“Hey, Beth,” her sister replied.
“You haven’t changed.”
“Neither have you.”
“I wish you’d told me you’d moved back.”
“I’ve been busy. You know how it is.”
Daniels was a bully, except when around her older sister. Then she was a wimp. Daniels shifted her attention to her brother-in-law.
“Nolan.”
“Beth.”
“You look good.”
“That’s funny, I don’t feel good,” Pearl said. “Melanie tells me that you tore Jon’s condo apart before calling us. I can’t say it surprises me. You were always one to shoot first and ask questions later.”
An awkward silence ensued. There was not enough pavement for Lancaster to stare at. Nicki came over and broke up the party.
“They’re going to cross A1A so they can go swimming in the ocean,” the teenager said. “Can we go too? I brought my swimsuit with me. It’s under my clothes.”
“Let’s ask Carlo,” Melanie said. “Carlo, what do you think?”
“Is this a public or private beach?” Carlo said.
“Private. Only the club’s members can use it,” Melanie said.
“That should be okay,” Carlo said.
“Yay!” Nicki said.
The birthday party was abandoning the pavilion for the beach. The partygoers walked single file down a gravel path through the mangroves. The Pearls were the last to leave, with Carlo behind them talking on his cell phone to his partners. Daniels stayed behind, shamed by the exchange with her brother-in-law. In her hand were the keys to the rental. Did she really think she could just leave?
Lancaster went over and snatched the keys out of her hand.
“You’re not wiggling your way out of this one,” he said.
Chapter 29
A Bigger Monster
The partygoers used the striped walkway to cross A1A. By the time they reached the beach, Nicki had seven adults protecting her. The teenager stripped off her clothes to reveal a pink bikini underneath and joined her friends in the water.
Lancaster stood a dozen yards away, taking everything in. There were perhaps twenty other swimmers enjoying the beautiful day, and a lone lifeguard sitting in a high chair. Daniels stormed over and grabbed his arm.
“Give me back my car keys,” she seethed.
“Not until you tell your sister and her husband what you’ve done,” he said.
“If you don’t give me my keys, I’ll arrest you.”
She had been reduced to threats, and he laughed under his breath. “What do you plan to tell the judge? That you ransacked my place without a warrant and held me against my will? Or that you made kiddie porn without considering the consequences?”
“Third time. It wasn’t intentional.”
“That’s a cop-out. I’ve dealt with perverts. Porn is the fuel that keeps them going. That’s especially true with pedophiles.”
“I want my keys.”
He’d had enough of Daniels and tossed her the keys. A reflection caught his eye. It was coming from the lifeguard chair, and he stepped forward for a better look. The lifeguard had a cell phone in his hand, and alternated looking at its screen and the kids playing in the water. In one of the Cassandra videos, the girl was wearing a hot-pink bikini. Talk about baiting a trap, he thought.
Daniels edged up beside him. “What are you looking at?”
“I thought you’d left,” he said.
“Would you like me to go?”
“No, I’d like you to help.”
“How so?”
“I found another stalker. I want you to arrest him.”
“The lifeguard? Why? Everyone looks at their cell phones.”
“Two people drowned last weekend from a rip tide. The lifeguard should be watching the people swimming in the water. Instead, he’s looking at the Cassandra videos on his cell phone and thinking the kid in the pink bikini is the same girl.”
“You’re sure about this?”
“I’ve already encountered a handful of these guys. They’re all the same. Once they spot Nicki, they whip out their cell phone and watch the videos they think are of her. They’re obsessed with her. Wait. There he goes.”
The lifeguard climbed down from his chair. He had sun-bleached hair and sunblock smeared across his nose, and his legs were nut brown and hairless. He was pushing fifty and very fit. He went toward the water holding his cell phone in front of him so he could look at the screen while he walked. None of the bodyguards nor Nicki’s parents noticed. He was a lifeguard, entrusted with keeping people safe, the perfect disguise.
“Care to join me?” Lancaster asked.
“Let me handle him. Watch my back.”
“Now you’re talking.”
They took off down the beach. Daniels had invisible wings on her feet, and he struggled to keep up with her. The lifeguard didn’t see them until it was too late. He dropped the cell phone to his side, his thumb nervously punching the screen.
Daniels whipped out a wallet and flipped it open. She shoved her badge into his face. “FBI. Give me your cell phone. Do it nice and slow.”
The lifeguard didn’t move, his thumb still jabbing the screen.
“I won’t tell you again,” she said.
His thumb was working overtime trying to exit the app he’d been using. Daniels had seen enough; she drew her gun and pointed it at the lifeguard’s chest.
“Get it from him,” she said.
Lancaster stepped forward and tried to take the cell phone out of the lifeguard’s hand. The lifeguard’s leg twitched. Sand flew in the air. Lancaster ducked and it missed him. Daniels wasn’t as fortunate and got hit in the eyes. The lifeguard went for the gun, and they wrestled for its possession. It went off, the barrel pointing at the sky. Lancaster jumped in. A man never stopped being a SEAL. His commander at basic training had said that. The lessons a SEAL learned became part of their DNA and could never be erased. He grabbed the lifeguard’s wrist and bent it back, the bones ready to break. The gun slipped out of the lifeguard’s hand, and he crumpled to the sand.
Lancaster retrieved the gun and the lifeguard’s cell phone. Daniels was trying to right the ship and get her vision back. He glanced at the cell phone’s screen. A Cassandra video was playing. The app was VideoVault, the same app that Zack Kenny had used to watch the Cassandra videos, and he wondered if that played into the FBI’s sting. He held the cell phone up to Daniels’s face so the video was the first thing she saw.
“Guilty as charged,” he said.
Discharging a firearm was a great way to break up a party. Every person on the beach or swimming in the water took off running, including Carlo and his partners, who whisked the Pearls away to safety. That left just Daniels, the lifeguard, and Lancaster.
The lifeguard’s cell phone was a treasure trove of sleaze and contained hundreds of videos of underage girls performing lewd acts. If presented at trial, it was enough evidence for a jury to find him guilty and send him away for many years. Daniels snapped the silver bracelets on and led him to the rental parked across the street.
“Do you want to talk to me?” Daniels asked.
The lifeguard stared at the ground and did not reply.
“If you play ball, I’ll see about reducing the charges,” she said.
The lifeguard’s head snapped. “What do you want to know?”
“Tell me about your partner.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I think you do. Roll on your partner, and I’ll get you sent to a country club prison with a bunch of white-collar criminals where you won’t have to be afraid of getting a shiv stuck in your back every time you take a shower.”
“Can I think about this?”
“You can think about it all the way to the police station.”