Destroyed and Detained : Sara Martin Series Read online

  Destroyed and Detained

  Danelle Helget

  Contents

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  The Sara Martin Mystery Series:

  Lost and Found

  Found and Destroyed

  Copyright © 2013 Danelle Helget

  ISBN: 978-0-87839-915-4

  All rights reserved.

  First Edition: June 2013

  Electronic Edition: July 2013

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Published by

  North Star Press of St. Cloud, Inc.

  P.O. Box 451

  St. Cloud, Minnesota 56302

  For my daughters, Brooke and Taylor. You two bring me so much joy, and I am so very proud of who you’ve become. I love you both with all my heart.

  Love, Mom

  A special thanks to:

  My husband Jared—for holding down the fort while I got this done.

  Michelle Kremers—for suggesting the title for this book.

  My writers group—for the opinions, encouragement and support.

  Beta Readers: Milissa Nelson, Kristin Alderink—for edits and suggestions.

  North Star Press—for all the help in making this a successful book.

  1

  Sure as shit, there it was! My mouth was hanging wide open as I stood there and looked out the window at it. I blinked quickly a bunch of times and shook my head violently to make sure I was actually awake. I was.

  Derek, my boyfriend, a detective for the St. Paul Police Department, had just yelled for me to come into the dining room. I yelled back, “Why?” annoyed I was being interrupted while curling my hair.

  He insisted I hurry. “You’ll really want to see this!”

  “See what?” I’d asked, setting my curling iron down, and leaving the bathroom.

  “Ah, there’s a big pirate ship out here,” were his exact words. What? I’d mumbled to myself. Did he say pirate ship? I’d walked down the hall into the dining room and joined him at the sliding glass door that faced my back yard, which includes a patio, some grass and a medium-sized lake.

  As clear as day, I could see a pirate ship. Not a boat. A ship! A ship much too large for this lake. “What … the … fuck … is … that?” I quietly gasped when I finally found my voice. I was suddenly very scared … or excited … or scared. I was in shock! I didn’t really know what I felt.

  “That’s … a pirate ship?” Derek answered, completely dumbfounded. He lifted his coffee cup and took a drink.

  “I … ah … Yeah, but what’s it doing in my lake?” I asked, my mouth still hanging open between sentences. Neither of us had peeled our eyes from it since we’d noticed it. We stood there, shoulder to shoulder, riveted. Pepper, the Great Dane, was sitting next to Derek’s leg on the other side, staring too. Pepper was my temporary dog.

  Derek finally moved. He swigged the last of his coffee from his cup, turned to the sink and placed the cup in. “Not sure what it’s doing there, but this is definitely not my jurisdiction, or my department, or my issue. You have a great day, honey. I gotta get to work. Long drive, ya know?” He gave me a quick peck on the cheek and scooted out the front door.

  I ran to the front door after him and protested, “Wait! What am I supposed to do about this?”

  “Sweetness, you’re a much better detective than I am! Get your girls on it! I’m sure Tannya knows something!” he yelled back, still walking, then stepped up into his Jeep and shut the door.

  Great, now what? I quickly closed the door to the house and went back to the window. It was still there. The ship was huge. The sails were up and sported a skull-and-crossbones flag. I was simply dumbfounded. Why the hell would someone put a ship on this lake? And now that I thought of it, how in Sam Hill did anyone get that thing in it?

  Only three other houses were on this lake besides mine, and we all had our own little private boat launches. There was no public launch. This made absolutely no sense! Were there real pirates on the ship? The only ones I heard of on the news were killing people and taking hostages in other parts of the world’s oceans. I recall hearing at least a couple pirate stories over the last few years. None ended well.

  I needed binoculars! I looked at the time. I needed to get to work, too. I had to open the store today. I mentally made a plan to go to work, stop by the diner and talk to Tannya to see if she knew anything, and then go to Miss Kitty’s house and borrow binoculars from her place. I was able to use equipment whenever I wanted. She and I have kind of a history that involved some … … surveillance, if you will. She kept all the supplies from that venture at her house, but I knew she’d let me use anything I needed.

  And so went my life. I was starting to get used to it. I try, and want to live a quiet life, but it never quite works out that way. Right now I was living in a remote “North Country” town in Minnesota. Nisswa hadn’t been the same since I came to town and everyone knew it. Sometimes when I walked down the street and smiled at the older crowd, I felt like they hated me. It seemed some folks loved that I found the remains of a longtime missing girl, and helped her family put her to rest. Others felt I had psychic abilities and I was scary.

  And then there were the haters. It didn’t help that I moved here, to Nisswa, from the Cities shortly after that initial incident. A couple of months later I was involved in the shooting of a very rich, very bad man from this town. I didn’t shoot him, but I made the paper again, and around here that was all it took to get the stink eye from everyone.

  My boyfriend, Derek, had been offered a job here as chief of police but hadn’t taken the offer. I think he wanted to, but he was waiting to see where our relationship went. Right now it was pretty good. But there had been bumps in the road, one of those bumps being Jodi.

  Derek and I saw each other as much as possible but it was sometimes hard with him working in the Cities and me working here. I owned Lost and Found, a boutique on the small main street in Nisswa. We sold home décor, clothes, candles, handmade jewelry, and other small items. The store came as a package deal with the cabin I bought and lived in, along with the land surrounding most of the lake. The three other houses on the other side of the lake all had been situated near each other. I had this whole side to myself. I owned three-quarters of the land surrounding the lake. Very nice, at least until a few moments ago when a pirate ship showed up.

  I guess I would worry about that after work, when I had binoculars. I poured the last cup of coffee into a travel mug and grabbed my purse. I rushed into work and got all set up for the morning, turning lights and specialty lamps on and lighting a few candles. Then I took a quick bathroom break before opening the doors for the day. While washing up, I glanced up in the mirror. Holy hell! I’d forgotten to finish curling my hair! Oh, my gosh, what was I going to do? My hair was shoulder length, and one side was in a bunch of tight ringlet curls, while the other totally straight! I had been so completely distracted by the shi
p I’d forgotten to finish. I ran across the store to my office and dug through my purse hoping, praying, I’d at least find a ponytail holder in it. Nope. Nada. Nothing.

  I grabbed my keys and ran out to my Jeep and searched it. Nothing on the stick shift, nothing in the storage areas. After contemplating my options, which were slim, I decided to gift myself a new t-shirt and hat with my own store logo on it. Back in the bathroom, I wetted down the curly side of my hair and blew it for a moment under the hand dryer in an effort to straighten it a little. It helped, but the hat was the best choice. I was just glad I was in jeans and not a skirt or dress pants. Hopefully no one would come in, and I wouldn’t run into anyone I knew. Ginger was scheduled at 11:00, and Monday mornings were usually pretty slow.

  With paperwork caught up and most of the new inventory unpacked, I left the pricing and shelf stocking for Ginger and left promptly at 11:00. I went straight over to Morning Glory, the diner two doors down, to see Tannya.

  Tannya was a fr … fri … acquaintance. I guess I could call her a friend, but it seemed weird. She was a bit unorthodox. She was heavy-set, but wore really tight clothes that did not flatter her shape. She wore heavy make-up, too, with really bright pink blush, and always wore her hair in a pony. This past winter my best friend, Kat, took her shopping to get her hair done and made her buy some nice, good-fitting jeans and a nice shirt, and then dyed her hair from a half black root-half blonde, fried frizzy tail into a shorter, softer darker blonde. The cut was great, and she was talked into a good conditioner, which she’d been using. She has come a long ways but was still a sight most days.

  In the friend department though, she’d been great. She liked to hang with me as much as possible and had been there for me when I needed help. And a bonus: she loved to cat-sit for me. She watched Faith for me a while back, and I was glad to have her.

  I opened the doors to Morning Glory and found a booth. I slid in and took a quick peek at the “special” board. Two eggs, two bacon, caramel roll, and a coffee for $5.00. That sounded perfect to me. I looked around and saw Tannya behind the counter plating up some toast. BING! “Order up,” Marv yelled from the kitchen window.

  Morning Glory was the only restaurant in town open early for breakfast. They had their regulars, a few men bellied up to the counter and stool area and a few older couples in booths. The restaurant was older-themed but well-maintained. The tables and chairs were shiny chrome with red vinyl seats. It was bright and cheery and tastefully decorated. Tannya had worked there a long time and mostly worked the day shift. She was newly single. She’d recently thrown out her drug-addicted husband after one year of marriage. She got the house and was taking some online classes to try to get a degree.

  She was fun, had tons of energy, and was ready for anything at any time. Tannya was also my primary source for information. Working at the diner and being a social butterfly came in handy. She got all the gossip every day at work. She was great at getting people to tell all. Trust me.

  Walking by with two plates in her hand, she noticed me and smiled. “Hey, girl!” she yelled as she passed. This was normal. Tannya was loud and had conversations from across the room sometimes. “I’ll be right there!” I wondered if she’d heard anything yet about the pirate ship. The lake was small, with only four houses on it, so unless someone called the police, I doubted the story had broken yet.

  “What’s up, girl? You want breakfast? Caramel rolls are on special for one more hour!” Tannya informed me, when she returned.

  “That sounds good. I’ll have the special and coffee. And when you get a second, I want to ask you something,” I told her quietly.

  “Oooh, what? What is it?” She asked eagerly as she slid into the booth across from me.

  “Order up!” Marv yelled again.

  “Crap,” she said. “Hold that thought!” She scrambled over to the window, grabbed the plate and put it in front of one of the men at the counter. She topped off everyone’s coffee and then came over with a cup and the pot for me. She filled me up, put the pot on the table and leaned forward. She was staring at me with anticipation and a big grin. “What is it?”

  I mentally shook my head and took a sip. “Well, I had a strange morning and wanted to know if there was any buzz around here lately about the lake I live on.” Letting that sit for a moment, I continued when I didn’t get a response. I leaned forward and lowered my voice. “There was a ship on the lake this morning,” I said frankly.

  Tannya pressed her eyebrows together and tipped her head. “A ship? Did you say a ship?” she asked raising her voice.

  I nodded and glanced around. Then leaned even closer and whispered, “A pirate ship.” Then I nodded again.

  Tannya stared at me hard for a long moment. Then she smiled and started looking around. “Ah hah! I’m on one of those hidden camera shows, ain’t I?”

  I could see she was getting worked up. I grabbed her arm to calm her down. I didn’t want a scene. “Shhhh, I’m not sure what it’s about, but I don’t think we want the whole town to know.”

  “Are you shitting me? Are you serious?” she whispered. “There’s a pirate ship on your lake? Like a Pirates of the Caribbean pirate ship?” she asked. Then she smiled huge. “Are there are pirates on it? Like Johnny Depp? I mean I know Johnny’s not on your ship, but what if there’s a cute pirate like him?”

  I shook my head and put my face in my hands. I’d just opened a can of worms. “First off,” I warned, “it’s not my ship or my lake. Secondly, I’m not sure what’s up with it. I was hoping you knew something.”

  “No, girl! I haven’t heard anything. I want to, though. This is great! Can I come over and see it? I’m off at 2:00.” She was very excited.

  “Um, yeah. I guess.”

  “Do you think it’s still there?” she asked, concerned.

  “It couldn’t have gone far. I mean, really, how would you get that in and out of a lake that small? It’s not like there’s a boat launch. I don’t get it,” I said, still in shock. “I’m going to go to Miss Kitty’s and pick up some binoculars. I’ll meet you at my place when you’re done with work,” I told her.

  “Okay, but promise me you two won’t go explore it without me. You have to wait for me!”

  “Whoa! There’ll be no exploring of anything. I just want to look at it closer. We’re staying in the house with the shades drawn and the doors and windows locked.”

  Tannya faced changed to serious. “Oh, yeah. I never thought none about that. Pirates are dangerous. They steal people’s stuff and kill ’em! Holy cow! Are you going to stay living there?” she asked. “You can stay at my house if you’d like. I got plenty of room!”

  “Well, they don’t always kill people. I mean, how much do we really know? Maybe they’re just lost.” As I said it out loud I knew that made no sense.

  “Yeah,” Tannya said sarcastically, “they’re lost … on a small lake with no inlets or outlets, in the middle of a continent, more than a thousand miles from an ocean. Riiiight!”

  I shrugged. I was too proud to admit to Tannya Potter that I was wrong. “Well, then you tell me!”

  “Order up!” Marv yelled from the kitchen. “Woman, get off your butt and work!”

  “Marv, I am working! We got much bigger business over here than your eggs!” Tannya yelled back. She was standing now, shaking her head like an angry hen, with her hand on her hip and a finger pointing while she spoke.

  She turned back to me. “Those are probably your eggs, so I’ll go get them,” she said in a pleasant voice with a smile.

  I watched the continued, quieter conversation between Tannya and Marv. Those two were always yelling at each other. I think they got along, but yelling was just the way they showed their love. I shook my head and smiled as Tannya took the plate, and Marv stuck out his tongue at her back. “I saw that!” she said without looking back.

  “Here, you eat up. You’re going to need your strength for our next adventure. I’m so excited. We haven’t been on a big adventure
in a while. Not since Jodi, anyway.”

  “There’s no adventure, and keep it down. I don’t want a bunch of people hanging around the lake. Let’s just go see what we can see later and take it from there. In the meantime, if you hear anything about this ship, let me know. And get details!” I started eating and she left.

  Great, now I had Jodi on my mind again. I hated that woman! Jodi was Derek’s ex. His almost fiancée, the girl he had dated for almost two years and had been living with and ring shopping with.

  He came home on a lunch break from work one night, as a surprise, and caught her half-dressed on top of the guy who lived across the hall. He threw her out, and that was the last he saw of her. She tried to fix things, but he walked away. That was five and a half years ago. Now, all of a sudden she wants him back.

  Last winter she had been calling his phone. He was ignoring it, but when he went home to his apartment one night, she was leaned up again his door waiting. He talked to her for a while and then left to meet me. He never told me why he was late that night, but I knew something was off.

  I saw the number of times she tried to call him in a day, and it was ridiculous. So I asked him about it. Derek told me she wanted him back. Things were over with the guy from across the hall, and the two after him, and now she was lonely and knew she’d made a huge mistake when she cheated on Derek and wanted to try again.

  He told her that he wasn’t interested, but she kept bothering him. So one day when the phone rang and Derek was outside, I answered it. I told her I was his new girlfriend and that he was sick of the calls and to stop. Well, she didn’t. So I followed her one night. Not just me, me and Tannya and Miss Kitty. We did what we do and spied on her. We all went out for a drink or two and after talking about it and feeding each other’s imaginations we decided to take care of it.

  We loaded up in Miss Kitty’s Mercedes Benz and went to Jodi’s apartment. Miss Kitty and Tannya were down for the weekend visiting me because I hadn’t been to Nisswa in a while. It was winter and the Cities are much more fun than the cabin in the winter time, so they drove down together, and we made a weekend of it.