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“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. This whole thing is bogus! You and daddy work hard for this city. Honestly, Mom, no one believes you guys had anything to do with that missing money.”
“I know, honey, Mr. Bailey can get a little…emotional at times.”
“What can we do?” she asked.
“We?”
“Adam and I, and all our friends. We want to help you and Daddy.”
Mimi felt as if the clouds had suddenly parted and the sun was beating down on her head, warm for the first time in a very long time. “Oh, sweetie, just hearing you say that is all the help I need.” She reached out and hugged her daughter.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Claire whispered in her ear. “I know I’ve been a brat. I promise, I won’t lie to you anymore.”
*~*~*
It took Mimi a few minutes to make her way through the crowd to find Zeke in the parking lot. He was pacing the small area next to the minivan. “Hey,” she said, sounding out of breath. “Are you okay?”
“I will be when I kick that fucker’s head in.”
“Zeke,” Mimi glanced around. “Watch it. Someone might hear you who doesn’t understand that you’re just…kidding.”
“I hope the whole town hears me! Can you believe the nerve of that guy? Spouting off all our personal business in there?”
“I guess that’s just a part of being Whispering Bay’s number one power couple.”
He stopped his pacing to stare at her. “How can you joke about it?”
Mimi sighed. “I don’t know. I’m working on about five minutes’ sleep right now. All I know is, tomorrow is Claire’s graduation and your sister, who isn’t speaking to you, is getting married in exactly six days. And I have to find twenty thousand dollars or you’re going to quit your job. Having my sex life played out for the entire city doesn’t seem so important. Plus, you know, it’s not like the whole town didn’t know about it anyway.”
“You mean we have to find twenty thousand dollars.”
“Right. So where do we start?” sh
e asked. “We already interviewed everyone who was in the vicinity of the ticket booth at the time the money went missing.”
“Not everyone,” he said.
The house was a small brick ranch style home in a nice middle class Pensacola neighborhood. Modest, but well maintained, with a freshly mown green lawn and a flower bed under the front windows. Definitely not what Zeke expected.
Sam Grant answered the door on the second knock. He wore jeans and a chef’s apron with writing across the front. It said, The Last Time I Cooked Hardly Anyone Got Sick.
Zeke couldn’t help but stare at it.
“Zeke.” Sam looked stunned to see him. Not that Zeke blamed him. This was the last place he thought he’d ever visit, too.
“I need to talk to you.”
“Of course! Come in.” Sam wiped his hands down the front of the apron and opened the door wide.
Zeke let Mimi go inside first, hesitating just briefly over the threshold. As a cop, he was accustomed to taking in his surroundings and analyzing them quickly. Family pictures hung on the light beige colored walls. A vase of fresh cut flowers sat on the entryway console. There was even a piano.
The place was…clean. Respectable. What next? A wife wearing pearls and a couple of kids and a dog? No. Not a couple of kids. Just one.
Jeremy.
“Please, have a seat,” Sam said, motioning to the couch. “Would you like something to drink? Iced tea, or soda? Water, maybe?” He was nervous.
Because he was facing the son he’d abandoned twenty-four years ago? Or because he had something to hide from the chief of police of Whispering Bay?
