Page 111 of Sunburned

“We have a few more questions.”

“I didn’t blackmail or kill Tyson. Someone is setting me up, and Ineed to prove my innocence before you lock me up for a crime I didn’t commit, or they succeed in killing me. So if I’m not under arrest, I need to leave. Now.”

Lambert held up his hands. “As you wish.”

I felt the world crashing down around me as I turned on my heel and swung the door open.

Chapter 43

The warmth of the sun was a relief after the frigid temperature of the police station, but I cringed in its glare, squinting at the screen of my phone as I stopped at the top of the stairs to read Laurent’s text:

You finished yet?

I took a breath. I wasn’t totally alone. Someone, at least, believed my side of the story. I shot him a message telling him I was done, and he immediately replied that he was on his way.

I descended the handful of steps to the sidewalk and took a seat on a bench in the shade of a palm tree, formulating a plan while I waited.

I couldn’t go to Cody. He’d already saved my hide once by going to jail for the crime I’d committed, and though I’d done nothing wrong this time, I had a feeling he’d be more interested in saving himself—and perhaps his girlfriend—than doing me any more favors. And if Jennifer had planted that DNA test in my luggage and pushed me off the boat last night, who knew what else she would do to make sure I remained the prime suspect? Confronting her could be dangerous andshould be a last resort. What I needed was to find incriminating evidence against her. Something concrete, that the police would have to take more seriously than my word. What that might be, I wasn’t sure. But Le Rêve would be a good place to start.

The Land Rover pulled up to the curb, and I got in. Laurent’s eyes were covered by sunglasses, but I could see the concern etched in his face. “How’d it go?” he asked as we roared away from the police station.

“Not great,” I said with a sigh. “Someone planted the DNA test in my luggage, and they seem to think I killed Tyson.”

He glanced over at me. “Jennifer?”

“That’s my guess.”

As he drove up the hill, I told him what I’d realized about her on the boat.

Unlike the police, he didn’t doubt my judgment or question whether I was sure of her identity, accepting my conclusions at face value. “Did Tyson have anything to do with her boyfriend’s death?” he asked when I’d finished.

I bit my lip. I didn’t want to lie to him, but I also couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t turn on me if he knew the whole truth. Regardless, if I was asking him to help me now, I owed him some kind of explanation. I had to take that chance. “This has to stay between us,” I said finally.

“Of course,” he said, turning off the main road onto a winding, narrow street.

“I don’t know whether it was an accident or intentional—I wasn’t there—but Tyson and Cody were involved. There had been a fight. Ian was asking for money. It’s probably best if you don’t know any more than that.”

He nodded, stoic, and I felt a modicum of relief that at least he hadn’t pulled the car over and kicked me out.

“Is this your house?” I asked as he parked in front of a well-kept bungalow with a wide porch overlooking the sea. Two surfboards leaned against the railing in front of a pair of rocking chairs.

He nodded, turning off the engine. “Want to come in?”

“I do,” I said. “But I need to go to Le Rêve to try to find something to prove my innocence.”

He furrowed his brow. “If Jennifer killed Tyson, she is dangerous.”

“It’s a risk I have to take.”

He nodded, accepting my competence without question. A rare man indeed. “How can I help?”

“Can you get me into the house without anyone knowing?” I asked.

“The gates have motion-activated cameras that ring the house.” He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking. “The wall goes past the gate, down the hill, but the front of the property has no fence, and that side of the house is never locked. It’s steep and overgrown, though.”

“The hill on the side that faces the sea?” I asked.

He nodded. “The view side. I can come—”