Page 63 of Deadly Waves

“We’re Jawesome,” Mandy interjected, giggling as James shot her a heated look.

“I see she got her panties,” Grady said, rolling his eyes. Despite the heavy feeling hanging over the room, he couldn’t help but poke his brother and sister-in-law a bit. “This goes back to that pervert thing, doesn’t it?”

“I’m fine being a pervert,” Mandy said, sitting on the arm of the chair at the edge of the room as James settled on the cushion and pulled out his iPad. “We’re on vacation. Er, well, kind of. If you can’t be a pervert on vacation, when can you?”

“That’s a very good point,” Grady said, sitting at the small table across the way and patting his lap so Sophie could get comfortable. “What did you find? Wait, did you find anything? I have a feeling you two were caught up in each other all day.”

“We were caught up in each other,” James said, bobbing his head. “It was … glorious.”

“Jawesome,” Mandy corrected.

“It was Jawesome,” James said, kissing her cheek before turning serious. “We also worked. I instituted a labor and reward system that worked out quite nicely.”

It took Grady a moment to grasp what James was trying to say. “Ugh. You’re a total pig.”

“And yet it worked,” James said. “I found a number of interesting things. Where do you want to start?”

“I think the obvious place to start is Jon Peterson.”

“Well, I don’t like him either so he was my initial focus,” James said, tapping his screen. “I found plenty of dirt on him, for the record. Sadly, I found dirt on a few other people, too.

“I’m going to start with two people we have not met yet, because I want part of our focus to be on them during dinner and that’s going to mean splitting up a little bit once the food portion of tonight’s festivities ends,” he continued. “The first is Ronald Boyd. He’s the disc jockey who takes over once the live music ends every night.”

“What’s his deal?” Grady asked.

“He’s got an arrest record for armed robbery and statutory rape,” James answered. “The armed robbery charges were dropped for lack of evidence, but the witness in the case swears up and down that it was Boyd who broke into the car dealership where she worked and stole as much money as he could get his hands on.”

“What about the statutory rape, though?” Sophie asked, her brow quizzical. “Zoe was an adult. She didn’t look like a child. If that’s his thing, well, I’m not sure she would fit the bill.”

“I agree,” James said. “The girl in question was only seventeen, though, and she bears a striking resemblance to Zoe.” James held up his tablet to display a picture and Grady let loose with a low whistle.

“Yeah, they could almost be twins,” Grady said. “That’s a good lead.”

“The second individual of note is Harry Kelley,” James said. “He’s an engineer and quite close to the captain from what I can tell. He also has a record … for inciting a riot and threatening to blow up a group of senators at a rally in Iowa two years ago.”

“How does that have anything to do with Zoe?”

“It doesn’t,” Mandy replied. “I’m the one who kind of focused on him. His record is all over the place. He seems a bit crazy. That begs the question of why Davenport hired him in the first place.”

“And?”

“And he’s Davenport’s brother-in-law and he has a sealed file from when he was a juvenile,” Mandy said. “We’re trying to open the file, but it’s not as if I have Judge MacIntosh to rely on when it comes to illegally gaining entry into files any longer.”

Sympathy washed over Grady as he forced a smile. “I’m sure he would still help.”

“We went to Peter instead,” James said, referring to Sophie’s foster father. He also happened to be a reputed mobster in the Detroit area. “Kelley has close enough ties to Davenport to warrant continued interest. I’m not convinced it’s him, but I’m not comfortable crossing him off the list either.”

“That makes sense,” Grady said. “What did you get on Peterson?”

“Oh, so eager,” James teased. “Is it because he’s been hitting on your woman?”

“Excuse me?” Sophie was affronted. “I’m not anyone’s property.”

James rolled his eyes until they landed on Mandy. “Mandy isn’t my property, but I refer to her as my baby … and my wife … and my whole heart.”

Mandy beamed as she rubbed her nose against his cheek.

“Don’t make me get a bottle of water and spray you,” Grady warned.