Spring Break Murder Page 12

  I chuckled uncomfortably. It seemed like such a menacing statement even though Susie had followed it up with a little smile. I wasn't getting good vibes from Susie, so I decided I needed to get out of there right away. I gave a little wave and walked the bicycle down the driveway to the street.

  "I was just making a bad joke," Susie called after me. "I'm just concerned about Louise, that's all."

  I turned and gave another little wave with a smile. Something was telling me that I wanted to stay on Susie's good side. She wasn't telling me the whole truth, but I also wasn't sure what she was lying about. Once I was out of Susie's view, I got on the bike and tried to focus on keeping my balance. It looked like maybe riding a bike wasn't something I could just pick up and do again after so many years. Good thing I had some time to practice.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  After a few spins up and down the streets of the RV park, I was feeling much more comfortable with my skills, even if bike riding did seem to take all of my concentration. I didn't want to waste all of my sort of beginner's luck on riding around the RV park so I steered my bicycle back towards home.

  When I got to Bill and Sally's RV, there was a golf cart parked next to the truck that I didn't recognize. I could see Bill and Sally sitting with someone inside of the screened-in sun room, but it didn't look like Trevor or Mandy. I kicked the kickstand down and took off the bike helmet before I went to see who they were meeting with.

  Bill and Sally sat together on a little loveseat while a pudgy, balding man sat on a chair across a table from them. Everyone seemed smiley and happy, so I had to assume this wasn't related to the murder.

  "Oh hi, Tessa, I'm so glad you're back," Sally said as she gestured for me to sit in the chair next to the rotund man. "I wanted to introduce you to Tom. This is Tom Parks, the owner of the park. He came by to talk to us about Cindy."

  "Again," Bill muttered under his breath.

  Tom held out a pudgy hand for me to shake and as I grasped it, he shot me a big, friendly smile. From all I'd heard about Tom, he was on the side of the Dolls, if there were any sides in all of these shenanigans. I let go of his hand and sat down.

  "It's nice to meet you Tessa," Tom said. "I'm glad you're visiting the park, but I'm sorry it's been a bit more exciting than our little retirement park usually is. Although from what I hear, you enjoy investigating these sorts of things."

  If someone would have told me a few years ago while I was still living in a high rise apartment and working a corporate job that I would someday be known for my love of true crime and solving gruesome puzzles instead of anything else, I would have thought that person was off their rocker. But here I was trying to piece together clues to figure out how an elderly lady died.

  "I think you're right about the excitement," I said with a chuckle. "It has certainly livened things up here. But Sally said you were here about Cindy. What is that all about?"

  Tom let out a big exhale, comically puffing out his cheeks to show that he didn't like being in the middle of all this. But as the owner of the park, it was just the sort of dispute that he had to deal with.

  "Hoo boy, well it is about what it is always about," Tom said. "Cindy wrote me an email the night of the murder with more accusations about Bill and Sally, saying that she wanted them kicked out and she had friends that would help make that happen and yada, yada, yada. The first thing she wanted was to have Bill removed as the Keeper of the Pool, which is a no-go because I had absolutely nothing to do with that and the Dolls were the ones who appointed him unofficially. I told her she would have to take it up with Sally and the ladies."

  "And I'm assuming she didn't take that well?" I asked.

  Bill rolled his eyes as Sally gave him a playful shove before she got up and headed over to the bar area. Tom grimaced and put his meaty hands out as he struggled to find the words he wanted.

  "Look, Cindy is a real character," Tom finally said. "She isn't easy to get along with and she isn't the sort of fun person that this RV park normally attracts. But Cindy hasn't done anything wrong, even if she is annoying. I try my hardest to balance her concerns with the wellbeing of everyone else in the community. I address anything that may be valid and ignore the rest."

  Sally came back with a tray of lemonade and some muffins. I poured myself a drink and chose a blueberry muffin, hoping the fruit inside meant it was just the tiniest bit healthier for me than the chocolate chip ones, not that it should matter too much since I was on vacation after all.

  "But Tom, before Tessa came in you said you needed to tell us something important," Bill said, taking the wrapper off of his muffin. "Was it just about the emails?"

  "Well no, there was something else," Tom said. "The police asked if I had any security tapes I could bring in that they could use as evidence. I told them that I would bring everything from the night of the murder but we don't actually have a camera that would have captured the murder. The closest we have is one that faces the pool area of the big patio, but the hedges block the view of anything actually happening around the pool."

  Tom took a big gulp of lemonade, his eyes darting around as he did everything he could to avoid eye contact with us. He nervously scratched his forehead and cleared his throat a few times.

  "I'll just come out and say it," he said. "As I was watching the tapes this morning, I found one of Mandy stealing Cindy's bike and causing some pretty significant damage to it. Bill, it shows you too."

  Bill deflated, his head hanging low as Sally narrowed her eyes at him. Her mouth was set in a concerned pucker as she reached over and put her hand on his shoulder, showing him that she would stand by him, but she wasn't happy about what had happened.

  So Mandy had been the one to take Cindy's bike. Mandy wasn't normally one to have a temper, but her protective instincts seemed to have come out that night at the dance.

  "After Mandy left the dance that night, I went out to find her," Bill said. "By the time I came across her, she had already smashed up Cindy's bike pretty bad. It was in rough enough shape before, but I knew at that point that there was no way I could fix it up. So we took Cindy's personal things off of it and tossed the bike in the dumpster and then she and I headed out to find a bike to buy."

  "But you guys were gone most of the night," I said. "Where in the world did you go?"

  "There aren't many bicycle shops that are open twenty-four hours a day," Bill said. "So we ended up at one of those big box stores where we managed to buy a red bicycle that we hoped would make her happy."

  "So Mandy didn't kill someone in a fit of rage, but she did destroy a bicycle," Sally said slowly, trying to understand all of the pertinent details in this strange new story.

  "Yes, but once she stopped and thought about it, she realized that Cindy would definitely turn her into the police for destroying her property," Bill said. "We hoped that we could stop all of that by buying her a new bike, but of course she doesn't seem to be happy with that either."

  "I just wanted to warn you because I did have to turn the tape into the police, but I thought you should know when they come to ask questions," Tom said.

  "Thank you, Tom," Sally said. "I do appreciate it."

  "I really should be going," Tom said. "There are always lots of things to do around here, mostly checking in on the supposed violations I am alerted to each week."

  With a wink, he slipped out the door. We all sat in silence for a moment, listening to the beep of Tom's golf cart as he backed it out of the driveway. The lemonade Sally had brought over was the perfect mix of sweet and sour and I took another sip.

  Mandy was usually the calm, even-keeled one while I was the brash one who did and said things without thinking. I was getting a glimpse into her world, which apparently involved a fair amount of figuring out how to help me get out of a jam.

  Cindy had probably already reported her stolen bike to the police along with the "dumping" of a brand new bike on her front porch. When the police looked at the security tapes, they would clearly see
Mandy destroying the bike so I had to assume they would come to get her again. I'm not sure there was much I could do, although at least I was pretty sure Mandy could get off with a just a fine for this.

  "Let's look at the bright side, I'm sure there won't be any jail time looming over Mandy for this," I said.

  "There will be if Cindy has any say in it," Bill said with a snort. "She'd probably demand life in prison for daring to replace her ancient, hunk of junk bicycle."

  We all laughed, imagining Cindy in court trying to haggle with the judge for a life sentence. In my mind, her overly tight, curled hair was bouncing up and down as she stomped on the ground demanding justice. That image of her was sadly not that out of the norm for Cindy.

  "Oh Bill, be nice," Sally said once she stopped laughing. "We shouldn't judge if Cindy loved her bicycle. For all we know, it was a treasured heirloom."

  "It definitely was not," Bill said. "I know that because she bragged to me once that she found it leaning against a trash can on garbage day. Cindy was pretty proud of finding a working bicycle for free."

  After we finished our snack of lemonade and muffins, I thought about what Tom had said. He had handed all sorts of security tapes over to the police. I wondered if he would let me watch them also. It was worth a shot, so I clicked my helmet on my head and hopped on my bicycle to go have a chat with Tom.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Riding through the park was actually kind of fun now that I had my bicycle legs under me. The more I rode, the more comfortable I felt and the less I had to concentrate on the actual riding of the bike. It was a bit like being back in Shady Lake because everyone I passed by waved and called out a greeting to me. Some of them I recognized, but others were completely unfamiliar but still very nice.

  Tom's office was a tiny little building next to the entrance to the RV park that looked like a garden shed. In fact the more I looked at it, the more it looked like it had been purchased at a home improvement store and plopped here unceremoniously. There was a little hand-painted sign above the door that said TOMS OFFICE. I cringed a bit at the lack of apostrophe, but soldiered on.

  I knocked a few times on the door before I tried the door handle. It was locked, but then I noticed a tiny sign stuck above the doorknob. It was so small and in such an odd place that I was a bit surprised I had noticed it at all.

  Out for lunch it read. Be back in an hour or so.

  I'd just have to wait to see those tapes. Thankfully the ride with the Bike Brigade wasn't until tomorrow, so I had all afternoon free to check back in with Tom. I was about to get back on my bicycle when I could hear a bike ride up behind me.

  "Hey, what are you doing?" a shrill voice called towards me. "Don't think you can go in and steal anything from that office."

  I turned around and was totally and completely not surprised to be face to face with Cindy. She, however, was surprised to see that it was me under the bike helmet. Her eyes opened wide before they narrowed at me again.

  "Oh, it's you," she said. "Were you going to try to steal the security tapes to try and cover up the murder for your best friend?"

  "What do you know about the security tapes?" I asked, hoping she didn't know what Mandy had actually been doing during the time of the murder.

  "Mr. Parks told me that he had turned in the tapes to the police and said that he had told Bill and Sally about them," Cindy said. "Naturally I figured that meant your friend was guilty and he was trying to give her and her parents a heads up so that you could once again cover it up or frame someone else or run to Mexico or something."

  I breathed a sigh of relief. So far Cindy had no idea that Mandy had been the one to destroy her bicycle. She also didn't seem to know about Louise having turned herself in for questioning. I certainly wasn't going to be the bearer of bad news or of any news for Cindy, so I grabbed my bike and put the kickstand up.

  "Cindy, Mandy was not the person who killed Hilda," I said. "I'm sorry that you lost your friend. It is a horrible situation. But what I am doing right now is trying to get to the bottom of it so that we can know once and for all what happened."

  A few raindrops started to fall as the daily rain shower started. It was so warm out that the rain felt more like bathwater than the cold rain that usually fell in Minnesota. Cindy's mouth puckered into a scowl and she opened her mouth to say something before clamping it shut again.

  Climbing up onto my bicycle seat, I gave Cindy a little wave and pushed off, trying to get back to the RV before the rain picked up. I enjoy a warm rain but not when it absolutely drenches me. After a short while, I realized that I definitely would not make it home in time for this rain so I cycled up to the Candy Cane Palace, parking myself and my bicycle under an awning.

  It was peaceful sitting there alone, watching the rain fall. A wave of calm washed over me as I let myself soak up the vacation feeling I had been missing for most of this trip. Letting my mind wander, I wondered if Trevor had proposed yet. When I thought of a proposal I usually thought of evening, like popping the question during a beautiful sunset. But a brunch proposal didn't seem totally unusual.

  Of course, my mind naturally wandered to Max and what he thought about the timing of proposals. I got that giddy, butterfly feeling again as I pictured us on a romantic sunset walk around Shady Lake in the middle of a warm summer evening. I imagined him getting down on one knee and opening up a ring box, asking for my hand in marriage.

  I squealed a little squeal to myself, glad that no one was around to actually hear it. As much as I loved Max, I didn't feel the need to announce my school-girl self to the people around me.

  The rain was still falling pretty hard, but I could see the clouds were starting to move on. I wouldn't be stuck under this awning for much longer. Then out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone out and about in the rain shower.

  Someone clad in a big red poncho was riding a bike towards the entrance to the park. I watched, wondering what was so important that they had to come out in the rain. But instead of going out the gate, they turned and parked their bike in front of the park office.

  Now I was intrigued. Could the mystery cyclist be Tom? Maybe I'd be able to see the tapes now, provided I ran through the rain. That didn't make any sense because why would he have abandoned his golf cart to ride through the rain in a poncho?

  As the person turned around, I sucked in my breath. Susie was looking out from underneath the hood of the poncho. I wasn't sure what she was doing but by the way she was looking around, she didn't want anyone to see what she was doing. Thankfully, I was hidden up next to the building and under the awning so even though I saw her eyes dart this way, Susie didn't seem to see me.

  The rain kept on falling as Susie carefully scanned the park once, twice, three times. No one else was crazy enough to be out in the rain, especially because these showers never seemed to last very long. Most people would just wait the ten minutes or so until the rain shower moved on and they could get out to get on with their day. Whatever Susie was planning, she would have to do it fast before the rain stopped.

  Finally, Susie must have decided it was safe because she turned around and bent down, fiddling with the doorknob until the door popped open and she disappeared inside. I stayed huddled against the wall, wondering what in the world she could be doing in there.

  I didn't have to wonder long because as fast as she had gone in, Susie was back out, shutting the door behind her. She wasn't holding anything and by the look on her face, it was because she hadn't found whatever it was she was looking for.

  Susie climbed on her bicycle and rode out of sight, back in the direction of her trailer. A minute later, the rain lightened up and then stopped all together. I stood up and grabbed my bicycle, ready to head back to the RV. Before I could go anywhere, I spotted a police cruiser coming in the entrance to the park. They drove slowly through the park and as I watched, they drove straight to Bill and Sally's driveway. Uh-oh, this couldn't be good.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

&
nbsp; The biggest advantage of having a bicycle instead of walking was that I was able to get back to the trailer before the police officers even got out of the car. I skidded my bicycle to a stop on the grass next to the driveway, tipping over but catching myself before I fell onto the ground. Flipping out the kickstand, I parked my bike and hoped the cops weren't here to get Mandy even though I was pretty sure they were.

  "Hello Officer Mendoza, Officer Johnson," I said with a wave. "Beautiful morning! What brings you back here today?"

  Officer Johnson muttered a hello and stared blankly at me. His beady eyes were locked on me, always seeming to be filing away information about his surroundings. He seemed almost like a very perceptive rat. Officer Mendoza was a bit more pleasant which may be because he seemed to actually have a personality behind his badge. He took his sunglasses off and hung them on his shirt pocket, which was level with my eyeline. Officer Mendoza was so tall that he shaded me nicely from the sun, which was rapidly warming up.

  "Good morning Miss Schmidt," he said with a smile. "It is a lovely morning. Honestly, this is what almost every morning is like down here. It is what keeps me here in Florida."

  "I completely understand that," I said with a big smile, wondering if he ignored my question about why they were here or just didn't answer it. I decided to take another stab at it. "Are you just coming to check in about Hilda's case?"

  "Ma'am, would you please let us get back to our business?" Officer Johnson said.

  "You're in luck because I'm also staying here, so I'll let you guys in," I said.

  Walking up to the trailer, I unbuckled my helmet and hoped that my hair didn't look too wild. I didn't want them to think I was a weirdo even though I guess I kind of was one. Who else would investigate a murder in their spare time?

  I opened the door to the sunroom and called for Mandy to come out. Trevor was probably back at his hotel sleeping, but Mandy was taking advantage of the fact that she was not only on vacation but also released from police custody, for now at least.