Footprints in the Sand (15 page)
Read Footprints in the Sand Online
Authors: Mary Jane Clark
A
s Piper removed the cake pans from the oven, her cousin walked into the kitchen.
“Hey, what are you doing in here, Kath?” asked Piper, smiling brightly. “Isn’t it bad luck or something for you to see the wedding cake in advance?”
After placing the final pan on a metal rack, Piper dropped her oven mitts on the counter and went over to give Kathy a hug. Her cousin was stiff and unresponsive.
“What is it, Kathy?” asked Terri, seeing the stricken look on her niece’s face. “What’s wrong?”
Piper looked into her cousin’s eyes. Kathy stared back blankly. “I just can’t believe it,” Kathy murmured.
“What? What can’t you believe?” asked Piper, still holding on to Kathy’s arms. “What’s happened?”
Kathy walked to a stool and sat down awkwardly. She leaned over and put her head in her hands.
“Is your mother all right?” asked Terri. “Has something happened to Dan?”
The panic in Terri’s voice seemed to cut through Kathy’s daze. She lifted her head. “No, Aunt Terri. Mom and Dan are fine.”
Terri let out the breath she’d been holding. “Then
what,
Kathy? You’re scaring me.”
“Miriam Fisher called Mom this morning to say she wasn’t going to be able to come to work for a while. Her brother, Levi, committed suicide.”
Piper recoiled as if she’d been hit. “Levi? The one who delivers the pies?”
Kathy nodded slowly. “He hanged himself from a tree near Phillippi Creek. Some women who were fishing there found him this morning.”
Terri looked at Piper with disbelief. “I don’t understand. We just saw Levi yesterday afternoon.”
“You did?” asked Kathy.
“Yes, he came over here to deliver something to Piper.”
Kathy looked expectantly at her cousin. “Deliver what?”
Piper hesitated. Should she tell Kathy about the wedding present she’d commissioned Levi to make? In the grand scheme of things, keeping a surprise didn’t seem to matter much right now.
“Oh, Kathy,” she said softly. “I wanted it to be a secret. I’d asked Levi to make a hex sign for you and Dan as a wedding gift.”
Kathy’s eyes filled with tears. “And he brought it to you yesterday afternoon? That must have been just hours before he killed himself. How did he seem?”
Piper thought back. “He was quiet. We were all very enthusiastic about the work he’d done, but he didn’t show much emotion when we praised him. And when I went to pay him, he wouldn’t let me and hurried off. I went over to Fisher’s last night with the cash, but the hostess said I had just missed him. I left the money with her to give to him when she saw him today.”
“He’s not going to get it now,” said Kathy as she broke down and sobbed.
T
he garbage collectors tried to get as much as possible of their run done in the morning, before the sun and the heat grew too strong. It was worth clocking in very early in order to be finished in the initial part of the afternoon. The giant truck cruised the city’s streets, efficiently picking up the trash of businesses, restaurants, and residents.
Midmorning the crew always stopped for a break, their workday half done. They used the facilities at a convenience store and grabbed coffee, Cokes, and sandwiches. Then they sat in the cab of the truck, listening to the radio and talking while they ate.
“Did you see the Gators last night?” asked Cecil.
“No, my wife made me take the kids out to McDonald’s and a movie. She says I don’t spend enough time with them. But I think she just wanted the house to herself for a couple hours.”
“Man, you missed a great game.”
Darrell shook his head and frowned. “I know. Don’t rub it in.”
“I hope they can keep the winning streak going when they take on Kentucky,” said Cecil, crumpling his sandwich’s wrapping paper into a ball. He aimed and tossed it through the window at the trash container. “Yes!” he declared as he pumped his fist in the air. “Three points.”
Darrell looked at his watch. “Let’s get going,” he said.
The last streets on the route were on the outskirts of town. The storefronts were adorned with plastic and neon signs. Cinder-block houses sat on small, arid lots.
The Alligator Alley Bar & Grill was a low wooden structure that could have used a coat of paint. Somebody had decorated the front door with a big, colorful alligator, but it had long since chipped and faded. Darkened windows signaled that the bar was deserted at this time of day. The trash collectors drove around to the rear parking lot.
Darrell got out of the truck and opened the door to the pen that enclosed the Dumpster. He stood aside as Cecil expertly guided the truck’s two mechanical arms into the slots at the sides of the large iron trash container. Slowly the arms lifted the Dumpster and tilted it backward.
Darrell watched the contents spill into the rear of the garbage truck. Big black garbage sacks tumbled down, along with some loose bottles and cans that hadn’t made it to the recycling bins. Darrell’s skin crawled as he spotted a mangy rat scrambling to gain traction on the exterior surface of a plastic bag.
“Hey, man!” he shouted. “Hold up!”
Darrell stepped closer to the truck. He barely smelled the sickening odor of the rotting waste. He was used to that. What made him wretch was what he saw.
A woman’s motionless body lay amid the garbage.
W
hat happens next?” asked Piper. “Do Amish people have wakes and funerals like we do? How do we pay our respects to Levi’s family?”
Kathy shook her head in bewilderment. “I have no idea what the Amish customs are. But we can ask Isaac. He was Amish, you know.”
“No, I didn’t know that,” said Piper.
“Yeah, it was a huge thing when he left. I gather that his parents and the rest of family completely disowned him. I think the only one who still spoke to him was Levi. I saw them talking together lots of times when Levi delivered our pies.” Kathy looked startled. “I’m not sure that Isaac even knows about Levi’s death. I’d better go find him.”
“Wait a second, Kathy. Should we still be doing the Jungle Gardens thing this afternoon?” asked Piper.
“It’s the last thing I want to do,” said Kathy. “I think we should cancel.”
“Why?” asked Terri. “It’s very sad, but sitting around and feeling awful isn’t going to bring Levi back. Your wedding is in two days, Kathy. It’s a joyous occasion, and it should be celebrated. Besides, it will probably do us all good to get our minds off things we can’t do anything about.”
I
t was comforting to finish up in the kitchen. Piper took a toothpick and poked small holes in the surface of the still-warm layers. Then she mixed key lime juice with some confectioners’ sugar and drizzled it over the cake to let it sink in overnight. After unmolding the layers, she wrapped and stowed them in the walk-in refrigerator. All the while, Piper thought about Levi.
On the phone the night before, Jack had said Sarasota law enforcement thought that Levi was responsible for Shelley’s death. Did Levi think the police would be coming to arrest him? Was that why he killed himself?
It was hard for Piper to believe that the sweet guy with the gentle smile and real artistic talent was capable of killing anyone. She thought about his demeanor when he’d delivered the hex sign. Levi had been subdued as they praised him and his artwork. He hadn’t even wanted to be paid.
But there was something else that bothered Piper. When she followed him out to the parking lot, Levi had refused the money a second time. He’d insisted that the hex sign was not just for Kathy and Dan.
Then who else
was
it for?
Piper took her phone from her pocket. She called Jack, but he didn’t pick up, so she left a message.
“Jack, you know that Amish kid you told me the police suspected in Shelley Hart’s death because they found his cell phone near where her body was discovered? Well, he committed suicide. I don’t even . . . Call me, Jack. I’m flipping out.”
N
eighbors had been gathering at her parents’ house, ostensibly to offer comfort. But Miriam heard them whispering about “the abominable sin” that Levi had committed. Everyone was standing in judgment of him and “that awful deed.”
Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.
Miriam’s eyes were red-rimmed, and it was all she could do not to scream. She wanted to run away from all of them and their unwavering verdict on Levi’s desperate actions. But Miriam couldn’t leave her parents when they needed her most. Her mother was weeping; her father hadn’t uttered a word.
She watched as the police arrived and declared they wanted to search Levi’s room. As they looked under his simple single bed and rifled through the drawers of the plain pine dresser, Miriam knew what they were hunting for. They wouldn’t find it.
Levi’s suicide note was already tucked into the pocket of Miriam’s apron.
P
iper rode with Kathy to meet the others at Sarasota Jungle Gardens. The original plan had been to spend the afternoon amid the ten acres of verdant tropical vegetation and meandering trails, enjoying bird and reptile shows designed to educate and amaze. Kathy and Dan had thought it would be a fun way to entertain their guests.
“This all seems so silly now,” said Kathy as she drove north on the Tamiami Trail.
Piper reached over and touched her cousin’s shoulder. “I know it must be so hard for you, Kathy. I’m sorry.”
“I’ve got to get it together and stop weeping and moping around,” said Kathy. “I don’t want people feeling sorry for me. It’s Shelley and Levi and their families we should feel sorry for.”
“Does Shelley’s family live around here?” asked Piper.
“Her parents are dead, and you know she had a brother who OD’d. She has another brother in the service. He’s asked that she be cremated when the body is released. He’ll organize some sort of memorial service when he comes home. But Levi’s family? That’s another story. The whole Amish community considers itself Levi’s family.”
They traveled on, passing the twenty-five-foot-high statue that stood on the downtown bay front. It depicted the famous kiss in New York’s Times Square on V-J Day. An American sailor had taken a young nurse in his arms, swept her backward, and passionately kissed her. The photograph taken at the moment became iconic and served as an inspiration for the giant statue. Now visitors routinely stopped to have their own pictures taken beneath the kissing couple.
“I love that thing,” said Piper.
“Me, too,” said Kathy as she reached over and turned on the radio. “Were things really simpler then, or did it just seem that way?”
C
ryder took the clipboard from the nurse and quickly signed the release papers. He was running late. Umiko was waiting for him at Jungle Gardens. Not that he had any real desire to go. But she was such a fan of the place. When the invitation had come, Umiko had begged him to take a second afternoon off that week and come with her. This wedding and the run-up to it were taking far too much time.
“All set, Roz,” he said as he entered the hospital room across the hallway from the nurses’ station. “Roberta can take you home now.”
Roz was dressed and sitting in a chair, her hands crossed over each other in her lap. She looked uncertainly from the doctor to the woman she’d been told was her daughter.
“It’s all right, Mom,” said Roberta. “It’s all right if you don’t remember everything—if you don’t remember me. Everything’s going to come back to you. You just have to relax.”
Roberta glanced meaningfully at Cryder. “Right, Doctor?”
“Physically you’re in very good shape for a woman your age, Roz. That’s going to serve you well. Just go home, eat, and sleep and return to your routine. Your procedural memory hasn’t been affected, so all the things you automatically knew how to do before, like brushing your teeth or reading the newspaper, you’ll still know how to do. I can’t predict exactly when your declarative memories, the personal episodes and abstract facts you knew, are going to return, but chances are they will. It just takes time.”
T
he car eased into the parking space at Jungle Gardens. Kathy reached to turn off the ignition.
“Wait a minute,” said Piper as she heard the news announcer’s words coming from the radio. “Listen.”
“For the second time this week, the body of a dead female has been discovered in Sarasota. This morning sanitation workers found a body as they emptied the trash in the Dumpster behind the Alligator Alley Bar & Grill. The woman has been identified as thirty-four-year-old Jo-Jo Williams. Williams, mother of three, worked as a waitress at the bar. The bar’s owner told police that Williams left the establishment at approximately eleven o’clock last night, two hours before her shift usually ended.
“Meanwhile police continue trying to find out what happened to Sarasota resident Shelley Hart, whose body was found buried on Siesta Beach this past Tuesday. The sheriff’s department is asking for help from anyone who may have information about either case.
“In sports, the Florida Gators—”
Piper snapped off the radio and turned to Kathy. “Since I arrived, there have been two murders, a suicide, and an old woman run off the road,” she said, incredulous. “When I think of Sarasota, I visualize palm trees and blue-green water, not killers and bodies. What’s going on?”
T
o enter the gardens, visitors had to pass through a low, flat building that served as a gift shop and ticket booth. Kathy and Dan had arranged and paid for admission in advance. Their guests gathered in the reception area, perusing information pamphlets and all the items for sale while they waited for everyone to arrive.
Piper was surprised to see Isaac. He was talking animatedly with Umiko Robbins, gesturing expressively, smiling and giving no sign whatsoever that he’d been informed of his nephew’s suicide.
There were quite a few people Piper didn’t recognize at all, wedding guests who had arrived from out of town only that morning. Kathy introduced her cousin around.
“Not only is Piper my maid of honor, she and her mom are making the wedding cake,” Kathy explained proudly.
Brad came up to the group, wearing an absurd hood decorated to look like the head of a parrot. The bird’s beak jutted out of his forehead.
“How do I look?” he asked.
“Ridiculous,” said Piper, laughing in spite of herself.
Her cell phone rang just as she noticed Cryder Robbins enter the reception area, his tie askew and his face a bit flushed.
She looked at the number on the phone’s display and clicked quickly to answer. “Jack! Can you believe it? Isn’t it terrible?”
“About the Amish kid?” asked Jack. “Yeah, it is. But there’s something else, Piper.”
“What?”
“Another murdered woman,” said Jack.
“Wait. The one in the Dumpster at the Alligator Alley bar?” asked Piper. “I just heard about it on the radio.”
“Yes. Are they reporting that the cops think it’s directly related to Shelley Hart’s murder?” asked Jack.
“Uh, no. Why? What did you hear?”
“I called down there to see what I could find out about Levi Fisher and his suicide, if that’s what it even was. They didn’t find a note. Anyway, my source told me that there was a newspaper article about Shelley’s murder tucked into the dead waitress’s car visor. It seems she circled the part about Shelley last being seen at the Whispering Sands Inn. She crossed that out and scribbled ‘AA B&G’ in the margin.”
“What?”
Piper exclaimed, loud enough to attract the attention of the others in the reception area. Her mind fired rapidly. What if the waitress had seen Shelley at the bar? Could she have served Shelley and perhaps someone she was with? Did Shelley’s killer realize that the waitress could identify him? Could that be the reason she was killed and tossed into the garbage container?
Piper took the phone away from her face. All eyes turned toward her as she called out, “Can someone tell me where the Alligator Alley Bar & Grill is?”
Brad stepped forward. “Yeah, it’s way out on Bahia Vista, past Pinecraft. It’s a dump, lots of lowlifes, but they have great burgers.”
Piper spoke into the phone again. “So what do the police know? Does anybody at the bar remember seeing Shelley?”
“Nobody yet,” said Jack. “But the place doesn’t really get hopping till dark. Tonight somebody might remember something. Meanwhile they’re looking through credit-card receipts to see if they can find anything that connects to Shelley.”
“Jack, apparently Alligator Alley is a dive. I’m not sure the customers are going to be jazzed about cooperating with the police. Maybe if somebody who isn’t a cop went over there and asked around—”
Jack cut her off. “Don’t even think about it, Piper,” he said adamantly.
“Come on, Jack. It’s no big deal,” she said. “I have some free time tonight. I could just go get a burger and see what happens.”
“I mean it, Piper. Do
not
go there! Understand?”
