Cottage on Gooseberry Bay: Charmed Summer by Kathi Daley (fb2 epub reader .TXT) 📕

After Ellery left, I decided to take a break and take the dogs for a walk down the boardwalk. It was a gorgeous sunny day with only the hint of a breeze to ripple the water. I had to admit that Ellery’s quest was an interesting one. I could understand her logic, but I really wasn’t sure that finding someone who clearly didn’t want to be found was going to be possible even with the clues we had. Of course, I had even fewer clues in my search for Avery, but I knew that even without a single clue to work from, I was never going to give up. I felt like I understood Ellery. We were after similar things. I almost felt as if fate had sent Ellery to me and that maybe her search for her past would somehow end up bringing me closer in my search for mine.

Chapter 4

After I got home, I headed to Jemma and Josie’s place with my phone in hand. I figured they might be able to help me identify some of the charms, so I’d called earlier, and Jemma had told me to come on over with the photos. When I arrived, both roommates were on their large deck overlooking the water with a bottle of wine and tray full of snacks.

“I guess you heard that Zane Maddox isn’t the only missing teenager,” Josie commented as soon as I sat down.

“No. I hadn’t heard. I was down by the harbor yesterday with Jemma when Deputy Todd was there talking to the group who found Zane’s paddleboard, but I haven’t heard anything since.”

Josie tucked her tan legs up under her body. “It turns out that another boy, Kalen West, was last seen by his mother on Saturday, although she waited to contact the police until after she’d heard about Zane.”

“Why’d she wait?” I asked.

Josie shrugged. “I heard that there’d been friction in the family since Kalen’s parents decided to divorce, so she may have thought Kalen simply took off. I don’t know this to be true with any degree of certainty, but one of my waitresses at the Rambling Rose mentioned that Kalen might not actually be missing but may have simply needed a break from things at home.”

“Do you know if Kalen and Zane were together Sunday?” I asked.

“No one I’ve spoken to knows one way or another,” Josie provided. “I suppose Parker might know more about the whole thing than we do. Maybe I’ll call and invite her to come over.”

“If you want to be sure she shows, tell her that we’re making margaritas,” Jemma suggested.

As it turned out, Parker had found out additional information about the missing boys and was happy to come by and share what she knew in exchange for an ice-cold margarita. She indicated that she needed to finish up a few things and would be by in an hour. Josie decided we should have food to go with our margaritas, so she went inside to figure out what she could make with the ingredients she had on hand.

“I hate to say it, but two missing boys feels like foul play,” I said to Jemma. “One missing teen who seemed to have been separated from his paddleboard could very well indicate an accident of some sort, but if the two boys were together, it seems unlikely they both fell off.”

“I suppose they could have been knocked off,” Jemma suggested. “Maybe they encountered a shark or even a whale. Shark attacks don’t happen very often in the bay, but we have had pods of Orcas stop by from time to time.”

“Do you think that’s what happened?” I asked.

She slowly lifted a shoulder. “I really don’t know. It was just a guess as to how two teens could have been killed on the water without foul play being involved.”

By the time Parker arrived, Josie had a pot of spicy chili verde ready to serve, with warm tortillas, cheese, and sour cream. She also had tortilla chips and salsa to go with the margaritas. I really admired the way Josie could just whip something together even if she hadn’t planned to have company. She really was an amazing chef, and she seemed to have a knack for the perfect combinations.

“Something smells wonderful, and I’m starving,” Parker said the minute she walked in through the front door.

“It’s ready, so let’s serve ourselves, and we can talk while we eat.”

“That sounds good to me.” Parker grabbed a bowl and served herself a generous helping.

“So you said there’s another missing boy,” Jemma said once we’d all served ourselves and had taken seats at the table.

“Two, actually.” Parker took a sip of her margarita and then continued. “When Kalen West left home Saturday morning, he told his mother that he was meeting up with some friends and would most likely just crash with one of them since it was the weekend. Kalen and his mother haven’t been getting along since his parents decided to divorce. Kalen was close to his father, and he blames his mother for him leaving even though most of the people I’ve spoken to who are close to the situation all agree that the breakup of the marriage was the result of multiple counts of Kalen’s father’s infidelity.”

“So Kalen’s mother didn’t have reason to worry when he didn’t come home Saturday evening,” I surmised.

“She did not. She’s currently working two jobs to make ends meet, and from what I understand, she’s pretty much at the end of her rope physically and emotionally. Kalen’s anger with her and the punishment he’s been doling out has caused a bad situation to be even worse. When she spoke to Deputy Todd, she said she was actually relieved he was going to