“I gotta go. I have a meeting with DeSantis.”
Sara smiled at that. “Lucky you. We’ll take care of everything.”
“See that you do.”
They clicked off, Sara handed the phone back to Daryl and turned to the others. “It looks like we have a case to solve.”
“I’m going back to the office,” Daryl said. “If you need anything...” He trailed off, not sure what to say. “Just get me to retirement,” he mumbled, then went down the stairs.
“Wait!” Randal called out to him. “You need to stay here while we go visit Billy.”
They could hear the sheriff’s groan all the way up the stairs.
Once Randal had persuaded Sheriff Flynn that he had to stay there, the four of them went outside. Randal had called ahead and was told that Billy Pendergast would love to see them. Randal’s sedate sedan was parked beside Jack’s truck. It was battered from years of heavy use.
“Shall we have lunch?” Randal asked as he looked from Jack to Kate, then back again. They were standing close beside each other, but their faces were turned away. It was an odd position.
“Too much adrenaline in me to eat,” Sara said. “Let’s go see this Billy person. How’s his mind? Will he remember you?”
Since his sister was an advocate for Old Doesn’t Mean Stupid, he looked at her in surprise. “I’ve been rather busy for the last twenty-plus years so I have no idea.”
Sara ignored his feel-sorry-for-me tone. “I’ll ride with you. I have some questions you might be able to answer.”
Randal was even more surprised. The others were an unbreakable trio. One time he’d said in sarcasm, “Are you threeeverapart? Meals? Showers? Sleeping?” Sara had given him a look of disgust, and the others ignored him.
But now Sara wanted to ride with her brother? What was going on?
Randal told Jack where the home was, and he and Kate got into his truck. Even to Randal, it seemed odd that Sara’s spot was empty. When he was in the car with his sister, he said, “What do you want to ask me?”
“Nothing.”
“Then why are you withme?” He was leading the way toward Broward Boulevard.
“You haven’t noticed anything unusual with the kids?”
“Jack looks different. Colorado changed him. I was going to tell him he looked good, but a skull rolling across the floor distracted me.”
“I want to give him and Kate time alone.”
“Oh,” he said. “You think...?”
“I hope they will at last get together.”
When he stopped at a light, they smiled at each other. One thing they agreed on was that they deeply and truly wanted Jack and Kate to get “together.” As in rings and champagne and a lavish ceremony.
Randal glanced in the mirror at Jack’s truck behind them.
“How are they doing?” she asked.
“Sitting far apart and not saying a word.”
“Not good,” Sara said.
“This is your job,” he said. “Romance is how you’ve made your living. You need to put them together in a way that they have no choice but to actually speak to each other.”
Sara smiled. “I do love pretend-to-be-married romances. Second only to mail order brides. I’ll see what I can do. Now, about Billy. What do you know?”
“I think he hated Derek Oliver as much as the rest of us did.”
