Page 93 of Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds

“Never,” I said. I estimated the distance from one side to the other to be at least three hundred yards—maybe more.

“The view is to die for,” Brie said. “You have to try it. You land in that lagoon. From there, it’s just a short hike to the West Beach, and a boat takes you back to the resort.”

“Over my dead body,” I muttered, then squinted and shielded my eyes from the sun. “Wait—are there people over there?”

Brie held her hand above her eyes, narrowed them. “They walked all the way around. Idiots! They’re never going to get back up in the dark, not without risking their necks. They’ll have to go the long way.”

A flash of memory hit me. I pulled out my phone, but theimages Brie sent me hadn’t all downloaded. “Brie—let me see your phone. The book.”

She gave me an odd look, then took out her phone, brought up an album, and handed it to me, squeezing in to watch as I scrolled through the pages. There were fifty-seven photos, meaning Diana had written on fifty-seven pages—fifty-eight if I counted the page that was torn out. I stopped when I came to a page that had a word underlined.Moon.I remember when I saw this and thought it was strange to underline just a word. I flipped further and stopped. “There!”

Lagoonhad also been underlined.

“I don’t get it,” Brie said.

“Diana underlined or circled random words in the book. What if they weren’t random? We know her numbers stood for people on the island. What if the words she circled also mean something?” I gestured to the lake and noticed that the sun was rapidly falling, casting odd shadows around us. “There’s another lagoon on the island. I’ve been there. It’s closer to the resort.” Unless Amber and Parker checked it out earlier, or lagoon was just one part of the code.

“There’s at least a dozen words underlined,” Brie said. “How do we know what they mean?”

“We should head back,” I said. “Write them all out, and maybe the answer will be obvious.”

“They already did that,” Brie said, gesturing across the lake to the lagoon, where we could no longer see them. “They know what they’re looking for.”

“Diana was here for two days. Would she have come all the way up here to hide papers? She would have to retrieve them at some point, right?”

“Maybe, but Amber thinks they’re up here.”

“Or maybe she’s trying to convince Parker of that. We’re not going to get over there and back before dark. I certainly don’t want to fall into the lake.”

“You have a point,” Brie conceded.

“The most logical place for any documents would be in her belongings that housekeeping packed up. That would be the first place to look. Amber didn’t find the papersorthe book, so she broke into the cottage where Diana had been—my room—thinking Diana hid something there.”

“I’m with you. And?”

“Wouldn’t you keep something important or valuable close to you? Maybe she was killed for the documents, and the killer has them.”

“And Amber and Parker are on a wild goose chase?”

“It’s possible.” Which meantwewere also on a wild goose chase.

“Or shedidhide them and told Amber she hid them, which is why Amber’s going through all these lengths to find them,” Brie said.

“That’s possible too,” I agreed. “Logically, it would be a place someone wouldn’t accidentally discover, yet easy for a guest to access.”

I craned my neck, but Amber and Parker were no longer in sight. “Do you think they’re okay?”

“Sure,” Brie said. “There’s another way up to the Sky Bar from the West Beach, but it’s going to be a bitch of a hike, especially at night.”

I didn’t like those people, but I didn’t want anything bad to happen to them. “If they’re not back by the time we are, we should tell Tristan or Kalise where we saw them.”

“They can sleep on the beach,” Brie said. “Serves them right for being so sneaky.”

“Let’s not tempt fate,” I said, pointing to all the danger signs. “We should go.”

“Let’s use the Sky Bar trail,” Brie said. “The bar is closed tonight because of the cruise, but the road is easier to walk down and better lit.”

“I’m all in,” I said.