Read Online The Summer of Last Resort by J. A. Browning - Free Book Online

excuse about how late it was.
    “This could be a big deal, Jake”, she said with a serious tone in her voice. He nodded as she turned and slipped out the front door.

 
     
    ACT II - Investigation
     

    The next morning the sky was filled with that magical deep blue that you only see in the high desert. Along the horizon a few distant clouds retreated after yesterday’s rain, pink-tinged but fading in the morning light. Jake seldom thought about how beautiful it really was out here, but now he was filled with a new purpose, and new desires, and perhaps that made him more sensitive to his surroundings. Another man might have felt slighted by Sandy, but Jake felt more alive than he had in a long time. But then he thought about what it was going to take to track down that Kim girl when he had no idea of what he full name is, or where she lives, or anything. But the journal also said something about a guy named Keith. Who he was, or who she was, no one knew. How they related to our dead gangster was totally unknown. But Jake was determined to find out.
    Unfortunately the rest of the day spent on the phone chasing down leads given to him by his supervisor, Lou Smith. This was pointless. Or maybe he just wasn’t thinking straight, and had his head spun around by a dame, as Sam Spade would have said. Something told him that these kids were a sideshow, a distraction to Johnny Dimarino’s murder. Jake spent the rest of the day going from hotel to hotel with a mug shot of Johnny from a prior arrest, in an attempt to see he’d stayed in town – it was a long shot, but sometimes it paid off, but by 6 p.m. his dogs were burning and he was happy to call it a day.
    That evening, as he sat with a Pabst in one hand and a TV dinner in his lap, watching the news, the phone rang.

    “Jake? Hi. It’s Sandy.”
    “Oh, hi...” Jake wasn’t quite sure what to say.
    “Um, so, are you making any progress on the Dimarino murder?”
    “Yeah, well – it’s not going too fast.”
    “Did you think about college records?”
    “What do you mean,” Jake asked.
    “I mean college records. Their journals said they went to the same chemistry class. Just look for colleges in the area and check for his enrollment and a girl named Maria.”
    “Are you gonna sing for me?” Jake joked.
    “Maria, I just met a girl named Maria? I think that’s your line, Jake.”
    “Smartass.”
    “Just do it, Jake. And check out any writing classes. This journal crap is usually something you do in some kind of English class.”
    Jake thought about asking her over, but then thought better of it. Again there was silence on the phone, and then Sandy made some excuse and they said their good byes and hung up.
    It took three days, but, with persistent phone calls, cajoling, and a few threats, Jake finally managed to track down a small college south of Seattle were Shane Johnson and Maria Rodriguez both had the same chemistry class that summer.
    That night he gave Sandy a call. “Hey, you’ll never guess who I found,” he gloated.
    “Maria?”
    “Maria Rodriguez.”
    Really? That’s great, Jake. What did you find out about her?”
    “No priors, not much. Got an address, though. In Tacoma.”
    “Did you call the mom?”
    “Not yet.”
    “Well, I think you’re gonna want to go up there.”
    “Yeah, but easier said than done.”
    “Lou doesn’t want to spend the money?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I see. That’s too bad. Because I bet you can find these other kids pretty easy, particularly if you can find someone’s yearbook or something like that. You know, a high school yearbook? Most of these kids hang out together so it should be pretty easy to figure out who this Kim chick is. ”
    “Right,” Jake replied, feeling dumb for having the obvious explained to him.
    “And another thing, Jake. Do you know where Johnny’s club is?”
    “What club?”
    “The nightclub he runs. It’s right there …. Look, Jake, tell you what. Maybe I can pull some strings –