by Maci Grant
“Don’t be ridiculous. Kirk was murdered. Who would want to murder you?”
“I can think of a few people.”
“Promise me you’ll think about it, Yale. You’re drunk. Don’t make any rash decisions.”
“Maybe I need to be drunk. Maybe I need to stop thinking about him being buried in the sand.”
“You hated him. You didn’t hide it.”
“Yes, I hated him, but I didn’t want to see him dead.”
“So you say.”
“I mean it. I was in my hotel all night until I left for the contest in the morning.”
“Likely story.”
Yale shook his head. “I’m done. I’ll never sculpt another sandcastle.”
“We’ll see.” Frederick shrugged and walked past him.
Blu frowned as she paused by her car. “Interesting.”
“Don’t worry, there’s a cab to take him back to the hotel,” AJ said.
“That’s not what I mean. I mean it’s interesting that Yale is ready to quit. Why would he kill Kirk and then quit the contests all together?”
“Maybe he didn’t plan on killing Kirk. Maybe it just happened.”
“No way. It had to be preplanned. Someone went to the beach and dug that hole. Someone picked the beach as a burial place. This has ritual written all over it.”
AJ leaned against her car door and met her eyes. “You constantly surprise me, you know that, Nanny Blu?”
“Why?” Blu brushed her hair back from her eyes and tucked it behind her ear. She noticed that AJ’s large frame was blocking her from getting into her car.
“Because. You act like this perfect nanny—this soft, gentle, loving person around the kids, but now—here you are talking about murder like it’s just another item on your grocery list.”
Blu narrowed her eyes. “You know something, AJ?”
“Hm?”
She pushed a hand against his thick shoulder until he moved away from her door. “I can’t ever tell if you’re trying to pay me a compliment or insult me.”
Blu opened the car door, but before she could slide in, AJ’s hand caught her by the elbow. The heat of his touch was something that she couldn’t compare to a sunny day or a warm bath—it was something much deeper than that, as if he was the temperature of passion itself.
“It’s always a compliment, Blu. Always.” He offered her a small smile, then released her elbow and walked away.
Chapter 27
Blu tried to get her heart to slow down as she settled into the driver’s seat. She rubbed her elbow where AJ had touched it, not because it hurt, but because she expected his presence to remain there somehow. She saw him glance back at her from the door of the Beach Bum; then he disappeared. If only she could get her heart to stop pounding she might be able to figure out what had just happened. She took a deep breath and drove toward the beach house.
As she drove she tried to focus on the case, not on any strange emotions she felt for AJ. In the morning she knew that she was going to have to tell Chief Pitman what she’d discovered. It made her uneasy to think about the lingering doubts she still had about the person she was getting ready to accuse. But with everyone leaving, an arrest had to be made, even if it was just a guess.
The next morning she lied to Rachel. It was becoming a nasty habit. She told her that she had an appointment that she’d forgotten about. Rachel agreed to keep the kids for an hour.
Blu arrived at the police station with a heaviness in her heart. She was ready to reveal what she’d found to Chief Pitman, but she still wasn’t certain if Bianca was the right suspect. When she walked into the police station she noticed that AJ stood beside his uncle at one of the small desks. They were both leaning over a computer screen.
Blu took another breath and reminded herself to not lose her mind yet again if AJ happened to accidentally touch her.
She walked up to the two men. “Good morning.”
“Ah, Blu—just who I wanted to see.” Chief Pitman swung the computer screen around so that she could see it.
Blu focused on the screen instead of AJ’s eyes, which seemed to be focused on her.
“Is that Naomi?” the chief asked.
“Yes. Did you find out who she is?”
“Thanks to your hard work, yes I did.” Chief Pitman tapped the screen lightly with his fingertip. “This young lady was telling us all quite a few lies.”
“Oh?” Blu felt a sense of relief. “Is she the killer?”
“Well, we’re not sure about that yet. But we do know why she was hanging out around Kirk.”
“Why?”
“Kirk was her father.”
“What?”
“It’s true.” AJ moved a little closer to her. “When Uncle Paul ran the fingerprints from the glass they came up in the system—not for a crime, but because she’d added her information to a missing persons bank in the hopes of being reunited with her father one day.”
“Oh wow.” Blu sunk down into the chair in front of the desk. “That poor girl. She never even had the chance to talk to him.”
“Maybe it was for the best, considering that he wasn’t the greatest guy in the world.”
“No, it couldn’t possibly be for the best.” Blu shook her head. “Everyone deserves to have the chance to know who their parent is. I mean—if that’s what they want.”
“Her parent was the man who raised her.” AJ crossed his arms.
Blu glanced up at him. From the tension in his brow she assumed she’d hit a nerve.
“Anyway, regardless of the tragedy of the situation, this discovery also led us to another connection. One of the shop managers at the mall was able to identify the woman from the surveillance video as Naomi’s mother.”
“They must have been arguing about him meeting his daughter.” Blu shook her head. “That means that he knew Naomi was here and that she was looking for him. But he didn’t even bother to talk to her?”
“Some men don’t want to be fathers.”
“AJ.” Chief Pitman looked across the top of Blu’s head at him. “I think that’s enough.”
Blu braced herself for AJ’s usual mouthy response. Instead he only nodded.
“Okay, so maybe Naomi and her mother had something to do with all this?” Blu glanced back at the chief.
“Maybe.” Chief Pitman shrugged. “But either way we’re not going to find out anything more until we interview them. Unfortunately we have to find them first.”
“It just doesn’t make sense. Naomi’s mother didn’t want Kirk around Naomi. Kirk apparently wasn’t interested in Naomi. That might be enough to send Naomi—a grieving, rejected daughter—over the edge, but would her mother really help? Why would they take him out in an SUV in the middle of the night to bury him in the sand?”
“What did you say? An SUV?” The chief’s head snapped up at her words.
Chapter 28
Blu took a deep breath as Chief Pitman and AJ both focused their attention on her. “Oh, I was getting to that. I might have found a witness who might have seen a black SUV in the area of the crime scene around the time of the murder.”
“And you didn’t lead with that?” Chief Pitman leaned closer to her. “We might have been able to find the car and who the renter was! We might have been processing that information as we speak!”
Blu wheeled her chair back a few feet to avoid spittle. “I actually already did all of that. But there isn’t going to be any evidence to find because the car has been detailed.”
“Unbelievable. Then who rented the SUV?”
Blu bit into her bottom lip. She looked between the two men, who were hanging on her every word.
“I thought maybe it wasn’t her—that she was being framed.”
“Tell me who rented the car.” Chief Pitman scowled at her.
She felt her heart drop, wondering how much trouble she’d be in if she withheld information.
“It was Bianca.”
“You know this for sure?”
“The clerk confirmed it.”
“How did you get a hold of someone so fast?”
“Well, I…” Blu looked over at AJ, whose grimace communicated that she was about to face Chief Pitman’s wrath. “I might have found out yesterday.”
“Yesterday?” The chief’s voice roared through the police station.
Everyone stopped what they were doing, and a stunned silence stretched throughout the building.
“You knew about this yesterday? Did you know about this?” Chief Pitman swung his attention to AJ.
“No, I didn’t.” AJ frowned. “She didn’t tell me any of this.”
“So you just thought that you’d conduct your own investigation and fill me in when you felt like it?” Chief Pitman’s voice lowered but his demeanor didn’t change. Everyone began to get back to their work but it was still much quieter than it had been.
“I just didn’t think it was valid information. I thought maybe Frederick and Yale were working together to frame Bianca.”
“Too many soap operas, hm?”
“Sir, I didn’t mean to cause a problem. I just wanted to be sure before I accused anyone of murder.”
“You know what we do here, Blu?” He sat down on the edge of the desk and looked into her eyes. “We investigate crime. We don’t just go around pointing fingers at people and hollering murderer! Do you see any pitchforks hanging on the wall?”
Blu lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry. I guess I didn’t really think it through.”
“If we had that information yesterday, we could have questioned Bianca yesterday. Do you know how valuable time is during an investigation?”
“I’m sorry.”
“Do I look like your boss?” He raised an eyebrow.
“Uncle Paul, she apologized.” AJ started to move closer to Blu.
“You stay out of this. I told you to keep an eye on her. Obviously you didn’t.” He looked back at Blu. “I don’t need your apologies. I’m not your boss, your parent, or even your friend. What I need you to do is get out of my police station, and I promise you that if I end up with nothing in this case, I’m going to make sure that you and your employers are not welcome back in this town. Do you understand me?”
Blu stared up at him. The misery she felt inside blossomed into something else. “I haven’t done anything wrong. I haven’t done anything for you to hold it against Rachel and Marshall.”
“I decide that, not you. Now get out.” He pointed to the door. “AJ, make sure she gets to her car.”
AJ frowned. “Uncle Paul, be reasonable—”
“Don’t start, boy.” Chief Pitman shot him a scathing glare.
AJ sighed and curled a hand around Blu’s shoulder.
Blu was shocked at the way AJ acquiesced so easily to his uncle. For all of his muscles, his temper, and his smart mouth, he acted like a scolded child as he led her out of the police station.
“Wow, I’m going to file a complaint. How dare he be so rude to me? And to threaten the family that I work for?” Blu sputtered out her words as AJ walked her to her car. “That man is on a serious power trip.”
AJ jerked her car door open and met her eyes. “Or maybe you should have trusted him enough to give him the information when you found it.”
“You’re taking his side?”
“There are no sides here, Blu. Sure, Uncle Paul has a temper, but he’s also under a lot of pressure. He wants to solve this murder as much as you do. More, since—you know—it’s his job.”
“AJ, if I thought it was important—”
“That wasn’t for you to decide.” AJ kept his voice low but his tone had a bite to it. “Anyway, just stay out of it, alright? Uncle Paul will calm down. He’s not going to talk to Rachel or Marshall. Just stay out of his way.”
“I can’t believe that you think this is okay.”
“Look, Blu, I get why you’re upset. But my uncle doesn’t tell anyone anything. He trusted you with the information about Naomi, and you’re just a nanny.”
“Right.” Blu furrowed a brow at him. “I forgot. I’m just the summer help.”
“I didn’t mean it that way.”
Blu shook her head and shooed him away from her car. She slammed her car door shut and started the engine. AJ still stood beside the car when she rolled the window down.
“I guess I’m supposed to take that as a compliment too.”
He stared after her as she drove away.
Blu couldn’t resist a glance in the rearview mirror.
Chapter 29
When Blu arrived at the beach house, Rachel was ready to head out.
“Thanks again, Rachel.”
“No problem. I forget things too.” She smiled at Blu.
Right after Rachel left, the sky opened up with rain. Blu had hoped that she’d be able to lug the kids around town to continue her investigation, but now that wasn’t a possibility—not that it mattered, since she was now on Chief Pitman’s bad side. She toyed with the idea of making a few calls but she wasn’t even sure whom to call.
When her cell phone rang she saw that it was AJ. She almost sent it to voicemail, but at the last second she picked it up.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Blu. Don’t hang up.”
“I’m not.”
“Good. I just want to let you know that Uncle Paul brought Bianca in for questioning.”
“Did he arrest her?”
“Unfortunately no. He didn’t have solid enough evidence to hold her.”
“So he just let her go? She’s going to fly home today!”
“There’s nothing he can do. His hands are tied.”
“Well, mine aren’t.”
“Blu, don’t. I talked him down this morning but he’s not the kind of man that you should aggravate.”
“Listen, AJ, you might be scared of your uncle but I’m not.”
“No, Blu, listen to me—”
Blu hung up the phone. She wasn’t about to be told what to do. She was furious that they would let a murderer escape. Kirk would never have his justice. So what if Chief Pitman was upset with her? He didn’t have any control over what she did. She was a private citizen after all, and if she wanted to investigate, then she could investigate.
She snatched up her phone and dialed Maddie’s number.
“What are you doing?” Blu blurted out before Maddie could even speak.
“Ugh—trying not to lose my mind with this weather. The kids are crawling the walls.”
“So maybe adding two more to the mix might not be a good idea?”
“Huh, why?”
“I just want to check something out and I think it would be best to do so without the kids.”
“Sure, you can bring them over if you want. I’m going to pop popcorn and make it a movie day.”
“You’re sure the kids won’t mind?”
“Please, if either of them looks up from their tablet and notices I’ll be shocked.”
“Okay.” Blu laughed. “Thanks, Maddie.”
“Anything for you, darling.”
Her playful accent made Blu smile. Maddie always had a way of cutting through her stress and reminding her that life was supposed to be fun.
“I’ll be over in a few minutes, then.”
“Sounds good.”
After Blu hung up she hurried the kids into their rain gear. She felt a pang of guilt. She knew that Rachel and Marshall paid her to watch the kids, not to leave them with someone else. But she couldn’t risk Bianca getting away with Kirk’s murder. That had to be good enough reason for slacking off on her duties for a few hours.
Once she dropped the kids off with Maddie, she drove toward the marina. The rain was coming down in sheets. Bianca had said that she was staying with a friend on a houseboat. Luckily for Blu, there were only a few houseboats in the marina. It wasn’t a popular choice in the wealthy area.
She parked her car and stepped out into the pouring rain. For a moment she considered calling AJ for backup. But afte
r their tense conversation earlier she thought that might not be the best idea. She was just going to see if Bianca was there. If she wasn’t, then she might snoop around a bit. If she was, then maybe they’d just have a friendly conversation.
As she walked down the dock she noticed that there was a light on in one of the houseboats. She walked toward it as casually as she could. Just as she reached it a woman walked out. Blu recognized her as the one who’d been with Bianca at the mall. She quickly ducked back behind a post, looking away so the woman wouldn’t recognize her.
“—and all I’m saying, Bianca, is that I don’t like cops. You need to be out of here by tomorrow, got me?” She stalked past Blu without even looking in her direction.
Blu waited until she was sure that the woman was a safe distance away. Then she climbed onto the boat. Her heart raced the moment her foot touched the wet wood. She knew that this would be considered breaking and entering, but she was already on the boat. There was no turning back now.
She moved toward the door. It opened before she could reach for it.
Bianca froze in the doorway. “You? Why are you here?”
“I just want to talk to you for a minute.”
“Right. For some reason you’re trying to ruin my life. Do you have an explanation for that?”
“I’m just trying to figure out why your name was on an SUV rental.”
“Uh, because I rented an SUV.” She rolled her eyes.
“You? But aren’t they bad for the environment?”
“Everyone has to slip up now and then.” She shrugged.
“Could I come in? The weather is crazy.”
“Why would I let you in?”
“Because I’m soaking wet and I just want to dry off for a second before I walk back to my car.”
“Better reason.” Bianca glared at her.
“Because I know that you’re the one who killed Kirk and I have the evidence to prove it.”
“Sure. That’s why the police let me go.”
“I’m not the police.”
Bianca pursed her lips. She stepped aside to allow her in. “What is this, are you trying to blackmail me?”