Read Online Curveball by Jen Estes - Free Book Online

here until we have a chance to take your statement.”
    So they did. Huddled under the blanket, they silently observed the scene. Paramedics
     arrived. A news truck showed up behind them. Spectators began to pile up on the boardwalk.
     Then the coroner’s van pulled up. Stakes were set up along the beach and an officer
     used it to enclose the area with bright yellow barricade tape.
    ESCENA DE CRIMEN—NO CRUZAR
    CRIME SCENE—DO NOT CROSS
    With each minute, the hotel seemed farther away. Cat no longer found the ocean soothing.
     Instead, the black ripples of waves seemed to mock her with each crash.
    She turned away from the depths to overhear Chance telling a detective in Spanish
     that neither she nor Paige spoke the language. Before she could correct him, another
     officer approached them.
    “Ladies?”
    From her mound in the sand, Cat looked up to see a stocky policeman with a kind smile
     and bags under his eyes.
    “I’m Detective Alomar. I am sorry for your wait.” He spoke with the faintest of accents.
     She wondered if the search for an English-speaking detective was responsible for the
     delay. Perhaps if she had taken charge the way Chance had, she, Paige and Detective
     Alomar could be in their respective beds instead of trapped in an episode of CSI: Santo Domingo .
    Cat started to stand, elbowing Paige and pulling her to her feet. “No that’s fine.”
     They stayed hunched together under the blanket. The wind had picked up, making the
     Dominican night quite chilly. “We found, uh, the body.”
    He nodded. “I just need a couple minutes of your time to take your statement.”
    “Of course.”
    Paige’s teary eyes stared off into the distance. Cat nudged her again. “Paige? You
     still with me?”
    Paige snapped back to reality and blinked the tears away. She issued a paparazzi-ready
     smile. “ Statement . Got it. This isn’t my first statement to foreign law enforcement. Apparently not
     all French beaches are topless.” She said it in a stage whisper to Cat, but it was
     obviously for the policeman’s benefit. She brought her volume back to the normal levels
     and answered the detective’s first question before he could ask it.
    “Paige Aiken. That’s P-A-I-G-E A-I-K-E-N.”
    He smiled. “Thank you, Ms., uh, Aiken.”
    “We’re both in town working for the Buffalo Soldiers. We’re staying at the La Concha Gran Hotel , room 626. This is my roommate, Catriona McDaniel.” She pointed at the hotel up on
     the beach and clarified to Cat, “I checked us in already.”
    He scribbled on his notepad. “Thank you. Now, can you walk me through the events of
     the evening after your dinner with uh …” He flipped to the previous page in his notepad,
     “Mr. Hayward? He’s a friend of both of yours?”
    Paige spoke up again before Cat could. “We met earlier today. On the beach. This beach.
     He took me out to dinner over there. The uh …”
    “Ah, La Tambora . Very nice.”
    “Yeah. Cat met us there. And then after dinner all three of us went for a walk on
     the beach and were sitting right here when I noticed it .” Paige’s full lips disappeared as she pressed them together. “ Him , I guess.”
    Cat’s eyes shot over to the rocks but the horrible sight was no longer there. Instead
     he lay on the coroner’s gurney, being prepared for his glorified garment bag. Cat
     shuddered and looked back at the detective. Entranced, he nodded with every syllable
     Paige uttered. So far, Paige-induced hypnosis seemed to be an affliction to which
     every man on the island was predisposed.
    Paige continued in her best campfire storytelling voice. “We walked closer and that’s
     when we were sure. It was a dead body. Cat here totally lost it. Chance called you
     guys right then. Nine-one-one, I guess. Do you guys even have nine-one-one here?”
    Cat silenced her with an irritated shush.
    The detective twirled his pen. “Did you notice anyone else in the area?”
    Paige shook her head. “I