Page 53 of Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds

“Instinct is a marvelous thing. It can neither be explained nor ignored.”

—Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles

The rain started by the time I reached my cottage.

Gino was dead. My number one suspect in the murder of Diana Harden was dead.

It could have been an accident—he fell and hit his head. But the drop wasn’t far, and he’d just accused a twenty-year-old

staff member of murder. If Gino was guilty, he’d successfully pinned the murder on someone else and then accidentally fell

to his death? I didn’t buy that. If he wasn’t guilty... did that mean the kid had killed him? Would everyone now be looking

for Georgie because he was suspected of killing two people?

I shivered, thinking about how I’d confronted the skinny young man. He hadn’t seemed dangerous; he’d been terrified.

Maybe it was an accident. People do wild things when confronted with jail. He could have pushed Gino to get away. Gino fell

and hit his head. A short but deadly drop on the rocks.

None of this sat right with me, but I didn’t have any answers—and I didn’t think that Diana’s book had the answers, either.

On the desk next to my closed laptop was my dress, neatly folded, and my cell phone. A note was folded on top.

I opened it.

Mia~

Your things, as promised.

All staff is working to secure the resort before the storm. It won’t be severe, a mild tropical storm that should pass by

morning. I’ll come by when I’m done.

Love, Jason

I smiled and set his card aside. My phone was nearly dead, so I plugged it into the charger. A text popped up from Brie.

I hate her! I’m coming over now.

Poor Brie. I hoped we could find something on Sherry serious enough that at least Andrew would postpone the wedding. She hadn’t

killed Gino, so she probably didn’t kill Diana, either—though she was up to something.

I remembered the creepy guy she met with yesterday and the money she gave him. Maybe she was a killer... and hired a guy to do the dirty work.

More likely Gino was hired...

I straightened. Hired by Parker Briggs because Diana had stolen documents from him? That seemed plausible, I thought. And

Parker was here now, looking for the documents. Maybe Gino was supposed to get them, and when he couldn’t find them, Parker

had to come to the island himself.

I wished I knew what she’d taken that might be worth killing for. I feared I’d never know, a story without an ending.

I showered, dressed, the pounding rain making me a bit nervous. Though it was only four in the afternoon, the day had darkened,

and I watched sheets of rain fall straight down around my covered patio. I was hungry, but I didn’t want to leave.

Someone pounded on my door. I found Brie there, drenched.

I pulled her inside.

She looked like a lost puppy and dripped on the floor. I grabbed a couple towels from the bathroom and tossed them at her.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Sherry happened,” Brie said. “They’re getting married.”

“Right, but—”

“They’re getting married tomorrow .”

That seemed sudden. “Tomorrow?”

“Sherry went all emotional on my dad and manipulated him. I don’t know why he agreed—I went to take a shower, came out ten

minutes later, and he told me they were getting married at the Sky Bar tomorrow at sunset! That he wants me to be his best

girl and stand up for him. It’s happening too fast, and I can’t stop it.”

She started crying, and I hugged her.

“We’ll think of something.”

“No, we won’t! She’s going to win, and I can’t do anything about it.”

“Brie, don’t give up. Tell him what you’re feeling. That it’s happening too fast.”

“I did. Sort of. I mean—damn, it’s all my fault! She deliberately fell overboard because I put her on the hot seat. I confronted

her with the fact that she knew Diana Harden. Basically said why didn’t you tell us that you and Diana were in the same sorority?

And Dad was surprised. He started asking her about it because she specifically told him she’d never met Diana. And Sherry

was trying to come up with a lie, and then wham, she falls through a gate that should have been secure.

I know she did it on purpose. But Dad won’t listen now, because he loves her and she almost died .

” Brie rolled her eyes, but her expression was heartbroken.

“Right. Almost died only a couple hundred feet from shore? She

hit her head on the boat, and according to her , she could have been knocked unconscious and drowned . I wish she had!”

“You don’t mean that.”

“I do,” she insisted, wiping tears from her face. “I told him it was too fast, too much, and he needed to think about it.

He said he didn’t want to wait, that this week has taught him that life is too short. Then—then—”

“What did you say?” I pushed when she pursed her lips.

“He asked Sherry to leave for a minute, and he hugged me and said he loved me, that he had always listened to me and made

changes in his life for me because we lost Mom. And now I’m an adult, and he wants to share his life with Sherry. And what

could I say? What could I do except agree? I don’t want him to hate me!” she sobbed.

“He never would,” I told her.

“Whatever she said or did or does in bed, I don’t know, but she has him wrapped around her little finger, and I don’t know

what to do.”

She was about to sit on my bed, then realized she was still wet.

I retrieved sweats and a T-shirt for her, and she changed in the bathroom. Then we sat at the table in silence.

“We’ll find something on her,” I said quietly.

“I don’t know if he’ll even believe me.” Brie frowned and stared out into the darkening day.

I opened my notebook and looked at everything I’d written about Diana’s notes in the book. Then I pulled out my phone and

scrolled through the pages Brie sent me, looking for anything related to Sherry Morrison—or her code, 1913—or the Delta Gamma

letters. Diana knew that Sherry had a secret—a secret that she was willing to pay for? Or kill for?

Gino Garmon was dead. He could be the killer. He had motive, opportunity, and he was an angry guy. He could have used the

poor kid Georgie to steal the page from my book. Was Gino’s death an accident? Or did he have a partner? Could that scrawny,

scared kid have killed Gino? Or someone else?

Sherry also had a motive, but she couldn’t have killed Gino—she was on the snorkeling trip with us. My head was spinning.

Was Sherry’s secret recent or old? Other than the initial comment about her gold-digging, and the note with the Delta Gamma

letters that read, Wedding bells in the near future. For old times’ sake I’ll wait to get paid , there was nothing else that even marginally related to Sherry.

“I think you’re right,” I said to Brie.

“About?”

“We should talk to Amber Jones.”

Brie sat up straight, didn’t look as depressed. “Really? Now?”

“We’ll go to the restaurant. She’s staying in the lodge somewhere. Maybe we can figure out what room.”

“Leave that to me,” Brie said. “Let’s go.”

It was still raining. We ran down the waterlogged path until we reached the main lodge.

The restaurant was packed with more people than I remembered seeing in one place at the resort, even at the Sky Bar the first

night. The sky windows were closed, and all the external doors had been shut, but the lights were bright and music played.

We passed the arcade where most of the kids were entertaining themselves. The buffet was elaborate and smelled amazing.

“They really know how to do a storm right,” I said.

We helped ourselves to food and sat down at one of the few vacant tables. I looked for Amber or Parker. Amber wasn’t there,

but Parker was sitting at the bar, shoulders slumped, back to the room. Charlie, not Jason, was working the bar.

Brie was watching her dad and Sherry talking to Tristan. “Probably planning the wedding,” she muttered.

“Amber’s not here,” I said.

Brie stuffed a shrimp in her mouth and said, “I’ll find her.”

She got up before I could warn her to be careful.

Jason walked in through the lobby. He was wet and looked beat. I jumped up and went over to him. “Hey.”

“Hi,” he said. “It’s miserable out there.”

I looked him over. “I can see.”

“But the resort is secure. Employees who were off-duty went back to their apartments, and those who are working will crash

in the library upstairs because the lodge is booked. No one should be out on the beach tonight.” He touched my damp hair.

“You went out?”

“Only from my room to here.”

“Still up for having me come by later?”

“I’m counting on it,” I said.

“Good.” He seemed preoccupied.

“What’s wrong?”

He looked around, then took my arm and escorted me into the bar. He bumped fists with Charlie, then took me into the stock

room and closed the door.

“Georgie didn’t kill Diana,” he said. “He reached out to me. He’s terrified. He told me he stole a page from your book because

Gino asked him to.”

“Where is it?” I asked.

“He gave it to Gino. Gino burned it right in front of him.”

“But Gino’s dead.”

“They’re saying it’s an accident,” Jason said. “But they had to remove the body because of the storm, so if there was any

evidence on the rocks, it’s gone now.”

“Do you believe that? That it was an accident?”

“I don’t know. But if it’s not, the police are going to look at Georgie, because Gino already called in an APB on him. He’s

twenty years old, Mia. His whole life is turned upside down. And I don’t know how to prove he didn’t do anything wrong.”

“One of the nice things about the American legal system is that you’re innocent until proven guilty, right? The police have

to prove he killed Diana.”

“Gino found her phone in his apartment, turned it over to Tristan.”

“Gino said that’s where he found it,” I told him. “What if—what if Gino was framing him? And Gino’s death really was an accident? If

Georgie comes clean and explains everything, that might clear him.”

“He’s scared and hiding.”

“He called you, right?”

“Yeah,” Jason conceded. “But that doesn’t mean he’ll reach out again. I tried calling Georgie after I heard about Gino, and