“Hi again,” said the girl.
Behind her glasses Hunter glanced at the Inn behind the girl, the shape of it so familiar it felt like an old friend.
It’s weird to see you again.
She tried to say hi but the word stuck in her throat. She cleared it and tried again.
“Hi.”
The girl motioned to the paddleboard. “Is that hard? I’ve never tried it.”
Hunter glided to the dock’s piling, resting her hand on it for balance and to anchor herself in the moving water.
“Just a matter of balance and practice. Are you staying here? Is it nice?”
The girl chuckled. “Little strange, but nice.”
Hunter watched a great blue heron pick its way along the opposite bank, chewing at her lip as she tried to decide how she wanted to initiate her interaction with the stranger. She could coax information out of her, revealing nothing about herself, or she could come at her head on, asking what she most wanted to know and maybe reveal a little about herself in the process.
What she revealed would be lies, of course. She might have to throw in a few half-truths.
Ah, what the heck.
“I guess they must be nice people. I can’t remember the last time a hotel manager got me out of jail.”
The girl’s smile dropped so fast Hunter thought she heard it splash into the water.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Hunter.” She held out a hand and the girl paused before shaking it.
“Charlotte. How did you—”
“How do you know Angelina?” Hunter asked, and then looked away to hide her wince. She was only two sentences into her conversation and she’d already made it clear she knew Angelina.
Sound a little eager, why don’t you?
Angelina’s name felt funny in her mouth.
Slow down. You’re revealing too much.
Charlotte shut her mouth and seemed to come to terms with the fact her own question had been deflected. She glanced back at the Loggerhead Inn as if it would tell her the answer Hunter needed. “I don’t know her. Not really. We just met yesterday.”
Hunter frowned, unsure if she believed the girl. “Why would she get you out of jail if you don’t know each other?”
Charlotte leaned forward on the dock, squinting at her. Studying her.
She’s no shrinking violet.
“How do you know I was in jail today? And how do you know Angelina?”
Hunter shrugged. “I’ve known her longer than you so I get to ask the questions.”
She forced a chuckle. She’d said the words to avoid the question in a light, humorous way, but to her ear, the phrase sounded as if she were a petulant four-year-old making up rules to her own game. She had to be nicer or she wouldn’t find out what this stranger knew about the baby case or the people at Loggerhead. She had to know something, or the cops wouldn’t have taken her away in a squad car and Angelina wouldn’t have broken her out of jail.
Be nice.
Hunter grinned. “Just kidding. When the police took you away, I followed. I’m a private detective working for the parents of the kidnapped child.”
There you go. Nice. Helpful. See how easy that was?
“You are?” Charlotte’s eyes opened wide. “So am I.”
“You’re working with the parents?”
“No. Sorry. I’m a detective and I was hoping to help the parents, but the police decided they wanted to take me away for questioning before I had a chance to make my case, so to speak.”
Hunter glanced at the hotel hoping to see movement. It looked the same as the last time she’d been there. Maybe the landscaping was a little different; she didn’t remember all the crotons. She scanned the spots where she’d installed cameras and saw similar, though updated, technology still occupying the locations she could see. One camera was still trained on the dock. She tucked herself behind the piling to avoid its gaze.
Hunter rocked side-to-side on the paddleboard trying to appear as loose and easy-breezy as possible as she refocused on Charlotte.
Don’t be suspicious, Charlotte. I’m like a goofy, friendly Labrador. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
“So you didn’t say why Angelina bailed you out?”
A bit of a blush rose to Charlotte’s cheeks. “Oh, she didn’t have to bail me out. I wasn’t officially arrested. They just wanted to make sure I wasn’t up to anything. You know.”
“Why would they jump to that conclusion?”
“I knew the baby was blind.”
Hunter tilted her head. “Did you? That wasn’t shared with the press.”
I know that now.
Charlotte nodded. “The neighbor spilled the beans about two seconds before I knocked on the door.”
“Ah.”
Charlotte shielded her eyes from the setting sun to watch the blue heron stab at a fish.
“So how did you know they arrested me?”
Hunter smiled.
She’s trying to look casual, too.
I like this girl.
“I saw Angelina at the police station with you. I was talking to them about the case.”
“Oh.”
Charlotte swung her legs back and forth, looking wistful. “I meant well. I suggested they find the doctor who diagnosed the blind baby and trace him or her back to the parents.”
Hunter, who had been watching the water flow along the sides of her board, looked up.
Hey, that was my idea.
“There has to be an official criminal inquiry and they need a court order to make the doctors break confidentiality,” she said. It was true. She’d already looked into
