The Beachside Cafe (Saltwater Secrets Book 5)

by Sage Parker

  “I suppose,” Jaymee responded, “but no one ever said you had to be a genius to be a criminal. Tell me, why didn’t Amanda delete all of this? Why would she commit the crime on camera in the first place?”

  “Dylan and Amanda are a thing sometimes,” Jennifer responded. “Emphasis on the sometimes. He doesn’t tell her half of his dealings. That’s why he took the cameras out after he saw this footage. He was trying to find something to hold over Doug’s head but he saw his sometimes girlfriend murder the man instead.”

  Jayme sucked in a deep breath. “So she murdered him? That drug must be real strong.”

  “You saw how fast it worked. I don’t know if it killed him right then but the organs start to shut down when the drug is ingested in the system. The better way to do it is to inject it. You can commit murder in just a few seconds that way. It’s as lethal as a gunshot to the heart.”

  Jaymee shuddered, shaking her head. “Horrible. What a horrible fate.”

  “I’m going to get some more footage,” Jennifer said, standing up. “If you want to watch more of this, just hit the enter button. I’m sure you know how to control this video player. It’s standard, if you want to go forward or back.”

  Jaymee nodded. “Yeah, I know how to do it.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  Jaymee crossed the few steps to the chair Jennifer had vacated. She sat down with her back to the door, moving it sideways so she could see when Jennifer came back in.

  Looking down at the keyboard, Jaymee tapped a few keys, manipulating the video and checking the other video footage from the other rooms. She split the video into four and watched as the day Doug had disappeared – been murdered – progressed in front of her eyes. She saw the breakfast they’d had that morning together, noting the way Doug and Cheyenne laughed at something funny he said. There was no doubt the two loved each other. Father and daughter. A bond like no other.

  A bond Doug had taken much too lightly.

  Now to find out that there was a good chance he was dead made Jaymee’s heart hurt for her daughter. It was a tragic end to their close relationship. And Cheyenne was the one left carrying the pain. For Doug, it was over. For Cheyenne, it was just beginning.

  Jaymee stared at the screen, moving her finger over the mouse to manipulate which camera showed more than the others. When the video came to the time that Amanda arrived, Jaymee leaned forward and peered at all four screens carefully. She saw Amanda pull in the driveway and get out, her sleek business suit molding her into an hourglass shape. She had long shapely legs and high heels that accentuated them.

  Jaymee self-consciously looked down at her short legs. She would probably look just as good in an outfit like that, she decided. She had no need to be jealous of Amanda.

  Amanda knocked on the door. Jaymee’s eyes flicked to the inside view of the foyer as Doug went to check the door. He invited Amanda in but Jaymee could see the hesitation on his face. He was questioning why Amanda was there.

  It was the first time Jaymee had ever seen a woman throw herself at a man. Amanda literally did that, smashing her face against Doug’s, kissing him sloppily. He didn’t push her away but Jaymee could see he wasn’t all that keen on it.

  For the next hour, Doug plied Amanda with alcohol, or so he thought. Several times, Jaymee saw Amanda dump her drink into a potted plant.

  “No wonder my plants kept dying,” Jaymee murmured, remembering one of her favorite indoor trees had shriveled up and died since the day she was watching play out.

  The action progressed and finally Doug seemed sufficiently drunk. He responded more to Amanda’s flirtations and Jaymee was gifted with sights she didn’t want to see.

  It culminated in the bedroom and after Doug fell down on the bed, Jaymee watched Martin and Amanda cleaning up the room. She imagined what kind of argument Amanda and Dylan must have had when he found out what she’d done, all caught right there on video. She wondered if the lawyer had threatened Amanda and started up his own little source of blackmail income.

  Jaymee wished Jennifer would return. She wanted to ask her a few more questions about Amanda and Dylan’s relationship and why Jennifer was showing this to her. What did that have to do with the experiments being done and Jennifer’s plea for escape and rescue?

  She could easily have given the information to Jaymee on the original flash drive. In a video form just like this one.

  Jaymee stared at the screen until a hand came around her face and pressed a cloth against her nose. She’d never smelled it before but chloroform immediately popped into her mind when everything around her went black.

  Jaymee rose to consciousness just enough to moan. She felt herself being rolled on a gurney down a long hallway. Voices were infiltrating the fog in her mind and she struggled to concentrate on them. They were both female and they appeared to be arguing with each other.

  When she was able to focus, Jaymee tried not to let it show that she had woken up and could hear them. Jennifer was whining, her voice pleading and regretful.

  “I’m sorry it didn’t work,” she said, strained. “I really thought it would. I just didn’t realize one of the vials was left behind. She said they had more than one, too!”

  “This was a foolish mistake, Jen,” the unmistakable voice of Amanda Dinklage spoke up, making Jaymee’s heart race. She tried not to give herself away by gasping. “You should have known showing her this would only make things worse.”

  “I thought she would understand the seriousness of it and maybe knowing would make her stop looking.”

  “I told you she wasn’t going to stop. I told you that and now here we are because of your foolish whim. You never listen to me, Jen, and that’s getting really tiresome. You’ve been like this all our lives. I never could rely on you.”

  “I’ve been keeping an eye on Dylan just like you told me to, though,” Jennifer’s voice went back to pleading, as if she was a child begging a parent for love and attention. “I’ve been doing everything I can to show you I want your plans to succeed.”

  “I know, I know. You’ve been my shadow since we were kids. That’s why mom and dad preferred me. I’m not a weakling like you.”

  “I’m trying to be better, Mandy. I’m always trying to be more like you.”

  “If you were trying to be more like me, you wouldn’t be making stupid decisions behind my back. You shouldn’t have brought her here. Now I’ll have to deal with her myself. That puts me at a lot of risk. I’m ashamed to be your sister.”

  “Don’t say that, Mandy!” Jennifer cried out, sounding just like the child Amanda was treating her as. “I’m really trying!”

  “Just be quiet and let’s get her to the room.”

  SIX

  The moment Cameron heard the scuffling as Jaymee was picked up and placed on the gurney, he was out of the car and heading for the front entrance of IDL. He would bust through the front doors and demand action if he had to.

  By the time he’d crossed the parking lot, he knew that was probably a bad idea. The security guards and/or receptions as the front desk had to know what the company was all about. They were probably briefed daily and carried firearms.

  He pictured himself going in Wick style and taking them all out. A grin came to his face. A very unlikely scenario in the real world. His grin disappeared when he remembered Jaymee was in danger and he had no idea where to go in the enormous building to find her. He had to, though, before it was too late.

  The first place he would check would be Amanda’s office. He took the phone off speaker and held it to his ear, wishing he could give Jaymee comfort without alerting the women holding her that her cell phone was still active and on a call with him.

  He stopped going toward the front door and casually turned to walk around the building to the entrance he’d seen Jaymee go in.

  Say something, Jaymee, he pleaded in his mind, pressing the phone hard against his ear. Say something so I know you’re alive.

  As if on cue, he heard Jaym
ee’s mumbles coming through to him and he breathed a sigh of relief, temporarily closing his eyes.

  “Where are you… taking me… I… want to go home…”

  “You aren’t going home now, Jaymee,” Amanda responded. “We’re going to have to deal with you since you couldn’t keep your nose out of our business.”

  “You need to let me go,” Jaymee said in a clearer voice. Cameron wanted so badly to say something to her, to let her know she wasn’t alone.

  He stopped when he went around the corner of the building. He watched the door, wondering if it would raise any alarms if he went in. Or it might be locked. He imagined the kind of security they had in the building had to be remarkable.

  Cameron had to take a chance though. It was the only way he knew of to get to where Jaymee had been.

  He walked to the door, looking around him but trying to look nonchalant at the same time.

  He closed his eyes when he set his hand on the knob, saying a quick prayer for a miracle.

  When the handle turned in his hand and the door clicked open, Cameron breathed a sigh of disbelief and relief at the same time. He’d gotten his miracle. He looked up and mouthed “thank you” before going through the open doorway.

  He looked far ahead to the other end of the hallway all the way on the other side of the building. The hallway was so long, he could barely see the window at the end of it. He made sure the door closed silently behind him before stepping away from it. He continued to listen to the sounds Jaymee and the women were making, his heart aching for her.

  “What are you doing? Don’t do this. You don’t need to do this. I don’t have to tell anyone what happened. If you just tell me where Doug’s body is, I won’t tell anyone about anything. I’ll just pretend I found it. You don’t have to do this. Please…”

  Her voice was beginning to sound desperate. Cameron wondered what Amanda was doing to make Jaymee sound that way. He heard shuffling and the sound of leather rubbing against itself.

  “Don’t,” Jaymee continued as she began to panic. Cameron hurried down the hallway, stopping at every door and pressing his ear against it. At that rate, he would never find Jaymee in time. But he didn’t know what else to do. “Please. Please don’t strap me down. I don’t want any of your chemicals in my body. I don’t agree to let you do experiments on me.”

  Amanda laughed, causing Cameron to grimace. It was the most unamused sound he’d ever heard. “You still believe Jennifer’s video huh? Well, what she said was true. And what we do to people here is true. But she isn’t one of them. That was all for show. What’s really going on is much, much worse than that.”

  Cameron heard the tears in Jaymee’s voice. Her words were much more confident than she was letting on. “You can’t do this and get away with it. I’m going to be found. It’s not like no one knows I’m here. They’re going to come find me. There are people who are going to come and find me. You won’t get away with it.”

  “You don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say that,” Amanda replied. “I wouldn’t have brought you here myself. That was a foolish decision made by my sister. I think she really wanted to see me doing this to you. She’s always had a thing about it. She enjoys watching the experiments but doesn’t have the brain capacity to develop any of them.”

  Cameron’s heartbeat was rapid, causing him to be short of breath. He tried to get himself under control. The building was ten stories high. Jaymee could be in literally any room in the building and he wouldn’t know it.

  He wanted desperately to call the detectives and alert them to what was going on. But he didn’t dare hang up on Jaymee. It was his last lifeline to her, the only thing he had connecting him to her during her time of crisis. Even though he couldn’t say anything, he knew it had to be a comfort to know the phone was there and the call hadn’t been disconnected.

  “Why did Jennifer bring me here in the first place?” Jaymee asked. “Why did you take me up in the elevator? Is this the seventh floor? Is this the place where they’re doing all the real experiments your sister told us about?”

  “My sister…” Amanda said, scornfully, “is a raging idiot. She tells too many true facts when she should be making things up.”

  “So we are on the seventh floor?” Jaymee persisted.

  “It’s kind of ironic, you know…” Cameron could hear her moving about, opening and closing drawers, clicking computer keys, walking around the room. Her voice sounded like she might as well have been talking to herself. “That all these experiments are being done on the seventh floor. You know why?”

  Jaymee had no curiosity in her tone when she responded, “Why?”

  “Because it’s God’s number, silly. Don’t you know that? Don’t you believe in God? You should. You’re going to be calling out to him eventually. And not in a good way.” Again, Amanda laughed her wicked laugh.

  “Don’t do this. Please don’t do this.”

  By that time, Cameron had slammed through to the staircase and was taking them up to the seventh floor two steps at a time. He prayed the door would be unlocked and was relieved when it was. He darted through to the hallway and looked to the left and right. Another hallway lined with doors that were indistinct from each other. The walls were gray with white trim, candle holder style lights hanging every ten or fifteen feet.

  He listened closely as Jaymee started to whimper.

  “Don’t worry,” Amanda said. “I’m not going to do anything until Jennifer gets back. This is her favorite part. I wouldn’t want her to miss it.”

  “What are you doing with that needle?” Jaymee asked. “What’s inside it? Why are you doing this? You don’t have to do this.”

  Amanda clucked her tongue. “Stop whining. You came willingly to my company. Now you will participate. That’s just the way it goes.”

  The sound of a toilet flushing came through Cameron’s phone at the same time the plumbing to his right was activated. His eyes darted down the hallway and he began to run on quick, silent feet, listening at each door until he knew which room the sound had come from.

  When he found the right door, he leaned close and listened to the mumbling voices. He heard someone come near to the door and he backed away, his heart pounding. When it didn’t open, he listened again and then slowly turned the knob, pushing the door open just a crack.

  SEVEN

  Jaymee didn’t want to see Jennifer come back in the room. Her eyes were on the needle in Amanda’s hand. Her heart was pounding so hard her chest hurt. She was barely able to breathe. The only thing she was happy about was that the women hadn’t even thought to search her for her cell phone.

  After all that had happened, Jaymee was positive Cameron was already inside IDL, searching for her. She knew he had no idea where she was in the building, which was why she’d asked if they were on the seventh’s floor. She couldn’t ask much more without making it seem like she was trying to give someone directions to where she was at. That might make the ladies search her. Then they would find the phone and her only chance at being saved would be gone.

  She tried to keep herself under control but it was not easy. She was shaking like a leaf, terrified that Cameron wouldn’t find her before Amanda poked her with that needle and injected its contents into her.

  When Jennifer did come in the room, Jaymee tried to keep from crying. Amanda glanced at her sister with a smile.

  “I waited,” she said graciously. “I know this is the part you like so much. You want to say something to her first? Warn her maybe? I know you like to do that, too, don’t you?”

  Jennifer gave her sister a curious look. “You told me last time not to taunt them.”

  “I want you to this time,” Amanda said, gesturing to Jaymee with the needle as casually as if it had been a pen. “Go ahead.”

  Jennifer giggled as if she’d just been handed a big chocolate bar. She came over to stand next to Jaymee, who was strapped in a chair so much like the one she’d seen in the video, she was pretty sure it
actually was the same one. Her wrists and ankles were strapped down, just like Jennifer’s had been.

  “This chair looks familiar, doesn’t it?” Jennifer asked, an evil grin on her face. “It should. I know you watched that video or you wouldn’t be here right now. This is what being too curious can get you. Awful nice of you to try to come to my rescue. As you can see, I don’t need you or your help. Everything I need comes from Amanda.”

  “You let your sister control that much of your life?” Jaymee asked, unable to resist the sarcasm. She was disgusted by the women in front of her and when she felt that way, she wasn’t likely to stay quiet about it. Even in the direst of circumstances, she was going to speak her mind. She had a feeling she wouldn’t be able to tell them what she thought for much longer.

  At least she wouldn’t if Cameron didn’t come in time.

  She closed her eyes for a moment and prayed for Cameron to get to her in time. Jennifer must have figured out what Jaymee was doing because she said in a harsh tone, “You better be praying that you can withstand some pain, Aunt Jaymee,” Jennifer said in a scornful voice. “You’re going to need all the help you can get.”

  “I’m not the one who needs help,” Jaymee responded, narrowing her eyes at the younger woman. I think you need therapy. A lot of therapy. For years.”

  Jennifer’s smug look slipped and she was momentarily angry. “I don’t need therapy!” she shrieked. “I am perfectly sane. There’s nothing wrong with my brain at all. Do you hear me?”

  Jaymee forced herself to laugh. “You’re kidding me, right? This is the actions of a sane person? I don’t think so, Jennifer. I don’t think so.”

  “Who are you anyway?” Jennifer asked.

  Jaymee shrugged and did her best to look casual. “Apparently I’m worth enough for you to give up your freedom for. I mean, you don’t really think you’ll be able to get away with this, right? If you know about me, you know about Cameron and he’s a private investigator. You don’t think he’s going to come find me, that he won’t search for clues to my whereabouts?”