AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You know, Dylan’s never liked Jake,’ Lottie murmured almost to herself, her face pale and pinched.
‘What do you mean?’ asked Zach.
‘Just that he loaned Jake his boat a couple of times over the summer and Jake never returned it when he said he would. And then, when Dylan said he couldn’t borrow it anymore, he found out he was taking theNigellawithout asking. At night.’
‘What? And you didn’t think to tell us about this before? Or Millie?’
‘Well, I kind of assumed he had been using it to… you know, impress his dates. To take them on a moonlit sail to some secluded cove where they could make out under the stars. You know how it is. Hey, maybe they’re still there. Robinson Crusoe-style?’ She tried to smile, but Millie could see she was uncomfortable.
Zach hammered on the door. ‘Jake!’
The barber meandered to his doorstep and gazed languidly at them, chewing rhythmically on a mouthful of tobacco leaf, his lined face fixed in an expression of contentment.
‘Hey, man. Calm the noise. He’s not there.’
Zach ignored him and knocked again, but there was no reply. Before Millie and Lottie knew what was happening, he had put his shoulder to the door and given it a sharp shove.
It didn’t take them long to search the place and it was true, Jake wasn’t there. Whilst every available surface in the bedroom looked like the preparation area for a church jumble sale – apart from the glass box on the bedside table that contained at least a dozen very expensive watches – it was clear that the bed had not been slept in. He hadn’t made it home.
However, their brief visit was more than enough time to register a gigantic top-of-the-range TV that hung on the wall like a work of art, and a plethora of shiny new high-tech kitchen appliances. It looked as though Jake had plenty of spare cash to indulge in his love of gadgets. Something didn’t add up.
They made their way back to the Purple Parrot in silence, each of them nursing their own fears for Jake’s safety. Millie was about to follow Zach and Lottie into the bar when she decided to make a detour and take another look at the cocoa pods in the crates at the back door.
‘Hey, where are you going?’ called Zach, running to catch up with her.
Millie picked her way carefully down the narrow walkway between the bar and the shack next door, but when she reached the steps all the boxes had vanished. She opened her mouth to express her surprise, but Zach was already sprinting towards the beach. She joined him in the dash, just in time to catch a glimpse of the motorboat that was chugging around the headland that jutted out into the bay to their left.
Millie didn’t know why, but something told her that the crates were on board. She ran to the water’s edge, Zach at her side, and realised it wasn’t Jake at the helm as she had suspected, but Andrew.
Chapter Nineteen
Zach and Millie made their way back up the beach, ignoring the curious stares of the sunbathers and the diners enjoying a late breakfast on the veranda of the Purple Parrot. The sound of Zach’s mobile ringing prevented Millie from asking for his view on what they had just witnessed.
‘Hello?’
Zach stopped in his tracks and found Millie’s eyes, the expression on his face the most serious she had seen it. She longed to slip her palm into his, to reacquaint herself with the closeness they had shared the previous night, but until they knew where Jake was, she didn’t want to stray into the unchartered territory of exploring where she and Zach went from there.
‘Okay, thanks for letting us know, Dylan. Millie and I are on our way to the Parrot. We’ll see you there in a few minutes.’
‘What? Have they found Jake?’
‘Yes. Ryan found him unconscious in a ditch at the side of the road to Castries. He’s fine. Ryan wanted to take him to the clinic to get his cuts and bruises checked out, but he refused so he took him to the police station instead where he sang like a canary to Leon. Apparently, he was kidnapped from outside the restaurant last night.’
‘Oh, my God! Kidnapped?’
‘Yes. Then taken for a drive, knocked on the head and dumped by the roadside.’
‘But… but why?’
‘I think we just found our mystery cocoa-pod thief.’
‘Jake? I thought, well, I thought Andy…’
‘I’m going to make a couple of calls. Catch you in a bit.’
They had reached the steps up to the veranda and Zach sauntered towards the street whilst Millie made her way into the Purple Parrot and took a seat on a stool at the bar. Lottie poured her a glass of home-made lemonade before running off to serve a table of Scandinavian tourists whilst Dylan performed the role of temporary bartender.
Millie beamed at him, overwhelmingly pleased that the ridiculous scheme had nothing to do with him. As she watched on, Lottie skipped back to the bar to gather her customers’ order, and her heart melted when Dylan leaned over to drop a kiss on her friend’s forehead. A few minutes later, Zach joined them and downed his drink in one gulp.
