Alex moved around from behind David, still wary as she passed John Seymore, heading for the kitchen.
Len was stretched out there. John had covered him with blankets from the beds and set his head on a pillow. She touched Len’s cheek and felt warmth. His pulse was weak but steady, his breathing faint, but even.
She sat back, leaning against the refrigerator, allowing herself the luxury of just sitting for a minute, appreciating the fact that she was alive.
Then her mind began to race. The wind was howling again. She could hear it rattling against the doors in the back. She winced, afraid they would give way, then reminded herself that they were guaranteed to withstand winds up to a hundred miles an hour.
She began to shiver, then started as a blanket fell around her. She looked up. David was standing there; then he hunkered down by her side. A minute later John Seymore sat down across from them, on Len’s other side.
“Who did this to him?” Alex demanded, looking from one man to the other.
David stared directly at John Seymore as he answered. “Either Jay Galway or Hank Adamson,” he said.
She shook her head. “Jay cared about Len too much.”
“Did he?” John asked dryly. “Jay is the manager here. If Alicia had ever shown up, he’d be the one to know it. Especially if she wanted to arrive in secret. Jay could have met her on the beach and killed her.”
“No,” Alex said. “Jay’s hurt—I nearly tripped over him up at the main building, and then he—never mind. It had to be Hank.”
“A reporter? Without any special knowledge of boats or the sea?” David asked quietly.
She stared across Len’s still form at John Seymore. “So…you’re FBI but not exactly an agent?” There was wariness in her voice, and she knew it.
John sighed. “Look, if I hadn’t been so suspicious of David, I would have identified myself from the beginning. But I didn’t know who could be trusted. For all I knew, you were in on it somehow, Alex.”
“What I want to know,” David said, “is how the FBI became interested in Alicia Farr, and why?”
“The government always wants its cut,” John said simply. “Different agencies, at different times, had their eyes on Daniel Fuller. He liked to talk. According to his stories, the ship went down in American waters. No way was the government going to let a treasure hunter get to her secretly.”
“So…you followed Alicia?” David said.
John shook his head. “I’d been in Miami. We knew Daniel Fuller was dying, but he refused to see anyone but Alicia. I’m sorry she lost her life over this, but she was a fool. She didn’t exactly hide her visits. She was overheard calling Moon Bay. So I came to see what would happen when she arrived. My job was just to find out what she knew about the Anne Marie. But Alicia didn’t show up. You did, David. And Seth Granger, who talked way too much. And the reporter. Then Alex found the body on the beach.”
Alex felt David’s fingers curl around hers. She swallowed hard. There was something so instinctively protective in that hold.
For a moment, the gravity of their situation slipped away.
If John Seymore suddenly pulled out his gun, she knew David would throw himself between them. He did love her.
Maybe he had always loved her.
But the sea would always come first.
“How did you know Alex found a body on the beach?” David demanded sharply.
John shrugged. “I made a point of meeting up with Laurie Smith. She’s a very trusting individual. Too trusting, really. It was risky, telling Laurie the truth. But it also seemed important that she lie low, since someone might know she had been with Alex and seen the body.”
“Laurie is on the mainland, or at least the main island, if she didn’t head out of the Keys entirely,” Alex murmured. “So she knows. She knows everything that’s going on. It’s insane for someone to be trying to kill us all now. The authorities will know.”
David was staring at John again. “Maybe not so insane. Whoever killed Alicia also helped Seth Granger to his death. That means they didn’t care about financing. We’ve got someone on our hands who means to get to the wreckage of the Anne Marie, bring up the treasure without equipment or an exploratory party, then disappear.”
Alex looked from one man to another. “All right, for the sake of argument right now, David, you’ve decided it isn’t John, and, John, you’ve decided it isn’t David. And it’s obviously not Len or Jay.” She frowned. “I told you, when I ran out of the storm room, I tripped over Jay.”
“He was dead?” David asked sharply.
Both men were staring at her.
She shook her head. “No,” she admitted. “He…he tried to grab me.”
Their silence told her that they both believed Jay was guilty.
“He was the one who insisted on going out,” David said to John.
“He’d know how to kill the generator,” John agreed.