Page 114 of Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds

“Perhaps,” Tristan said, “but either way, he’s leaving of his own volition. And to put your mind at rest, Ms. Tremaine is safe and sound. She flew back to the States yesterday afternoon.I haven’t spoken to her personally, but I received confirmation from St. John that she took a ferry to St. Thomas and then boarded a nonstop flight to Miami.”

“And she didn’t tell her boyfriend?” Brie said. “Cold.”

“I will be following up with her personally to ensure that she is truly all right, but I know you were concerned, and I hope your mind is at ease.”

“Yes, thank you,” I said, though I still thought it was strange for CeeCee to leave so abruptly. “It’s been a bit disconcerting considering what happened to Diana.”

He shook his head. “Absolutely awful.”

“Are the police or your security any closer to finding out what happened to her?”

“They are still working on retracing her steps,” he said. “I don’t want to speak out of school here, because again I don’t have confirmation from St. John, but she was spotted on the far side of St. John, in Coral Bay. Why, I won’t speculate. The police will find the answers. They are diligent, if a bit slower than we would like.”

He sounded more confident than I felt.

“I’ll admit when I heard CeeCee went missing yesterday, I thought something might have happened to her.”

He reached out and patted my arm. “I’m so sorry. I promise here, on St. Claire, you are perfectly safe. I truly hope the police find out exactly what happened so that our guests can rest easy.”

Brie said, “Gotta go, Tristan. Thanks.”

We walked to my cottage, and it wasn’t until we stepped inside that I finally relaxed. “Wow, I thought for sure he’d caught us.”

“I thought you were going to spill everything,” Brie said. “You don’t lie well, do you?”

I shook my head. “So CeeCee went home. Huh.”

“You’re thinking something.”

“Her lunch with Trevor’s ex-wife,” I said. “And a couple small things she said that made me think she’s not the airhead everyone thought she was.”

“And?”

“I don’t know. Something’s off there.” I shrugged, then said, “I thought for five seconds that maybe CeeCee killed Diana.”

“Really? Why?”

“Blackmail. But it doesn’t make sense because nothing I read implies that Diana had blackmailed CeeCee—it’s Trevor who’s cheating on his wife.” CeeCee’s code would be 320, and I didn’t recall seeing it in the book.

I pushed CeeCee and Trevor to the back of my mind and looked at the contact information for Ethan Valentine.

“What do you think we should do?” I asked Brie.

“I guess the question is, what do you think Valentine can do?” Brie said. Smart question. I didn’t know.

Because Valentine’s schedule wasn’t on Tristan’s computer, we didn’t know if he had been on the island Sunday, though Luis had said he hadn’t been at the house Sunday when Diana showed up.

“I’ll sleep on it tonight,” I said.

Brie raised an eyebrow. “Is that what you’re going to do? Sleep?”

I blushed fifty shades of red. “Eventually,” I stammered.

Brie laughed. “Go get ready for your hot date. I’m going to see if I can convince my dad to have some one-on-one time with his favorite daughter. Maybe I can figure out a way to break them up. Don’t forget snorkeling tomorrow. Ferry leaves at ten.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

“Curiouser and curiouser!”