Perilous Seas

by Lily Harper Hart

  “That’s rich coming from the guy who sits on the beach for hours when she gets a hankering to make sandcastles,” Fred pointed out.

  “Stuff it,” Quinn warned. “I might be a little ... soft ... when it comes to her wishes. That doesn’t change the fact that hiking down there to spy on them was a bad idea. Thankfully, we stumbled across each other and it all worked out in the end. I don’t see the point of dwelling on it.”

  “Of course you don’t,” Rowan muttered, shaking her head. “You think everything is hunky-dory because you’re a man and it’s perfectly fine for you to spy on potential murderers whenever you want, thanks to your magic penis.”

  She was deadly serious, but Quinn had to fight the mad urge to laugh. “Thank you for the magic penis compliment. I’ll forever hold it close to my heart.” He shot Paul an apologetic look. “As for the other part, we’ve already discussed this. It’s not okay for me to spy because I’m a man. It’s okay because I have military training.”

  “That doesn’t seem fair.”

  “Yeah, well ... you’re going to have to get over it.” He poked her side. “I don’t want to fight about this. I thought we could all do some research on the Sterlings together so nobody is left out. If you’re going to be difficult, though, then Fred and I can leave.”

  “Oh, don’t be like that.” Rowan made a face. “I want to play, too. I don’t like you threatening me, though.”

  “That was not a threat.”

  “It felt like a threat.”

  “Well ... .” Quinn tilted his head to the side, considering. Ultimately, he decided to change course. “You said you were hungry. How about we get something delivered and get to work? I’m guessing there are a lot of skeletons to uncover given everything we saw at that house.”

  Rowan blew out a frustrated sigh. “Fine. We’ll order food. Does anyone know what’s good around here?”

  “There’s a crab shack down the way that has really good food,” Quinn replied absently. “I bet if we pay them enough, they’ll deliver.”

  Rowan’s gaze was keen as it bore into him. “You went to the crab shack without me?”

  Quinn sensed trouble and took an involuntary step back. “I ... no. Of course not.”

  She didn’t believe him. She grabbed the front of his shirt and hauled his mouth close to hers. “You have crab breath!” She was furious. “I can’t believe you got crab without me.”

  “Tierra Verde is small,” Quinn argued. “There are only a few restaurants, and the crab shack was the easiest. It’s not as if I got crab legs or anything. You need to take it down a notch.”

  Rowan’s eyes were narrow slits. “What did you get?”

  “The crab bisque is delightful,” Fred offered as he booted up his laptop. “The calamari is awesome, too.”

  “I can’t even look at you.” Rowan held up her hand and made a sniffing noise. “The betrayal is just ... too much to bear.”

  Quinn snickered as he grabbed her around the waist and started tickling. “Don’t get all worked up, Ro. I’ll let you punish me for the crab betrayal later if you let it go right now.”

  “And?”

  He stilled. “And I’ll pay for all the crab legs you can eat to be delivered.”

  “And?”

  “And I’ll let you douse me in butter sauce later,” he added on a whim. “How does that sound?”

  “I want cheesecake, too,” she replied without hesitation.

  “I can make that happen.”

  “Let’s definitely make it happen,” Nick suggested. “I’m not sure I can take much more of this conversation. It’s essentially foreplay ... with crab legs. She’s my niece. The entire thing makes me uncomfortable.”

  Paul ruefully rubbed the back of his head. “Join the club. I can’t even look at them right now.”

  “You’ll live.” Quinn smacked a kiss against Rowan’s cheek before releasing her. “Ro, look up the menu online and write down what you want. I’ll order it and arrange for it to be delivered.”

  “Yes, sir!” She offered up a saucy salute that caused him to smile.

  “Otherwise, let’s get down to business,” he suggested. “The Sterlings are a kinky bunch. I bet there are horror stories about them all over the place.”

  “I bet you’re right.” Fred’s eyes gleamed. “I can’t wait to dig into these people. The ultra-rich are all kinds of freaky. I happen to love freaky.”

  “That’s because you’re a sick man,” Quinn said.

  “Try saying that when you’re not enticing your girlfriend with crab legs.”

  “Fair enough.”

  “WELL, WINCHESTER’S CREDENTIALS were easy to track down,” Fred announced as Rowan sat at the living room table inhaling crab bisque and Quinn drank iced tea and watched his friend with curious eyes.

  “Is there anything good in there?” Quinn asked. “I’m guessing there is. Otherwise you wouldn’t have brought it up.”

  “There definitely is,” Fred agreed. “He lost his license for drunk driving in 2011. It was his third offense, although it had been five years since his previous charge.”

  “Are boat licenses like driver’s licenses?” Rowan asked as she cleaned her Styrofoam bowl and licked her spoon.

  “They are,” Quinn confirmed, grinning as he watched her. “He shouldn’t have been able to serve as a yacht captain with his record ... unless someone simply ignored the fact that he wasn’t licensed to operate a vessel that size.”

  “Except he was,” Fred countered. “He had a license. It looks like something happened about a year and a half ago to ensure he got his license back.”

  “Do you have any idea what?”

  “No, but I think I can hazard a guess,” Fred replied. “The licensing board has a reputation for accepting bribes. They deny it, but I’ve heard from multiple sources that, if you have enough money, you can buy your way right back into their good graces. The thing is, up until twelve months ago, Winchester barely had any money.”

  Quinn considered the statement as Rowan attacked her first container of crab legs. “I think the obvious answer is Patrice. She paid off the board and arranged for him to work as her husband’s personal navigator.”

  “Or the husband did it because they were buddies and didn’t realize Captain Love Muscle was also sleeping with his wife,” Rowan suggested, enthusiastically cracking her crab legs. “These are awesome.”

  Quinn shot her an indulgent smile as he chuckled. “You need a bib, Ro. You’re making a mess.”

  “She’s fine,” Paul countered as he munched on calamari. “She’s always loved seafood.”

  “That’s why we need to stick close to the water when we decide to settle down for good,” Quinn noted. “If she doesn’t have access to good seafood, the world will surely end.”

  “Ha, ha, ha.” Rowan waved a crab leg in his direction and then turned back to the conversation at hand. “I’m not sure it matters which Sterling paid off the board. I think it’s clear that Winchester and Patrice have been having an affair since before the engagement party.”

  “I would definitely agree with that,” Quinn said. “Is there anything else in there about Winchester?”

  “Not that I can see offhand,” Fred replied. “I’ll dig further on him later. As for Ariel, she seems like a normal girl ... who is probably trying to seduce a rich dude for money. She’s twenty-three. She went to the University of Miami for restaurant management and she’s in debt due to student loans.

  “She’s held four jobs in the past three years,” he continued. “Any guesses to what those jobs are?”

  “I don’t think we should play that game,” Rowan cautioned quickly. “If people start making sexist guesses I’m going to be ticked off.”

  “Thanks for the warning.” Fred winked at her. “Unfortunately, every job she’s ever held has involved using her sexuality as a weapon. When she was in college, she served as a shot girl at one of the beachside facilities. There are some lovely photos of random college gu
ys doing body shots off her.”

  “That’s classy,” Quinn muttered.

  “The shots are kind of hot.”

  “Stop looking at the shots,” Rowan barked, causing Quinn to laugh.

  “She was forced to leave that job because her boss accused her of performing sexual favors in the restroom with a number of men. She denied it, of course, but the boss had no trouble dismissing her.”

  “No offense, but I would think a girl who performed favors like that would be a benefit in a place where they make the bulk of their money off drunk and horny young adults,” Paul pointed out. “From what I can tell, that’s a normal offering at a lot of these bars.”

  “That’s a good point.” Fred narrowed his eyes as he continued reading. “There’s nothing concrete in here, but I bet if we dig we find that she was sleeping with the boss and something happened between them. The accusations in this file are pretty explicit.

  “After leaving the bar, she went to work as a hostess at an upscale restaurant,” he continued. “That job only lasted four months until she started work as a wine sommelier on a sunset cruise ship. It was one of those deals where tourists group together for a short hike around the harbor and get totally hammered in the process.”

  “That sounds about right,” Quinn muttered.

  “She was there a full year before shifting gears and starting work for the Sterlings,” Fred said. “I’m not sure how she got the job, but I can hazard a guess. Ben went on one of those cruises, met her, and suggested she come work for the family.”

  “That’s a good bet,” Quinn said. “Of course, their relationship could be relatively new. They might’ve only hooked up after what happened at sea. She might know something and the only way he can keep her quiet is by making her think he’s in love with her ... and about to get her hands on his money.”

  “I guess that’s possible, but if she was a threat to talk, wouldn’t he have shut her up before they were discovered?” Nick asked. “They already had three dead people. What’s another one? Especially a girl people would’ve forgotten about right away because she wasn’t one of the rich and privileged.”

  “That is a very good question,” Quinn noted. “I have no idea.”

  “Next up is Vicky Chapman,” Fred volunteered. “She’s basically a good girl who graduated at the top of her class. Her mother has money left over from the dead husband and her parents, but it’s only about six-hundred grand.”

  “Only?” Rowan swallowed hard. “I hope you know that most people would be able to live a really long time off that amount of money. Heck, I’ve never seen a sixth of that in my entire life.”

  Paul looked pained as he regarded her. “I’m so sorry.”

  “I didn’t mean for you to apologize.” Rowan was contrite. “I just ... that’s a lot of money to some people. Fred was acting like it was a drop in the bucket when it’s not.”

  “While I tend to agree with you, it is a drop in the bucket to these people,” Fred argued. “The Chapmans aren’t poor, but they’re hardly in the same league as the Sterlings. That begs the question of how Vicky and Ben hooked up ... and why they’re still together if he’s clearly not ready to settle down.”

  “Maybe he’s just mourning his father and brother in an unhealthy way,” Rowan suggested. “I mean ... I’ve heard of people doing worse things. Maybe he and Ariel bonded when they were stuck at sea and one thing led to another.”

  “You’re assuming they really were stuck at sea,” Quinn pointed out. “I don’t know that I believe that.”

  “I’m not sure I do either,” Fred admitted. “We can’t discount it, though. Quite frankly, I find Leona Chapman intriguing. She and Mitchum are cited in three different gossip columns over the last six months. Obviously their relationship isn’t new.”

  “Do you think they got involved after her daughter started dating his nephew?” Nick asked.

  “That would be my guess. Leona was a regular fixture on the charity circuit. She volunteered her time to a lot of steering committees, which means she got invited to events she probably couldn’t have afforded to attend otherwise.

  “I can’t prove it, but I bet she saw Ben’s relationship with Vicky as the answer to her prayers,” he continued. “The Sterlings have more money than God.”

  “I saw Vicky at the mall,” Rowan reminded them. “She was spending like a fiend. If her mother doesn’t have the money to cover those bills, I’m betting the Sterlings are the ones handing over credit cards so she can spend willy-nilly.”

  “That’s probably a fair guess,” Fred conceded. “Mitchum is worth about a quarter of what Pat was worth. They both inherited from their parents, but Pat made wiser investments. Mitchum isn’t destitute, but over the years, Pat was considered the bigger dog in the circles where they ran. Since Mitchum never married, he didn’t achieve the same status Pat managed to command.”

  “Maybe he didn’t marry because he was in love with Leona,” Rowan said. “I mean ... they looked very into each other when we saw them this afternoon. It’s always possible he couldn’t be with her because she wasn’t worth as much as the others in their circles. Maybe Vicky and Ben hitting it off was a godsend.”

  “Maybe, but somehow that doesn’t feel right.” Fred slowly rubbed the back of his neck as he focused on the screen. “That only leaves Barbara and Carly. They were best friends in college, and a couple of the gossip rags seem to theorize they were lesbians.”

  Rowan widened her eyes. “Oh, that’s so sad. Are you saying they were in love and died together? That makes me want to cry.”

  “Eat your crab legs, Ro,” Quinn instructed. “There will be no crying. That’s the last thing I want.”

  “Aye, aye.” She smirked as she cracked another crab leg. “Seriously, though, that’s really sad.”

  “And probably something that had to be hidden,” Paul noted. “Before you jump all over me, I didn’t say that I thought there was anything wrong with it, Rowan. I’m just pointing out that in these hoity-toity circles, the kids are expected to marry and procreate no matter how they might really feel about the subject.

  “You brought up Ben settling down even though he clearly wasn’t ready,” he continued. “He probably was forced into it if he wanted his inheritance. Kids from families like that are expected to extend the limbs on the family tree no matter what. If Barbara was a lesbian, she might’ve had to hide it.”

  “She never married, though,” Quinn pointed out.

  “No, but she was younger than Ben. These families don’t really start pushing until the kids hit their thirties. Barbara had a little bit of grace time left, although not much.”

  “So ... what could’ve possibly happened after that engagement party that resulted in Pat, Barbara, and Carly all being killed?” Rowan mused, her expression thoughtful as she munched on her crab. “It must have been something big.”

  “There’s always the possibility that Pat was the intended target, and Barbara and Carly somehow witnessed something they weren’t supposed to,” Nick noted. “They could’ve been casualties of timing. It’s very possible they weren’t targets of whoever carried this out.”

  “What about everyone on the yacht, though?” Rowan challenged. “They had to know that something fishy was going on. I mean ... Pat’s hand was found here. That means he was killed close to here, right? Where were they for those two weeks the public believed they were missing?”

  “That’s the question we need to answer,” Quinn said. “I have no idea where to start.”

  12

  Twelve

  The informational exchange went on for hours. It was almost five before Quinn decided to call it a day. Rowan was having a good time, her laughter echoing throughout the house as she bandied about theories with her father and uncle. He was loath to drag her away, but it was time to make their escape.

  “We should be going.”

  Rowan glanced at the clock and immediately jumped to her feet. Fred had left almost two hours before �
� said he had a hot date — and only family remained. She’d clearly lost track of time. “We should,” she agreed, smoothing down the front of her shirt.

  Paul looked momentarily disappointed, but he covered well and flashed Quinn a smile. “You probably have things to do.”

  “I don’t want it to be dark when we leave,” Quinn replied simply. “That makes it harder to know if someone is following.”

  Paul nodded. “That makes sense.”

  “It won’t always be this way,” Quinn added. “It’s just ... it’s better for her to clear out of here before dark.”

  “I understand.” Paul flashed him a heartfelt smile. “I’m glad you take such good care of her. You two are obviously happy.”

  “We are,” Rowan agreed, grinning. “We’re even talking about taking over this place together when you guys are done with it. It’s just talk right now, but it’s something we’re considering.”

  “Really?” Paul arched an eyebrow.

  “I thought you were waiting to discuss it with her,” Nick prodded. “That’s the reason I didn’t mention it to Paul.”

  “I was going to.” Quinn turned sheepish. “It sort of came up in normal conversation.”

  “You two living together out here came up in normal conversation?”

  “I ... our future came up in normal conversation,” he corrected. “I’m sorry if you think it was too soon to talk about it, but I wanted to make her aware of what I was thinking. We agreed to share things and ... this is a big thing that involves both of us.”

  Instead of chiding him, Nick smirked. “I don’t have a problem with you telling her. I simply thought we were supposed to keep it quiet for a bit.”

  “And I happen to think it’s a great idea,” Paul enthused. “I want to know where you guys plan on settling so I can live right next door.”

  Quinn narrowed his eyes. “Is that supposed to be a joke?”