In the Dark (8 page)

“Our group? Oh, you mean Seth Granger,” Jeb suggested.

She shrugged. “Right. Seth.” Seth was just a pain in the butt, though. Annoying to deal with, but once she was away from him, she forgot all about him.

She really didn’t want to see David. She was furious with herself for having instinctively bought the tie.

“Just walk on by then, Alex. The boat is at the end of the dock. Wait there. I’ll go in and gather up the forces. Hopefully anyone who wandered off shopping is back. And hopefully those who did more drinking than eating won’t be too inebriated.”

She smiled and thanked him, then started down the dock. The sunset was coming in, and she believed with her whole heart that nothing could compare to sunset in the Florida Keys. The colors were magnificent. If there was rain on the horizon, they were darker. On a bright day like today, the night came with a riot of unparalleled pastels.

It was her favorite time of day. Peaceful. Especially when she had a few moments alone, as she did now.
The dock was empty. The other boaters docked nearby were either on shore or in their cabins. The evening was hers.

She strolled the length of rustic wood planks and, at the end, stretched and sat, dangling her feet as she appreciated the sky and tried not to think about the corpse she had seen.

Or the husband she had so suddenly reacquired.

“Who’s missing here?”

David had just reentered the restaurant in time to hear Jeb Larson’s question.

“Mr. Granger,” Zach called out helpfully.

“Mr. Denham,” Jeb asked, spotting David. “Have you seen Mr. Granger?”

“Sorry, I went out to make a call. He was at the table when I left.”

Jay Galway came striding in at that moment, a bag bearing the name of a local shop in his hand. He arched an eyebrow at Jeb. “Got a problem?”

“Just missing a diver,” Jeb said, never losing his easy tone. “Mr. Granger.”

Jay seemed startled as he looked around. “He was here twenty minutes ago,” he said. “David?”

“Don’t know. I was on the phone.”

“He said something about going out for a smoke,” Hank Adamson called. He was standing at the end of the bar. David was certain he hadn’t been there a minute ago.

He looked around. John Seymore seemed to be among the missing, as well, but just then he came striding in from around back.

“Excuse me, Mr. Seymore,” Jeb called. “Have you seen Mr. Granger?”

“Nope,” John Seymore said.

“Leave it to Granger.”

The words were a bare whisper of aggravation, but David was close enough to Jay Galway to hear them.

“Well, relax…we’ll find him,” Jeb said, still cheerful.

“Maybe he went shopping,” Zach suggested.

“Yep, maybe,” Jeb said, and tousled the boy’s hair.

“You know,” David said quietly to Jay, “they can take the dive boat on back. We can wait for him.”

Jay cast him a glance that spoke volumes about his dislike for the man, but all he said was, “We can wait a few minutes.”

Alex stared at the lights as they played over the water. The lapping sound of the sea as it gently butted against dozens of hulls and the wood of the dock pilings was lulling. The little ripples below her were growing darker, but still, there was a rainbow of hues, purple, deepest aqua, a blue so dark it was almost ebony.

She frowned, watching as something drifted out from beneath the end of the dock where she sat.

At first, she was merely puzzled. What on earth…?

Then her blood ran cold. She leaped to her feet, staring down. Her jaw dropped, and she clenched her throat to scream…caught the sound, started to turn, stopped again.

No. This body wasn’t disappearing.

And so she went with her first instinct and began to scream as loudly as she could.

“We all have to wait here for just one guy?” one of the divers complained.

“My Mom will be getting worried,” Zach said.

“Don’t worry, you can use my phone,” David assured the teen, handing it to him. “Don’t you have a cell phone?” he asked the boy.

Zach grinned. “You bet. But Mom wouldn’t let me take it on the boat. Said I might lose it overboard. She doesn’t dive,” he said, as if that explained everything about his mother.

“Leave it to Seth Granger,” Jay said, and this time, he was clearly audible. “Go ahead,” he instructed Jeb. “You and the captain and Alex get our crew back. David has said he doesn’t mind waiting for Granger.” He turned to David. “You’re sure?” he asked.

“Sure. We’ll wait,” he said, and he hoped to hell it wasn’t going to be long. Now, more than ever, he didn’t want Alex out of his sight.

The others rose, stretched and started to file out.

And that was when they heard the scream.

Somehow, the instant he heard it, David knew they weren’t going to have to wait for Granger after all.

E
veryone came running.

Alex wasn’t thrilled about that, but after her last experience, she’d had to sound an alarm—she wasn’t letting this body drift away. Before the others came pounding down the dock, though, she dived in. Though the man was floating face downward and sure as hell looked dead, she wasn’t taking any chances.

The water right by the dock was far from the pristine blue expanse featured in tourist ads. She rose from a misty darkness to grab hold of the man’s floating arm.

With a jolt, she realized it was Seth Granger.

By then the others had arrived. David was in the lead and instantly jumped into the water to join her. He was stronger and was easily able to maneuver the body. John Seymore, with Jeb at his side, reached down as David pushed Seth upward; between them, they quickly got
Seth Granger lying on the dock, and, despite the obvious futility, Jeb dutifully attempted resuscitation. Alex heard someone on a cell phone, telling a 911 operator what had happened. By the time she and David had both been fished out of the water and were standing on the dock, sirens were blaring.

Jeb, youthful and determined, kept at his task, helped by John, but Seth was clearly beyond help.

He still reeked of alcohol.

Two med techs came racing down the dock, and when they reached Seth Granger, Jeb and John stepped aside. The men from Fire Rescue looked at one another briefly, then took over where John and Jeb had left off.

“Anyone know how long he’s been in the water?” one of them.

“Couldn’t be more than twenty minutes,” John Seymore said. “He was definitely inside twenty minutes ago.”

“Let’s get him in the ambulance, set up a line…give him a few jolts,” one of the med techs said. In seconds, another team was down the dock with a stretcher, and the body was taken to the waiting ambulance.

Then the sheriff arrived. He didn’t stop the ambulance, but he looked at Seth Granger as he was taken away, and Alex noted the imperceptible shake of his head. He took a deep breath and turned to the assembled crowd.

“What happened?” Nigel Thompson demanded.

“Well, he was drinking too hard and too fast, that’s for sure,” Hank Adamson commented.

“We were at a table together,” Jay told Nigel. He pointed around. “Seth, John, Hank, David and myself. David’s phone rang, and he decided to take it outside.
I needed to pick up a few things, so I headed down the street, and then…” He looked at the other two who had shared the table.

“I went to the men’s room,” John Seymore said, and looked at Hank Adamson.

“I walked up to the bar.”

“When did Granger leave the bar?” Nigel asked.

His answer was a mass shrugging of shoulders.

“Hell,” Nigel muttered. “All right, everyone back in side.”

David was already on his feet. He reached a hand down to Alex, his eyes dark and enigmatic. She hesitated, then accepted his help.

She realized, as she stood, that John Seymore was watching. He gave her a little smile, then turned away. It seemed that day suddenly turned tonight. She shivered, then regretted it. David slipped an arm around her shoulders. “You all right?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said coldly.

“Alex, you don’t have to snap,” he said softly.

She removed his arm from around her shoulders and followed the others. She meant to find wherever John was sitting and take a place beside him.

Too late. Zach was on John’s left, Hank Adamson on his right. There was one bench left, and there was little for her to do other than join David when he sat there.

She suddenly felt very cold, and, gritting her teeth, she accepted the light windbreaker he offered. She instantly regretted the decision. It felt almost as if she had cloaked herself in his aura. It wasn’t unpleasant. It was too comfortable.

The sheriff’s phone rang. “Thompson,” he said briefly as he answered it. A second later, he flipped his phone
closed. “Well, it’s bad news but not unexpected. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.”

“Mind if we go over Mr. Granger’s movements one more time?” Nigel asked.

“He came, he drank, he fell in the water,” a businessman who’d been on the dive said impatiently.

“Thanks for the compassion, sir,” Nigel said.

“Sorry, Sheriff,” the man said. “But the guy was rich and being a rude pain in the you-know-what all day.”

“Well, thank goodness not everyone who’s rude ends up drowning,” the sheriff said pointedly. “I’d have myself one hell of a job,” Nigel commented.

“Sorry,” the man said again. “It’s just that…we’re all tired. I only met the man today on the dive, and he wasn’t the kind of person to make you care about him. And I’m on vacation.”

“Well, then, I’ll get through this just as fast as I can. First things first—those of you from Moon Bay. Any one checking out tomorrow?”

No one was, apparently. Or, if so, they weren’t about to volunteer the information.

“Good. Okay, I’m going outside. One by one, come out, give me your names, room numbers and cell-phone numbers, and I may have a quick question or two. Then you can reboard and get going.”

Squeaky wheels were the ones oiled first, Alex determined. Nigel asked her whining diver to come out first.

“This is kind of silly,” a woman who had been on the dive complained. “A pushy rich man got snockered and fell in the water. That’s obvious.”

“Nothing is obvious,” David said, his eyes focused on the woman. Alex felt the coiling heat and tension in
his body before he continued. “Nigel Thompson is top rate. He’s not leaving anything to chance.”

The woman flushed and fell silent.

Alex felt as if she were trapped, so aware of David in the physical sense that she was about to scream. In this room full of people, in the midst of this tense situation, she found herself focusing on the most absurd things. Like her ex-husband’s toes. His muscled calves. Legs that were long and powerful. When he inhaled, his flesh brushed hers.

She forced herself to look across the room at John Seymore, instead.

In the room, conversations began. David turned to Alex suddenly. “You all right?” he asked softly.

“Of course I’m all right,” she said. He was studying her gravely. Then a slight smile curved his lips. “Why?” she asked cautiously.

His head moved closer. His lips were nearly against her ear. When he spoke, it seemed that his voice and the moisture of his breath touched her almost like a caress. “You’ve been undressing me with your eyes,” he told her.

“You are undressed,” she informed him. “And what I’m thinking about is the fact that a man drowned.”

“Did he?”

“Of course! Damn you, David, we were both there.”

“We were both there to pull the body out of the water, but we weren’t there when he died.”

“He drowned,” she insisted.

“Isn’t this getting to you just a little bit?” His voice lowered even further. “You’re in danger.”

“And you’re going to protect me?” she demanded.

“You bet.”

“Are you going to keep sleeping on my porch?”

“No, you’re going to let me into the cottage.”

“Dream on. I don’t know what this absurd obsession with me is, but do you really think you’re going to scare me into letting you back in my bed?”

“Only if you insist, and if it will make you feel better.”

In that moment she hated him with a sudden intensity, because she had been so secure, so ready to explore a relationship with another man, and now…

David had played on her mental processes. She knew he could make her feel secure…that his flesh against her own could feel irresistibly erotic, compelling…. She wanted to curl against him, close her eyes, rest, imagine.

“You’ve got some explaining to do, too,” he informed her. Suddenly his eyes reminded her of a predatory cat.

She stiffened. “I have to explain something to you?”

“About Danny Fuller.”

“Danny Fuller?”

They both fell silent.

As more people filed outside, those waiting to be questioned began to shift around. Alex saw her opportunity and rose, placing as much distance as she could between herself and David.

And then, with nothing else to do, she found herself pacing the room. Danny Fuller? What the hell was he talking about?

She was idly walking in front of one of the long benches when she nearly collided with Jay. He caught hold of her shoulders to steady her, then she sighed, turned and took a seat on the bench right behind him.

She gazed at him where he sat. His hands were steepled prayer fashion in front of him, and he was looking upward. “Thank you, God,” he barely whispered. “Thank you for making this happen here and not on Moon Bay.”

“Jay!” she gasped, horrified.

He looked up at her and flushed. “Well, he was a mean old bastard, and he’d lived outmost of his life,” Jay protested. “He liked to drink way too hard, and never believed the sea could be stronger than he was. Well, you can’t turn up your nose and think you’re better than the Atlantic.”

“This is still horrible.”

“Yeah, I’m sure all his ex-wives are going to be crying real hard,” Jay murmured.

She started to say something, then fell quiet. With out her noticing, the room had been emptying out.

It was just her and Jay left to speak with the sheriff, and Nigel was coming toward them.

“Well, it’s a miracle, but no one in this place saw Seth Granger walk out. No one. Not the bartender, not a single waiter, waitress, busboy, cook or floor scrubber, none of the locals, and certainly none of your guests from Moon Bay.”

“Nigel, the guy was drunk,” Jay said wearily.

Nigel shook his head. “Seth Granger was always drinking, from what I’ve heard. Strange that he would just walk into the water, though. Stranger still that no one saw him do it. Never mind.” He pointed a finger at Alex. “I want to talk to you at some length. Tomorrow. Got it?”

“Me?”

“Two days, two bodies,” Nigel said.

“But…you told me there was no second body. Or first body. Other body.”

“Alex, I already told you, I did all the checking I could—and I sent men out to walk the grounds. You know I didn’t discount your story entirely. Anyway, we’ll talk. I’ll be out to see you tomorrow. For now…well, I’ve got some crime-scene people taking a look around here. At this point, it looks as if Seth got a bit too tipsy, took a walk, met the water and then his maker. There’s going to have to be a hearing, though, and an autopsy. The medical examiner will have to verify that scenario.”

Jay nodded glumly. “Still,” he murmured, “at least it happened here, not at Moon Bay.” The other two looked at him. “Hey, I’m sorry, but it matters.”

“Well, take your guests home, Jay,” Thompson said. “You.” He pointed at Alex. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sure,” she murmured.

They left, bidding Warren goodbye. Alex hoped the restaurant wouldn’t end up paying for Seth’s alcohol consumption. She knew Warren usually watched his customers and had been known to confiscate keys from any driver he thought shouldn’t be on the road. His staff was equally vigilant.

From what she had seen, there had been a pitcher of beer on the table. Seth had probably been downing pitcher after pitcher himself, but the waitress had undoubtedly assumed the beer was being consumed by a party of five.

As they walked along the deck toward the boat, Jay stopped Alex. “I’ll go back on the dive boat,” he told her. “Damage control,” he said with a wince.

“There’s room for us both,” she said.

“Take a break. Go back on the
Icarus
,” he said. “That’s okay with you, right, David?” Jay asked, turning slightly.

She hadn’t realized that her ex—or not quite ex—husband had been right behind them. “Sure,” he said.

Great. A ride back with David, John Seymore and Hank Adamson.

Still, she didn’t want to make a draining evening any worse, so she shrugged. At least the ride wouldn’t take long.

Along with a sympathetic smile, John Seymore offered her a hand down into the little dinghy that would take them back to the
Icarus
. She wound up sitting next to Hank Adamson, while David and John had the oars. Once again, it was John who gave her a hand on board the
Icarus
, but once there, she hurried aft, hoping to make the journey back alone.

No luck.

She had barely settled down on the deck, choosing a spot she had often chosen in years past, when David joined her.

She groaned aloud. “Don’t you ever go away?”

“I can’t. Not now.”

She stared at him. “You know, I’m trying to have a relationship with someone else.”

“I don’t know about him yet.”

“What don’t you know about him?”

He looked at her, blue eyes coolly touching hers. “I don’t know if he’s in on what’s going on or not.”

She groaned again. “David, he hasn’t been out of the
military that long. He’s from the West Coast. He’s not into salvage.”

“He’s into things connected with the sea, that’s for certain.”

“So?”

“So I still don’t know about him.”

“How about letting me make a few judgments on my own?”

“Did you see a corpse on the beach or not?” he demanded.

She looked away, silently damning him. “Yes.”

“And are we absolutely positive that Seth Granger just got up, left a bar, fell into the water and drowned?”

“No,” she admitted after a moment. “But it’s the most likely scenario.”

“‘Most likely’ doesn’t make it fact,” he said flatly. “The body that you found—and yes, I’m convinced you found a body—was Alicia’s. I’m certain of it.”

“How do you know that?” she demanded, but then she knew. One of his best friends, Dane Whitelaw, worked in Key Largo, leading his version of an ideal life, running a dive service and an investigations business. “Never mind. You’ve had Dane looking into it.”

“Yup. So do you understand now?”

“Understand what?”

“Why I need to keep you under my wing for the time being.”

“Under your wing?” she snapped.

“Don’t get bristly,” he protested. “After all, we’re still married.”

“A technicality.”

“Even if we weren’t, I’d be damned if I’d allow anyone to hurt you.”