Sea Change

Jesse wished he had a drink. He shrugged.

“Anyway,” Jesse said. “It was a loving leer.”

1 0 3

22

M olly came into Jesse’s office and stood in front of his desk.

“I called the registrar at Emory,” she

said. “The Plum sisters haven’t been students there since first semester last year.”

“I assume they didn’t graduate.”

“No, they left school after first semester of their junior year.”

“Did they say why?”

“They didn’t say anything. They just ceased to be there.”

Molly smiled.

“They didn’t get the boot or anything?”

S E A C H A N G E

“No. Just stopped going.”

“Take all their belongings?” Jesse said.

“I don’t know. I can check back.”

“Please,” Jesse said.

Molly went out. Jesse picked up his phone and called Kelly Cruz in Fort Lauderdale.

“Know anything new about the Plum sisters?” Jesse said.

“Models of decorous southern behavior,” Kelly Cruz said.

“Decorous?”

“I’m taking a night course,” Kelly Cruz said, “at the com-munity college. So far that’s what I’ve learned.”

“Who says they’re, ah, decorous?” Jesse said.

“Mom and Dad.”

“You check with anyone else?”

“Not yet,” Kelly Cruz said. “I told you, this isn’t the big one on my caseload, you know? This is yours.”

“And here’s what I know,” Jesse said. “The Plum girls haven’t been in Europe looking at art. They’ve been in Sag Harbor, Long Island, partying. And they dropped out of Emory last fall.”

“But did they do it decorously?” Kelly Cruz said.

“I think we need to know more.”

“Wonder what else the parents don’t know?” Kelly Cruz said.

“Or do know and aren’t saying. What do you know about the three yachts registered in Fort Lauderdale?”

“Thomas Ralston, Allan Pinkton, Harold Berger,” Kelly Cruz said.

1 0 5

R O B E R T B . P A R K E R

“Wow,” Jesse said.

“Thank you,” Kelly Cruz said. “Berger is up there with his wife and three children. Pinkton has his grown daughters and their husbands aboard, along with their combined four children, and his wife.”

“How about Ralston.”

“Owns the Sea Cloud, ” Kelly Cruz said. “He’s single, up there with some guests.”

“Find anything on Harrison Darnell?”

“Family money,” she said. “Been rich for a couple genera-tions. Real estate development. Never married. Playboy rep-utation. No record.”

“Never married,” Jesse said.

“Everyone concurs that he’s straight, and actively so.”

“Hence the playboy rep,” Jesse said.

“Hence,” Kelly Cruz said.

“How about Darnell? Any connection between him and Ralston?”

“They’re about the same age,” Kelly Cruz said. “Single playboys who live in South Florida and own yachts which they sailed up to Paradise for Race Week. They could easily know each other.”

“Or not,” Jesse said.

“Or not,” Kelly Cruz said. “I’ll look into it.”

“How about the ex-husbands?”