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“How many ways are there up to this level?” Garth asked.
“The stairway from the foyer leads up here,” Beth said. “And there are restrooms up here, with stairs from the hallway in front of the office downstairs and from the south side of the dining room.”
“I believe, Miss Anderson, that someone was playing a trick on you with an old prop. Whoever it was probably didn’t think you’d react so quickly by calling the police. That person came up and took off with the skull after you raced down the stairs,” Garth told her. “It was a prank.”
“I want something done,” Beth insisted quietly.
The officer let out a deep sigh. “We’ll file a report,” he told her. “May I use your desk?”
“Beth,” Ben murmured, “you’re actually going to make him do this? Fill out a report—over what was obviously a prank?”
“You bet,” Beth said.
The officer sat down. Keith decided that, at that moment, he would definitely be more useful elsewhere.
Wanting to see what Beth had been talking about, he entered the hallway and saw the doors to the restrooms.
He hadn’t realized that there was more than one way up here. Foolish on his part. He should have explored every inch of this place immediately.
The men’s room was large and clean. At the far end of the hall there was a doorway that led to two ways out. A carpeted stairway led down into the club. Another door led to a balcony area, with an outside stairway.
If someone had been in Beth’s office, there were plenty of ways they could have retrieved it after Beth went racing downstairs.
Had it actually been the skull she had seen on the island, though? Or had someone heard about her discovery on Calliope Key and decided to either tease her—or warn her—by putting a Halloween prop on her desk?
He followed the stairway to the balcony. From his vantage point, through the trees, he could see some of the cars in the parking lot. He could also see the acreage next door to the club. It was a public park. Anyone who was careful could come and go without being seen. All they would have to do was slip through the trees.
Had the couple from Nick’s followed her, then left their car at the public park? Crawled through the bushes to the club grounds and, somehow, broken into Beth’s office?
The scenario just didn’t ring true.
He took the stairs down to the dining area. Roger Mason was having lunch with a man in a captain’s hat. There was no one else he recognized in the dining room.
He walked out to the porch area. Amanda was at a table by herself, leaning back in her chair, broad white hat shielding her face from the sun, staring out lazily at the boats. He saw her cousin Hank at another table, having a beer with a group of men. Farther down from Amanda, he saw Manny Ortega involved in an avid discussion with Maria Lopez.
Without being totally obvious, there was no way to eavesdrop on their téte-â-téte. He regretted the fact, but knew it was important that he not betray himself.
Looking to the left, he saw that Amber and Kim were by the pool. He wondered if they’d heard about what was going on.
Amanda called out to him.
He strode over to her table. She was grinning wickedly. “So what’s going on up there? Has Miss Anderson finally snapped?”
“Pardon?”
“It’s all over the club, of course. No one could possibly miss the arrival of the police.” She indicated the inside dining room with a wave of her hand. “That’s the commodore my dad is speaking with now, poor man. I’m sure he’s beside himself with humiliation. We’ve never had the police here before. Ever.”
“I don’t think the man is humiliated. I think he’s worried about Beth. It’s a rather disconcerting thing, don’t you think, to see a skull on your desk?” Keith said.
Amanda laughed. “I heard there was no skull.”
“Even worse to see one and then have it disappear.”
She made an impatient sound at the back of her throat. “Don’t be ridiculous. She feels the stigma of her position here, you know.”
“Pardon?”
“We’re members. She’s help. She’s crying out for attention.”
His temper flared at that, but he controlled it, forcing a casual glance around. “You know, Amanda, I don’t think anyone here feels like that. Her father was a member. Her brother is a member. I’m sure she could work somewhere else, if she wanted to.”
Amanda laughed and picked up the frosted drink before her. “So you are sleeping with her. I thought so. Pity. I liked you best, you know.” She spoke casually.
“Well, thanks for the compliment, but I’m just pointing out the fact that we’re living in the twenty-first century,” he said smoothly. “It’s not an upstairs, downstairs world anymore.”
“So you believe she saw a skull?”
“I believe she saw something, yes. She doesn’t strike me as prone to histrionics.”
“Please. A skull? A real human skull?” Amanda said disdainfully.
“I believe there was a skull on her desk. Whether it was human or a Halloween prop, I don’t know. Are there any known pranksters here at the club?”
Amanda waved a hand in the air. “Who knows? People here like to have fun. Perhaps someone was playing a trick on her. Maybe even her own brother.”
“There’s an idea,” Keith said, though he didn’t really believe it. The more he thought about, though, the more he thought that the use of a skull had to be more than coincidence. The prankster had to be someone who had been on the island.
“Ben did keep one of the skulls in his locker, I hear,” Amanda said.
“Don’t you think he would have admitted that he’d done it?” Keith asked lightly.
“With the police called in already? Doubtful.” Amanda narrowed her eyes suddenly. “Why don’t you go talk to the little darlings over there?” She pointed. “Amber and Kimberly. The girls are at that age…and they do prowl around Beth’s office.”
“Maybe I should go ask them,” he said lightly, and rose.
“Do come back,” Amanda invited, her voice husky and amused.
He smiled, and walked over to the pool area. Amber looked up, sensing the arrival of someone. When she recognized him, she started, then smiled. “Hi.”
“Hi yourself,” he said. The girls were both seated on lounges, but they weren’t leaning back, relaxing; they were sitting up, feet on the ground as they faced one another. He sat at the end of Amber’s lounge. “I hear I had an e-mail exchange with the two of you.”
They both blushed to brilliant shades of red.
He cut right to the point. “Did you put the skull on your aunt’s desk, as well?” he asked.
“No!” Amber said with horror.
He stared at her hard. “I’m not going to the police or your father with the information, I swear. I just need to know.”
Amber shook her head, stricken. “I swear I didn’t do it. I would never do anything like that. Really.”
“Honest, Keith, it wasn’t us,” Kim said.
He believed them. “Do you have any idea who might have done something like that?”
Amber sniffed. “Amanda.”
“Miss Rich-Bitch Mason,” Kim agreed.
He smiled, lowering his head.
“Do you girls think maybe you have a little bit of prejudice going there?” he asked.
Kim looked away. Amber stared at him sagely. “You think? Or is it true that Miss Amanda Mason just takes what she wants and steps on anyone in her way?”
“Wow,” he murmured.
“Good call,” Kim said.
“Well, you tried to scare your aunt once.”
Amber frowned. “No, I didn’t.”
“Oh, come on, you said that you were on her computer.”
“Yes, I e-mailed you on her computer.” Amber was frowning. “I didn’t try to scare her.”
He frowned in return. “Amber—”
His cell phone started to ring, and he excused himself, walking a few steps away.
It was Lee. Keith listened, his heart thudding, then standing still. “We’ll talk later. I have to go,” he said to the girls after he hung up.
He didn’t wait for a reply but strode quickly toward the parking lot.
OFFICER GARTH WAS GONE. The commodore hadn’t stayed while the policeman took the full report but had hurried down to play spin doctor about what had happened. Beth thought that he was a good man; he had some doubts, she was certain, but he also believed she had seen something, and meant to find out who had played such a trick and why.
When Garth was gone, she was left with her brother.
He was quiet, sitting in one of the chairs across from her desk, hands folded idly together, looking down.
“Beth,” he said very softly.
“Oh, Ben, get off it. I have not lost my mind.”
“I just don’t believe it was a real skull.”
“You don’t want to believe me.”
“Well, of course I don’t,” he said impatiently. “I don’t want to think that danger is following me home.”
“Ben, this is being done to me, not you.”
He offered her a wry grin. “Basically, you are my home.”
She had to smile at that. But she leaned on her desk, trying to reach him. “I swear to you, I have not gone mad.”
“Okay, Beth. Whatever you say,” he said skeptically.
To her surprise, he got up then and started out of her office.
“Ben?” She followed him.
He stopped and turned back to her on the stairway. “I need to check something, and you can’t come with me.”
“Why?”
“I’m headed to the men’s locker room.”
She frowned in earnest. “Why?”
“I’m just checking on something.”
“What?”
“Beth, stop it. What are you doing in your office today, anyway? Take the day off. Go home. Rest. Watch a movie. Do something.”
“Ben, dammit—”
“Okay, Beth, I had a weird feeling in the locker room the other day. I think that someone was in my locker and stole my old Halloween skull. I’m going to go and see if it’s still there.”
“So you do believe me?”
“What I believe is that your wild story from the island has gone around and someone is playing tricks on you, okay? But just playing tricks, Beth. That’s it. You can’t keep running around as if you’ve suddenly become part of CSI: Miami, okay?”
“Me, CSI! You’re a mess. You’re acting as if you’re frantic!”
“Because I think my skull is missing…. Don’t you understand, I have to see if it’s really gone. Okay, I am feeling a little déjà vu. It’s weird. But I’m just checking my locker.”
“Find out if your skull is gone,” she said flatly.
“And then you’ll leave, please?” he said. “I will, too. I was going to clean the boat, but forget that. I’m getting the girls, and I’m going home, or to a movie. Want to come?”
“I want to find out if your skull is gone.”
He sighed. “All right.”
She followed him down the stairs to the pool area. As she walked through the dining room, she felt herself reddening. People were staring at her. They weren’t talking to her—they were just staring at her.
