The Beginning Page 6

  “I’ve got it covered.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes, son. I have money you know nothing about.”

  He gave me a questioning look. “You have money I don’t know about?”

  “Yes, you don’t know everything about me.”

  “I guess not.”

  “The house has a servant’s quarters that is a small house itself,” I said changing the subject. “I figured you might want to stay there. At least for the time being.”

  I wanted Frankie to stay here in Florida, but I didn’t want to push him in to making a decision.

  “Maybe,” he said.

  “Oh, and the land touches the land the park is on. I want to build a private entrance connecting the two. You and I could walk to work.”

  “That’s good considering I don’t own a car and you hate to drive. But, can you really afford this?”

  “Yep. It’s a little run down and it’s nowhere near what it could be. Looks like he treated it much the same as he did the park.”

  “So you can fix it up just like you did in Pennsylvania.”

  “Just like. Except it’s a much bigger project. It’s livable, but he hasn’t kept up with it and even though he’s tried to sell it before no one has been interested.”

  “Except you.”

  “Except me. I can spot a deal when I see one. Besides, there are really not a lot of people looking to move to this part of Florida. At least, not yet,” I smiled at Frankie.

  “Not until we give them a reason to want to come here,” he said.

  “Exactly.”

  We both smiled. We were excited. About the park. About the house. About life in general. I was so happy. I felt like nothing could stop me now. I couldn’t wait to get to the ground breaking ceremony for the parking garage tomorrow morning.

  Chapter 7: Ground Breaking Surprise

  We were going to build the garage to the right of the gravel lot where Frankie and I parked the first time we visited the park. We had decided to leave the gravel lot as is for now until we could get a garage built across from it for the guests. The area we were going to use was a wooded area that had been neglected by everyone. Some local teenagers used it as a party area, so that was our only real concern. Frankie arranged to have the local police drive past it frequently the night before the ceremony to ensure that no one would get hurt in the morning.

  The morning of the ceremony I put on a nice dress and some flat shoes. I really hated flats. I preferred heels or boots when I’m dressed up, but boots seemed a little silly in Florida and there was nothing practical about walking around in heels in the dirt and mud. And I had a purse, Frankie would be so happy.

  I started down to the lobby to meet Frankie. Down the hall from my room I heard a door close. Since by now I knew most of the people staying at the hotel I looked up and said good morning. To my surprise, it was Minerva who had closed the door. She looked up at me and smiled.

  I couldn’t help but smile back. I really liked her. Minerva was older than I was. She was shorter than me by a couple of inches and what you might call plump. She had short dark hair and deep brown eyes. And she was my friend. I practically ran over and hugged her.

  “How you doin’, hon?” she asked.

  I stopped hugging her and looked at her. “Busy.” I smiled. “Very busy. How about you?”

  “I’m good. I’ve missed you. You’re not mad at me are you? I promise I did nothing wrong with Frank. I wouldn’t do that to you or any other women.”

  “I know. The two of you have better morals that that. And you know, I thought I’d be mad when I saw you, but I’m not. I’m very happy to see you. I think I even missed you.”

  “I’m glad to hear it, I’m happy to see you too. But I tell you what; I expected it to be hot. But damn is it humid,” she said.

  “Yeah. Not sure I’m used to it yet.”

  “And what are those little creatures that run around the ground here? They’re so creepy.”

  I had to think for a moment. What little creatures? The armadillos? Then it hit me, she meant the little tiny lizards we have here. They run in size from about an inch or less to three inches or longer. And she’s right they’re everywhere.

  “The lizards? I love those little guys. They’re so cute,” I said.

  “I think they’re gross,” she said.

  “I really love when they puff out that pouch thing under their chin. I can’t decide if they are trying to scare me away or attract me.”

  “No, still gross,” she said. She punctuated this with a full body shiver. I just laughed.

  Just then, Minerva looked toward the other end of the hallway. I looked too. Frank was just closing and locking his door. I felt very relieved that I did not get angry when I saw him. He looked up, saw the two of us and froze.

  “It’s ok,” I yelled to him.

  He smiled and walked over to us. I gave him a quick hug. I had forgotten how tall he was. That’s where Frankie had gotten his height. Frank was 6’ 2”. Frankie was 6’ even. I was 5’6”. Poor Angela was only 5’4”, much closer to Minerva’s height.

  The three of us took the elevator down and met Frankie in the lobby. Frankie looked at me questioningly. “It’s ok,” I told him.

  He smiled broadly. “I’m glad. Let’s go the driver is waiting.”

  “Driver? You spent money on a driver?” Frank said.

  “Yes, Dad, an occasions like this we use the service. Otherwise we use Mom’s car.”

  “Well, use Mom’s car. Minerva and I drove here, we’ll use my truck.”

  “No, Frank,” I said. “It’s all about appearances today. We use the driving service.”

  He looked at me and was going to argue, I could tell, but then he stopped himself. We knew each other too well. He knew when I meant business and he knew this was one of those times. He threw his hands up in surrender and we all got in the limo.

  When we pulled up to the park I was in complete surprise. It looked like the entire town turned out. There was no room in the gravel parking lot and people were parking in the grass and along the path the led to the parking. Jerome walked up and greeted us. His wife, Marcella, and the kids were there. Marcella was beautiful. The children were too. You could tell that was a happy family who loved each other. During the introductions to the children Nigel, our PR guy, came over to us and let us know it was time for the ground breaking ceremony. Frankie and I said our goodbyes, I handed my purse to Minerva, and we walked over to take our places.

  First the mayor gave a little speech. Little for a politician that is. Then Frankie stepped up to the microphone. This took me by surprise because he usually shunned the lime light. However, my son spoke eloquently about what this theme park meant to he and I. He assured the community that we would do our best to get it open in time for the schools to begin their summer vacations and that there are still jobs available and where to go to apply for them. He ended by thanking the community for their support.

  Then Frankie, the mayor, and I took our places for the ceremonial shoveling of the dirt. There seemed to be some confusion. Jerome came over to see if he could help. There should have been three golden shovels there ready for the ceremony. There were three shovels, but only two were gold. Frankie allowed the mayor and me to have the gold ones. He took the other one.

  I heard Jerome saying, “I know I put three shovels there last night.”

  I looked over at him and said, “it’s ok.”

  “I know I painted three shovels.” He looked confused and shook his head, but he joined his family again.

  We posed with our shovels. We stuck them in to the dirt and smiled for the camera. Then we threw shovels full of dirt in front of us for more pictures. When the ceremony was over, there was a table set up with lots of refreshments prepared by a caterer we had hired. Frankie and I were standing talking with Frank and Minerva when the reporter and photographer from the paper walked over to us.

  “Mr. Summer, Mrs. Summer, I apologize, b
ut could I ask you to pose with the shovels one more time? I’d like to get a picture of the two of you. You know, the new owners of Adventure Planet,” the reporter said.

  We complied and walked back over to where the shovels were. Frankie and I each picked up a golden shovel and placed them in the dirt where we had been before.

  “Can you move to your left? The sun has shifted and you’re in shadow now,” the photographer said.

  Frankie and I complied again and repeated the digging in the dirt that we had done earlier. On the final shot the photographer had us place our shovels in the dirt and then press down on them with one foot. It felt like my shovel hit something, but then the shovel broke through. I figured it was a root from one of the trees. Frankie and I lifted our shovels up and threw the dirt toward the photographer. Something flew off my shovel at the photographer. He jumped back so he didn’t get hit by whatever it was.

  The four of us walked over and looked at it. When I saw it, I just froze. This had to be some sort of a joke. It was a hand. A hand with a very large diamond ring on it.

  “Frankie.” Was all I could say.

  “Yeah.” Was all he said.

  “Oh my, God. What a story,” the reporter said.

  The photographer pulled himself out of his shock and took a picture of the hand. Frankie grabbed the photographers hand to make him stop and led him back to where we had been digging. The reporter and I followed. We looked at the ground. The area where my shovel hit the dirt was wet where it hadn’t been before.

  Frankie instructed the photographer to take pictures of everything that happened. He told the reporter to take notes in case the police needed them. From what I could see she was already doing that. Then Frankie knelt down in the dirt and dug a little around the areas where I was shoveling. He uncovered an arm. It led to a chest. It appeared to be a well dressed woman with bleach blonde hair. Frankie stopped digging and stood up.

  He pulled out his cell phone and called the police. I just stood there. I felt like I was going to faint. Or at least throw up. I just wanted to sit down, but I knew better. I tried to pull it together.

  Frank walked over to us. “Misty, is everything ok? You don’t look so good.”

  I looked up at my ex-husband and then pointed to the now severed hand. Then I pointed to the body that Frankie started to unbury. That’s when Frank changed to police chief mode.

  He cleared everyone away from the area except for Frankie and I. He got Minerva to work on the crowd and keep them away from the scene. He got Jerome to help guard the area and keep the crowd from gawking at it. Everybody was warned to keep the reporter and photographer back. Luckily the crowd had thinned after the ceremony. It was only April, but it was a very humid day and people weren’t all that happy about staying out in the humidity if they didn’t have to.

  Frankie led me over to one of the folding chairs and let me sit down. Marcella brought over a bottle of water for me.

  “Here you are, ma’am,” she said. “Are you OK?”

  I just looked at her and nodded. “Thank you,” I managed to whisper.

  I had heard stories from Frank. He had investigated a couple of murders in his career. One turned out to be domestic violence and the other was a bunch of drunken teenagers who got carried away with their firearms. He never saw something like this and I never heard about anything like this. Except, in the murder mysteries I’d read. Nothing in any of those books was exactly like this, though. This was way too real.

  I heard Jerome talking to Marcella. He wanted her to take the kids home before they saw something they shouldn’t. She wanted to stay and help, besides they came here together, she wondered how Jerome was going to get home. That’s when I spoke up.

  “We’ll get him home. Please don’t let your kids have this memory.”

  Marcella looked at me and nodded. She understood that I was speaking from one mother to another.

  “Yes, ma’am,” she said.

  “And stop calling me ma’am. My name is Misty.”

  “Yes, Misty. Thank you.” She gave me half a smile and turned to gather her children.

  “Jerome,” I said, “you know you don’t have to stay. You can go with them.”

  “No, ma’am…M-Misty,” he corrected himself before I could, “I would like to stay and help if I can.”

  “Wonderful. Would you go back to helping Frank over there, please? He can’t keep the people away on his own.”

  “Ok,” and with that he was gone.

  I closed my eyes and breathed deeply. I was glad for a few moments to myself.

  Then the reported came over to me. The photographer was with her. I reminded myself to be nice to the reporter. After all, she was just doing her job. I had seen her before. She had been taken on tours of the park. She usually looked bored. Not today.

  “Mrs. Summer, may I ask you a few questions,” she asked.

  “I’m sorry, what was your name?”

  “Sandy Thomas, from the Neuspech News.”

  Oh, so there really was such a thing.

  “Sandy, I’m sorry, as I’m sure you can tell, I’m in a great deal of shock. I would love to answer your questions later, when I’ve had a chance to calm down and my migraine has gone away.” I didn’t have a migraine, but she didn’t need to know that. “In the mean time you can talk to Nigel over there. He’ll be more than happy to help you.”

  She made a deep sigh, but she and the photographer headed over to Nigel. I felt sorry for the man, but this was his job, let him handle it.

  When they walked away, I started to think. I could not believe what happened. I should have known. Everything was going too well. It was too easy. There were no kinks thrown in to the works. But then, why should there be? I was starting to get angry. Things were going extremely well. I loved my new position as co-owner of a theme park. I was making decisions. I was attending meetings with some heavy duty movers and shakers and being treated as an equal. Damn it, I was feeling like I was finally where I belonged. And now it was all in jeopardy. It wasn’t fair.

  My train of thought was broken by the sound of a siren. A siren? Yeah, there was just one. Were they not taking us seriously? Did the police think this was a joke? I looked up and saw the police car pull to a stop. Then a second car, not a police car pulled up beside it. Two uniformed officers stepped out of the police car. Out of the other car stepped a man in need of a shave and a comb who was wearing blue jeans and a faded t-shirt. Did we have a gawker?

  Frankie walked over to the police officers. So did the gawker. I saw the four of them talking and Frankie shaking hands with all of them. Then Frankie pointed over to me. The gawker walked in my direction followed by Frankie.

  “Mrs. Summer?” the gawker said.

  “Yeees,” I said not trusting this man.

  “Mom,” Frankie said.

  “I’d like to ask you a few questions,” the gawker continued.

  “About what?” I said with some attitude.

  “Mom,” Frankie said again. I could hear the tension in his voice.

  That’s when the man lifted his t-shirt slightly and revealed the badge that was clipped to his jeans.

  “Oh,” I said.

  “Mom, this is Marlowe Campion. Remember, he’s the chief of police. You missed the meeting we had with him,” Frankie said, looking just a little embarrassed by my behavior.

  “It’s ok, Frankie, I’m sure she’s in shock,” Marlowe said.

  “Yes, I am. But even so, you should have introduced yourself before telling me you had some questions. How else was I supposed to know who you were?” I was raising my voice, but I didn’t care. I was mad.

  “You’re correct,” Marlowe said, “I should have told you who I was.”

  “No, freakin’ kidding,” I said.

  “Now, can you tell me where I can access the security footage?”

  “What security footage?”

  “Don’t you people have security cameras out here?” Marlowe almost yelled.

&n
bsp; “No, we don’t. We are still getting the system up and running. Besides, we didn’t’ think there was a reason to have a security camera out here yet,” I said.

  “Well, obviously there was,” Marlowe said.

  “How the hell were we supposed to know that?” I yelled at him.

  Marlowe looked mad, but did not respond.

  I looked at Frankie and he looked tense. I felt bad, but there was something about this Marlowe guy that made me mad. I had no idea what, and frankly I didn’t care to find out.

  Just past Frankie’s shoulder and I could see Frank walking over. Great, that was all I needed. Frank was a nice guy, but in situations like this he tended to treat me like a child. Wait, situations like this? I’d never been in a situation like this before. What was I thinking?

  “Can I be of some assistance?” Frank said.

  Marlowe sighed and rolled his eyes. “You can wait with everybody else until I want to talk to you, mister…?” Then Marlowe turned around and his eyes got big. “Frank is that you?”

  Frank’s eyes and mouth both flew open. “Marlowe? What the hell are you doing here?”

  “I’m the chief of police in this shit hole… uh town,” Marlowe said. “What are you doing here?”

  “I came to see what my son and ex-wife had gotten themselves into. And to help set up security for their park.”

  “Oh, Frankie here is your son. I knew the last name was the same as yours, but it never occurred to me.”

  “Excuse me,” I yelled, “I hate to interrupt the reunion, but what about that poor woman?”

  “What poor woman?” Frank said.

  “The lady whose hand I cut off with my shovel!”

  “You’re right,” Marlowe said. Then he looked at Frank and said, “we’ll talk more later.”

  He started to walk away and then stopped. He turned and looked at me. “How did you know it was a woman?”

  I looked at him with disbelief. “I saw the rock on her hand. You can’t miss it. If you ever get over to the scene that is.”

  Maybe I was being a little tough on him. After all, his officers were securing the scene. One of them was guarding the body while the other was taking witness statements. Maybe they didn’t really need him and that’s why such an idiot could be their chief.