Chapter 13

 

There was another name on my suspect list. Someone also connected with Skye. Dorothy and I arrived at the surf shop where Kenneth Bailey worked. I parked the car a bit of a distance away and turned off the ignition. We stared at the shop. I knew Dorothy was probably thinking the same thing as me. How were we going to talk to this guy and get the information that we needed? I couldn’t just come out and ask him if he was the murderer. A question like that would likely get a lie in response and not the truth. Even being interrogated by the police wouldn’t get someone to admit that… usually.

“So what’s the plan, Maggie?” Dorothy asked.

I continued to stare at the building because I had no answer for her at the moment. So I just stared. That was when the sign on the front caught my attention and the idea just popped on like a lightbulb going off.

“You see that sign on the front there?” I pointed.

Dorothy shoved her hand into her pocketbook and fished around for her reading glasses.

I waved my hand. “No need to do that. I’ll tell you what it says.”

Dorothy continued to look for the glasses.

“The sign is for surfing lessons. That’s a perfect idea.”

She stopped looking and cast a glance at me. “What are you talking about?”

“I can take the lessons and have a reason to be here at the shop, and hopefully be able to get more information.”

“You know, that idea sounds good probably in your head, but when it’s all actually playing out, it probably won’t turn out well.”

“Oh, don’t be so negative, Dorothy,” I said, grabbing my bag and taking the keys from the ignition. “We’ll see what the details are and we’ll go from there.”

She grabbed up her big bag and met me at the front of the car. “Okay, if you say so, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Dorothy and I walked into the shop. There were surfboards lining the walls, swimsuits on racks, and other bodysuits. The other paraphernalia around, I had no idea what it was even for. A man with a gray ponytail and a closely trimmed beard stood behind the counter. I guessed his height at about six foot two with a large build. He had a deep tan, obviously from hours spent in the sun surfing the waves. A small sign on the wall behind him read, “Roland Bailey, owner.” He must be related to Kenneth. Maybe his father?

“May I help you?” the man asked in a scratchy voice.

“Are you the owner?”

He stared at my face. “Yes.”

“I’d like to sign up for surfing lessons.” I pointed at the sign on the wall. “Is Kenneth Bailey the instructor? I heard he’s good.”

Roland’s expression eased. “He’s the best.”

I had expected perhaps for Roland to give me a strange look for even asking about lessons, but he hadn’t flinched. All he did was reach behind the counter, pull out some forms, and stretch his large hand toward me.

“You’ll need to sign this in case, you know, you die or something. It just says you can’t sue us,” Roland said.

Dorothy laughed. I stared at him for a moment before taking the pen. If that was his way of discouraging me from doing this then it wouldn’t work. I could still sue him, right? For the injury part. Obviously not if I died.

“I’d like to sign up for the classes too,” Dorothy said.

My hand froze as I was signing my signature. I looked over at her. “Are you kidding? You can’t be serious.”

She frowned. “What makes you think I can’t do it?”

Oh, no, I didn’t want to get into this argument. “Nothing, nothing at all. It’s just that, you know, maybe you wouldn’t want to mess up your hair.”

“Give me the form,” she said.

Roland chuckled and reached under the counter to get more forms for Dorothy. She thought this wouldn’t end well for me? Oh, boy, I couldn’t wait to see her try this. Maybe she would give up before she even got in the water. That was my hope. I finished filling out the forms and so did Dorothy. We handed them back to the guy.

“All right, well, you’re going to need some suits. You can rent them or buy them. Whatever you prefer.”

“I think I’ll just go with renting,” I said. “You know, until I know if I like it.”

Yeah, right, like I was ever going to surf again after this.

“The rentals are right over there. You can pick out your size. If you’d like, we have a class starting in ten minutes. You could do this today.”

“Sure, why not. We might as well get it over with,” I said.

He frowned as if that wasn’t the right thing to say.

“I mean, yes, I’m looking forward to it.” I smiled.

Dorothy and I went over to the racks to look at the suits.

“What size do you think is a twelve?” Dorothy asked.

“I have no idea how that translates to bodysuits. It’s all rubber. We might as well wear a tire.”

“I don’t know if you’ll be able to find one that stays on those chicken legs of yours,” she said. “Bless your heart.”

Leave it to Dorothy to insult me in the most pleasant way possible.

I sifted through the suits until I came to one that I thought would fit. I suppose it was this or nothing. Dorothy had already stepped into one of the curtained off spaces. I went into the one next to her.

“How’s it going in there, Dorothy?” I called out.

"This is worse than putting on a girdle.” She seemed out of breath already.

I’d never worn a girdle, but I had suffered through Spanx, so I figured it was about the same thing. Thank goodness there was a chair in the space. I sat down and pulled on the legs. Okay, this was going to take a lot more tugging. As I yanked on one of the legs my hand slipped and smacked me right in the face.

“Ouch,” I said.

“What’s going on in there?” Dorothy pulled the curtain back and peered in.

"Just beating myself up,” I said.

My eyes widened. Dorothy had the suit up halfway on her body. She was wearing her bra on the top half.

She pulled at the crouch area. “I can’t get this thing up to save my life.”

The crouch was at her knees.

“Let me get mine on and I’ll help you with yours,” I said. “I’ll help you and you can help me.”

“Deal.”

After standing I jumped up and down while Dorothy pulled on the suit.

“Time out,” I said breathlessly.

At least I had the lower half on my body. Next, I pulled on the upper part.

“This is more cardio than I’ve done in a long time,” I said.

“Let me zip you up.” Dorothy motioned over me to turn around.

That was when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Ugh. Thank goodness Jake wouldn’t see me in this thing.

“Okay, Dorothy, here goes. I’m going to pull now.” I yanked and Dorothy wobbled back and forth.

I steadied her.

“Maybe we can leave it like this.”

I stared at her. “Okay, try to walk.”

She moved across the space like a mummy.

I laughed. “Not going to work. Come back over here.”

Another few minutes of shimming and we were there.

“Success,” I said. “Okay, now you have to take that over the shoulder boulder holder off.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “Naked?” she whispered.

“You’ll have the wetsuit on. You’ll be covered.”

“I might be covered, but these puppies need support. Besides, I’m wearing my knickers underneath, so what’s the difference with the bra?”

“Well, nothing I suppose. As long as the suit doesn’t compress against the bra too much.”

Dorothy slipped the top portion on and I helped her get zipped in.

“Maggie, I just thought of something.”

“What’s that?” I asked, stuffing my clothing into one of the tiny lockers.

“What did the people who wore these suits before us wear under them? Did they clean these before we wore them?”

I stared at her. “Why did she have to bring this up?”

The thought hadn’t crossed my mind and I’d been blissfully unaware. Now I couldn’t get the thought out of my head.

“I’m sure they clean them.”

“You think that guy out there cleans them?”

I sighed. “Just don’t think about it.”

As if on cue, the guy called out from the other side of the door. “How’s it going in there? What’s taking so long?”

“We’re coming,” I said.

I placed Dorothy’s things into the locker next to mine and then rushed her to the door.       

We came out of the dressing room in our suits. The guy looked us up and down. Thank goodness he didn’t laugh because then I would really have let him have it.

“All right, you’re going to need to get your surfboards. The rentals are right through that door.” He gestured.

Dorothy and I traveled to the room that he pointed out.

“I want the smallest one they have,” she said.

“Well, it doesn’t look like they come in small, medium, or large, so let’s just take these right here,” I said.

The boards were propped against the walls and on shelves around the room. Where would I start?

“Which one should we pick?” Dorothy asked.

“I want one that isn’t heavy,” I said.

“Don’t they all weigh the same?” she asked.

“I have no idea,” I said.

“I want that pretty one with the aqua color.” Dorothy pointed.

I realized that Dorothy and I sounded as if we had no clue what we were doing. I suppose because we really had no clue. I hoped we didn’t get ourselves killed. I especially hoped that nothing happened to Dorothy. This was my idea. Sure, she insisted on coming along, but she was my responsibility.

I grabbed the board and then fell back onto the floor. I’d had no idea it was so heavy. Dorothy picked hers up with ease and then headed out the door, leaving me on the floor. A few seconds later I managed to wrangle mine up from the floor and dragged it out to the main area. We were standing there waiting for the instructor. A few more people came in with their suits on already.

The guy came from the back. I knew right away that it was Kenneth. How lucky was it that he was going to be the instructor? This would give me plenty of opportunity to find out more from him. I just had to get him on friendly terms and then he would talk.

“Okay, if everyone’s ready we’ll head outside to the waves.” Kenneth motioned.

We followed along like little ducklings, across the hot sand, and over to the shore. We were right by the water now. It lapped against my feet. The sound of the waves was almost covering up his voice, and I couldn’t understand what he was saying. Something about lying down on the board and paddling. This was probably important information that I needed to know.

Maybe Dorothy was right about this surfing lesson. Maybe it wasn’t the best way to talk to him, but I couldn’t admit that now. Dorothy would just make fun of me and say she told me so. Everyone was doing as the instructor said and I gave it a go as well. He didn’t say anything about my attempt, so I assumed I was doing all right. Dorothy picked up her board and headed straight for the water.

“Wait, where do you think you’re going?” Kenneth yelled and chased after her.

I ran too, hoping to stop Dorothy. Had she completely lost her mind?

Dorothy stared at us with wide eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“You can’t go yet,” he said.

“Come on back to the class, Dorothy.” I motioned.

“I feel like I’m ready to go. I don’t know, it’s just a strange feeling. Something calling me to the water, I guess,” Dorothy said.

“I think you better take a few more lessons first,” Kenneth said.

Oh, great, Dorothy was going to get us kicked out of the lessons before the first surfboard hit the water.

As we turned back around to gather with the rest of the group, I thought I saw someone over by the lifeguard shack. It was definitely a man standing over there, but it was so far away. I couldn’t get a good look at him. Although something told me that he had been watching us and he looked suspiciously like the man we saw at the racetrack the other day. Was Brett at the beach now too? Yes, definitely I thought it was him.

“Hey, are you listening to what I have to say?” Kenneth snapped his fingers.

I turned around to look at him. I didn’t appreciate the way that he talked to me.

“I heard you,” I said. “Paddling, something, something.”

When I turned back to look for the guy, he was already gone. That was definitely suspicious. Now I had an uneasy feeling, but I had to continue with the rest of this class. I hoped he wasn’t waiting for us when we got out of here. Maybe he’d hidden away somewhere and I wouldn’t see him. Then he would jump out at us. I had to be on guard all the time. Plus, I didn’t have my gun. What if he shot at us?