“She blushed, thinking about her one-night-stand with Jonah. “Worse. There’s a case the firm handled. It involved the murder of this young girl—she was only twenty-four, a single mom with a little kid. She was murdered two years ago, right down the street here, at Gulf Vista.”

“A maid, right? I remember hearing about it on the news.”

“Right. Her mother hired the firm to sue the hotel for criminal negligence.”

“Did they ever catch the killer?”

“No. The hotel management said Jazmin was at work when she was killed, which meant they could settle it as a workman’s comp case. And the state of Florida limits worker’s comp claims to a hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Even if you’re murdered! By the time our firm took its cut of the payout, Jazmin’s mom, who, by the way, is only forty-eight, and is raising her granddaughter by herself, came away with peanuts.”

“That’s terrible,” Corey said.

“I think so too. I was working the reception desk when Yvonne Howington, that’s the mother’s name, came in with the little girl. Aliyah. Yvonne was raising hell about the settlement, and finally, after our bitchy office manager, who happens to be married to my father, instructed me to tell her to scram, my dad showed up. He told her he’d done all the firm could. So, see ya, bye.”

“Sounds like he did do all he could for her,” Corey said.

“No.” Drue shook her head adamantly. “Yvonne swears Jazmin wasn’t working when she was killed. And she was being sexually harassed by a manager, which the hotel denies.”

Drue went on to describe the time line of Jazmin Mayes’s murder and what she’d learned from her visit with the grandmother the previous day.

“I think it’s great that you care so much about this case,” Corey said. “But I have to ask, what is it you think you can do? You’re an intake worker, as you said, not a detective.”

“I have to do something,” Drue said. “Ever since I moved back here I’ve felt so hollow inside, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve lost kiteboarding—probably for good—or my mom, or what. And oh man, can you believe I just mentioned losing her and a damn sport in the same breath?”

“Yeah, I can. I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t run or swim, all the things that are such a huge part of my life.” He reached out and touched her arm. “Hey, don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“When I went to see Yvonne Howington? Really listened to her as she talked about her daughter? It’s the first time I’ve really felt excited about something in, like, forever. I want to help her. And Aliyah.”

“How?” Corey lifted himself out of the pool and began toweling off.