shoes, and his prints were just sloppy ovals in the sand. He pulled out the digital camera he’d brought and kept his notebook in his pocket. He could see it in the distance-the concession building where two teenagers found her body.
It was a concrete rectangle with an overhang. Two large windows were closed up with metal shutters. An old printed sign said “Snacks” on it, but the way the light hit it, only the last two letters showed. The k sliced up the s. No one else was on the beach. Or at least he couldn’t see them.
He walked closer slowly, moving carefully in the dark. The waves were at his back. They crashed loudly and then softened as he walked further up the beach, gradually muting to help him focus. He crouched down and looked at the ground. There were too many prints to be useful-more people than the teenagers had walked by. He took a picture, even though all the footprints meant nothing meshed together in a grid.
But he could see that it had happened near there. Big tire tracks came in from one side, sunk in, and then led off in the other direction. He guessed it was the ambulance they’d picked up her body in. He took another picture. So it had been here.
It was dark by the concession building. The perfect place to hide. He took a picture of it. Even at night, the structure cast a shadow. He started to shiver from the wind. If there’d been any other artifacts, the police or workers would have found them. Or they would have disappeared before anyone arrived. He’d have to ask Mel.
He was starting to shiver when he heard a noise behind him. A hollow noise, like when he’d sat on his car hood. He stopped and didn’t move. It happened again. It was coming from the shutters on the other side of the building. Again. The metal sound died out quickly. There was no echo in a space like this. Just a thump and a pause, abrupt as a challenge.
He turned around slowly and stared at the wall. The door to the building was on the right side, where he was standing. He looked around and only saw the beach stretching out. No one was around to see what happened to him. He got out his keys and put them in his left hand, arranging them in a star between his fingers. It was all he had-his only defense was a trick he’d seen on an old TV show. He put his other hand around the doorknob and started to turn. He gripped tightly on the cold metal.
It was locked.
He breathed out and relaxed his grip. The keys loosened. Then he heard it again. Thump. No echo. Just the sound of something hitting metal. He’d have to walk to the front of the concession building, the side with the shutters. He crept against the wall, staring at the water. He pressed his fingers to the concrete, pocked with tiny holes, and turned the corner.
Seagulls. They’d found a piece of bread stuck on the ledge. He saw one fly into the shutter while trying to retrieve it. Thump. He walked forward and they scattered.
“Stupidest birds on the planet,” he whispered and threw the bread to them. They all gathered around it gratefully. He laughed that they’d scared him. But then he remembered Charlotte.
He leaned against the shutters and thought about it. It didn’t make sense-why had this happened now, to Charlotte? He hadn’t believed she was in danger. She was just a harmless old woman, afraid of her shadow. But maybe she had actually taken a wrong turn. Maybe something had gone sour. And then one night, tonight, she took a walk and didn’t come back. He was supposed to be aggressive, but when she died, he’d been drinking cream soda.
He looked around again. The empty beach was large and dark. She’d been crazy. She thought the threats were all about a bridge game. If she’d told him aliens wanted to abduct her, would he have believed that too? She was a good woman. A kind woman. It was like she’d died in her sleep. To think that he was scared, that he still had his keys splayed out in his hand. He laughed to himself.
He decided to take the street back to his car. He put his head down and turned the corner. More seagulls. Then he looked up. Someone was at the edge of the beach, a silhouette with their hands raised to their eyes.
“Hey!” Jake yelled. “Can you help me?”
Silence.
“Do you know what happened here?”
The shadow ran away. It didn’t look back.
CHAPTER 14
He was glad Mel didn’t look good the next morning. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she was wearing a tank top and faded jeans. She had bags under her eyes and her skin looked dry. He couldn’t have handled beauty, and she didn’t hide her grief.
“It’s not that this doesn’t ever happen. People die. But to have a few teenagers find her body on the beach. And to have it be so sudden. It’s just…”
He nodded. She’d taken him to the concession building once he drove in that morning. All the footprints he’d seen the night before were gone. He was glad he’d gone. Near the water, a couple walked hand in hand, their canes pressing periods into the sand. They didn’t even know what had happened a few feet up shore. He reached forward and touched Mel’s shoulder.
“You’ve done a good job.”
“No I haven’t. I just answered the call.”
“That’s all you could do.”
“I know.” She turned around. “Still.”
They started walking along the beach in the direction of Sunset Cove.
“Do you know if they found anything else back there? Any other possessions or evidence?”
“Jake.” She stopped and looked at him. Her eyes still looked pretty, even when they were inside dark circles.
“What is it?”
“I don’t know if I should.”
“Should what?”
“I don’t know if I should be giving you material like this. I just know that Simeon will come around and tell me that I should be talking about our managed care options. Instead of our deaths.”
She held her hands to her eyes. He pulled them away.
“Mel, I’m still a reporter. But I’m asking about Charlotte as her friend.”
She looked up.
“I just imagine you writing something gloomy about how we should have had a nurse with her, so she wouldn’t have gone walking alone.”
“I won’t.”
“I wish we had.” They walked up wooden steps off of the sand and toward Mel’s office.
“You couldn’t have known her condition.”
“I know,” she said. “I know.”
“So did they find anything else?”
“No, I remember that.” She’d collected herself. Dried her eyes. “I remember that the teenagers just saw Charlotte there, lying down. And then they couldn’t wake her up. That’s what they told the police, too.”
“What about in her home?”
“We can’t go in there. Each resident uses different terms. Charlotte set hers so that only her daughter could enter the apartment. I told Charlotte’s daughter what happened before you got here. She seemed better off than me.”
“OK.” He wrote it down-they’d only found Charlotte’s body on the beach. He looked at her face. He wanted to stop, but he couldn’t. It wouldn’t be fair to Charlotte. “Did the hospital say anything?”
“Well, they are sure it was natural, guessing from her history. Charlotte had so many different conditions. I remember once I stopped by to ask her something and I had to use the restroom. She had even more medication than most of our other residents. Some of it was for the back pain. But some of it was for more serious conditions.”
Mel had been speaking normally, but now she started looking down again as they entered the office. Then she
