Murder on the Half Shell (A Red Carpet Catering Mystery Book 2) (16 page)

Chapter 25

Penelope and Joey strolled down the beach towards his cabin. When they passed the marina Penelope turned and said, “I’m going to get my bag off the boat. My laptop is in there and I have to do a few things for work when we get to your place. Do you still have to pick up your suitcase?”

“No, I stopped by earlier and got it,” Joey said, squeezing her hand in his.

They walked leisurely down the dock, their hands linked at the fingers. It was dark at the dock; the lantern posts at each slip were old and didn’t throw off much light. Suddenly out of the darkness they heard a voice.

“You better watch yourself, poking around in peoples’ business. Some folks don’t like it when you bring up the past, little lady,” a gravelly voice said from the shadows. Penelope and Joey stopped short and turned towards the slip. The two old fishermen were on their dock, one of them smoking a cigar that partially lit his stubble-sheathed chin when he inhaled.

“Excuse me?” Penelope said. “Are you talking to me?”

“No, I’m talking to your boyfriend,” the fisherman said. “One of them, anyway.” They both snickered laughter, slapping their thighs with hands that weren’t holding beer cans.

Joey stiffened next to her and said, “Have a good night, old timer.” He tightened his grip on Penelope’s hand and pulled her toward the
Isn’t She Lovely
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“Oh, we’ll have a good night, all right. You do the same.” The sound of their laughter followed Penelope and Joey down the dock.

When they reached the boat, Penelope rolled her eyes at Joey and shrugged her shoulders. “I have no idea what that guy is talking about. Sorry. I swear neither one of them has ever said a word to any of us.”

Joey glanced at her, looking annoyed. “They’re a couple of old drunks. Forget it. Let’s just get your stuff and get out of here.”

Penelope picked up the white phone next to the glass doors of the boat and rang for the captain, who came up to let her in.

“I’ll wait for you out here,” Joey said, stepping back onto the deck.

Penelope entered the salon and headed quickly down the spiral stairs. After she’d retrieved her clothes and laptop and emerged from the boat, she saw Joey was staring towards the old fishermen, their faint conversation and laughter floating on the air towards them.

“You okay?” Penelope asked.

“Yeah,” Joey said, snapping back to focus. “You ready?”

“I am,” Penelope said, holding up her overnight bag. Joey took it from her and slung it over his shoulder and they walked back towards the beach.

When they passed by the old men they fell silent, snickering under their breath. Suddenly one of them said, “There they go, Wainright. I tell you, I will never understand girls. Just as mean to each other as anyone can be.”

Penelope stopped abruptly and turned towards the fishermen. She took a step closer and squinted at them in the dark, digging in her memory for where she’d heard the name. “Wainright…were you a teacher back in the sixties?”

The fisherman beamed, revealing a row of clean white teeth. His friend laughed too, but his dental habits must have been lacking because he had a few open spots on the top row. “Yes, I was…taught English and History for twenty years over there.” He waved in the general direction of the school complex.

“I saw your picture in a yearbook over at the Inn,” Penelope said.

Mr. Wainright laughed, rocking back and forth in his ancient deck chair.

“Yep, Betty Jeanne was always the sentimental one, hanging on to our history for us.”

“Betty Jeanne?” Penelope asked. “Jeanne is Elizabeth Haverford? I thought that was an older sister or something.”

“Nope, that’s Betty Jeanne. She goes by Jeanne now, of course; it’s much more elegant. Jeanne does worry about being elegant. She used to say Betty Jeanne made her sound like she should be slinging beers in a bar in Texas. I always thought it had a nice ring, in a country music kind of way,” Mr. Wainright said. “Well, now I guess I know what she meant.” He snickered along with his fishing partner.

“So you guys, what? Decided to retire together to this dock? Spend the rest of your days drunk out in the sun?” Joey asked, still sounding annoyed.

“Yeah, son. What’s it to you?” the other man asked, spraying hoarse laughter.

“Mr. Wainright,” Penelope said, “you knew Jeanne and Rose and Josephine in high school, right?”

“And Henny, yes,” he said, nodding agreeably.

“And they were all friends?” Penelope asked.

“Yes. Best friends,” he replied. “Until they graduated.”

“Penny, let’s get out of here,” Joey said, grabbing her hand. “It’s getting late.”

Penelope pulled her hand away from Joey and said, “What happened after graduation? They weren’t friends anymore?”

“It’s hard to be best friends your whole life. Especially girls like that,” Mr. Wainright said cryptically.

“What do you mean, girls like that?” Penelope asked.

“The popular ones. Something always comes along to break them up. I’ve seen it a hundred times. There was this one group of girls, back in ’73…”

His voice trailed off in Penelope’s ear and she noticed Joey had started walking away from her towards the shore. She turned and followed him away from the drunk old men.

Chapter 26

“Let’s stop at Sackler’s on the way. I want to get some eggs for the morning,” Joey said. His mood had lightened since they’d left the dock.

They arrived at Sackler’s right before closing. Bradley was up front, restocking candy in the checkout aisle. Joey headed to the dairy section while Penelope waited for him at the register.

“Hey, Bradley,” Penelope said.

He looked up at her and said, “Hi, Miss Sutherland.” His eyes were red and his shoulders slumped under his Sackler’s Market t-shirt.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

Bradley shrugged his shoulders and murmured, “Not really.”

“What’s going on?” Penelope asked, taking a step towards him.

Bradley hesitated, then told her in a rush, “Sabena Lambert died today. We were friends.”

“Bradley, I’m so sorry,” Penelope said. “I knew her too.”

Bradley nodded, sighing gruffly. “I wish I could have done something to help her.”

“How well did you know her?” Penelope asked, then suddenly something snapped into place for her. “Bradley, was she your girlfriend?”

Bradley’s eyes snapped up to hers quickly and the word “No” died on his lips. Then he began to nod, and he turned away from Penelope.

She placed a hand on his shoulder and felt it stiffen beneath his t-shirt. “I saw part of your baseball jersey in her room, along with some ripped-up pictures,” Penelope said gently.

Bradley nodded and regained some composure. “We dated in secret. My mom knew from the start, but Sabena wasn’t allowed.” He pulled out his phone and scrolled through some pictures, stepping closer to Penelope so they could both see.

“Stop,” Penelope said. “Go back one?”

Bradley scrolled back and Penelope saw the whole image of the beach picture she’d seen in the box. In this version Bradley sat next to Sabena, and it was his finger underneath her bathing suit strap. “I saw that one in her room.”

Bradley continued to thumb through the pictures, some of him in uniform, lots of them at school or on the beach together. “I loved her. But we broke up.”

Penelope looked at the side of his face and saw genuine anguish in his expression. “What happened?” she asked quietly.

“I got the scholarship. I’m going to be so far away, really soon. Bean had two more years of high school…my mom didn’t think it was fair to keep her from dating other people that whole time. And she said I’d want to see other people too. But…” He broke off, confused. “Bean didn’t want to go to college. She was staying here. That doesn’t fit in with my plans. She flipped out on me when I sent in my acceptance.”

“I saw some college entrance information in her room,” Penelope said hesitantly.

Bradley looked at her with surprise. “News to me,” he said with a touch of bitterness. “She always said she wouldn’t leave her mom all alone on the island like everyone else did.”

“I can’t imagine someone at that age realizes how big that kind of decision is. Do you know how her mom felt about it?”

Bradley shook his head quickly. “Oh no, we weren’t allowed to act like we knew each other around her mom. They live in a different reality from the rest of us over there.”

“Penelope, I was thinking about you today,” Henny said, walking up quickly from the back of the store. Bradley tucked his phone back into his pocket. “Do you want me to make another shrimp order for you?”

“Yes, thank you. I almost forgot. Today was crazy. Henny,” Penelope said, “have you heard of anyone not being happy about the new restaurant?”

Henny thought for a moment and said, “No, but I have heard some grumbling about the new chef in town. I heard he wants to import all his seafood down in New Orleans, something about maintaining the authentic local flavor of his restaurants.”

“Really,” Penelope said. “How do the fishermen feel about that?”

Henny put her fists on her hips over her apron strings. “They don’t like it one bit. They were thinking they were going to get all this extra business. Well, maybe they will after all. This Babineau character might just realize after a while it makes more sense to source his ingredients locally.”

“I’m sure if you talked to him he’d understand. I can’t imagine he’d want to deal with all of those long-distance shipments,” Penelope said.

“Exactly. And things around here have a way of not working out for people who don’t stick to the island rules,” Henny said, lowering her voice.

Bradley ducked away towards the back of the store. Joey wandered up with a basket full of groceries. They paid and said goodbye, Henny locking the door behind them.

As they walked in the dark to the cabin Penelope said, “Bradley and Sabena were dating but they broke up when he got a scholarship to college,” Penelope said.

“That’s a shame. He must be feeling terrible about her passing away,” Joey said.

“I know. That’s a big burden of guilt to be carrying around at his age.”

“He didn’t cause what happened, Penny,” Joey said.

“True. But I’m sure that doesn’t make what happened any easier for him to deal with.”

Chapter 27

The next morning on the set, Penelope and her crew sped through breakfast and were cleaning up in preparation for lunch when Shane came down to talk to Penelope.

“Penelope, I’m sorry I acted like such an ass yesterday,” Shane said, his blue eyes peering out from under his baseball cap. “You’re not easily replaceable like I said you were. You’re a valuable asset to our team. I appreciate everything you do for everyone. Okay? So, I’m sorry.”

Penelope folded her arms across her chest and said, “Okay, thank you. Apology accepted.”

Shane turned on his heel and started to walk away.

“Shane, wait,” Penelope said.

“What?” he asked testily, turning back around.

“It’s none of my business, but—”

“If you have to start by saying that, then you might want to reconsider the next thing you say to me,” Shane warned.

“But,” Penelope said, pressing forward, “you’re putting your relationship with Emilio in jeopardy with the attention you’re paying to his wife.”

Shane snorted a laugh. “You’re right. It is none of your business.”

“What’s going on with you and Dominique? I know that’s why Emilio attacked you up on the roof. You’re getting too close.”

Shane took a step toward her but Penelope stood her ground. “Nothing is going on with me and Dominique.” He stared at her for a second, then looked away before continuing. “She’s my business partner’s wife. My friend’s wife. She asked me to stay over, and I did, thinking maybe…but she made it clear after I was there, it was only for security out at the house. It was a mistake not telling Emilio about it.”

“Trust is a hard thing to regain once it’s lost. In order to keep your business relationship going, not to mention your friendship with Emilio, you should back off of Dominique. Think about how things look to him…he loves her,” Penelope said quietly.

Shane sighed and said, “I know. Not that I need to explain myself, especially to you, but I do understand that. It’s not a mistake I plan on making again.”

Shane went back inside the Inn without another word. After a few minutes, Penelope followed him to check on Arlena and see what she might like for lunch. On her way through the hallway she looked in and saw a few members of the crew setting up lights and microphones in the library, getting ready for another day of filming the party scene. She glanced at the bookshelves and saw they had kept most of Jeanne’s books in place, removing some of the more obvious covers and obscuring some of the shelves with vases and other items.

“It’s quite something, isn’t it?” Jeanne said, startling Penelope.

“Oh, Jeanne,” Penelope said. “I didn’t see you there.” Penelope looked down and saw they’d propped the picture of Jeanne and Robert on the floor just outside the door. Jeanne bent to pick it up.

“I’ll just take this upstairs until they’re finished using the library,” Jeanne said, heading for the stairs.

“Jeanne,” Penelope said, following her. “Your name is Elizabeth Haverford?”

“Why, yes, dear,” Jeanne said, smiling.

“I saw your name on the bill of sale of Emilio’s restaurant. You owned that building?” Penelope asked. One of the grips walked down the stairs, cords draped over his shoulders, his heavy boots thumping on the old stairs.

“Oh, yes, that was originally my uncle’s hardware store. He didn’t have children of his own so he left it to me when he died. We’ve leased it out for different businesses over the years, but it’s been vacant now for at least five. Then Shane came along and offered to buy it, for himself and that Emilio fellow from New Orleans,” Jeanne said.

“Hey, Boss, you want us to get started on the chicken breasts?” Quentin stuck his head in the front door and called to her.

She turned around and said, “Yes, go ahead. But only just prep it up. Nothing gets fired until we see the whites of their eyes.” She turned back to Jeanne. “You didn’t change your name to Daniels when you married your husband?”

Jeanne’s smile faltered for a second and she said, “I did, but then I changed it back. It was too painful.”

“Penelope,” Arlena called from the top of the staircase. “Gavin and I will have lunch upstairs with Sienna and Max in your room again, if that’s okay.”

“Sure, Arlena, I’ll send it up when we break,” Penelope said.

Jeanne turned to head up the stairs after another pair of crew members hurried past. Penelope watched her go, lost in thought.

After lunch service was through, Penelope said to her chefs, “Guys, go ahead and get everything cleared down and then you can go for the day. They’re not going to need us again. Maybe you can get an hour or two on the beach before sunset.”

Her crew worked quickly to get everything put away, cleared down and locked up, then happily headed for the cabin they were sharing to get changed for the beach. Penelope did a quick walkthrough to be sure everything was in place and then went to her room to change also. Pulling on a short sundress and sandals, Penelope took a walk down Ocean Avenue. She decided to stop at Rose’s to get a bottle of water on the way.

Rose’s door was pulled closed and her little handwritten sign that said she’d be back in ten minutes was taped to the glass. Penelope sat down on the bench and waited, pulling her backpack onto her lap so she could lean against the splintering wood. She looked at the front glass of Rose’s, watching the reflection of a few people walking down the sidewalk on the other side of the street. The glass seemed bowed, giving the effect of a panoramic lens like the view from inside a fishbowl.

When Penelope didn’t see Rose return after a few minutes, she got up from the bench to see if her old yellow Volvo was parked in the gravel lot. Moving around to the side of the building, Penelope saw it parked there as usual, backed into the last spot by the entrance to the apartment. The trunk was open and the windows of the car were rolled down. The screen door to the apartment entrance had come unlatched and was banging open against the wall of the building.

“Rose?” Penelope called. She went to the doorway and caught the thin aluminum door as it blew open again. “Rose? Are you up there?” She peered into the dark foyer and up the stairs but couldn’t see anyone. She closed the screen door and surveyed the trunk, seeing a few grocery bags from Sackler’s leaning together towards the rear of the car.

She grabbed the bags and pulled the screen door open again, climbing the stairs up to Rose’s apartment.

“Rose?” Penelope called again as she climbed the creaking stairs.

“Who is it?” Rose called sharply from behind her apartment door on the landing.

“It’s me, Penelope. I’ve brought up your groceries.”

Rose opened the door quickly and looked at Penelope, then down to her hands where she held the grocery bags. She stepped outside of the apartment and said, “You didn’t have to do that, hon. I was heading back down for them.”

“It’s no problem,” Penelope said. “Happy to help.”

Rose stepped forward and took the bags from her. “Thank you.” She stood in front of her closed door, staying silent. Penelope took a step back onto the landing and turned towards the stairs.

“Did you need something from the shop? I’ll be down in a few minutes after I get these things put away,” Rose called after her after she made her way halfway down the steps.

Penelope glanced back over her shoulder, her hand on the slick wooden railing. “No, that’s okay. I was going to get some water but it’s not important. Do you want me to close the trunk of your car?”

“Oh, yes, that would be great. Thank you, Penelope,” Rose said, backing into her apartment with her groceries.

Penelope went back out into the bright sunlight and squinted, her eyes having adjusted to the dark interior of Rose’s stairway. She walked over to the rear of Rose’s car and swung the trunk down. It gave out a groan of protest as it went. Penelope pressed on it again to be sure it had latched, bouncing the car slightly on its wheels. She walked around the side of the car and glanced inside. The backseat was littered with napkins and papers. A pair of sunglasses and a beach bag sat on the backseat and a fine coating of sand dusted the floorboards. A flash of glittery bright pink caught her eye and she paused to take another look.

Wedged in the crease of the bench seat was a sparkly pink tube. Penelope looked at it curiously, her heartbeat slowing to a dull thud in her chest. Penelope glanced up at the apartment windows and when she didn’t see any movement, gently lifted the rear door handle. Finding it unlocked, Penelope slowly pulled the door open. A loud metallic groan broke the silence and Penelope froze, looking up at the windows again. She quickly grabbed some napkins from the backseat and used them to pull the pink tube from the fold in the seat without touching it with her fingers. After taking another quick look around, she wrapped the tube in the napkins and tucked it into the interior zipper of her backpack.

Penelope eased the car door closed, leaning on it until she heard it click, and after taking another quick look at Rose’s windows, walked out of the parking lot.