Chapter 4

Once his wireless camera was set up near the canal, and his laptop was open and running on the screened-in patio, we found ourselves in my kitchen and I offered him a Corona.

“Love one,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

“What will your boss say about you having a beer?”

“I am the boss,” he confessed. “I started The Gator Guy about five years ago. Best thing that could have happened to me.”

“And your sister works for you?”

“Lucia does. Our parents are deceased. She lives in the house where we grew up. I have a hacienda near Coral Cove.”

“North of here?”

“Yes. You got it. Obviously you’re new around here.”

I gave him my Boston history, a chat about my Latino mother and my German father, and how I ended up in Barefoot Beach because of my job.

“Do you have a girlfriend, Paulo? A guy with your good looks probably does.”