Grilled, Chilled and Killed Read online

  “Never mind what I just said. Don’t you have any responsibility for telling citizens who are victims of a crime, especially if it’s been committed by one of your own when the guy is free and running around, able to repeat his victimization? Besides, he’s an environmental threat with his tobacco chaw, spitting it all over the ground. This is a beautiful spot here. We don’t need the animals coming in contact with noxious chemicals.” She hung up. There. She felt much better, safer somehow.

  She found Naomi had made coffee, so Emily poured herself a cup and slid into her camp chair, the picture of a woman who’d accomplished something, and it wasn’t even eight in the morning. By nine o’clock she began to worry about Naomi. She should be back by now. At ten, Emily hopped on the other bike and pedaled toward the campground entrance, but stopped when she reached the main road. Which direction should she go? Toward the shopping area or to the left, the road leading to the historic village. Before she could decide, she spied Naomi walking her bicycle toward the campground.

  “Where have you been? I’ve been worried sick.”

  “I was chasing Toby.”

  “Chasing him? How could you keep up?”

  “He didn’t go far.” Naomi signaled to the road leading toward the beach. “He headed off that way and parked his truck under the trees at the beach’s edge.”

  “He didn’t see you, did he?”

  “No, but I’m concerned Toby may have spotted me when he drove off this morning. He kind of gave a start as he passed by. Do you think we should leave?”

  “I’m not letting that fat troll run me off of one of my favorite vacation spots. I put in a call to Detective Lewis.”

  “Good. What did he say?” Naomi kicked her tire. “Flat. That’s what took me so long to get back here. Plus I had to push the bike off the road when I heard a car coming in case it was Toby. Do you know there are alligators here too?”

  “Yeah, but they’re only small ones. They can give you a scare though. I had to circle around one taking his afternoon siesta on the bicycle path once.”

  “Small? This one was at least five feet. So what did Lewis say?”

  “He wasn’t in. Off somewhere for a few days. Maybe he and Donald went bass fishing together.”

  “Listen to yourself.”

  “They respect each other.”

  “That doesn’t mean they would voluntarily be in the same room together unless you were there.”

  They stopped in front of the campground store.

  “I’m going to get another bicycle. This time I inspect the tires.”

  “Sorry about that, dearie,” said the same woman who’d signed them in yesterday. “Take the bike on the far right. It’s just been reconditioned.”

  Naomi grabbed the bike and they continued back to their campsite.

  “Toby’s got a new look.”

  Emily tried to imagine what that could mean. Maybe he replaced his cowboy boots with dock siders? He had his hair permed? He tried one of those lash growing medications and now had long, luxuriant lashes which he batted furiously at women?

  “I can hear your brain working, Mom. None of what you’re thinking. Worse. He grew a beard.”

  “Still chewing tobacco?” A disturbing image took shape in Emily’s mind.

  “Right, and it grew in white, so now he has dark brown stains on the hair around his mouth and down his chin.”

  Emily and Naomi shuddered together at the picture.

  “Kind of takes away my appetite for those pancakes we planned this morning,” said Emily.

  They parked their bikes in front of the tent. The morning air smelled like the salt marshes, and a breeze blew through the evergreens and live oaks.

  “I, for one, am not going to let Toby ruin my vacation.” Emily put her arm around her daughter and squeezed. “What do you say? Are the Rhodes women going to retreat just because the troll has arrived?”

  A twig snapped behind them.

  “What troll?” said a familiar voice.

  Naomi whirled around. “Detective Lewis. What are you doing here?”

  “I might ask you two the same?”

  “No, you don’t.” Emily placed her hands on her hips and faced Lewis. The top of her head almost came up to his chin. “You’re not going to put me on the defensive as if I have no right to be vacationing in my favorite spot in the world. I came here several times a year with Fred. It’s a perfect place. I love it here. We have every right to be here.”

  Lewis smiled down at her. “Sounds pretty defensive to me. Running from the law, are you?”

  “Coffee, Detective?” Naomi smiled and took a cup for herself and stepped back to watch her mother and Lewis square off. As usual.

  “Thanks, no. I just stopped by to tell you I got the message you left a while ago. I gotta run. I’m late already for a meeting.”

  His glance never wavered from hers. Emily held tight to her gaze too. “Who are you meeting?” she asked.

  “Toby Sands. You remember him. Your favorite dirty cop.”

  Chapter 4

  “Don’t you mean you’re arresting him? He has to be violating his bail by leaving Florida and coming here.” Emily still stood toe to toe with Lewis.

  “We sent him here.”

  “We? Who’s we?”

  “The district attorney for the county thought we could use Toby’s services in the murder investigation. The barbequers here for the festival on Jekyll are most of the same ones from last week’s contest back home.”

  “You can’t mean he’s a cop again?”

  “No. He’s a police informant. He’s a good ‘ole boy. He can get close to the barbeque folks. They might talk to him.”

  Emily stepped back and relaxed her shoulders. “He was here last night.” She nodded her head toward Toby’s abandoned campsite.

  Naomi interrupted her mother. “But he’s not coming back tonight. He left, and he’s going to find a hotel room.”

  “I know about his checking out. We were supposed to meet up here, but the woman at the desk told me he’d gone.” Lewis paused and directed his next question to Naomi. “How do you know he’s going to stay someplace else?”

  She told him about following Toby and eavesdropping on a conversation he had with a man he met on the beach.

  “You see who he met?”

  “I was hunkered down beside Toby’s truck. It blocked my view of the other man. He drove off and left Toby there, but I had to dash for the cover of the trees or they would have spotted me.”

  “Nice work, but I don’t want you putting yourself in danger. Don’t try that again.” His tone was firm. His jaw set.

  “Fine. It was for our own protection. How did we know you’d hire someone as sleazy as Toby to do your detecting work?” Now Naomi’s accusatory tone matched Emily’s. Emily smiled. Her daughter was coming to the same opinion of Lewis as she had. Definitely an alligator on the hunt.

  Lewis’ face took on a look Emily had not seen there before. It was embarrassment. He took off his cowboy hat and slapped it hard against his thigh.

  “This whole thing wasn’t my idea. In fact, I was against it. I’ve no interest in working with Toby, and I know he’s crooked enough to be setting something up for himself. It’ll be a deal to make him money and make us look like fools. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  “Well, that shows some good sense.” Emily smiled at him. Time to make nice, she thought.

  “Thanks.” It was said sarcastically.

  She’d hurt his feelings. Well, la dee da for him. She felt Naomi’s hand on her arm.

  Naomi whispered in her mother’s ear, “Look at him. He’s dead on his feet. We’re being too hard on him.”

  “Maybe you’d like that coffee now.” Naomi gestured to Emily’s chair. The big detective strode over to it and let his body fall into the chair as if he were bone tired.

  “I haven’t had a full night’s sleep since the murder. They closed down the barbeque contest, and rescheduled it in three weeks,
unless I haven’t found the killer by then. Three weeks! To wrap up a homicide where all my suspects have left the county, the state? If that wasn’t bad enough the DA told me to find Toby because the man had begged the county he’d do anything to stay out of jail. I finally located him in an old cabin out on the Kissimmee River. What a dump. No electricity or running water. Must have been a hell of a place to settle into awaiting trial.”

  “Are you saying you feel sorry for the man? After all he did to screw up your investigation into the rancher’s murder?” Emily could hardly believe Lewis’s sympathetic tone.

  “Well, not exactly. But he is human.”

  “Could have fooled me.” She stepped in front of him, and took the coffee cup out of Naomi’s hand. “Here’s your coffee, and get the hell out of my chair.”

  He complied, eyeing her warily.

  “You can have my chair,” said Naomi.

  “When did the two of you become best friends?” Emily stretched her legs out in front of her and put her hands behind her head.

  Neither answered her. Lewis gulped the coffee and handed the cup back to Naomi. “I’d better get going before I’m thrown out of here.”

  “How long will you be around?” asked Naomi. “I’m asking because I need someone to take me to the cook-off this weekend. Mom says she’s sick of barbeque.”

  The detective blushed at Naomi’s invitation. “Well, I…”

  “Maybe Detective Lewis is also tired of roasted and sauced meat,” said Emily.

  “I have to hang around here until the cook-off begins. Some of the contestants who were at the festival in Big Lake moved on to other venues this week and won’t be here until the weekend. Captain Worley didn’t see much sense in my following up leads by traveling all over the country when I could investigate everyone when they rendezvoused here again. Of course, now I have to track down Toby, unless he used this as an excuse to simply skip out.”

  “Oh, do you really think Toby would do such a thing?” Sarcasm dripped off Emily’s voice like ooze out of mud.

  “It seems, little gal,…”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  Lewis turned to Naomi. “I’d be honored to accompany you to the festival. Shall we say Saturday around seven? I’ll pick you up.” He nodded to both of them, clapped his hat back on his head and started down the dusty dirt road that led to the camp entrance.

  “I hope the birds pecked holes in both your mirrors,” yelled Emily to his retreating back. He turned, smiled and tipped his hat.

  “I hate that man,” said Emily.

  Naomi tried to keep her laughter to herself, but she couldn’t help letting out a chuckle.

  “Oh, you do not. You’re dealing with sexual attraction thwarted by his being right most of the time.”

  “What? He’s almost never right.”

  Naomi shook her head and grabbed the dirty cups. “I’ll wash these up.” As she started toward the shower house, Emily called after her, “I absolutely forbid you to go out with that man.”

  Where would Toby go on an island with only one campground and where the motels were fancy, not flop houses, wondered Lewis. Back to the mainland? Not likely unless he decided to leave permanently and not come back. The island authority charged a fee to get onto the island, and Lewis knew Toby had little money. He could have found someone to bunk with, perhaps the man he’d met up with this morning, but Lewis figured no one wanted to be Toby’s roomie. The meeting this morning told Lewis Toby had some kind of deal going, and he would hang until he scored.

  Lewis decided to try the parking area where Naomi had found him earlier. He was in luck. Near the restrooms sat a rusted truck with Florida plates. From the snoring that came from the open window, Lewis knew he wouldn’t be heard until he was on top of his prey.

  He walked quietly over to the driver’s side window and looked in. Toby slept slumped sideways, his head lying on the passenger’s side of the bench seat. Brown drool trickled out of the side of his open mouth. He seemed undisturbed by the flies that buzzed around his head.

  “Toby! Get the hell up.”

  The man bolted to an upright position. Still groggy, he swiped at a fly and looked up to see who was disturbing his morning nap. When he recognized Lewis, his bloodshot eyes filled with fear.

  “You think I couldn’t find you, Toby?”

  “I knew you could. I just needed a little snooze before I meandered back to the campground for our get together.”

  “The woman at the desk said you’d checked out.”

  “Right. Yeah, I did. I decided it was too noisy there for me. I need my rest.”

  “The place is less than half full. How noisy can that be? Oh right, I forgot about your drinking situation. Alcohol does make things a lot louder and has a tendency to multiply the number of people you think are around.” Lewis opened the driver’s side door. Toby, followed by a half dozen or so beer cans, toppled out, managing to land on his feet by grabbing the side of the truck for support.

  “Litterbug,” said Lewis. “Pick those up.”

  Toby tried to bend over to do as Lewis commanded, but he lost his balance and fell face first into the sand. Lewis grabbed him by the collar and set him on his feet. As he did so, the smell of stale beer, sweat and fear mixed with chewing tobacco assaulted his nostrils.

  Toby grabbed the beer cans off the ground and threw them into the trash.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” said Lewis. The wind off the water might blow away the smell of the man.

  “I got some information for you, so it ain’t like I been doin’ nothin’. I got a line on a guy from the festival, and I only been here since last night.” Toby seemed anxious to please now that he was fully awake, but Lewis wasn’t fooled.

  “Oh, I’m sure you’ve been real busy, Toby, but I told you to wait for my instructions. You go off and do what you want and the deal is off for a reduced sentence.”

  Toby ran ahead and stepped in front of Lewis, dancing around like a delighted child. “I know, I know. I wouldn’t do anything like that. I’ve learned my lesson, and I want to do the right thing.”

  “That might be helped by your sobering up.”

  Toby eyes darkened. “I have a nip or two. It never affected my work. You know that.”

  A laugh erupted from Lewis. “I know you spent a lot of time sleeping it off so that you were sober enough to pick up your paychecks.”

  “You’re a hard man, Lewis. Always were. You treated me like dog do do. Someday you’ll get yours.”

  “Pay back, Toby? I don’t think you’re in any position to be contemplating that.”

  Lewis handed him an envelope, which he grabbed and prepared to open with a grimy hand. Lewis snatched it back.

  “This is your letter of introduction to the festival organizers. They’re expecting it…unopened. Present it, and they’ll find you a job at the cook-off, something where you’ll be able to blend in and keep an eye on things, meet some of the folks, get to know them.”

  “What kind of job? I won’t do just anything.”

  “Oh, yes you will. You’ll shovel horse manure if that’s what they want. That’s the deal.”

  Toby nodded and Lewis turned to walk back to his car, but Toby grabbed his arm.

  “Where can I stay? I got no camping equipment and no money for a room.”

  Lewis wanted to tell him it wasn’t his problem. But, of course, it was. Toby was his informant.

  As soon as he laid out Toby’s duties and warned him again about playing loose with the men associated with the barbeque, Lewis left him on the beach and headed back to the parking area. The tide was coming in, and Lewis knew it would soon sweep the beach clear of all debris, but not Toby, unfortunately. Lewis needed information, but not information tainted by any deal Toby might make with persons of interest or the killer. A line on some guy with the festival? More likely some guy selling illegal booze. Lewis was so certain it was a lie, he didn’t bother to pursue it with Toby. Why do I put up with this, Lewis aske
d himself, kicking at the wet sand.

  If Toby hadn’t been thrown off the force, Lewis had contemplated quitting. Working with the man was like being surrounded by poisonous snakes. One was bound to bite you. He knew that, so why was he so pissed today? Probably because he had to give Toby motel money so he wouldn’t be rousted off the beach by the authorities. Now he had to find an ATM and replenish his cash. Damn Toby. He probably wouldn’t be able to find a room, probably wouldn’t even look for one. He’d just take the money and buy booze. Lewis looked across the expanse of water toward Brunswick, Georgia where he’d once lived. The thought of those days didn’t improve his mood any. He kicked the nearby trash receptacle and heard the rattle of Toby’s beer cans which only underscored the impossibility of this investigation and made him wish for a stiff drink himself.

  His next stop was at the island authority office to present his credentials and let them know of his business here. He was only gathering information and talking to people not from the island, but visitors, the barbeque folks. Still he needed to tread carefully so as not to upset anyone. Jekyll Island was a manicured, carefully managed paradise. Having cops running all over the place questioning suspects gave the place a less than genteel feeling. He’d have to soft pedal Toby’s presence. If he was lucky, they’d never have to see the man.

  When he got to the office of the Jekyll Island Authority, it was closed for lunch. The sign said they’d return at one o’clock. Lewis suddenly realized he was hungry as well as tired. He’d arranged his week’s stay at the Villas by the Sea. He’d check in now and grab a quick sandwich at the restaurant down the road on the beach, then return to the authority office.

  The condominium he’d been assigned was spacious, one bath, one bedroom and a small kitchen. He could buy food and cook in. He sat down on the bed and stared out the window at his car in the lot. The bed was inviting, but he knew if he lay back for even a short nap, the afternoon would be gone. He got up and washed his face in the bathroom sink and rethought grabbing lunch. He decided to treat himself to something better and headed out of the parking lot toward the historic village.