tj jensen 01 - barkleys treasure (8 page)

“I think the decay occurred over time. When you’re around something every day you tend not to notice the fact that the floors need refinishing or the exterior of the cabins have begun to deteriorate. Garrett had medical issues even before his stroke and the maintenance must have gotten to be too much for him. He should have hired someone to keep the place up years ago, but he’s always been a hands-on sort of guy who probably convinced himself that just because he wasn’t up to a big project one year he might be the next, so he put it on the back burner.”

I looked around at everything I could see. The property itself was spectacular, but Jack was correct that the structures were going to need a lot of work; maybe more than Garrett could afford. I hated to see him sell the land to some large corporation, but from a financial standpoint that was really the only thing that made sense.

“What are you going to suggest to Garrett?”

“I’m not sure. It almost makes the most sense to tear down the cabins in the worst state of repair and focus on the ones that require less work. Fewer cabins in good repair could actually prove to be more marketable than more cabins in a state of disrepair. The thing I’m uncertain about is how many cabins are necessary to make the cash flow work from a rental standpoint. Garrett might be better off subdividing the land and selling the cabins off individually rather than trying to sell the property as a resort. If he wants to protect the integrity of the land he’s going to have a hard time finding a buyer who’s willing to maintain the rustic feel of the place and yet can afford to purchase the whole enchilada.”

Jack made a good point. Selling smaller parcels would prevent a megaresort from eventually taking over, and it would make the property a lot easier to market.

“Of course, if you subdivided the land into twenty parcels they’d be pretty small.”

“Which is why I would tear down some of the cabins to create larger parcels. If it’s okay with you and Garrett, I’d like to take a few days to draw up a plan for him to consider before we begin work. The more I think about it, the more certain I am that selling smaller units of land may be the way to go.”

I shrugged. “It’s okay with me if it’s okay with Garrett. I have another project I’m working on anyway.”

“Great. I’m going to take some measurements and make some notes, then I’ll call Garrett this afternoon. I should be able to have something to Garrett by Friday, although I have a softball tournament this weekend, so I probably won’t have a chance to stop by again until Monday.”

“They have an adult league on the island?”

“We have an adult
team
on the island. We play teams from other islands. You don’t play, do you?”

“I have. In fact, I coach the girls’ softball team at the high school where I work.”

“Really? I don’t suppose you’d be interested in filling in this weekend? One of our regulars is about to have a baby, so we’re short a player.”

“The tournament is on Gull Island?”

“At the recreation center on Shell Beach,” Jack confirmed.

“Okay, I’m in. It sounds like fun. What time do you need me to be there?”

“Nine a.m. on Saturday. We’re having a practice at six on Thursday night, if you can make it. It’ll give you a chance to meet everyone before the tournament.”

“Great; I’ll see you then.”

“You’ll need a team hat and shirt. I’ll let Rick Savage know. He’s the team manager. You can just pick them up at practice.”

I felt a little odd about playing softball with the man I was secretly investigating, but I’d already told Jack I’d do it and I didn’t want to back out now. I wondered how Deputy Savage was going to take the news that I was his new teammate. If he was lying—and my sense was that he was—he had to realize I wasn’t buying everything he was telling me.

Jack had left by the time Doc and Kyle returned from Savannah and Meg had brought Grandpa home from the museum. I prepared a light lunch over which we could plan our next move in what I was beginning to refer to as
our
murder case. Ben had broached the subject of Deputy Savage’s reputation in the community with Meg while he was at the museum, and she had assured him the man was not only well liked but he was a respected law enforcement officer who spent a good deal of his spare time volunteering for various organizations on the island.

“The contractor said much the same thing,” I commented. “As it happens, I’m filling in this weekend on the adult softball team he manages. The question is, why would a nice guy who appears to care about his community cover up a murder?”

“Maybe the key to this whole thing is in figuring out who it is the deputy cares enough about to lie for,” Kyle suggested. “Is Savage married?”

“Meg said he’s single and childless, although he does have siblings: two brothers and a sister. One of the brothers and the sister live on the island and the other brother lives in Savannah,” Ben reported.

“Do you think Meg found it odd that you were asking all these personal questions about Deputy Savage?”

“No, because I didn’t just ask about him. It was slow at the museum today, so I took advantage of the downtime to ask about pretty much everyone I’ve met since I’ve been here.” Ben looked at Kyle. “Did you know Willow has a daughter?”

“Yeah, she introduced us. Cute little thing. Her dad is out of the picture, so Willow is raising her alone, although I have a feeling she might have her eye on someone to take on the dad role.”

“Do you know who?” I had to ask.

“She didn’t say and I don’t know her well enough to ask. You know, there’s a boy at the kids’ camp named Rory Savage. I wonder if he’s any relation to the good deputy.”

“Rory is his nephew,” Ben confirmed. “Deputy Savage’s brother has three children. The deputy coaches Rory’s baseball team.”

I had to wonder where Savage found the time to do so much volunteer work. Managing both a youth and an adult team must take up a lot of time when you accounted for practices and games. I said as much to the others.

“Meg commented that most of the time there isn’t a lot of crime to deal with on the island. I guess the low crime rate allows him to multitask. She made a joke about the fact that he’s been known to show up at a crime scene wearing his softball uniform.”

“You really did manage to dig up quite a bit of information in just a couple of hours,” I said admiringly.

“Meg likes to talk and I was motivated to listen. The thing is, the more she talked about Savage, the more certain I became that if he’s covering up a murder he must have a really good reason to do it. He seems like an all-around good guy.”

“Yeah, something isn’t jiving.” I looked at Doc. “Are you sure the damage to the skull couldn’t have occurred as the result of a fall?”

“I’m sure.”

“Okay.” I looked around the table. “Where do we start?”

“We really only have a limited impression of Rick Savage,” Doc pointed out. “Maybe we should chat with a few more people to see if a different picture emerges.”

“We’ll need to be careful not to arouse suspicion,” Kyle added.

“I’ll take a note from Ben’s playbook and talk to Gertie about Savage and a few others. She likes to talk even more than I do, and she’s very opinionated. I like that.”

“And I’ll do with same with Willow,” Kyle promised.

Ben looked at me. “The pharmacist called. He needs me to sign a release I missed when we were there before. Care to give me a ride? Maybe we can chat the man up while we’re there.”

“I’d be happy to. We’ll all very casually try to get a general impression about Savage and then reconvene this evening to compare notes. Oh, and tonight is the movie on the beach. I promised the girls we’d go, so everyone be sure to be back home in time for an early dinner.”

“Meg said there are food trucks and most folks just bring a blanket and eat on the beach.”

“Even better. I have to admit I’m almost as excited about the movie as the girls are. There’s something magical about the idea of watching a movie under the stars.”

“Rick is about as good a guy as they come,” the pharmacist, George Brolin, commented as we sipped root beer floats from the soda fountain. “I had a problem with some kids loitering in front of the pharmacy a few summers ago and Rick very nicely got them to move on down the road without causing any sort of trouble.”

“I guess the soda fountain tends to attract a younger element,” I observed.

“At times. But I do my best to manage the crowd. I don’t want my pharmacy customers to feel too intimidated to come inside. A lot of my regulars are seniors who don’t necessarily feel comfortable with the vibe teens these days are sending out. And the music they like to blare: don’t even get me started.”

“Have you considered shutting down the soda fountain?” I asked as I stirred ice cream into my root beer. Somehow a soda fountain, barbershop, and pharmacy didn’t seem a likely combination when it came to customer base.

“Thought about it. Been here for over forty years, though. Wouldn’t seem right somehow. If I have any trouble, I just mention it to Rick and he takes care of it. His papa started bringing him in here for a cut and a cone when he was just a young’un. Guess he must have been three or four.”

“Is Deputy Savage’s father still in town?”

“Lives out at the senior home. Rick tried to take care of him on his own, but his dementia got to the point where he really needed round-the-clock care. Rick felt real bad about moving him in to the home at first, but Colin takes good care of Tom, and Rick volunteers at the home as often as he can, so I think it all worked out for the best.”

I remembered Colin Walton was the man who’d been given the authority to decide that Buck Barnes would be cremated. I didn’t know whether the fact that the men obviously knew each other well would play into our investigation, but I made a mental note of the relationship just in case.

“Seems like Deputy Savage spends a lot of time volunteering. Someone mentioned he coaches both adult and kids’ sports.”

“Rick is an important member of the community. He pitches in more than most. I tell him he should settle down and put some of that energy into a family of his own.”

A phone rang in the background. “I best get that. You folks enjoy the rest of your drinks.”

“So, what do you think?” I asked Grandpa.

“I think the more I find out about Deputy Savage the less sure I am that he’s intentionally covering up a murder.”

“Doc seemed pretty certain the wound to the head couldn’t have been caused by a fall.”

“Yeah, and Doc knows his stuff.”

“Maybe the others will learn something different from what we have so far. If not, I’m not sure where to go next.”

I followed Ben’s gaze as he looked toward the front of the store. A pair of women were looking in the window and talking, as if they were discussing whether or not to come in.

“I guess we should wait to discuss this at home,” I said.

“Agreed. So what now?”

“I’d like to check out the senior home. If the man who runs it is the one who gave the go-ahead to have Buck cremated, I’d like to get a general impression of the guy.”

“Are you just going to show up and ask to speak to him about the cremation?”

“I’m going to show up and ask to speak to him about senior care for my elderly grandfather.”

“I’m not that old and I don’t need to be in a home.”

“I know that, but I didn’t say you were the grandpa I was shopping around for. I’ll just make up a story about my maternal grandfather, and once I have his attention I’ll try to work the Buck thing into the conversation.”

“This should be interesting,” Ben said under his breath.

As it turned out, you really couldn’t just show up at the senior home and look around, nor could you meet with Colin Walton without an appointment. The woman at the front desk was willing to make an appointment for us to tour the place the following morning. I gave her my name and promised to return.

When we got back to the house there was a note from Kyle, letting us know he’d taken all three dogs for a walk. Grandpa wanted to take a nap because we planned to be out late that evening, so I decided to take a look around the attic.

Deputy Savage had come back on the day we’d found Buck’s remains for a reason. He’d said he wanted to look around, but my gut told me he was interested in something specific. The problem was, I hadn’t really looked around all that much after we’d stumbled upon the body, so if the deputy had moved or tampered with something I most likely wouldn’t notice.

The room was filled with items you’d expect to find in an attic. Boxes, old furniture, discarded household items, including a dressmaker’s mannequin and a rusted bicycle. It occurred to me that if Buck had been hit on the head, as Doc still believed, perhaps there was a murder weapon—a bat or a golf club—left behind to find. I wasn’t certain what I was looking for, but I didn’t find anything that seemed suspicious or out of place.

Most of the time I really like digging through attics. There’s something about them that whisper secrets long buried by the generations of men, women, and children who’d stored their most precious memories and prized possessions within those very walls. I knelt down to right a stack of photos of people who had lived in the house or touched the lives of those who had, which had been carelessly spilled from a box onto the hardwood floor. One photo in particular caught my eye. It didn’t look as old as some of the others and showed a young man holding a toddler. He stood in front of the house next to a young woman with a strong chin and a look of determination in her eye. I couldn’t know for certain, but if I had to guess, this was Garrett as a young child with his mother and father.

I returned all the photos to the box, then stood up and looked around. Attics such as this one, which were filled with long-forgotten caches of generations past, contained the endless possibility of hidden treasures that couldn’t help but spark my imagination. I looked back toward the spot where we’d discovered Buck Barnes’s remains and my mind shifted from hidden treasure to ghostly spirits with unresolved issues. Buck had spent his life searching for a treasure that might or might not exist. If the map had been hidden within these walls, and not destroyed, as Meg had suggested it might not have been, had Buck found it before someone prematurely ended his life?