Something Fishy This Way Comes Page 2

  I’d seen Betty and her husband walking by the shop while Manny was complaining on the phone to Aaron, so I had about another thirty minutes before they came out my way. Just enough time for me to get this thing buried and then get out of the way so I wasn’t here for the big reveal.

  Parking at the entrance to the golf course, I sat for a second in my flashy autoette, with its stickers and spray paint art, and took out the master map from Pops. I ran my finger over the part of the map for the golf course and found the big red X at the end of the dotted line. A soft breeze ruffled my short hair and brought the smells of the sand and sea to my attention. I closed my eyes, just for a second, to enjoy both scents. So very different from the smog and diesel I’d left behind when I’d moved here from Long Beach.

  I’d need to head across the eighteenth hole and go just underneath the trees management had planted at the edge of the green. Hopefully, I could get in and out without encountering too many people. Few carts were parked in the lot with me, although that didn’t always mean anything. Almost anyone in Avalon could walk here. Heck, they could walk just about anywhere on the island if they had the time and the desire. The fewer golfers, though, the happier I’d be.

  After clicking on Whisker’s leash, I stepped out of the golf cart and let her frolic as we walked through the artificial turf. She rolled, she clawed, she attempted the downward-facing dog pose to stretch out her spine, and then she trotted. Sometimes I was convinced she thought she was a dog. She’d never pranced, but she was only a few years old. There was still time for that at some point.

  The trek wasn’t far, so I used the time to run through the things I had planned for the rest of the week. Dinner with the grandparents and Felix tonight, inventory over the next few days, and apparently accepting a delivery for Goldy, the grandmother who refused to be called any such thing. When my brother, Nick, and I were younger, we’d tried a host of different names for our only remaining grandmother, but she would have none of it and constantly corrected us with “Goldy” until it stuck.

  Whiskers and I were at the last bend before the area I was looking for would come into sight, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to get hit by someone’s overzealous or off-target stroke.

  Glancing up, I zeroed-in on the location, but instead of just a tree with a small place for a hole in the dirt at the base where I normally buried the box to be found by the customer, I found myself staring at a screaming match between Manny and Aaron, who stood next to Aaron’s golf cart.

  I should never have thrown that out into the universe. She’d probably taken it as a challenge and told the moon to hold her beer.

  The closer I got, the more I didn’t think they were fighting, though. Manny appeared to be trying to calm Aaron down as Aaron wrapped the strap of his binoculars around his own neck and pulled until I thought he might pop his head off. So, Manny wouldn’t have to hang him by his binocular strap since Aaron was apparently trying to do that all by himself.

  Dropping the treasure box at my feet, I ran, dragging Whiskers behind me even as she yowled indignantly. Oh my gosh, this was not good. Maybe Aaron was having a raging fit because he’d lost that Ashy thing that he’d promised Manny.

  Weirder things had happened, though I was having a hard time pulling anything up at the moment as my breath sawed in and out of my lungs. Running was not one of my strong suits. Beyond that, I also didn’t want to hurt Whiskers in the process, and she darted away from me every time I tried to snatch her up. But I hoofed it as best I could over a small rise and up to the pair standing just outside the tree line.

  Once I got close enough to make out their words, I didn’t understand what was going on any better.

  “Aaron, knock it off. This is manageable. You don’t have to do anything but breathe, and you can’t do that with those damn things pulled tight around your neck.” Manny made a grab for the binoculars and Aaron sidestepped him and then fell backward. The turf was pretty flat here as far as I knew but maybe he’d just tripped over his own feet.

  Except when I looked closer, I saw a third guy. This one was lying on the grass, staring up at the sky with unblinking eyes, blood trickling out of his mouth. He’d been hidden from my view by the golf cart, and I wished he’d stayed that way.

  I so did not want to find another corpse. It had only been a few weeks since the last one had floated underneath my brother’s glass-bottomed boat. To say I didn’t want a repeat of any kind was a serious understatement.

  “What happened?” I asked both men. But they were still yelling at each other, so I turned my back on them. There were more important things to deal with. Fighting my severe trepidation, I reached down and touched the man’s neck. I avoided looking into his eyes because I just couldn’t face that blank stare right now. But I knew who he was.

  I found no pulse and checked again just to be certain before I made the call I dreaded.

  This was not good. Leo Franklin, a young guy who had just moved back to the island a few months ago to get his life in order, was gone. We’d been friends with him and his family for as long as I could remember. He was Aaron’s nephew, if I remembered correctly. And now he was dead. But how had it happened?

  It didn’t matter. We needed the police here now. I would deal with Manny and Aaron later. I whipped out my cell phone from my back pocket. As I swiped the screen to make the emergency call, someone came pounding up behind me.

  Manny? Or a more sinister character? Maybe Aaron had killed his nephew and didn’t want me to tell anyone. Is that what Manny had meant when he said this was “manageable”?

  I didn’t want to look but I also didn’t want to get jumped from behind or caught unaware. My imagination went wild as I pivoted, thinking I might find a killer at my back. But no, it was Jake Ahern, one of the island’s park rangers.

  “Oh, thank goodness, you’re here. I just saw him and came running.” I was still a little out of breath, so I leaned forward with my hands on my knees and Whiskers pacing at my feet. She didn’t stay there long and started batting at the poor dead man’s untied shoelace.

  I tried to drag her away, but she was having none of it.

  Jake looked down at her, then up at me, then over at the two men who had finally stopped yelling at each other. “You might want to move away. I’ve got this taken care of.”

  “Okay.” I didn’t need to be told twice, though I did still have my phone out. “I can call it in for you if you want.”

  “No need, I already made a call when I saw him. It’s a shame.” He shook his head and I nodded. A terrible shame.

  Manny had his arm around his friend, talking to him in a low voice. I wanted to go ask them what they’d seen or done. I stopped myself at the last moment because I thought I should either wait for the police or leave the questioning to Jake. However, he made no move toward the duo.

  “You can go, Whit. I’ve got this covered. There’s not much for you to do here.” He stepped forwarded and fingered a piece of paper pinned to Leo’s light blue jacket. “Suicide note. That answers that, then.”

  But did it? Leo was a fun guy, had recently returned to the island, had a ton to live for, and, from what I’d heard, had just started dating an island transplant. Why on earth would he have killed himself, and how was Aaron involved?

  I looked at the body again and saw faint tire tracks across the chest of the jacket.

  Uh-oh.

  Had Aaron run him over? But then Leo would have already been lying down for Aaron’s cart to go over him like that. So was he already dead, and Aaron hadn’t seen him and run him over by accident, adding insult to injury?

  Jake was shooing me away, though, and asking me to step over to the other side of the golfing green. Apparently, there was nothing more for me to do here. Except call the Blakefields and let them know I’d have to provide a new map and a new location.

  Suicide or not, the cops would be swarming. And sending a customer out to try to dig under a dead guy was not optimal when it came to the b
ig reveal of a dream vacation.

  I did as I was asked by moving about ten feet away. Since my cell was still in my hand, I used it to call Betty Blakefield. A text might have been enough, and I certainly preferred those, but I wanted to try to catch them before they got here.

  Betty picked up on the first ring. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  Thankfully, I had prepared my answer before dialing. “We’ve had a change in plans. Something’s happened at the golf course. I’m going to have to move you to another location. Can we meet at the beach for me to give you a new map? I’ll only need thirty minutes to get things into place.”

  The low-key noise of a bunch of golf carts converging over the hill had me raising my head. Whiskers yowled and clawed at my sock, but I ignored her to see what was going on.

  People, a lot of them, stepped out of a bunch of carts parked on the eighteenth hole. I know it seemed to be the theme for the day, but really, what the heck was going on?

  The crowd converged on Jake, in what looked like a sea of jet-black hair and sunbathed skin. From young to old, each one had a resemblance to one another that there just was no denying. And the more I looked, the more I started putting names on all of them. And every single one was an Ahern. Every. Single. One.

  Well, maybe not the caddies who were driving them, but all of the golfers were Aherns.

  My what the heck was ascending to a what the hell when they all turned to look at me and it was like a reverse image of Children of the Corn. Instead of all towheaded children, this was a group of dark-haired men, staring at me with hard expressions on their faces. I took a few more steps back, told Betty I’d meet her at the beach, picked up my cat, and then decided to skedaddle.

  “Let me know if you need anything,” I called back over my shoulder and left the grounds as quickly as I could, passing another handful of people making their way to the crime scene. Hopefully, Manny and Aaron would be able to explain what had happened. I had nothing to add to the information they probably had and no real reason to be involved.

  That didn’t stop me trying to figure out what had happened while waiting for the sirens of the police to come up the road. We weren’t that far from the station and, really, unless there was something else huge going on that I hadn’t heard of, they should have been here by now.

  Another group of golfers and caddies passed me. This one was a mess of smells that nearly overwhelmed my nose. From dark cologne to light musk, they seemed to have it all, even a subtle floral undertone that reminded me of sunshine and creamy flowers. No one turned as they all swaggered to the final hole, the current resting place of a man who should be up and walking around.

  I couldn’t go back over to the site without being seen, and I had to meet Betty with a new map, but none of the carts that had pulled up to surround Jake had returned just yet. That made me wonder some more and take my phone back out.

  Placing a call to Maribel was my best bet for finding out info without getting myself involved. So, I did.

  “You’re lucky he hasn’t shown up yet, Whit.” Maribel sounded disgruntled, and it took me a moment to remember she was supposed to be on a date with Fabian.

  “Yikes, sorry on both accounts. I wasn’t thinking.”

  “Well, now that you have me, keep me entertained until he shows up so I at least don’t look like an idiot sitting at a table at La Annaffiare by myself. I’ve been putting the waiter off for twenty minutes now. I’m going to have to order something soon or get thrown out. I don’t suppose you want to come down and join me? The bartender just handed out a round of free drinks so I have a couple more minutes before I have to go or order.”

  I bit my bottom lip before answering. “I’m sorry, Maribel, I can’t tonight. I have plans. But you could get a quick dessert and then join me at the grandparents’ house with Felix.”

  A big sigh blew through the phone. “No, it’s okay, but dessert sounds about right at the moment.” Another sigh made me want to go save her from being by herself at one of the priciest restaurants on the island, but I couldn’t.

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Well, at least you didn’t say you told me so.”

  “I would never.”

  “Now come on, you have before, so it’s not like it would be the first time. Anyway, you obviously had something you needed to ask me, or tell me, so spill. What’s up?”

  Did I want to get involved? Not that I was really getting involved. I was just asking a question. Right? Right.

  So, it was okay for me to ask her if the cops had been called. I still hadn’t heard any sirens. That was making me nervous enough to actually consider going back and facing the censure of the crowd just to make sure they didn’t move the body or something.

  “Come on, Whit, spit it out.”

  “So, you know how I was delivering a treasure chest?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay, and that was out at the golf course.” I picked at some lint on my shorts. Not that there was eye contact to avoid when using the phone, but I couldn’t seem to help myself from not looking up.

  “Yes.” This one was a little more drawn out like she was losing patience with me and/or was suspicious of the way I was telling or not telling the story.

  “And so when I drove out to bury the chest, I took Whiskers. You remember, right? Because I wanted to give you time and space to do your hair?”

  “Okay. At what point are you going to tell me what you need?”

  “I don’t have to tell you anything if you’re going to get huffy,” I said, then immediately wanted to take it back. “Sorry, I’m just nerve-racked and not sure what to do.”

  “Let’s start over then,” Maribel offered. “You found another body, didn’t you?”

  Hesitating, I bit my lip again and then let it go before I drew blood. “Yes. When I went to bury the treasure, I found Aaron Franklin and Manny yelling at each other over Leo Franklin’s body. He has tire tracks on his chest, Maribel, and Aaron is the only one who had a golf cart out there. But then Jake Ahern, the park ranger, showed up and said he was going to call the right people. Except I still haven’t heard any cops pull up and a whole platoon of golf carts are there and everyone looks alike.” There, I’d spilled it all. Now I just had to wait to see what she had to say.

  It didn’t take her long. “Did you call the police?”

  “No, I didn’t want to seem to be getting involved when Jake already told me he’d take care of it.”

  “I’ve gotta go. I’ll be down there in a few minutes. I’m calling in the cavalry first.”

  She hung up on me, but I forgave her as I sat in my autoette and wondered what to do next. When Whiskers meowed to my right, I turned to comfort her. In the process I saw Felix Ramirez, my boyfriend, walking toward me through the parking lot.

  Felix Ramirez, my police-diver boyfriend.

  “Dare I even ask what it is that you’re doing here, Whit? Or would that take a lot of time to explain when there’s a dead body over the ridge?”

  Chapter 3

  There was something to be said for a little mystery in a relationship. But as this was our third dead body in less than six weeks, I could have done without this particular kind of mystery.

  I wasn’t sure how to answer his question, or even what to tell him without sounding like I was where I shouldn’t be. Just in time, the cops started showing up without their lights on or the sirens going. Did Maribel tell them to go in silent to catch all the people who I assumed were still standing around talking with Jake about who knew what?

  I shrugged instead of answering Felix’s question, and he gestured for me to follow him. Briefly, I considered leaving Whiskers in the cart and just tying her leash to the metal bar, but that probably wouldn’t go very well, especially if she started yowling. I picked her up and held her instead of letting her walk. I didn’t need the trouncing around she’d done earlier.

  We followed closely behind the cops, but not too closely. Deputy Ryan Franklin looked back at
me a few times, so I slowed my steps even more. Though Felix was a diver for the island force, he wasn’t officially a part of the actual team and was only called in when needed. In his off time from the force, he gave private diving lessons and took people on tours underwater.

  He was enjoying himself immensely from what he’d told me, and I was thankful because he’d followed me out here from the mainland, even though I hadn’t invited him officially. The last thing I had wanted was for him to be disappointed at the choice he’d made regardless of whether I had asked him or not.

  Before we came around the bend, the cops split up and went in two different directions.

  “Are they trying to come up behind the crowd?” I asked quietly, not wanting to alert anyone.

  “I really have no idea. I’m not even sure why I’m here other than Maribel texted me to let me know I needed to come keep you out of trouble until she got here.”

  Nothing like not being trusted to keep my nose out of things. I had no intention of getting involved. I hadn’t wanted to get involved last time either, but that decision had ultimately been taken out of my hands. This time, though, I was going to make more of an effort to not be drawn in.

  Or so I told myself. And I’d tell Felix and Maribel too if either of them asked.

  In the meantime, there was a brouhaha brewing just around the curve and a trio of dark-haired men came running toward us. They didn’t see us until it was too late, and Felix stood in the middle of the path so they couldn’t pass.

  “I have a feeling the cops would like to speak to you three. I wouldn’t go getting into your vehicles until you’ve had a chance to talk with them.”

  They stopped in their tracks at Felix’s words, but a fourth was coming up fast behind them and looking back as he barreled along the green grass. He ran smack into the trio and they all tumbled to the ground. Served them right.

  “I’ll just escort you four back the way you came, if you don’t mind.” Felix hadn’t moved and appeared to be a wall they couldn’t get around.