Carol Higgins Clark Boxed Set - Volume 1: This eBook collection contains Zapped, Cursed, and Wrecked. (41 page)

Barnes sighed. “She obviously didn’t drive away.”

As the group hurried over to the Reilly home, Regan was doing her best to comfort Skip.

“What makes it even worse,” he said, “is having those two busybodies in the middle of all this.”

You’re certainly right about that, Regan thought as they reached the front porch of the Reilly home.

Inside the Reillys’ home, Ginny and Fran were on overdrive. They had watched intently from the windows as Jack, Regan, Skip, and the police officers came up from the beach and walked around the outside of Mrs. Hopkins’s house. Ginny had already fixed another pot of coffee and Fran had redialed the window company numerous times. When the front door opened they ran to the living room, breathless with anticipation.

Regan thought the two sisters’ faces resembled big question marks. Wait till they hear the news, she thought.

“Where is Mrs. Hopkins’s body?” Fran asked, getting right to the point. Her eyes were blinking furiously. “Was she still alive?”

Skip grunted, peeling off his wet jacket as he walked past her. He threw it over the back of a kitchen chair, on his way to the den. He collapsed into one of the couches and put his head in his hands.

Ginny looked back and forth at Regan and Jack. “Tell us,” she implored. “What happened down on the beach?”

Jack cleared his throat. “It seems as if Mrs. Hopkins’s body was pulled out to sea.”

“What?!!” Ginny cried, placing her hand over her mouth.

“When Skip came up here to get help, the waves got much bigger,”
Jack explained. “The beach was covered with water when we went down there. She was gone.”

Ginny wasn’t about to keep her mouth covered for long. “I hope they find her! Otherwise we might be sitting on the beach one of these days and what do you know, here comes Mrs. Hopkins.”

“Let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” Jack answered, trying to keep his voice even. “But if her body isn’t found, I’m sure it will be very difficult for her family.”

The policemen, Jack, and Regan took off their wet coats.

“I want to talk to Skip,” Officer Barnes explained to Ginny and Fran. “My partner, Officer Malone, and I would like to talk to you two ladies as well.”

Regan could tell that even though the sisters were horrified by the news, they loved the excitement.

“We’d be happy to help in any way we can,” Fran said. “Ginny, let’s grab these wet coats and hang them in the bathroom.”

“Certainly. And I just made a fresh pot of coffee,” Ginny said proudly.

Regan hurried into the bedroom, where she kicked off her wet shoes, peeled off her socks, and changed into another pair of jeans. She felt like she’d never be warm again. Jack came in and quickly changed also. The policemen at least had been wearing protective rain gear.

Back in the kitchen they found Ginny and Fran pouring coffee.

“Have a cup,” Fran insisted to Regan and Jack. “You need something to warm you up. Milk and sugar are right here.”

They both accepted the mugs that the sisters extended to them.

Barnes and Malone were standing by the kitchen table, mugs in hand. Barnes was finishing up a quick call to the sergeant at his station. When he hung up, he sighed. “Let’s get started.”

The den had couches on the two sides of the room and a love seat in between the couches that faced the water. Barnes pointed to the couch where Skip was still bent over, his head in his hands. “Ladies,” he said to the Brewers, “if you don’t mind sitting there.”

Skip sat up. “I feel so bad,” he moaned. “I shouldn’t have left her there.”

When they were all seated, Officer Barnes turned to Skip. “Can you tell us again what happened?”

Officer Malone started to take notes.

Skip went through the story that he’d told the others earlier. “. . . so many of these staircases to the beach get wrecked in these storms—”

“Like ours did last year,” Ginny interrupted, nodding her head. “It’s terrible. They’re so expensive to replace.”

Annoyed, Skip briefly glanced at Ginny, then continued his story, explaining every detail. “. . . when I ran over to see what I could do about the boat, I found Mrs. Hopkins facedown at the bottom of her staircase.”

“What did you do?” Officer Barnes asked.

Skip took a deep breath, his face full of pain. “I grabbed her jacket and started to turn her. What I saw was awful. Her face was bloody. I didn’t know what to do, so I ran for help.”

“You didn’t try CPR?” Fran asked, astonished.

“No!” Skip said defensively.

“Please let me do the questioning,” Officer Barnes instructed.

“Sorry.”

“It was so shocking,” Skip said. “I thought she was probably dead. But I wanted to get help as fast as I could.”

“And you’re sure that it was this Mrs. Hopkins?”

Skip nodded. “Yes. It looked like her, and she was wearing a
green jacket that I’d seen her in the other day when I was here dropping off groceries. I looked out the window and saw her crossing her backyard toward the staircase.”

“Can you describe her for me?”

Skip nodded again. “She was about sixty—”

“I thought she was older than that,” Ginny interrupted.

Barnes cut her off with a stern look.

“She had graying hair. She was about five foot four. She looked fit. A nice-looking face, I guess,” Skip continued.

“I will say she had nice eyes,” Ginny added. “Big brown eyes. Of course, I only saw them once.”

Barnes turned to Jack. “You and Regan were here when Skip came running up from the beach?”

“Yes,” Jack answered. “He only came into the house for a minute to tell us what happened. Regan and I immediately went back down to the beach with him. The body was gone.”

“I remember once we had a picnic basket on the beach when we were kids,” Ginny said nervously. “My mother had made us our favorite sandwiches. A big wave struck and washed away the basket. My mother didn’t have money to buy us lunch at the food stand so we starved.”

Regan smiled slightly, trying to be polite.

“Ginny, be quiet,” Fran said.

“Okay,” Ginny said softly. “I just know it can happen so fast. The big waves come and—”

“Shush,” Fran ordered.

Barnes looked at Ginny and Fran. “Ladies, I gather you didn’t have much contact with Mrs. Hopkins?”

They both shook their heads. “She didn’t welcome our attempts at friendship,” Fran reported.

“Not at all,” Ginny said.

“She was reclusive,” Fran added.

Officer Barnes nodded. “Skip, what about you? Did you know her well?”

“No. I’d call over to her if I saw her in the yard when I was working outside. But she didn’t say much. Sometimes I’d see her out in that rowboat.”

Ginny smiled. “She loved that rowboat. I’ve never seen someone go out in a boat so much in the winter. She must have had ice in her veins.” Ginny’s face looked as if an idea just popped into her head. “Maybe she was actually planning to go out in the boat! She might have been one of those thrill seekers! You know, like those skiers who do those crazy flips while they’re coming down the mountain. I can’t watch that kind of thing!”

Barnes raised his eyebrows, then turned to Jack. “You mentioned your parents know the owners of the house. Can we get their number?”

“I’m sure we can. I’ll check their address book in the kitchen,” Jack said, getting up from his seat.

“What are you going to do now?” Ginny asked Officer Barnes.

“We’d like to take a look inside the house. Of course her family need to be notified.”

“If she has family, we never saw them!” Ginny said. “Never! Not even at Christmastime. I’m telling you we never saw anyone with her. And no visitors. You’d think she’d get lonely for conversation.” She turned to Skip. “The only time we saw her talking to anyone was when we were on our back porch and looked over and saw you talking to her from the Reillys’ deck.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Skip asked. “I just said that I’d say hello to her if I saw her. I was trying to be neighborly. Just like I was trying to be neighborly when I saw what was happening to her boat today. I should have kept to myself and not worried about it!”

“I didn’t mean anything bad,” Ginny insisted.

“Skip,” Regan said, “if you hadn’t checked on her boat then her family might never have had any idea what happened to her.”

“I suppose,” Skip muttered, looking down at the floor.

Regan looked out the window at Mrs. Hopkins’s house. I can’t wait to see what we’re going to find in there, she thought. There must have been a good reason the woman was so reclusive.

In Bedford, New York, Jack’s parents, Eileen and Dennis Reilly, were watching the news as they worked out in the area of their spacious basement that they’d turned into a home gym. They’d raised seven children, the youngest of whom had recently graduated from college and moved to Boston.

Dennis was jogging on the treadmill and Eileen was pedaling fast on the stationary bike. Both were in generally good shape and had recently celebrated their sixtieth birthdays. That was when they made a pact to exercise together at least three times a week.

Two of the Reilly sons worked with Dennis at the family investment firm in Manhattan. Because of the flooded roads and train delays, Dennis had opted to work from home this morning. When his time was up on the treadmill, he’d shower, then get to his desk.

Images of the storm’s damage up and down the East Coast filled the television screen. They were watching a car float past a grocery store when the phone rang. Dennis, the sweat pouring down his face, waved his hand. “Let the machine pick it up. We’ll check the messages when we’re finished.”

He knew he should have saved his breath. There was no way
Eileen, with her numerous children and grandchildren, was about to let a phone call go unanswered. She couldn’t help herself. It was part of being Irish. What if something happened to someone?

“You must be kidding,” Eileen answered as she stopped pedaling and got up from the bicycle. “You can see for yourself what this storm is doing,” she added as she hurried over to the phone on the wall. An attractive woman with light brown hair, green eyes, and a slim frame, she looked years younger than sixty. From the caller ID she could see that the call was coming from their house on Cape Cod. “Hello,” she answered quickly.

“Mom, it’s Jack.”

“Hi, honey, is everything all right?”

“Regan and I are fine, but there’s a problem with the woman who’s renting the house from the Carpenters.”

Eileen felt an initial sense of relief. “What is it?” she asked, expecting to hear that the problem was minor and storm related. She and Dennis had spent a weekend at the Cape in January with another couple. They knew there was a woman living at the Carpenters’, but had no contact with her. They had spotted her out in her rowboat on a particularly cold Saturday afternoon when they were sitting in the den having cocktails around the fire. They’d all joked about how lazy it made them feel.

As Jack described the events of the morning, Eileen’s grip tightened on the phone. “What?” she cried. “And now she’s gone?”

Dennis, hearing the concern in his wife’s voice, pressed the mute button on the television and stepped off the treadmill.

Eileen gasped. “Poor Skip must be so upset.”

Dennis rolled his eyes. There was always something going on with that kid. “What happened?” he whispered.

“Hold on, Jack,” Eileen said quickly. “The woman living in
the Carpenters’ house must have fallen down the steps to the beach. Skip found her, ran for help, then her body washed away.” She turned back to the phone. “Jack, the Carpenters’ number in Boston is in the address book. Isn’t it in a drawer there in the kitchen? . . . Well, then check the bookshelf in the den.”

Dennis frowned. His mind went back to the weekend they’d been at the Cape house in January.

“. . . you found it. The number should be in there. The Carpenters were so happy when this woman came along . . . Dorie called me in November and sent a new key. She said the woman wanted the locks changed, which she did, but Dorie still felt more comfortable that we had one in case of emergencies. It’s in our bedroom upstairs in my night table drawer. I left it there in January . . . Please let us know what happens . . . No, we didn’t have any contact with her when we were up there.”