“This is good wine,” Bonnie said.
“It’s from a New Jersey winery. They are down south. But forget the wine for a second; did you get the job for sure?” I asked.
“Yup. I’m starting on Monday!”
“Yay! Our offices are right next to each other. It will be like old times.”
“Well, I hope not exactly like old times,” Bonnie said.
I knew what she meant. After that crazy resident shot her and held me hostage, we did not want to work in another place like that again. I decided against telling Bonnie about the note I found in the office. I didn’t want to scare her unnecessarily and I didn’t want her not to take the job since I had no evidence of anyone doing anything wrong.
“What did you think of Dingo?” I asked her.
“Let me just say that you couldn’t pay me enough money to smell his underwear.”
“Eww,” I said, making a face. “Why would you even think that?”
“Oh, Chelsey, you are such a prude. It’s an expression. It means I didn’t like him very much. But I can deal with him.”
We continued to make small talk. She filled me in about her daughters and I filled her in about my Mandy. As she started to ask me what happened with Kris, I saw someone out on the lagoon.
“Huh. Look at that kayaker on the lagoon,” I said. “I would think it’s still a little too cold to kayak. I mean, what if you tipped? The water is still freezing this time of year.”
Bonnie squinted toward the figure in the kayak. “I think he’s coming over here.”
I looked over. “I don’t think so. I think he’s just paddling around.”
We kept talking and watching the kayaker. He was paddling closer and closer.
“I’m telling you, he’s coming over here,” Bonnie said.
“Nah, maybe he’s the guy that lives a few houses down. He has a kayak.”
“He’s waving to us.”
I glanced over at the shadowy figure coming closer still and waving at us.
“Hi, girls! Sorry I’m late,” the voice shouted from across the water.
“Oh crap,” I said.
“What? Do you know him? Who is that?”
“It’s Mike Nero, my stalker,” I told Bonnie.
“Stalker?” she asked.
Nero pulled his kayak up to my dock. He was wearing a black wetsuit and had a swim mask on his head.
“What the eff are you doing, Nero?” I asked.
“I wanted to see you,” he said, “and since you wouldn’t give me your home phone number, I thought I’d stop by.”
“In a kayak?” Bonnie asked.
“Sure, why not? It’s more romantic that way,” Nero said.
“Romantic?” Bonnie asked, sounding disgusted. “It doesn’t seem to me like you have one ounce of an idea of what romance is.”
“I’m very romantic!” Nero declared, seemingly offended.
“Stalking someone by kayak isn’t romantic. It’s nuts,” Bonnie said.
“Seriously, Nero, you have to leave. I am busy and I don’t want you here,” I told him.
“Oh, come on. I paddled all this way. My arms are killing me. The least you can do is give me something to drink,” he pleaded.
“Oh, please, allow me,” Bonnie said as she walked to the other side of my yard. She grabbed my garden hose, pulled it over, and shot Nero with it before he could ask her what she was doing.
“Ah!” Nero screamed like a little girl. “Knock it off, knock it off, you’re going to make me tip over.”
“Go home to your mommy, Nero,” Bonnie yelled.
“You are mean. That was not nice—squirting me with a cold hose.”
Bonnie shot him with the hose again.
“All right, all right,” he said. “I’m going, I’m going!”
“And don’t come back!” Bonnie shouted as Nero paddled away.
“So, were you going to tell me about this wacko?” Bonnie asked.
“Yeah, I was going to get around to it today,” I said.
I filled Bonnie in on the details of Nero and gave her a history on Babs while I was dishing out gossip about Coral Beach. I finally felt guilty enough to tell her about the note that I found from Vinny. I couldn’t let her start working at Coral Beach since there was a nagging feeling on my part that things were not on the up and up.
“Interesting” was the only word out of Bonnie’s mouth for a very long time. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally uttered, “You can tell that Nero guy’s brain is about as big as his genitalia.”
That’s my Bonnie, I thought. “What were you doing looking at his genitalia?” I asked.
“Couldn’t help it. Not much was showing through that wet suit. I was trying to figure out if it was a man or a woman at first.”
I laughed. Then Bonnie turned serious. “Did you tell anyone about the note?”
“No. I haven’t told anyone. I wasn’t sure if it was a joke or something.”
“Why didn’t you take it to the police?”
“Because I’ve only had the job for a week. I didn’t want to go around accusing people of something they didn’t do. I already have two bosses who don’t like me—Marc and Winifred.”
“Why don’t they like you?”
“I don’t know. I know Winifred voted no on my appointment and Marc has been a total jerk to me all week. And anyway, if it is true, then I don’t know who I can trust. If I go to the cops, and they are involved, then someone could easily kill me. I could end up like Vinny.”
“Oh my, you are so melodramatic.”
“So, you think I’m overreacting?”
“I would just say, don’t go jumping to so many conclusions. You don’t know what any of this means. You don’t know that the cops are involved. You are making this a whole lot bigger than it needs to be.”
“Thanks for being so supportive,” I said sarcastically.
“Well, now that I’ll be working there, I can help you snoop around.”
“You still want to work there after hearing this?”
“Sure. I’m up for an adventure. Now, where do we start snooping?”
“I was thinking Joni—the girl that used to have your job. I really want to know why she up and quit with no notice.”
“Get out your laptop.”
I got out the laptop and we searched for Joni Cabana, not having much luck. It looked like she fell off the face of the Earth. Bonnie picked up the phone and dialed her uncle, a retired police captain turned P.I., Alfred Auletta, or “Uncle Freddy” to Bonnie. He was able to locate an address for Joni in Philadelphia.
“Well, what are you doing tomorrow morning?” Bonnie asked.
“Looking for Joni, I guess,” I said.
We agreed to meet at seven in the morning. Bonnie checked in with her husband, Jayce. He said he wasn’t on call for the hospital, which meant he would be home to watch all the kids while we went on our recon mission.
* * *
Sunday morning at seven a.m. felt awfully early. Since Joni was only twenty-five, I thought that early on a Sunday would be a good time to catch her. With any luck, she would be home, sleeping in after a night of partying. I picked up Bonnie and we took the Garden State Parkway to the Atlantic City Expressway. I filled Bonnie in on everything I knew so far and I swore her to secrecy. I didn’t know much, but there were the newspaper articles about Vinny’s death, the suspected mafia involvement, and the fact that I wondered if Vinny was somehow mixed up in this Village Pier thing.
“Good thing I’m packing,” Bonnie said.
“What? You’re packing? Do you mean you brought your gun with you?”
“Didn’t you?”
“No.”
“Why the heck not? You knew we were going to Philly and that we are looking into someone’s murder. Plus, there are parts of Philly that I certainly wouldn’t walk through without some sort of protection. Do you know if where we are going is in one of those parts?”
“Um, well…”
“Geez, Chelsey, I love you to death, but sometimes you make me wonder.”
“Well, I’m sorry. I’m not as worldly as you are.”
I kept driving and found my way off the highway on South Front Street. A few short turns later, we were in front of a four-story home with a rooftop deck.
“Huh,” Bonnie said, as if she was taking it all in.
“Pretty ritzy place for someone who is only twenty-five years old and had my job. I was expecting more of a sleazy apartment. This place is probably pretty expensive. But, what do I know? Maybe she quit her job because she got a much better one.”
I locked up the car and we headed toward the door.
“What are you going to say to her?” Bonnie asked.
Before I could answer, a gang of teenagers crossed the street, nearing us.
“Hey, mama, you want some a’ this?” one of them said, grabbing himself between the legs.
Bonnie angrily turned around to him and said, “What did you say to me, you little turd?”
“Come on over here and get some, cougar. I’ll take care of you real good.”
I slowly backed up toward the car. The kids were only twelve or thirteen, but there were six of them, and I was feeling nervous. Six of them would surely overpower the two of us.
“Did you just call me a cougar, you little twerp?” Bonnie screamed.
“Bonnie, let’s just go, let’s go,” I whispered.
“C’mon, old lady, I got something that’ll make you scream louder.”
Bonnie’s face turned purple.
“Did you just call me ‘old lady’?” Bonnie yelled as she reached in her purse and pulled out her gun, pointing it directly at the one who called her “old lady.”
“She’s got a gun,” they yelled. “Run!”
They took off running in separate directions, yelling profanities back at Bonnie. One of them picked up a large rock and threw it in Bonnie’s direction. It hit one of the windows on Joni’s house with a loud thunk, but luckily, the window didn’t shatter. Why anyone would pick up a rock and throw it at someone holding a gun was far beyond my comprehension. Bonnie squeezed the trigger, firing off a warning shot toward them. The kids kept running until they were out of sight.
“I can’t believe he threw a rock at someone holding a gun,” I said to Bonnie.
“Yeah, that one must have fallen out of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down,” Bonnie said with a smirk.
I laughed, breathing out a sigh of relief. I looked around and noticed that no one was watching. In my neighborhood, if a gun was fired, everyone would have been looking out of their windows to see what was going on. I guess this neighborhood was used to the sound of gunshots ringing out at all hours of the day.
I imagined that if Joni was home, she was awake now with the noise of the rock crashing into the window and the gun. We approached the door and knocked. There was no answer.
“You can’t knock like that,” Bonnie said.
“Like what?” I asked.
“Like a little girl. You need to grow some hair down there.”
“Eww.”
Bonnie starting banging on the door.
“Joni! Get your little caboose in gear and get down here and answer the door.”
“Go away,” a voice yelled from inside. It was a young female voice. I had never met Joni, so I didn’t know if that was her or not.
“Joni, I didn’t drive two hours to come see you to have you be rude. Now, let us in. We work at Coral Beach and we just want to ask a quick question.”
There was no response.
Bonnie walked over to the Volkswagen parked closest to Joni’s home. She took out her cell and started typing.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I’m texting Uncle Freddy.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because I want him to run this plate for me.”
Within a few minutes, Bonnie’s phone buzzed. She looked at the screen, then marched back to the front door and yelled, “Joni. Listen up. I have a gun, and I’m going to shoot out the four tires of your car if you don’t come down here and talk to us.”
There was silence.
Bonnie marched over to the car, took her gun back out and pointed it toward the car tire.
“What the heck, Bonnie? Someone’s going to call the cops.”
“Trust me,” Bonnie whispered to me.
“Say goodbye to Tire Number One,” Bonnie called out.
The front door cracked open with the chain lock still connected.
“How did you find me and what do you want?” the voice behind the door said.
“I just have a quick question. Do you know what happened to Vinny Buttiglieri?” I asked.
“He’s dead. Don’t you read the newspapers?” Joni said with a splash of anger and a pinch of sarcasm.
“I know. Did one of the council people at Coral Beach kill him?”
The door slammed shut.
“Wait! Please!” I pleaded and pounded on the door.
“Now what?” I asked Bonnie.
“I can shoot out her tires,” Bonnie said, matter-of-factly.
“I suppose I can understand why she doesn’t want to talk to a couple of lunatics with a gun outside of her place.”
The door reopened, and a short brunette with a gorgeous face and body hustled out of the door with a duffle bag. She rushed over to her car.
“Joni? Where are you going?” I asked.
“If you found me, they will too…assuming that you weren’t actually sent by them.”
“Sent? By who?”
“By all those monsters in Coral Beach,” Joni replied.
“Marc?” I asked
“No!” she said sternly as she opened the door and threw her duffle bag in the back of the car. “Look, I don’t want any trouble. I need to get out of here before they find me.”
“Please. Please, tell me,” I begged. “I’m afraid they are going to hurt me, but I don’t know who they are.” I faked a tear.
Joni opened up the front door to her car, put one leg in, and said, “The mob.” She sat down, pulled her other leg into the car, revved the engine, and took off like a racecar driver.
“Well, that wasn’t very helpful,” Bonnie said.
“I guess it’s nice to know it’s not Marc. But I’m not sure if I believe her. That guy has a mean streak.”
“What does she mean, mob?”
“The only people I can think of are the developers, Gino Righetti and Cal Zamboni. I wondered if they had something to do with Vinny’s death. The newspapers did suspect mafia involvement. I don’t have any proof, though, and I’m not even sure it was one of them. And if it was, that doesn’t explain Vinny’s note.”
“Well, where do we go from here?”
“Home, I guess.”
We drove back to Jersey. I dropped off Bonnie and thanked Jayce for watching Mandy. I drove home, contemplating what my next move would be.
Chapter 8
A caravan of construction vehicles crept slowly to a stop where a townhouse project was being completed. Men jumped out of their trucks to assess whether the ground was properly prepared for the pour. The break in the weather was exactly what they needed to make sure the concrete set properly. A call was made to the driver of the cement mixer, telling him to come as planned.
Within a few hours, the foundations of the new townhomes were laid. Unbeknownst to the workers, the bodies of the missing married couple were encased in the architecture of the newest buildings of Coral Beach. Possibly forever.
* * *
I was excited for work today, despite the fact it was Monday. Bonnie was starting her new job, although I worried that Dingo would be piggish and would make Bonnie’s life at work miserable. But then, I remembered that Bonnie knew how to charm the pants off of anyone. I knew she could handle herself, so I stopped worrying.
Bonnie spent the first part of the morning filling out personnel forms. Then she went
over to the tax office to learn the ropes. It was only ten a.m. and Bonnie was already pestering me on her first day of work.
“Hey, I need to learn how to do an agenda request for you,” she said.
“You worked for me for how long? And you don’t know how I like my agenda requests delivered?” I joked with her.
“Well, I know you are a total bitch when they are late,” she quipped.
“Hey! Nero was right—you’re not nice,” I said. “The least you could do is be nice to the person who found this job lead for you.”
“Oh, I’ll make it up to you. The hospital where Jayce works has box seats to the Devils this season. I’ll take you to a game if he can get the tickets.”
“Well, if you insist. What’s this item?”
“Dingo said he knew it was past the deadline, so he called Marc and got permission to add a tax refund resolution to the agenda.”
I was happy that Dingo took the initiative to call Marc himself. I did not wish to speak with Marc. I told Bonnie I would email her a template to use for agenda requests. Requests from the tax office primarily consisted of the tax refund resolutions that she had mentioned. When residents overpaid their taxes for one reason or another, a resolution had to go before the governing body to approve the refund. In order to make it easy for her, I typed out everything that she would need. She would only have to fill in the names, addresses, and amounts of the refunds owed, and she would be good to go.
“How is Dingo so far?” I asked her.
“Full of testosterone,” she said.
“Hang in there!”
“Oh, I will, and if he doesn’t stop staring at my chest, I’m going to wear one of those Madonna bustier tops with pointy ends and I’m going to very sexily lean over his desk, and poke him in the eye with one of my boobs.”
“There’s that Bonnie that I know and love!” I said.
Just then, the phones started ringing off the hook. Various livid people calling about the zoning change. Obviously, the post office did their due diligence and delivered the notices on time. I took names and phone numbers all morning, and listened sympathetically to the complaints. I emailed the first list of angry residents to the board of trustees before I left for lunch, then left the phones in Bonnie’s capable hands.
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