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S E A C H A N G E
“To make him jealous.”
“Yeah.”
“Did it work?”
“He sent for her,” Corliss said. “Flew her up to Boston.”
“There’s no record of her flying to Boston,” Jesse said.
“He had his pilot fly her up in his private plane.”
“When?”
“Beginning of June,” Corliss said.
“She told us he was up here early for Race Week and she was going to join him.”
“What is the pilot’s name?” Jesse said.
The sisters looked at each other. They both shrugged.
“Larry,” Corliss said.
“Last name?”
They both shook their heads.
“Just Larry is all we ever knew,” Claudia said.
They watched the Swan Boats for a time. Some squirrels darted among the attendant pigeons, hoping for a peanut.
“So how come you didn’t tell me any of this before?” Jesse said.
Both sisters shrugged.
“I guess we thought you’d be mad,” Corliss said.
“Mad?”
“You know, about us sneaking on the boat and taking the pictures. We were afraid you’d say something to Willis and Betsy,” Claudia said.
“Your parents?”
“Yes.”
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R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
“Why do you care?” Jesse said.
“They still got some control of our trust funds.”
“Of course,” Jesse said. “So why’d you come up here and see me?”
“We liked Flo. We felt bad about her.”
“And you wanted to know what I knew,” Jesse said. “For fear it might come out.”
“If someone hurt Flo,” Claudia said, “we wanted to know.
We wanted to help.”
“So you set up headquarters here,” Jesse said, glancing behind him at the hotel, “and began to ferret out the truth.”
“We’re having a pretty good time here,” Corliss said. “You ever do two guys and a woman?”
“No.”
“We like two women and a guy,” Claudia said, and pressed her breast against Jesse’s left shoulder.
It had no part in the investigation. The question wasn’t professional. But Jesse couldn’t help it.
“Ever think about love?” Jesse said.
The twins stared at him for a time and then giggled.
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43
Leaning their backsides against the trunk of her car, Kelly Cruz and Larry Barnes stood and talked and watched the private planes land and take off from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.
“You flew Florence Horvath up to Boston,” Kelly Cruz said, “in June.”
“Yeah, sure, I remember, last month.”
“That would be June,” Kelly Cruz said.
Barnes grinned at her. He had a thick black mustache and longish hair and big aviator glasses and a short- sleeved white shirt. And his big silver wristwatch looked complex. Neatly R O B E R T B . P A R K E R
across his right forearm just above the wrist was a tattoo that read bad news.
“Tell me about the trip,” Kelly Cruz said.
