Page 47 of Wild Escape

"Make me feel guilty.”

"I'm not trying to make you feel guilty. It's no problem. JD and I can handle it.”

She blew out a breath. "How long do you need me to sit on her for?"

"A couple of hours. Did you hear about the break-in at the Caldwell residence last night?”

"No. What happened?"

I gave her the details. "I've got a few leads I need to run down. And I’d like to get an hour or two of sleep.”

She was silent for a long moment before saying, "Where are you?”

With a slight grin, I said, "At the Driftwood.”

"Give me 30 minutes. If anything goes wrong, I'm gonna say I had nothing to do with it. And you're gonna back me up. I don't care whose fault it is. It's not going to be mine. Are we clear?”

"Crystal," I said.

I thanked her profusely, ended the call, then reclined my seat and tried to keep my eyes open.

25

My eyes snapped awake when Denise wrapped her knuckles on the door of the Porsche. I may have dozed off for a moment. I peeled them open to see the delightful beauty hovering over me, wearing a tank top and jean shorts. She certainly looked good out of uniform.

"I'm here. Get some sleep.”

"She's in room #6.” I showed Denise a picture of Daphne on my cell phone.

She lifted a jealous eyebrow. "This is who you’ve been guarding for the last 24 hours?"

"Putting up with might be more accurate."

"Are you sure that's all you've been doing with her?”

"Trust me, she’s a handful. Maybe two.”

She gave me a look. "I'll keep an eye on things. You owe me for this. I'll expect something nice and expensive."

"Deal," I said.

She spun around and strutted back to her banana-yellow SUV and climbed inside. I watched her in the side-view mirror. She had a nice strut.

I cranked up the engine and pulled away from the curb.

Jack peeled his eyes open and looked around, having forgotten where he was. "I'm up."

I drove back to Waffle Wizard. I figured we’d load up on coffee and fill our bellies with breakfast. There wasn’t any time to sleep.

We chowed down on fat stacks of blueberry pancakes, smothered in butter and maple syrup, crunched on crispy bacon, and drank copious amounts of hot java. I'd been up for so long that adrenaline had kicked in. There was no going to sleep now, even if I had the time.

After breakfast, we set out to find the Caldwells’ maid. We caught up with Constance at another mansion in Stingray Bay. She was on the job. Isabella had tracked her cell phone.

Constance answered the door after I rang the bell. One look at her, and it was easy to see she was not part of the gang of thieves. She wasn't quite 5 feet tall, and nearly as wide.

I flashed my badge, made introductions, and told her what had happened.

Her lined face twisted with surprise and sorrow. In her mid-50s, her curly dark hair was losing the battle against the gray.