Drift Away (Noah Braddock Mysteries)

by Jeff Shelby

  There was a time when I would’ve offered to help, to show them what they were doing wrong or at least told them why the waves were impossible to ride. I was never one of those territorial surfers who reveled in watching people struggle, like I owned the ocean and the right to surf. If people were polite and looked like they just wanted to have fun, I’d go talk to them, help if I could.

  But I just didn’t have a lot of that in me anymore.

  I was unlocking the shed when Ike wandered down to the sand, holding up a hand in greeting.

  “What the hell happened to you?” he said, squinting at my face.

  “Nothing.”

  “Looks like some kind of nothing.”

  “I’m fine. And I’m sorry I wasn’t here yesterday. Won’t happen again.”

  He frowned and waved off the apology. “Please, kid. You’re fine. The weather sucked anyway and you’re the most reliable employee I’ve ever had. One day ain’t gonna kill us.”

  “Still. Sorry.”

  “Whatever,” he said, still frowning. “But, hey. I did wanna talk to you about yesterday.” Concern shimmered in his eyes. “Dude came looking for you.”

  I nodded. “Skinny little dude? Looks like a crackhead who hasn’t showered in weeks? Don’t worry about it. I got him covered.”

  Ike shook his head. “No. That ain’t who I talked to.”

  My stomach dropped.

  “This guy was well put together,” Ike said. “I’d put him around your age. Good lookin’, not that I go that way, but you know what I’m sayin’. Dark hair, tan, almost as big as you. Asked for you by name.”

  The muscles in my gut clenched.

  “I played dumb at first, but he knew I was full of shit,” he said. “So then I just said I hadn’t seen you in awhile. Tried to get a name or number out of him, but he just said he’d come back.”

  I shuffled my feet in the sand. “Okay.”

  “He didn’t seem pissed or nothin’,” Ike said, pulling the sunglasses on the cord around his neck up onto his face. “But he was definitely looking for you. And I don’t think he’s going away.”

  I ran Ike’s physical description through my memory banks, but came up empty. I was drawing a blank.

  “Okay,” I said. “Thanks for the heads up.”

  “You need help,” Ike said, nodding at me. “You holler at me. Any kind at all. You holler at me. Got it?”

  “Yeah. Thanks.”

  “And you need a different place to stay, I’ll work it out,” he said. “Just let me know.”

  “I’m good,” I said. “But thanks. I’ll let you know if it changes.”

  As Ike disappeared over the sand dunes, I was anything but good.

  THIRTY

  I spent the entire morning looking over my shoulder.

  Anytime someone came up the shoreline or I heard footsteps in the sand behind me, I scanned their faces, trying to see if anyone looked familiar. I’m not sure who I thought I might see or who might show up, but after my conversations with Zip and Ike, I was anxious and on alert.

  Bella and Jackson showed up after lunch, towels and a bag of beach toys in hand. Jackson ran straight to the water and Bella stripped out of her white sundress, revealing a matching white bikini. She sank down on her towel, reached into her bag and handed me a small cell phone. “Here.”

  “What’s this?”

  “Certainly, you haven’t been out of the loop for, like, twenty years, have you?”

  “Funny. Why are you giving me a phone?”

  “Because you need one,” she said.

  A soaking wet Jackson had returned and started his castle building operation.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “It’s one of those pre-paid deals.”

  “You didn’t have to do that.”

  “I know.”

  “Why do I need a phone?”

  “So I can call you,” she said, adjusting the big white sunglasses on her face. “Or you can call me. Or anyone else you need to. It’s pre-paid so your name won’t show up anywhere. If someone, somehow, wanted to trace it, it would come back to me anyway.”

  I squeezed the flip phone in my hand then slid it into my backpack. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome,” she said. “Just didn’t think it was practical for you to be phoneless.”

  “I haven’t had anyone to call.”

  “Well, you do now,” she said, smiling into the sun. “If you need me. Or if you wanna talk to Jackson.”

  I laughed and nodded. “Yeah, he seems like the phone type.”

  “Totally.”

  We watched him for a few minutes as the castle he was building began to take shape. He’d opted against a moat this time and was concentrating instead on building towers nearly as tall as him. The hard-packed sand cracked under the weight of brick after brick being piled on top of each other, but it didn’t topple.

  “You were fine last night?” I asked.

  She hesitated, then nodded. “I brought Jax in with me. Slept off and on. But we were fine. Nothing happened.”

  “When do you need to get the money to David?”

  “Today,” she said. “He always wants it twenty-four hours later, not right after. He thinks that’s smart. It’s not. I could totally rip him off and take off with the money, but he’s trying to avoid connections.”

  “Your phone have Internet access?”

  “Yes. It was actually hard to find you a phone that doesn’t,” she said, digging in her beach bag once again. “I figured you didn’t want that.”

  “You were right.”

  She produced a small handheld and punched in a few numbers. She handed it to me. “It’s open.”

  I tapped the icon for the browser and it came up instantaneously. I punched in the AOL address for email and checked the account.

  I closed it all out and handed it back to her. “Thanks.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Liar.”

  I wasn’t sure how I wanted to go forward with David. I really did want Carter’s help to make a run at him. I wasn’t sure I was capable of doing anything by myself anymore and he’d have a plan. So I was frustrated that I didn’t have an email response from him.

  “I’m just trying to figure out how to go at him,” I said. “David.”

  “He’s gonna go nuts,” Bella said. “I can promise you that.”

  “It’s not the nuts part that worries me. It’s the severing ties part I want to make sure happens. And to do that, I need a plan.”

  “What does that have to do with my phone?”

  Jackson squealed and we both looked over. He stared at his collapsed castle, his balled-up hands waving in frustration. He tossed his shovel and bounded down to the water.

  “I’m looking for some help from a friend,” I said.

  “I thought you weren’t talking to anyone.”

  “He’s the one guy I trust.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Yeah,” I said. “And he’ll know what to do. He sort of…specializes in this kind of thing.”

  “Specializes? That sounds crazy.”

  “You have no idea. But I trust him. Completely.”

  She nodded and we watched Jackson splash along the edge of the waves, kicking up water. He sprinted away from us and nearly ran into the legs of a man walking toward him. The man spun and smiled at Jackson, said something to him that made Jackson smile. The man continued walking and then glanced in our direction.

  Tall. Dark hair. Dark skin. Sunglasses. White T-shirt, black shorts. He held up a hand and gave me a quick wave.

  I leaned forward in my chair.

  “You know him?” Bella asked.

  He walked slowly up the sand toward us and I blinked several times. “Yeah. Actually, I do.”

  “Really?” Bella said. “Is he the friend you were talking about?”

  “No,” I said, standing up, completely confused. “That’s Liz’s brother.”

  THIRTY-ONE />
  I hadn’t seen Alex Santangelo in a couple of years. The last time I’d seen him, Carter and I had helped him get out of a jam that involved Zip and I never expected to see him again. He and Liz weren’t close and he’d spent most of his adult life in the drug world. She’d cut him off and didn’t even know that I’d helped him out. So to see him walk up the sand to me was more than just a little surprising. It was a shock.

  “Hey, Noah,” he said. He held out his hand and pushed the sunglasses from his eyes to the top of his head.

  We shook. “Alex.”

  “You look surprised.”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  He looked from me to Bella. “Hi. I’m Alex.”

  “Bella.” They shook hands. “That was my son who almost took you out down there. Jackson.”

  “Ah, yes. I told him I thought he was a sea creature.”

  “He’s a creature alright.”

  Alex smiled at her. “He’s cute.”

  “Thanks.”

  Alex looked at me. “So.”

  “So.”

  He waited, his expression clear.

  “I haven’t seen you since…in a couple years,” I said. “Running into you here is a little weird.”

  Confusion spread across his face and we stood there awkwardly for a moment.

  Bella stood. “I’m gonna go check on Jackson.”

  She trotted down the sand toward her son.

  “Look, if you’re in trouble with Zip again, I’ve got nothing for you,” I said when she was out of earshot. “I’m knee-deep in my own shit and I don’t have time…”

  “Hey,” Alex said. “Whoa.”

  I closed my mouth.

  He ran a hand over his forehead, wiping away the perspiration. “I got out, Noah. Totally.”

  I didn’t say anything because I found that hard to believe. For years, I hadn’t even known Liz had a brother. When we ran into him one day, she gave me the story and it wasn’t pretty. Got into dealing at an early age and it spiraled out of control. She’d cut ties with him because he’d let her down so many times. She’d finally had enough. And the only reason I’d helped him was because I wanted to do something for Liz, whether or not she knew about it. So I was skeptical.

  “The day you and Carter saved my ass, I started pulling out,” he said. “I was tired. Tired of looking to score, tired of not knowing who was on the other side of the door, tired of disappointing everyone. So it took me awhile, but I cut out.”

  “What are you doing now then?” I asked.

  “Working construction,” he said. “And I’m back in school. Getting my degree.”

  “No drugs?”

  “None,” he said, looking me square in the eye. “Free and clear.”

  His eyes drifted away from me, toward the water. “When Liz was killed, that’s when I decided on school. I was out, but just spinning my wheels, no direction. But after all that, I decided I wasn’t going to waste any more time. Day after the funeral I went over to Mesa, enrolled and made a plan.”

  I winced at the mention of her funeral. I hadn’t gone. And it wasn’t that I wished that I’d gone. It was just something I didn’t like to think about.

  “So I’m good,” he said, turning back to me. “I think that I always thought I’d have time with her, you know? Eventually, I figured I’d get my act together and I’d fix all of the damage I’d done. Same kind of lies every loser tells himself to justify what he’s doing. I was no different. But I always meant it, at least in my head I did. Then she was gone.” He paused. “I may have missed out on having a relationship with her while she was alive, but I can make sure she’d be proud of me now. It’s all I have.”

  I nodded and was envious for a moment. At least he had something to tie himself to her. I felt like I had nothing.

  “So what the hell are you doing here?” I asked.

  A crooked smile spread across his face. “Carter sent me.”

  THIRTY-TWO

  “Carter sent you?” I asked. “To me?”

  “He said he got an email from you,” Alex said. “Something about Zip.”

  My brain spun.

  “He said he was going to email you and let you know I was on the way,” he said.

  “Yeah, well, he must have forgotten.”

  He studied me for a minute, then slid the glasses back over his eyes, the sun getting the better of him. “You’re wondering why the hell he sent me, right?”

  “Crossed my mind, Alex,” I said honestly. “Like I said, last time I saw you was, I thought, the last time Carter saw you, too.”

  Alex nodded and stared out toward the water. “Fair enough.” He cleared his throat. “A few days after the funeral, I came looking for you. To talk to you. But you were…already gone.”

  I shifted my feet in the sand, uncomfortable under the weight of his words.

  “I hung out. I waited,” Alex continued. “Carter finally showed up.” He chuckled. “I think I actually scared him on your patio because I was just sitting there. Anyway, he tried to blow me off, said he didn’t know where you were, some bullshit. But I sniffed it out, you know? I knew he knew where you were.”

  I tried to picture them having the conversation on my patio, but I had trouble even recalling what my home looked like.

  “So I badgered the shit out of him,” Alex said, turning to me. “Because I wanted a piece of whoever killed my sister.”

  Landon Keene’s face flashed somewhere on the horizon and I turned away from it.

  “Carter tried to put me off, but I was relentless,” he said. “I wouldn’t leave him alone. I found his house. Basically camped out. Finally, he caved. He told me. About you and Keene.”

  The words hung there in the air and it felt as if they were lit up in neon for the entire world to see. I wasn’t sure I cared.

  “So before I forget…thank you,” Alex said quietly.

  I didn’t move or respond. Wasn’t sure that I could do either.

  “But Carter and I started talking,” he said, shrugging. “He helped me line up a couple of construction jobs, lent me the money to start the classes at Mesa.” He smiled at me. “Don’t worry. I paid him back two weeks later.”

  I nodded.

  “So, then he needed to get outta sight,” he said. “Cops started breathing down on him a little bit, you know? I knew a couple people, I gave him the names. We’ve stayed in touch. Two days ago, my cell rang. He said you needed some help, told me where you were.” He shrugged. “So here I am. Because I owe you.”

  “Owe me? How do you figure?”

  Alex folded his arms across his broad chest. “Three reasons, Noah. One, you bailed my ass out when you had no reason to. Helped get my head on right.” He glanced at me. “Two, you took out the motherfucker that killed my sister.” He turned all the way to me, shoved his hands in the pockets of his shorts. “And, three, you made Liz happy. Really happy. She loved you, Noah. Really loved you.”

  I blinked hard, letting the words surround me, swallow me up. Images of her face flashed out on the horizon, faster than I could look at them.

  “So, thank you, Noah,” Alex said. “Thank you.”

  There was nothing to thank me for and I couldn’t imagine anyone feeling grateful to me for what I’d brought to Liz’s life. I’d have given anything to have her back, to have no one feel the need to thank me.

  “Okay,” I said, because there was nothing else to say.

  “So I’m in,” Alex said. “Whatever you need, whatever you want, I’m in.”

  “Okay.”

  Bella ushered Jackson over to the water, had him bend down and wash his hands off.

  “Carter,” I asked. “How is he?”