Page 14 of The Beachside Cafe
He eyed her comically. “You had to get dressed before you could call me?”
Jaymee blinked at him for a moment before realizing what she’d done. She laughed. “I suppose I do.”
“Well, to each his own, dear. You gonna let me in?”
“Oh! Yes, I’m sorry, come in.” She stepped back to let him in and then closed and locked the door behind him.
“I’ve got the results from Alex,” Cameron said as he walked across the lobby and headed into the living room. Jaymee was amused by how comfortable the man had become in her home. She was glad. She enjoyed having him around.
“Please tell me what it was.”
“Well, it’s a compound that has two main elements added to it. One causes paralysis, the other is a psychotropic drug. It’s used to help epileptics control their seizures. But when given to someone who doesn’t have the disease, it can have deadly affects. Both these together are extremely dangerous.”
He handed her back the vial but she handed it right back to him. “I don’t want to hold on to it. Please keep it at your office. Today I’m supposed to go see the police about filing the missing person report. Now I don’t know if I want their help.”
Cameron frowned. “Why wouldn’t you want their help? They have a lot more resources and authority than I do.”
“Because eventually it will expose the kind of man he was and I don’t think you know what something like that will do to Cheyenne. She loves her father with all her heart. Now we’re finding out he may have been somewhat of a thief and a scam artist. I’m afraid what this will do to her. It will devastate her. Break her heart into a million tiny pieces. My poor girl.”
Jaymee felt an overwhelming sadness. She lowered herself to the couch and sighed resignedly. “I don’t know if he’s a good guy or a bad guy.” She felt like she was going to break down. She didn’t want to do that in front of Cameron. It was getting harder to control and she put her hands over her face to hide it from him, her elbows on her knees.
She felt the couch bow as Cameron sat next to her. She felt his hand on her shoulder. “It’s gonna be okay, Jaymee,” he said in a comforting voice. “We’ll work this out. Like I said, I’ve got plenty of family money so you can take all money worries you might have right now.”
“I couldn’t possibly accept your generosity, Cameron. I don’t want to owe you.”
Cameron laughed, an amused look on his face. “I’m an investor in your café. You already owe me money.”
Realizing this to be true, Jaymee laughed with him. “All right. That sounds wonderful. I accept. Thank you for the generous offer.”
“You’re welcome. Never been happier to spend money. It’s just sitting there in the banks collecting dust anyway, right?”
She nodded. “Yes, that’s right.” She remembered the note in Doug’s study drawer and her eyes lit up. “I want to show you something, see what you make of it.”
He was following her down the hall to the study when his phone rang off. He pulled it from his pocket, holding up one finger toward Jaymee. “Smith. What? Okay, I’ll be right there.”
He hung up and slipped the phone back in his pocket, looking at her. “They caught one of the brothers, the vandals. I’m heading to the station. You want to come?”
“Yes!” Jaymee responded enthusiastically. “I do!”
TEN
Jaymee watched from behind the two-way glass as Cameron and two detectives questioned a very belligerent criminal. He was acting like a captured animal, jerking his shoulders back and forth as he tried to wiggle out of the handcuffs they still had on him.
“You wouldn’t be so uncomfortable if you had stopped swinging at us,” said one of the detectives who Jaymee had been introduced to by the name of John Spencer. He was a properly dressed, professional detective with arms that looked like he was a bodybuilder in his free time. He leaned over the table in front of the young man, flexing his muscles. “You should have known that wouldn’t go well.”
The criminal gave him a disgusted look, sneering. “You ain’t got nothin’ on me.”
Cameron was the one to speak next. “We’ve got plenty of evidence you and your brother are responsible for the break-ins around the east coast specially oceanside restaurants. Where is your brother? You realize he will have to come in, too. You boys did some serious damage out there.”
“I dunno where he is and wouldn’t tell you if I did. You ain’t got nothin’. You can’t hold me here. I know my rights.”
“You don’t have to talk to us, that’s true,” the other detective by the name of Lou Monroe spoke up, looming over the young man on the other side from Cameron, “but it would go a lot easier on you if you did. You’re really gonna take the rap for something your brother did, too? Is it worth it? Should you take all the blame? Come on, Keith. You’re gonna rot in jail and have thousands of dollars of fines. Your brother is gonna get off scot-free? Is that really what you want? You’re willing to sacrifice your freedom and your…”
The ringing of Cameron’s phone interrupted the interrogation. Cameron grabbed it out of his pocket and turned his back on the group. Lou continued to ply Keith with questions as Cameron spoke quietly into his phone. Jaymee kept her eyes on him. Abruptly, he left the room without speaking to the detectives. They noticed him leaving but said nothing.
A moment later, the door to the observation room opened and he was beckoning to her. “Come on. I need your eyes.”
“What do you mean?” she asked as she hurried after him.
