Chapter 26

At four thirty that afternoon, Rory, Liz, Mrs. Maldonado and Mrs. Griswold met in the alley behind Arika’s Scrap ’n Paint.

“You know what you need to do, right?” Rory asked the two older women.

They both nodded their heads.

“I go into Simon’s Surfwear and ask for Simon’s help personally,” Mrs. Griswold said.

“And I’ll keep everyone else occupied while you two slip inside the back door,” Mrs. Maldonado added.

“Good,” Rory said. “Let’s do it. You two go on ahead.”

Mrs. Griswold and Mrs. Maldonado headed down the alley toward the neighboring street. Rory and Liz waited five minutes before following.

“I’m not looking forward to hanging out in that storeroom for too long,” Liz said.

“It’s just until the store closes and Simon leaves. Less than half an hour. Then we can search his office for evidence.”

“Are you sure we can get in the back door?”

“Evelyn told me they always keep it unlocked. If we get caught we can just say we were looking for an earring or something we lost while we were talking to Simon the other day.”

When they passed by Simon’s Surfwear, they glanced inside without slowing down to make sure the two other women were in place. Through the glass, they saw Mrs. Griswold talking animatedly to Simon while Mrs. Maldonado was quietly working her way through a rack of childrens’ beachwear with the help of an employee.

“What do you think Granny G’s talking about?” Liz asked. “She’s waving her arms around a lot.”

“Who knows, but I’m sure she’s come up with quite a cover story.”

They walked around the corner and casually slipped into the alley behind Simon’s store.

“Cell phones on vibrate,” Rory said.

“Check.”

Once the phones were silenced, Rory and Liz made their way down the alley until they reached the back entrance of the store. They glanced around to make sure no one was watching before trying the door. Rory gave the thumbs up signal when the knob turned and she felt the door give.

She eased the door open and peeked around it to make sure the hallway was empty. As soon as she was sure the coast was clear, she motioned for Liz to follow her. They slipped inside and tiptoed as fast as possible into the nearby storeroom.

Rory breathed a sigh of relief when the two of them had settled into a hiding place behind boxes toward the back of the room.

“Now we wait,” she whispered.

“I hope they don’t need anything in here,” Liz whispered back.

Time dragged on. Rory glanced at her phone every five minutes, sure that closing time had arrived only to be disappointed. Boredom quickly set in and the two of them began quietly checking out their surroundings.

Rory studied a stack of boxes. Dates written on the side of each one indicated some of them had been around for a decade while others had only recently arrived.

Liz poked Rory who suppressed a scream at the unexpected touch.

“Sorry,” Liz whispered. “But isn’t that a surfboard?” She pointed toward the back wall.

Rory looked in the direction Liz had indicated. The end of a board was clearly visible behind several boxes, leaning horizontally against the wall. She crept across the floor so she could get a closer look at it. “It’s an odd place for one,” she whispered. “Why isn’t it with the others?” She motioned to the other side of the storeroom where surfboards were stored vertically.

“You don’t think...?” Liz’s eyes widened.

“Could be.” Rory slid the board forward so she could look at it more closely. The side that faced her was covered with decals of places from Huntington Beach to Tahiti and beyond.

“The decals are of places Dad mentioned were on Ricky’s board, and I think it’s the right length. If Dad were awake, he could tell us for sure.”

Liz’s eyes sparkled. “We were right about Simon. We have our proof. How are we going to get it out of here?”

“We’re not. If we take it away, Simon can claim he had nothing to do with it. The police need to find it here. I’ll take a picture of it and text it to Martin. He can investigate and take it from here.”

Liz nodded her understanding.

After Rory texted the photo, she looked at Liz and said, “I think we should leave. We have enough proof for the police to listen to our theory of who killed Ricky now.”

Rory arranged everything so the board was exactly where they’d found it, hoping that Simon wouldn’t notice anything was different. She winced at the scraping sound one of the boxes made on the floor, pausing to see if anyone in the store had heard. They both breathed a sigh of relief when they didn’t hear any approaching footsteps.

Rory glanced at her watch. “The store should be closed. Hopefully, Simon’s still on the sales floor.”

The two headed toward the door, pausing when they reached it to listen for any noises in the hallway beyond. After making sure all was quiet, Rory opened the door slightly and looked out at an empty hallway. She was about to give Liz the all clear signal when two sets of footsteps approached from the direction of the sales floor. Before she ducked back inside the room, Rory caught a glimpse of Simon and Ottomar Lendl going into Simon’s office.

Using her phone, Rory briefly wrote down what she’d seen and showed it to Liz who nodded in understanding. She brought out her own phone and silently typed a reply: I wonder what Ottomar is doing here?

We’ll have to wait and see, Rory wrote back.

Rory and Liz settled down on the floor to see what would happen next. Soon, the sound of voices drifted into the room through the partially open door. Deciding a record of the conversation between the two men might be useful, Rory hit record in the voice memo app on her phone and pushed the phone out in the hallway to make sure it caught every word.

“What do you want Lendl? What couldn’t you say in front of anyone?”

Rory mouthed Simon’s name and Liz nodded her head in agreement.

“You’re sure everyone’s gone home? You don’t want anyone hearing what I have to say.”

“Yes, yes, we’re alone,” Simon said, a note of impatience in his voice. “Just spit it out. I want to get out of here and go home to dinner.”

“I know what you did. You killed Mindy. I saw you.”

Rory’s eyes opened wide. Liz covered her mouth to suppress a gasp.

“I didn’t kill anyone. You’re crazy,” Simon said in an exaggeratedly casual tone of voice.

Rory suspected he wasn’t as unconcerned as he was trying to appear.

“I was on the beach by the pier that night. I saw you get out of her car with a body-sized bundle.”

“You’re a drunken fool.”

The sound of a slap against wood made Rory and Liz jump. Rory guessed Ottomar had hit the table with the palm of his hand.

“I may have been drinking that night, but I know what I saw.”

In the pause that ensued, Rory typed Another nail in Simon’s coffin on her phone and showed it to Liz who bobbed her head in agreement.

Simon laughed. “What makes you think anyone’s going to believe you? You’ve taken a long time to come forward. Sounds like you’re making it up to me.” Rory heard the squeak of a chair and she pictured Simon leaning forward. “Look, I know you blame all of us for your son’s death. It was an accident. Nobody’s fault. Give it up and move on.”

“I know about the witness who said Swan Anderson was there too. I know Swan wasn’t and neither was the witness. You paid him to say those things.”

“What makes you say that?”

“He’s a drinking buddy of mine. We share a bottle now and then. What can I say? Sometimes I don’t want to drink alone. He tells me things.”

“And he told you I paid him?” Simon laughed again. “This just keeps getting better and better. You have a wild imagination, I’ll give you that.”

“It’s the truth.”

“Is he going to back you up? From what I hear he’s not around anymore.”

“Thanks to you. You gave him money to leave when he threatened to tell the police about your arrangement. Before he left town, he gave me his cell phone to give back to that Vista Beach View reporter, Veronica Justice. I saw what was on it. The number of calls he made to you. She’ll back me up.”

“Those calls could have been about anything or to anyone at the store.”

Rory noticed that Simon didn’t sound as confident as he had moments before.

“I didn’t say they were to the store’s number.”

“What do you want?” Simon asked, his voice filled with exasperation.

“A public apology for the death of my son.”

“And...?”

“Money. Enough for me to pay off some debts.” Ottomar named a figure that made Rory and Liz cover their mouths to suppress gasps.

“Let’s sum up, then. You say you saw me at the beach at two a.m. That I drove up in Mindy’s car and took out a bundle that could have been a body, but could also have been something else. And you say the homeless man who saw Swan there was lying because I paid him to say it. Then I paid him to go away. Is that about right?”

A long pause where no one said anything.

Rory and Liz looked at each other, confused by the seemingly abrupt end to the conversation.

“Are you drunk now?” Simon finally said. “Because that is the most preposterous story I’ve ever heard. Why would I kill Mindy?”

“She must have had something on you. I heard she remembered something from that last night with your brother.”

“Now I killed my brother too?” The incredulousness and confidence were back in Simon’s voice. “I didn’t know he was buried in our yard. If I had, I would’ve made sure my mother didn’t sell the house. Or at least made some excuse to dig up the body before the place changed hands.”

“I saw you two argue through the window the night before Ricky was scheduled to leave. The night you must have killed him.”

“You were creeping around and watching the house? You never came onto the property before. Just stood out on the street. Why was that night so different?”

“I’d made up my mind to confront you all before Ricky left on his trip. When I looked in the kitchen window, you two were fighting. You were mad at him because he was getting to go on the surfing trip and you weren’t.”

“You heard that? What else?”

“I left after that. I thought someone spotted me and I didn’t want them to call the cops.”

“You saw two brothers arguing. That’s it. If I’m such a threat, aren’t you taking a chance coming here by yourself?’

“I left a note with a friend with instructions to give it to the police if anything happened to me.”

Another long pause, then Simon snorted. “I don’t believe you have any friends left. You’ve burned too many bridges over the years. Besides, you have no real proof. The police will never take the word of a drunk over an upstanding citizen like myself.”

“I think what I know is enough to get the police interested in you. Enough to mess up your plans to expand your company, anyway.”

From the sound of chair legs scraping against the floor, Rory guessed Simon had stood up.

“I will not be blackmailed. Get out.”

“Fine, I’ll go to the police with what I know and I’ll make sure they look into it. Even a whiff of scandal will hurt your business. I know you don’t want that.”

Wide eyed, Rory and Liz looked at each other, wondering what was going to happen next. They didn’t have long to wait.

A crash followed by Ottomar’s voice yelling for help reached their ears.

“We have to help him,” Liz said. “We can’t listen and not do anything.”

Rory nodded her agreement. They looked around the storeroom for anything they could use as a weapon. Rory grabbed the nearest skateboard while Liz pulled a cargo net out of a box. They rushed out the door and ran across the hallway into Simon’s office, brandishing their makeshift weapons.

Inside they found Ottomar cowering on the ground, a bloody cut on his head, and Simon towering over him, a trophy in his hands, prepared to strike.

“Leave him alone.” Rory held the skateboard up in a threatening manner.

“Yeah, leave him alone!” Liz spread out the net, ready to throw it over him if needed.

Simon stared open mouthed at the two of them. “What the heck.” He lowered the trophy. “I’m glad you two are here. He attacked me. I was just defending myself.”

“We heard the entire conversation. I recorded it on my phone.” Rory lowered the skateboard and ran out into the hallway to pick up her cell phone. She held it up so he could see.

“Give that to me.” Simon lunged toward her.

Rory dodged out of the way and the phone slipped out of her hand onto the floor.

Liz threw the net over Simon’s head when he bent down to pick up the phone. The more Simon struggled the more he became tangled in the net.

Rory was retrieving her cell when the back door of the store burst open and Mrs. Maldonado and Mrs. Griswold rushed into the office, waving purses as large as tote bags in the air.

“Are we too late?” Mrs. Griswold lowered her weapon and studied the tableau before her.

Simon was sitting on the floor, tangled up in the net, beside a now unconscious Ottomar.

“Thank goodness you’re here,” Simon said. “These two are crazy.” He tried to gesture toward Rory and Liz, but the netting prevented his hands from moving very far.

“I forgot to tell you that we found Ricky’s surfboard. We know what you did,” Rory said to him.

As Simon continued to struggle with the netting, Ottomar came to and sat up against a nearby wall.

Before Simon could protest any further, Martin entered the store through the back door followed by a uniformed officer. He studied the scene before him. “Seems a bit crowded in here. Anyone care to tell me what’s going on?”

Everyone started talking and gesturing at once.

Martin held up his hands to quiet them down, not speaking until everyone was silent.

“Let’s all go down to the station and sort it out there.”