Page 97 of Sunset Beach
“So… uh, what causes his condition?” Drue asked, handing Wendy a tissue.
“Damned if I know,” Wendy said, sinking down onto an armchair. “He keeps showing up at the urologist’s office, with that… thing. Last week, their office manager threatened to call the police and have him charged with indecent exposure. He’s been back to the neurologist’s office too. Same story. Nobody knows what to do about it.”
“Find him a concubine?” Drue suggested.
Wendy burst out laughing again, but suddenly stopped. “Oh God,” she gasped.
“What?” Drue stood up, alarmed. “Is something wrong?”
“I think I just peed my pants,” Wendy said. “And it’s your fault.”
The phones began ringing and didn’t stop for the next four hours. It was nearly one when Marianne appeared and announced that she would take over the reception desk for the rest of the day. “Wendy says you should go to lunch,” Marianne said.
Ben was sitting at a table in the break room, typing furiously on his laptop, but he stopped abruptly when Drue joined him at the table, and closed the lid.
“You don’t have to stop working just because of me,” she said, unwrapping her turkey sandwich.
“It’s okay. I’m done.” He tore open a bag of chips resting alongside his own half-eaten sandwich.
“What are you working on?” she asked. “If it’s not top secret.”
“Nothing,” he said, flushing. “Just a kind of side hustle.”
“Lucky you,” Drue said. “Wish I had a side hustle.”
“I thought you did,” Ben said. “The Jazmin Mayes thing? Anything interesting going on with that?”
Drue smiled enigmatically.
“I’ll show you mine if you’ll show me yours.”
Ben raised an eyebrow.
“Get your mind out of the gutter,” she said. “I’m talking side hustles.”
He hesitated, nervously tapping his fingertips on the lid of the laptop.
“Okay,” he relented. “It’s a video game. But you’ve got to swear you won’t tell anybody.”
“That’s it? You’re playing video games on your lunch hour? Sorry, but that’s not exactly classified information, Ben.”
“It’smyvideo game,” he said, puffing up slightly. “I’ve been working onit for the past two and a half years and now I’mthisclose to taking it to market.”
“Good for you,” Drue said. “I hope it sells a million copies.”
“It better,” he said. “Now it’s your turn. Tell me what’s happening with your secret project?”
“As a matter of fact, there’s a lot going on,” Drue said, trying to subdue a yawn. “Last night I tracked down Jazmin’s former boyfriend, who had some interesting things to say about some ‘porn parties’ the hotel’s head of security used to throw.”
“Gross,” Ben said, popping a potato chip in his mouth. “But what’s that got to do with Jazmin’s murder?”
“I’m getting to that,” Drue said. “Did I tell you that I talked to one of the police detectives who’s worked on the case since day one?”
“No.”
“Yeah. I did. She says that Jazmin’s murder wasn’t just some random stranger-on-stranger thing. Rae says it was violent and it was personal, and she’s sure it was a man. A man who knew Jazmin.”
“Rae?”
