BOOK 4
Chapter 1
Breaking News: Willow Shorts has been named a suspect in the Sanibel Scandal. She’s married to the man who started it all. A man who’s been known to go by many aliases and hasn’t been seen on the streets of Sanibel for years. Sanibel hasn’t been the only place where his crimes have taken place. So far, we know of seven women from different parts of the world who have come forward. There may be more. Has Willow come to Sanibel to pick up where her husband left off? Or is she the innocent bystander she claims to be? There’s no hard evidence as of yet. But we plan to follow this story very closely and finally bring this investigation to its end.
Brandi woke Willow up bright and early the day the article was released. As she read on, Willow felt her heart sink deep in her chest. She was being named a suspect in the Sanibel Scandal. A crime she had nothing to do with. But all because of Charlie, she was on the hook to take the fall.
“What!?” she jumped out of bed, nearly breaking her ankle on a shoe lying in the middle of the floor. “How can they do this!? Who published that article?”
“It doesn”t say.” Brandi handed her the newspaper and sat down on the bed. “But this is bad. The last thing you need is for the press to put out stories that involve you. Who have you been talking to lately? Aside from the detectives?”
She thought long and hard about the people who knew what was going on in her life. There weren’t many. Brandi. Richy. Sheriff Tommy. The detectives. And Monica. She hadn’t talked to many people about what was going on simply because she didn”t want to be painted as the bad guy.
“No one! I haven’t talked to anyone about this. This investigation is blowing up with the wrong face at the forefront! Why doesn’t anyone believe me?”
Brandi sighed. She didn’t know what to say any more than Willow did. Things were getting out of control and Willow’s name was all over it. The detectives from Tallahassee hadn’t been outside the cottage for a few days, so she thought they had gotten what they needed and went back home. But after that article was released, she wasn”t sure what kind of tricks they had up their sleeves.
“What about that woman you met?” Brandi asked. “Monica? Can you trust her?”
She thought about Monica. Monica seemed very trustworthy. Willow didn’t get a single bad feeling about her or her intentions for talking to her about her life with “Christoff”. At first, maybe a little, but Monica seemed legitimate after they talked.
“Yeah. No. I don”t know.” Willow shrugged and plopped down on the bed. “She seemed okay when we met. Richy thought maybe it was a setup for her to find out where Charlie was, but I don’t think so. I think she genuinely wants to find him as much as I do. I don’t think she would throw me under the bus to the press in order to find him.”
Brandi sighed again. Willow knew what it meant. Brandi was frustrated with her always being so trusting of everyone.
“And what about that kid? Richy? You’ve been hanging out with him a lot. Is that not a little strange to you? Have you even met his parents? You said he and his friends were some kind of true crime junkies. Maybe he sold your story for cash.”
Willow thought long and hard about Richy. She believed that they were friends, but he was often back and forth. One moment, he was the only person on her side. Other times he had been suspicious of her. It wasn’t always rosy, but he genuinely seemed interested in helping her.
“Maybe,” she said. “I don’t see him doing something like that. As much as he gets on my nerves at times, I just don’t see it.”
“You don’t see a lot of things, Willow,” Brandi said. “That’s why you’re in this situation. It’s time you start to open your eyes and see people for who they actually are and not what you hope they could be.”
The truth hurt, but Brandi was right.
Willow was na?ve and oblivious to the facts a lot of the time. She didn’t know why. It was just the way she was.
“Maybe you should stay away from him for a while,” Brandi said. “At least until you know for sure who you can trust. You don’t want to be giving out all sorts of information and helping him with his little investigation and end up even more tangled in this web than you already are.”
“Yeah,” Willow said softly. “You’re right.”
“I don’t want to be right. I need you to understand how important what I”m saying is. As a lawyer, I”ve seen even the smallest details get people a lot of time in prison. Believe me, sweetie, you don’t want that to be you. They’ve already found accounts in your name. You’re married to him. And don’t think I don”t know about the package you had delivered. Be careful with that too. Because at any given moment, the cops can show up with a warrant to tear this place apart.”
Brandi left for work after the lecture she gave. That entire afternoon, Willow thought about who could have published that article. She tried calling Sheriff Tommy”s desk to ask him if he had anything to do with it. Of course, he didn’t answer her call. He thought she was guilty. Why would he tell her anything?
Instead of beating herself up about it, she called Monica to see if she wanted to get together. In a way, Willow felt like maybe if she could get close to her and feel her out, she”d be able to tell if she had anything to do with the article. The eagerness in her tone when Willow asked if she was busy told her right away that she didn’t.
“Sure! We can hang out.” She sounded so cheery and genuine it made Willow’s heart feel warm. “I was going to take a dip in the pool today. I could order some margaritas and those tacos you love so much. I have a few friends in town as well. We could make it a pool party.”
It sounded fun, but Willow was worried about the article more than anything. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to be around people. Especially people she didn”t know.
“A party?” she laughed lightly. “I don’t know about a party. I’ve got a lot on my mind today and just wanted someone to talk to.”
“Oh. Well, what’s wrong? Can I help?”
Maybe she could. Monica made her feel at ease. It was probably because they shared the same experience. She had been in Willow’s shoes before, so she understood exactly what she was going through.
“Someone published an article about me today,” she said. “They headlined me as a suspect in the Sanibel Scandal.”
Monica gasped. “Oh no! Are you serious? Who could have done such a thing? Don’t you have a lawyer to get this all cleared up? I didn’t know they were seriously trying to pin this all on you.”
“Yeah,” Willow scoffed. “The sheriff here, Sheriff Tommy, he has it out for me. Bad. The guy is so eager to make me take the fall for this, I wouldn”t put it past him having something to do with that article. It says it was published anonymously.”
“I remember that guy. He can be a real jerk sometimes. Wow, I haven”t seen him in years. He’s probably even more grumpy now than he was back then.”
It was hard for Willow to believe he was even allowed to be the sheriff. It seemed like all Tommy wanted to do was blame her instead of doing any real investigating.
“You should come over anyway,” Monica said. “I know you’ve got a lot on your mind and it could be a good distraction. Please, come. I have a great lawyer who can help if you need it.”
Willow gave in. What else was she going to do? Mope around feeling sorry for herself?
She showed up wearing her best swimsuit and fancy shades to hide the fact that her eyes were puffy from crying all afternoon. The party wasn’t at all what she expected. When Monica said a few friends, Willow thought maybe three or four. To her surprise, there were crowds of people all over the house.
“Oh Monica, you said a few people! What’s all this?”
“It’s a party, baby girl,” she smiled. “Don’t worry, I have a cabana set up for us away from all of them. We can sit there and talk. No one will bother you here.”
Willow felt like she was on a movie set, between the umbrella cocktails and tanned guests. There were people literally everywhere. Everything was so rich and high class that she felt a little out of place.
“When you said party, I thought you were talking about a small get-together.” Willow chuckled and sat down with Monica at the cabana. It was nice and there were already glasses of champagne waiting for them.
“Oh no,” Monica said. “When I say party, I mean a real party. A celebration. You know, something grand and fun. That’s what a party is in my country.”
Willow smiled and nodded. The party was grand, all right. Grand enough to be featured in The Great Gatsby or something similar.
“So, about this article. What’s up? What did they say about you?”
“That I”m a suspect,” Willow scoffed. “Basically that I knew what Charlie was doing all along and that I came back to Sanibel to pick up where he left off. Can you believe that?”
“Ugh! That’s such baloney,” Monica said. “The press tried to do the same thing with me and it’s like, why would I need to steal from anyone? Look at this palace? My father is one of the richest men in Spain. Why do I need to steal?”
She sounded a little arrogant, but Willow knew what she meant. It seemed as if they did anything they could to turn a blind eye to Charlie out there. She wondered if whoever wrote that article was someone he knew personally, someone he had ties to. It made sense if they tried to pin his crimes on more than one of his victims.
“Are you here investigating?” Willow asked. “Or are you just waiting to see if he’ll come around?”
“A little of both,” Monica said. “I have people checking into his family out here. Supposedly his grandfather is still around and not actually in Greece.”