He didn’t tell her what he had planned. She decided to ask him point-blank—they were supposed to be trusting one another.
“So? Where are you going, what are you up to?” she asked him.
Sean hesitated. “I’m off to see a Coast Guard friend of Liam’s,” he told her.
“I should come,” she said.
He shook his head. “He’s told us that they didn’t get anything.”
“Then why are you seeing him?”
“Because I’m hoping to trigger something. Spend the afternoon and evening with Zoe and Katie—and whoever you wish. Jamie won’t leave his boat, and Marty has determined that he’s going to keep watch over the Conch Fritter. Ted and Jaden have some friends to see. So…Katie will stick with you like glue,” he said.
She frowned. “I don’t need to be careful here, do I?”
“You need to be careful everywhere,” he assured her. “Just stay in public places, and call me if anything disturbs you at all. At all—okay?”
As the others left one by one, Jay told Vanessa, “I have an idea.”
She groaned. “I don’t think I want to hear any more of your ideas.”
He grimaced. “There’s a beautiful little park just north of here, and it has great views of the bay and bridges and downtown Miami. I’d like to take some footage of you there, talking about the time we spent in Miami, and how this had been Georgia’s destination the night she—died.”
She started to protest. Katie was at her side. “Actually, it doesn’t sound like a terrible idea,” she said. “We can grab a cab and get there while it’s still daylight. And it’s not the Keys, but it’s a beautiful day, and it should be fine footage. I’ll go with you,” Katie assured her.
“And I’ll come,” Zoe said.
“Hey, Barry, Ted—Bill. What are you doing tonight?”
“There’s a theater up the street,” Bill said. “I thought I’d take in a movie—okay, and do some barhopping in Coconut Grove.”
“Barry?” Vanessa asked.
He smiled. “The barhopping sounded good to me, too.”
Jake told them, “I’ll come with you. I guess we need two cabs, though.”
“No big deal, it’s right down the street,” Jay told them.
They left the restaurant and easily hailed cabs.
The park was beautiful. There were wide-open spaces, and areas for volleyball, little pavilions for picnics and separations that were composed of overgrown trees and rich foliage. Beautiful bougainvillea crawled over the pavilions, and majestic oaks vied with palms. They were on a deepwater channel, but the view of the water was spectacular, and as they arrived, the colorful lights of downtown Miami were just beginning to grace the skyscrapers in the distance.
Jay found the perfect place for her to stand. She was on a small mound with bougainvillea and the richness of the foliage to her left as she faced him while a view of the water, the bridge and downtown were just over her shoulder.
Jay set her up where he wanted her and gave her directions. She told him that they hadn’t come up with any kind of a script and he told her just to talk. She’d seen Sean do it, easily and naturally, and she tried to emulate what he did. Actually, it was easy. She just talked.
“One more time,” Jay told her. “And…action.”
She started to talk.
She looked at Zoe, who smiled at her with a thumbs-up gesture. Katie nodded, as well.
The sun was setting in the west, away from the water. The sky was beautiful and the night was balmy. She looked toward the foliage near the entry of the park, and she fell silent.
There he was.
He was in jeans, a T-shirt and a windbreaker. His hair was long, but he had shaved the beard.
Carlos Roca.
He stood on the path, watching her.
He beckoned to her.
But then he saw the others start to stare at Vanessa in her sudden, still silence, and twist to see what had caused her reaction.
He turned his back and moved quickly down the path to the right, into the concealment of the rich foliage.
“Vanessa, I just wanted one more take!” Jay said. “What’s the matter with you?”
Vanessa ignored him.
And ran after Carlos Roca.
They met Andy Jimena at the yacht club where the Coast Guardsman kept a membership. It was beautiful, on the bay, and afforded a view of a host of sailboats and pleasure craft. Jimena was an experienced officer who had been with the patrol boat asked in by the Bahamian government. He was fifty, graying and still as sturdy as a rock.