Alone at the Beach House

The beauty of Chesapeake Bay, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware, is unmatched for vacationers. The Chesapeake is a haven for summer residents from the inland areas. To summer on the Chesapeake is to find old friends, swim, boat, and fish in the sparkling blue water expanse. Mary Ellen has brought her children to enjoy their time off from school while her husband Tony balances work with the summer fun.

Beach House Chapter One

Mary Ellen brings her children on the boat to Sabines Island. Through the binoculars, she is stunned to see the orange Mustang in her beach house driveway. Her husband Tony is alone painting the house and the car belongs to a 23-year-old provocative woman, Su Lee a woman with a ‘reputation.’

Kel, a retired police officer is a trusted friend listens to Mary Ellen’s concerns about Su Lee. Mary Ellen can clearly see the Mustang at the beach house.

I saw this Alfred Hitchcock production long after I wrote the Beach House book.

“Forecast: Low Clouds and Coastal Fog” Inger Stevens plays a newlywed left alone in a fogbound beach house by her older husband who’s away on a business trip to San Francisco. There’s beach guys hanging around and a screenwriter all who provide human contact but she’s basically alone. A Hispanic man (Sanchez) comes to the beach house asking for help. Inger Stevens (Karen) leaves him on his own leading to unforeseen and deadly circumstances.

Tony isn’t answering the phone, despite Mary Ellen’s voicemails and with Mary Ellen on the island with Kel and the kids, Tony is leaving for Seattle in two hours. Back at the house Mary Ellen walks Eloise and stares at the paint splattered ladder. She asks him: ” So Tony how was your afternoon?” Then she confronts Tony about Su Lee and he doesn’t reply. Later Tony claims that Su Lee was returning software that he lent to her in the bar where she works.

Kel alludes to the violent deaths of two men in the area. One man fell off a jetty and the other had a Corvette tumble off a ramp and kill him. Su Lee was seen with the other man in Willoughby’s Tavern the night before he died. “Something isn’t right with that woman,” says Kel. I would cast an older James Garner as Kel.

Beach House Chapter Four

Mary Ellen thinks she smells the perfume Night Sin inside the beach house. Then the slider glass breaks and someone crushes the outside gravel. Red taillights disappear up the road. Eloise is missing. The palm oil scent of Night Sin is prevalent in the outside shower. Later she thinks she sees Su Lee in the grocery store, but it’s another woman. At home there are signs that someone has been in the house. Did Su Lee have the keys to the Beach House?

How about Night Call from the Twilight Zone? Written by the great Richard Matheson who wrote Bid Time Return which became Somewhere in Time.

Elva Keen is an infirmed elderly woman getting phone calls from a moaning caller. The moan morphs into: “Where are you?” and “I want to talk to you.” The caller is an elusive acquaintance named Brian who’s residence is a few feet below ground in the local graveyard. Point being: Trapped alone and helpless for whatever circumstance is terrifying. Perhaps this episode should be called- Sorry Wrong number. (lol)

Kel confronts the sexy Su Lee at the bar Barnacle Bills and is not immune from her charms. But as he leaves, he spots a dealer’s logo on the Mustang: Cross Brother’s Motors. Kel continues his investigation, hoping to score ” the big one.”

Mary Ellen spots numerous footprints in the sand. Was Su Lee responsible for the deaths of two local married men? Perhaps Su Lee had run up from the beach and scaled the second-floor window of the beach house. Then-a frightening message:

She attempts to confront Su Lee at the bar but Su Lee has taken a few days off. She drives up to Northgate Condos, Unit 42B, Su Lee’s condo. No one is there. Kel makes some calls. One of the widows, a Mrs. Twombly said Twombly met Su Lee at a bar and Mrs. Twombly caught Su Lee on the beach fooling around with her husband. And Twombly was a perfectionist and would have checked those ramps that caused the car to fall on him. Also, the other man who died was verified as spending time with Su Lee in the Pocanos. Mary Ellen freaks out when her neighbor back home tells her that an orange Mustang was in her driveway for fifteen minutes. Kel is denied by the local police chief when he asks that the deaths of those two men to be labeled murders.

Tony returns to Binghamton Beach. He will be spending the next two weeks at the beach with Mary Ellen and the family which he does right away. A phone call from Su Lee to Tony upsets the reconciliation with Mary Ellen. The next day she confronts Su Lee at the beach and has a physical altercation. ” He’s mine!” says Su Lee.

The next day Tony is dead, haven fallen from the ladder while painting the house. And this is where things get interesting as Kel tries to prove the crime and Su Lee has not yet gotten her revenge. And Mary Ellen is alone.