6 Beach Blanket Barbie (3 page)

“Yeah
, I will.”

“I guess Charlie and I should get back to the Zoo.
” Charlie looked up and me and tilted his head when he heard his name. He’d finished off Ellie’s snack and had settled in the shade to take a nap while Ellie and I visited. “I need to check on the bobcat kitten that’s due to arrive today.”

“Se
ems like you’re getting a full house. Is room going to be an issue?”

“Eventually. We have four bear cubs now
, as well as four coyote pups and now the bobcat. Thanks to the remodel, we still have a few empty wild animal pens. The domestic animal pens are only about half full, so we could put some of our wildlife in the larger pens temporarily if we have to.”

“I heard you got in a bunch of puppies and kittens.”

“A bunch,” I confirmed.

“I’ve been thinking about getting Hannah a kitten after Rob and I are married. She really wants one
, but Rob doesn’t want to have to take care of it.”

“Just let me know when you want it and I’ll find the perfect one for Hannah.
Are you still considering July?”

I knew Ellie wanted to get married on the beach in front of Zak’s estate at some point during the summer, but here it was the middle of May and she’d yet to set a date.

“Yeah, July or August. I guess we really should decide.”

“Yeah, you should. It’ll take time to line up food and music. Besides
, you’ll want to go off the mountain and shop for a dress. We can make a girls’ weekend out of it.”

“Sounds fun. I’ll talk to Rob over the weekend. I know I really wanted a summer wedding
, but fall is nice too.”

I looked at Ellie. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“Second thoughts? Why would I have second thoughts?”

“Because you were only sort
of sure this was the right thing for you in the first place, and now you seem to be avoiding the issue of setting a date.”

“I’m not having second thoughts
; it’s just that when I think about setting a date, my chest starts to hurt and I feel like I can’t breathe.”

“Sounds like second thoughts to me.”

“I just need a chance to get used to the idea. Getting married is a huge deal, and everything happened so fast. I’m sure once we set a date, I’ll feel less stressed about the whole thing.”

“Yeah
.” I hugged Ellie in a show of support. “I’m sure you will.”

Charlie sat up and barked at the sound of someone yelling in the distance. I
released Ellie and stood back to see if I could locate the source of the voice. A woman with yellow bikini bottoms—only bottoms—was standing next to the towel she’d been lying on with one arm across her chest and the other pointing down the beach. I looked that way and noticed a dog that looked an awful lot like Scamp heading from the beach into the forest behind the beach with a yellow bikini top trailing from his mouth.

“I gotta go,” I said to Ellie
, before calling Charlie to my side and heading at a steady jog in the direction in which I’d seen Scamp disappear.

Despite
the fact that it had been a late night, Charlie and I woke up early and decided to go for a run. Zak was still asleep, and Lambda, loyal dog that he is, refused to leave his side. It seemed that things had been so hectic of late, Charlie and I hadn’t enjoyed our runs on the beach as often as we once had. It was a beautiful morning, with the blue sky and bright sunshine that promised another warm day. Although the temperatures were supposed to climb into the midseventies once again, the overnight temps had dipped into the thirties, so the beach was empty in the early morning. As I jogged along the sand that stretched from the cove where Zak’s home and my boathouse both resided to the main part of the lake and the larger public beaches, I thought about the day ahead.

I’d left Zak a note telling him that I planned to go home to my boathouse to shower after my run. Most times Zak stayed over with me
because I had my cats, Marlow and Spade, to consider, but with the party at Zak’s lasting until the wee hours of the morning, it seemed easier to stay at his place. During the weeks my mom had lived with Zak, I’d pretty much moved in with the two of them, so we’d brought Marlow and Spade to Zak’s, but last night most of the ten exterior doors to Zak’s mansion had been open, creating a dangerous situation for felines living in an environment filled with coyotes and other large carnivores.

I planned to head back into tow
n to meet up with Levi after I cleaned up. Levi and I had both been asked to participate in the ski and wakeboard demonstrations that were being held the following weekend, and the whole water-sports team planned to meet to go over the choreography for the event. Two of Zak’s business buddies who lived in Hawaii were in Ashton Falls on vacation, so Zak had invited them to go sailing while I was tied up. Later that evening, Zak and I planned to have dinner at my parents’ so we could visit my brand-new baby sister. I supposed Ellie would have to work today. It was hard opening a new business. Luckily, I had my assistant manager, Jeremy Fisher, as well as new hires Tiffany Middleton, Bobby Evans, and Tank and Gunner Rivers to help out. With my new staff, I rarely worked weekends unless there was a pet adoption clinic or some other special event.

As I left the beach
that bordered the lake in my little cove for the wide-open sand of the larger body of water encompassing the main part of the lake, I focused on the memory of the night before. After our guests left, I’d been heading up the stairs toward Zak’s big bed when he suggested a moonlight swim in his heated pool as a way of winding down before we turned in. He’d built a fire in the stone fireplace that was located next to the indoor/outdoor pool. The flicker from the fire as it reflected on the water created a feeling of luxury and romance that had to be experienced to be truly appreciated.

We’d drifted on our back
s and looked at the stars as Zak shared plans for the future and dreams as yet unrealized. I knew Zak hoped we could make our relationship more permanent in the upcoming months, but for reasons I don’t understand myself, every time Zak mentions a more permanent living arrangement, I find myself changing the subject to avoid the discussion.

With the romantic atmosphere Zak had created
, it wasn’t too hard to divert his attention away from cohabitation and toward more immediate needs and desires. Zak wrapped me in one of his huge towels and carried me up to his bed, where we enjoyed our love for each other well into the night. The memory of our night together made me consider discontinuing my run in favor of turning around and heading back for another round, but then I saw the pier in the distance. Somehow the arrival of a destination gave me the incentive I needed to keep going. The pier was actually another two miles away, but the day was bright and the visibility perfect, making the wooden structure appear much closer. As I neared the pier, I noticed something floating in the water. I slowed to a walk and took a closer look. It was something red. It looked like . . .
oh, crap; not again.

The first thing I noticed when I entered Sheriff Salinger’s office and sat down across the desk from him was that he appeared to be detached, unaffected by the news that Barbie Bennington had drowned. Based on the display Ellie had witnessed the previous day, I expected the man to be a little more upset. If I didn’t know better, I’d assume Salinger and the dead yoga instructor had never even met, yet the display Ellie had told me about suggested a relationship with a certain level of intimacy.

“I need you to tell me everything you observed this morning,” Salinger
said, beginning the familiar song and dance. It really is mind-blowing how often I’ve been in this office having the exact same discussion with the man across the desk from me in the past few months. Luckily, Salinger had requested that one of his men drive me home to change into dry clothes before bringing me down to the station.

“Charlie and I were jogging and saw something in the water
, under the pier. We stopped to take a look and recognized the floating object to be a body. I called you, kicked off my shoes, dove in, and pulled the body to the beach. I considered mouth-to-mouth, but it was evident it was way too late for that.”

“Yes, I’m afraid it was. Initial reports put the time of death at between eleven
p.m. last night and one a.m. this morning.”

“Have you confirmed that
the cause of death was drowning?”

“It looks like that was the case. We believe she may have been drunk and simply f
allen off the pier into the water.”

I frowned. “There
’s a railing around the pier,” I pointed out.

“True
, but it’s easily scaled.”

“Suggesting
that she climbed over the railing and jumped in . . . Barbie doesn’t seem the type to drink in excess or to engage in late-night swimming either.”

“Why do you say that?” Salinger asked.

“For one thing, she was very weight-conscious. In all the time I’ve known her, I’ve never seen her have more than a single cocktail.”

“Maybe last night was a special event,” Salinger suggested.

“Perhaps. But Barbie was wearing a very expensive dress that is in no way washable. I don’t see her voluntarily jumping into the lake, and with the railing, she couldn’t have simply stumbled, which leaves . . .”

“You think someone pushed her,” Salinger concluded.

“It makes the most sense.”

“If she fell
against the railing, she could have had enough momentum to tumble over,” Salinger pointed out.

“I suppose. It seems unlikely
, though.”

“
Prior to finding her body, were you aware that Ms. Bennington was back in town?” Salinger asked.

“Yes. I saw her yesterday while I was having lunch at the
Beach Hut.”

“Did you speak to her?”

“Briefly. She came up from the beach to get a cold drink.”

“Did she mention why she was here?”

It might be my imagination, but Salinger seemed tense when he asked that particular question.

“No
. She didn’t say much at all, actually.”

“Was she with anyone?”

I thought about it. I didn’t actually see Barbie with anyone other than lifeguard guy, so I decided to keep Ellie’s confidence and not mention the others. “When she came up to the pier she was alone,” I answered, “but there was a man sitting in the chair under the umbrella she appeared to be using. I assume they were together.”

“And did you recognize this man?”

“No. I suppose he could be a visitor to the area.”

Salinger jotted down some notes. “Can you describe the man?”

“Dark hair, tan, seemed fit. He was wearing red board shorts. I really wasn’t close enough to pick out details such as eye color, and he never stood up while I was there, so I couldn’t guess at height.”

“And what time would you say it was when you saw Ms.
Bennington?”

I shrugged. “I g
uess around twelve-thirty.”

“Okay
, that should do it.” Salinger closed his notebook.

“Really?
ʼCause I can think of additional questions you might want to ask me.”

“I think we
’re done for now.”

Weird.

“Okay,” I said. “I guess you know where to find me.”

After assuring Zak that I was totally fine and planned to get together with Levi and the others as planned, he decided to go ahead and go sailing with his friends. I know that may sound cold on my part, but there wasn’t much I could do, and I had a feeling Levi might need a friend. I’d called and told him what happened, and while he’d tried to sound unaffected, I could tell the whole thing had derailed him more than he was letting on. Levi is a sensitive man with a big heart, and he’d once had some pretty strong feelings for Barbie. While he had broken things off with her and hadn’t appeared to have missed her all that much in the interim, I knew Levi’s feelings ran deep.

“You know
, Barbie called me,” Levi informed me as we sat on the beach, waiting for a few stragglers to show up. Somehow the beauty of the afternoon didn’t match the melancholy mood that had descended upon us.

“She did?”
I waited as my best friend looked out toward the sand, his long brown hair hanging in his eyes.

“
Thursday morning.” Levi looked up at me with eyes as blue as my own. “She said she was in town and really needed to see me. I was being a jerk and totally blew her off, even when she said it was important. Now I have to wonder if her death is in some way my fault.”

“What do you mean
, your fault?”

“What if she was in trouble? What if I could have helped her if I’d let go of my pride and agreed to meet with her?
She said she needed help. I shouldn’t have told her to get lost. I should have helped.”

Poor Levi. He did have a point.

“You had a reason not to want to see her,” I reminded him. “She did totally trash your apartment before she left, and at no time since she left has she contacted you or attempted to apologize for the hundreds of dollars’ worth of damage she caused.”

Levi looked out toward the lake.
“I know.” He took a deep breath. “But there was a time not all that long ago when we were close.” He turned to look at me again. “At one point I even thought I might have loved her. And it was
me
who broke up with
her
, so maybe she was at least a tiny bit justified in taking a hatchet to my place.”

“I don’t know about that
.” I sat quietly in the hot sun as I searched for the right thing to say. I felt the sand from the wooden bench on which we sat dig into my thighs, but I hated to stand up, breaking the intimacy of the moment.

“Either way
, I should have met with her and listened to what she wanted to tell me.” Levi sighed. “No matter how hard I try to convince myself that anything she might have been involved in leading up to her death were out of my control and therefore not my problem, I can’t help feeling like I let her down when she really needed me.”

I rested my head against Levi’s shoulder in a show of support.
His bare skin smelled of coconut and sunshine, most likely from the tanning lotion he’d applied to his already darkening skin. As a physical education teacher and football coach, Levi worked out. A lot. I knew that a good percentage of the dozens of females already lining the waterfront had eyes trained on us, or I guess I should say Levi, as we spoke.

“We
are
going to investigate?” he asked.

I sat up and looked at him. “Do you think we should?”

“I do,” Levi decided. “Ellie told me about Barbie’s encounter with Salinger on the beach yesterday. I’ve never really trusted the guy, and now I don’t trust him twice as much. If he had something going on with Barbie, he most likely has something to hide, and that something might interfere with his ability to look at all the facts impartially. Besides, Salinger is famous for seeking out the easy and convenient answers and ignoring more complex possibilities. If we leave it up to him, he’ll justify his theory that it was an accident and sweep any evidence to the contrary under the rug. I feel like figuring out what really happened and finding Barbie’s killer is the least I can do for her.”

“So you don’t think this was an accident
, as Salinger believes?”

“Heck no. You know Barbie. She had many faults
, but getting drunk wasn’t one of them. She rarely drank. She said alcohol had too many calories. And there’s no way she’d risk messing up that dress. She was a fanatic about her wardrobe. The only conclusion I can come to is that someone helped her into the water, and I intend to find out who it was.”

I gazed off into the distance as I considered the situation. I’d really hoped to avoid becoming involved in this particular murder investigation. I never had really gotten along with Barbie and I had at least a million other things that I
should
be focusing on at this particular point in my life. I watched a group of men and women set off across the lake on stand-up paddle boards. It would be nice to have some free time to relax and participate in the summertime activities that I loved. I knew that if I agreed to investigate, my free time—all my free time—would be taken up sorting out which of the dozens of people who had motive to kill Barbie actually did. I’d as much as decided to pass on this particular investigation when I turned and looked at Levi. He looked so lost. Like a little boy who’d lost his favorite toy and had no idea where to look.