Page 11 of The Beachside Cafe 2
Jaymee sighed. “Do you think… do you think Doug is still alive?”
Cameron gave her a sober look. “I really don’t know, Jaymee. I just don’t know. Do you… have any female intuition telling you something?”
Jaymee snorted. “No. I wasn’t close enough to my own husband to have a bond like that. He wasn’t a passionate man. Very cold, actually, didn’t like to give much affection.”
Cameron nodded. “So you’ve told me.”
“When are you planning to go to the police with this?”
“I can go now if you want. You can come with me. It’s not like I’m due anywhere to work. I’m already at work.”
“Which reminds me, I wanted to ask if you’re charging a fee for your services and how much I owe you.”
Cameron stared at her with a blank expression that slowly and comically turned into soft laughter. “Payment? No, Jaymee. This job is pro-bono.”
Jaymee couldn’t help laughing. “Well, thank you for that. I do appreciate it.”
“Not that you can’t afford my fee,” Cameron added. “You’re loaded, lady.”
“I’m not loaded,” Jaymee said. “None of that blackmail money came my way.”
Cameron scoffed at the mention of the blackmail money.
“Your café is going to be a big success and you’re going to be rolling in money. Don’t you worry about that for a minute.”
SEVEN
Cameron and Jaymee went together to the police station. They found the detectives working on Doug’s case sitting at their desks. Detective Monroe was on his phone while Detective Spencer was reading through a folder, turning the pages as he searched for something.
“Detective Spencer?” Cameron said, coming up behind him. “John.”
John stood up as soon as he saw it was Cameron, holding out his hand. “Cameron. Good to see you. And you, Mrs. Lent.”
“Jaymee, please,” Jaymee said quickly.
The detective nodded, giving her an odd look before sliding his eyes back to Cameron. “You have something for me?”
“I should be asking you the same thing,” Cameron responded. “But yes. We have found some things we think you and Lou will find interesting. Also, we need help.”
“You’ve got our help, Cameron. Show us what you’ve got.”
By the time chairs were pulled up to the desks and Cameron and Jaymee were seated, Lou was off the phone and gazing curiously at them.
“What’s going on?” he asked.
Cameron laid out a folder on the John’s desk. “We found these photos on Doug’s computer. I have a friend who knows what company these people might be working for. It’s only a theory. But we’ve discovered that… well, Doug was blackmailing a half a dozen people. We’ve got partial names and a possible first suspect’s full name but we’re going to need access to your databases before we can move on. We have a picture…”
Cameron leaned forward as he spoke, opening the folder and pulling out a stack of papers. He went through them and when he found Martin’s picture with Doug from five years back, he held it out to John. “This picture is of Doug and a man named Martin Granger. In the files we found on this flash drive…”
He fished through his pocket until he found the small storage device and showed it to John and Lou. “This contains all the files needed of the six people being blackmailed. It shows a lot of numbers and dates but I’m thinking the rest is encrypted in some kind of code. I’m good at a lot of things but breaking codes isn’t one of them.”
“Same with me,” Jaymee said.
Lou got up from his desk and went around it, taking the pictures from Cameron and holding them up in front of him. He grunted when he came to one of them. “This is the IDL logo, isn’t it?”
Jaymee was surprised and raised her eyebrows. “Yes, that’s what our friend Alex said.”
The detectives looked at Jaymee at the same time. “Alex? Who is that?”
