Page 60 of Serial Love

Jack thanked him and sent a text to Blaise and Chadto meet him there. Isaac left the office, returning to the dockside to work. As soon as the other two joined him, they began combing through old records.

That night, Bart made a clandestine visit to the competing business, gathering the information that Jack had sent him to find. Once again, they met to go over their findings.Finally,Jack thought,the noose is tightening.

21

Jack had been gone for three days, and Bethany missed him more each day. They talked on the phone, but it just was not the same. He was due in today, but said he needed to meet with his group first. Leaning with one elbow on the counter, her head in her hand, she watched as the weekend guests arrived.

Roscoe moved across her line of vision, heading back from working on one of the cabins. He walked around to the back, assumingly to the shed.I’ll have to check to make sure he locks up after he’s through. Years of no lock on the door left him in the habit of leaving it open.

“Mr. Malinski,” she greeted Horace as he came in. “I was surprised to see you reserve a cabin this weekend. You usually wait longer between visits.”

“Needed to…um…work,” he said with his typical nervous demeanor.

“Since you booked so late, I don’t have your usual cabin available, but I do have another one.”

His expression contorted, and, for the first time, shesaw emotion on his face. And it was not pleasant. “I’m sure it will be fine, Mr. Malinski. It looks exactly like the other one you’re usually in.”

He finished the registration process wordlessly, and she found herself breathing a sigh of relief when he left the lodge.What a weirdo,she could not help but think.

She continued to check her guests in while taking phone calls from the wedding planner, who was booking a full cabin rental for a weekend one month from now. It seemed that a popular wedding venue had overbooked, and a desperate bride was looking for anyone who could handle her needs. It was certainly more than she had hoped for, but she was ready for the challenge. The wedding planner assured her that she would send a contract over—the only thing Bethany needed to do was supply the cabins, and the nearby vineyard would handle the wedding and reception.

“This is a great way to dip your toes in the business,” the planner enthused.

Bethany could not agree more, mentally calculating the profits from a full weekend, all cabin rented in a month when she normally had few visitors. Grinning to herself, she could not wait to tell Jack.

Looking up, she was pulled from her musings as another group of fishermen came in to register.

Jack started the meeting quickly, much to the grins of the men around. Each knew he wanted to get over to the woman that now was claiming his heart.

“We did a cross check of the fishermen who used one of the competing gas services, or both, and then went to exclusively using the Polaski’s service after Charlene showed up. Interestingly, the most satisfied customers of the Polaski’s competition stayed with them and, upon interviewing some that were still around, it was found that some of the men hated the way old man Polaski was exploiting his daughter. Bart hung around a bar that was close to the docks and found some old salts who were willing to talk with a few beers under their belts.”

“Good to know those years of boozing at your frat parties did you some good, bro,” Luke joked. The others joined in as Bart shook his head in mock embarrassment.

“Seems most of the men who used to fish had to eventually sell to corporate fishing companies. Their sons moved on, went to college, or just weren’t interested. A few passed down their boats and businesses, but they all remembered the days of Charlene Polaski’s murder. Most said they agreed at the time with the Sheriff’s idea that she went off with some drifter and got killed. But a few…” he glanced down at his report, “said that they always felt it was someone there.”

Bart continued, “I got two men to talk to me privately for a few bucks, and they told me that, while most of the fishermen would flirt with Charlene and may even ask her out, there were only a couple that seemed to be really interested. One was Zeke Barnham, and the other was Jeff Jefferson.”

The double name elicited chuckles from around the table.

“Really? Jeff Jefferson?” Blaise asked.

Smiling, Bart nodded. “So, I went to talk to Zeke, and he admitted he tried to get in her pants, as he said, but she never gave in. He even admitted to offering to pay her for sex or even a blow job, but she refused. Said it didn’t bother him too much because she was a good girl and, that back then he was young and cocky. Said he’d just given it a shot but wasn’t upset when she didn’t go for it.”

“There’s that ‘good girl’ phrase again,” Monty growled.

Continuing, Bart said, “But then he noticed Jeff Jefferson seemed to be gettin’ some, as he called it. Said he went around to Jeff’s house one day and his wife was in a foul mood and told him to go look in the shed. He walked around back and sure enough he heard noises. A glance through the dirty window showed a rutting Jeff on top of what looked to be Charlene. He didn’t go any further—but was disgusted and left. Said he was disgusted ‘cause Jeff was married and because his wife seemed to know what was going on.”

“What the hell was happening in that town when this girl turned up dead? No one said anything?” Chad bit out.

“I asked him that very question. He looked me in the eye and said it wasn’t any of his business,” Bart said.

Luke, adding all the information into his computer databases, continued to peck away as the others broke out in discussion.

Jack took over the reporting. “I went to visit Jeff Jefferson, but he’s dead. Appears that he died of natural causes about ten years ago.”

“So, he isn’t our killer,” Monty noted under his breath.

“I talked to his widow,” Jack said, “and this is where it gets interesting. Seems that she’s just as unpleasant now as reported thirty years ago. She grumbled about the corporations taking over the fishing. About how her husband never could hang on to his money. You name it, she griped. I asked her about Charlene and her demeanor changed immediately. If I thought she was nasty before…she turned even nastier. Called her a whore. Said everyone thought she was nice, but she knew she was a scheming whore. And a few other choice words.”

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