Chasing Ghosts by Lee Driver

wrong
direction?”
    “ He’s asking about this
case?”
    “ I can tell when something piques
Dagger’s interest. He wasn’t just innocently strolling through the
parking lot where the man took a dive. He was genuinely curious.
Just haven’t figured out why yet and you certainly can’t convince
me you didn’t get the same impression,” she added with a sly
smile.
    The throaty sound of a powerful engine echoed
down the drive. Sunlight danced off the windshield of a blue Jaguar
XKR 100. The convertible screeched to a stop in front of them.
    Sheila smiled at the handsome man who leaped
over the driver’s side door. His sun bleached hair and tanned skin
spelled surf and sun. He pulled off aviator sunglasses and smiled
at Sheila.
    “ Like your taste in cars.” Nick Tyler
wrapped Sheila in a bear hug. “Hi, sis.” Sheila wasn’t any
relation. She was closer in age to Nick’s brother, Eric. But the
Tylers and Monroes were inseparable when they were growing up.
There were few multi- millionaire families in Cedar Point and they
all traveled in the same circles.
    “ Doesn’t anyone own a Prius these
days?” Padre asked. “You know, good mileage, help the environment,
go green.”
    “ When the Cedar Point police department
starts giving all their cops Priuses to drive, then I’ll buy one,”
Nick replied. He had a handshake for Padre, then plopped down on
the hood of Sheila’s Jag.
    “ Just get back into town?” Sheila
asked.
    “ This morning. There’s only so much of
nude beaches a guy can take.”
    “ I thought you majored in business
management?” Padre quipped.
    “ I was managing business.” Nick
grinned, revealing one deep dimple. “Thought I’d check out the
Tyler resort in Martinique. Dad’s trying to win me over by sending
me to the island resorts.”
    Padre’s phone rang. He checked the screen,
then flipped the phone open. “Martinez.” His face slowly showed
shock, then anger. “I’m on my way in.” He snapped the phone closed
saying, “Well, some of us have to work for a living.”
    “ Anything I should know about?” Sheila
had watched his face with curiosity. She could read just about
everyone’s face… sometimes.
    “ Nope.” With a wave to Sheila, Padre
said, “Adios,” turned and walked to his car.
    Nick watched the detective climb into the
battered car and drive away. “So what’s happened that has the
police on Dad’s doorstep?”
    Sheila filled him in on the cardinal’s visit
and the deaths at the hotel.
    “ The cardinal is staying here?” Nick
looked up at the house as though expecting to see the cardinal
watching them from a window.
    Sheila followed his gaze. “Nice guy for a
clergyman.” She returned her gaze to the fading taillights. “Wish I
could find a way to get on his good side.”
    “ The cop or the clergy?” That one
dimple showed itself as Nick climbed off the hood and carefully
wiped the tail of his shirt across the spot where he had sat. “Good
as new.”
    Sheila’s lacquered nails drummed on the purse
she clutched to her chest. “Are you going to be in town for a
while?”
    Nick knew Sheila well enough to know when she
was hatching a plan. “Why?”
    “ I thought you could be my eyes and
ears around the cardinal, maybe pick up a few words here and there.
I’m thinking he is playing down any death threats he’s received so
as to quell any negative publicity. Maybe he did know the guy who
pitched himself out of his hotel window. Maybe not. But he or his
handler may slip up.”
    “ Then you can do something for me.”
Nick walked back to his car, reached into the glove box, and pulled
out a small white box.
    “ For me?” Sheila said.
    Nick laughed. “No, but I’d like a woman’s
opinion.”
    Sheila set her purse on the car hood and
stared at the box with the excitement of a four-year-old on
Christmas morning. She carefully opened the lid and gasped. “Oh my
gawd!” A dazzling pink diamond perched in a marquise setting
sparkled in the