Unbalanced by D. P. Lyle

Author:D. P. Lyle
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Published: 2024-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 30

“WHAT’S UP?” I asked as Nicole and I walked onto Ray’s deck. Ray held a can of Dew, Pancake hunched over an array of papers, the ones we had retrieved from Savannah.

“Did you finish all your work?” Ray asked. “Is that dive of yours going to stay afloat?”

I shook my head but said nothing.

Ray hated Captain Rocky’s. To him, it was a frivolous waste of time and the main obstacle for me not working for him. Truth is, the obstacles were numerous, Captain Rocky’s not even making the list, which included things like Ray, actually working for a living; Ray, sticking your nose in other people’s lives; Ray, gunfire; and not necessarily in that order.

“Good work getting these,” Pancake said, indicating the papers.

“It was Savannah,” I said. “She said Carl kept copies of everything in his office.”

“Is it the stuff we were picking up the day we found Carl?” Nicole asked.

Pancake nodded. “It is.” Then he asked, “Where’s my candy?”

I glanced at Ray. “You had to tell him about that?”

Ray smiled but said nothing.

“Savannah ate it all,” I said.

“Skinny little thing like her?” Pancake asked. “Pardon me for not buying that.”

“That was when she was a kid,” Nicole said. “Carl did that because he knew Savannah would find it. He no longer had a candy stash or we’d have brought you some.”

“My parents never kept candy around for me,” Pancake said.

“You ate all of it right out of the grocery bag,” I said.

“You helped.”

“Not true—Maybe a couple of pieces—”

“Want to take a road trip?” Ray asked.

“Absolutely,” Nicole said. “What do you need, boss?”

Two very bothersome things. “Road trip” meant fear and car sickness and enraged citizens, while “boss” meant this was another Ray deal.

Ray nodded toward Pancake.

“Carl was seeing someone,” Pancake said.

Not what I expected. “Really?”

“Based on what I’ve uncovered so far, a woman half his age.”

I don’t know why I was surprised. Carl had been good-looking man, his wife had passed two years earlier, he had money, and he probably had fits of loneliness, so why wouldn’t he be seeing someone?

“Who?” Nicole asked.

“Denise Scholander,” Pancake said. “She’s twenty-seven and works over in Pensacola at the Paloma Resort.”

“How long has this been going on?” I asked.

“About six months.”

“Savannah doesn’t know,” Nicole said. Not a question.

“What makes you think that?” Pancake asked.

“A feeling more than anything else. If Carl was seeing someone, and if Savannah knew, she’d have said something. I’m sure of that.”

“How sure?” Ray asked.

“As sure as I can be without actually knowing. My take on Savannah is that she’s a kind and caring person. She would’ve hurt for her father’s lover. She would’ve talked about her. Probably called her. Since she never mentioned anything, I think she wasn’t aware of it.” She shrugged. “That’s my take anyway.”

“How do you know this?” I asked Pancake

“Email, texts, phone calls. A lot of them.”

“Couldn’t she be a business contact?”

Pancake grunted, meaning he didn’t think so. “Let’s see, dinner arrangements, meetings at her condo, hotel hookups. Probably not business. I’ll know more when I dig a little deeper.

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