The Beachside Cafe (Saltwater Secrets Book 5)

by Sage Parker

  “He will never find you in IDL,” Jennifer answered. “This place is massive and has hundreds of rooms. Thousands of rooms.”

  Jaymee shook her head, giving the woman a disdainful look. “You don’t know Cameron. Even if I’m dead, he’s going to find me and he’ll come after both of you. He’ll have you in jail before your next hair appointment.”

  She could tell she’d really gotten under Jennifer’s skin with that comment. The younger woman lunged at her but amazingly, Amanda put out her arm right before Jennifer could get her hands around Jaymee’s neck, effectively clotheslining her sister.

  “Oh no you don’t,” Amanda said bluntly. Jennifer was knocked off her feet by the intentional blockade and she sat on her behind, giving Amanda a wounded look as she rubbed her neck.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” she stated.

  “You got what was coming to you. Now stop acting irrationally.”

  Jaymee almost laughed at that. Amanda was preparing a concoction that would painfully take an innocent life and was talking to her sister about acting rationally. She couldn’t hold back a snort and Amanda’s eyes darted to her, sending Jaymee’s heart into overdrive.

  “You think that’s funny?” Amanda asked.

  “Murderers don’t have a moral compass,” Jaymee responded boldly. “Hearing you talk about acting rationally is very much a joke to me.”

  “Really.” Amanda didn’t say the word as a question. She said it in a menacing tone that sent a streak of fear through Jaymee so strong she thought it might stop her heart. Amanda held up the needle and pushed the plunger slightly so a little of the liquid squirted out of the end.

  Jaymee swallowed, her eyes on the needle instead of Amanda.

  “Let’s see how much of a joke I am to you now.”

  When Amanda stepped toward her with the needle prepped to slide into Jaymee’s vein, Jaymee began to shriek at the top of her lungs. She jerked back and forth in the chair, pulling at her restraints with all her might.

  “No!” she screamed. “Get away from me! Get away from me!”

  “Stop struggling,” Amanda demanded, frowning. “No one can hear you and no one will save you. Especially not here in IDL. You’ve got no one on your side.”

  Jaymee pulled in another deep breath to scream with all her might when she saw an amazing sight. Cameron came flying through the door behind Jennifer attacking her and knocking her back to the ground. Jaymee heard Jennifer’s head contact the floor and when Cameron came up from on top of her, she didn’t move again.

  Amanda let out a shriek of rage. She turned to Jaymee, who was stunned, and shoved the needle into her arm. A new streak of terror struck Jaymee as she felt the liquid going in her arm. It wasn’t in a vein but that didn’t do anything to calm Jaymee down.

  “What are you doing?” she screamed, trying to pull away from the needle. Amanda left it hanging in Jaymee’s arm. She turned and picked up a small table, chucking it at Cameron, who put up one arm to block it from hitting him in the face. Amanda ran past Jaymee.

  Jaymee heard a door open and Amanda’s running feet as she left the room.

  “Jaymee!” Cameron said, desperation in his voice. He grabbed the needle and yanked it from her arm. Jaymee’s eyes were filled with tears as she gazed up at him.

  “She put it in me, didn’t she?” she asked, the tears already flowing from her eyes.

  Cameron gave her a sad, regretful look.

  “Well, don’t just stand there,” Jaymee said through her tears. “Go get her. Go! I’ll be right here.”

  Cameron looked like he didn’t want to leave her but he only hesitated another moment before taking off in the direction Amanda had gone.

  “Wait!” Jaymee called out. “Free me first!”

  Cameron’s face was even more regretful when he came rushing back and unstrapped one of her arms. She waved him away once her hand was free. “I’ll get the rest. Go! Don’t let her leave the building. Call the cops!”

  Cameron nodded. “Already called them. They’re on the way.”

  “Don’t let her get away!” Jaymee repeated.

  She undid the strap of her other wrist and both her ankles, a million thoughts racing through her head. She could very well be spending the last moments of her life right then and there. She might never see Cheyenne again. She would never go back to her beloved Saltwater Café to enjoy the tubular fish tank she’d had installed when she first opened the place.

  Tears streaked down her face. Whatever Amanda had given her, it hadn’t been as potent as what she’d given Doug. Jaymee was feeling a little lightheaded but that was it. Once she was freed from the chair, she began a search. There had to be something in the room that would help her. If she could figure out what exactly she’d been given, maybe she could find an antidote.

  EIGHT

  Cameron ran after Amanda, his fear of losing Jaymee almost overwhelming him. He hadn’t wanted to leave her behind. He didn’t know what she’d been injected with either. Whatever it was, he doubted it was a placebo. Jaymee could be dying in that room right at that moment and he wouldn’t be there with her. She was all alone.

  But he continued after Amanda, seeing her dart through a doorway. He already knew that was the door to the stairs. He hoped she was going downstairs. Running up after someone was exhausting.

  He ran onto the landing between the stairwells and grabbed the railing, leaning over to see if she was going up or down. To his relief, she was running down, probably in an attempt to get out.

  “You’re not gonna get away, Amanda!” he yelled as viciously as he could. He wanted to put the fear in her the way she’d put it in him and Jaymee. “If you killed her with that, you’re going to hang for it.”

  He heard Amanda’s wicked laughter drifting up to him. “They don’t hang anyone anymore, Mr. Smith,” she called back to him. “Don’t you know that? I can get away with anything I want. I know people in high places.”

  “Then why are you running?” he asked loudly, still running down the stairs after her.

  She didn’t respond to that question. The only sound was the echo of their feet as they ran down to the first floor.

  She got there when he was still two staircases behind her. He burst through the door and saw her racing toward the front doors. To his relief, the front of the building was lined with police cars, obvious from inside because the walls were nothing but tempered, dark, reflective glass.

  “Stop!” Cameron screamed.

  The two security guards behind the desk were both standing, staring at Amanda in utter amazement. Cameron figured they probably knew Amanda well and were shocked to see what was going on.

  Amanda slid to a stop, seeing the police cars lining the front of the building.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head. “It wasn’t supposed to go this way.” She turned her head and spotted the two security guards, who were staring at her stunned into silence.

  “Ma’am?” one of them said, blinking rapidly. “Are you all right? Can we get you some help?”

  Amanda raised one shaking arm and pointed frantically at Cameron. “He’s coming after me!” she cried out. “Stop him! He’s why these cops are here!”

  Cameron suddenly realized he had run into a trap. The two security guards both set one hand on their security weapon on their hips and slowly came toward him. He raised both hands, shaking his head.

  “It’s not me they’re here for!” he said emphatically. “They’re here for her. Look at her! She’s deranged.”

  “Let’s just take a moment to talk about this, sir,” the black security guard, the same height and build as Cameron took another step toward him.

  “Wait,” Cameron said. He leaned to the side to look at Amanda, who looked very satisfied with herself. “Go out there, Amanda,” he said. “Go out there if they aren’t here for you. I will willingly walk out there without a problem. My two detective friends are waiting for me out there. They’ll want to talk to you if I don’t come out. An
d if anything has happened to Jaymee.”

  Amanda once again looked furious. “You should have left well enough alone, Mr. Smith. You should have kept your nose out of our business. He was blackmailing us! He was skinning us alive! We were going broke because of him!”

  “That 700 dollar dress suit you’re wearing says otherwise.” He turned his gaze back to the two guards, settling it on the black guard, who looked like he’d suddenly realized he was going after the wrong person. He spun around and set his sights on Amanda.

  “Miss Dinklage? I think you better come with us, ma’am.”

  “You’re going to believe him over me??” Amanda cried out. “What’s wrong with you! I’ve been working here for years and years! Don’t you know who I am?”

  Seeing that Amanda was going to be taken care of, Cameron turned and ran in the direction of the staircase.

  “Sir? Sir? Stop!”

  Cameron did come to a stop but it was mostly because he’d reached the elevators and saw no reason why he should run up to the seventh floor when an elevator would suffice. He twisted his upper body to look at the white security guard who had called after him.

  “My girlfriend is up there on the seventh floor. Amanda injected something into her. I need to find out what it is and how she’s doing. Send the police to the seventh floor, please. That’s where I’ll be.”

  He’d pressed the button to the elevators as soon as he slid to a stop so when the doors opened in front of him, he hopped on and smashed the seventh floor button with his thumb.

  He didn’t realize how restless he was until the doors closed and the elevator began a gentle movement upwards. The sound of faint music played and Cameron was distressed to hear a song that was very popular when he was a teenager playing. It had been made into an instrumental with violins taking the place of the hard singing performer who had originally created the material.

  He tapped his foot impatiently, staring at the digital numbers above his head, waiting for the number seven with all his patience.

  When the doors finally opened, he ran out and looked to his right. The door to the room he’d gone in was still standing open.

  He darted down the hallway to the open door and went in, taking the same route through the internal office space until he came into the experiment room. Jaymee was rummaging around in a cabinet. When she turned abruptly to see it was him who entered the room, his heart went up into his throat.

  She had red rings around her eyes, which normally would indicate she’d been crying but in this case, there was another cause. Her hair was matted to her head and she was sweating profusely. He could see pain in her eyes and could only hope it wasn’t too much.

  “Cameron…” she said breathlessly. “I’m glad you’re here. Help me. Help me find anachromatisium. It’s the only thing that will make this go away. I’m going to burn from the inside out if I don’t find it. I think… this is like spontaneous combustion but… they’re trying to recreate it on their own.”

  Cameron felt a little sick to his stomach. He wanted to ask how she knew it but when he glanced around the room, he got a gist of what had happened since he left. There was a large book sitting open on one of the counters. The bottle that Cameron assumed was used to hold the liquid Amanda had put into Jaymee was sitting next to it.

  He ran to the open book and scanned it, flipping through a few pages. He returned it to the page Jaymee had it open to and ran his eyes down over the graphics and informational data until he came to one word written in red. Anachromatisium.

  He’d never heard of it.

  A crash of bottles behind him made him spin around. Jaymee was sweeping her arm through one of the cabinets, crying out in despair.

  “It’s not here! It’s not here! Cameron! Oh, Cameron!”

  Cameron ran to her side and wrapped his arms around her, despite the fact that she was soaking wet. “We’re going to find it, Jaymee. Don’t give up! Don’t give up! You look over there. I’ll take this refrigerator.”

  He pushed her gently toward the counter he was referring to and went straight to the refrigerator, which he could see through the front glass was filled with bottles. The labels showed they were all different. He would have to look through each one till he found the one he was looking for. At least the long name wouldn’t be easy to forget or mistake for a different one.

  He was searching through the last two rows on the top shelf when his eyes spotted a bottle with the long name written across the front in block letters. He snatched it and turned while saying, “I found it, Jaymee! I found…”

  He stopped when he saw that Jaymee had slumped to the ground. His heart jumped in his chest and he ran to her. He knelt beside her and touched her neck. She was still alive, her pulse weak.

  He ran to the tray beside the chair she’d been strapped to and grabbed an unused needle. He ripped the packaging open with his teeth and, with shaking hands, drew some of the liquid from the small jar into the needle.

  “Come back to me, Jaymee,” he said, grabbing her arm to give her the injection. “Come back to me safe and sound so you can be my wife and we can grow old together.”

  He slid the needle neatly into the inside crook of her arm, choosing an obvious vein.

  “Come back to me.”

  NINE

  It took the rest of the day for Jaymee to recover from the poisoning. She was getting restless by the next morning and came down to breakfast to see she had company. Cheyenne and Alex were there, sitting at the island in the middle of the kitchen on tall bar stools with Cameron.

  They all looked up and cheered when she entered the room, greeting her with pleasant hellos. Cameron got up and came to give her a hug.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay, Jaymee,” he said. He pulled away from her and held her at arm’s length. He bent slightly at the waist so he was looking directly in her eyes. “You do know who I am, right? You know where you are? What’s the day, month and year?” He held up three fingers. “How many fingers am I holding up? What is two plus two?”

  Jaymee laughed, putting one hand against her forehead. “That is way too many questions all at once. I might be a little damaged by the poison.”

  “You weren’t damaged at all, my girl,” Cameron said with a laugh, pulling her back into a warm hug. She enjoyed it thoroughly, closing her eyes and pushing herself against him.

  After a moment, he released her and with a quick peck on the lips, they joined Cheyenne and Alex at the table.

  “So how are you feeling, Mom?” Cheyenne questioned her mother, peering closely at her as if she expected to see some injuries.

  “I feel fine.”

  “Did you really think you were going to spontaneously combust?” Alex asked. “Because that’s a theory I’ve been working on for a long time and I’ve always wondered how it felt beforehand. If people start to feel a little hot and it builds or if they just go up in flames.”

  Jaymee raised her eyebrows at him. “I’m surprised you’re wondering about something like that. You’re a scientist.”

  Alex gave her a blank look. “If there’s a more interesting scientific study to be performed than investigating spontaneous combustion, I can’t think of what it could be.”

  Jaymee nodded. “Well, that’s true, yes.”

  “You’re probably wondering what we’re all doing here this morning,” Cameron said. “In your house before you’re even awake.”

  Jaymee shrugged. “I figured you are here to make sure I’m all right. Things have been rough lately, haven’t they? Almost dying and all that.”

  The men smiled while Cheyenne let out a soft laugh. “Thank God you didn’t die,” she said. “But Cameron’s right. There’s another reason why we’re here.”

  Jaymee looked from one to another before settling her eyes on Cameron. “What is it?” She could tell it was something serious by the looks on their faces. She had a feeling she knew what it was about. “Is this concerning Doug?”

  Cameron raised his eyebrows. “Ye
s. How did you know?”

  “It’s one of the unsolved things in this case,” Jaymee responded simply.

  Cameron nodded, his face relaxing. “They found his car. There’s a massive search going on around the area where his car was found. They’re looking for him. His body. Amanda said he wasn’t alive. She won’t tell them where he is but he’s not in the car. It’s over in Cambridge. They want us to come out there and help with the search. I think they really want you to identify him if they find him so they can wrap up the case and be done with it.”

  “What about IDL?” Jaymee asked, eyeing the cup of coffee Cameron had in front of him. Cheyenne must have seen the look because she was on her feet going to fetch a cup for her mother before Jaymee could even ask.

  “The company is going to close down,” Cameron said. “With the massive amount of illegal activity going on there, I wouldn’t expect less than a dozen arrests for multiple charges. And there’s going to be a lot of people in therapy, too. Probably for the rest of their lives.”

  Jaymee shook her head, feeling sorry for the people IDL had experimented on.

  That made her think of Jennifer. The last time she’d seen the young woman was when she was slumped on the ground under Cameron.

  “Whatever happened with Jennifer? They arrested Amanda, right?”

  Cameron and Alex both nodded. “They arrested her. But Jennifer…” He let his voice trail off, his eyes moving away from Jaymee. With a sinking feeling, Jaymee realized Cameron must have killed Jennifer when he tackled her and she hit her head on the tile floor. Underneath that tile was concrete.

  “Oh dear,” she said softly. “She didn’t make it?”

  Cameron looked remorsefully at her, shaking his head. “She hit her head on the ground mighty hard,” he replied. “And it… she was gone quick. Didn’t suffer.”

  “That’s horrible. Poor woman.”

  “She was about to kill you, Mom,” Cheyenne said in a voice that revealed how surprised she was. “Why are you feeling sorry for her?”