Page 39 of Murder on the Boardwalk

“I should get out of your hair then,” Beckett emphasized but didn’t move. “Unless—”

“Unless what?” Lucien prompted. Then it dawned on him. “We could order pizza when Kelly and Jade finish with the kelp. You could give Birk a call and have him join us.”

Beckett grinned. “Nothing like inviting our gang to supper for a second night in a row. But it’s the best way to brainstorm and get us all together. Pizza and beer bring out the chatty side of anybody. My treat.”

Later that evening, they sat outside on the patio under a starlit sky, enjoying their pizzas and pasta and sipping drinks while dissecting the suspect list.

“Nobody pointed you to this Zephyr guy because his family has deep roots within the county,” Birk stated, tearing off a hunk of the meat lovers’ delight. “I uncovered that five minutes in. It seems Lee Willis is the son of a former judge—Alton Willis—who got caught up in a scandal linked to a crooked real estate developer and the former bank president here in Pelican Pointe.”

“So it’s probably not possible that Murphy—who’s on a first-name basis with everybody in town—didn’t recognize Zephyr’s origins,” Brogan proffered.

Birk shook his head and glanced at Lucien. “I don’t see how. But Brent didn’t make the connection either.”

“When I spoke to Brent about it, he shrugged it off as a misunderstanding.”

“Do you believe him?” Kelly asked, digging into the vegetarian pizza piled high with basil, tomatoes, olives, and onions.

Lucien winced. “Why would Brent cover up for Lee Willis? Think about it. What does he have to gain by doing that? He, more than anyone, wants this case off the books. And Murphy claimed the same thing.”

“But it bugs you,” Jade reasoned, picking through her salad. “I can see it on your face. You’re wondering why these people didn’t recognize Zephyr as Lee Willis right off.”

Brogan studied Jade before she cleared her throat. “It’s not just Brent or Murphy. It’s that gut feeling that no one is telling us the complete truth about that timeframe. Wally had information and withheld it. Even though he wasn’t around back then, he knew who Zephyr was and held it back. But that doesn’t explain the others like Tazzie and Richie who were around then. How could you forget what you were doing the night a teenage girl was found murdered on the boardwalk?” She twisted in her chair to look over at Lucien. “Remember when we were kids, and someone found a man dead on the beach, not fifty yards from our back door? To this day, I remember that incident vividly. I recall how all the adults reacted to a murder scene so close to the house. Dad and Maeve were frantic. That morning sticks out in my mind, forever reminding me that the world wasn’t all that safe. So why wouldn’t Gidget’s death have the same effect on everyone in town, especially those around the same age?”

“She has a point,” Kelly said in agreement. “Small-town murder like that, shocking to most people, seems like they’d remember what they were doing the night it happened, especially the teenage crowd who were most affected by it. Forget about the others who didn’t live here then. I can give them a pass. But someone in this town knows exactly what happened that night, someone who refuses to step forward.”

“The only reason not to come forward is you’re protecting someone,” Beckett added.

“Or, you’re afraid for yourself,” Birk added. “Somebody in this town knows who killed Gidget. I’d bet money on it.”

Lucien traded looks with Birk. “What are the chances the lab will get usable DNA from Gidget’s clothing?”

“I wouldn’t count on getting much to ID the killer from the exhumation,” Birk relayed. “You’ll be lucky if you get enough DNA to identify her.”

“That’s just sad,” Jade muttered, picking up her glass. “I don’t see how you can find her killer unless you know who she was or what she was doing in town. We could speculate about that all night and not understand the true nature of her visit.”

“I think she was here to find someone, a birth mother, a birth father, a relative, maybe a sibling,” Kelly offered. “It would make sense, wouldn’t it?”

“It would,” Brogan said. “After all, it was the waning days of summer, almost time for school to begin again. I wonder if she intended to head back home after finding whoever she came to see. Does anyone know what happened to her things, her suitcase or backpack, anything she had with her? Surely she had a purse or something.”

“That’s weird,” Lucien concluded. “Brent never mentioned an evidence box. We only got that file folder containing a few photos, witness statements from the guy who found the body, and her autopsy report. Where are her belongings? What happened to them?”

“Her evidence box should still be in storage at the county,” Birk offered. “I’d get my hands on that as soon as Monday morning.”

Brogan lifted a brow. “Why Monday?”

Instead of Birk, Beckett supplied the answer. “Because word’s already out that the case is getting fresh eyes. Anyone out there with information about this girl will be getting nervous. For all you know, the killer might have connections.”

“That might especially be true if he was a teenager at the time of the murder,” Birk added.

“Maybe the killer is some poor schmuck who got caught up in an awful situation,” Kelly tossed out. When she got fiery looks from Jade, she lifted a shoulder. “I’m not defending a killer. I’m merely stating the notion that maybe he didn’t mean to kill her. Maybe the situation got out of hand.”

“After he attacked her,” Jade stressed. “That girl died a violent death. She was beaten and strangled. What part of that could you characterize got out of hand?”

Kelly sent Jade a seething look. “I’m suggesting that whatever happened ramped up. Gidget could’ve agreed to meet the person she came here to see, and that meeting went horribly wrong. That’s all I’m saying. I know it ended in a violent murder. I was there when Brent tossed out the file folder.”

“Oh,” Jade mumbled, calming down. Her demeanor shifted from combative to more relaxed, but it garnered a strange look from Birk. “Are you feeling okay? You’ve seemed on edge since this morning.”

“I’m fine. I just misunderstood what Kelly was getting at, that’s all.” She sent Kelly a pleading look. “Sorry.”

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