Chapter 14

 

“Hold on, Feldstein, I think you’re getting ahead of yourself,” Frank said. “I got that you took the local cop to the spot where something happened by way of your cockamamie knitting and you used some luminol to find blood residue—both of which must have driven him nuts—but am I to take that to mean someone died?”

I’d gotten back to my place so exhausted that I’d fallen asleep still dressed on top of the bed. I was amazed I’d managed to take off my jacket and give Julius a dab of good-night stink fish. I’d awoken Friday morning with a start and a gritty tired feeling in my eyes—well, the tired feeling was pretty much everywhere. My first thought had been to call Frank and tell him about my triumph the night before. I’d forgotten that he had no idea what had led up to it.

I was holding the landline as I set the ceramic coffee thing on top of a mug. I put in the paper filter and spooned in the coffee grounds. Dane had gifted me with a filter setup so I could brew a single cup of coffee using real grounds. It was a definite step up from the instant I’d depended on and made more sense than brewing a whole pot. As soon as I poured in the hot water and it hit the grounds of the dark roast coffee, the pungent fragrance filled the air.

“Sorry, I forgot you didn’t know.” I heard Frank clucking his tongue.

“All this happened since I talked to you yesterday? You certainly lead a busy life.”

“That was yesterday?” I said in surprise. “It seems like a month ago.” The coffee had completed dripping into the mug and I took a big sip. The smell had knocked the door to my brain open and the liquid went right to my wakeup center. I let out a sigh as I felt more alert. “I better start at the beginning.” I told him about the birthday group again since I figured he probably hadn’t been listening that closely when I’d talked to him the preceding morning. There had to be some kind of drama in what I was telling him to get his attention. I heard him perk up when I mentioned interfering with the Silicon Valley group’s retreat.

“Feldstein, you certainly know how to keep things stirred up. So the manager doesn’t know that you’re doing stuff for the retreat that he set up? The same person who you’ve told me doesn’t like you and would love to trash-talk you to the owners so they don’t give you a great deal on the rooms and your business falls apart.” I heard the rattle of a paper sack on his end, and when Frank spoke again it sounded like he had a mouthful of something. “Is this leading up to whoever died?”

“Yes, you’re right about Kevin St. John and I realize now it was probably a mistake to get involved with that group’s retreat. And it was someone from Kevin’s retreat who died,” I said. I told him about the supposed accident, which led back to where I’d started telling him about my nighttime adventure with Lieutenant Borgnine.

“Whoever said small towns are boring hasn’t hung out with you,” Frank said. “So what happens now?” He didn’t wait for me to answer. “I think I know. The cop is going to keep you out of the loop completely, but you’re going to snoop around anyway. You know, Feldstein, most people wouldn’t bother investigating if they weren’t hired to do it, as in getting paid. It seems to me that with this one maybe you should stay out of it. Take your triumph with the luminol over the cop last night and walk away.”

I took another sip of the coffee and mulled over what he’d said. “You could be right. Thanks for the advice,” I said.

“That’s what I’m here for,” he joked. “Let me know what happens.” And with a click he was gone.

I drained the coffee cup and went to get ready. I’d already planned to skip breakfast. I wasn’t so sure having a lot of food in my stomach would go well with the morning’s plans.

Even though I grew up in an apartment with a view of Lake Michigan my family weren’t boat people. We were about looking at the water more than being on it. I’d taken the architectural river cruise on the Chicago River and gone to parties held on the excursion boats that left from Navy Pier to cruise along the coast to the north shore. In other words, I’d always been close to land.

So, when the birthday group requested a whale-watching outing, I’d arranged it and hoped my duties would be merely seeing them off from Vista Del Mar. But Aileen had made it clear I was to accompany them on the whole thing.

I threw Julius an envious look as he lay curled up on my bed for his morning nap. He didn’t even awaken when I sat down on the bed to pull on my sneakers. I’d exchanged my usual turtlenecks for a V-neck taupe knit top and my favorite jeans that were pale blue from years of washing and wear. I slipped on a lavender cowl from my aunt’s collection of her yarn craft creations. Figuring the wind would make a mess of my hair, I pulled it into a ponytail. There was another reason I wanted it out of the way. My lack of experience on the water left me worrying about getting seasick. I stuck on a baseball cap, grabbed a light-colored fleece jacket and headed to the door.

Julius never even looked up.

When I came outside, Deani was just closing the guesthouse door. She smiled when she saw me. “Just giving Fifi her morning walk and some attention,” she said. I nodded as if in agreement, but I knew she was really dropping off the dog after sneaking her into her room overnight. As long as she didn’t get caught, why should I care?

“Good idea not to take her on the boat,” I said.

Deani and I walked across the street and down the driveway of Vista Del Mar. I kept expecting her to say something about the previous night, but she was acting like it never happened. I had a sudden thought, remembering how she’d said she had trouble sleeping. Maybe she had taken a sleeping pill. I’d heard that people did weird things when they took certain sleep aids, like drive in their sleep and have no memory of doing it. Could that be what happened to her?

Madison, Iola and PJ were waiting outside Aileen’s SUV in the parking area near the Lodge.

“Have you seen Aileen?” Madison said. “She didn’t come to breakfast, and when I knocked on her door she wasn’t in her room.”

“You all know her better than I do,” I said, “but she seems to have done the disappearing act a lot since you got here. It sounded to me like she wanted some alone time.”

“I would have thought she had plenty of that since her divorce. But I guess it’s different being away somewhere,” PJ said.

“Here she comes,” Deani said as Aileen rushed to join the group. Whatever Aileen was doing, it seemed to agree with her. Even with the utilitarian jeans and hoodie, her skin had a glow. Deani still had the car keys from the night before when she’d driven to the drugstore and stopped by the Blue Door. She went to give them to Aileen, but Aileen suggested she drive.

Deani beeped the doors open and said it was time to load up. I was hoping to ride shotgun, but Aileen opened up a single seat in the third row and gestured for me to get in. With the second row of seats back in place I felt a little claustrophobic but accepted that I was the hired hand and had to take the undesirable seat. The rest of them climbed in and Deani got in the driver’s seat.

As soon as we were on the road, they all took out their phones, as I’d expected. It gave me some time for my own thoughts and I immediately went to thinking about Tim and his so-called accident. If I was right and someone killed him, the obvious suspects were the other people in his group. That meant there were four people who might have had a motive to get him out of the way. But which one and why?

Just as I was about to start racking my brain I thought about what Frank had said about letting this one go. I knew he was only thinking of my own good. I’d already stepped into the danger zone with Kevin St. John when I’d helped out his retreaters. Maybe it wasn’t the danger zone yet, but if he found out, it would be the danger zone for sure. It would be even worse if he found out I thought one of his group was a killer. Maybe I should take Frank’s advice and sit this one out, just let Lieutenant Borgnine do whatever he was going to do and stay out of the investigation. I let out a breath thinking I could just put it out of my mind and concentrate on everything else I had going on for the weekend. It sounded like a plan.

“I can’t believe it,” Madison said, looking up from her phone. “My daughter said my mother-in-law took them shopping and she’s bought them the skimpy dresses I wouldn’t let them buy.” Madison held the phone up for them all to see. Well, except me. I couldn’t see much of anything from the squished seat in the back row. She took the phone back and then let out a shriek. “She let them get tattoos. My eldest said it was funny that her grandmother was so much more with it than I am.” She passed around the phone again and I assumed there was a photo of her daughters’ new adornments. “I’m going to kill my husband when I get home. He’s just asleep at the wheel while his mother wreaks havoc.”

She touched her pink hair. “I was going to wash out the color before I went home. So I wouldn’t embarrass them. But maybe I’ll just keep it.”

Aileen put her phone away. “It’s better to talk to real people than to email or text.” It seemed to have come out of nowhere. It served a purpose, though, by changing the subject.

“You never said where you went this morning,” Madison said, leaning toward the front seat.

Aileen laughed. “Really? You’re asking me to account for my time? I’m not one of your teenage daughters.” We’d left Cadbury behind and were in Monterey, taking the route than ran close to the water. It was a big tourist area and the street was lined with motels and bed-and-breakfasts in interesting old houses. “If you have to know—instead of breakfast I went for a walk on the beach.”

My ears perked up. Lieutenant Borgnine had said he was going to send a crew to check out the rocks first thing in the morning. “Where’d you walk? Were you near the rocky area?” I called out from the far backseat.

“Yeah, that’s where I was,” she said, nodding.

“Did you see anything interesting?” I asked.

“Just sand and water and of course rocks,” she answered, and then looked out the window with a contented sigh.

Okay, something was off here. There would have been a police car and probably a van. People would have been on the rocks. In other words, too much activity for a walker not to notice. So either he’d just been trying to pacify me with his supposed plans or Aileen wasn’t telling the truth about where she’d been. I reminded myself that I was going to stay out of the lieutenant’s investigation, so whatever he had or hadn’t done was not my concern. Ditto for whether Aileen had been telling the truth. It was none of my business. Besides, I had other things to worry about—like the upcoming boat trip.

 

• • •

 

The boats left from the tip of Fisherman’s Wharf and I directed Deani to a parking lot near there. The wharf was a tourist heaven with fudge shops, T-shirt shops and lots of places that sold raw and cooked fish, no doubt caught on one of the many fishing boats moored in the water nearby.

The sky was overcast and a chilly breeze blew off the water. I put on a brave face and led the group through the throngs of tourists. There was a brief stay in the boat lounge and the signing of waivers, which didn’t make me feel any better. None of the boats I’d taken on Lake Michigan required the signing of anything. And then it was time to board.

You can do this, I told myself. With all the different things I’d done, spending a few hours on a small boat out in the middle of unbelievably deep water surrounded by huge animals couldn’t be all that bad, could it?

I led the way onto the boat. There was a tiny snack bar and a little seating inside. There were two bathrooms on the outside and places to sit and stand. The motor made a grinding sound and we moved away from the dock. At first it went slow and we made our way around the other docks, and after we passed a buoy the boat picked up speed. I watched the panoramic view of the shore and the harbor get smaller and smaller as we went farther and farther into the open water. I did my best not to think about the map I’d seen of the mountains and deep canyon hidden under the water below us. The boat rocked and rolled over the rises and falls of the water. I was glad for the gunmetal sky, as even the thought of having the sun beat down on me made me feel queasy. The shore kept receding until it disappeared. Ahead there was just open water.

By now a couple of people had begun to look a little green and I noticed one of the boat people offering them paper towels and some advice. It was then that I noticed something about myself. The churning water and the rolling boat didn’t seem to bother me at all. I began to make the rounds and check on my people in case their experience was different than mine.

Aileen seemed fine. She was at the front of the boat doing a Titanic move of holding her arms out and letting the wind make crazy salad of her brown hair. Madison had found a seat and wanted to know where the whales were. Iola had staked out a seat at the back of the boat. When I asked how she was she gave me a thumbs-up. Deani had gone inside and was checking out the snack bar.

And then I found PJ. She was slumped on a bench along the side of the cabin. “Are you okay?” I asked. She nodded half-heartedly. “I was going to tape something about being prepared for boat travel for the vlog.” She pulled out a small makeup bag and showed me it was almost empty. “I didn’t expect to have to use all the stuff on myself.” She showed me she was wearing a wrist band that had a pressure point that was supposed to help with seasickness. There were only wrappers left from the ginger candy she’d brought. “Thank heavens I didn’t have to use this,” she said and pulled out the only thing left in the bag. It was a package of damp wipes with the lovely title of Vomit Patrol, which promised to leave the user fresh as a daisy.

“Maybe I should do the vlog entry. The point being that things don’t always work out as you expected and you have to be able to step in and take care of yourself. The fact that it was me who had to do it might make it more compelling.” She patted her hair, which like everyone else’s was blowing across her face. “I’ll just have to do the best I can to look presentable,” she said as she pulled out a scarf and magically tied it perfectly around her head. She straightened her black jacket before she freshened her lipstick and pulled out her phone and used the camera to check her appearance. When she was satisfied, she began to tape.

I’d done my duty and went to find a seat near Iola just as the boat cut the motor and the voice over the loudspeaker announced we were there. Now that we weren’t moving forward anymore, the boat really began to rock and I saw a couple of people head for the edge and hang their heads over. I thought of offering them PJ’s Vomit Patrol wipes, but they weren’t really mine to give.

I glanced at Iola. Not only was she quiet, but she was hopelessly nondescript as well. I was looking right at her and I had trouble noticing what she was wearing other than it seemed to be a beige jacket over slacks and those kinds of sandals that have a rubber layer along the front. They looked as if you could kick things and not hurt your toes. Her hair was literally a color without a name. It was somewhere between a honey blond and chestnut brown. It was cut short and seemed like it could use something to give it some life.

“Still okay?” I said to Iola, expecting a thumbs-up or -down. Instead she spoke.

“Boats don’t bother me,” she said. The sound of her voice startled me and surprised me, too. When she’d spoken before her voice had been so quiet I didn’t hear the timbre. But thanks to the wind she had to speak louder and I heard the quality of her voice. I don’t know what I’d expected she would sound like, but certainly not the husky sultry voice she had. She chuckled after that. “You looked surprised that I said something. I suppose the others told you I never say anything.”

“Well, now that you mention it, somebody did say you were on the quiet side.”

“Ha,” she said in the low sexy voice. “They don’t stop talking long enough for me to get a word in. Somebody has to listen to all their prattle. I think you should know that Madison is really upset with you.”

“Really?” I said, looking in the direction of the woman with the pink hair. “What did I do?”

“She said you put on a workshop for those Reborn people.” I remembered now that Madison had walked in during the workshop.

“I didn’t think it would be a problem since your group wasn’t using the room. I’m sorry,” I added quickly. “We were just in your room for that time. Maybe I should go and tell her,” I said, but Iola put her hand on my wrist.

“It’s not that someone was using the room—it’s who was using the room. She’s not upset with you, it’s them.”

“Does she know them?” I asked, and Iola smiled.

“I guess you missed it when Madison was talking about what she does. She manages a shared work space place and they have an office there.”

I was a little confused by the term shared work space and then I realized it was the new version of what used to be called an executive suite. There were private offices, but reception and a lounge with a kitchen were shared.

“Madison does more than manage the place. She’s the main receptionist who answers the phone and troubleshoots anything that goes wrong. That means those Reborn people go past her counter whenever they come in or go out or need something, which apparently is all the time. She wasn’t thrilled when she saw they were here since she half expected them to dump some problem on her here.” Iola let out a mirthless laugh and rolled her eyes. “But what they did was far worse. She went to greet a couple of them in the Lodge and they absolutely looked right through her. Those arrogant jerks are so into their own importance they obviously never really looked at a person they see every day.”

“Wow, I had no idea. Well, maybe a little. I did get the feeling they think they’re kind of entitled.” I stopped as something occurred to me. “Didn’t Madison say your knitting group meets where she works?”

Iola nodded.

“So then you all know them,” I said.

Iola shrugged. “We have different degrees of familiarity with them, but believe me, they don’t know us. They walked right past Deani without so much as a second look and she delivers their food.”

“Did you know that one of them died?” I asked.

“The one that fell. He was the one who didn’t play follow the leader and wear all black like the rest of them. Yes, Deani told us this morning. That’s why Madison didn’t say anything to you about being upset.”

That made sense, but what didn’t make sense was why Deani hadn’t mentioned the Silicon Valley bunch were her customers when I’d told her Tim had died.

“Humpback on the starboard, a voice called out over the loudspeaker and everyone went to that side of the boat, making it list a little. Just then a large black creature breached the water as its blowhole made a whooshing sound. Its giant mouth was open and water poured in. After a few minutes its tail slapped the water as it dove back down. And then there were more. We were literally surrounded by whales having lunch.

I’d worry about Deani and the Silicon Valley bunch later. For now, I wanted to enjoy the show.