Kellen reached into his cupboard, brought out a serving bowl, emptied the bag of salad into it. She washed her hands, then tossed the greens with her hands. She caught a peculiar expression on his face. “I know where everything is. All the kitchens are arranged the same.”
“I have never seen anyone actually use their hands like salad tongs.”
“Think about it. Someone in the kitchen used their hands to cut up the lettuce, celery, radishes…”
“Wearing sanitary gloves, one hopes!” Still he looked pained.
She thought about that photo of the affluent Brooks family. She suspected they had a home that included a staff and their own cook, and the idea of anyone actually touching food with their fingers would be an anathema to him. That both amused her and helped convince her of the authenticity of his personal history. “I promise I’ll use utensils when I add the dressing.”
“What kind of dressing?”
“What do you care? I’ve seen you. You’ve been in the resort eating all day. This is for me.”
He looked even more startled and offended.
Wow. He was spoiled.
She pulled the list of possible Librarians out of her pocket and handed it over. “Here. See what you think.”
He pulled a stool up to the eating bar and looked over her chart and her profiles.
“I like the pilot, too,” Nils said. “Chad Griffin. In and out, travel the country, transport the goods, stay here when the weather’s bad and check up on everything.”
“I’m prejudiced against him because I don’t like the man, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t the Librarian.”
“Why did you put Carson Lennex above him?”
“Archaeology degree. The man knows his stuff, he has a huge book collection, went to Machu Picchu on vacation. Which a lot of people do, but…” She shook up the simple dressing of red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and extra virgin olive oil, drizzled it on the greens and dug in.
“Fascinating.” He pulled a pen out of his pocket and scribbled a note on the list. “I would have never suspected him. He’s too old and too famous. So I would have never done the research. Good job.”
“Snooping pays off.”
“I thought you’d include your local policeman, the guy who took the body to the coroner.”
Nils was asking all the right questions. “He’s disappeared.”
That got Nils’s attention. “When did you find that out?”
“This evening.”
“Disappeared to where?”
“If we knew that, he wouldn’t be disappeared.” She waved him to silence and told him about Leo’s call. “I was aggravated with Lloyd for not getting back to me, but now he’s vanished and no one thinks he deliberately ran off with the body. Not even me, because if he’s the Librarian, that would be stupid.”
“It would. Foul play is suspected?”
“The sheriff has her men searching for him, but the countryside is wild and includes many places to hide someone who is kidnapped, or to stash a body.” She stared into the salad and reimagined the rugged mountains, the dense forests, the long stretches of beach battered by ocean. “As we’ve discovered.”
“So only two men made the list?”
“I do suspect a man simply because in the greater world a man is more likely to command the respect and be in the position to obtain power. But if your suspicions are right, that the Librarian is using Yearning Sands Resort as a base, the possibility exists it could be a female because the hospitality business is predominantly female. We have a lot more choices here.” She pointed at the names on the chart. “I’m suggesting these two because they have the physicality to handle the rigors of the job. Pickups, drop-offs, if needed.” She paused a beat. “Murders.”
“I also had Mara Philippi on the list,” he said smugly. “She has a murky background.”
That brought her interest into sharp focus. “What does that mean?”
“It means I don’t believe the research I was able to assemble about her. There are legitimate reasons for her to have faked credentials. She might have worked at a federal agency that obscured or changed her records, she might be in witness protection, she might be running from an abusive relationship—”
“All of which explains her obsession with fitness and fighting—and none of which explains her obsession with winning the International Ninja Challenge.”
“Maybe she’s throwing up a smoke screen and has no intention of entering the contest,” he suggested.
“She says she’s already entered and been accepted.”
“Have you seen proof?”
“No.” Kellen finished the salad. “You’re right—she could be lying and will sadly announce she didn’t make it. But I don’t think so. I think if Mara is the Librarian, she has such an impenetrable ego this is really the challenge—to show herself on television and online, to be seen by the world and make fools of everyone.”
“You have quite an unflattering opinion of her.”
Kellen struggled to explain. “She’s not an easy person to be around. She’s demanding. She’s selfish. I don’t know her any better than I did on the day we met. She has said that everyone here has secrets.”
“Do they?”
“No one comes to live at the lonely, battered edge of the continent unless they’re escaping a past.”
“What are you escaping?”
Her temper crackled. “You tell me. You did the research.”
“I’ve never seen blue eyes spark quite like that.” He leaned forward. “May I kiss you?”
She couldn’t have been more horrified. “Good God. Why?”
He threw back his head and laughed, and for the first time since she’d met him, he looked carefree. “Because we’d be good together.”
“I’m not here for that. If that’s the game you’re playing—”
“No!” He held up one hand. “This is not some long scene I’ve concocted to seduce you. Forget I said anything. It was an impulse. I’m not usually given to impulse, but you’re an unusual woman. Intriguing.”
“And you’re nosy. It’s not an attractive trait. Try to contain yourself.” Kellen pulled the mac and cheese out of the oven and tested it. It was still frozen in the middle, but warm around the edges, and she was desperate. With a serving spoon, she shaved off the warm parts and mounded them into a bowl, then covered the casserole again and put it back in the oven. She took her first bite and sighed with pleasure. “You can keep your crummy lobster mac and cheese,” she told him. “Dungeness crab is the clear winner.”
“I couldn’t begin to say. I’ve never had crab mac and cheese.”
An appeal for a serving, and she ignored it. She pulled a stool into the kitchen and settled across the counter from him. “Adrian and Mitch are on the list as possible assistants to the Librarian. They were good soldiers and I like them, and mostly I trust them, but Adrian got into something bad, I don’t know what, but he’s jumpy and scared. Sometimes Mitch lacks a moral compass. Both have had problems adjusting to civilian life. I don’t know whether they truly could be tempted by the Librarian to be the muscle of the Yearning Sands operation, but I know sometimes money leads them.”
He studied the list intently. “Right. You didn’t include your other two friends as either the Librarian or assistants.”
“No.” She didn’t have to explain herself, or defend Birdie and Temo.
He went on to the last name on her list. “Sheri Jean Hagerty. Why her?”
“Sheri Jean’s father was by all accounts a lovely man. But her mother is the matriarch of her extended family and absolutely the most ruthless human being I’ve ever met.”
He scribbled a note beside Sheri Jean’s name. “So she could have learned heartlessness at her mother’s knee.”
“I guarantee she did. The family has a small truck farm east of here where they grow fruits and vegetables to sell on a stand beside the highway. Everyone in the family works that stand while they’re growing up and everyone, no matter who they are, spends part of their summer working the farm. We’re talking about high-powered people. Business owners, CEOs, president of a prestigious Midwest college. Every autumn, her mother comes to the resort to negotiate the terms for next year’s produce, and on that day, chefs tremble, Annie cries and Sheri Jean hides.”