Dripping wet, Quinn and Jana make their way across the hot sand to their chairs. Part of Quinn wishes he could remain in the playful state, but it never lasts longer than a few minutes. Something always taps him on the shoulder and reminds him of the people who need him. Like the schoolgirl who may be somewhere along this beach, buried under the sand.

Crying out to him.

“Look at this, our fruit juice is waiting for us,” Jana says.

“We’d better drink up,” Quinn says. “We have a lot of work to do this evening.”

Jana reaches over, takes his hand. “Not quite yet. We have some time.”

At first Quinn tenses at her touch, but then he remembers her sweet laughter in the water. She’s right. There’s some time. He squeezes her fingers gently.

Chapter 18

THE STINGRAYS

“Let’s get to work.”

There’s no omelet bar this time, even though Quinn has rented a penthouse suite with a well-stocked kitchen. He believes in feeding his operatives at the beginning of a case, then celebrating with them at the closing. But now, in the thick of things, it’s all about take-out food (jerk pork tenderloin and curried shrimp from Coco Bistro), along with coffee and adrenaline.

“Theo, you’re up,” Quinn continues. “Tell us what you’ve got.”

Theo Selznick stirs his heaping bowl of shrimp and rice. “I’m thinking Paolo Salese and Nigel James are working together to cover this up.”

“The playboy lifeguard and the suave cop?” Jana asks.

“Both clearly know something. Paolo took our bait money with a promise to lead me to the burial site. And as for Nigel James, I’m pretty sure he’s our doer. We had a little talk earlier today and I started pushing buttons. I really thought he was going to try and do me.”

Through a mouthful of jerk pork, Otto mutters, “We’re not that lucky.”

“Why would James suddenly snap and kill a tourist?” Kate asks. “I’m sure Paige isn’t the first pretty schoolgirl he’s encountered on this island.”

“This cop is extremely vain. I could see him playing the role of the good guy, offering a ride home, and then putting the moves on her. Only when Paige doesn’t play along, Nigel gets rough.”

“And you think Paolo the lifeguard saw it?” Jana asks. At the same time, her cell phone vibrates. She looks down at the screen and grins.

“No doubt,” Theo replies. “Maybe the lifeguard was lovestruck and followed her around all night. Saw something he wasn’t supposed to see.”

Kate finishes her mouthful of curried shrimp. “I don’t know. I’m liking Jamie Halsey for this. At first he denied everything, no doubt thinking that Daddy’s lawyers would make everything all right. But when I convinced him that Daddy had in fact sent me to help him, he got very worried.”

“Yeah, but witnesses saw Paige leave the boat and then meet up with Nigel James on the beach,” Theo says. “What, did Halsey and Kurtz wait an hour, then sneak around and ambush her right there on the surf?”