Key Lime Pie

by Josi S. Kilpack

  Yet Tia had said Megan came to see her mom every chance she got.

  “You best be goin’,” Tia said, grabbing some oil out of the cupboard. “I’ve got to get Max fed and make myself presentable for the meeting.”

  There was only one thing Sadie could think of saying that might prolong this visit.

  “I found Megan.”

  Tia spun around so fast that she nearly dropped the oil she’d been pouring into the bowl. As it was, she spilled some of it on her scrubs, but didn’t seem to notice. “What did you say?” she demanded.

  “I found Megan,” Sadie repeated, surprised by the reaction but trying not to show it. “In a hospital in Miami.”

  “A hospital?” Tia said. She put a hand to her chest. “She hurt?”

  Sadie shook her head. “No. She’s pregnant and—”

  “Pregnant?” Tia cut Sadie off. She inhaled sharply. “She’s having a baby?”

  “Twins, actually,” Sadie said. “But she’s having some trouble. She’s scheduled for a surgery in the morning and then will be in the hospital for several weeks until the babies are born.”

  Tia closed her eyes and muttered a prayer under her breath, then looked around as though unsure what to do.

  “Her dad’s with her now,” Sadie said, hoping to relieve Tia’s obvious concern. “She’s okay.”

  That information didn’t seem to make Tia feel any better. She put the oil back on the counter. “I need to call Larry.”

  “I’m sure he knows already,” Sadie said. “I’m sure Eric told him.”

  Tia didn’t respond. She hurried for her purse and pulled out her phone. She pushed a single number and then the talk button before putting it to her ear.

  “Larry,” she said moments later, with Sadie looking on, “is Megan really in the hospital?” She paused for a moment. “This lady was here with Max. She told me . . . I don’t know.” She looked up at Sadie and then switched to Spanish, turning away from Sadie as she continued the discussion.

  If only Sadie had paid more attention in her high-school Spanish class. As the conversation increased in volume and speed, Sadie watched Tia’s body language—her anxiety was growing. Sadie considered all the reasons why Tia would be so intense about this discovery. After a full minute, Tia turned to look at Sadie and began to calm down, but it seemed unnatural, forced. Was she being told to relax? The only reason Sadie could think of as to why Larry would be telling her to calm down was because Tia’s reaction gave something away. He was a smart guy.

  Sadie was careful to keep her own thoughts and emotions contained, but she could feel her mind speeding up, looking for connections between the bits and pieces she’d been learning all along the way. A little from Mathews, a little from Eric, Joe, Max, and now Tia.

  Tia nodded, said something else, and then hung up.

  “I’m just so surprised,” Tia said. It was all Sadie could do not to roll her eyes at the attempt Tia was making to sound causal. Sadie kept her expression carefully guarded as Tia continued. “I mean, after all these years?” She tried to chuckle, but it sounded more like a cough. “It’s just amazing.”

  “I bet Larry’s excited too,” Sadie said. “I understand he and Megan were very close.”

  Tia looked down. “Larry loves that little girl like his own daughter,” she said, almost under her breath.

  Sadie couldn’t help but wonder if Tia was somehow putting Eric down with that statement.

  “I’m sure he does,” she said out loud. “Well, I’d better go,” she said. Tia was on guard now, and staying would likely do her little good. “Thank you again for the recipes,” she said. “I really appreciate it.”

  “Of course,” Tia said. “It was . . . nice to meet you.”

  “You too,” Sadie said. She headed for the front door. “Bye, Max,” she said, glancing at him quickly as she strode to her car.

  Larry and Tia were involved in illegal documents.

  A driver’s license with Megan’s picture but a different name had been found with the body.

  Reunion or no reunion, Sadie needed to talk to Eric.

  Lizz’s Mango Corn Bread

  2 cups flour

  2 cups cornmeal

  2 tablespoons baking powder

  1 teaspoon salt

  1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon

  1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg

  1 cup butter

  1⁄2 cup sugar

  4 eggs

  2 cups milk

  1 mango, chopped

  1 tablespoon sugar

  Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine dry ingredients and set aside. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and milk. Add in dry ingredients, stir until just mixed. Add mango. Stir to combine. Pour batter into a greased 9x13-inch pan. Bake 35 to 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. When bread is done baking, sprinkle top with sugar. Serve with softened butter.

  Makes 12 servings.

  Note: Can use a corn bread mix. Follow package instructions to prepare batter, then add cinnamon, nutmeg, and mango. Mix according to recipe.

  Chapter 37

  Certain that Tia was watching her, Sadie got in her car and drove around the block before pulling over in front of an elementary school. She was reaching for her phone to call Eric when it rang. She picked it up, then bit her lip as Pete’s face looked back at her from her phone, reminding her she hadn’t returned his last call. And she couldn’t answer this one either. Not yet. She felt horrible letting it go to voice mail, and she promised—cross her heart and hope to die—that she’d call him as soon as she possibly could.

  A quick scroll through her recent calls showed that Gayle had called while she’d been at Max and Tia’s as well. After she talked to Pete, which would be after she talked to Eric, she would call Gayle back too.

  Without hesitating any longer, she called Eric, organizing her thoughts so that she could tell him what she’d learned in the most concise way possible. It wasn’t until the third ring that she considered he might not answer at all.

  Eric’s voice mail kicked in. No!

  “You’ve reached Burton Locks. Please leave a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. Thanks.”

  “This is Sadie. I know this isn’t great timing, but I need to talk to you about . . . well, anyway, call me as soon as you get this message.”

  She clicked off the phone and let her head fall back against the seat. Now what?

  She could go to Mathews, but what if she was wrong about Larry? She kept picturing him at the police station, the way he’d been so solicitous to Layla, the sincere concern he had for her welfare. He’d married Layla in order to take care of her.

  What if there was a reasonable explanation for the documents? What if he somehow didn’t know what was in the Staples box?

  If she didn’t go to Mathews, however, was she just going to sit and wait for Eric to call back? Idling away time had never been her forte, especially when there were things that needed to be done.

  She looked at her phone lying on the passenger seat. She had promised herself to call Pete and she suddenly had time to do it. Was she ready to try explaining what she was doing, and why she had come to Florida? The idea made her both queasy and . . . eager. For whatever reason, she wanted to hear Pete’s voice, wanted to take comfort in knowing that, even if he was angry, he was also genuinely concerned for her as well. Even after all that had happened between them the last couple of days, she knew he still cared about her. He must be really worried that she hadn’t answered any of his calls.

  She took a breath, gathered her confidence, and dialed his number, which was still on speed dial, hoping that this was a good decision.

  “Sadie,” Pete said after only one ring. “I’m glad you called.”

  His voice caused a confusing reaction of warmth to spread throughout Sadie’s body. Knowing he was going to be disappointed in what she’d done, however, made her take his reaction with a grain of salt, but it also urged her to not beat around the bush
.

  “You might not be so glad in a minute,” Sadie said, determined to be fair to him.

  Pete was silent for a minute. “You’re up to your neck in this, aren’t you?”

  “I might be a little further in than that,” Sadie said. It was a lame attempt at a joke.

  “I just got off the phone with Sergeant Mathews again. He said you told him you’d come in, but he hadn’t seen you yet. I worried that something had happened.” He wasn’t going to ask her about going to Florida? Make her tell him what she’d been doing? In fact he seemed up-to-date and rather—could it be possible?—accepting.

  When she didn’t answer, he spoke again. “Are you okay, Sadie?”

  More warmth flooded her and . . . homesickness? “I’m okay,” she said. “Just . . . involved. More than I should be.”

  Pete’s laugh took her off guard, and she pulled her eyebrows together. “Are you laughing at me?”

  “No,” Pete said, but there was a smile in his voice. “It’s just that you think you should be involved in everything, so it’s funny to hear you admit that you shouldn’t.”

  Sadie was almost offended, but Pete was right. She really was a busybody, wasn’t she?

  “Are you okay?” Pete asked again before Sadie could think of what else to say. “Are you safe?”

  “I’m safe,” Sadie said. “And I am going to go to Mathews. I just have to do one more thing first. I’m sorry I didn’t call back sooner—it’s been . . . crazy, but I don’t want you to worry. I really am okay.”

  Pete was silent, and Sadie prepped herself for a reprimand. Instead he said, “How can I help?”

  “What?”

  “I know I could try to talk you out of it, tell you to go straight to the police, but I realize that your faith in the police isn’t the same as mine, and you won’t do it until you feel like you’ve done everything you can anyway. So, if I can help you get to the bottom of whatever you’re looking into, I can speed things up a great deal, right?”

  “Ri-ght,” Sadie said cautiously. Was he teasing her?

  “So, what can I do to help? I already vouched for you with Mathews, convincing him that, while you might be overly involved, you want justice and truth as much as he does. I think it bought you a little more time. What else do you need?”

  Really? It’s not that she doubted him—Pete had always dealt with her honestly—but it was so far beyond what she’d expected of him. “Won’t you get in trouble for helping me?”

  “I have some wiggle room,” Pete said. “But only for a few minutes. I’ve got a department meeting in a half hour.”

  Sadie’s dashboard clock said it was five-thirty—a little late for a meeting. Oh, wait, Pete was in a different time zone. “Are you at the station, then?” Sadie asked, ignoring her hesitations. She trusted him. If he was offering to help, he meant it.

  “I’m at the station,” he confirmed.

  “Do you think you could look up a name for me on that fancy database?”

  “I can do that,” Pete said. “I might not be able to tell you everything I bring up though. Not unless it’s public record.”

  “That’s fine,” Sadie said, actually feeling better about him setting limitations. Despite the wiggle room he claimed to have, Sadie doubted helping her would be smiled on by his superiors, and she didn’t want to get him in trouble. She could hear the clicking of a keyboard in the background.

  “Okay,” Pete said. “I’m logged in. Who are we looking for?”

  “Lawrence McCallister. Originally from Gainesville, currently living in Homestead, Florida.”

  More tapping. Then a pause. “Okay,” Pete said. “What do you want to know about him?”

  “Does he have a criminal record?” Sadie asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Really?”

  “You sound disappointed,” Pete commented. “Was there something you hoped he’d done?”

  “Well, no,” Sadie said, deciding not to hide anything from Pete. “It’s just that he had a box of documents, and I thought maybe he’d have some kind of history that would make sense of that.”

  “What kind of documents?”

  “Birth certificates, social security cards, driver’s licenses,” Sadie said. “For several different people.”

  “Really,” Pete said. “There’s nothing on his record, and he has an extensive file here. Looks like he used to work for the state.”

  “Oh?” Sadie said, remembering that Eric had said something about Larry being employed by the state and therefore having good health insurance for Layla. But she didn’t know why that was important to Pete.

  Pete continued, “Yeah, it looks like he worked in vital records for Miami-Dade county.”

  Sadie sat up a little straighter. “That’s the department that maintains . . . documents, right?”

  “Right,” Pete said, following Sadie’s thoughts. “They’re pretty careful about who they employ there for the very reason of how tempting it can be to do a little moonlighting, if you know what I mean.” He paused. “You realize that my knowing Mr. McCallister might be brokering identities means I have to turn that information over to Sergeant Mathews.”

  “Of course,” Sadie said. She wished he could wait an hour but didn’t think it would be appropriate to ask for that. She’d assumed Larry was involved in moving the documents he’d left with Tia, but what if he was making them instead? “It helps me know what I’m dealing with, though. He doesn’t work in vital records anymore?”

  “No,” Pete said. “Looks like he quit about a year ago. I could request his job history and see if there are any red flags, but it will take a day or two to get it.”

  “Well, I’m assuming it’s going to come out eventually, so making a request—or having Mathews make one—will probably be an effort in efficiency.” Sadie very much appreciated efficiency.

  “Good point. So who is this guy?” Pete asked.

  “Eric’s ex-wife’s ex-husband,” Sadie said, shaking her head at how that sounded. “I know, it’s really bizarre. Can you look up another name?”

  “Sure.”

  “Liliana Miriam Montez,” Sadie said. If it was a fake name, it wouldn’t be in the system, right?

  It felt like she waited forever for Pete to bring up the information. “No criminal history.”

  “But she does have a history?” Sadie asked.

  “Yes. Born in Puerto Rico, but looks like she lived in Miami for a few years after she got married.”

  “She’s a real person then,” Sadie said, confused. How could Megan be using the name of a real person? And then she thought of the body the police had found. A woman who wasn’t Megan.

  “Wait. This is interesting,” Pete said.

  Sadie gripped the phone tighter. “What?”

  “She doesn’t have a criminal history, but her husband was brought up on charges of defying the embargo with Cuba by selling speedboats. The case was thrown out based on lack of evidence, but the family moved back to Puerto Rico after that.”

  Puerto Rico? Megan had said she couldn’t fly or take a boat home until after she had her babies. Monty had said that Motorway Powerboats had been accused of selling boats to the Cubans. Sadie pictured the flag sticker she’d seen on the back of Joe’s car. “Pete,” she said, “what does the Puerto Rican flag look like?”

  “Um, it’s red, white, and blue, like ours, but it’s got a triangle on the side instead of a blue square.”

  “And one star in the blue triangle?”

  “I think so,” Pete said. Sadie heard voices in the background, and when Pete spoke, he was quiet. “Why?”

  “Well, there was this guy who kind of kidnapped me,” Sadie said. Boy, did that sound strange. “But he was nice. He said he was trying to help Megan, and I believed him. He had that flag on his car.”

  “Believed him?” Pete asked. “Why the past tense?”

  “Oh, well, we were at this park, and he, uh, hit his head and was knocked unconscious, but don’t worry, I
called 911.”

  “And Mathews knows about this, right?”

  “Not yet,” Sadie said, “but he will. I just didn’t want to . . . well, it’s complicated, and you probably don’t have time to hear the whole story.”

  The voices in the background were getting louder. “Actually, you’re right, I don’t,” Pete said. “But I want to hear more about it later, okay?”

  “Deal.”

  “I’ve got to go. You’ll talk to the sergeant as soon as you can, right?”

  “Yes,” Sadie said. “Thank you.”

  “Be safe,” Pete said.

  “I will,” she said, touched by his concern and his willingness to help do something she could never have done on her own. “And thank you, Pete, for calling and for . . . caring.” It sounded cheesy, and she blushed.

  “Anytime, Sadie,” Pete said, a husky tone to his voice. “Anytime.”

  Chapter 38

  After ending the phone call, Sadie thought of one more thing, but knowing Pete was going into a meeting, she sent him a quick text.

  What’s Liliana’s husband’s name?

  She hit send and then sighed. Was she feeling all soft and squishy toward Pete because he was far away? Hard to get? Was Eric less appealing because no glittery thoughts surrounded him anymore? Or did having a fuller view of him and his life give her reasons to wonder if she had been simply attracted to some of him, but not the entire package?

  “I don’t know!” she snapped to no one. “And I don’t know how I’m supposed to figure it out.” And why was she even trying to figure out her stupid love life when there were bigger things at stake? That was so ridiculous and self-centered.

  She needed to talk to Eric, and then she needed to go to Mathews.