Page 33 of One Last Secret

Sean senses my hesitation and says, “Why don’t you take Celeste out to breakfast, Evelyn? I’ll stay with Mary.”

“Is she okay?” Celeste asks. “She’s going to be all right?”

“She’ll be fine,” Sean says, “Honestly, she could use a little knock around the head every now and then. Helps get rid of the fool ideas she takes to sometimes.”

“No,” I say, staring hard at Sean. “I’ll be all right. It’s best if Celeste remains here for now until we know what happened to her father.”

Sean rolls his eyes. “Go ahead with her, Evelyn. I’ll talk to Mary.”

Evelyn nods and leads Celeste away. I glare at Sean, but he meets my gaze impassively. When the door closes behind them, I say, “I hope like hell that you have proof Evelyn’s not involved.”

“There’s no sign of Victor at her house, her bank account is clean, and she nearly stabbed me when Celeste answered the door to a strange man. She loves that girl like she’s her own, and if I hadn’t been able to show them the texts you’d sent me, then I’d never be let inside.”

My eyes widen. “You showed them that I was investigating Victor’s disappearance?”

“No, just the ones about coordinating your ride here when you arrived. You mentioned you had a friend in town, and I’m that friend. Also, since that’s probably not enough for you, I have security cameras from the house across the street showing Evelyn in the kitchen until something makes her jump and drop a tray of hot coffee. Putting two and two together, I’m thinking she was startled when the glass blew out in the studio.”

I sigh. “Okay. I just needed to make sure.”

“So what did you need to make sure of that you nearly got yourself killed down there?” he asks. “Or do you just enjoy frightening me?”

“I thought you said I deserve a knock on the head every now and then.”

“Go to hell!”

He says this so bluntly and forcefully that I flinch. His face is terrible, like a thundercloud, but there is fright behind his eyes, the same fright I see in Celeste’s eyes when she learns that her father is missing.

I feel guilty seeing him like that, but I also feel a strange warmth knowing he cares about me so. I’ll have to deal with that emotion later, though. I have no time for… whatever this is. Anyway, it’s probably only my gratitude that he’s rescued me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know the tide was so ferocious.”

“But you knew it was pitch bloody black out there. You knew you were swimming through a rock tunnel that you didn’t know where it led to. Or did you know?”

“I knew. I found Victor’s journal. He wrote of a tunnel that led to a hidden cove. I thought he might have fled there after the attack. Or if he simply went insane, maybe that was where he would go.”

“And you found this cove?”

“I did. And he was there. I found the remains of a campfire and bits of beef jerky.”

His eyes widen. “Bloody hell.”

"Will you watch your language?" I scold. "Every time with you, it's bloody this and Christ that and to hell with all the rest."

“Will you stop endangering yourself like you’re the hero of an action movie?” he retorts.

I glare at him, and his lips curl in a smile. “Good work, Mary,” he says softly. “So where did he go from there?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know. And after that tide…”

I don’t put my fears into words, but Sean does. “He might have been washed away.”

I nod. “That’s why I didn’t say anything in front of Celeste.”

I meet his eyes. “There’s another thing I have to tell you.”

“What’s that?”

“I saw Annie there.”

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