by Nancy CoCo
“Yes,” Rex said.
“The Jenases own property just past the airport away from most of the town.”
“There are a lot of families who own property back there,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I can just go in and search places. I have to have proof to get a search warrant.”
“Trent could be dead by then.”
“Allie, let me do my job. I know what’s at stake.”
“Do you?” I asked.
“I do,” he said. “Trent is a friend of mine.”
“Right.”
“What time are you planning to go to the senior center tomorrow?”
“I don’t know for sure. I guess around one p.m.”
“I’ll send someone over to walk you there. Please don’t go unless you have someone to accompany you.”
“I’m not helpless, you know.”
“I know,” he said. “But you are directly involved with a killer. A killer who has murdered two grown men and taken a third. There is safety in numbers.”
“Paige thinks the killer took Trent because he’s my boyfriend,” I said. “That means you are in danger, too.”
“Because I’m your boyfriend?” he asked softly. The heat in his gaze gave me a shiver.
“Just remember that this guy is targeting me. Even though you carry a gun, it doesn’t mean you’re any safer than Trent was.”
“And you don’t want to see me hurt.”
“I don’t want to see you hurt.”
“Good,” he said. “Then you know how I feel.”
I blew out a long breath. “Come on, Mal. Let’s go. I have fudge to make.” I looked at Rex. “Please look into the Jenases. If they have empty property, Trent could be there.”
“We’re looking into all of the empty properties on the island,” he said. “Please be patient.”
“The clock is ticking,” I said. “I don’t want to find Trent dead.” Saying it out loud hit me like a ton of bricks. My heart went into my mouth. I did love Trent. I didn’t want to lose him like that.
“Neither do I,” Rex said. “You’re not alone in this.”
“Good to know.”
I turned and took Mal back to the McMurphy. My heart squeezed. I realized that Trent meant more to me than I ever imagined.
* * *
It was ten in the morning when Mrs. Jessop entered the McMurphy. The woman was a force of nature. She stormed into the building. A five-foot-two-inch tornado in four-inch designer heels. Her blond hair was bobbed to a fine edge. Her clothes had the finishes of wealth, but old wealth where you didn’t need to talk about money for everyone to know you were born with it.
“Allie McMurphy,” she called my name and I stepped out of the fudge shop. “Where are my children?”
“Welcome, Mrs. Jessop,” I said. “Paige is upstairs with Jenn Christensen. I haven’t heard any word this morning on Trent.”
Her face momentarily reflected anguish. Then she schooled her features into a mask of efficiency. “Yes, well, I understand you took Paige in so that she would be safe last night. Thank you for that, but I want my daughter now.”
“I’ll take you upstairs,” I said, and wiped my hands on a towel, removed my apron, and left the fudge shop. “Sharon, please let Sandy know I’m upstairs if she needs me. Also call me if we get anyone who wants to purchase fudge.”
“Sure,” Sharon said, never looking up from her magazine.
Mrs. Jessop’s mouth moved into a tight line when she saw my interaction with Sharon. “You have to watch some people,” she said. “They are not necessarily as hard workers as one would hope.”
I walked up the stairs, letting Mrs. Jessop trail behind me in her heels. “Sharon has generously volunteered to take Frances’s place while my manager is out on her honeymoon. I’m grateful for her.”
Mrs. Jessop let out an inelegant snort, which I chose to ignore. The two flights up did not wind her. I imagined she spent a good part of her days on a treadmill. She was whip thin.
“I suggested Paige stay with me because I just put in a new high-tech security system,” I said. “We have new door locks and cameras.”
“Yes, I saw the signs,” she said behind me. “I have already tasked my property manager with putting similar systems in all the Jessop properties. If Paige is going to live on this godforsaken island year-round then I want to know she is safe.”
The door to the apartment flew open. Paige came rushing out. “Mama! I thought I heard you in the hallway.” She hugged her mother, who hugged her back just as fiercely.
“Please come inside,” I said to them both. “I’ll make us all tea.”
“Have you heard any news about Trent?” Paige asked her mother.
“The police won’t say anything other than they are taking his disappearance seriously,” Mrs. Jessop said.
“I saw Rex this morning,” I said. “He told me that they are looking into all abandoned buildings on the island. But there aren’t that many policemen available. Paige said you might know where the Jenases own property. We can check that first.”
“I do,” Mrs. Jessop said. She took a seat next to Paige on the couch. I put a teakettle on to boil and pulled out four cups and saucers.
“I have a map of the island,” Jenn said, and went into her bedroom. She came out with a paper map and unfolded it. She spread it out on the coffee table. Mella hopped up on the table and sat down next to the map as if to supervise the expedition.
I poured hot water into the cups and put a tea bag in each, then arranged them on a tray with milk and sugar. I brought the tray into the living room and handed the tea out, letting each fix them as they liked.
“Thank you,” Mrs. Jessop said after she took a sip of her tea. “This hits the spot. I had Sophie fly me out here. She said she has not seen Trent since he flew in the other day. So we know he has not been back to the airport.”
Sophie was the private pilot for the Grand Hotel and other bigwigs who needed to fly from Chicago or Green Bay or even Detroit. Sophie was a good pilot and knew everyone who came and went via the airport—even the freight pilots.
“Does Sophie have any ideas as to where Trent might be?” I asked, and sipped my tea. The heat from the water nearly scalded my mouth.
“No,” Mrs. Jessop said. “She was distressed by his disappearance.”
“We all are,” I said, and sat back in my Papa Liam’s old chair.
“Let’s look at the map,” Jenn said, and pulled a pen out and uncapped it. She put her cup down and pulled the map toward her. “We know that Trent left your cottage, here.” She circled the Jessops’ estate. “You said you thought he was going to the stables?”
“Yes,” Paige said.
“What way would he have traveled?”
“This way,” Paige said, and outlined the streets that would have taken him from the Jessop house past the police station and on to the stables.
I leaned forward and studied the area. “It looks like someone could have taken him here, and here,” I said, pointing to two alleys between the cottage and the police station.
“Why before the police station?” Jenn asked.
“If he had gone by the police station, someone would have seen him,” I reasoned.
“Hmmm,” Mrs. Jessop said. “And the alleys are the perfect place to hide a wagon and then it’s simply a matter of getting Trent into the alley, jump him, and tuck him up into a wagon.”
“None of those things are easy,” Paige pointed out. “My brother’s pretty savvy.”
“What if the killer has a woman working for him?” I asked. Mrs. Jessop looked at me as if I had lost my mind. “It’s not far-fetched,” I said, defending the premise. “He hired Ryan to prank the McMurphy. What if he hired a woman to call for help? We all know that Trent can’t resist helping a damsel in distress. Paige said so herself last night.”
“True,” Paige said.
“So you think that the killer hired a woman to call for help?” Mrs. Jessop said.
�
�Yes,” I said. “Or the killer might have taken a woman and let her scream for help when Trent walked by.”
“But if he didn’t pay her, then he had to either take her too or she would have gone to the police.”
“True,” I said, and sat back. “I think he must have paid her somehow. The killer pulled the wagon into the alley. Then they see Trent coming from the cottage. The woman screams and Trent goes running.”
“Straight into a trap,” Jenn said, and used her blue pen to highlight a possible route.
“The killer hits Trent over the head, tosses him in the back of the wagon, and takes off with him down the other end of the alley.”
“But if a woman screamed, others would have heard it and come running as well,” Jenn pointed out. “These alleys are behind the police station but there are businesses and homes in the area.”
“Right,” I said, a little defeated.
“Unless,” Paige said with a frown.
“Unless what?” I asked.
“Unless they were filming in the area. If they were filming, people might have assumed the sound was from the television actors.”
“Oh, yes,” I said. “What was the filming schedule that day? Does anyone know?”
“I have a copy of the schedule in my purse,” Paige said, and got up. She went over to her bag and pulled out a thick set of papers. “Because I won the rights to the outdoor shoots, I get a copy of their schedule.”
“Brilliant!” I said as she came back to the couch and set the papers down on the table. I picked them up and thumbed through them. The pages held a film schedule of day shoots and night shoots. They were in order by day. I thumbed back to Monday. “It looks like they were filming on Main near the Island Bookstore,” I said, and Jenn put an X by the area. “Then they were filming in an alley.” I looked up. “This is the alley behind the police station.”
“Close enough that a woman screaming could have been interpreted as coming from the filming.”
“You know,” Jenn said. “The killer could have hired a woman off the film crew. Like a stand-in or something?”
“They have stand-ins?” I asked. I knew so little about filmmaking. “What about the lead actress? Is she on the island yet?”
“Bella arrived on Friday,” Jenn said. “She’s staying at the Grand with most of the more famous members of the crew.”
“Where are the others staying?” I asked.
“They are near Mrs. O’Connor’s in Mission Point.”
“So the not-so-famous members of the crew get staff quarters with the workers on the island, while the two main actors get nice suites at the Grand.”
“Yes,” Paige said. “The camera crew is pretty rowdy. They tell me it’s because they’re working fourteen- to sixteen-hour days. Then get up and do it all again the next day. Especially the makeup artists and camera crews. They have to be around to block the cameras and run them.”
“Makeup artists?” I said. “I haven’t met any makeup artists.”
“Oh, there’s Candy and Phillip,” Jenn said. We all looked at her. “What?” she asked. “I like makeup.”
“Makeup artists could come and go unseen,” I pointed out. “Whereas stand-ins might be missed.”
“True,” Paige said.
“So let’s say Candy is paid to pull Trent into the alley. Trent hears a woman in distress and goes running. He sees Candy, who looks scared to death. He stops and the killer hits him from behind and tosses him in the wagon. Then the wagon takes off. It will have to go away from the police station,” I said, drawing a line in the alley.
“So where does it go next?” Paige said as she leaned over the map.
“It can’t go toward Main Street. Someone would see it,” I mused. “Most likely it headed to the other side of the island.”
“It would go by the airport,” Mrs. Jessop pointed out. “The Jenases own property here.” She pointed to a place in line with where the wagon might go. “No one would think twice about a freight wagon going that way.”
“We have two buildings to check out,” I said, and looked up at the women. “Who’s willing to go with me to see what’s out there?”
All three raised their hands. “Good,” I said. “Mrs. Jessop, you need to change into some shoes that you can walk farther in. I think we should go out in twos. Jenn and I can go and pretend we are taking Mal for a walk. Paige, you and Mrs. Jessop can take your suitcase and walk as if you are going back to your cottage. Leave the bag at your house and keep going. We can meet you here at the first building.”
“Do you think anyone will get suspicious?”
“I doubt it,” I said. “After all, who pays attention to a couple of girls walking a dog?”
“Or a mom bringing her daughter back home.”
“Exactly.”
“Let’s do it,” Mrs. Jessop said.
Now all we had to do was hope that Rex didn’t keep too close an eye on the McMurphy. If he even suspected that I might try to look into the Jenases, he would do everything he could to stop me. I wasn’t going to let that happen.
Chapter 25
Mrs. Jessop and Paige left first. They went out the front door and toward Doud’s Market. Jenn and I waited fifteen minutes and then put Mal’s halter and leash on her and left the McMurphy in Sharon’s and Sandy’s capable hands.
I turned up my collar as we stepped out. The wind blowing off the lake was chilly. Jenn also had a jacket on. We headed down the alley toward the police station. “I went to see Mr. Beecher the other day,” I said.
“I heard he’s been sick. How did he look to you?” Jenn asked as we turned down the street toward the alley where we suspected that Trent was taken.
“He said he was recovering,” I said. “But he looked pretty pale. I worry about him. He seems quite alone.”
“I heard he’s not that alone,” Jenn said.
“You did? How so?”
“He has a girlfriend.”
“What? Who? Do I know her?”
“It’s Mrs. Cunningham. Do you know her? She has red hair with two white streaks down the sides.”
“Oh, the pretty woman who is in her late sixties?”
“Yes,” Jenn said. “She is at the beauty parlor most Fridays. I see her when I get my hair done. I caught her looking at him once when he walked by. The next time I went to get my nails done, I saw her talking to him before she came in for her hair appointment. After that conversation, she came in looking all glowy and such.”
“How sweet,” I said. “I would have thought I would have seen her when I went to check on him. But there was no sign of a woman in his life.”
“Perhaps they are taking it slow?” Jenn suggested.
“Hello, ladies.” I looked up to see Brent and Rex walking toward us. I frowned. We were passed the police station. Why were they here?
“Rex, Brent,” I said. “What brings you out this way?”
“I could ask you that,” Rex said.
“We’re walking Mal,” I said. “We did a mileage check. It’s exactly a mile and a half to the airport from the McMurphy. So we walk it for extra steps.”
“What are you guys doing here?” Jenn asked.
“We went to check a few empty properties by the airport,” Brent said.
“Did you find anything?” I asked.
“Nothing,” Rex said. “You two stay together and go fast, okay?”
“We’ll be fine,” I said. “You checked out the buildings, right?”
“Yes.”
“Then there’s nothing to worry over,” I said.
“Right.”
“Look, I’ve got my phone,” I said, and pulled the smartphone out of my jacket pocket. “I will text you if we get in trouble.”
“I guess I can’t ask for anything else,” Rex said.
“I could go with you,” Brent said. “Make sure you’re okay.”
“We’ll be fine,” I said. “Really. Besides, it would help me feel better if you spent more time trying to fi
nd Trent than following me around. Have you learned anything since last night?”
“We’ve been able to discount some things,” Rex said. “But that’s about it.”
“Did you look at the Jenases? Maybe question Jeffer y?”
“The writer?” Brent asked. “Why do you think he has anything to do with this? Isn’t he slight? How could he have taken Trent? Jessop is a pretty substantial guy.”
“The Jenases own some of the freight wagons,” I said. “They would have access to a way to move bodies. Jeffery is a Jenas. He’s most likely related.”
“Jenas is a pretty common name,” Brent warned.
“But he could be related,” Jenn pointed out. “He has been here the entire season and would know about the murders Allie has helped solve.”
“We’re checking into his background,” Rex said. “You two aren’t sleuthing, are you?” He narrowed his eyes.
“No,” I said, and lifted my chin. “We’re walking Mal.” I looked down to see my puppy sitting beside me, looking from me to Rex and back. “Well, we’d better get to it,” I said. “Come on, Jenn.”
“Bye, guys,” Jenn said and we took off toward the building where we were to meet Mrs. Jessop and Paige. We walked a couple of blocks before Jenn glanced over her shoulder. “Do you think they bought it?”
“I’m not sure,” I said, and looked over my shoulder. “They don’t seem to be following us.”
“Good” Jenn said.
“Why did you mention the Jenases to them again?” I asked. “Rex is pretty smart. He might figure it out and stop us.”
“I thought they should know in case something happened to us.”
“Nothing is going to happen,” I said. “We’re going to go look in an abandoned building and rule it out. That’s all. No mess, no fuss, no danger.”
“Got it,” Jenn said. We power walked our way down the street. When we hit the place where we were to meet the Jessops, I stopped short.
“I’m surprised Paige and Mrs. Jessop didn’t beat us here,” Jenn said.
“Maybe they came across someone like we did,” I suggested. “You never know who is going to want to stop and ask questions. The fact that Paige carried a suitcase might have opened some eyes and gotten tongues wagging.”