Page 2 of The Beachside Cafe 5
Jaymee looked down at what was in her hand. “It’s a flash drive.”
“I wonder what’s on it?”
“I don’t know,” Jaymee replied. “Let’s call Cameron and find out.”
TWO
Jaymee hadn’t needed to get Cameron to look at the files on the flash drive. But there was something about the way the woman had left the drive behind that made Jaymee want to leave the café immediately. As much as she wanted to know what was going on, she got a sense the woman thought she was in danger just coming to the café. If she was followed, Jaymee wasn’t about to put her daughter at risk.
She’d gone to one of Cameron’s offices around town. He had several small offices rented for different aspects of his business. He employed several people to run those offices while he wasn’t there. Today, he was in the office that handled his real estate dealings. He’d told Jaymee the day before that was where he would be all day.
The investigation into finding her husband had been at somewhat of a standstill for the past week and Jaymee was close to thinking it would grow cold. No matter how much evidence they collected on IDL, nothing had so far led to the whereabouts of her ex-husband.
Cheyenne would never have closure without finding him.
Jaymee walked into the office with confidence. She was alone. On the drive over, Cheyenne had decided she didn’t want to see what was on the drive. She didn’t want to know what danger lurked out there, what man could do to man and get away with it.
Jaymee didn’t blame her. But she had to know if it would lead to the discovery of Doug’s body. She’d settled herself with it long ago. Doug wasn’t still alive. None of his credit cards had been used. The people he’d been blackmailing were all coming out of the woodwork, suspected of having a hand in his disappearance. None of them would be stupid enough to use his credit cards. None of them wanted his money.
They all just wanted him dead.
Cameron smiled at her, standing up, when she walked into his office. She saw the look in his eyes change after a few seconds of assessing her. “Jaymee. It’s good to see you. What’s wrong? You have news?”
Jaymee took a moment to ponder how a man who had only known her for such a short time could read her so well. She didn’t mind. He could read her front to back all day long. She wanted to be his favorite book.
“I do, as a matter of fact,” she said, not letting on how attracted she was to the handsome man gazing at her with his blue eyes. She handed him the flash drive. “We need to take a look at this. Some lady dropped it off at my café about a half hour ago. I was with Cheyenne. She looked terrified, like she was in danger, maybe being followed or something like that. I thought we should get out of there, just in case she had been and this is the best place to go to look at it. I feel safe here.”
Cameron closed the few feet between himself and the window behind him with three long strides. He pulled down the shades and peered through at the street outside. Looking both ways for a moment, he sighed, letting the shades flip back to normal.
“I don’t see anyone suspicious out there but that’s not the only parking lot. It doesn’t matter. You’re right about security. I have cameras mounted and I’m always ready with protection. A trained professional, you might say.”
Jaymee nodded. He came back to her and took the flash drive from her, which she held out once more.
“So this is it, huh?” He looked up at her. She nodded again. “What do you think is on it?”
“I think we should find out,” Jaymee responded.
“Okay.”
Cameron moved back to his desk and opened the top of his laptop. He sat at the desk and Jaymee went to stand right behind him, one hand up on the back of his chair.
He pushed the drive into the port and they waited while the laptop loaded the information.
Cameron clicked on the icon when it came up and a list of folders in a box popped up on the screen.
“Whoa,” Cameron said under his breath. “That’s a lot of folders. Look at the file size. Those aren’t small files.”
“Click on the first one.”
“How about this video first?”
Cameron moved the cursor to the video file and double-clicked to open it.
A woman’s face came up on the screen. She was sitting in what looked like a dentist’s chair – high in the back, arm rests on the sides, knees raised slightly, feet on footrests. Her wrists and ankles were secured with what looked like leather straps.
She had a horrified look on her face.
“That’s the woman who gave me this drive!” Jaymee hissed, leaning closer, chills covering her body. “What are they doing to her?”
