turned and slapped the ticket on the cook’s counter.
“I can afford it,” he said. “But it might cut into your tip.”
She fixed up an ice water and placed it before him. “If it’s going to cut into my tip, I won’t charge you for it. You think I work here for the wages?” She gave the counter a wipe. “I know you’re not just passing through—there’s only two ways into this town, and both are inconvenient.”
“Two ways?” he asked, confident she was going to tell him about Gibbons to Bailey’s, down the hill, or Indigo Sea Drive, right through the heart of town.
“By land or by sea,” she said. “We are en route to nowhere.”
“I am, though. Passing through. Ben Bailey was a friend of mine and I just heard—”
She got a stricken look on her face. “Oh, I’m sorry! Man, we miss Ben around here.”
“That’s why I’m hanging around—to meet some of his friends. Ben and I met in the Army, a long time ago. We stayed in touch, but I’ve never been up here before.”
“Ben was such a nice guy—the last person I could imagine losing.”
“Who were his closest friends?” Cooper asked.
“Oh, hell, no one and everyone,” she said with a shrug. “Ben kind of watched over the whole town, but I don’t know of any one or two people he was best friends with.”
The door opened and Mac came in. He wasn’t in uniform this morning and looked just as comfortable in jeans, boots, plaid shirt and jacket.
“This is the guy you should probably ask,” Gina said. “Hey, Mac.”
He pulled off his cap and sat next to Cooper at the counter. “Ask me what?”
“This guy was a friend of Ben’s—”
“We’ve met,” Mac said, sticking out a hand. “How’s it going, Mr. Cooper?”
Cooper laughed. “Every time you call me Mr. Cooper, I wonder if my father just entered the room. My name’s actually Hank, short for Henry, but people call me Cooper.”
“Is that a military thing? Last name?”
“It started way before the Army. I’m a junior—Henry Davidson Cooper, Junior. My dad goes by Hank, but no one went for Henry or little Hank so I got saddled with Little Cooper until I wasn’t so little, then just Cooper. Sometimes Coop. Take your pick. It’s going all right. That beach can get busy at night.”
“Kids,” Mac confirmed. “They behave?”
“Not only did they behave, they cleaned up.”
“Yeah, you can give Ben credit for that. That whole stretch of beach right up to the town and marina is...was his. He let it go public. He’d walk down there from time to time when it was real active, a bunch of kids, and inform them in his way that the minute he had to clean up the beach after campers or partiers, he’d have a fence erected and close it. He put out trash cans and once a week or so he’d check to see if they needed emptying. He had rules for his beach.”
“He policed the beach?” Cooper asked.
“Yeah, but it was more about the wildlife than saving him work. He didn’t want things like plastic bags or rings from six-packs left in the sand or washing out with the tide, killing fish or getting picked up by a bird and causing harm, like strangling it. Or choking it. About once a year he’d post a couple of Private Property signs, kind of a warning or a reminder. Word spread about his place, his beach. He had regular motorcycle or cycling groups come through in summer, he called them his weekend warriors. He had a real scary-looking gang camping on the beach once but he confronted them, told them it was his property and they were welcome to use it if there were no firearms, no underage drinking, no drugs, didn’t give the town any trouble and if they threw away their trash so it wouldn’t harm wildlife.” Mac shook his head as he laughed. “He never bothered to call in reinforcements—I heard about the riders the next day, but Ben never called me. The riders kept it cool, threw away their trash and thanked him for the use of his beach. He had a way about him, you know? That incident was a long time ago and according to Ben and folks in town, in the end they were a docile bunch. Ben’s place usually attracted more graybeards, out for the weekend.”
“Graybeards?”
“Older riders—minimum age fifty or so. Ben was a pretty easygoing guy and nothing scared him. He always got along with anyone.”
“I know,” Cooper said.
Gina put Cooper’s breakfast in front of him and refilled his coffee cup.
“Good call on the eggs,” Mac said. “You tell him?” he asked Gina.
“Nope. It was his first choice.”
“Burgers here are great,” Mac said. “Sandwiches are pretty good, soup has good days, meat loaf is terrible—don’t know why Stu keeps making it, no one in this town is fool enough to eat it. It’s god-awful. He just fries the hell out of eggs, so either get ’em scrambled, over hard, omelet or hard-boiled. In fact, anything he can just fry to death or broil is pretty good.”
“Why doesn’t the owner get a better cook?”
“The owner is the cook, that’s the primary reason,” Gina said. Then, looking at Mac, she asked, “Everyone get to where they’re going?”
“Eve and Ashley are at cheerleading practice, Ryan’s at football and Lou took Dee Dee to dance. Just so you know, Eve and Ashley went in your mother’s car.”
Gina nodded but had a grave look on her face.
“You two...?” Cooper started to ask.
“Single parents,” Gina said. “Our daughters are best friends. Most of the time.”
“So you back each other up?” Cooper asked, shoveling some eggs in his mouth.
“Lotta back up,” Mac explained. “My aunt lives with me, Gina’s mother lives with her. It takes a village...where have I heard that before. You married, Cooper?”
“Nah. No one would have me.”
“Maybe it’s because you live out of a toy hauler, ever think of that?” Mac asked.
Cooper grinned. “Could be. Well, now that I have the lay of the land, I can get eggs and coffee a lot easier. Straight across the beach in the Rhino. Except, I think I got what I came for—I wanted to know what the hell happened to Ben. Have I heard everything I’m going to hear?”
“The coroner ruled on it, but I’m keeping my eyes open. It’s not an open case, but this is my town and Ben was a good guy. If I hear anything suspicious, I’ll be investigating myself,” Mac said.
“What about this Rawley Goode?” Cooper asked.
“Weird Rawley?” Gina asked with a curl of her lip.
“Aw, Rawley’s got his
