Sun, Sand, and Suspects (Garden Girls Christian Cozy Mystery Series Book 11)

by Hope Callaghan

  Liz opened her mouth, clamped it shut, marched up the steps and into the camper, slamming the door behind her.

  When she returned moments later, she thrust the cell phone into her sister’s outstretched hand. “You’re going to get us arrested.”

  “Not if I can help it.” Gloria turned the phone on. There were two messages…one from Ruth and the other from Lucy, both of them telling her to call them back.

  She called Ruth first. “What’cha got?”

  “The Swann 735 has an eighty-five foot range. There’s no way you’ll get anywhere near the front or sides of the camper without being caught on camera.”

  Ruth went on. “That baby has night vision, which won’t matter to you since it’s the middle of the day. Your best bet is to try to sneak behind it and stay out of sight. Speaking from past experience, the less movement you make, the better.”

  Gloria glanced at the thick hedge of palm trees and scrub brush behind the camper. “I think we can sneak past it undetected.” She gave Liz a sideways glance. “Maybe.”

  “Thanks Ruth.”

  “Good luck,” Ruth replied. “Oh! One more thing. We miss you ‘round here. This place is boring.”

  Gloria grinned and disconnected the line. She dialed Lucy’s number next.

  “You may be in luck,” Lucy said when she answered.

  “I need some luck.”

  “Do you have access to the back of the camper?”

  Gloria shifted to the side and peered toward the back of Penny’s camper. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure we can get back there.”

  “Cool. Well, there’s no way to pick the lock but this particular Jayco model should have a storage unit in the rear,” Lucy said. “All you need is a small metal nail file to turn the lock.”

  “How will the storage unit get me inside the camper?”

  “There’s an access panel underneath the rear bunk bed. Someone will have to crawl into the storage compartment, push the access panel up and crawl inside. It’s the only way.”

  Gloria groaned and glanced at her cast. There was no way she could do it. She glanced at Liz. There was no way Liz would volunteer.

  Her eyes slid to Frances. “I’ll keep you posted.” Gloria disconnected the line and turned to her sister’s best friend. “Frances…”

  ***

  A palm frond smacked Liz in the face and she squealed. “I can feel creepy crawlies on my skin,” she shrieked, certain that tarantulas were getting ready to nibble on her arm.

  “Shh!” Gloria put an index finger to her lips.

  “Don’t shush me!” Liz said.

  “Ladies,” Frances hissed.

  Frances led the way as the women pushed their way through the thick brush. Visions of slithering snakes and hairy spiders crowded her mind.

  The trio followed a small trail, which helped somewhat. If Gloria had to guess, the path been created by Billy Zortski, a kind of secret path between the campers.

  When they reached the back of Penny’s camper, Gloria stopped. “This is it.”

  Frances swept the thick foliage aside and peered at the back panel of the camper. “Yep.”

  “Can you see the surveillance camera?” Gloria asked.

  “Nope.” Frances shook her head.

  “If I go to jail for this, I am not going on the cruise,” Liz threatened.

  “Promise?” Gloria shot back, only half joking. She focused her attention on the back of the camper.

  Sure enough, the storage compartment Lucy had described was there and her brow began to sweat.

  She pulled a small set of nail files she’d taken from her purse out of her front pocket and stuck the end in the key slot. After a quick turn to the right, the lock popped.

  Gloria turned the small metal handle, opened the door and peered inside. It was larger than it looked. She turned her gaze to Frances. It was wide enough for Frances to squeeze through.

  Gloria leaned forward, stuck her hand inside the compartment and pushed on the top. It shifted. She pressed again, this time harder and it moved.

  “Frances, I need you to crawl inside this compartment, push the access panel aside and sneak into the camper. According to Lucy, you’ll be in the back and under the bunk bed.”

  “But I…” Frances started to protest but Gloria pretended not to hear her.

  “All you have to do is go to the front of the camper. Next to the sink is a hook with a set of keys. Grab the keys and bring them back. That’s all.”

  “That’s all?”

  “We don’t have time to discuss. Now go!”

  Frances shook her head, gave Gloria a dark look and then slid head first into the storage compartment. Using both hands, she pressed on the top of the compartment and the board popped up.

  “Hey! You’re right!” Frances shoved it to the side and quickly disappeared.

  Gloria closed her eyes and prayed. “Please Lord. Protect Frances.”

  A short time later, a set of keys dropped onto the bottom of the compartment and then one leg, followed by a second leg, appeared.

  Frances slithered out of the compartment, carefully replaced the access panel, slid out of the compartment and brushed her hair back. “That was kinda fun.”

  “Good job.” Gloria patted her back. She took Penny’s keys from Frances and shoved them in her back pocket.

  “I still don’t know why you didn’t just ask the McGyvers to open the door and get the keys,” Liz grumbled.

  “Because the McGyvers are still suspects,” Gloria patiently explained.

  Frances closed the storage compartment door and turned the lock. “Let’s get out of here before we get caught.”

  Liz led the way, Gloria hopped along after Liz and Frances brought up the rear.

  Rumble.

  Gloria stopped. “Did you hear that?”

  “Hear what?”

  “A rumble.”

  “Nope.” Liz continued tiptoeing through the dense brush.

  Rumble.

  “I heard it again,” Gloria insisted as she peered into the thick brush.

  “GATOR!” A loud high-pitched voice from somewhere nearby squealed.

  Chapter 21

  Liz screeched.

  Frances clutched the edge of Gloria’s blouse, causing her to lose her balance and nearly knocking her off her crutches.

  Gloria’s eyes darted frantically into the dense wooded area. There was a scraping noise to her right followed by a sudden movement close by. She lowered her gaze and two beady eyes stared straight at her.

  “Alligator!”

  Liz bolted down the path leaving Gloria and Frances in the dust.

  The gator slithered forward to within a couple feet of Frances and Gloria.

  Gloria lifted her right crutch and wacked the gator on top of the head, which only angered him and he lunged forward.

  Desperate to stop the advance, Gloria jabbed the tip of the crutch into the alligator’s eye. Stunned by the assault, the gator stopped.

  “Run,” Gloria told Frances as she continued jabbing the crutch in his eye and he slowly backed away. Something sailed over the top of Gloria’s head and landed with a “thunk” near the gator’s tail.

  The gator turned toward the commotion, giving Gloria a chance to make a run for it. The pain in Gloria’s leg slowed her slightly but the will to survive outweighed the pain and she full out ran through the brush. She didn’t slow down until she reached the edge of the camper deck.

  Liz stood on top of the picnic table. “Up here,” she waved them onto the deck.

  Gloria shuffled to the deck. Her leg throbbed as she climbed the steps and hobbled to her sister. She patted Liz’s arm. “Thanks to your quick thinking and the diversion, the alligator took off.”

  Frances joined Liz on top of the table. “Yeah. What did you throw at him?”

  “I didn’t throw anything,” Liz said.

  Gloria remembered the high-pitched warning. Billy.

  She balanced on her good leg and cupped her hands
to her mouth. “Billy. Billy Zortski!”

  The bushes rustled and out emerged a young Billy Zortski. He cautiously stepped over to the edge of the deck. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Billy! You saved our lives.” Tears burned the back of Gloria’s eyes. Not only had Billy saved their lives by warning them of the alligator, he had actually spoken.

  She slowly eased to the edge of the deck. “Thank you Billy. If not for you the alligator would have eaten us.”

  “Only one of you,” he said. “Probably you,” he added.

  He was right. She was the slowest moving of the three and the easiest target. “You threw something to distract the gator.”

  He nodded. “It was the breakfast sandwich you left for me yesterday.” Billy swiped his sneaker across the loose gravel. “I don’t like sausage.”

  Gloria, thankful to be alive, burst out laughing. “Well. Today, I’m glad you don’t like sausage.”

  Billy grinned. “Bacon is my favorite. The gator is mean.”

  “Was that Rumble?”

  Billy shook his head. “Nope. Rumble. He don’t come on this side. He lives over there.” He pointed toward Liz and Frances’s camper.

  A small orange tiger cat crawled out from under Penny Green’s camper and stalked over to Billy, twisting around his ankles. He began to purr.

  Gloria stared at the cat. “Is that your cat?”

  Billy shook his head. “This is Cleo. He belongs to Mrs. Green.” He bent down and patted the cat’s head. “But he don’t like her anymore. He has been staying with me. Mom said if Mrs. Green doesn’t come back, we can keep him.”

  The sound of gravel on the drive caught Gloria’s attention. It was the rental car. Paul had returned. He climbed out of the car, Gloria’s sweater in his hand.

  If he was surprised Billy was standing next to Gloria, he didn’t show it as he handed Gloria the sweater and nodded at the boy. “Hello.”

  Billy smiled sheepishly. “Hello.”

  “Billy here saved our lives,” Gloria told her husband. “We were almost attacked by an alligator.”

  Liz, feeling braver, stepped off the picnic tabletop.

  Frances followed her down. “Gloria helped. She stunned the gator by poking him in the eye with the tip of her crutch.”

  “The gator came right up to the campsite?” Gators normally didn’t venture far from their habitat, unless provoked or for good reason.

  “Uh. No. We were back in the brush, behind the camper,” Gloria admitted.

  “What…” Paul’s voice trailed off. “Wait. This has something to do with the camper next door.”

  Gloria suddenly remembered the keys in her pocket. She eased past her husband and made her way over to their camper door.

  Gloria patted her pocket and the camper keys.

  When she was sure she had their set of camper keys, she reached in her back pocket for Penny’s keys.

  The odd, long key was identical to the one Ian McGyver had used to open their camper door and it stuck out like a sore thumb.

  Gloria inserted the odd key in their door and turned the lock, opening the door. “Penny Green had a master key. She could get into any camper in this campground, including ours!”

  “She is a bad person,” Billy whispered so softly Gloria almost didn’t catch what he said. She limped to the edge of the deck, to where he was standing. “Did she hurt Mr. Stevenson, Billy?”

  He nodded. “She shot him with a quiet gun.” He lifted his hands, clasped them together, pointed the tips of his index fingers and fired an imaginary shot. “Boom. Right in the head. Over there.” He made a motion toward the back of the camper.

  Paul stood next to the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You’ll need to tell the authorities what you saw.”

  “I-I know. She tried to catch me but I’m too fast for her,” he explained.

  Gloria inched backward until she was near the picnic table bench and then eased onto the seat. All of the pieces were beginning to fall into place.

  She remembered how the burned out kitchen cabinets had been empty, as if someone had cleaned them out before the fire…perhaps knowing the place would torch like tinder. But that someone hadn’t known the cabinets would remain intact or that anyone would notice the contents had been removed.

  Had Penny desperately needed cash so she burned her own place to the ground and then tried to frame the McGyvers? Motive and opportunity.

  “It still doesn’t explain who killed Harry Fisk.” Gloria rubbed her brow.

  “Thunder killed Mr. Fisk,” Billy said.

  “Thunder?”

  “The mean alligator,” Billy replied. “He sounds like thunder. There’s Rumble and Thunder.”

  Liz’s mouth dropped open. “You mean there’s more than one alligator lurking around here?”

  Billy nodded solemnly. “Thunder killed Mr. Fisk when he chased me to the swamp. I’m fast but Mr. Fisk, he was too slow.”

  “Why was he chasing you, Billy?”

  “Because Mrs. Green told him I took his gun. I heard her through the window. But I didn’t. Mrs. Green stole the keys and took the gun.”

  Penny Green was trying to place the blame on Billy, probably not only for the stolen guns but for the fire.

  This was why Fisk turned Billy and his parents into authorities.

  Penny shifted all the blame on an innocent young boy who couldn’t…wouldn’t defend himself.

  Gloria remembered Penny Green chasing Billy out of her camper the other day. “Is that why you were in Mrs. Green’s camper the other day?”

  “She shot Mr. Stevenson. She took his keys. He knew.”

  Keith Stevenson was onto Penny Green. Penny had somehow convinced the McGyvers to fire Keith Stevenson. When he returned to the campground to confront her, she killed him with Fisk’s gun and tried to make it look like a suicide.

  Maybe authorities were onto Penny so she tried to kill herself. What a disturbed woman!

  “I’ll drive to the front to talk to the McGyvers and call the police.” Paul climbed into the car and backed out of the drive.

  Gloria patted the seat next to her. “Have a seat Billy. You’re a hero today! You saved our lives.” She pointed to Liz and Frances.

  Billy backed up to the bench and plopped down on the edge. “Thunder is mean. Rumble stays on the other side but Thunder likes your camper.”

  The thought of a large, vicious, killer gator lurking in the bushes caused Gloria to shiver. She was glad they were leaving soon.

  “Are you hungry?” Frances asked. “I can fix you a sandwich.”

  Billy nodded.

  “I have plenty of food inside,” Gloria told her.

  Frances disappeared inside the camper. Liz followed her in and closed the door behind her.

  It was just Gloria and Billy at the picnic table. “You’re a brave young man, Billy. God has special plans for you,” she told him.

  Billy lowered his gaze and stared at his shoes.

  “I’m sure your grandfather would be proud of you,” she whispered.

  A tear trickled down Billy’s face and he quickly swiped it away with the back of his hand.

  “I killed him on accident,” Billy whispered back. “I opened the window and a bee flew in. Grandpa was trying to get it out when the car crashed.”

  Gloria shifted closer and lightly put an arm around his shoulders. “You didn’t put the bee in the car, Billy.”

  Gloria lifted her gaze and stared ahead, searching for the right words to assure the young boy that he hadn’t killed his beloved grandfather. She couldn’t imagine the weight his young shoulders were carrying as he continued to blame himself for the death.

  “God needed your grandpa, Billy. He is in heaven right now, smiling down. So proud that you saved me and my sister and Frances.”

  “I wish I could see him. I miss him so much.”

  Tears burned Gloria’s eyes and her heart ached. Dear God. Give me the right words to say. John 14:2 popped into Gloria’s head:


  “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” (KJV)

  “Do you believe your grandfather is in heaven and you’re going to see him again someday?”

  “When I was little, Grandpa took me to Sunday school.”

  “Do you have a Bible?”

  He shook his head.

  “Would you like me to give you a Bible so you can read about Jesus?”

  He nodded.

  Liz must have heard the conversation through the open kitchen window because she materialized moments later, Gloria’s well-worn Bible in hand. She turned it open to John 14:2 and showed him the Bible verse about heaven.

  He eagerly listened and nodded his head a couple times.

  Paul, followed by the McGyvers, swarmed the campsite and it became a buzz of activity. The police and Billy’s parents arrived a short time later.

  Gloria hoped Billy wouldn’t be overwhelmed but he was calm and answered all of the questions the police, his parents and the McGyvers asked.

  Gloria vowed that when she got near a Christian bookstore, she was going to buy Billy a youth Bible, one that would be easy for him to understand.

  Gloria dropped the set of keys in the palm of Ian McGyver’s hand. “These keys, along with the campground’s master keys, were in Penny Green’s camper.”

  “How did you…”

  Paul shook his head. “You don’t want to know how she got it. Even I don’t want to know how she got it.”

  Bruce, Linda and Billy Zortski stepped over to Gloria, who was trying to stay out of the way. “Thank you for giving our son back to us,” Bruce Zortski told Gloria. “I don’t know how you did it, but thank you.”

  Gloria smiled. Her eyes met Billy’s. “Billy saved my life.” She pointed to the Bible he was holding. “I gave Billy my Bible and am going to send him a youth Bible as soon as I am able.”

  “My wife and I were talking. In fact, a few days ago we talked about trying a Bible church just down the road.”

  Paul and Gloria’s campsite cleared out as fast as it filled up.

  Liz and Frances had gone across the street to finish loading Liz’s car and now it was just the two of them.

  Gloria hobbled over and watched as Liz shoved two pillows and a comforter in the back seat. The back was crammed full. “Wow, you brought everything but the kitchen sink.”