Chapter 17

 

I’d given the note to Jake, but he said they’d still need to locate the murder weapon or secure a confession. A confession? Was that all he needed? No problem. Well, kind of no problem. In the meantime, I’d looked over the surveillance video again. The man I’d seen with Penelope was actually Roland Bailey. Okay, I wasn’t sure of that, but based on his large stature, I had my suspicions. 

Yes, the Roland Bailey from the surf shop where we were taking the surf lessons. Needless to say, that definitely give him the opportunity for murder. He had moved way to the top of my list of suspects. Now I needed to talk with him. We didn’t have a surf lesson today, but this couldn’t wait until then. I had to go there right away.

“Okay, Maggie, we’re going to do this before we get in there. This time we’re going to have a plan. We can’t just go willy-nilly asking questions.” She waved her hand.

“Oh, is that right?” I said. “So what’s your plan?”

“Well… good question. Okay, so I don’t have a plan,” she said. “But we need to think of one before we go in there.”

Cranking the engine and pulling out onto the road, I headed in the direction of the surf shop. “We can discuss this on the way.”

“All right, but just don’t let us go in there without a plan.”

“Got it,” I said, turning left at the light. “We could do the simple thing.”

“What’s that?” she asked.

“Tell him the truth. That I’m a private investigator looking into this murder and I want to ask him questions.”

“Just as easy as that?” she said.

“Just as easy as that.” I snapped my fingers.

“I suppose the other way hasn’t been working so well. We could give it a shot,” Dorothy said.

“I think it’s best,” I said.

Soon I pulled into the parking lot and Dorothy and I got out of the car. We headed toward the shop. My confidence was high that this was going to work for once. I was just going to get to the point and ask the man the questions. I opened the door and stepped into the shop. Dorothy was right behind me. I didn’t see anyone around.

Roland wasn’t behind the counter like usual. It was just my luck he wouldn’t be here today. Someone had to be here and I would ask anyone who showed up questions. Forget the surfing lessons or any other ruse. The sound of squeaky footsteps came from the back room. I was relieved when Roland walked out from the back of the shop.

He looked at us and right away said, “The surf lessons aren’t today.”

“Yes, I’m aware, but we’re not here for surf lessons.”

“Well, what can I do for you?” he asked, looking at me suspiciously.

I had a feeling he wasn’t going to like where this conversation was headed, but I marched over to the counter and prepared myself to ask the questions.

“Well, you know we’ve been coming here for lessons.”

I exchanged a look with Dorothy. She had that look that said, Oh, no, this isn’t going to end well.

“But I’m also a private investigator and I just have some questions for you about a murder that I am investigating. I found out that you might know the victim.”

His face turned red and fury flashed in his eyes. I wondered how fast I could get to the exit door while simultaneously shoving Dorothy outside with me. He didn’t speak so I knew it was up to me to keep this going.

“Would you answer a few questions for me?” I asked.

“I don’t know about any murder,” he said.

“Well, that’s the thing, you may think you don’t know, but there might be somebody who could possibly lead me to the killer. If you’d be so kind as to answer the questions it might help me a lot.”

This was the move that Jake called ‘good cop.’ Yes, I was using some of his tactics and I wouldn’t want him to find out about it.

“Fine, what do you want to know?” he asked with hostility in his voice.

“The murder victim is Henry Archer and I heard that you know him.”

“Who told you that?”

He didn’t deny it. That didn’t bring him down off the top of my list at all.

“So you do know him?” I asked.

“No, I’ve never met anyone by that name,” Roland said. 

Maybe he didn’t even know Henry’s name.

“What about Penelope Clark?”

His expression changed. He knew Penelope. I could tell by the look on his face.

“Don’t know Penelope either.” His words were matter-of-fact.

I knew he was lying.

Roland moved from around the counter and I wondered if he was getting ready to attack us. His black flip-flops squeaked with each step. He picked up one of the surfboards. He seemed nonchalant about my question. However, he wasn’t offering to answer it. He reached over my head, like he was going to hang the surfboard. That was when it flipped from his hands and came crashing down on me. I fell to the ground with a thud. 

Dorothy screamed out. “Are you all right, Maggie?”

Roland didn’t get in any hurry to pull the thing off of me either. I managed to throw myself out from under it. If I didn’t know better I’d say that he’d dropped it on me on purpose. Maybe this telling him the truth thing wasn’t such a good idea after all. Dorothy touched my arms, legs, and head, checking me over as if she was looking for any broken bones, cuts, or bruises.

“I’m fine. Just a little bit of the wind knocked out of me, that’s all.” I shot a dirty look at the man.

“Sorry about that,” he finally managed to say.

Did he think if he killed me I would stop asking questions? Okay, that was a reasonable assumption since I’d be dead. I would keep asking until he answered me. He could keep hitting me with that surfboard and I would still keep asking. Had he really released the board on purpose? Now I really was thinking he had done it on purpose.

“So about those questions,” I continued. “How do you know Penelope?”

“Look, I already talked to the cops.”

So Jake had been here asking about the murder. He hadn’t mentioned it to me.

“Well, I’m a private investigator who has been hired to solve this case, so I don’t care if you talked to the cops. I want an answer now.”

Dorothy’s eyes widened. Yeah, I couldn’t believe I’d said that either. Roland seemed shocked too. After all, he was much bigger than me. His face turned even redder. If he wasn’t careful he would pass out or have a stroke.

“I meet a lot of people here at the shop. Maybe she’s been in.”

“Can you tell me where you were at eight forty-five in the morning last Thursday?”

“I was right here in my shop.”

“Do you have any proof of that?” I asked.

“The alarm company can tell you what time I turned off the alarm,” he said.

“Yeah, but that doesn’t prove that you turned it off. What about the surveillance video? Did you turn it on?”

I should confront him with the video I’d recorded with my phone. That might be too much for right now. I didn’t want to spook him from talking too much.

“It’s not working.”

“How convenient,” Dorothy answered.

He glared at her. I didn’t like the way he was looking at her. There was something about this guy that rubbed me the wrong way. Perhaps because he’d tossed a surfboard on me.

“Look, I got to get back to work. I don’t have any more answers for you. You’ll have to talk with my lawyer if you want to arrest me.”

What part of being a private investigator did this guy not understand? I couldn’t arrest him. I might have reason to have him arrested if he assaulted me with a surfboard again.

“We’ll be back for the surf lessons and with my questions,” I said.

I stared at him for a moment as if that was going to be some sort of intimidation for him. He didn’t act scared as he reciprocated with the same glare. I wasn’t scared of him either. Okay, maybe a little bit because he was bigger than me.