Board Stiff: A Dead-End Job Mystery by Elaine Viets Page B

in my head.”
    Helen felt a guilty stab. That was exactly what Margery had told them.
    “But this killer is real,” Jim said. “I want to pay you to find him. We couldn’t save Ceci Odell, but it’s not too late to save me.”
    “Tell me something,” Phil said casually. “How did you get that information? That Ceci’s death is murder. The police don’t release autopsies in an open murder investigation.”
    “I told you: Becky is a friend,” Jim said. “She’s an ER nurse at Riggs Beach General Hospital. She has a friend who works at the Riggs County Medical Examiner’s Office. That’s how we do things here in Riggs Beach. There are no secrets in this city.”
    Except who killed Ceci Odell, Helen thought.
    “Wait! I forgot something else,” Sunny Jim said. “Becky told me there’s going to be a story about the medical examiner’s findings on the noon news. Channel Fifty-four again.”
    “We don’t have a TV,” Phil said.
    “But I have an app for Channel Fifty-four on my iPad,” Jim said. “They have streaming video. We can watch it here.”
    They ran for the trailer. “Maybe now I’ll catch a break,” he said. “Last time, Commissioner ‘Want More’ Wyman said my business wasn’t safe. It’s time for Fifty-four to tell the other side.”
    Good luck with that, Helen thought. You could trust Fifty-four to put the most sensational spin on any news.
    Jim called up the station on his iPad, and they crowded around his plywood desk to watch it.
    “The story is on now,” Jim said, turning up the sound.
    The same blond bubblehead was now reporting. She held a microphone up to a lean, lantern-jawed man identified on-screen as Riggs Beach crimes against persons detective Emmet Ebmeier.
    “We have investigated the victim’s husband,” he said. “Mr. Odell was on the beach in front of witnesses when the murder occurred. His recent cell phone records show no calls to anyone but friends and family members. We do not believe he harmed his wife. The medical examiner has released Mrs. Odell’s body to her husband.”
    “What about life insurance?” Helen asked the TV.
    The blond reporter never asked that key question. “We also interviewed Commissioner Charles Wyman at his office,” she said, “about this new development in the death of Mrs. Odell.”
    If the commissioner was lining his pockets with bribes, he sure wasn’t spending the money on his office decor, Helen thought. The walls were covered with cheap plywood paneling and plastered with framed certificates, plaques and photos. Wyman was sitting behind a dented black metal desk. His comb-over emphasized his balding scalp.
    “It is my duty to continue calling for more regulation for the water sports industry,” the commissioner said, his voice as thin and high as if he’d sucked helium. “The Riggs Beach tourism industry needs to meet the highest standards of safety.”
    “Will you be voting to renew the city lease for Sunny Jim’s Stand-Up Paddleboard Rental on Riggs Beach in June?” the blonde asked.
    “At this point in time,” he said, “I don’t believe renewing Jim’s lease is in the best interests of Riggs Beach. A tragedy occurred on his watch. Maybe it’s not his fault, but his beach business will be a constant reminder of that death. We can’t afford that on our beach.”
    “Then you’ll vote to give the space to a competitor?” the news anchor said.
    “That’s one option,” Commissioner Wyman said. “Another would be to use the area for more parking. I am carefully considering which would be best for the future prosperity of Riggs Beach.”
    “Hah!” Sunny Jim said. “He means the future prosperity of ‘Want More’ Wyman.”

CHAPTER 11
    “N ow what?” Helen asked Phil.
    The two partners of Coronado Investigations held a hasty meeting on a bench near Riggs Pier. Three feet away, a young mother washed salt and sand off her little girl. In front of them, two boys horsed around on boogie boards in the