seen this many Coast Guard boats around since we had that shark attack back in the nineties. Do you think there could be some sort of drug trafficking going on in our waters?” I had been mulling around this idea all weekend, but I just couldn’t figure out how to prove it.
She held her hands up in the universal signal for “stop.” “Wow, Sunshine, that is definitely not something you should be getting involved in!”
“I know, but… I just…I don’t know what to do. How can I tell the police about the tox screen? Two places supposedly ‘lost’ their reports and aren’t sending them to the police? It feels like someone is covering something up, but who and why?”
Evangeline’s jaw clenched. “Well, Melody Steyer is, for one.”
“And she doesn’t even live here—though her dad is the mayor. Maybe she doesn’t want the town to get bad press or for her dad to look bad? I need to find out some more information about her. Why would she destroy the evidence? Who is she covering up for?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.” Evangeline shook her head. “DW didn’t seem to have a clue why she’d lie about the test results. He said she was a play-by-the-book type of person.”
I was working it out in my mind, turning the pieces like a Rubik’s Cube, and letting anything and everything rumbling around in there just spill on out.
“I feel like I need to get out on the water. I mean, hanging out at the marina is one thing, but I need to see what’s going on out there,” I said. “Maybe if I could see what those Coast Guard boats are up to, catch something on video, and I could take that to police.”
“There haven’t been any more dead fish though, right?” Evangeline clarified.
“No, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t illegal drugs being trafficked right through our town! Through our marina!”
“Have you ever piloted a boat?” Evangeline’s eyebrows waggled, and I could tell she was making fun of me.
“No, but I know someone who does…”
“Who’s that?”
“Well, Jada’s dating the Boxbury guy, and I know for sure they have crab traps in our cove. I saw them myself. So I just need to figure out if I can get onto one of their boats.”
My friend scoffed, “And how are you going to do that?”
“Jada met his parents this weekend. Maybe she can help me figure something out…”
“Are you going to tell her what’s going on?” Evangeline’s brows drew together, her face painted with concern.
“I don’t know, why?”
“I don’t know if we can trust her, that’s why.”
“She’s your friend!” I reminded her. “She wouldn’t be hanging out with us if it wasn’t for you!”
“She’s hanging out with us because you saved her butt!” Evangeline’s chuckle sounded like chimes blowing in the breeze.
“Let me talk to her, and we’ll go from there…” My brain was going in about three hundred different directions. I had so many leads, I didn’t know where to start. Melody Steyer. That was my next target. “I think I’m going to have to do some research on Ms. Steyer. Wonder if the mayor’s wife would dish about her stepdaughter?”
“Camille?” Evangeline made a face like she’d just smelled something terrible.
“Yeah, why not? We’re still on that committee together. Maybe we can have a friendly post-gala debriefing?”
“I guess it’s worth a shot…”
“Oh ye of little faith,” I tsk-tsked at her.
“I might have little faith,” she quipped, “but I have a lot of common sense.”
Touché.
Nine
The rest of my day was spent trying to figure out a guise for talking to Camille Steyer, the mayor’s wife, about her stepdaughter. Thankfully, I had one of those a-ha moments that sent me shooting straight upright in bed at approximately three AM. I could interview her for the library newsletter—she was the chair of our Friends of the Library committee, after all. It made perfect sense; thank you, Lord!
That morning at work, I picked up the phone and asked her if she’d like to have lunch and do the interview. There was a cute café next to the coffee place near work, and she agreed to meet me there.
Molly spotted me gathering up my things to leave and meandered over to my desk, a confused expression on her face. “You’re not coming out to the courtyard to eat with us?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I have a break in the case…going to go interview someone who may be able to help.”
Molly snickered, “Oooh, well, are you going to fill me in, or are we not best friends anymore?”
“I’m having lunch with Camille Steyer,” I announced.
“What? Really? Why?” My best friend looked like I could have knocked her over with a feather. She knew how I felt about the mayor’s vapid, plastic-y wife.
I lowered my voice to a barely audible level, “I’m going to ask her a few questions about Melody since she may be involved in our mystery at the marina.”
My friend’s blonde eyebrow shot up. “Can I come with you?” she begged.
I scrunched up my nose. “I think it will be less conspicuous if it’s just me…and I’ll probably be able to slide in more questions about Melody.”
My best friend crossed her arms over her chest. “But I want to ask her about Dylan. See why he came back to town. Don’t you think it would be good to balance out the questions about Melody with questions about Dylan? Besides, I thought you were wondering about his political aspirations…”
I pinched the bridge of my nose, a headache coming on. “The guise is we’re interviewing her for the library newsletter—for her position as chair of the Friends of the Library. Which has nothing to do with her stepchildren. I was just going to weasel in a few questions about Melody.”
Molly snapped, “Well, I can just weasel in a few questions about Dylan!” She gave me her best sad puppy dog eyes, which she’d no doubt learned from her new pup.
“Did Murphy teach you how to beg like that?” I sighed.
Her face lit up when she realized I was capitulating.
The tea room at the Butterfly Café was all aflutter with the Ladies Who Lunch, Bryce Beach Edition. Willa Bryce Monroe was there, naturally, along with a few of her peers. I recognized some ladies from church, including our retired pastor’s wife, Margaret. It took me a solid five minutes of greeting folks and accepting their thanks for returning the Founders’ Bible to its rightful place in the library before I could venture across the restaurant to meet the mayor’s wife.
Camille was waiting for us near the bay window at an elegantly appointed round table festooned with a bouquet of fresh-cut blooms, no doubt the best table in the house—only su
itable for the mayor’s wife, of course. Molly and I both offered our friendliest smiles as we took seats on either side of her. After the waitress took our drink orders, I whipped out my notepad—which I’d been using to record thoughts and notes about the mystery, of course—and jotted down “Camille Steyer—Friends of the Library chair, interview for library newsletter” to make it look all official. I was getting good at this undercover thing.
“My husband just hasn’t stopped talking about you, Sunshine. He was so impressed with your bravery and hard work to save the library and Founders’ Bible,” Camille gushed as she ran her fingers through her long, straight golden blonde hair. She looked rather prim and proper today in a high-necked blouse and a knee-length pencil skirt. I doubted even Willa Bryce Monroe could find anything scandalous about this outfit.
“Thank you for agreeing to have lunch with us. You remember Molly Simmons, right?” I gestured to my friend.
“Oh, of course. The treats you brought us from The Candy Shoppe after the gala were delightful—even if I did pack on five pounds from trying them.” She patted her slim hips.
I held back my eyeroll through a sheer act of God and continued matter-of-factly, “We just want a little background info first for the newsletter. You know, simple things like where you’re from, where you went to school, your family, you know, that sort of thing.”
“Oh, of course!” A nervous smile lifted the corners of her lips, then she glanced up at the ceiling like she was trying to decide where to start. “Well, I’m from Bryce Beach, born and raised here. I went to Weebler College for my undergrad and did my master’s at State.”
“Oh, you went to State,” I interjected, knowing that was where Melody worked in the biology lab. I could circle back to that with no problem.
“Yes, my husband went there too, though we weren’t there at the same time, obviously.” Her long, probably fake eyelashes fluttered as she laughed, presumably to highlight the fact that Bull Steyer was fifteen years her senior. Then she added, “Later on, he worked at the university, before he got into politics. And my stepdaughter works there now.”
Dangerous Curves Boxed Set 1: 3 Cozy Christian Mysteries Page 24