“No. Nobody wanted to help me. Isn’t that the way it goes? Your friends are around until you need some help with a project and then they all disappear. No one would paint with me.”
“Did you show them the color before you started?” Trina asked.
Lilly thought about this, trying to determine why it would matter.
“Well, we’re sorry that we seem to have wasted your time,” Lydia began.
“I don’t mind. I wanted a second opinion,” Lilly said. “Though I really wish you had said that you sided with me straight out. I was a little rude to Suzanne. I wanted to be right.”
“You were rude to her?” asked Lydia. “Did you have a real problem with her?”
Lilly shrugged. “Not a real problem. It’s not like I hated her. It’s not like I wanted her dead. And I did hire her to look at my space and give me her opinion. And I know I didn’t know exactly what I wanted except that it be bold. And I didn’t feel like she really agreed with what I was saying.”
“Have you seen her lately?” Trina asked.
Lilly shook her head. “I haven’t seen her since our last meeting. I was thinking of calling her when I finished painting to show her how good it all looked.”
“You might want to hold off on that call,” Trina said.
“Did you ever talk to a contractor named Teddy Thomas?” Lydia asked. “I know he sometimes worked with her.”
“No. I wasn’t planning on moving any walls. I just wanted the inside to look nice. Why? Do you think he would like this color red?”
“I’m not sure,” Lydia said, starting to make her exit. “But thank you for talking to us.”
She and Trina left, uncertain of what to make of that last encounter. This was the first person that they had talked to that had a problem with Suzanne. She had said that she didn’t want Suzanne dead, but it didn’t sound quite sincere. Lilly had been upset with Suzanne’s design advice. However, were these decorating issues enough to make Lilly bust in on another design meeting to kill and kidnap people? Lydia just wasn’t sure.
13
Taffy Shop Catch Up
Lydia and Trina returned to the taffy shop after talking to the final client. They wanted to regroup and hear what the others had found out as well. It was also a perk that they could have some salt water taffy as a something sweet in the midst of a sorrowful situation.
As soon as they walked into the shop, all of her employees paused in their dealings with customers or creating taffy and turned toward her. However, one look at Lydia told them that Suzanne was still missing. It was disheartening to see all four faces begin frowning and showing concern as soon as they saw her. It made Lydia feel like they expected her to have come up with some answers already. Lydia certainly wished that she had.
However, a moment later, Kelsey disengaged herself from a customer and hurried up to her. Mona also joined the group.
“I want you to know that we have been taking this very seriously,” Kelsey said. “We’ve been looking into all the out of town clients that you told us to.”
“And it wasn’t easy, but between all of us, we did it,” said Mona.
“Jeff and Annette came in to help,” said Kelsey. “We used the shop as a home base and took turns dealing with customers and searching for clues.”
Lydia looked around the shop. She saw her surfer employee, Jeff, was in the midst of transferring some bright green taffy mixture onto the pulling machine. His hands were full, but he moved his shoulder in an attempt to wave when he heard his name being mentioned.
Annette was ringing up some customers, but Lydia could see that her bag of yarn was close by. Annette often crocheted even more when she was upset or nervous. Lydia began to wonder just how many shelves of crocheted toy merchandise she would have by the time this was all over.
“They were great,” Mona said. “I mean, I think we always work well as a team. But Annette brought us all sandwiches.”
“And Jeff loves assisting with cases. He volunteered right away to help,” Kelsey continued. “And I think we did a good job.”
“I hope no one felt that they were in any danger at any point,” Lydia said. “I hoped you were all at enough of a distance that everyone would be safe. And I would have done this myself, but I thought that time was of the essence and it would be faster if we split up the work.”
“You don’t need to explain,” Kelsey said quickly. “We all love being a part of these cases. We feel like we’re really helping people.”
“And we want to help the two missing women,” said Mona. “We thought that you would want to as well no matter the cost. So I hope you’re not mad about what we said when we started calling all the clients.”
“What do you mean?” Lydia asked.
Trina hummed a dramatic tune to undercut some of the tension she was feeling.
“Well, none of us had a burner phone, and we decided that we would use the taffy shop business line for the calls,” said Mona.
“Understandable,” said Lydia.
“As long as you don’t have any crazy long distance numbers made on there,” said Trina. “What if some of these out of town clients are really out of town? What if they are in some of the places that your Aunt Edie visited on her world tour?”
“That’s not where the expense came from,” said Kelsey. “What happened was that we thought the business line might be recognizable as a boardwalk taffy shop if anyone checked on it. And we did need a cover story for why we were checking up on these people. So we told them that they won a box of free taffy!”
“But we told that to each client, so it does add up a little,” Mona continued.
“But it sure was effective,” Kelsey announced proudly. “We told them it was a promotion and that a secret someone in Ocean Point had nominated them for the taffy box. We were able to get some people to talk about Suzanne by saying this secret someone was a designer. But we were able to get everyone to share their location at the moment and where they were that morning.”
“We’ve been working to confirm that what they told us was true. If someone said they were in a meeting, we called the business to make sure the suspect was there. We ended up promising a lot of free taffy to people.”
“But it wasn’t only a good investigative tool,” Kelsey pointed out. “It was a decent business strategy. Two people I talked to said that they wanted to order extra taffy to be sent with their free sample because they were that excited about our other flavors.”
“I don’t mind that you did that at all. It was a smart way to get the suspects talking, and we will honor those promises. And, I guess when this is all over I can look into doing more to promote shipping taffy orders to customers on a regular basis. But right now, my focus is still on finding Suzanne.”
“You didn’t happen to get any of the people you spoke with to confess to the murder and abduction, did you?” Trina asked.
Kelsey shook her head. “Another reason why we didn’t feel like we were in any danger, besides that we seemed to be making a lot of people happy with our taffy gifts as we worked, was because none of them could be the killer. They all were indeed out of town this morning.”
“That was what I expected,” Lydia said. “But thank you all for confirming my hunch.”
“What about the people that you spoke to?” asked Mona.
“Daniel is checking on an alibi for our most suspicious suspect,” Trina said. “The other two didn’t have alibis at all. But the boyfriend of Megan Wilway seems to have the best motive anyway.”
“Daniel might be able to tell us some more information now,” Kelsey said, pointing toward the window. “He’s almost here.”
They all turned toward the door as he entered, and he hurried toward them. He nodded greetings toward the group and gave Lydia a quick side hug. However, due to the seriousness of the situation, he dove right into his news.
“I spoke with several people trying to confirm whether Mitch Wagner was out on his Jet Ski this morning and this is
what I have come up with. Mitch has a distinctive design on his water vehicle that can be identified from a distance, and this Jet Ski was out on the water this morning. However, he was keeping away from others out on the waves. This might have been for safety or because he didn’t want to see others. Or, it might also have been because someone else was on his Jet Ski.”
“He might have gotten someone to go out on the water at the time of the murder so he would have an alibi?” Trina asked.
“All I know for certain is that someone was on Mitch’s Jet Ski this morning. Everyone who recognized it assumed it was Mitch, but it was too far away to positively identify.”
“So, we still have no idea if he has an alibi,” said Trina.
“We’re not certain, but I think this is enough information that we could share it with Detective Grey,” Lydia told the others. “We know now that he had issues with one of the victims and he doesn’t have a real alibi.”
Daniel nodded. “I think the detectives will be grateful for the lead.”
“I’ll be grateful if this does lead to Suzanne’s safe return,” Lydia said.
14
Thoughts on the Porch
While not ecstatic that she had been investigating when he point-blank told her not to, Detective Grey accepted her information and assured her that he would look into Mitch Wagner as a suspect.
Lydia worked at the taffy shop for a little while longer to make sure that it was still running smoothly (which it was thanks to her multitalented staff) and to blow off some steam. She didn’t know what else she could do for the case, and it greatly bothered her.
However, after an hour of unnecessary extra cleaning, Annette pulled Lydia aside. “You look exhausted, dear. I think you should go home.”
“This must be how Leo feels,” Lydia said. “I just want to do more, but I don’t know what that could be right now. I’m afraid if I stay still I’m letting her down.”
“You’ve done so much already, and it’s time to let the police do their work,” Annette said soothingly. “I really think that you need to go home and get some rest. And make Trina do the same. She’s been pacing back and forth on the boardwalk in front of our window all this time.”
Lydia looked outside and saw this was true. She agreed to leave and make sure that her friend was all right. She thanked her employees for all their help and then left with Trina.
It didn’t take much prodding for Trina to admit that she was tired, and Lydia soon convinced her to come back to her house. They would stay together to support one another until they heard that Suzanne and Megan had been rescued. Lydia sent Daniel a text to let him know that she was leaving the taffy shop and to wish him luck as he completed his shift as a lifeguard that he had traded with a coworker so he could investigate earlier in the day.
When Lydia entered her house, she immediately went in search of Sunny. She had offered Sunny’s comforting services to her brother earlier, but now she wanted to take advantage of them. She heard Sunny snoring and soon found the dog stretched out on a dog bed taking advantage of some time in the sun before it set. However, Sunny was happy to see Lydia and was only too pleased to be picked up in her arms.
Lydia hugged the dog and then headed back to her front porch to find Trina. Trina was sitting on one of the outdoor rocking chairs and looking more miserable than anyone she had ever seen rock back and forth before.
“Hi, Sunny,” Trina said when she realized the dog was near. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see you. I was just thinking about how Suzanne had decorated your porch. I sat down to look at it to – I don’t know – to feel closer to her. But then I started to feel guilty that I could sit in a rocking chair on a beautiful evening like this and she could be who knows where!”
Lydia hugged Sunny a little closer. She had similar thoughts running through her head, but kept trying to keep them at bay. It would only make her feel lousy to think about how she was safe with her dog and her friend while Suzanne might not be. She needed to focus on how to help rather than feeling upset.
She tried to voice this sentiment to Trina, but her friend responded, “I don’t know what else to do to help. And this lovely porch is getting me down. I feel like I’m weighed down with that decorative anchor – but emotionally.”
“Anchors in design are one of Suzanne’s specialties,” Lydia said.
Sunny sensed that Lydia was sad and licked her nose to cheer her up.
“Well, she’s definitely good at what she does. It helped sell your house,” Trina said. “Though I guess Lilly McHale was right that Suzanne does specialize in beach and nautical themes.”
“It makes sense for this area. There are many beach houses here, and the people who rent the homes like to be surrounded by the shore.”
Lydia took a seat with Sunny and looked around the porch. An idea was just starting to form in her head, but it hadn’t quite taken shape yet. However, she felt like when it did, it would pave the way to finding some answers.
“The anchors,” Lydia said.
“What about them?” asked Trina. “Do you feel weighed down too? It’s an appropriate metaphor, isn’t it? Of course, you don’t have to feel guilty about your last interaction with the missing person. I still feel bad that I didn’t seem supportive of their love.”
Sunny leaped down from Lydia lap and went to comfort Trina. She gladly accepted the attention of the canine.
Lydia got to her feet and began walking around as her thoughts began to take shape.
“While Suzanne is talented and can do any type of room as we saw for both Mitch and Douglas’s room, she does specialize in beach themes,” Lydia said. “She often adds an anchor to her work if it fits. I learned that right when I met her. And it’s evident from the anchor here and at Mitch’s.”
“So you think it’s significant that Mitch didn’t have an anchor?” asked Trina, turning pale. “Could he have used it to dispose of bodies?”
“I hope not! That wasn’t what I was thinking.”
“What were you thinking?”
“That there can be common design elements when the same people are involved. Suzanne’s work often used anchors because she liked the look of them. Another person might have a recurring design element.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m not sure what this means yet, but at the Wilway house where Teddy Thomas was killed, there was this unique wooden design on the wall. It was of an octopus holding bottles with letters on them.”
“And this has to do with the murder because…?”
“I was just thinking that I saw another octopus when we were running around today. It was at Douglas Manners’s home,” Lydia said. “It was such an unusual design that I should have realized how odd it was to see two similar designs before. But I guess he did rush me away from that room.”
“I’m sorry to keep repeating myself, but I don’t understand how this connection helps.”
“It doesn’t put all the pieces together,” Lydia admitted. “But I think there is a connection between the Wilway crime scene house and Douglas’s home. And I think the connection might be Suds Wilway.”
“The speakeasy owner?”
“We were thinking that either Megan, Suzanne, or Teddy was the target of this attack,” Lydia said. “But what if the house was the target?”
“I guess someone who considers himself a local historian would have made the connection between them,” Trina agreed. “But does Douglas Manners really make a better suspect than Mitch Wagner?”
“Maybe I am trying to convince myself of something that isn’t there. Maybe I am letting my emotions get in the way of my thoughts in the same way Leo was afraid he would,” Lydia admitted. “But I think this might be something else that we need to tell Detective Grey about.”
15
The Deal
Lydia was glad that she told Detective Grey about her hunch. She knew that it sounded crazy to base a suspicion on old wall décor, but the more she thought about it, t
he more it seemed to make sense to her. Though Douglas had invited her inside, he had tried to stop her from looking in the room. Perhaps he was afraid that she would make the connection between the two houses.
She knew that this wasn’t enough to make an arrest. It might not have been enough to warrant questioning on its own. However, once Detective Grey had a name to look into, he found some more facts about the man that made him look like a viable suspect.
The car he had registered in his name had tires that could have made the tire tread mark that was found by the crime scene. Douglas Manners also had a gun registered in his name that matched the caliber bullet that had killed Teddy Thomas. These facts, combined with Suzanne’s frantic mention of her client and a possible connection between the victim’s home and the crime scene merited questioning. When Leo’s desk research of the day confirmed that the home Douglas Manners lived in did use to belong to Wilber “Suds” Wilway, it was even more obvious that they should bring him in to interrogate.
Sour Apple and Animosity Page 6