Bikinis in Paradise (Tj Jensen Pardise Lake Mysteries) (20 page)

“Come again?”

“The woman in the morgue has a driver’s license and social security card that say that she’s Tonya Overton, but her fingerprints don’t match those of the real Tonya Overton, who hasn’t been seen or heard from for almost two years.”

“So who
’s the woman in the morgue?” Dylan wondered.

“No one knows. Her prints are
n’t on file. Sheriff Boggs is looking into it.”

Dylan sighed. “
Maybe I should go in.”

“Spend the day with your family,” Tj advised. “The woman is dead
; you can’t help her. If they don’t figure this out by next week, I think Boggs is planning to revoke your leave anyway.”

“What about the missing
model? Have you found her?”

“Not yet
, but I’m working on it,” Tj promised. “I have this gut feeling that all of this somehow fits together. I’m just not sure how quite yet.”

“You know I think you should stay out of this and let Roy and the others do their job.”

“I know.”

“And you know I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I do.”

“But you’re going to continue to nose around anyway.”

“I am.”

Dylan sighed.
“That’s what I figured. I hate that I can’t be there to make sure you don’t get yourself into trouble.”

“Have I ever gotten myself into trouble?”
Tj asked.

“Do you really want me to answer that
question?”

“No, I guess not. I’m being careful.”

“So what exactly do you know about this Tonya?”

Tj realized that Dylan
was frustrated by his inability to help out. Like her, he was the type who wanted to be in the thick of things.

“
The woman in the morgue began working for the Tropical Tan Corporation a year ago. Boggs found an employment record stating that Tonya Overton worked for a travel agency two years ago, so whatever happened occurred in the year in between.”

Tj filled Dylan i
n on everything she had learned, including the fact that it appeared that the new Tonya had engaged in intimate relations with both Fenton and his son.

“Okay
, so the real Tonya quits her job, packs up, and moves away, cutting off all ties with friends, and a different woman, claiming to be Tonya, uses her identity to get the job with Tropical Tan a year later,” Dylan confirmed. “Once she begins working for the company, she has an affair with both the CEO and his son?”

“That’s the way it looks. Bookman thinks the new Tonya killed the real Tonya before assuming her identity
, which is why the real Tonya never reappeared.”

“How did Bookman get involved in all of this?” Dylan asked.

“He attended our strategy meeting last night.”

“You had a strategy meeting without me?”

Tj laughed. “Feeling left out?”

“Absolutely.
If you come up with a name for the body in the morgue, call me. If I don’t answer, leave a message and I’ll get back to you. Things with Allie are sort of shaky as it is, so I’m trying not to mention murder investigations in her presence, though I’d like to stay involved. Have Roy run the prints of the body in the morgue through missing persons. If this woman has taken over Tonya Overton’s identity, maybe someone is missing whoever it is she used to be. And make sure he checks into any Jane Does who might turn out to be the real Tonya. If Bookman is right and the woman in the morgue killed the real Tonya and took over her identity, then there should be a body somewhere. Oh, and check to see if the real Tonya ever reported any missing credit cards.”

“Okay
. I’ll talk to Roy and keep you in the loop.” Tj paused. “I miss you.”

“Yeah
.” Dylan let out a long breath. “I miss you too.”

“So Travis didn’t know anything?” Kyle asked later that afternoon. He’d come by to watch the talent portion of the talent competition.

“He said he hasn’t talked to Aaron for over a week. He did
tell me that Aaron really cares for Kiara and would never do anything to hurt her. It sounds as if Aaron still hopes that Kiara will follow through with the engagement and Travis is certain that Aaron simply came to the resort to talk to her. He claims that Aaron isn’t the sort to force her to do anything she doesn’t want to do and believes that he probably made his case and then left.”

“Which leaves us back to square one
,” Kyle concluded.

“
Pretty much, except that Travis did think it was odd that Aaron hasn’t been around,” Tj said as she watched the models parade across the stage one by one as they were introduced. The crowd joined in by cheering for their favorite competitor, making it difficult to carry on a conversation. “They’d planned to attend the events at the resort together, but Aaron never showed. Like the rest of us, Travis can’t just go to the settlement to check on things. Aaron always comes to him to make plans for future meetings. He wasn’t overly worried, but he did say it wasn’t like Aaron to simply flake on plans they’d made.”

“So maybe Aaron is involved
in Kiara’s disappearance and is hiding out,” Kyle said as the girls filed back off the stage in preparation for the individual demonstrations.

“Maybe. I sure do wish I could talk to him directly.
”

Tj watched as
the first contestant filed onto the stage dressed in a leotard. The crowd quieted as she began a very complicated floor routine.

“
And Nona never got back to you?” Kyle whispered. Luckily they were standing well behind the main body of the crowd so their conversation wouldn’t be easily overheard.

“No, we haven’t heard a word. When we talked to her
, she said she’d talk to Aaron and let us know what he said, but she never did contact either Grandpa or me. According to Annabeth, Nona left Vengeance yesterday afternoon and as of this morning hasn’t returned.”

“Is Annabeth still here?”

“Yeah, she’s hanging out with Amber. The pair are like two peas in a pod.”

“
Maybe you can ask Annabeth to talk to Aaron when she returns home. If he really is concerned for Kiara, he might let something slip.”

The crowd cheered as the routine ended and contestant number
one took a bow. The second contestant was the woman Tj knew as Jazzy. She was dressed in a tiny outfit that barely covered her critical parts. Her talent was listed as free dance but seemed more like something you’d see at a strip club. The men seemed to be loving it, as evidenced by the whistles and catcalls.

“I hate to even send her back until I know for certai
n that her dad or Nona are there,” Tj answered. She’d raised her voice slightly so that she could be heard over the crowd. “She seems so self-sufficient, but she
is
only twelve. I’m really concerned about her, especially because I can’t just pop by and check on her whenever I want. Do you know that her dad left her alone overnight without any food in the house? What kind of a parent does that?”

“Get her a cell phone,” Kyle s
aid. “No one has to know she has it, but if she has your number, she can call you anytime she needs to, and you can call and check on her.”

“That’s actually a really good idea.” Tj kissed Kyle on the cheek. “Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll stop in town and get her one before I take her home. If she keeps it hidden and
leaves the ringer on vibrate, no one will need to know she even has it.”

“Oh
good, here comes Chloe,” Kyle announced. Chloe was dressed in a formal gown. She took a bow as the announcer explained that her talent would be to sing a ballad.

“Wow, she’s really good
,” Tj commented as Chloe began.

“She really is,” Kyle whispered.
“When she first sang for me last night, she was so quiet that her voice didn’t carry, but after we practiced for a while I could see that she had a lot of talent. If this bikini thing doesn’t work out, I think she has what it takes to go pro.”

“I know she really wants to go to college,” Tj informed Kyle.

“Yeah, she mentioned that. She’s a very mature and driven person. I’m sure she’ll be very successful at whatever she chooses to do. She reminds me a lot of Kendall.”

“You
still planning to help out with the choir next year?” Tj asked. She knew Kyle really should be the one acting as director because he was musically inclined, while she decidedly wasn’t.

“If you’ll let me.”

Tj laughed. “I’ll more than let you. As far as I’m concerned, it’s your baby. I’ll help you where I can.” Tj noticed several of the teenage girls she’d just waved to were whispering and glancing shyly at Kyle. If word got out that he was taking over show choir, she’d be willing to bet that they’d get the bumper crop of new recruits that would be needed since most of their strongest singers had graduated.

“I’m not a teacher,” Kyle reminded her.

“You don’t have to be. Show choir is designated as a club, so it isn’t necessary to be certified to act as director. I’ll run it past the administration, but I’m sure it will be fine.”

“Deal.” Kyle smiled.
“Any word about the mystery of the body in the morgue?”

“Not really
, other than that Doc did look at the body and said he agrees with the intern that Tonya, or whatever her name is, could very well have died as the result of a fall. If that’s true, she may not have been murdered at all.”

“So why would
anyone tie her to an anchor and sink her?” Kyle asked. “If you’re with someone and they fall and hit their head, why not call 911 to try to get help?”

“I don’t have the answer to that question
, I’m afraid. It seems like all we have are questions. And the longer this goes on, the more questions we seem to have.”

“Who is the woman in the morgue; how did she die; why did she assume some
one else’s identity?” Kyle counted off several of the questions they faced.

“That
, and what happened to the original Tonya Overton and where is Kiara?”

“So what now?”

“I don’t know. I guess my biggest concern is finding Kiara. I’m sure Roy is focusing on the woman in the morgue rather than Kiara because a missing adult who might very well have left voluntarily most likely isn’t a huge priority.”

“How do you think Roy is doing with all of this?” Kyle asked.

“Honestly? I think he’s in over his head.”

“
Yeah, I was afraid of that.” Kyle sighed. “I understand why Dylan took leave at this particular time, but it really would be nice to have him back on the job.”

“I talked to him on the phone this morning,” Tj shared. “I think he’s feeling pretty frustrated as well
.”

“And where
has Sheriff Boggs been during all of this?”

Tj shrugged. “
He’s turned the investigation over to Roy, but he’s also been putting up roadblocks to his investigation.”

“How so?”

“By not letting him interview persons of interest. Boggs tends to make decisions based on the likelihood that a certain action will gain him attention and further his career. Indulgence is only on the other side of the lake, but if you want my opinion, as far as Boggs is concerned, we exist in a different world. A world that he doesn’t really care about. He rarely makes the trip north unless something major is going on, which is fine if Dylan is around to oversee things. It really is bad timing that his sister is here now.”

“He’s in a tough spot,” Kyle admitted.
“From everything I’ve heard, it seems really important that this visit goes well.”

“Wow, that’s some costume
.” Tj directed Kyle’s attention back to the competition. One of the women had opted to perform a ritual tribal dance and was outfitted in very little other than body paint.

“
Yikes. Isn’t this competition supposed to be family friendly?”

“You can’t really
see
anything,” Tj assured him.

“Maybe not
, but it doesn’t take a whole lot of imagination to fill in the blanks.”

“I guess I see what you mean.”

Tj was glad when the model was finished and the next one, another singer, took her place.

“So what’s on tap for the rest of the day?”
Kyle asked.

“There
’s the main bikini competition this evening, as well as a really good band I’ve been anxious to hear. Other than that, I figured I’d get Annabeth’s cell phone and maybe nose around a bit. Hunter is going to come by later to help us come up with a strategy.”

“It seems like Hunter has been around quite a bit lately
.”

“Yeah. We’ve been friends
a long time, but it seems like we’ve become closer lately.”

“I’m not sure you ever
told me why you broke up in the first place.”