Janine Marie - Rigging a Murder 01 - The Single Shoe Mystery (9 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Geranium Island

A
fter a quick breakfast of toast and coffee the next morning, we set sail. Our friends Greg and Steph and Kevin and his son, Sam, in their power boats were still sound asleep when we left because it takes us much longer to get anywhere. We sail at an average of 6 knots, less if there is light wind, whereas the power boats go 18 to 20 knots, so it takes us three times longer, and that’s only if the wind is blowing the right direction. If, like today, it’s not, well, at least it’s a beautiful sunny day and it is windy, so we will enjoy the sail and get to the island in time for cocktails.

Katie and I tried to read our books, but Thomas was determined to race various other sailboats who had no idea they were racing us, so every time we got comfortable he either tacked or wanted the sails adjusted. Katie and I finally gave up on reading when he announced that he wanted us to hoist the Gennaker, a sail like a spinnaker but easier to sail with only three people, one being Katie, who is a reluctant sailor at best. It requires constant adjustments but is really fun to fly. Arriving at last, we were pleased to see that Kevin had positioned his boat on the dock in a way to ensure that we had a spot with the group.

Nonboaters do the same thing with their cars, like when someone parks their car mostly in one spot but partly in the next spot as well, thus making it impossible for anyone to park that spot. Kevin, his son Sam, and Greg each grabbed a line and walked Kevin’s boat back 5 feet, tied it off, then caught our lines. We were to have a late lunch, as we had missed a dock lunch with the group earlier. I moved our deck chairs to the dock, opened a bottle of white wine, handed Thomas a beer and some turkey dogs to BBQ, brought out some cut veggies and hummus, and voila, lunch on the dock. After lunch Katie and Sam went up the dock to the field to play some Frisbee. I cleaned up the lunch dishes, then went to join Steph and Kevin on the dock. “Where is Thomas?” I asked, sitting down.

“Where do you think?” Steph said, waving at their boat, where the engine cover was raised.

“Oh” I said knowingly. “a project is afoot.” Turning to Kevin I asked, “How do you resist?”

“What? And ruin my clothes mucking around with an engine? No, I’m no fool; I’d much rather sit here visiting with you two lovely ladies,” he said with a smile, then gallantly filled our glasses with the crisp white Sauvignon Blanc.

“So tell us about your new date,… she didn’t come?” I inquired, and we proceeded to analyze Kevin’s latest relationships until Greg and Thomas reappeared, very pleased with themselves for having resolved the engine problem, something about the impeller.

“For you, Janeva,” Greg said, handing me a set of elbow-length 1950s-style rubber gloves.

“But where is the bleach?” I replied, laughing and putting on the gloves. “Clearly my love of spray Clorox bleach has not gone unnoticed.”

“Some women use air freshener with nice pine or lemon smells, but not my Janeva: she goes for the ultra-clean bleach smell,” said Thomas.

“Well, I would rather have that than the cigarette smell our boat had last night when we returned. I can’t for the life of me figure out where the smell came from…. It was almost like someone had been on our boat,” said Greg, puzzled.

I sat up, immediately alert. “Really? I was convinced that someone had searched our boat, but nothing was missing.”

“Why did you think your boat had been searched, and do you know what they were looking for?” Greg asked.

“No idea what they were looking for, but I think it had to do with clothes or shoes.”

Groaning, Thomas interjected “Really, WHO would want to steal your shoes?”

Ignoring this obvious jibe, I continued to answer Greg’s question: “My hanging locker door was ajar, the settee throw cushions were not the right—it was like when you and Thomas go digging for tools and stuff in the storage bins.”

“And all that time I was sooo careful to put the throw pillows back just so!” interjected Thomas, again with sarcasm.

“Thomas, you’re not taking this seriously!” I scolded.

“Well, what does throw-pillow positioning have to do with shoes, and do you think there is a deranged cigarette-smoking Yacht Club member with a shoe fetish? This is a ridiculous conversation,” he continued.

Rolling my eyes at him, I continued, “No. But someone did break into Lorenzo’s office yesterday morning, then last night when we were at dinner someone went through my hanging locker—well, shoes, anyway. I couldn’t tell if he went through yours or Katie’s as they are too messy to start with.”

Thomas interrupted me. “Two totally different events. Lorenzo’s office break-in was in all probability some druggie looking for the petty cash or, if you really want to go out on a limb, perhaps someone interested in their intellectual property. But I’m just asking—how could that possibly have anything to do with shoe rifling?”

I suddenly realized that I hadn’t told them about the financial crisis that Lorenzo’s company was facing; I was about to repeat the conversation I had had with Catherine and Frank the day before in my office, when Steph said something that completely distracted me. What she said was:

“Could whoever went through your closet and left the lingering cigar smell on our boat have been looking for that shoe Katie found, floating in the water beside the dock, the day Lorenzo was murdered?”

This statement dropped like a stone in a calm pool of water, sending ripples of surprise out from it. We all looked at each other in silence. “I had completely forgotten about that,” was all I could manage to say.

“Katie will know where the shoe is,” said Thomas logically. “But I really can’t imagine what significance a shoe can have,” he added.

“Where is Katie?” I asked looking around. “Last time I saw her she was doing cartwheels, handsprings, and back walkovers in the field” I added, looking in that direction

“Well, let’s go find her,” said Kevin jumping up and marching down the dock, leaving the rest of us to chase after him. At the top of the ramp Kevin, again in his take-charge manner, said, “Let’s spread out, she can’t be far.”

“I’ll take the back field,” said Steph, heading off that way.

The rest of us followed suit, going in different directions. “Rendezvous back here in 20 min,” yelled Kevin, as he headed toward the coffee shop, Thomas to walk the docks, and I went to walk up the street of the small village of Cedar Grove. Clearly whoever did the naming of this area just looked around and picked the first two things he saw: geraniums as in naming of Geranium Island, and cedar trees for the village of Cedar Grove. I had to laugh to myself. As I quickly walked passed one of my favorite stores, “Island Treasures,” I couldn’t help glancing in the window because they always had such cute stuff. The residents of Geranium Island are very crafty, or maybe I should say artsy—okay, let’s settle for talented. From hand-crafted driftwood salad bowls and dishes to pottery, art, clothing, etc., I almost always fell in love with some knick-knack whenever I went into that store. But not today. Right now we had to find Katie and get to the bottom of the Shoe Mystery. There had to be something about that shoe. Otherwise, why had our boats been searched?

Well, Katie was not in the corner grocery, nor had she been, according to the checkout clerk. Looking at my watch I realized that 17 minutes had passed and I had better head back to Kevin’s rendezvous. Past experience had taught me that the abuse I would face if I was late wasn’t worth it, and I was sure one of the group would have found Katie.

“What, no Katie?!” I asked in surprise, looking around at the concerned faces of the group.

“We hoped you had found her!” said Thomas with distress.

“Where could she be? How could she disappear on this small island?” I exclaimed. I was trying to stay calm, but that feeling of fear and dread, that something might really have happened to her, was starting to overwhelm me.

Thomas, who knows me better than anyone else, said to me in his stern CEO tone,
“Don’t panic, stay calm: we need to think right now.”

It worked, even though that tone irritated me, since I’m not one of his employees and this wasn’t a work crisis, it was about his daughter.

“Ok, what do you propose we do?” I snarled, looking around frantically. “We just searched for her!”

“True, and now we are going to search again. She is a smart girl and I can’t believe she would just wander off with someone with out telling us. Plus, look around. This place is packed with tourists. She would have screamed if she had been grabbed or forcibly taken,” Thomas said logically.

“Oh my God,… the ferry!” Kevin whispered.

We all turned as one to look at the slow-moving line of cars off to the left of where we were standing, at the end of the main street of Cedar Grove. Cedar Grove is one of those picturesque villages that consists of one main street that starts at the ferry dock, lined with shops mostly of the tourist variety but including a coffee shop, pub, and diner, and ending at the corner grocery. The marina is mid-town, in a small bay, with the ferry dock on the left and a park on the right with a gazebo in the field where community events and picnics are held. The main dock ramp comes up to this field, then there is a picturesque path that wraps around to the ferry dock where the cars were loading on the ferry!

“We have to stop the ferry!” I cried and started to run toward the dock.

“Wait!! You’ll never get there in time!” Kevin yelled after me. Stopping and almost in tears, I had to admit he was right. “We need to call the police and have the ferry searched at the other side. Thomas where is your phone?!” I demanded.

“Hold on and calm down, Janeva,” said Greg in his professional doctor voice. “We don’t even know that Katie is on that ferry. She could have found a friend and gone to their boat, or be in a store. Did you check them all?”

“Of course not, there wasn’t time,” I snapped.

Thomas put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me into a hug. “Janeva. Take a deep breath. We will search again, this time look everywhere. We have 40 minutes until the ferry reaches the dock on the other side, so let’s split up and meet back here in 30 minutes. That way we will still have time to call the police if we haven’t found her.”

A half hour later, we met up at the rendezvous, a sad and shocked group.

Thomas had his phone out and was about to dial when—

“Janeva, Thomas—it’s Katie!…. There she is!” yelled Steph, pointing up the street.

We all turned and, yes, there she was walking down the street, smiling and chatting to Tiffany.

I ran up to her and hugged and hugged her again. “Where have you been, we have been searching the whole island for you!” I demanded.

“Mom, what’s wrong? I was only with Tiff, “ replied Katie, looking bewildered.

“I’m so sorry, Janeva,” said Tiffany, looking very confused. “We saw Katie on the lawn and she walked up to the store with us.”

Cody had just walked up behind them, his arms full of bags.

“Katie, of course it’s okay for you to be with Tiffany and Cody, but it’s not okay for you to go off without letting your mother and me know where you are going!” scolded Thomas.

At the emotion in his words and the reprimand, Katie immediately broke into tears. I hugged her even tighter. “Your father is right. You had us running all over the island; we were just about to call the police.”

“The police!” Tiffany and Katie said in unison.

“Yes, young lady,” Kevin jumped in. “We thought you had been abducted and were on the ferry in some car!”

“Abducted on Geranium Island?” said Cody in surprise.

“I know we overreacted, but after Lorenzo’s murder, the break-in at his office, and our boats being searched last night…,” I replied, still hugging Katie.

“Mom, you’re squishing me, she whined, and wriggled free, only to be hugged by her dad.

“When did you guys get here?” Greg asked Tiffany and Cody. Looking at her watch, Tiffany answered, “I don’t know; about 45 minutes ago.”

“And you’ve already managed to buy that much stuff?” said Steph, shaking her head.

“Tiff can out-shop anyone!” Cody replied.

“Cody—that’s not true,” Tiffany pouted. “We were here a few weeks ago and I ordered the cutest stuff for our guest bathroom. The store just called this morning to say it was ready.”