Surfboards and Suspects Page 10

  J wanted to go out on the deck and have a look around, and I let her go and wandered over to the bar to check if Matt had arranged his rental suit for the wedding.

  “It’s still happening?” he asked, half-mocking, half-genuine.

  “You’re the second person to ask me that in the last ten minutes,” I said with a very heavy sigh as I sat at the bar. I didn’t believe in bad omens—well, okay, I did, I just didn’t think this was one—but there had been a lot of things going against me in the last week or so. But I figured it was just the universe testing me to see if this was what I really wanted. And it was.

  But now Maria had been arrested, and I was shaken. She was always someone that I had fully trusted. Matt didn’t seem quite so surprised, though. “Some people saw her getting on that ship.”

  I glanced up at him suspiciously. “What people?” I asked. Because there had only been a handful of people on the beach that evening, and Matt had been one of them.

  “Just people,” he said again, not wanting to commit to anything. “So, you know that guy I was surfing with? Michael?”

  Um, yeah. I did know of him. I’d been trying to track him down for days but couldn’t find him since he’d sped past me on the highway. I knew he couldn’t have gone too far because none of the cruise ship passengers were supposed to leave town.

  I just nodded and waited for Matt to go on. “Well, everyone is saying that he was stealing money from people, selling a fake ticket. Maria was one of them, so they say. So, Maria must have snuck onto the ship to try and get her money back.”

  She might very well have done just that, but that didn’t mean that she killed Dan. Dan wasn’t the guy who had her money, and Michael wasn’t on the ship. Dan was.

  Unless she had gotten Dan confused with Michael because they shared a cabin.

  “So how are you going to have a wedding without a maid of honor? Or a bridal party?” Matt asked, getting back to logistics. “Have you even heard from Claire at all?”

  “I saw her, briefly,” I said, thinking about her speeding past me on the freeway.

  Matt was quiet for a moment. “Apparently, she’s gone to Sydney. But don’t tell anyone that. She wasn’t supposed to leave town.”

  What?! Claire was in Sydney with this Michael guy? “Matt. We have to do something.”

  “It’s not my business,” Matt said, scrubbing so hard at the bench that the varnish was going to come off. “Ever heard of the saying ‘not my circus, not my monkeys’?”

  “But don’t you still care about Claire at all?”

  “Why don’t you try contacting her if it is that important to you?” Matt asked.

  I had tried several times with my number set to private, but she was not picking up. Maybe it was time to try calling her on another number entirely. Maybe I should email her. Or drive to Sydney myself.

  “Matt. Maybe if you call her, she will actually pick up,” I said.

  He just shook his head.

  “We all have to live in this town together, Matt. Come on.”

  “Yeah, well, pretty soon, I won’t be here anymore,” Matt said and finally put down his washcloth. “And to tell you the truth, that day cannot come quickly enough.”

  And I was about to get a surprise. He was leaving even earlier than planned. “I got a ticket on the cruise ship for cheap. It will take me up north.”

  “How did you get a ticket on the ship?” I asked him. “You never told me you intended to leave this soon! I thought it was still weeks away…”

  Matt just interrupted me. “Do you really have to ask how I got a ticket on that boat?” he asked quietly.

  Right.

  The same way that I had gotten an empty apartment.

  I shivered as I left, even with the sun still beating down at a hundred degrees.

  16

  There was a room on the third level of the mall that was originally supposed to be a function room but was now my artistic studio for the times I didn’t want to work on the beach. This was one of those times, because the temperature had just reached 113 and barely anyone was even risking the outdoors until the heatwave broke.

  Troy was sitting, drinking a coffee and reading the paper while I painted, but something outside caught my eyes. There were actual people milling around on the sand, even though the radio had warned people not to go outdoors that day because the risk of heatstroke was so high.

  It looked like people were walking towards the cruise ship.

  “What’s going on?” I asked, glancing out the window. I stood and walked over to get a better look.

  Troy was still reading, but he peered at me from over the top. “It was printed in the paper this morning that the gas leak has been located and fixed. The ship will set sail in the next day or two.”

  I spun around and looked at Troy. “But the killer still hasn’t been found!”

  They couldn’t just leave town!

  He blinked at me in surprise. “Er. Weren’t you THERE when the killer was arrested?”

  Ugh, didn’t Troy know anything after all this time? The police in Eden Bay were hopeless. They never got it right the first time.

  But Claire and I did.

  I was certain of it.

  I glanced out over the beach at the people who were willing to risk heat stroke to secure their place back on the ship. Had the gas leak really been fixed, though?

  I had another concern. I wondered if the gas leak had actually messed with my mind? Had I been recalling things on that boat as they actually happened? Maybe it had been Maria I’d heard behind me. Even though she never, ever wore heels.

  “This cruise ship cannot leave Eden Bay,” I said, putting down my paintbrush and gathering up my bag. I was done working for the day. I didn’t know why Troy was being so passive about it. Didn’t he know that this would pervert the course of justice? But I wasn’t just about to stand back and watch it leave.

  Troy stopped me before I stormed out and told me to take a deep breath, but he had something else to say to me as well. He said it in a low voice that was unsettling. “We can postpone the wedding if you want?”

  I was a little stumped…and I got this bad feeling in my stomach. “Why?” I asked him. “Is that what you want?”

  “No, not at all,” he said, putting my mind at ease with the way he laughed and reached out to hold my hand. “But if you need extra time for you and Claire to put things right, then there is no rush. Things have been paid for, but it’s not like I can’t afford to take the hit. I just don’t want to see you stressed like this.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” I said, shaking my head. I didn’t want to delay anything. “We will sort it out. And even if we don’t, this wedding is going ahead in three days’ time. Got it?” I grinned at him and gave him a kiss on the cheek before I sped out of the function room, taking the staff elevator down to the ground level and then out into the street, actually gasping when the hot air hit my face.

  Wow. I had to double over for a second and compose myself. I braced myself for the walk to the beach that would only take five minutes but would feel like five hours in that oppressive heat.

  I actually felt like I was inside an oven. By the time I got the ship, I was actual so hot that I could no longer ‘feel’ the heat. Uh oh. I was pretty sure that was how heatstroke got you.

  But even if I had to hold the entire ship back singlehandedly, I would do it. Even if I suffered heatstroke doing so, I would do it.

  Carl was smoking a cigar, an actual cigar, when I met him at the pier.

  I was out of breath. “When do you sail?” I asked, skipping all formalities.

  “It will take a few days for everything to get re-instated back on the ship. Most people took all their bags and belongings. Takes a while to get everything and everyone back on board,” he said, winking at me. An actual wink. “But then we’ll be far away from this place.”

  “I thought you liked Eden Bay,” I said. Either he had been lying to me before or he was lying to
me now.

  He put the cigar out on the ground. Ew. Gross. “That was before.” What did he mean by that? “Anyway, none of my passengers are guilty,” he said with a shrug. “And so, I’d rather take them all away from the suspicious eyes around here. They all paid good money to be on this ship. And they are going to get their money’s worth.”

  I gulped when I thought about the implications. This would also mean that Matt would be leaving town in three days. It was too soon. It was the day of my wedding! Even if he was there for the ceremony, he would have to skip the reception.

  “You can’t leave,” I said, sounding like I was pleading. “Not until we know who really killed Dan Millen. For certain.”

  “Who are you to tell me where I can and can’t take my own ship?” he asked, glowering at me as he pulled out his cigar box and started to light another one.

  I was everyone, that was who I was, and I was NOT going to let him leave town. But he was right about one thing: on my own, I was too weak. There was strength in numbers. Even two.

  I sent a prayer out into the universe before I pulled my phone out of my pocket. Just pick up this time. Please.

  “I need your help.”

  And we were reunited.

  Part III

  Alyson & Claire

  17

  Claire

  Purple was definitely not my color. It was sort of a nightmare color. Heavy and oppressive. And the plum color did NOT go with my pale blonde hair. And there was no way I was dyeing it a darker shade just for the wedding.

  Maybe I could convince her to go back to blue. I took another spin in front of the changing room mirror and rolled my eyes.

  Alyson was on the other side of the door. We didn’t have much time to get the dress fitted and any alterations made. In fact, we had no time.

  “Hey, Princess,” she called out. “Give me a look at this thing!”

  I stepped out and made a face. “I look like I am wearing a bruise.”

  “Well, J chose the color scheme. And she thinks that it’s pretty.”

  I gritted my teeth at that. I know it sounds strange—maybe even very petty—to be in a fight with a nine-year-old, but J was a bit of a sore subject right then. The only reason I was even speaking to Alyson again was because she had explained that the reason she’d told the newspaper I was a killer—thanks very much, by the way—was because she was worried she could lose custody of J if her own name was dragged through the mud.

  “It was a choice between keeping my family and, well, selling you out.”

  It wasn’t that I didn’t get why she did it. Unfortunately, I did get it. But it was still a crummy thing to have done. I’d reminded her of the time we were 14 and skipped the swimming carnival and she’d done the same thing. She’d just thrown her head back and laughed. “Oh my gosh, I’d forgotten all about the time we skipped the carnival.”

  Unfortunately, I hadn’t. I held a grudge—and had a longer memory—than my wild and dirty best friend.

  If she was going to make me wear purple, then I was going to keep that on my list of grudges as well.

  “Hey, it’s not like anyone that matters will see you in that thing,” Alyson said with a shrug as a way to placate me.

  “Well, I, uh, actually have a date for your wedding,” I muttered, struggling to get the zip down.

  Alyson’s mouth dropped open. See, this was exactly what I had been afraid of—her reaction.

  “A date? You do realize that this is my wedding and my BROTHER is going to be there? The brother that you broke off your engagement to?”

  “I know.” Maybe it was a little tacky to invite Michael…but things were moving fast, and I wanted him to be there.

  Alyson had her face all scrunched up like an angry beaver. She was about ready to explode at this news. “This is my wedding,” she said. “And I don’t really want this Michael guy anywhere near it.”

  Fair enough.

  But Alyson had gone to the papers and accused me of murder, so I didn’t think she should be getting on her moral high horse about anything nor making demands of me.

  Miss Florence came into the dressing room and tried to tell me how beautiful I looked in the dress and how much it suited me. Yeah right. But I kept checking my watch. Maybe purple was not my color—okay, DEFINITELY wasn’t my color—but maybe I was just going to have to compromise and get used to it, because I needed to get out of that dress shop.

  I still had my ideas about what had really gone down on that boat the night of Dan’s death.

  Alyson was preoccupied with stopping the boat from leaving, but I didn’t think the killer was from that boat. I was still convinced he was from Eden Bay. Or, at least, Eden Bay via a prison in Sydney.

  “Are you really leaving now? Right after we’ve only just reunited?”

  I stepped out of the dress and it fell to the ground. The shopkeeper frowned at me and scurried to pick it up and dust it off. I really didn’t think it mattered it if got any dust on it—the thing was that ugly that any addition could only improve the state of it, surely.

  “It’s important.” I shot Alyson a look and then whispered to her carefully so that Miss Florence couldn’t hear. “It’s about the case.”

  “Then I am coming with you. We work together now, right?”

  18

  Alyson

  I could feel all eyes on us as we took off down the footpath. Nothing had gotten any better. Maria being in jail gave the papers the perfect angle and the perfect ending to the “Claire and Alyson got it wrong all along” narrative.

  And because we both had a personal connection to Maria, it really did seem like we had been covering for her all along. At least to outside sources. The two of us knew the truth, though.

  “Do you think this is why they did it?” I asked Claire.

  “Why who did what?”

  It was slightly cooler that day. Still eighty-seven degrees, but bearable.

  “Why they arrested Maria,” I said, struggling to keep up with Claire’s brisk pace. She had a real bee in her bonnet about this whole funeral parlor angle, of which I knew very little. She’d filled me in on the basics. I was completely shocked to find out that Mr. Carbonetti had actually been out of prison at the time that Dan Millen was killed. But that was the problem—it was almost too shocking. I couldn’t believe that the original Surfboard Killer was the SAME Surfboard Killer we were dealing with now.

  “Still not following,” Claire said, even though she was the one ahead.

  I skipped to keep up. “Maybe they arrested Maria because it makes a good story for the paper. Rachael will be loving this,” I said as we passed a store that had the cover of that day’s paper out the front. “CONSPIRACY.” The cover had just that as a headline with my face and Claire’s underneath the black headline.

  “It’s not like Rachael has any actual power with the police force…” Claire said. She started out the sentence sounding firm and confident in her conviction, but by the end of it, I could see that she was doubting herself. I knew why too. Rachael wasn’t against taking bribes, and we already knew from the past that she could be easily swayed into ditching her journalist integrity when there was an angle she wanted to run. Maybe she had something over the cops.

  “Maybe they are in on it together.”

  “Shoot.” Claire came to a complete stop. “What if that is what’s happened?” Then she started walking even faster. “We have to find the real killer. You and I were right the first time,” she said, and I could see how important it was now for her to prove that she was right.

  I gulped as I followed her. I could see the funeral home in the distance up a short hill, the Eden Bay golf course behind it. I still wasn’t convinced that Mr. Carbonetti had gotten away from his handler, made a dash across town, and killed Dan Millen all in the space of a half an hour, but at that point, it was the best chance we had of catching the real killer and of clearing our own good names as well.

  “Okay.” Claire took a deep breath.
“Here goes nothing.”

  But I had something to say to Claire before we entered the funeral parlor.

  “Claire. When this is all over…” I had to stop and take a deep breath before I continued. I didn’t know how she was going to react, but this was something I needed to say. And I had to be firm. She’d probably disagree with me—she always did—but I had been thinking about this for a while now and had made my mind up.

  “Yeah?” She was just staring at me, waiting for me to continue.

  “I am out. We need to go back to just being Claire and Alyson. Not Claire and Alyson, the surfboard detectives. No more mystery solving. No more murders.”

  She was strangely, eerily quiet, and at first, I thought she was going to argue with me. But then I saw this look overcome her face, from right at the top and then working its way down. It started in her forehead as it dropped a little bit, and then it spread to her eyes, where there was this sort of knowingness there. Then finally, her lips curled in a smile that started small and then grew larger.

  Finally, what I saw in her face was relief. “You’re right,” she said, and I had to laugh at that.

  “What did you just say?”

  She laughed and rolled her eyes a little. “Might be the first and last time I say that, but you ARE right, Alyson. It’s been one heck of a ride, but I think after this, we need to step back. It’s been rough. We’ve had victories but we’ve also taken a lot of hits. And we’ve got to live our lives.”

  I nodded. “But we can’t go out like this,” I said, nodding towards the funeral house. “Not with people thinking we got the wrong guy. Or girl. Whatever. You know what I mean. If this is our last hurrah, then it really has to be that—a hurrah.”

  Claire nodded. “A redemption. You’re right.”

  She pushed open the doors and walked in, confident with where she was going because she had been there before. Strangely enough, I never had.