Harriet fought to open her eyes, but they wouldn’t obey. She felt like a sack of bruised apples lying on something hard. Pins and needles shot through her pinned arm as she shifted her body. Something sharp poked into her cheek. She tried to move away from whatever it was and pain exploded in her head.
“Ow. Holy crap.” Her mouth tasted metallic, her tongue thick and dry. She took several slow, deep breaths and waited for the pain to subside.
Something wet and slimy slid against the side of her head and smelled salty. She heard the gentle lap of water and remembered.
Big Ed Whitfield, Cassie’s soon-to-be-ex, had attacked her at the marina. He had hit her with a pressure syringe full of tranqs. That explained the blank in her mind and her non-responsive limbs.
“Ed?” Her voice was barely audible. She tried again. “Ed?” she croaked.
Nothing but the sound of water lapping at–at what?
Harriet forced her eyes open and closed them again in a hurry. The sun was blinding. “Ouch.”
She tried to shade her eyes with one hand but it wouldn’t respond. She tugged again and discovered her hands had been bound behind her. She wriggled her fingers again and felt flesh that was not her own.
Oh, what had Ed done?
“Hello?” Harriet waited but there was no response. She tried to roll to her knees but couldn’t. She was tied to something. Her heart began to hammer in her chest.
“Hello?” Louder this time. She heard a groan in response. She knew suddenly who she’d been tied to.
“Mr. Blattsworth, is that you?”
Another groan.
Slowly, Harriet opened her eyes to narrow slits. Bright sunlight reflected off water and made her eyes tear. She closed them, then tried again. This time when she opened her eyes she saw dark, smooth rock.
She shifted her view to look down her body and was relieved to see that her feet were not bound. She wriggled her legs, trying to force feeling back into them.
“Mr. Blattsworth? Can you hear me?”
Another groan, then she heard a feeble “yes.”
Harriet worked some saliva in her mouth. “Good. That’s good. We need to sit up so I can see where we are. Apparently we’re tied together so we’ll have to make a coordinated effort. Are you up for that?”
“In a minute.”
Relief flooded through Harriet. The lawyer was coming around. Soon they’d be able to free each other and go find Alex to tell him about Ed. She worked her legs and fingers while she waited.
“Who are you?” The lawyer’s voice sounded stronger.
“Harriet Monroe. I’m the PR Director for the resort. You can call me Harry.”
“Amos.”
“Great. Amos, we need to sit up so we can do something about our situation. Can you pull your legs up, out in front of you? When I count to three we’ll both try to sit, okay? On three. One. Two. Three.”
Harriet struggled upright. Her head pounded with the shift in position. Pins and needles shot through her arms. She heard Amos panting and groaning as he tried to manage his own pain. It took them a long minute, but they made it to a sitting position.
“Don’t open your eyes,” she warned. “The sun is bright and it hurts. When you’re ready, just slit them open.” Harriet waited for the pounding in her head to subside, then carefully slit her own eyes open again.
She stared out at water. She turned her head as far to the right as she could, then to the left. Nothing but water.
“Amos?”
“What?”
“Can you open your eyes and tell me what you see? Carefully.” The tension grew in her body while she waited.
“Water.”
“Crap.”
“What? Where are we?”
“I think we’ve been marooned on a small island.”
Harriet scanned the ground in front of her. Smooth rock covered with seaweed.
“It gets worse.”
Amos groaned. “How? How could it get any worse?”
“The rock we’re sitting on is covered with seaweed.”
“So?
Harriet took a deep breath. “So that means that at high tide this rock will be covered with water.”
Amos sat silent for a minute. “When is high tide?”
“I have no idea. I haven’t been here long enough yet to track the tides.”
“How deep will it get?” Harriet heard the panic in the lawyer’s voice.
“Sorry. I can’t answer that either. Do you think we can try to stand up? I want to see if Ed left my link in my pocket but I can’t reach it sitting.”
Standing proved to be far more difficult than sitting had. It took several tries before Harriet hit on the plan to push against each other’s backs while they tried to push up with their legs. She was drenched in sweat by the time they stood.
Amos Blattsworth was not a tall man, Harriet soon discovered. His shorter build dragged down on her when she tried to stand to her full height. She had to bend her knees in a half-stoop to reduce the pressure of the rope on her wrists.
“Sorry I’m so short,” Amos apologized. “It’s one reason I became a lawyer. Sitting behind a desk disguises my height, or should I say, my lack of height.”
“No apology needed. It’s not your fault. If anything, I’m too tall for a woman,” Harriet replied.
Off in the distance she could see the faint, blue-gray shoreline of the resort island. There were no boats anywhere near them.
“Do you know where we are?”
“I think that’s the resort island over there.” Harriet turned slightly so Amos could see. “For all the good it does us. It’s too far to swim. And even if we could swim I don’t know if there are sharks in the water here.”
“So we’re stuck until someone comes to rescue us.”
“Yes, I’m afraid so.”
“In that case let’s sit again so you don’t have to crouch. It will be more comfortable.”
They struggled back to the ground and sat in silence. Harriet had no idea how much Amos Blattsworth understood about tides and she wasn’t about to ask. There would be plenty of time for them both to panic later.
That didn’t stop her from thinking about what was going to happen, however. The tide would rise. The rock they sat on would be covered with water. How deep it would get, she didn’t know.
What if the waves from the incoming tide washed them off the rock? Already they were lapping closer than she liked.
“Do you think we could try untying the rope? My arms hurt.”
Amos’s question shook Harriet from her unpleasant thoughts. “We can try. We need to stretch the rope some to make some wriggle room. Spread your hands as far apart as you can.”
Harriet pressed against the rope until her wrists were rubbed raw. “Now press your hands together, see if you can slide one hand out. I’ll hold my hands together to create as much slack as I can.”
The rope burned against her raw wrists when Amos tugged against them. He grunted and panted as he tried to pull a hand free. “No good. You try.”
Harriet waited until the burning sensation lessened a little, them tried to pull her left hand free. It stuck at the joint where palm meets wrist. “Nope. Start from the beginning. We’ll pull as hard as we can on the rope, then relax and we’ll try pulling our hands free again.”
They repeated the process, again and again, until Harriet’s wrists were slick with blood. The tide continued to rise until the rock disappeared and they were sitting in several inches of water.
“How deep will the water get?”
Harriet fought to keep the impatience from her voice. “You asked me that once already and I still don’t know, Amos. Keep working on the ropes.” She didn’t want to tell the lawyer that at full tide the water could be well over their heads.
By the time they had freed their hands the water was up to their chests. They scrambled to their feet and leaned against each other for extra stability against the waves pushing at them. At least when standing the water onl
y lapped at Harriet’s knees.
Harriet checked her pockets. No link. Amos turned out his, also empty.
“It doesn’t look very good for the home team, does it?”
Harriet looked down at the slightly chubby lawyer. Until now, he had offered no opinion about their situation and quietly followed her suggestions and orders without complaint. His shirt and jacket cuffs were stained with blood from his wrists. His face was sunburned. His mild brown eyes held only regret.
“Can you swim?” Harriet asked.
“Reasonably well. I’m no Olympian, but I can float.”
“If we stay here we’ll probably die. I want to try for the island. We can tread water, side stroke, and float on our backs to rest. Those are the most restful strokes I know. If we do that we should be able to keep afloat for hours, long enough to reach the island or for someone to find us. I’m hoping the tide will help by pushing us toward it. What do you think?”
“I think it sounds like insanity.” He smiled. He had a surprisingly sweet smile. “Let’s try. It’s better than standing here until the water’s over my head.”
Harriet smiled back. “I like you, Amos. Take off your jacket and let’s go.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
After leaving the greenhouse, Alex and Tarbell Fox checked Harriet’s cottage before driving back to the security office. Alex liked the way Fox listened with his full attention and waited to speak until he was sure Alex had finished what he wanted to say. He also had sharp eyes that missed very little.
Fox had the right makeup to be a good cop.
Alex parked the SUV in front of his office and jumped out. “I’m going to deal with Lana first,” he told Fox, “then I’m going to put in a formal request to have you reassigned to security. I’m sure the transfer will go through, no problem, and it shouldn’t take longer than a day. In the meantime you should probably report to Albie until you get word the transfer has gone through. Take the SUV, I don’t need it.”
Fox climbed over the console into the driver seat. “Thanks, I appreciate that you’re giving me a chance. Private security isn’t quite the same as being a paddy, but it’s better than carrying luggage.”
Before Alex could reply, Cassie came running down the alley that ran between the business and security offices. “Alex! Something’s happened to Harry. I can’t get her on her link. It keeps going to voice mail.”
Alex frowned. “Maybe she’s busy and doesn’t want to be disturbed.”
“No.” Cassie wrung her hands. “She was doing me a favor. She finished filming at the amusement park and she drove down to the air pad to pick up my lawyer and give him a lift back here.”
“Your lawyer flew to the island today?”
“He was supposed to come last week but he couldn’t make it so we rescheduled for today. I called the air pad–Amos flew in okay and Harry showed up, but now they’re both missing. You need to find them.”
Alex’s blood ran cold. He hadn’t known Harriet long but he felt sure that she would never worry Cassie by going incommunicado. Something had happened.
“We’ll find them.” Fortunately Fox had waited. Alex climbed into the passenger seat. “Head for the air pad. I’ll fill you in on the way.”
When they reached the air pad they had to wait for a newly arrived shuttle to unload its passengers before they could track down the droid who had checked Amos Blattsworth onto the island.
“Yes, sir,” answered the droid, a pretty redhead dressed in a smart, well-fitted uniform. “I recorded Mr. Blattsworth’s arrival at fourteen hundred hours, twelve minutes. He went into the lounge to wait for his ride rather than take the scheduled shuttle bus to the hotel.”
“Did you see his ride?”
“No, sir. Once the passengers are checked in I wait in deactivation mode until the next shuttle either arrives or prepares for loading to leave.”
“Okay, thank you. Fox, stand by.” Alex strode into the packed lounge. Couples, young and old, held hands or sat talking quietly. Parents herded their young children and teenagers dressed in baggy clothes and glittery trainers tried to act as if they visited fancy resorts every day. Everyone wore smiles and looked vacation-mode happy while they waited for their luggage to be loaded onto the shuttle buses.
Alex wound his way through the crowd toward the refreshment bar where a droid was busy mixing fruit smoothies and pouring lemonade. Slapping his security badge on the bar, he leaned forward. “I need a quick moment,” he said.
“I am able to multitask, Mr. Hayes. What do you need?” The droid continued to mix and pour, handing over drinks and taking fresh orders with a smile.
“I’m looking for Amos Blattsworth and Harriet Monroe.”
“A young woman was looking for Mr. Blattsworth earlier. I told her he was here, then he wasn’t.”
Alex grabbed the droid’s wrist. The hell with multi-tasking–he wanted the droid’s full attention.
“What time did the young woman come looking for Mr. Blattsworth?”
He watched the droid’s eyes go blank as he checked his data bank. “That would have been at precisely fourteen hundred twenty-three minutes.”
“And Mr. Blattsworth wasn’t here?”
“No, sir. His ride had already picked him up.”
Alex didn’t relax his grip. “Then what?”
“Then what?” repeated the droid.
“Then what happened? Where did the young woman go?”
“I understand now, sir. The young woman in question drove off in a resort cart.”
“Which way did she go?”
“I believe she headed west, sir. Towards the marina.”
Alex freed the droid’s wrist. He ran out the back, figuring it would be faster than working his way through the crowd again. He threw himself into the SUV.
“Harriet headed toward the marina over an hour ago.”
Tarbell put the SUV in gear and raced across the air pad. He didn’t have to ask where they were going. “Doesn’t Leonard Dixon manage the marina? Do you think he’s involved in the first lawyer’s murder?”
Alex looked at Fox. “The first lawyer,” he repeated. “Oh, crap. Bradley Higgins wasn’t killed because of who he was, he was killed because of what he was. That’s why I couldn’t find a motive.” His eyes went flat. “He’s had too much time. I hope we aren’t too late.”
“Who’s had too much time?” Fox asked as he pressed down on the accelerator.
“Cassie’s soon-to-be-ex, Ed Whitfield. He’s been fighting the divorce. If I’m right, he killed Higgins thinking he was Cassie’s divorce lawyer.”
It took them less than five minutes to get to the marina. They found Leonard Dixon in the marina office, cheerfully selling sunscreen to a mother of three teens who were nagging her to hurry, they needed to get out on the water now.
“Dix, where’s Big Ed?” Alex demanded, interrupting the sale.
The marina manager frowned at him. He could see that Alex was upset about something. Still, one of the resort’s cardinal rules was to treat every guest with courtesy and respect.
“I’m not sure, Alex. Have you tried the docks?” He smiled at the woman as he put the sunscreen into a bag and handed it to her. “Thank you, ma’am. You have a nice day now and come back if there’s anything else you need.”
As soon as the woman left the shop he glowered at Alex. “What’s wrong with you, man? You don’t interrupt a guest like that.”
“I need to find Ed. Now. It’s important, Dix, or I wouldn’t have interrupted you.”
“Last I saw him he’d just come in from taking a guest waterskiing and was tying up at the end of the far right dock.”
Alex whirled around and headed for the door.
“Alex, no upsetting the guests.”
But Alex was already out the door. “Far right dock,” he called as he ran past the SUV where Fox stood waiting. Fox fell in behind and they both raced for the dock, dodging guests as they ran.
Alex stopped at the head of th
e dock. “He’s not here.” His gaze skimmed over the motorboats. One was just heading out, driven by a father with a young boy and a girl, all grinning madly.
Kayakers and paddle boarders were practicing their strokes just beyond the two far left docks. Alex checked their faces carefully. Droids stood on the dock encouraging the paddlers while more stood in the water helping those who needed more hands on instruction. There was no sign of Big Ed.
“Check the sailboats,” he instructed Fox. “I’ll check the speed boats in case he’s hiding aboard one. Be careful, if he’s kidnapped Harriet and the lawyer he could be feeling desperate.”
He didn’t say “kidnapped or killed” because that was something he couldn’t bear to contemplate.
They split up and Alex quietly headed down the dock. The tide was coming in. Waves slapped against the dock pilings and splashed up against the underside of the dock. The sun felt hot on his head. He smelled the brine of the sea and the tar used to waterproof the docks.
The guests’ laughter floated across the marina. The resort’s first group of guests sounded happy. If it wasn’t for a dead man, a missing lawyer, and his worry about Harriet, he would call the resort’s grand opening a success.
Halfway down the long dock, a large black and white gull left its perch on top of a piling with an angry squawk.
Alex stopped. He wasn’t close enough to the bird to have caused its sudden flight. He glanced over to the next dock where Fox was slowly checking each boat. He was too far away to have caused the gull any concern.
His gut tightened. Ed was here, hiding on one of the speed boats, he felt sure of it. He moved forward slowly, his eyes and ears on full alert. A cabin cruiser, three boats up and opposite the gull’s perch, caught his eye.
He crept closer and saw that the cabin’s padlock was lying on the deck. It should have been locked–unless a guest was aboard.
It could be a guest. But after unlocking the cabin a guest would have fully opened the hatch to let in the sunshine and air.
Alex stopped. As soon as he stepped aboard Ed would feel the boat rock and know he was there. He turned to look at the sail dock and saw that Fox had stopped and was watching him. The man’s instincts were good.
Stalked in Paradise Page 20
