Murky Seas (A Rowan Gray Mystery Book 2)

by Lily Harper Hart

Quinn tilted his head to the side, considering. “Not so far. Well, I didn’t like it when you got embarrassed and said I wasn’t your boyfriend. That’s a pretty minor thing, though.”

  “Oh, well, I’ll work on that.”

  “Good. Is there anything you don’t like about me?”

  Rowan immediately nodded, causing Quinn’s heart to stutter.

  “There is? What?”

  “I don’t like that every woman who lays eyes on you wants to hop into bed with you,” Rowan replied. “That’s a lot of competition for a simple girl from Detroit.”

  Quinn’s anxiety faded almost instantly. “First off, you’re not a simple girl. You’re extremely complicated – but in a good way. As for the other thing, well, I can’t help it if I’m a chick magnet. That’s charisma. I was born with it and I can’t shake it.”

  Rowan snickered, amused. “I’ll keep that in mind. I would hate to blame you for something you can’t control.”

  “You don’t have to worry about that anyway, though,” Quinn added. “My tastes run to simply complicated women from Detroit. All other women are invisible to me.”

  “Oh, that was a really good answer.”

  “That’s a little gift of mine, too.”

  Quinn was still smiling when they found a table and settled, placing a communal bowl of butter sauce at the center to share and pressing their feet together once they were comfortable. It was a perfectly normal setting, except for the fact that they were spying on a woman who might be murdered thanks to a psychic symbol in a photograph. Quinn tried not to think too hard about that part of the equation because he worried it would give him a headache.

  “So, did you do anything else today besides watch the Cara G Cosmetics women?” Quinn asked after a few minutes of quiet munching.

  “No. How about you?”

  “Sadly, I think we’ve shared every single thing we did today,” Quinn noted. “I can’t help but be a little disappointed.”

  “Yes, we’ve clearly run out of things to talk about.”

  “Except for books,” Quinn interjected. “What’s your favorite book?”

  Rowan giggled as she cracked a crab leg shell. “Oh, well, I’m not sure I have one favorite book. I like a lot of different things. I’m a big fan of Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Outlander, Stephanie Plum and … well … I like a lot of different things. It all depends what I’m in the mood for.”

  “I like legal thrillers.”

  Rowan snorted. “I saw that coming. You’re very law and order-y.”

  “You say that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “It’s definitely not a bad thing,” Rowan countered. “You have a very pragmatic mind, though. I’ll bet you’re good at math.”

  Quinn tugged on his lower lip as he considered the statement. “I am pretty good at math. How did you know that, though?”

  “Because you like to solve things in a linear way,” Rowan replied. “You don’t really fall into daydreams or fantasies, which means you like real world applications when you’re solving a puzzle.”

  “And that’s different from you?”

  Rowan shrugged. “I like a good daydream.”

  “Am I in any of these daydreams?”

  “Only the naked ones.”

  “Oh, where is Sally when we’re having this conversation?” Quinn lamented. “I would look so much better in her mind if she heard you say that.”

  Rowan wiped the corners of her mouth as she stared at him, her expression unreadable. “Are you worried about what Sally thinks?”

  Quinn balked. “No. I just … she’s been a little intense lately.”

  “You can’t let her get to you,” Rowan chided. “I told you that she’s lonely. That’s where all of the questions and teasing stem from. She doesn’t mean to be overbearing.”

  “Did she tell you that?” Quinn found, strangely enough, that his heart pinged with worry when Rowan mentioned Sally’s potential loneliness. “She always seems as if she’s the life of the party. I would hate to think of her being lonely.”

  “She doesn’t realize she’s lonely,” Rowan supplied. “She thinks she’s fine. We can’t do anything for her until she realizes it.”

  “And how do you know that?” Quinn was fascinated with the way Rowan’s mind worked.

  “Because I see it … and I recognize it from my last year in Detroit,” Rowan admitted, averting her gaze. “I thought I was upset when I lost my job. It took me two weeks to realize that wasn’t the case. I wasn’t upset about the job even though I was worried about paying my bills. I was upset because I was lonely.

  “Even though I worked and lived in Detroit, I didn’t have a lot of friends,” she continued. “I had co-workers and was never at a loss for conversation, but intimacy is a different animal. Intimacy is one of those things that people crave whether they realize it or not.”

  Quinn rolled the idea through his head and found that he believed the statement to be true. “I didn’t realize what I was missing until I started spending time with you.”

  “You’re not talking about sex, right?” Rowan’s tone was dry.

  Quinn chuckled, legitimately amused. “No. I’m talking about this.” He gestured toward the table. “I’m talking about this.” He thumped his foot on top of hers. “Just the simple act of eating dinner with you, talking about books and our friend who is lonely, fills me up with something I didn’t know I was lacking until you came along.”

  “Oh, that’s almost poetic,” Rowan teased, her eyes flashing. “This is nice, though.” She ran her foot up and down Quinn’s calf to anchor the point. “As for the rest, it will happen when it’s supposed to happen. I’m a big believer in fate.”

  She was earnest but Quinn couldn’t help but question the notion. “If you believe in fate, why are you beating yourself up for what happened to Daphne?”

  “I … .” Rowan broke off, silently working her jaw as she decided how to answer. “That’s a good point. I guess I have a lot of guilt that follows me around sometimes. I’ve never been able to shake it.”

  “Because you blame yourself when someone dies,” Quinn mused. “You think you could’ve stopped it … or saved them … or changed the outcome. I know that’s hard for you to deal with and I don’t blame you for wondering, but you cannot carry the guilt of the world on your shoulders. They’re not big enough to hold up that much weight.”

  “What you’re saying makes sense in my head, but my heart always takes a while to catch up,” Rowan admitted. “I don’t blame myself for what happened to Daphne, and somehow knowing she was a fraud and might’ve done something dishonest eased my guilt when that probably shouldn’t have been the case.”

  “I don’t believe that,” Quinn countered. “Daphne wasn’t a good person. Heck, Daphne wasn’t her real name. Claire Fisher was a disturbed woman who made it her life’s goal to scam innocent people out of their hard-earned money before she fell into this gig.

  “Now, we don’t know what happened and we certainly don’t know if the real Daphne DuBois is alive or dead,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean Claire Fisher was a good person, or absolve her of her sins if she was trying to redeem herself. She died, and that’s terrible. I want someone to pay for murdering her. That doesn’t mean I feel guilt over what happened.”

  “Because she kept hitting on you and wanted to grab your … um … coconut spray?”

  Quinn’s face split with a wide grin. “You’re very witty. I love that about you.”

  “And we’re back to the compliment festival,” Rowan teased. “Do you know what I really like about you? You’re good at making me feel better. I have a tendency to disappear into my own head when I’m feeling guilty. You haven’t allowed me to do that once today.”

  “And I’m not going to let you do it tomorrow … or the next day … or next week, for that matter,” Quinn said. “You have nothing to feel guilty about. You’re doing the very best that you can. We’ll take this one step at a time and go from there. That�
��s all we can do.”

  “I know.” Rowan flashed a rueful smile. “These crab legs are very good, by the way. I’m never going to get tired of them. I don’t care what you say.”

  “We’ll see.” Quinn smirked as the duo fell into amiable silence. For a long time the only sound emanating from the table was cracking crustacean appendages.

  After finishing off the bulk of her seafood, Rowan shifted her eyes back to Madison and jerked her head to the side when she realized the woman wasn’t sitting alone. She also wasn’t merely sitting with her Cara G Cosmetics brethren. No, she’d picked up a new friend.

  “Huh.”

  “Huh, what?” Quinn asked, turning so he could see what had caught Rowan’s attention. “Isn’t that your friend from the other night?”

  “I wouldn’t call him my friend, but that’s definitely the guy who was sitting with me,” Rowan replied, her mind busy. “I think he said his name was Jamie Dalton. Sally talked about him this afternoon and said his friend was Gary something or other.”

  “Is that his confirmation name?”

  Rowan snickered. “I don’t know that I’ve ever caught his last name. I haven’t really talked to him.”

  “What do you make of them?”

  “I don’t particularly like them,” Rowan replied after a beat. “I thought they were flirty but harmless that day at the store. Since then, though, I’m not sure what to think.”

  Quinn forgot about his dinner and focused on Rowan’s conflicted features. “Do you want to expound on that?”

  “There’s something about them I don’t like … and I definitely don’t trust them,” Rowan admitted. “They made a big deal of asking Sally and me out that day we met them in the store. I said I was busy, but Sally agreed to meet them at the tiki bar close to the ship. You know the one I’m talking about, right?”

  Quinn nodded. “That was smart of her. That bar is always packed with Bounding Storm workers. She wouldn’t have been in any trouble if they turned out to be dangerous because she would’ve had backup.”

  “I think that’s why she picked it,” Rowan admitted. “She was flirting with them and they were flirting with her, but she’s cooled on them considerably since then. She didn’t say much but admitted they flirted with everyone and never focused on the same woman two nights in a row.”

  “Well, not to stand up for them because they sound like jerks, I think that’s fairly normal for guys that age who are on a cruise ship,” Quinn offered. “I’m sure Sally didn’t think she was going to get a happily ever after with either of those guys.”

  “I’m sure she didn’t either,” Rowan agreed. “She didn’t seem fond of them, though, and when I talked to Jamie the other night he seemed a little intense. I don’t know … it’s probably nothing, but I don’t like them. They make me uncomfortable.”

  Quinn’s expression was thoughtful as he focused on the two men. “They were on the beach the night that woman was fished from the ocean,” he mused aloud. “That bar is closer to the spot where the body was recovered than where we were. That could be a coincidence but … maybe they’re worth looking into.”

  Rowan couldn’t help but be surprised by the suggestion. “I thought we were looking for a woman.”

  “Yes, but what if we’re focusing on a woman to the detriment of our own case. Just because Daphne insisted it was a woman who approached her on the deck that first night, that doesn’t mean she was telling the truth. We can’t base our investigation on what she said because we’ve since found out she lied for a living.”

  “That’s true.” Rowan wrinkled her nose. “Do you think it’s possible?”

  “There’s only one way to find out.” Quinn wiped his mouth with a napkin and turned backed to his dinner. “Let’s finish up here and then go to my office. We can run the registrations and see what we come up with.”

  “That sounds like a plan.”

  “And then you can assault me with kisses again,” Quinn added. “I enjoyed that a great deal.”

  “That sounds like a better plan.”

  19

  Nineteen

  “Anything?”

  Quinn fought to contain his amusement as Rowan paced the same small strip of floor at the front of his office. She seemed agitated, ready for action, and altogether cute when she screwed up her face in concentration.

  “You need to give me a chance to boot up the computer,” Quinn said, smirking. “I haven’t inputted their names yet.”

  “Oh, well, sorry.” Rowan looked sheepish as she sat in one of the chairs across from his desk. “Now that you’ve suggested we look into Jamie and Gary I can’t get the possibility of them being involved out of my head.”

  “Have you taken any photos of them?”

  “I … hmm.” Rowan tilted her head to the side as she racked her brain. “That’s a really good question and I don’t think I have.”

  “Is that unusual? I thought you were supposed to take at least one photo of each guest during their stay.”

  “I am … and I have. At least I’ve taken photos of everyone on the registry. I know I have. I double-checked today. I was antsy this afternoon watching the Cara G Cosmetics women and I went through my list a second time to make sure I’d covered my bases. I caught everyone on the registry list.”

  “But … .” Quinn furrowed his brow as he typed in his password and waited for the computer to continue cycling through its startup routine. “Would you remember taking photographs of those guys?”

  “I should think so. I’ve grown to dislike them so they would stand out in a sea of faces I don’t recognize.”

  “So even if they were registered under different names you would’ve caught that,” Quinn mused aloud. “What about when they checked in?”

  Rowan immediately started shaking her head. “When Jamie approached me the other night at the tiki bar I was surprised. I had no idea he was on the ship. That in itself should’ve been curious, but I was so caught up with all of the Daphne stuff – and this was before we found her dead, mind you – that I didn’t think much about it.”

  “Did you ask him about it?” Quinn had no idea why – perhaps it was because he loved a good mystery – but he was rapidly warming to the idea of taking a closer look at Jamie and Gary.

  “I did.” Rowan bobbed her head as she traced the contour of her bottom lip with her fingertip. “I mentioned that I didn’t see him for checkin photos. I don’t know if you remember taking a look at the lobby that day, but I had two backdrops. Even though the Cara G Cosmetics group was massive, they only accounted for a good twenty-five percent of the guests. The rest of the guests had a normal backdrop.”

  “I stopped in to see you that day, but you were already worked up,” Quinn noted. “I didn’t pay attention to the backdrops. Heck, I rarely pay attention to the backdrops. I believe you, though.”

  “I asked Jamie about it because I was searching for a way to make conversation while I waited for you,” Rowan explained. “I was a little nervous – that was the night you got upset about the ‘he’s my boyfriend, he’s not my boyfriend’ thing and I thought you might pick a fight when you came back. Then, of course, I let my imagination get away from me and wondered if you planned on coming back at all.”

  Quinn’s expression softened. “I was always coming back.”

  “Yeah, but I thought maybe Daphne would throw herself at you and … .”

  “I would stay with her?” Quinn arched a challenging eyebrow, his temper flaring.

  Rowan shook her head. “I thought maybe she might get sick and you’re a good guy so you would stay long enough to make sure she was okay. Then, rather than come to my room and risk a fight, I figured you might go to your own room. I worked out an entire scenario where you were too angry to even look at me.”

  Quinn snorted as he brought up the Bounding Storm’s internal registry. “That’s quite an imagination you’ve got there, Ro.”

  “I think it’s from being an only child,” she admitted ruefu
lly. “I used to make up all kinds of things to entertain myself when I was a kid. I didn’t have a lot of friends because my parents were afraid to let me wander around the neighborhood on my own. I had to come up with ways to entertain myself. That’s why I read so much.”

  “Did you live in a dangerous neighborhood?”

  “Not really.”

  “Then why didn’t they want you hanging out with the other kids?”

  “I … um … huh.” Rowan knit her eyebrows together as she mulled the question. “I have no idea. I never really thought about it. They were extremely protective of me and I guess it seemed normal.”

  “Well, that doesn’t sound normal to me,” Quinn argued. “Most days my mother told me to leave the house before ten and not come back until dinner.”

  “You didn’t grow up in Detroit.”

  “Fair enough, but it sounds like you didn’t grow up in Detroit either,” he said. “You grew up in a suburb, right?”

  Rowan nodded, conflicted. “I don’t know why they wanted to keep me so isolated. I never asked and now it’s too late to find out the answer.”

  Quinn’s heart rolled at the admission. She was an orphan, alone in the world. He wanted to wrap her in his arms, tuck her in on his lap and hold her for the rest of the night. Unfortunately they had other things to deal with first. That would have to wait.

  “Go back to your conversation with Jamie,” Quinn prodded. He was reluctant to cut her off from her memories, but he didn’t have a lot of choice in the matter. “What did he tell you when you asked about the checkin photos?”

  “Oh, right. I’m sorry. I get scattered sometimes.” Rowan ruefully shook her head. “He said that he felt the lines were too long and didn’t want to wait in them for a photograph he had no intention of buying. He made some sort of joke about those photographs appealing to women instead of men. That kind of made sense to me so I didn’t give it a lot of thought.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think that’s out of the ordinary,” Quinn agreed. “I think those photos appeal to women and families, but single guys aren’t really going to get into the spirit of a cardboard backdrop. Don’t you think you would’ve noticed him in the lobby that day regardless of whether or not he got a photo taken?”