A Fortunate Encounter

by J A Whiting

  The backroom was abuzz with Nicole and Robby mixing, slipping pans into the oven, and frosting some of the sweets.

  “I see production is in full swing,” Ian commented.

  Without looking up from his work, Robby gestured to the aprons hanging on the wall hooks. “Grab an apron,” he told Ian. “Make yourself useful.”

  Nicole started one of the dishwashers. “There’s plenty to do, if you’d like to lend a hand.”

  Claire gave Ian’s hand a squeeze and winked. “That is, if you don’t mind the occasional swearing and complaining when things don’t go as planned.”

  “I’ll block my ears.” Ian reached for an apron and pulled it over his head. “What are my orders? Make it simple. I don’t know how to bake.”

  Nicole gave Ian some tasks he could handle and in a few minutes, the room was humming with activity and Robby kept everyone entertained by singing some upbeat show tunes.

  Before showing Ian the renovations and prior to Robby and Nicole corralling him into helping with the wedding desserts, Claire had spoken to her boyfriend about Jade’s case.

  “I think Kyle Vallins is trying to protect someone. He lied to me and Nicole about visiting Maggie Burn’s at her new salon. He told us he stopped in for a few minutes to wish Maggie well, but Maggie reports Kyle stayed for over two hours drinking beers with her even though he was drunk when he arrived.”

  “Is Kyle friends with AJ Phelps?” Ian asked.

  “I don’t think so. Neither one admits to being friends. No one else I’ve talked to has mentioned that those two are pals,” Claire said.

  “Do either of them have a connection to the old boyfriend, Blake Rhodes?”

  “We haven’t found any evidence to support that,” Claire told him. “Has your detective friend found anything about a dark-colored van?”

  “He hasn’t said anything about that.”

  Claire sighed. “Supposedly, Jade got into a van at the convenience store. She must have called someone she knows to come and pick her up. Or maybe, she ran into someone she knew at the convenience store and asked for a ride.”

  “From what you’ve learned about Jade, would she take a ride from a stranger or someone she didn’t know well?” Ian asked.

  “Her friends say she wouldn’t do that. They didn’t hesitate when asked.”

  “See if you can get someone to admit they know a person who drives a dark-colored van,” Ian suggested. “The van seems to be the key.”

  Ian pushed the button to stop the mixer and then he turned to the others with a wide grin. “It looks really good. I did a great job. Maybe I’ll quit law enforcement and work here with all of you.”

  “Dream on, Detective,” Robby said as he removed the stainless steel bowl from the mixer.

  “What should I do next?” Ian asked eagerly.

  Before Nicole could assign him the next task, Ian’s phone buzzed and he went to the counter to see the message. When he looked up and made eye contact with Claire, she knew it was something important.

  “I need to leave.”

  Robby was about to tease him about deserting them, but held his tongue when he saw the expression on the detective’s face.

  With her heart pounding, Claire wiped her hands on a towel. “Has something happened?”

  “A man was walking his dog at the Bayside town beach. The dog was at the edge of the water and picked something up. The man thought it was driftwood. He took it from the dog, looked at it, panicked, and dropped it as a wave came in. The object was carried away by the wave.”

  “What was it?” Claire asked softly.

  Ian’s eyes were sad. “The man thinks it might have been an arm bone.”

  Nicole gasped and Robby dropped the spatula he’d been holding.

  Claire reached for the table to steady herself as the room began to spin.

  Ian said, “My friend asked if I’d come to the Bayside beach. Lights are being set up. Do you want to come along?”

  Claire didn’t respond. She couldn’t get any words to come out of her throat.

  Nicole came up next to her friend. “Go.”

  Removing her apron, Claire set it on the work table.

  Robby brought over her purse and gently handed it to her, and Claire followed Ian out to his car.

  Claire stood on the sand off to the side to keep out of the way of the police officers and other investigators. Lights on poles had been stuck into the sand several yards apart. Officials hustled here and there and talked together in small groups.

  The man and the dog who made the discovery stood near the sidewalk speaking with two officers. Claire couldn’t hear what they were saying, but the man looked shaken and upset.

  The night was clear and the moon shined a silvery path over the ocean. The waves on the shore sounded louder than during the day.

  Even though Claire had on a warm jacket, she still shivered knowing her sense of the cold was probably exaggerated by the circumstances.

  A woman’s shouts back from the beach near the street caused Claire to turn around. Bonnie Lyons was being held by an officer as she tugged and pulled and tried to break away from him.

  Claire hurried over. “I’ll wait with you, Bonnie. We need to let the police do their job. We don’t want to get in their way.”

  Bonnie sobbed. “My baby. It’s my baby, isn’t it?”

  Claire’s heart clenched and she put her arm around the woman who suddenly stopped struggling against the officer. Bonnie buried her face into Claire’s shoulder and the young woman wrapped her arms around the distraught mother.

  An officer found two folding chairs and set them up next to the women, and after fifteen minutes of Claire holding her, Bonnie was ready to sit. Pale and trembling, she sank onto the chair, her hair disheveled and her face pale in the moonlight.

  Neither woman spoke … there was nothing to say … but Claire held Bonnie’s hand while they sat and waited.

  About thirty minutes had passed when a scurry of activity took place at the edge of the water. A man in high boots who had been one of six officers wading in the waves, lifted something from the water and other officers hurried over and clustered together, their heads leaning forward to get a look at what had been retrieved.

  A name was called and an older woman came out of the white tent that had been set up and made her way to the group at the ocean’s edge.

  “They found something.” Bonnie stood up and Claire quickly took her arm to keep the woman from advancing.

  “Stay here with me. Let them do their work,” Claire repeated the words she’d said earlier.

  A gray-haired woman wearing jeans and a heavy jacket rushed from the sidewalk and over the sand to Bonnie.

  “Bonnie.” The woman swooped in and put her arm around Jade’s mother’s waist. “I only just heard or I would have been here sooner.” She looked at Claire. “I’m Bonnie’s friend, Sheila. We live on the same street.”

  Claire nodded and moved away so the women could have a bit of privacy. She wasn’t sure if she wanted the object to belong to Jade or not. If it was a bone, then they’d all know that Jade had been put into the water. If it wasn’t a human bone, then the mystery of where Jade was would continue. Both options were terrible and the thought of either outcome sent Claire’s heart sinking into her stomach.

  As a cold gust of wind hit her in the face, Ian came up beside her. Claire knew by the look on his face that there was an answer.

  Ian moved close to his girlfriend, put his arm around her, and said softly, “It’s a bone from an upper arm. It’s human.”

  A blood-curdling shriek split the night air. Bonnie Lyons had just been informed that the bone was human, and even though it hadn’t been determined that it belonged to Jade Lyons, the mother knew. Her tiny shred of hope had been destroyed.

  She knew that her daughter was dead.

  23

  “It must have been horrible.” Judge Augustus Gunther sat next to Claire at the small café table in Tony’s market.
<
br />   The early morning light filtered in through the windows and gave the impression that the temperature would be warm and pleasant when in reality, the day was windy and unseasonably cold.

  “It was awful. Poor Bonnie.” Claire sighed and shook her head. “Poor Jade.”

  With the Corgis trotting after him, Tony walked by carrying a case of milk cartons. “So finding the girl’s arm bone means she was tossed into to the sea to either kill her or to hide the already dead body.”

  The thought of Jade being thrown into the ocean made Claire’s skin crawl. “The police think she was probably dead when the killer dumped her, but it’s only speculation right now. They also need to confirm that it is Jade.” Her voice held a touch of weariness.

  Augustus asked, “Do the police think the young woman was dropped into the sea from the pier?”

  “It’s possible,” Claire said. “The killer might have had access to a boat and could have used that to carry the body.”

  “Are there any security cameras in the area?” Augustus asked.

  “There are some near the yacht club. Other than that, nothing down there would be in a position to capture an image of someone in the harbor on a boat or someone on the pier attempting to dispose of a body.”

  “Too bad.” Augustus raised his coffee cup to his lips.

  “What are the police thinking?” Tony asked. “Somebody drove to the harbor, parked, removed a body from the car, and somehow managed to carry the body to the water and push it under?”

  “That’s what they think right now,” Claire said.

  “It could be difficult to get the body to the water unseen,” Augustus said. “It was late at night, but there may still have been people around. The police go by on rounds, couples or young folks may have been walking the beach or the pier. The killer would have had to be very careful not to be seen.”

  “It could have been a quiet night,” Tony said. “But still … it would have been easy to spot the killer if he was dragging or carrying a body down to the water. He must have been darn stealthy.” The big man went to the cooler case to place the milk cartons inside and the dogs followed him with their toenails clicking on the wood floor.

  Augustus set his cup down. “The body would have had to be weighted down in order to keep it from rising to the surface.”

  A chill ran over Claire’s shoulders at the thought of using something to weigh Jade down so she’d sink beneath the water. Did the killer really think he could hide her? Did he really think she wouldn’t be found? Maybe he thought his DNA would never be discovered if he dropped the body into the ocean. Shaking herself from her morbid thoughts, Claire agreed with Augustus that weights of some kind would have been required to make the body sink. “The killer had to figure out where to locate a weight. I don’t think the murder was premeditated. Maybe I’m wrong. If it wasn’t planned ahead of time, then the killer had to scramble to find a weight or he knew where to get one.”

  “The killer could have a familiarity with the pier or maybe the beach,” Augustus said. “He might have known right where to go to get a weight.” The older man turned his head to Claire. “Where would someone find a weight like the one that was needed?”

  “I asked Ian the same question. He told me the fishermen have lockers down near the harbor and a lot of them have weights in them for lobster traps or fishing lines or nets.”

  “This killer could have been a fisherman,” Augustus observed. “If that was the case, would Jade get into a car with someone like that?”

  “Jade may have known some of the fishermen down there,” Claire said. “She worked as a lifeguard on the beach in the summers. She might have had contact with the fishermen from being at the beach in the warm weather.”

  “If she knew the killer, she would have been less worried about accepting a ride home with him,” Augustus pointed out.

  “And no one around the convenience store reported hearing screaming or noticed a scuffle of some kind. Which makes me think Jade knew the attacker,” Claire said, “and entered the vehicle willingly.”

  Tony walked past the table carrying the empty container that had held the milk. “If the police can find that van, they’ll be close to finding out who picked up Jade at the convenience store.” He went into the backroom.

  “Tony was working up front,” Claire said to Augustus. “How did he hear what we were saying?”

  “The man must have bionic ears,” Augustus rolled up his newspaper. “Either that or he has these tables bugged.”

  Claire let out a laugh at the idea. “Then he must get pretty bored listening to his tapes of people chatting back here.”

  “I don’t know about that.” Augustus’s blue eyes twinkled. “Most of the time, we have very stimulating conversations. We discuss the weather, the Corgis, we gossip, we talk about the goings-on in the city.”

  “The most interesting part of Tony’s eavesdropping must be hearing about the dogs,” Claire joked.

  “I don’t need to hear about the dogs,” Tony called from the storeroom. “They’re usually here with me all day.”

  Claire’s eyes widened in surprise that Tony could hear what they were saying. She leaned forward and whispered, “He must have supersonic hearing. When did this happen?”

  “Perhaps it is some kind of reverse aging of his auditory system,” Augustus kidded. “But the rest of him is aging as expected.”

  “I heard that,” Tony said.

  After working in the chocolate shop until 8pm, Claire picked up the dogs from Tony, went home, showered, and made some dinner. Now stretched out on the sofa, her eyes were trying to shut and despite the valiant effort to keep them open, the heaviness of her eyelids won out and she dozed off.

  The loud dong of the doorbell woke Claire with a jolt and the dogs ran barking to the front entryway of the townhouse. Dragging herself off the couch, she went to find out who was calling on her, and when she pressed the button on the intercom, Ian said, “It’s me.”

  When she opened the door, she took one look at her boyfriend’s face and knew something was wrong.

  “Can you come with me to Bayside beach?” Ian asked.

  Claire’s breath caught in her throat.

  “They’ve found something. Something has washed up.”

  “Is it…?” Claire asked cautiously, not really wanting to hear the answer.

  “They think it’s Jade.”

  Tears welled in Claire’s eyes. “Let me get my jacket.”

  The scene on the beach was similar to the previous evening with officials buzzing around, a white tent set up, officers keeping gawkers out of the area that was encircled with yellow tape. There was one difference though … tonight, an ambulance waited at the curb.

  Ian was whisked away by his police buddies and Claire was left to watch as long as she didn’t get too close. The air was colder than the night before and she was glad she took her heavy jacket.

  Ian’s friend told her that Bonnie Lyons had been picked up at her home and was now sitting in a cruiser with a social worker who was attempting to comfort the woman.

  It wasn’t long before a stretcher was removed from the ambulance and carried down the beach to the sand under the pier.

  And then Ian left a group of investigators and headed back to stand beside Claire.

  His facial muscles tight, Ian said, “It’s most likely Jade. They’ll take her to the medical examiner’s office where they’ll make the positive ID.”

  Claire took hold of his hand.

  Ian said, “Hopefully, they can keep Mrs. Lyons away from the body. It’s not something a family member needs to see. They can use the dental records to make the identification.”

  Claire’s heart was heavy. “At least, Bonnie has Jade back. That was the main thing Bonnie wanted, to have her daughter back so she could give her a loving burial, so she didn’t have to wonder where she was any longer, so she could help her rest in peace.”

  Ian ran his hand over his face. “It’s a heck of a wish
for a mother to have.”

  Claire said sadly, “It’s a heck of a world that causes a mother to wish that.”

  The stretcher was carried up the beach to the waiting ambulance, the body wrapped in a white sheet. Reporters stood on the far sidewalk, some photographing the proceedings and others interviewing the bystanders. A statement from the police chief would be forthcoming.

  Claire bit her lip as Jade’s remains were placed inside the ambulance and then driven away.

  “We have to find the person who did this,” Claire said. “He can’t walk around a free man after taking someone’s life. He has to be caught. This skill of mine has to be used for good.” She closed her eyes and let her breath go slowly in and out, listening to the sounds around her, feeling the cool breeze against her face, trying to sense the things that floated on the air.

  And then she made a promise.

  I’ll find you. You can’t hide any longer. I’m coming.

  24

  Nicole drove the borrowed van along the long, winding driveway with Robby in the front passenger seat and Claire in the back. The desserts had been carefully packed and placed in the van.

  “I’m a nervous wreck.” Nicole steered the vehicle along the tree-lined drive. “Look at this place. It’s ridiculous.”

  “I’d be happy to live here.” Robby admired the landscaping as they drove up the hill to the Phelps’s mansion.

  “This is the back entrance,” Nicole said. “The wedding guests get to go in through the front way. How much money do these people have anyway?”

  Claire sat quietly in the backseat watching as they passed the trees and expansive lawns. “Money isn’t everything.”

  “That’s easy for Miss Money Bags to say,” Robby smiled.

  “You know what I mean,” Nicole said. “You don’t flaunt what you have. You’re gracious, you’re generous. You don’t shove your wealth in people’s faces.”

  Claire chuckled. “Maybe someday I will.”

  Robby hooted. “I want to be there when you do that. And by the way, if you’re ever looking to share that wad of cash you’re storing, I’d be very willing to relieve you of some of it.”