Page 13 of The Beachside Cafe 5
“You’re probably wondering what we’re all doing here this morning,” Cameron said. “In your house before you’re even awake.”
Jaymee shrugged. “I figured you are here to make sure I’m all right. Things have been rough lately, haven’t they? Almost dying and all that.”
The men smiled while Cheyenne let out a soft laugh. “Thank God you didn’t die,” she said. “But Cameron’s right. There’s another reason why we’re here.”
Jaymee looked from one to another before settling her eyes on Cameron. “What is it?” She could tell it was something serious by the looks on their faces. She had a feeling she knew what it was about. “Is this concerning Doug?”
Cameron raised his eyebrows. “Yes. How did you know?”
“It’s one of the unsolved things in this case,” Jaymee responded simply.
Cameron nodded, his face relaxing. “They found his car. There’s a massive search going on around the area where his car was found. They’re looking for him. His body. Amanda said he wasn’t alive. She won’t tell them where he is but he’s not in the car. It’s over in Cambridge. They want us to come out there and help with the search. I think they really want you to identify him if they find him so they can wrap up the case and be done with it.”
“What about IDL?” Jaymee asked, eyeing the cup of coffee Cameron had in front of him. Cheyenne must have seen the look because she was on her feet going to fetch a cup for her mother before Jaymee could even ask.
“The company is going to close down,” Cameron said. “With the massive amount of illegal activity going on there, I wouldn’t expect less than a dozen arrests for multiple charges. And there’s going to be a lot of people in therapy, too. Probably for the rest of their lives.”
Jaymee shook her head, feeling sorry for the people IDL had experimented on.
That made her think of Jennifer. The last time she’d seen the young woman was when she was slumped on the ground under Cameron.
“Whatever happened with Jennifer? They arrested Amanda, right?”
Cameron and Alex both nodded. “They arrested her. But Jennifer…” He let his voice trail off, his eyes moving away from Jaymee. With a sinking feeling, Jaymee realized Cameron must have killed Jennifer when he tackled her and she hit her head on the tile floor. Underneath that tile was concrete.
“Oh dear,” she said softly. “She didn’t make it?”
Cameron looked remorsefully at her, shaking his head. “She hit her head on the ground mighty hard,” he replied. “And it… she was gone quick. Didn’t suffer.”
“That’s horrible. Poor woman.”
“She was about to kill you, Mom,” Cheyenne said in a voice that revealed how surprised she was. “Why are you feeling sorry for her?”
“I just do, Cheyenne,” Jaymee replied. “I can’t help it. She seemed so lost to me. That’s all I could think of. That and being terrified of what that woman was going to put in my body. I’ve never been in so much pain.”
“Let’s not talk about that right now,” Cameron said. “Let’s take a ride over to Cambridge and see if we can help in the search and identification. That will take up enough of our brainpower to keep us interested. Though the case is being locked up. Just like all those people at IDL.”
The group laughed quietly.
An hour later, they were pulling into the wooded area where Doug’s car had been found. It was a place that was typically only used by fisherman and hunters. In a place where there was usually three cars at the most, there were half a dozen cars, along with an ambulance and a fire truck. Jaymee took a moment to wonder why there was a fire truck and what they could possibly do that the EMTs on the ambulance couldn’t do.
She got out of Cameron’s Jeep and waited for Cheyenne to come up to stand beside her. Her daughter looked a little cold.
“Are you gonna be all right doing this?” she asked, her voice sympathetic.
“I’ve got to do it, Mom,” Cheyenne replied. “I’ll never forgive myself if I didn’t at least try to help find him. He was… my dad, after all. The only one I had.” Tears welled up in her eyes and Jaymee took the time to give her a warm hug before they headed toward the group of people coordinating the search.
They were each given their own areas to search on the map and they pulled out their cell phones to use GPS to make sure they didn’t get lost and were covering the right part.
Jaymee thought how ironic it would be if she was the one to stumble across her ex-husband’s body.
It wasn’t her, though. She walked through the high brush, pushing back trees, resisting the urge to call to a man she knew was likely already dead. She did that for about fifteen minutes before she heard a shout ring out through the woods.
She headed in the direction of the shout and came up on a group of people standing around what looked like disturbed soil. Two men were standing over the area, shoveling the dirt away with quick precision.
One of the men held up his hand to motion the other one to stop. Jaymee stepped closer to the shallow grave, stretching her neck to look down into it. She saw a hand sticking out of the dirt.
On that hand was Doug’s wedding ring.
