Blood of Cain

58

I didn’t think that I wasn’t being followed as I drove from Ponce Inlet to DeLand, at least I didn’t see any signs of being tailed by a car. If I was being followed by a satellite, then someone must have hidden a GPS tracker somewhere on my Jeep. I’d done a thorough search in the parking lot at the marina before I left, found nothing but road grit and mud in the undercarriage and wheel wells. Earlier, I’d left a broken piece of a toothpick wedged out of sight between the hood and the body of the Jeep. It fell to the lot after I opened the hood.

A good sign.

On my drive to Deland, I took detours, sped up and slowed down, constantly watching the rearview mirror and taking a back road into the town. DeLand is Mayberry RFD on growth steroids. The quaint town, forty miles west of Daytona Beach, oozes southern charm, a lineage of yesteryear still in its brick streets. The entire stretch of Main Street, with a slow tempo composed by birdsong from shady trees, might as well be a picture postcard of a National Historic District. The Boston Coffeehouse mixed well with the antique shops, bookstores and upscale bars.

I entered the coffee shop looking for a woman wearing a yellow T-shirt and the words: World’s Greatest Grandmother. She wasn’t there, and she didn’t sound like the type of person who’d be late. I walked through the shop with its dark-wood tavern feel, the smell of ground coffee, chocolate, and fresh-squeezed orange juice followed me to a table in the far corner. I sat and waited. Three other customers, college kids with open laptops and ears closed by ear-buds, occupied tables. I approached one student, twenty-something, jock build, Stetson University T-shirt, baseball cap on backwards. He looked up and took the buds out of his ears.

I said, “How’s school?”

“It’s all right.”

“A grandmother needs a favor.”

“Whadda you mean?”

“She’s coming in for coffee. She just needs a strong guy like you to escort her back to her car. Here’s twenty bucks if you can walk her to her car.” I dropped a twenty dollar bill on the table.

“Sure, dude. I don’t mind helping little old ladies.” He smiled.

“Good. I’ll give you the high sign when she’s ready to leave.”

“Cool. Where is she?”

“She isn’t here yet, but she will be.”

“No problem.”

“Thanks.”

I turned and walked back to my table. I was on my second cup of coffee and no sign of Lois Timbers. I hoped the college kid had a lot of homework. As I waited for her, I replayed the conversation I had with Kim on my boat. I’d mentioned where I was meeting Lois, but I didn’t speak her phone number aloud. If my boat, buy some remote chance was bugged, they’d know where I was meeting Lois, but they’d have no idea how to contact her. And I’d left not long after I’d spoken with her. No one, unless they lived in DeLand, could have arrived here quicker than I did.

Then where was Lois Timbers?

I thought about dialing her number on my disposable phone, and then a woman wearing a banana-yellow T-shirt strolled into the coffee shop. She paused near the front counter, her eyes adjusting from the sunlight outside to the dark interior. I stood and smiled. She nodded and walked to my table. “Mr. O’Brien. I’m so sorry to have kept you waiting.”

“Please, call me Sean.”

“It’s good to meet you. You’re bigger and even more handsome than you appeared on TV.” Her voice rolled off her tongue in a southern drawl that was charming and sincere. She was barely five feet tall, skin the color of the coffee I sipped, wide smile. She sat down and said, “My daughter and her youngest, little Timmy, were at my house. He fell riding his bicycle, poor thing, and he had a few well-earned scratches on his knees.”

“How old is Timmy?”

“He’ll be five next month.”

“Would you like some coffee?”

“Oh, yes, please. They know how to make it here.”

I signaled for the waitress, and Lois ordered a cappuccino. I said, “Thank you for seeing me today. The number on your phone that Courtney dialed, did you call it?”

“I thought about it, just to let whomever answered know that I’d seen Courtney. Figured someone was worried. Then all that stuff on the news seemed to happen overnight. Those murders, and the connection between you, Andrea Logan, and maybe Courtney. When I saw that video of you on the news, you looked really concerned — not so much about the questions the reporters were asking, but maybe deep concern for the girl. That’s when I called the marina and left a message with the woman who said she knew you.”

“Kim.”

“Yes, Kim. She was so sweet.”

“May I have the number?”

“Of course. I wrote it down for you.” She reached in her purse and handed me a folded piece of paper. “I did look up the area code.”

“What did you find?”

“Looks like she called someplace in South Carolina, but I don’t know where.”

“Is the number still on your phone?”

“Yes.”

“Delete it.”

“Why?”

“Because if the number’s gone, no one will be able to call it.”

“Well, to call it, they’d have to steal my phone from me, and that means they’d have to steal my purse.” She smiled. “One time a mugger in Detroit tried to do that. I have a scream that would wake the dead.”

The waitress brought the cappuccino. Lois stirred sugar through the foam and sipped. “That’s delicious.” She held the cup in both hands, her eyes moving from the steam up to my face. “The girl, Courtney, she does favor you some. Do you think she’s your daughter?”

“I don’t know.”

“I bet you’d make a fine father. An old grandmother like me can tell. Where’s the rest of your family?”

“They’re all dead. No one’s left.”

“I’m so sorry to hear that. Family and close friends is what life is all about, if you get right down to the real meaning of it.”

“You think so?”

“Yes, yes I do. Maybe Courtney is your child, and maybe she’ll be part of your life and you part of hers, too. What if that’s why I saw you on the news and made the call? Something was pulling at my heart, weighing heavy on my mind.”

“I’m glad you did make the call. Lois, some very bad men are frantically hunting for Courtney. The number on your phone might get them a lot closer to her. Right now only Kim and I know you have a tie to Courtney. No one can check your phone records because they don’t know your name or the connection. We want to keep it that way. I’m going to leave, and I’m going to go out the back door. I’m parked two blocks away. Wait at least ten minutes before you go, okay? The young man at the table next to the bookshelf is a college student. He attends Stetson. He will walk you to your car before you drive away. It’ll be just like you met him for coffee.” I stood and motioned to the college kid. He nodded.

Lois looked around a second. “Sean, I’m getting a little bit frightened.”

“Did you memorize the phone number?”

“No.”

“It’s deleted from your mind. Now, delete it from your phone. No one can take something that doesn’t exist. Thank you, Lois.”

She smiled. “You’re a kind person. I hope you find Courtney before they do. And I hope she’s your daughter. I’m a teacher, and the one thing I’ve learned in life is people need to be needed. Courtney needs you. And I believe you need her.”