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“Just one minute.”
I handed the phone to Julia’s husband. “Hey, Aiden, this is Tristan.”
Tristan didn’t put the phone on speaker, so I couldn’t hear what Aiden was saying. I could only hear Tristan’s response. “That makes sense. Okay, I’ll text you his number.”
Tristan ended the call before I could ask to speak to Aiden again. Instead of giving the phone back to me, he texted Will’s number.
“What?” Tristan asked when he saw that I looked upset.
“I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.”
“I’m sorry, Claire. Aiden was in a hurry to come down here, so he told me to tell you that he’ll be here as soon as he can and to give you this.”
I jumped back when I saw Tristan reach for me. “What are you doing?”
“Aiden told me to give you this.” He wrapped me up in a great big bear hug.
“Let me go!” I let out a muffled cry. My face was buried in his chest as he squeezed.
“Julia, do something!” I demanded.
“Knock it off.” She swatted Tristan, and he immediately let go when he saw her face.
“Jerk,” I called out when he released me. I was going to say something rude when I saw Julia’s expression.
“I’m sorry, Julia. I know you must be devastated by Annisa’s death,” I said.
She nodded and started crying. This time, Tristan wrapped Julia up in a bear hug, and instead of pulling away, Julia embraced him back.
“What’s going on in here?” Officer Frankel asked when he returned with the other officers.
“We were thinking about our friend Annisa,” I explained.
Officer Shin gave me a sympathetic look. I remembered that he took a liking to Annisa when she was under custody.
“I’m sorry to hear about your friend,” Officer Frankel mumbled, and his face reddened when I mentioned Annisa’s death.
While the two Monterey police officers had met Annisa, the San Francisco officers had not. They looked at each other awkwardly before Officer Miller cleared his throat and said, “Officer Vega and I will search Mr. Jones’ apartment, and you all can accompany Officers Shin and Frankel to the Bay Area Divers to talk to Mr. Sullivan.”
I wanted to buy more time for Aiden to drive here, so I asked, “Could you give us some time?” I jerked my head toward Julia. “We’re still grieving our friend.”
Officer Shin spoke up immediately. “Of course, we understand. Why don’t you meet us at Bay Area Divers in an hour? There’s a coffee food truck by Breakers Point if you would like to get something to drink and let the waves calm you.”
Officer Frankel stared at his partner until he squirmed under the attention. “I’m just saying that it would be nice to sit by the water,” Officer Shin suggested.
The San Francisco police officers shared a look again, and Officer Miller shrugged his shoulders before replying, “Fine. Take some time before you meet the officers at the scuba diving shop.” Then, without further ado, the two San Francisco officers left.
As the Monterey officers were leaving the conference room, Officer Frankel clapped his partner on the shoulder and scoffed, “Let the waves calm you.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Breakwater Beach was nearly empty when Tristan pulled into the parking lot. We got out of Tristan’s Tesla and strolled to the edge where the sand met the asphalt.
Like Officer Shin advised, I let the sound of the bay soothe me and stared out at the waves until I heard Julia sobbing softly.
I patted her arm. “I’m so sorry, Jules.” I didn’t know what else to say. I didn’t think Annisa deserved to be murdered, but there were things that bothered me. I stood there listening to the waves for a few minutes before I had the courage to ask, “In all this time, Annisa never mentioned what she was doing or her cousin?”
“She might have, but I don’t remember her talking about someone named Sung Chol,” Julia said. Then she licked her lips. “It was about the same time that Tristan and I started dating that Annisa started to change.”
