Charm & Deception

by Stephanie Damore

  After the flyers were handed out, the groups paired off lickety-split. In two seconds, Mrs. J. was the last person standing. That wasn’t a surprise given her recent over-the-top attitude.

  “We gonna do this, Sug’?” she asked, strolling over to me. I saw for the first time that Mrs. J. had dressed for the occasion. Black shirt and camo army pants, complete with a magnifying glass tucked in the cargo pocket. Her sneakers had been jazzed up with rhinestones to read P.I. on the front. Again I had to fight the urge to roll my eyes.

  “Where are we headed?” I asked Mrs. J.

  Across the parking lot, people had set off on foot and in their cars, headed out to their assigned locations. Mrs. J. scrolled down the list to see where we should go. “This is a bunch of hogwash,” she said after reaching the end. “I was watching one of them true crime shows on cable TV. They said we need to get ourselves some D. N. A.” Mrs. J. said each letter separately.

  I tried not to laugh. “Mrs. J., that’s what the police do. I’m sure they took all the samples they needed from the house.”

  “Well, there’s got to be more around, don’t you think?” Mrs. J. whipped out her magnifying glass and proceeded to look on the ground.

  “We all have DNA, Mrs. J. It won’t do us any good to find any if we don’t know who belongs to.”

  “Well, that’s a fine how do you do.” Mrs. J. was just about to pick up a wad of chewed bubble gum but seemed to think better of it.

  “Let me check out that list. What is our assigned location?” I asked.

  Mrs. J. handed the list over unceremoniously. I saw that we had been assigned the immediate area surrounding the marina, which was the 1100th block of Main Street. Living here and being a local business owner, I knew the area very well. On our way toward the first business, I saw that our fellow search partiers had already begun stapling up the flyers. It made my stomach feel all jittery knowing that Finn was purposely on the run, and here we were plastering the town with his picture. There wasn’t anything I could do about it, though. I would’ve loved to rip them all down, but it was way too risky. It was smartest to play along. I knew Finn would agree. I just hoped that he was cunning enough to evade notice. Wherever he was.

  Then, right at that moment, I decided that I needed to take down The Sugar King and fast. Cut the head off the snake so to speak. No bounty, no threat. The question became how to do that? I was thinking a girls’ night was in order. No, not one that involved dancing and fruity cocktails, but more of a crime-solving, sleuthing girls’ night. Finn might have had his crew, but I had mine too. I was already mentally putting it together. Aria for sure and hopefully Izzy could join us, too. It wasn’t just The Sugar King we needed to tackle, but Alexia too. She was going to go down for Cody’s murder. I knew she was close by just waiting to make her move. I was going to be ready.

  I thought Mrs. J. and I were going to strike out.

  No one had heard or seen anything suspicious. Thankfully, they also hadn’t spotted Finn. I was extremely grateful for that. People insisted on it, even after Mrs. J. threatened them, “You know it’s a federal offense to lie to the mayor,” she told one group of teenagers who had stepped out of the arcade.

  “No, it’s not,” I told the group and gave Mrs. J. the eye to cool it.

  “Humph, it should be,” she replied under her breath as we walked away.

  Our last stop was the Quick & Go market at the end of the block. I was thinking this was a fine place to finish as I could use a chocolate pick-me-up after walking the block with Mayor Jackson. I skipped interviewing the clerk and headed right to the candy aisle. Bonus. King-size chocolate bars were buy one get one free. Talk about winning.

  Mrs. J. had abandoned the candy aisle in favor of the slushie machine. I liked her thinking. I bought one of those too.

  With our purchases, we headed up front to check out. I went through my spiel and waited to see what the clerk would say.

  “I was working that night,” she said after thinking about it.

  “You see this boy right here?” Mrs. J. tapped her long red fingernail right in the middle of Finn’s forehead.

  “No, I didn’t see Finn,” the clerk said. It was obvious she knew who he was without needing his picture thrown in her face. In fact, the one thing I learned today was most people knew who we were and thought well of us. That was a relief.

  “But there was this guy. I don’t know ... something seemed off about him.

  “Off? How so?” For the first time, I felt my sleuthing detector buzz. This could be a clue.

  “He was jittery. Maybe even paranoid. He kept looking over his shoulder and fumbled in his wallet for cash even though he had a handful of credit cards.”

  “Do you remember what he bought?” I asked.

  “Gas and a pack of cigarettes,” the clerk replied.

  “Well, that all don’t seem so suspicious,” Mrs. J. said.

  The store clerk continued. “He changed his cigarette order three times. As if he couldn’t remember what type of cigarettes he liked to smoke.”

  “Or maybe he was buying them for someone else,” Mrs. J. offered.

  The store clerk shrugged her shoulders “He lit up when he stepped outside.”

  “Did you see which way he went?” I asked.

  “He was riding a motorcycle. That part I remember clearly. The pipes were loud, and his helmet had wicked green flames. My boyfriend would’ve been jealous.”

  “Does he ride?” I asked her.

  “We both do, but I hadn’t seen this guy in the area before.”

  “Huh. Well, thanks for the info. If you think of anything else, will you give me call?” I asked, scooping up my candy.

  “Sure thing, Ziva.”

  “You can call me too,” Mrs. J. said, not wanting to be left out. The clerk nodded absentmindedly.

  “Well, honey girl, are we done here?” Mrs. J. asked when we stepped out into the afternoon sun. I was still thinking about what the store clerk said. It could be nothing, but I had a feeling it was something. What though, I wasn’t sure.

  “You hear me, Sug? We have a parade float to get building,” Mrs. J. added.

  “Yeah, I know. How about you drop me back off at the docks, and I’ll meet you at the fire station.”

  I wanted to get back and hear if anyone had any leads and catch up with Aria. She had been gone overnight last night for an impromptu trip with Vince. She said it was business related, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Vince told her that just to get her out of town for the night. He was big on protecting those he loved. Finn was too. Only I was too much of an independent girl boss to back down. You could say it was a character flaw.

  “How was your little trip?” I asked Aria after she greeted me with a hug. Vince had already left for the office.

  “It’s was good. We needed to get away. The kids, work—”

  “Your best friend bringing about trouble,” I added.

  “Stop it. You know that’s not why we left,” Aria said.

  “I wouldn’t put it past Vince, and that’s okay. Disaster does have a tendency to follow me. Besides, you’ll be happy to know I’ve got the all clear to come back home.”

  “You did?” Aria asked.

  “Yeah, I checked out the place a bit this morning.”

  “How bad?”

  “Eh, it doesn’t feel like home at the moment,” I answered truthfully.

  “Seriously, you can stay with us for as long as you want.”

  “I appreciate the offer, but I need to be back home, which reminds me we need to catch up.” I gave Aria a knowing look. I hadn’t told her anything from my meeting with Detective Brandle yet. Truthfully, I was still processing it all myself.

  “Got it. We have this work dinner tonight that I can’t flake out of, but what about tomorrow? Does that work?” Aria asked.

  “Yeah, tomorrow’s perfect. Let me check with Izzy and I’ll hit you up with the details,” I said. Plus, it would give me time to hash out a tentative
plan.

  8

  I would have loved to stay and chat with Aria, or better yet, run off to lunch, but I had that pesky float to build. I stopped back on the houseboat and popped an antihistamine just in case and headed off to the fire station.

  “Hey, Chief Brody,” I said when I walked through the station’s front door. I was immediately greeted by Darla, the station’s furry mascot.

  “Did you hear the good news? I’m a grandpa!” Chief Brody exclaimed. This news caught me by surprise on several different levels. For starters, I didn’t even know Chief Brody had any children let alone one that could’ve been pregnant. A second later, I heard all the yipping coming from his office and I put two and two together. “Darla had a litter of puppies,” the chief added.

  “Oh my goodness. Let me see!” I was a sucker for cute little puppies. Chief Brody opened his office door the rest of the way and revealed a play yard set up with six roly-poly Dalmatian puppies playing inside of it. He had set newspapers on the bottom along with a handful of toys that the puppies were having a blast shredding and playing with. I picked up the smallest of the lot, and he immediately began chewing on my fingers. I forgot how sharp the little puppy teeth could be.

  “They’re adorable.” I wondered if Captain Jack would like a playmate. Perhaps in the future that was something Finn and I could talk about. I’m not sure a large breed dog would do well on the houseboat, but maybe another small pup. Even better, we could rescue another type of poodle mix.

  “Did I hear Ziva come in?” Mrs. J. asked from the garage, sticking her head into the office doorway.

  “Yeah, I’m here.”

  “Good, we got some work to do. Looks like a lot of folks are busy today, so we’re short on help. It’s all hands-on deck.” Mrs. J. disappeared back into the bay.

  Busy? More like they were irked by Mrs. J.’s bossiness.

  “Oh boy, Guess I better get to it,” I said to Chief Brody.

  “I’m right here if you guys need anything,” he said.

  “Lucky you. Let me know if you need any help.” I was thinking manning the fire station would be much more enjoyable than spending the afternoon building a parade float.

  I wasn’t alarmed until I saw Mrs. J. bust out a pack of blueprints. She had grand visions when it came to float building. I was thinking something more along the lines of tissue paper flowers and some balloons. She was envisioning a tropical oasis complete with palm trees, an azalea forest, and a bubbling fountain.

  This was going to take a while.

  Two hours in, I took a break to pet the puppies. Believe it or not, my index finger was sore from pulling the trigger on the staple gun a bazillion times. The entire bed of the float was covered in fake metallic grass that I had stapled down along with green fringe around the perimeter. The cardboard palm trees looked nothing like the picture and don’t even get me started on the fountain. It was in a million pieces on the garage floor. Oh yeah, it was definitely break time.

  I walked back through to where Chief Brody was sitting at the front desk on his phone.

  “Yes, Mr. Devonshire. I’m positive. I issued the permit myself.” There was silence from Chief Brody for a minute.

  “Yes, Mr. Rogers knows how to properly burn his brush. Yes, that is an approved container that he has. How do I know? I inspected it myself.” There was more silence while Chief Brody listened to Mr. Devonshire. “Of course. Yes, if you have any concerns, you can always call me back. Yes, I’ll be here all day.”

  I walked past Chief Brody and bent down to pet the puppies.

  “At night? You can call 911,” Chief Brody said. “Yes, have a great day.” Chief Brody hung up the phone.

  “That man is a menace. He has nothing to do but complain,” the fire chief said to me.

  “Devonshire … is that the same guy who’s been giving Mrs. J. grief?” I asked. I remember the man had a penchant for Hawaiian shirts and spray tans.

  “Paul Devonshire? It wouldn’t surprise me. Since retiring here last month, he does nothing but complain. I swear, the police are just as tired of him too. Everything offends the man.”

  “That would explain why he’s all in a huff over Mrs. J.’s gala this weekend. I guess he runs the Little Miss Atlantic pageant?”

  “Yeah, it’s the same guy. It’s actually his new wife that runs the pageant. I heard that’s why they settled here. She wasn’t ready to give it up.”

  “Oh, lucky us,” I said sarcastically.

  “The Sugar King marries The Atlantic Queen, and we’re the ones that get stuck with them.”

  “What did you say?”

  “The Sugar King. That’s what Paul Devonshire was known as in South Florida. He owns the largest sugar cane plantation in the United States.”

  Chief Brody’s information gave new meaning to the expression sweet sugar. Devonshire and The Sugar King were one and the same? This knowledge sent alarm bells ringing in my head. I didn’t care how much work was left on the float, I was giving Mrs. J. one more hour and then I was out of there. I had some thinking to do.

  Back home I needed to clear my head before trying to make sense of this case. The best way I knew to do that was with a soak in the tub. I couldn’t decide if I wanted to use my calming lavender-based bubble bath or go for my stress-reducing one infused with eucalyptus and spearmint. I ended up going for a dollop of each in my tiny bathtub. If I had any qualms about living on a houseboat, it was the size of the bathroom. Spectacular views, tiny tubs. That’s just the way it worked.

  With my feet sticking out of the suds, I thought about The Sugar King. Was it just fate that brought him to Port Haven and coincidence that had him running into Finn? Or was this a premeditated move? I didn’t know enough about Mr. Devonshire, other than he seemed to have a poor attitude, to make a solid judgement. I needed to do something about that.

  Second, I thought back to the original list that Aria and I had made at her house over a pitcher of margaritas. It occurred to me that I never tracked down Cody’s family. I wondered if the police had released his identity. If they had, I’d at least be able to find out his last name and do a search that way. I decided that I would grab my computer and do just that soon as I was out of the tub.

  Lastly, there was the question of Alexia. I hadn’t even told Aria that she had been married to Finn. I wanted to know more about her, and not because she was Finn’s ex. Okay, not only because she was his ex.

  My search into Paul Devonshire seemed to reiterate what I had learned earlier that day. He was a wealthy plantation owner in Southeast Florida. By wealthy, I mean millionaire, possibly billionaire. He was Big Sugar, which was big business down south. He had retired this past year as the CEO of his company but maintained his position of Chairman of the Board. His son was now at the helm. An image search revealed hundreds of photos of Mr. Devonshire living the lavish lifestyle—parties, yachts, mansions. I had a feeling living in little Port Haven was driving him batty. Maybe his boredom fueled his revenge. Speaking of being rich, I could only think of one other couple that moved in the same circle as the Devonshires and that was the Delgados. Vincent in particular. Aria had only been married to Vince for the past year. I quickly dialed Vince’s number and waited for him to answer.

  He didn’t.

  I had to leave him a voicemail. “Hey Vince, it’s Ziva. Hoping you can help me. What do you know about Paul Devonshire? I think he had something to do with the break-in. Call me back.”

  Okay, so Devonshire wasn’t directly responsible for the break-in, but he was the catalyst. If anything would get Vince to return my call, it was mentioning it.

  My second lead was dead before it even took off. I was shocked to find out that the police hadn’t released Cody’s identity. Why, I couldn’t be too sure. The only thing I could think of is that they had yet to notify his next of kin. Given Cody’s elusiveness, that could be a real possibility. For the life of me, I wished I knew where Finn was staying so I could ask him Cody’s last name and begin my search
.

  My third lead would have to wait.

  I was sitting on the couch with my laptop on my knees and my hand on my head lost in thought when I heard the unmistakable rumble of a motorcycle pulling into the parking lot.

  If the rider would’ve stopped by at any other time, I would have missed him. I set my laptop aside and got up to see if, against all odds, the visitor was the man with the green-flamed helmet.

  It wasn’t.

  In fact, it was Agent Cooper. Talk about a letdown. I debated even getting up to get the door when I saw the special agent approach. Okay, in addition to tiny bathrooms, the other problem with living on a houseboat is it is hard to pretend you’re not home. Especially when your car is parked four feet away and you’re sitting in front of glass windows. I rolled my eyes and didn’t even bother to turn away.

  “Agent Cooper,” I said, sliding the glass doors open. “What can I do for you?”

  “Ziva, I’m surprised you’re here,” Agent Cooper said, shaking his head as if he couldn’t believe he actually spoke his true thoughts.

  “It’s going to take more than a dead body to kick me out of my home,” I said truthfully. I stood in silence while waiting for the agent to state the reason for his visit.

  “Officer Kevin couldn’t remember if he had removed both sawhorses. I told him I would stop by and make sure it was all clear.” I remembered seeing the officer with one of the sawhorses when I left with Agent Cooper the first time.

  “Yeah, they were removed. There was just a bit of crime scene tape left, but nothing else.”

  “Okay, good.” Agent Cooper stood there a minute longer, as if he was unsure of what he wanted to say next. I let the awkward silence linger until finally saying, “Well, I’ve had a pretty long day, so if it’s all right with you, I’m going to head back in here and settle in for the evening.”

  “Yes, absolutely. I’ll leave you to that,” Agent Cooper replied.

  I watched the agent reluctantly walk back to his bike, clip on his plain black helmet, straddle the bike and kick it to life. As he rumbled out of the parking lot, I thought about maybe indulging myself in some mint chocolate chip ice cream. Maybe the sweet treat was just what I would need to lift my spirits and get my head back in the game.