Chapter 8
The tiki hut was always good to Willow. Every time she went to have a bite, she always left feeling refreshed. Around five, she left and decided to head to the beach to catch some sun. The detectives, to her surprise, never let their slick shiny shoes touch a grain of sand. Instead, they waited around in their car while she sat and watched the waves.
About twenty minutes into her beach visit, she gave Richy a call to see if he wanted to join her. She should have known he was already out there somewhere. It seemed as though the beach was his second home.
“How did I know you were already here?” she chuckled when he sat down next to her on the sand.
“I’m always here,” he said. “What brought you out today?”
She pointed back toward the detectives waiting in their car and said, “I’m being followed.”
It didn’t take Richy long to spot the detectives. His reaction wasn’t what she thought it would be, however. Instead of being as worried as she was, he was actually excited that they were there. He said it made their investigation all the more exciting.
“Richy, this isn’t some high school game you play with your wannabe detective friend,” she said. “This is real life. MY life. Do you know these men could take me to jail at any given moment strictly because they think I’ve done something wrong?”
“Sorry! Sheesh! I was just having a little fun,” he said. “It is kind of cool, though, if I’m being honest. I mean, I”ve never gotten to see real detectives up close and personal before.”
“Yeah, me too. I’ve especially never had them stalking my every move. They’ve been following me around town since this morning. I’m sure they’ll start looking into you, too, so be careful.”
Richy might have thought it was funny to have detectives on Willow’s tail, but she knew he wouldn’t have been laughing if they were to show up at his house to question him about her. He might’ve been in more trouble with his parents than the detectives. She reminded him of that while he laughed.
“What did they say to you?” he asked. “Why are they here? Do they think you helped him?”
“That’s exactly what they think,” she said. “They also found a hidden account with a ton of money in it. It has my name on it so that doesn’t make my truth seem honest at all.”
“Wow. How much?”
“That’s not important.” She shot him down quickly. “The important thing here is clearing my name. I have to figure out where Charlie is and force him to turn himself in.”
Finding Charlie was easier said than done. He still hadn’t returned a single phone call, text, or email. He hadn’t even reached out to Mark. At times, she felt like Mark knew where he was. Then again, she felt like if he did, he would have gone to him about the money he was owed.
“I can’t believe he’s been getting away with this all this time,” Richy said. “What a scumbag.”
“Tell me about it. I can’t believe I was blind enough to marry the guy. Can you believe that?”
Richy and Willow sat in silence for a while. Somehow, having him there to keep her company kept her mind at bay. It was odd, because he was just a kid, but he was smart. He thought about things she didn”t. His young brain worked in ways Willow’s didn’t. She always thought she was smart and good at solving puzzles, but Richy was some kind of mastermind.
“Do you think you’ll be a detective when you get older?” she asked. “You seem to have a real niche for this sort of thing.”
“I don”t know,” he shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t really think about it much these days. I know I”d be good at it though.”
“I know you’d be good at it too. You have a way of seeing outside the box and you’re firm about it. Even if no one believes what you’re saying, you still go after that truth. I think that’s what a good detective is all about. Finding the truth. Not trying to pin things on people just because of who they are. Like those guys.” Willow nudged her head toward the parking lot where the detectives sat.
They were still there. She sat on the beach for over an hour and they were still there waiting for her. They weren’t going anywhere. She knew that, but it was hard for her to overlook. Having someone tracking her every move annoyed her so badly that she wanted to return to the cottage and never leave again. At least, not until Charlie resurfaced.
“I think I”m gonna call it a day,” she said. “Today was a rough one. I think I’m going to just head in, take a shower, and watch TV for the rest of the evening.”
“Yeah,” Richy nodded. “I think that might be a good idea. You don’t want to make those guys any more suspicious than they already are. I’m sure they’re just waiting for any reason to haul you back to Tallahassee.”
“Oh, I know they are. The one in charge made it very clear already that he wants me to go down for this just as much as Charlie. But it’ll be over my dead body that I let him charge me with something I didn”t do.”
Willow said her goodbyes to Richy and took the walk back to the cottage. She was hot and sweaty, and wanted to take a shower and relax. It was hard to keep her mind away from the detectives sniffing her every footstep, however. She knew it would be a long night, but she told herself to ignore them so long as they didn’t knock at her door again.
After a long, hot shower, she picked up the menu for a good Chinese restaurant. She planned to order her favorite takeout, kick back on the couch and watch movies until she fell asleep. After she placed her order and submitted her card information, she got a decline notification. Thinking maybe she entered the wrong numbers, she tried again. And again. And again, until finally, she got an email from her bank letting her know that her account had been frozen.
“What!?” she panicked. “What do you mean my account has been seized? Is this some kind of mistake?”
“No ma’am,” the manager said. “We were issued a subpoena from the courts to put a temporary hold on your account. I’m sorry.”
Frustrated, she hung up the phone and called her credit card companies to see if those accounts had been seized as well. All of them had holds on them. Every single one of them.
“Are they serious right now!?” she tossed her phone down on the couch and paced the floor of the cottage. “How do they expect me to live? How am I supposed to buy food, or take care of myself? This is so messed up!”
Willow wanted to charge outside and give the detectives a good cursing out, but she stopped herself. She knew throwing anger at them would have been a sure reason for them to take her to jail and jail was the last place she wanted to be.
She sat around for what felt like hours trying to think of what to do, how she could get herself out of the hole she was slowly but surely being buried in. If she had no money, no credit cards, no anything, how would she be able to live? There was no telling how long the investigation would go on, so what was she supposed to do until it cleared up?
She didn’t even tell Brandi that her accounts were frozen. Willow knew she wouldn’t mind lending her money until she got back on her feet again, but Brandi had already helped her out enough. After a while of moping around hating Charlie, she remembered the stash of money she kept hidden back home for a rainy day.
Willow called Anna, her neighbor, to see if she was still awake. She was one of those crazy night owls who never slept because her husband was away for work a lot. She and Willow had built a relationship because they shared that in common. And just as she knew, Anna was still awake.
“Hey Anna, it’s Willow.”
“Willow!” She sounded pleased to hear from Willow. “Hey you, where ya been? I haven’t seen you in a while.”
“Yeah, I”ve been in Sanibel. Taking a little vacation.” She chuckled but her stay in Sanibel was far from a vacation. “I was calling to see if you’d be able to do me a solid.”
Although she knew she would do anything she asked of her, she was skeptical about asking her to go into her house and look for the stash. Willow trusted Anna with her life, but after learning about Charlie, she saw how crazy people got whenever there was money involved.
“Sure,” she said. “What’s up?”
“I ran into a little financial trouble out here. Don’t worry, I”m not asking to borrow anything. I have a stash inside my house. I was wondering if you’d get the spare key, get it and mail it to me here in Sanibel? Overnight delivery.”
Anna sat quietly for a moment, as if she were contemplating Willow’s request, while Willow sat with her fingers crossed, hoping she’d feel comfortable enough to do it.
“Are you in some kind of trouble, Willow? Has Charlie done something to you?”
Charlie has done the unspeakable to me. His name isn’t even Charlie.
“No,” Willow lied. “Nothing like that. I’m having an issue with my bank and need the money to be able to pay for my trip. That’s all.”
Willow wasn’t sure what Anna or any of the other neighbors knew about Charlie being missing, so she didn”t want to get into that with her over the phone. Being judged was something she got enough of in Sanibel.
“Where’s the key?” she asked.
“Oh thank you! It’s under the red rock in my garden. When you get inside, go upstairs to the guest bedroom at the end of the hall. There’s a red satchel inside the air vent. I’ll text you the address to send the package to and of course, reimburse you for your trouble.”
“Oh nonsense,” she scoffed. “You don”t have to reimburse me anything. I’ll get the package and mail it out in the morning.”
The following afternoon, there was a knock at the door. Willow was so nervous. She thought it was the detectives coming to tell her they’d also seized her package, but it wasn’t. Much to her surprise, it was the mail carrier with her package and a clipboard to sign.
“Thank you so much.” She let out a sigh of relief as she signed for her package and shut the door. “I was so worried they would intercept my mail.”
Anna really did a number when wrapping it up. There was so much tape and stuffing paper that Willow almost thought the package was empty of anything but the paper. When Willow finally got down to the satchel, she opened it up and counted the bills. It was all there. Although she was nervous there would be some missing, she knew she could trust Anna.
Willow was sure the detectives wondered what she had delivered. They probably wanted to take the package and open it themselves, but she didn”t think they had any warrants to seize her mail too. Good thing they didn’t. Otherwise, she would have been completely out of luck and flat broke until Charlie returned.