Ron Base - Tree Callister 03 - Another Sanibel Sunset Detective by Ron Base Read Free Book Online Page B

she found herself in? It was certainly a possibility. Thus he had to confront the obvious question: if he found Elizabeth, was he putting her life in danger? More to the point, was he putting his own life in danger?
    Two distinct possibilities.
    ________
    Tree got over to the Sanibel Island Holiday Inn a little past noon. When he entered the lobby, his son Chris was just coming out from behind the reception desk, reminding Tree once again of how much he looked like his mother. He had married Judy—the first of four wives, a number even he had trouble believing— when they were both in their early twenties. He should never have done it, they were both far too young—at least Tree was and too much of a newspaperman to want the sort of traditional marriage Judy had in mind. They had produced two sons, Raymond and Chris.
    Raymond, the eldest, was a lawyer in Chicago and although he remained close to his mother, Tree had not spoken to him in years. No fights or anything, merely a broken family drifting farther apart. Tree kept meaning to do something about that. But the fact is he didn’t do anything.
    Chris had lost weight recently, regaining the lean and lanky look that was his trademark before he met his Playboy model wife, Kendra. In a lightweight summer suit, he appeared healthier than Tree had seen him in a long time. Chris adjusted his glasses when he saw his father approaching. “What brings you here?”
    He didn’t sound all that happy to see him, Tree thought.
    “I thought I’d drop by and see how you are doing.” Tree hugged his son, feeling his back stiffen. Chris didn’t like his fatherly display of affection. Tough. He was going to get it, anyway.
    “I was just about to go on break. You feel like a cup of coffee?”
    “Sure,” Tree said.
    They crossed the lobby to the restaurant where an impressive faux Banyan tree sprouted out of the floor, its branches spreading across the ceiling. Tree sat at a table while Chris went away and came back with two steaming mugs. Tree watched him with a mixture of love and despair. Chris had always been the problematic son, the silent, enigmatic kid most wounded by his parents’ divorce, left adrift in a world that did not seem to interest him very much. He had no passion for journalism that was for sure. If anything, he disdained the profession. It was, after all, the business that employed his disliked father. He was going to go to university. And then he wasn’t. Then he enrolled in business at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business—but then didn’t attend classes. He had a thousand excuses for his behavior, all of them, Tree was certain, masking resentment of his father and the way he had treated—or rather mistreated— Judy and the boys, charges to which Tree could only plead guilty.
    And then Chris had met the beautiful Kendra, siren of desire, celebrated in the pages of Playboy , no less. Everyone wanted Kendra, only Chris had her—or sort of had her, as it turned out— and the next thing they were married during a whirlwind weekend in Las Vegas, no family members present, thanks very much. The next thing after that, Kendra and Chris were starting up, of all the curious things, an online dating service, using, Tree believed, money invested by Judy who, since her divorce from Tree, had blossomed into a successful real estate agent in the Oak Park area.
    Everything was going to be all right after that. Everything was going to be just fine.
    Only it wasn’t.
    “Just milk, isn’t it, Dad?’
    “How’s the job going?” Tree asked, snapping himself out of his reverie.
    “Fine.” Chris put the mug down and sat back, looking at his father. “The staff here is great, very pleasant.”
    “So no problems?”
    Chris’s smile erased the tension from his face. “To tell you the truth, Dad, it’s just the opposite. I’ve met someone.”
    “You mean a girl?”
    Chris’s smile widened. “A young woman, yes.”
    “You met her here on the