Page 65 of Betrayal In Calusa Cove
Chapter 16
Fletcher paced in the parking lot. His pulse raced as if he were charging onto the battlefield. In some ways, it felt as though that were the case. He paused briefly, scanned the area, looking for anyone—especially Julie—lurking in the shadows.
He saw no one but locals. No one but the people who belonged.
And for some reason, that made him nervous.
“You need to relax,” Hayes said as he strolled across the gravel, hands in his pockets like he didn’t have a care in the world. “We’ve got this.”
“You didn’t get a visit from Ken’s widow the other day.” Fletcher leaned against his truck. “Julie came in all smiles and judgments. Dawson called around, seeing if he could find out where she stayed, but there’s no record of her at any hotel in a fifty-mile radius.”
“I’m not surprised. She hates this place.” Hayes raised a hand. “And I know Dawson had Chloe pull in a few favors, but there’s no record of her or the Barbaros staying at any Disney property either.”
“So, where the hell are they?” Fletcher couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching them, like a sniper in a tree. “They can’t be far.”
“Chloe looped in her old partner, Buddy. He’s got his contacts in Virginia, working on getting a visual on all of them.”
“Dawson said one of the Sarich brothers—Logan, I believe—from the Aegis Network is up there as well, poking around.”
“Dylan Sarich confirmed that.” Hayes nodded. “He’s lurking around here somewhere. Good men, all four of the Sarich brothers. Logan will get a lead on the Barbaros, and we’ll get a better read on what they’re doing by the end of the day, I’m sure.” Hayes patted Fletcher’s good arm. “We’re all on edge about what’s been happening. The events are calculated, but even the attempt on Decker’s life wasn’t meant to kill.”
“What do you mean?” Fletcher stood tall.
“Emily got the toxicology report back, and there wasn’t enough poison in Decker’s system to kill him. There was just enough to put him in the hospital for a few days.” He waved his hand as Keaton pulled into the parking lot. “Emily released him to us late last night. She really didn’t want to, but Dawson explained the situation. We hired a retired orderly from the hospital who’s a retired combat medic…the one that you know…the one you set up to walk Trinity out the door after she’d been shot. Figured between him and Dylan, we’d have all of our backs covered.”
“Yeah, the orderly from the hospital is Pete Kidd. He’s a good man. He’ll take good care of Decker, and he’s also not the kind of dude you want to mess with. He’s the protective kind, and back in the day, when he was in high school, he used to work at the marina.”
“I got the feeling he was a little protective of Baily.”
Fletcher laughed. “He thinks of her like a little sister.”
“So, not jealous?”
“Of Pete?” Fletcher let those memories flood his brain. Pete was a couple of years older. He’d been a quiet guy. Kept to himself. Didn’t have a lot of friends. Did his job and kept his nose clean until he’d left for the Marines. His attachment to Baily had never rubbed Fletcher the wrong way, but it certainly had gotten under Ken’s skin. That might have had more to do with the fact that Pete also had protective feelings for Audra and often didn’t like the way Ken had treated her. Tried to tame the fire right out of that girl. “Nah. Pete never had any interest in Baily that way. We all grew up together, and when things changed between me and Baily, Pete just wanted to make sure I treated her right and made that clear.” Fletcher chuckled. “He lectured me harder than her dad had, but if I’m being totally honest, Pete never liked Ken much.”
“Why?” Hayes asked.
Fletcher shrugged. “Pete never really said. I did ask him after Trinity was shot, and again when we found the journal. I wanted to know if he knew about Ken dealing drugs, or anything else, even though he left when we were sophomores.”
“And?”
“He knew Benson was dealing, and because Ken hung out with Benson sometimes, it made him suspicious, but he didn’t know for sure,” Fletcher said. “Pete told me he caught Ken in a couple of lies. Stupid little things around the marina that didn’t make sense. Stuff like he’d said he’d done something his old man had told him to do, but he hadn’t. And then there was Audra. Pete really didn’t appreciate some of the things Ken said to Audra, especially about her dad.”
“I’ve heard that a few times now, but you’ve never commented on it.”
“That’s a hard one because Victor was a crazy old coot. Right before he disappeared, he had some wild conspiracy ideas. Stranger than normal. His mind was going, and while most understood that, Ken often had a short fuse about it.”
“Some of those theories Victor rambled about turned out to be true,” Hayes said.
Fletcher nodded. “But others were just nuts. It was hard for us to watch Audra defend her father in one breath, and the next, tear him apart with that sharp tongue of hers. Looking back now, listening to Audra share some of things Ken had said to her, or even me, especially that month before we left for boot camp, I can see how he was really pushing the narrative that Audra’s dreams, and what she believed to be true about that night, were her just being like her dad…crazy. And that’s not true.” He threaded his fingers through his hair. “I feel bad about that now because even though Audra could be dramatic, she wasn’t nuts, and we all turned on her based on what Ken put in our heads.”
“Do you honestly believe Ken could’ve known that Paul and his son killed her dad?”
“With everything we’re finding out about my best friend? Yeah.” Fletcher swallowed the bile that smacked the back of his throat.
“It’s like we never really knew him at all,” Hayes said softly.
“I thought it was Julie who had changed him.” Fletcher let out a long, slow breath. “But now I wonder if he was always a secret keeper. Always a manipulator. Always a liar. And I just never saw it.”
