Read Online Dawn Patrol by Jeff Ross - Free Book Online

about?” I asked.
    Kevin peered around a palm. The beach was still empty. A few surfers were being pulled in, either beaten and worn from riding the waves or having decided they weren’t good enough to be out there in the first place.
    â€œWhere is he?” Kevin asked.
    â€œWho?”
    â€œDelgado. You were with him, right?”
    â€œHe’s still out there, as far as I know. He wouldn’t tow me into the wave.”
    â€œAnd where’s Esme?”
    â€œWith him, I guess. Why?” I asked.
    Kevin stared at me. “He…he has my parents. They came down here to get away from that stupid investigation. They didn’t die in the plane crash. Are you sure Esme didn’t come in?”
    â€œWho told you they’re still alive?” I asked.
    â€œDelgado. But it makes sense. My dad is a good pilot. He would have known how to crash land a plane in bad weather.”
    â€œWait,” I said. “Back up. Delgado contacted you? When?”
    â€œAbout six months ago. He called and told me my parents had survived and were in hiding. He was protecting them. He said they couldn’t contact me because they thought I was being watched and my phone and email monitored.”
    â€œBut no one noticed he called you?”
    â€œI don’t know, Luca. Delgado was very cryptic. I came down here so I could talk to him.”
    â€œWhy didn’t you contact the police?”
    â€œIf I had talked to anyone in the US and they found out my parents were alive, they would have arrested them.”
    It all seemed so crazy. “So, Delgado contacted you and…what? What does he want from you?”
    â€œHe wants to finish my parents’ hotel on the other side of the island.”
    â€œWe saw it,” I said. “I didn’t know your dad had invested in a place here.”
    â€œThe plan is for Delgado to run it. This area is becoming a destination spot. And with the waves here, the hotel will be filled with surfers year-round. The hotel wasn’t part of my dad’s business. It was something he was doing on the side. My parents wanted to retire down here. But Delgado said they had to get away from the investigation, so they staged the plane crash. But after the crash, construction had to stop.”
    â€œWhat exactly was the investigation about?”
    â€œMy dad was being investigated for some kind of fraud. I guess he figured eventually someone would find out about the hotel and it would be taken away from him, like everything else was. So he put it in Delgado’s name. Not that my dad is guilty. The whole investigation is bogus anyway.”
    â€œI figured it was. Your dad is a good person.”
    â€œExactly. The government thinks my dad has been defrauding a group of investors. But he didn’t know anything about it. Before they came down to Panama, he caught one of his managers doing something illegal. But it was going to be impossible to prove my dad didn’t know what had been happening. So he and my mom came down here for a while. Until things calmed down.”
    I didn’t understand the business world Mr. Taylor moved in. He was a great surfer and a good guy. He wouldn’t have been involved in something underhanded. “Why didn’t you come here with them?” I asked.
    â€œI was supposed to meet up with them later, after graduation.”
    â€œI don’t get it. If your parents are here, what does Delgado need you for?”
    â€œBecause of my parents’ life insurance.” Kevin looked away. The waves were coming in heavy, heaving swells. I watched as a surfer was tossed off his board and disappeared into the angry, frothing mess of a wave.
    â€œWhat about the life insurance?” I asked.
    â€œWho’s the blond you’re with?” Kevin asked.
    â€œAlana. We just met the other day.”
    Kevin winked at me. “She’s hot.”
    â€œYeah, and back to you, Kevin. What about your