| |
‘Stop ogling,’ I murmured, hiding my face in my magazine.
‘Why? They don’t know.’
‘You’re kidding, right? They can practically feel your eyes boring into them,’ I said, looking at over at the group of bikinied women. They caught me looking and giggled. Great, now they thought I was ogling them. I quickly turned around on my sun lounger so they wouldn’t see my face burning up from embarrassment.
The beach was fully occupied, since it was a Saturday afternoon in Miami heat. It was a fact I’d overlooked, but I was here now and utterly bored. I’d picked up every girly magazine possible on my drive down, but I’d already gone through three and had definitely reread the same story about eighteen times. I had another six to go, but I decided not to bother. I pulled out my headphones from my bag and George tutted.
‘Oh, thanks. I’m not allowed to admire the scenery but now you’re allowed to ignore me? Double standards.’
‘I’m not ignoring you. I’m protecting myself.’
‘You should protect your skin,’ he told me critically, looking painfully at me. I dutifully added more sun cream and settled back down.
‘Alright, now we can talk.’
‘Great. Um, do you like sports?’
I sighed at his stupid tone.
‘Maybe I will ignore you,’ I decided, plugging my headphones into my cell.
‘No, wait! Yeesh, talk about overreaction. What do you want to talk about?’
‘I meant the case. Ronnie. Angela. Any thoughts so far?’
‘They deserved each other.’
I grinned. That had been my thought, too.
‘You think the money’s somewhere on this beach?’
I gazed around at the sand stretching for miles and groaned.
‘God, I hope not. I wouldn’t even know where to begin. Or when, come to that. Beaches are rarely empty. If I start digging up something at night, people are bound to get suspicious.’
‘So, you’re going to leave the money?’
‘Hell no. Where did you get that idea? No, my hope is that he actually buried it on a private little beach, with maybe an X marks the spot. That’d be great.’
‘Would be great,’ he agreed. ‘Probably not plausible, though.’
‘Yeah, you might be right. But I don’t even know what hotel he stayed in, or where he went while he was here. And now we’re going to have to wait here for days or weeks until he graces us with his presence.’
‘Could be a long time. Just out of curiosity, how long would you say it takes to run from Ohio to Florida?’
‘For a regular person, with stops along the way? Factoring in highways, lakes and mountains? I don’t know, about a fortnight?’
‘That’s what I thought,’ he grinned, before looking over my shoulder and waving.
‘Hey, Ronnie!’
Instantly, I turned to where he was facing. He wasn’t joking. Ronnie had apparently run to Miami in less than a day. He stopped goggling at the women long enough to notice us and begrudgingly came over.
‘I was busy.’
‘You’re disgusting,’ I informed him.
‘But it’s alright for you to gawk at those fellas playing volleyball?’
‘I’m not gawking at anyone,’ I sighed, sadly looking away from said men. ‘How did you get here so quickly?’
‘Got bored of running and flew.’
‘That’s what I’d do,’ George chuckled.
‘That’s cheating.’
‘Wouldn’t be the first time I’d partaken in that,’ Ronnie told me cheerily. ‘Right, what’s the plan?’
‘We were hoping you could tell us. Does this look like the beach where you buried the money?’ George asked.
‘I see you’re not doing this for altruistic reasons.’
‘I can’t use it and she doesn’t need it,’ George pointed out.
‘Plus, it’s the likeliest place for your wife to be. Is she still in Miami?’
‘Yup. Changed hotel, though. I nipped in on my way here. She’s already got a new fancy man.’
‘How do you know he’s new?’ George asked. It was a valid question.
‘Because her previous one was my manager.’
Ooh, the plot thickened. This was juicier than the pineapple smoothies they were selling a couple feet away. I wasn’t typically a fan of soap operas, but good God I loved hearing stories like this.
‘Tell us more,’ I pleaded.
He glared at me, correctly guessing my trail of thought.
‘Vultures, the both of you,’ he snarled, before relenting. ‘They met at a charity gala about five years ago. Hit it off, which was great for me because I thought I was getting a promotion. But then he started asking how Angela was, and she’d ask me how Dave- that’s my boss-’
‘Figured.’
‘Well, she’d ask about him, and that’s when I started seeing the signs. Plus, she told me before she whacked me, which was also a really big clue.’
‘Arguably the biggest,’ George piped up.
‘This is all very interesting,’ I yawned, ‘but where does he fit in to all of this?’
‘Nowhere, actually. I mean, probably a catalyst, but I haven’t seen him since. And if she’s still here, looking for the money, then clearly he wants nothing to do with her. She’s on her own. Except for the fancy man.’
‘And he is?’ I probed, lifting my wire to my mouth as a group of people walked by.
‘Dunno, never seen him before. Some arsehole.’
‘I think she was actually after a description,’ George gently suggested.
‘Oh. Didn’t get a really good look at him, but young. Younger than me, anyway. I’m guessing a waiter.’
‘Think she told him about the money?’ I asked.
He pondered it before shaking his head.
‘Nah. But on that, she’ll be running out of her own savings now. She didn’t have much to begin with, and the hotel isn’t cheap. She’ll be getting desperate. She’s already proved she’ll kill the man she spent her life with. She’ll have no problem killing you. Not you, obviously,’ he added, for George’s benefit.
‘Yeah, thanks man.’
‘You know, this information would’ve been more useful, say, before I left Ohio.’
‘You already had that information,’ he frowned. ‘At the very least, you could’ve made an educated guess.’
‘Have you not met her? She doesn’t do “educated,”’ George said. They had a good laugh at that, I can tell you.
Ignoring them, I flipped over onto my stomach again, intent on enjoying the sun. The change in their faces told me that was a bad idea.
‘Is that lotion or cooking oil?’ Ronnie cried, pointing to my bottle of sun cream.
‘You look like that balled watermelon over there,’ George helpfully pointed out. Okay, that was enough sun for today. Tenderly, I redressed in my loose-fitting top – which was nowhere near loose-fitting enough – and headed for my rental. They loyally followed my painful footsteps. Luckily they decided to pick up an earlier chat, leaving me to whimper as I remembered the leather seats.
‘So, does this beach look familiar?’
‘Erm... there’s a tree over there, and I suppose from this direction the sea might- bloody hell, it’s a patch of sand! Do they not all look the same?’
‘If you ever decide you’d like to be helpful, let us know, Ron.’
‘That’s Ronnie to you,’ he growled.
‘Do you at least remember if it was big or small?’ I asked, now that we were in the safety of the car. My back hit the seat and refused to move even an inch. To make matters worse, it had baked in the sun. I was going to get a bucket of ice from my hotel bar, and I was going to drown myself in it.
‘We went to a lot of beaches, big and small. And medium,’ Ronnie whined. God, I wished I could punch him. No wait, my knuckles were sunburned. How do knuckles get sunburned?
‘Any that stand out to you? Maybe that had a special memory, or a particular attraction?’
‘Sure. Lots of them did. But I wouldn’t have put it on any of them, because we went to them. They’d be the first places she’d look. After the obvious room search, of course.’
‘So, what you’re saying is, you buried the money somewhere you didn’t go?’ George clarified.
‘That’s right.’
That narrowed things down. Not. I just had one thing to check first.
‘Are you sure it’s not in your room?’
He looked at me like my brain cells had evaporated along with my skin cells.
‘I’m... almost positive. Look, no. I buried it. I distinctly recall sand, night-time and me digging in said sand with a shovel. I then placed the briefcase in the sand and buried it. I don’t remember when or where.’
I’d found things with less, I guess. Still, it would’ve been great to have even a teensy bit more info. Like was there a cove nearby, perhaps, or was it closer to sea or in-land.
‘What did you do with the shovel?’ George blurted out. That was an intelligent question I’d honestly not thought of.
‘Lobbed it in the sea.’
I wasn’t sure what lobbing was, but I could make a guesstimate.
‘Okay, so we check local news stories for any shovels found floating on the tide,’ I innocently suggested. I was immediately mocked from all sides.
‘Man, how little do you think of local news? In what world would that be in any way noteworthy?’
‘A cat got killed with a shovel once. That just about made local news. Small paragraph and they spelled the cat’s name wrong, but still. Maybe it killed a baby dolphin?’ Ronnie offered. Ever the optimist.
‘Wow, here’s hoping,’ George said.
Alright, enough sarcasm.
‘Let’s go over again what we have. It’s buried on a beach somewhere. That’s it. That is actually it. How many beaches are in Miami?’
‘Not sure, but they’re all over the coast,’ George answered straight away.
We both turned to stare at him.
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Valid information.’
We turned away.
‘It’s probably not on this beach,’ Ronnie said. ‘I’m almost positively certain-ish of it.’
With odds like that, I ought to bet on it.
‘Better get started, then.’