While I slept it off; 100 feet away from me...

It was a little after 7:00 pm when James Smythe came up aside the camper he had parked along Beach Ave next to the boardwalk, where it ended. He had just gotten off of a divorce case where he had to reveal to the woman that her husband was indeed having an affair with someone else; another man, which hit her hard. The whole fiasco was settled (as far as his part went), and he e-mailed the rather raunchy pictures he took to the wife who immediately copied them over to her lawyer.

Behind his trailer, and on the other side of the boardwalk, a small beach party was taking place, with about 5 guys and 5 girls, and some creepy looking guy who was sitting on a bench

James finished filing away the photos to a folder, when one of the girls stood out from down on the beach, a 20 year old surfer girl with long, dirty-blonde hair, a light complexion and who stood at 5'5”. She wore a black wet-suit that augmented her already shapely figure. He motioned with the camera, and she quickly flexed her figure to him while he snapped a few pictures, including one where she exposed her bare breasts to him, despite the cold January night. This caused a negative reaction; not from the girl's friends,who seemed to pay it no mind, but from some creepy guy who was sitting on a bench on the boardwalk, at first he seemed to be disconnected from the group in any way, but it seemed as if he too had taken interest in the girl James was taking pictures of. James quickly snapped a picture of the man, sitting on the bench which had the surfer girl in the background. The guy suddenly got up and seemed to be coming at him. Very quickly.

James quickly snapped a picture of the man as he came head on, picked up the six pack and pizza and headed to the relative safety of his camper. He noticed the guy decided to head off towards the Inn on the other side of Beach Ave.

It wasn't long after that James put some old movie on and popped open the first of all six beers as he fell asleep watching the movie.

It was at 6am that James was awakened by a loud impatient banging on the door of the camper, and it seemed to have been going on for a while.

“Go away!” James said with a distinct groan.

“This is the county sheriff, open up!”

“Listen, if it's about my parking my camper here indefinitely in a metered spot without paying the meters, I can explain..., I think.”

“It's not about that,” the sheriff had a distinctively female voice, “it's about what happened outside your camper last night.”

“What happened outside my camper last night?” James continued to lay on the smallish couch, as he put a pillow over his head, “besides who cares about some damned beach party? Not me!”

“Open up!!”

“Fine,” James pulled the sheet that was covering him off, revealing that he was naked. “Let me just get some clothes on.”

“Make it quick.”

James parroted the words in a screechy voice as he threw his jeans and a shirt on. “What the hell's so fucking important anyway?”

“I can hear you mumbling in there, now, hurry up!”

“What the fuck do you want?” James threw the camper door open, to show a very attractive woman in her 30's in a Cape May County Sheriff's office. She had blonde braided hair, brown eyes and a light complexion. After seeing the attractiveness of the woman who stood before him, his demeanor changed. “Oh. Sorry, had a few beers last night and a little... you know.”

“I'm not worried about that,”

“So,” James quickly read the nametag, “Sheriff Kara Brolin. What are you worried about at 6:00 in the morning?”

“A body was found on the beach around 100 feet away from your camper--.”

“Body?” James said with a groan. “As in dead body?”

“If it were alive, we wouldn't be so concerned.” Brolin sighed. “Did you see or hear anything?”

“When I got home some surfer types were having a beach party, three girls and three guys, being watched by some creepy old man. I took a few pictures of one of the girls especially, and of the creepy old guy.”

“I see,” Brolin said, “can I see the pictures?”

“Of course,” James reached into the Camper, grabbed his cellphone, and called up the pictures he took, the first one that came up was of the surfer girl, “this is one of the pictures of the surfer girl.”

“Oh,” Officer Brolin said with a frown, “Buffy!!”

“Buffy?” James responded. “You know her?”

“Yeah,” Kara took a deep breath and began to get a little shook up, “She's my wife.”

“Your...,” James looked at the busty blonde in the picture, he had hoped she was single & available, “....Uh...” James was beginning to get a little sweaty, even though it was a cold January morning. “Listen. I...uh, didn't know she was anybody's wife, let alone yours. But by the way she was posing...I assumed--.”

“Let's just worry about the body.”

“It's not hers is it?”

“NO! It's not hers,” Brolin said with a cold look, as she scrolled through the pictures. “It's the guy in the other picture, but the transitional picture where he and Buffy are in the same frame indicates that she was one of the last people to see him alive!”

“Oh,”

“I just pray to God that Buffy's not going to be a serious suspect in all of this!!”

“She won't,” James instinctively wrapped his arms around the beautiful woman's shoulders and began to comfort her. “I promise.”

“Don't,” Brolin pushed James away a little bit more harshly than she intended, “just don't.”

“OK,” James said after recomposing himself, and remembering that he was standing on the edge of Beach Ave, where even on a cold January day in a primarily summer resort town, still had its share of onlookers. “So, besides Buffy, do we have any other possible suspects?”

“We? Your not too much of a part of this investigation. I only involved you as a potential witness, nothing more.”

“Actually,” it was time for James to pull out the Private Investor card, quite literally, “I am a fully licensed Private Investigator, and you involved me in this case the very second you knocked on my camper door.”

Officer Brolin sighed and rolled her eyes. “Fine. It's the middle of winter, and we're only down to a skeleton crew at the Sheriff's office, with them being a bunch of incompetents at that, so technically we could use your help. But at what cost?”

“Not monetary payment.”

“Then how?” Brolin was afraid to ask.

James looked down at the picture of Buffy on his cellphone, he had zoomed the picture in, to get a better look at her near perfect body.

“Fuck no!”

“Then you can find the killer yourself,” James headed back towards the door to his camper.

“No, we will pay you the going rate per hour with no contact with Buffy; end of story.”

“Just for one night, whatever she allows, whether it's a Bible Study and tea, or full blown sex.”

“For God's sake, she is my wife, and I am an officer of the law, I could send you upstate just for suggesting such a thing!”

“That may be true,” James pondered, as James pulled up the picture of Buffy exposing her breasts to the camera, “but then why did your wife so willingly pose for a series of pictures if she were so happily married?”

Kara looked at the picture with a sigh; Buffy must have found something she liked about the guy, otherwise she wouldn't have gone into a pose for him to begin with. “Buffy is more bisexual and promiscuous than where I, I'm more of a strict lesbian, and we are in an open relationship. So--.”

“So a one night stand, whatever happens happens.”

“NO!” Kara barked out. “We are going to talk about this later with Buffy involved.”

“OK,” James said with a calming tone, “OK.”

James decided to change the subject. “So, any other suspects?”

“Obviously the other surfers she was with,” Brolin pointed to the picture of the other surfers in the background of the picture.

“Maybe,” James turned his attention to the body on the beach, “let's take a quick look at the body.”

The two of them went to where the two deputies were watching the body, a large sheet covered it. He was expecting the murder to be up close and personal, with knife wounds to the chest and extremities, but there was none of that. In fact, it seemed as though he was shot in the back from some distance, but he needed a few other people here to complete his little investigation. “Have you tried to call Buffy to see where she is?”

“To be honest, I had no idea she was even a suspect in all of this until a few minutes ago,” Brolin sighed as she pulled out her cellphone and called Buffy's number.

“Hello?” Buffy's voice was groggy, like she were still sleeping.

“It's me Kara,”

“Hey babe, what's up?”

“Were you at one of your famous beach parties last night?”

“Of course.”

“Where was it?”

“Uh, yeah. It was on the main beach up by Madison. Why?”

“Did anything unusual happen?”

“Nothing particular,” Buffy said offhandedly, then recanted, “Oh, wait, there was this guy who lived out of this camper that was parked next to where the boardwalk ends. He seemed kind of attractive, so I posed for a few pictures. Nothing too major though.”

“Uh-huh,” Kara looked at the topless picture of Buffy with a hint of concern. “Anything happen after that?”

“Oh, right after there was this creepy old man who seemed to take offense of the guy taking pictures of me, but he took off in a huff.”

“After?”

“It was getting too cold to do much of anything, so most of us went home.”

“Most?” Brolin asked. “Who stayed?”

“Oh, just Bobby and one of the other girls.”

“I see, so you know nothing about what happened after that?”

“Why? Should I?”

“Not particularly,” Brolin sighed, “at least I hope not.”

“What does that mean?”

“We found...something on the beach.”

“What kind of something?” Buffy asked with a groan.

“Just come down here. And bring Bobby and the other girl with you if you can.”

“OK, I'll be there in a few.” At that the conversation was ended.

It was less than 10 minutes later and Buffy and Kara were standing next to the Sheriff's car, with them were Bobby and Cindy, the girl who stayed behind with him. James came out of his camper, after excusing himself to make himself a very strong cup of black coffee during the 10 minute wait.

Kara looked up to see James approaching. “This is James Smythe, he is going to be helping me out through the course of this investigation.”

“Investigation?” Buffy asked in complete fear. “What kind of an investigation? Am I in some sort of trouble?”

“I hope not,” Kara said softly, “God, I hope not.”

“W-what's going on?” Buffy was getting nervous.

James held up his cellphone with the image of the creepy old man. “Have you seen this man before?”

“Of course,” Buffy looked at the pictures, then at James, “he's the old creep who took aversion of you snapping a few pictures of me.”

“This is true.”

“About the posing,” Buffy stammered out, “and me letting you take a few pictures--.”

“We'll talk about that later,” Both Kara and James said in unison.

“I'm not worried about that,” Kara continued, as she patted her hand through Buffy's hair, “I know it was you being you.”

“OK,” Buffy said, as she leaned into Kara for a quick hug.

“Sorry,” Kara pulled back and motioned to the badge on her chest, “time for me to go back into Sheriff mode.”

“Oh,” Buffy said sharply, “right. So what exactly are we here for? Is it something about that guy? Because he left out before I did. Bobby and Cindy were the only ones who stayed behind.”

“This is true,” Bobby said, “shortly after Buffy left, Cindy and I were trying to make the best of the little campfire we made on the beach before it went out, and that's when the creep in the picture came back.”

“What happened then?” Officer Brolin asked.

“He began to come up to me,” Cindy said slowly, “tried to touch me....I think he wanted to... to... rape me.”

“So you shot him,” James said bluntly.

“NO!” Cindy said almost with a scream. “None of us even had a gun!”

“OK,” Officer Brolin said.

“So what happened?”

“I just simply knocked him to the ground and ran off,” Cindy said.

“After all, two athletic young adults can run faster that some 60 year old man with a limp.” James added.

“We were down by Madison before he was even able to work his way up!”

“Still doesn't explain how he was killed.” Buffy furrowed her eyebrows.

“We're still trying to figure that one out,” James said

“Why don't we go take a look at the body,” Officer Brolin guided Buffy and the others down to where the body was.

“Body? You mean...the creepy guy is dead?”

“Yes honey, he is.”

“And Bobby, Cindy and I are all suspects in a...murder?”

“For the moment,” Officer Brolin frowned.

“You consider me, your own wife a suspect in the murder of a creepy freak?” Buffy motioned to James. “What about him? He was less than 100 feet away in that camper, which is illegally parked BTW!”

“That's not fair!” James barked out.

“WE--.” Kara screamed out as she glare at her young wife. When she realized what she was doing, she took a deep breath. “We are trying to sort all of this out.”

“Besides,” James added, as he went into pi mode,“he was shot in the back. If these footprints are his, then he was heading towardsMadison at no more than a limp, with his back at the inn across the street.”

Brolin went through the bag of personal effects, and she found a passkey for one of the rooms at said inn, a wallet with an out of state ID and a few other items. “I have a key for one of the rooms and his name seems to be Drago Lance.”

“OK,” James looked at Buffy, who was about to break down, “I'll go check out the room, should only take a minute, you... go into wife mode with Buffy.”

“But--.”

“Just do it!” James barked as Brolin emotionally melted out of her Sheriff's mode, and into wife mode. Meanwhile he made the short jog across the street to the Inn and went up to the service desk. “I'm looking for room 201, should be a Drago Lance registered.”

“Yes, he and his wife are registered here.”

“Anybody up there now?”

“Not sure,” the desk attendant shrugged.

“I see,”

“The room has a nice view of the beach.”

“That's what I'm counting on. You hear any strange noises coming from that room?”

“Mister, I usually ignore ANY strange strange noises coming from any of the rooms, unless there's murder involved.”

“Well, there was murder involved. Drago's body was found on the beach across the street.”

“Body?”

“And it's quite possible he was shot from room 201,”

“Oh,” the desk clerk fell into the lean-back chair as James made his way up the stairs

James stood outside room 201 and knocked on the door for a few seconds, the door opened with a start, an older woman stood at the other side of the door.

“Hello--.”

The woman looked in the general direction of the beach, as James took a quick look around the small room. Bags were packed, and a compact rifle sitting on the bags, with shell casings scattered on the floor,. The room had a perfect view of where the body was found. She pushed past James with a “Fuck!”

As the woman made her way down the stairs, he followed after, as he got outside, he called out to Brolin and the others. “That's the killer!”

Everyone from Brolin and Buffy to the two useless deputies to Bobby and Cindy all converged on the woman in their own way, until they began to form a circle around the woman, who had a gun and began to randomly shoot. One of the bullets hit Brolin square in the chest, as Buffy picked up speed and threw herself in the air at the woman. She “flew” several feet in the air and tackled the woman.

Brolin made her way to the woman, the bullet had ripped her jacket up, but was stopped by the bulletproof vest. “I'm placing you under arrest, for the murder of Drago Lance, as well as shooting at an officer of the law.”

“I didn't---.” Ella Lance began, but was cut off.

“There's a rifle up in the room that was recently fired, with several used shell-casings on the floor and a clear view of the body.”

“Alright,” Ella struggled with the handcuffs that were placed on her wrists. “I'll confess. My husband and I came to Cape May in the middle of winter because he had some business to do in town, and we decided to stay the weekend. I assumed there would be nobody here, but these damned kids had their beach party, where Drago took special interest in them. After he tried to rape one of the girls, I had enough of his nonsense, so I shot him from the room in the Inn.”

“I see,” Sheriff Brolin sighed, as she turned to the two deputies, “take her to the station, I'll fully prosecute her when I get there; I have a few minor details to attend to .”

“Ah,” James looked at Kara, “about Buffy.”

“Please,” Brolin pleaded as she removed her bullet proof vest, as Buffy embraced her, “not now.”

“No, I was a bit of a jerk before when I said what I said,” James shrugged, “Maybe it was all still from the beers I had. Besides, I'm an investigator who handles domestic situations; I'm supposed to try to stop them, not be the cause of them. Besides, you and Buffy need one another right now, and I shouldn't be in the middle of things between you two.”

“What's he talking about?” Buffy's eyes furrowed.

“It's nothing to worry about,” Sheriff Brolin turned to Buffy as James disappeared into the camper, she then lead Buffy to the vehicle she was driving. “I'm going to try and process this woman, then attempt to get the next few days off as personal days.”

James stood inside his camper and watched as Kara and Buffy drove off towards the station. “Goodbye Buffy.”

He then scrolled through the pictures, and deleted all of the pictures of Buffy and creepy Drago, went back to bed and tried to pass off the last hour as a bad dream.