Page 37

Really? Now, right after seeing a dead body, you’re thinking about kissing an almost-stranger?
Well, they did it in all the romantic suspense novels I loved. Why not here and now?
“Be careful,” Jason said. “I mean, I don’t think anything criminal happened to Ms. Harden. It was probably an accident, but until we know exactly what happened, watch yourself.”
“I will. You too.”
I reached for my pocket... but it wasn’t there. My room card key was in the pocket of my jeans, which were still at the lagoon.
“Dammit!”
Jason reached into his pocket and pulled out a card key. “I have a master,” he said. “Do you mind?”
“Thank you,” I said as he unlocked my door. “I’ll get dressed and go get my things.”
“It’s late. I’ll have someone bring them to you.”
“You don’t have to—”
He put his finger on my lips. I couldn’t breathe as my pulse quickened, and I could feel my heart pounding in my chest. I almost asked him to come in, but didn’t. All these unexpected feelings washed over me. I needed to sort through things, regain some control over this situation that had gone from flirting to lust way too fast.
“Stay put,” he whispered.
I nodded because I couldn’t speak. He smiled, then walked away.
It took me a minute to breathe normally again, and I was grinning—until I saw my reflection in the bathroom mirror. My hair was tangled and frizzy. No sexy windswept-in-the-sea-breeze look. The makeup I’d put on before the Sky Bar had given me raccoon eyes because I hadn’t planned on diving into the ocean. And my filthy shirt stopped halfway down my ass, revealing now grubby-looking pink underwear.
I took a very long hot shower, shampooed and conditioned my hair. My feet were sore, and when I got out, I saw little cutson them. I rubbed lotion all over my body, put fuzzy socks on my feet, then wrapped myself in one of the fluffy bathrobes. I grabbed a can of nuts from the gift basket in the living area of the cottage and went out to the beachside patio.
On the beach where we had found Diana Harden’s body, there were bright lights set up highlighting several people, but they were too far away for me to make out what anyone was doing. I ate the nuts and considered what might have happened to her. Accident was the most likely answer, but her disappearance was suspicious. She had a scarf wound around her neck in a way that didn’t look like she’d have done it herself.
The book.
I went back inside, pulled Diana’s book out of my bag, then sat down on the comfy bed and read through the comments in the margins.
Everything began to click into place.
Comments about people on the island—other guests that she seemed to know a lot about, including their net worth and properties they owned. The old man, the catty comments, numbers that made no sense at all to me, but must have meant something to Diana.
It was the dollar signs and calculations of net worth that gave me the final clue.
Was Diana Harden blackmailing someone? She was obsessed with money. The comment about scoring and including dollar signs. Had she been paid to keep a secret? Or had someone agreed to pay her, she met them Sunday on St. John, and something very bad happened?
Maybe her death wasn’t an accident.
Maybe someone had killed her.
Chapter Nine
“It’s only gossip if you repeat it. Until then, it’s gathering information.”
—Mercedes Lackey,Intrigues
I didn’t fall asleep until nearly dawn and woke up after eight. My first thought was Diana Harden and her book—should I give it to the police? What could they do with it if I did? Would they even believe my theory that it had once belonged to Diana and that she might have been blackmailing people on the island? Last night, it had seemed the most plausible explanation... in the light of morning, it sounded foolish and paranoid.
I needed to think more about this. I had a theory... and no way to prove it. I should work through all plausible answers before I discussed it with anyone, even Jason, for a second opinion. I mean, it was sort of unreal to think that I, Mia Crawford, found myself in the middle of a murder mystery.
A not-so-little thrill ran through me. I had the book. I could figure out what Diana was up to. I wondered if...