Spring Break Murder Page 14

  "Let's get back to the trailer," Trevor said. "Your mom and dad have been busy making us a special dinner to celebrate. Everyone back to the convertible!"

  All three of us laughed and headed back to the car. My happiness was bubbling up and spilling over the top. I couldn't wait to help Mandy plan her wedding, especially because she had helped me plan my wedding to Peter. I couldn't help but wonder if she would be helping me plan my wedding to Max soon.

  Chapter Thirty

  Trevor drove the convertible right up to the end of the driveway and we were surprised to see a whole crowd of people waiting for us on the deck. Bill and Sally had taken the opportunity to make it a party instead of just a celebration dinner. A cheer went up as Mandy hopped out of the car and met her mother at the top of the deck stairs.

  I grabbed our purses and climbed out of the car. Trevor went to park in guest parking while I approached the throng of women currently vying to see the engagement ring. All of the Dolls and their husbands had shown up for the celebration party along with some of the other neighbors. The ladies were all taking turns grabbing Mandy's hand and cooing over the amazing ring Trevor had picked out. Trevor came bounding back up the road and was immediately met with slaps on the back from the guys and hugs from the ladies.

  Puttering around the party, I was drawn into conversation after conversation about everything from Minnesota, which is where most of the RV park residents seemed to be from, to the engagement at the weird beach. Everyone also asked me about my hands since they were all bandaged up like a mummy. One thing that was not a topic of conversation was Hilda's murder. In a way I understood not wanting to ruin the party with talk of death, but it seemed more like everyone was purposely ignoring it and that didn't feel right for poor Hilda.

  Mandy was all smiles as she was seated like a queen on her throne, entertaining person after person who took a turn to congratulate her and make some small talk. Trevor was standing next to her chair, occasionally bending down to kiss her or hold her hand for a moment while he entertained his own guests.

  I heard a golf cart pulling up to the party and I was happy to see that it was Tom Parks. Maybe I could talk him into letting me watch those security tapes now. Passing through the party crowd to get to him wouldn't be easy though. Bill and Sally knew everyone and invited everyone to celebrate with them.

  Karen and Kathy each grabbed me by an arm suddenly and started talking over each other. The only way I could tell them apart was by looking at their pins, but they were standing so close to me and talking so fast that I couldn't sneak a glance and just had to guess who was who without saying their names.

  "We just saw those pictures you took," KathyKaren said. "They were wonderful!"

  "Did you really just take those with a phone?" KarenKathy said. "I can't believe technology these days. We used to have to tote around a big ole camera with film in it."

  "And we had to use it all up and take it to get developed before we could actually see the pictures," KathyKaren said. "There wasn't even one-hour picture at that point."

  The sisters talked back and forth about how much technology had advanced and how my generation would never know how lucky they were even though I kind of did because I vividly remember bringing a disposable film camera to summer camp with me.

  After a few more back and forths with compliments on the photos which I demurely tried to pass off as just good luck because if they had seen the beach we ended up at and the beautiful sunset, they would have known it was pure luck that they turned out so well.

  I was just trying to cross the crowded party deck to get to Tom who, by this point, was sitting in the sunroom with a crowd of the husbands and other men from the park. Every time I managed to take a few more steps, I was stopped by another Doll to compliment me on the pictures and ask what in the world happened to my hands. I started to feel legitimately bad about all of the compliments because other than the fact that I tapped the screen a few times to focus the light, I didn't do much else to take good pictures.

  Marie jingled up with armfuls of bracelets. She kept gesturing around with excitement and she jingled so much that it reminded me of Christmas. Lynn caught me next and insisted on giving me a big hug. She was so short that I had to lean my head back to avoid getting a mouthful of her beehive.

  The Dolls were an eccentric group, but I had to admit that they were really growing on me. They were just all so sincere and loving. It wasn't even my engagement but with my tangential link to the major life event, they were roping me in to congratulate me also. It was odd and also incredibly sweet.

  There were only two Dolls who hadn't congratulated me: Louise and Susie. I understood why Louise hadn't talked to me. Even though everyone was steering around the topic of the murder and all of the suspects, I knew that Louise was still being held in custody.

  Susie, however, was at the party but it almost seemed like she was avoiding me. I had accidentally locked eyes with her at one point as I was attempting to cross the deck and while I smiled and waved, she had looked away. While I otherwise would assume she hadn't seen me, it was just a beat too long to think that. I wasn't sure what was going on with her but I wondered if it had to do with what I had seen yesterday. Susie hadn't seemed to see me, but maybe she knew I had been around when she broke into the office.

  Either way, I did try to wave at her one more time when I reached the door to the sunroom and was about to go inside. This time Susie was part of the crowd admiring Mandy's ring so when I waved, everyone waved back including Susie. She was the only one who did with a partial scowl though.

  Pulling open the door to the sunroom, I realized this was very much like the parties my parents would throw where even though everyone started out together, eventually the men and women would all separate to do different things.

  The sunroom was full of men, most of them probably husbands of the women outside. They looked a bit out of place in the wicker furniture and floral cushions that were scattered around the room, but it didn't phase them down at all. Laughter and conversation were flowing through the room as old rock and roll was playing on the stereo.

  As I entered, there was raucous laughter coming from a few different small groups around the room and I stopped just inside the door to try and pinpoint where Tom was without looking too out of place. My eyes scanned over the crowd, looking for the round, bald man. It was a bit more difficult here where Tom's description fit almost half of the crowd of men.

  "Tessa!" Bill stood up from one of the groups and shouted my name. "Come on over here and celebrate with us."

  I made my way through the maze of furniture until I reached the far corner of the room where Bill was holding court on a large wicker peacock chair. I could tell by his friendly roar that he had already been celebrating a bit with a few glasses of whiskey, which I knew was his celebration drink.

  One of the men stood and I was given the chair next to Bill. Sinking down into the cushions, I glanced around the crowd and was happy to see that Tom was sitting just two chairs to the left of me. I wasn't sure how I was going to ask him about the tapes, but at least now I was close to him.

  "Here you go Tessa, take a drink with me," Bill roared. His jowly cheeks were red from the alcohol and I had to laugh. Bill was not one to have too much to drink but he was taking his celebration seriously today.

  Bill was holding a glass of whiskey out to me. I was normally a wine drinker but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Knowing Bill, this was some sort of super special whiskey that he had been saving for a celebration.

  I took the glass out of his hand and took a sip. I had to hold it in both hands since the bandages made it hard to hold one-handed. It must be a good whiskey because it was pretty smooth, but still also pretty burny on my throat. Apparently, I would never be mature enough to actually appreciate a good whiskey.

  "Tessa, thank you so much for everything you've ever done for Mandy," Bill said. His eyes got a little watery. "You have been the sister we were neve
r able to give her. And now you've helped her not go to prison. So thank you. We really do owe you a lot."

  "To Tessa!" someone behind me said.

  "To Tessa!" everyone chimed in as they all held their glasses aloft.

  Many cheers went around as they drank to me. I used both hands raise my glass in thanks and accepted it with a nod of my head before I took a long swig. It still burned, but I supposed I could classify it as a 'good burn.'

  The men fell back into normal chatter and I was pleased to watch the man to my left stand up and leave. Before someone else could sit down, I slid over so that I was next to Tom. This was my chance to ask him and judging by his pink cheeks, he would be more susceptible to saying yes to me.

  "Hello Mr. Parks, I actually had a question for you," I said. "I believe you said you still had copies of the security tapes in the park office? Would you mind terribly if I came by sometime and just took a little peek at them? I would love to just see what the police are seeing."

  "Oh Tessa, you've been so lovely since you've been here," Tom said, his voice slurring just a little. "Here's my key. Why don't you run down there now and check them out. I normally wouldn't give out my keys to just anyone, but Bill and Sally trust you, so I trust you. As long as you weren't the one who broke in the other day."

  "Oh no, I would never," I said. "Someone broke in? Was anything taken?"

  "That's the strange part," he said. "I figured someone broke in for the petty cash, but besides rummaging around a bit in my mess, nothing was taken. I thought it was pretty odd."

  Tom looked off in the distance as he mulled over the strange break-in, but he was quickly drawn into another conversation with the man seated on the other side of him.

  Nothing had been taken from the office. Whatever Susie had been looking for was either not there or hidden when she broke in yesterday. I took the keys from Mr. Parks, promised I would be back soon and started the fight back through the party and down to my bicycle. I had something very specific I wanted to look for, I just hoped I could find it.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  I unlocked the door of the park office and marveled at just how small it actually was. When I peeked inside the other day it looked small, but being inside was a different story. For one thing, the roof was peaked and anyone taller than average would only be able to stand up in the very middle of the shed.

  There was a desk covered in paperwork in the very center of the shed. On one side was a very narrow bookshelf that held binders of what must be park documents. On the back wall of the shed was a shelf with all of the equipment for the security system. Before I left the party, Mr. Parks said that he had put all of the tapes for the night of the murder right on top of the VHS player when he came back from the police department. I rifled through them and found one that looked promising.

  A small, ancient television sat on the shelf, the kind with the VHS player built right in. While I understood that this was a trailer park for retirees, I marveled that they still depended on technology this old. The tape I wanted to watch was labeled "Candy Cane Palace Patio." I popped it in and pressed play.

  The tape started out quite a while before the murder, so I looked around for the remote. I spotted it attached to the side of the TV and grabbed it off. The camera was trained mostly on the door to go into the Candy Cane Palace but in the corner of the screen, the bushes from around the pool area could just barely be seen. The gate to the pool was just out of camera range. I fast-forwarded through a lot of the beginning, watching dressed-up people walking to the dance. I even managed to spot Mandy, Bill, Sally, and I all heading inside.

  Once I spotted Hilda and Cindy going into the dance, I pressed play. They hadn't been at the dance for very long before they caused trouble, so I watched from then on. A short time later they came back out but instead of leaving together, they stopped outside on the patio and had a short conversation. Cindy seemed to be telling Hilda to go to the pool. I knew that Cindy had instructed her underling to go make notes on all of the things Bill hadn't done that night. Then the two women split up and while I couldn't see Hilda in the pool area, I did see her head towards the gate.

  Next up I saw Louise come out of the dance. She seemed to be going for a casual walk, maybe to clear her head after the confrontation with Cindy, but then she suddenly stopped. Louise was looking in the direction of the pool and she must have spotted Hilda. The video was too grainy to get a good look at her face, so I couldn't get a sense of what she was thinking.

  Louise disappeared into the pool area and a short time later she appeared back on the screen, visibly distraught just as Susie was coming out of the Candy Cane Palace. Susie jogged up to Louise and put her arm around Louise's shoulder, escorting her off screen and back to her trailer.

  In the interim, Mandy exited the dance and dashed off camera. I knew she had already formulated her plan to destroy Cindy's bike at that point and she would sneak off to get it and bring it to the dumpster area where she managed to tear it apart. Bill came out after her and looked around, not sure where Mandy had gone. He also dashed off screen, looking for Mandy.

  I figured the next thing I would see would be the Dolls and I coming out of the dance, but it wasn't. It was so fast that I almost missed it, but someone walked by and into the pool area. It was someone who wasn't coming from the dance, but had come from somewhere in the park I rewound and played the tape a few times, trying to make out who it was, but I couldn't quite tell. Whoever it was had short hair and upon further inspection, may have been wearing some sort of necklace. Unfortunately, the direction they came from meant I mostly saw the back of their head as they went by.

  Shortly after the head disappeared into the pool area, I saw the Dolls coming out of the dance followed by me. We didn't stay on the patio long, hurriedly scurrying off to look for Susie and Louise. I remember that we didn't think we would need to check the patio area or the pool and now I was horrified to realize that whatever happened to Hilda was probably happening as we passed right by the pool.

  Our search party quickly split up and ran off in different directions to search the park. Then there was some downtime where nothing seemed to be happening, but then the head appeared again. This time they were going in the opposite direction and I could kind of see their face, but the grainy VHS quality made it hard to tell who it was.

  Again, I rewound and re-watched that face going by to see if I could see any details. The only problem was the depending on when I paused it, the fuzzy black and white pause lines that came with the ancient VHS technology would cover parts of the person. It looked like whoever it was had fallen into the pool because their short hair seemed like it was dripping water. Hilda was found in the pool so perhaps she had struggled with this person before she died.

  I kept trying, pausing it at different milliseconds to try and get the clearest picture I could. Finally, I hit the jackpot. The grainy pause lines were going just above and below the mystery person. Leaning in close to the TV, I tried to see more of the person's face but unfortunately the only thing I go was that they were an older woman which made sense seeing how the murder occurred in an RV park for retirees. That described half of the population.

  Instead, I focused on the necklace. It was a simple chain with some sort of charm on it. Most of the women here wore a necklace like that, so I tried my hardest to make out what it was. There were two small circles, so maybe they were interlocking rings? If there was just one circle, I would assume it said MOM but maybe it spelled out a different word.

  I kicked back in the chair and studied the necklace. The problem was that all of the women wore jewelry here, even in the pool. It was a way to show off their hobbies, their kids and grandkids, or even how long they had been married. The jewelry didn't have to be big or expensive to be a status symbol.

  Suddenly it all clicked. I knew who was in the video. Sitting up, I almost fell over in the desk chair as I scrambled to get my phone out of my pocket. I took out my phone and Officer Mendoza's business
card and punched the number into the phone.

  "Hello, Officer Mendoza," he said.

  "Hi Officer Mendoza," I said. "This is Tessa Schmidt, Mandy's friend. I was just looking at the security tapes from the night of Hilda's murder and I think I know who did it."

  I told Officer Mendoza everything I had figured out from watching the grainy tape and then I held my breath. While I was glad I had been able to contact him instead of Officer Johnson, it still didn't mean that he would believe me.

  "Well, that is certainly interesting," Officer Mendoza said. "And I think you might be right. We've been working on those tapes but we hadn't noticed that detail yet."

  "I also have a plan, if you are willing to listen," I said.

  Together, Officer Mendoza and I hashed out a plan to catch the culprit in their tracks. It wasn't quite the same as working with Max, but I got the feeling the Officer Mendoza and I might get to be real friends.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  I was up bright and early with the sun the next morning. I tried to lay with my eyes shut for a while, but sleep was elusive. Even though I had been competently riding my bicycle around the park, I was still a bit nervous about riding with the Bike Brigade today. Even after practicing on the bike with my hands all bandaged up, I still knew I would have to focus as I rode. As long as I didn't squeeze the handlebars too tight and my bandages were thick enough to pad my poor burnt palms, my hands were fine. I also had some butterflies in my stomach from the plan I had to come up with to catch the killer. As long as Officer Mendoza and I both played our parts, everything would go fine, but I had still been up almost all night thinking about it.

  The one thing I needed to remember was to not tell Officer Johnson that I had come up with the plan. Apparently he was not just utterly forgettable, but he was also the type to adhere exactly to the rules and I'm assuming there were plenty of rules about not letting civilians make plans to catch killers, even if they had been the one to figure out the crime. I liked Officer Mendoza enough that I wasn't going to get him in trouble.