Heather Graham - Protector, Lover...Husband?

“She loves her job. She wouldn’t just walk out,” Alex told him.

“I’ll send someone around to her cottage,” Jay promised. “By the way, we may be evacuating our guests and the majority of our personnel soon.”

“Evacuating?” she said, stunned.

“Don’t you ever watch television?”

“Sorry, I just haven’t seen the news lately,” she murmured.

“That storm stalled. The forecasters still believe she’s heading for the Carolinas, but at the moment she’s standing her ground. She’s still not a monster storm, and this place is equipped with an emergency generator, but we can’t keep the whole place running if we lose electricity and water. We’ll move everyone inland for a few days if the storm doesn’t take the swing she’s supposed to by tomorrow. Along with most of the staff.”

Alex hesitated. “I’m not leaving,” she said, and added a hopeful, “Am I?”

She heard his sigh. “No, Alex, if it’s your choice, you get to stay.”

“Thanks.”

“You know a lot of people would want to be out of here in the blink of an eye,” he cautioned.

“This place has weathered a few storms already. The storm room is perfectly safe.”

“I knew you wouldn’t leave your dolphins unless someone dragged you off,” Jay said. “All right, let me go. I’ll get someone out to check on Laurie.”

“Thanks.”

Alex returned to the main platform area, where all guests met before breaking into two parties, no more than eight swimmers in each lagoon. Guests began to trickle in to get flippers and masks, and she and Gil started to handing them out. She was somewhat surprised to see that Hank Adamson had joined the swim again—she’d gotten the impression that he was doing each of the resort’s activities just once so he could give an assessment of it.

He shrugged sheepishly when she smiled at him. “I actually like this a lot,” he told her.

“I’m glad.”

“Getting close to the dolphins…well, it’s a whole new experience for me. Their eyes are fascinating. It’s almost as if they’re amused by us. They’re kind of like…wet puppy dogs, I guess.”

“Much bigger and more powerful when they choose to be,” she said.

“Your dolphin swim is the best program here,” he told her.

“Thanks.”

That day, she let Gil give the introductory speech. In the middle of it, she saw Laurie Smith at last, hurrying to the platform.

A sense of relief swept over her. She realized that, deep in her heart, she had been secretly fearing, that Laurie had disappeared—that she, too, would float up somewhere in the water as a corpse.

She frowned at Laurie, but Laurie looked chagrined enough already. And Alex wasn’t about to question her here.

“You’re all right?” she asked Laurie briefly as her friend came up next to her.

Laurie nodded, but the look she gave Alex was strange.

“What’s wrong?” Alex demanded.

“Nothing. Well, everything. Not with me, though. And we’ve got to be quiet. People are looking at us. And what I have to tell you…We need to talk alone.”

Alex couldn’t help but whisper, “I was worried about you. Where have you been?”

Laurie gave her a look again, indicating that it wasn’t the time or the place. “You have to swear to keep what I say quiet.”

“You know I will, if I can.”

“Not if you can. You have to listen to me. And you can’t say a word,” Laurie whispered. “I mean it. Not a word.”

“As long as you’re all right. And you’re not about to tell me something that will endanger the dolphins or anyone else. Where have you been?”

“Hiding out,” Laurie said.

“Why?”

“There was a corpse on the beach that day. Definitely.”

“How do you know?”

“Because there’s an undercover Federal agent on the island.”

“What are you talking about?”

Laurie didn’t get a chance to answer.

“All right,” Gil announced loudly. “Time to split into groups. Those of you who received green tags with your flippers, head off with Alex and Mandy. Mandy give a wave, so your people see you. Those of you with red tags, you’re with Laurie and me.”

“Later,” Laurie whispered. “We’ve got to talk. People are being murdered here.” She hesitated, seeing that the groups were forming and she needed to hurry. “You’ve got to watch out for David, Alex.”

“Watch out for David? I thought that you liked him.”

“Yes, I do, but…he has a lot at stake. He…he might be the murderer.”

“What?” Alex said.

“Shh! We’ll talk,” Laurie said. “Alone, Alex. We have to be alone.”

Before Alex could stop her, she was up and heading off with Gil. Without creating a scene, there was nothing Alex could do.

Stunned, she watched Laurie walk away and pondered what she’d said. David? A murderer? It couldn’t be.

Could it?

“This was really kind of you,” Ally Conroy told David. “I hadn’t realized what a big deal you are until I started talking with Seth the other night. That you would take time for us…well, it’s very kind of you.” She was sitting at the helm by David. Zach, filled with excitement, was standing by the mainsail, looking out at the water as they skimmed over it.

“Not a problem. Zach is good kid.”

She sighed. “Yeah, at heart. I’ve had some trouble with him at school. I’m a nurse, and gone too often. But…we’ve got to live. Anyway, thank you. I was horrible last night, and you were great. It’s just, Seth might have been a blowhard to others—I’ve heard that term a dozen times from people talking about him—but he was very sweet to me. I was just stunned and upset. He really had a high regard for you, by the way. He was going to speak to you about something important. He said that he was waiting for the arrival of one more professional friend, then you’d all be getting down to business.”

“And he talked about the Anne Marie?” David pressed gently.

She sighed. “He asked me not to say a word to anyone, but I guess it doesn’t matter now. He told me that all his life, he had been interested in treasure hunting. People always wanted his money for their expeditions, but they didn’t want him to be a part of them. The woman he was expecting was going to let him go along, not just foot the bills.”

“Ally, did he know anything more about where this friend he was waiting for obtained her information?”

“An old man who died. He told her he’d hidden a copy of an old pirate map on this island.”

David arched an eyebrow. “You’re certain? There’s an actual map, and it’s hidden here?”

Ally sighed. “I’m not certain of anything, but that’s what he said. That the ship went down off Florida, and that the map, the proof, was hidden here.”

“Thank you, Ally, for telling me,” David said gravely.

“Seth didn’t know where the map was,” she said. “That’s part of why he was so concerned that his friend hadn’t arrived yet. He didn’t want to talk about it with you until she did arrive.” She hesitated. “Do you think maybe…someone thought he knew more about the map than he did, so they killed him? Wouldn’t that put you in danger, as well?”

“Ally, we don’t know how Seth died yet. And I’m a pretty big boy, but I’ll watch out, okay? Thanks to you.”

She smiled, turning to watch her son. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Ally, if you think of anything else that Seth said before he died, will you please let me know?”

“Of course.”

“And watch out for yourself, too. You haven’t mentioned this to anyone else, have you?”

She shook her head.

“Don’t—unless you’re speaking with Sheriff Thompson. He’ll be over here sometime today.”