They stopped at the door of the Exner suite. Gavin twisted the handle. “It’s locked.” Astounded, Mario watched as he and the other man threw their weight against the door.

Another faint scream. “Oh, dear God, that’s Regan,” Nora shrieked.

Mario shoved Gavin aside. “Get out of the way.” The door splintered open as Mario threw his bull-like shoulder against it.

Mario and Luke stumbled together into the foyer. It was pitch-dark and cold inside the suite.

“Where the hell are the lights?” Luke demanded.

“Regan!” Nora screamed. “Regan, where are you?”

Gabby groped for the switches on the wall to the left of the doorframe. As he flipped them on, the suite and deck blazed into brightness.

The terrace door was open. Horrified, they saw Regan, her body arched over the railing, struggling to push away Cameron Hardwick. Her feet were flailing, her hair floating behind her as he relentlessly forced her backward.

Nora’s scream was the bow, Luke’s body the arrow. Racing across the sitting room, he dove through the doorway to the deck, butted Hardwick in the back, and as Regan fell managed to close his hand around her ankle when the rest of her body slid over the railing. Hardwick tackled him and they fell heavily to the deck as Luke frantically clawed at his daughter’s foot, struggling to maintain his grip on it. Miraculously the weight was lifted.

“I’ve got her,” Mario yelled. “I’ve got her.” He dropped Regan to the safety of the deck, then fell next to Luke on the thrashing Cameron Hardwick.

“She’s all right.” Immaculata pressed a near-hysterical Nora to her ample bosom. “My Mario and the man in the maroon pajamas saved her.”

Moans were coming from the king-sized bed. “I say, I say.”

Sylvie rushed over to soothe Lady Exner. “The poor thing will have a heart attack.”

Gavin, seeing that Regan was indeed all right, realized he had one last chance. He could always say he was getting a life preserver.

Forget the stool. He pushed over a chair and clambered up on it. Wildly he threw life preservers down. He reached for it. It was there. It was in his fingers. Thank you, Lord.

“Dear Mr. Gavin, what have you found?”

Lady Veronica Exner was fully awake.

Chapter 65

KENNETH AND DALE came up the stairs, Kenneth with his beauty kit under one arm and a bottle of champagne under the other, as two grim-faced officers, each firmly holding the arms of a handcuffed Cameron Hard wick, emerged from the corridor that led to Lady Exner’s suite.

Dale stopped. “What’s going on?”

Hard wick ignored him.

Dale and Kenneth looked at each other. “Something’s happened.” They hurried down the hall, reached the open door of the suite and blinked in amazement. “Regan,” Kenneth said, “you didn’t tell us it was a pajama party. We would have brought more of the bubbly.”