Spring Break Murder Read online

  "Who is that?" Trevor said when he realized I had dashed up next to him. Cindy's screeches continued on in the background.

  "That would be Cindy Parker," I said, pointing towards her. "They call her the Poodle Lady or something like that. Her best friend was the one who was murdered this morning."

  Trevor nodded, but turned back towards her with his mouth still dropped open in confusion. Cindy looked mad as a wet hen, stomping around her bicycle and waving her hands in the air. She was still yelling and every time she stomped, her extra tight, gray curls would bounce just enough to make her look like she was skipping around like a child.

  A glance around told me that we had been the only ones dumb enough to actually emerge out into the open to watch this spectacle. There were an awful lot of cracked open windows and shades slightly peeked open, but everyone else had been smart enough not to let Cindy see them.

  "Come on, I don't think anyone else is going to help her," I said. "But just know that Cindy isn't going to like you because Cindy doesn't like anyone. So just don't say anything to her. Let me talk to her."

  Trevor nodded and together we walked down the street towards Cindy. As we got closer, I realized that the bicycle next to her couldn't possibly be her bike because unlike the falling-apart hunk of junk with a small hint of red, this bicycle was actually painted red and appeared to have been made in the past century. Confusingly, it still had her personalized license plate hanging off of it along with the basket though. It was almost like her bike had gone back in time.

  "Cindy, what's wrong?" I asked as I got closer to her. I tried to keep in mind that her best friend had just died this morning and that I needed to keep my sass in check. Cindy may be a woman who is hard to like, but everyone deserves to be treated with respect and care. "Is everything alright? Can I do anything to help you?"

  Cindy stopped screaming and turned to look at us. She almost seemed like she was in a dream and immediately I recognized the dreamlike state of grief. After that moment of feeling for her, a vision of Mandy entered my head and I remembered that Cindy was also the reason Mandy was sitting at the police station right now.

  "Someone has stolen my bike and replaced it with this one," she said, kicking the tire and making the bicycle tip over into a clanging, metal heap on the road. "I don't know who would do such a horrendous thing. They took my beloved bike and left me with this stupid thing."

  "That looks like a pretty sweet bike actually," Trevor said from over my shoulder, ignoring the one piece of advice I had given him. I kicked him lightly in the shin, hoping he would remember that he wasn't supposed to be saying anything.

  "Oh yes, this is a very sweet bike young man," Cindy said, her eyes narrowed at him before turning back to look at me. "The only logical explanation to this is that someone stole this bike from somewhere but when they almost got caught red-handed with it, they traded it for my old trusty bike."

  So Cindy thought someone had stolen this bike, tried to take a shortcut through the RV park and switched it for Cindy's bike when they heard sirens? But somehow they took the time to give her back her license plate and basket before making the switch. That didn't sound like a logical explanation at all to me, but I got the feeling that Cindy and I operated on two very different wavelengths, so I didn't bother to point that out.

  "I'd say you came out on top then," Trevor said, proving that not even a swift kick was enough to get hit to remember. "Someone took your bike and gave you a better one? I don't know what you have to complain about."

  Cindy's scowl deepened even more. She looked Trevor over a bit before moving her gaze back to me.

  "I suppose this idiot is with you?" she said. "He seems to match the intelligence level of you and your friend."

  "Actually, I'm Mandy's boyfriend Trevor," he said, sticking out his hand towards Cindy.

  Cindy stared at his hand like it might have an electric buzzer on it meant to give her a shock. Trevor's hand stayed out in midair like a beacon of optimism. I looked at his face, which had an expression of puppy-dog like happiness about it. Finally I reached over and pushed his arm back down by his side. Trevor took it in stride, simply smiling at Cindy with a small chuckle.

  "So you're the boyfriend that won't propose?" Cindy scoffed. Seeing my shocked face, she continued. "I listen to the gossip around here. I might roll my eyes at it, but I listen. Boy, you seem to be a good relationship match with the killer of old ladies."

  Trevor turned and looked at me. I felt like Cindy was practically spelling out her contempt for him, but his somewhat blank eyes covered by a sheet of hair he kept flipping over to the side were telling me he was still just not getting it.

  "Trevor, Cindy is making fun of you," I said. "She is trying to get your goat. That is what she does. She drives around the RV park on her bicycle being cruel to people and trying to get them in trouble for small things that don't really matter so that she can get them kicked out of the park."

  "Why would you do that?" Trevor asked, taking a step towards Cindy. "You must be a sad old lady."

  Somehow Trevor's tone made it seem like he pitied Cindy. Now I was the one who was confused because I hadn't been able to muster up much sympathy for her, but somehow Trevor could. Maybe Trevor was a nicer person than the lazy, non-caring person I normally thought of him as.

  "Takes one to know one," Cindy snapped.

  I snorted before I was able to stifle my laughter. Cindy shot me a look, but I ignored it. I think she had finally met her match. Who knew her match would be the lazy man-child? No matter, I would still enjoy it.

  "No matter what, we hope you figure out who took your hunk of junk and replaced it with a wonderful bicycle," I said. "It was very sweet of them to attach your basket and license plate for you. But Trevor and I really must be going because we are out on a walk."

  I walked around the heap of tangled metal on the road and continued on towards the pool. When I noticed Trevor wasn't beside me, I turned around to see him picking up Cindy's stolen-but-not-by-her bicycle and balancing it on the kickstand before giving her a shy smile and dashing over to catch up with me.

  Trevor may not be the best co-investigator, but he might just be an okay guy. I'd wait to make that judgment until later.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The gate to the pool area was open and while there was still police tape around the bushes on the outside, there wasn't any over the opening to the gate. I took that as a sign that I could go in and look around. Even if we were somehow caught in there, I could feign innocence. I felt a little twinge of guilt because Max would definitely chastise me for that line of thinking, but I would just leave that little bit of information out when I told him all about this later.

  "Trevor, I need you to listen to me this time," I said, snapping my fingers in front of his face a few times. He shifted his gaze to me and I hoped that meant he was actually listening this time. "Technically I don't think we are supposed to be in there. But please take notice that there is no tape in front of the gate. And if we get caught by anyone in there, make sure we say we were totally oblivious to the fact that we weren't supposed to be in there. Does that make sense?"

  Trevor shrugged his shoulders. I stared at him for a moment, wondering what that was supposed to mean. Trevor just stared back at me, so I took it to be an affirmative sort of shrug. I took a breath and walked through the opening.

  I'm not sure what I expected, but the pool looked exactly the same as it had the last two times I had been in here except this time we were the only people there and there was no obvious crime scene. It looked like a very average sort of pool.

  "How do people swim in that?" Trevor asked. "It looks really small."

  "They don't really swim, Trevor," I said. "You have to remember that everyone who lives here is retired. They just come down here and float around on pool noodles. It's actually quite relaxing."

  From the look on Trevor's face, I could tell that the small pool was disappointing. He seemed like he would be more of the
sort to cannonball into the pool rather than float around on a noodle. Oh well, it wasn't like anyone was going to be swimming in there for a while. Even once it wasn't a crime scene, I'm sure they'd want it thoroughly cleaned after a dead body floated around in it for a few hours.

  I started to slowly walk around the pool, looking all around. The police had already searched down here and I'm sure they had found any clues worth finding. I also knew that the police were still unsure this was actually a murder so I had to hope they didn't search as intently as they would if they were certain of foul play.

  Trevor was still standing where I had left him by the gate. I took a deep breath to keep myself calm before I shouted over to him.

  "Hey, it would be helpful if you started looking around on the other side of the pool," I said, trying not to sound sarcastic. "If we each take half, we will be done and out of here faster."

  The pool deck seemed very clean and I had to think that Bill kept it that way. He took his job as keeper of the pool seriously and everything look spotless. Well, I suppose it looked as spotless as an outdoor pool area could look.

  Trevor had already reached the other end of the kidney shaped pool and he had plopped himself down on one of the pool chairs. He was leaned back like he was trying to get a suntan. I rolled my eyes, assuming I would still have to search the entire pool area despite having a helper who was turning out to not be much help.

  A rustling in the bushes caught my attention and I started looking around frantically, wondering if it would look more suspicious to the police if I hid versus just standing out in the open as they came in. Either way, I would probably get in trouble. My stomach was twisting into knots as I tried to look casual.

  Susie appeared in the opening for the gate, looking around furtively behind her. I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn't the police but as she turned and caught sight of me, she jumped and let out a little yelp.

  "What are you doing here?" she said.

  She looked around and spotted Trevor in his reclined pose. He gave her a little smile and a wave. Susie raised her hand up and gave one unsure wave of her hand.

  "I just wanted to come check out the pool area," I said gesturing around. "I wanted to show Trevor the pool."

  Susie's eyebrows almost flew off her face and I suddenly remembered that no one knew Trevor because he had arrived during the hubbub that happened post-murder. So to Susie, all she saw was a guest of the park in the pool area crime scene with a strange, reclining man.

  "Oh, that's just Trevor," I said. "He is Mandy's boyfriend and unfortunately he came down here to...umm surprise her by being here."

  I had almost let out the big proposal surprise with my big mouth because I was so nervous. Susie just gave me an odd look and then shook her head. She seemed confused, still looking around the pool area nervously.

  "Wait a second, why are you here?" I asked.

  "Oh, I just thought it would be a good time to go for a swim," Susie said, holding up the towel draped over her arm that I hadn't noticed until just now. "Don't get me wrong, I love bobbing with the group. But I like to swim for exercise and I've never been able to do it in the middle of the day. I thought this was the perfect chance."

  Now it was my turn to give her an odd look. Had she forgotten that until just a few hours ago, there had been a dead body floating in the pool? I mean I guess I shouldn't judge and it looked like Hilda hadn't died in any sort of gruesome way, but still. I'm not sure I wanted to get back in that pool until it had been thoroughly cleaned.

  "Don't you want to wait until they clean the stuff out from the dead body?" Trevor called from across the pool. I was glad he had said something because I wasn't sure how to respectfully phrase it, but Trevor cut right to the chase. There were a few advantages to his casual, breezy manner.

  "Oh yeah, I didn't really think about that," Susie said.

  She shifted from foot to foot and I wondered how she could seemingly forget about the death that had been the talk of the park all day today. Maybe she just really wanted to swim, but something was weird that I just couldn't put my finger on. Susie was fidgeting around like she was lying. Was she actually here trying to investigate like we were?

  "Well, maybe swimming is a bad idea," she said. "I should maybe just head back home. You all should get out of here too. I'm pretty sure no one is supposed to be here. What exactly are you doing here anyways?"

  Susie narrowed her eyebrows at me like she was focusing in on something. Maybe I should tell her the truth. She was one of the Dolls and I was pretty sure I could trust her to know that we were investigating.

  "Okay fine, we are looking around for clues," I said. "Mandy didn't do this and we want to prove it. But don't tell anyone. We are kind of doing this in secret."

  The heat of the day seemed to press in on us as Susie stared right at me. I wasn't sure what she was thinking but her eyes seemed to flash as she thought about what I said. She was still shifting around like she wasn't quite sure what to do.

  "Oh I won't tell," Susie said finally, pressing her finger against her lips and winking at me. "It'll be our little secret. I will say there was someone else who had a confrontation with Hilda and Cindy last night. I don't want to point fingers, but Louise was awfully upset before I stepped in help her."

  I had been so focused on Mandy's argument with the two ladies that I had almost forgotten that it had all started with Louise. I remembered Louise's determined face as she charged across the dance floor towards Cindy and Hilda. She had been wound so tight that she seemed almost ready for a physical showdown before Susie had stepped in.

  "Do you really think Louise may have something to do with this?" I asked Susie.

  She shrugged and threw her towel over her shoulder. It didn't seem likely to me, but Susie seemed pretty sure about it.

  "All I'm saying is that she was very upset last night at Hilda and Cindy," Susie pointed out.

  With one more shrug of her shoulders, Susie turned and walked out the pool gate. I watched the opening for a moment, almost hoping she would pop back in with more information but of course she was long gone. I turned to look at Trevor, who was still reclining on a pool chair. I couldn't see his eyes behind his sunglasses but I was pretty sure he had dozed off. He seemed to have the right idea even if it wasn't helpful at all.

  It wouldn't really hurt if I took a little time to relax and think about the case. After all, I didn't want my investigative vision to be blurred by my fatigue and intense focus on finding other suspects. I sank down into one of the deck chairs, determined to kick up my feet and not move from that position for at least three minutes.

  But as soon as I was relaxed in the chair, something caught my eye. Something was glinting in the sunlight from underneath a chair on the other side of the pool deck. I guess my three minutes of relaxation would be more like three seconds because I just had to know what was shining.

  Chapter Seventeen

  I walked around the pool, glancing over to see that Trevor was still asleep. By this point, I wasn't surprised. I thought about doing some mental soul-searching about my thoughts on Trevor and whether it reflected my undying, sisterly love for Mandy and the fact that no one would ever measure up to my incredibly high standards for someone to be worthy of her love. But right now, I needed to figure out what was glinting in the sun. It could be a clue or it could be a gum wrapper.

  Hauling myself up from my reclined position on the deck chair, I swung my legs over the side and hoisted myself up. It wasn't so much my fatigue weighing me down as much as the fact that my once relaxing vacation was quickly draining away from me. I hadn't actually been on a vacation since Peter died and Mandy practically had to drag me onto the airplane even though I was excited for this warm weather vacation.

  As I walked around the pool towards the reflection of light glaring towards me, I wondered why I didn't think I deserved a vacation like this. My life had changed so drastically that I don't think I felt like I deserved a vacation. I used to work at
a high power, seventy-hour a week job that I poured everything into so that I could climb the corporate ladder. Peter had been doing the same thing and together, we were a career power couple. We worked hard but we also played hard. My old vacations seemed well-earned. After putting in hours and hours of overtime for weeks, Peter and I would jet off to some tropical destination where we spent three hours every morning answering emails before we put our computers away to relax for the rest of the day. I felt like I really earned those vacations.

  But what did I do now that meant I needed a break? I hardly worked part time at the bed and breakfast where I lived with my parents. I volunteered my services to the city a lot like when I did marketing for the Halloween Hayride, but that didn't take much of my time either. Here I was, thirty years old and my life looked nothing like I thought it would. It didn't feel like I deserved this vacation I was on. Maybe that was why it was turning out to be more of a working vacation. Someone somewhere was having a good laugh at my expense.

  By the time I was starting to really mire myself down in guilt, I had gotten around the pool to the chair that the reflection was coming from. I took a deep breath, hoping that whatever was underneath the chair wasn't just a piece of trash.

  Bending down, I inhaled sharply and let out a loud yelp when I saw what it was, unable to keep my excitement inside. As I did a small victory dance to celebrate not being a total and complete loser at life, I noticed that Trevor had jumped to his feet at the sound of my shout. His sunglasses had slipped down off of his nose and were hanging over his mouth, his eyes wide over top of the rims.

  "What, what?" he yelled as he scrambled to take his sunglasses off of his face. "Another dead body?"

  I gave him a look. Unless I had found a murdered insect, how in the world would I have found another dead body that he couldn't plainly see? Part of Trevor's problem wasn't that he was dumb because he really wasn't. His problem was that he says whatever he thinks which means that he doesn't censor any of the stupid thoughts like the rest of us do.