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  “Fair enough,” Tanner said. “But one of us has to go talk to Royce. And it won’t be me.”

  “Your father’s afraid he’ll lose his cool and punch him in the face,” Lenore explained. “Those two have almost come to blows many times through the years.”

  Mitch slapped his brother on the back. “Then we’ll send in Jackson. He’s Royce’s favorite.”

  “Gee, thanks,” Jackson drawled. “I thought I was the one taking point with Sinclair.”

  “Hey, Sinclair still carries a grudge toward me after I egged his car for hassling me and my friends one day after school,” Mitch admitted. “Come to think of it, maybe I should wait in the car. He’d probably be more likely to cooperate without me there.”

  Jackson’s eyes sparkled with newfound amusement. “Not a chance. This little meeting was your idea. Besides, we’re grown men now. Screw the past.”

  Chapter Two - Fire

  Indigo Key had a police force of five—four uniformed officers that reported to a bear of a man named Jessup Sinclair.

  The wrinkles on Sinclair’s face showed almost seventy decades worth of living. He’d been police chief in these parts since Hurricane Andrew whipped through Florida in 1992 and blew away entire neighborhoods. A plainspoken guy who wasn’t always politically correct in how he did things, he’d gotten his start handing out tickets at the Florida Highway Patrol. After retiring from there, he’d settled into Indigo Key in hopes of watching sunsets and spending his time with a rod and reel in his hands.

  But that had all changed one day in January 1992 when a prisoner escaped from Big Pine Road Prison fifteen miles from where Jessup had gone fishing for mangrove snapper. He’d no sooner thrown his line in the waters of Sugar Bay when he noticed a man lurking nearby wearing the unmistakable blue prison garb with the white stripe running down the pants leg.

  Jessup had simply taken out his cell phone and called the cops. While waiting for them to show up, he’d removed his Beretta pistol from his backpack, the one he always carried with him, and watched as the prisoner made his way over to where he stood on the shoreline. By the time the local police force arrived, Jessup had the prisoner restrained using nylon fishing tape to bind the man’s hands and feet.

  The incident had gained Jessup instant notoriety and respect from the community. That spring, an election year, the town had voted him in as their police chief.

  Those he served described him best as a fair-minded guy, determined to keep the town free of riffraff. Since there wasn’t much crime to speak of in little Indigo Key, most people gave him a thumbs-up for a job well done.

  When Jackson and Mitch strode into his office, Jessup showed a willingness to gab, mainly because he’d been forced to turn the Buchanan case over to the state police almost from the get-go. Jessup wasn’t happy about that turn of events. As he talked, his bitterness was evident in every word.

  “Either Walker’s daddy got me taken off the investigation, or the state police didn’t think I was up to the task to handle this kind of high profile missing persons case.”

  Jackson exchanged looks with Mitch before leveling a stare at Jessup. “Why would Royce Buchanan want you off the case? That makes no sense. You’re the guy in charge who knows everyone around here for miles.”

  Jessup skewed up his forehead. “Because it sounds like something that sneaky so-and-so would do just to spite me. Royce hasn’t given two hoots for me since I ran his boy in for a DUI back when Walker was seventeen.”

  “Small town politics,” Jackson mused. “Always in play even if the event happened a dozen years ago.”

  Jessup ignored the remark and went on, “Whatever the reason, the state sent some young smartass down here from Tallahassee by the name of Dack Hawkins. What kind of name is Dack anyway? Makes me think of a damn silly duck.”

  Jackson put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Jessup, we know you’re pissed. We don’t blame you, but focus. What can you tell us about Livvy’s case?”

  “You mean other than there’s no evidence of foul play in the house?”

  “How can that be? Where’s Livvy’s minivan? Indigo Key is a dot on the map. It has less than four thousand people living here unless it’s during tourist season, which ended Labor Day weekend. Before we got here, Mom and Dad spent Thursday and Friday driving up and down the streets combing the area for any sign of the car. How hard could it be to locate Livvy’s van?”

  “I put a BOLO out for it Thursday afternoon as soon as Lenore called me. At the time, Tanner had rounded up a bunch of his friends to scour the streets. So far, we’ve got no sign of it. I know you guys are looking for quick answers, but you need to quit getting your britches in a twist and prepare for the long haul. This could take time.”

  “Please don’t tell us that,” Mitch grumbled.

  Jackson wasn’t as diplomatic. “Time’s against us. What if Livvy and the kids are in a desperate situation? What if they needed us yesterday? We’ve already let them down. We’re having to play catch up.”

  Jessup nodded in understanding. “I didn’t say patience would come easy. Look, you might want to talk to a woman by the name of Tessa Connelly. She came here to the Key, first of the week from Nags Head, North Carolina, to look for her brother, Ryan Connelly. According to her, three weeks ago, this guy leaves home driving his own Honda Civic and heads down here to see Walker. But when he didn’t show back up in North Carolina on schedule, the sister got worried. After two weeks of no news, Miz Connelly headed down here to check things out for herself. She’s made a pest of herself around town ever since.”

  Jackson’s forehead wrinkled into a scowl before he shot a glance over at Mitch. “So you’re saying this Connelly’s gone missing, too? Could this guy have done something to Livvy and Walker and the kids and then disappeared?”

  Jessup shook his head. “Not likely, since Connelly went missing first. I haven’t even been able to locate the Civic he was driving. I put out a media release the day his sister phoned me to let me know he’d gone missing. By that time it’d been three days since he’d checked out of the hotel.”

  “And what did your investigation turn up?” Jackson wanted to know.

  “Not a thing. Since then I’ve checked with the state police in Georgia and South Carolina, which would be along his driving route back home. Nothing turned up. Checked hospitals for matching admissions. Still nothing.”

  “What did this guy want with Walker, do you know?”

  “Fishing. That’s the story I got from his sister. Miz Connelly said her brother came to the Key at Walker’s invitation to fish for a trophy and hasn’t been seen since he checked out of the Mainsail Lodge. This town goes years without so much as a major crime wave and in a short span of time we have a missing family along with a missing fisherman. That’s two huge coincidences. I flat out don’t believe in coincidences. I’m thinking these two events might be connected. I just haven’t found what links them together.”

  “You mean other than Walker?” Jackson pointed out. “Hmm, since the Key lacks any major hotel chains I’m assuming the Connelly woman went back to the Mainsail Lodge where her brother stayed. Or did she check into the Sugar Bay Motel where she could walk down the strand to be closer to the shops?”

  Jessup thumbed through his notes. “She struck me as someone who wanted access to where her brother had been. Ah, here we go. Yep, I have her checking into the Mainsail.”

  “Does it say there what room she’s in?”

  “Three-eighteen.”

  “You don’t mind if we talk to her?”

  Over his trifocals, Jessup sent Jackson a harsh look. “Honestly, I feel sorry for her because I don’t have a single thing on her brother since he checked out of the lodge. There’s no trail to follow. It seems Connelly came here and the Keys swallowed him up. The man just up and vanished. As far as anyone knows he could’ve made it across the state line before something happened to him in Georgia, maybe even South Carolina. I tried to explain all those possibilities to
her.” He shook his head. “But she didn’t want to hear ’em. Wastin’ time here if you ask me.”

  “So you think this guy had an accident on his way back home?”

  “I did before Livvy and Walker went missing. Before last Thursday I’d convinced myself that Connelly was someone else’s problem.” Jessup scratched his nearly bald head and the sliver of gray hair remaining. “Now, I’m not so sure her brother ever left Indigo Key. So why would I mind if you guys touch base with his sister? I’ve got nothin’ to tell her.”

  Jackson held up his hands in peace. “Just asking. We don’t want to step on anyone’s toes.”

  “Since when?” Jessup fired back. “You don’t fool me. Everybody around these parts still remembers that wild bunch of heathens known as the Indigos. That includes Livvy. Always thought that was due to the Injun blood you guys have running through your veins.”

  At the derogatory name, Jackson swapped peeved looks with Mitch. This was the sometimes prejudice side of Jessup he remembered from his youth. It brought out a defensive posture. “I’m sure you already know that in these parts the Seminole tribe beat you here by a few hundred years.”

  Unfazed at the comment, the police chief went on with his recollections. “That wild blood started up long before your middle school years. None of you ever let up till you left here, course Livvy stayed. Besides, y’all take after Tanner that way. What you guys don’t realize is that your daddy had a wild streak in his heyday that would make the hair stand up on your heads. Shame he pulled Lenore into his shenanigans.”

  Mitch laughed at that depiction. “Oh really? Do enlighten us. That would make for interesting fodder during meal time.”

  Jackson chuckled. “Are you referring to the rumors that Mom and Dad once crawled up on the water tower before Homecoming and painted it orange to make it look like a giant jack-o’-lantern just in time for Halloween?”

  Jessup tried to hide a grin. “That they did. Lenore and Tanner were just as wild and reckless when they were young as you boys. Don’t let them tell you any different. Already your daddy’s showed he’s not afraid to get in the state investigator’s face with an opinion about this whole thing. Yesterday he got into it with Dack Hawkins outside Livvy’s house. You might want to do more to keep him in line.”

  Jackson’s mouth quirked up and he lobbed back, “As if either one of us could make that happen. Surely you don’t fault Dad for being upset? His only daughter’s gone missing along with his only grandchildren. What do you expect him to do, keep his cool? We’re talking about Tanner Indigo here.”

  Jessup let the attitude slide. “I expect he’ll do what he wants like always. However, there’s a way to go about it without pissing off the detective in charge of the case. Tanner’s convinced himself that Walker was into all kinds of nefarious stuff and shared that with Dack Hawkins. I gotta tell you, I don’t see it. Walker had his problems but I know for a fact that man worked hard every day to get that vitamin place to where it would make a profit, maybe not a fortune but enough to pay the bills. Walker even told me he’d found a contractor to design a website he could use to take mail orders nationwide. Walker had big plans.”

  “Maybe too big,” Jackson stated. “Maybe Walker got in over his head.”

  Jessup shook his head. “You think what you want. I might not be a fan of Royce Buchanan. But my instincts tell me if that had been the case, Walker’s daddy would’ve bailed his baby boy out of trouble faster than a knife fight in a phone booth.”

  “Then I guess we’ll head to the hotel and talk to this Connelly woman. Promise me, you’ll let us know if you hear anything through the law enforcement grapevine, anything at all. I know despite being taken off the case, you’ll maintain your contacts with the higher-ups in Tallahassee. I know you have them.”

  “You betcha. Count on it.”

  They ended it there and walked back outside to the parking lot. Jackson angled to face his brother. “I didn’t want to mention to Jessup that Dad brought up the name Connelly like he was Walker’s business partner. I’m hoping we didn’t misstep there.”

  “I don’t think we did. We should probably test the water first. It won’t hurt to hold a few things back until we figure things out more. We need to wade carefully through the water, find the people we can trust the most. Right now, Jessup’s clearly on Walker’s side, he made that clear enough.”

  “I was surprised we found Jessup so cordial,” Jackson noted as he got behind the wheel. “I remember a guy who could be a bit of an ass.”

  Mitch climbed in on the passenger side. “I guess, if you call cordial using his customary slurs when it comes to referring to our Native American heritage.”

  “Yeah, that sucked, but it’s fairly typical of Jessup. I thought he’d probably stonewall us. He was actually friendly. He didn’t have to tell us about the Connelly woman.”

  “Then let’s make a stop at the lodge and find out for ourselves if she holds any answers.”

  “That, or Jessup’s sending us off on a wild goose chase.”

  The Mainsail Lodge showed off its Spanish influence with archways across the front of the three-story building. The pastel blue painted stucco trimmed in banana yellow gave off a cheery invite to what the rooms offered inside. A tiled courtyard surrounded by fragrant calla lilies and pretty amaryllis led guests past a stone fountain and into the tastefully decorated lobby.

  The place had changed hands over the years, but still stood as the focal point at the corner of Largo Avenue and Bayside Boulevard. Each room on the front side had a view of the water. Beach access was as easy as a mere trek down a few steps to reach the wedge of pearl-white sand that glistened in the sun.

  The September afternoon had warmed to a humid swelter by the time Jackson turned the pickup into the parking lot. The sun banked in the west, giving a golden shimmer to the waves as the fishing boats in the marina bobbed and swayed to a rhythm as old as the tides.

  “Should we both go up there and confront her?” Mitch asked, glancing toward the third floor.

  Jackson debated their options. “At this point, two against one might not be a smart move. We want to learn as much as we can about her brother’s association with Walker, even if we have to lean on her some. Two might seem like we’re pouncing on her.”

  “Okay, then which one of us does the leaning?”

  “I’ll go. I’m more diplomatic.”

  “That’s your ego talking,” Mitch chided as he watched his brother get out of the pickup and walk toward the hotel’s portico. But he stayed where he was, grateful it wasn’t him making the long trek to confront the woman.

  As Jackson mounted the stairs to room three-eighteen, he went over what he wanted to say, reminding himself he needed to show the utmost in tact. That comment proved to be downright prophetic when he rapped on the door.

  From inside, Tessa Connelly was in no mood for a visitor. But since she’d come to this wide spot in the road on her own to find Ryan, she was determined to put up with the local yokel attitude, which seemed to run glacial cold toward strangers. For the past week, she’d clearly felt the sting of being the outsider.

  Tessa stared through the peephole, only to see a man she didn’t recognize. He had tawny skin, a mass of dark sable hair, one shade off from inky black. The amber burnish to his chocolate eyes reminded her of exotic locales. She pegged him right away as having Native American roots or a fair amount of Creole running through his veins. All he needed was a cutlass in his hand and he could easily pass for a seventeenth-century pirate. She recalled walking past a statue near the marina. The resemblance to that monument and her visitor was uncanny. There was a familiarity around the nose and mouth, the same way his eyes were set as if he were on a dogged mission.

  Cautious to a fault, but even more so since arriving in Indigo Key, Tessa shouted through the wood, “State your business and tell me who you are and what you want.”

  Jackson went into his rehearsed spiel, introducing himself in a louder tone to pen
etrate through the door. Explaining the reason for his visit, he went on, “My sister’s family has been missing since Wednesday. Chief Sinclair told me you’re looking for your brother. I need to ask you a few questions about what he was doing down here and why he was demanding money from Walker Buchanan.”

  That statement had Tessa throwing open the door with attitude and bluster. “Demanding money? Are you sure that’s the approach to this you want to take right off the bat? Accusing my brother of…”

  Jackson didn’t hear the last part. He stood back and gaped at the knockout redhead who answered the door. She had long copper-colored hair that swung in a tapered cut down to her shoulders. Her face was like the silky dew of morning, flawless except for a splash of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her deep sapphire eyes narrowed into sharp crystals. At the moment her lips leaned toward pouty, or maybe just a flat-out ill-tempered mouth.

  Tessa stared at the visitor, who hadn’t spoken another word. “Well? What’s wrong with you? Is everyone in this town just plain rude or what?”

  That insult had him shaking off the dazzle, coming back to earth with a sputter. “You’re Tessa Connelly?”

  “I thought we’d already established that.” A measure of sympathy moved through her knowing she’d seen his sister’s story plastered all over the local news channels. But she still took exception to the man’s accusatory tone when it came to Ryan. “For your information, my brother was looking to get paid. Walker Buchanan hired Ryan to design his website, begged him to create something that really popped. Ryan got half upfront, but that left a balance of five grand. Walker owed my brother the other half of the money. Ryan came down here to collect it.”

  Jackson whistled through his teeth. “Ten grand’s a steep price to pay for a simple site when I can do one for a fraction of that cost.”

  Tessa’s fists curled and landed on her hips. She glared back at him in a fighting stance. “Sure, you could go that way if you preferred tacky. Your brother-in-law wanted upscale and market-friendly, including the ability to shop and order online. He wanted features like a shopping cart and forums where customers could ask questions about the herb and vitamin supplements. Those features jacked the price up. Ryan put together all the bells and whistles while I wrote the copy. That price also came with one year of web hosting and maintenance. If you ask me, Walker got an exceptional deal for all that stuff he requested.”