He started crying again. Lydia placed a hand on his shoulder.

  “Please don’t tell anyone. I don’t want this to be my father’s legacy. He just wanted a perfect course.”

  “We won’t spread this around,” Lydia promised.

  In her head, she knew that sharing this information with the police might have to be an exception. Could the Sandcastle Course’s debt play into the murder? How was it all connected?

  14

  Broken Pipes

  “Are you trying to drive me crazy?” Leo asked as he entered his house that night.

  Lydia looked up from the flavor ideas she had been jotting down as she sat with Sunny on the couch. She thought that if she focused on something besides the murder for a little while, it might later allow her to make sense of it all. She would often pull taffy by hand when she reached a moment like this, but Leo’s kitchen wasn’t as well equipped for candy making as her old house had been.

  “You don’t like marzipan?” Lydia asked, holding up her list.

  “I don’t like that I heard from Nathan Yagher that you went by his golf course. He told me that the couple who saw the fight between his father and Sharon Piper had come to pay their respects.”

  “Well, is there anything wrong with paying respects?”

  “In your case, yes,” Leo said stubbornly. “Because I know it was just an excuse for you to do more sleuthing.”

  Lydia looked at the clock on the wall.

  “What?” Leo asked, noticing. “Are you wondering what Detective Grey is doing on his double date now? Or are you expecting a clue to arrive?”

  “You are home earlier than I expected,” Lydia admitted. “But the time doesn’t have anything to do with our case.”

  “My case. My case!” Leo said. “Look. I’m not trying to be a jerk, but you’re not a member of law enforcement. You’re a taffy maker. And I’m going to put my foot down. As long as you live under my roof, you’re going to have to obey my rules.”

  Lydia wasn’t sure whether to yell or laugh. “You’ve been waiting a long time to say that, haven’t you?”

  “I’ve been a good brother, haven’t I? I provided you with a nice place to stay, right? So, could you just stop doing things that could put you in danger?”

  Lydia stood up. “I don’t think I’m putting myself in danger. I’m helping. And most of staying here is nice, but it would be better if there was some water pressure in the shower.”

  “Fine,” Leo said, storming out of the room.

  “What are you doing?” Lydia asked, following him.

  He grabbed his toolbox and strode purposefully to the bathroom. He knelt down on the floor and started analyzing where to begin.

  “Leo, what are you doing?”

  “I’m going to fix the plumbing tonight. I’ll get the water pressure fixed. And then you won’t have any excuses to not listen to me and stop chasing killers.”

  Lydia was about to argue with him and tell her brother that he was acting ridiculously. She didn’t intend for him to start working on the pipes right then and there. She also didn’t have any intention of stopping her search for answers.

  However, there was a knock at the door, and she knew she had to answer it before Leo did. Lydia hurried to the door. She saw that Sunny was hiding under a pillow – afraid that the noise by the tub meant it was her bath time.

  “I’m sorry,” Lydia said, opening the door and seeing Suzanne. “Leo came home early from work.”

  “I knew we should have met at a coffee shop,” Suzanne said, frowning. “I should go.”

  “I guess so. But I do want your advice on how to get the house on Webster Street. I really do need to move out of here soon.”

  Suzanne was about to retreat, but then they both heard a loud yowl and the sound of explosive water.

  “What was that?” Suzanne cried.

  “Leo being stubborn,” Lydia said.

  She realized that, in his frustration, he must not have turned the water off before he began work. Lydia wasn’t an expert in these matters, but she knew that the water needed to be off or else you’d wind up soaking wet.

  She hurried to turn it off. She knew it was belated, but hoped that not too much damage had been done.

  After she stopped the water at the source, she went to see how Leo had faired. He was drenched in water, and she might have laughed if it wasn’t for the expression on his face when he saw Suzanne in his living room.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Are you hurt?” asked Suzanne.

  “No. What are you doing here?”

  “Well, I came to help Lydia make an offer on a house,” she said, looking away.

  “So, it had nothing to do with me?” Leo asked, trying to sound impassive.

  “I didn’t think that you wanted to talk to me,” Suzanne said helplessly.

  Lydia stayed where she was. She wasn’t sure if she should interfere or if she could trust them to say what needed to be said.

  “Well, there’s nothing else to say, is there?” Leo asked. “You didn’t want to marry me. You didn’t love me.”

  “What?” Suzanne cried. “I did love you. Very much. And I still… I still have feelings for you.”

  Leo stood in his dripped wet clothes. “I don’t understand. You ran out of the restaurant when I proposed to you.”

  “Leo, I’ve always been a very independent person. It was scary enough falling for you. But then that terrible thing happened, and I was kidnapped, and my friend was killed. And I just wanted everything to get back to normal, and you wanted to prove your love by proposing. But that wasn’t what I needed. I loved you so much, but I wasn’t ready to get married. I was terrified of more change. And I also thought you’d later regret rushing into marriage so fast. I wasn’t ready. But I couldn’t articulate this at the time. So, I ran away. And then I thought that I hurt you too deeply to try to explain. I’m sorry.”

  “I’m sorry,” Leo said. “I’m sorry that I ruined everything by scaring you off.”

  “That kidnapper did a pretty good job of scaring me first,” Suzanne said, trying to make a joke. “The thing is – I thought that we were doing pretty well before that. I mean, I thought that we had a future.”

  “And maybe we still…?”

  “Do you think we might….”

  “I still…”

  Then, Leo moved towards Suzanne and kissed her. Lydia decided that it was now time for her to exit. She grabbed Sunny and headed to the guest room.

  “Maybe we can distract ourselves from the case by figuring out how to clean up the water in the bathroom,” Lydia said.

  Sunny let out an unhappy growl. She didn’t want to go anywhere near bathroom water. Lydia tried not to laugh.

  A moment later, she heard a knock on her door.

  “Come in.”

  Leo poked his head in. He was still soaked, but he looked happier than he had been in quite a while.

  “Okay. I’ll say it. You were right.”

  “Really?” Lydia asked, relishing the moment.

  “Yes. I should have talked to Suzanne. It was good that we finally did. We’re back together, and I feel like I owe part of this to you. So, thanks.”

  “I’m so happy for you both that I’m not even going to rub this in your face,” Lydia teased.

  “You were right about something else too. I should call a plumber.”

  “I hope he can fix the damage that was done,” Lydia said, laughing. “Hey, since I was right about those things, do you think I could be right about something else?”

  Leo’s smile faded slightly. “What do you mean?”

  “I think I’m close to figuring something out about the case. I just need a little more information.”

  Leo groaned, but then he looked back in the direction of where Suzanne was waiting. “Fine. You can get one piece of information. But one and only one. And this is a limited time offer because you’ve caught be in a weak moment.”

  “Drenched and in love,” Lydia agreed. “Okay. What should I ask? I know the cause of death was bludgeoning by a mini-golf club. And about the ball in the victim’s mouth. I know the approximate time of death. I had so many questions – how can I narrow it down?”

  “Well, hurry up and pick a question,” said Leo. “I want to change out of these clothes and then take Suzanne out to where we had our first date.”

  “I guess I’ll check whether Leroy’s theory that the death could be a robbery has any merit. What did the victim have on him?”

  “Okay. Here’s your one answer,” said Leo. “It doesn’t look like a robbery. He had his wallet with money in it and an expensive cell phone on him. He also had his keys.”

  Lydia was starting to think of more questions that she wanted to ask, but she just smiled at her brother.

  “Have fun on your date.”

  Leo was about to run off happily but then paused. “Can I trust you not to go running off after a suspect tonight?”

  “Yes,” said Lydia. “I’m going to have to wait for a plumber to arrive.”

  15

  Realizations with a Realtor

  “It’s beautiful inside as well as out,” Trina said.

  Lydia nodded. The house on Webster Street really did have everything she needed, and it had a lovely view. There was nothing wrong with it at all, and yet she didn’t feel excited to call it home.

  Lydia had originally planned on visiting the house with Suzanne and using her insider information to try to secure the place. However, Suzanne and Leo were catching up on lost time. Lydia had decided to call the realtor and view the inside of the house with Trina.

  “What is it?” Trina asked.

  “Nothing,” said Lydia. “The house is great.”

  “Why do I sense a but?”

  “There’s no reason for a but. It really is perfect, and it’s a miracle I can afford it,” said Lydia. “I’m going to put in an offer.”

  “It still seems like there’s a but,” said Trina.

  Lydia relented and nodded. “Something just seems off. It doesn’t feel quite like home. But maybe I’m just having these feelings because I’m distracted by a murder and it really doesn’t have anything to do with the house.”

  “Will it help if you talk through some ideas about the case?” Trina asked. “We have a few minutes while the realtor is on the phone in the other room pretending that someone else is putting an offer in on the house.”

  “Okay.” Lydia nodded. “I guess there are a few things that bother me about the case.”

  “Me too. The thing that bothers me the most is that someone stuffed a golf ball in the poor dead guy’s mouth.”

  “Right. Leo thinks that because it was a golf ball from Good Golf! that someone from there had to be the one who committed the crime. And that they did it as a form of vengeance. The golf ball in the mouth was a message.”

  “Do you agree?” Trina asked.

  Lydia shrugged. “That is one possibility. But it’s also possible that someone placed the ball there to implicate Good Golf!. I’m pretty sure that Stewart Yagher walked off the course with an orange golf ball. If he had it with him, then anyone could have placed the ball there after his death.”

  “Great,” Trina said with a groan. “We’ve gone from thinking it was someone at Good Golf! to anyone could have done this.”

  Lydia frowned. “The motive of the feud seems so obvious, but at the same time, what would have made it murder now? And if this murder wasn’t because of the feud, what was the reason?”

  “I can’t believe that they kept this feud up for so long,” said Trina. “Wouldn’t you think there was enough room for all of their eighteen holes of golf? I mean, even if that is thirty-six holes, Ocean Point could handle that.”

  “Eighteen,” Lydia repeated. “Of course. Eighteen holes.”

  “What’s the new significance? You’re saying that like it’s important.”

  “I think it is. I think that helps determine the murder weapon, and that narrows down the suspect pool. I have a guess now who the killer is. But I need to be sure. And I need proof.”

  “How can we do that?”

  “I think I need to make a call to Harriet,” Lydia said, starting to head to the door.

  The realtor returned to them at that moment. “Sorry about that. Someone else is very interested in this house. But if you like it, you can make an offer.”

  However, Lydia’s mind was now focused entirely on the case. She was leaving while Trina was making an excuse to the realtor.

  “I’m sorry. You’ll have to excuse us. We need to bring a murderer to justice.”

  16

  The Trap

  “I hope this works,” Trina muttered.

  Lydia held up her fingers to show that they were crossed for good luck. There were multiple things that could go wrong with her plan. Firstly, the killer needed to hear the message that she hoped would travel down the lane before he could act on it. Then, the killer would need to decide that some action was worth the risk.

  Lydia was also a little worried that Leo wouldn’t listen to her message and know to arrive as backup. He had been avoiding her all day. She thought it was a combination of being lovesick again and not wanting to divulge more than that “one piece” of information that he gave up.

  “I think I hear something,” Trina mouthed.

  Lydia nodded. It seemed like the first phase of her plan was going the way she expected. She thought that if she told Harriet something, the rumor would eventually reach the killer’s ears. That was why she and Trina were now hiding behind the windmill at Good Golf! in the dark where they had a great view of the rest of the course.

  Lydia watched as the killer snuck onto the course and began searching for a place to drop the murder weapon. He chose to place it by the tombstones and was about to walk away.

  “Where’s Leo?” Lydia whispered.

  She was sure that the killer wiped his fingerprints from the club. If Lydia didn’t have solid proof, it was just her word that the killer did what he did there.

  “I’ll record this,” Trina said.

  It was an admirable idea to get the man on film, but when Trina tried to set up her phone to record the action, the screen glowed. The glitter in her hair was illuminated again.

  “Who’s there?” the man growled.

  Lydia gulped as Nathan Yagher stormed toward them. They didn’t have time to find a better hiding place before he arrived.

  “You,” he said to Lydia. “You’re more involved in this than you said, aren’t you?”

  “And so are you,” she retorted. “You’re the one who killed your father.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I knew that the ball in Stewart Yagher’s mouth could have been placed there by anyone because he took the ball from the course. But the killer put it in his mouth where the police were sure to take notice of it,” Lydia explained. “But it was when I realized that there were only seventeen mini-golf clubs in the throne on display at the Sandcastle Course that I realized where the murder weapon came from. Someone from the Sandcastle Course took a club from the display to commit their crime.”

  “Circumstantial evidence,” Nathan said.

  “It would be if you didn’t just drop the murder weapon here hoping to frame Sharon,” said Trina. “You heard from Nick who heard from Harriet that the police were going to do a thorough sweep of this place tomorrow.”

  “You set a trap?” Nathan asked. “Did you do this on your own? There are no policemen jumping out?”

  Lydia didn’t want to call further attention to that fact, so she kept talking. “Do you know what made me suspect you? You made a mistake. Both with talking to me and with what you chose as your fake alibi. You couldn’t have been getting your father a new phone after you talked with him. You might have stopped by a phone store after you killed him to have an alibi. But your father had already gotten a replacement phone. It was on him when he was killed.”

  “Well, how do you like that?” Nathan asked.

  “I just don’t understand why,” said Lydia.

  “It’s simple,” Nathan said. “I wanted the money. And blaming Sharon seemed like the perfect way to collect on my inheritance early.”

 

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