“We already knew that. It doesn’t mean Bobby cheated on you.”
“I know. Let’s stop this depressing talk and get going.”
* * *
Shannon, Jake, and Debi walked onto the patio at the back of the hotel. A local band was playing reggae music, and the floor was packed.
Jake led them to a table at the edge of the restaurant. Shannon slipped off her sandal and dipped her toe into the sand. Just like the Bahamas to have a place where she could put her feet in the sand when she ordered drinks.
She waited for the drinks while Jake and Debi had the first dance. She scanned the crowd, taking in the mixture of people. Some cruisers like her, some Bahamians, and some tourists probably staying at the hotel.
The local women wore the fanciest clothes, hairstyles, and makeup, making Shannon feel a bit underdressed.
One woman caught her eye. She recognized her from somewhere but couldn’t place her. The woman smiled at her, and she smiled back.
The woman must have taken that as an invitation to talk because she sashayed over to Shannon.
“You’re Charlie’s friend, from the clinic,” the woman said. “I’m Daisha.”
The red lipstick with matching nail polish triggered Shannon’s memory. “Nice to meet you.”
“How do you know Charlie?”
“I’m his sister. Did you just meet him?”
Daisha laughed, and her bosom bounced in unison. “We had a thing last year.”
Shannon choked on her drink. “A thing?”
“You know, sugar. We had some special times. He’s not so interested this year. Does he have a new girlfriend?”
Jake and Debi finished dancing and walked toward Shannon. She shook her head in a quick motion, and Jake grabbed Debi’s elbow and turned her back to the dance floor.
“Not that I know of. But I’m only his sister. I don’t know much about what he does. I didn’t know he dated you last year.”
“Hmmm. We had a nice thing. I was hoping he’d be here tonight.”
“Did you visit him on his uncle’s boat?”
Daisha’s eye’s widened, and she laughed again. “I don’t go out to sea. I don’t swim. Charlie had a room here,” she pointed above the dance floor, “for about a month. Then one day he was gone.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“I just showed up here, and the clerk said he’d checked out. No goodbye or nothin’.”
“I’m sorry he treated you that way.”
“Don’t be sorry, sugar. I got me a new man.” Daisha pointed to a guy dancing with another woman. “Time to go.” She wiggled her way to her boyfriend.
The music changed to a slow melody. Jake returned Debi to the table and pulled Shannon by the hand. She eased into his body, letting herself flow with him. His chest muscles pressed against her breasts. One hand rested on the small of her back, the other between her shoulder blades. A shiver started at the top of her spine and ended at her feet. She pressed her nose into his neck and inhaled. Sea, salt air, and soap.
His lips touched her ears. “Who’s your new friend?”
She tingled at the softness of his lips. The heat of his breath made her pulse race. She was acting like a teenager at her first school dance, but that didn’t make the sensations any less real. Focus. She needed to focus on his question.
“Daisha. She knew Charlie.”
Shannon danced Jake to the other side of the floor by pushing her hips gently into his. With each step, she slowed, making sure the time across the floor lasted as long as possible.
“Let’s go outside for a moment.” She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the foyer and out onto the street.
“She told you something interesting?”
“Frightening.” Shannon repeated her conversation with Daisha.
“So he was here for a full month. He said he was only here for a couple of days.”
“That can’t be good.”
“It might not mean anything. Let’s talk to Charlie before we jump to conclusions.”
“You are such a nice man.”
“Not always. Let’s go back in before Debi notices we’re gone.”
Shannon stood on her toes, leaned forward, and kissed his cheek. She ran back inside before he could respond.
* * *
Shannon rolled over in her berth and took in Debi’s face. Sun shone through the side window onto her aunt’s cheeks, and her peaceful expression contrasted with what Shannon witnessed regularly during the waking hours since Nicole died.
What was Charlie up to? He must have his reasons for hiding the length of last year’s visit. She just couldn’t come up with anything logical. Maybe he would leave soon, and she wouldn’t have to confront him. He didn’t seem to be happy here. He’d been adding to the tension on the boat, and she was getting sick of sharing the queen size berth.
They’d been happy last night dancing at the bar without Charlie. Jake had danced with both her and Debi, but she noticed he’d saved the slow dances for her. She remembered the pressure of his hands on her back, the tickle of his breath on her neck, and wanted more. Except every time they got close to one another, one of them pulled away. The same yo-yo emotions controlled both of them.
Jake wasn’t the only person she had mixed feelings for. She’d never doubted her aunt before, but with finding the earring on Night Wind, Shannon knew something was wrong. The circumstances of Nicole’s death bothered her. What if she was murdered? She couldn’t believe Debi was the murderer, but how did her earring get on Night Wind?
She rolled onto her stomach and crawled backward out of the bunk, trying not to wake her aunt. The sound of the percolator together with the fabulous aroma of coffee told her Jake was awake and starting the day. She slid the door closed and dressed in a tank top and shorts.
By the time she reached the cockpit, a steaming mug of coffee rested in front of her favorite corner seat. She tried to remember if Lance had ever made coffee for her and couldn’t come up with a time. Before Jake, she never would have thought something like that. She and Lance led independent lives, and she hadn’t needed such things. Raising the bar on her expectations of men would be a good thing.
Shannon checked out the anchorage before sitting with Jake. Night Wind swayed at anchor not far from A Dog’s Cat. She sat close to Jake, and they whispered about the earring and what they should do next.
Charlie entered the main salon and grabbed a poppy seed bagel, poured himself a coffee, and joined them in the cockpit. Peanut trotted to Shannon and hopped between her and Jake, ignoring Charlie.
Charlie bit into his bagel and spoke with a full mouth. “So what’d you do last night?”
“We went dancing at the hotel,” Shannon said.
“You shoulda gone to Rake and Scrape. It’s way cooler.”
Shannon laughed. “Maybe for you it is. It’s a little too wild for me.”
“You’ve got something in your teeth,” Jake said to Charlie.
Charlie slid his fingernail between the gap in his front teeth. “That’s because I didn’t get braces when I was a teenager. Only Shannon warranted the special treatment.”
“That’s not how it was. You refused to consider them.”
“Dream on. Debi and Bobby favored you, so you have straight teeth and I don’t.”
Shannon didn’t want to fight with Charlie but always seemed to get straight to arguing. Doing something fun together was a better way to spend time. “Do you want to go for a walk with Peanut and me after breakfast?”
Charlie eyed the dog. “Not really. Anything new on your big investigation into the mysterious death of Nicole Dace?”
“Don’t make fun of Nicole,” Jake said. “Have some respect.”
“Sorry, I forgot you were infatuated with her.”
Jake took a deep breath, and Shannon suspected he was trying to keep his temper under control. Four people living in a small space was getting on everyone’s nerves.
“Charlie, we’re not
investigating anything,” Shannon said.
“Then why’d you search Night Wind?”
Before Shannon could answer, Jake butted in. “To see if we could find contact information for the owner. He’ll want to know his boat is sitting empty at anchor.”
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
Jake
Sand Dollar Anchorage, George Town Area
Jake watched Charlie depart, revving his four horsepower engine as if he could get away from A Dog’s Cat faster.
Debi joined Shannon and Jake in the cockpit. “Did he leave because he heard me get out of bed?” She ran a hand through her thick hair, brushing strands off her forehead in a gesture identical to one Shannon often made.
“He said he wanted to pick up some things at Exuma Markets. He wanted to go while the water’s flat. Once the wind picks up, that tiny dinghy won’t make it across the harbor.” Jake moved to the galley. “Want some coffee?”
“Sure.”
Charlie had emptied the last pot and not started another one, so Jake filled the percolator with fresh water and grounds and set it on the burner.
“Why would you think Charlie left because you got up?” Shannon asked.
Debi took Jake’s seat beside Piddles and rubbed her head. “I don’t know. He seems angry at me.”
Shannon looked at Jake, and he nodded.
“We need to talk to you about something,” Shannon said.
“That sounds ominous. Is Charlie okay?”
“It’s not about Charlie.” Shannon looked her aunt straight in the eye and swallowed. “It’s about the earring you lost.”
Debi touched her earlobe as if she might find the earring in place.
“They weren’t expensive, but I did like them.”
“I know. You wore them a lot,” Shannon said.
Jake left the coffee to percolate and joined them outside.
Debi shifted Piddles onto her lap. “You two look serious. What’s wrong?”
“I…we…think it’s likely Nicole might have been murdered,” Shannon said.
A confused expression crossed Debi’s face. “But the police said it was an accident.”
Jake nodded. “They did, and there’s no evidence to suggest otherwise, but something’s not right.” Jake met Shannon’s eyes and held contact. “Tell her.”
“We found your earring on Night Wind.” Shannon put the earring on the cockpit table, and they all stared at it as if it held the answers to the world’s questions.
“I don’t understand,” Debi said.
“Night Wind is the boat Nicole crewed on. The owner is back in the States, so we decided to check out the boat,” Shannon said. “Have you ever been on it?”
Debi stifled a laugh. “The reporter and the cop. You have to investigate something. You two are imagining things.”
“We didn’t imagine finding the earring,” Shannon said. “So you haven’t been on Night Wind?”
“No, I haven’t. You really searched the boat?”
“We did—”
“You can’t just go on other people’s boats,” Debi said. “Why would you do that?”
“At first we thought we should find out who the owner is and let him know about Nicole.” Shannon reminded Debi about getting the text from Nicole and about Jake’s conversation with Darren about Night Wind. “The point is your earring didn’t get there on its own. Someone put it there.”
“That doesn’t make sense. Why would anyone do that? Maybe Nicole found it and liked it,” Debi said.
Shannon nodded slowly. “That’s possible.”
“But you don’t think so,” Debi said.
“The boat was cleaned. Like someone sanitized it and handily tucked your earring into the crack of a chair,” Jake said.
“But who?”
“Darren seems the obvious suspect. He’s angry about Bobby’s watch. I guess seventeen hundred is a lot to him. And he had a fight with Nicole about her leaving him. Maybe he killed her in a rage and then tried to pin it on you. He was on our boat by himself, so he could have taken the earring then.”
“What should we do?” Debi asked.
“Stay clear of the guy.”
* * *
Jake walked off the volleyball court and wiped his forehead with a towel. They’d played two-on-two for an hour, and he was beat. Shannon and Debi were playing cards with two other women, hiding from the sun in the shade of a Casuarina tree. The tree’s needles covered the sand and killed any other plant attempting to grow under the span of its wide-reaching branches.
Since they were busy, he decided he’d fill some time and check out Darren again. He couldn’t shake the bad vibe the guy gave off. He pulled the dinghy into the water and headed south to Sand Dollar beach.
As he entered the Sand Dollar anchorage, A Dog’s Cat came into view. Piddles ran on deck, followed by Charlie. The pup peed on the trampoline and Charlie kicked her. She flew into the water.
Jake waited for Charlie to go in after her, but he didn’t. Instead, the bastard turned away from the dog and returned to the inside of the boat.
Cranking the throttle, he made a sharp turn, almost tipping the dinghy, and headed for Piddles. He bounced across the waves, having a hard time keeping her in sight. The waves kept pushing her little head under the water.
He drove beside her from the downwind side, careful not to run over her, and pulled her onto his lap. She peed on his leg, and he didn’t care. The look of gratitude in her eyes made up for a little pee. With the dog rescued, he let the anger explode and heat pressed against the backside of his eyes. He knew he should calm down before dealing with Charlie, but he turned the dinghy and headed toward A Dog’s Cat.
“What the fuck did you do that for?” he yelled at Charlie. Piddles shook in his arms, and he felt bad for scaring her. For her sake, he controlled his rage.
“What?” Charlie said from inside.
“You kicked Piddles into the water.”
Charlie entered the cockpit. “I did not.”
Jake gently placed Piddles on the floor of the dinghy, tied the line to the stern of the catamaran, and boarded the back steps.
“I saw you.”
“Dude, I don’t know what you think you saw, but I didn’t kick the dog. That’s cold.”
Jake took one step toward him, and Charlie backed up a foot.
Charlie raised both hands in the air with his palms facing Jake.
“Dude, calm down. Nothing happened.”
Jake straightened his already straight back, and his neck tightened. He took one more intimidating step forward. Charlie’s eyes looked left and right, but he had nowhere to escape to.
“Why didn’t you get her when she fell overboard?”
“I didn’t know she fell in. Is that why she’s all wet?”
Either Charlie was a good actor, or he hadn’t kicked Piddles over the side. “What were you doing on deck a few minutes ago?”
“I kicked the ball for her. She was playing with it, so I left her and came inside.”
Jake lifted Piddles out of the dinghy, grabbed a towel off the lifelines, and wrapped her in it. He carried her to the trampoline and dried her fur. He forced his hands to be gentle. He didn’t want Piddles to sense his anger and be any more frightened than she already was.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
Twenty-Seven-Year-Old Man
Somewhere in Canada
Eighteen Months Ago
The eight-year-old boy is now a man. A man who has discovered what’s wrong with him. He has an autobiographical memory. He doesn’t know why he didn’t search the Internet before. He always thought the death of his parents caused some kind of brain damage. Now he knows others suffer from this, what should he call it? Affliction?
Hyperthymesia. There had even been an Oprah show about it. Why would people let anyone know they had this problem? The crazy people on TV acted like they were proud of the condition. It had caused him nothing but trouble before he figured out he had to hide his memory from other
s.
Tonight, he sat at his desk in his small condo, reviewing his interview notes. He was writing a story about a man who found out his parents weren’t his birth parents.
He’d almost puked during the interview. The man was talking about what it was like to be in love with a woman, then find out she was his sister.
Charlie never knew what would trigger a video in his brain and he was caught off-guard. His brain had gone into overdrive. It took all his willpower to take in what the man said and not focus on the videos playing in his brain.
He’s never been able to remember what happened the night his parents died. He can replay every crazy detail from that moment on, but everything from before was what he referred to as his normal memory. The normal memory of the first eight years of his life.
But tonight, for the first time, the video of the entire conversation his dad had the night his parents died is like a recording in his head. He’s only remembered bits and pieces until this moment. Somehow he’s gotten an extra hour of memory.
His police car pajamas sliding on the staircase. His dad’s voice. And the other mumbled voice. He pushed the memory aside and focussed on the interview. He couldn’t miss another deadline because his memories intruded.
He writes his article, and once he’s satisfied, he lets his memory take charge.
The boy traces his finger along the cartoon drawings of police cars and fire trucks that form a pattern on his pajamas. His mom’s been waiting too long now. He listens, knowing he has to catch his dad the moment after the visitor leaves and before his dad walks out the door, and he has to make his dad think he wasn’t listening.
His dad isn’t letting the visitor in from the front porch, and the rain pelting the windows drowns the visitor’s words.
“Can’t. Gotta go. We’ve got tickets to the game,” his dad says.
The boy hears his dad grunt.
“What the fuck,” his dad says.
He knows when his dad drops the f-bomb, he’s really mad. Maybe he should tell him about the snake tomorrow.
Look the Other Way Page 23