Paradise Cove by Davin Goodwin

Author:Davin Goodwin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oceanview Publishing
Published: 2022-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 23

THERE SHOULD BE a law—written, enacted upon, and regularly enforced—that declares it illegal to roust a retired guy living on a Caribbean island out of bed before nine o’clock AM. If there were such a law, Arabella would’ve broken it the next morning. But since she was an officer on the Bonaire Police Force, such a law probably wouldn’t have mattered.

I relished having her back in my bed. Or was it our bed? Didn’t matter. Everything was right with the world again and even her reacquisition of the bathroom seemed appropriate.

Except when she nudged me awake a little before seven to join her on a morning run.

“I thought you preferred to run in the evenings, after your shift,” I said, eyes still closed.

“Yes, I do. But tonight, I will attend a workout class, so I need to run now.” She pulled the pillow out from under my head. “Come, go with me.”

I looked at the clock on the nightstand. “It’s six forty-five.”

“Yes, so we have only enough time for a short run.” She pulled my legs sideways, so they plopped onto the floor. I lay half on the bed and half out. She rolled me off the mattress, determined to force me out of bed. She tossed my running shoes at me. “Time to go.”

I found it difficult to say no to Arabella, so I relented and joined her for a five-kilometer—three-miles—run. Now, sitting at my office desk, nearly eight thirty in the morning, showered and dressed in a red Longtail T-shirt and my standard cargo shorts, I nursed some yogurt and alternated between a bottle of water and an iced-down glass of diet soda.

“You are up early this morning,” Erika said, standing near the filing cabinet, head tilted forward just enough to peer at me over the rim of her glasses.

“Too early.”

“My, are we not grumpy this morning.” She stared at me a moment, and when I didn’t acknowledge, she dropped some papers on her desk and sat in her chair.

I had told Erika to take as much time off work as she needed. Rulio’s funeral was the previous day, and I didn’t expect her back at the YellowRock so soon. But she said she needed to be at work, that it took her mind off everything.

Sandra Griffis hadn’t attended the funeral. I hesitated to ask Erika what she thought about that, fearing it might cause her to start worrying about Sandra. Erika didn’t need anything more to concern herself with.

“When I parked my car,” Erika said, “I saw Miss Arabella leaving.” She turned in my direction. “Is everything back to normal?”

“Is anything ever normal around here?”

She puffed out her chest and shot me a big-sister kind of look. “You know what I mean.”

I sighed and let a smile creep across my face. But only a small one. Didn’t want to give her too much satisfaction. “Yeah, I think so.”

“Well then, good. You would miss her if she were gone.”

“Yes, I would.”

Erika turned back to her monitor but glanced in my direction every few moments.

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