Chapter Thirty-Four

Pelton was faster and beat Crome out of the car, his forty-five drawn. If his own adrenaline weren’t pegged, Crome would contemplate who wanted to kill someone more, him or Pelton.

The front door was still locked, just like Crome left it. With Pelton standing on the left side of the door, Crome inserted his key, turned the knob, and pushed the door in.

They waited for the inevitable resulting gunfire, their backs to the walls beside the doorway. It didn’t come.

Pelton swung his forty-five into the open door and entered.

Crome followed, his Glock drawn.

There was nothing.

Everything was the way he remembered leaving it.

They cleared the home room by room.

They found nothing.

Pelton clicked the safety on and stuck the forty-five down his back waistband.

Crome felt his phone buzz, looked at the screen, saw BLU, and answered.

“Nobody here besides me and Billy the kid,” Crome said.

Tess said, “The FBI told Powers the signal vanished right after you called and hasn’t returned.”

He didn’t reply.

“There’s something else,” she said.

“Well spill it,” Crome said after she didn’t continue.

“The feds told Powers that phone has been pinging the signal in front of your house five hours a day for the last seven days.”

“You’re telling me the guy’s been camped out in my backyard for the past week?” Crome asked, gripping the phone tighter with each word.

“No,” she said, her voice measured. “I’m telling you what Powers told me.”

“Same difference.” He ended the call.

Pelton said, “I’m still hung up on the camera thing from Myrtle Beach.”

“Yeah? Well good for you.” All he was thinking was how pissed off he was that they chased another rabbit down a hole that had too many directions to follow.

“How well do you know your neighbors?”

Crome had to slow his thoughts down to a manageable level in order to think about what Pelton was asking. He looked at the kid.

Pelton smiled. “See what I’m asking.”

“No.”

“My bars,” Pelton continued, “have more cameras than your bank. Some are obvious because we advertise them with “Smile for the camera” signs. Others, well, not so much. The only places we don’t have coverage are the bathrooms. Everywhere else is under twenty-four-hour surveillance.”

“Blu told me it helped you guys get the Hollander brothers.”

A year ago, the same time Blu’s daughter was kidnapped, the whole thing kicked off with a shootout in Pelton’s bar. And it ended very badly for several men, including the two who started the gunplay. Crome had watched the footage of Pelton shooting it out with two professional killers.

Regarding Pelton’s question, Crome did not know his neighbors. Most of them were vacation renters and rotated in and out all summer long. He said, “I don’t know them, but who we need to be looking for are the home owners who live here year-round. Most of them don’t.”

Pelton pulled out his phone and made a call.

When it was answered, he said, “Hey, Honey.”

Crome almost chuckled. The kid was calling his wife, the same woman he’d just left high and dry at the rooftop bar when they sped off. Now he’d see how well he could smooth things out.

After a pause, Pelton said, “I know. I’m sorry about that.”

Another pause.

“Me, too. What we need is information about the owners of the homes surrounding Crome’s. Can you or Patricia find out if any live there year-round?”

If anyone in the county could, it was those two.

“Thanks, Honey.” He ended the call.

Crome eyeballed his friend. “She forgave you that fast? She’s a keeper.”

“My wife can handle anything except another woman. As long as I come home to her, I’m good.”

“Easy enough.” He chuckled. “Your wife is impressive. Of course, my problem is I’ve seen the talent in your bars. I’d have to sell both of them to even stand a chance of keeping her.”

They got in the car and Pelton fired up the five-liter motor. “Yeah, well I’ve already been around the block. My first wife was amazing. I’ve struck gold twice now with Darcy and haven’t met anyone else worth screwing it all up for.”

“And may you never, kid. May you never.”

Crome could have been jealous of what Pelton had, except he could never live that kind of life. He loved his Harley, but like everything else in his life, it was just a means to an end.

Pelton killed the engine and said, “I got another idea.”

  

Friday early evening

  

Blu listened to Pelton’s idea, liked it, and hoped it would pan out. Since Powers was so helpful the last time Tess called, he had her call him again. The request was simple, and probably already done.

Check the history of the phone and see if the guy ever got sloppy. It was a long shot, but that’s all they had. In fact, long shots were all they’d been going on since Maureen first got taken.

Tess did her thing and Powers, like every other man on the Charleston Peninsula and surrounding counties who’d ever come in contact with her or her professional sister, agreed to give her more than she’d asked for. The “more” coming in the form of having patrol units at the ready in case more locations were found. It was also a long shot.

She hung up.

Blu said, “Maybe there is a place for you at Blu Carraway Investigations.”

Tess handed the phone back.

He felt the urge to kiss her and tried to fight it. But it was all for naught. She leaned over and kissed him again.

“That’s the last time I’m doing that,” she said, pulling away. “The next time will be on you.”

“I’m old enough to—”

“Be my father,” she said, interrupting him. “We had this discussion before. Only from a chronological standpoint. From a maturity level, I’m up a few points and you’re down a few, so that closes the gap.”

There wasn’t much he could say to that so he didn’t.

They met Pelton and Crome at Crome’s place. Patricia and Darcy showed up soon after. The Peltons ordered pizzas and soft drinks for everyone and they ate until they were stuffed.

With the slug of pizza in his gut, Blu felt the need to visit the gym before his waist size grew. It seemed like the perfect time, except his truck was elsewhere and he was stuck.

While the group hung around on the back deck watching the waves, he and Tess took a walk on the beach to “get some exercise.”

When they had walked far enough down the beach and were out of earshot of the others sitting on the back deck, Tess said, “You aren’t going to keep coming up with reasons why this wouldn’t work, are you?”

“No,” he said. “But you know I’m committed to someone else, right?”

“I know you have an unanswered marriage proposal,” she said. “Personally, I think she’s had enough time to decide.”

He said, “I do love her.”

“Will you still love her if she says no?”

That was the question he’d been avoiding, the one he didn’t want to have an answer for because he had all but convinced himself she would say yes.

“Up until today, I’d have answered that I wasn’t sure what I’d do.”

He watched her smile grow beneath her glasses. “So I’ve given you something else to think about?”

“You could say that,” he said. “But I’ve been around a lot longer than you. It’s never all sunshine and roses. I’ve got a daughter and an ex-wife.”

“You think I’m a virgin?” she asked.

If he answered yes, she’d know he was lying. And if he answered no, she might not like that one, either.

Before he could come up with a reply that wouldn’t get him into trouble, she said, “I’m sorry. That was an unfair question. And, by the way, you did so well in recognizing the hazards of answering it. The other men I’ve dated would have either lied or upset me.”

“With age comes wisdom,” he said.

“And a little slice of ego.”

He stopped and they faced each other. “Overconfidence is one of the things that’s kept me alive this long.”

“Sounds like a lecture coming on,” she said, now with a hint of annoyance in her voice.

“No lecture,” he said. “I believe you understand that I have one of those jobs where I can go to work in the morning and not come home alive in the evening.”

Breaking her own protocol, she moved in close and gave him a hug. “I know.”

As if knowing it was about to get more serious, Patricia sent a text saying they had a break with one of Crome’s neighbors thanks to Darcy. There was footage of the beach area in front of Crome’s house. And whatever she and Blu were doing, they needed to stop and come back. Apparently nobody at the table bought their excuse to walk off dinner.