Terror on the Beach Read online

  “What about Freddy? I told you I saw him sneaking around on the beach last night. Did you question him about that yet?”

  “Actually, Freddy was on patrol last night. Why he wasn’t in uniform I don’t know. I’ll have to ask him. He probably didn’t want anyone to know he was a cop.”

  I told Robert I was going home and that I needed to get some sleep tonight so he could sleep at his own apartment. Simon snorted and coffee spewed out all over the front of his shirt. I could feel my face turn red.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The next morning I was got up early. I was putting all the long sleeved tee shirts on sale at half price. They were multicolored with Monroe Beach, Georgia written on the front.

  I usually let Tory open for me on Sunday but I wanted to work today so we could get all the sale items out. Sunday was usually a busy day and would get busier as the school year ended and families headed for the beach.

  When I walked through the garage I looked at the odometer. I took the piece of paper I had written the mileage on and subtracted it from what it now read. Someone had put thirteen miles on the car. I called Robert.

  While I waited for Robert, I called Tory and she told me not to worry. She had come in early and was making good progress on marking down the sale items.

  “Do you want me to put out these new sunglasses we just got in also?”

  “I didn’t realize you had ordered any, but that would be fine.”

  When she was silent for a few seconds I said, “Tory, Are you still there?”

  “Yeah I am, Sarah. I didn’t order any sunglasses.”

  “Oh, I must have ordered them. I sure don’t remember it though.”

  I was so preoccupied with wondering about the car I didn’t think anything about it at the time. I should have paid more attention.

  Robert and Freddy came out and again examined the locks on all the doors at my apartment and the locks on the car.

  “Do you keep the car locked, Sarah?”

  “Well no, Robert, I always thought having the garage locked was enough.”

  “Well, keep it locked from now on. In the mean time Freddy, I want you to get a map and draw a circle on the map with this place at the center and with a radius of thirteen miles. Then we can see what all’s within that perimeter.

  “Actually, you need to make the radius six and one half miles because we will be looking for thirteen miles round trip. Does that make sense to you?”

  Freddy looked at me and reddened, “I understand. Do you want me to travel that perimeter myself?”

  “Yeah that would work.”

  After they left I walked down the beach toward the shop. I had my head down and was in deep thought and almost ran into the blond man I had seen the day before.

  With everything else that was going on I was scared out of my wits. I didn’t say a word to him but just took off running.

  “Hey!” I heard him call behind me. “Wait up.”

  I ran into the shop and Tory asked me what was wrong. I was out of breath so I just pointed toward the beach. He was running toward the shop and I tried to lock it but he pushed his way in.

  “I was trying to give you your keys. You dropped them on the beach. What’s wrong with you?”

  I took the keys, “I’m sorry, I thought you were going to attack me. I thought you might be the beach front stabber.”

  He laughed and he looked a lot younger than before. “I’m an artist. I moved here a few months ago to paint. The sunrises here are beautiful.”

  He stuck out his hand, “My name’s Kevin Payne. Maybe you’ve heard of me?”

  I shook his hand, “Of course. You paint beautiful seascapes. I’m sorry. We’re all a little on edge. We have a murderer here. When I saw you looking at the swimsuits the other day I thought you were acting strange.”

  He laughed again, “I’m not a cross dresser. My niece wanted a pink bikini. She’s sixteen and I told her I would get her one.”

  I ended up making a good sale. He bought the pink bikini and a tee shirt and sunglasses for himself. After he left, Tory went to the window staring after him. “He sure is cute isn’t he?”

  TWOON

  I borrowed that bitch’s car again last night. I wonder if she’s noticed. I decided to drive down the beach a ways and find a pleasure unit. I drove to where the coastline sort of juts out like a tiny peninsula. There was a man out there fishing by himself. He was short but fat. As I eyed his gut I was imagining how it would feel to plunge the knife into it.

  He glanced around at me but didn’t seem threatened. This is part of the game I play. I like to stand there and see the questions in their eyes. I kept standing there watching him.

  “Is there something I can do for you?” he asked and I nodded.

  He looked at me again and then back at his line in the water. He shook his head. I moved in closer and let him see my knife. He actually laughed until he had tears pouring down his face.

  “You going to rob me? Think again, shrimp.”

  I was on him before he had time to say anything more. I usually like to build up to the gut but this one just looked too juicy. I had plunged the knife in before he knew what I was going to do. I came right away. I came so hard I thought I was going to pass out.

  He had fallen with a surprised look on his face. I don’t know how many times I stabbed him but he had a lot of blood in him. I was soaked to the skin with it when I finished.

  When I returned the car to Sarah’s garage, I spent a long time cleaning it up. I found a jug of water in the garage and some rags which I used and took the empty bottle and rags with me.

  I dumped the bottle and rags into a dumpster farther down the beach.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Robert came by the shop later in the afternoon. “Sarah, we’re going to have to take your car. We found another victim this morning and it was almost exactly six and one half miles down the beach. Freddy found the body when he was driving the perimeter I told him to drive.

  “We need to have the forensic guys go over it. We’re hoping he transferred some fibers and blood in there. The victim was a fisherman.

  “The victim had some hairs in his hand where it looks like he purposely pulled it out. The hair is rather long. We’ll be sending those off for a DNA match. I should have done that with the cigarette butts. Are you going to be all right without a car for awhile?”

  “The only thing I use it for any more is to go to the grocery store or if I want to go on a weekend trip. Since we’ve been going together I hardly use it at all. So go right ahead and take it.”

  Robert took out his cell phone and dialed the sheriff’s department. “Hi, George, go ahead and pick up the car. We’ll meet you there.” He put his hand over the mouth piece, “Is that all right with you, Sarah?”

  I looked at Tory. “Go ahead, I got it covered,” she said.

  I went to the back and got my purse and Robert and I left for my condo. He left his car parked at the shop and we walked.

  He put his arm around me and pulled me close while we walked. “I sure do wish you’d reconsider about staying with me for awhile. I’m worried about you.”

  Robert must have been right about our relationship being closer because I didn’t feel as threatened as I did before. I was really considering it.

  “I just wish you lived at the beach, Robert. I’m used to sleeping with the sea air blowing through the open windows. And before you say anything, I only have the windows upstairs open. Not the ones in the garage.”

  Robert changed the subject, “You know what I suddenly have a hankering for? One of those corn dogs at that little stand up the beach.”

  We ended up walking farther up the beach and getting corn dogs and beer. We ate them on the way back to my apartment.

  Freddy came and got the car, using the sheriff department’s wrecker to tow it. They didn’t want anyone else in it. It seemed like it took a long time for him to get there.

  “I had to make a side trip,” he said. �
�Someone called to report finding some bloody rags in a dumpster down the beach from here. I bagged them. If I was the killer, I would be getting nervous about now.”

  “Well, let’s just hope that this guy’s prints and DNA are on file with the FBI,” Robert said. “If not, we’ll have to wait until we have a suspect.”

  After Freddy left, Robert and I went to bed. We made love again and again. I didn’t understand the timing of me being able to get closer to Robert now, but I knew I felt safe with him and I trusted him.

  At one point I woke up during the night and thought about some of the things that had been going on. If the stabber had used my car, how had he taken it out of my garage without me hearing it?

  Then I thought about the sunglasses that Tory said she didn’t order. If she didn’t order them and I know I didn’t then who did? Someone had to have a copy of my keys. But why would someone go into the shop and order sunglasses? It didn’t make any sense.

  Robert had already left the next morning when I got up. He was so considerate about not waking me up. Maybe I could possibly live with him.

  After my shower and coffee I looked into my closet to see what I was going to wear. One good thing about having my own shop, besides the fact I could make my own hours, was that I could wear anything I wanted.

  The weather was nice and warm and I decided to wear the sundress I had brought home from the shop yesterday. It had sunflowers on it and I loved it.

  I also decided to change purses to a more summery one. When I pulled the white purse down from the shelf above, a cap that I hadn’t seen for awhile fell on the floor. It was a bright red stocking cap.

  One Christmas a couple of years ago, Robert and I thought it would be a good idea to go to New England for a white Christmas. It was a big mistake. We saw some beautiful snow but almost froze to death.

  We both had ended up buying matching knit caps that we could roll down around our ears. It helped a lot.

  I held the cap in my hand thinking about that trip. We had gone on a sled ride and tried ice skating. Those were good memories.

  I reached up to put the cap back on the shelf and noticed there were blond hairs on the cap. My hair is a sort of non-descript brown, and of course Roberts is black. Now what? Someone borrowed my car and also my cap?

  I went to the kitchen and got a chair and climbed up to see what else I could find in my closet. Over the years, as I put things on the shelf in my closet, things would get pushed to the back.

  There were things up there I had completely forgotten about. I saw a black leather glove and wondered where the mate was. I found it shoved into the corner and noticed that it looked wet.

  I picked it up. It was sticky and wet and when I laid it down and looked at my fingers. They had blood on them. I screamed.

  The next thing I knew I was on my bed and Robert was calling my name. I opened my eyes and focused on him.

  “Thank God!” He said. “I was wondering if you had gone into a coma. What happened? Tory called me and said you hadn’t come in and she couldn’t get you on either phone.”

  The memories came back and I tried to get up.

  “Whoa,” Robert said. “Don’t try to get up yet. Just tell me what happened. Did you faint? Are you pregnant?”

  “I found a pair of my gloves in my closet, Robert. They had blood on them.”

  He got up and started looking around. “I don’t see any gloves, Sarah.”

  “Look on the floor over there by that chair. Also my red cap I bought in New England had blond hairs on it. Do you see that? They should all be near that chair.”

  Robert looked and looked but couldn’t find the cap or the gloves. He left after I assured him I was going to be fine.

  After he left I thought of the down jacket I had also bought on the trip to New England. It was black. I almost tore my closet apart looking but the jacket wasn’t there.

  TWOON

  I’m going to have to kill that bitch, Sarah. She found the cap and gloves and it’s because of her that I don’t have a car to drive. It’s a good thing I took the coat and destroyed it. It wasn’t worth much anyway with all that blood on it.

  It’s going to be a pleasure to stab her. I’ll make it last a long time and hopefully come a bunch of times. It’s amazing that I can do that.

  She’s an ugly bitch and should have never have been born. She thinks just because she gets her hair cut so nicely and works out, and wears nice clothes then she is pretty. I can’t understand what Robert sees in her.

  Her hair is dull brown, her eyes are dull brown and she’s short. Her body is not too bad but it could be better. She needs to wear her hair long instead of cut short like a cap. It really looks stupid like that.

  She thinks she’s smart because she runs a shop. Big deal! Anyone could run a shop. Anyone can order merchandise. I proved it by ordering the sunglasses.

  I’m going out today to find someone to hurt. It seems like my appetite is getting so great I can’t keep it satisfied. I’m excited to be trying this in the daytime.

  CHAPTER NINE

  I was getting really worried. Things were missing, someone was using my car and someone had put blood on some of my things and then somehow or other getting them while I was passed out. Now my down jacket was missing and someone besides me or Tory had ordered sunglasses for the shop.

  I got to the shop in a daze. Tory asked me if I was all right. “I feel like someone is trying to drive me crazy.”

  “Who could it be? Who have you pissed off?”

  “No one that I know of.”

  Robert called later that day to say he would be working late, “Do you want to come and stay at my apartment and wait for me?”

  “No, Robert, I think I’ll turn in early and get some uninterrupted sleep.”

  He laughed, “I understand. By the way, the hairs they found in the dead man’s fist were from a blond wig. We’re hoping for something from your car. Did you ever find the cap and gloves after I left?”

  “No but I noticed my down jacket is also missing.”

  “Sarah, none of this is making any sense to me. Are you sure you had this cap and gloves and that you found blood on them? There was no blood on your hands when I found you. Had you washed them before I got there?”

  “I’m positive. I found the gloves and they were sticky. When I looked at my hands they were bloody. That’s the last thing I remembered until I woke up in bed and you were calling my name.”

  “Were you on the bed when you noticed the blood on your hands?”

  “No, I was standing on the chair I had pulled up to the closet to reach the back of the shelf.”

  “What chair? There wasn’t any chair near the closet and the door to the closet was closed. How did you get on the bed?”

  I was getting angry that he acted like he didn’t believe me. “There are a lot of weird things happening to me right now that I don’t understand. Now you’re acting like you don’t believe me. This is real scary for me. You could be more supportive,” I said as I hung up.

  Tory and I uncrated some new merchandise, marked some more items down and waited on a few customers. It wouldn’t be long before school would be out and the families would be pouring into Monroe Beach. We wanted to have enough merchandise to last the summer. There would be little time to order more until we started ordering the fall clothes.

  I was dog tired when I got off work. When I got close to my condo I saw Robert’s car parked on the beach in back. He was sitting on the hood.

  He jumped down when he saw me and held out his arms. I ran into them and we both said, “I’m sorry,” at the same time.

  We didn’t have that many fights and always found it easy to make up. We ended up taking our shoes off and walking on the beach to the hot dog stand and eating another corndog while walking and talking.

  Robert finished his and wiped his hands and mouth and threw his trash in one of the trash cans they keep on the beach.

  “I’ll tell you one damn thing,” he
said, “This is the craziest case I’ve ever worked. It’s almost like someone is trying to frame you. Who have you pissed off?”

  I gave a bitter laugh. “Tory asked me the same thing. I can’t think of anyone.”

  Robert walked me back to the condo and left saying the deputy would be guarding my condo. “I don’t know what good it will do. Someone managed to get past him and plant evidence and then remove it from your condo. This guy is good, I’ll give him that.”

  The next morning when I got to the shop, Tory handed me a letter that had come for me and marked private and personal. I opened it and inside was one page handwritten letter. It said:

  Dear Sarah,

  You’re next. I can’t wait to stab the living daylights out of you. It will be the most pleasurable of all my cases. I will probably come over and over again. I can do that, you know.

  Make sure you show this to your boyfriend, the sheriff. It won’t matter. He’ll never catch me and neither will that FBI agent, Simon.

  Enjoy your last days alive even though you don’t deserve them. It will be soon.

  Hate,

  Twoon, aka The Beach

  Front Stabber

  In a panic, I called Robert. He and Simon came over right away. “You shouldn’t have handled this, Sarah,” Robert said.

  “I didn’t know what it was and I couldn’t find out what it was without opening it and taking it out of the envelope.” I was trying not to sound sarcastic but it was hard.

  “Well, we’re going to need to take your fingerprints to rule you out. Then see if there’s any left. He probably wore gloves though.”

  He looked at the envelope, “Postmark is right here in town.”

  Simon took my fingerprints using a portable unit before they left. I went into the back of the store to help Tory unpack some boxes of merchandise that had just come in.

  Tory was squatted over a box she had just opened, “Are we going to start carrying children’s clothes?” she asked when I walked in.