Page 147 of Beach Reads and Deadly Deeds

She said, “That’s it. Diana is always doing shit like this. I should have known. But—those numbers weren’t in the book. Where did you find them?”

“A page I tore out,” I fibbed.

“I knew there was something missing!”

Amber and I walked to the ferry, then repeated everything Brie and I had done—searching every box, every nook and cranny. The documents didn’t magically appear.

“Someone got them first,” Amber whined.

“Or maybe she retrieved them on Sunday when she went to St. John,” I suggested. “She could have done anything with them.” She was on St. John the entire day. Where else could she have hidden them, I wondered.

“I’m so screwed,” Amber groaned.

Diana might have hidden the documents, or planned to hide them, but ultimately had them with her when she was killed, and they were now in the hands of her killer.

If Amber had been truthful, those documents could have gotten Diana killed. Not by Parker Briggs, but whoever she planned to sell them to.

“Amber,” I said as we walked back to the resort, “I told you everything. We really need that video of Sherry.”

“I don’t have it. It’s on Diana’s phone, and I don’t know where the hell that is.”

“If I can get to her phone, can you retrieve it?”

“Sure, but it still doesn’t help me.”

“I’m not giving up, but we have to stop Sherry from marrying Andrew.”

She eyed me suspiciously. “Do you have Diana’s phone?”

“I know where it is.”

“Give it to me.”

“I want the video.”

“Not until I get the files!”

We walked up the stairs to the second floor. Housekeeping was cleaning out the library after staff had stayed there overnight. I glanced through the double doors and saw floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a huge nautical display for an ancient ship. Lots of comfy chairs and couches, and a computer station on the far wall. Windows opened to a balcony and the ocean.

And something clicked.

I thought of the circled words.

score

child

rice

king

jewel

She didn’t hide them on the ferry; these weren’t context clues to the story. She intentionally circledthesewords as the clue to where she hid the documents.

Lucy Score. Lee Child. Anne Rice. Stephen King. Lisa Jewell. All popular authors. Authors who would very likely be in this library.

Documents would be safe in a library. But where?

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