Beautiful Storm (Lightning Strikes Book 1) (7 page)

"You lived across the street?"

"Yes. Our families were very close. My father and Liliana's father both came over from Cuba in the 80s. They were part of something called the Mariel Boatlift."

"I've never heard of that."

"It was a rare moment in time when thousands of people were allowed to leave Cuba. My father came over with two of his siblings. His parents were in ill health and stayed behind, but they encouraged their children to go. They wanted the next generation to have a better life."

"Does your father have a better life?"

"He does now. There were a lot of lean years early on. After my mom died, he was in a dark place. I couldn't talk to him at all. Liliana was a good friend to me during those years. She was one of the few people I could really talk to."

Alicia realized in that moment that there was absolutely no way that Michael had hurt Liliana. There was too much pain and guilt in his eyes. "Have you told the police about your relationship with Liliana?"

He started, as if she'd just pulled him out of the past. "I told them we were childhood friends, which was confirmed by numerous other people, but they were more focused on the fact that Liliana seemed desperate to talk to me and that I was twenty minutes late for our meeting."

"That doesn't seem like enough to make you a suspect."

"They were grasping for something and that's all they came up with. Plus, my history with Kellerman didn't help."

"Did you start getting into trouble after your mother died?"

"I definitely ran wild without her influence on me. Things got worse when my dad remarried when I was eleven. He was very happy with his new wife. Veronica was a local woman of Cuban descent. They had a lot more in common than my parents had had. My father and Veronica quickly added three girls to the family, each born a year apart. I ended up sleeping on the couch for a while."

She was beginning to see what he'd meant when he'd said he'd lived his life in three parts. In the middle part, he'd basically lost his family and had been drifting. Liliana had been more than his friend; she'd been his anchor.

"Did Liliana get into trouble with you?" she asked. "You said you started going down the wrong path when you were a young teenager."

"No, when I went off the rails, Liliana was doing her own thing. She wasn't too impressed by my swagger," he said with a rueful smile. "She thought I was turning into a criminal. She was afraid for me. She was very happy when my grandfather stepped in. I didn't feel the same way."

"What did your grandfather do?"

"After I got arrested for stealing, he got me an attorney who negotiated a plea deal. I finished out that school year, did community service, paid restitution and then my grandfather convinced my father to send me to prep school. He said I was out of control, that I needed to be with kids who had drive and ambition that extended beyond building a criminal record. It was the same school my mother had gone to—a boarding school outside of Boston. It was the first time my father and grandfather ever agreed on anything. Next thing I knew, I was on a plane."

"So that began part three of your life."

"Yes. My life changed dramatically. I hated that school at first, and the weather sucked. It was cold all the time."

She smiled at that. "Miami does bring the heat."

"Yeah, I didn't appreciate that at the time. At the new school, I broke every rule I could."

"So you would get kicked out? So you could go home?"

"Part of me didn't want to go back, because my father had finally shown how much he did not want me to be in his new family. So why would I want to return? I didn't fit in there. But I didn't fit in that well at prep school either."

She was beginning to see that Michael had never really fit in anywhere. "But you stuck it out."

"Didn't have a choice, really. Eventually, it got better. In the end, it was the best move of my life. My grandfather offered me opportunities that I wouldn't have had if I'd stayed in Miami. Now my life is good. The only mistake I've made recently was to come home, but when the development project came up, I had a moment of temporary insanity. I thought it might be interesting to see everyone again. Bad decision. If I had stayed away, Liliana wouldn't have tried to meet me, probably wouldn't be missing, and I wouldn't be a suspect."

"I don't think you can make that assumption, Michael. She might have still gone out that night, maybe even to that same restaurant. I know what it's like to play the
what-if
game, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. I used to ask myself what if I had asked my dad to stay home that day. What if I'd told him I was sick and I didn’t want him to go, would he have cancelled his flight? Or what if the group hadn't booked their charter flight that day, what if they'd left a day earlier, would he still be alive?" She gave him a compassionate smile. "It becomes a never-ending loop. You can't go back in time. You can't change what happened."

"No, but I can try to make things right. I need to find Liliana."

"I'm sure you've been looking as hard as you can."

"Yes, but we ran out of places to look. Thankfully, because of you, we now have somewhere new to focus on."

"I'm glad about that, but I want to do more. I realize that I don't know her, and I'm not family or a friend or anyone with investigative experience, but I still feel this driving need to help find her."

"I feel the same way, but the police don't keep me in the loop, and my own family seems to have trouble trusting me with information."

"But someone told you about my discovery at the park, so you're not completely out of the loop."

"That was a friend, someone who would probably get into trouble for telling me, but he wanted to give me a heads-up that I might need an alibi for yesterday evening."

"They wanted to know where you were at the time I saw Liliana." She hadn't considered that Michael's whereabouts might have been questioned by the police.

"Yes. But my neighbor was able to verify that I was in my apartment building at the time you were in the park. Not that that has completely cleared me of suspicion since Kellerman works hard to hang on to his only person of interest," he said, his voice edged with anger.

"Well, hopefully, he finds someone else of interest soon." She cleared her throat. "There have to be some other suspects."

"Not that I've heard mentioned for more than a split second."

"The police must have created some sort of a timeline from when she landed in Miami until Friday night. I would think they would have talked to anyone she came into contact with."

"Like I said, the police don't share their investigation with me, but I would make the same assumption."

"Maybe you should ask your friend—the one who wanted you to have an alibi."

"I don't want to involve him. He's taken too many chances already for me." Michael paused. "Do you have any coffee? I should have grabbed one at the café. I could use a caffeine boost."

"I can make some," she replied, getting to her feet.

"Great. The night is catching up with me."

"No sleep, huh?" she asked as she started the coffeemaker.

"Not even a minute."

"I didn't get much, either. I kept thinking about what I'd seen. I couldn't wait for it to be morning. I had to get back out there."

"You were there early. I didn't expect to see anyone before dawn."

"I didn't notice your car when I pulled into the lot."

"I parked on the ocean side. I didn't know exactly where you'd found the tag, only that it was somewhere in the park."

She pulled out two mugs, thinking she might need more caffeine, too. "Did Liliana have a history of going to that park?"

"Not that I know of. We never went there together. It was not the nicest park when we were growing up. They've fixed things up in the last few years." Michael paused. "I don't know why she would have been there last night. It was storming. What the hell were they doing out there? They certainly weren't taking photographs."

"No, they weren't doing that." She poured coffee into two mugs then took them both over to the table and sat back down. "If you want cream or sugar—"

"Black is fine," he said, taking a sip. "Nice and strong—just the way I like it."

"Me, too. I've never seen the purpose in turning my coffee into something that looks like a milkshake. I'd rather just drink a milkshake."

Her words eased the tension in his face. "I feel exactly the same way."

"Really? No fancy cappuccino or latte maker in your home?"

"I wouldn't go that far. My company stocked the kitchen with everything I could possibly want."

"Lucky you."

"Not feeling that lucky these days," he said, raising the mug to his lips.

"I guess not. So getting back to the case. What's your next move?"

"I'm out of moves."

"Are you sure?"

"What do you have in mind, Alicia?"

She thought for a moment. The police had probably talked to everyone who had ever spoken to Liliana. But was it possible there had been gaps in the timeline? Could Liliana have tried to connect to any other old friends besides Michael? "When I asked you what you knew that no one else knew about Liliana, you told me that Liliana almost ran off to get married when she was a teenager."

"Yeah, so?"

"Do you know if she kept in touch with that man? Is he someone she might have seen when she came back to town for a few days?"

Michael's brows knit together. "Possibly. Why?"

"I was just thinking that if Liliana reached out to you, perhaps she reached out to other old friends as well."

"She mentioned to me a few years ago that Brad had gotten married, and she was happy for him, that it seemed like he'd finally moved on with his life."

"Does Brad still live in Miami?"

"I think so."

"Did the police talk to Brad when Liliana disappeared?"

He frowned. "I would doubt it. Unless there was some evidence that she connected with him. I've never heard anyone in her family mention him, not that I specifically asked."

"Maybe you should ask. Or maybe we should see what we can find out about him on our own."

He stared at her with a gleam in his eyes. "Are we working together now, Alicia?"

It was probably the worst idea she'd ever had. On the other hand…she wasn't ready to walk away from the mystery. "Well, the police don't seem interested in keeping either of us up to date, and we both want to help find Liliana, so I'm thinking we should join forces and see if we can come up with a new perspective. It's not like we can hurt anything by digging around a little. We can only help, right?"

"Right." He gave her a searching gaze. "But I need to ask you something first."

She knew what he wanted to know. "Yes, I believe you're innocent."

Relief flashed through his brilliant blue eyes. "I think that's the first time anyone has said the words with actual certainty. And it's you," he said with some degree of amazement. "A woman I only met a few hours ago, not a family member or a friend. How can you trust me when people who've known me since I was born have doubts? It sounds a little—"

"Crazy?" she put in with a laugh.

The smile spread across his face in a very attractive way changing his whole expression, lightening his demeanor. "You said it; I didn't. But seriously, Alicia…"

"When you talk about Liliana there's pain in your eyes. If you're faking it, then you're really good at it. But I don't think you're pretending."

"I'm not," he said quietly.

"My gut tells me to trust you. So far, it hasn't steered me wrong. I hope this won't be the first time."

"It won't be."

"Good. Let's see if we can find Brad on the Internet. What's his last name?"

"Harte," he said, spelling it out for her.

She opened her computer and typed in Brad's name. "What do you know about him? Do you have any idea what he does for a living?"

"He always liked motorcycles. I think I heard that he worked for a dealer or was a mechanic."

"So you knew him when you were a kid?"

"I knew who he was. He had a younger brother who was a year ahead of me in school. I remember Brad used to speed through the neighborhood on his motorcycle and the older neighbors were pissed about it. That's the extent of my knowledge of him."

She typed some words into the search engine, but the results were not promising. "Let's try social media." She started another search, and this time the results were better. "I think I found him." She turned the computer screen around so Michael could look at the photograph of a man on a bike.

"That's him," Michael said.

While most of Brad's profile was private, there were a few public facts, including the name of the motorcycle shop where he worked.

"We've got an address," she said with excitement.

Michael gave her a rather impressed look. "That was fast. Maybe you should have been a cop instead of a photographer."

"I may have found nothing more than a motorcycle dealership, but it's a place to start."

"A good place," he agreed, getting to his feet. "Shall we go now?"

She couldn't think of a reason not to go. "All right."

"I'll drive. I'm in a two-hour spot, so I need to move the car anyway."

"Sounds good."

As she stood up, Michael's gaze met hers. "Thanks, Alicia."

"I haven't done anything yet."

"Yes, you have. You've given me hope."

Her heart warmed at his words. "I'm glad, but I have to say this could all lead nowhere."

"Even if that's the case, it's something to do, and I've been wanting to take action for a long time, but whenever I attempted to get involved, I was shut down. It's been incredibly frustrating."

She couldn't even imagine how he'd felt when the police had turned their suspicion on him. "Well, you're not on your own anymore. You've got a partner." She grabbed her jacket as they headed out the door. "Hopefully, together, we can make something happen."

Six

He had a partner
, Michael thought in bemusement, as he opened his car door for Alicia. He hadn't started out the day that way, but things had definitely taken a turn for the better. And he liked that his partner was a beautiful, curious, and fearless lightning chaser… He liked it even more that she'd instinctively trusted him.