by Mark Stone
“Now you see why I’m surprised you were coming here?” the driver asked, looking back at us. “No offense or anything, but I honestly thought the president lived here or something, and you guys seem nice enough, but you’re not exactly the types I see as having dinner dates with the president.”
“The president of what?” Davey asked, narrowing his eyes.
“Does it matter?” the man asked.
“I suppose not,” Dave said, shrinking back into his seat.
Leaning across the man and lowering the window, I pressed the buzzer and told the guy who answered my name. To my surprise, the gate didn’t open. Instead, we sat there for a full five minutes, waiting for the black iron bars to move.
The driver turned back around to us. “Maybe I was right. Maybe you guys aren’t the type to have dinner with the president.”
“Again, I ask, the president of what?” Davey repeated.
Before the driver could say another word, the gates parted. As I looked back toward them, though, I saw a golf cart. It pulled toward us. Parker drove it, and when he neared us, he parked it sideways, as if to block the path of the car if it wanted to move forward.
He nodded at us, and we stepped out as he walked toward the driver and handed him a folded-up bill. “For your time.”
“I get paid through the app,” the driver said, looking up at him.
“I’m not logging into an app,” Parker said. “You want the money? Yes or no?”
“The correct answer is always yes,” Davey said quickly.
“True words,” the driver said, snatching the cash out of Parker’s hand and waving goodbye to us.
As he turned around in the driveway, Parker looked at me with an intense tint to his features. “Is that it?” he asked, looking over my shoulder at the backpack. “Are they in there?”
“They are,” I confirmed.
“Okay,” he said as he nodded. “Then get on the damn golf cart. There’s a reason I asked you to come out here. We need to move quickly because if we don’t, we’re going to be in big trouble.”
Chapter 17
“This isn’t really what I thought you meant when you said we needed to move quickly,” I said, holding up a glass filled nearly to the brim with mojito and watching as the mint leaf danced around the edge. After jumping onto his golf cart, Parker, Davey, and I hauled ass up to the huge white and red beach house at the end of the winding driveway. The beauty of a place sat right on the beach, and looking through the window of what I was told was Parker’s father’s library, I saw a cabana full of Parker’s family. “Also, I didn’t know your entire family was going to be here.”
Parker shook his head, looking at the gun and blood-stained towel which I’d pulled from my backpack the instant I was sure we were away from any prying eyes. It wasn’t that I was uneasy with guns. After all the time I’d clocked in the army with a gun strapped to my back, it almost felt natural at this point, like an extension of my own body. There was just something about this gun that I didn’t want anywhere near me. It was like it was a living thing, a trickster that was trying to pin some evil on me that I’d had no part in.
“They figured that after everything that happened, it’d be nice to get away from the city for a bit. We’ve had this place for a couple of years now, and we’ve never been here at the same time all at once before.” He grinned at me. “This was supposed to be a relaxing family getaway. Try not to feel too bad about crashing it.” He downed nearly his entire mojito in one gulp and wiped his mouth when he was finished. “And if this isn’t your idea of moving quickly and getting down to business, I don’t think you’ve been rich nearly long enough.”
“Amen to that,” Davey said from behind me. “I’ve been telling this stubborn bastard we needed to be rich for years now.” he shook his head at me disapprovingly. “Took him forever to listen.”
“I’m all for having fun, especially when there’s rum involved, but can we be serious for a second?” I asked, looking from one of the men to the next. “Someone is trying to set me up for murder.”
“Set us up,” Davey corrected me, popping a couple of mini sausages that Parker brought into the room with the mojitos into his mouth. “Also, these things are delicious. Much better than full-size hot dogs.”
“So glad you’re enjoying yourself,” Parker muttered before laying a glare into me. “And don’t think just because I’m not pulling my hair out by the roots that I’m not on top of thus. You guys made about six mistakes in bringing these to me.”
“You told me to bring them to you,” I reminded my lawyer.
“Because you had already left the house with them,” he answered. “And I certainly didn’t tell you to press them up against Davey’s junk before you handed them off.” He shook his head and started looking around the room. “Which reminds me, I probably need some gloves.”
“It was the only way I could think of to get them out,” Davey answered.
“That may be, but it’s also the most disgustingly effective way I can think of to ensure your DNA is all over a murder weapon,” Parker answered.
“Oh . . .” Davey said sheepishly. “I hadn’t actually thought of that.”
“Yeah. Well, it means I have to wipe this down completely before we actually give it to the police,” Parker said. “Which means any DNA from the person actually responsible for this is going to be lost as well.”
“You’re giving it to the police?” Davey asked, his eyes wide and his mouth open.
“He has to give it to the police, Davey,” I said. “Otherwise, it makes us look even more guilty.”
“It also opens us up to more charges and me up for disbarment if we’re found out,” Parker said. “Not that we aren’t already dancing dangerously close to that edge.”
“What are you going to do, though?” I asked. “Are you going to tell them the truth?”
“God, no,” he said. “I have to be ethical, not Mother Teresa. I have to follow the letter of the law, and the law says I have a duty to defend you vigorously. Failing to thwart the plans of someone who’s attempting to frame you for murder isn’t a vigorous defense, by my definition.”
“And does your definition count for anything?” I asked, my eyebrows raising curiously.
“Sure,” Parker answered. “You know, as long as we don’t get caught or anything.”
“That’s comforting,” I said sarcastically.
“It’ll be fine,” he answered. “Look, just head out there with my family. I’m sure Jack will be thrilled to see you again. All he talks about is how you and he are going to head off into some town in Indiana.”
“Indiana Jones!” I said, throwing my hands in the air. “I was talking about Indiana Jones!”
“Whatever,” Parker said. “I have a connection in the police department. I’m going to reach out and see what the best way to handle this is.” He gave me a pat on the back. “We’ll get it taken care of. Hell, we might even be able to find out who is actually behind this along the way.”
“I wouldn’t hate that,” I said, looking back out at the beach and catching a glimpse of Alexis as she played with her son. “What am I supposed to do until then?”
“You’re at a rich person’s beach party,” Parker answered. “I suggest you enjoy it.”
“I knew,” Davey said, grinning like an idiot. “I knew there was a reason I liked you.”
Chapter 18
“I’m sorry,” Alexis said, looking over at me from a blue Adirondack chair. I sat in a matching one beside her, a drink in my hand and a song in my ears coming from a radio perched in the sand as I looked out onto the clearest expanse of water I had ever seen in my life. The gentle breeze blowing off it did just enough to cool down the bright, almost blazing Florida day. I had never been the kind of guy who wanted to pull up and relax in the sun. Sitting here, though, made me rethink all of it. If I could have melted into that chair and existed here, peering out at this view forever and ever, I would have been a happy camper.
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Of course, there were a couple of pretty pressing reasons stopping me from being as happy as I could be, but I didn’t feel the need to bring them up to Alexis right now. She was trying to have fun with her family, trying to get away from the nightmare that had started swirling up around her. The fact that I was even here in the first place was bad enough. I sure as hell didn’t want to bring her down with the severity of my situation.
“What do you have to be sorry about?” I asked, looking over at her with my arms folded over my chest.
“For not inviting you,” she answered. “I would have, but it was kind of just a family thing. The only reason that Mia is here is because I thought she could use the break after everything that happened.” Alexis shook her head hard. “Not that I don’t think you could use the break too. I just figured that you—”
“You don’t have to apologize for not inviting me anywhere,” I answered, grinning at her. “You’ve only known me for a couple of weeks, and even if we were best friends, you’re free to have a get together with your family without considering me. It’s pretty normal, in fact.”
My eyes moved over to Mia. While everyone else seemed to be enjoying themselves, huddled around the grill and listening to Davey tell the same damn story he told a half a dozen times back at the bar already, she stood off by herself. Her hair was being tossed about in the breeze and she was trying in vain to keep it under control. She had a forlorn look in her eyes that pulled at me in the worst way.
“Has it really only been a few weeks?” Alexis asked, narrowing her eyes at me. “Lord knows, it feels like I’ve known you a lot longer than that.”
“It’s been an intense period of time. That’s for sure,” I answered, sitting up straighter in my chair. “I know things have been awful for you guys, and I can’t even imagine what your son is going through, getting pulled away in the middle of the night and then with the fire and the death of his father. Still, he’s a strong kid. All of you are strong, as far as I can tell. Your brother—”
“Parker’s a Jackass, but he’s a beast in the courtroom,” Alexis said, giving a compliment and an insult in equal measure, the way siblings often do. “Not that it’ll get that far. They have no evidence against you. Even Mia told me she was with you nearly the entire time.”
I shuddered just a little at Alexis’s presumption of how open and shut all of this was. While it was true that I didn’t have any part in what happened to George, at this very moment, her brother was trying to deal with what turned out to be a mountain of evidence that could be tied to my best friend and me. More than that, Sheriff Jenkins hadn’t really made me believe Mia had done anything other than lay out the facts in a way that would give Davey and me ample time to commit any crime we wanted.
Still, this was supposed to be a nice time, a family vacation. So, I just shook my head and said, “I hope you’re right.” Standing, I looked down at the woman, at the way she crossed her legs at the ankles and the sweet expression on her face. “I’m actually going to talk to Mia for a second,” I said. “I just want to touch base with her, you know?”
“You’re too good for your own good, Lucky John,” Alexis said, lifting a straw to her lips and taking a drink of what had turned out to be the sweetest piña colada I had ever tasted.
“That’s what everybody keeps telling me,” I muttered, walking the beach toward the Gulf and Mia. She didn’t even acknowledge me as I reached her, her eyes still plastered on the water and her bare toes in the surf.
“I never pegged you as a ‘life of the party’ type girl, but this is ridiculous,” I answered, shaking my head. “You okay?”
“More or less,” she answered, though she still didn’t bother to look at me.
“I hope you’re not shooting for any undercover jobs in the future, because I don’t think you’d be very convincing,” I said, plastering a grin on my face that I hoped would be a little bit contagious.
“Don’t have any jobs in the future, actually,” Mia said, running a hand through her hair and then dropping it, seemingly giving up the fight against the troublesome breeze. “They put me on desk duty for the foreseeable future.”
“What?” I asked, my eyes widening a little. “Why would they do that? You kicked ass out there the other night, and something tells me that isn’t a fluke.”
“Maybe not,” she answered, “but the sheriff seems to think I might have gone through some kind of traumatic experience. He knows George and I were close when we were younger, and he thinks what I went through when I saw him the other night is enough to warrant taking me off the beat until I get the okay from some shrink.” She shook her head. “Which, of course, will take forever. It’s been weeks and I haven’t even seen the damn therapist yet.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, digging my feet into the wet sand. “I’m sure it’ll work out.”
“That makes one of us,” she mused. “I have to admit, I’m surprised to see you here.”
“I’m surprised to be here,” I said. “But out of curiosity, what’s so surprising about it?”
“Well, I mean, you’re kind of bad luck, aren’t you?” she asked, finally turning to me.
“Bad luck?” I asked, a curious grin starting at the edges of my mouth. “I’ve been called a lot of things, but I don’t think I’ve ever been called bad luck. You do remember who I am, right? Lucky John? The guy who won the lottery by accident.”
“I know who you are,” she said. “I also know that literally everywhere you’ve been since you got to Bonita Springs, trouble has followed you.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “That’s an interesting way of looking at things.”
“Is there another way to look at it?” she challenged me.
“You could also say that I’m the person who has stopped the trouble from getting out of control. I’m the person who stopped George from beating the hell out of Alexis. I’m the one who found Jack in that shower and saved his life,” I shot back.
“That’s true, but would his life have really needed to be saved if you hadn’t done what you did in the first place?” she retorted.
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” I asked, starting to get a little agitated with the woman.
“You ever read Batman comics, Lucky?” Mia asked me, taking a deep breath. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. My dad used to be a big collector of Batman comics. He loved the stupid things, kept them in plastic and piled up in waterproof boxes in the attic.” She smiled, likely remembering something. “I wasn’t supposed to get into those comics. They were collectables, apparently. But one night, while my parents were out seeing a movie and the babysitter they left for me was asleep on the couch, I snuck up in there and read a couple of them.”
“If this is your big rebellion story to make you look cooler in my eyes, I’ve gotta admit that I think you could do better,” I said.
“Cool is in the eye of the beholder,” Mia answered. “Like those comics. My dad would have given his right arm for them, and as I flipped through them, none of it made sense to me.” She pursed her lips. “It’s all about this crazy city and this masked man who protects it from all of these insane villains. But the thing that kept pulling at me, the thing that seemed obvious to me as it escaped every character in the comic, was that the villains were of Batman’s making. The Joker, the Riddler, that fat one with the umbrella . . . none of them would have existed if there wasn’t some grown ass man running around town in a bat costume. Sometimes, in trying to stop the trouble, we create it.”
“Are you saying I’m Batman?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at Mia.
“In a way,” she answered. “Probably not in the way you’re hoping, though. What I’m saying is that—”
“I get it,” I cut her off. “You think what I did to George back at the bar was embarrassing enough that he felt like he needed to do something, and that’s why he took Jack.”
“If he took Jack,” Mia corrected me.
“Somebody did,” I
answered. “And gave me a hell of a neck burn while they did it. Also, the same somebody placed Jack in George’s house before they lit it on fire. That doesn’t seem like a reasonable reaction to getting your ass beaten behind a bar, but even if it was, I still wouldn’t apologize. You wanna know why?”
“I feel like you’re going to tell me anyway,” Mia answered.
“Because I won’t stand there and let a woman get abused,” I answered. “Regardless of who the guy is and who his father might be.”
“What about who your company is?” Mia answered.
“What?” I asked.
“I’m a police officer,” Mia said. “You walked into a situation that you weren’t prepared to deal with and took matters into your own hands.”
“Judging from the fact that he ended up unconscious on the floor, I think I was pretty prepared for things,” I said.
“And now he’s dead,” Mia said.
“I didn’t have anything to do with that,” I said, my jaw tightening.
“I believe you,” Mia said, turning from me back to the water. “Doesn’t change the fact that you bring trouble with you.”
“That’s not true,” I answered, but as the words rolled out of my mouth, I heard Alexis screaming behind me, a sharp, blood-curdling noise.
Mia’s head jerked in the direction of the noise. “Isn’t it, though?” she muttered.
My legs pumped like jackhammers as I ran over to Alexis. Her hands were in her hair and her worried face looked all around as tears poured down her cheeks.
“Where is he?” she screamed, her entire body shaking as the people at the party, Davey, an older man I assumed was her father, and the younger woman who I figured was her father’s new wife ran to meet her. “Where the hell is he? He was just here! He was standing right here!” She shook her head, her eyes finding mine and staying there. “I can’t do this again! I can’t do it!”