Island Intrigue

by Wendy Howell Mills

  “I’m sorry Grandma’s been saying stuff about your family,” Terry said. “I know it’s not true what she’s saying, I don’t care if it’s true or not, anyhow. Still want to meet me at the bridge tomorrow to walk to school?” His sincerity was so palpable that Sabrina wanted to hug him.

  “Yeah,” Sid said, as if it didn’t matter to him one way or another. “I can do that. Long’s you know my family didn’t do nothing to your uncle.” He paused a moment. “I’m sorry about him, okay?” He lunged forward and tapped Terry on the chest yelling, “you’re it!” and ran toward the driveway.

  Terry laughed and chased after his friend.

  “Don’t forget to learn your lines! And don’t forget your school homework!” Sabrina called after them, but they were too far up the driveway to hear her.

  She smiled and went around the side of the house. The police were packing up.

  “All finished?”

  “Yes’m,” one of the young man answered. “Thank you for the coffee and cookies. That’s a pretty cool bird you got.”

  “I hope we haven’t been too much of an imposition,” Jimmy McCall said. “We’re pretty much done, though someone might come by tomorrow.” He looked tired, his full face sloppily shaved and haggard. His uniform had popped a button over his large stomach.

  “No problem, Jimmy.” Sabrina waved to the young policemen as they climbed into their cars and drove off in a cloud of dust.

  Jimmy watched them go with troubled eyes and then turned back to Sabrina.

  “I know Gina Tozer took your statement, but are you sure you didn’t see anything unusual yesterday?”

  Sabrina thought back. “No, everything seemed normal when I got home, except for Rolo’s note, of course. But I had a lot to do, preparing for the kids and then getting ready to go to the rally. I didn’t notice anything.”

  “And when you spoke to Rolo he didn’t mention anything about a ‘treasure tree’?”

  Sabrina shook her head, “As I told Officer Tozer, Rolo and I mostly talked about the roses. He did refer to something taking place the next day, something about ‘it will all be over tomorrow.’” She looked startled. “You don’t think…?”

  “No, it wasn’t suicide,” Jimmy said grimly.

  “I really didn’t know what he was talking about, though he obviously was upset. I need to tell you something, Jimmy…I was at Lighthouse Beach all day yesterday and I never saw Brad. Maybe I somehow missed him, but—”

  “No, you didn’t. We already know he wasn’t there, Miss Dunsweeney. I appreciate your candor. I’m a little concerned about you, actually. I’m going to make sure everybody knows that you didn’t see anything. Since we know Rolo was killed between two and three-thirty, you might have just missed the killer. Do you understand what I’m saying?”

  “And you think—that the killer might think I saw him? And come after me?” Sabrina felt cold.

  “I’m not saying that,” Jimmy said. “I’m just saying be careful. Use common sense. Lock your doors, don’t walk around alone at night. I’m going to drive by tonight. I don’t anticipate any problems, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”

  “All right,” Sabrina said. “I understand. Thank you for the warning.”

  Jimmy raised a weary hand in farewell and slid behind the wheel of his police car.

  Sabrina watched as he drove away and turned to see Gray and Grayer sitting on the top step, watching her with tails twitching.

  “I bet you’re hungry,” she said. “So am I, actually. That salmon spread seems like a long time ago.” The cats pricked their ears and waved their tails as she climbed the steps. She retrieved their cat food inside and poured some in their bowl.

  Then she closed the door behind her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t lock it.

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Sabrina was humming as she left the house the next day. Calvin, perched on her shoulder, was humming along with her. She was glad that he seemed to have gotten over his shock. He still seemed more needy than usual, so she had decided to take him with her into town.

  The night had passed without incident and, after a few productive phone calls, she went to bed and slept the sleep of the righteous. She felt well-rested and eager this morning, and it was a far-cry from the hopelessness she’d been feeling every morning for the past few years.

  The first person she wanted to talk to was Nettie, and then she planned to go see if Lima had heard anything new. She had a couple of ideas floating around…

  She also needed to look for a Halloween costume. She had several outfits at home in Cincinnati—she always dressed up for Halloween, and encouraged her kids to dress up too, reasoning any outlet for creativity was good—but she hadn’t thought to bring them. She was a little nostalgic about missing Halloween in Cincinnati, but it sounded as if the island threw quite a party, and she was looking forward to it.

  When she walked through Waver Town, several people actually returned her enthusiastic waves and hearty “hellos,” though they turned in surprise as Calvin added his chirping greeting to Sabrina’s.

  The morning rush was just finishing up at Nettie’s, but she still had flaky, cinnamony apple Danishes left. Sabrina sat at one of the tiny tables with that and a cup of coffee. She usually didn’t drink coffee, but Danishes and coffee seemed to go hand in hand.

  Nettie was dressed in a brilliant green robe, the satiny fabric dwarfing her small frame.

  “Green cheers me up,” Nettie confided, as she took the seat opposite Sabrina. Her creped face sagged with weariness.

  “It’s a beautiful color.” Sabrina fed Calvin a crumb.

  “They’re going to let Dock come home tomorrow. They say he’s already forgotten finding Rolo’s body.”

  “Perhaps that’s a mercy.”

  “I guess so. I try to be positive, but sometimes it’s so hard. If only Rolo would’ve stayed in Oregon, where he would have been safe, none of this would have ever happened. At least they don’t think Dock killed Rolo anymore. Thanks to you. I appreciate your help Sabrina, I really do. I think that maybe you’re my guardian angel, come to me in my time of need.”

  Sabrina shook her head, but decided not to dispute the guardian angel notion. Nettie was going to believe what she wanted to believe, and if the belief made her feel better, then fine.

  “I’m trying to find out what secret Rolo knew about the Tittletotts. I also think it’s important to find out who left the note for Rolo under your door. Do you happen to know where the ‘treasure tree’ might be?”

  Nettie frowned. “Jimmy asked me that yesterday. He said they found a note on Rolo—it has to be the same one I passed on to him, doesn’t it?—but I don’t know where the ‘treasure tree’ is. Probably has something to do with that old pirate, but…I don’t know. Here’s Thierry, maybe he knows.”

  Thierry came into the shop and went behind the counter to help himself to a muffin.

  “What do you want, Ma?” he asked, his mouth full. He wore a baseball cap over his unruly black hair and a stained T-shirt. He looked like a spoiled, sulky child with stubbly cheeks.

  “Do you know where the treasure tree is? Somebody sent Rolo a note asking him to meet there. Does that sound familiar?”

  “What, does Nosy Neighbor want to know?” He waved his muffin at Sabrina.

  “Thierry, she’s trying to help us.” There was an undercurrent of weariness in her voice, the tone of a woman who wished her child would fly out of the nest already.

  Thierry grabbed another muffin and stuffed it into his mouth. “Got to get to work. Doing construction over in Lighthouse Estates today.”

  “Not working with Bradford Tittletott anymore?” Nettie asked, momentarily distracted. She couldn’t help but sound pleased.

  “Nah, he’s gone off his rocker. ‘Bout decided he doesn’t want to be president anymore. Strangest thing I ever heard.” A raspberry smear stretched across his cheek, and Nettie made unobtrusive wiping motions with her hand. He ignored her. “The Tittletotts
are all uppity, every one of them.”

  “Have you ever heard of the treasure tree?” Nettie asked, returning to the previous subject.

  Thierry chewed for a long moment and then shrugged. “Yeah, I have. Not in a long time, though.” He opened the refrigerator and took out a gallon jug of milk.

  “Don’t you dare drink out of the—” Nettie began.

  He took a long swig, straight from the container.

  “Where is it, Thierry?” Sabrina asked after he had put the milk back.

  “We used to hang out there when we were kids, drink some beer, smoke a coupla ciggies.”

  “Who did?”

  Thierry gave her a disgusted look. “All of us. Me and Rolo, Virginia and Gary and Brad. Rolo was the one who found the tree. He got real weird when he turned eighteen and started wearing that stupid sword around. We use to go there at night and plan stunts, like going to the old pier and switching all the boats around so everybody had to run around looking for their boats in the morning, and painting Ernie Tubb’s house bright yellow one night. Had a lot of fun.”

  “All of you knew the tree by that name?” Sabrina asked.

  “That’s what we called it.”

  Sabrina took a sip of her coffee to hide her agitation. Why did Virginia lie to her about the tree? And it couldn’t be coincidence that the five people who knew about the treasure tree were the five children of the “rat pack” who had interested Lora Wrightly the last days of her life.

  “You really should tell the police about the tree,” Sabrina said.

  “Shoot, I’m not telling the police anything. They’re smart ol’ boys, they can figure out who chopped up my brother on their own.”

  “Thierry!”

  “Well, if you won’t tell the police where the tree is, can you tell me?” Sabrina asked.

  “I can’t tell you, hafta show you. It’s deep in the swamp.” His eyes gleamed as he took in her white slacks and tennis shoes and her pale blue shirt.

  “You take Miss Sabrina right now and show her that tree,” Nettie said, standing up and glaring up at her son.

  “Okay. I don’t want to go to work anyhow.”

  Sabrina knew he was giving in too easily, but she was too excited about the prospect of finding the treasure tree to think about it much.

  Until she was knee deep in dank, smelly marsh mud.

  ***

  Calvin had his little claws dug deep into the back of her neck, and Sabrina was too busy keeping tree branches from slapping into her face and keeping up with Thierry to try to loosen his grip. Thierry was almost out of sight and Sabrina sighed as she tried to slog through the mud faster.

  They had entered the marsh behind Nettie’s shop and followed a circuitous path through thick undergrowth, mud and trees. The rich, salty mud smell was almost overwhelming and tiny no-see-ums buzzed around her face. Sabrina was covered with the thick, black mud, and tired, but she refused to give up.

  “Who do you think killed your brother?” she called to Thierry. He liked to talk, she had discovered. And when he talked, he slowed down. He was one of those people who was erroneously convinced he was Einstein reincarnated and everybody else had the IQ of a toilet plunger.

  “I know who did it.” Thierry slowed and looked over his shoulder at Sabrina. “Anybody with a lick of sense can see it.”

  “I guess I haven’t been licked recently. Who then?” Sabrina wiped sweat out of her eyes, and in the process swiped a streak of mud across her cheek. She saw a mosquito the size of a humming bird feasting on her arm and swatted at it.

  “Nah, I think I’ll keep it to myself for now. Wouldn’t want you to go and tell the police and take all the credit. I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thierry, better let the police handle it.”

  Thierry shrugged and kept walking.

  “Did you see Rolo over the past week? Did you know he was in town?”

  Thierry slowed again. “I knew Ma was acting kinda strange but no, I didn’t know he was in town until…” He trailed off.

  “Until Dock found his body?”

  “Whatever.” Thierry shrugged.

  After that, Sabrina saved her breath for dragging her feet through the sucking mud, too tired to even care as a snake slithered across the trail in front of her. Calvin was in shock, chattering incoherently against her ear as he held on for dear life. After about forty-five minutes, Thierry disappeared into a stand of trees and Sabrina plunged in after him.

  When she caught up with him, he was standing in a small clearing under a great, golden oak tree with limbs twisted in fantastical shapes.

  “The wind does it.” Thierry said. “Blows the tree limbs into such weird shapes.”

  Sabrina looked up at the tree. It was ancient and beautiful, and she could well believe that it might have stood in this spot for hundreds of years.

  “Well, here it is, the famous treasure tree. Happy now?” Thierry leaned one shoulder up against the massive trunk and watched Sabrina as she walked around.

  The grass grew tall in the clearing, turning amber in the slight chill of the fall sun, and half obscuring the old leather bench seats where Sabrina could envision the teenage rat pack sitting around a fire, plotting their next exploit. Ancient beer cans and trash littered the clearing, and it looked as if an animal, a raccoon or perhaps a possum, had been digging for worms or some other tasty treat.

  Near the tree the grass was flattened and fresh cigarette butts littered the ground. Someone had been here recently.

  “Probably just kids,” Thierry said, following her eyes. If there had been footprints, they’d been washed away by the rain the night before.

  “Maybe.” She looked Thierry right in the eye. “When was the last time you were here?”

  “What, you think I was the one who met Rolo and killed him? I haven’t even thought about this tree since Rolo left. Me and him had some good times growing up, goin’ fishing and playing hide and seek in the marsh. That was before he started hanging around with Brad and Virginia more than me. And then he went and pulled a Houdini. After that, none of them had much to do with me. Virginia and Brad went off to college, and it was just me and Gary, and we never got along all that well anyway. He’s a sissy boy.”

  Sabrina walked around the clearing, the tall nettles pulling at her mud-splattered pants. Calvin was making distressed little noises as he gazed around.

  “Why did Rolo steal that stuff? Do you have any idea why he would do something like that?” Sabrina asked. “I can’t help but think that what happened fifteen years ago has some bearing on what has happened to Rolo.”

  “You think Rolo didn’t steal that stuff? He did, all right, I can tell you. I saw him sneak out of the house in the middle of the night, and I saw him come back with an old burlap sack. The next day Jimmy McCall found the silver in the sack, stuffed in the back of Rolo’s closet. Rolo ran like a rabbit.” Thierry smiled nastily, but Sabrina sensed an undercurrent of pain masked by his bravado. “I figured Rolo and Brad and Virginia had something planned, they were always trying to hide from me and Gary, and do stuff on their own.”

  “Was Virginia dating either one of them?”

  Thierry shrugged. “She was a regular tease. Even with me and Gary, though not so much with us because we were younger. I think she liked having all of us guys falling over her. But she and Rolo were close, real close.”

  Sabrina shook her head and looked around again at the clearing. Did Rolo meet someone here? The trampled grass and cigarette butts seemed to imply that someone had been here within the last couple of days, and considering the note that Rolo had in his pocket when he died…Rolo hadn’t smoked during their conversation, but she remembered smelling stale cigarette smoke when he had handed her the roses. Did Rolo stand under this tree and talk to someone, long enough for six or seven butts to accumulate? Who was he talking to? Most likely the person who sent the note, Sabrina surmised, which could have been any one of the rat pack. They all knew about the treasure tree, if Thi
erry was telling the truth. Could Virginia have forgotten?

  What stumped her was why the killer, after luring Rolo by note to this perfect killing spot, had followed Rolo to Sabrina’s rental house to kill him. Why not kill him here, where it was unlikely that anyone would ever find his body?

  “I’m ready to go.” Thierry shifted back and forth on his heels. He’d smoked a cigarette while they talked, and Sabrina saw that it was a different brand from the butts that littered the ground.

  “That’s fine.” There was nothing more to learn here. Instead of answering questions, the trip to the treasure tree only added to the list.

  Sabrina was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn’t notice Thierry had led her down a different path. She was astonished when less than ten minutes later they emerged on the beach close to her house.

  “It took us almost an hour to get to the tree,” Sabrina said, turning to look at Thierry accusingly. “And less than ten minutes to get back?”

  Thierry shrugged. “I wanted to see if you could keep up.”

  He sauntered away toward her house and the road, and Sabrina watched him, fuming. Calvin woke up and began squawking and Sabrina rubbed his head.

  “What a jerk,” she muttered, and the bird chirped his agreement.

  Chapter Twenty-two

  “Why if it isn’t Miss Sabrina,” Lima said as she climbed the steps and sat in the rocking chair beside him. She was glad to sit down. The hike through the swamp this morning had worn her out.

  “Hello Lima.” Sabrina nodded at the several other people gathered on the porch. They stared at her, but soon ignored her presence and turned back to the subject of murder.

  “It warse the pirate, I’m tellin’ you,” one emaciated gent proclaimed in an accent so thick Sabrina could barely follow him. “Sure as a devil’s blow on Mitchell’s Day, old Walk-the-Plank was walkin’ the marsh like he does every night and came upon poor Rolo and tore him limb from limb. Didn’t have no chance.”

  There were sounds of enthusiastic agreement, and Sabrina herself had to repress a chill as something (it was hard to distinguish amusement from terror in this instance) rolled up her spine. Someone had put a stop payment on the town’s reality check, it was clear.