Southern Comfort - Fern Michaels [29]
Pete turned back to face his brother. “I caught an early flight, came standby. Man, I hate the Atlanta Airport. It took me longer to get through security than it did to fly here. Do you believe that?” Tick shrugged since he hadn’t been near an airport in eight years, and it was all Greek to him.
“Yeah, it’s a mess at any airport. When I got here, I went straight to the marina and asked your buddy Tobias if he could run me out to Mango Key, and he said you had just pulled up and pointed to the Miss Sally. He said you probably came in for supplies and would have lunch before you headed back. He pointed me in the right direction, and here you are. But, something happened before I found you. I stopped at this outdoor place about a block and a half from here for a cup of coffee,” he said, pointing off to the left. “Someone left a copy of the Miami Herald on the table, so I was reading it and drinking my coffee when I heard these guys talking behind me. There were three of them. At first I didn’t pay any attention, but then I heard them mention Mango Key and the cop who lived on the beach. Since you’re the only cop living on Mango Key, my ears perked up.”
So did Tick’s. He looked around to see who was sitting at the occupied tables, then leaned forward. “What did you hear?”
Pete lowered his voice. “Not much. Even I knew they weren’t just guys out for a cup of coffee. They were law and order, what branch I don’t know, but you could just tell they weren’t local or tourists. They were dressed like tourists but wearing jackets. That made me think they were packing heat. No one wears a jacket in Key West. They said they had to keep an eye on you, and they weren’t sure about buying into the story that you were some kind of shitty writer trading on your life experiences.”
“They actually said that?” Tick blustered indignantly.
“Yeah. I thought about jumping to your defense, but I wanted to hear more, so I just kept pretending I was reading the paper. They really didn’t say much else. They talked about two chicks, Kate and Sandra. No last names. And they were really getting off on some asshole, that’s their word, not mine, named Tyler, whose daddy is the governor of Florida. Two of the guys were probably late thirties, early forties. The third guy was way older, maybe early sixties. He seemed to be the one the other two deferred to. That’s it, Tick. So, what do you think? Do you know those guys? Does any of it ring any bells for you?”
Though intrigued over Pete’s story, Tick shook his head just as their food arrived, and the small tables around them started to fill with chattering tourists. Off to the right, a group of locals were strumming on banjos, making conversation impossible. The brothers began to eat. They finished in record time and set out on their walk back to the marina.
Halfway to the marina, Pete veered to the left to a pushcart selling snow cones. He called over his shoulder, “You still like strawberry?”
“Yeah, a double-decker,” Tick called back as he meandered over to a bench under a tree that was so big it would take a dozen men to wrap their arms around it.
Pete held out the snow cone like it was a golden chalice. “Kind of like old times, huh? Remember how Mom would give us ten cents when we were little, and we’d run to the corner to get the cones. You always ate yours so fast and got a brain freeze.”
“And your cone always melted before you could really enjoy it because you tried to save it. What’s wrong, Pete?”
“Am I that transparent, big brother?”
“Yeah.”
“Sadie dumped me. I should have seen the handwriting on the wall when she didn’t make it back in six months like she promised. She said it was work-related, so I couldn’t make a big deal out of it. Then the calls and e-mails started to taper off. Damn good thing I did my financing without waiting for her. Even back then, I think I had a premonition. I’m not sure about this, but I think Andy knew it wasn’t going to happen because he told me to go ahead with the financing, and we could add her later if she still wanted in. Then she called me two