Follow the Evidence (A Mac Everett Mystery Book 2) (3 page)

“We went everywhere Plaza de
Bolivar, the Bogotá Cathedral, the Gold Museum, the Religious Art Museum, the
Coin House, we even went to the basilica on Mount Monserrate,” Maria added. “We
had a wonderful time together.”

“That’s a great travel log, but how
does that bear on your daughter’s disappearance,” I asked.

“She met a boy,” Maria said.

“He’s twenty-two, Maria, hardly a
boy.” Parker turned to face me and said, “I’ve done business with his father
for years,” Parker Summers interrupted. “He owns coffee plantations, cattle
ranches, packing houses and coffee processing facilities. He even does his own
shipping. I do a lot of business with him.”

I sensed there was more, but I’d
have to let him tell it.

“What’s this man’s name, oh and his
son’s too?” I asked, taking out my notepad.

“Diego Sebastian, he owns Sebastian
Coffee and Colombian Packing. His son is Sergio. I’ve known Diego for twenty
years. I’ve watched Sergio grow up,” Parker was at an emotional breaking point.
His wife, however, was cool as a lake breeze, but that was about to change. I
read the pain in their eyes, but anyone could have done that.

“Tell me what happened,” I said.

Maria spoke first. “Jennifer and I
returned to Orlando in time for her to start school. She’s a junior at the
University of Central Florida and president of her Sorority. Her classes
started in August. I got her settled in a new apartment. She met her roommates,
bought her books, and started classes.”

“Then what happened,” I asked.

“Diego called me,” Parker broken
in. “He said he was going to be in town on business and wanted to see me. I met
him at the Gaylord Palms.”

Business must be good
. The
Gaylord Palms was one of the ritziest places in Orlando.

“It was October 5, right before the
hurricane.”

“I remember,” I said.

Hurricane Eva caught everyone
flat-footed when she formed off the east coast, intensified, and became a
hurricane in a matter of hours. She battered much of Florida early last month
causing flooding and other damage.

“I’m still not getting how this
bears…”

“Diego told me Sergio wanted see to
Jennifer while they were in Orlando. You can imagine my surprise. I didn’t know
the two had met,” Parker said.

“Lair!” Maria shouted as she jumped
from her chair, and turned toward her husband. She pointed an accusatory finger
at him like a dagger. “Lair!” she shouted again. “You're a filthy liar. You
arranged for them to meet so you could make more business with that boy’s
father. Now my Jennifer is gone.”

She stood glaring at him daring him
to say something.

“Maria, I…”

Maria’s right hand snapped out and
she slapped Parker’s face. She sobbed and slumped back into her chair. Parker
didn’t move. The reddened spot on his cheek glowed with shame. He looked at me
for help. I handed him a couple tissues that he handed to his wife. “Leave it
alone, Parker. She’s gone and that’s all there is to say.”

“I arranged for Jennifer to meet
Sergio,” Parker sputtered when he regained his composure, “that’s true. It was
a gesture.” I could see in his watery eyes he desperately wanted to believe his
daughter was still alive, but he was also hiding something. “Apparently, Sergio
and Jennifer went dancing a few times.”

“She slipped out of the house at
night to meet that gigolo. You used your daughter to make more money.” Maria spit
out the words.

They'd talked about this before.

“They met in Bogotá, Maria, while
you were watching her,” Parker shot back.

“Whoa, whoa, why does a
twenty-something need watching?” I asked, hoping I wouldn’t have a domestic
brawl in my office. Maria was a volatile woman, but Parker knew how to take it.

“Jennifer is a beautiful young
woman who is…”

“Who is a whore!” Maria proclaimed.
“She’s a slut who will sleep with anything that walks upright and has since she
turned eighteen,” Maria sneered.

“Maria!” Parker exclaimed. “That’s
not true…she…”

“Well, it
is
the truth,
Parker. Admit it,” Maria said defiantly. “That school turned her into a slut.”

“If that’s what she is, she learned
it from you,” Parker shouted.

“Hey, hey simmer down you two,” I
asserted.

They both turned toward me. I felt
the heat of their anger, saw their rage, and fear they were both struggling to
contain.

“Mrs. Summers, American college
kids are a free-thinking bunch.”

Parker Summers held up one hand. “Mr.
Everett, our Jennifer is a beautiful girl. We’ve spoiled her. It’s our…” he
stopped and looked at Maria. “It’s my fault. She’s smart, witty but, she
doesn’t have very discerning taste in young men,” Parker admitted. “I hoped
she’d hit it off with Sergio. He’s from a good family, a nice young man.”

“So when she met your business
partner’s son in Columbia they hooked up?” I suggested.

“I guess so. Diego assumed I knew
they’d been dating so when he suggested Jennifer help Sergio move their
sailboat back to Ft. Lauderdale how could I say no. He thought they were
already seeing each other.”

“You see what my husband has done?
He let his daughter go off with a madman,” Maria sobbed.

My little voice was shouting, ‘Red
light!’ but I had to hear them out. There was something odd about this Maria.
Something didn’t add up. Maria was upset, but she was deceptive and clearly
holding something back.

“It wasn’t like that,” Parker
interrupted. “She took a girlfriend with her. How was I to know?”

“Wait, take it one step at a time,”
I sputtered. Their disjointed story and the near brawl had me all turned
around. “Your daughter Jennifer went out with,” I paused to look at my notes,
and then continued, “Sergio Sebastian in Columbia. Is that right?”

“Yes,” they both responded.

“What happened then, what’s this
about a boat?” I continued.

“Sergio went out with her a few
times here in Orlando,” Parker clarified. “Diego keeps a boat in Ft.
Lauderdale, but it was in Nassau. I don’t know why. Sergio planned to go over
to the Bahamas then sail it back to Florida.”

“Why would your daughter help?”

“Jennifer has sailed since she was
little,” Maria offered. “She called us to say she was going with him.”

“She and her girlfriend were going
to make it a long weekend,” Parker said.

He was trying to convince himself
he hadn’t screwed up and I wasn’t sure he’d succeed.

“So your daughter and this Sergio
went to the Bahamas?” I asked.

“Yes, Jennifer, her sorority sister
Hannah London, and Sergio flew to Nassau on October 7
^th
. They spent
the day at the beach, went to the casinos in the evening, and spent the night
on the boat,” Parker offered.

“Jennifer called me to say they
were leaving early the next day. She even emailed me some pictures, then…”

“Then Eva hit,” I muttered.

Maria took a handkerchief out of
her purse and sobbed. My little voice was telling me to back away
.
Parker put his hand on his wife’s arm, but he needed comfort too. It was plain
what had happened, a careless group of young people had sailed a small boat
into a hurricane and were lost at sea. This wasn’t a missing person case. Here
were a couple of desperate parents grasping at straws.

There was something odd about Maria
Summers. Her tears seemed forced, but I couldn’t say why.

“I know what it sounds like Mr.
Everett and we haven’t told it very well, but there’s more,” he sniffed.

“Yes sir,” I said patiently.

“The boat was discovered off the
coast, abandoned, but there was no sign of Jennifer, Hannah, or Sergio,” Parker
said as his wife continued to dab at her eyes.

“Foul play?” I asked.

It occurred to me that a hurricane
might be a damn good way to cover a crime.

Parker shrugged and said, “The
Coast Guard investigated, but they’ve not said what they think happened,”
Parker said. “All they will say is it was negligence. What does that mean? They
won’t tell us anything else. You have to help us.”

Maria looked up from her wadded
handkerchief, and said, “We have to find out what happened to our daughter.”

With her plea it struck me, Maria
Summers was play-acting. She wasn’t upset at all. Those were crocodile tears.
What
was she hiding?

“What does your friend have to say
about the disappearance of his son?”

“I’ve called him several times. He
won’t talk to me. He must be grief stricken,” Summers replied.

“Or he’s moved on, as we should,” Maria
shouted. “She’s gone Parker, face it.”

“We don’t know that,” Parker
insisted. “Sergio is missing too.”

Who was kidding who
?

“Can you give me Diego’s contact
information?” I asked.

Parker pulled out one of his
business cards, jotted the information on the back. He reached to hand it to
me, but stopped and said, “Perhaps I’d better have him call you.”

“Suit yourself,” I said. "The
parents of the other girl…?”

“We’ve not spoken to Hannah’s
family,” Maria said. “We wouldn’t know what to say.”

Odd way of looking at things
.
I looked at the two of them desperate in their despair. I couldn’t take
advantage of them and I wouldn’t but here was something odd about the grieving
couple.

“I’m not sure what I can do to help
you,” I began. “Most missing kids are runaway kids. They have a reason to
disappear. Maybe it’s a fight with their parents, or they run off with a
boyfriend, but with this situation…well it
was
a hurricane.”

“Please, no one else will help us,”
Parker blurted out.

I held up my hand to hold him back
and continued, “I can review the Coast Guard’s report, talk to the officials
who investigated the incident, and ask some questions. I don’t know what else.
I want to be honest with you. I don’t see a positive resolution to your
daughter’s disappearance. I won’t take your money on an empty promise.”

“That’s fair, Mr. Everett,” Maria
interjected. “You look over the report? See if there is anything that’s been
missed. If there is any chance, our daughter is alive.”

“Mr. Everett, I’ll pay anything,”
Parker said. “Understand me-I’ll pay anything to get her back.”

It’s not a business deal.

“I’ll look into it for you, but I
can’t give you any guarantees. I don’t expect I’ll find anything. I get $150 an
hour or $1,200 a day hour plus expenses. I’ll give you two days and do as much
as I can by phone, limit travel, that sort of thing. If I don’t turn up
anything, we’ll call it quits and you two will just have to learn go on. Can
you live with that?”

Parker opened his mouth to speak,
but Maria beat him too it, “Yes we can accept that. We want to be sure
everything humanly possible has been done to find our daughter.”

Parker took out his checkbook.
“Let’s say you commit to a week and then we’ll reassess the situation. Here’s a
check for your time,” he said as stroked a check for ten large without batting
an eye, “just submit an invoice for your expenses,” he said.

“Thank you, Mr. Summers,” I said as
I took has check and put it in the drawer. “It’s pretty late in the day,” I
said, looking at my watch. It was nearly five. “I’ll call the Coast Guard to
see if I can get the ball rolling on a copy of their report. I will get on the
case first thing tomorrow.”

“You should start with the Public
Information Officer in Jacksonville. His name is James Matchell," Parker
said. "Here’s his number,” he said handing me the PIO’s card.

“You’ve talked to him? Do you have
a copy of the report?” I asked.

“We’ve spoken several times,” he
replied. “As to the report, he claims it isn’t completed. We have only a
two-page summary.” The frustration was evident in his voice. “There is a longer
more detailed report, but we’ve not been able to get it. I had my lawyer call,
but they say it hasn’t been completed.”

“Fax me what you have. I can be
very persuasive. I’ll do what I can to get that report, but I won’t make any
promises,” I said. “Except one, I won’t string you along.”

“Thank you, Mr. Everett,” Parker
said as he stood and shook my hand.

“Yes, thank you, Mr. Everett,”
Maria said, as she also stood.

“Do you have a recent picture of
your daughter I could have?” I asked. “Perhaps you have pictures of the other
young people too?

“Yes, I have a few on my phone,”
Parker responded. “Jennifer sent some pictures from Nassau.”

“They might be helpful,” I said.
Can you send them to me?”

“I have some recent photos too,”
Maria added. She didn’t seem all that enthusiastic, but people react to stress
in all sorts of ways. “We’ll email the pictures to you right away.”

“Excellent. My email address is on
the card,” I said, handing each of them a business card. “Call me if you think
of anything we haven’t discussed,” I said.

Maria seemed anxious to leave, but
Parker looked like he was waiting for the second act to start. Finally, I said,
"I’ll be in touch when I have some news.”

Maria said firmly, “Come along,
Parker.”

“Thank you, Mr. Everett,” Maria
said as she headed for the door. Parker Summers shook my hand again, but didn’t
say a word. He sulked out the door behind his wife. I heard Lia say good-bye
and a moment later, she was leaning on the doorframe with her arms crossed and
a frown on her face.

“That was quite a story,” she said.
“They’re really desperate.”

“Yeah they are. You heard the whole
thing?”

“Most of it,” she said. “On the
local news they’re calling that boat the Nassau Ghost Ship.”

“That’s a crock. Still, I almost
hate taking their money. They’re looking for any hope their daughter is alive.”

“He is,” She said. I’m not so sure
about her. Can you do anything for them?”