Whiskey Beach(138)
“Eli. Sorry I didn’t get back to you earlier. We’ve been slammed. Housing picking up, and rentals, too. The spring season’s rocking it.”
“That’s good news.” Still he frowned.
“What?”
“The tie.”
“Oh, yeah, pretty cool, huh? I got it at the consignment shop. Hermès,” he added with a tony accent. “Forty-five bucks, but it’s good for impressing clients.”
“Yeah.” Eli had thought the same once. “Yeah, I bet.”
“So I looked through my files on Sandcastle, refresh my memory, you know. I can give you what’s public record, and some impressions. Some stuff, you know, falls into confidential.”
“Got it. You want a drink?”
“Could use something cold. It’s been a long one.”
“Let’s see what we’ve got.” Eli led the way back to the kitchen. “Did you get the impression Suskind wanted it for a residence or an investment property?”
“Investment. The purchase was through his company, and there was some talk about company use. There wasn’t a lot of talk,” Mike added as they reached the kitchen. “Most of the deal was long-distance. E-mail, phone.”
“Mmm-hmm. We’ve got beer, juice, Gatorade, water, Mountain Dew and Diet Pepsi.”
“Mountain Dew? I haven’t had that since I was in college.”
“Super juice. You want one?”
“Why not?”
“Let’s take this outside, keep Barbie company.”
Mike spent a moment giving the delighted dog a rub before sitting down, stretching his legs out. “Now this is what I’m talking about. The flowers look good, man.”
“Credit Abra. I’m on watering detail though, so that counts.”
He liked doing it, liked watching the colors and shapes she’d crowded into pots grow, the shrubs along the edges of the stone flower. Occasionally he considered working out here, but realized he’d never get anything done. He’d just sit as he was now, listening to the wind chimes play their tune along with the whoosh of the sea while he looked out at the water, with his dog sitting beside him.
“Have you seen any scantily clads yet through that thing?”
Eli glanced at the telescope. “Oh, one or two.”
“I should get me one.”
“Sad to say I’ve spent more time looking north. I’ve got a good view of Sandcastle from here.”
“I was down that way today. It looks closed up.”
“Yeah. He hasn’t been there for a while.”
“Damn shame to see it sit empty. I could rent it in a heartbeat—by the week, a long weekend.”
Interested, Eli shifted. “I bet you could. Maybe you should give him a call, see if he’s interested.”
After another swing of Dew, Mike nodded. “I can do that. Do you really think this guy’s been breaking in here, that he killed that PI?”
“I’ve been going at it from every angle, circling around. That’s where I keep coming back.”
“Then he’d be the one who hurt Mrs. Landon.”
“I can’t prove it, but yeah. If the rest fits, that fits.”
“Son of a fucker,” Mike muttered, and opened his briefcase. “I’ve got his cell number in the file. Let’s see what he has to say.”
After opening the file, Mike punched the number into his phone. “Hey, hi there, Justin. It’s Mike O’Malley, O’Malley and Dodd Properties up in Whiskey Beach. How are you doing today?”
Eli sat back, listened to Mike do his chatty salesman patter. And, he thought, the man he believed was responsible for death, for pain, for fear was speaking on the other end. The man who’d taken lives, and broken his own to bits.
And he couldn’t reach him, not yet. Couldn’t touch him, couldn’t stop him. But he would.
“You’ve got my number if you change your mind. And if there’s anything I can do for you down here, you just give me a call. We’re having some beautiful weather this spring, and it promises to be a terrific summer. You ought to come up, take advantage of us. . . . Oh, I know how that goes. All right, then. Bye.”
Mike clicked off the phone. “Just as stiff and unfriendly as I remember. They’re not interested in renting the property at this time. Some noise about possible company or family use coming up. He’s a busy man.”
“How’d he find the property?”
“The Internet, bless it. He hit our webpage. He had three places earmarked to start. One’s a block back so you lose the oceanfront, but it’s a nice quiet street, and an easy walk to the beach. The other’s just south, closer to our place, but the owners decided to pull it off the market, let it ride for another season. Good move, because we’ve booked it solid this summer.”