Hurricanes in Paradise by Denise Hildreth (best ereader under 100 .TXT) 📗

Before Laine could react, they watched as Mia took off past their window and down the hall toward the suites. “Gracious, she must have come up with a doozy,” Winnie said.

“Who cares what she told her. We don’t have much time.” Laine got up and snatched Winnie off the bench. Winnie dropped her magazine and followed Laine. They entered the glass doors of the offices and looked around. All the offices were empty.

Winnie walked around the counter, then looked at Laine. “What are we looking for anyway?”

“I don’t know. I just write about detectives. Look for anything that looks suspicious—faxes, e-mails, anything. And take those fool glasses off,” Laine said, walking around the counter too.

Winnie took the glasses off and pulled a large stack of manila folders from beneath the counter, each immaculately labeled. “She has excellent penmanship.”

Laine sighed heavily. “Winnie, seriously.”

“Well, she does. It’s hard to find that nowadays.”

Laine muttered, “So is good help.”

“I heard that.”

“I’m glad.”

Winnie picked up a folder labeled E-mails and began to rummage through them. Nothing looked worth anything. She picked up the folder of faxes and found one from Thursday morning at nine, stating that Max’s guests would arrive earlier than expected. “What time did Riley join us yesterday to take Tamyra down the rapids?”

Laine shook her head. “I think it was around eleven, wasn’t it? Isn’t that when we went down to the pool?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Mia told her the fax had come through right after she left.”

Winnie pursed her lips, shook her head, and dangled a piece of paper in front of her. “Well, she lied. It came in at 9 a.m.”

Laine looked up from the papers she was rummaging through. She snatched it from Winnie’s hand. “So she would have known before Riley even left that they were coming. She deliberately didn’t tell her so she could look like the woman who saved the day.”

“That’s what I’m thinking.”

She was enjoying this whole sleuthing bit. Until she saw Laine’s eyes change as she pushed her slightly out of her way. “Is that her purse?”

Winnie turned; a black Chanel bag sat in an open drawer.

Laine snatched it out and set it on the floor, knelt down and dumped its contents out, splattering them across the carpet in front of her.

“Oh, my side, you are not going through that woman’s purse.”

“You want me to just sit there and look at it? I told you she was a conniver.”

Winnie and Laine noticed the bottle of pills about the same time. Laine picked them up and turned them over. Winnie knelt behind her and squinted to read the label. She leaned back.

Laine stood and held the bottle in her hand. “Oh, this stuff can be brutal.”

“What is it?” Winnie asked.

“It’s an antianxiety drug. Sometimes used in fighting depression. I researched it heavily for a book two years ago.”

Winnie remembered. “Yeah, the one about the flight attendant having an affair with the pilot and they were on a flight when the plane almost crashed, which gave her terrible anxiety for flying, so the doctor prescribed her this antianxiety medication until she could get over her fear.”

Laine shook her head. “I need to take you on the road.”

Winnie smacked her on the arm. “You need to quit writing about people committing adultery. I just realized that’s a running theme.”

“Can we have our morality discussion later? I did so much research on this drug. Sometimes it can make a person seem inebriated. And they can lose all inhibition if too much is taken. This could have been the ‘headache reliever’ she slipped Riley.”

“Are you serious?”

“I could have been a pharmaceutical rep for this drug after all the research I did for it. I wanted people to know I knew what I was talking about.” She shook the bottle in front of Winnie’s face. “This is all I need.”

“What are you going to do?”

Laine walked around the counter and over to the cream leather sofa against the far wall. “I’m going to sit here and wait for Mia to come back. And then the three of us are going to have a little talk.”

Winnie clapped her hands. “Like a shakedown.”

Laine rolled her eyes. “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

* * *

Riley walked down the stairs to make sure the pool nestled between The Cove and The Reef was secure. She came down the long corridor that connected the two buildings and turned to survey the grounds. Her thoughts were on her guests and how grateful she was that most had taken the advice of FEMA and the local rescue officials and left the island two days ago. She wished Laine and Winnie and Tamyra had gotten out. And if they hadn’t been so focused on her, maybe they would have.

“I see you’re alive.” Christian’s voice stopped her thoughts.

She didn’t want to turn and face him. She wanted to hide in a hole and pretend he wasn’t there. But he was. And he deserved an apology. She turned. His face was kind but his eyes were sad. She dug her hands deep into the pockets of her khaki cotton twill dress and walked toward him. “Yes, I’m alive.”

He didn’t say anything. He didn’t rescue her this time.

“From what I hear, I owe you a tremendous apology.”

“That sounds like you don’t remember.” His words held no accusation.

She shook her head. “No, for the life of me, I don’t remember anything. But please, please accept my deepest apologies for anything that happened last night. I am so very, very sorry. I thought . . .” She stopped herself. He didn’t know her story, and after what she had done last night, it was no time to start defending herself. She was a drunk, plain and simple. A drunk who inevitably couldn’t be trusted.

“You thought what?”

She could see in his eyes a sincere hope. Be honest. Completely honest. “I just thought that it was all very sad. And I’m very sorry.”

“I accept your apology, Riley. I just don’t