The Pregnancy Plot (Brothers In Arms: Retribution Book 2) (10 page)

She scuffed the toe of her boot against the soft ground. “Thanks for being there. I actually fell asleep and slept through the morning, when I never thought that was going to happen.”

“I owe you. You opened your B and B to me without a moment’s hesitation.”

“Be honest, Jase. I’ve been nothing but trouble for you ever since you arrived on the island.”

She’d spiced up what could’ve been a boring assignment. He should be thanking her, but that wouldn’t play.

“Like I said before, human drama is good for my writing.”

“That’s putting a good spin on the situation.” She took a few steps toward the porch. “I’m going to stop by my sister’s room at the motel after breakfast and collect her things and probably pay her bill. I also want to talk to Kip and Chris to find out what they know about last night.”

“I’m sure Sergeant Pruitt is already on that.”

“I’m sure he is, but that’s not going to stop me from talking to those two myself.”

“I’ll go with you.”

She kicked the porch step. “You don’t need to do that, Jase. You should be here writing.”

“I’m not letting you talk to a guy like Kip by yourself, especially if it gets confrontational. Besides, I write better at night than during the day.”

“You’re not getting any time at night, either.”

“Let me worry about the book, Nina.”

“Okay, at least let me cook you breakfast. Blueberry pancakes this morning. Dora Kleinschmidt from next door dropped off some fresh blueberries.”

“Fresh blueberries? You don’t have to twist my arm.” He sprang up the steps past her and held the door open. “I’m going to take a shower and change, and then I’m going to eat pancakes.”

He needed to start writing something before Nina got any more suspicious—either that or come clean.

Once he did that, any connection between them would fizzle and die. And he wasn’t ready for that.

About an hour and a half later, his belly full of the best damned blueberry pancakes he’d had since his family’s French chef had quit in a huff, he drove Nina in her truck into town and pulled up in front of the police station.

“I hope they can tell me something.” She grabbed the handle of the door before the truck even came to a stop.

“Don’t get your hopes up. It’s been less than twenty-four hours. The crime scene investigators just finished up minutes before we left, and I’m sure the coroner hasn’t even started the autopsy yet.”

“Okay, you just threw cold water on all my expectations.”

He met her at the station door and opened it for her, gesturing her through. The small station had an old-fashioned feel with a counter in the front and enclosed offices beyond that. Vinyl furniture dotted the waiting room.

The officer at the counter glanced up when they walked in, and then her eyebrows jumped to her hairline. “You’re Nina Moore, aren’t you?”

“Yes. I remember you.”

“Nancy Yallop. I used to work patrol when you and your mom first moved to the island.” She shook her head. “Such a shame about Louise. Bruce was always worried she’d meet some fate like that.”

“I know he was.”

“Are you going to call her mother, Inez?”

“I’m hoping to find her number among Lou’s stuff.” Nina tapped the counter. “Is Sergeant Pruitt in? I know it’s early, but I thought he might have some news about Lou.”

“Sarge isn’t in, but the chief is, and I’m sure he’d like to talk to you.” She flicked her fingers at the waiting room. “You can have a seat, but I don’t think he’s going to be that long.”

Officer Yallop disappeared into one of the offices in the back and returned with a smile. “The chief will be out in a minute. Coffee?”

“No, thanks.” Nina turned to face him. “Do you want another cup?”

“I’m fine.”

“You definitely want to stay away from caffeine. I cut it out for both of mine just to be on the safe side,” Officer Yallop said.

Nina spun around, folding her arms over her middle. She’d shed her jacket when they walked into the overheated station. She still sported a pair of black leggings, but her red sweater hugged her body, outlining a distinct baby bump.

Officer Yallop said, “I...I’m sorry. You
are
pregnant, aren’t you?”

“I am, but I’ve just started showing recently, so I’m not used to the attention yet.”

“Whew.” The officer wiped the back of her hand across her brow. “For a minute there I thought it was foot-in-mouth time, but you’re so slim otherwise I didn’t think I was mistaken.”

The chief came out from the back, bouncing on his toes with each step. His gait could be compensation for his short stature, but what the chief lacked in height he made up in muscle.

“Ms. Moore? I’m Chief Hazlett. Sorry for your loss. I came to the island after your stepfather...passed away, but I did hear some stories about Louise Moore.”

“Nice to meet you, Chief. This is Jase Buckley.” She extended her hand over the counter. “My stepsister was very troubled.”

The chief shook hands with Jase, too, and invited them behind the counter. “Let’s talk about this further in my office, although I don’t have much to tell you yet.”

Nina’s shoulders slumped as she followed the chief toward the back of the building, and Jase rubbed the space between her shoulder blades.

“Have a seat.” He pointed to two leather chairs across from his desk. The chief’s office obviously got the bulk of the furniture allowance in this place.

The chief proceeded to tell them a whole bunch of nothing about the case, except that they didn’t find any evidence of foul play—no wounds on Lou’s body, no evidence that she’d been dumped on the deck by another party. They’d have to wait for the toxicology report for more details regarding the substances and their quantity in her body.

“What about her companions from last night?” Nina had folded her hands in her lap and her white knuckles stood out against the black of her leggings.

“Can’t locate either one of them.”

Nina shot a look at Jase, her mouth forming an O. “What does that mean? I told Sergeant Pruitt last night they were all staying in the same motel—The Sandpiper.”

“We got that info and even checked out her room, but the men aren’t there now.”

Jase hunched forward. “The two men checked out?”

“Kitchens did an automated checkout from the TV in the room around midnight and the other guy—” he checked his notes “—Kip Chandler, didn’t bother checking out, but the room was in Lou’s name. Chandler wasn’t at the motel this morning.”

Nina perched on the edge of the chair. “I’m going to head over there now and pack up Lou’s things and probably settle her bill.”

The chief waited until Nina stood up before pushing back from his desk and extending his hand. “We’ll keep you posted on your stepsister’s autopsy, Ms. Moore, but right now it looks like an unfortunate overdose.”

“Of what?” She planted her hands on his desk and leaned forward. “Can they tell yet?”

“Probably heroin.”

Nina crossed her hands over her heart and Jase placed a hand on her back.

“I really thought she’d kicked that stuff.”

“Once it has you in its grip—” the chief shrugged “—it’s a tough monkey to shake.”

Jase shook the chief’s hand and guided Nina out of his office. They waved to Officer Yallop and landed on the sidewalk in front of the station.

“That’s so odd.” Nina worried her bottom lip between her teeth. “Didn’t Chris say he was going to stick around the island for a day or two?”

“Maybe he decided to get out before the storm hit. He seemed kind of worried about it.”

“Kip was Lou’s shadow. Why would he disappear?”

“That one’s easier.” Jase fished the keys to the truck from his pocket. “He was shooting up with Lou, found out what happened and took off.”

“Maybe we’ll find some answers at The Sandpiper.” She waved her phone in the air. “And I’m going to call Chris to find out what happened after we left last night and see if he knows about Lou.”

He opened the passenger side of the truck for her, and by the time he climbed into the driver’s seat, she was on her cell phone.

She started speaking. “Hi, Chris. This is Nina Moore. I was wondering if you’d heard about my stepsister before you left the island. She OD’d early this morning and passed away. I wanted to find out what went down last night after Jase and I left. Give me a call when you get a chance.”

He pulled away from the curb. “If he checked out of The Sandpiper at midnight and left the island, how would he know about Lou?”

“Maybe he heard something from a local. If he’s off the island, he got a private boat to take him to the mainland, because the ferries don’t start running until five in the morning.”

“That didn’t occur to me. Why would he check out of his motel at midnight if there was no place for him to go?”

“Like I said, maybe he made arrangements for a private party to take him across. Lots of people on the island make extra money by ferrying people across.”

He drove the short mile to The Sandpiper and swung into a parking space in front of the office.

As soon as they walked in, the motel’s manager came from behind the counter. “I was so sorry to hear about Lou, Nina. That girl had her problems, didn’t she?”

“She did, Maisie. I know she owed you for the room, so I’ll take care of that.”

“Well, I don’t know how things work when someone’s, uh, deceased, but Lou put the room on a credit card. I was just going to charge the card.”

“Lou had a credit card? I’ll figure it out with her mother, then...when I track her down.”

“Good luck with that.” She held up her index finger. “I’ll get you a key card for the room. Housekeeping hasn’t been in there yet since the cops left.”

Jase cleared his throat. “You haven’t seen Lou’s friend, have you?”

“The skinny guy with the shaggy blond hair?” Maisie wrinkled her nose. “No. The cops, Gus Pruitt, already asked me about him. When Gus came by to tell me the news about Lou, we went to the room together, but Kip had cleared out already.”

Maisie slid a card across the counter toward Nina, and Nina peeled it from the Formica top. “Thanks, Maisie.”

They found Lou’s room and Nina slid the card into the slot. She hesitated at the threshold.

“Let me.” He stepped around her and pushed open the door.

The smell of stale pizza and cigarettes permeated the room, and he propped open the door so they could breathe. “I guess they ignored the no-smoking rule.”

“Lou ignored a lot of rules.” Nina moved into the room with folded arms and hunched shoulders as if expecting to find another dead body.

She nudged a pizza box on the floor with the toe of her boot. “I suppose I’ll start with the bathroom.”

Jase picked up one of the boxes they’d thrown in the back of the truck. “Let me get the stuff from the bathroom and you can pack up her clothes.”

“I don’t think she ever unpacked.” She pointed to an open suitcase in the corner of the room, its contents spilling over the sides.

“Check the drawers and closet, just in case.” He left her to Lou’s clothes and stepped into the bathroom. It reeked of cigarettes and the slightly sweet smell of marijuana.

Did the two of them think they could hide their drug use by holing up in the bathroom? Maybe this is where they shot up, too.

He kicked at two towels bunched up on the floor and then crouched to run his hand across the terry cloth. Both damp. Had they both showered last night before going out or had Kip taken a quick shower early this morning after waking up alone?

A little bottle of motel shampoo lay on its side in the shower caddy next to a bar of soap. A toothbrush, small tube of toothpaste and spray can of deodorant were scattered on the counter next to the sink. A see-through toiletry bag hung on a hook on the back of the door.

He got up close to the door and peered into the bag. If he thought he’d find a syringe in there, the face cream, hair gel and dental floss just quashed that hope. Junkies used dental floss?

He dumped everything in the trash can and joined Nina in the bedroom. She’d moved the suitcase to the bed and had tucked the clothes back inside.

Throwing up her hands, she said, “I didn’t find anything in here out of the ordinary, but I guess the cops already knew that, which is why they let us in.”

“Nothing in the bathroom. If she took the fatal overdose here in this room, there’s no evidence of it now.”

“Maybe Kip cleaned up when he took his stuff and left.” She stood in the middle of the floor with her hands on her hips. “I guess that’s everything—oops—except these jeans on the back of the chair.”

She took two steps to the chair and plucked the jeans from it. She swung them through the air and a piece of paper fluttered to the carpet. She stooped to sweep it up.

“What’s that?” Jase flipped back the covers of the bed in case Nina hadn’t thought to do it. Nothing.

“It’s a cocktail napkin from Mandy’s.”

“If you want to toss it on top of this pizza box, I’ll take all the trash out to the Dumpster container I saw around the corner.” Jase picked up the edge of the box, vowing to swear off pepperoni pizza for the next year.

“Okay.” She shook out the napkin. “There’s writing on it.”

“Anything important?”

“I don’t think so. Just one word.” She tugged on each side of the white square.

“What?”

“Tempest.”

Chapter Eleven

The room spun. He gripped the pizza box, crushing the cardboard. “What did you say?”

Holding up the napkin, she waved it in the air. “Tempest. You know, like the Shakespeare play, or I guess that was
The Tempest
. Or maybe it means tempest in a teapot or she’s referring to the oncoming storm.”

“Is it Lou’s handwriting?”

“As far as I can tell.” She crumpled the napkin in her fist and chucked it at the pizza box, still clutched in his hand.

He dipped to catch the balled-up napkin on top of the box, amazed at the steadiness of his hands when his mind was racing in a million different directions. “I’ll take this out. Anything else need to go in the Dumpster container?”

“Was there anything in the bathroom?”

“Just used toiletries. I put them in the trash can. Housekeeping can get rid of it when they clean the room.”

“Nothing else in here. I’ll locate Lou’s mother, Inez, and see if she wants Lou’s clothes and the contents of her purse. I’m guessing Inez will come out and handle Lou’s apartment in Portland.”

“I’ll take this stuff out while you give the room a once-over.”

As Nina pulled out the drawer of the nightstand, Jase headed for the door, holding the pizza box as if it were a silver platter and the crumpled napkin a bottle of nitroglycerine.

The napkin with Simon’s agency printed on it in Lou’s pocket certainly did have an explosive quality about it. Why the hell had Lou written
Tempest
on that napkin? What did she know about Tempest? She hadn’t even known Simon.

Had Chris Kitchens mentioned Tempest to Lou? His step faltered on the way to the Dumpster container. Was Chris Kitchens really Simon’s brother? They’d had only his word for it.

That, and a striking resemblance.

This afternoon, he’d request a background on Kitchens that he should’ve requested before allowing him anywhere near Nina. He’d done that for Kip Chandler already and he’d checked out as a small-time thief and junkie from Seattle whose brother the attorney had gotten out of a few scrapes.

When he reached the Dumpster container, he smoothed out the napkin on top of the cardboard, folded it and slipped it into his pocket. Lou had heard that name from someone—and he planned to find out from whom.

By the time he returned to the motel room, Nina had zipped up Lou’s bag and parked it next to the door.

“I think that’s everything. The police have her purse at the station, and...and I guess I can pick up her clothes from the hospital, where they took her for the autopsy.”

He wedged a finger beneath the chin she’d dropped to her chest. “Are you okay? I know you and Lou had a difficult relationship, but she was your stepsister, your father’s daughter.”

Her chin quivered and one tear rolled down her smooth skin. “Maybe she’s at peace now. It’s all I can hope for.”

He caught the tear on the edge of his thumb. “I’m sorry it was so hard, but it doesn’t sound as if Lou could’ve had a normal relationship with anyone.”

“She couldn’t. Maybe she even scared away Kip.”

“I don’t think Kip was as out of it as he pretended to be.”

“Really? Why do you say that?”

“I don’t know.” He yanked up the handle of Lou’s suitcase and tipped it on its wheels. “Something about his eyes—too sharp to be totally wasted.”

Tilting her head, she pulled open the door. “So, what was he doing with Lou?”

“Beats the hell outta me.” He rolled the bag through the door. “Maybe Lou talked up the B and B to him, told him it was hers. He thought she had some money coming and tagged along to Break Island. When it became clear to him that she didn’t have a shot at Moonstones and was into heavier stuff than he was, he hightailed it out of here.”

“I have no clue. Lou always seemed to run with an entourage—big or small. She accused me of collecting men to take care of me, but she did the same. I guess we were both affected by playing second fiddle to our parents’ great love.”

“Lou must’ve had issues before her parents’ divorce and her father’s remarriage to your mom.”

“I did, too.”

Jase hoisted Lou’s suitcase into the back of the truck and hooked his thumb in his belt loop. “Your father’s abandonment?”

“It’s hard growing up without a dad.” She folded her hands across her belly. “And here I am about to do the same thing to my child.”

“Hey.” He took her by the shoulders. “Through no fault of your own. You split up with Simon before you knew you were pregnant, right?”

She nodded.

“You tried to reach him, right?”

“Maybe not hard enough.”

“There’s no way you were going to find him.”

“What?” Her forehead furrowed.

“I mean, if he didn’t want to be found, you weren’t going to find him.” The napkin from Lou’s jeans burned a hole in his pocket. Had Simon somehow reached out to Lou before he was killed?

“Simon knew about Lou, didn’t he?”

“Knew about her but had never met her. When he started...acting weird, I told him I’d witnessed firsthand what could happen when mental illness went untreated. He’d heard all the stories about Lou. Why do you ask?”

He steered her toward the passenger side of the truck. “Just that—just wondering if he knew you’d dealt with erratic behavior before.”

“Oh, yeah. He knew.”

As he pulled away from The Sandpiper, he made a right turn and Nina put her hand on his arm. “Where are you going?”

“I want to head down to the harbor and see if anyone gave Chris a ride back to the mainland. If not, he checked out of The Sandpiper after midnight and waited around for about five hours for the next ferry out of here, which makes no sense at all.”

Nina wrinkled her nose. “You don’t think Pruitt and Chief Hazlett already checked that out?”

“I think Pruitt and the chief believe Lou’s death was a simple overdose. Case closed. This is a small-town department and they don’t have the resources to run around checking out possible leads on a hunch.”

“What are you saying, Jase? Do you think Chris had something to do with Lou’s death? Why? What possible motive could Chris have had for killing a woman he’d just met?”

Tempest.
Why had Lou written that word? What did Chris Kitchens know about his brother’s work and eventual breakdown?

He squeezed her knee. “That thought didn’t occur to you?”

Nina plowed her fingers through her hair. “I don’t know what to think, Jase. As far as I know, Lou hadn’t been using H for years. Of course, it doesn’t mean she didn’t try it again. Maybe that’s why it killed her. She’d been used to a certain amount but her body couldn’t handle that anymore after being clean.”

“Could be. I just need to satisfy my curiosity.”

And to protect Nina.

After driving through town, he swung the truck into the parking lot for the wharf, busy with fishing boats and the tourist ferry that hopped from island to island. “Where are the private boats?”

She tapped the glass. “On the far side by the bait shop.”

He parked and Nina was out of the truck in a flash. Did she half hope that Lou’s death wasn’t an accidental overdose? Maybe she was afraid that Lou had taken her own life, just as her father had done, and felt guilty that her stepsister might have done it because of her pregnancy.

And she didn’t even know about Tempest.

He trailed after her as she marched up to a man working on his powerful-looking Wellcraft boat.

Nina balanced one foot on the boat and his heart skipped a beat. Then he took a long breath of salty air. He couldn’t wrap Nina in cotton. Despite all the stress swirling around her, she was taking care of herself.

She called out to the man, who still hadn’t seen her. “Good morning. Can I ask you a question?”

The man looked up from his work and pushed his cap back on his head, squinting at her with his already squinty eyes. “Yes, ma’am?”

“Do you take people to the mainland?”

He took her in and then shifted his gaze to Jase. “Depends on who’s asking, a potential customer or the state transportation agency.”

“Oh, I’m not—” she flung her arm back at Jase “—we’re not from any agency. I just want to know if you took a friend of mine to the mainland earlier this morning—like really early.”

He dropped his shoulders and adjusted his cap again. “I took a couple over about two hours ago. That’s it.”

“Okay, thanks.” She backed off the boat.

His voice stopped her. “You might check with Steve down that way. He’s the one with the Hewescraft aluminum boat about three slips over. I overheard him in the coffee shop this morning complaining about an early morning fare.”

“Thanks.”

Jase took her arm as if to steady her on the bumpy metal of the gangplank.

“Even if Steve did take Chris over this morning, what does it prove, Jase?”

“It proves that he left the island instead of checking out of the motel and then hanging around for a few hours to wait for the ferry, which makes no sense.”

“Whether he hung around or left immediately, it doesn’t necessarily implicate him in or exonerate him from Lou’s death.”

“Once that autopsy report comes back, it could.”

He slowed his steps. “Maybe we should let the cops do their job.” Or Prospero. The less Nina was directly involved in the destruction Tempest left in its wake, the better. She didn’t need the added stress of investigating Lou’s death.

She stopped and widened her stance, just in case he thought she was about to topple over. “Jase, you’re not my protector. You’re supposed to be fixing my B and B, not me.”

He should’ve investigated this on his own. His lids fell half-mast over his eyes and his mouth hardened for a split second. “You don’t need to prove anything here. Lou treated you badly until the very end.”

“She was my stepfather’s daughter. I owe it to Bruce to figure out what happened.”

Stepping back, he gestured her toward the boat. “Have at it, Nancy Drew.”

She brushed past him, rolling her eyes. Controlling and high-handed, just like Simon.

The next boat owner—Steve—was working on his engine when they walked up. She had to wave to get his attention over the roar of the motor.

He cut the engine and wiped his hands on a greasy cloth he had sitting on the deck behind him. “Do you need a ride to the mainland? It’s a good thing you’re gettin’ while the gettin’s good. Once that monster storm hits, there will be no crossing this sound.”

“Actually, we’re not. I live on the island. Do you know Moonstones?”

“I know Bruce Moore’s daughter was found there this morning—dead. OD’d just like we all expected her to one day.”

“Lou Moore was my stepsister.”

He scratched his grizzled jaw. “Sorry, young lady. You must be the other daughter. If it’s not a ride you’re after, what can I do for you?”

Jase wedged a foot against the boat. “We’d like some information about your early fare this morning.”

Steve uttered a curse and spat into the water. “I didn’t have a fare this morning. I got a call from a guy after midnight wanting a ride over, told him I’d meet him here, and he never showed up.”

“Did you call him back?”

“I sure did. He wouldn’t pick up. I thought maybe someone poached my ride, but if they did, nobody’s fessing up to it.”

Nina reached for her phone and cupped it in her hand. “Do you still have the number on your phone? I just want to see if it’s my friend. I thought he was leaving the island last night. If he didn’t, I might have to take him over today.”

“Why don’t you just call him?”

“I tried.” She shrugged. “Same result as you. He won’t pick up or his phone’s dead or something. Do you mind?”

“Nope.” He chuckled. “In fact, if you’re an angry girlfriend, the guy deserves it.”

He reached for his cell phone sitting on a deck bin and tapped the screen. “Here it is. You ready?”

She displayed Chris’s number and nodded. He read off the exact number on her display, and her heart somersaulted.

“That’s not his number. Thanks anyway.”

He saluted and went back to work.

She pivoted and stepped off the gangplank onto the sidewalk that led to the parking lot.

“Are we done interrogating people for the day?”

She tapped her phone against her chin. “That was Chris’s number.”

Jase raised his brows. “Why’d you lie to Steve?”

“I didn’t want to get into any long discussion with him. Why would Chris try to get off the island after checking out of the motel and then change his mind?”

“I don’t know, Nina. Maybe we should just leave this alone. I need to get back to my laptop.”

She covered her mouth with her hand. “Of course you do. Sorry for dragging you all over town when you have work to do.”

“I was happy to do it, and I think I was the one doing the dragging.”

When they got back into the truck, he started the engine and turned to her. “I have a question for you.”

She formed a cross with two fingers and held them in front of her face. “Don’t ask me why I’m running around, trying to figure out Lou’s last hours on earth.”

“I’m not. I wasn’t.” Stretching his arms in front of him, he clasped the steering wheel. “You know those jeans you found on the back of the chair in Lou’s motel room?”

“Yeah?”

“Was she wearing those jeans when we saw her earlier in the night?”

A clothing question. She blinked. “I don’t think so. No. The jeans she had on the last time I saw her had metal studs along the back pockets, and those are the jeans she had on when she died.”

He pulled out of the parking lot and turned down the road toward the other side of town, toward Moonstones.

She studied his profile, which gave away nothing. “Why are you asking about Lou’s jeans?”

“Just curious about the piece of paper in the pocket.”

“The piece of paper?” She wrinkled her nose, trying to remember the word. Snapping her fingers, she said, “Tempest.”

“That’s right.” He paused for two beats. “Does it mean anything to you?”

“No. Should it?”

“You never heard it before?”

“Well, yeah, I’ve heard the word before, but not in any context related to Lou, except that she created a tempest wherever she went.”