Deception Cove

Chapter 22

THE SCRATCHING AT THE DOOR AND A SOFT, MUFFLED chortle brought Drake out of a dream that involved an endless hallway lined with doors. Each time he opened a door he was blinded by a blazing sun. Somewhere in the hall, Zara Tucker laughed.

“Houdini,” Alice mumbled into the pillow. “About time he got home.”

“I’ll let him in,” Drake said.

“Thanks.”

Dawn was approaching. Drake groped for his sunglasses and got them on before he opened his eyes.

He climbed out of bed and opened the door. A single amber lantern glowed at one end of the hall near the stairs. Houdini bustled into the room, chortling a cheerful greeting. He hopped up onto the bed.

“Hey there, pal.” Alice stirred and reached out to pat him. “I was getting worried.”

Houdini submitted briefly to a few pats and then stretched out on his back at the foot of the bed, all six paws in the air. He closed his baby blue eyes.

Drake took off his glasses and went back to the bed. He stood there for a moment, studying the sleeping Houdini.

“What are you thinking?” Alice asked.

Drake got back under the covers and folded his arms behind his head. “I’m thinking that you don’t know where Houdini goes when he disappears, but he always knows how to find you.”

“So?”

“The same is true of Zara Tucker. We don’t know where she’s hiding, but she knows where Shadow Bay is located. If she can move about inside the Preserve, she can probably get here, or more likely send someone here, assuming she’s still got that one security guard left.”

Alice sat up, alarmed. “Why would she do that?”

“One thing I know about Zara: she hates me. She also knows I’m the one person on the island who might be able to help her retrieve those two Keys. When she finds out I’m in Shadow Bay, she’ll make a move. She won’t be able to help herself.”

“How will she find out you’re here? From the sound of things, she’s as cut off as we are.”

“According to Karen Rosser, Zara always seems to know what is going on here in town. She’s probably using the flutes to navigate the Preserve.”

“Wouldn’t someone in Shadow Bay notice if a gorgeous mad scientist showed up on occasion?”

He thought about Zara’s uncanny ability to charm the male species. “Not if she’s using some man in town as her spy.”

Alice regarded him with a somber expression. “If you’re right, her spy could be any man in Shadow Bay. Officer Willis, the cook in the tavern tonight, one of the men we saw in the restaurant. And then there are the folks staying at the B-and-Bs.”

“True. But we aren’t without our own resources. Harry says Rachel has a talent for aura reading. And Charlotte’s a high-level talent. Her intuition is probably way above average. Both of them are well acquainted with the locals. They’d know if someone was acting out of character. We’ve also got Fletcher Kane and Jasper Gilbert. They’re former hunters, according to Harry. He trusts them. And they know the locals, too.”

“Yes, but they are men. According to you, they’d be vulnerable to Zara’s charm.”

Drake smiled. “I think they’re safe. From what I’ve witnessed, Zara’s talent for seduction is based on opposite-sex attraction. Kane and Gilbert are married.”

Understanding brightened Alice’s expression. “You think the fact that they’re gay makes them immune to her?”

“Yes. Trust me, I’ve had good reason to delve into Zara Tucker’s background. I found no record of her using women or gay men for her purposes.”

“So your plan is to alert Charlotte, Rachel, Fletcher, and Jasper to the possibility that there’s a spy here in our midst and ask them to vet every hetero male left in town.”

“Not much of a plan, is it?”

“Actually, it sounds brilliant.” Alice hugged her knees. “We’ve got the perfect locked-room mystery setup, except that our locked room is a small town. Same principle, though. All the suspects are gathered together in one convenient place. What’s more, we’ve got a motive. Our spy is the victim of a calculated seduction. He thinks he’s in love, or at least in lust. The task now is to start working through the list of straight men in town to see which one is acting like a man who is bewitched.”

“Don’t forget the ticking-clock angle,” Drake said. “That always adds to the drama. If there’s one thing we know for sure, Rainshadow is a bomb waiting to explode.”