Sunset Over Misty Lake

by Margaret Standafer

  Riley raised his hand in greeting. Joe answered with a wave of his own and wound his way between empty chaise lounges and giant potted plants to where his brothers had staked out their spot.

  “Did the sight of you three in swim trunks clear the pool?”

  “Vegas just brings out the comedian in you, doesn’t it,” Riley asked.

  “Where’s everyone else? I thought you said most everyone was here.”

  Riley looked at Jake and Frank and shrugged. “We’re here. Shauna and Cassie were here but decided they needed to go shopping. Cort’s working, of course.”

  “Did he hear from Dave?”

  “Nothing yet,” Jake answered.

  “What about you? Anything from Bud?”

  “A text telling me he’d call this afternoon. No details so I don’t know any more than I knew last night.”

  Joe kicked off his shoes and sat down on the side of the pool next to Jake. The water was warm, almost too warm for such a hot day. Joe twirled his feet in circles and brooded.

  “I know you don’t want to hear it, but no news is good news,” Jake said. “Bud was going to run an overview of the case by his superiors yesterday afternoon. If they’d shot him down on the spot, he’d have been forced to drop the case. He would’ve told me that. He didn’t. That means the case, or as much of a case as it is at this point, is still open. That’s a good thing.”

  Joe nodded, but silently cursed the lack of progress. And the too warm pool water, and the crappy music that played on the pool deck, and the bubbly woman approaching them with a stack of pool noodles under her arm and a far-too-big smile on her face.

  “We have a fourth!” Her teeth were so white they almost blinded Joe, even with his sunglasses firmly in place. A bouncy, blonde ponytail ran halfway down her back and her conservative, red, one-piece suit did little to hide the fact that there wasn’t a spot on her body not toned to perfection. Not that he was looking.

  “This is Joe, our brother. He just joined us,” Frank told her.

  Joe wondered why it mattered. He was afraid he wasn’t going to like the answer.

  “Four brothers. Isn’t that just the sweetest? We’ll get started in five minutes right over there.” She pointed to the shallow end of the pool with one of the noodles then used that same noodle to wave before she walked away.

  Joe turned a glare on his brothers. “Five minutes? What’s happening in five minutes?”

  “Ah…a water aerobics class? She’s kind of expecting us,” Riley said.

  “And why would she kind of be expecting us?”

  “Because we told her we’d do it?” Riley didn’t look happy with the idea. “Actually, Shauna and Cassie told her we’d do it.”

  “And you went along with it? Why didn’t you make Shauna and Cassie do it?”

  “She seemed sad,” Frank said. “The pool’s quiet today, no one had signed up for the class, she was trying to recruit. She asked Cass and Shauna, they told her they were on their way out, but they said we’d love to do it. Jolene, that’s her name, was thrilled not only to have someone take the class, but to have men. I guess she doesn’t get too many men to join.”

  “Gee, I wonder why?”

  “Come on, Joe,” Jake said. “It’s something to do for forty minutes.”

  “Forty minutes? You’ve got to be kidding.”

  “Um, ‘fraid not,” Jake said.

  “You didn’t go to the gym this morning…” Riley said.

  “I was working this morning.”

  “Then working out the kinks should feel good.” Riley stretched his hands over his head and leaned from one side to the other to demonstrate.

  “She’s waving us over,” Frank said. “We need to go.”

  Joe groaned mightily as he heaved to his feet. Those feet seemed to weigh a hundred pounds each as they plodded toward Jolene of the blinding white smile.

  “Grab a noodle and hop in the pool,” Jolene said.

  Joe looked around. Besides the four of them, there were exactly two other people. The woman looked to be around seventy, was wearing a flowered swimsuit complete with a billowy skirt, and a bathing cap with matching flowers. The man, presumably her husband, didn’t need a cap. Ten strands of grey hair probably dried quickly. His suit of choice was a skin tight, blaze orange number that looked to be made of neoprene as if the man were ready for a race. Joe knew this only because the man turned toward the pool and Joe saw him from the back. From the front, it was hard to catch a glimpse of the suit as his ample belly covered most of what there was of it.

  The two seemed thrilled with the idea of the class. They smiled and nodded at everything Jolene said in the way that only those with absolutely no idea what that person is saying can. Jolene handed them both noodles. They said something to Joe and his brothers in a language Joe thought might be Russian before holding hands and tiptoeing down the pool steps. Once they were in the water, they linked arms and began bopping to a rap song Joe couldn’t identify if his life depended on it.

  With a sigh of utter defeat, Joe walked a few feet away from the couple, threw his pink noodle in the pool, then jumped in after it. He let himself sink to the bottom of the four-foot depth and sat, wishing for the next forty minutes to pass quickly.

  They didn’t.

  For what seemed like hours, Joe ran in place, lifted his legs to the front, side, and back, pushed the noodle back and forth under the water, did jumping jacks, and treaded water. Jolene preached pushing yourself as hard as you felt comfortable pushing. Joe and his brothers, of course, pushed each other and turned the class into a competition. The couple, Tatiana and Aleksei, laughed at the brothers’ antics and encouraged with their few words of English.

  “Super!” Tatiana cried when the four churned as hard as they could with their noodles and turned their corner of the pool into a bubbling, frothing, cauldron.

  While it wasn’t exactly difficult, Joe couldn’t deny he felt as though he’d had a workout by the time the class ended. They all thanked Jolene, exchanged a few halting words with Tatiana and Aleksei, then rewarded their efforts with a drink.

  “Here’s to me,” Frank said and lifted his glass in a toast. “The clear winner at pool aerobics.”

  “Hah!” Some of Riley’s drink spewed from his mouth. “You almost drowned when we were treading water.”

  “You kicked me in the stomach when we were treading water,” Frank answered. “I couldn’t breathe.”

  Riley shrugged. “We were close together. I guess my foot got a little too close.”

  “Right.”

  Joe didn’t feel like getting into a debate about who’d been the best at water aerobics. “What do we do now?”

  “This isn’t bad,” Frank said. He leaned back in his chair and angled his face to the sun.

  “It seems like we should be doing something.”

  “I know,” Frank said, turning his attention to Joe. “I know how you feel. Does it make sense to spend some time watching Joshua again today?”

  Jake shook his head. “I don’t know that there’s much to be gained by that. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves.” Joe felt Jake’s eyes slide over to him. “Until I talk to Bud, we’re in a holding pattern.”

  “There’s the Hoover Dam,” Riley said.

  “The Hoover Dam?” Joe looked at Riley. “What about the Hoover Dam?”

  “We could go see it. There are tours that leave from the hotel.”

  “I’m not going to see the Hoover Dam.”

  Riley tried again. “A show? Blue Man Group? Cirque du Soleil? There are lots of choices.”

  Joe sighed. “It’s not a vacation for me.”

  “It’s not a vacation for any of us,” Jake said, “but we’re here.” He shrugged. “Do something. Time will go faster.” Before he could say more, his phone buzzed.

  “Is it Bud?” Joe asked.

  Jake nodded, then answered the call. He walked to a table set apart from the few groups of people dotting the pool deck and
far away from his brothers. Joe tapped his foot and swirled the ice cubes in his cup while he waited.

  After what seemed like an eternity, Jake rejoined them. Joe tried to read Jake’s expression as he approached, but Jake was a master at keeping his expression blank.

  Joe didn’t wait for Jake to sit. “So?”

  “It’s good. It’s very good. Bud presented his case, piqued interest, and has the go-ahead. He found two unsolved cases that seem to match Joshua’s M.O. That helped convince his boss.”

  Joe let out the breath he felt like he’d been holding for weeks. Finally, some real progress.

  “How is he going to proceed? Did he tell you anything more? What about talking to the victims Dave named?”

  “As for talking to those victims, not yet. Bud wants to hold off until he has more information. Now that he’s gotten the go-ahead, he should have that information soon. As far as how he’s going to proceed…I gave him the work schedule we got from Opal and he plans to pay a visit to Mystique today. He’s also going to track down the women who reported the unsolved assaults that he thinks might be related and see if, knowing what he knows now, he can get any new information from them.”

  “Can he get a picture to show them? If they can ID him, that would be just what we were hoping for, right? More people to back up Karen’s claim?” Frank asked.

  “Bud’s going to check with The Ivory Palm and see if they can provide an old employment photo. If the assaults happened when he was working there, and when he was posing as Joshua, it’s possible the women would recognize him. And yeah, Frank, that would be a very good thing.”

  The reality hit Joe. “He could have worked at several different places under several different names with several different looks. Even if the women could remember something, it’s possible, likely even, that those assaults didn’t happen when he was Joshua and working at The Ivory Palm, and other than Mystique, we don’t know where else he might have worked.”

  “You’re right, but it’s another avenue to pursue. You have to remember we’re still in the beginning stages of the investigation.”

  Joe pondered the news. He wanted to focus only on the positives, but something nagged at him.

  “It seems to me that if there are unsolved cases, the chances are slim it was Joshua. Think about it. His deal is blackmailing his victims. If a victim had gone to the police, at least if she had gone to the police right away, she would have known who was behind the blackmailing. Even if the victim didn’t remember anything that happened, if it was like what happened with Karen, it would have been only a couple of days until she received a text with pictures. I guess it’s possible Karen was one of the few who remembered enough about the night to recall who she’d interacted with, but if she’s not the exception, then the other victims would have had plenty of information to hand over to the police. It seems like the police wouldn’t have had too much difficulty tracking down the guilty party.”

  Jake was nodding long before Joe finished. “I thought the same, but there’s a chance. A lot of police work involves following up on leads even when the chances of those leads bearing any fruit are slim. Oftentimes, you go in expecting one thing and leave with something completely different but no less valuable. Don’t lose hope.”

  “You said Bud plans on going to Mystique. Is he going to talk to Joshua? Kellen?” Joe waved a hand to halt Jake when he opened his mouth to speak. “I know, he’s not going to question him about the case, but do you think he’ll talk to him? Will he make up some excuse about needing to talk to the staff just to give himself a chance to talk to Kellen and get a feel for what he’s like?”

  “I don’t know what Bud’s plans are, but if it were me, I’d probably do something along those lines. Talk to everyone so I’m not singling him out, maybe show a picture and say I’m following up on a missing person report. There are lots of ways to approach him without tipping him off.”

  “What if one, or even a couple, of us are there when Bud does his thing?” Riley leaned forward in his chair. “We could hang around, give Bud space, but watch for Joshua’s reaction after Bud talks to him.”

  “Right! Riley’s right.” Frank set down his drink and used his hands as he talked. “Unless Bud brings someone with him, he’ll have to move on from Joshua and talk to other employees so his story seems plausible. He won’t be able to watch Joshua once he finishes talking with him. I think it’s a good idea.”

  Jake closed his eyes, sighed, and rubbed his forehead. “I’m sure Bud has it covered.”

  “He might not. You told us most everyone else is busy with the other case they’re working. Bud’s probably a team of one,” Joe said.

  “I can’t keep questioning him and telling him how to do his job.” Jake fixed his gaze on them, one at a time, and apparently didn’t like what he saw. He shook his head and sighed again. “Don’t tell me what you’re doing, don’t be stupid, and don’t get caught.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CASSIE AND FRANK managed to put together the best argument in the I should be the one to go back to Mystique contest, so later that evening, they headed to the strip while everyone else gathered in Cort’s suite intending to pass the time with a movie. Choosing a movie, however, took a back seat to guessing what Bud might learn, if Frank would heed Jake’s dire warning about leaving his camera behind, and whether Dave would choose that night to finally contact Cort again.

  “It’s been a couple days. Do you think you could try getting in touch with him?”

  “I’d like to tell you yes, Joe, but that’s not how Dave works. What he does, he does on his schedule. Sometimes, that schedule moves fast. Other times, like now, it seems to hardly move. I’m sorry, I wish I could do more.”

  “It’s okay. I had to ask. This waiting game sucks.”

  “Bud will learn something tonight, I’m sure of it,” Shauna said. “The time is right for a big break. I can feel it.”

  “Ah…speaking of breaks, or rather not a break, I guess. Bud followed up on the unsolved cases and nothing came of either one. Sorry,” Jake said.

  “That’s what we talked about, what we expected.” Joe lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “It was a long shot.”

  “Maybe we’ll get some better news now. Cassie and Frank are back,” Riley said.

  “How’d it go?” Jake asked as soon as they were in the room. “Any problems?”

  “Everything was fine, but there’s not much to report,” Frank said. “Bud made the rounds talking to bartenders, waitresses, bouncers, even some dealers when he had the chance. We put ourselves in position to be close enough when he talked to Joshua and watched him for nervousness or anything else noticeable. Not much to see. He answered Bud’s questions, then went back to work.”

  “The idea was to watch him after he spoke with Bud, wasn’t it? Were you able to do that?” Joe asked.

  “We were,” Cassie said. “Again, I’m afraid there wasn’t much to see. He watched Bud for a while as he interviewed other employees, but Joshua didn’t seem upset or nervous, just curious, maybe. Most of the other employees acted the same after Bud talked to them. We stayed long enough that we thought if Joshua was going to do anything like call someone or approach a supervisor wondering why a cop was there, he would have done it by then. I wish we had more to report.”

  The disappointment came as a blow, but Joe tried to shrug it off. “It was another long shot. I appreciate you guys trying.”

  “Bud will give me his report tomorrow. He’s likely to have formed an initial opinion of Joshua. That will tell us a lot,” Jake said.

  It was quiet until Shauna changed the subject. “Should we choose a movie?”

  Joe let them offer and shoot down suggestions without caring what they decided. Cassie and Frank seemed just as disinterested because they joined him in the corner he’d chosen to pace.

  “Sorry, Joe. I know you were hoping for more. We were too,” Frank said.

  “You did what you could. We’ll get a break one of t
hese times.”

  “Of course, we will. Now, tell me how Karen’s doing. And the kids. Were you able to talk to her this evening?”

  Talking about something else came as a relief. “They’re doing well. Mom and Dad had the kids this morning while Karen went to visit her grandfather. Karen said Dylan was so tired after playing all day with the puppy that he fell asleep before she’d backed out of Mom and Dad’s driveway. Then when she got home and picked him up to take him in the house, he started giggling in his sleep and petting her hair while muttering, ‘peppy, love peppy’ over and over.”

  A pain he didn’t expect pierced his heart. He missed his kids and his wife, and he wanted to go home. Rather than let them see the sudden flood of emotion in his eyes that no amount of blinking seemed capable of stemming, he turned to the wall of windows and studied the fiery ball that was the desert sun descend on a city he was coming to hate. What he wouldn’t give to be sitting on his dock, Karen next to him and the kids on their laps, watching that same sun set over Misty Lake.

  Another few days, tops. Past that, he didn’t see any point in staying. If the investigation dragged on, it would be up to Bud to do his thing and no number of McCabes was going to make that thing move any faster.

  That decided, the stranglehold on his heart eased. He could breathe again and every muscle in his body relaxed.

  “Joe? Joe, are you okay?”

  Cassie’s words sounded far away. He wondered how long he’d been staring out the window and how long they’d been talking to him.

  “I am. I’m okay.” For a change, he believed his own words.

  “What did Karen have to say about Leonard? You said she was planning to talk to his doctor today.” Frank was ready with another change of subject.

  “He’s improving. The doctor is hopeful he’ll be ready to go home in a couple weeks. Probably a good thing. Karen said his speech is getting better and he’s terrorizing the therapists.”

  Frank nodded. “I can see that. He was good at scaring us into behaving when we were kids and he was our bus driver.”