Bikinis in Paradise (Tj Jensen Pardise Lake Mysteries) (10 page)

“The photo shoot should be close to wrapping up,” Tj informed Roy. “I haven’t had a chance to speak to Fenton since he arrived. When they
’re done, I’ll suggest we get a drink or a bite to eat so we can discuss the accommodations and any special instructions he may have for our staff. I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ll try to steer the conversation where you need it to go. What do you want me to find out exactly?”

“I don’t know. Talk to him about Tonya. See if you can get him to say anything about his feelings about her death.
I doubt he’ll come right out and admit they had an affair, but you might be able to get a feel for their relationship.”

“Okay
.” Tj looked at her watch. “I need to run over and talk to Grandpa. I’m hoping he can set up a meeting with Kiara’s grandmother for this evening. After I do that, I’ll come by again to talk to Fenton. It’s probably best that you’re out of sight. The last thing we need is for him to realize he’s a person of interest. He’ll clam up for sure.”

Roy nodded. “
I’m going to see if I can find out some more about his wife and the rest of his party. Call me after you speak to him.”

Luckily, Fenton said he’d be delighted to have a drink with Tj. The bar was crowded, but she managed to secure a spot out on the deck. Fortunately, Logan Cole was working the outdoor bar. She had an agreement with her beverage manager to skip the rum if she ordered a Mai Tai when she was with a customer. That provided a way to enjoy the social convention of having a drink without succumbing to the effects of alcohol. More often than not, this gave her an upper hand in steering the conversation in the way she wanted it to go.

“So how are you enjoying your trip so far?” Tj asked.
She nibbled on the maraschino cherry that was sitting atop the colorful drink she’d ordered.

“It’s been challenging,” Fenton admitted
after downing a shot of their finest scotch. “Having to tell the models what happened to Tonya wasn’t easy.”

“I can imagine that
. Is there anything my staff or I can do to make things easier on you and your people?”

Tj motioned for Logan to refill Fenton’s drink.

“No. You’ve all been really great, and the accommodations you’ve provided are perfect, as usual.”

“I understand you are
n’t staying with us this year.”

Tj thought Fenton looked surprised
that she knew about it but recovered quickly. “My wife and son and my wife’s sister all decided to tag along. I figured it would be best not to have her underfoot while I was working, so we rented rooms in town.”

“Is your wife able to travel with you often?”
Tj took a small sip of her drink as she waited for Fenton to answer.

“Occasionally.”

He seemed guarded in his answers. If Tj had to guess, Fenton was less than thrilled with his wife’s presence. He was a nice-looking man who probably had no trouble finding companionship during his time away from home. Tj thought he was in his late forties to early fifties, which made him quite a bit older than the models and staff he traveled with, but he’d managed to maintain his playboy looks, and his photograph appeared frequently in the tabloids with a variety of women.

“I imagine
it’s nice to have her with you for support after what happened to Tonya. It must have been quite a shock to find out that one of your employees had been murdered.”

“Tonya was special.
One of my best employees in fact. The girls loved her. She’ll really be missed,” he added with a catch in his voice.

Tj thought Fenton looked and sounded sincere.
He downed his second shot, which Logan immediately refilled.

“I overheard one of the girls mention that the two of you were close,” Tj fished.

“We worked together for over a year. During that time, we got to know each other fairly well, although I wouldn’t say I was closer to her than to any of my other employees. When you travel as part of your job, you tend to form close relationships with the people on your team. I enjoy spending time with my employees, and they seem to enjoy spending time with me. We have fun together.”

“
Maybe, but I’m sure all that travel is hard on your wife, as well as Tonya’s boyfriend.”

“My wife doesn’t seem to mind and Tonya didn’t have a boyfriend. At least not one I knew of. My assistant
, Tony, has a hard time with the travel, however. His wife is expecting their first child, so Tony has decided to hang it up after this competition. It’s hard to be a dad if you’re never around.”

“You mentioned your son
is with you. Do you have other children?”

Fenton downed his third shot.
“No. Porter is my child from my first marriage.”

“I seem to remember reading something about
him in one of those gossip blogs that seem to be everywhere these days. You weren’t close until recently?”

Fenton downed another shot.

“I was a horrible husband and father because I was never home, which is why I understand where Tony is coming from. My current wife travels a lot herself, and since we don’t have children, she doesn’t seem to mind the long separations.” Fenton frowned. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all of this.”

Tj laughed. “People say I’m easy to talk to.”
And you’re half sloshed, Tj thought but didn’t say as much.

“Yeah
, I guess you are. Too bad you aren’t looking for a job; you’d be just the type of person who would be fun to go on the road with.”

“Personally I’d hate all that travel. I tend to be a bit of a homebody. I didn’t know Tonya well
, but she seemed to find the travel tedious as well.”

“Really? Why do you say that?
”

“I don’t know. Just an impression I got when we spoke. I suppose I could just have caught her at a moment when she was missing her family.”

Fenton motioned for another glass of scotch. Tj instructed Logan to leave the bottle. The more Fenton drank, the more he talked.

“Tonya didn’t seem to have any family to miss,” Fenton said after he downed the scotch and refilled
his glass. “I know that she seemed lonely and disconnected when we were in Miami for long periods of time. We had dinner a few times, and she indicated that she really didn’t have much to go home to.”

“So she didn’t have any close friends outside of work?”

“Not that I know of. Tonya was very focused on her job. That’s what made her such a good employee. She was always willing to work as many hours as we needed her. If she had lived, I’m certain she would have had a bright future with Tropical Tan.”

“And she never mentioned a love interest?”

Fenton looked at Tj. “I believe I just said that.”

“I’m sorry, I guess you did. It seems I remember someone mentioning she was involved in an affair a while back.”

Fenton shrugged. “If she was, she didn’t talk to me about it.”

He
drank another shot of the whiskey. Tj didn’t know how he did it. She’d be passed out on the floor if she drank as much as he had, but he wasn’t even slurring his words.

“
I guess you know that the sheriff’s office is beginning the process of speaking to everyone who knew Tonya.”

Tj watched Fenton’s face.

He didn’t even flinch. “Makes sense. They want to figure out who did this terrible thing.”

“I g
uess so. I imagine the sheriff will be looking into Tonya’s past relationships. Friends, family, lovers,” Tj offered. “They may even want to speak to you and the models, since you seemed to know her best.”

“I’d be happy to talk to them
, and I’ll instruct my staff to do so as well if it will help, but I’ll request that they work around the schedule we’ve already set up,” Fenton said. “It’s hard enough to maintain an atmosphere of business as usual with Tonya’s death and Kiara’s disappearance on everyone’s mind.” Fenton took out his phone and consulted his calendar. “First thing in the morning would be best for me. Should I call the sheriff’s office, or will you inform them?”

Tj hesitated.

“I noticed you speaking to the deputy earlier and assume that’s the motivation behind the scotch and this very lovely conversation?”

Ben not only was successful in getting Nona to meet them but agreed to go along with Tj while she spoke to her a
s well. The drive out of town to the location where the meeting had been arranged would take about twenty minutes from the resort. Ben had gone down to the beach, where Doc was entered into the home brewing competition; leave it to Doc to be cooking something up if there was something to be cooked. Tj had tasted the beer from some of Doc’s early batches and hoped he’d made quite a lot of progress in the craft.

“So how’s it going?” Tj asked Doc
when she’d made her way down to the beach.

“I made it into the final round,” Doc announced proudly. “Have a taste.”

He handed her a small glass of the dark brew. Tj tentatively took a sip “This is really good.”

“You sound surprised
,” Doc teased.

“Not surprised,” Tj
said, trying to cover. “Just . . .”

“Don’t worry
. I tasted the first few batches I made and realized they were pretty awful.”

“Practice makes perfect
.” Tj took another sip. “What is that flavor? It’s sort of fruity.”

“Peach
,” Doc answered. “I call it fuzzy peach ale.”

“It’s really excellent. I hope you have more to share.”

“Of course. I thought I’d bring some when I come over for the next poker game with the guys. I’ll be sure to bring you a bottle.”

“Thanks, I’d like that.
” Tj looked around. “There’s a lot better turnout than I expected.”

“Home brewing has become a popular pastime,” Doc explained. “If you have time
, you should make the rounds and taste some of the other entries.”

Tj looked at the more than twenty booths
that had been set up for tasting. If she didn’t need to leave, it would be fun to sample all the different blends.

“Grandpa and I
are on our way to talk with Kiara’s grandmother about her disappearance, but maybe if everyone is still around when we get back, I’ll taste a few. Are you ready?” Tj asked Ben.

“
Yeah. I guess we should be going. I’d hate to keep Nona waiting.”

“I’ll be here a
couple more hours at least,” Doc told them. “Why don’t you come back by after your talk? We can listen to some music and have a bite to eat.”

“Sounds good to me,” Ben
replied.

“If I’m not here
, meet me by the bandstand,” Doc instructed. “If you don’t see me right away, text me. I have my phone.”

“Okay. S
ee you in a bit. And good luck with the competition,” Ben added.

“Yeah, good luck.”
Tj hugged the older man, who, as usual, was dressed in his signature Hawaiian shirt.

“Hazel mentioned that you met Nona through the senior center
,” Tj said as she and Ben walked back toward the parking area.

“I first met Nona through your grandmother.” Ben waved to some of the other seniors he socialized with as they passed the bandstand.

“Grandma knew Nona?” Tj asked. Her grandmother had been dead for quite a few years, so Tj was surprised to hear that she knew the mysterious woman.

“They met before I even knew your grandmother,” Ben confirmed. “Maggie’s family summered at Paradise Lake from the time she was a child. Nona moved to the area after her parents were killed in an accident and she was sent to live with her uncle. I think she was a teenager at the time.”

“The uncle lived in Vengeance?”

“Actually
, the uncle lived in Serenity,” Ben said as he climbed into the passenger side of the vehicle. “According to what Maggie told me, Nona didn’t move to Vengeance until after she was an adult. She didn’t really get along with the other teens in the area and tended to keep to herself. When Maggie ran into Nona in town during one of the summers she spent at the lake, she decided to take her on as a project.”

“Project?”

“You know your grandmother.” Ben laughed. “She was a social whirlwind who didn’t like to see people alone. She saw herself as some sort of social messiah whose mission was to bully people out of their shells.”

“Which is exactly how the two of you got together,” Tj reminded him.

“That it was.” Ben smiled fondly.

Tj knew that when her grandfather first met her grandmother
, they hadn’t really gotten along. All her grandfather wanted was to be left alone on the isolated parcel of land he’d purchased with an inheritance. Maggie, on the other hand, was a five-foot-tall spitfire who insisted on hanging around and giving Ben advice he claimed he didn’t want or need. By the end of the summer, they were hopelessly in love and were married in the little church in Serenity before the first snow fell.