“Pard, that’s great.” He punched me on the shoulder.
“Property is owned by a doctor on the Overseas Highway. Not a very pleasant guy. He keeps it under lock and key.”
“What’s so valuable?”
“Don’t know.”
We reached the beach, a little point of sand that stuck out into the water. An older, heavyset couple was sprawled out on two chairs, lathered in lotion, their tiny suits covering far too little. She was bright pink and the guy with socks and sandals was pasty white. European, for sure. I’d seen it before. The sun was bright, and I figured the guy’s white skin would be red soon. Except for his feet.
Walking farther to the edge, we could look back into the fenced-off grassy ground.
“Dude, there’s nothing there.”
A wooden boat dock reached into the water. Other than that, there was grass. Grass and more grass. The lot was vacant, fenced in on all four sides. Three sides were covered in trees and lush flowering plants, the waterside free of vegetation, but the fence ran all the way to the water’s edge.
“Why do you keep a vacant property locked up?”
I stared out at the sky-blue water, then back at the empty land. There was no boat at the dock.
“Picnickers? Kids? I mean this would be a great place to drink a six-pack, make out with your girlfriend-”
“Maybe go skinny dipping?”
“So you put up a sign that says private property. No need to put up a major security fence.” It seemed to make no sense.
“A sign would be a lot cheaper than this fence, that’s for sure.”
“Time to vacate the premises, boys.”
I spun around and there was the guy with the earring, perched on a white electric golf cart. Electric. A silent approach.
“I told you, we were just looking.”
Glancing down at the seat beside him I saw a nickel-plated revolver. Just lying on the white vinyl. A subtle threat, or else he was going to do some target practice with the dolphins.
“Move it. Guests here pay for this privilege. Understand?”
It was a spit of land, with no ambiance, no personality. Hardly worth the price.
The golf cart guy sat there, waiting for us to make our move.
“No problem. I don’t think we’ll be making reservations today. Okay?”
“We have no problem with gays, but you two are an exception.” He paused for a moment and just as I got ready to say something, he said, “Okay?” We walked back toward the truck, James kicking the occasional big piece of shell.
“Gays?”
“Everybody is trying to push your buttons today, James. Just settle down.”
“Sons of bitches seriously thought I might have had something to do with that Weezle guy. They thought that I would have killed someone. I mean what kind of a person would just automatically assume that-”
“James, you were not cooperating.”
“You think? When the first question out of their mouths was, ‘Did you kill the man in your room?’”
I hadn’t realized they would be that blunt.
“Hey, you’re free. They couldn’t make that connection because it didn’t exist. And by the way, that’s another thing I found out.”
“What?”
“The dead guy. It wasn’t Jim Weezle.”
“What? There’s no question, is there? We both recognized him from the Yellow Page ad online, right?”
Flipping the keys to James, I opened the passenger door and climbed up into the white beast.
“I thought so. But the name with the body is Peter Stiffle.”
“Stiffle?”
“That’s what Big D says.”
“Big D?”
James started the engine and it coughed several times before catching. Glancing in my side mirror I saw the cloud of oily smoke as James pulled away.
“Big D is-was-Maria’s boyfriend. He’s one of the cops who was at the Cove.”
He backed up, and we headed back to the highway.
“You know, I was gone one hour. I watched my time very carefully.”
“And?”
“In that time, in one hour, you learned that Maria has an ex-boyfriend named Big D, you learned that the dead guy was Peter Stiffle, you met a doctor you’re not too fond of, and you found the location of the old Coral Belle Hotel.”
“I did.”
“Why do you need me along, pard? You’re a one-man detecting machine.”
I smiled, looked out the window, and that’s when I saw the red flashing light in the side mirror.
“Did you cut somebody off? Change lanes with-”
“There are no lanes. Damn it, Skip. These guys aren’t going to leave me alone.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
“We knew who you were, because you had that black paint spatter on your truck. Easy to identify.”
James said nothing through the rolled down window. The dark look on his face and his rhythmic heavy breathing gave it all away.
“We have a question for you,” the officer said. “Something you weren’t asked during our previous interrogation.”
James turned to me with a pleading look on his face. I would have to take the questions because if James said what was in his heart, they’d take him back to jail, toss him in, and throw away the keys.
“That question is?” I leaned over and shouted out James’s window. He absolutely wasn’t going to cooperate. I knew that.
“Somebody saw a Harley-Davidson pull out of the parking lot at Pelican Cove, about the same time that the resort reported the dead body.”
I’d heard that Harley. Wondered about it as well.
“The driver had a helmet on, face guard pulled down, and he …” the officer hesitated, looking back at his partner, “he, or possibly she, rode a black cycle with a gold fender.” Taking a deep breath, the officer continued. “Does any of that sound familiar? Do you know anyone who owns that cycle?”
“No.” I shouted out the answer to his last question. We knew no one who owned that cycle. So technically I was telling the truth.
“Guys,” the officer looked up at James, “we want to solve this homicide as soon as possible. Understand that with every minute that goes by, it gets harder to solve the crime. We just want to put it to bed by tonight.” He looked back at his partner. “Is there any reason that the driver can’t answer any of these questions?”
James gripped the wheel even tighter.
“If we have any information, we’ll call you.” I shouted it out. “Who should we call?”
“Danny Mayfair.”
“Big D?”
He paused.
“Where did you hear that?”
“Not important. I just wanted to make sure you were the guy.”
I leaned back and nodded to James. He took his foot off the brake and coasted out of the shell-filled parking lot. We crossed Old Highway and got back on the Overseas Highway. Both of these roads were definitely not
