He gave her a curious look. “You’re not thinking of keeping it or spending it, right?”
“No. But what if I wanted to give it away?”
“Like, to a charity?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes. But this charity isn’t an organization. It’s just a needy, deserving individual. And I would do it anonymously.”
He nodded. “I guess that would work.”
“I’d need some technical assistance,” she said.
“Is that why you asked me to bring my laptop?”
“Yeah. Do you mind?”
* * *
They spent the rest of the evening poring over online listings. Jonah checked Blue Book values and Drue emailed potential sellers.
Drue poked the train case with her bare toe. “Do you think the cash will be a problem?”
He picked up a banded stack of cash. “These aren’t new bills, and as far as I can tell from what I’ve read about the case, the bank didn’t keep records of the circulation numbers of the cash Colleen withdrew. All the sellers I contacted are more than happy to accept cash.”
“Good.” She leaned over and closed the lid of his computer. “We missed the sunset. But do you feel like a walk on the beach anyway?”
“Only if you promise to let me carry the Mace this time,” he said.
* * *
They strolled down to the water’s edge and Jonah slipped his arm around her shoulder.
“This view never gets old,” Drue told him, kicking at a wavelet with her pointed toes. “And you know the funny thing? When I was kiteboarding, I never really paid attention to it. I loved being on the water, and I really, really loved doing tricks and flying, but the water and the wind? They were just there. Part of the equipment, like my board and my harness and my kite. Being grounded with this stinking knee injury has made me really stop and appreciate all of this.”
“Do you miss it?” he asked.
“Yeah. Sometimes. It was my passion for so long, from the time I was fourteen and started working at a skateboard shop and then a surf shop on weekends to get money for lessons, right up until my accident. I built my life around kiteboarding. And it never occurred to me that it could be taken away from me in a split second.”
“If your knee gets rehabbed, would you go back to that life?”
“Right now? I’m not sure. I still have nightmares, sometimes, where I’m falling, and I can’t release my harness, and the kite is dragging me through the water and I’m drowning.”
“Really? I can’t imagine a badass like you being afraid of anything. Especially not after the way you got the jump on Ben two nights ago.”
“I’m afraid of lots of things,” Drue admitted. “I just hide it better than most people.”
“Like what?”
“Spiders. Fire. Anchovies.” Her tone turned unexpectedly serious and she reached for his hand. “Dying alone, like my mom.”
“You weren’t with her when she died?”
Drue shrugged. “Physically, yeah I was right there in the room with her. But my mom wasn’t your typical mother. I always knew she loved me, but she was very closed-off, emotionally. She had boyfriends, over the years, after she and my dad split, but nothing was permanent. I think that was by design.”
A breeze kicked up then, ruffling her hair, and she felt goose bumps raise on her arms.
“Let’s walk,” she said.
He took her hand and they strolled past the lights of Sharky’s and the Gulf Vista, without comment.
They were almost back to the cottage, and Jonah stopped, taking in the view of it from the beach. They’d left the lights on inside.
“It looks so peaceful from here, it’s weird to think about everything that happened here two nights ago,” Jonah said.
He kissed the top of her head. “I’m guessing you must have had that talk with your dad? About Colleen?”
“Yeah. I met him and Zee for drinks at Mastry’s, after work.”
“How’d it go? Pretty awkward?”
“Very awkward. And painful.” She swallowed the unexpected lump that rose in her throat.
“If you ever want to talk about it, I’m willing to listen,” he told her.
“I know you are,” Drue said gratefully. “I don’t want to be like my mom,” Drue said, looking directly at him. “Or my dad, when it comes to that. Okay?”
“Okay,” he said. “Understood.”
* * *
Jonah insisted on entering the cottage ahead of her, to, as he put it, “run reconnaissance.”
“No bad guys,” he reported, after searching all the rooms, including both closets.
He gathered up his laptop and headed for the door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Drue asked, hands on hips.
“Home?”
“What about that do-over you promised me?” she asked.
He raised one eyebrow. “On a school night? You are a naughty girl.”
* * *
Later, naked and tangled up in sweat-dampened sheets, Jonah got out of bed and propped the fan up on the dresser.
“My apartment is tiny and crappy and the only view is of the next-door-neighbor’s roof,” he said, spooning his body next to hers, “and I never thought I’d say this, but I also never thought I’d miss air-conditioning as much as I do right now.”
“You get used to it,” Drue said.
He kissed her bare shoulder.
“I certainly hope to.”
64
On the next sunny Saturday morning, Rae Hernandez stood on her doorstep, her hand resting lightly on Aliyah Mayes’s shoulder. The girl was dressed in a purple print two-piece swimsuit, staring up at her through a pair of neon-green swim goggles.
“Surprise!” the detective said.
“Um, hi,” Drue said. She leaned down and smiled at Aliyah. “Hi, Aliyah. What’s going on?”
Aliyah beamed. “Miss Rae bought me swimming glasses.”
Drue looked up at Hernandez. “Seriously, what is going on?”
“You promised to teach her how to swim so she could be a mermaid, right?”
“Is this a joke?“Drue opened the door wider. “Come on in, honey,” she said cheerfully. “Why don’t you go sit down in the living room while I have a word with Miss Rae.”
Aliyah looked up at the detective, seeking her approval.
“Go ahead,” Hernandez told the child. “It’s all right. I checked. Miss Drue doesn’t have a criminal record.”
Drue waited until the girl was out of earshot. “Are you serious? I have plans for today. You can’t just drop a kid off like this. Does Yvonne know you’re doing this?”
“It was Yvonne’s idea,” Hernandez said. “She got called in to work at the hospital today, so I said I’d help out. Aliyah has been driving her crazy, asking when she was going to have her swim lesson. Today seemed like as good a day as any.”
“You couldn’t call first and check with me? What if I had company? What if I hadn’t been home? Would you just leave her on my doorstep?”
“Of course not,” Hernandez said. “I didn’t call first because I figured if I did, you’d find an excuse to be someplace else. And I knew you were home, because I had one of our patrol officers drive by fifteen minutes ago.”
“No,” Drue said. “Today is absolutely not a good day. I said I would teach her to swim, and I will, but…”
“No buts,” Hernandez said cheerfully. “I’ve got some paperwork to do at the office, so I’ll check back with you in, what—two hours? That’s enough time for a first swim lesson, right?”
“Don’t do this to me, Hernandez, please?” Drue said, looking over her shoulder into the living room, where Aliyah sat patiently on the sofa, staring out at the beach. “I don’t know anything about kids. Or teaching. Or teaching kids to swim. What if something happens to her?”
“You’ll be fine,” Hernandez said. “Just don’t let her drown, okay?”
* * *
“Okay,” Drue sai
d. She’d changed into her swimsuit. Now they stood at the water’s edge, Aliyah’s hand clutched tightly in hers. “Let’s do this! Let’s wade into the water.”
The girl looked up with saucer-size eyes. “You won’t let go?”
“No,” Drue said solemnly. “I will not let go.”
When the child was ankle-deep in the water she looked up at Drue.
“I don’t like it.”
Drue sat down in the sand, letting the gentle waves wash over her. “What don’t you like, sweetie? The water’s nice and warm. Here, sit down beside me. I’ll hold your hand. Okay?”
“It’s touching me!” Aliyah screeched. “Something touched my foot!” She wrenched her hand from Drue’s and ran all the way to the safety of the dunes.
* * *
Drue filled the bathtub with warm water and coaxed Aliyah to climb in. “See? There’s nothing in the bathtub. No shells, no minnows, no seaweed. It’s just like your bathtub at home.”
“My bathtub’s white,” Aliyah said.
“But pink is even nicer, right? Okay, put your goggles on again. And then, I want you to stretch out on your tummy. Can you do that?”
The girl nodded and looked up. “Now what do I do?”
Drue was wondering the same thing. She couldn’t remember a time when she didn’t know how to swim. After puzzling over it for a moment, she decided to plunge ahead.
“I want you to take a deep breath. And then, I want you to put your face in the water, and blow bubbles. Can you do that? Like this?”
“Bbbbbb,” Drue said, pursing her lips and blowing out. “Like that.”
Aliyah obediently ducked her head underwater, but came up seconds later, sputtering and gasping.
“No, no, don’t suck the water in,” Drue said, laughing. “Blow it out. Like I showed you. Big breath in, then put your face in the water and blow out. Bbbbbb. This time, I’m going to count to five. When I say five, lift up your head and take a breath.”
After five more minutes of bubble blowing, Aliyah looked up expectantly. “Now what?”
Drue was ready. “Now we float! Like a jellyfish! I want you to let your arms and legs just relax in the water. Can you put your face down and do that? Let everything relax? And remember, blow your bubbles while you’re doing that, to the count of five.”
Without further prompting, the little girl did as instructed. Drue counted down, and Aliyah raised her head triumphantly, water streaming from her face. “I did it! I floated like a jellyfish!”
“You are the best jellyfish ever,” Drue assured her.
“When do I get to be a mermaid?”
“Very soon. Next, I want you to fly in the water,” Drue said.
“I never saw mermaids fly,” Aliyah said.
“It’s just an expression. So, I want you to scooch all the way down to the other end of the tub, and this time, when you’re doing your jellyfish, I want you to use your feet to push off from the end of that tub, and fly to the other end of the tub. Can you do that? Remember, face in water, blow bubbles, let your arms and legs relax, and then jet to the end.”
Aliyah jetted back and forth for the next ten minutes, giggling hysterically as she sent great waves of bathwater sloshing over the edge of the tub.
“Okay, I think you’ve got bubbles and floating and jetting down pat,” Drue said, drying her off with a beach towel.
“What next?”
Drue stood up and winced as her bad knee protested.
“We really have to get you in deeper water to get you swimming,” she said. “Do you feel like going back down to the beach again?”
Tears brimmed in the child’s big dark eyes. “Do I have to? I’m afraid.”
Drue sat down on the edge of the tub and hugged the child against her. “No. You absolutely don’t have to. But you know, mermaids are rarely found in bathtubs. Even pink tubs like mine. Mermaids swim in the ocean, right?”
Aliyah nodded solemnly.
“For your next lesson, I’ll show you how to stroke with your arms, and kick with your feet,” Drue said. “But in deeper water. Okay?”
“How much deeper?”
“It won’t matter how deep,” Drue said. “Because your body just naturally floats. It’s okay to be afraid at first, but then, after a little bit, I’ll let go of your hand, and the next thing you know, you’ll be in the water and you’ll be swimming like a mermaid.”
“Okay,” Aliyah said.
“Are you hungry?” Drue asked. “Do you happen to like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches as much as I do?”
“I only like strawberry jelly,” Aliyah said. “And chunky peanut butter.”
“Me too!” Drue exclaimed. “Let’s eat!”
They had lunch on the deck, eating off paper plates and enjoying the stiff breeze coming off the beach.
“Look!” Aliyah said, pointing at a billowing orange and green kite floating through the sky just past the treeline. “What’s that?”
“Let’s go see,” Drue said.
They walked hand in hand down to the beach. A sun-browned teenage girl stood with her back to the wind, both hands grasping the control bar of a trainer kite. Her long blond hair streamed out behind her as she walked down the beach, and the kite swooped and dipped and fluttered at a forty-five-degree angle over the waves as the girl expertly turned the bar.
Except for the girl’s blond hair, Drue thought, that could have been her, twenty years ago.
“What’s she doing?” Aliyah asked.
“She’s learning how to fly with that kite. And she’s pretty good already.”
Aliyah looked up at her. “Do you know how to fly like that?”
“I used to,” Drue said. “A long time ago.”
“Why did you stop?”
Drue gazed down at her knee. There was no swelling today, and the incision was no longer an angry red.
“I hurt myself, and then I was too afraid.”
“Are you still afraid?” Aliyah asked.
Drue thought about the spare bedroom in the cottage, and the door she thought she had so firmly closed on her past.
“A little bit,” she said. “But I think I’m getting over it.”
65
She’d called ahead to tell Yvonne that a courier from the law firm would be dropping off some legal papers on Saturday morning. “Will you be home then?” Drue asked.
“Ain’t got no place else to be,” Yvonne said.
Drue followed Jonah to Yvonne’s house in his Audi, and he was at the wheel of the ten-year-old Acura, which they’d washed and vacuumed and waxed until it sparkled like it was new.
She waited in the Audi while Jonah got out and knocked on Yvonne’s screened door.
The rusted-out Plymouth was in the same place it had been on her last visit. The hood was still raised, and the same two tires were still missing.
When the grandmother appeared in the doorway, Drue sank as far down in the seat as she could. After a moment’s discussion, Yvonne came out onto the front stoop. Jonah handed her the keys, then pointed at the gleaming silver Acura.
Yvonne’s hands flew up to her face and she screeched something unintelligible. Then the screen door flew open. Aliyah walked slowly over to the car, her face enveloped in a wide, blissful smile, followed by her grandmother.
Yvonne ran her hands over the hood and and then the doors and the trunk of the car, exclaiming so loudly that the neighbors across the street emerged from their homes to see what all the fuss was about.
Jonah made a dash for the Audi, and before Yvonne had time to react or ask questions, Drue had already driven away and was halfway down the block.
“That was fun,” Jonah said. “We should give away cars bought with ill-gotten gains every week.”
“What was Yvonne hollering?” Drue asked. “She was so excited, I couldn’t quite make it out.”
“‘God is good,’” Jonah said. “I bet she said that a dozen times.”
* * *
After they got back to
the cottage, Jonah suggested lunch at Sharky’s.
“Really?” Drue wrinkled her nose. “The food’s not even that good.”
“That’s not the point,” he said. “Sharky’s is our place now. The place where it all began. Just humor me, okay?”
They ate mediocre grouper sandwiches and were about to walk back to the cottage when they noticed a crowd gathering a few hundred yards up the beach at the Gulf Vista.
“Wonder what’s going on?” Drue asked.
“I know,” Jonah said. “Today’s the day they start demolition of the original wing of the hotel, to make way for the new spa. Let’s go watch.”
“Why?”
“It’s the little kid in me,” Jonah said. “I love that stuff. Dump trucks and backhoes and excavators.” He tugged at her hand. “Come on.”
She reluctantly followed him up to the point where the beach ended and the resort’s property line began. The crowd had swelled to nearly a hundred people, and the gate had temporarily been replaced with orange plastic construction netting and DANGER—KEEP OFF signs.
The glass in all the windows of the now-vacant building had already been knocked out, leaving gaping holes in the façade that resembled rotted-out teeth. A backhoe’s claw chewed into the top of the concrete structure and the roof collapsed inward.
“Cool,” Jonah said, awestruck.
Another backhoe on the south side of the building was busily ripping into the concrete foundation of what had been a three-story parking garage. With each bite into the building, the claw swivelled around and deposited a load of debris into the bed of one of a line of half a dozen dump trucks.
“Why are they digging a hole there?” Drue asked.
“I saw a rendering of the plans for the new spa in the paper,” Jonah said. “I think there’s going to be a new indoor pool there that’ll be connected by a wall of glass to a pool on the other side.”
His eyes were glued to the proceedings. “I always thought if I couldn’t be a lawyer, I would love to be a heavy equipment operator,” he said. “I don’t care what you say, that’s artistry, when you operate a machine like that.”
Sunset Beach Page 40
