Page 15 of The Beachside Cafe 3
She grabbed a pencil from beside the pad of paper while Cameron and Jaymee came over to peer over her shoulder. She rubbed the lead of the pencil back and forth over the blank paper until an address appeared that had been embedded in the paper.
“Look at that. 748 Sycamore. Do you know the address?” She looked at each of them. They both shook their heads.
“I’ll bet that’s where they took him. Or maybe he went there willingly. Maybe he was out when they got here and discovered the place like this when he got back. Maybe he found this address on the paper and decided to go there and confront whoever did this.”
Jaymee was skeptical. “He didn’t look like the adventurous type to me.”
She picked up the phone on the tray table, only a little surprised that the man had a land line. She didn’t know many people who had one in their home anymore. Giving Cameron a curious look, she pressed *69. “It used to work,” she said to his grin.
A sound Jaymee hadn’t heard for some time came through the receiver. The service was not available. She twisted her lips and bit the inside of her cheek, thinking. Then she pressed the redial button.
Chewing on her bottom lip, she waited as the line rang on the other end. Her eyes shot to Cameron’s face when the call was answered.
“Dylan Lianetti’s office. Marianne speaking. How can I help you?”
Chills rolled over Jaymee’s skin and she swiftly hung up, pressing the buttons down first so it wouldn’t sound like she’d slammed it down.
“Who was it?” Cameron asked, curiously.
“It was Lianetti’s office,” Jaymee said incredulously. “So far, everything is leading back to that man. He’s responsible for something. I just know it.”
“He’s probably responsible for it all,” Cheyenne said. “Even Dad’s disappearance.”
“We should go check out that address,” Cameron said.
“Before the police get here?” Jaymee asked. “Shouldn’t we wait?”
“I don’t think so.” Cameron’s voice was stern. “I think we need to get there as quick as we can. Russo could be in danger. He’s already been a lab rat once. We can’t let that happen to him again.”
Jaymee nodded. “You’re right.” She turned to her daughter. “Will you stay here and wait for the cops? Tell them where we’ve gone, though. Can you do that?”
“Of course. I don’t have a problem with that.”
“Jaymee.”
She turned when Cameron spoke her name. The way he said it made her chest tighten with anxiety. Cameron was moving across the room quickly. He went into the small kitchen, grabbed a paper napkin from a stack by the refrigerator and swept up something into his hand.
“Look,” he said, emphasizing the word. He held out his hand. Resting on top of the napkin was a clear vial. A small amount of liquid was in the bottom.
“Good Lord,” Jaymee said, her eyes snapping back up to his face. “We have to get there now! Right now! Doug might be there!”
Cameron nodded. “That’s what I was thinking, too.”
“Send the cops to us as soon as they get here!”
“I’ll call Lou on the way. Maybe they’ll detour and get there at the same time. Sycamore isn’t very far away. I know it’s in the business district though. The factory business district, not the wall street business district.”
Jaymee nodded. She and Cameron raced out the door, down the stairs and out to his car.
Cameron tried not to drive too much over the speed limit. He called Lou as they were pulling out onto the street and informed him what was going on.
They got to the address ten minutes later. It was an old abandoned building by an ocean outlet. A water wheel pumped the water into an underground irrigation system nearby, making a tremendous amount of noise as it probably hadn’t been oiled in decades.
Cameron ran around the car to her and pulled on her arm. “That thing needs some WD-40,” he said. “Come on.”
“Are you armed?” Jaymee asked, hesitating to go in the huge warehouse with the broken windows and rusted metal walls. “We… what if…”
Cameron nodded. “I’m armed. I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise.”
