Face the Music

Chapter 12

I was grinning like an idiot.

"We are so close, Collins!" I said excitedly.

"That's great, Aimes. Do you think I should head back to Cali, or should I check out Greta's apartment? The landlord said that it's still under her name, there's just no one living there."

"I don't know. It probably can't hurt to check it out. I am curious about who's keeping up with the payments..." I said. "Maybe you'll find something helpful in there."

"All right. I'll wait a few more hours, just in case Joel isn't a liar and Loretto actually does show up, then I'll go take a peak," he told me. Then he asked, "so what did you do last night? Still about pouting about losing the coin toss?"

"Oh, yeah, you're going to love this," I told him, sarcastically. "Someone knows I'm in town. And they don't just know my alias, they know ME...the Benjamin Aimes me."

"What the hell? How do you know?" Collins asked.

"Because they beat the shit out of Ella and dumped her in my motel room. Then they left a note in her pocket that had my picture on it with my real name, telling me to leave town." I said, bitterly.

"Shit." Collins voice was frustrated, disbelieving. "Is she okay?"

"She will be," I replied. "I spent the night at her place to keep an eye on her. She refused to go to the doctor."

"And you didn't just drag her there?" Collins asked, stunned.

"I know I should have taken her, but something had her really spooked. She was yelling, and begging me to take her home. She said she didn't want to see a doctor because she didn't have health insurance, which is a valid excuse, I suppose, but no one is that scared of the hospital just because it's expensive... I just couldn't force her to go." I paused, thinking back on the night. "She was so scared, Collins."

"So does this means that she knows who you are now? Who you are and what you do?" Collins asked.

"C'mon, be serious," I said. "I couldn't tell her everything. I tried to tell her that I left the military police to be a real estate intern...Not my greatest cover," I admitted, wincing. "She saw right through it, so all I told her was that I was looking for someone, and that she'd be in danger if I told her any more."

"And she just left it at that?"

"Yep. So I walked her to work, and now I'm going to go find Joel and beat the shit out of him," I said, calmly.

"Uh... maybe not the greatest plan." Collins's voice came confused through the phone.

I laughed a little, "Relax, man, I'm kidding. I'll just go find him and watch him. I'll wait until it's dark before I grab him and do some creative interrogating. Besides, I know I'm being watched. I'm going to see if I can figure out who knows that I'm here."

"Okay, be careful. I'll let you know what I find up in Greta's apartment."

I hung up the phone and continued walking up the beach.

**

I found Joel sitting in Burger Joe's dining room talking on the phone. I sat in the sand behind a bush, watched him for about 30 seconds, and wanted to kill him even more. He was an asshole, plain and simple.

The longer that I looked at him, the more I started noticing small things that proved he was Loretto's son. Although he hadn't inherited Loretto's looks, he wore clothes that were too expensive for any normal college kid. He had designer khaki shorts, and authentic boat shoes - not the kind you could find at Walmart. His shirt was good quality, and freshly pressed, and it was tailored to fit his broad, muscular shoulders. He held a flawless iPhone to his ear, and on his wrist sat a golden Rolex.