Page 9 of The Beachside Cafe 2
“I haven’t told Cheyenne about her father,” Jaymee blurted out. She’d been holding it in for so long, she didn’t meant for it to come out so abruptly but it did. “And now… I don’t know what to do.” She turned her eyes to Cameron. “She’s seen something… between us. That we’ve grown close. She suspects it’s more.”
Cameron nodded slightly. “I understand. Did you tell her there’s nothing between us?”
“I didn’t really say anything,” Jaymee replied.
“Was she close to her father?” Alex asked.
Jaymee turned her eyes to him. “They were very close. That’s why I haven’t been able to tell her yet. I don’t know how she’s going to react. I mean, her father goes missing and then her mother says he was involved in blackmail and that she’s divorcing him? Those are a lot of blows to take at one time, don’t you think?”
Jaymee noticed when she mentioned divorce Cameron’s eyes darted to her face. She met his eyes with her own and couldn’t help giving him the smallest smile she’d probably ever smiled. But he saw it and his eyes lit up. That made her heart flutter.
“You’re right.” Alex nodded. “That’s a lot to take at once. She’s handling her father’s disappearance pretty well. And I think she’s a smart girl and would understand if you explained what was going on. She’s going to get hurt by all this anyway. That’s not something you can avoid, Mom. Sorry.”
Jaymee looked at Alex when he called her mom. His expression was affectionate and made her feel warm. He meant the word with the greatest respect, she could tell.
“I’m sure it’s got to be hard to accept but you can’t shield her from all the pain in life. You’ve got to tell her. She deserves to know.”
“You’re right of course. I will tell her. I will. Not tonight, though.”
Alex shook his head. “No, not tonight. In fact, you should probably not tell her until you have more evidence to show her. I mean, what you have is a lot of evidence but we don’t really understand it all yet.”
Jaymee nodded. “You’re right. I’ll wait until we know what we’re talking about before I tell her anything about her father.”
SIX
Cameron was sitting at Doug’s desk, staring at the computer screen. He was using his phone to search online for information. He’d started with Martin G and gone through all of the documents he could find stored on the computer, doing searches for different version of the name. He didn’t find anything relevant.
“Have you found anything at all yet?” Jaymee asked, coming around to look over his shoulder at the computer. He glanced back at her, swiveling slightly in the chair.
“No, not really,” he said. “I haven’t got a clue about this Martin person. I’ve actually done a search through the computer looking for references to all the names. I’ve gotten a few hits but nothing that matches the last name initial and if it did, it was obvious they had nothing to do with the lab or anything.”
“How are you checking on people?”
“Social media, newspapers, this computer’s hard drive…” He looked at her again. “You have an idea?”
Jaymee nodded. “I think I might. Let’s pull up Doug’s website.”
Cameron frowned. “His website? You mean he’s had a website all this time and you didn’t tell me?”
Jaymee gave him a nonchalant look. “I don’t think he ever used it. He was a one-on-one kind of guy. And I don’t know if I have access to it other than read-only. I can’t get in to change anything. We can look at his social media accounts, too. Like we can search to see if any of these names match on them.”
Cameron let out an abrupt laugh. “If I was going to blackmail someone, the last thing I’m going to do is have them as friends on my social media of any kind.”
Jaymee stuck her tongue out at him. “It’s worth a try. They have to communicate somehow, don’t they?”
Cameron shook his head. “Not on social media, they don’t. Everyone on the planet has a cellphone now. At least those in first world countries. That’s how people communicate.”
Jaymee sighed, going around the desk to flop down in a chair near it. “All of this is giving me a headache.”
“I’m sorry for being negative, Jaymee,” Cameron said quickly. “You’re right. Social media is a good idea. There might be a connection through pictures or something from before he started blackmailing them.”
Jaymee turned her eyes to him. “Good thinking.”
Cameron shrugged. “Your idea. Let me click on this and see what we can see.”
Jaymee stood up again and returned to her position beside him. She put one hand down on the desktop to balance herself when she leaned forward.
One of Doug’s social media pages came on the screen. Cameron began to scroll through, clicking on different parts.
