Elsa was in front and I was right behind her. She knocked. There was no answer, so she opened the door.
Elsa at once screamed. I looked past her. A dead man was lying on the ground. Plants covered his face. A knife was firmly planted in his chest.
Chapter Five
The photography club ladies and I were standing outside the bus. I was shivering, despite the heat. A chill had certainly descended. The bus driver had come running, presumably due to the high-pitched screams, and had pronounced the keeper dead. He ushered us all back to the bus.
I figured it was only a matter of time before the police arrived. I turned to comfort Elsa once more. She was sobbing into a tissue. “I feel so mean, saying what a boring man he was, and then he turned up dead,” she said between her sobs.
I patted her back, not knowing what to say at such a time. “Oh look, it must be the police now,” I said.
The driver ran to a black, late model Mercedes that pulled up with a squeal of brakes.
I was surprised. “I thought cars weren’t allowed on the island.”
Elsa shook her head. “A few long-term residents have one. Didn’t I mention that before?”
A clearly fit, muscle-bound man in a black suit jumped from the car and hurried over to us, with the driver fawning all over him.
“I’m Mayor Cummerbottom, Tobias Cummerbottom,” he announced in a tone that smacked of self-importance. “I have notified the authorities, rest assured. Help is on its way. Save your explanations for them.”
As soon as he had finished speaking, he gestured over his shoulder to a white vintage BMW 501 Cabriolet V8 driving up the road at a fast pace. A tall man, also in a suit, extracted himself from the car in an elegant fashion. He ignored us and instead spoke to the driver and the mayor, and remained in a huddle with them for some time. That detective sure had good taste in cars.
“I thought they came in pairs,” Elsa whispered.
I bent down to hear her better. “What did you say?”
She nodded in the direction of the man. “The detective. I always thought they travelled in pairs.”
I shrugged. “No idea. I’ve only seen them on TV.”
The detective was distinguished. It was hard to tell his age, but I figured he could be anything around fifty, give or take ten years or so. He had an aura of power about him. Before I could say anything to Elsa, he hurried past us in the direction of the caretaker’s office.
“They should have a forensics team here,” Elsa said.
“I’m sure they don’t have one on the island,” I said. “They’d have to get them from the mainland, so that could take a while. Isn’t there an airport on the island?”
Elsa nodded. “A small one. This is a tourist resort, not a crime area. Yes, I expect there won’t be much here in the way of police. I hope they don’t take us in for questioning and try to make us confess.” Her voice shook.
I hurried to put her fears to rest. “No, Elsa. It wasn’t as if just one of us found the body. They will hardly suspect all of us were in it together.”
Elsa brightened considerably. “Yes, of course. You’re right. It’s just been such a shock.”
The detective was on his way back. “Elsa, he’s probably going to question us now. Try not to be too upset.”
The man walked over to us. “I’m Ethan Forbes. Which one of you found the body?”
“We all did, all of us at once,” Elsa said in a loud voice.
“And when did you arrive on the island?” he asked us.
“We arrived on the ferry not long ago,” I told him. “These ladies are from a photography club, and I met them on the way over in the boat.”
“Photography club?” He rubbed his hand behind his ear. “And you were here to take photos of the Botanical Gardens.” It was a statement rather than a question, but one of the ladies spoke up.
“No, not at all. We wanted to take photos of the mermaid.”
The man’s jaw dropped open. “Mermaid? Did you say mermaid?”
“Yes,” the lady continued. “Yesterday, our friend Doris was at the beach at the other end of the Botanical Gardens, and she saw a woman turn into a mermaid and swim out to sea. She took a lot of photos too.”
The man’s face darkened. “Nonsense. There is no such thing as mermaids.” He fixed his gaze on me. “And you said you met these women on the boat? What are you doing on the island?”
I shuffled from one foot to the other, uncomfortable under his gaze. “I’m a journalist.”
He looked most displeased at my disclosure. “Surely you’re not here to do a story on the alleged mermaid?”
I shook my head. “My editor sent me to do a story on why it’s summer in the middle of winter on the island.”
His eyes narrowed. “It is North Queensland. It is always summer in winter here.”
I smiled weakly.
The mayor looked me up and down. “Is there a gym at your resort? Perhaps your time would be better spent getting exercise rather than sitting at a desk writing fanciful tales.”
“I will get an arm workout when I lift cocktails to my mouth,” I said icily. The nerve of the man!
“Do we need to go to the police station and give our witness statements?” Elsa asked Ethan Forbes.
He shook his head. “I have no idea. You’ll have to wait for the police.”
Now I really was puzzled. “I thought you were a detective?”
“I did not say that,” he snapped. “I am Mr Ethan Forbes, a person not without influence on this island.” He shot me a black look and then stalked back to his BMW.
Elsa and I exchanged glances. Had the mayor called Ethan Forbes rather than the police? This was all rather strange. I turned to the driver who was lurking nearby. “Did you call the police?”
“The mayor called them,” he said and then walked off without so much as a backward look.
“This is all rather strange,” I said to Elsa.
“You’re telling me,” she said. “I wonder how the police would feel about Mr Forbes stomping all over the crime scene before they got here.”
I tapped Elsa on the arm. “Look, here are the police now. No wonder we didn’t hear any sirens; they’re in a golf buggy.”
Two uniformed police officers hurried over to us. “Who found the body?” the woman officer asked.
“We were all together when we found the body,” Elsa said.
The male police officer hurried down to the keeper’s office.
“Mr Forbes was just here inspecting the scene,” I said in the most nonchalant tone I could muster. “We told him everything we knew.”
I expected the police officer to be annoyed at my disclosure, or at least surprised that a civilian had looked at the crime scene, but she was not. “Excellent, I’ll brief him later, when we find out more.”
This was all very strange.
Chapter Six
Although the highly expensive island didn’t have any budget accommodation, Skinny had booked me into the accommodation furthest from the water. In fact, I could imagine her searching for accommodation at the most central point of the island. I knew in advance that I would have to prepare my own food and that I’d have a tiny little bed-sitter, but at least I would have the use of the pool, and there was a restaurant attached to the resort.
I walked into the foyer and saw a man with his back to me in the dining room. I continued to the foyer and gave my name.
“Oh yes, Ms Friday. We were expecting you earlier.”
I simply shrugged. “Something turned up.”
“If you’re hungry, the dining room opens in an hour for lunch.”
I nodded. “I see you have a guest in there already.”
The man’s eyebrows shot skyward. “Guest?” he repeated. “I didn’t see a guest in there. At any rate, we’re under-booked. It’s the off season.”
I took a few steps backwards and looked in the dining room. There was no sign of the man. Was I imagining things? Or could something superna
tural really be happening on the island?
I looked back to see the man regarding me strangely. “You have Room Five.” He handed me a big brass key. “Take the first turn right and then the first turn left and you’ll be right there. Just call the front desk should you require anything. I hope you have a pleasant stay at the Central Tropical Resort.”
I thanked him, glanced down at my small suitcase, and when I looked up, the man had gone. I was beginning to think this was ghost accommodation or that I had fallen right into the middle of something like The Amityville Horror. Luckily the surroundings were far from creepy—they were lavish.
I made my way past a tinkling fountain down the corridor and found my room easily. I opened the door into a gorgeous room with a view over the pool. Sure, it was a small room, but it was immeasurably more luxurious than anything I had been accustomed to previously.
I threw myself on the bed, but thought I’d fall asleep if I stayed there, so I forced myself to get up.
Skinny had ordered me to call upon arrival. I snatched my phone out of my handbag and pulled her up on my favourites list. If only there was another name for ‘favourites.’
“You’re late!” a voice boomed over the phone. “I ordered you to call at once!”
“Yes, I arrived safely, thank you,” I said. Before she could take offence at my remark, I added, “I came over on the ferry with a meteorologist who told me that the summer here is due to natural causes, but in good news, I also came across on the boat with a group of women from the photography club. They said one of their members had seen a mermaid the day before and had taken photos of her.”
“There’s no such thing as mermaids,” Skinny snapped when I stopped to draw breath. “But whatever, my beliefs are irrelevant to the success of the magazine.”
“There are even photos of this mermaid,” I told her. “The reason I didn’t call you earlier is that I went with the club members to the beach where one of them saw the alleged mermaid yesterday, and it was just past the Botanical Gardens. On our way back we saw that someone had taken a flamethrower to part of the garden, so we all went to tell the keeper. He had been murdered.”
“Murdered?” Skinny repeated, altogether too gleefully. “It’s obviously something to do with the mermaid.”
I had no idea how she had made such a quantum leap. “Err, um,” I stammered.
“Pull yourself together, Misty!” she screeched. “Take it to the next level. Tie this murder to the mermaids if you don’t think you can invent something exciting about the winter in the middle of summer story. Misty, make it work!”
With that, she hung up.
I sat for a moment looking at my phone, resisting the urge to throw it across the room. My stomach rumbled loudly, reminding me that I was hungry. At least the police had not detained any of us for long. No doubt murder was bad for tourism, and they would keep it all low-key.
I wanted to call Doris, but I knew she had a migraine. Still, I expected if she was suffering, she would have turned off her phone. I could leave a message on her voicemail.
To my surprise, she answered. I immediately told her who I was, and that Elsa had suggested I call her. “I’m sorry to call you in the middle of a migraine,” I concluded.
“No, the new medication has knocked it on the head, no pun intended,” she said. “That’s quite all right. I feel unsteady on my feet and a little nauseous, but I don’t have any pain. Yes, I know no one will believe me, but I did see a mermaid. I didn’t imagine it and I saw her as plain as day. I’m still shocked. I’m sure that’s what brought on the migraine. I took photos…”
I interrupted her. “Elsa showed them to me. I must admit, it certainly looks like a mermaid.”
“No one could be more shocked than I was,” she told me. “The woman came from the direction of the caves.”
“There were caves?” I said. “I didn’t see any caves. You’re saying there are caves on the beach?”
“Yes, to the north of the beach. It looks like headland, but if you go around the rocks a little, there are caves. You can only see them at low tide. She was coming from that direction. Are you going to quote me in your magazine?”
“Only if you’ll allow me to,” I said.
“Oh yes, yes,” she gushed. “And would you like my photographs as well?”
“Yes please, that would be wonderful,” I said. “We have a standard rate of payment for photographs. That is, it would have to be approved by my editor.”
“I’m sure your editor will approve a story on mermaids, especially as you work for a paranormal magazine,” she said.
I smiled into the phone. “Well, thanks. You’ve been very helpful. You have my number now, so please call if you think of anything else. I’m on the island for a few days so I’d love to catch up. Are you planning to come back out?”
“I’ll see how I feel,” she said.
I thanked her again and hung up.
Chapter Seven
As Skinny had provided a travel allowance, albeit a meagre one, I decided to have lunch at the resort. I was ravenous and was certain I would faint from hunger before I sourced any food on the island.
I made my way to the dining room. A well-dressed woman gave me a sideways glance, but did not acknowledge me. She was presently joined by an equally well-dressed man. There was no sign of the younger man whose back I had seen on my arrival. He did look like the man I had seen watching me on the boat—or was that just my imagination?
I turned my attention to the menu. I was craving salt, probably due to the heat, so ordered potato and sweet potato chips double fried in rice bran oil and dusted with paprika and Himalayan rock salt. I sure hoped service wasn’t going to be slow. I ordered a sticky date shake which would go a little way towards filling up my stomach while I was waiting.
I took out my notepad and pen to figure out what I should do next. I always thought better on paper. The mention of the caves intrigued me. I decided to go there straight away, assuming the police hadn’t cordoned off the entire Botanical Gardens area. Perhaps they had only sectioned off the scene of the crime. At any rate, I was sure there was a way I could skirt around and get down to the beach to explore the caves.
I pulled out my phone and looked at the local tides chart. Drowning certainly didn’t appeal to me, and I wasn’t a good swimmer. To my delight, the tide was at its lowest in an hour. That meant I had plenty of time to eat, let my food settle, and make my way to the caves, all without being washed out to sea.
A tall, gangly, young man appeared at my table to take my order. After I had ordered, he seemed inclined to chat. “Is this your first visit to Whitehaven Island?”
I told him it was.
“And you’re here alone?”
I pulled a face. “Yes. I’m here for work, not pleasure.”
“What do you do? Most people don’t come here to work.”
“I’m a journalist. I’m doing a story on the recent sighting.”
His palms slapped his cheeks. “There’s been another sighting?”
It was my turn to look surprised. “I thought yesterday’s was the first?”
“Oh no, there have been several big black cat sightings over the years.”
I held up one hand. “Hang on a moment. I don’t think we’re on the same page. I was talking about the mermaid sighting yesterday.”
He gasped. “A mermaid? You’re kidding!”
“No, but what was this about a big black cat?”
He again glanced around furtively and then leant over me to speak in hushed tones. “You’re not supposed to mention it on the island, because some locals get really upset about it. I suppose they think it’ll drive tourists away. Have you heard of those big black cat sightings around Australia?”
I nodded. “I did a story on them once. There’ve been many sightings all over Australia, mostly of large black cats that look like jaguars, although there’ve also been a couple of sightings of animals that look like leopards. The photos clearly show a
big cat rather than a large dog or something else. I don’t remember seeing anything on the Australian reporting sites about sightings on Whitehaven Island, though.”
He held one finger to his lips. “Please don’t mention it, or at least don’t say you heard it from me. It’s all hush-hush on the island, you see. I wouldn’t have spoken up, only you mentioned sightings and I assumed you meant the black cat sightings.”
I shot him a smile of reassurance. “That’s perfectly understandable. I won’t tell a soul that you told me. How many big black cat sightings have there been on the island?”
“I’m sorry. I’ve said too much.” With that he scurried away, clutching his notepad to his chest.
The rest of my meal passed uneventfully. The food was delicious and I ate ravenously, although they had given me such a large serving that I didn’t think I would get through it. Somehow, I managed. I went back to my room to put on my sensible walking shoes, grabbed my camera, and then went out to request the use of one of the golf buggies.
It was easy to find my way back to the Botanical Gardens, considering the island wasn’t that big. There was no police presence at the entrance to the Botanical Gardens, although there was a handwritten sign stating it was closed until further notice. I spotted police tape around the perimeter of the keeper’s office, so I gave it a wide berth and skirted around as best I could.
It took me some time to navigate the rows of plants, but I eventually arrived at the top of the old wooden stairs heading down to the beach.
It occurred to me that it might be not a good idea to go alone. I had a bizarre feeling that I was in danger, but who would want to harm me? As soon as my foot hit the first of the wooden stairs, a strange feeling I was being watched overwhelmed me.
“Get a grip, Misty,” I scolded myself aloud. It was a beautiful sunny day. It was not as if I was standing in a swirling fog at the top of the cliff. I took a deep breath and forced myself down the stairs. After all, Doris had been to this beach alone many a time and had not come to any harm.
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