“You were in a wet suit.”
“Amanda, if we pull this off, not only will we have that treasure, you’ll be the only heir to the entire O’Riley fortune. Don’t you think that’s worth being cold for a few minutes? Dammit, Amanda give me a hand. Then you can go through their things while I get us out of here. We have to hurry. Some other asshole is going to think it’s a good day to sail and see what’s going on. Come on!”
As the two women hauled Tom down the steps to the cabin, Caer tried to struggle up; she was conscious, yes, but still too weak and dizzy to manage it. What the hell drug had the two used this time? Poison mushrooms, ground glass, knives and cunning. Marni was cold. Icy. Why hadn’t she seen it? And why had no one suspected that the two women might be in collusion? Because they’d carefully made themselves look like rivals, that was why.
She fought to regain her strength without betraying that she was awake, listening to every word. Marni had said that she’d murdered her husband, but wouldn’t he have been on her list as someone to cross over? It didn’t feel as if Cal was dead.
Her mind raced. She had to talk to the two women, get them off guard, find some kind of weapon to use against them.
And she had to get the others off the boat while they were still moored, before the rigged engine blew the Sea Maiden into a million pieces.
How?
Marni and Amanda got Tom down the five steps to the cabin below, then came back for Clara.
Then Sean, then Kat.
Then they paused, breathless. Marni laughed. “Wow. They’re heavy. Even Kat.”
“Only one more to go,” Amanda said. “But…one second. I just have to breathe.”
“Poor baby, poor precious baby. But it’s almost over. And no matter what anyone thinks, they’ll never be able to prove anything,” Marni said. “Come here.”
Caer watched the two embrace and share a kiss. “You were such a convincing bitch in that house,” Marni said with a giggle.
“It wasn’t hard. You got to marry the cute young guy. I had to marry the corpse and act as if I was turned on all the time. That would make anyone bitchy.” She laughed. “Over! This could really be over.”
“Could be? It is,” Marni assured her.
“Cal’s body will be found.”
“I killed him with gloves on, with one of Clara’s big broiler pans. They can’t trace it to me. I went into that grocery store in the same disguise I wore when I killed Eddie. No one will ever get anything useful off that security tape. They’ll never figure out what made Sean so sick, and what do you think they’ll learn from Eddie’s body? Nothing, that’s what. He’ll be chewed to bits by now, and when they find that cop I had to kill when I stumbled on him, he’ll be just as chewed up as poor old Eddie Ray. Come on, Amanda! We’ve earned this. We’ve worked for it ever since we met Eddie years ago, in that bar in the Village, bragging about the great discovery he was going to make. Now, whether we ever find that stupid treasure or not, we’ll be rich. We can do anything, go anywhere, because we’re all that’s left of the O’Riley empire. Even that old biddy, Bridey, went and died, saving us the trouble of killing her. Amanda, we deserve the money, and we deserve happiness together. Lord knows, we both paid for it, married to an idiot and a corpse. Grab the Irish bitch. I want to get us out of here. Go through her things first, because she’s been snooping around the most, with that damn Zach Flynn. Kat was too busy hating you to figure anything out, and if Sean had really known something, you would have wheedled it out of him already.”
Marni started up the engine. Caer cursed herself for not having dragged herself onto the dock, but she hadn’t been able to move, and she’d also been afraid to leave the others.
Amanda bent down to grip her by the arms and started to drag her. Hers would be a bruising descent down the steps to the cabin.
Caer opened her eyes fully and gripped Amanda right back.
Amanda screamed.
19
Zach’s mind was racing as he drove back to Newport as quickly as he could.
Eliminate the possibilities. Then, no matter how improbable, the possible became the plausible.
Morrissey appeared to be upright and honest. Zach had felt a decent vibe about the man from the time they had first met. He was a rare breed, a self-sacrificing individual, maybe determined to pay back the world for the life of luxury he might have enjoyed. Fact or instinct?
Gut feeling.
Tom and Clara. Hell, he’d known them both for years. Since he’d been a kid, since he’d known Sean.