Just For A Heartbeat (Piper Anderson Legacy Mystery Book 2)

by Danielle Stewart

  “Was she your age?” Piper asked, taking the photographs back and strolling toward the ferry, gesturing for Amy to follow.

  “She said she was.” Amy smiled at the memory, “But that lie didn’t hold up long. One day about a month after she got here her parents showed up. They flipped out on my dad, telling him Pacey was only fifteen not eighteen like she’d said. I guess she’d run away and they were furious.”

  “Did she leave with her parents then?” Patrick asked.

  “No,” Amy said, shaking her head. “Her parents were kind of,” she searched for the right word, “heavy handed. My father actually had to restrain Pacey’s dad. She refused to go home with them and my father said she could continue working at the restaurant if she wanted. They were reluctant to leave her, but I guess they were overwhelmed. Pacey was a handful. I’ve got two girls of my own now, and I certainly don’t judge her parents as harshly as I did back then.”

  “What made her such a handful?” Piper asked, leaning against the railing by the pier.

  “There was normal stuff we all did, like that day in the photographs. A bunch of the waitresses got together, and we climbed the outside of the lighthouse. But Pacey always took everything too far. She was unstable.” Shy bit at her lip. “I shouldn’t be saying this stuff. I don’t want to cause her any trouble. This happened a long time ago.”

  “I promise anything you tell us is going to help the situation, not make it worse.” Piper put one hand on Amy’s shoulder to encourage her to go on.

  “Pacey did drugs, she stole things and it started to catch up with her. By the end of the summer the busboys all hated her because she’d broken their hearts and taken advantage of them. The bartenders had found out she was stealing their tips. My dad heard she was living with some guy in a band. It was ugly.”

  “When was the last time you saw her?” Patrick asked, wishing he had a notebook to take down every detail. But this was meant to be nonthreatening and casual. Neither he nor Piper had any authority to be poking around, so treading lightly was a necessity.

  “You’re giving me far too much credit if you think I can remember that. My head is full of making sure my older daughter takes her flute to school on Tuesdays and trying to figure out how to save enough to send them both to college. I can’t remember the last time I saw someone all those years ago.”

  “I know,” Piper laughed with genuine sympathy. “I’ve got mom brain these days too, but maybe if you can remember what was going on the last time you saw her it would help.”

  “The end of summer bash,” Amy said, shrugging. “I know she was supposed to help me decorate, and she blew me off. I was so mad. But I figured all the drama had caught up with her and she went home. You guys aren’t going to tell me what this is about are you?”

  “There really isn’t anything to tell,” Piper explained. “We’re just following up. I appreciate you taking the time to share what you know, Amy. It really will help.”

  “Can you tell Pacey something for me?” Amy asked apprehensively. “I’m sorry I didn’t do more to help her. She needed a friend, and I was usually too busy being an unhealthy level of jealous to help. And what I thought my life would be is exactly what happened. I just stayed here and kept living the same.”

  “You were a kid yourself,” Piper consoled. “Our brains aren’t even completely formed at that point. I’m sure you did the best you could. Know that you helped today.”

  “She was from Rhode Island,” Amy said suddenly. “I just remembered. She wore this Providence College hat all the time.”

  “That’s great,” Patrick beamed. “Just so you know, it’s not so glamorous out there, chasing down excitement and dreams. In my experience being surrounded by family, living in a place you love, is a pretty solid life.”

  “I agree,” Piper said, glancing over at Patrick and winking, seeming satisfied that for the first time today they’d found some common ground.

  Chapter 16

  The fog horn of the ferry blew loudly as it docked, bumping gently against the rubber tires meant to soften the impact. The air was thick with salt and the wind whipped his shaggy hair back and forth as the boat rocked heavily on the choppy water.

  Piper had fed all the information to Bobby over the phone so he could begin formulating how Pacey Steele fit into the equation. But besides the ferry horn, the ride home had been fairly quiet.

  “You spend a lot of time in your own head, don’t you?” Patrick asked, as they made their way down the steep metal stairs and off the boat.

  “I process,” Piper said with a sigh. “It drives Bobby crazy, but he’s learned to live with it. Some people can’t sort out a situation unless they discuss every detail out loud. I prefer to categorize the information myself and organize it in a way that makes sense to me.”

  “Then once you have, you just say it how you see it without a lot of regard for people’s feelings,” Patrick commented. Maybe he’d meant it as an insult but Piper didn’t seem to take it that way.

  “Sometimes,” she agreed. “Maybe that gives the impression I’m robotic or unfeeling, but I’m not. I feel everything very deeply. Especially since becoming a mother. We all have to deal with things our own way. Speaking bluntly isn’t intended to hurt people; in my opinion it gets you closer to helping them.”

  “Been busy?” a raspy drawling voice asked as they made their way off the boat and toward Patrick’s car. Sheriff Shep had a troublesome glint in his eyes.

  “Afternoon, Shep,” Patrick said, not slowing down to chat. They’d discovered new information and it was time to get to work to determine if it was relevant. “We’re in a bit of a hurry, you’ll have to excuse us.”

  Shep’s wide chest blocked them as he planted his hands on his belt just above his gun. “The good thing about being the law around here is I don’t have to excuse you. I can tell you we need to talk and insist that we do.”

  “Actually,” Piper corrected, “you don’t have the legal power to make us stay here and talk to you unless you suspect us guilty of a crime. Even then in order to detain us you’d have to read us our rights. Is that what you intend to do?”

  Shep wasn’t amused by Piper’s challenge of his authority. “I intend to find out why you are flashing photographs of a bunch of girls around Skyborough Beach.”

  “Is that illegal?” Piper asked, completely unfazed by Shep’s bravado.

  “It’s that Ruby girl,” Shep said accusingly, changing his posture as he stuffed his hands into his pockets. “Patrick I like you, I really do. You are a good guy, and that’s why I’m going to give you the warning you deserve. You’re new enough to the island not to know Ruby’s history. If you did you wouldn’t be getting mixed up with whatever she has you all doing.”

  “Leave her out of this,” Patrick warned, his voice popping with anger.

  “Oh hell,” Shep sighed dramatically. “She’s got you all caught in something, doesn’t she? It’s not too late to end it. Take my word for it and get out while the getting’s good. She’s a pretty girl; I can see why you’d be fooled.”

  “Why?” Piper asked narrowing her eyes. “What exactly is Ruby’s history?”

  “Piper,” Patrick scolded, feeling like she was betraying Ruby’s friendship. “It’s pretty common knowledge that Ruby’s parents and Shep didn’t get along. He’s just trying to drag Ruby’s name through the mud.”

  “That’s old bones, there,” Shep said, waving the idea off. “Her folks have been gone from the island for years. I’m warning you off because I like you, and you have a good career. I almost lost mine because of that girl. I don’t intend to see it happen to anyone else.”

  “Tell us,” Piper encouraged, raising a maternal hand to quiet Patrick’s protest. “I want to know what you’re talking about. Why is dealing with Ruby a bad idea?”

  “I thought she was sweet enough when she first moved here. I was even willing to overlook her reputation for telling tall tales everywhere she went. Everyone knew I had a rough
relationship with her folks, but I never let that trickle down to the kids. My boys weren’t really in the same circles as Ruby, but we all left her out of the historical society garbage her parents were pushing. I told my kids to be nice to her in school when they saw her. But then one day when she was about seventeen or so she stumbled into my police headquarters and said she’d been abducted. I swear with my hand on the Bible, coming from that girl I thought she meant aliens.”

  “Ruby reported being abducted by someone?” Piper asked, the look on her face showing clearly she was hoping she heard wrong.

  “That was the story she told,” Shep laughed dismissively. “I listened, wrote up a report, and even brought in some beat cops from the mainland to see if they could help flush out the story. But it was all bogus. We found no evidence that supported her statement. Her folks were out of town. I sent her home and told her she better cut the bull and stop wasting resources.”

  “You sent her home alone after being kidnapped by someone?” Patrick asked, anger rising up in him as his hands turned to fists. “What kind of inept police work is that? Even you should have enough competence to manage that.”

  “Hey,” Shep called back loudly, “there was nothing there to be found. She’d made it up. There was no man on a fishing boat who’d tried to kidnap her. Just like everything else she’d made up over the years, it was a lie. When her parents got back they called an attorney and claimed I’d not done my job. They wanted me fired.”

  “Clearly they weren’t successful,” Patrick said in disappointment.

  “It caused a stir and a lot of noise, but ultimately people came out in droves to support me and condemn her as a liar, which she was. In the end it worked out in my favor but you might not be as lucky. Now tell me what she thinks you are all doing running around sticking your nose in everything.”

  “Ruby discovered some photographs in a box of donated film,” Piper said, shooting Patrick a look that made it perfectly clear he should shut his mouth and not argue. “We’re trying to help return them to their rightful owner. It’s part of her business and we offered to help.”

  “Her business.” Shep chuckled glibly. “You know she doesn’t leave the house, right? What kind of person stays cooped up all day like that? If she wasn’t off her rocker before, she sure is now.”

  “We’re done,” Patrick said coolly as he stepped by Shep and fought the urge to throw his shoulder into the jerk.

  “She’s doctored photographs before. You can’t assume what she’s got you doing is anything worth doing at all.” Shep spoke loud enough for some people passing by to take notice.

  “When did she doctor photographs?” Piper asked, ignoring Patrick’s attempt to leave.

  “I don’t know, some nonsense with faking injuries on a girl she knew from back in the day. This was early on when her family moved here. It could have gotten her in a boatload of trouble, but she was a minor and I,” he pointed dramatically to his chest, “helped make those charges disappear. All I’m telling you is, don’t take anything she shows you at face value. Anyone with enough skill to doctor photographs like that can’t be trusted. Not with a history like hers.”

  “Done,” Patrick repeated, tossing up his hands. “You walking back, Piper? Because I’m leaving.”

  He heard her footsteps hurry behind him until she was back at his side. “I wasn’t trying incriminate Ruby in anything. You’re being too emotional to see how important it was to gather information from Shep while he was so anxious to give it.”

  “You do have people you care about, right?” Patrick asked angrily. “You understand what it means to have some loyalty even when it flies in the face of being hyper-rational.”

  “Ha,” Piper laughed, practically doubling over. “If you knew the depths of my loyalty to the people I love you’d be falling to your knees and begging for me to forgive you. There is a difference between working a case and pro tecting someone, but you can do both. What doesn’t work is knee-jerk reactions based solely on testosterone driven instincts to defend a woman’s honor. What I just did there will help Ruby much more in the end than if I’d have ignored him and walked away. Information, even from an idiot like that guy, is power.”

  Patrick grew quiet as he fished the keys out of his pocket. Now that Piper and Shep weren’t the main target of his anger he had to face reality. “Why didn’t she tell us about the abduction? Do you think that’s why she doesn’t leave the house? Do you think it’s related to these photographs?” He ran his hand through his hair and then banged his head with his fist. “Come on,” he said, trying to jump start his brain.

  “The only person who can answer those questions is Ruby. Are you prepared to ask?”

  “What choice do we have?” Patrick exclaimed. “We have to know how this ties in and why she lied.”

  “No we don’t,” Piper challenged. “The information we provided to Bobby is enough to possibly jump start the federal investigation. If the girl’s name leads down the right path, then we have no further obligation to the case. Bobby and I go home in couple days. You can let this go if you want.”

  “Really?” Patrick asked sarcastically. “Bury my head in the sand and pretend that she didn’t lie to me? It seems like maybe that’s all she’s capable of.”

  “Technically it was omission. Not a lie. Well, unless you ever specifically asked if she’d been abducted or considered herself a possible victim of this murderer.”

  “I didn’t,” Patrick clarified. “But she had every opportunity to tell me. It’s obviously relevant, considering what we’re doing. I want her to answer for that.”

  “Okay,” Piper said, “but don’t pretend getting the truth about her past is some kind of linchpin for the case. If you are going to cross that bridge, make damn sure you know why.”

  “I want to understand her,” Patrick explained. “I want to help her and believe in what she says.”

  “Sounds like good reasons. Remember those when you bring it up, what you say and how you say it can change your relationship with Ruby forever. Go in with a clear head and an open heart.”

  “Nosy intrusive women gave you this advice?” Patrick asked, his slumped shoulders weighed down by frustration and hurt.

  “Yes,” Piper said, attempting to be cheerful. “But they had to give it to me at least a dozen times before I was willing to listen. Don’t make that mistake.”

  “You’re certainly doing them proud. I haven’t had someone in my business like this since Aunt Gloria used to try to set me up with every available female between the ages of eighteen and fifty.”

  “You’re welcome,” Piper said, nodding her head affectionately and ignoring the fact that he hadn’t actually been thanking her at all.

  Chapter 17

  “Are you kidding me?” Bobby’s voice boomed, nearly rattling the walls of Ruby’s tiny cottage. “How could you keep that type of information from us when we were here to help you?”

  “Bobby,” Piper cautioned, but he was too fired up to be calmed.

  “I called in favors. This is my reputation and my career we’re talking about here. If I find out any of this information or evidence you provided was tampered with I will throw your ass in jail myself.”

  “Hey,” Patrick cut in. “You need to back off. Ruby didn’t tamper with anything. I don’t know why she withheld telling us about the abduction, but obviously she doesn’t trust how it was handled by the last bunch of people who were supposed to help.”

  “I don’t want to hear that right now,” Bobby said, still pacing. “I want to know, so answer me honestly, do you think your abduction is in anyway linked to this case?”

  “Maybe,” Ruby said, swallowing hard.

  “When did you begin to believe that?” Bobby asked, his nostrils flaring as he tried to restrain his anger. “At what point did you begin to believe the person who abducted you might be this killer?”

  “When I saw the flag in the first photo that told me it was likely local, probably a fisherm
an.” Ruby cleared her throat. “Then when the forensic lady said it might have been on a boat and the tool might have been something used by a fisherman it made me surer.”

  “Damn,” Bobby said, blowing out a long breath.

  “Why is this relevant?” Patrick asked, turning toward Piper for her to translate. She obliged.

  “If at the outset of this Ruby had the idea that this was some way linked to a traumatic event in her own life it’s possible that any path we’ve taken so far was guided by her preconceived ideas about the case. Maggie in forensics didn’t say it was a fisherman who owned the knife, she answered the question when we asked if it could be. She also answered that it could have been on a boat. Information gathered under existing pretenses and conjecture can taint the direction of a case.”

  “The ring,” Patrick said, pointing at one of the photographs on the wall. “We know the name of the girl in this photograph, and we know there are multiple points on the murder scene photographs that match. There’s no speculation there.”

  “Is the ring really in both pictures?” Bobby asked, at least looking reluctant to outright accuse Ruby of misleading them.

  “Of course,” Ruby argued through the threat of tears. “I just developed the rolls like you told me to. I didn’t mess with them in any way. The ring is in both photographs.”

  “What were the photographs you doctored that Shep told us about today?” Patrick asked, stepping in line to attack Ruby.

  “It was complicated. I knew this girl from one of the archeological digs when I was young. Her dad and mine were very close. Her name was Kayla, and she had a boyfriend who threatened to kill her and had slapped her around. But she hadn’t reported it and by the time she wanted to the bruises had faded. She sent me the pictures and I darkened the bruises and enhanced some of the contrast. I was sixteen years old, I thought I was helping a friend.”

  Patrick nodded his head, trying to show her answer made perfect sense but she wouldn’t even bother looking in his direction. The hurt was radiating off Ruby, and he’d had a part in it.