Bad Attitude (24 page)

“You going to stick around?” Beach asked through a yawn. His eyes were fluttering the way they’d been most of the day.

It was getting close to the time when the nurses came around to usher people out. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“You know I probably own lots of stock in…wherever I am.”

Gavin wanted to laugh in relief. That was Beach. Bulling through anything.

After Beach had nodded off, Gavin called Jamie to apologize and ask for a rain check.

“How’s he doing?”

“All right. He doesn’t remember much about the accident.”

“They’re going to want to question him. He might want to get a lawyer ready to go,” Jamie suggested with an effort that sounded as if it twisted him in a knot just to offer the inside information.

“Thank you. I’ll mention it.”

Gavin could almost hear Jamie’s shrug.

“So, you’d pick a night on a chair instead of a night in my bed.” Jamie’s voice pumped blood places Gavin swore would be dormant for at least another few hours. “I promised we’d go easy. On your ass anyway.”

“Who said I wanted to.”

Now Gavin heard Jamie smile. “You’re really something, Montgomery.”

For an instant, Gavin remembered how often Jamie used that name to push distance between them, but now there was as much affection in it as when he whispered
babe
in bed. Gavin felt a distinct urge to bash himself in the head with the phone for letting himself get sentimental about what Jamie called him.

“Hey,” Jamie said. “You know, it’s that Harbor Festival this weekend, and I’ll be working my ass off until Monday. If you change your mind, I’ll leave the back door unlocked.”

Gavin planned to make use of that as soon as he was sure Beach was really out. Not seeing Jamie for three days—Gavin would definitely take advantage of the chance to store up some time.

Over the weekend, Jamie sent texts about fuckwitted tourists and pathetic sailors who couldn’t hold their liquor. Beach was allowed solid food and to get out of bed without assistance, Gavin following him around the halls as Beach remembered how to use his legs. Other than his spotty memory, Beach was himself. Gavin knew they would release Beach soon when he felt good enough to get into a rant about the food.

“Do not darken my door again unless you bring me something freshly killed and lightly seared.” He threw down the spork that had come sealed in plastic, like the rest of his Sunday lunch. “All right, Gavin. Let’s hear the real story.”

“Which one?”

“The one that explains what actually happened that night. My lawyer assures me that due to my recent incapacitation, after the appropriate checks are cashed, I will not be charged with anything but a violation on my license. You can tell me the truth now.”

After sending something he hoped would calm Jamie enough to keep him from sinking the capsized sailboat he had been sent out to get upright, Gavin tucked his phone away. “What do you remember?”

“For the most part, I remember the party. You were in a shitty mood. I wanted you to have fun.”

“Did you spike the shots?”

Beach shrugged eloquently. “I have such a spotty memory.” His smile vanished, forehead wrinkling as he thought. “But there was something. Something important. When we left, I had something I had to do. Or get or…”

Gavin waited.

“Damn, it’s right there.” Beach jabbed a finger into a spot near his hairline. “Squirming away when I get close.”

“Stab it,” Gavin suggested, offering the discarded spork.

“Brilliant suggestion. So after we left…” Beach tilted his head.

“You look very Southern belle like that, my friend.”

“Stop trying to get under my skirts…” Beach plucked at his hospital gown, “…and tell me what the fuck happened.”

“You were driving me out to Holly Neck.” Unlike Beach’s, Gavin’s memory was all too clear. “I—uh—insisted on putting down the top on the Bentley. I wanted to see the stars.”

That didn’t provoke any sort of reaction.

“I asked again if you were able to drive. Then you stopped in the middle of the bridge.”

“Now why in the hell would I do that?” Beach scratched at the razor stubble on his jaw.

“You said you thought you could swim it. I think you meant out to Fort Carroll. You could see it easily, with the top down.”

Beach’s eyes got wide. “Fort Carroll…”

Gavin waited for blame, for confirmation that his idiotic insistence on driving with the top down had started the whole chain of events, but Beach had turned inward, chasing the elusive memory again.

“Damn. I remember. My cousin Beauregard, he told me—” Beach was sifting through again. Gavin wanted to shake the information out of him.

Beach looked up at Gavin with clear eyes and a jutting jaw. Whatever he’d remembered, it had gelled now.

“My great-great-grandfather had a ring made, a seal with a signet. Fancy romantic thing you could spin to reveal the seal.” Beach set off as if he were getting into one of his stories. He was good at them, had kept Gavin entertained long into the night any number of times in prep school, but Gavin wasn’t interested in a story. He only wanted to know why Beach had jumped.

“My grandfather’s baby brother, Uncle Wynant, stole it from my father. Beau said his Uncle Titus got it and dropped it out on Fort Carroll during some crazy party in the ’90s.”

“Fascinating.”

“What is?”

Gavin folded his arms, leaned back in the chair and stretched his legs out. “You actually have a cousin named Beauregard Beauchamp.”

“Fuck off. The thing is, that girl who claims my dad was having an affair with her, said the stuff about my father, we were always sure she just wanted money. And she claims he gave her the ring. But if the ring is out on Fort Carroll, my father could come home.” Beach’s eyes were bright, alive with the sort of energy that had swept Gavin up in more than one disaster in prep school. He could still see the half-gelatined pool.

“Great. You can call your father and hire someone to find it.”

“No way. I can find it. I’ll get one of those things the beach bums use, a metal detector.”

“That’s crazy, Beach.” How many times had Gavin started to say that, only to find himself going along. Though he had to admit the semiliquid pool had been funny. “It’s an island. And I’m pretty sure it’s private property.”

“Beau was out there a couple years ago with some friend who was thinking of buying it to put a resort or something on it. It’s just a man-made island full of birds and bird shit. Who the fuck would care?”

“Well, when you get out, we’ll take a look,” Gavin offered, though he couldn’t help wonder what Jamie would have to say about that. While he might find the Jell-O-in-the-pool story funny, Gavin doubted Jamie would be behind this latest insanity from Beach.

“What?” Beach jabbed him with the spork.

“What what?”

“You’ve got an idea, or a plan to get laid, or maybe both.” Beach pointed at Gavin’s face.

There was something to be said for having known someone half your life, having shared adolescent secrets—it gave them an ability to read your face. “I’m merely thinking of what someone else I know would say about your quixotic idea.”

“A someone who you’re fucking. What’s his name? And go ahead, hit me with the nasty details.” Beach gave a sigh of profound suffering.

“I told you all about him while you were sleeping. So you missed that.”

“At least comas are good for something at least, because I don’t think I’m looking well rested. Lines, Gavin. I have lines.” Beach gestured at his forehead. “So what does your hot piece have to do with my island adventure?”

“He knows the harbor.”

“Perfect. When can he help?”

“He’s not going to help, he’s a cop.”

Beach’s shock was precisely the way Gavin had imagined it. “You’re dating a cop? What’s old Fortescue have to say about that?”

“Not a thing, if I can help it.”

“But this is so good. He’s probably got access to radar or something that could help us.” Beach looked at Gavin. “And if a police boat is moored there, we can go anytime, look as long as we want.”

“I’m not asking him.” Even if Gavin didn’t already know what the answer would be, there was no way he would put a strain on his and Jamie’s fragile new…connection by involving him or asking for a favor.

“I can pay him, I mean if…” Beach trailed off. “Seriously? You found a cop who was all noble and dutiful? Here?”

Gavin was torn between a desire to defend Jamie and the urge to distract Beach to get him off this track.

Beach knew Gavin too damn well. After making his mouth comically wide in surprise, Beach said, “Well, paint me brown and use me as a fence post, you’re really into this guy.”

Gavin shrugged.

“Never thought I’d see it.”

Beach was distracted all right, but not the way Gavin wanted.

“Now you’re going to have to bring him by,” Beach teased. “I have to see what got you to abandon your famous philosophy of ‘hit it and quit it.’”

“I’ve never said that.”

“True. But you have said the chase is half the fun.”

Gavin shrugged again. “Right now I’ll see if I can’t chase you down something better for dinner.”

“This is too good to be true. You, the human iceberg, all melty over some guy and running out the door rather than talk about it.”

Sometimes discretion was the better part of valor. “I yield the field.” Gavin nodded as he stood up.

“More like you in the Federal Army and we’d have won the damned war,” was Beach’s parting shot.

Gavin strolled up the hospital corridor cradling a steak dinner from Mancini’s tucked in close to preserve the warmth. When he turned the corner into Beach’s room, the sight of the stripped empty bed made him feel as though he’d missed the last couple of stairs. He grabbed the doorframe for balance. Beach was— No, he wasn’t dead. Gavin was pretty sure he knew where Beach was though. With that in mind, the fact that Beach might be dead before the day was over wasn’t too farfetched an idea.

An orderly came in and started making up the bed.

“Do you know where Mr. Beauchamp is?”

The orderly shook his head and pointed toward the nurses’ station. Knowing what the answer would be, Gavin asked the nurse who remembered him enough to unbend with, “Mr. Beauchamp is no longer staying with us.”

No doctor would have discharged him, especially not at seven on a Sunday evening.

Gavin thanked her and handed off the food. As soon as he was out of the hospital, he pressed the contact number he had for Beach but knew it was pointless. Beach’s old phone was in the bay, and who would go to the trouble of getting a new one for a man in a coma? Besides, Gavin knew exactly where Beach was headed, and Gavin cursed himself for bringing Beach some clothes.

Gavin called Jamie as he drove toward the marina where Beach kept his sport fishing cruiser. But it rolled straight to Jamie’s voicemail, and Gavin couldn’t figure out how to explain this in a message.

He tried again, ready this time. “I know you’re incredibly busy, but I’d appreciate it if you could call me back as soon as possible.”

The sun was sinking behind the Bank of America building by the time Gavin made his way through the traffic and found a spot near the Bridgestreet Marina.

He was almost jogging along the waterfront walkway when his phone rang.

He didn’t dare hope it was Beach, but he was surprised at how much relief he felt hearing Jamie’s voice.

“Sorry I missed you before. You do not want to know what happens to a kayak when someone on a speedboat is grabbing bikini ass instead of watching the water. Anything in the harbor smaller than sixty feet might as well be playing Frogger on eight lanes of traffic packed with semis.”

Gavin shut his eyes as he pictured fiberglass wreckage. He hoped he wasn’t too late. Because Beach’s sport cruiser might be big enough to be seen, but it was going to be piloted by someone freshly out of a coma and not thinking too clearly.

“I promise I’ll make it up to you this week, babe. What we’ve been missing.”

“That’s not why I called,” Gavin said.

“Didn’t think it was. But the offer still stands. And stands.” Jamie’s short laugh was husky, and Gavin knew he wasn’t entitled to one, but if he could trade his trust fund for a wish right now, he’d put Beach back in his bed so that Gavin didn’t have to try to explain this to Jamie.

Gavin took a deep breath. “I need some help. Beach is missing.”

“Missing? You mean they discharged him and—”

“No, I mean he walked out on his own because he’s got this idea in his head that he needs to go to Fort Carroll. It’s what he said that night, that he could swim to the island from the bridge. He thinks there’s something he needs out there.”

Gavin imagined Jamie rubbing the back of his neck, his lips pressed tight together.

“And you think he’s going to jump again to swim out there?”

“No. I think he’s going to try to take a boat out there.”

“I realize he’s been in a Rip Van Winkle, but it’s the festival. The only thing not in the harbor is an aircraft carrier. Tell me he knows how to pilot.”

“He does, he has his own boat, but he’s been—he’s barely out of his coma. He’s not himself.”

A seagull disturbed from its night roost screamed as it narrowly missed Gavin’s shoulder.

“Where are you?” Jamie demanded.

“Bridgestreet Marina. He has a berth here.”

“Okay, so if his boat is gone, you call 911 and tell them that someone with diminished capacity is driving and describe his boat. I just dropped off the kayaker at Harbor Hospital, but my sergeant is in Lynch Cove, he’ll be able to cut him off fast.”

“I can’t call 911 on Beach.”

“You called me. Supposing he doesn’t get into trouble in the harbor… Jesus. I’ve been out to Fort Carroll. It’s nothing but crumbling walls and guano. He’s not going to find anything there but another trip to the hospital.”

“I called you because I thought you could—”

“That I’d do it unofficially? As a favor? Keep your buddy from a trespassing arrest that’ll fuck up things up for him while he’s already busy wriggling out of dragging three aquatic divisions out because he was too high to think straight? He almost killed
you
, Gavin.”