Death With An Ocean View (A Kate Kennedy Mystery Book 1) by Noreen Wald Page B

Boulevard; he’s been there for years. I’m worried about him.”
    “Well, no.” The young woman chuckled. “These guys are always taking off. And they aren’t real employees. It’s kinda freelance work. They show up, they get the papers, they make some booze money. If they don’t show up…there’s always another bum…if ya get my drift.”
    Kate got her drift; it oozed down, blanketing Kate in depression.
    She had no better luck trying to reach Nancy Cooper at the Palmetto Beach Gazette. The society editor’s voicemail indicated that she’d be out of the office all morning. Kate left a message, saying she’d drop by around three.
    After two strikes, Kate fed her frustration with a strawberry yogurt, putting banana slices and a crumbled corn muffin on top. Then she grabbed the Westie’s leash. “Now settle down, Ballou. You and I are going to the pier, and by God, we’re going to get to first base.”

      
    The wrecking ball, though inert at the moment, looked poised to knock down the Neptune Inn. The restaurant next to the pier, a Palmetto Beach landmark for over forty years, which served the best shrimp salad in South Florida, had been deemed expendable by Sea Breeze Inc.
    Kate was standing on the southwest corner of Neptune Boulevard and A1A. Cranes and tractors and other more exotic high-tech equipment, all weapons of destruction, and all marked with Sea Breeze’s logo, filled the public parking lot on the northwest side of the boulevard.
    The parking lot, once enhanced, would serve the new resort hotel and ice rink, being built directly across AlA on the pier and on the beach front adjacent to it, and would charge a hefty fee. The residents of Palmetto Park, who’d used the public lot to go to the beach and to the library, located at its far end, would have to scrounge for street parking. Over a half mile of Palmetto Beach’s public beach was now Sea Breeze’s property. And despite the company and its CEO’s unsavory reputation, this deal had been approved by the mayor and council.
    Kate glanced south at Ocean Vista, a white tower with the morning sun highlighting its art deco design. Location. Location. Location. Being right on the beach and the nearest condo to the pier always had been considered a plus—except on Friday nights when the band at the Neptune Inn had kept the left-wing condo owners awake till all hours—but now Ocean Vista’s proximity had become a terrible liability.
    The Sea Breeze Hotel would have three hundred rooms. No matter how much the company enlarged the public parking lot, and rumor had it that the library might be in jeopardy, there still wouldn’t be enough parking places. That was why David Fry had petitioned the city council to exercise the right of eminent domain—to buy Ocean Vista, raze it, and then, for the common good, build a parking garage.
    A wave of righteous indignation swept over Kate. How dare Sea Breeze Inc. and that dreadful David Fry swoop down like vultures and steal or swindle so much beachfront and pier property away from an inept, or even worse, crooked council, and then try to tear down her home? No wonder Stella had wanted to fight them all.
    Kate segued from anger to amusement. She stared up at the blue sky as a parasail, propelled by a motor boat passed by. “Okay, Charlie, you win. I’ve just become a citizen of Palmetto Beach.”
    She and Ballou crossed the road and walked toward the end of the pier. Most of the stores were boarded up. The Sea Shell Shoppe had hung a sign saying FORCED OUT OF BUSINESS, next to an American flag. The yogurt kiosk, where Kate and Charlie had bought cones when they’d been down visiting Marlene, was gone—leaving only a large dark sticky stain in its wake.
    Kate stared out at the ocean, its leisurely ripples lapping against the shore. Palmetto Beach boasted the widest, most beautiful expanse of sand in South Florida. A mother, with two toddlers working as apprentices, was building a sand castle. Three