When dinner had ended and the different duos split up, O’Casey told her, “We’re going to go ahead and take off tomorrow for the Keys.”
“We are?”
“Yeah. It will be nice,” he said, slipping an arm around her shoulders as he walked her to the car. “Quinn and Shannon are going to take the day off and drive down with us. We’ll stop in Key Largo—Quinn’s business partner has a home there. Maybe we can even head out in his boat for a few hours. Then we’ll move on down to the resort where we’re filming.”
“Can we go ahead of time?” she asked him, wondering why she was feeling so suspicious.
“Quinn knows the guy who owns the place. He owes him a favor.”
She sighed. “The two of you want to check the place out, right?”
He stopped walking. “You really think it’s such a bad idea?”
She shook her head and walked on by him.
“Kelly, damn it, what’s the matter with knowing the lay of the land before other people arrive?”
She turned and stared at him. “Here’s the problem. They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Most of the time, that’s probably true. But not always. I can’t become a hot house flower. I can’t let people believe that I’m a liability!”
“That’s right. You’ve just got to get back on that soap!” he said disdainfully.
“It is my livelihood.”
“It’s a role you’ve grown attached to.”
“It’s good work.”
“Is it worth dying for?”
“Everything going on could well be coincidence!”
“Answer me. Is it worth dying for?”
“No role is worth dying for!” she snapped back. “But tell me this, would you live your life running around in fear every moment? No, you wouldn’t.”
“It’s not a matter of running around in fear every moment. It’s about finding out what is going on.”
She turned again, heading for the car. “Fine. We’ll go tomorrow and we’ll scope out the place.”
As they drove, she was startled when he said, “You were actually in a rut, do you know that?”
“What?”
“The show. It was easy for you, comfortable. And you were afraid to take chances doing something else. All right, go ahead and believe that I don’t know you enough to peg any of your motives.” Blue eyes shot her a steely glance. “But I am getting to know you. And I think you could do anything you wanted. As long as you get through it alive, this might be one of the best things to ever happen to you.”
“Great. Now you’re going to analyze my life! This from a man who isn’t certain if he wants to be in law enforcement or entertainment!”
She struck a nerve, she was certain, because he fell silent. When they reached the house, he immediately went for the dog’s leash. While he was out, she brushed her teeth and went straight into bed. She waited, heard the door open and close, heard his words as he talked to Sam. But he didn’t come in. Eventually, she fell asleep.
CHAPTER 20
When she awoke, there was already commotion in the house. Hearing voices, she knew that Shannon and Quinn had arrived. She leaped up, grabbed clothing and made a beeline for the bathroom. When she emerged, coffee had been brewed, Shannon was moving around in the kitchen and Quinn and O’Casey were studying something on the computer. Naturally Sam had already been taken out. He was lying on the kitchen floor, happily slobbering over one of his rawhide chews.
“Good morning!” Shannon said cheerfully.
“Good morning,” Kelly said, stooping down to pet her dog. Being a loving creature, he gave up a second on the chew to catch her chin with a big lick.
“He’s a great dog.”
“Thanks. I think so, too.” Kelly rose, noting Shannon’s energy as she moved about. “You’re in a good mood,” Kelly noted.
“I am. I never do anything like this, just take off for a day in the Keys. I rather like it.”
“Well, I have an admission for you. I’ve never been there.”
“You’re going to love it! You’ve got a bathing suit, right?”
“Packed somewhere.”
“Find it! We’ll meet up with Dane and Kelsey and do a day of it.”
“Aren’t we going to the resort tonight?”
Shannon nodded. “Dane has a small private island just off Key Largo. The resort is another thirty or so minutes down. We’ll take the car to Marathon, where Dane will pick us up and drop us off. We’ll leave Doug’s car at a lot in Marathon, and Dane will get Quinn and I back.”
“Sounds awfully complicated.”
“It’s not.” She smiled. “Life can be so uncomplicated in the Keys!”
Quinn and Doug made an appearance in the kitchen.
“Good morning,” Quinn told Kelly.
“Good morning,” she murmured.
“Everything all right?” Doug asked. “Do the plans for the day meet with your approval?”
He was still distant, almost hostile. She wasn’t sure what he wanted her to do, crawl under a rock until they discovered just exactly what had happened to Dana Sumter? Some mysteries were never solved. Murderers often got away with their crimes. More than a hundred years later, theorists were still arguing over the identity of Jack the Ripper. She couldn’t spend her life giving up everything and being afraid.
“The plans sounds great to me,” she said. “I’ll go make sure that my suit isn’t at the very bottom of my luggage.”
Despite Doug’s mood, the drive was nice. And she had two eager tour guides telling her about the division of the little cities they passed, all Dade County and often considered part of Miami, but actually little municipalities with identities all their own. The streets took them to the highway and the highway down to the tip of the mainland—Homestead, Florida City. They stopped for gas—and a sniff and mark session for Sam—before heading down the long stretch of US1 that would take them to the Keys and back. The day was beautiful, and off to either side of the road the water sparkled brilliantly. Osprey nests sat high atop poles, and as they drove, Quinn made a point of showing her the different avian life that flourished in the area.
“Hurricane warnings down here are a real bitch,” Quinn said. “Imagine evacuating with just one road in and one road out.”
“I think I’d be afraid to live down here,” Kelly told him.
“You’re living out in a city where people warn that the ‘big one’ could strike at any time, and you’d be frightened by a storm?” Doug demanded, speaking to her at last.
“I didn’t say I’d be frightened by a storm. I’m not sure I’d want to live in the Keys, that’s all. One road…that’s a little hairy.”
“Aren’t you forgetting how quickly, easily and without warning the earth seems to shift in L.A.?”
She realized that he was referring to the “accident” she’d had on the set. “I guess we’re all willing to accept certain dangers,” she said with a smile.
Quinn explained that the Keys were mapped by mile markers and that she could find any distance and any address along the entire stretch of the islands by referring to them. After about twenty minutes, they came into an area of civilization again, and Shannon announced that they had reached Key Largo.
They met up with Dane Whitelaw and his wife, Kelsey, at a little coffee shop with outdoor seating. Kelly noted right away that everyone there seemed to know one another. Dane was tall, dark and very striking, with impressive cheekbones. Kelly decided there was Native American blood in him somewhere. He had a laid-back, easy assurance about him, and she could well imagine he would do good work in the field of private investigation. His wife, Kelsey, was an artist. One of her pieces, a magical oil of a sailboat on the water, was hanging in the coffee shop. She and Shannon knew each other well, yet neither of them made Kelly feel like an outsider. As they ordered different coffees and late-morning doughnuts, the talk revolved around the weather, the season, the water, fishing, diving, tourists, traffic and general sundry
affairs.
“Damn, but those are good doughnuts,” Shannon murmured. “I think I’m going to order another one.”
“I thought you were doing Atkins?” Kelsey teased her.
“Well, I was. But it doesn’t work for a dance teacher,” Shannon said.
“She’s hungry all the time,” Quinn explained, smiling affectionately and moving closer to his wife so that her hair brushed his chin.
“Ben said the lifts were getting hard!” Shannon said, shaking her head.
“It’s looks to me as if you can afford another doughnut,” Dane said politely.
“Except that we’ve packed lunch on the boat,” Kelsey said.
“What if you and I split a doughnut?” Kelly suggested.
“There’s a deal for you,” Dane said.
They wound up ordering three more doughnuts and each of the women ate their own. When they were done, they transferred their belongings to Dane’s Range Rover and headed back north over the main road. Back in Largo, they turned off it onto a series of streets, and finally into some barren land, then across a stretch of road that barely seemed to be above water level.
“It does sink at high tide,” Shannon told her. “But the place is beautiful.”
It was rustic, charming, surrounded with foliage, very solitary and lovely. Sam immediately went wild, running about, enjoying a rare taste of real freedom.
When they went into the house for Kelsey to grab a few last-minute items, Kelly noted the crib in the living room and the pieces of baby paraphernalia about the place.
“We have a little boy. Justin,” Kelsey told her. She grimaced. “He’s with my mom—who had a baby just a year before he was born.”
“Your folks must be young!” Kelly said.
Kelsey laughed. “Young enough, I guess. But it’s really great. I watch my sibling and my own infant at the same time. And Mom is great, returning the favor. So we’re entirely yours, free and clear, for the day.”
Dane’s boat was a huge yacht. Not new, Kelsey assured her, just well tended. Dane loved to sail, and with Quinn and Doug aboard, he had the right number of mates on hand. Though Kelly was a bit worried about Sam, he proved to be a perfect sailor, just sitting as if he were on guard as they cast off.
As they moved out into the Atlantic, Kelly found herself enjoying the day despite the fact that Doug remained cold and distant. His brother and the others were as kind and warm as could be. And as they sailed, she found it was fun to be a female on board this particular venture, because her sole duty seemed to be to lie in the sun and relax. The movement of the vessel surging across the water was lulling, and, she found herself not sleeping, but in such a state of contentment, it was almost like being semiconscious.
Suddenly she jerked up, startled to attention by cold water dripping on her sun-warmed stomach.
“Oh, sorry, did I wake you?” Doug, shirtless, shoeless and in cutoffs, was seated by her side, offering her a frosty plastic cup of something that had been dripping on her stomach.
“No, you didn’t wake me.”
“Ice-cold lemonade,” he told her.
She took the drink, sitting up, and looked at him warily. He seemed more wired than he had last night, almost combustible.
“Thanks,” she murmured. “So…what? There’s something new bothering you, I can tell. Has there been some kind of threat against redheads in general?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I just got a call from a friend of yours, though. Someone else who is concerned.”
She groaned. “Liam, right? Why does everyone I seem to know right now have to be in the field of private investigation?”
“You may wind up being a lucky girl, that so many people in your life happen to be in the field.”
She nodded. “Okay, what was he calling about?”
“Another woman has been killed.”
She swallowed a sip of lemonade carefully. “And…?”
“And she was a radio advice personality.”
“Oh!” Kelly murmured. He was still staring at her. “How did she die?”
“Hit and run. She was killed crossing the street right near her place of business. Killed, Kelly. Witnesses described the car as a dark sedan. Some said black, some said dark blue. Some even suggested charcoal-gray. She was thrown thirty feet and declared dead at the site.”
A huge splash jolted Kelly from the silent stare she had been giving O’Casey in return.
“Sam!” he said, jumping up.
Kelly jumped up as well, but there wasn’t anything to worry about. Dane had dropped anchor not a hundred yards from an island with a white sand beach. Sam was following Shannon and Kelsey as they swam toward it.
“It’s okay,” she said quickly, and smiled though her heart was thudding. She wasn’t sure just what Doug O’Casey’s real feelings were for her, but he did care about Sam. “He swims well. He runs into the Pacific all the time. He must be in seventh heaven here, the water’s so warm.”
Doug was looking at her again, his eyes shielded by the sunglasses.
“Doug!” she said, her tone pleading. “Honest to God, I don’t know what you want me to do. Should I run around shaking all the time? Hole up in a cabin in remote Montana? What?”
He shook his head. “I want you to take this seriously.”
“I am taking it seriously. Please, I’m going along with every suggestion you make. What more can I do?” She bit her lower lip. “Where was this woman killed?”
“West Palm Beach.”
Her heart took a little dive. Close. A couple of hours north of their present location. In Florida.
“When?”
“Early hours of the morning.”
She exhaled. “The police will certainly be looking for the car.”
“Yes, they will be.”
“What more can I do?” she asked softly.
“Quit the soap.”
“What?”
“Call a press conference. Get on all the news channels, the entertainment shows. Talk about things you want to do in the future. Make it evident that you’re not an advice therapist of any kind.”
“I don’t see how that…I mean, if I’m really being targeted, how will that—”
She didn’t have to finish speaking; he had already turned away. Slipping his sunglasses into his waistband, he dived off the boat and into the water.
Dane strode around to her location. “You coming?” he asked.
She nodded, trying to smile, and dived into the water.
Before diving in, Dane sent out an inner tube that carried a cooler and a dry pack with towels and utensils. While Kelly was still wringing the excess water from her hair, Dane passed her, dragging the tube. The others joined him to open the cooler and the pack. A couple of sheets were spread on the sand, drinks were popped open and a spread of sandwiches and salads was laid out.
Kelly found herself suddenly and deeply resentful; she might have really enjoyed the day. And she became determined to do just that, no matter Doug’s words or his tense, quiet mood. While she accepted a sandwich from Shannon, he walked on the beach, throwing a stick for Sam to retrieve. His throws were long and hard, but Sam didn’t mind.
Dane took a seat by Kelly. “If you look to the south, you can actually see the edge of the island where you’ll be working.”
“It’s that close?”
“As the bird flies, very close. The islands loop beneath the state, so there’s a bit more of a curve than appears. You’ll see. We won’t sail later. I’ll motor the two of you over there in a few hours.”
She studied the man. “I’m sure you heard about the hit-and-run in West Palm Beach,” she said.
He nodded.
“Do you believe I’m in serious danger?”
“You could be.”
“So what would you do?”
“Stay the hell away from the soap and any resemblance to your soap character.”
“I’m already doing that.”
He shrugged
, looking out to the water. “No one can tell you what to do. We can only advise.”
“Doug thinks I should make a big deal publicly about quitting the soap.”
“That couldn’t hurt.”
“But then again,” she persisted, “if there was—is—a real psychopath committing these murders, he’s already convinced that the character is a real person. In his sick, warped mind, I’m already labeled.”
“That’s true.”
“So…”
“Wouldn’t you rather be safe than sorry?” he asked.
She thought about that a minute, then grimaced and rose.
Doug was standing by the surf. She walked in his direction. “Hey.” He turned to her. “You took me by surprise,” she told him. “Yes, my life is worth more to me than any role. And yes, I’ve been comfortable. But I’ve liked my work. Maybe I should be more daring, stretch my sights a bit. I don’t know. I really don’t know what I feel yet.”
“Then you should think about it,” he said, throwing the stick again. Sand blew around them with his effort.
“Hey, I’m doing everything you say. I’m spending every minute with a one-time cop!” she said teasingly.
He was silent.
“Now,” she told him, “you’re supposed to assure me that you’ve been trained, you made it through the academy head of your class and, yes, you’re sticking with me. I have you, don’t you see? I’ll be all right.”
That brought him around to glare at her. “Kelly, hell. Am I supposed to say that yes, it’s in my blood, I’d take a bullet for you? It doesn’t work that way. This sure as hell doesn’t work that way.”
“Look,” she said. “Think about the timing, Doug. Could the car that nearly hit me be in West Palm Beach now?”
He turned away from her, and she realized he’d already been wondering about that. She wanted to walk to him, slip her arms around his waist and rest her cheek against the sun-heated flesh of his bare back. But she forced herself to keep her distance.