Heather Graham - Protector, Lover...Husband?

She started to run, and the smell grew stronger.

There was no denying it. Very near them, hidden in the foliage, something—or someone—lay dead.

“Gil!”

She nearly collided with him.

“What the hell is it?” he asked.

“Something dead,” she told him.

“Yeah…that’s what I thought. But where is it coming from?” Gil asked.

“It’s gotten stronger as I’ve come toward you,” Alex told him.

“Then it’s here somewhere.”

She stood still, surveying their immediate surroundings.

“Alex.”

“What?”

“Let’s get out of here,” Gil said.

“Gil, we can’t. We have to find out what it is.”

“Or who it is,” he said uneasily. “Alex, this is a matter for the sheriff.”

“No! Yes, I mean, but not now. I am not letting anyone else disappear.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We have to find out what it is, then call the sheriff. Gil, please?” Alex said. She took a few steps in the direction of a large clump of trees.

“Alex…” Gil said.

“It’s here,” she whispered. “There are a bunch of palm fronds on the ground, fallen leaves…and the smell is really strong. It’s here.”

He looked at her, then sighed. “All right. I’ll lift the fronds.”

“We’ll do it together,” she said.

They steeled themselves against the smell of death and set to work.

And after a moment, it was Gil who let out a sick croak of sound.

David had listened to the radio warnings and decided it was time to head back in. The water where they were was about seventy feet deep, and he’d snagged a few snapper. Zach, proudly, had speared his first fish ever, and it had been a beauty. Someone would be enjoying his catch tonight, one big beaut of a dolphin—or Mahi Mahi, as the restaurants called it, afraid that otherwise diners would think they were serving big cuddly marine mammals.

They hadn’t taken the spearguns down this time; they’d just gone for a last look around. Far below them, a few outcrops of coral welcomed all manner of sea life.

David was just about to motion Zach back to the boat when he saw something that caused him to pause. Anemones could create the appearance of heads with waving hair, and that was what he was certain he was seeing at first. But then…

David thought there was something beneath the skeletal arms of the coral.

He surfaced, and Zach did the same, lifting his mask and snorkel. “We have to go back, huh?”

“Yes. Head on to the Icarus. I’ll be right with you.”

He watched Zach swim back to the Icarus was not more than twenty feet away. Then, taking a deep breath, he jackknifed in a hard, clean dive toward the depths.

He reached the coral, saw the outstretched arm, and…

Horror filled him so completely that he almost inhaled a deadly breath.

There she was.

Alicia. Or what remained of her.

Hair billowing in the water…

Features partially consumed.

Feet encased in concrete.

“That has to be the biggest, fattest, deadest possum I’ve seen in my entire life,” Gil said, turning aside. “Phew.”

“Thank God it’s just a possum,” Alex said fervently.

Gil looked at her, puzzled. “Okay, I know I was acting a little weird, but you seemed convinced we were going to find a person.”

She shrugged, remembering that Gil had no idea she’d already found one body on the beach. “I guess I’m just spooked because of yesterday. Let’s head back.”

David docked the Icarus just long enough to drop off Ally and Zach, then headed for dry dock on the Gulf side of Plantation Key.

There he waited for Nigel Thompson to pick him up in his patrol car.

David slid into the passenger seat, meeting Nigel’s gaze.

“You’re a fool, you know, going back when everyone else is evacuating. Actually, I think it’s about to become mandatory. You could have taken that yacht of yours and sailed her straight north,” Nigel said.

“And wound up chased by the storm anyway,” David said. “And you know damn well I would never leave Alex—or Moon Bay, for that matter—until this thing is solved. I hope this storm comes in and out fast.”

“I’d have divers out there now, if I could,” Nigel said. “But I’ve got every man on the evacuation route, and since we’re talking about a corpse, I can’t risk living men on a recovery mission. The water is getting rougher by the minute.”

“I’m afraid that by the time the storm has passed through, the body might have…hell, it might have been ripped apart,” David said.

“You know there’s nothing I can do right now,” Nigel said firmly.

David was silent, then said, “I know. But damn the timing. There was no way to get her to the surface, and then, hell, I had a kid on the boat.”

“You know the location. You won’t forget?” Nigel said.

“Oh, you bet I know it. And I gave you the coordinates.”

Nigel glanced at him. They were on the main road at last, just miles from the ferry platform that serviced Moon Bay, but they were creeping along. There was one road down to the Keys, and one road back, so with the exodus going on, traffic was at a crawl.

“You know, Jay Galway can refuse to let you stay,” Nigel warned him.

“He won’t,” David said with assurance.

“And you’re certain you want to stay?”

“More so than ever,” David said firmly.

Nigel was quiet again, then said, “Just because you found Alicia Farr today, that doesn’t mean that her remains were ever at Moon Bay. I questioned everyone about the woman yesterday, when I was asking who might have seen Seth Granger leave the bar. And not a one of them saw her, any more than they did Seth.”

“Which just goes to show you that no one in the place is observant. And that someone is lying,” David told him. “Did you get the M.E.’s report back on Seth, yet?”

Nigel nodded.

“And?”

“The man drowned.”

“I still think someone helped him do it.”

Nigel twisted his head slightly. “Maybe.”

“You know more than what you’ve said,” David accused him.

“There are some bruises on the back of his skull,” Nigel said. “The M.E. hasn’t determined the source of them. He might have hit his head or something. Look, they took him up to Miami-Dade. One of the best guys they’ve got there is working on him, all right? They deal in fact, not supposition.”

“Yeah. Well, there’s one dead man for certain, and I know for a fact that Alicia is dead and rotting. And fact. She didn’t just drown or have a boating accident. Not unless she lived long enough to cast her feet in cement and throw herself in the water.”

“All right, David, I swear, the minute I’ve got an all clear on the weather, I’ll be out there myself with the boys from the Coast Guard, hauling her up. All right?”

“I don’t know if that will be soon enough,” David muttered.

“For what?”

“She was murdered—there’s a murderer loose. On Moon Bay. Can’t you do something? I need to get back there fast.”

“What do you want me to do, plow down the cars?”

“Put your siren on.”

“This isn’t an emergency.”

“Maybe it is.”

Nigel sighed, turned on his siren and steered his patrol car onto the shoulder of the road. “If I get a flat, you’re fixing it.”

David shook his head, offering him a half smile. “If you get a flat, I’m going to hitch a ride in the first Jeep I see.”

Still on edge, Alex and Gil returned to the resort area just as the ferry was about to leave with the last of the guests and personnel. Dismayed, Alex ran to the dock, looking for Laurie.

“Alex, you’re coming?” Jeb called to her from the crowded deck.