Footprints in the Sand (11 page)

Chapter 51

O
n her way to Walmart, Jo-Jo made a detour. Though she wasn’t scheduled in until five o’clock, she wanted to stop at the bar. No one would be there this early, giving her the opportunity to find what she needed.

A few blocks from the Alligator Alley Bar & Grill, Jo-Jo parked in front of a sidewalk newspaper-vending machine. Through the glass pull-down window, she could see the headline:

WOMAN FOUND BURIED ON SIESTA KEY BEACH

Jo-Jo inserted her quarters into the coin slot, took out a newspaper, and got back into the car. She scanned the front-page article, which stated that Shelley Hart had last been seen at the Whispering Sands Inn. Jo-Jo reached for one of her kids’ broken crayons on the car floor and underlined the sentence. Her ability to disprove that bit of misinformation was going to earn her fifty thousand dollars. Carefully tearing the article from the newspaper, she scrawled
“AA B&G”
in the margin. Then she tucked the article into the visor.

When she arrived at the bar, she noticed a pile of cigarette butts littering the area outside the rear door. Jo-Jo’s key slid easily into the lock. As she walked into the darkened room, she was hit by the stale smell of beer. She headed straight for the alarm panel, pressing the code to disarm it.

Jo-Jo entered the owner’s tiny office. The room was a mess. Catalogs were haphazardly stacked on the floor. Bills and receipts were strewn all over the desk. The trash basket was overflowing with empty cans and take-out containers.

The owner insisted on doing everything himself. He clearly could use some housekeeping and clerical assistance. Hoping to earn a little extra cash, Jo-Jo had volunteered to help. For a while she had. But when the owner realized she wanted to get paid extra, he told her to stop.

Still, Jo-Jo had gained some knowledge of how his so-called filing system worked. She went to the dented metal cabinet and pulled out the bottom drawer. She found the folder stuffed with credit-card receipts.

Since most of the bar’s business was conducted with cash, it didn’t take much time to riffle through the paper-thin rectangles. Jo-Jo found the one she was looking for. She recognized it by the date and because she noted the 100 percent tip.

Wow!

Jo-Jo remembered wishing she had a guy in her life who was such a sport. She’d envied the pretty woman in the yellow sweater who sat across from him.

Jo-Jo certainly didn’t envy her anymore.

Chapter 52

T
he awning-covered pontoon boat docked at Mote Marine Aquarium stood ready to take on the wedding guests. The bridegroom himself planned to conduct the two-hour cruise through Sarasota and Roberts bays. The Donovans settled themselves into seats near the rear.

Piper recognized some of the people boarding the boat along with quite a few she hadn’t seen before. She watched as Isaac Goode, dressed in white slacks, a navy sport shirt, and a nautical cap, carried a large cooler and deposited it on the deck. Piper was surprised to see Walter Engel, since Aunt Nora wasn’t joining the cruise. To Piper’s dismay, Brad O’Hara took the seat in front of her.

Piper observed Umiko and Cryder Robbins boarding the boat. Immediately the physician was barraged with questions about Roz Golubock.

“She’s resting comfortably,” he said. “She’ll likely be released tomorrow. Her daughter is with her now.”

Terri leaned over and whispered to her husband and daughter, “It’s a good sign the doctor is making this boat ride. He can’t be too concerned about Roz.”

Vin shook his head. “It takes a lot for these guys to miss their Wednesday afternoons off.”

As the pontoon pulled away from the pier, Kathy and Dan stood at the front. They each stepped up to the microphone to welcome their guests. Though Kathy smiled, Piper could see the strain in her cousin’s face. Piper marveled that she was holding it together at all, given the horrific events of the last few days.

“For the next two hours, we want you to chill out as we travel through the waters of our beloved Sarasota,” said Dan. “I’ll be giving you a running commentary on the history, ecology, and folklore of the area. We’ll make a stop for a short nature walk on an uninhabited island, and we’ll float by a rookery so you can see pelicans, herons, ibis, and egrets in their nesting habitats.”

Kathy took the microphone from her fiancé. “Keep an eye out for the bottlenose dolphins, everybody. Sometimes they come right up to the boat.”

Piper relaxed and gazed out at the turquoise water as the boat sped up. A cool breeze blew across her face, whipping her hair behind her. She was grateful for the blue awning overhead that shielded the passengers from the sun’s damaging rays.

Dan held the microphone to his mouth. “Hunting and fishing supported the native populations here for thousands of years as Florida attracted some of the earliest human settlements in this hemisphere. In the 1500s the Europeans arrived in the area, and by the turn of the twentieth century, Sarasota was still mainly a fishing village with a very small population, unpaved streets, and fish houses on the bay front. The last hundred years have witnessed Sarasota’s transformation into the cosmopolitan and cultural city you see today.”

The cruise participants looked out at the glass-and-steel skyscrapers that rimmed the shoreline. Modern and sleek, they stood majestic against the bright blue sky. The boat continued farther out into the bay. Office buildings of the downtown area gave way to residential waterfront properties with big stucco-covered houses, infinity-edge swimming pools, and yachts moored at private piers.

“Oh, look!” shouted Piper, pointing out at the water. “There’s a dolphin! There’s a bunch of them!”

All heads turned in the direction that Piper indicated. One by one, four dorsal fins pierced the water’s surface. The dolphins gracefully rose, took in fresh air through their blowholes, and then dove back down again.

“Are they going down there to find something for lunch?” asked Isaac. “What exactly do they eat?”

“Predominantly fish,” answered Dan, “but they also enjoy squid and crustaceans. Diet, of course, varies by region, but pinfish account for about seventy percent of what our bottlenose dolphins here in Sarasota eat. An adult male eats about twenty pounds of fish a day, while a nursing mother can eat forty! And they are impressive hunters. I’ve seen dolphins smack fish clear out of the water with their tails and into the mouths of their podmates.”

“Will we see any manatees?” Piper called out.

“Probably not this time of year,” said Dan, “but we have lots of them in the summer.”

Isaac passed out soft drinks as the cruise continued. Dan talked about the sea life and environmental issues facing the area as the guests enjoyed the ride. About an hour into the trip, the pontoon approached a small parcel of land.

“This is Governors Island,” said Dan. “It’s uninhabited, but boaters come out here to picnic. I’ll be able to show you some interesting plants and points of archaeological interest. We’ll stay here for about a half hour. You’ll have time to wander around a bit on your own.”

The guests disembarked, walking down a small gangplank that led from the deck to the sandy beach. Piper followed her parents. When she got to the ramp, she saw Brad O’Hara waiting at the bottom. He reached out and took her arm to steady her as she descended.

His grip was tight. Alarmingly tight.

D
an pointed out the tall, wispy trees. “Those are Australian pines, and they are aliens; they don’t belong here. Somehow they found their way here from the other side of the world, and they’ve proliferated to the point they’re a serious threat to the Everglades, the Keys, and Florida in general. They’re fast-growing and produce thick blankets of leaves and pointed fruits that cover the ground, displacing beach vegetation and destroying habitats for native insects and other wildlife.” Dan bent and picked up a branchlet of scalelike leaves that resembled pine needles and passed it around.

“These buggers radically alter the light, temperature, and soil chemistry of our beaches. Their thick, shallow roots make the trees much more susceptible to blow over during high winds, leading to increased beach and dune erosion and interference with the nesting activities of our sea turtles.”

“Why doesn’t the government just cut them down and burn them?” asked Walter.

“I’m afraid it’s too late for that,” answered Dan. “They’re everywhere now. We can’t stop the invasion.”

A
s they all took the remaining time to explore the small island on their own, Piper sought out Dan.

“Having fun?” he asked.

“Yeah,” she said, “it’s a blast. And you really know what you’re talking about, Dan.”

“Thanks, Piper. I just think this stuff rocks.” He bent forward. “What’s that on your arm?” he asked.

Piper glanced down, noticing the red marks on the white skin of her upper arm. She gently rubbed the spot.

“Your friend Brad helped me off the boat,” she answered.

Dan shook his head. “Brad doesn’t know his own strength sometimes.”

“Okay, Dan. This might be totally none of my business, but why are you friends with somebody like that? A drug dealer?”

“You know about that?”

“Mm-hmm. He admitted it to the police at the beach when he identified Shelley’s body.”

“Yeah, I’m sure Brad will be in the cops’ crosshairs because of his history with Shelley. Her testimony sent him to prison. Her little brother overdosed on the stuff Brad sold to him.”

“What a nightmare,” groaned Piper.

“It was,” said Dan. “But we go way back. I’ve known him since we were kids, and there’s been a lot of stuff over the years. He’s not all bad. And he’s paid his debt to society. You don’t get rid of a lifelong friend because he’s less than perfect, right? Everybody has faults.”

“Who has faults?” asked Kathy as she joined them.

“Certainly not you,” said Dan, putting his arm around her and kissing his fiancée on the forehead. He lowered his voice. “We were talking about Brad.”

“I feel kinda sorry for him,” said Kathy. “He’s got that criminal record, but he’s trying to live an honest life now. At least we
think
he is.”

D
an walked ahead to start rounding up the passengers. Piper and Kathy lingered.

“This feels so weird,” Kathy confided. “Part of me is so happy to be marrying Dan in just three days and to have everybody here to celebrate it. But then there’s the other part of me that can’t believe Shelley is dead. And no one knows what actually happened to Roz. This is not how I imagined things.”

Piper hugged her cousin. “I know,” she said reassuringly. “But the police are working on it. And I told my friend Jack, who’s in the FBI, and he’s trying to find out what’s happening, too. The truth will come out, Kathy. You’ll see.”

T
he pontoon traveled out into the bay again.

“Those pelicans look like they’re on kamikaze missions,” observed Vin as he watched a prehistoric-looking bird dive straight into the water. When the pelican came to the surface, its throat pouch was wiggling as the captured fish struggled inside.

“And now to what I consider the highlight of the cruise,” said Dan into the microphone. “We’re going to do some trawling!”

He lowered a bucket attached to a rope into the bay. While the boat pulled the bucket behind it for a while, the guests gathered around a portable aquarium. Dan finally pulled the bucket up and dumped the contents into the glass-walled box.

Everyone exclaimed in delight and wonder at the randomly captured sea life. A tiny sea horse, two sea urchins, a small snook, a ladyfish, three large shrimps, and some sponge and sea grass. Dan put on gloves and took each item out, talked about it, and offered it to anyone who wanted to touch it.

“What is
that
?” asked Piper, pointing to the bloated round creature covered with pointed spines.

“It’s a puffer fish,” Vin declared.

“Yes,” said Dan, pleased that Vin remembered his lecture at Mote the day before. Dan reached into the tank and pulled it out. “It has an extremely elastic stomach, and if it senses a threat, it inflates itself with water or air as a defense mechanism. It’s very smart, really. An unsuspecting predator finds itself facing an unappetizing pointy ball rather than a tasty meal. Although if it knew what some puffer fish contain, the predator would stay away.”

“What do you mean?” asked Piper as she took out her phone to snap a picture.

Dan held out the globe-shaped fish and turned it from side to side so everybody could get a good view of it. “Some of these little beauties are generally believed to be among the most poisonous vertebrates in the world,” he said. “Even though certain internal organs, like the liver and sometimes the skin, are highly toxic when eaten, in Asia the meat is considered a delicacy. It must be prepared by chefs who know which part is safe to eat and in what quantity. Otherwise it’s lethal.”

“What makes it so deadly?” asked Piper.

“We think the toxicity comes from their diet, because puffer fish born and grown in captivity don’t make the poison. When they ingest certain bacteria from the shellfish prey they eat in the wild, the toxins develop. We’re doing experiments on this now.”

Chapter 53

E
avesdroppers learned very valuable information, even on a deserted island.

Piper Donovan had a big mouth and an even bigger ego. Where did she get off swooping in from the north and interfering down here? Piper was quite the little busybody, wasn’t she?

The FBI? Kathy’s cousin had the FBI looking into Shelley’s murder and the old lady’s accident? It was bad enough having the Sarasota sheriff’s department all over both things. He certainly didn’t need any additional attention from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He suspected that even a couple of phone calls from the feds would increase the law-enforcement heat.

The news media weren’t helping either. Plastering Shelley’s face all over the place couldn’t be good. It could jog somebody’s memory—somebody who might have noticed her with him at the bar that night. Though it was dark and crowded and the patrons were feeling no pain, somebody might remember the striking-looking woman who sat with him in the booth at the back.

As for Roz, he hoped the media reports wouldn’t jog anybody’s memory in that regard either. Luckily, he’d been able to get the yellow paint off his car using the bottle of compounding solution and the can of wax in his trunk. It hadn’t been necessary to bring the car into a body shop, where some mechanic might ask questions and put two and two together.

Though he hadn’t accomplished his goal with Roz, her amnesia was a huge gift. For the time being, she didn’t remember anything. Later he could finish the job.

And there was the other matter to worry about, the one that Shelley had threatened him with in the first place. Shelley had put her pretty little nose where it didn’t belong. Now Piper Donovan was doing the very same thing.