5 Alive After Friday (18 page)

I
wasn’t
certain what to do. Was this a brush-off? This guy had tried to pick me up, and
there I was sitting in front of him smiling and having a vanilla latte. He had wanted
to pick me up and he did—so what’s his problem? I tried to think back to what I
might have said, and I hadn’t said much of anything beyond the opening niceties.
Certainly nothing that might offend him. Was my hair out of place? Was I smiling
at him with lipstick on my teeth or something? I told myself the afternoon was
not going to end with him walking away from me in a coffeehouse. No way. So how
should I respond to his unexpected, “I hope I’ll see you again?”

What could I do at that point? I didn’t want him
to leave and never see him again. Should I offer him my number? That’s stupid.
If he didn’t ask for it, he’s never going to use it. Should I ask for his? Not
bad, shows I’m an up-front, assertive woman. Yet, I didn’t want to scare him
off by being too bold, as long as there was the remotest possibility that it
could lead to something. When he walked up to me in the walkway, something
clicked. He was special. This time I wanted more than just a hot romp with a
cool guy.

That line about his love-struck niece—God, how
charming was that! I guess he had me at that point. Then he asked what he
should get a thirteen-year-old girl. I flipped back with a smartass answer—I’d
like to have that line back. Must watch my mouth with him. But he took it the
right way and laughed.

The encounter made me think about my girlfriend
Carla. One day she’s walking down the sidewalk. She looks up and Mr. America is
jogging after his dog on a leash and coming toward her. She accidentally trips
on the leash and falls. He apologizes and kneels to rub her ankle. And a year later
they’re married. Carla, of all people, for chrissake. If it could happen to
someone like Carla...oh hell, get real.

Hey, how often does the perfect guy try to pick
you up?—start with never and go down from there. He looked as unattainable as
the guys you see on magazine covers. Even so, he started talking to me at the
Concierge Desk, so he must have thought I was different. I just knew those
earrings were dynamite.

I had to decide how to play him and nothing too
cute was going to work with this guy. I could see by how he was dressed that he
had money. Having money meant having choices. Money and choices go together
like thunder and lightning. He could choose whoever’s out there, and there’s
plenty out there around Palm Beach. In Podunk, Arkansas, I’d be standing in the
front row, but not in the Palm Beaches.

Perhaps I’d already been too compliant, maybe I
should hold back a little. Not seem so easy. A bit more aloof. Let him enjoy
the thrill of the hunt. So I said, “Yes, been fun and I have to get home.
Thanks for the coffee. Good luck with your niece’s birthday present.” I’d still
have time to make another move before I drove off. “Will you walk me to my car?”

We walked through the walkways to the rear parking
area exit. I was hoping my boss would see him with me. Eat your heart out,
Susan. I felt somewhat embarrassed to have him see my old car. I can afford a
new one now. Don’t know what I’m waiting for. Got my eye on a new Lexus. At one
time I had a Mercedes convertible, a huge house, the works, before my jerk
husband died.

Once we were at my car, I turned to say goodbye
and had the definite feeling that he didn’t want me to leave. Women know the
look. Anyway, I pretended to be struck with a bright idea. “Hey, you know what?
Let’s have a real drink. A martini or something.”

“Well, certainly. Are you sure you’ve time?” He
couldn’t have planned it better.

“There’s a nice little bistro just across the park
there. So close, we could walk it, but why don’t you follow me over there. I
can’t make an evening of it though, I must get home...perhaps you have plans?”

Somewhere, there had to be more than one classy
female waiting for this guy’s call. In my head I kept repeating, I want this
man in my life...I want this man in my life. I crossed my fingers behind my
back and held my breath like a schoolgirl.

He looked at his watch. I hadn’t been with a man
wearing a
Patek Philippe
since
my ex, years ago. Then he beamed. “Excellent. Lead the way.”

Perfect. Maybe my luck was changing. I move into
my fantastic new condo and two weeks later Mr. Amazing hits on me. Them that
has, gets. Isn’t that what they say?

I’ve always loved that bistro across the park.
Outdoor bar and lounge on the second floor overlooking a landscaped center court.
Unbeatable atmosphere. The last time I was there, about a year ago, my
intention was to be picked up. Hey, I was feeling deprived and desperate. You’d
assume the prices in that place would filter out men low on the social ladder
and make it a great place to be on the prowl. But that night the Jerks and
Losers convention must have been in town. Their so-called pick-up lines were so
lame they were painful. Most of those clowns couldn’t get laid in a whorehouse.

Anyway, I wasn’t going to settle for so-so. If I
want to be pawed at, I’ll do it myself. Just as I was about ready to go home
and hit the high spot on my own, this hunky guy comes up to me. He has the
solid shoulders, the arms, the whole package. There was a shadow of stubble on a
jaw so strong you could hang clothes on it and his thick, dark hair was just a
tad too wild. One look at him and my IQ dropped thirty points.

Up front, this Brad says he’s married but said
that was beside the point, wasn’t it? He goes on, but he could have been
reciting the Gettysburg Address for all I cared. My head had started nodding
before he began talking. I could feel my body starting to prepare for him, not
to mention the tingle. So I went with him, before he could turn his head and find
someone better—which he would have. I didn’t regret leaving with him.

The story has a happy ending—if that’s what you
want to know. And I didn’t regret when the next time we got together, he
surprised me with Doreen. But I admit saying, “I’ll try anything once,” after a
few drinks wasn’t very smart. Anyway, it was all private and no one got hurt. New
sensations. But I never developed any of the sensual feelings for her that I
had for him; a man like Brad without clothes was much more interesting.

It went on for a year. My year of wanton abandon. Occasionally,
I’d get down on myself for hanging around with him for such a long time, since
he was good for only that one thing; the guy was intolerable without an
erection. Perhaps later on in my life, I’ll look back and wonder how I could
have grown tired of Brad. Actually, I just stopped seeing him a couple weeks
ago. I guess I stopped. Brad was somewhat addictive. You see, now I’ve thought
of him and I wasn’t going to do that.

So there I was with Martin. I’m drinking white
wine and he’s sipping on an overpriced martini and ordering some fancy cocktail
snack for us. I’m no stranger to classy restaurants seeing as I was once
married to a gazillionaire. Not that it did me any good after he died. But
that’s another story. Anyway, now that I have some money again I can afford nice
places, but don’t like to eat out alone.

Martin didn’t care to talk about himself;
self-confident men are like that. Yet, he didn’t seem guarded. I didn’t mind.
People who have money know they are targets and tend to keep personal
information personal. Did he feel I was targeting him? Of course, at least at
that point. I got him talking, so I could run him through a couple of my
infallible tests I use to detect a married man. This guy wasn’t married, not
the cheating type. I wasn’t much concerned about it at this stage, as I didn’t
intend to fall in love with the guy. But I was getting ahead of myself, first I
had to get him interested in me.

After we finished two rounds at the bistro, I
still wanted to know more about the guy, but we had about exhausted the
superficial small talk. He mentioned there was nothing to do in Hobe Sound,
where he lived. “Why should I be interested in moving to Palm Beach County?” he
asked. “Other than beautiful parks and beaches, theaters and museums and a
bountiful cultural lifestyle with exciting people and night life, is there
anything to do?”

“You left out the library. We have a nice library,”
I said going along with him. Then I remembered, “We had a great SunFest this
year, I should include that.”

“That’s right. I’ve heard of that. Music, art and
dancing in the street. Do you enjoy that sort of thing?”

“A great excuse for walking around in a raucous
crowd with a beer in a paper cup and dancing to live music in the street. Yes,
I love it. It was fun.” I guessed that would show him I was a lively upbeat sort
of gal.

“Sounds good. When is the next one?”

“You just missed it...the first week in May. I
went the first day. The first day is always the best. I went with a guy I
sometimes date.”

“So you were there on May first.”

For some reason that date bothered him. I said, “That’s
right, we danced until they ran us off at ten o’clock.”

He glanced at his watch. I didn’t mind. We had our
drinks and talked a while. Time to go. He reached across the table and gently
squeezed my hand reassuringly. My heart started pumping. Was he going to brush
me off again?

“When may I see you again, Gail?”

I didn’t know if he had in mind next week or next
month. I blurted out, “Tomorrow night?”

He didn’t hesitate to say yes. We exchanged
numbers and I gave him my address. He’d be there at seven, he said. We left and
walked over to my car. I said, “Martin, may I make a slight adjustment to our
plans? Let’s have a late dinner out tomorrow night. Come up at seven, and we’ll
have drinks and hors d’oeuvres. We can always go out later.” He got the message.

So tomorrow night, how about that!

T
he
following morning Martin was first into their Park Beach law office. When Sandy
came in a few minutes later, her takeout coffee was waiting on her desk. He
noticed she was carrying her tablet. “Why are you carrying your tablet around?”

“Because it feels good in my hand. I’ve decided I’m
officially back at work. I’m going back down to West Palm today and carry on. First,
I’ll drop in on Detective Dominic and get the latest on the Myra Cramer murder.
Then I’m going to check out Gail’s used-car dealer ex-boyfriend.”

“That’s quite a day. You certain you’re up to it?”

“Can’t wait.” She blew on her coffee and took a
cautious first sip. “Oh, I didn’t get a chance to tell you. Detective Dominic
is now on our side. Had coffee with him. I just knew he’d turn out to be an
okay guy. I phoned and started to explain why I hadn’t been bugging him lately.
He cut me off in mid-sentence. He’d called Jaworski two weeks ago to see why I
had dropped out of sight and was sorry to hear the news. Nice, huh? Said he’d
bring me up to date on the Cramer case, if I’d drop around. That’s exactly what
I’m going to do.”

“I met Gail yesterday. I don’t believe she suspects
anything.”

“I notice you didn’t stay over last night.” She looked
pleased about that.

“She’s attractive. Well mannered and well dressed.
Great hair, terrible earrings. Not shy but not all out there either.”

“Martin you believe all women are so nice. And
they’re all well mannered unless they flash their breasts at you, and if they
did, you’d say it was a wardrobe malfunction. What’s she like, a flake, an
airhead, halfway normal, what?”

“She’s an appealing, likeable woman. Out on her
own working. Cares about her brother and has a good relationship with him. She
was upset about the way Myra was treating him. She suggested we go across the
park to a nearby bar-and-grill place for some drinks. We were there over an
hour.”

“It sounds to me like you have her. Of course, if
she were a pushover it wouldn’t take a charmer such as you to buy her drinks.”

“Who said anything about a pushover? What’s with
you? Not knowing any more about her, why would you not like her?”

“I’d like her better, if she’d hand our money back.”

“
Maybe
she has our money. Anyway, we have a
date for tonight at her condo.”

“The one she bought with our money?”

“We don’t know that yet, Sandy. We don’t know
where she got the money. All we know is she had money to buy the condo. We
could be playing fast and loose with an entirely innocent woman. I suspect her
past isn’t without fault, but she’s in there trying.” He thought about last evening
and Gail sitting there trying so hard to be liked. “I’m manipulating this woman
and getting wound up in her emotional life. I’m beginning to regret my
deceptive role in this.”

“Yes, it’s bad. Not kill a puppy bad, but it’s
bad.”

He said, “Did you check on her lawsuit against her
ex-husband’s estate?”

“I found no record of any such lawsuit. Ryan said her
husband’s death was an accident. His family blamed her and cut her out of the
estate. I checked thoroughly. There’s just no lawsuit.”

“Perhaps, she received an out of court settlement
of some kind. Gail Cramer Holman could be an innocent woman.”

“She’s not innocent until I say she’s innocent.”
Sandy knew that four hundred grand would buy a small West Palm condo with money
left over. “Even her brother has no idea how she could afford that condo. And
she must have paid cash because she’d never qualify for a mortgage on her mall
employee’s pay.”

“She’s not Jane.”

“Sure, go ahead and give her the benefit of the
doubt.”

“No, I mean it. She has an alibi. You were
abducted on Wednesday, May first. She was dancing with a boyfriend at the SunFest
street fair in West Palm that night until late.”

“What! Then she can’t be Jane.”

“Hello! That’s what I just said.”

“Geez. This changes things. Why didn’t you phone
me with this immediately?”

“You’ve been out of it, remember.”

“Oh, right.” Sandy needed to think. “Did she
mention the boyfriend’s name? If she went to the street fair, I’ll bet it was
with that used car dealer guy. If I can catch up with him, I’ll verify her
alibi.”

He shook his head. “Give it up, Sandy. She’s not
Jane. I didn’t just ask her where she was the night of the abduction and she came
up with an alibi. She just happened to innocently mention where she was that night.
Isn’t that why I’m destroying my integrity, to find out facts like that?”

“You’re right. You did great.” She looked up at
the ceiling thinking. “Okay, the abduction was on a Wednesday and the bridge money-drop
on the following Friday. Gail has an alibi for Wednesday, but she doesn’t have one
for Friday. So she can’t be Jane, but she might have shot Boyd on Friday and
taken the money.”

“You believe she was up here in Park Beach, when Boyd
picked up the money, and she shot him? That makes sense. Of course at one time
we thought Jane shot him.”

She held up her hand. “Hold on, let me get my mind
around this new angle. They were partners, right? Boyd picks up the money and is
going to take it to Jane. Why would Jane shoot him in the park, when he was
going to bring the money to her anyway?”

“So, Jane didn’t shoot him, because she didn’t
need to,” Martin summed it up. “But Gail might have. And that would explain where
Gail got the money for her condo. How did Gail know he was going to Park Beach
to get the money?”

“Don’t know,” she said. “Boyd might have bragged
something to Myra, and she was eager to tell Gail everything about him.”

“So we are getting closer to the money, but we’re farther
away from Jane.”

“I want both.”

“Jane might not even be in the area. Jane could be
in Tahiti by now. Run Jane run,” he said.

“No, we just theorized that Gail took the money.
If so, then Jane is around here somewhere looking for it. She might even have
killed Myra looking for it.”

He frowned. “You realize Gail already bought that
condo. Our money might be long gone.”

“First we need to prove Gail took the money, and
then we’ll figure out how to get it back. We’ll keep investigating her. I’m
going down there today. I’m going to check out Gail’s used-car-dealer boyfriend
and find out what he knows. She might have mentioned buying the condo to him. By
that time, Gail will be off work and I’ll tail her. If Detective Dominic isn’t
too busy, I like to see him as well.”

“Remember, I’m seeing Gail tonight.”

“Yes, and that’s the important part. Since I’m
down there, I’m going to tail her when she leaves work. We need to keep her
under surveillance as much as possible from now on. Between the two of us,
maybe we’ll come up with something. So, you keep your date tonight and find out
as much as you can.”

“Without unzipping,” he said.

“That part is entirely up to you.”