“So, what brings you all to Friday Harbor?” Andrew asked.
Just then, there was the sound of a curse and water slopping onto the dock. Turning toward the sound, the group was greeted by the sight of a pale corpse.
That, thought Trey, was what you could call perfect timing.
* * *
As ugly as the distraction was, Mala was glad for it, in a way. Things had started getting a bit tense from the moment Andrew showed up.
The body had been dragged out of the water by two men in police uniforms, one a sheriff, the other a deputy. The latter looked as if this were one of the first bodies he’d ever seen. The short, portly deputy grimaced, his words giving the lie to Mala’s impression.
“Second one today,” he muttered to the sheriff, who shot the deputy a sour look.
The older sheriff was everything his deputy was not. Tall where his underling was short, lean where the deputy had more girth, the two looked like a modern day Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.
And the lanky sheriff seemed more than a little perturbed that his sidekick was spilling the beans. Probably upset that the deputy had talked about an active investigation with mere civilians.
Trey, still looking a bit green around the edges, stood from where he had been making out with the dock. He stepped forward, addressing the two cops.
“Don’t worry, Sheriff,” he said, and Mala was glad to hear that his voice was steady, for the most part. “I’m Detective Keane, and this is Detective Darcmel.”
“Darc?” the deputy gasped, his mouth gaping wide for a moment. “The one who catches all those serial killers there in Seattle?”
Mala winced. That had to have been painful for Trey.
But if it had been, the detective hid it well. His smile was cheerful and seemed as honest as the sunshine still beating down from overhead.
“Yeah, that’s him.” Trey extended his hand. “And I’m his babysitter-slash-attendant-slash-partner.”
The deputy’s mouth formed an O, then he shook his head. “I’m Deputy White. And sorry. It’s just…”
Mala wasn’t sure, but it seemed like at that point, a crack formed in Trey’s pleasant demeanor. Not a great shock.
“No need to explain,” Trey muttered. “I get it. He’s a rock star.”
“I’m Sheriff Jacobs, and I guess I’m glad you’re both here, then,” the sheriff said. “I was just about to call this in.” He pursed his lips. “Where did you find the body?”
Trey waved in the general vicinity of where he thought they had been when he’d seen the corpse. He gave the impression that he had no clue where they’d been. In fact, he was off by almost 45 degrees.
Darc’s lips compressed into a line. At the same moment, Mala could feel the exact same expression forming on her face. Glancing to the side, she saw that Andrew mirrored it as well. It seemed clear that all three were bothered by Trey’s lack of precision.
But the Sheriff was nodding. “I see. And how did you know to come here?”
Trey just pointed at Darc.
“I extrapolated from the accumulated data regarding currents, tides and weather patterns over the course of the last 24 hours,” Darc said. “Which allowed me to ascertain where the body came from.”
“See!?” the deputy cried out to his superior. “Isn’t he awesome?” Then Darc’s words seemed to penetrate into the young cop’s brain. “Wait. It came from here?”
“No,” Darc answered. “It would have taken us two hours to arrive at that destination. I calculated that it would be far faster to come here, then travel across the island to the point of origin.”
Andrew stepped forward, disengaging from Mala for the first time. Mala found she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.
“Where is that point of origin?” he asked.
“Lime Kiln Point,” Darc responded.
Swearing, the sheriff scuffed his boots against the concrete of the dock. “Sounds about right.”
“What do you mean?” Trey asked.
“Well,” the man said, frowning. “That’s where we found the other body.”
The deputy looked around, as if he were making sure no one was listening.
“And that’s not all,” the stout man whispered. “We know both of them.”
Andrew cleared his throat. “I can hear you, Deputy White,” he said, then turned to Mala. “What he’s not telling you is that I know them both.”
“In what capacity?” Darc asked, his tone more suspicious than Mala had ever heard it. That didn’t bode well.
Andrew shrugged.
“They were both my employees.”
* * *
Darc sat in the back of the squad car with Maggie and Trey, headed out toward the lighthouse. Ahead of them sped Andrew’s black Hummer. The man had surprised them all by offering to come along.
Mala had climbed into the passenger seat beside Andrew, while Carly and Janey had taken the back. And while Darc had found that from a logical perspective, the arrangement made sense, another part of him seethed with an emotion with which he had little experience.
Darc was angry.
What was more troubling was that he did not know with whom he was more upset. His suspicion of Andrew ran deep, disturbing the fragile bonds of the streams of color inside of him. But another ribbon of hot orange-red seared through that space. One that was directed at Darc’s fiancé.
She had even offered to squeeze in next to Trey and Maggie. But there was no real room, and it had been clear that Maggie hadn’t been thrilled about being left with her ex-husband while Trey took a ride in the fancy Hummer.
Nor had any other arrangement made sense. Darc had felt a strange pressure not to allow Andrew to see how uncomfortable he was allowing Mala and her old friend to spend time together without him present.
What did that mean?
A silver murmur inside him spoke of jealousy, but Darc pushed it away. In order for jealousy to be an option, Andrew would have to possess qualities that Mala would find more attractive than Darc.
On every level… physical prowess, symmetry of features and intelligence… Darc came out ahead of this strange, tanned man. The only areas which might be of concern would be those associated with finances and social graces.
Darc had never pursued money, but knew he could obtain it if he so desired. That was an irrelevant attribute. And Mala had demonstrated that social graces were not a priority to her. Also unimportant.
Then why are you scared? whispered the inner voice, reflections of silver light scattering at the sound.
And then they were at the Lime Kiln Interpretive Center, the main building associated with Lime Kiln point, and it was time to put such speculations aside. Darc turned his attention to the elderly man that approached the squad car from the building.
But a strange, silvery chuckle resonated somewhere deep inside of him, and Darc knew this wasn’t the end of the topic.
* * *
Janey grabbed a hold of Carly’s hand, dragging her out of the car. Popeye, clutched in Janey’s other hand, complained that she was moving too fast. He was such a grumpy old bear sometimes.
The ride over had been strange. At first, Carly had been kind of mean to Mala’s friend. But when Andrew had told Carly that she was welcome to anything in the mini fridge in the backseat, she’d settled down.
As far as Janey was concerned, she still didn’t like him much.
Mala sure seemed to, though. Janey had never seen her like that before, chatting and smiling and laughing. It was a big, deep laugh that seemed to come from her belly. Janey didn’t remember hearing Mala laugh like that before.
But now they were here, and Janey was running toward the old man she remembered from last time. He seemed to recognize her as well, as he waved a friendly greeting as she approached.
“Well, hello, my quiet friend. Looks like you brought some guests with you this time,” he said. His nametag said that his name was Ike.
Then he caught sight of Andrew, and all of
the sudden the smile disappeared.
“Mr. Peregrine,” he said, his tone totally different from when he’d talked to Janey. “What brings you out here?”
“Ike.” Andrew smiled at the old man, but the smile wasn’t the same one Janey had seen him use up to that point. “Just thought it might be good to see how my father’s money has been put to use.”
The old man ground his teeth, but said nothing.
Then Darc and Trey came over from the squad car with the police officers. Maggie was still in the car, fanning herself with a hand. Her face was flushed and red, and she looked exhausted.
“Sheriff Jacobs,” the old man exclaimed. “Did you find anything out about…?” The man looked at Janey, then whispered. “You know… the b-o-d-y?”
“They know about the victim, Ike,” the sheriff responded. “They came into harbor with another one. And we’ve identified them both.”
“Two of them?” the man exclaimed, rubbing his hands together. “That’s terrible. Who are they?”
“Jessie Elton and Leslie Kenneth,” the deputy wheezed, apparently out of breath from the walk over from the squad car.
Ike’s face went white, and his gaze darted over to Andrew. Then he looked back at the police officers. The lines in Janey’s head swirled around the older man.
He was scared.
“Well,” he said, turning back to Janey. “Since I don’t know anything about all that, I’ll let you officers get back to your investigation while I take these guests down to look at the lighthouse and the old kiln.”
Janey was excited to see the lighthouse again, but she couldn’t help but wonder about what was going on. The bands of color in her mind didn’t have to tell her what she could see as plain as day.
The old man was lying.
CHAPTER 3
Mala hung back with Andrew near the shore as the old man, Ike, walked ahead on the trail to the lighthouse with Janey and Carly. She looked down at the water, noticing a small boat with a couple of oars tied to a post. Something Ike must use from time to time.
Shaking her head, Mala dragged her attention back to what she had witnessed back at the main building between Andrew and the old man. Whispering, so as not to have the group ahead overhear, Mala spoke to her one-time paramour.
“Okay. What’s going on?”
Andrew raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
Sighing, Mala stopped and placed a hand on Andrew’s chest. He stopped, saw the look on her face and chuckled.
“Never could put one over on you, could I?” Peering up the path, his eyes sought out the form of the older man. “Ike and I have a… history… I guess you could call it.”
“Explain.”
“Well, my father set aside a good chunk of money that was to go towards keeping this place up. Ike was a family friend. Dad got him this job… wanted to make sure Ike was going to be okay,” he detailed. “And when my father died, I planned on honoring his wishes…”
“But…?” Mala prompted.
Andrew gave her a half-smile and punched at her shoulder. It was a gesture they’d shared a hundred times during that summer so many years ago, and its recollection made Mala ache a bit for her youth.
“But, we had a…. falling out, I guess you’d call it. Jessie and Leslie were here scouting out a location for the memorial statue of my dad they were going to put up in his honor.”
Mala remembered Andrew’s father. A big, burly man with a booming voice, he had been all rough edges, where Andrew had all his mother’s polish and charm. His dad had made his fortune in construction, and his mom had made sure that Andrew had gotten every benefit out of that money that he could.
Andrew continued after a thoughtful pause. “They overheard Ike talking to someone about how I was going to ruin the park, that it wasn’t right. He said some pretty nasty things about my parents.” He grimaced. “So, I pulled seventy-five percent of the money from the allotment.”
Mala whistled.
Andrew’s grimace turned to a sour smile. “Yep. It was a lot of money. Ike was not happy.”
“So,” Mala extrapolated, “you heard that from Jessie and Leslie?”
“Yes.”
“And Ike knew that they were the ones who told you?” she prompted him.
Andrew’s focus sharpened. “You can’t mean…?” He shook his head. “There’s no way. He’s got a temper and he’s crotchety as all hell, but Ike’s not a killer.”
But Mala couldn’t help but think that they had just stumbled upon one of the principal motivations for murder. And it was one that didn’t discriminate based on age.
Revenge.
* * *
Trey stood with Deputy White a ways away from Darc and Sheriff Jacobs, who were standing at the door to the main building. Trey was trying to listen to Deputy White as the man jabbered on and on about every tiny detail of island gossip.
The pudgy man had just gone through an account of the scandalous affair between the mayor’s wife and the county treasurer. Now it seemed that he’d moved on to some other story involving the citizens of Friday Harbor.
“…and that’s why they don’t like each other. Old man Ike kept Mr. Peregrine from turning this place into a theme park.”
All of a sudden, Trey’s attention zeroed in on what White was saying. “What did you just say?”
“I said that Mr. Peregrine was lobbying the state to be able to put a whole kids science-themed park in here. You know, do experiments with quicklime and stuff.”
Trey just stared at the man, thoughts of what the deputy had just said scurrying about in his mind. There was something here, Trey knew it.
“Oh, let me explain,” White gushed, clearly misinterpreting Trey’s look. “You take limestone and cook it, and it turns to quicklime. There’s some down in the old kiln down below. I’ll show you once we get there. When it gets wet, it goes all hot and dissolves and stuff. It’s cool.”
“No,” Trey said. “Don’t you get it?”
“Get what?”
Trey began running over to Darc. “That Andrew had a motive.”
“A motive for what?” the deputy wheezed as he tried to keep up.
“Murder.”
* * *
Janey leaned over the railing, staring down the side of the cliff at the water. The smell of salt met her nose as she sniffed.
Popeye yelled at her to get down. After all, she was holding on to him, so if she fell, he would go down, too.
Silly bear. Janey was still holding on to Carly with her other hand.
Ike, the old man, pointed out at the water. “Do you see that? There’s a pod of orcas out there. See?”
Janey looked, and she could see a glimpse of white and black before it fell back into the ocean. It was beautiful.
The old man sighed. “They’re sometimes called the wolves of the sea, so some people say that it’s a pack of orcas, instead of a pod. But I like pod better.”
At that moment, Janey heard voices calling out from down below. Mala and Andrew were running toward the lighthouse from one side, and Trey and Darc and the police officers where coming from the other. All of them were yelling something.
But one word came out clear from both groups.
Killer.
* * *
Darc watched as Mala grabbed Janey’s arm, pulling her away from Ike.
“Janey, I want you to stay away from that man,” she said.
But from what Trey had told Darc, it was not the old man who was the problem. It was Andrew, and Darc felt a dark silver pulse of satisfaction that Mala’s once boyfriend might be the killer they sought.
“No!” Trey called out as he skidded to a halt. “Get her away from Andrew!”
Deputy White rushed forward, taking Janey by the hand and standing with his back against the old kiln that stood a ways back along the path. The kiln was built of wood and uncut stone, and stood quite tall. There at the bottom, openings led into the inside of the oven itself.
“I’ll
keep her right here until we figure this out,” the deputy said as he crossed his hands over his belly. His face was set in hard lines.
The bands of color accepted this as a possible solution, but there was a shimmering of weak white light that spoke to Darc of something wrong. This situation was as volatile as the reaction would be between the quicklime remnants in the oven and the water down by the shore.
Trey gulped another breath of air, and then spoke to Mala, while pointing a finger at Andrew. “Your ex-boyfriend wanted to build a theme park down here, make tons of money off it. Ike stonewalled him, so he tried to frame the old guy for murdering his two assistants.”
For a moment, Andrew stood with his mouth hanging open. Darc felt a surge of some unpleasant emotion surge through him. Satisfaction? That seemed illogical.
Then the tanned man spoke. “I wasn’t trying to make money. I just wanted to build something that would bring the schools in. Something to put us on the map. Ike knew that.”
The old man nodded. “I didn’t like the idea at first, but I started to come around. Until that bastard…” He looked at Janey and Carly, and then cleared his throat. “Sorry. Until Mr. Peregrine pulled all his money from the park.”
“I only did that because Leslie and Jessie told me what you said about my parents,” Andrew shot back.
“What are you talking about?” Ike said. “I loved your parents. I thought you pulled the money because I said you were trying to ruin your dad’s legacy.”
The bands of light swirled around each party, lining them in color. Intermittent flashes of silver illuminated their expressions. Darc stepped forward.
“Neither of these men killed the two assistants,” he said into the sudden silence. “It was a third party. Someone who would have the most to gain from the creation of the theme park.”
Ike’s eyes swiveled across to Deputy White. The man still stood with Janey by his side, a fist clenched near his chest.
“White had talked to me about how much he would love to work at the park when it went through,” the old man said. “Told me he hated his job, and that this would be the perfect thing for him.”
The 2nd Cycle of the Darc Murders Omnibus (the acclaimed series from #1 Police Procedural and Hard Boiled authors Carolyn McCray and Ben Hopkin) Page 52