by Amy Saunders
Belinda was off before he could change his mind, walking as fast as she could, trying to ignore the sand sloshing into her sneakers. She hated wearing shoes on the beach, but there was no time to take them off.
It was easier to see once she pulled out her mini flashlight, scanning everyone she passed. Her heart stopped when she saw a guy with a trash bag, but it wasn’t Alec, and he was wearing the official uniform of the people who worked there, emptying one of the trash cans.
After going about halfway in her direction, Belinda doubled back toward the fire. That’s where most of the people were concentrated. And if Alec wanted to burn those paintings, this was where he would be. Unless it was too late, and he’d already done it. Or they were wrong and Alec didn’t even have the paintings.
Belinda scanned the groups and couples and individuals making their way toward the fire like her. She was about to give up and go back to the bathhouse to meet Bennett, when she spotted a figure fighting through the sand, hauling a tote bag over his shoulder. The corners of something that looked like canvases stuck out of one side. Belinda got closer until she could tell for sure they were paintings.
“Alec?” As soon as she said it, she wished she’d kept her mouth shut. Alec turned, his eyes wide in alarm, and he ran. Much faster and smoother through the sand lugging the paintings than she could in sneakers, carrying zip. “Stop!” she said as if that would make any difference.
He ran faster, Belinda’s legs moving like wet noodles through the sand. She felt around for her phone in her pocket, trying to call Bennett and keep running as Alec closed in on the bonfire. But it was impossible to do both. She spotted a lifeguard outside the ring, there to keep order she guessed, and yelled to him instead.
“He’s going to throw something in the fire!” she pointed adamantly at the kid in front of her. “Help!”
It took what felt like forever, but the lifeguard finally understood and hoofed it in Alec’s direction, using his whistle and everything.
Instead of watching the fire, now everyone was watching the lifeguard chase Alec across the beach. Another lifeguard came from the other direction, and the two converged on Alec, who flung his tote toward the fire before they tackled him, pinning him down just outside the main ring of spectators. His tote crashed a few feet from the fire, the paintings spilling out.
Belinda stopped, trying to catch her breath so she could speak. Shelby materialized and came running over. “Alec?” she said. The two lifeguards restrained him on the sand. Shelby walked over to the tote, picking up one of the paintings. “What are these?” she said. “Did you…is this you?”
Alec looked up through the hair in front of his eyes, but said nothing.
Belinda managed to dial Jonas and blurt out something like a command to come to the beach. Bennett jogged up next to her, looking from Alec to Shelby to Belinda. “At least you didn’t try to tackle him yourself,” he said dryly.
Belinda wrinkled her nose, turning back to Alec. “You have a lot of explaining to do.”
Alec squinted to make out her face in the firelight. “Who are you?”
“Someone keenly interested in the fact that those paintings were in Angie Chen’s studio right before she died.”
Shelby stood at a short distance, watching with concern, but not wanting to get involved.
“I didn’t take them,” Alec said, “if that’s what you’re implying. Angie gave them to me.”
“Why?” Bennett said.
Alec held his chin up. “They were a present.”
“She gave you paintings of yourself?”
“She wanted to impress me.”
Belinda folded her arms, thinking this was a ludicrous story, but she’d play along. “Did it work?”
“Guess not.”
Shelby’s eyes were wide. “You can’t be serious.”
Alec didn’t even look fazed, and shrugged.
“Did you throw them in a Dumpster, too?” Belinda said, stepping toward him, a desire to kick him in the stomach crawling up her legs. Even if this was all a pack of lies, as she suspected, it was still obnoxious.
Alec blinked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
So he didn’t know, or was still lying. Belinda glanced at Bennett, who gave a slight nod like he thought the same thing. However Alec obtained the paintings, it would have been between when they saw Angie drop them off after the Dumpster pickup and when Belinda and Victoria found Angie’s body. Conversely, there could be more than one of each painting. But that made Belinda dizzy.
“When did Angie give them to you?” Belinda said, hearing her voice come out rather stern and authoritative. Similar to how Jonas sounded when he interviewed suspects.
Alec processed his answer. “I guess right before she died.”
“Can someone other than Angie verify this?” Bennett asked with a touch of sarcasm. Belinda suppressed a grin. She liked it when he got all snarky on people.
Alec glanced from her to Bennett. “I don’t know. Can you produce a badge that says I have to answer your stupid questions?”
“How’s this?” Jonas came into view, his police badge reflecting the light thrown across from the fire. “Now you can answer my stupid questions. Can anyone other than Angie Chen verify anything you’ve just said?”
Alec’s face went sour. “No.”
“I didn’t think so.” A couple uniformed officers hefted Alec off the sand, handcuffing him. Shelby watched in confusion from the sidelines.
Alec was escorted away, and Jonas turned to Belinda and Bennett. “You know, I was in the middle of talking to Ardith when you called me.”
“Sorry,” Belinda said.
“And what is it with you stealing my lines? I was waiting for you to ask Alec where he’d been between the hours of noon and three the day Angie was killed.”
Belinda smirked. “I would never presume to say it with the finesse that you do, Detective.”
Jonas grunted. “Alright. We’ll let these people get back to their reveling. The two of you can go home now. Your work is done.”
Belinda took Bennett home, then went home to crash herself, yawning as she examined the living and dining rooms, where the lights were all on. Kyle sat at the end of the dining room table. “Hey, Bels,” Kyle said.
“Hey. What are you doing in here?”
Kyle waved a hand at the laptop screen in front of him. “I checked the security footage for fun.”
Kyle already knew about Colleen’s visit, he was there, so this had to be about something else. And that made her apprehensive. Maybe she should just go to bed and sleep in ignorance.
She took a few uncertain steps toward her brother. He crooked a finger at the screen, which was an outdoor shot around the side door. Those were the only outdoor cameras. For now.
There was a shadowy figure in freeze frame, and it wasn’t Kyle or Belinda or Bennett. Or anyone else who should’ve been there. “Thanks to Bennett’s crazy security knowledge,” Kyle said, “we have this.” He zoomed in on the face, pretty non-grainy. It wasn’t a straight on view, but his head was cocked enough to get a clear picture of who it was.
Belinda sighed. “Jarrett. He’s by the door. Did he knock?”
“Nope. I think he may have wanted to, though.” Kyle played all the footage, which included Jarrett walking around that part of the house, rather aimlessly. He did seem like he was debating about ringing the doorbell. Finally, he left and that was it. Belinda seriously wished now they already had the rest of the cameras installed so she could know for sure if that’s all he did.
“When was this?” she said.
“Earlier tonight.”
She wondered if Jarrett had seen them at the bonfire, but it looked like Jarrett was at her house while they were at the beach. “Kyle, I have to ask you something, and please don’t joke with me. On a scale of one to paranoid, how bad should this freak me out?”
Kyle pursed his lips, staring hard at Jarrett’s face on the computer screen. “All we
have is history to go on, and it’s not good. I think we need to install those other cameras.”
Belinda swallowed, knowing that was his way of saying he was nervous. If Kyle was perturbed, it wasn’t good.
Chapter 21
Jonas was insanely happy the next morning considering he had two suspects to deal with. They’d arrested Alec on the beach the night before, but he was mum, refusing to answer any questions about the paintings, the cash box found in his room, or what his fingerprints were doing all over Angie’s studio, especially after leaving her a less-than-friendly text message the day before she was brutally murdered. So they brought in Shelby to question her instead, since it was now officially out of the bag that she knew Alec, and probably had more to do with Angie than she let on. And she was an artist, and there was a possibility she was the person behind the fake Simone and the paintings of Alec. Dinah Lachappelle sat stiffly beside her daughter, both of them nervous, though Dinah was much more hostile than her daughter.
Despite this grim picture, Jonas’ mind kept flickering back to his conversation with Ardith the night before. He’d come clean that he couldn’t scuba dive. Ardith laughed, telling him it was a very good thing he’d told her before their plans were totally set. After making it clear he was in fact interested in scuba diving–he’d always thought it looked fun–she’d cryptically told him she had a plan and would get back to him soon. Maybe that was her easy way out now that she knew he didn’t scuba, but he didn’t think so. She’d sounded coy when refusing to divulge her secret. He’d never heard a woman sound coy when she was trying to get rid of him. Not that many women had tried; it was usually the other way around.
In any case, he waited impatiently for his phone to buzz against his chest. For now, he still had work to do and he struggled to concentrate on the people in front of him.
“So,” Jonas started, “we have Alec’s prints on the cabinet where Angie’s body was hidden, and a witness that he took something from the crime scene.” He set a photo on the table in front of them of the hair they’d found on Angie’s body. “What are the chances these light hairs will match yours, Ms. Lachappelle?” he said to Shelby, who was trembling.
He honestly felt bad at times like these, having to be rough and tumble when someone looked so terrified. But truth was, people could lie and pretend and get away with everything if he wasn’t unfazed by their show of emotion.
“Don’t say a word,” her mother hissed. “Our lawyer will be here soon.”
Jonas dismissed that and focused on Shelby, who looked more likely to talk if he just persisted. “If you know something, anything, it’s in your best interests to admit it. Two people are dead and it’s highly probable they’re connected.”
Shelby licked her lips. “They are,” she said quietly. Her mother hushed her, but Shelby pushed her hands away. “They have to be.”
“Why is that?” Jonas folded his hands on the table, leaning toward her.
“Because Angie was upset one of the last times I talked to her.” Shelby stared at her hands in her lap, twisting a class ring around her index finger. “It was after Kevin’s murder. She was a mess, babbling about something about Kevin and a forged painting and she was super upset about it.”
“I thought you weren’t friends with Angie?”
Shelby hesitated. “I don’t know that we were friends exactly, but we’re both artists, and I admired her. I think she called me because we understood each other in some way, and maybe she didn’t know anyone else to talk to.”
“So what happened after that?”
“I got this panicked message from her the other day…the day before she died. She just said she knew who painted the fake and she needed to talk to me immediately. That’s why I sent her all those messages. But she never got back to me.”
“So was that the last time you heard from Angie?”
Shelby swallowed. “Yes.”
“But you went to see her.”
Shelby clenched her hands. “I went to her studio to talk to her since she never returned my messages and she sounded so freaked out.” She closed her eyes. Jonas glanced at Dinah, who stared at her daughter wide-eyed. “So I went to see her, but she wasn’t there. It was weird because she left the radio on. I went inside and I…and I found her. I found her body in the closet.” Shelby gripped the arms of the chair as if she’d fall out of it.
Jonas gave her a minute to compose herself. Even Dinah had nothing to say to that. When Shelby seemed more together, Jonas asked, “What happened after that, Shelby?”
She brushed a tear from her face. “I was so scared. Kevin was dead and now Angie. So I called Alec and he came and helped me get her back in the closet and we left.”
“You told me you hadn’t seen him this summer!” Dinah had just stared at her daughter in shock until then.
“I didn’t plan to, okay? I just…ran into him at that party.”
Jonas narrowed his eyes. “Where Alec and Kevin fought?”
“It wasn’t really Alec’s fault,” she said quickly. “He was just mad about something Kevin took without asking or something. It wasn’t a big deal. They both got over it.”
“Was that something Kevin took you by any chance?”
Shelby blinked, truly making eye contact with him for the first time. “No.”
“Well, Angie seemed to think he joined that art class for a girl.”
“This is ridiculous,” Dinah cut in. “Why aren’t you drilling Alec about this? He’s the criminal, not my daughter.”
“Alec is not a criminal!” Shelby turned to her mother. “We didn’t do anything wrong. It was just those nosy Calhouns at the marina. They need a hobby.”
Jonas refrained from smiling, though it reminded him of something Belinda would say.
“You shouldn’t call them nosy,” Dinah said.
“You call them nosy! Everyone knows they gossip!”
Dinah took a deep breath. “Shelby…” She shook her head.
While Jonas found their interplay amusing, he did need them to stay on topic. “So you don’t think Kevin liked you?”
“I think Angie liked Kevin,” Shelby said to Jonas, “but I don’t think it was the other way around. Maybe Kevin liked me…I don’t know. I never paid attention.”
“But you knew Kevin before the art class?”
“Yeah. He was around sometimes when I was with Alec.”
“What did Kevin take that made Alec so upset?”
Shelby glanced around the room as if searching for the answer. “Alec wouldn’t tell me, and he got mad when I asked.”
Jonas wasn’t sure if he quite believed Shelby, though her eyes expressed nothing but innocence. Maybe she didn’t know, but maybe she had a guess. Or was just worried she’d push Alec away. “Did Alec meet Angie through you?”
Shelby answered blankly. “I didn’t know they knew each other.”
“They were at a party together.”
“Maybe they were acquaintances. But that’s it.”
Jonas wasn’t so sure. Angie and Alec didn’t seem like friends either, but it did feel like they were more than acquaintances. Maybe they had a fling that went sour? If so, Shelby didn’t know or was insecure about it.
He pulled out three more photos of the mystery paintings Alec tried to toss and one of a close-up of the signature. “Has Alec ever said anything about these?” Jonas said.
“I swear I’ve never seen those paintings before last night. Or heard about the fake, whatever it is, from anyone except Angie. And I never found out what she was talking about.”
“The signature here is A.L.” He tapped the close-up of the initials. “Your middle name is Ann. This could stand for Ann Lachappelle.”
Dinah turned gray, her eyes frightened, but still steely.
“I’ve never seen them,” Shelby said adamantly.
Jonas leaned back, setting his eyes on both of them. “We’re getting a warrant to search your house and will take paint to analyze.”
“
I didn’t paint them.” Shelby’s eyes never wavered from his. She was a tougher cookie than she looked like.
Jonas pushed another photo at them–the fake Simone. “How about this? A forged Simone that washed up shortly before Kevin did.”
“What?” Shelby looked at it in disbelief. “Is this what Angie was talking about?”
“If you didn’t paint it, and Angie didn’t, then how about this option? Alec Luca as the painter.”
Shelby made a face. “Alec doesn’t paint. Trust me.”
“Maybe it’s a closet obsession he’s hiding for some reason, hence the initials on these other…portraits.”
“He might have posed for those paintings, but that’s about it.”
Dinah laughed. “This is ridiculous. My daughter has nothing to do with this!”
Belinda had told him that Shelby asked Alec directly if it was him in the paintings, almost first thing. Shelby didn’t seem any more in the loop than they were, so he was inclined to agree with Dinah. But Alec tried to destroy the paintings, so there had to be a reason, especially in light of Kevin and Angie’s murders. The main thing tying them together was art.
He got a message just then that the tech team had managed to salvage some info from Kevin’s phone, which had taken a salt water bath, and it sounded like something there might help their investigation, so Jonas left Shelby and her mom to stew while he followed up on that.
It sure wasn’t like hearing back from Ardith, but it was one step closer to solving these murders, so he’d take it.
Chapter 22
Belinda rang Colleen’s doorbell in the early afternoon. She was surprised to find Colleen’s car in the driveway, and unsure if she was happy or annoyed at the sight of it. Now she could take care of her business with Colleen, but it also meant she’d actually have to talk to her. There was no sound in the black and white house. Belinda thought it was capitol style? She knew Bennett would know. She’d have to check with him later.
She rang the bell again and then just got irritated at waiting and hit it over and over with her index finger. If Colleen felt free to bomb in on her without warning, she wouldn’t feel guilty about being obnoxious.