Vicious Carousel (Suncoast Society #25)(57)

“And you’re not there?”

“No, we’re home. What’s going on?”

“Fuck me, get her on the phone, right now, and get your asses moving over there. He’s out on f*cking bail.”

“What?”

Nolan sat up. “What?”

As Ed talked, Kenny stood and rounded the bed, grabbed Nolan’s phone from the bedside table, punched Betsy’s number in, and shoved the phone at him after he hit connect.

“The state attorney’s office didn’t call me on my sat phone like I told them to if there was a development,” Ed said. “They couldn’t stop him from making bail.”

“When did this happen? What about the bond reduction being denied? He goes on trial next week!”

“No shit, Sherlock. Apparently one of his relatives died and there was some money, and someone was dumb enough to post the original bail amount for him. He’s been out since late Wednesday your time.”

“Shit!” He looked at Nolan, who held up his phone and shook his head. Kenny circled a finger at him, indicating for him to try again. “Fucking Wednesday?”

“Yeah. As soon as you have eyes on her, call me at this number. Write it down, it’s my sat phone.” Kenny ran out into the kitchen and grabbed the notepad from the counter to write it down. He repeated it back.

“Good. As soon as you are with her. I’ll be waiting.”

Nolan had followed him down the hall. “What’s going on? He made bail?”

“No time. Get dressed.” It was almost six thirty. “We have to go over there.”

“She won’t be there,” Nolan said. “June was picking her up early this morning for a girl’s day, remember?”

“Call June. If you can’t get her, call Scrye, wake his ass up. We still need to get over to the apartment.”

Fear had completely blown what little remnants of sleep had remained totally out of his system. He ran back to the bedroom and pulled on clothes as Nolan trailed behind him.

“June’s voice mail picks up.”

“Leave her a message. Call Betsy’s phone back, leave her one, too. Let’s get moving.”





Kenny didn’t know if he should feel relieved or even more worried when they arrived at the apartment and found no sign of either woman there. June’s car was gone, and Betsy’s sat parked in her usual spot. There were no signs of anything being amiss, except the coffee in the pot was still warm even though the machine had been shut off.

They’d gotten Scrye on the phone, who said he’d try them, but he didn’t know where they’d went, other than morning tai chi on the beach, and then a planned nature walk.

Fuck, as if there weren’t hundreds of miles of Florida Gulf beaches stretching in either direction.

Scrye was going to look through June’s calendar and laptop browser history to see if there were any clues. He suggested they call around to some of the other women to see if they knew where the pair had gone.

Unfortunately, three calls later, and they still didn’t know. Plus they’d discovered from Loren, call number three, that Tilly was back out in LA.

“Call Tilly,” Loren said. “She’ll know if anyone will. I don’t know anything other than what Scrye told you.”

“How can you guys not know where they went?” Kenny practically screeched.

Loren sounded more awake now. “Look, I know you’re scared, but that’s not helping. We’re friends. We’re not each other’s mommies. I couldn’t tell you where the place is Eliza takes her for the self-defense classes, either. Or the name of the gun range Laura and Gabe took her. There’s something else, call Bill and Gabe. They’re law enforcement.”

He hated to do it, but while Nolan called Bill and Gabe, he called Tilly.

She answered on the third ring, her voice thick with sleep. “Goddammit, Cris, I told you, I’m still in f*cking LA until Tuesday. If you’ve called me from New York and woken me up again, I’m going to beat you mysel—”

“Tilly, it’s Kenny.”

There was a pause. Then, it sounded like a totally different woman was speaking to him. A wide-awake and wary woman. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

“Where did June take Betsy this morning?”

“What? What the hell is going on?”

“Tilly, it’s important. Please, do you know where June and Betsy went?”

“Some beach thing. Why?”

He nearly burst into tears of frustration as he told her what had happened. When he finished, it sounded like Tilly was up and moving.

And she was now definitely awake. “Motherf*cking goddamned dickcheese * f*cking f*ckwads!” She took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay, let me think. Hold on.” It sounded like she was tapping on a computer keyboard. “Bets sent me some pics once, of a beach. Said it was the first place June had taken her, and she liked to go there.”

“Which one—”

“I’m working on it!” More tapping. “I don’t remember off-hand, sorry. They’ve got to be in my e-mail. Hold on.”

He looked over at Nolan, who shook his head from where he was talking to someone.

No luck there.

Finally, Tilly said, “Okay, got ’em. Let me look at them.”