Murder Key (30 page)

Murder Key

FORTY-FIVE

             
On the first Sunday in December, the temperature slid into the high seventies. A slight breeze blew out of the south, bathing our paradise in currents of warm air. Light clouds moved slowly across a cerulean sky, and Anne wore her red bikini. Life was good.

             
I took the Grady-White out Longboat Pass, cutting in close to the jetty at the south end of Anna Maria Island. The sea had a light chop, but not enough to make the ride uncomfortable
.
W
e headed north to the mouth of Tampa Bay.

             
Jock had left on an early-morning flight to Houston. He and Logan and I had spent the evening at Moore’s, eating crabs and drinking beer. We finished up the night at the Haye Loft, drinking more beer and talking with Eric and Teresa, the bartenders. Several people stopped by to ask about the Beer Can Event, as it was becoming known on the key. I told them that the police had asked us not to talk about it. I just wasn’t ready to discuss it.

             
Anne brought sandwiches and beer for lunch. We found a spot on the beach at Egmont, anchored and waded ashore. The sun was warm, the company magnificent. I didn’t know if this meant that Anne and I were together again, or if this was just her way of letting me down easy. I decided I’d eat my lunch and wait for the other shoe to drop.

             
She put her hand on my arm and looked closely at me. “You look like hell,” she said. “Friday night was awful, wasn’t it?”

             
“Yeah. Liz was a girl with no hope who turned herself into a hell
of
a woman. Something happe
ned along the way, though, and
she went bad. I think she had a lot of demons chasing around in her head, and she just couldn’t control them.”

             
“It wasn’t your fault, you know.”

             
“I know, but still... .”

             
“You couldn’t have saved her, Matt. By the time you met her, she’d already turned the corner. The goodness in her was gone. She was a killer and a drug-runner. She was going to kill you, for heaven’s sake.”

             
She leaned into me, took my face in her hands, and kissed me long and hard. The other shoe had dropped, and we were going to be okay. At least for a while.

             
I didn’t tell Anne that in the instant before Liz died, as she pointed her little pistol at my face, she removed her finger from the trigger. And smiled.

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