“I didn’tfindher body,” I said.
Brie leaned forward. “I heard the sex addicts rolled on top of her.”
With a glance at Luis, who seemed amused at our conversation, I said, “That was my impression.”
“And?” Brie pushed. “I know you were there. Gino was talking about it with Tristan. I tried to get Kalise to spill, but she can besotight-lipped. And I can’t find Jason anywhere.”
Now I was blushing.
“Ohmigod!” Brie exclaimed again. “You were withJason.”
“I wasn’twithJason. We were, just, well, at the same place at the same time.”
Brie wasn’t listening to me. Her mouth spread into the first real smile that I’d seen in the twenty-four hours I’d known her. Her clear blue eyes lit up with humor. “I totally knew it.”
There was no way I was talking about Jason with a teenager and in front of Luis. Last night was all mine, and I wanted to keep it that way.
Clearing the hot bartender from my thoughts, I said, “Anyway, yes, Jason and I heard screams and went to see what happened. Diana was dead, tangled in a pile of kelp. She must have been brought in with the tide, but she’d been dead for a while. Maybe even since she went missing on Sunday.”
“Were you there when the police came? What did they say?”
I shook my head. “There was no reason to stay. I thought they might talk to me last night, but no one came by. I’m sure they’ll be around to ask questions.”
I glanced around the resort, but nothing appeared different from yesterday. People on the beach, a few lounging in the sun, a small water aerobics class in the shallow half of the pool. The yoga class had broken up, and one of the women was talking to the instructor, standingveryclose. More people had come into the bar, laughing.
Did no one else care that a woman had died?
Maybe no one knew. CeeCee hadn’t said anything, and I suspected if she knew, it would have been the first thing she mentioned.
“How did you hear about it?” I asked Brie.
“Whodoesn’tknow? I was chilling on the balcony last night—” she vaguely gestured to one of the larger private cabins on the cliffs “—and saw two boats come in late. No one comes at night, so I went down to see what was going on. I thought maybe a celeb or something, though they usually come in ona helicopter. I got real close to where they were set up and hid in the trees until Gino saw me andactuallycalled my dad.” She rolled her eyes. “Jerk. I’m eighteen, a legal adult.”
“Did the police say anything?”
“Not much that I could hear,” Brie admitted. “The coroner from St. John was there, said she’d been in the water for around forty-eight hours.”
I glanced at Luis, but he didn’t appear to be listening to our conversation. He was looking out at the water again, his eyes shaded by sunglasses, and I wondered if he had fallen asleep.
Diana had disappeared Sunday morning. She could have died anytime between then and maybe Sunday night, which was forty-eight hours before she was discovered. How long could a body stay submersed? Had she been there all along, weighed down until a rope broke? I hadn’t seen a rope, but that didn’t mean there hadn’t been one.
Kalise entered the Blue Dahlia and walked over to our table. “Ms. Locke, Mr. Caruso, if you’ll please excuse me, I need Ms. Crawford.”
Brie looked excited. I thanked Luis for having breakfast with me.
“Anytime, Mia, anytime,” he said. He rose, stretched, bowed to Brie, and headed leisurely down the beach.
I glanced at Brie as I walked out of the Blue Dahlia. She pointed to herself and made a motion with her hand, indicating she wanted me to find her later, probably to tell her what I learned about Diana’s death.
Maybe I would.
Chapter Ten
“No. You never apologize for something you didn’t do wrong. You say ‘excuse me.’ Never ‘I’m sorry.’ If you spend your life apologizing you’ll never gain any confidence.”
—J. T. Ellison,Good Girls Lie
Kalise led the way toward the resort offices in silence.