Spring Break Murder Page 6

  The two officers came back around the pool to where we were sitting. Officer Mendoza's face was all scrunched up like he wasn't sure what he should say to us. Officer Johnson's face was almost blank, but I think that was just how he normally looked.

  "Uh Miss, we are going to have to take you to the station with us," Officer Mendoza said after staring at us for a little longer than was comfortable. "Your family can follow in their car if they would like, but right now we will need to take you into custody for questioning. You are not under arrest because we are still trying to determine what caused this woman's death."

  Mandy's face crumpled before she hid it behind her hands, her body wracked with sobs. Sally immediately covered Mandy in the sort of hug that only a mother can give. I felt like I should give Mandy a hug too, but I just couldn't. I felt frozen in confusion.

  "Wait a minute," I said. "How do you even know that this is a murder? Maybe Hilda just had a horrible accident. What if she just fell into the pool by accident?"

  "We can't say much," Officer Mendoza said. "But there are signs of a struggle."

  As I sat unmoving, my thoughts were racing a million miles a minute. Obviously Mandy couldn't have done this and that was glaringly obvious to anyone who had ever met her. But to strangers, she did threaten both Hilda and Cindy last night, her pool noodle was found floating next to the body and worst of all, she wouldn't give an alibi for the time of the murder.

  Max. I needed to call Max. He would know what to do. He could tell me the best way to deal with this.

  But as I reached for my phone, I realized that Mandy was already standing up and starting toward the pool gate with the two officers.

  "Mandy, do not say anything until we get you a lawyer," Bill called. "We know you are innocent, but we want to make sure they can't set you up."

  Mandy turned back, her eyes open wide. Tears were still streaming down her cheeks. She nodded at us and as she disappeared through the gate, Sally collapsed onto the pool deck beside my chair. She had stayed strong as long as she needed to but now that Mandy was out of sight, she let her emotions flow. I bent down and wrapped my arms around her, hoping I could be some sort of comfort. Of course I can't replace Mandy, but I could be here for her mother while she couldn't be.

  "I'm so sorry," I said, not knowing exactly what else to say.

  "What if we can't prove she didn't do it?" Sally said. "We know she didn't, but how do we prove that to them?"

  "I'm not sure, but the first thing we are going to do is get her a lawyer," Bill said. "No matter what I don't want the police to interrogate her and twist her words around."

  "Why don't we head back to the RV?" I suggested. "My phone is back there and I'm going to try calling Max. He should be able to tell us what we should do."

  Bill grabbed Sally's arm and helped pull her to her feet. He put his arm around her and steered her to the gate as I followed close behind.

  Once we were through the gate, I let Bill and Sally continue on towards the RV while I shut the gate to the pool. I took one last look around, begging anything to jump out at me that I could use to prove that Mandy didn't do it but the pool looked just as it had all morning.

  I ducked under the police tape that was strung around all of the bushes around the pool area. I would find something to help Mandy. There is no way I would let her take the fall for this.

  Chapter Eleven

  Back at the RV, I got my phone and headed outside onto the deck to call Max. Sally was laying down in her bed while Bill was making calls to find a good lawyer for Mandy. I didn't want them to hear me having to explain the entire situation to Max, especially Sally who had been through enough this morning. As someone who has stumbled across more dead bodies than I ever thought I would, I can personally attest to the unpleasantness.

  I sat down in one of the chairs, basking in the sun for a moment before I flipped open my phone. I kind of wished I had a smartphone because then I could video call Max and be able to see his handsome face instead of just a plain old phone call. But I knew that getting a flip phone instead had been one of the best things I had done to simplify my life.

  After losing Peter, there were a lot of things I reevaluated about my life. I realized I needed to simplify my life because almost everything I once thought of as so important had suddenly changed. Social media was one of those things, so I downgraded to a flip phone so that I wasn't even tempted to get back on social media.

  There were some times like this, however, where I really saw the inconvenience of it. I decided I shouldn't be so smug about my 'dumbphone.' Instead I hit Max's name and waited through the rings for him to answer.

  "Hey Sweet Thing," he said. "How's Florida treating you?"

  My face instantly opened up with a big dumb grin that I was glad no one was around to see. He had been calling me Sweet Thing since we were in high school and it never lost it's ability to melt my heart. Sometimes the simplest things were the most important in a relationship like this.

  "Hey Max," I said, before I realized that this call would need to be a lot more business-like for what was actually happening here in Florida. It felt a little weird being cutesy with my boyfriend while my best friend was sitting in the police station being accused of murder. "Actually, I don't have time for a lot of chit-chat because something happened."

  "What happened? Are you alright? Where are you at?"

  Max's voice instantly shifted into the deep, serious baritone of Officer Max Marcus wanting all of the details of what happened, but just the facts please. Once he turned on his law enforcement self, he couldn't switch it back off until he knew that he had sufficiently helped with whatever was going on.

  "I'm alright, but I'm afraid Mandy may be in a lot of trouble," I said.

  I explained the entire situation to him, starting with the confrontation with Hilda and Cindy at the pool yesterday, going through the fight at the dance followed by the disappearances, and ending with Sally finding Hilda in the pool this morning. I ended by explaining Cindy trying to lay the blame on Mandy and the few pieces of evidence that may not be helping the situation. At the end of the story, I took a big deep breath and tried to do some of the yoga breathing I had learned at the one class Mandy had dragged me to at the community center. Maybe I should give that class another try when we went back to Shady Lake.

  "Okay, well this isn't the best situation for multiple reasons, especially for Trevor," Max said after giving me a moment to breathe. "But it also isn't terrible. So far, the police don't have anything physically tying Mandy to Hilda's death. Sure the pool noodle was there, but numerous eyewitnesses saw you both at the pool yesterday. And yes, her fight with the ladies isn't great because it sets up an amazing motive along with the fact that she won't give an alibi, but I don't think she's got to turn in her clothes for a jumpsuit just yet."

  I could almost hear Max's sly smile on the other end of the line. Leave it to him to try and add a little humor into something that seemed so dire. On one hand, I wanted to slap him but I had to give him credit for trying to make me feel a little better so that I could think a little more rationally.

  "This is serious Max!" I said, but I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle. Mandy had a great sense of style and I had a hard time imagining her willingly put on a prison jumpsuit. "Bill is getting a lawyer for her so that the police can't totally run her over but if I know Mandy, I know that she is strong enough that they won't be able to fool her into saying anything dumb."

  "Say what you will but police officers can be handsome, clever devils," Max said. There was that grin coming through the telephone line again. Between that and the warm sun I was basking in, I felt rejuvenated and ready to fight for Mandy.

  "Okay, I should go figure out what I can do to help Mandy next," I said.

  I was about to say good-bye when I ran back through what Max had said and realized there had been something that hadn't made much sense. He had made some good points about the state of the police investigation, but why was
it especially bad for Trevor? Sure he loved Mandy, but I didn't think he was an overly emotional man.

  "You mentioned Trevor," I said. "Maybe you could be the one to call and tell him about what is going on? After all, you are back in Shady Lake with him. He might need someone to help him out. You know, someone that could bring over a pizza and distract him with a card game or movie or whatever in the heck two guys do when they hang out together."

  "Umm, about that," Max said. He hemmed and hawed for a bit, making stalling noises.

  "Something's up, spit it out," I said.

  Normally, I would feel pretty impatient with this kind of thing, but sitting on a deck in the warm sun was putting me in a good mood. I must have replenished all of the vitamin D I'd been previously lacking from living in Minnesota in the winter.

  "I wasn't supposed to tell anyone," Max said. "He only needed me to get him to the airport without paying a bunch of money to park his car up there for a few days. But it's a little too late for that."

  "Airport?" I asked. Now I was really confused. "What are you talking about? Did Trevor go on a different vacation? That fink! He said he couldn't get the time off to join us down here in Florida."

  "He's actually in Florida," Max said. "He was going to surprise Mandy along with her parents and you. And that's not all..."

  Max let out a big exhale. I could tell he was wondering if he should tell me the rest, but I could almost guess it by now. There was only one big thing that Trevor would actually get off of his lazy butt and plan a big, romantic surprise for.

  I was about to just blurt out my thoughts when Max decided he had to confide the secret in me.

  "He came down as a surprise," Max said. "Trevor wanted to propose to Mandy during her trip to Florida."

  Chapter Twelve

  I did a quick check-in on Bill and Sally, but they were both still where I had left them. Sally was resting and Bill had found a lawyer and was now filling him in over the phone on the pertinent details of what happened. I grabbed a can of pop from the fridge and walked back out to the deck.

  Trevor and I didn't have the greatest relationship. Don't get me wrong, it had come a long way since I moved back to Shady Lake but I still had a hard time not seeing him as the skaterboy slacker that he used to be. It didn't help that while he and Mandy had somehow maintained a long-term, monogamous, non-marriage relationship for the past twelve years, he had been slow to develop in all other areas in his life. He had kind of stumbled into a full-time job and he lived with Mandy in a nice apartment above the Donut Hut, but only because they lived there for free.

  But I had to give him credit now because he was finally taking steps to improve his life and become more of an adult than an overgrown teenager. So now I was pretty neutral about him, but I still can't say that I like him. I just sort of, a little more than before, approve of him dating my best friend.

  I took a deep breath and found Trevor's name in my contact list. I had no idea what I was going to say during this phone call. The only thing Trevor and I had in common was Mandy, so I figured I should just make sure that I focus on her.

  "Hi Mandy," Trevor said, practically shouting into the phone. I had to actually pull the phone away from my ear. I'm not sure if he thought he had to shout to cover up any background noise, but unless someone was yelling 'I'm in Florida' or something behind him, it wasn't like I'd be able to ascertain that he wasn't in Shady Lake if I didn't already know. "What's up? How's the weather in Florida?"

  I rolled my eyes. Trevor had no idea how to play it cool, apparently. But then I remembered why he was here in Florida in the first place I had to smile a little.

  "Trevor, stop the charade," I said. "I know you are here in Florida."

  "What do you mean?" he said. Trevor's voice was quivering and he seemed to be debating whether to be upset that I knew or keep pretending that he was back in Shady Lake. He decided to try to play the Minnesota card a little longer. "It's like super cold here in Shady Lake today so I figure you guys are having a great time in Florida today. Since I'm definitely not there."

  I let out a long sigh and made absolutely no attempts to try to hide it under my breath. Trevor was just trying to make sure his surprise remained a surprise, which it would because I had an even bigger surprise for him. Unfortunately my surprise was not a good one.

  "No really Trevor, I have something really important to tell you," I said. "It is something you definitely need to know since you are down here too. Mandy was taken into custody by police."

  "What?" he yelled, somehow even louder than his nervous volume from before. "Tessa, did you get her into trouble? Did you guys go out last night and get into trouble? Why aren't you in custody then?"

  Wow, here I thought that my bad feelings toward Trevor were immature of me but the bad feelings appear to go both ways even after I had previously helped Trevor out of a jam. I guess I couldn't blame him because as harsh as it was for him to assume that I had gotten Mandy in trouble, my view of him as a man-child was just as harsh.

  "No, it's worse," I said. I tried to remain quiet to convey the seriousness of the situation to him, even though the anger he directed at me was making me ball up my fists in frustration. "There was a murder here at the RV park and somehow Mandy has been blamed."

  The other end of the line went silent. All I could hear was very quiet breathing as Trevor took in what I had just said. It was shocking news; Mandy was the last person who would commit a murder.

  "Now please admit that you are in Florida so that we can get together and I can tell you what happened," I said. I was getting really tired of telling this story, but I'd have to tell it at least once more to Trevor.

  "Okay fine, I'm in Florida," he said. "But I'm not telling you why."

  It was statements like these that backed up my certainty that no matter what, Trevor would always be a man-child. But I needed to focus on helping Mandy right now.

  "I'm staying at the Palm Tree Motel right next door to the park," he said. "I have a rental car, so I'll drive over there."

  "See you soon," I said.

  I snapped the phone shut before Trevor could say anything else, but it vibrated in my hand as soon as it was shut. Thankfully it had been in my hand or I wouldn't have seen I had a message for a while. The button to silence the phone was prominently displayed on the outside of the phone which meant it was always being pushed by accident and I was forever missing calls and texts. Just another reason a smartphone may be a good idea for me to consider.

  Popping the phone back open, I was a little surprised to see a message from my mother. Did she somehow know that something had happened? But after reading it, it was just a coincidence. Perhaps she could tell something was happening. Mom intuition.

  Haven't heard from you yet and wanted to check up on you. How's Florida? How are Bill and Sally? Tell them I need them to come down to visit soon. Love and kisses xo

  Should I tell her what was happening over text message? I was tired of telling the story, especially all of the parts where Mandy kind of looked guilty. I decided to be truthful, but vague because she would know if I was lying, but I didn't feel like telling her the whole story until it was over.

  It was okay, but there's been a murder in the RV park. Mandy is with the police being questioned so Bill and Sally are a bit distraught, but I'll pass on your message a bit later.

  Right away, my phone buzzed with an answer. My mom had been an early adopter of the smartphone and could text faster than my high school brother Tank or any of his young friends.

  I hope you don't mean they are thinking Mandy did it. If that's the case, I sure hope you have your investigative pants on and are getting her out of there. Either way, stay safe. I love you.

  After texting back my love, but giving her no more information about the situation, I took a few sips of my pop from the cold can and thought about how surprised I was with my mother's message. Usually she strongly discouraged me to not investigate when these kinds of things happened. I guess w
hen I wasn't in Shady Lake where people could scoff at her weird daughter for chasing down murderers, she was a lot looser with her rules.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I had only been able to sip my way through a quarter of my pop can before I spotted a fancy red convertible driving slowly through the park with a very out of place Trevor at the wheel. I usually thought of a convertible as being driven by a man in a suit or at least a very formal polo shirt with expensive sunglasses on.

  Trevor was dressed in a graphic t-shirt that I'm sure Mandy bought for him because it was one step above his normal shirt with a modern design on it instead of some juvenile cartoon character. His hair was dark and shaggy, but not in a stylish sort of way. It was long in a sort of 'I forget to go get haircuts' kind of way. I decided I should advise him to get a haircut before he proposed to Mandy, but the ache in the pit of my stomach reminded me that Mandy might not get this proposal.

  He pulled into guest parking and carefully locked the car before climbing out, apparently not thinking about the fact that it seemed a bit futile to lock the doors of a convertible since anyone could come along and unlock them. But I had to give him some credit for springing for a really, really cool rental car while he was here.

  Trevor started slowly scanning the RVs as he walked, trying to figure out where to go so when I saw him look in my direction, I gave him a little wave. He nodded and picked up the pace, not even bothering to take the stairs when he got to the deck. He was tall enough that he climbed immediately to the top one and plopped himself down in the seat next to me. Instead of slouching back into his normal posture, he was sitting straight up on the edge of his seat.

  "Tell me what happened with Mandy," he said.

  Trevor's voice was shaking, but he looked me straight in the eye with such a sincere look that I knew he was trying his hardest to stay strong so that he could help Mandy. It was times like these where I realized that he really, truly loved Mandy instead of seeing her as a breadwinner maid who also functioned as a stand-in mother for the man-child.