Sunset Beach(77)

The smile faded fast. He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I can’t really help you. I left Gulf Vista a couple months before that happened.”

“I know that,” Drue said. “I’ve spoken to Detective Hernandez, the investigator from the Treasure Island Police Department. And I’ve spoken to one of Jazmin’s friends who worked with her. They said you and Jazmin were dating pretty seriously.”

“We were,” he said. He looked around the lobby, which was deserted. “Look, there isn’t much I can tell you. And I’m working, so I can’t really talk right now.”

“When do you get to take a break?” Drue asked, not ready to give up now that she had Jorge Morales in her sights. “I can wait. Maybe you’d let me buy you a cup of coffee so we can talk?”

“I don’t know what I can tell you,” he repeated. “I was working here that night.”

“I know. I checked. But I need to talk to everybody who knew Jazmin back then, who’d worked at the resort. Did you know that Jazmin’s mother tried to sue the hotel for criminal negligence? The hotel claimed she was working that night, so my father had to settle it as a worker’s comp case. The money will be in a trust for Aliyah, but it will only be a hundred and thirty-five thousand dollars, which Yvonne can’t touch, not even for Aliyah’s medical expenses.”

“That’s all?” Jorge’s face registered his disgust. “You know, I tried to get Jaz to quit that place. The management, they didn’t care about back-of-house staff. Jaz applied for a job here, but there weren’t any openings at the time. And then … it was too late.”

“That’s the kind of thing I want to discuss with you,” Drue said. “So, what about it? Can we talk when you take your break?”

“I guess. Can you come back around eleven?”

She winced. Tomorrow was a workday. “No sooner than that?”

He pulled up a screen on his computer and ran a finger down the listings. “Looks like I only have one late check-in. It’s pretty slow tonight.” He slid a business card across the Formica countertop to her. “Call me in an hour. If it stays quiet, you can come back and we’ll talk. Unless I get a check-in.”



* * *



Remembering her mother’s long-ago advice that it was always better to beg forgiveness than ask for permission, Drue bought two coffees at the Starbucks a few blocks away and arrived back at the Silver Sands thirty minutes later.

She waited while Jorge handed a packet of keys and a hotel brochure to a young couple with a sleeping infant draped over the mother’s shoulder. When they’d headed out of the lobby, she presented him with the coffee.

“Is now a good time?”

“Okay,” he relented. “Those folks were my late check-ins. The phones are quiet.” He pointed across the lobby at a pair of armchairs. “We can talk over there.”

Drue showed Jorge her cell phone. “I’m going to tape this, if that’s okay with you.”

“I have no problem with that,” Jorge said. “But first, tell me about Aliyah. Is she okay?”

“I guess you know Yvonne is raising her?”

“I figured. You know, I only met Aliyah once or twice, and I never met Jaz’s mom. I didn’t want us to be a secret, but Jaz said her mom would never accept her dating a Latino.” Jorge looked down at his hands. For the first time, Drue noticed he wore a gold wedding band.

He saw what she was looking at. “Yeah. I got married a couple months ago. I actually met Melissa when she was staying here for her best friend’s wedding, and we hit it off. Funny thing, she’s got a daughter just about the same age as Aliyah.”

“Jazmin would want you to be happy, wouldn’t she?” Drue asked. It was a cliché, but she didn’t know what else to say. Besides, clichés were usually true, right?

“I think so,” he said. “Jaz was great. We had a lot of fun. Not many people knew she had a goofy side to her. She’d been through some rough stuff, you know? But she was smart. She took a couple classes at USF and made good grades. She was a good person.”

“So I’ve heard,” Drue said. “Jorge, did she ever tell you somebody at the hotel was sexually harassing her? An older white guy?”

“What? She never said anything about it to me. Where’d you hear that?”

“She told her mom that she’d complained to the management, but they never did anything about it.”

“This is the first I’m hearing about it, but yeah, I can totally believe that. The atmosphere over there, it’s not professional. At all.”

“How do you mean?”

“The men who worked there? They were all the time making dirty comments about the females on the staff and the guests. I’m no prude, but it was pretty disgusting, if you ask me.”

“Can you give me some examples?”

“Yeah. Like the head of security? His name is Shelnutt, and he’s a piece of crap. He’d have what he called ‘porn parties.’ He was the one monitoring the security cameras around the property, and he’d make what he called his ‘greatest hits’ clips—you know, lots of tits and ass: chicks around the pool or on the beach who didn’t have their bathing suit tops fastened, people in the hallways who’d come out half dressed, and his favorite, people getting it on in the elevators.” He looked away, embarrassed. “I went to one of his parties once, to show I was one of the guys, but it was just gross. I made up some excuse and ducked out after about fifteen minutes and never went back.”