Hurricane Bay

Dane set down his beer bottle. “Gotta go,” he told Cindy, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

“You have to go? It’s early,” Cindy said.

“I have an appointment.”

“A date?” Cindy asked hopefully.

“An appointment,” he repeated.

“At night? Does it have anything to do with an exciting investigation?”

Dane laughed. “Cindy, so far I have surveillance cameras looking for disappearing bait and a few other jobs that are equally mundane.” Well, that was both true and not true. He had taken a job with the principal of a local private school to tail a few of the rich teenagers who seemed to be getting their hands on a fair amount of drugs.

He was pretty sure he had the answer to that one. It had been at the top of his list of jobs to pursue…until this morning.

“Wow, Dane, you’re just full of fire and energy,” Kelsey said. She was speaking to him but studying her beer bottle as she peeled the label from it.

“See you, Kelsey,” he said.

“Sure.” She looked at him at last. “It’s been great.”

“Hey,” Cindy said thoughtfully, as if she were totally oblivious to the last exchange, “you know, I’ve got a great idea, Dane. Why don’t you have us over for a barbecue?”

“Cindy,” Kelsey protested. “That’s rude. We can’t just invite ourselves over. And think about it. Dane likes his mundane lifestyle. I’m sure that’s just what he wants to do. Get out of his lounge chair and cook for a group.”

Dane had the feeling that he could turn into Emeril and Kelsey still wouldn’t want to show up at his place to eat.

But Cindy was persisting. “Remember in the old days, when you and your dad had those great cookouts. Maybe Larry can come down for the weekend, and maybe Sheila will even have shown by then. Nate can get another bartender on and come, and who knows who else might be around.”

“We’ll see, Cindy,” he said.

He was startled when Kelsey suddenly seemed to rouse herself and let go of her hostility. She slid off her bar stool, approaching him, but pausing a distance away. “Actually, Dane, you know, it would be nice if you had a barbecue and had us all over.”

“You want to come visit ye olde town drunk?” he said, staring at her.

Cindy must have felt as if lightning were crackling around her, because she suddenly seemed anxious to get away from the two of them. “I’m going to wash the dishes,” she said.

Kelsey stared at her. “We used paper,” she reminded her.

Cindy gave Kelsey a little shove that almost sent her into Dane. “Look, you two, I don’t know what’s going on here, but good friends are hard to come by. Both of you, shape up. Kelsey, you’re being a real bitch. Walk Dane to the door and tell him you don’t think that he’s a washed-up, inebriated has-been. Go on.”

There was something going on in Kelsey’s ever-calculating little mind, Dane knew, or else she would just have turned away with that air of superiority she could don like a cloak, walk herself into the bedroom, and shut the door.

“I’m being a bitch?” she said.

“Oh, yeah,” Dane said. “Beyond a doubt. You’re being a super bitch.”

“And Dane is Mr. Nice Guy?” she said to Cindy.

“Actually I’ve been damned decent, considering the way you accosted me today.”

“Go on, Kelsey. Walk Dane out.”

“I’m sure Dane knows the way through the living room to the door, but what the heck. Come on, Dane.”

He thought she was going to touch him, take his arm, but she apparently decided against it, crossing her arms over her chest as she walked to the door.

“You should have that barbecue,” she said, opening the front door and leaning against the wall as she waited for him to exit.

He wasn’t sure what the hell she was up to, but he was determined that she understand how dangerous any reckless course of action might be. She might have been unnerved earlier tonight, but she hadn’t been nearly scared enough.

“Kelsey, promise me you’re going to stay away from Andy Latham.”

She shrugged. “I told you both, I was wrong, you were right. I only went to talk to him and find out if he knew anything about Sheila. I’ve talked to him. I have no reason to go back.”

“All right.” He hesitated. “Kelsey, seriously, get your nose out of this.”

Her eyes seemed as opaque as clouds, hooded. “I’m the only one determined to find Sheila. I have to nose around.”

“Look, I’m telling you, I am concerned. I swear to you…” He hesitated for a moment, thinking of the irony. “I swear there is no one more anxious than I am to find Sheila. I have a P.I. firm, Kelsey. Let me do this.”

Her eyes narrowed. “So you do think there’s a reason to worry about Sheila.”

“Let me do the worrying—and the question asking.”

She shrugged. “You’re the P.I. Go for it.”

He started out the door, aggravated and exasperated. He wanted to shake her. Make her understand. He also needed to get the hell out. He had to make that appointment.

“Kelsey…”

“I mean it. Go for it. I’ll even hire you. Is that an inspiration for you? I assume your rates are high, but I can pay them. No slacking off, though. I want her found.”

“Kelsey, I don’t want your money. I told you—I want to find Sheila myself. You stay out of it.”

She didn’t agree that she would. Instead she persisted with her original question. “Are you going to have the barbecue?”

He froze where he was, half out the door. He turned back to her, suddenly realizing just why Kelsey was pushing so hard when he was certain she wanted to be nowhere near him.

“Kelsey, you want to come over and search my place? You don’t need a special occasion for that. Come on over anytime.”

There was the slightest flood of color to her cheeks, but she didn’t flinch.

“If I wanted to search your house, you wouldn’t care?”

“Not in the least.”

“You should still have a barbecue.”