Death in a Beach Chair

by Valerie Wolzien

  She woke up an hour later and stared at the ceiling. She was alone. Her friends were in terrible trouble. Not knowing what to do, she decided to head over to the restaurant. Food didn’t sound terribly appealing, but a cup of coffee might be a big help.

  She found a seat by the wall and, her back to the still empty restaurant, stared out at the sea. A young woman approached almost immediately, and Susan looked up, expecting a menu. She was handed a folded sheet of notepaper. “Your husband called. He said to give you this. I’ll find your waiter.” Susan grabbed the paper and opened it anxiously.

  “I’m with Jerry. I told him about Kathleen, and while he looked a little worried, he didn’t seem unduly upset. I’m going to see his lawyer. Maybe we can do something here. You stay there and relax.”

  Susan frowned. Just like a man. Jerry “didn’t seem unduly upset.” What did that mean? And how could she stay here and “relax”? Relax? Surely Jed knew she couldn’t relax while all this was going on!

  On the other hand, Jed knew his message would be read by others, possibly the murderer. What, really, could he say? Susan boiled the note down to facts: Jed was going to stay in town. She should stay here. “Coffee. A full pot, please,” she ordered from a nearby waiter, busy setting the tables.

  He dashed off and returned immediately, pot in hand. Susan sipped from the cup and felt her spirits rise. Jed must be planning to do something in town. He didn’t need her help. Now she had to decide where her efforts could best be used here.

  She considered the various possibilities. The thing to do, she decided, was spend as much time as possible with the people who had known Allison here before she was murdered. There must be a connection between at least one other guest and Allison-and that person must have killed her.

  “Would you like to order breakfast now?”

  “Ah… yes. I’ll have the crab and avocado omelet and some fresh fruit.”

  “Of course, Mrs. Henshaw. Shouldn’t take any time at all.”

  Susan smiled and looked back at the water. She’d see who showed up next for breakfast. If logic and orderly investigation couldn’t solve this murder, she would just have to depend on serendipity.

  As luck would have it, the next guest to arrive was looking for her.

  “Susan Henshaw! You’re just the person to take my husband’s place this morning.”

  “Doing what?” Susan asked, turning and looking up at Ro Parker.

  “We’re taking the kayaks out to see the eastern beaches. They’re almost entirely deserted and well worth the trip. And, I don’t know about you, but I could stand to burn some calories.” Ro pulled up a chair, sat down, and lowered her voice. “We heard about your friend vanishing. I just want you to know that I, at least, don’t believe her vanishing act means she-or her nice husband-really did kill Allison. I just wanted you to know.” She put her hand on Susan’s arm and gave it what she probably thought was a friendly squeeze.

  Susan knew anger would get her nowhere. “Thanks.” She leaned closer to Ro. “What are people saying about Kathleen?”

  “Oh, dear. Well, I know she’s your friend, but I must say her stunt yesterday didn’t win her many friends here.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, pulling a vanishing act makes her look very guilty.”

  “But she was abducted. Her room was searched!”

  “I know it looks like that. And I suppose it’s just possible. But, if you want to know what people think…”

  “I do.”

  “They think she’s taken off to try to deflect suspicion from her husband.”

  “But her cottage-”

  “She trashed it before she left. I don’t believe it, but you said you wanted to know what people were saying.”

  “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. No one here really got to know Kathleen or Jerry before all this happened. There’s no reason to believe in their innocence.”

  “And everyone knew Allison. She was quite gregarious and so charming. She fit right in with all the various little groups here.

  “Oh, there’s my husband. Do tell me you’ll come out with us. He’ll be so relieved not to have to go.”

  “What time? And how long will we be gone?”

  “We’re leaving around ten and we’ll be back before one-for a late lunch. Now tell me you’ll come.”

  Susan made up her mind quickly. “I will.”

  “Fabulous. We’re meeting on the beach. James is going to fit us all out with life vests and such.”

  “I’ll be there.” The timing sounded just about perfect. That would give her a few hours to think about what Ro had just said. Susan would never have described Allison as gregarious. When she had visited her sister in Hancock, she had refused to socialize without Jerry or June by her side. In fact, Susan herself had tried a little matchmaking and been discouraged. Convinced Allison was just shy, she had given up. But this new Allison, thin and gorgeous, had also, apparently, had a personality transplant. She had jumped into the social waters of Compass Bay with enthusiasm.

  It was time for Susan to do the same.

  At least she had an opening line.

  By the time Susan met the bridge foursome on the beach, she had spoken to the other three couples who had spent time with Allison.

  Abandoning any pretense that she was doing anything other than investigating a murder, she used the same approach each time. “I’m trying to find out what happened to Kathleen. When was the last time you saw her?” she started by asking Joann and Martin.

  Martin looked up from his bowl of oatmeal with a startled expression on his face. “Sorry? We thought everyone knew what had happened to her. She left the resort, didn’t she? Ran out on her husband.”

  “Martin! We know nothing of the kind!” Joann spoke sharply. Susan noticed she was eating the macadamia nut pancakes with coconut syrup with a side order of pork bangers. In terms of calories and cholesterol, their two breakfasts were complete opposites. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Henshaw… Susan. My husband sometimes lacks tact. Of course, we are all shocked and concerned about the disappearance of your friend. I myself believe she was driven insane by the shock of learning that her husband is a murderer and she has done herself some dreadful harm. We’re on an island. Such an easy place to disappear.”

  Susan reminded herself that she was investigating and that defending her friends wasn’t going to get her anywhere or help her learn anything new. “I can’t image Kathleen doing anything like that. She’s upset that her husband was wrongly accused of murder, but Kathleen was a police officer in New York City before her marriage. I don’t think there’s a whole lot that shocks her or could send her over the edge.”

  “A police officer,” Martin said. “Amazing. She’s so sensational looking. Who would have guessed.”

  Joann looked at her husband with such anger that Susan thought for a moment that she was going to strike him. “Good-looking women, Martin-if you call that anorexic scrawniness good-looking-are used as decoys. She probably spent her time on the police force dressed up as a hooker trying to attract johns.”

  “Really?” Martin had a smile on his face. “Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that-at least, nothing I would admit to,” he said to Susan, raising his eyebrows over twinkling eyes.

  Susan sincerely hoped Martin had time to enjoy his vices, whatever they were, since he seemed to be having a perfectly miserable vacation.

  “Finish your cereal, Martin. You don’t want to become constipated again.”

  Susan tried not to gasp at Joann’s hideous manners. “Did either of you see Kathleen yesterday?” she asked, getting back to her point.

  “I saw her early in the morning,” Joann answered promptly. “She was getting into a taxi. I assumed she was going to town to shop or something rather than running away.”

  “She wasn’t running away at that time, dear,” Martin said mildly. “I saw her later than you did.”

  “When was that?” Joann asked as though such a thing
wasn’t possible.

  “When you were looking around the gift shop. Remember you asked me to return to our cottage and pick up that scarf you were hoping to match? I saw Mrs. Gordon go into her cottage. That must have been almost two hours later. If she was going to jump in the ocean, as you implied, dear, she hadn’t decided to do it then. She waved and smiled at me. She seemed quite perky.”

  Susan realized that Kathleen must have just returned from seeing her husband.

  “Playacting. She probably did a lot of that when she was on the force.”

  Susan decided she wasn’t going to learn anything more by staying here. “Thanks. I don’t think Kathleen killed herself. But I am worried about her and I appreciate your help.”

  “Anything we can do,” Martin assured her.

  “I hope this breakfast isn’t going to take you all day,” Joann snapped, picking up her fork and impaling a sausage.

  “I think not, dear. That’s one of the advantages of limiting one’s caloric intake.”

  Susan hurried off. No need to hear Joann’s response if she could avoid it.

  Frank and Peggy were almost finished with their meal when she found them. They were sitting on the patio, looking out to sea and not speaking.

  “Do you mind if I interrupt?” Susan asked, walking up behind them.

  Frank looked up. “Nothing to interrupt. We’re just having one of those wonderful intimate meals in which Compass Bay specializes.”

  “So much for our second honeymoon,” Peggy said.

  Susan just smiled awkwardly and asked her question. “You know my friend Kathleen is missing?”

  “We do. We were just talking about that,” Frank began.

  “Yes, the poor girl. It’s so different than our situation. We were able to heal and grow, develop personally even though Frank had done something so reprehensible. She apparently didn’t get the chance.”

  “My wife believes Mrs. Gordon was murdered.”

  “My husband believes she has killed herself in her grief over discovering her husband was unfaithful. I believe therapists refer to that as projecting. He thinks, no doubt, that I should have thrown myself into the sea upon discovering his unfaithfulness. I believe women are stronger than that and I believe I have proved it.”

  “It doesn’t have anything to do with women being strong, or not being strong,” Susan said. “I’m worried that you’re right. I don’t think Kathleen was murdered, but I do believe some harm may have come to her. When was the last time you saw her? Do you remember?”

  “Yesterday. Around lunchtime,” Peggy said positively.

  “My wife is right about this one thing. We were walking by her cottage and she stuck her head out of the door. Said hello and stuck it back in again.”

  “What do you mean, right about this one thing?” Peggy turned on him. “It just so happens that I’m frequently right about a lot of things. And it wouldn’t hurt you to admit it once in a while.”

  Susan left without even bothering to thank the couple. She didn’t want to interrupt.

  THIRTY

  The honeymooners had not yet left their cottage when Susan walked down to the beach to join Ro, Veronica, and Randy, all three properly outfitted in bright-orange life vests. Burt was there to “say bon voyage”-his words. He said just that and then took off, heading for the bar. Ro stared at his back, a frown on her face, and then turned back to Susan. “I understand you’ve spent the morning asking some of the guests when they last saw your friend.”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, we’ve been talking about that and we came up with something you might find very interesting,” Veronica said, looking up from the task of tying the strings of her sun hat to her vest.

  “What?”

  “We saw her at different times, and she was acting rather strangely.” Ro picked up the story. “You see, Burt noticed her first. He always notices gorgeous women, but I’m a very understanding wife. As long as he just looks, I always tell him.”

  “When did he see her?” Susan asked, trying to get back to the point.

  “Right after you left her in her cottage. She walked out-toward the office-and stopped when she saw that there were people in the gift shop. He said that he got the impression that she didn’t want anyone to see her.”

  “And she went back into her cottage.”

  “Yes. Burt thought she was looking a little shaky. He thought about asking her if she needed help, but she went inside, and he decided to leave her alone.”

  “And I saw her next. At least that’s what we figured out when we were all talking,” Veronica jumped in. “I went back to our cottage to get some sunscreen. Sometimes we can’t find a place to play that is in the shade, especially in the morning-the sun just bounces off the water-and the door to her cottage was open. She was sitting on the bed, rubbing her head. I called out and asked her if she needed a doctor, and she said no, she was absolutely fine.”

  “Which makes what happened next so interesting,” Ro added.

  “What happened next?”

  “First, I should tell you that when I was coming back with my sunscreen the door was closed,” Veronica said. “I assumed your friend was lying down-”

  “But she wasn’t even in the cottage!” Ro interrupted. “Randy and I went for a short walk just a few minutes later, and we saw her walking on the road.”

  “Outside Compass Bay?”

  “Yes, isn’t that strange?”

  “And there’s something even stranger,” Veronica said. “We think she saw us and hurried back into the resort.”

  “I’m not so sure that she saw us,” Ro added. “I don’t think we can be so sure about that.”

  “And why would she have hurried into Compass Bay the back way if she hadn’t been seen?”

  “What back way?” Susan demanded.

  “Oh, there’s a staff entrance. About a hundred feet down from the regular entrance-no arch or palm trees or anything like that-just a door in the wooden fence that runs between the cottages and the road.”

  “I never even realized there was a fence behind the cottages,” Susan said.

  “That’s because everything is oriented to the sea. There aren’t even any windows on that side of the cottages,” Ro pointed out.

  “There’s a path back there. It’s how the staff moves between cottages. Didn’t you ever realize that you don’t see them walking around much?”

  “I never even thought about it, but you’re right. The staff is remarkably unobtrusive, isn’t it?”

  “That’s the way we’re told to play it, ladies,” James said, joining them and their conversation. “And gentleman,” he added, seeing Randy.

  “You mean there’s a part of Compass Bay that isn’t public?” Susan asked.

  “Of course there is!” Ro spoke before James could answer. “There’s the path behind the cottages, and a fairly large laundry room back there, too. And the staff lounge, too. Right, James?”

  “You’re a longtime guest, Mrs. Parker. You probably know your way around here better than most of the staff.

  “I see you’ve all chosen your kayaks so, as soon as I find Mrs. Henshaw a life vest that fits, we’ll start on our way, if everyone is ready to go.

  “Now, I think this jacket will be perfect for you, Mrs. Henshaw. May even be the one you used the last time you were out.”

  “It may be. It feels fine,” she added. “James, I was wondering.” She looked over at her companions. “I have a question or two.”

  “You know Lila doesn’t like us talking about the guests, and I can’t afford to get in trouble. Maybe…”

  “What if we talked later? When we can be alone? I just want to ask a few questions about Kathleen.”

  “Later. When we are alone. I want to help you and your friends if I can.”

  “That would be great!”

  Following James’s directions, the paddlers set out.

  “Hey, are we gonna get caught in a thunderstorm?” Randy called out, pointing
toward the horizon where dark clouds were forming.

  “No. The storm comes tonight. We’ll be home long before any rainfall.”

  “Funny how we’ve stopped watching TV or reading the paper or checking out the weather forecast since we’ve been here, isn’t it?” Veronica said, paddling up to Susan.

  “You know, that’s true. I guess part of being on vacation is leaving the world behind.”

  “Which you haven’t been able to do, unfortunately,” Veronica added.

  “No.”

  Veronica looked at Ro, Randy, and James. Stronger paddlers, they were about five hundred feet away. “Ro is one of my oldest and best friends, but I don’t always agree with her.”

  “Of course not.”

  “I think she’s wrong about your friend.”

  “Kathleen?”

  “Yes. Ro thinks she staged this whole abduction scenario to cast doubt on her husband’s guilt.”

  “And you don’t?”

  “I don’t want to upset you. So I didn’t say anything before-not even to Ro-but I think she may be suffering from dementia from her concussion and she may have just wandered off.”

  “Why do you think that?”

  “She looked so distraught when I saw her in her cottage and…”

  “And?” Susan prompted.

  “And I think I may have seen her leave Compass Bay by the employees’ entrance. I’m not sure. It was getting dark and I just saw something out of the corner of my eye. But I went back to my cottage for a second, and I know I saw someone moving between the Gordons’ cottage and the gift shop. It could have been Mrs. Gordon. The person was tall with long hair.”

  Susan pursed her lips. There seemed to be an excessive number of guests at Compass Bay who fit that description. “You could be right. She could be confused and wander off…”

  “I was thinking of amnesia.”

  “Oh. But she knew who she was after she was attacked-” Susan shut her mouth.

  “Attacked? I thought she fell and hit her head on the beach wall.”

  “That’s possible, but it’s also possible that she was hit with something. I mean, Kathleen is in good shape and she doesn’t drink excessively or take drugs. Why would she suddenly fall and hit her head on a perfectly smooth sand beach?”