Page 5 of The Beachside Cafe 5
“I think I can manage. Thanks for trying,” Cameron played along, pulling on the door handle and pushing it open. He climbed out of the passenger seat at the same time Jaymee was getting out. “Remind me next time that when I bring the Jeep, that’s what we should use. Your car is just too small for me. I like it, mind you. It’s just not my kind of car.”
“I’ll remind you. Sorry.”
They smiled at each other as they walked side by side to go talk to Alex.
FOUR
Jaymee’s heart slammed inside her chest when she walked up to the entrance of IDL. There was a woman standing outside. She was wearing a hoodie with the hood pulled up to hide her face. But her long, straight, light-brown hair came out of the hood and hung over her chest and Jaymee remembered the woman yesterday had the same color, length and straightness.
She resisted the urge to look behind her at the corner where Cameron had dropped her off. He’d continued driving, as if he was leaving her there, but was only driving around the block and would be outside when or if she needed him.
Jaymee felt inside her pocket and pulled out her phone just enough to see the front. She swept her thumb over it a few times and called Cameron. He didn’t answer with words but she heard when it was picked up.
She slipped it back into her pocket and walked up to Jennifer, a serious look on her face.
“Jennifer?”
Jennifer’s gaze was already on Jaymee and the woman nodded. “Aunt Jaymee,” Jennifer said, smiling and holding out her hand with one hand while she dropped the cigarette she’d been smoking into the tall, black ash catcher beside the door. Jaymee shook her hand.
“They told me I could show you around the lab as long as you were alone. Thanks for coming. I’m really hoping you can shed some light on the things that are going on around here.” As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Jennifer flushed and her eyes darted from side to side as if she was sure she’d been heard.
“Is there somewhere we can talk?”
Jennifer nodded. “I have something set up for you in one of our sound proof rooms. Follow me.”
Jaymee nervously walked behind Jennifer down a narrow corridor lined with doors. There were a few windows but they were blacked out. She wondered if someone inside the room would be able to see out. If not, what was the purpose of having a window there at all?
Long benches that reminded Jaymee of every courthouse she’d ever been in lined the corridor, making it seem like there was even less space to walk. No more than two people could walk side by side and if they encountered someone coming from the opposite direction, one would have to step to the side so they were walking single-file.
Jennifer was obviously trying to look nonchalant. She asked Jaymee bogus questions about their relatives and Jaymee made up answers.
“Right in here.” Jennifer stopped at a door near the middle of the hallway, close to a cross way. Jaymee scanned her surroundings to try to remember where she’d been taken.
“Wait a minute,” she said quickly, noticing a “Out of Order” sign on the door. “What’s that?”
Jennifer glanced at the sign and shook her head. “Don’t worry about that. They won’t.”
She pushed open the door and let Jaymee in first, looking both ways up and down the hallway before closing and locking it. Jaymee didn’t like that she locked the door but it was a simple turn of the button on the knob. It wasn’t as if she was locked in with a key.
The room was much bigger than Jaymee had anticipated it might be. It looked like a crew of at least six could man the computers. Gigantic monitors hung from the ceiling, attached to the walls at the very top. A row of computers ran along each wall and the island in the middle of the room was rectangle and currently covered with papers of all kinds, draft papers, grafts, documents, every kind of computer paper Jaymee could imagine.
Jennifer hurried to the computers to their left and pulled out a rolling office chair, dropping into it. Her fingers flew over the keyboard. She hit enter with a purpose and looked up at the main monitor, the largest of them all, hanging on the other side of the room. Jaymee was reminded of a movie theater, except the monitor was about half the size of a movie screen.
Jaymee was covered in chills when the monitor flickered on and she saw the front of her house. Her eyes darted to Jennifer. “What is this?”
Jennifer turned to her and when she spoke, her words came out fast so Jaymee had to pay close attention.
“This is the video feed from about six months ago. Dylan Lianetti was tired of being blackmailed by your husband-”
“Ex-husband,” Jaymee interrupted sharply.
Jennifer reacted, stammering for only a second before continuing, “Ex, yes, ex-husband, I’m sorry. He was tired, as I was saying, of paying through the nose. Doug kept wanting more and more. I remember him and Amanda yelling about it in her office. It wasn’t them yelling at each other, which was weird. They were both so angry at Doug and would vent to each other.”
Jaymee nodded, her eyes returning to the feed on the monitor. Her house was unchanged in the last few minutes. Her car was in the driveway, which meant she was home.
Her heart almost stopped when the feed changed and suddenly she could see her kitchen. It was obvious the camera was hidden somewhere on the counter. From the angle, she guessed her grandmother’s vintage ceramic cookie jar. She hoped Lianetti and his men hadn’t done any damage to the cookie jar. She had never seen the camera, so they must have done a good job.
“What’s going on here?” she whispered, taking a step closer to the screen, her eyes glued to it.
