Sunset Beach(124)

“I know where that is,” Drue said. “I’m gonna call Hernandez and tell her to check that out.”

Rae Hernandez picked up after the first ring. “No, we haven’t located Ben Fentress yet. And yes, we are actively looking. I met a St. Pete patrol unit at his address. He wasn’t there, but his car was. We even woke up his landlady, but she said she doesn’t keep tabs on him.”

“We think we know where he might be,” Drue said excitedly. She looked over at Jonah, who’d looked up the tournament information on his phone.

“It’s at that same place I went to,” Jonah confirmed. “It’s called Central Gaming.”

“Oh God,” Hernandez moaned. “My kid made me take him to one of those tournaments. Once and only once. A huge room full of testosterone-challenged dudes pretending to do battle with cartoon monsters and extraterrestrials. Kill me now.”

“So you’ll call me once you find him, right?” Drue repeated anxiously.

“I’ll call you, and then I’ll call your dad, who I just got off the phone with,” the detective promised and disconnected the call.

“I can’t sleep,” Drue told Jonah. “I’m dead on my feet, but I know I can’t sleep.”

“Me neither. You wanna watch some television?”

“Great idea, except I haven’t gotten around to having cable hooked up.” She pointed out the door. “We could take a walk on the beach.”

“I like it.” He picked up the revolver from the end table where she’d placed it. “We should take this, right?”

“What for? You don’t do guns, and I don’t have any pockets in these pants.”

He looked down at her. “Are those pajamas?”

“Who wants to know?”

“Okay, I’ll put it in my pocket.” He thrust it into his hip pocket, where it stuck out comically.

“No. You’ll probably shoot yourself in the nuts, like that guy in the Walmart.” Drue laughed. She knew she was punchy, but she didn’t care. “Leave it here.”

She went to her purse and dug out the can of Mace, which she promptly stuck in her bra.

“Where’d you get that?” he asked.

She rolled her eyes. “A gift from my ‘uncle Jimmy,’ as he put it. Let’s go.”



* * *



They kicked off their shoes and left them on the edge of the deck. When they got down to the water, they both rolled up their pant legs and walked companionably along, letting the warm water lap at their ankles.

At one point, Jonah stopped and pointed at the lights of Sharky’s. “Look,” he said, a devilish glint in his eye. “Someday, we’ll tell our kids that’s where we met. And had our first kiss.”

She shook her head and kept walking, smiling despite herself. She stopped, a couple hundred yards farther, and pointed to the dune line. “If I remember correctly, that’s actually where the first kiss occurred.”

He caught her hand in his and laughed. “And things went downhill from there, in a hurry.”

“I thought I told you none of that ever happened,” she said, giving him a stern look.

“How could I forget those golden hours in your arms?” Jonah teased.

“And how could I forget the sight of you doing the walk of shame the next morning,” she retorted.

They walked on and paused again, when they saw the mass of the Gulf Vista up ahead.

Drue shuddered involuntarily, thinking of Jazmin Mayes’s sad fate there.

“You know,” Jonah said, “I saw an article in the business section of the Tampa Bay Times this week. It said they’re going to rebrand the place, and knock down the original part of the hotel that dates from the 1970s. They’re going to build a fancy state-of-the-art spa and fitness center in its place.”

“That explains why that wing was almost totally vacant Friday night,” Drue said thoughtfully. “I guess it’s a good sign that they’ve got the money to expand. Hopefully, Dad is going to sue the living daylights out of them on behalf of Jazmin’s mom, now that we know the truth about how and when she was killed.”

He put his arm around her shoulders. “Did I tell you yet that I think it’s pretty cool what you did? Figuring everything out? Maybe you should think about going to law school and following in your old man’s footsteps.”

“Never,” she said quickly. “The thought of three more years of school is more than I can bear. Sitting at a desk all day? Like I do in that damned cubicle of mine? No thanks.”

“What about becoming an investigator? Like Zee. You never see him sitting at a desk.”

“It’s crossed my mind,” she admitted. “I always liked puzzles. And mysteries.”

“That’s how you got so wrapped up in that missing woman thing?”

“You heard?”

“Yeah. I only pretended to be asleep, to save Brice’s pride. But you don’t actually still believe that Zee or your dad had anything to do with that, right? I mean, Brice flat-out denied it.”

“And I want to believe him. I really do. But he lied to me about it from the beginning, and so did Zee. And the other thing is, which I didn’t bring up with my dad tonight, I actually went and talked to the last woman who ever saw Colleen Boardman Hicks. Her name is Vera Rennick. She worked at a dentist’s office with her. On the day Colleen disappeared, back in 1976, they went shopping and had dinner together. Colleen told her, ‘I’ll see you Monday.’ And then she vanished.”