There could be other neighbors to whom she was referring. Puller would have to check them all out. There was Jane Ryon, the caregiver. He would definitely check her out. Then the lawyer, Mason. Possibly others.
He moved on to the second observation in the letter:
Mysterious happenings in the night.
Happenings, plural. In the night. Did she mean mysterious happenings in her neighborhood? If so, did they involve one of her neighbors? To Puller the area had seemed like a normal suburb where mysterious happenings probably were at a minimum. But his aunt was dead and that obviously shined a new light on things.
Finally he considered his aunt’s third observation:
Something just not being right.
That was open to lots of interpretations. What Puller could fall back on was his experience with his aunt. One of the most no-nonsense people he’d ever known, if she said it or wrote it she believed it. She did not reach knee-jerk conclusions. There was the possibility that old age had changed those personality traits, but somehow Puller didn’t think so. They were too ingrained in his family’s genes.
He had to work from the assumption that everything in his aunt’s letter was true. And if she had stumbled onto something and the people involved in that something had found out, it was a prime motive to remove Betsy Simon from this earth. And if that had happened, Puller would welcome the opportunity to repay the folks who had done it. He would provide either a long prison sentence or their own early exit from the living.
Having exhausted the possibilities based on his limited investigation so far, he got out of the car, walked down a wooden boardwalk, and reached the beach. It was nearly six-thirty, and the cafe where he was meeting Timmins was close by. He decided to walk along the sand both to relax a bit and to think some more while the waves pounded the shore.
There were a number of people on the beach. Some were power walking with exaggerated motions of their legs and arms. Others strolled arm in arm. Still others had their dogs with them and were tossing tennis balls and Frisbees for their canine companions to run down.
Puller moved on, letting his gaze sweep from the ocean to the boardwalk and beyond. There were parts of Paradise that definitely fit the name. However, having been here only a relatively short period of time, Puller had seen other parts that did not remotely belong.
An interesting place, he thought.
When he saw what was going on up ahead, he picked up his pace. He didn’t know if it would have anything to do with his aunt’s death, but right now anything in Paradise that seemed unusual interested him.
CHAPTER 22
Puller saw officer Landry first, then Bullock. Hooper was nowhere to be seen.
What he saw next made him slow down to a leisurely walk. A barrier formed from metal stands and blue tarp had been erected to shield something from view. When police were around, the thing to be shielded from view typically was a human body.
Puller drew to within a hundred feet and stopped, taking it all in. Landry was standing near a couple whom Puller recognized. He had seen them at the police station earlier, looking worried and upset. The names they had mentioned came back to his mind.
Nancy and Fred Storrow.
They went out and never came back. There seemed to be a lot of that going around in Paradise. Puller wondered if either or both of them were behind the shield.
He looked out toward the water. The tide was coming in. Had it brought the body or bodies along with it?
He couldn’t imagine that two bodies had been dumped on the beach and were just now being found. You didn’t dump bodies in public places in broad daylight. It was now nearing seven in the evening. He looked out toward the water again.
Tide. Had to be. He doubted the corpses were in very good shape. Prolonged time in the water did awful things to bodies.
He glanced over at the couple again. The woman was weeping, leaning in against the shoulder of the man, while Landry stood awkwardly next to them, her official notebook dangling in one hand.
Bullock was standing over near the shield shaking his head and tapping his fingers against his gun belt like he was sending out an SOS signal.
They hadn’t set up a perimeter, but people were keeping their distance.
Puller walked toward Bullock until the man looked up and saw him.
He at first put up his hands to ward Puller off, but then recognized him. He strode forward, his black shoes slipping in the sand.
When Bullock got to within a foot of Puller he said, “What are you doing here?”
“Just going for a walk on the beach. What do you have here?”
“What we have is an ongoing investigation that I am not at liberty to disclose to a civilian.” “I’m not a civilian.”
“To me you are.”
“One body or two?”
“Excuse me?” Bullock took a step back and looked suspicious.
“Behind the shield. Did the tide bring it or them in?”
“What the hell do you know about it?”
“Nothing. But you put up a shield on a beach and you got a woman sobbing over there-a woman I saw at the station earlier today probably filing a missing persons report-and the dominos begin to fall into place. Was it an accident?”
“Look, Puller, my best advice to you is to turn yourself around, get back on a plane, and fly home.”
“Appreciate the advice, but Paradise is growing on me. I can see why you like it down here so much.”
Bullock turned on his heel and walked off, his shoes rooster-tailing streams of sand behind him.
Another officer came and took charge of the couple, allowing Landry to break free and walk over to him.
“What did Chief Bullock say to you?” she asked.
“He wanted me to join the investigation and lend my expertise in helping solve the crime. He also invited me over for a beer later at his house.”
She smiled. “He doesn’t drink beer. But I didn’t believe you anyway.”
Puller nodded at the blue tarp. “You called the ME yet?”
“She’ll be here as soon as she can.”
Puller nodded. It seemed that his seven o’clock meeting with Timmins was going to be postponed.
“I won’t ask you for details, because I don’t want you to get in trouble with Bullock.” “Thanks.”
“Where’s your partner?”
Landry looked uncomfortable. “He, uh, he ran into a little problem.”
“Did he puke and pass out when he saw the body?”
She looked away, but something in her features told Puller he had nailed that one.
“I’ve got a lot of experience with bodies coming out of the ocean.”
“Why? I thought you were Army, not Navy.” “Oh, you wouldn’t believe what goes on in the infantry. And lots of Army bases are next to bodies of water.”
“I doubt Chief Bullock would approve of that.”
“I know he wouldn’t. But I thought I’d offer anyway. And if you ever want to run anything by me, unofficially of course, feel free.”
“I appreciate that. We don’t have a traditional plainclothes detective division. Uniforms do it all. If we get in over our heads we can call in help from the county or the state police.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
“You been busy following up on things with your aunt’s death?”
“A little.”
“If you find out anything that shows it wasn’t an accident will you bring it to me?”
“I will.”
“And you won’t play vigilante?”
“I never go looking for trouble.”
“But somehow it finds you?”
“Sometimes. I’m staying over at a place called the Sierra.”
“Not exactly a great part of town.”
“It is if you can’t afford the really great parts. And for the record, eighty bucks a night is not exactly cheap in my mind. Even with breakfast thrown in.”
“What can I say, it’s Paradise.”