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“I know so. It’s pure genius what you’ve done.”
The woman lifted a shoulder. “I pick up things nobody else wants. I’m a thrifter by necessity and a scavenger because it’s fun. Caleb let me have the concrete mermaid and bunny statues for free if I’d haul them away. I got myself an old clunker of a truck in the garage for hauling stuff around. Caleb swore those got cracked in shipping. He lets me know when there’s other crap he doesn’t want. Whatever it is, I’ll take it. I bring the stuff home. I can always find a spot in my garden for something new or broken. I make sure nothing goes to waste.”
“It’s lovely. What about the clawfoot tub?”
“Jordan gave me that when she and Nick were remodeling the B&B. She also gives me lots of stuff she doesn’t want anymore. This bistro set came from her and all those brass pots. So you aren’t here to talk about Vera?”
“You sound disappointed.”
“I suppose I am, a little. When Vera passed away last spring, I didn’t think much about it. But now that I’ve had time to think about her odd behavior sometimes, I realize there was something strange about that woman.”
“Like what?”
“Vera had this habit of not wanting people in the house. Then after my husband ran off with another woman, the news spread like wildfire. She came over one day and asked me over for lunch. Blew me away. I thought that was weird. She must’ve trusted me after that because our Saturday lunches became a thing. We took turns. That went on for ten years or more. But every time I was in her house, I did notice the cats spent a lot of time upstairs. You remember weird things like that when you discover a person had a dead body in a bedroom all this time.” Tazzie shuddered. “Gives me the willies.”
“Do you remember Gidget?”
“I remember when it happened. Afterward, my parents freaked out. They wouldn’t let me out the front door without me reciting chapter and verse where I was headed. I never had kids of my own. But I can see it now—how the over-protectiveness kicked in. My parents were on my back after that girl died. Don’t do this. Don’t be out after dark—that sort of thing. No one was more annoying than my parents. But now I get them. It was a dangerous world out there. I grew up here, you know, in this same house. When my husband Dennis ran off with his little piece on the side, I had to move back in with my mom. Like a fool, I kept thinking he’d come to his senses. But he never did. Dennis has a wife and kids now. Anyway, my mom died a couple of years after my divorce, and I got this house. Luckily, it’s paid for.”
“Did you know anything about Gidget?”
Tazzie narrowed her eyes to slits. “If I knew her name don’t you think I would’ve come forward by now to Brent? I saw her several times at the beach during the week she was here. But we didn’t mingle other than to wave at each other. But if you ask me, I think she desperately tried to fit in because she flirted with all the guys.”
“To name a few, that would be Boomer and Zephyr, right?”
“Boomer? Ah, yes, Richie, for sure. Definitely Lex Luthor and Diego, probably Cruz, and maybe Tolkien. But not Zeph. Zeph was different, more mature than all the rest. He wasn’t the kind of guy who let a teenager call the shots. Plus, he was deep even back then. He and Tolkien used to read all the time.”
“Lex Luthor? Those were nicknames, right?” Brogan asked, jotting down the information and trying to keep up.
“Yep. Lex Luthor, the supervillain, nemesis to Superman. We called Leon that because he was mean sometimes, a bully. He’d pick on the younger kids and pick fights with people. And he had a shaved head. He wasn’t bald. He just liked to shave his head to look like a badass. We called Mike ‘Diego’ because he was from San Diego. We called Dennis—the man I eventually married—‘Cruz’ because he came up from Santa Cruz to surf all the time, although I thought it was to see me. Again, the stupid girl I was didn’t know anything about life. I didn’t know then that Dennis was a serial cheater.”
“I’m sorry. Where is Dennis living now?”
“Where else? When Dennis left me for that cheap hussy, he moved back to Santa Cruz.”
“What can you tell me about Tolkien? What was his real name?”
“James Meadows. But sometimes, we called him Jimbo. He read all of Tolkien’s books, hence the name Tolkien. Jimbo used to carry around Tolkien’s paperbacks instead of schoolbooks. I remember how worn and dog-eared the books were. Whenever we had a bonfire, Tolkien would quote huge paragraphs fromThe Lord of the Rings. I had such a crush on him, especially when he recited poetry. The guy had a beautiful voice. He could’ve been a singer.”
“Do you remember the last names of the others?”
“Oh, wow. You’re asking me to go back forty-five years and drag something like that out of my foggy brain. There’s Dennis, of course. His last name is Marshall. It was mine for almost twenty years. Boomer was Richie Plunkett. Leon/Lex Luthor, I’m not so sure about his. I think it was something like Gilbert or Gibson. I’ll have to think about that one. I’m pretty sure Mike’s was Holcomb. He ended up moving back to San Diego to care for his dad. That would be easy enough to check. Zephyr was…wow…I’m coming up a blank. I don’t think I ever heard anyone call him anything but Zeph.”
“Do any of these people besides Zeph and Richie still live in the area?”
“I don’t know about Zeph. I see Richie sometimes, though. I heard Tolkien died of cancer a few years back in San Sebastian. I don’t know what happened to Lex Luthor.”
“What about your friends at school?”
“I’m not following. Everybody I talked about was in my same class at school except for Dennis and Zeph. Dennis went to school in Santa Cruz. Zeph had already graduated and joined the Coast Guard. But even then, he hung out here at the beach when he was in town. I remember him getting married at some point.”
“I know this is asking a lot, but would you happen to have any photos from that time in your life, specifically the summer of 1978?”
“I’m sure I do. But my photo albums are probably buried somewhere in the garage.”
“Would it be too much trouble to look for them and give me a call when you find them?”
Tazzie let out a sigh. “I guess. I suppose I owe you for the goodies you brought. First chance I get, I’ll dig through the garage. But it sounds like you’re suggesting that one of these guys is responsible for killing the Jane Doe.”
