Page 145 of Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds

I blushed, then bit my lip to keep from laughing. “No. He had to work. I need five minutes.”

Brie made coffee for us. I finished drying my hair, then put it up in a stubby ponytail and dressed in walking shorts and a tank top.

“How’s the weather?” I asked with a glance outside my glass doors.

“A little cool, but clear. It’s supposed to warm up later. It’s kind of a mess, though—lots of branches and leaves everywhere. They have six people working on cleaning the pool right now, said it’d be open by eight. No serious damage.”

I grabbed a lightweight sweatshirt and pulled it on. “Okay, first we check the lockboxes on the ferry.”

I took the to-go coffee cup Brie handed me. We left via the beach to avoid people. The last thing I wanted was for Amberto see us walking down to the dock right now. Hopefully, she was so hungover that she was still sleeping.

The morning was beautiful, the air fresh and invigorating, much needed after limited sleep last night. Not that I was complaining about it, considering how I’d spent the hours.

An unusual amount of kelp had been washed up on the beach by the storm, and staff was cleaning it up.

“I didn’t realize how many people worked here,” I said.

Brie shrugged. “I heard Kalise say they called in everyone today, and right before I went to your room, I saw the ferry come in from St. John and dozens of people get off, all employees.”

It took us fifteen minutes to reach the dock. Fortunately, it was empty—the ferry was docked, but no one was on board. Still, we quickly jumped on board and went inside the cabin.

“Where do we start?” Brie asked as we looked around.

“Anyplace that can hold a file, I guess. Boxes, drawers, the kitchen, under seats—places that wouldn’t be regularly accessed. You take the cabin. I’ll take the helm and kitchen.”

“It’s called a galley,” Brie said.

“Galley,” I repeated, and went up to the helm.

There were many cabinets, and some of them were locked. I didn’t see how Diana would get into a locked cabinet, but when I couldn’t find the documents, I thought maybe she’d somehow gotten hold of a key.

“Brie?” I called.

She walked to the stairs and looked up at the helm. “Nothing?” she said.

I shook my head. “Some of the cabinets are locked.”

Brie smiled and pulled a set of keys out of her pocket.

“You took someone’s keys?”

“Maybe. When Eli was having coffee in the restaurant, I distracted him, then took his keys. We’ll return them to security on our way back, say that we found them on our walk or something.”

“You’re going to get us in trouble,” I said, but took the offered keys.

We opened every locked cabinet. Tools, maps, equipment, and in the galley, food, champagne, glassware.

No documents.

“Plan B,” Brie said.

“Which is?”

“We find Diana’s phone, or steal Amber’s.”

It was almost nine. We didn’t really have a choice.

This time, I had the plan. I had said no more breaking and entering... but plans change.

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