Minnie Crockwell - Will Travel for Trouble 02 - Trouble at Sunny Lake (5 page)

“Are you ready, Ben?”

Always,
he said.
What an eventful day. I am at a loss for words.

“You’re not the only one. I wonder who the poor guy was. Did you notice if he had any identification on him?”

Identification?

“Yes, like a wallet with his driver’s license or anything like that.”

I could not say. I did not know to look out for that. In my day, we carried no such thing as this license.

“Well, we do now, and it has a picture on it and hopefully a current home address.”

I moved up the dock toward the office building.
 

“I wonder who he was,” I repeated.
 

Minerva, please do not tell me you intend to involve yourself further in this matter.
 

“No, of course not!” I said. “No one is going to talk to me about it. I’ll have to read about it in the newspaper like everyone else. It’s not like the police will come and tell me who he was and how he died just because I found him. Privacy issues and stuff, not to mention there will obviously be an investigation.”

Minerva….

I smiled faintly. “Don’t worry, Ben. I won’t get involved.”

Within minutes, I was watching Deputies Wilson and Kline asking Sean questions.

Chapter Three

Mary, the older woman who had checked me in, posed rigidly behind the counter while the two deputies interviewed Sean at one of the café tables. Her short gray hair seemed to stand on end as she watched them.
 

“What on earth is going on?” Mary leaned her tall thin body toward me and whispered. “Sean said you found a body over by the cliffs? And now the police are here, asking him questions? Do they know who it is? Did he fall off the cliffs? What did you say to the police? It wasn’t Sean!”

I took a step back. Mary, whom I’d earlier found to be a pleasant sweet lady in her early 60s, had changed within hours to resemble some sort of thin-lipped hissing witch. I exaggerated of course, but it was just one of those days where exaggeration didn’t go far enough to describe things.
 

I didn’t know which question to answer first. I saw both deputies look up at me and nod. They had certainly gotten here fast. It wouldn’t have taken them long to drive the quarter mile around by the road. I wondered what was up.

I approached the counter again to speak to Mary in a low voice.
 

“I didn’t say anything about Sean. I don’t know who the dead man was. Thankfully, I never got a good look at him.”

“Well, then why are they here? Sean said you called and that you insisted he come down there to help you with the pontoon boat. Maybe they saw him there and thought he was involved somehow.”

“Well, insist is a strong word. I had run aground. I panicked when I saw the body, and the boat got away from me. I had no way of pushing it back into the water
and
getting aboard.”

“Well, now they think Sean must know something, but I’m sure he doesn’t. He was working here all day yesterday, and back at the camper with me last night.”

I quirked an eyebrow. Talk about too much information. What was this all about?

The lady doth protest too much, methinks?
Ben said.
What goes here?

“So, you know Sean well?”
 

This smacks of involvement, Minerva. I feel certain I heard you say you did not intend to involve yourself in the matter.

Just a question or two, Ben, to take the edge off my curiosity.
 

“He’s my grandson.”

“Oh!” I said. I hadn’t realized they were related. Not that it mattered much, but it certainly explained her concerns.

“Maybe the body has been there longer than a day or two,” I mused. I should have mused silently.

“Well, whenever this fellow fell off the cliff or whatever happened to him, Sean was with me. He’s been either here at work or at the trailer.”

I quirked the other eyebrow at her blanket statement and looked over my shoulder to see the deputies and Sean rise from the table. Sean grabbed his hat and glasses almost angrily and strode out the side door which led toward the bathrooms.

Deputies Wilson and Kline watched him walk away and then approached the counter. Their focus was on Mary, and she threw me a pale blue narrow-eyed glance. I shrugged and shook my head, hoping to signal that I hadn’t mentioned her either.
 

“Mrs. Sanders, your grandson Sean states that he was with you either here in the office or at your trailer all night last night. Can you confirm that?” Kline did the questioning while Wilson jotted some notes on a pad of paper.

Mary bobbed her head. “Yes, he was. Hasn’t been out of my sight. Why are you asking?”

I stood to the side. I still had to pay for the rental of the pontoon boat, so I did have some legitimate business there other than eavesdropping. The deputies didn’t seem to care that I was there.

“We’re just investigating a death on the lake. I assume you have heard about it.”

“Yes, of course. Who was it? Was it an accident?”

“We haven’t notified the victim’s family yet so we can’t give you that information.”

“But was it an accident?” Mary pressed the issue, not something I would have done.

Deputy Wilson’s head shot up, and he stared hard at her.

“We can’t discuss the case,” Deputy Kline reiterated. “So, you do confirm that Sean was with you all day yesterday?”

“Yes, yes. He was with me.” Mary, under obvious stress, was becoming testy. I wondered if this wasn’t a good time to return to my RV and come back later to settle the bill. I couldn’t walk away though.

“Is this a good number for you?” Deputy Wilson picked up one of the RV park business cards.

“Yes. If I don’t answer, leave a message and I’ll call you back. Although I’m not sure what else I can tell you.”

“We’ll be in touch,” Kline said. They left the building, and I fished in my jeans pocket for my wallet.

To my surprise, Mary turned away from me and dropped into a chair. She bent over and started to cry.
 

“Oh, Mary! What’s wrong? I know this is stressful for you. It’s stressful for all of us.” I tried to offer solace from my position at the counter. There was a door leading to the office around the side of the counter, but I decided not to enter.
 

Mary continued to sob and said nothing to me. I found it hard to sympathize with her at the moment. I wasn’t quite sure why she was crying. And I didn’t know whether to go or to stay.

Sean stepped back into the café and approached the office.

“Still here?” he asked flatly in my direction.

I reared my head. What a rude, obnoxious—

Shall I hear some cursing now, my dear?

No, I’ll bite my tongue, Ben. Even without the whole body thing though, this Sean guy is detestable.

He is not a pleasant person, is he? And our dear Mary. What became of her sweet welcoming demeanor?

Not a clue, but I’d sure like to find out!

Minerva…

“Yes, actually, I
am
still here. I’m trying to pay my bill for the pontoon boat rental.”

He rounded the corner and stepped into the door of the office behind the counter. He looked at Mary and paused as if to console her, but obviously thought better of it as he left her alone and approached the counter.
 

“Forty dollars for the hour,” he said. “We won’t count the extra time out there. Not your fault.”

“Thank you,” I said in a voice that was clearly not grateful. I handed him two twenty-dollar bills. “I hope your grandmother is okay. I think she’s shook up.”

He threw a careless look over his shoulder. “She’ll be fine.”

“Did the police happen to mention who the man was?” I couldn’t believe I was asking him. My instinct was to run out of the office and back to the relative normalcy of my rig.

He shook his head. “Nope. They didn’t tell me. Probably some drunk who fell off the cliff.”

“A drunk? Why would you think that?”

He pushed a receipt in my direction and shrugged. “Who else would be wandering out there in the dark?”

“The dark? Did the police say he’d fallen in the dark?”

Sean fixed me with his grandmother’s pale blue eyes. “Dark, day, whatever. I don’t know. We’re going to close up the office now, so if there’s nothing else…”

And clearly there would be nothing else for me. He followed me to the door and locked it behind me without a word.
 

I stepped off the porch and headed to my RV. I had the worst desire to hop in my car and drive down the road to see if I could find the cliffs, maybe look around.
 

Minerva, why ever would you do that? Is your curiosity that boundless?

“Well, yes, it is, Ben. And I know you. You want to know more, too.”

Well, perhaps just a bit more.
Ben chuckled.

I returned to my car and withdrew my keys from my pocket. I glanced at the cabin on the hill before pulling out of my RV space and heading for the entrance. No sign of life up there. The young man was certainly keeping a low profile. I wondered if he had seen all the activity and what he must think of it. From his cabin, he would probably have a good view of the public boat launch on the nearby shore.

I drove east for a few miles, wondering exactly where the cliff area might be. My GPS showed that the road paralleled the lake at this point but eventually moved away. I saw a dirt road to the left and decided to pull in to see where I was in relation to the cliffs. Thick ponderosa pine trees provided shade and seclusion to the narrow rutted path. I hadn’t seen a sign saying private property, so I drove slowly in the direction of the lake.
 

The last thing I wanted to do was run into the deputies or other law enforcement personnel who might still be searching and investigating the area. I inched along, wondering what I would say if I ran into anyone.

A movement to my right caught my eye. A deer?

No, it was a man in a black T-shirt who quickly slipped behind a tree. I brought the car to a stop.

Minerva! Please do not endanger yourself. Stay in the vehicle. There is a desperation about this young man that concerns me, a strong emotion of some sort that makes him pant like a wild animal as he hides from you.
 

“Do we know him, Ben? Who is it?”

It is the young man from the cabin.

“Really?”

I pulled the parking brake and turned off the engine.
 

Minerva! Please.

“I can’t just leave him hiding behind a tree, Ben.” I could still see the black of his T-shirt through gaps in the pine tree, poor guy. He obviously didn’t know I could see him.

He exhibits strong emotion, Minerva. I think your presence is unnerving him.

I fiddled with my keys. Ben was wise, and he cared about me. I needed to listen to him.

“Is he all right, Ben? If I leave?”

I think he will calm down.

“Well, I still need to see if this road leads to the cliff.”

As you wish,
Ben said with a sigh.

I stuck the key back in the ignition, turned it on and moved down the road at a snail’s pace. I checked my rearview mirror, but didn’t see the young man pop out and dash off as I moved away.
 

Flashes of sparkling blue appeared through the trees, and I knew it was the lake. Apparently, the sun was out once again.
 

I stopped short. Four vehicles were parked across the road—a sheriff’s SUV, a green truck marked K-9, a sheriff’s cruiser, and an innocuous beige car. It seemed like a whole bevy of people wandered around, and I deduced that this was the cliff’s edge.

I couldn’t believe it, but Wilson and Kline were on the scene. Those two certainly got around. I wondered where their boat was.

A tall young man, dressed in a black jumpsuit followed a police dog around as they searched for who knows what. Two men, dressed casually in jeans and polo shirts, talked to Deputies Kline and Wilson. From the weapons on their belts, I gathered they were some sort of investigators or detectives. No one had seen me yet, but there was no chance I could back up without being seen. The last thing I wanted them to do was see my license plate pulling away in some suspicious manner, so I waited until one of them looked up. Deputy Wilson saw me first and approached the car. He rested one hand on the hood of my car and leaned down to look in at me.

“Miss Crockwell, what are you doing here?” His tone was pleasant but curious.

“Being nosey,” I said with my standard cheesy grin and sheepish shrug. “I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it.”

“I don’t blame you,” he said. “After all, you did find the body.”

“And I had
nothing
to do with him being a body, I promise you!” A singularly inappropriate comment, I thought.