1 Lowcountry Boil (29 page)

FORTY-ONE

I slid into the driver’s seat and reached to stow my purse in the back. There sat Colleen. I jumped so high I hit my head on the top of the car. I growled at her.

Merry knocked on the window.

“You’d better let Merry in,” Colleen said. “Don’t talk to me—just listen.”

Merry opened the door and stepped in. “Where are we headed first?” She buckled up.

“To the police station,” Colleen said.

“
What?
” I looked in the rearview.

Merry looked at me. “I said, where to first?”

“Merry should have a look at that locket. See if she recognizes the man in the picture,” Colleen said. “It’s in the evidence room.”

“To the police station,” I said.

“Right.” Merry laughed. “No, really.”

I squared my shoulders and started the car. “To the police station.”

“Are you nuts? Wait—don’t even answer that. I thought we were going to look for Scott?”

“We are. Right after we stop by the police station.”

Merry and I continued our debate even as we walked into the police station. Colleen was elsewhere, again.

“Blake is going to lock us up in one of those jail cells just to keep us where he can see us,” Merry said in exasperation.

“Maybe,” I replied. “But he won’t keep us long. Trust me, he’s never had high maintenance prisoners before.”

“This is a mistake,” Merry insisted.

I stopped abruptly three yards in front of Nell’s desk and looked at Merry. “Do you want to see the picture or not?”

“Well, yes, but I
thought
we were going to find Scott.”

“This was on the way and it won’t take a minute.”

“Unless we’re incarcerated.”

Nell’s head swiveled back and forth between us with each volley. Finally, she interrupted. “Is there something I can help you girls with?”

“Is Blake here?” I asked, knowing full well he wasn’t.

“No, he’s out hunting down that lowlife trash, Troy Causby.”

“Fantastic.”

Nell drew up her entire face into a pucker. “Did you want to see your brother or not?”

“Not really,” Merry said.

“I see,” Nell said. “Is there anybody else you don’t want to see?”

“Nell,” I said, “actually, what we want to see is the locket I found at Gram’s house. I gave it to Blake, but Merry’s never seen it.”

Nell stiffened her posture and braced her hands on the desk. “You’ll have to take that up with the chief. That locket is evidence in an ongoing investigation.”

“When will he be back?” Merry asked.

“That’s anybody’s guess,” Nell said.

“Where is he?” I asked, pretty sure he was still at Devlin’s Point.

“That’s police business,” Nell said.

I bristled. “Nell Cooper, Blake is our brother, and if he’s in some kind of danger, we have a perfect right to know.”

“If Clay was in trouble, you’d want to know, wouldn’t you?” Merry chimed in.

“Did I
say
he was in danger? If Blake wanted the two of you to know where he was headed, he’d have said, ‘Nell, call up my sisters and give them my itinerary for the day.’ But that’s not what he said.”

“What did he say?” Merry asked.

Nell tilted her head forward, and looked at us from under her eyebrows. “Why don’t y’all just head on back over to your mamma’s house where you’re supposed to be?”

I turned to Merry. “I think we’d better call Mamma. If Nell’s worried, I’m sure Mamma would want to know what’s going on. Maybe she and Daddy had better head on over here, too.”

Merry read my mind. “Good point. I’ll call her right now.” She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and began to dial.

“Hogs in lace,
no
.” Nell stood up muttering under her breath none too quietly. “Upsetting your poor mamma. Your crazy daddy would have that messy ole hound in here.” She reached in her top drawer and brought out a key ring. “You just stay right here. I’ll get the locket. It’s already been printed. I guess it’s all right for you to look at it.”

She walked down the hall and returned with a plastic evidence bag. Not taking any chances, Nell had put on a pair of latex gloves. “You can look, but you can’t touch.” She slipped the locket out of the bag and laid it on her desk.

We leaned over the desk. “Would you open it please?” I asked.

Nell muttered something I couldn’t make out, but she opened the locket.

Merry stared at the picture.

I glanced at the picture. I did a double take. I leaned in closer, apparently obscuring my sister’s view.

“Hey,” Merry protested.

“Nell, thank you so much for all your trouble. We’ll be getting out of your hair now.” I backed away from the desk and bolted for the door, dragging Merry behind me.

Once outside, Merry stopped in her tracks and turned to face me. “Would you mind telling me what that was all about?”

I grinned.

“Spill it already. You look like you’ve got the biggest pot and the answer to Final Jeopardy.”

“I know whose picture is in the locket.”

“
What
?”

“Come on.” I hopped behind the wheel of the Escape. “We’re going to the marina.”

FORTY-TWO

I zipped into the marina parking lot and pulled into a space near the docks.

Merry stared straight ahead, gripping the door handle. “You’re
sure
this is the guy in the picture?”

“No doubt. He’s the guy.”

“All right, then. Let’s go talk to him.”

We got out of the car and walked down the dock.

“That’s his boat right there,
The Gypsy Wind
.” I pointed. “But I don’t see him. He’s probably below deck.”

“How does one knock on the door of a sailboat?”

“I don’t have a clue.”

We stood there on the dock for a moment, looking at each other. Finally, I shouted, “Ahoy.”

Merry giggled.

I cocked my head at my sister. “Do you have a better idea?”

“Not really. If we climb on board to knock on the cabin door are we trespassing?”

“Probably. But he doesn’t seem like the type that would have us arrested.”

We hesitated for a moment, and then both climbed over the rail. I took the lead, and we stepped down into the cockpit. “Mr. Davidson?”

All was quiet on the boat. I knocked on the teak panel that served as a door to the cabin. “Mr. Davidson?”

“He’s not here,” Merry said. “Come on, I don’t feel right being on his boat uninvited.”

“All right, we can come back later.”

“Did you say he’s from St. John?”

“Not from there, but he’s lived there for a long time. He’s from around here, originally.” I climbed back over the rail and onto the dock.

“
Where
, here? Do you mean the U.S. mainland, South Carolina, the Charleston area, or Stella Maris?” Merry made the small step over the gap between boat and dock appear like a death-defying act.

“He didn’t say, exactly, but I had the impression it was the Charleston area. We’d know him if he was from Stella Maris.”

“That depends on how long he’s been gone. He’s a lot older than we are.”

“True.”

Merry slipped into the car. “
Now
can we hunt my ex-skunk-in-law?”

I started the engine and gripped the steering wheel with both hands. “Yes indeed.”

FORTY-THREE

I parked in the small lot behind the Stella Maris Hotel. It was more of an inn, really. But the Rivers family, who had first opened it in the 1950s, had named it the Stella Maris Hotel, and the sign still proclaimed it that, so we all went along.

We crossed the wide ceiling fan-cooled front porch and entered the lobby. Alicia Rivers Manigault, a tall redhead, sat behind the front desk reading a paperback novel. We had been classmates all through school. Alicia had dated Blake for a while, and Merry and I had considered her a predatory female. Since Alicia was now happily married to Sam Manigault, with two-year-old redheaded twin boys, we assumed our brother was safe. Anyway, we needed her cooperation, so we un-holstered our most honeyed tones and brightest smiles on the way in.

“Hey, Alicia, how are you?” I asked.

Alicia offered us a perfunctory smile. “Fine, and you?”

“We’re good. How are those adorable twins of yours?” I asked.

“Why, they’re just…adorable. What can I do for you?” Alicia appeared already tired of the effort to be pleasant, and eager to get back to her book.

“Well, Alicia, my estranged husband has been staying with you all for the last few days. I need to speak to him, family business and all. Could you tell me if he’s still here?”

“As far as I know he is,” Alicia said. “He hasn’t checked out, anyway.”

“Well, then, we’ll just go on up. What room would that be?” I smiled so sweetly I made myself queasy.

“Twelve. Top of the stairs to the right.”

“Thank you so much. You’ve been a real big help.”

“No problem.” She seemed to be silently willing us to hurry on up the stairs and out of her sight. “Here—why don’t you take a key just in case? If he’s out, you might have to wait a while. He told me to expect you.” She laid the spare key to room twelve on the counter.

Merry and I exchanged a look. Scott. So sure of his irresistible charms he actually told Alicia I’d be coming by. Whatever. This was unexpected good fortune. I snagged the key and we glided across the lobby and up the stairs as quickly as possible without actually bolting.

We stood in front of the door to room twelve and looked at each other.

“What are we going to say to him if he’s in there?” Merry asked.

“We’re going to ask him what in the name of sweet reason he’s up to.”

“And you think he’s just going to tell us?”

“No, I’m hoping I’ll have to shoot him.”

Merry’s eyes widened.

“No place vital, I still want him to be able to talk. I’ll probably start with the kneecap. I hear that’s quite painful.” I pounded on the door.

After a moment, Merry pressed her ear to the door. “I don’t hear anyone moving around in there.”

I put the key in the lock and opened the door slowly. “Scott?”

Convinced he wasn’t in the room, we entered and closed the door behind us.

Merry peered into the closet. “From the looks of things, he’s still in town.”

I looked over her shoulder. A suit, two shirts and a pair of khaki pants, along with a pair of tennis shoes. I went to check out the chest of drawers. “Yeah, unless he left in such a hurry he abandoned his clothes.”

I walked over to the desk. “But he wouldn’t have left this.” I sat down at the desk and opened the laptop. “Listen at the door in case he comes back.”

“Won’t he have everything password protected?”

“Yep.” I typed in “BigKahuna9” and snickered when it worked.

When the computer finished booting, I clicked on the email icon. I skimmed through his inbox, but nothing immediately caught my attention. I had better luck in his sent items folder. The subject line on the first item was “Stella Maris Resort Project.” I read for a moment. I turned to Merry. “You’d better come look at this. I’ll listen at the door while you read.”

Merry switched places with me and read the e-mail on the screen. It was time stamped at 11:38pm on Tuesday night, and addressed to the VP of New Projects at Scott’s firm. Merry read silently for a moment, and then erupted. “That sonofabitch.”

She read aloud.
“It appears from David Morehead’s report that, while there may be a slight delay due to unforeseen circumstances, the strategy of going through one of the local residents to transfer the property is a success. There may be some initial backlash from the local residents when the project is fully laid out, and the youth camp proves unfeasible. However, any resistance should quickly be mitigated by the positive impact to the local economy.”
She swiveled towards me. Merry was wild-eyed and seething.

“There’s our proof,” I said. “It looks like you were the ‘local resident’ being used and I was the ‘unforeseen circumstances.’” I crossed the room and nudged her out of the chair. Scott could come back any minute, and we needed more information. “Let me poke around a little more.”

Merry rose and paced the floor. She cursed Scott and all his ancestors while I searched the computer for anything else related to Stella Maris.

“Jackpot,” I murmured. “Here’s a folder of saved e-mails named ‘Stella Maris Project.’” I scanned the sender and recipient fields. “Here’s one from Adam Devlin.”

Merry moved to read over my shoulder. “
Imagine running into you at The Pirates’ Den of all places. It’s a damn good thing your girlfriend saw that article in
Southern Living
. I’m glad you finally see the potential here. I’m confident I can deliver the votes we need to get Devlin’s Point rezoned. The key is to make sure the project stays under the radar until the property is transferred. Using Esmerelda Talbot to get the land donated to the namesake corporation is the right approach. I’ve found someone local we can use to monitor the situation and let us know if she gets suspicious. In return for the property, per our agreement, New Life Resorts will pay me ten million dollars up front, plus a ten percent interest in the Stella Maris Resort.
”   

I was getting nervous. “We’ve got to get out of here. I’m going to forward this to myself, Blake, and Nate, along with the other one from Tuesday. Go back and listen at the door.”

I was closing the laptop when Merry whispered loudly, “Someone’s coming.”

I was pretty sure Scott was not, himself, a murderer, but I wasn’t willing to bet my life on it. “Hide. In the closet.”

Merry slipped into the closet and shut the door just as Scott put his key in the lock. I arranged myself in my most seductive pose on the bed.

Scott could hardly have looked more self-satisfied when he opened the door and found me sprawled across the four-poster bed with a come-hither smile on my face. “Hi ya, big boy,” I purred.

“Well hey, kitten. About time you showed up.” He looked around the room. “I thought the girl at the desk said your sister was with you.”

I bit the inside of my cheek. I despised it when he called me kitten. Then again, I despised everything that came out of his mouth. “No, just little ole me. I wanted to surprise you.” Honey dripped from my lips.

“And a pleasant surprise you are. Well, now, I knew you’d come around. But you sure took your sweet time.” Confident in his skills with women in general, and his ability to schmooze me in particular, he didn’t stop to ponder my complete and utter change of heart. He loosened his tie and sauntered towards the bed.

I stood on my knees and put my arms around his neck. “You know what I want?” I whispered in his ear.

“Baby you know I do.” He pulled me to him and his mouth covered mine.

I kissed him just long enough to be convincing and then turned my head and whispered in his other ear. “Champagne.”

“What?” His breath was ragged.

“I want some champagne.” I pulled back far enough to look him in the eyes. “You know how I love it. This is a celebration, right?” I looked at him pleadingly.

“Well, sure, kitten, but, you’ve already got me wound up, and they don’t have room service here.”

I pulled back and gave him my most alluring pout.

“Oh, all right,” he said. “But where am I going to find chilled champagne on this island?”

“Edwards Grocery has it. It’s not far at all, just go to the stoplight and turn left down Palmetto. It’s just a few doors down on the right.”

“Are you sure—?”

I placed my finger over his lips. “Shhh. I’m going to change into a little something I picked up at Victoria’s Secret this morning just for you. I was remembering how partial you are to black lace.” I lowered my chin and looked up at him through my eyelashes. I flashed him a particularly feline smile. “Go on now. I’ll be waiting right here for you.”

He kissed me once more. “I’ll be right back,” he promised. He was out the door.

I waited a ten count then opened the closet door.

Merry grinned at me wickedly. “Kitten?”

“Don’t start.”

“Remind me to ask you where you learned all that stuff.”

“Remind me to wash my mouth out with Clorox. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

I cracked the door and looked out. No sign of anyone. We tiptoed down the stairs and out the front door. Thankfully, Alicia wasn’t at the front desk.

We ran around back, hopped in my car, and hightailed it out of the parking lot.