Page 124 of Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds

“You’ve been working this vacation, haven’t you?” He smiled, and I didn’t feel awkward anymore.

“Brie helped me. But I don’t want to get her in trouble,” I added quickly. “Her dad was angry about what happened yesterday.”

“I won’t say anything.” He crossed his heart.

“CeeCee wasn’t who she pretended to be, and it’s really bugging me. Trevor’s a wealthy man, involved in commercial real estate among other things. The commercial real estate market is depressed right now, and it’s not a good investment, but his company is working some other ventures.”

“This is your world.”

“Financial planning, maybe. I know good long-term investments. Maybe CeeCee is in league with someone to steal from him, like a honeytrap.”

“A honeytrap?”

“You know, where a woman seduces a man—”

“I know what a honeytrap is,” he said with a chuckle.

“Anyway,” I continued, “maybe that was why she left.” I thought about her meeting with his ex-wife. “She met with his ex-wife and disappeared.”

“You said honeytrap... what if that’s exactly what it was? Maybe she was hired by his ex-wife to take something from him? Money or information.”

“Yeah,” I said thoughtfully. “Maybe that is what she was doing.”

“I bet you could figure it out pretty quick.”

“How?”

“Like you said, you know good long-term investments. You could probably look at his portfolio and projects and see what might be valuable to someone else.”

“I could,” I agreed.

“But tonight, let your brilliant mind rest. Forget all this, okay?”

I nodded.

“What were you doing on St. John?” Jason asked as he poured us both more champagne.

“Promise you won’t think I’m ridiculous?”

“I don’t think you’re ridiculous in the least.” He took my hand, kissed it.

“I thought I could get information about Diana’s murder investigation from the police because I think Diana was blackmailing Gino. And if she was, he shouldn’t be investigating her murder,” I said.

“You think Gino killed her?” He sounded surprised, but not like I was completely crazy.

“I think,” I said slowly, carefully, “that he has done a lot of things to make me believe he’s guilty. Some of her notesreferenced him—he’s 77 for Gino Garmon. The first day I arrived, he asked about the article I was reading describing her disappearance. Told me not to worry about it, but it was the way he said it that made me suspicious. He’s in charge of the investigation, and then he threatened me when he brought me back to the resort last night.”

Jason’s spine straightened. “He threatened you?” His voice was low, and for the first time, I saw something more in Jason than his carefree manner. I saw a backbone that I didn’t quite expect.

“He knew I’d gone to St. John and talked to the police, made a point to tell me that it would benefit me to stay out of the investigation. It was the way he said it.”

“We need to tell Tristan about this,” Jason said. “He’s the manager. He’s in charge of staff, including security.”

“I have no proof of anything.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Jason said. “He shouldn’t have intimidated you like that.”

Jason was right, but what if I was wrong? “I don’t want to ruin his career because I let my imagination get away from me.”

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