The Coral Killer

by Anna Travis

  R uby put down the phone in frustration and looked out the window. The afternoon sun beamed down hot and bright on Grannie, who was down at the dock with Angel bouncing around excitedly at her feet.

  Ruby picked up the mystery she’d been reading when the phone had rung, and then dropped it back on the table. She tugged at her red braid, feeling as if someone had burst her bubble.

  Well, someone had! She thought, and then got up and stomped downstairs and outside to her grandmother.

  Grannie was hanging over the edge of the dock. Ruby watched as she reached into the shadows, fishing for a piece of thin rope.

  “What’s up, buttercup?” Grannie’s voice floated up.

  “This detective work is harder than I thought,” Ruby said with another tug at her braid.

  Grannie pulled up the rope and a small wire cage emerged from the water. She stood and sat the cage onto the dock. Grannie counted an easy half-dozen blue crabs, then smiled and stretched her back.

  “Check the other trap for me, will you, Ruby?” she said. “So, you’ve had a set-back in your search, I take it?”

  Ruby went to the very end of the dock and hung upside down to reach the other crab line.

  “Yeah,” Ruby answered as she hauled the trap up. “I was sure it was Grumpy that killed the cleaning lady.”

  “What makes you think that it wasn’t?”

  “I just got off the phone with Ian,” Ruby said. “He called to let me know he talked to Mr. Gambino this morning, and he’s pretty sure it wasn’t him… There’s three more in this trap.”

  “Oh, good!” Grannie said. “Crabs for dinner! Dump ‘em in the bucket for me, and we can talk all about it.”

  The older woman passed Ruby an empty five-gallon bucket, and Ruby shook the crabs into it. Angel barked at the empty traps as the women tossed them back into the water, and then they all headed up to the grill on the porch.

  “Just another moment, hon. Let me grab the pot,” Grannie said.

  She disappeared inside while Ruby guarded the bucket. Two of the crabs tried to climb out, and she gave the bucket a little kick with her foot, dropping them back in. Then she grabbed the hose and poured in a little fresh water to rinse them off.

  Angel peered in the bucket and whimpered. She backed away quickly, since she had already made the mistake of sticking her nose in a crab bucket when she was a puppy.

  “Here we are!” Grannie said as she reappeared with a massive pot, a long pair of tongs, and a big jar of Old Bay seasoning.

  Together they filled the pot with water and put it on the grill’s side burner. Grannie shook in a pile of seasoning. “Get me one of the cans, will you?”

  Ruby moved to the other end of the porch where Grannie kept a stash of beer cans for cooking. She smiled as she handed Grannie the can, knowing exactly what her grandmother would say, because she said it every single time they made crabs.

  “Can’t stand the taste of this stuff for drinking,” Grannie said as she popped the can open and poured it into the pot. “But it sure makes for good crabs.”

  Ruby chuckled. She knew her Grannie to enjoy the occasional glass of wine, but the older woman had a particular distaste for beer. She stole a glance at her grandmother, who at times was more of a mystery than the murder Ruby was trying to solve.

  “He’s getting away!” Grannie said, pointing at the bucket. Angel whimpered and went to hide under the porch picnic table.

  “Some guard dog,” Ruby said with a laugh.

  “Poor thing,” Grannie said, clicking her tongue.

  Ruby used the tongs to grab their catch of crabs one at a time and stuff them into the pot. Grannie put the big heavy lid on, turned on the burner, and waved for Ruby to follow her back out into the yard.

  “I hate hearing them in there,” Grannie said. “But catching my own food once in a while reminds me to be grateful for the food I don’t have to process, you know?”

  Ruby agreed completely. She sighed as they sat on the swing Grannie had hanging from a big royal poinciana tree. The fern-like leaves draped all around them, creating a pretty picture as they swayed in the breeze.

  “So, dear, fill me in,” Grannie said. “Where are we?”

  “Well, apparently Grumpy Gambino is a landscaper. He owns a company and doesn’t have to do much of it anymore, but he’s spent so much time grabbing snakes and dispatching them that the coral didn’t freak him out. Plus, he knew it wasn’t going to have enough venom for a second bit, even if it did get him.”

  Grannie nodded.

  “And he fessed up to what he has been up to,” Ruby said.

  “What? What’s that?”

  “The crazy fellow has been lining the rental house next door with fish guts—”

  “You’re joking—” Grannie West gasped, then wrinkled her nose in disgust.

  “Nope, he admitted it to Ian,” Ruby said. “Renters coming and going drive him nuts with their music and their parties and their jet skis and whatever else some of them get up to. Between the coons scratching at the walls and the stink of rotting fish, he was hoping to get some really bad reviews for the place, so the owner would sell it.”

  Grannie shook her head.

  “And people laughed at me for planting those areca palms all the way around the Nest,” Grannie said. “Hmm… Want to go over your suspects again?”

  Ruby leaned back heavily. “I don’t know, Grannie. There was the boyfriend, Patrick, but I really think he didn’t do it. And Ms. Mavis, the renter lady, I really don’t think it was her. She was at the bank all morning, and I don’t think she knew the lady robbing her credit cards was sitting in her house while she was out. Someone like that would call the cops, since she was already trying to get her money back the legal way.”

  “I think you’re right about that,” Grannie said. “And there’s that man from the credit company, too. Has anyone seen him lately?”

  “No,” Ruby said. “I have a feeling he took off once he found out the dead lady wouldn’t be scamming anyone anymore.”

  They rocked for a little while, and Ruby stared up through the poinciana branches and tugged at her braid in thought.

  “There’s something missing,” Ruby said. “I may be good at puzzles, but I can’t put them together without all the pieces… I still can’t figure out why the cleaning lady was in Ms. Mavis’s rental to begin with. Mavis wasn’t checking out, so Nancy wasn’t there to clean. Whoever sent her there had to know that Mavis was at the bank… They had to know she was going to be there for a while. And why didn’t Nancy call for help? It takes forever to die from coral venom!”

  “That part has me stumped, too,” Grannie said. “If you hadn’t found the snake under her, I would think she’d been bit elsewhere and just died at the rental. Has Ian heard anything back from autopsy?”

  Ruby snorted.

  “Ha! You know all those shows where they get results in hours? And how the detectives rush around and solve everything real fast? It’s all hogwash! Most of that stuff takes weeks, sometimes months!” Ruby said. She hesitated, and then added, “Besides, I don’t know how much Ian can tell me.”

  Grannie stole a glance at Ruby. “So nice to see you two working together—”

  Ruby jumped off the swing. “We should go check on the crabs, before they boil right out of the pot,” she said. She stomped off towards the porch, calling over her shoulder, “You want to watch a movie tonight, Grannie?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  A breeze kicked up, and Ruby felt the air pressure shift as a storm drew near to the island. Ignoring the sudden shift of weather, the two women spread some old newspapers across the porch table and dumped the bright red crabs in the center. Then they added some fresh corn on the cob and two bowls loaded with salad.

  They watched the storm roll in and sat and cracked crabs and chatted and munched until dinner was finished. By the time they were done, the storm had dumped itself out. The sun was coming back out just in time to set.

  “You tak
e Angel for a good long walk,” Grannie said. “I’ll clean up tonight, and by the time you get back, we can watch that movie.”

  “You pick, okay? Something… classic,” Ruby said as she went to fetch Angel’s leash. “No mysteries though.”

  Grannie laughed and waved Ruby out the door.

  Ruby clipped the leash on her dog, even though Angel really didn’t need it, and the two of them headed off at a pace that would wear out the Aussie and relieve Ruby’s spinning mind.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  When they got back, Angel gulped down a ton of water and Ruby took a quick shower. She threw on her pajamas and went to meet Grannie in the living room.

  “So? What’d you pick?” Ruby asked.

  “Indiana Jones!” Grannie said with a wink. She handed Ruby a bowl of fresh-popped popcorn and dropped into her favorite spot on the couch. Ruby took the bowl and snuggled up with a pillow as Grannie hit play.

  She nibbled at her popcorn, not enjoying the old flick as much as she usually did. While Indy was running from dart-blowing natives, Ruby was pondering her failures in crime solving.

  Why had this mystery become so important to her? Was it because she’d washed out with David and her dreams of starting a family had been snuffed out, again? Maybe she should just forget the whole thing and sit on the beach renting kayaks for the rest of her life. Maybe that’s all God had for her…

  Her eyes watered, and Ruby turned her attention back to the TV, just as Indy was climbing into an open cockpit and his buddy was taking off for a quick escape. She cringed as the camera panned down to reveal the giant snake slithering across Indy’s lap.

  Grannie paused the movie.

  “You okay, Ruby, dear?”

  Ruby gave a tiny nod.

  “You should try that,” Grannie said, pointing at the screen.

  “I should fly with snakes? I don’t think it’d be good for business—”

  “No,” Grannie said tartly. She pointed at the frozen image of Indy shouting. “He’s afraid of them, but he never calls it that. Indy always says ‘I hate snakes.’ You should try that, Ruby. Change the way you talk about your fears… Stop letting fear stop you.”

  Grannie eyed her carefully for a moment, and then started the movie back up.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  The next morning, Ruby woke up as a sudden thought ran through her head.

  “Why didn’t I think of that before?”

  She bolted upright in bed and threw off her quilt. Angel, who was sleeping at her feet, rolled over and fell off the foot of the bed.

  “Sorry, girl!” she said quickly, trying to sooth the dog. “Go back to sleep,” Ruby said. “I just want to check something.” Then she shuffled over to her desk and fired up the computer.

  Ruby opened up her search engine and took a deep breath. Snakes were the last thing she wanted to look at.

  “Stop letting fear stop you,” she said to herself. Then she starting tapping keys. Coral snake victim image.

  Pictures popped up, but none of them were dead people, just bite victims. Ruby made a face.

  “Well, corals are a type of cobra, let’s try that,” she said, typing again. “Oh, yuck!” She closed the browser window quickly. “Ew, ew, ew! I hate snakes!”

  Angel put her paws over her eyes.

  “I just want to see what the victim looks like after they’re dead, not some gross guy kissing a cobra!”

  Ruby frowned at the laptop. Images were going to get her nowhere. She needed a description.

  “Stop letting fear stop you,” she told herself again. Ruby sat down at the computer and starting again, making sure to search for text only.

  A short while later Angel came over and put her head in Ruby’s lap.

  “Need to go out, girl?” Ruby asked, grabbing a hair tie and putting her hair up into a very, messy bun. “I need a break anyway. Everything I’m finding says cobra venom is a neurotoxin. The coral should have slowly shut down Nancy’s systems and paralyzed her long before she stopped breathing… But that takes hours and hours. Nancy had to show up at Mavis’s rental and get bit and stop breathing before Mavis got back from the bank…”

  Ruby pushed back from the computer and headed downstairs to let Angel out.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  She found Grannie in the kitchen brewing a strong pot of tea.

  “You look better this morning,” Grannie said, pushing a mug over to Ruby.

  Ruby sat down across the table from her.

  “I’ve made up my mind, Grannie. You were right,” Ruby said. She spoke very quickly, the words tumbling out of her. “I hate snakes. And… And I hate the idea that I might never get to have a family of my own. But I’m done letting fear stop me.”

  Grannie pushed the honey across the table. She said nothing, allowing Ruby to speak without interruption.

  “I’ve been on-line for an hour,” Ruby said. “I can’t find anything that sounds like what I saw when I found the body. But the thing definitely killed her. Like, really, crazy fast… Like she just stopped—”

  Ruby’s voice trailed off.

  “Ruby? She stopped, what? What did she stop?” Grannie said, waving a hand to get her attention.

  Just then Angel barked at the door, wanting back in, and Ruby jumped nearly a foot. Ruby’s eyes focused on her Grannie.

  “She stopped breathing,” Ruby said quietly.

  Grannie’s eyes widened. “You said she kept an EpiPen in the guard house, didn’t you?”

  Ruby nodded slowly. Then she jumped to her feet.

  “I am going to solve this case, Grannie! Just you wait! And I’ll do it before Ian does! I just need all the puzzle pieces!”

  Ruby marched out of the kitchen. The porch door slammed as she let the dog back in. Angel bounced into the house, picking up on Ruby’s excitement.

  “Good for you, dear,” Grannie said as she got the dog’s breakfast. She smiled at Ruby with pride and then got her keys and purse.

  “Where are you going, Grannie?” Ruby said. “Aren’t you going to help me figure this out? I’m so close, I can feel it!”

  “I have my Bible study group this morning,” Grannie said, heading out the door. “Why don’t you give that handsome young man a call?”

  “Call? Who am I calling?” Ruby asked.

  “Why, Deputy Prescott, of course!” Grannie said from the porch. “You need to tell him you think Nancy died from an allergic reaction, of course. And that someone lured her to the house while Mavis was out. Someone nearby who knew the house was empty. I’m going to be late! Let me know how it goes, dear!”

  “I never said he was handsome!” Ruby shouted, but Grannie was already out the door.

  Chapter Sixteen

  R uby got up, her mind in a buzz of excitement. The killer knew about the scam. He knew Mavis had left and gone to the bank. He knew that Nancy had an EpiPen and if he talked to Jimmy, he knew that Nancy had a bazillion allergies.

  The killer lived in Sandy Turtle Cove.

  He had to. He would know Mavis’s house was empty, and he lured the cleaning lady there and killed her with something that might look like a crazy accident. Whoever he was, he was smart enough to order the kayak rental and get the cops looking at someone else. Maybe even smart enough to lie about putting fish guts in the bushes.

  Ruby went outside and backed the Jeep up to the trailer. She was supposed to babysit the beach rentals today. She hooked everything up, then headed back inside to pack a lunch.

  Angel followed, sensing Ruby’s excitement. She bounded around, happy that Ruby was happy enough to share some leftover crab scraps as she dug in the fridge.

  She had woken up early, and didn’t need to leave just yet, so she headed to the library to grab the next mystery in the series she was reading.

  “I’m going to figure out the last piece of this, just you wait!” she told Angel. She put the book in her pack, and started to add her phone, but stopped.

  “Maybe Grannie’s right,” she said. “Maybe I shou
ld tell Ian what I found out…”

  Ruby swiped through the contacts and headed out to the porch. She hit call before she could change her mind. It rang and rang, and Ruby was just about to hang up as it went to voicemail.

  “Um, hey, Ian,” she said. “It’s Ruby, and I’ve been thinking… I think Nancy died super fast because she had all those allergies, and the coral venom triggered a reaction. The killer must live nearby, and he was in there with her when she got bit… That’s why her stuff was everywhere, they must have struggled for the EpiPen …”

  Ruby rattled on, feeling stupid talking to a machine.

  “I really think you should look further at Grump—I mean, Mr. Gambino… Check his credit cards to see if he’s been a victim of fraud recently. Anyways, I’m rattling. I gotta go, there’s someone pulling up.”

  Ruby looked up at the West’s Quests charter parking area and waved at Mr. Fletcher as she shook her phone so it would give her the hang up button. Fletcher, got out of his car, and slung his backpack over his shoulder.

  “Hey! Are you here about that Eco tour?” she called as the phone finally lit up and she pressed the End Call button.

  Ruby shoved the phone into her bag and turned to her dog. She pointed at the porch floor. “Wait here, Angel.”

  She closed the porch door and skipped down the steps.

  Mr. Fletcher smiled broadly.

  “I sure am!” he said, answering her question. “The school says it’s a great idea, and we can book you for next month. There’s just one problem… I don’t know anything about paddling, and well, I don’t want to look like an idiot in front of the kids.”

  Ruby chuckled. She headed down the steps and tossed her backpack into the Jeep.

  “No worries, Mr. Fletcher,” she said. “I’m running early today. Want to go for a quick paddle? Get your feet wet?”

  “That would be perfect,” Mr. Fletcher said. He clapped his hands and sighed with relief, then followed Ruby down to the paddle shed.

  ✽ ✽ ✽

  Ruby smiled to herself. This was perfect! She could have Mr. Fletcher up and paddling in half an hour, and maybe then he’d be willing to get her into the Sandy Turtle Cove so she could question Grumpy again.