“Where’s Wade?”
“He said he wanted to go check for more evidence around Erica’s body.”
“Jesus, Jenn, you let him go down there by himself?”
“Me? I’m not his babysitter. I didn’t know I was supposed to stop him.”
“We all agreed. Nobody downstairs without a witness.”
“What’re you freaking out about? He’s conducting an investigation.”
“He’s not even a cop anymore.”
“But he knows people, and let me remind you, Alex, you’re the one who called the Coast Guard, you’re the one who threw the keys in the ocean, and you’re the one who said we weren’t going anywhere until this is solved. What else are we going to do while we’re waiting on them to get here, huh? And for that matter, where are they?”
Alex pinched his lips together and sat down beside the hot tub, crossing his legs. There had been too many lies already. It was time for some truth. After what he’d discovered, he needed someone to trust, someone on his side, and Jenn would have to be it. “They’re not coming. We never called it in.”
“You what?” Jenn slapped the water’s surface, splashing Alex, splashing the deck. “Are you kidding me? Why not?”
“Please, please don’t say anything to the others. Not yet. It was Wade’s idea, back when we first discovered the bod—I mean, when we found Erica. He said if we told them the Coast Guard was coming it might calm the innocent people down and freak out the killer.”
“And look where it’s gotten us. Nowhere. Nobody knows anything, nobody’s admitting anything, and as far as I can tell, only Sharon and Laura have proof, but the rest are pretty damn convincing.”
“Convincing doesn’t mean innocent.”
“These people are our friends, Alex.”
“Your friends,” he reminded her.
“Whatever. All I’m trying to say is, I can’t imagine any one of them doing something like this. Erica is dead, I know that, and God it hurts, but I can’t. I don’t want to. I don’t know how to think of one of them as a murderer.”
“Maybe this will change your mind.” He held up the spare set of keys and left the rabbit’s foot dangling in the wind. On the way down from the cockpit, he’d almost made up his mind to tell her about the affair with Erica and decided against it. One more little lie to keep the story clean, for now, wouldn’t hurt much. Over Jenn’s shoulder, he could see a wall of rain coming on the forward edge of the front. It wouldn’t be long.
He jiggled the keys. “I was looking for the spare set—”
“You’ve had those the whole time?” she interrupted. “Alex!”
“Sssshh, please, just listen. I’m trying to explain. I was looking for these, and I found this.” He held up his cell phone. “You said no phones on the trip, but this is an old one. I’d forgotten it was on board and when I checked to see if it still had any charge left, there was no signal.”
A heavy rush of wind drove raindrops into their skin—water needles pricking relentlessly. Jenn dipped lower into the warm water of the hot tub. Alex zipped his windbreaker and pulled the hood over his head, then shoved the cell phone into a dry pocket.
“So what?” Jenn said, scowling. “You’ve got a useless phone.”
Alex pointed at her. “Exactly. Think about it.”
“I don’t get what you’re—oh, my God. Wade said he…”
Alex nodded.
Jenn quickly pushed herself up and out of the hot tub and wrapped a white terrycloth robe around her body, tying it at the waist. The rain had dampened the outside, but the interior was soft and comforting. “But, wait. Is it possible he had service? I mean, just maybe?”
Alex lifted a shoulder, let it drop. “Possible? Not very. I mean, I can’t say for sure, but I think he’d especially have a hard time if he were down in one of the rooms. You’d think a signal would already be weak enough, and then with all the electronics on board…I don’t know. I doubt it enough that I’m questioning his truth, or what he says is truth. And besides, think about it, he was the one who told me not to call in the Coast Guard right away.”
“Yeah, but what if he was up here?”
“I was in the cockpit. I would’ve heard him or seen him.”
“You were passed out, weren’t you?”
“Not the whole time. I remember waking up and looking around to make sure everything was okay. Last night’s full moon made it look like daylight out here, and he said he talked to her until, what, four in the morning?”
“You know what you’re saying, right? That Wade… Are you sure it’s not possible?”
“If it’s even remotely possible, there’d be like a one percent chance, possible, but not probable.”
“What if we got his phone off of him somehow and checked his calls?”
Alex shook his head. “Battery is dead, remember?”
“He could be lying about that.”
“If he’s lying, he’ll accuse us of trying to blame him and just throw it into the ocean or something. If he’s really a killer, he might even do something worse.”
“What if he shows us, and it’s fine?”
“Jenn, I’m positive he didn’t have service.”
“But not a hundred percent.”
“No, not a hundred percent. Ninety-nine.”
“We can’t just accuse Wade. I feel…bad.”
“Sweetheart, listen to me. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Sharon and Laura are fine, you said you were on Chet and Laura’s floor all night by yourself listening to them snore. Mark and Terri can—I don’t know, I guess they can reasonably account for their whereabouts because you heard them arguing for so long. I know I didn’t do it, and I believe that you didn’t, so who’s left? Wade. Wade’s left. He was by himself all night, and we can assume that he’s lying about being on the phone.”
“What possible reason would he have to murder Erica? It doesn’t make any sense. None. We can’t assume anything.”
“We have to. We have to assume it’s him until we can get back.”
“Say we do, then what? If he suspects you know, he’s never going to let you take us back in, Alex. He’ll kill us all. He’ll make up some story about how everybody on the boat went mental and he killed them in self defense. If he’s the only one left, it’s his story against the evidence that he’ll know how to clean up since he used to be a detective. It’s lose-lose, all the way.”
“That’s stretching it.”
“But not entirely impossible.”
Alex cycled through a number of options in his mind and all of them led to nasty outcomes. Wade was dangerous, but was he also armed? Had he brought a gun on The Harlot? Had he planned to do this ahead of time, knowing that they would be miles out to sea with no escape? Was it a crime of passion? Was it something in the moment? Had he been so turned on by Erica’s display that he’d approached her, and she’d rejected him?
That had to be it. It had to be. If Erica had said no when there had been so many stories of her loose morals and even looser panties, Alex could see how that would flick a switch of insanity. He himself had never gotten to the point of wanting to actually murder Jenn for her constant rejections, but he had gotten frustrated enough to envision holding her against a wall and shouting his dissatisfaction in her face. He’d done it just yesterday morning when she’d waffled about where she was sleeping.
If Wade had been having trouble with his marriage at home—facing rejection, fighting with his wife—if he had already been pushed to a fragile breaking point, Erica’s denial could have triggered his pent up emotions.
He put his hand on Jenn’s cheek, stroked her skin with his thumb. “You know whatever happens, I’m here to protect you.”
“I know that. And, I’m… I’m sorry. You know, for the past year. I should’ve… If I had done things differently, maybe this… And now she’s…” Jenn couldn’t stop the tears.