"Yes, you mentioned that when I met you," Cadie said."I'll deal with it."
Kal pressed the issue."Buildings like that, well…accidents happen."
Barrett didn't miss the threat.
Kal continued to speak in an aggressive tone."You should really reconsider before serious problems arise."
Barrett had heard enough."Back off," he said."The lady said no."
Silence followed.Barrett could feel it through the phone, the shock of an unexpected voice.He pictured Kal on the other end of the line, processing the fact that Cadie was not alone.
"Anson," Kal said, the salesmanship gone."Still playing hero?"
Barrett did not raise his voice.He didn't need to."Still targeting people who can't fight back?"
The line went dead.
Barrett stared at the phone in Cadie's hand for a moment after the call disconnected."I probably went too far," he said."But the guy's an asshole."
Cadie stared at him for a beat, then the tension in her face broke and something between a laugh and an exhale escaped her."Let's get out of here," she said.
But the call had left a bad feeling.It was clear to him that Kal Davis was desperate—and desperate men were dangerous.
Chapter 17
Barrett walked her to his car instead of hers.He opened the passenger door and waited until she got in, then closed it behind her and came around to the driver's side.The engine turned over and he pulled away from the curb without looking back at the street where her rental was parked.
"We'll come back for your car later," he said.
"Take me to the ocean," Cadie said.
Barrett glanced at her then headed south without asking which beach or how far.He simply drove, and Cadie was grateful for that.She didn't need questions.She needed open sky and the sound of waves and room to breathe.
They were quiet for a few minutes as he navigated through the city and onto the road that led toward Folly Beach.The buildings thinned and the landscape opened, giving way to marsh grass.Cadie rolled her window down to smell the sea air.
After a while, Barrett spoke."Kal was the same way in high school.You didn't know him, but I did.He was always a bully."
Cadie looked at him."Yes, and now he's a criminal."
Barrett said nothing more about Kal, and Cadie was glad.She didn't want to give the man any more of her time or attention than he had already taken.She preferred to look at the ocean.
Folly Beach was quieter than she expected.The parking lot near the pier held a handful of cars, and a few people walked along the sand in the distance, but the beach had the unhurried feel of a place that belonged to the locals rather than the tourists.Barrett parked and came around to open her door, then walked with her toward the pier.
The Edwin S.Taylor Fishing Pier extended out over the Atlantic in a long, straight line, its wooden planks weathered to a soft gray by years of salt and sun.Cadie stepped onto it and felt the boards give slightly beneath her feet.The wind was stronger than it had been in the city.A cool breeze came off the water and lifted her hair away from her face.She closed her eyes for a moment.
At first, she walked without speaking.The pier stretched ahead of them, and the ocean spread out on both sides, vast and gray-blue under the afternoon sky.A few fishermen stood along the railing with their lines cast out into the water, patient and still.Gulls circled overhead, calling to one another in sharp, bright voices that carried on the wind.
Barrett took her hand as they walked.His fingers closed around hers with firmness that felt like an anchor.Cadie held on and let the rhythm of their steps and the sound of the waves settle into her.
Then Barrett began to tell her about his meeting with Sullivan.
He spoke carefully, giving her the essential facts without rushing through them or softening them more than necessary.Celia Ann's death had been engineered, slowly and deliberately, by the woman who sat beside her bed each day.
Cadie listened without interrupting.She kept her eyes on the horizon where the ocean met the sky in a line that seemed to go on forever.She had known, on some level, since reading her aunt's journal entries.Kal and Olivia had conspired to murder her aunt.They had planned it for months.
Cadie stopped walking.She placed both hands on the pier railing and looked out at the ocean.The water moved beneath them in slow, rolling swells that caught the light and released it.
"It's horrifying," she said.
