Chapter Nine
NINE
The front door was wide open, allowing the acrid smell of blood to mix with the fresh scent of seaweed. Sweat gathered along the collar of Shepherd’s polo and on the back of his knees. He tugged at his shirt to fan himself, trying not to think about the dead body behind him.
Ginny looked so small when the detective stepped away with a phone to his ear that Shepherd couldn’t help himself. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “They’re gonna find your mom,” he promised. “They got that guy Cardello on video.”
She nodded, sniffling. “I don’t know why Charlie Cardello would do something like this.”
“Because he didn’t,” the detective said. “Cardello is dead.”
Oh, talk about instant headache! The spot between his eyes started throbbing. Shepherd furrowed his brow in an attempt to relieve it. The only clue they had, and the guy was dead?
But of course. When did anything in his life, ever, go right?
“What do you mean?” Ginny asked. “My family just represented him a year ago in court.”
“Yeah, well. About five months ago, he was murdered. Sorry, Miss Kent, but I think for now it’s best if you two leave the crime scene. Your father has been notified, and I’ve spoken directly with the chief. We’re pulling everybody in on this. We will find your mother.”
Her phone chimed. Ginny pulled it out of her pocket with another sniffle. Shepherd read the text as soon as she unlocked her phone.
Dad: HOME. NOW.
She left him on “read” and tucked the phone away. “OK. I want to be kept in the loop, though. Please, Detective Hastings. Not just through my father.”
The detective sucked his teeth but nodded. “Fine.”
Her phone chimed again. Ginny sighed. “My family’s home is like an hour away.”
“I’ll drive you,” Shepherd said, caressing her shoulder, her skin soft and warm beneath his palm. “Don’t worry about it.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. Noah can open. Noah can run the whole restaur-ant.”
“Better than you can.”
Shepherd’s palm froze on her skin. His lids rapidly blinked over his bulging eyes. “What did you say?”
She wrinkled her nose. “Sorry. Finishing that sentence was a force of habit.”
“There was a period. The sentence was finished perfectly the first time.”
Ginny grimaced. “Um,” she tried, “my mom’s just been kidnapped? So, like, insulting you is kind of a security blanket? A comfort in a trying time?”
Shepherd had never been so insulted. “I’ve never been so insulted,” he said. “It’s got my name up on the sign, Ginny. It’s my signature on the bank loan. Do you really think Noah is better at running the restaurant than me?”
“I only meant, you know, that he sort of does everything anyway while you … hide behind the bar?”
Shepherd sighed, letting go of Ginny to pinch the bridge of his nose. This stupid headache was getting worse. “Your voice. It got so high-pitched.”
“Did it?” she asked in an even higher pitch.
“The disrespect. Follows me wherever I go.”
Detective Hastings cleared his throat. “Let me just get your contact information and then you two can be on your way.”
Police cleared the way for Shepherd to pull out of the driveway.
Neighbors had gathered on their front lawns, some in bathrobes, some holding coffee mugs, some wiping their sunglasses clean from the steam that appeared on their lenses the moment they stepped outside.
Little kids sat on their bikes without peddling, watching the police cars with obvious excitement on their faces.
Shepherd honked. They moved out of the way.
His hands were shaking on the steering wheel, because in case things weren’t bad enough, he hadn’t even gotten to eat yet. “I’m driving through somewhere,” he said. “I’m getting a breakfast burrito and a frozen coffee. And I am not buying anything for you! I don’t care if that makes me a bad boss.”
“You are not a bad boss,” Ginny reassured him. “You’re just passive and permissive.”
“You think I don’t know those are fancy words for bad?” He blew out a hard breath, his shaking hand running through his hair. “So much blood. Mr. Martin wasn’t a bad guy.”
Ginny’s phone was beeping every few seconds. She was pointedly ignoring it. “I know.” She touched his arm and gave a soft squeeze. “He was decent, for a landlord. It was my mom they were after.”
Over the bridge out of the exclusive part of Laguna Key, Golden Arches appeared ahead. Shepherd switched lanes to get closer to the promised land. “How can you be so sure?”
“Why kill him and take her? Unless he was a witness and she was who they were after. My family is well connected. We are known for having money. My mother married into the family; she isn’t a Kent by birth, but my grandfather still respects her, even after she divorced my dad twice.
She’s the older, beloved matriarch. Well, if you believe the society pages.
The perfect target.” Ginny rubbed her eyes.
“She’ll be fine. The kidnappers will ask for money.
My father will pay the money. And my mom will be back before morning tomorrow. ”
But Shepherd heard the tremor in her voice that suggested Ginny wasn’t as certain as she was trying to portray.
He placed an order at the drive-thru window, and when Ginny shouted hers over his shoulder, he didn’t bother stopping her. He even paid for it and waved off her thanks. He was a good boss, thank you very much. How many other bosses would pretend to be an employee’s boyfriend?
Not many, just based on the possibility of a sexual harassment lawsuit.
He parked in the closest spot and dug into his burrito as if he’d find enlightenment at the end of it. “So,” he said with his mouth full, “who was this Cardello guy, anyway?”