Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
I had read a book from the library about how it was believed to have been started by the pagans, who used fire to bring on the new harvest.
In Sea Isle, they liked to keep their traditions, no matter what religious background they might have.
But The Burning Ritual had turned into a way for people to write down their regrets or things they wanted to remove from their lives.
Then they tossed them into a fire. They used a special flash paper that burned cleanly, so it wasn’t harmful for the environment.
I headed down to the pier that evening to see how it all worked.
There were several smaller fires on the beaches where people were making s’mores and doing their own form of the ritual.
At the pier, well, beside it, a huge bonfire had been built below. I took the stairs down to the sandy beach where everyone had gathered.
There were several writing stations set up around the huge fire. People with baskets would gather the folded notes they were given, and then toss them into the fire.
The crowd would say, “hurrah,” every time a basket full of paper was tossed.
While I’d let go of most of my regrets long ago, there was one part of my life I was ready to say goodbye to. I’d dealt with the betrayal of my former husband through therapy, but I didn’t think it would hurt to say one last goodbye.
I wrote down: I forgive you and myself. For so long, I’d felt dumb for being fooled by him. But we all make mistakes, and often trusted without question those we loved. But I was finished with that feeling. I folded my note and tossed it in the basket when it came around.
Not long after, the papers were tossed in the fire, and I joined in on the hurrah. Strangely, I did feel lighter. Maybe, there was something to this burning ritual.
A text beeped on my phone, and I pulled it out.
On the beach in front of the pub. Come get s’mores. Mara had texted. I have news.
She didn’t mention what the news was about, but I assumed it was the case. Abigail and I spent the short amount of downtime we had at the office to go back over the tests. We were still waiting on DNA evidence, which took longer than the rest.
We were able to prove conclusively he was killed by bee venom. We’d also found venom in a few more of his products. All of which, had come from Kiara’s shop.
I liked Kiara a great deal, and I couldn’t imagine her killing anyone. I was certain the venom had been added after the products had been bought from her store.
What I didn’t know was why? Did the murderer mean to implicate the store owner to take the focus off themselves? And why target Kiara? Was it just a matter of convenience?
I found Mara and the rest of our gang, minus Angie, who had gone to Glasgow for business, near a large fire exactly where she said.
“Did you lose all your regrets?” Jasper asked. “That’s what I use the burning for, at least.”
“I try not to have regrets, as I prefer to see every mistake as a lesson. But yes. I let go of the last piece of my past.”
“That is why you are so wise, and I make pastries,” he joked. “I always have regrets. Sometimes it’s having one pint too many. Other times it is falling in love with the wrong person.”
“You are not alone with any of that. I did let go of some of the things I’d been holding onto from my past. We will see how that goes. Sometimes the past likes to hold on tight.”
“So true,” Abigail said. She and Tommy sat on a couple of beach chairs. “I’m still working on that.”
She had a difficult upbringing and had become Tommy’s caregiver at an early age. While she didn’t see it in herself, she was one of the strongest women I knew.
One of the things I loved about my friends was that I could talk to them about anything. They did the same with me. Mara jokingly called it friend therapy, and she wasn’t wrong.
I often spoke to my patients about the importance of having a good support system, and I had one of the best since I’d moved here. I wasn’t sure I’d been closer to a group of people in all my life, and I was beyond grateful for them.
“We waited for you to make the s’mores,” Mara said.
“Well let’s get to it.” I took one of the sticks she’d gathered.
“I want you to know I’ve developed a new skill,” Jasper said. “Mara made me whittle the ends so the marshmallows would stick.”
We laughed.
“Soon you’ll be making bears and lions out of wood,” Mara joked. “It is a good skill to have.”
“So, how long do you keep them in the fire?” Abigail asked.
“It depends. I like a bit of burnt on mine, so I wait till they catch fire and then blow it out. Some people like it to be slightly melted or golden brown. It’s personal preferences. And we have graham crackers in the US, so it will be fun using your Scottish biscuits.”
“Maybe, we should try all the ways,” Mara suggested with a grin.
“Agreed,” Jasper said. “It is chocolate and marshmallow—what can go wrong?”
“I dinnae like fire,” Tommy said from his chair where he played his video game. He hadn’t bothered taking off his headphones, which he wore most of the time when he was out in public.
“I’ll do it,” Abigail said.
After two s’mores, and a cup of coffee, I settled back in my chair. Along the beach, families had put together their own fires. Everyone was making s’mores. I felt like I had made a great contribution to my town.
“OK, I say these should be a part of our weekly get-togethers,” Mara said. “We can make them in Em’s fireplace.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“I’m not sure how you have all survived so long without them.”
“My guess is people will be stopping by tomorrow to thank you,” Jasper said. “Be prepared.”
We laughed again. My shoulders dropped about three inches as I breathed in the sea air, mixed with the burning embers in the fire. It was chilly but beautiful.
“So, you said you had some gossip,” I said to Mara.
“Well, you mentioned last night that you’d seen the victim’s sister arguing with the other partner. Today, she and the executive assistant had lunch in the pub.”
“Oh? How did that go?”
“We were so busy. I couldn’t catch much of what they were saying. But they seemed friendly enough. I did hear the sister thanking the assistant for looking into things. They even hugged when the lunch was over.”
I raised my eyebrows. That was interesting.
“Did you get the idea they maybe already knew one another before his death?”
“I couldn’t say,” Mara continued. “But they did seem friendly, which I thought was odd given what you said about the partner last night. Do you think maybe the partner really is the murderer?”
I bit my lip and shook my head. “He was out of town the night of Jacks’s death. He has an alibi.”
“Could be more than one person,” Jasper offered. “We’ve seen that before. Maybe he poisoned the victim, and someone working with him shoved him into that closet.”
The group went quiet as I stared at him.
“What?”
“How do you know all that?
Jasper laughed loud. “I run a patissier that is very popular with the police. They talk to one another without any fear of who might be around. That, and from what you’ve told us, I can put the puzzle pieces together.
I mean, what kind of amateur detective would I be, if I couldn’t at least do that? ” he joked.
I snorted. “Well, just make sure if Ewan questions you, you don’t bring me up in that conversation. He’s not fond of the fact I include you guys in the investigations. And I promised him I wouldn’t tell you everything.
“But it’s not my fault you are all brilliant.”
Mara held up her coffee cup. “Slainte Mhath to that.”
“When I took my afternoon walk, I saw Ewan in Kiara’s shop. She was crying,” Mara said. “I may have hung around the pier across the street and waited for him to leave. But when I went in, her assistant was at the counter. I asked after Kiara, and she said her boss wasn’t feeling well.”
“I just saw her at the pier with her son,” I said. “She seemed fine. I wonder what Ewan said to upset her?”
My friends stared at me expectantly.
“Fine.” I huffed. “I’ll ask him tomorrow. I hope he doesn’t think she did this. I mean what kind of motive would she have?”
They shrugged.
The wind picked up, as the clouds covered the starry sky above. The temperature dropped several degrees in a few minutes.
“Looks like a storm is coming,” Jasper said as he doused the fire.
The rest of us stood and helped clean up our area. The police would be patrolling the beach to make sure everyone did their part when it came to the clearing of the fires and party gear.
As we headed up the sand to the street, Ewan walked by.
He nodded at me. “Doc, I need to talk to you.”
I waved goodbye to my friends and followed him up the hill.
“What about?”
He glanced around. “Let’s wait until we get inside your place. Not as many ears.”
I nodded.
When we arrived at my place, we paused.
The door to my clinic was open.
“Uh. I know I locked it when I left. And Abigail and Tommy were already gone.”
He stuck his hand up. “Stay here,” he whispered.
I nodded, but then wondered if I might be safer closer to the guy with the gun. Even though it was dark outside, I’d left a few lights on in the interior part of my home.
But the office was draped in shadows. Still, it was easy to see that someone had been searching through the paper files.
What an outsider wouldn’t know was those were old.
Everything that was current with our patients was stored on the computers and protected with several layers of security needing authentication, to which only Abigail and I had the passwords.
“I wonder what they were looking for?” I whispered.
“Normally, I’d say drugs in a medical office, but they were searching through the files. So, information.”
My office was more of the same. I didn’t keep much paper in there, but it was obvious someone had gone through my documents and moved stuff around. Some of it was on the floor. Nothing was broken, it was just a lot of mess.
I followed him back to where we had all of our tech and machines for labs and such. The bookshelf that hid the secret door was still locked. There was a security code to get in now, which had been added when we’d been broken into the last time.
“Thank goodness,” I said.
While paper could be replaced, we had several thousand pounds-worth of equipment back there.
Then I followed him through my house.
The pharmacy door was locked tight. There were two deadbolts, and a key card was needed to get inside. While I couldn’t imagine anyone in Sea Isle breaking in for drugs, we had a lot of visitors in the summer.
Except for the extra locks, the door looked like some kind of pantry.
“OK, so not drugs,” Ewan grunted.
“Or they couldn’t find them,” I said. “But you’re right. It does look like they may have been searching for information. But why?”
“They want to know how much we’ve discovered so far,” he said. He shook his head. I think he might have been more upset than I was over the intrusion and that was saying something.
Even though this sort of thing had happened before, it still felt like the worst kind of violation of privacy. I had cameras and locks to keep the place secured. And Sea Isle was normally so much safer than anywhere else I’d lived.
This kind of thing only seemed to happen when there was a dead body involved.
We went through the kitchen and to the freezer I called the autopsy room.
The keypad had been smashed, but the door was locked.
“You don’t think they stole the body again.” That had happened on my first case here in town. The killer had stolen the body and dropped it at sea. More than likely hoping that it would never be found, but he had bad luck in that regard. The ocean currents had not been in his favor.
Ewan tried to shove the door open, but it wouldn’t budge. Without the keypad it was impossible to get inside.
“Well, if it’s that difficult, then they probably didn’t make it through the door.”
“Most likely. I’m calling my team.”
It had been a long day of work and a full evening. I couldn’t help but yawn.
“Let me check your room upstairs and you can go to sleep,” he said. “I’ll take care of all this.”
“I’m tired but now I have a good case of the nerves. Who would break into my office and why did they want the body?”
“Well, let’s take a look at the camera video and see if we can find out.”