Page 112 of Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds

I didn’t really have a choice at this point.

“Where is everyone?” I asked as I realized I didn’t hear voices or laughter or splashing in the pool.

“Staff meeting. Told you.”

“No, like, everyone else.”

“Oh. Well, there’s a scuba lesson at the dock, and Kalise took a group hiking up to St. Claire Lake. But you’re right, it’s quiet.”

“You seem to know everything that’s going on.”

Brie shrugged. “Like I said, we come here every year, and it’s not a big island.”

One person sat at a desk in the security office. He looked up when we walked past. I froze. Brie smiled and waved to him, and we kept walking.

He waved back, practically blushing. He was young, couldn’t be more than twenty, I thought, and I noticed Brie had straightened her spine and tucked her long hair behind her ear as we walked by.

Brie had more natural flirtatious charm than I did.

“You going out with him?” I whispered.

“No,” she said curtly, but glanced at him. So did I. He immediately looked down at his desk, pretending to be busy.

“He’s cute.”

She shrugged, then steered me to a patio attached to the administration building. Neatly trimmed flowering hedges grew under the windows and vines spiraled up lattices attached to the stucco.

Brie immediately grabbed the knob and opened the side door.

“They don’t keep it locked?” I asked.

“Shh,” she said, and we stepped inside. The door swung closed behind us.

We stood in what appeared to be a staff break room with a couple tables, couch, refrigerator, and counter. As my eyes adjusted from the sun to indoor lighting, I listened.

Except for the hum of appliances, there was silence.

Brie walked quickly through the break room and into the hall. The administrative building was completely open with a lot of space around each large desk, and a central conference table that would sit eight. One office had a door in the back, and that’s where Brie led me.

The door was open, but the light was off.

“You get the info. I’ll watch for anyone coming back,” Brie said.

“What if there are cameras in here and we’re already busted?” I whispered.

“I checked. There aren’t. I don’t know how long we have, so let’s go.”

She walked through the office and stood to the side of the main door so no one would see her if they approached.

Now or never, I thought. There was enough ambient light that I didn’t flip the switch, which might draw attention.

Tristan’s office was immaculate—a desk with neatly arranged file folders, a computer, and a phone. A printer on top of a short, locked filing cabinet. His chair was ergonomically designed. I didn’t sit. My heart pounded so loudly in my ears that if Brie screamed, I didn’t know if I would hear her.

The computer screen came on when I touched the mouse. Thank God it wasn’t password-protected, because I doubted anyone under fifty had a Rolodex anymore.

I quickly opened the contacts tab and scrolled for Ethan Valentine. I took a picture of the screen—his name, an address in Miami, the address here for St. Claire, a phone number with a Miami area code, and an email. That was it.

I closed down that tab and opened Tristan’s calendar, hoping to find information about Valentine’s schedule. Nothing referencing Valentine. I felt like a voyeur and closed the calendar. A glance out the door showed Brie was still on sentry duty, looking nonchalant, like she might be waiting for Tristan to come back so she could talk to him.

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