Surfboards and Suspects Read online

  “This could end your career,” I said.

  From the look on his face, I could tell that he didn’t need me to tell him that. He was already well aware of how bad this was. If the cops had put the wrong guy behind bars and there was still a serial killer out there, whoever had been responsible would surely be suspended—or worse. There could be a whole investigation. A royal commission.

  He looked like he was about to explode from the stress of it all. I wasn’t sure a sleepless night and a coffee had helped matters either. But to be honest, I didn’t think he had anything to worry about. Mr. Carbonetti was guilty. “This is just a news article,” I said. “It’s sensationalist. This will blow over.”

  I wasn’t quite sure why I was reassuring him so much. I felt sorry for him. His wings had been clipped.

  “It will only blow over if there’s no truth to it,” he said. He kept looking around in an agitated manner. Oh no. His wig was starting to slip. He needed to keep his head still or it was gonna fly off.

  “Why did you really ask me here?” I asked, taking a sip of my now-cold latte. Oh well, it was too hot out to have a hot drink anyway, so it all worked out perfectly.

  He frowned at me. “I didn’t. Remember? You forced me to meet you here.”

  “Okay then, why were you stalking me out the front of Troy’s apartment then?”

  He looked like he didn’t want to say what he was about to say. “Alyson, I need your help. We need to find out who did this. And quick. We need to work together.”

  10

  I unlocked the door and stepped into the silent apartment. At least I still had air conditioning in mine, so I was going to be staying there for a few days. The power supply had been restored, but Troy’s cooling unit had not survived the sudden shock to the circuit and was going to take days to fix with the backlog the electricians in Eden Bay were having to deal with.

  Yep. Complete silence.

  There were still clothes strewn all over the floor though. And just the faintest lingering scent of cheap spray-on men’s deodorant.

  In a way, I’d gotten lucky. I was the only person in Eden Bay without an unwanted and unexpected house guest. Because mine was dead. Well, lucky wasn’t really the right word, but I did appreciate the peace and quiet as I went about my business. My head was still trying to process what Wells had suggested to me, so I started scrubbing the kitchen counter while I tried to clear my head and make sense of everything.

  But peace and quiet only lasts for so long.

  Bang-bang.

  Matt was knocking on the door and when I opened it, I saw that it was not only my bother there but my sweet-but-naughty niece J as well. She was jumping up and down, clearly excited to have a sleepover at her Aunty Alyson’s house. “There is no room at my house with the two new houseguests I have,” Matt said as he passed me J’s overnight bag. “And I know that you have…er, room now.”

  Of course I was more than happy for J to come and stay, but I couldn’t help pointing out that no one made Matt volunteer to take not one but TWO passengers from the cruise ship. I mean, these were rich cruise ship passengers, not refugees.

  “I think we need to have a little chat, actually, Alyson,” he said, getting all serious.

  I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that. It seemed suddenly as though there was another reason for his visit rather than just dropping J off. I settled J on the sofa with her cartoons and an iced chocolate and then joined Matt in the kitchen area where we were out of earshot. It was clear that he didn’t want her overhearing this conversation.

  “I have a bit of news,” he said and there was an air of both nerves and excitement in his voice. He was a little breathless as he told me. “I’ve actually secured a bit of sponsorship.”

  “For what?” I asked, completely confused. Matt worked as the manager of The VRI restaurant, so I had no idea what he would need sponsorship for.

  “Surfing,” he said with a quiet laugh as he exhaled. “To join the amateur-pro circuit for the upcoming summer season. I won’t be paid much, but still, this is pretty much a dream come true for me.”

  My mouth dropped open. “And you are going to go?”

  “It’ll just be a short tour. Well, relatively,” he said. “Just four or five months.”

  Wow. I was stunned. It’s going to sound bad, but I never really thought my brother had it in him to get actual sponsorship and to go on the tour circuit. I walked over to the other side of the bar and gave him a huge hug. When I pulled back, he asked me, in all seriousness—and we were getting really serious now—if I would be able to be the full-time guardian of J while he was away.

  “Of course I will, Matt. You don’t need to worry about that. I just want to make sure that you really want to do it?” I mean, I could see it was a great opportunity, but he also had a lot going on in Eden Bay. He had J, he had a new job as a restaurant manager, and he had all his friends and family in Eden Bay.

  He nodded. “The timing is a little off. Or maybe it is perfect, actually…” he added, looking a little thoughtful.

  “What do you mean?”

  “Well, it would probably be good to get away for a bit,” he said meaningfully. “It’s tough running into Claire all the time. It’s a small town.”

  Oh, right. I hadn’t thought about that too much, but it had definitely been a little awkward since they had broken off their engagement. I hadn’t had to take sides or anything—they were super friendly and civil—but there was still an underlying tension.

  “And are you going to tell her?” I asked him. “That you are going away for almost half a year?”

  He shook his head. “I was hoping to just avoid her for the time being.”

  “Perfect,” I said. “Because that is what I have been instructed to do as well.”

  Matt glanced over his shoulder at J, who was still slurping on her iced chocolate and watching her shows. “Yeah. I read the paper. It is kind of crazy. What they are saying about you and Claire I mean. I think the police are right—you shouldn’t speak with her until this is all straightened out.”

  I knew that was the sensible suggestion and what I ‘should’ do. I knew that. It was common sense.

  But we were both implicated by the suggestion that we had caught the wrong guy. Not just me. Not just Claire. If only I could talk to her. But I didn’t want to do anything to risk my own reputation. Now that I was going to have J with me full-time for six months, I was really going to have to be careful.

  And I was going to have to stay out of trouble.

  School was out for summer.

  “Where are we going?” J asked, pouting in the sun. I had made sure that she had worn her 40 SPF, but she was still getting a slightly burnt nose and was complaining that it was going to look red unless we got out of the sun. “And I will start to get wrinkles,” she said.

  “Oh my gosh!” I said with a laugh. “You are only nine years old! Wrinkles don’t even know you exist yet!”

  She put her nose up in the air. “Claire says that is it never too early to begin a beauty routine,” she said in a haughty voice.

  “Oh, did she now.”

  I wasn’t sure what had gotten into my niece in recent weeks and months. She usually wasn’t so sensitive to matters like this, but she was just at that age where she had started to get self-conscious about her appearance. She had never liked “girly” things before and always been a total tomboy and yet suddenly, she was interested in wrinkle cream? And what crazy ideas had Claire been putting in her head about needing that stuff when she was only a kid?

  I didn’t want to tell her we were investigating. That would only get her overexcited and all worked up. She loved to come ‘investigating’ with me, but it wasn’t always safe. For various reasons. So I told her we were going to look at flower girl dresses, which at least got her to get a move on even though she was still complaining about being too hot and getting sweaty.

  But the dress shopping—that was just a rouse. Kinda. I mean, we were go
ing to the dress store if we had time, but I had somewhere else I wanted to go first.

  I promised her a soda if she skipped along.

  Matt had been in the surf with Dan Millen that day, but there had been another guy in the surf with them. I’d heard that his name was Michael. All I knew about him was what I’d seen: he had a shaved head and was decent in the waves.

  In the surf club, I was greeted by the manager and his white blond hair that was so fluorescent it was almost blinding. Funnily enough, this guy’s name was also Dan. Dan Fisher.

  “Don’t see you in here much these days,” he said drolly.

  The surf club had struggled for business ever since the mall opened up and everyone started to get their surf gear there. Like most people, Dan Fisher would know about my connection to Troy Emerald. Maybe he blamed me in part.

  He looked a little edgy as he stocked the fridge, and I asked if everything was okay. He stopped piling cans of soda and turned to stare at me. “Well, they are killing off surfers called Dan, aren’t they?”

  I shushed him a little because J was within earshot, even though I’d set her up at the pinball machine.

  “Is it true that the Surfboard Killer is back?” he asked me flatly, and there was real fear there in his eyes. “Did you guys get the wrong guy?”

  “You don’t have anything to worry about,” I said, sounding calm and firm. I lowered my voice. “That’s what I’m here about, Dan. I’m on the case.”

  He rolled his eyes and went back to stocking the fridge. Gees. Was everyone going to react to me like that now? Kinda rude. Considering everything I had done for this town.

  “I was just wondering if you’d seen Dan—Dan Millen I mean—or Michael before that night. Did they come in here at all?”

  He turned around and shook his head. “Nope. But wasn’t your brother also out in the surf with them that night?”

  I felt my face start to go red, and I saw that J had stopped playing the pinball machine and was now listening in. I had to get her out of there.

  Dan Fisher leaned over the counter. “Would be a heck of a convenience for you to put the wrong guy away to keep your brother free and able to…”

  I cut him off right there. J was looking up at me, worried. “Thanks for your time, Dan…”

  “But what about my soda?” J cried.

  Dan glowered at me smugly when I had to hand over three dollars for the can of grape soda. I hated giving him the satisfaction.

  “Come on, J. Let’s go find your perfect flower girl dress,” I said as I hurried her out of the surf club and down the sidewalk back into town.

  “Are we being followed?” J asked.

  “Don’t be silly,” I said, ruffling her hair. I laughed it off. And I did think she was genuinely being silly. You know, just kids imagining stuff. But I did keep one eye over my shoulder for the rest of the walk.

  11

  Who knows more than anyone else about what happens on a ship? The captain.

  I had no idea what Claire was doing on her side of the investigation, or whether she was even investigating at all. Maybe she was taking a stay-cation in her apartment and chatting to Roger about antiques. She may have been looking into a few lead—maybe—but I was pretty sure she wouldn’t have thought to call the captain of the ship. She’s not quite that forward thinking.

  But I took down his number and gave him a call the morning after the flower girl dress fitting. When he picked up, I introduced myself. “I’m one of the girls who was on the boat when Dan was…”

  “Oh, Claire!” he said. “Lovely to hear from you again. I was just thinking about our meeting.”

  Great. Ahem.

  “No, I’m not Claire. I’m Alyson,” I said.

  “Oh.”

  He sounded a little disappointed, but he agreed to meet with me in person at the pier. I put my phone away and reminded myself not to get too overconfident.

  There were always things we didn’t know.

  He was full-on wearing his captain’s hat when I met him later that afternoon while J was having a playdate at her friend Mandy’s house. I could not believe it. He looked like a cinematic cliché.

  But this was a guy who wanted everyone to know how important he was. What he did and what he was in charge of.

  Well, what he was in charge of was a stagnant boat with a gas leak. Nothing to be too proud of there, if you asked me. Of course, people rarely did ever ask me for my opinions, but I always had them.

  His skin was leathery and very tanned, which kind of surprised me. I figured he’d spend most of his time inside the decks playing pool and smoking cigars, taking it easy while the crew did all the real work. But it looked like he spent most of his time sunbaking. Possibly socializing. Fraternizing. I’d only known the man for a couple of minutes, but he’d already greeted me with a wink that was far too flirtatious.

  “Nice to spend some time with a local. You’ve gotta make the most of whatever your bad fortune brings you. And Eden Bay is a beautiful place to be trapped in.”

  At least on that point we had to agree. Actually, at first impression, this guy didn’t seem so bad, I supposed, apart from the winking. He kept talking about how much he loved the Bay and about how hospitable people had been to him. “Everyone is so friendly and welcoming here. I had several people offer me rooms in their house before that town meeting was even held.”

  I shuffled a little bit in the heat. I was starting to feel a little bit guilty about just how unhospitable I had been to Dan when he’d come to my apartment. Not even offering him my bed. Not that that gave him a right to steal my surfboard, and it certainly didn’t make me responsible for his death. Still, that would remain a regret of mine.

  I’d do better next time.

  And I could still do right by him now. I could find out who killed him and get justice for Dan.

  I just needed to find out who else was on that ship that night. Because there HAD to have been someone else. I knew that I didn’t kill Dan. And I knew that Claire didn’t. Well, she and her spaghetti arms weren’t on my suspect list yet.

  “Should we go and get a drink?” Carl asked, nodding to one of the touristy restaurants just off the pier. “I’ve come to know the best places round here.”

  I could remember those footsteps I heard behind me. I remembered thinking at the time that it must have been Claire because it sounded like the clacking of heels and Claire always wore heels, even if the occasion didn’t really call for them—she’d always have an extra inch or two.

  But things had become very fuzzy on that boat. I wondered if my memories were skewed.

  I smiled over at Carl and raised a glass to him. “To Eden Bay.”

  I didn’t love the guy, I didn’t even trust him, but I had learned how to charm my suspects by then. Don’t accuse them outright. Pretend that you are on their side and sympathizing with them.

  He hadn’t taken his hat off, even when we’d walked through the restaurant, though we were out on the deck by that stage. I knew he was attached to the boat and his status as captain, so I was pretty sure that I knew how to play this.

  “Was the gas leak even that bad?” I asked, making a face like I couldn’t believe it was. “I didn’t smell any gas when I was on board.”

  Not a complete lie, either. I hadn’t noticed the smell, but I had definitely felt lightheaded.

  He made a face and laughed. “You know how strict people are with their rules and policies now. You have to adhere to a whole book of health and safety procedures or there will be lawsuits and blog posts and people will tear you apart on social media. Policy is to dock until the leak has been located and fixed, even though it could have been fixed with everyone on board and no one ever had to know it happened.” He rolled his eyes.

  I frowned, just a little. “When did you first notice the leak?” I asked him.

  He was taken aback by that question. “Er, a day or two before we docked.”

  “A day or two?” I asked, leaning forward a lit
tle. I didn’t want to get him too offside, but that was a little shocking to me. It was all sounding a bit “Titanic” to me, you know, ignoring the iceberg because you didn’t want to lose time and then the whole ship ends up sinking.

  He tried to backtrack a little bit. “Wouldn’t have been more than a day. Of course, when my crew noticed the leak, we followed procedure right away.”

  Right. And I’m sure the fact that customers had paid over two grand each to be on the ship had not factored into these procedures at all.

  “Still, it’s pretty rotten to tell a captain that he can’t even go on his own ship!” I leaned forward and whispered, “Surely you must have snuck on a few times since we docked? You have every right to.”

  But he wasn’t as cruisy and laid back as he was pretending to be and being accused of something untoward—no matter how subtly—pricked at him.

  He stuck a fork into his shrimp and munched on it thoroughly before he bothered answering my question. “I was not on that ship the night that guy was killed. If that’s what you are getting at.” He put his fork down and stared at me.

  I leaned back. Rats. Yes. That was precisely what I had been getting at. And he already knew my game before I got a real chance to play it. “I was out at dinner that night and I can prove it.” He smiled at me, smug in the knowledge that he had an alibi. “I was at a place called The VRI.”

  Matt was busy when I walked in, so I had to wait at the bar for a while for a lull. I kept checking my phone. It was getting close to 8pm, and J needed to be picked up from Mandy’s house by then or Mandy’s mother was not going to be happy.

  Matt looked a little hesitant to ask me how it had all been going with the investigation. I knew what his reservations were. Now that he was leaving and I was in charge of J, he didn’t want me getting into any dangerous situations. And the mud of the accusations was sticking. He’d already told me that I should just leave it be this time, let the police do it, but I was too stubborn to listen to anyone, especially my brother.