Murder is a Beach (Maggie, PI Mysteries)

by Pressey, Rose

  “I’ll definitely call you if I hear from him or find out anything. I hope you’ll do the same,” I said.

  She nodded. “Oh, by the way, did you speak with Grace?”

  “Yes, as a matter of fact, we did. I meant to ask you how you know her?”

  Annie paused and a terrified look flickered in her eyes. “Oh, she came by one day with Kristin. So you’ll be spending all your time working on that case, right? How will you possibly have time to find Mr. Grant?”

  “I’m sure I’ll manage,” I said.

  Annie stared for a moment and then offered a small grin. “Okay, well, good luck.”

  Dorothy and I watched in silence as she turned around and walked out to the parking lot. She climbed into her black Toyota and drove away. She never looked over at us, but she had to feel our stares. She was a little strange.

  Dorothy shook her head. “No way do we need her help.”

  “Well, we may need her help since she knows him better than we do,” I said.

  “There’s just something about her that I don’t like,” Dorothy said with a frown.

  “Maybe it’s because she has a little nickname for Mr. Grant,” I said.

  Dorothy shook her head, “No that’s not it at all. Why did she assume something had happened to him?” Dorothy asked.

  “Well, the police were asking questions. And you assumed the same thing,” I said.

  “Yeah, but they didn’t tell her that anything was wrong,” Dorothy went back to her desk. “I still think something is suspicious.”

  We were quiet as I went back to my desk. I tapped my pen against my desk as I replayed the day’s events in my mind. “Dorothy, I’ve had time to think about it and I think you may be right about Annie. She was acting strange. And she said Kristin never came in the store, yet just now she said she’d met Grace when she came in the store with Kristin. Something doesn’t add up.”

  Dorothy set her crossword puzzle book down. She stared at me for a moment and then said, “Well, I’m glad that you finally came to your senses. You should listen to me more often.”

  “I don’t know about that,” I said.

  “What do you think she’s hiding?” she asked.

  I tapped my pen against the desk again then shrugged. “I don’t know, but I started thinking about how anxious she seemed. It was almost as if she wanted to feel us out to see what we knew.”

  Dorothy pointed her finger at me. “Exactly. Yes, that’s what it was. I couldn’t quite describe it, but you hit it right. What do you think she’s up to?”

  “I don’t know, but I’ll try to find out more about her. More importantly is whether Mr. Grant’s disappearance is connected to his daughter’s death,” I said. “I’d say Annie knows something about it. It would be creepy to know she was working with him the whole time and she knew something about Kristin.”

  “We have to find out who that man was at Mr. Grant’s house,” Dorothy said.

  “That’s not as easy as it seems. We have nothing to go on,” I said.

  “We can start by asking around.”

  I nodded. “Yeah, I guess that’s a start.”

  “There has to be something else we can do.”

  “I think if we continue to look for Kristin’s killer then that will lead us right to Mr. Grant,” I said.

  Dorothy nodded. “I think that sounds like a good plan, but I hope he’s okay.”

  It was a good thing because that we the only plan I had. I felt a little helpless.

  “Did you get a good look at the man at Mr. Grant’s house?” I asked.

  She looked at me from over the top of her eyeglasses. “Unfortunately, I wasn’t wearing my eyeglasses. You know I wanted to look nice for Morton.”

  “It would have been nice if I could get one of those police artists to sketch the gunman” I said.

  “Why don’t they?” Dorothy asked.

  “Because they don’t consider him a missing person yet. Maybe if he is gone longer,” I said.

  “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Dorothy said around a sigh.

  I nodded. I got a bad vibe about the whole thing though.

  “Was there anything that stood out about him?” I asked.

  “He was big. Like not overweight, but just a solid thick guy. Oh, and he had a lot of hair on his arms…and a gold bracelet on his right wrist,” Dorothy said.

  I looked at her. “I thought you said you couldn’t see him. That’s a lot of detail.”

  “Well, I couldn’t see any facial features. What are you thinking?” she asked.

  “That the jewelry could be connected. It would make sense, right?” I asked.

  “A lot of people in Miami have jewelry,” she reminded me.

  “That’s true, but I found that other piece of jewelry at the dock. I think it’s connected to the case,” I said.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  After stepping outside to get fresh air, I came back inside the office and caught Dorothy at my laptop. She looked up at me like I’d just caught her stealing someone’s yarn stash.

  “What are you doing, Dorothy?” I asked.

  She flashed a sheepish grin. “I was just searching the Internet.”

  “Wow. I didn’t know you could Google.”

  “Well, I’m not that old. I can learn new things,” she said.

  I stepped closer to her and peered over her shoulder. “So what did you find? Are you on one of those matchmaker services? Oh no, you didn’t sign me up for an account, did you?”

  She wagged her finger at me. “No, but that’s not a bad idea.”

  Oh great. Now I’d put ideas into her head. I leaned closer and saw the name Annie on the screen. “On my goodness. You’re searching for her,” I said. “What did you find out?”

  Dorothy looked at me with a smirk. “I found out that she isn’t all that she seems. I knew she was up to something to something.”

  I waved my hand. “Oh, I’m sure she’s okay. You’re just being suspicious because you like Mr. Grant.”

  “Why do you keep saying that? It’s not true.” She frowned.

  Dorothy pulled out a giant yellow legal pad. Notes that she’d taken were written at the top of the page.

  There were only a couple of lines of notes. The first one had nothing more than Annie’s address listed and then next line had a name of a souvenir shop here in town.

  “What is that for? I asked.

  Dorothy looked up at me. “Annie said she had worked at Grant Jewelers for a long time. Well, unless she had a second job that’s not true because until recently, maybe about two months ago, she worked at this souvenir shop too,” she said with a satisfied smile.

  “Let me see that.” I scrolled down the screen and saw the information Dorothy had been talking about. It seemed to be legitimate.

  So of course Dorothy and I piled in my car and headed out for this shop where Annie had supposedly worked. With any luck, we would find someone who could give us information on if she really had worked there and how long—maybe even why she had quit. Within a few minutes, Dorothy and I had arrived at the Sunset Souvenir Shop. It was a small place down by the marina.

  When we stepped into the shop we looked around for a few seconds. There was the usual souvenir type items: T–shirts, magnets, key chains, glasses and mugs…that kind of stuff. Only a couple of customers were at the back the store, looking at T–shirts and a couple of employees were busy behind the counter.

  “Let’s go ask the woman behind the counter,” I pointed.

  I hope we get details about Annie, Dorothy said as she marched toward the counter.

  “Excuse me,” I said to the woman behind the counter.

  She was probably a few years older than me. Her brown hair reached to her shoulders.

  She smiled cheerfully. “Yes, ma'am, may I help you?

  “I’m looking for someone who works here or possibly worked here a short time ago. Her name is Annie.”

  The woman's smile instantly tu
rn into a frown. “She’s not here anymore. May I help you with something?”

  I knew that she probably wouldn’t give me information about Annie, so I would have to make up a story.

  “Annie told me that I could come here to apply for a job. She was the manager here, is that right?” I asked.

  “Yes, she was, but she’s not a manager now. That lady over there is the manager.” She gestured toward the other woman. “I can give you an application if you’d like.”

  I glanced over at the woman who was busy with customers. “Oh no, that won’t be necessary.”

  “If you’re sure,” she said.

  “I’ll come back. Thank you, you’ve been very helpful.” I smiled.

  Dorothy and I turned to leave. I didn’t look back, but I felt the woman staring at my back. Somehow I knew she was suspicious of my story, but it didn’t matter because I would probably never see her again. She would never know the real reason that I was in the shop.

  We made it halfway through the store when I paused for reasons I didn’t quite know. When I glanced to my side, I spotted Megan at the back of the store. She was helping customers and wearing the same uniform Polo shirt as the other women behind the counter.

  I pulled on Dorothy’s arm. “Look who’s also working in the store.”

  “Very interesting,” Dorothy said.

  Now that we’d seen Megan, there was no way we could leave. Dorothy and I turned around and moved farther into the shop.

  “When she’s finished with the customers we’ll talk to her. We’ll act like it was a complete coincidence that we stopped here,” I said.

  “Of course.” Dorothy nodded. “That sounds like a good plan.”

  Dorothy and I moved over to the T–shirts with Miami Beach written across the front and started sorting through the rack.

  We can’t just hang around here waiting for her to stop talking to the customers. They will get suspicious. We have to do something to make us look like customers,” Dorothy said.

  Dorothy was right.

  “Why don’t you try on something,” she said.

  I shook my head. “Why don’t you try on something?”

  Dorothy rolled her eyes. “I am not wearing shorts that have ‘Beach Bum’ written across my rear end.”

  “Well, we have to do something while we wait. I’ll try on something if you try on something,” I said with a smile.

  Dorothy stared at me for a moment and then finally nodded. “Okay it’s a deal.”

  She’s better keep her end of the bargain.

  Dorothy wondered around trying to find something to take into the dressing room. I kept my eye on Megan while I looked around too. It didn’t really matter what we tried on because I didn’t plan on making a purchase anyway, although I would if I had to. If it meant getting info that I needed. Dorothy would search for hours if I didn’t stop her, so I grabbed a couple T–shirts and took her by the arm.

  “I got us a couple of T–shirts,” I said.

  “Did you get the right size? I like my shirts to fit big. I can’t stand that fabric binding up around me.”

  “I think they are one size fits all.” I handed her the T–shirt.

  “Oh, great, this should look wonderful,” Dorothy said drily.

  Dorothy and I picked dressing rooms and closed the curtains. I had planned on just slipping the T–shirt over my shirt. Like I said, we were just wasting time and pretending to be customers anyway. I’d just gotten the shirt over my head when I heard the curtain pulled back. I struggled to get the thing over my head so I could see who had entered my room.

  “Who is it?” I asked in a panic.

  “Quit thrashing around like a fish out of water,” Dorothy ordered. “It’s just me.”

  She pulled the shirt down over my head and I blew my hair out of yes. “What are you doing in here?”

  She waved her hand. “We can’t talk if I’m in the other room.”

  I stared at her. “Do we need to talk right now?”

  She shrugged. “Well, we need to discuss what is going on here. What better place than in here. It’s private and no one will hear us.”

  “I don’t know about that.” I tapped on the flimsy wall. “This thing isn’t very thick. “Why don’t you try on your T–shirt?” I asked.

  Dorothy held the shirt up and frowned. “Do you seriously think I am going to wear this thing? Was this some kind of joke?”

  I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “I wasn’t trying to be funny, honest. I just picked up the first shirt that I found.”

  She quirked an eyebrow. “Yeah, sure.” Dorothy held up the shirt with the image of a woman’s body in a bikini. “And look at the back.” She flipped the shirt over.

  I bit my lip again. The back of the shirt had the rear view of the woman’s body, of course—wearing a thong.

  “Well, forget me trying this shirt on.” She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

  I chuckled. “You don’t have to wear it.”

  A voice from the next dressing room caught our attention. We stopped talking so we could listen in. The voice sounded familiar—it was a lot like Megan. I peeked out the curtain, but didn’t see her. I stepped closer to the dressing room wall in the hopes that I could overhear the conversation. I strained, but it was almost impossible to make out what was being said.

  “I’ll be there as soon as I get off work. If you’d given me some cash now I wouldn’t have to work these jobs,” the woman said.

  I looked at Dorothy and said, “I think she called the person she’s talking to Annie.”

  Dorothy’s eyes widened.

  Could it be the same Annie? The one who had worked here? It was probably just a coincidence. After all, there were a lot of people with that name.

  Finally, the voice stopped. I had to know if it was Megan that we’d heard. I rushed over to the curtain and peeked out. I didn’t see anyone. Was she still in the dressing room? Did she know that we had been listening? I glanced down and noticed that the wall didn’t go all the way to the floor. My heart rate increased. She could have easily looked down and noticed that we were standing next to the wall. Having two women standing next to the dressing room wall like that wasn’t normal. I had no explanation for why we’d been standing there if she asked.

  I tugged at the T–shirt and got it over my head.

  “Do you think it was her?” Dorothy asked.

  “I think it was,” I whispered. “But I also think she may have seen us eavesdropping.”

  “Well, she shouldn’t expect a private conversation in the dressing room,” Dorothy said.

  “Actually, you suggested that it would be private to talk in here.”

  Dorothy frowned. “Oh, don’t be sassy.”

  I rolled my eyes. Then quickly I realized that would be considered be sassy too. I grabbed my purse and motioned for Dorothy to follow my lead. I pulled the curtain back and peeked out.

  When I poked my head out from the curtain, I noticed Megan leaving area, but I had no way of knowing if she’d been in that dressing room. She could have been with a customer for all I knew.

  Dorothy and I stepped from the dressing room. A woman standing next to the rack of clothing beside us frowned.

  “My sister can never make up her might about clothing,” Dorothy said, gesturing toward me.

  The woman smiled and nodded.

  “So I’m your sister now?” I asked.

  “It’s better than me being your grandmother, don’t you think?”

  “So did you want to buy that T–shirt, Dorothy?” I asked.

  “Very funny,” she said, placing the T–shirt back on the rack.

  Megan was with another customer again, so we were back in the same predicament as when we started.

  A few seconds past and Megan noticed us. She must have felt eyes on her because Dorothy and I couldn’t stop looking her way. Finally, she flashed a fake smile and waved. I hoped the customers she was helping would leave soon.

  Afte
r another minute, Megan bounced over like she was headed to a pep rally. I had never seen her like that in the restaurant. I wondered if maybe this was her twin and if I had the right person.

  When she stepped over to us, she said, “I’m so glad to see you all.”

  A strange expression was probably across my face. There was no way I could control my reaction. “Do you work here?” I asked.

  “Yeah, it’s just a second job. You know, I have to pay the bills. It’s a lot of fun here though.”

  This was probably the first time I’d seen her smile.

  “What are you all doing here?” she asked.

  “Um, I was looking for a shirt.” I grabbed the first one I saw.

  She raised her eyebrows. “Can I help you find one?”

  I stuffed the shirt back on the rack. “Actually I don’t think you have the one I was looking for. There was one question though.”

  Megan glanced from me to Dorothy. “Yes?”

  “Do you know Annie?” I searched her gaze for a reaction.

  Without pausing, she said, “No, I’ve never heard of her. Why do you ask?”

  She’s a friend of mine and we lost touch, Dorothy said before I had a chance to respond.

  Megan might be able to verify this story, so our cover may be in jeopardy. But it was too late now.

  Megan smiled. “Sorry I couldn’t help you.”

  I nodded. “Thanks anyway.”

  “Sorry about that. I got a little anxious. That’s not what Magnum would have done, huh?” Dorothy said as we walked out the door.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  “Since we don’t have to work anymore, I guess we have plenty of time to go to Spencer’s address. And if he’s not at work maybe there’s a good chance he’ll be at home,” I said as I slipped back into the car.

  “He’s probably still sleeping,” Dorothy said.

  I pointed the car in the direction of his place, hoping that I’d find out why he’d been watching me. The drive from my office to his address wasn’t a long one. If it hadn’t been for the heavy traffic we would have been there within minutes. It was a beautiful day in Miami and the sun had just started to set.

  Jake called my cell phone, but by the time I answered he’d hung up. I punched in his number again, but he didn’t pick up. I hoped he had good news for me.