And it was true, too, that he had returned home in all haste when he had heard that David Beckett was here. And then he had been glad as hell, because he had found that David and his sister had become a duo.
“Honestly, I don’t care one way or another,” David said. “Here’s what I care about—Liam doing background checks on them, finding out their work schedules—or with the young ones, their graduation status—whether they’ve really got the credentials they claim, all that. Parking tickets are okay—I get enough of those myself. But nothing else.”
Sean shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Yes, you do. You know that you’re more intrigued by this now than ever,” David said. “And hell, Vanessa Loren is like a damned dousing rod. One day, a pendant. The next, a chest. With a body. Let’s face it, we’re in it now.”
“Have you talked to Marty? And Jamie? Are they in?”
“They were in from the beginning, too. I say we get Liam on the background checks and plan to head out soon. I’ll warn Katie.”
“All right,” Sean said.
She had just walked away.
Clarinda came out to finish clearing the table. “Hey, this is really getting wild, huh? All these people—and a body!” She shivered, placing empty glasses on her tray.
“It’s a very old body, Clarinda,” Sean said.
Katie came out the back door and strode toward them. Sean and David had taken their chairs again—at opposite ends of the long oblong table.
“Well. I guess you two scared everyone off,” she said. She frowned and looked at Sean. “Where’s Vanessa?”
“She went to her room.”
Katie’s brows shot up. “What did you do to her?”
“Not a thing. She chose to go home,” he said, irritated. He didn’t feel like explaining himself to his sister. Somewhere in his mind, he recognized the double standard—he had felt like a pit bull when he had first found out about David and Katie.
“You must have done something,” Katie persisted.
He stood. “Katie, you and Jamie set me up with her—under false pretenses.”
“What?”
“You didn’t mention that she was a friend of yours—you had Jamie call me in to talk to her, and you knew all along what she wanted,” she said.
“Hey, hey, let’s not have a sibling war here,” David protested.
“No war,” Sean said. “All I know is that Key West is suddenly hosting a whole crew of people—who, incidentally, were all on that island when the murders happened—and it all started with your friend, Miss Loren, and now she’s mad at me for what I consider a perfectly reasonable question about how it all came to happen!”
“You probably accused her—basically—of being a liar,” Katie said.
“I did not,” he said.
“Then you implied that she was a liar.”
“Who are you related to here?” Sean demanded.
“Never mind. I’m going to go and get some sleep. We’ll talk in the morning. Oh—Katie, sign the bill to me, will you, please. And make sure that you—”
“Take care of Clarinda. Of course.”
“Good night,” he managed, waving to the two of them.
As he walked the back way to his house, he wondered if he had been unreasonable.
But there was something everyone did seem to be forgetting.
Those six people had been on Haunt Island when Georgia and Travis had been murdered, decapitated and chopped into pieces.
Filming a horror movie that had turned very real.
Jay was cheerful as they walked. “You seem to have some kind of a regular homing beacon for finding things on that wreck. Wonder who the body is. Think it could really be Dona Isabella?”
“I don’t know. And I don’t care right now. I’m exhausted.” They had reached Vanessa’s inn. She gave him a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “We’ll talk tomorrow, all right?”
“Okay, kid. Sleep well.” He started away and turned back. “Hey, Nessa.”
“Yeah?”
“Love you, kid. As a friend, you know.”
She laughed. “Love you, too. Good night.”
Upstairs, Vanessa was glad that her room was on Duval, and that she could hear the faint sounds of music, laughter and conversation. She turned on the lights, wondering if she had done the right thing or not. She cared about Sean, she was attracted to him in a way she might never have been to anyone before, but he had looked at her with suspicion when all four of the others had walked in.
And he had been the one to say that he wanted them all!
Even if they hadn’t known each other long, they had known each other well, and it was disturbing to her to know someone that well and not be trusted by him.
They might have gotten together too heavily and too fast. They needed the night apart.
And she was right; she was not apologizing for what she didn’t do.
That didn’t change the fact that her room seemed impersonal and cold. Nor that she felt incredibly alone, which didn’t usually happen to her. Normally, she liked her own company.
She couldn’t change things, and she was exhausted. She changed into a giant T-shirt, scrubbed her face and teeth and headed to bed.
She turned off the lights and tried to listen to the revelry from Duval Street.