By the time night fell, the temperature had dropped into the 70s, with the added chilling effect of an east wind coming off the ocean. On the plus side, it chased almost everyone away from the beach. On the down side, it chased almost everyone away from the beach. I hated the thought of actually looking for Ernie, but we needed him. We needed to know for sure if Randy O'Brien was Sasquatch.
Curt barbecued some chicken breasts and baked potatoes for dinner on Howard's ginormous grill by the pool, and we ate on the master bedroom deck, watching the sun start to sink. After we'd finished, I washed the dishes while Curt cleaned the grill. We didn't do much talking.
At ten o'clock, I changed into jeans and a sweatshirt and went downstairs to find him ready to go in head-to-toe black. He looked dangerous and delicious all at once. Maybe there'd still be time left to put our vacation to good use when this business was done and over with.
We weren't sure which direction to go after we hit the beach, so we flipped a coin and started walking. Slowly and arm in arm, keeping an eye out for unusual movement in the dunes. The moon was high, lining the surface of the restless water with gold. The wind was cutting, pushing ghost clouds across the sky. Except for the temperature, it felt like Halloween had come early—especially since we were looking for a ghoul.
"I see something," I said in a low voice. I tipped my head in the direction of the grassy dunes ahead to our left. The grass was rustling, and I thought I caught a glimpse of white.
Curt focused on the spot like a laser. A second later he shook his head. "It's just a couple of teenagers."
I sighed. "Maybe he's not here anymore. Or maybe he doesn't come till one or two in the morning, after everyone's gone home."
We kept walking for a few more minutes. No sign of Ernie.
"Change of plans," Curt said finally. "We look for Ernie's little rat's nest."
I suppressed a shudder. Not sure I wanted to see that. "What good will that do if he's not there?"
"We'll leave him a note; ask him to come back to the house." Curt looked over the dunes. His eyes narrowed against the wind. "Tell him we need to show him something, and we'll pay him for his time. That should do it."
"I don't want him back at the house," I said. "Can't we just come back tomorrow night?"
"No." Curt bit off the word. "We do this tonight. For Annie."
Right. Annie. Annie deserved justice.
Curt put an arm around my shoulders and pulled me against him. "I want to get him in a controlled environment, so I can get a straight answer out of him. You don't have to be there if you don't want to be."
"Let's find his nest," I said.
Curt grinned. "I think we're already there." He took my hand to pull me toward the dunes. At first it looked like just a bundle of rags in the sand, but as we got closer, the rags morphed into worn and tattered men's clothing. I saw beer bottles and cans and a few crumpled paper bags and sandwich wrappings and Styrofoam fast food containers mixed in. A large sheet of cardboard was laid out beneath it all, probably serving as Ernie's bed with the clothes as both pillow and blanket. It was sad and disgusting at the same time, and I resisted the urge to kick sand over everything as we stood there looking down on it.
"Got any paper?" Curt asked.
I shook my head. "I didn't bring my handbag." I scrounged around in my pockets. "I have this." I pulled out one of Howard's business cards. The card I was supposed to be using to wallpaper Ocean Beach.
"Are you kidding me?" Curt asked. "That'll just freak him out."
"Sorry." I shoved the card back in my pocket. After a moment of thought, I pulled it back out and tossed it into the wind. There. Now I could honestly tell Howard I'd put his card to good use.
Curt sighed. "I can use one of those paper bags. Maybe he's got a pen somewhere in there."
"You can look for it," I said. "I'm not touching a thing."
He blew out an exasperated sigh. "You can be such a girl sometimes."
"But a girl without any communicable diseases," I said. "Hurry up. I'm getting cold."
Curt waded into Ernie's debris and squatted down to see what he could find while I stood there looking in every direction at once, shivering against the ocean wind, trying not to imagine Randy O'Brien sneaking up behind me with his arms outstretched, reaching for—
"Done," Curt said from just behind my left shoulder.
I'd never been a sprinter, but I was back at the house before he even made it off the beach.