She of the Sea

22 of 53 - A Troubled Family

Bruce Webb sat in his parked car down the street from the home of a man who had filed a disability claim with his employer, a tree trimming company. The man supposedly ruptured two vertebrae in his back when he fell from a tree while on the job. Since he had a history of filing questionable claims, the tree trimming company hired the PI firm Webb worked for to investigate their employee. The assignment went to him.

A tropical storm threatening the Gulf coast was on the way. The sky had gone thick with clouds and turned dark gray. He would soon have to abandon the stakeout. The man's wife pulled into the driveway and honked her horn.

He came out of the house, glanced around, and helped his wife unload groceries. Webb zoomed in his camera and recorded a video. "Gotcha!"

The man made several trips to the car for groceries, and the money shot came when he bent over the open trunk and hoisted out two cases of beer stacked atop each other. Webb was pleased. His job was rarely this easy. He emailed the video to his boss and sent a message he was calling it a day. With the storm coming, he needed to get home.

While driving, he thought about Cassandra Drakos. During his breakfast meeting with Danno Holt, he swore to his old crew member he knew nothing about her whereabouts. He read doubt in Danno's expression. It made him especially vigilant during his trips to Clearwater to make sure he wasn't being followed or otherwise tracked.

Webb contemplated knocking on her aunt's door and confessing to the two women all he knew. It would spook them. They would think him sketchy for having kept tabs on the girl for the past five years, but Cassandra's safety trumped their opinion of him. Marnie had performed admirably keeping her niece safe and under control, but if his old crew was sniffing around again, he needed to warn them to run.

Cassandra's sudden disappearance stopped Webb from acting on his plan. The girl never failed to hit the beach around noon, and for the past three days she had been a no show.

He thought she and her aunt might have gone on a trip or moved away, but Marnie's car remained parked in its spot, and he had seen the woman outside, taking trash to the condo dumpster. He doubted Cassandra was laid up sick. Nothing seemed to keep that girl down.

Webb's intuition led him to believe she was being watched over by someone else, a person equally concerned about her well-being as Marnie. The only person to come to mind would be Milos Argyros. If that were the case, Cassandra was probably in more danger with him than if she had remained with her aunt. Tipstaff Security would anticipate the move and eventually close in.

Webb planned on spending some time in Tarpon Springs to see if he could track her down near her uncle's hangouts. He had long since given up trying to rationalize the reason behind his fixation on the girl. He just accepted it as guilt over being involved with the killing of her mother and his fear of her fate should Doctor Armando get his grubby hands on her.

He also acknowledged his curious fascination over what she was. Cassandra had seemed so normal five years ago when he met her during that chance encounter, adorable even. As a teen girl she continued to do teen girl things, nothing out of the ordinary. He couldn't reconcile how someday she might become something else. He needed to find out for himself when and how that might occur.

Webb pulled into his garage as the first thick drops of rain splashed down. Brandon burst from the house into the garage carrying a baseball and both gloves. His face turned glum when he saw the rain. "You promised you would play catch with me."

He hated disappointing his son, but this time it wasn't his fault. "We can blame the rain for ruining our fun. I'm just as bummed about it as you are. I was really looking forward to seeing how well your pitches have improved."