The Boardwalk's Bloodstains

Title: Sea Breeze

Author: Matthew McGeehin

Genre: Mystery

Travis Westergard gripped the mattress beneath him, and waited for the butt of the shotgun to come across his face. Or, on a good day, just a simple punch for sleeping in too late. But as his heart pounded in his chest, nothing else happened.

A peaceful morning? Have I forgotten what they were like? He’d known at the wedding that Billy had anger issues, but at first, he had only slapped Travis when he deserved it. Therapy was helping. For a time. Then, Travis came home from his meeting and found him smacking Mollie, their little girl, for not doing her homework.

Yes, Mollie shouldn’t have lied about it. But she was still a child. Travis had stepped between them, but he didn’t remember what happened next. According to the police, Mollie had called them because “Daddy Travis is hurt!” They found him lying unconscious, thrown through a wall. Mollie was spending the summer with his brother while Travis recovered. Billy, Husband-No-Longer would spend it in jail, or prison, or however it worked. Out of Travis’s life forever.

After finishing his breakfast, Travis dressed and grabbed his keys. He could hear the ocean waves calling him, begging for a swim, but the doctors had warned him against strenuous activity. The old routine used to be seven tough miles with no rest, in the thick fog of the early morning. As a teenager, he used to love swimming in the fog, barely seeing where we was going, pretending he was going to Avalon, like in the King Arthur stories he used to read.

How many times did I dream that married to Billy? Maybe some people learned and became better, but there were those that didn’t. The throbbing aches that pulsed with every heartbeat told him how distinct those two things were. As were the consequences for not recognizing the difference.

He checked his watch: Plenty of time. There was more to going for a walk than what the doctors approved for early morning exercise; Collette Fitzgerald wanted to meet him for coffee.

Why did I e-mail her saying I’d accept? She loved early morning meetings in the summer, before all the tourists woke up and crowded up the beach. But she wasn’t just looking to catch up. She’d mentioned in her message she had a business prospect he might be interested in. Now that there was ‘one less paycheck in the family.’ How did she find out so quickly?

Travis had fantasized about telling her no: Every time he worked with Collette, he felt the need to shower, and replay his lawyer’s number in his head. But as much as Collette attracted trouble, she attracted money twice as quickly. And she was generous with it. Between medical bills and now raising a child on his own, thinking in green was more important than usual.

His breath started to get a little heavy after a few miles of his walk, so he took a minute resting on a bench.

About a half mile more, just after the salt water taffy shop, before the arcade. Her favorite coffee shop was right over there. Very overpriced, but if she was buying, Travis would drink it. Just as he passed a foot-washing station, a sharp pain in his left hip made him stumble, and he had to grab the railing for balance.

Dammit. The doctors said he had some damaged nerves, but he should mostly recover. So why wasn’t he?

One foot forward. Don’t let it stop you. With a few more deep breaths, he let go of the railing. Perhaps he should have set waypoints of recovery rather than think he’d be back to normal all at once. But he had to be 100% before Mollie came back for school.

The fog started to lift a little more as Travis took a second to take a breath. It lifted enough for him to see a figure lying hunched on one of the sand dunes.

Sleeping it off, rummy? Travis used to come across into people like that walking home from his swims. Normally, he just ignored them, but this one he should probably help. After all, she was stark naked. While it was rare, there were one or two exhibitionists who thought the beach at night was kinky enough to be “public.” Better to wake her up before the gawkers found her. He wouldn’t sneak a peek. He’d rather his naked stranger have six, preferably eight, extra inches elsewhere.

“Pardon me.” He bent down to shake her awake. And he shivered as he touched her. She was cold, not wet with ocean water, but just…cold. As he turned the woman, and he could finally see her face. Collette! His hip gave out again, and but it didn’t feel like the damaged nerves this time. He was to meet her in twenty minutes. While completely clothed. And not with gaping holes in her neck and stomach.