“I spit on that man.Some of the younger girls like him, but I think he is a snake.”
“But wouldn’t his hotel bring in more revenue for restaurants like yours?”He would think some of the locals would like the chance to make more money.
“More?Bah.”She waved him off.“We don’t much like him.”
“Grandma,” Jalen snapped at his grandmother.“Why don’t you take a rest?I’ll cover the counter for a while.”
“Okay, my feet are hurting anyway.It was nice to meet you…” She looked at Barry expectantly.
“Barry Campbell.”He had already told Mac his real name.He couldn’t change his story now.Especially if these people knew her.
“Nice to meet you, Barry.Maybe we’ll see you around.”
“Oh, I’ll definitely be back for more conch salad.You can be sure of that.”Barry smiled broadly, holding up his empty bowl.Elsie teetered again before leaving.
“You know, you keep asking questions about Miles Banks and you’re going to stir up a hornet’s nest,” Jalen commented once Elsie was out of earshot.
“Are you threatening me?”
Jalen snatched the empty bowl from him and started cleaning it.“Warning is more like.”
“And if I don’t listen?”
Jalen shrugged, not looking up from his task.“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Do you share your opinion with your grandmother?”Barry was curious what the people on the island thought of Miles.There seemed to be a lot of mixed opinions.Even his own staff wasn’t happy with him.
Jalen froze in his motions and glanced up at him before looking back down.“You should leave, Barry Campbell.”
“You didn’t answer my question.”
“My family doesn’t need any more trouble.You’d be best to forget about our food stand and go somewhere else.”
“Tell me what you know of Miles Banks and you’ll never see me again.”Even at the risk of never eating Elsie’s conch salad.That had been damn good, but if he got the info he needed, it would be worth it.Maybe he could convince Mac to get it for him.
Jalen seemed to hesitate.Barry thought he was finally getting through to the kid, then his features closed off.“Just go.”
“I need to pay for my meal first.”
“It’s on the house.Just go.”Jalen waved him off and gave him his back.
Barry knew he wasn’t going to get anything more from Jalen.Since they seemed to know Mac, maybe he could ask her some questions about them.
He grabbed one of the pens behind the counter and a napkin from the stand next to him and wrote down his number before standing up.He pulled out his wallet and took out several bills, throwing them over the napkin.“Call it a tip then,” Barry remarked before retrieving his water and heading back to his hotel.
Chapter 8
It was still early enough in the day that Barry took a cool shower to wash away the sweat from his expedition to the hotel.Afterward, he sat at his desk and pored over every piece of paper he could get on Miles Banks, trying to paint a picture of this guy.
The newspaper clippings he’d found on Miles didn’t help solve the mystery, only added to it.The man was involved in several charities as well has hotels, oil industries, and other lucrative projects.
He had hotel chains throughout the US and in several European countries.This was his first in the Caribbean, but not on one of the main islands where he would draw more tourism.Wouldn’t it have made more sense to build on one of the hotspot islands instead of this more unknown one?
He pulled up a map of the island and studied the weather patterns.Like everyone else had been saying, it was the worst side of the island to build on.It was right in the path of the hurricanes and tropical storms.The soil was soft, and the site was on a power outage side.It would always have problems.So why there?
Barry was about to do some more digging when his ears caught Annabelle saying Miles’s name.He’d had her audio playing in the background, hoping she would speak to him at some point.
There hadn’t been much to listen to up to this point.She’d spoken to several contractors.None seemed happy about having to replace equipment and add more to their workload, but they did it anyway.What other choice did they have?If they didn’t do it, they were out of a job, and someone else would do it.
