The Beachside Cafe (Saltwater Secrets Book 3)

by Sage Parker

  Jaymee looked up at the building. It was at least fifteen stories, by her estimation. She tilted her head and spoke to Cameron without looking at him. “I bet he’s making money hand over fist. This building only houses the rich and famous attorneys. I wonder why we’ve never heard of him?”

  Cameron snickered. “Because we’re not often in need of a criminal lawyer?”

  She looked at him with a smile. “You’re right. Well, let’s get this over with.” She adjusted the strap of her purse on her shoulder and straightened her business skirt, tugging it down a bit.

  “You look fine, stop fussing,” Cameron said in a low voice as he pushed open the glass door for her.

  She passed by him, winking. “You’re looking pretty good yourself in that suit. Sharp.”

  Cameron adjusted his tie, grinning at her.

  They walked together to the elevators, nodding at the security guards running the front desk. Cameron whistled under his breath when the doors opened. The inside of the elevator was as luxurious as the rest of the building. He looked around as they walked in.

  “I never knew there could be a fancy elevator,” he remarked. “I’m surprised there isn’t a sink and a couch in here.”

  “Right?” Jaymee agreed, stepping to the back and turning around while Cameron waited at the floor dial. “He’s on the tenth floor.”

  Cameron raised his eyebrows as he pressed the 10 button. The elevator gently began to move. “Tenth floor. Pretty prestigious. Almost as good as the top floor, but not quite.”

  Jaymee nodded. “I think we might be in for quite a surprise.”

  “I don’t know why we would be, though,” Cameron replied. “We’ve got a City Council member on our suspect list. A rich lawyer who defends criminals shouldn’t be too much of a shocker.”

  “True, true,” she responded. “He’s probably wildly good-looking and an incredible charmer, too.”

  “I wouldn’t doubt it.”

  The elevator came to a stop twice before reaching the tenth floor. Three people had joined them. When the doors opened to the tenth floor, Cameron took Jaymee’s hand as they stepped off into a carpeted hallway. Jaymee ran her fingers along the wall as they walked. “There’s fabric on these walls,” she said with amusement. “Can you imagine having to clean this? This place must be full of germs. What do you want to bet?”

  Cameron chuckled.

  They reached the office door with Lianetti’s name on it, along with two other men.

  “Here we go,” Cameron said, pushing open the door for her.

  The first thing they saw was Lianetti’s secretary, Marianne, according to the nameplate on her desk. She was a brunette with bright brown eyes that sparkled behind her thick-rimmed glasses. She smiled when she saw them and stood up.

  “Ms. Townsend?” she said.

  Jaymee gave her a closed-mouth grin. “Not for much longer, I hope.”

  Marianne laughed softly. “If you’ll just take a seat, I’ll let Mr. Lianetti know that you’re here. He’s with a… client right now but I’m sure he will be ready for you by your appointment time in…” She lifted her slender arm and looked at her wrist, “ten minutes? If you’d like to have a seat, I’ll let him know right now.”

  “Thank you, Marianne,” Cameron said. The secretary looked at each of them with a smile and a nod before turning to Lianetti’s office door.

  Cameron and Jaymee sat on one of the matching black leather couches provided for waiting clients. A coffee table sat in front of one of them with magazines of all kinds spread across the top. Cameron leaned forward and picked up the NASA Monthly. He sat back and began to flip through the pages.

  “Did you hear the way she said that, Cam?” Jaymee asked.

  He glanced at her. “Said what?”

  “When she said Lianetti is with someone. She hesitated before she said client. I bet he’s not in there with a client at all. Maybe he’s even alone. I wouldn’t doubt it.”

  Cameron snorted softly. “You’ve got a suspicious mind, my girl. He’s-”

  He stopped and they both looked at the door of Lianetti’s office when it opened and a young woman came out. Jaymee immediately recognized her from the pictures on Doug’s computer. She tensed up but then relaxed so as not to look suspicious. She dropped her eyes, wondering if Cameron also recognized her.

  The only women on the suspect list, Amanda Dinklage, was hurrying away from Dylan Lianetti’s office, looking like she didn’t want to be seen there. Her face was pulled together with tension. A stranger could see she was upset about something.

  She looked at Cameron and Jaymee, her expression unchanging. She walked quickly across the room and slipped out the front door, disappearing down the hallway. Shortly after, they heard the elevator dinging.

  Marianne came back out of the office, blowing any chance Jaymee had to ask Cameron if he’d recognized Amanda. She gave him an intense look though and he nodded his head slightly. She was sure he had recognized the woman, too.

  “Mr. Lianetti will be ready for you in a few minutes. He’ll buzz me and I’ll let you know when you can go in.”

  “Sounds good, thank you, Marianne.”

  “It’s my pleasure,” the secretary responded.

  True to her word, Marianne told them four minutes later that Dylan was ready for them. They stood up and as she walked to the door, Jaymee felt the need to straighten her skirt again. She patted her hair and put on her best smile as she went in.

  Dylan Lianetti was exactly what Jaymee had suspected. He had distinctly Italian features and spoke with a slight accent that told them he was not native to America. He had wavy brown hair and bright blue eyes, a trait he shared with Cameron. He smiled brilliantly at them when they came in, smoothly buttoning his jacket in the middle and walking around his desk, his other hand held out.

  “Mrs. Townsend!” he exclaimed as if she was the Queen of England. “It is a delight to meet you. I am sorry it’s not under better circumstances.” He turned his bright blue eyes to Cameron. “And you are?”

  “Cameron Smith.” He took Dylan’s extended hand and shook it. “Just here to make sure Jaymee isn’t getting herself into any trouble. She doesn’t really have a good eye for things like this. I like to make sure she isn’t being taken advantage of.”

  Dylan raised his eyebrows, giving Cameron an admiring look. “Ah. A bodyguard. Well-deserved, I’m sure. Please do have a seat and let’s discuss helping you get rid of that last name of yours.”

  Jaymee laughed. “That sounds wonderful.”

  “I must ask, though, why did you come to me? I practice mostly criminal law. And I highly doubt you’ve been accused of any crimes, have you? Unless it’s now a crime to want a divorce.”

  “I suppose I wanted to get to you before he does,” Jaymee said, thinking quickly. “He’s the kind of man who will seek out ruthless lawyers like yourself and I want to get a jump on that.”

  “You’d rather be the one tearing him apart than being torn apart yourself,” Dylan said, knowingly, as he went back around his desk and dropped into the large leather chair he’d been sitting in.

  “I think we can do something for you. Even if it’s just as simple as writing up the papers and sending them in. My name should carry some weight, might even frighten off any lawyers he’s working with. Do you know who his lawyer is?”

  Jaymee pressed her lips together. Not only did she not know who Doug used as a lawyer, she didn’t even know if he was still alive to use one.

  “I’m afraid not.”

  “If you give me his first name and middle initial, I’ll look it up for you.” Dylan swiveled in his chair and placed his hands on his keyboard.

  “I don’t know if he’s got a lawyer yet,” Jaymee said quickly.

  Dylan turned back to face her, a serene look on his face. He laced his fingers together and rested both hands on the desk. “So you haven’t discussed divorce with him?” he asked.

  “No, I haven’t.” Jaymee attempted to look ashame
d and scared. She was grateful when Cameron reached over and took her hand.

  “It’s going to be all right, J… Julia. Everything is going to be fine once you’re away from that brute.”

  “I know. I know.” Jaymee lowered her head and covered her eyes, hiding them from Dylan, as if she was crying. Instead, she was running her eyes around the room, looking for any clues that might link Dylan to the IDL.

  “Are you all right, Mrs. Townsend?” Dylan asked. “Can I get you a glass of water?”

  Jaymee sniffed dramatically and shook her head. “I… I think I’ll have to do this another time. I… I feel tired suddenly. Cameron, please take me home.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Cameron said, helping Jaymee stand. “We’ll make another appointment. Sorry to waste your time. Please send a bill for your time.”

  Dylan looked completely confused but nodded. “I do hope you feel better. Give me a call when you feel you can go through with this. Maybe talk to your husband first?”

  Jaymee nodded. “Thank you, thank you.”

  She let Cameron lead her out.

  FOUR

  “So, did you see anything of interest in there?” she asked Cameron as they went down the elevator.

  “Yeah, he’s obviously a part of IDL. I think I might have even seen a notepad with their logo on the top. It looks like everyone on the list works for IDL. Maybe we should just go there and raid their offices.”

  Jaymee laughed. “Yeah, because we have the legal right to do something like that. We aren’t the FBI, you know. Not that the FBI is ever really trustworthy. Some might be but I mean, come on, J. Edgar Hoover pulled a fast one on absolutely everybody, didn’t he? Haven’t trusted them since.”

  “You’ve worked with the FBI?” Cameron asked, surprise in his voice. He was looking at her closely.

  She gave him a half-grin. “Cameron. What would I need to work with the FBI for? I mean, what would I do for them? Criminal consultant? Because I know so much about crime?”

  “I don’t know,” Cameron said with a shrug. “You could be a trained assassin for all I know.”

  Jaymee’s eyes sparkled. “Ooo, I like the sound of that. No wait, that’s killing people. How about… cat burglar…” She said the words with oomph, widening her eyes and doing jazz hands in the air. “That way I get all the jewels and nobody gets hurt.”

  “Until you’re in jail and Big Bertha comes up behind you in the shower.”

  Jaymee gasped. “Cameron!”

  He laughed as the doors opened. “Sorry. Had to. Never saw the appeal of crime. Money isn’t worth spending your whole life in jail when you’re caught. I wouldn’t want to commit a crime and then live as a fugitive either. That just doesn’t sound like much fun to me.”

  “Nor me.”

  They stepped off the elevator and walked to the glass doors that let out of the building.

  “Hey, let’s try that café we passed on the way here. It’s just up the street and we don’t have to drive there. I need a good cup of java.”

  Jaymee raised her eyebrows at him. “Is there something wrong with the coffee at my place?”

  Cameron chuckled. “The coffee at your café is the best. But we’re not on that side of town right now, are we? Otherwise, why would I want to spend money when I can get it for free just because I’m your friend?”

  Jaymee stopped him in the middle of the sidewalk and turned to face him. She gave him a warm smile, a feeling of affection filling her chest and making her heart pound. The look in his blue eyes told her everything she wanted to know. Sporadically, she lifted up on her tip-toes and kissed him on the lips. It was quick and felt better than she ever expected it would.

  His eyes widened like he’d never been surprise kissed before.

  “What was that?” he asked.

  She felt a bit of anxiety. Her breath caught and she blinked at him. “A kiss?”

  He laughed, shaking his head. “That wasn’t a kiss. This is a kiss.”

  Cameron grabbed her, one arm around her waist and the other supporting her back as he dipped her, giving her a passionate kiss in the process. Tingles rippled through her body. Doug had never kissed her that way. He wasn’t an outwardly loving man. Jaymee was starting to think he wasn’t an inwardly loving man, either. She doubted he’d ever really loved her. He was probably sticking around only because of Cheyenne.

  She’d revisited the theory that Doug might have run off with another woman. There had been absolutely no leads to determine that, though. Going through his finances had revealed the blackmail he was involved in, but any money that came from them was already accounted for. If he had a hidden business account somewhere that would allow him to leave the country and disappear, it must have been extremely well hidden.

  When he’d first disappeared, Jaymee didn’t want to even think that the man was with another woman. Now, she hoped he was. She would sue him for adultery, which was a crime punishable with fines and jailtime. That would suit her just fine. He could ride out his sentence alongside the blackmail charges that would be leveled against him.

  They got to the café and took one of the two person tables by the front windows overlooking the street outside. The ocean was on the other side of that street, after a huge parking lot nearly filled with vehicles and a very long, wide beach with white sand that reflected the sun almost as bright as the star itself.

  When they were settled in with their drinks and Jaymee was about to bite into her grilled cheese sandwich, Cameron asked, “Did you see Amanda come out of Dylan’s office?”

  Jaymee gasped. “That’s right! I was going to ask if you saw her. You kind of looked at me like you knew but I wasn’t sure and didn’t have time to ask. So that links those two together. I get that everyone worked at IDL, those are the people Doug was blackmailing. But we have a stronger link between these two now. And there’s nothing in Dylan’s or Amanda’s behavior that makes me think they might be innocent. I mean, they’re guilty of something.”

  “Lianetti had a portrait hanging on the wall, did you see it?”

  Jaymee nodded. “The one with him and his wife and their children?”

  “Yeah. Classic family pose. No way it was done more than a year or two ago unless Lianetti never looks older. So maybe he and Amanda are having an affair.”

  “Maybe,” Jaymee said, thoughtfully. “She did look really upset when she came out. They might have had a lover’s tiff. Then again, Lianetti is a criminal lawyer. He might be helping her with something she’s been caught up in.”

  “I wonder if they know they were both being blackmailed.”

  Jaymee raised her eyebrows, chewing the delicious sandwich and answering after she swallowed. She pointed at him with the sandwich. “If they found out they were both being blackmailed, maybe they’re working together. Maybe they’re holding Doug somewhere or… or…”

  Cameron nodded. Jaymee was relieved she didn’t have to say it. No matter how much Doug hurt her or broke the law, she didn’t want him dead. Although if they ever found him, she might choke him to death.

  “So should we go tell the cops what we know?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “No. We have absolutely no proof of any of this. If we find out more or find out something that is a real solid lead, we’ll go to them. Right now, all we have is conjecture and a bunch of guesses. They know IDL is involved. That’s their focus right now. They want to find out what’s going on in those labs. Speaking of labs…”

  Jaymee nodded when Cameron didn’t finish the sentence. “We should go see Alex. See what he can tell us. Do you know what he’s working on right now?”

  “He said he was going to try to hack into the IDL computer servers and see what he could find. That was earlier this morning. I’ll bet you he’s in already.”

  “Wouldn’t he have called you if he was able to get in?”

  Cameron shrugged. “Doesn’t hurt to go by there. Unless you’ve got something else you want to do.”

  Jaymee shook her h
ead. “No, let’s just stop by the café first and make sure Cheyenne is holding up there.”

  “She’s not at work?”

  “She’s on mandatory vacation.”

  “Paid?”

  Jaymee grinned. “Yep. You know, we’re going to have to put grilled cheese on the menu at my café.” She looked down at the bite that was left. “This is the best sandwich I’ve had in a long time. I’m really impressed.”

  “Maybe it’s the cook you should hire, instead of the grilled cheese.”

  Jaymee laughed with him. “Maybe. Still, it’s an old classic and I’ll bet the kids will love it. As much as I do.”

  “I don’t know. You’re like a kid in a candy store with that thing. I don’t think I’ve seen you eat that fast since I met you.”

  Jaymee stuck the tip of her tongue out at him, smiling through it. “What can I say? It was delicious.” She kissed the tips of her fingers and sent the kiss flying in the air. “Muah!”

  FIVE

  As they were leaving the café, Cameron’s phone buzzed and he pulled it from his back pocket. He pressed the screen and read the message.

  “Looks like Alex got in,” he said, pride in his voice.

  Jaymee was delighted. “He has great timing, doesn’t he?”

  “That he does,” Cameron agreed. “I’m texting we’re on our way but that we’re stopping at your café first.”

  “Ask him if he wants us to bring him anything. I’ll feed him for his time.”

  Cameron looked up at her with only his eyes, leaving his head down. “Free?”

  She laughed. “Yes, free, of course, silly man.”

  “He ain’t gonna pass that up,” Cameron murmured. “I guess we could have waited to eat until we got there.”

  “Uh-uh,” Jaymee said, amusement in her voice. “Then I wouldn’t have had that grilled cheese and the brilliant idea of adding it to my menu at Saltwater.”

  “You got me there.”

  They got back to Cameron’s Jeep and he pulled open the passenger side door for her before going around and getting in behind the steering wheel.