Page 2 of The Beachside Cafe 2
“Oh, darling, you have done an amazing job with this place!” the woman gushed, grabbing Jaymee’s wrist and squeezing lightly. “You know, I used to come here in the late 70’s when the building was first put up. It was a disco back then, you know. A small one but very popular! I love what you’ve done and the fish tank is absolutely lovely.”
“Oh, thank you so much.” Jaymee felt tears misting over her eyes. Her smile was so big it hurt her cheeks. She patted the older woman’s hand on her wrist just before Mrs. Drysdale let go.
“I’ll just have you know Charles and I are going to come here all the time. And we’re going to bring friends. And the next time our relatives are in town, we will bring them all here.”
“That is so wonderful of you, thank you so much. My father always said word of mouth is the best kind of advertisement.”
“Your father was a wise man, my dear. A wise man.”
Jaymee looked at the front door just as Cameron came walking through. A tingle ran through her that she tried to deny. Her eyes flipped back down to Mrs. Drysdale.
“I see someone I must talk to. Thank you again for the compliment and I do hope you and all of your relatives enjoy my place. You are always welcome here!”
“Thank you, dear. We’ll be back. Wonderful grand opening!”
Jaymee thanked her again before hurrying toward Cameron, who saw her coming and smiled wide.
“There she is!” Cameron said loudly. “The hostess with the mostest.”
Jaymee laughed, a feeling of pleasant delight slipping into her chest and settling there like a warm blanket. “Why, thank you, kind sir,” she said. “Have you any news?”
“I might. We need to sit down. Do you have time?”
“I’ll make time,” Jaymee said, turning to head toward the booth she and Cameron usually sat in. It was free so that’s where she chose. She spoke over her shoulder. “Tommy Wilkinson is on his way here to speak to me, too. He called just a few minutes ago. He’ll be here in about ten minutes probably.”
“What does he want?”
They slid into the seats facing each other and Jaymee looked directly in Cameron’s blue eyes, silently admiring how handsome he was. “He says there’s something he needs to show me. It didn’t sound good. In fact, I think it’s so bad he doesn’t even want to tell me about it.”
“That really doesn’t sound good at all.”
“That’s what I thought, too. I want you to sit in on the meeting if you will.”
“Of course, I will. No problem.”
She gave him a warm smile. “Thanks, Cameron. I knew I could depend on you.”
TWO
Tommy arrived just fifteen minutes after his call.
Jaymee spotted him and stood up with one finger up in the air. He walked toward the table, his narrow eyes moving between Jaymee and Cameron. He looked incredibly nervous.
“Mrs. Le… Jaymee. I thought… we might want to speak in private. This is… very sensitive information.”
Jaymee nodded, moving to the other side of the bench to sit next to Cameron. She gestured to the side of the booth she’d been sitting in. “Please. This is a good friend and someone who is helping me with this whole situation. We can speak freely in front of him. In fact, he should probably hear about it first-hand from you so it doesn’t go through me. You know how that game goes,Telephone, where someone tells someone something and by the time it gets to the end of the line, it’s something completely different?”
Tommy slid into the seat, setting his large, thin briefcase on the table nearest to the wall. “Your call, Ma’am. This isn’t good news, I’m afraid. I found… some things on Doug’s computer that he was obviously trying to hide. A hidden folder titled Cheyenne protected by a series of numbers, a password I just happened to find in the back of one of the drawers on a piece of sticky note paper.”
Jaymee sucked in a sharp breath. “I saw that!” she said, turning to Cameron. “Didn’t I show you that sticky note? I meant to. Do you remember it?”
Cameron looked contemplative and then shook his head. “Not that I remember.”
“Either way, I’m glad I left it there,” Jaymee said, returning her attention to Tommy. “What’s in this hidden folder?”
“It contains a lot of… information… well, here, you can see it for yourself. I brought my laptop and saved everything on the folder to a zip drive and then put it on this flash drive. That’s for safety, in case something happens to his computer. Which…” Tommy looked around him as if someone might be listening in and they might be in danger. “I have to say, with him missing and no one knowing where he is… I figure there’s at least a chance something might happen to that thing.”
Cameron narrowed his eyes and spoke in a voice that made Jaymee’s skin light up with tingles. She turned her head abruptly to look at him. “Are you saying he might have disappeared on his own and is hiding out?”
