Page 117 of Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds

Kalise and Tristan exchanged a glance. Then Tristan said, “Please, come to my office. I’m so sorry for any trouble the staff has caused you.”

Tristan closed the door behind us and motioned for me to sit in a wicker chair across from his desk. I squirmed a bit, remembering how I’d sneaked in earlier and invaded his privacy.

“I don’t want to get anyone in trouble,” I said, though Ididn’t completely mean it—my shin still hurt. “But maybe if you talked to him, you could figure out why he was going through my things.”

Tristan sat in his chair and looked concerned. “A staff member went through your personal items?”

“Yes,” I said. “A young employee—twenty, maybe—with light brown skin and short, dark hair. My height. The first day I was here, I saw him going through my bag when I was in the water. When I got to shore, he was gone. The next day, I discovered a page had been torn from the book, and I remembered that a young man had been in my things. Today I saw him and asked him about it, and he ran from me.”

“You think he took your book?”

The way he said it, I thought he was humoring me, and I realized how absolutely ridiculous I sounded. We were talking about a twelve-dollar paperback I’d gotten for free, and I was acting as if he were a jewel thief.

“No.” I knew Amber had stolen my book, but maybe she’d hired him? The kid saidhe, so maybe Parker hired him to tear out the page... the more I thought about it, the more I wished I hadn’t come here. “Maybe,” I clarified. “But he ran from me, wouldn’t tell me why he went through my bag on the beach.” I stopped short of telling Tristan his employee had kicked my shin because I didn’t want him to lose his job. I just wanted to know what was going on.

“Is anything else missing?” Tristan asked.

“No. And I don’t want him in trouble, but I’d like to talk to him, get his side of the story.”

“And you don’t know who?”

“He worked this afternoon stocking the bar, and he might have been on the ferry when I first arrived.” Certainly Tristan would be able to look at employee records and figure out who I had seen.

“Let me see what I can do,” Tristan said. “I can’t promise there will be no disciplinary action. St. Claire takes pride in our staff, our hospitality, and never should anyone feel unsafe.”

A murdered guest made me feel a lot less safe than a book thief, I thought.

“I just want to talk to him,” I said.

“No promises, but I’ll see if I can identify him and possibly arrange a meeting.”

“I appreciate it.” I thanked him and left.

I really didn’t know what to do. I looked at my watch and realized it was nearly six. I would have to run to the docks to meet Jason on time.

I started walking briskly when I heard my name.

“Ms. Crawford!”

I turned and saw Henry standing next to one of the shuttles. I approached, and he said with a knowing smile, “Your chariot awaits.”

He knew. He knew about my date with Jason. I wasn’t keeping it a secret—Brie knew—but I didn’t exactly announce it. And Jason had kissed me at the bar, and any number of people could have seen. Was I blushing? Yep, I was. Maybe Henry would think I’d gotten too much sun today.

“Um, thank you,” I said, and climbed in.

He chuckled, and we started down the narrow road to the dock. “Jason is a good man. You’ll have fun tonight.”

My blush deepened as I remembered exactly how good I’d felt when Jason kissed me last night, with all the unspoken promises behind the kiss. I realized that spending the day looking for clues to Diana’s murder was partly to distract me from my nerves about tonight. A thrill ran up my spine, and I willed my stomach to settle.

“I missed the cruise last night, and he said he’d take me out.” That sounded stupid. I might as well have worn a neon sign announcing that I was going to have sex with Jason Mallory tonight.

“Awful what happened on the mountain. It’s all blocked off now. No one else will get hurt. Mr. Tristan spoke with the contractors—they return next week after equipment is delivered. They’ll investigate what happened, but they think that theorange fencing wasn’t installed properly—the men they hired draped it between the trees and didn’t stake it down. There was rain Monday morning, the day before you arrived, and some heavy winds.” He shook his head. “I’m glad you weren’t seriously hurt.”

I hadn’t thought that it had been intentionally removed because there was no way that anyone would have known Brie and I would be walking along that path at the top of the mountain. But I was still relieved that they’d figured out it was shoddy work.

“I think Jason feels sorry for me that I spent my birthday in a muddy pit,” I said, trying to make light of the situation.

“Oh, no,” Henry said as if I had been serious. “I’ve never seen Jason excited like this. He’s giddy. And if I’m honest, I know a bit about what he has planned.”