Page 55

A heavy rapping at the door ripped me from slumber. Laurent’s arm was flung across my waist, the sheets tangled around our bodies as we jerked awake, discombobulated. Light bled from the edges of the blackout shade over the window.

What time was it?

“Police,” came a male voice. “Open up.”

I sat bolt upright. “One second,” I called out, blood rushing in my ears. “I’m not dressed.”

I rolled out of bed and opened the shade, flooding the cabin with light.

Laurent’s hair was mussed, his cheek dented with the wrinkle of the pillow as he rubbed sleep from his eyes and stepped into his pants.

My heart squeezed as I looked at him. I wished our circumstances were different, but I didn’t regret one minute of last night.

I went to my closet, pulling on a T-shirt and ripped jeans shorts with shaking hands. I heard the rapping again, this time on Rémy’s door.

“I guess they wanted to surprise us,” I said.

“Yes,” Laurent said, pulling me in for a quick kiss. He was trying to be reassuring, but I could tell he was as spooked as I was.

I heard a clunk in Gisèle’s room, and rapid male voices. Again, a rapping on my door, this time more polite. “Everyone to the main deck, please,” said a female voice. Crew.

“Okay, one second,” I called out.

While Laurent dressed, I splashed water on my face and quickly brushed my teeth in the bathroom, then downed ibuprofen for my head, which was fortunately not hurting as badly as I’d feared it might.

“Let’s go.” That was one of the cops. “Leave all your things in your room.”

Thinking fast, I fished Tyson’s blackmail note out of my bag and stuffed it in my back pocket along with my phone, debit card, and ID. I wasn’t sure yet what to do about the blackmail note, but I figured it would be better for me to it hand over than for them to discover it.

Laurent and I exchanged a glance. Apparently, the police weren’t going to conveniently step away so that he could slip out of my room and into his without anyone the wiser.

I realized, as he opened the door, that this was worse for me than it was for him. He was the one person who could vouch for my whereabouts during the dive, and now the police would think he was biased because we were involved. They might even think I’d seduced him to cover my tracks.

This was very, very bad.

I followed him into the hallway, where Officer Lambert leaned against the wall with his arms crossed, looking down his nose at us. If our appearing together was a surprise, he didn’t let on. He pointed to the stairs. “Main deck.”

Through the open door to Gisèle’s room, I could see the police bagging the money she’d hidden in her suitcase.

So much for my promise to keep it a secret.

In my mind, I scanned my room for anything they might find suspicious in my own belongings, but since I’d removed the blackmail note, I didn’t think I had anything. That was something, anyway.

When we reached the main deck, we found everyone else already assembled at the dining table, hastily dressed and on edge, seated before an untouched spread of pastries, eggs, and fruit.

Jennifer looked like she’d slept in her makeup, and even always-put-together Allison looked disheveled, her perennially smooth hair kinked in the back, bags under her eyes.

An officer was stationed in the hallway between the doors to Allison’s and Cody and Jennifer’s rooms while additional officers searched their cabins.

All the officers were ripped, confident.

There might not be a lot of crime on St. Barth’s, but these guys seemed unnervingly ready to handle whatever was thrown their way.

One of the crew girls offered me a coffee and I took it gratefully. My brain was foggy from the lack of sleep, not to mention all the alcohol I’d consumed yesterday, and I needed to be sharp today. I added a dash of milk as I slid into a seat next to Samira.

“Are they going to let us back in our rooms?” Jennifer asked of no one in particular.

I watched as she spun her hair into a bun atop her head.

Why would she have been blackmailing Tyson?

And if she had been, could she also have killed him?

She was pint-size, and such an inexperienced diver—unless she wasn’t.

An advanced diver would know how to mount a tank to control another diver, no matter their size difference.

“I need a shower,” she complained. “I didn’t even get to brush my teeth. ”

“None of us did,” Allison said.

“What the hell are they looking for, anyway?” she asked.

“They’re doing what they should have done yesterday,” Cody groused from his spot at the head of the table, one side of his polo collar upturned. He checked his watch and glanced at Allison. “The announcement goes out in ten minutes.”

Jennifer reached beneath the table and stopped his jumping knee. “Calm down.”

But she seemed just as fidgety as he did. What was I missing about her?

“They’re bringing us in for questioning,” Allison said.

I caught Samira’s eye and looked pointedly at the side deck, then rose, taking my coffee with me.

No one asked where I was going as I exited the dining room and skirted the shimmering pool to stand at the railing, just out of sight of the table.

My eyes burned with the brightness of the day as I squinted across the turquoise sea toward the hilly green island, and I wished I’d thought to bring my sunglasses upstairs with me.

After a moment, Samira joined me, leaning over the railing on her elbows. As beautiful as she was, she looked like shit, and I could tell by the dark circles beneath her puffy eyes that she hadn’t slept.

“They found the money,” I said, my voice low. “I saw them bagging it.”

“Merde.”

“It may be better for you in the long run, it backs up your story that you didn’t know you were getting anything in the will.”

“Thanks for telling me.” She took a sip of her coffee, glancing back toward the table. “How is your head?”

“Sore,” I answered. “But better than last night.”

“Good.” Her gaze lingered on me. “So, you and Laurent…”

I stared at her, unsure what to say.

“Come on. Of all the women I’ve brought down here before, none have gotten so much as a kiss from him.”

“Really?” I asked, surprised.

“And not for lack of trying.”

“I didn’t…I wasn’t sure. If this was something he did.” I stared down at the clear water.

“No,” she said. “Not that I know of, anyway.”

I held back a smile. I’d convinced myself to be totally fine with it if it turned out he was some kind of butler lothario, but I couldn’t deny that learning he wasn’t felt good. A spot of sunshine on a horizon darkened by thunderheads.

The sound of boots on the deck, and we turned to see Lambert stomping around the pool. “Ladies, please join us.” He gestured to the police boat moored a short distance from the yacht.

Behind him, the others were rising from the table, taking last sips of coffee, grabbing pastries for the road.

“We need to pack up,” Cody said.

But he shook his head. “We will bring your things.”

“We’re not even wearing shoes,” I protested.

“The crew will provide you with the shoes you were wearing when you arrived.”

“My computer—” I started.

“We will return it to you.” He gestured to the stern. “Please. We go to the station for interviews, then you are free to go home.”

“Like, home to America?” I asked, though I knew the answer.

“We ask that you remain on the island for now,” he said, waving us toward the back of the boat. “Please.”

Samira and I joined the others as they filed around the pool and down the steps to the sugar scoop, looking just as disgruntled as we did. At least I had my phone. Some of the others weren’t so lucky.

At the bottom of the stairs were two baskets of shoes, but I could find only one of the sandals I’d worn yesterday. The one that had been soiled was nowhere to be seen. “Where is my other shoe?” I asked one of the girls sorting a pile of discarded dive gear.

She held up a yellow flipper without a pair. “Is it this one?”

“No, my street shoes,” I said, showing her my sandal. “You guys took my other one to be cleaned.”

“I’ll find it,” she said, setting the flipper down to trot up the stairs, speaking into her walkie.

Another crew girl held up a dive compass attached to a carabiner. “Whose is this?”

Jennifer raised her hand and reached for it.

As she clipped it to her belt loop, I frowned.

What was a novice diver like Jennifer doing with a dive compass?

How to use it underwater wasn’t something you learned until advanced open water dive training.

Perhaps she wasn’t as inexperienced as she claimed.

“The announcement just went out,” Allison said, looking at her phone from behind big black sunglasses.

As the police began to load us into the dinghies to transfer to their boat, the girl who had gone to find my shoe returned empty-handed, apologizing profusely. My shoe was nowhere to be found. “Can I please go get my other pair of shoes?” I asked Officer Lambert, but he shook his head.

“We must go now.”

“Here.” I looked up to see Marielle jogging down the stairs, a pair of Havaianas in her hand. “Have mine.”

“Thank you,” I said gratefully, taking the shoes from her. They were a size too big, but better than nothing.

She helped me into the dinghy, and I sat next to Allison.

We pulled away from the yacht, the wind whipping our hair as we motored over the top of the waves toward the police boat.

If Allison had been the one to push me off the boat, I felt certain she wouldn’t try anything here, under the watchful gaze of the police, so I could afford to be direct.

I seized the moment, leaning into her, my voice barely rising above the sound of the motor.

“Is there any reason I shouldn’t tell the police about the blood test Tyson was blackmailing you with? ”

She stilled.