Jake looked around the banquet room. Thick walls here. Gary was taking pictures of the wide stage and its rich curtains. Jake turned to Jerry and drew a dash in his notebook.
“Would you develop there, on the wetlands?”
“We can’t. We don’t have it planned into our budget. And we’d feel uncomfortable doing it, even if the Development Proposition passed.”
“I see.” He wrote it all down. The competition was supposed to be over between Palmstead and Rothschild. But the Development Proposition might change the story. Any space for new communities could change the game in Rothschild’s favor.
“Enough of that,” Jake said, only after he’d written it all down. “Let’s learn about the space.”
Jerry told him about the banquet hall and Jake dutifully recorded all of it. It would be turned into a neat paragraph, one with tailored sentences and close-cropped clauses. He watched as Gary polished off a roll of film. Rothschild hadn’t mentioned the upcoming vote on the Development Proposition. That meant something.
“You’d love to put a Palmstead building on that land, wouldn’t you?”
“We would,” Jerry admitted. “But it just doesn’t make sense. Development costs are high, the community would be upset. Too many risks. And we don’t need it that badly. We’re already able to have our brochures say we’re the biggest developers in the Sarasota area.”
“Does that really matter?”
“You know your readers,” Jerry said and smiled. “Don’t you think they want the biggest and the best for what’s probably their last major purchase? We don’t do a lot of market research, but what we have done shows it makes a big difference. Our buyers are naturally competitive people. They’re New Yorkers.”
“I guess so.”
Gary walked up to them. The tripod was still set up across the room, but he held the camera in his free hand.
“Mr. Rubenstein, let’s get a shot of you by those curtains. And we’ll get Coco by there too.”
“Coconut, Mr. Novak. Please do be careful. Coconut is a tremendously sensitive animal.”
The dog started barking and running in circles. He did little hops around Jerry’s leg and circled it like a cone. Jerry walked over toward the stage and stretched out his arms. Jake stood next to Gary and whispered.
“Something’s up.”
“What?” Gary yelled.
“Nothing. I’ll tell you later.”
“Tell me what later?” Gary said. Loudly. Jerry looked up and Jake pulled at Gary’s arm.
“Later. Just take the picture.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to tell me now?”
“Gary-take it.”
He snapped and Jake exhaled.
“You developed the pictures from Charlotte’s place, right?”
Gary nodded as Jerry walked over, pulling along Coconut, who seemed to be distracted by a dust ball near the stage. Jake grabbed Gary’s shoulder.
“Good. I want to see what the photographs show.”
Rubenstein stopped in front of them. He breathed heavily from the exertion of his fifteen-foot walk.
“Do remember, Jake, Palmstead has the largest banquet space in the area.”
“I’ve got it.” But he was busy underlining key sections in his notebook. He wanted to go to Gary’s as quickly as possible. He needed to see the photographs of Charlotte’s condo. He had a feeling something was there. Something had to be there. He just didn’t know what.
CHAPTER 18
Jake took the gear out of the trunk: the lenses, the tripod, the case, and the camera. Gary walked to his mailbox and pulled out a flier before heading in the direction of his garage.
“Jacob, you’ll finally see my darkroom!”
Jake breathed heavily, already sore from carrying the gear.
“Can you open the garage?”
“There’s one problem. We don’t have one of the doodads.”
“What doodad?”
“You know,” he said and gestured. “A remote control.”
“You mean a garage opener? Just go inside and open it then.”
“We don’t have one inside either. It’s a manual door. The doctor says the exertion of opening a door wouldn’t be good for me, in my damaged condition.”
Jake put down the lenses, the tripod, the case, and the camera and lifted open the garage door. He noticed the windows were taped up with black paper.
“This is your darkroom, isn’t it? Your garage.”
“Meryl didn’t want me to use the bathroom anymore. Once I switched the developing solution and shampoo.”
“What happened?”
“Oh, everything grew back in a month or two.”
They walked inside. Gary had hung notable photographs on the wall, attached with electrical tape. A cruise ship leaving a harbor. Sunset on a beach. And palm trees. Lots of palm trees.
“Do you like my gallery?”
“I actually do.”
Someone yelled through the closed door from inside the house, their voice totally muffled by the wood.
“Meryl, I know!” Gary yelled back. “We’ll put it out tomorrow!”
“Wait, you could hear that?”
“Of course not. But we’ve been married long enough that I can guess.”
Jake went back outside, dragged all the equipment in, and pulled down the garage door. Gary turned on the light so it wasn’t totally dark. Jake noticed the different stations, perfectly organized. Everything was labeled in glow in the dark pen, which made the labels shine softly in the light.
“So you got some good shots today?”
“Definitely. Do you want to shoot any other banquet halls for this story?”
“I’m going to interview some people, but I won’t bother asking you to photograph them. To be honest, the Palmstead’s as good as it gets. And Thompson just wants a good picture. He doesn’t care if it’s comprehensive.”
“That’s good.”
Jake sighed. He took a quick look at his notebook and then put it away. He was ready to talk about Charlotte.
“The real reason I wanted to come here today is that we have more important work to do. Gary, it’s a little beyond what I’m supposed to be writing. A little beyond my job description. But it’s the right thing.”
“I see.”
“I want you to help me. We need everything we have to try and make this work. Are we on the same page?”
“Of course!” he shouted. His cane was propped against the wall and he kicked it up to his hand. “I’ll be right back. I know just what we need to get started.”
He opened the door to the house and Jake smelled a mixture of garlic and Febreeze. He looked around the dark room. Large, but practical. A whole wall full of different cameras and film. Different types and vintages. A collage of Polaroids, arranged in a circle, each image overlapping the next. It was a nice room. He shrugged. Maybe the man knew what he was doing.
Gary opened the door.
“Jacob, I’m ready to begin.”
He was wearing his 3-D glasses. He waved his arms and whistled.
“Gary, that’s not what I was talking about.”
He was already walking around the room, pitching his head forward and backward at different photographs.
“Jacob!” he screamed. “This palm tree looked like it was grabbing me!”
“Don’t they have to be 3-D images?”
“I don’t think so,” he mumbled. He brought a picture of a vintage car close to his face and then let it fall to the ground. Jake reached forward and took the glasses off his head. Gary’s voice pitched high like a child’s.
“Hey, what are you doing?”
“Gary, when I said all that, I was talking about Charlotte. I think something happened to her.”
“Right. You said she died.”
“No, I mean that I don’t think that she died of natural causes. And I want to find out what happened.”
“Oh.”
“I know that we can figure it out.”
“I don’t think the 3-D glasses will help with that.”
“I know. We’re done with them.”
“Then why did you take them from me?”
“Gary, focus.” He put the glasses in his pocket. “Now I don’t know how to find out what really happened to Charlotte. But I think a good starting point is to go with what we have. I went to the beach and took photographs there. Can you get the ones you took of her apartment?”