Pineapple Lies (26 page)

“I could have killed you two!” he said.

Charlotte stepped out of the window box and glanced at Darla, lying at the bottom, shaking her head, her eyes wide. She closed the lid.

“I’m sorry Frank. We wanted to check out Penny’s story before George got back,” said Charlotte.

“What do you mean before George got back?”

“We thought if Penny tipped him off he might try and hide evidence and we wanted to confirm her story about shooting the closet. Look.”

Charlotte walked to the closet.

“Mariska you can put your hands down now.”

Mariska put down her hands and moved out of the way so Frank could follow Charlotte.

“You can barely see the patch mark from the outside, but it is clear on the inside and under here…” Charlotte pulled up the carpet. “You can see the floorboards are different. They’ve been replaced.”

“Three of them,” said Mariska. “We think that is strange.”

Frank walked back out of the closet and stood with his hands on his hips.

“If this does turn out to be important to the case, it might be unusable if people find out we were snooping around without a warrant! I need you two to get out of here right now.”

“I’m sorry,” said Charlotte.

“I’m sorry, Frank,” said Mariska as they moved to leave.

“You too, Darla,” said Frank.

Charlotte and Mariska froze and looked at each other. Nothing happened.

“Darla.
Now
. I’m not playing with you.”

The window seat creaked open and Darla sat up.

“How’d you know?” she asked, climbing out.

“There are few sure things in this world,” said Frank, presenting a hand to help Darla out of the box. “But one of them is if two of you are up to something, the third isn’t far behind.”

Chapter Thirty

Walking home from Penny’s, Charlotte was so lost in her thoughts she didn’t hear Harry come up from behind her.

“Hey Charlotte,” said Harry. “I hear Seamus had a scare tonight.”

Charlotte jumped, startled by his voice.

“Harry! What do you mean?”

“You don’t have to pretend with me. I’m a cop remember?”

“Ex-cop.”

“Once a cop always a cop.”

“How did you hear?”

“Seamus called Jackie and Jackie told me. I was with her in the clubhouse when he called.”

“Oh. So you know about the gun.”

Seamus nodded. “George’s gun. I’m glad things aren’t getting off track. It seems pretty clear George did it, as much as I hate to say it. Finding the bullet cracked the case wide open.”

“I guess. Penny says she only fired it once.”

“
She
did? Penny fired it?”

“That’s what she said. She said she shot at George to scare him. He took it away and that was the last she saw of it.”

“Why would she shoot a gun in her own house?”

“Jealousy. Turns out George really was having an affair with Erin and Penny was trying to scare him.”

“Really…” Harry wiped his brow with the back of his hand. The evening was muggy. “Well, I guess after that he used the gun to kill Erin. Must have felt he had to get rid of her if Penny was that upset.”

“Seems a little extreme.”

“I know extreme. You wouldn’t believe some of the things I’ve seen…”

Charlotte struggled to find something to say before Harry launched into another cold case story.

“The weird thing was the floorboards—”

She stopped. She wanted to bounce what she knew about the floorboards off Harry. His cold case experience might give him some insight. Unfortunately, telling him about them would mean admitting they broke into Penny’s home, and she had to keep that under wraps.

“What’s that?” he asked.

“Nothing.”

Harry stared at her a moment in silence.

“Is Penny home? Did they pick up George yet?” he asked.

“Last I heard Penny is still at the station. George and Junior are out fishing, unreachable until tomorrow.”

“Hm. Hopefully they aren’t trying to get away.”

“I don’t think so. He doesn’t know the gun’s been found. He probably thinks it’s long gone. Dumb luck that Seamus ended up with it, all these years.”

“Dumb luck has taken down more than one killer. Dumb luck and
me
.”

“I keep thinking it
has
to be someone else.”

Harry shrugged. “I hope so. But I doubt it considering the evidence. I’ll see you later.”

He strode off into the darkness.

“See ya.”

Charlotte went home and checked her phone for messages. She hoped Declan would call when he had the chance, but it was getting late.

Charlotte awoke to the sound of Abby barking and someone knocking on her door. She looked at the clock. It was seven-thirty a.m. She’d fallen asleep on her sofa, rolling the facts of the case over and over in her mind. She stretched and plodded the few steps to the door.

“We’re going to take an apple cake to Penny,” said Mariska, holding what she could only assume was the aforementioned apple cake beneath tin foil. Darla stood behind her.

“Did you get in trouble?”

Darla rolled her eyes. “Oh you know how they bluster. Just had to sit it out and now everything is fine. Though I didn’t mention we were going back to Penny’s before he left this morning. Didn’t want to upset the apple cake, if you know what I mean.”

“Are you sure she’s back? Or up? She must be exhausted from the stress alone.”

Mariska clucked a string of tsk noises. “She’s back. She called me, upset. I told her I’d bring her a cake. She’s terrified about what they’re going to do to George when he gets home but she can’t reach him. He’s not answering his phone.”

Charlotte remembered Harry’s warning that George might be making a run for it. Maybe he was right.

“I guess you want me to come with you? Can you give me a second?”

The ladies made themselves a pot of coffee while Charlotte showered and hopped into a clean pair of shorts and a v-neck tee. She’d stitched the tee herself and it featured a soft-coated wheaten face embroidered on the chest with
Abby
underneath it.

“Oh that is so adorable,” said Mariska as she rejoined the ladies.

The three of them walked the block and a half to Penny’s house. When she answered the door, Charlotte saw the dark circles beneath her eyes. For all Penny’s pushy behavior, she always looked ready to tackle the world. It made Charlotte sad to see her so broken. Her maid, Maria, stood behind her, a concerned look on her face, no doubt worried that Penny had beaten her to the door. Penny didn’t reprimand her. That was a bad sign.

“We brought you cake,” said Mariska, holding out the plate.

Penny nodded towards it and Maria scurried forward to grab it.

“Can I get you some coffee? Some of the cake?” asked Penny.

“I’d love some,” said Mariska. She loved her own cooking, and rightfully so.

George strode up behind them, a cooler in his arms.

“Hello ladies,” he said.

“George!”

Penny wrestled the cooler out of her husband’s grasp, put it on the floor and hugged him. George stood still, his arms at his sides, his face a mask of confusion.

“We caught a huge tarpon, but I didn’t expect this. What’s gotten into you?” he asked, peeling Penny’s arms from him.

Penny’s eyes began to well with tears. Charlotte had never before seen any emotion in Penny other than smug satisfaction. It made her uncomfortable to watch.

“They found my gun,” said Penny.

“What gun?”

“
My
gun. The one you bought me. The one I nearly killed you with.”

George shot a look at the three other ladies.

“What are you talking about?”

“They know I tried to shoot you. But you need to tell me what happened.”

“Penny, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I sold that gun eons ago.”

“They have it!” said Penny, stamping her foot. “And the bullet matches. Frank’s coming to get you!”

“Matches what?” George looked at Darla. “Is Frank here?”

“No. But he wants you. You and Junior.”

“Junior headed for home when we left the boat. What do you mean the bullet matches? What bullet? Matches what?”

“My gun. They found it and they matched it to the bullet that killed Erin Bingham.”

“That’s impossible!” said George, meeting eyes with everyone in the room in quick succession. “The gun’s never been used!”

“Except by Penny,” said Charlotte.

“Yes. Except by Penny. Apparently, she told you about that. She scared the crap out of me and I took it away. I had no use for it so I sold it to the pawnshop. I’d bought it in a pawnshop in Tampa and it was the first idea that came to mind.”

“You bought it from a pawnshop?” echoed Penny, her lip curling. “But you had it engraved for me?”

“No, it just happened to have an ‘S’ on it. I was in there looking for golf clubs and saw the ‘S’ and…anyway, I sold it.”

Penny scowled. “Why didn’t you just go to CVS and get me a cheap teddy bear?”

“Honey, you
really
have to work on your priorities,” said Darla.

“Can I ask you about the floorboards?” asked Charlotte.

“What floorboards?” snapped George.

“In your closet. The ones that were replaced.”

“Replaced? I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Can we go upstairs?”

“This is insane,” said George, gritting his teeth. He found everyone staring at him and relented.

“Fine.”

He stormed up the stairs towards the bedroom with everyone in tow.

George reached the closet and threw out his hands.

“Here we are. What can I do for you?”

Charlotte glanced at Mariska and Darla and then took the lead.

“When Penny shot at you, where were you?”

“I was standing about where you are,” said George. “We’d been arguing. I came upstairs and Penny came into the room with the gun. She was very upset. She didn’t mean for it to go off. But it did, missed me, and went into the wall.”

“Here?” said Charlotte, pointing to the rough patch beneath the paint that she’d noticed the night before.

“Yes.”

“The inside isn’t painted, so you can see where the bullet exited,” said Charlotte, stepping into the closet and turning on the light. She crouched down to pull up the carpet as George stuck his head inside.

“Mr. Sambrooke, do you want me to put the fish in the refrigerator?” asked Maria, stepping into the room. George ignored her.

“Under here, three floorboards were—” Charlotte pulled up the rug and froze, cutting her sentence short.

“Were what?” asked George.

“Blood,” said Charlotte, in an exhaled whisper.

“What?”

George squatted beside Charlotte and inspected the floorboards.

“Is that blood?” he asked in an aghast whisper.

Charlotte stared at the floorboards, doubting her eyes. The night before the three slightly different floorboards had been there. Now, boards that matched the rest of the floor were there, dark with a deep red-brown stain.

Darla and Mariska clamored to push their heads into the closet.

“Oh my,” said Darla. “But last ni—”

Charlotte pounded her fist into Darla’s toe.

“Ouch!” she cried, stepping back out of the closet.

Charlotte glared at her until she caught her eye.

“Darla, you have to call Frank.”

“Did you kill her and put her in the closet?” asked Mariska, staring at the stains.

“We didn’t kill anyone!” said George, straightening. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen this!”

Penny moved away and sat on the bed. As she did, Maria moved forward, walking slowly, focused on the closet. George watched her, and stepped out of her way as she approached, such was her determination. She looked down and saw the floorboards. As she did, she gasped and covered her mouth.

“Maria, what’s wrong with you?” asked Penny.

“The girl,” said Maria.

“What girl?”

“Ms. Erin. She came to see Mr. George.”

“Who? When?”

“A long time ago,” said Maria. “She came to see Mr. George. She said it was very important. I told her to wait in the office. But—” Maria looked from George to Penny and back again.

“Maybe I should not say.”

“Maria, don’t be afraid,” said George. “Tell us. What happened?”

“I was asking her if she wanted something to drink, and you both came home. Mrs. George was screaming. I—I knew it was about the girl. I…I knew.”

“You knew I was having an affair with Erin,” said George, his voice tired. He refused to look at Penny, who stared holes through him. “Go on.”

“She said, ‘What do I do?’ and I said, ‘Hide!’ but there was nowhere to hide in the office, so I pointed to the bedroom. Here she could hide under the bed or in the closet or in the window seat like the children used to.”

Charlotte and Darla exchanged a look.

“Mrs. George, you were so upset. Mr. George ran after you. I forgot about the girl until I saw her opening the front door. She ran out of the house.”

“Was she okay?”

“I don’t know. Yes… She ran out of the door.”

“Did you ever see her again?” asked Darla.

“No. Right after that Mr. George, you took the gun and drove away. Mrs. George, you went out on the patio with the bottle.

“The bottle?” asked Charlotte.

“The almonds,” said Maria.

“Amaretto,” said Penny. “I used to be quite fond of it.”

“So Erin ran out of the house…” said Charlotte. “Was she hiding in the closet? Maria, this is important. Was she hiding in the closet?”

Maria paled and looked at the bloodstained floorboards. “As I left the room, yes, I saw her run into the closet.”

Darla and Mariska gasped in unison.

“Penny!” said Darla. “
You
shot Erin!”

Penny grabbed the post of her bed to steady herself.

“That’s impossible…” she mumbled.

George looked pale. “I never saw her. I didn’t know she was here…Penny?”

Penny shook her head.

“But who buried her?” asked Mariska.

All eyes turned to George.