by Blythe Baker
In the living room, I noticed that Liam had the camera set up on the windowsill again.
Page sat in the armchair next to Blaire, and I stood in the doorway as Shep began to speak.
“This is Sergeant Jim Anderson and Officer Betty Marcuzzi. They’re helping out with the investigation. I’m assuming that the boy has not been located?”
Everybody nodded.
“Right,” he continued. “I’ll organize more search groups in the morning, but the storms are going to keep us all inside for tonight. Hopefully, the rain will get him to come back on his own.”
“So, you think he’s just hiding?” Ray asked.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” Shep said, “but that’s what I’m hoping.”
“When will you hear back about the autopsy?” I asked.
“We’ll have preliminary results some time tomorrow afternoon,” Sgt. Anderson said, glancing around at each of us suspiciously.
“Marcuzzi and I will begin interviewing everyone individually while Sgt. Anderson searches the nanny’s room,” Shep said. “We’ll want to use the dining room. Will that be okay?”
I nodded.
“Great. Piper, show Anderson upstairs to the boy’s room. We’ll start out with the father. Mr. Preston?” Shep led Ray and the officer into the dining room while Anderson followed me up the stairs.
“They were staying in here,” I said, opening the door.
“Wow,” he said. “What a mess!”
“We cleaned it this morning,” I said defensively. “Jacob had to have done this when they came back. He’s…kind of a whirlwind.”
“What do you mean?” The officer pulled on plastic gloves and began looking through Ms. Greenaway’s possessions.
“Yesterday, he destroyed the living room in less than thirty minutes. Cushions everywhere, the curtains all askew…he’s broken half a dozen knick-knacks since he arrived, and he tried to steal Mrs. Harris’s marbles.” I gave a half-hearted laugh, thinking about Mrs. Harris and her marbles.
“Mrs. Harris?” he glanced up at me questioningly before returning his attention to the bag he was searching.
“Oh, she’s the old lady who lives upstairs. She’s hardly left the B&B in the past decade, as far as I can tell. She’s a little senile, but she wouldn’t hurt a soul.” Glad that he hadn’t asked me to leave, I leaned against the wall to watch him search. He went over to Jacob’s things and began looking.
“What else can you tell me?”
“About Jacob?”
He nodded.
“Not much. Seems like a spoiled rich kid with not enough supervision, attention, or boundaries. He was rude to the nanny a few times that I heard. It doesn’t seem like his parents take much notice of him.”
He pulled out the tablet and tried to turn it on. “We’ll have to get the code,” he said, setting the device on the bed. “What about the nanny?” He looked over at me before returning to his search.
“Mean,” I said. “She got into it with pretty much everyone except Liam, I guess. She was yelling at the girls across the hall for being too noisy a couple of nights ago, and she looked ready to tackle Mrs. Harris over those silly marbles.”
“There are other guests across the hall? Where are they?” Anderson picked up the tablet and walked toward me.
“Huh, I don’t know,” I said. “I’d forgotten about them in all the chaos, to tell you the truth. They’re college kids here to watch the documentary people, so they’re usually gone all day. I haven’t seen them since breakfast. Liam would be able to tell you where besides the café they were filming today.”
He nodded, and we headed downstairs. He held up the tablet when we entered the living room. “Do you have the code to this?” he asked Ray. Elizabeth must have gone in to talk with Shep and Marcuzzi.
Ray shrugged. “Why would I know someone’s tablet code?”
“That isn’t Jacob’s tablet?” Blaire cut in, sitting forward in interest. I almost hadn’t noticed her in a chair in the corner.
Ray shook his head.
“It was in his bag. In his room,” said the officer, Anderson.
Ray’s face puckered in confusion.
After a moment, I gasped. “Allison couldn’t find her tablet,” I said. “One of the girls across the hall,” I explained to Anderson. “She was complaining yesterday morning that she had misplaced it. I bet Jacob took it.”
“My son is not a thief!” Ray stood up in protest.
“He also took Mrs. Harris’s marbles,” I told him. Glancing at Liam who was still sitting quietly by, I remembered his missing bag. “Did you see a red camera bag when you were searching?” I asked Anderson.
“Maybe in the closet?” he suggested.
I ran upstairs to check. Sure enough, a red bag with the initials “LPG” embroidered in black was buried under more of Jacob’s clothes.
I brought it out, hiding it behind my back. Downstairs, I looked at Liam. “What’s your full name?” I asked.
“Liam Pierre Gallagher,” he said, and I held up the bag for everyone to see the embroidered initials.
“I don’t know how that got into his room, but I can assure you that my son didn’t take it. He’s not a thief!” Ray was livid.
“He is a thief, dear,” Elizabeth said as she entered. “He steals all the time. Why do you think he’s gone through so many nannies over the years?”
“Well,” Ray huffed, dropping back onto the sofa. “Still, what does this have to do with his disappearance?”
“Maybe nothing,” Shep said from the doorway. “But it’s information. You never know what piece of information will help us fill in all of the blanks.”
Anderson nodded. I handed Liam his bag as he followed Shep into the dining room. Anderson asked Page for a cup of tea, following her into the kitchen to question her.
I took Page’s seat, closing my eyes and loosening up my neck for a moment before glancing around. Ray was tapping his finger nervously on his leg while his wife rested her eyes. There were gaps on the shelves where the broken statues used to sit, but everything else seemed to be in order.
I glanced over, and Blaire was staring at me wide-eyed, trying to get my attention. She looked pointedly at the floor behind the sofa and then back at me. A pile of knitting looked as if it had been dropped there as someone left in a hurry. “Ms. Greenaway,” Blaire mouthed at me, raising her eyebrows significantly.
The kitchen door opened, and Page and Anderson emerged.
“I think it would be okay for the two of you to go on up to your room,” Anderson said to the Prestons. “Just don’t leave the island.”
“We wouldn’t leave without our son,” Elizabeth promised, standing.
“Of course,” he said. “Young lady, could I pull you away for a few minutes?” he asked Blaire, who nodded and followed him.
As soon as the door closed, I leapt out of my chair and pulled Ms. Greenaway’s knitting from where it had fallen. A piece of paper fluttered out, and I shoved it into my pocket as I heard Shep’s voice approaching. I lifted the knitting to show him as he excused Liam for the night. Both men came into the living room, while Marcuzzi stayed in the doorway.
“What’s that?” Shep asked.
“Knitting,” I said. “Ms. Greenaway was probably working on it when she and Jacob came back this morning.”
“And you found it where?”
I showed him where I had pulled it from.
“It’s all very odd, isn’t it?” he sat, watching as I deposited the knitting on the table. “Something had to have been urgent for her to jump up and leave her work like that.”
“I agree,” I said, taking my seat. “But what could it have been?”
We all sat quietly until Blaire and Anderson returned from the kitchen, and the police got up to go.
“We’ll be back at breakfast to interview the rest of your guests and Mrs. Harris,” Anderson told me. “We’ll also want to pack up Ms. Greenaway’s belongings, so you need to keep every
one out of there.”
I nodded. “I’ll let the other guests know so they don’t run off before you get here tomorrow.”
Liam set his camera bag next to the camera and sat on one of the sofas while Shep led Anderson and Marcuzzi out.
After they were gone, Page went to make hot chocolate and then joined Blaire, Liam, and me in the living room.
“You showed them the knitting?” Blaire asked, and I remembered the paper.
“Oh!” I said, pulling it out of my pocket. “This was with it.”
“You hid it from the police?” she asked in surprise.
“I’ll give it to them in the morning,” I said. “I didn’t want them to take it before we could look at it.” I straightened the paper out and spread it on the table. It was a list:
Bathe Jacob
Post office
General Store
Write updates
“It must be hers,” Page said. “The handwriting is all pointy and sharp, like her personality.”
“We don’t know that’s what her handwriting looks like.” I frowned. “Don’t be so judgmental, Page.”
“It says, Bathe Jacob,” Blaire pointed out. “She’s the only one who was taking care of the kid.”
“Yeah, but what was she getting at the store?” I asked. “Did you see any bags or receipts in her room?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Blaire said, her face scrunched in concentration.
“Why were you in her room?” Liam asked curiously.
“We clean all the rooms,” I said quickly. “Haven’t you noticed the fresh sheets and towels?”
“Yes, but you clean the rooms in the morning,” Liam pointed out. “That would have been at the same time that Ms. Greenaway was at the store, right?”
“I forgot to take out their trash,” Blaire said. “I went back to take care of it when I was sure that they were gone. Jacob had trashed the place, so I called Piper to complain.”
Liam seemed to accept that explanation, so we drank our hot chocolate and continued chatting. Liam and Blaire told us about how their searches went, and I told them about going up in the lighthouse. We sat and discussed the day’s events until Erica and Allison came in the front door. It was nearly midnight. The other college kids had already come in and wondered off to their rooms hours ago.
“Allison, Erica!” I called before the girls could head upstairs. They joined us in the living room. “Is this your tablet?” I asked, pointing at the device.
“You found it!” Allison said gratefully. “Where was it?”
“It seems Jacob had taken it,” I told them. “It was in his bag.”
“That little brat—” Erica began.
“Is missing,” Page said.
“What?” Both girls looked startled.
“And Ms. Greenaway is dead,” Blaire added.
“Wow,” Allison said. “What happened?”
“It’s a long story,” I said. “Maybe it’s best we all talk about it in the morning.”
“What about the little boy?” Erica asked, looking concerned. “Do they know what happened to him?”
“No,” I told her. “Like we said, he’s missing. The police will want to talk to all the guests in the morning, so don’t leave right after breakfast.”
I ushered them toward the stairs.
“Why do they want to talk to us?” Erica stopped in the doorway.
“You might know something that’s helpful,” Page explained. “They talked to everyone else tonight. Just you two and the other college kids were out.”
“All right,” Erica said, and the girls went up to bed.
Liam said goodnight as well, and I realized when he went over to get his camera that he had been recording the whole time. I would have to ask him not to say anything to Shep or the others about the note I had found.
Page and I sat quietly for a few minutes before drifting apart toward our beds. I snuggled in with Jasper and fell into a deep sleep, exhausted from the long, emotionally draining day.
Chapter 10
I woke the next morning filled with purpose. I was going to retrace Ms. Greenaway’s steps and talk to everyone she encountered. She had written a trip to the post office on her to-do list. I couldn’t go there because today was a Sunday, but I could do the next best thing and that was to talk to Ed Turner, the postman. I had an idea I would find him at church later.
After Jasper’s walk, I went out to help in the dining room. Shep had arrived early as promised, and after interviewing the rest of the B&B guests, he had hung around to have breakfast. I went over to the table he was sharing with Mrs. Harris and let him know I wanted to talk to him when he was finished. Then I checked in with Erica, Allison, and the other two college-age girls whose names I kept forgetting. I also cleaned up the dishes Ray and Elizabeth left behind. They were apparently upstairs watching the two mainland police officers box up the contents of their son’s room.
Liam came in, and I grabbed a cup of coffee and joined him while he ate. The crew had decided to spend the day helping search for Jacob and filming the events, and he was eager to get back out there. He explained as he ate quickly that the crew thought that the death and missing child storyline could be worked into the documentary in a way that illustrated the sense of community on the island. He finished his meal in short order, standing to leave at about the same time as Shep. I waved goodbye to Liam and joined Shep in the living room.
“Mrs. Harris is in rare form this morning,” he said in greeting.
“Dark clouds? Evil spirits?” I paused with a smile. “Ghosts?”
Shep chuckled. “Spot on. How long has that been going on?”
“It got worse when Jacob stole her marbles.” I pulled the list out of my pocket and handed it to him. “We found this last night. It fell out of Ms. Greenaway’s knitting when I was moving it out of the way.”
Shep unfolded the paper, giving me a look that said he knew I wasn’t telling him everything. “What’s this?”
“I guess it’s her to-do list,” I said with a shrug.
“What do you think ‘Write updates’ means?” he asked.
“I have no idea,” I said.
“Piper.” Shep’s voice held a warning.
“Yeah, Shep?” I could sound really innocent when I wanted to.
“Don’t you go harassing people about this. I don’t often say this but I want you to leave the investigating to the police this time.”
“Shep, I wouldn’t have the first idea how to investigate anything,” I said, wide-eyed. “I was just going to run some errands and go to church before joining the search for Jacob.”
“As long as that’s all you’re doing.” He gave me a long stare. Apparently satisfied with what he saw, he nodded and headed for the stairs. “All the same, after we finish putting together the boy’s things, I’ll have a couple hours to kill. Think I’ll come along and sit with you at church.”
“Anything you say, Shep,” I said, planning to slip into the building at the last minute and sit in the back.
“I’ll be right up front, so you know where to find me,” he called from the top of the steps.
I grinned and let Page know where I was going. She gave a grumpy wave, not looking up from the stack of dishes.
I drove to the general store, threw a few things in a basket, and got into Katie’s check-out line. Not only did Katie work pretty much every day, she was an accomplished gossip. It wouldn’t take much to get her talking. She finished with the man in front of me and greeted me with a big smile. Her lipstick was bright pink and matched her nails today, I noticed.
“Oh, my goodness,” she began. “Can you believe all this business with the dead lady and missing kid?”
I shook my head.
“It’s just too terrible!” she rushed on. “Do you know, she came in here yesterday?”
“Nooo!” I said, hoping that my voice sounded adequately astonished.
“Yes! And I was her checker! Can you imagine?”
Actually, I could, but I just smiled to encourage her to keep talking.
“Oh, she was in quite the state, too,” Katie said. “Huffing and puffing, just as angry as can be!”
“Really?” I asked. “About what?”
“Apparently, she went to the post office before coming here. Do you know, I’ve been waiting for that Ed Turner to ‘go postal,’ as they say, for years? Nobody can really be as good and nice as he likes to act, can they? Well, he hasn’t snapped, but she sure seemed intent on pushing him over the edge. I hate to speak ill of the dead, but that woman was not a pleasant person.” She shook her head in disgust.
She paused to take a breath, so I asked while I could, “Did she say what happened?”
“Uh—not that I recall, actually. I just remember hearing Ed’s name and something about inefficiency and bureaucracy, and then she started lecturing the boy—the one who’s missing—because he broke those.” She pointed to a basket holding three little broken garden decorations. Her eyes teared up a bit. “I didn’t realize when they were here that she would soon be dead, and he would be missing. Can you imagine? What if I could have done something to prevent it? Do you think they blame me?”
“Of course not, Katie. There was no way any of us could have known what would happen. I’m sure seeing your smiling face improved her last hours.” I smiled and slipped my purchases into my shoulder bag. “I really have to get to church, Katie, but it’s been nice chatting with you!”
Katie shifted her attention to the next customer as I returned my basket and left the store.
Katie’s confirmation that Ms. Greenaway had gone to the post office before dying only increased my determination to track down the postman. I hurried over to the church, hoping that I could sneak in without Shep noticing me. Unfortunately, he was waiting for me just inside the door.
“Right on time,” he said, glancing down at his watch. “Have a nice chat with Katie?”
“How did you—” I stopped as he raised his eyebrow with a smirk.
“We’d better sit before the service starts,” Shep said, gesturing toward a couple of open seats.