Chapter 13

Late Monday morning, Rory and Liz got together at Rory’s house to compare notes and discuss the next steps in their effort to find out who killed Mindy so they could clear Swan’s name.

Liz took notes on her phone while they brainstormed. She tapped her finger on her chin. “We don’t know much about Mindy’s last day. No one I called had seen her.”

“Same here,” Rory said. “I think her movements are pretty well known until she left home in the afternoon. We know she had to have ended up at the beach at some point, but we don’t know exactly when that was. We don’t even know if she went to the beach herself or was killed somewhere else and the murderer brought her body there.”

“Her car was parked nearby.”

“Doesn’t mean she drove it there,” Rory said.

“What about the phone call Tammy said she made? Do you think there’s any way we can find out who she talked to?”

“I think we’ll have to leave that to the police. They can check phone records. We can’t.”

“Did you notice any unusual marks on her body? Or any indication of how she died? I wasn’t close enough to see anything.”

Rory shuddered when an image of Mindy buried in the sand flashed into her mind. “Nothing obvious, but I only saw her face and one of her arms. I haven’t heard anything about cause of death, either. I don’t remember seeing any blood, though.”

“We’ll have to start with after she left the house then.”

“Tammy said she went shopping. Let’s start there. We talked on Saturday about checking the downtown businesses and seeing if anyone saw her that afternoon. We might be able to create a timeline of where she went when. Let’s hope she didn’t decide to go to the mall. That’s way too many stores to check.”

“Maybe someone saw something suspicious like someone following her.”

“Do you have a picture of Mindy? They might not know her by name. I’ve got one on my phone.”

“Send it to me.”

After texting Liz the photo, Rory printed out several copies to leave at the stores they visited.

Liz stood up and flung her purse over one shoulder. Clapping her hands, she said, “Come on. Let’s get this show on the road.”

Rory headed into her work area. “I’m coming, I’m coming. I just need to get those pictures from the printer.”

Armed with photos of Mindy, they headed out the door. When they reached downtown Vista Beach, Rory took one side of the street and Liz took the other. At the end of each block, they stopped to compare notes. By the third block, they still hadn’t found anybody who’d seen Mindy during the period they were interested in.

Feeling a little discouraged, Rory entered her last store. As soon as she walked into Simon’s Surfwear, a young woman wearing a name tag that read “April” greeted her and asked if she needed help. When Rory showed her Mindy’s photo, the woman studied it thoughtfully. “She’s certainly been in here before, but I don’t remember if she was here that afternoon.”

“Was there anyone else working that day?”

“Let me check the schedule.” She walked into the back and returned with a large desk calendar. “Now I remember. All of the days blend together, you know. Evelyn was here with me.”

“Do you know where I can find her?”

April studied the schedule written on the calendar. “She’s not listed here for the next two weeks. She must be on vacation.”

“Do you have any contact information for her?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t release that kind of information without Mr. Zeppelin’s approval.”

“Is he here?”

April opened her mouth to say something when they heard noises coming from the rear of the store. She cocked her head and listened. “That could be him now. Sometimes he comes in the back. Let me check.”

She went into the back area of the store. Less than five minutes later, Simon Zeppelin entered the sales floor, a smile on his face. “Rory! I understand you were asking about Evelyn?”

Rory nodded. “Could you give me her phone number? I’d like to speak to her.”

“I’m not comfortable doing that unless you tell me what you want to talk to her about. I feel a responsibility to my employees. You understand.”

“Of course.” Rory gathered her thoughts. “I’m trying to track Mindy’s movements last Friday. I thought maybe she came in here to do some Christmas shopping. I understand Evelyn was working that day.”

“And you thought she might have helped her.” Simon shook his head. “It’s really sad, what happened to Mindy. I remember her from high school. She was a lot of fun to be around. I didn’t know her as well as Ricky, of course, given our age difference.” He stood staring off into the distance for a moment as if thinking about his high school days. A sound coming from the fitting rooms seemed to break him out of his reverie and he became aware of his surroundings once again. “That’s not helping you, is it? I’m afraid even if I give you her contact information that it won’t be much use. She’s on vacation for a couple weeks. Said she was ‘getting back to nature.’” He air quoted the last phrase.

Rory’s heart sank. “That probably means she won’t have her cell phone with her.”

“Probably not, but I’ll give you her number, just in case.”

Rory followed him over to the cash register.

After consulting a piece of paper taped next to the register, he wrote a phone number on a Post-it Note and handed it to her. “Hope this helps.”

Rory glanced at the note before placing it in her wallet. “Were you here on Friday?”

“I was in and out that day, doing errands and helping my daughter with a school project. I didn’t see Mindy, but she could have been here when I wasn’t.”

April walked onto the sales floor from the fitting room area, clothes in her arms. “You know, I just remembered, that woman you asked about was here that day. You weren’t here, Mr. Zeppelin, at the time.”

“Do you remember when that was?” Rory asked.

“Not really. Maybe we can look at the receipts. She might have bought something.” April looked at her boss, a question in her eyes. “Do you want me to look?”

Simon shook his head. “I’ll take care of it. You put those clothes back.”

April nodded, then began returning the clothes left in the fitting rooms to the racks.

Simon picked up a stack of sales slips. “If she paid cash, I won’t have her name. Cross your fingers she used a credit card.”

Suppressing her excitement, Rory waited for him to finish looking through the receipts.

Before long a smile spread across his face. “This looks like it’s her. She bought clothes. From the sizes listed, I’d guess they were for her granddaughter. Evelyn helped her. She’d know more.”

“Does it say what time?”

“Four p.m.” He returned the receipts to the pile next to the cash register. “I hope that helps.”

Rory made a note of the time in her phone. “Yes, it does. Thanks for talking to me. And thanks for the phone number.”

“No problem. I want to see the murderer caught as much as anyone else. Good luck getting hold of Evelyn.”

Rory left the store with a lighter step. At the end of the block, she found Liz pacing the sidewalk, waiting for her.

“It’s about time,” Liz said, excitement in her voice. “I got something.”

“Me too. You go first.”

“Mindy went to Monica’s Treasures and bought a scarf and some jewelry that Tammy had her eye on. That was about three thirty.”

“Did Monica say anything else?”

“Not really. She said Mindy seemed her usual self. And she didn’t notice anyone following her or anyone lurking on the sidewalk. But now we know she was on the street at three thirty. It’s a start.”

“Great. I think I have her next stop. She was in Simon’s Surfwear at four o’clock, buying some clothes. She probably left the store right after that.”

“Did anyone notice anything?”

Rory shook her head. “I don’t really know. Simon wasn’t in the store when she was there and the employee who helped her is on vacation for two weeks. I got her cell phone number, but I don’t think it’ll be of much use.”

“Why not?”

“Evelyn is out ‘in the wild,’ probably out of cell phone reach.”

“So that’s it, then,” Liz said.

“Let me try the phone number first.” Rory dialed the employee’s number but, as expected, it went straight to voicemail. She left a message, not really expecting Evelyn to call her back any time soon. “I think that’s all we can do here. Maybe she’ll get into an area with cell service soon and return my call.”

Both a little discouraged, they went their separate ways.

  

As soon as Rory got home, she spotted Martin sitting on her front porch. At the sound of the car door opening, he turned toward her. She smiled and raised a hand in greeting. When she saw the grim expression on his face, she froze for a moment with her hand in the air, then recovered and hurried over to him.

“What’s happened? Is it my dad?”

“Let’s talk inside.”

When she unlocked the front door, she found Sekhmet waiting for them. She bent down and scratched the cat behind her ears. Martin patted the cat’s head, but his heart didn’t seem to be into it this time.

Sure that whatever was going on couldn’t be good, Rory’s stomach tightened. She took a couple deep breaths to calm herself as she followed the detective into the living room.

When they were both sitting side by side on the couch, he turned to her and said, “I hear you talked to the witness who saw your father on the beach.”

Rory nodded. “That’s right.”

“How did you know who he was?”

She explained about the man who’d come by the church when they were setting up the Nativity scene and how he’d apologized for something, but none of them knew what. “I put two and two together after you questioned my dad. Veronica helped us get a meeting with him.”

Martin sighed. “I wish you hadn’t done that.”

“Why?”

“I know you’re trying to protect your father, but you have to realize what it looks like from the side of the police.”

“What do you mean?”

“It looks like witness tampering. Like you were trying to get him to change his story.”

“I would never do that! I know he’s lying or at least mistaken. We just wanted to question him to see if we could figure out the truth.”

He settled back on the couch. “You should have left it to me. I believe you, but now he’s gone and someone saw you give him money.”

“That’s ridiculous. I didn’t give him anything.” Rory’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh.”

“What is it?”

“Veronica gave him some money after we talked to him. That must have been what your witness saw. But it wasn’t to make him go away, just to thank him for his time. Ask her, she’ll tell you what happened.”

“Veronica Justice was there?”

“I told you, she arranged the meeting. He’s one of her informants. You know, that homeless crew she uses to find out what’s going on around the city.” She sat up straighter. “She gave him a cell phone. She keeps track of all the numbers. She can find him for you.”

Martin jotted something down in his notepad. “I’ll ask her.” He shook his head. “I shouldn’t even be on this case, but there’s no one else at the moment. The flu’s really hit the department hard.”

“Do you think the chief will pull you off?” Rory asked.

“Even if we’re short staffed, he won’t hesitate if he thinks I’m not doing my job properly. He’d take over the investigation himself. He may not have worked a case in a while, but he’s still a darn good investigator.”

“Sorry about the witness. I didn’t think how it might look.”

“I can’t play favorites. If that means arresting your father, well, that’s what I’ll have to do. You have to understand that.”

“I know,” Rory said softly.

After Martin left, Rory called Liz to tell her about the missing witness.

“That’s good news, isn’t it?” Liz said. “I mean, he obviously lied. He must have decided to get out of town before he was found out.”

“I’m not sure it is good news. People might think we had something to do with his disappearance.”

“Veronica was there. She can vouch for us.”

“She doesn’t know what we did or didn’t do after she left. We could have sought him out later and paid for him to leave town.”

“We’d never do that!” Liz said.

Rory imagined her friend shaking her head vehemently. “I’m really glad now that Veronica didn’t take my money. That would have looked bad.”

“What do you think we should do now?” Liz asked.

“I think we need to stop looking into Mindy’s death.”

“But we promised Tammy.”

“We only promised her we’d see if we could find out where she went that Friday. We’ve hit a dead end, anyway. We can tell her what we learned so far. And I’ll make sure Martin knows too. The police can take it from there.”

“We’re giving up?”

“I didn’t say that,” Rory said. “We’ll look into Ricky’s death. It’s not a high priority for the police right now. We’d be helping them out.”

“If we find out who killed him maybe we can find out who killed Mindy too,” Liz said in an excited voice.

“That’s what I was thinking.”

“Where do we start?”

“How about another trip to Simon’s store? This time we’ll ask him about the relationship between Ricky and Ottomar Lendl. Maybe he knows more details about how Ottomar’s son died in that surfing accident.”

“We should also ask him about the going away bash for Ricky. He must have been there. He could have seen something useful.”

A short while later, the two met in front of Simon’s Surfwear, but when they went inside they discovered Simon wasn’t there. An employee told them they’d find him at the pier, helping to prepare it for that evening’s ceremony.

When they arrived at their destination, they found a bustle of activity. Workers were hanging a Season’s Greetings sign made up of strings of lights over the street down to the ocean while others installed a temporary stage in front of the entrance to the pier.

Liz whistled when she caught sight of the Christmas trees placed at intervals along the length of the pier on both sides. “That’s a lot of trees. Must have cost a bundle.”

“My mom said there are a hundred of them, fifty on each side.”

They walked down the pier until they saw Simon directing the placement and decoration of the eight-foot pines.

“Did you two come to help?” Simon smiled at Rory and Liz as soon as he spotted them.

“We wanted to ask you about Ricky,” Rory said.

“Pitch in. I could use a hand putting on the lights. We can talk while we decorate.”

Rory and Liz picked strands of white lights out of a box and began stringing them on a nearby tree under his direction.

“What would you like to know?” Simon positioned a ladder next to the tree and picked up a silver star from a nearby box.

“We were really wondering about Ottomar Lendl.”

Simon climbed the ladder, hesitating for a fraction of a second before he placed the star on the top of the tree. “Why do you want to know about him?”

“We heard about his son,” Liz said.

“That was sad what happened to him.” Simon climbed down and stepped back to survey their work. “Looks good. Someone else will put on the ornaments and test the lights. Let’s start on the next one.” He moved the ladder to the next tree and they started the process all over again.

Rory had almost given up on his saying anything when Simon finally said, “It wasn’t Ricky’s fault, you know, what happened to the son. Ricky told him not to go surfing that day. That he was too inexperienced to handle those waves. He went anyway.” Simon paused with his hand on the ladder. “Funny thing, I don’t even remember the son’s name now.” He stared out at the ocean for a moment, then shook himself out of his reverie. “Long story short, son went surfing against Ricky’s advice, son drowned.”

“Didn’t Ricky try to save him?” Liz asked.

“He would have if he’d been there. Maybe even been a hero like your dad.” Simon gave Rory a smile which morphed into a serious expression when he continued with his story. “Ricky was really upset about the accident, but he never let it show. Carried on like nothing had happened. I think that made Ottomar mad. But it was all a cover up. Deep down, I know Ricky was grieving.”

“But Ottomar still blamed your brother,” Rory said.

“He couldn’t believe it was his own son’s foolishness, so he had to blame somebody. Who better than the person who taught him to surf. Ottomar was never keen on the idea.”

“Could he have killed Ricky, do you think?”

“His son died almost a year before Ricky graduated from high school. That’s a long time to wait for revenge.”

Rory wondered if it really was that long in Ottomar’s eyes. Hate could have festered and, once he’d started drinking heavily, the grieving father could have finally gone after the person he held responsible for his son’s untimely death. “I heard he blamed the entire family.”

“I never felt in any danger around him if that’s what you mean. None of us did. He was just a sad, broken down man.”

“We also wanted to know about the going away party for Ricky,” Liz said. “Did you go to it?”

“Sure did. That was a heck of a party, let me tell you. A great sendoff.”

“Where was it?”

“At a friend’s house in Vista Beach. No more than a ten-minute walk from our home.”

“You both walked to the party, then?”

“We walked over there together. Figured we were going to be drinking some and wouldn’t be in any shape to drive back. We left the party at different times. I don’t know how he got home.”

Rory wondered if Ricky had been attacked while walking home or if someone had given him a ride that proved to be deadly. “Did you notice anything unusual at the party? Did Ricky leave with anyone?”

“I had a lot to drink so I’m not sure I’m the best person to ask. Got home in the wee hours of the morning, but still managed to get to work the next day. Had a heck of a hangover, though.” He paused with his hand on the ladder. “The only time I remember Ricky leaving was when he and Swan went outside to talk. That must have been when Mindy witnessed their argument. But he came right back inside.”

“And you don’t remember how he got home?”

“No clue. I walked, but I don’t remember seeing Ricky at the party when I left it. He had an early morning flight so he must have gone home before I did. All I know is the next morning his surfboard was gone and so was he.”

They moved to the next tree. Simon cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about your dad. I can’t see him killing my brother—or Mindy, for that matter.”

“Thank you.”

“That witness must have lied. Probably left town when he realized he’d be grilled.”

Rory stopped with her hand on a string of lights. “How do you know about that?”

“There was an article on VBC today talking about the witness and how he’d disappeared. I figured it was public knowledge.”

Rory and Liz exchanged surprised glances and Rory made a mental note to check out Veronica’s latest post.

The three continued stringing lights and placing stars, finishing their task in silence.