The Vision (14 page)

to wait for the lab results. She’d had a sexual encounter shortly before death, whether

consensual or not, he couldn’t say from the evidence, but he tended to believe not.

However, their perp had protected himself, and they weren’t coming up with any DNA.

Freeland looked up at them. “I’ll have more for you in the next few days. I’m sorry to say

this, officers, but it looks like you’ve got a murderer on your doorstep.”

Jack enjoyed watching the news report over and over again. He thought he looked pretty

damned good.

He stared up at the screen in the bar. Every imaginable channel had showed footage of

the morning’s discovery of the corpse—well, not the corpse itself. They showed the

beach, the sheriff’s men, the crime-scene units and the people milling around. They had recorded several tourists’ reactions, the very brief seconds that Marshall had grudgingly

given them, and then they showed him. It was great. As he spoke about the fact that one

of their divers had actually found the corpse, they had caught a good picture of

Genevieve, auburn hair billowing out behind her in the breeze, eyes sad, haunted, as she

stared out at the water. The editor who had cut the segment had made good use of the

footage. As Jack explained that the sea was an unforgiving resting place, so the killer’s

intent to keep her hidden might well have worked, Genevieve, leaning against one of the

support beams at the tiki bar, looked as if she might have been a sea goddess herself—or

the figurehead from an ancient ship, fearing such a fate herself. He looked good, too, and

they’d done a hell of a job making it into something more than a simple murder. Not that

a murder was ever really simple. The dive hadn’t actually had a thing to do with the

murder. And, cold as it sounded, people died on a daily basis. Even so, murder generated

excitement. And he couldn’t help it—he was a publicity hog. He loved it.

He didn’t notice at first when Bethany slid into the seat beside him. He hadn’t realized

any of the group were still around.

“Hey, Jack,” she said lightly.

He turned to look at her. She was staring at the television screen. “How sad. Her whole

life ahead of her, and she ran into the wrong person. It was hard to tell, but she looked

young.”

He looked up and felt a little pang. The woman who stared back at him was lovely, with a

wistful look in her eyes.

“Twenty-five to thirty…I would imagine,” he said. She gave a little shiver, looking back

at him. “Jack, do you think she was killed here? In Key West?”

“Anything is possible,” he said. “But most likely she was killed up the coast. Probably

one of the beautiful people hitting the clubs on Miami Beach. You don’t need to be

afraid. You’ve got a pack of he-men around you all the time, right?”

Bethany laughed. “Yeah, I guess.” She stared back at the television and shivered again. “I

might be hanging pretty close to you guys in the near future.”

He set an arm around her shoulders and hugged her. “You can hang with me any time

you want, cutie.” She was cute. She and Genevieve had always made a nice complement

to each other. One tall and sexy, one small and sweet. In appearance, anyway. He gazed

at Bethany with affectionate amusement. She’d had her wild times in high school, just

like a lot of kids. But she’d grown into one damned fine woman, and he enjoyed her.

“So,” she murmured, nodding a thank-you to Bruce, the evening bartender, as he handed

her a light beer, “what have you done all day?”

Jack thought for a moment. “Hmm. Ate lunch, had a beer. Sat here, had a beer. Ate

dinner, had a beer. How about you?”

“Oh, I ran home. My place is on the northeast corner of the island, off Roosevelt. I’m not

as close as Genevieve.” She shrugged, grinning. “Actually, most of us could go home at

night, but it’s a lot easier and kind of cool staying at the resort. You still live on Stock Island, right? That’s not much farther than me.”

“Yeah, I’m still on Stock Island,” Jack said. “I’d sure love one of those old Victorians like Genevieve’s, but who the hell can afford one now?”

“Maybe we’ll all be able to afford one—if we find the ship,” Bethany said.

“Yeah, maybe.”

Jack was startled when a hand fell on his back. “Jack, old buddy. You going to buy me a

brewsky?”

He turned. Victor had arrived. One thing about their group and Key West, at some time

during the evening, they were all going to show up at the bar.

Victor had spoken lightly, but he looked strained. Like he needed a beer.

“Sure. Draw up a chair.”

Without being asked, Bruce brought over another beer. “First round is on the house

tonight. From the look of the news, you guys need it.”

“Thanks.” Victor took a long swig from the bottle.

“So what have you been doing?” Bethany asked him.

Victor shrugged moodily. “Oh, this and that. Stuff to take care of—you know.”

They all stared silently at the television again. Alex arrived just as an artist’s rendition of the dead woman’s face appeared. He took the beer Bruce offered him. “At least with that

picture out,” he said, “they might find out who she is. Someone must be looking for the

poor woman.”

“There’s Jack,” Victor said as the interview was shown yet again.

Jack didn’t feel quite the same pleasure he had earlier. He didn’t like the way Victor had

spoken. His words had carried a strangely bitter edge.

“Jack, you’re famous,” another voice commented. He looked up to find that Marshall had

arrived. His arms were crossed over his chest, and he sounded weary.

“I thought it was better to talk to the woman than piss her off,” Jack said defensively.

“I’m not sure we needed to tell her that Genevieve had spotted the corpse earlier, but then

none of us could find it,” Marshall commented.

“Come on. Not even the police divers saw it that day,” Jack told him. “Bruce, get

Marshall his beer, huh?”

They were all still staring at the television, even though the anchor had gone on to report

an accident in Florida City, holding up traffic in and out of the Keys, when Jay made his

way into the bar. He was there, standing beside Jack, for several seconds before anyone

noticed he’d arrived.

“Sad day, huh?” Jay said after a moment.

“Do you know anything more?” Bethany asked.

“Preliminary reports. The M.E. said she’d been in the water five to seven days,” Jay told

them.

Bethany swallowed. “Was she…drowned? Or…killed first, then weighted down?”

Jay looked at her, wincing. “Weighted down…and drowned.”

Bethany trembled. “She must have been terrified. I mean, she must have known…must

have been desperate for breath….”

“Do they have any idea where she was killed?” Victor asked.

“In the water,” Jay said dryly.

Genevieve came in then, and they all turned toward her as she neared the bar. “Gen!”

Victor said, raising his beer bottle.

Jack watched her walk in. Jeez, she was something. Casual and elegant all in one. She

perched atop a bar stool next to Jay.

“Anything new?” she asked him.

Jack couldn’t hear his reply, because he lowered his head to speak with her. She said

something back to him, her expression anxious, but Jack couldn’t hear that, either.

“We’ll talk. We can have dinner some night this week,” Jay said, his tone normal. “You

don’t have to hang with this sorry bunch every night, do you?” he teased.

She shook her head. “No. And I really need to talk to you.”

Though she had spoken very softly, Jack was able to make out the words.

Just then Thor Thompson arrived. Jack studied his employer. Thor wasn’t the tallest guy

he’d ever met, or the buffest. But he had something. A presence. A way of walking,

maybe, or just being. When Thor entered a room, no matter how softly he moved or how

quietly he spoke, everyone knew it.

“Hey,” he said simply, taking a seat on a bar stool.

“Bruce, a beer for our northern comrade!” Alex called.

“Northern?” Thor said.

“Jacksonville. You’re practically a Yankee.”

Thor shrugged and laughed, but Jack thought he looked distracted. He noticed as Thor

glanced toward Genevieve and seemed relieved to see her sitting next to Jay. He had

clearly been anxious about her. Jack couldn’t help but wonder why. Genevieve certainly

didn’t look like a lunatic now, in light of the day’s grisly discovery.

The newscaster returned to showing a picture of the murder victim, asking the viewers for help in discovering the woman’s identity.

“Go figure,” Alex said. “I didn’t want another lecture from Sheridan, but I sure didn’t

want to get out of it this way.”

“You’re still getting the lecture from Sheridan,” Marshall said dryly. “Monday morning.”

“It won’t be that bad,” Thor informed them all, his eyes on the television. “He’s made a

model of the ship. Sounds kind of cool.”

“Hey, has anybody seen Zach and Lizzie?” Marshall asked.

“They decided to play tourist,” Victor informed them. “They were going to do the Conch

Tour Train, Audubon house, Hemingway’s place—all that stuff. And then they were

going to take a sunset dinner cruise.”

“How romantic,” Bethany said.

“Bethany, if anyone invited you on a sunset cruise, you’d look at him as if he’d lost his

mind,” Victor informed her.

“Not true. I don’t care if I’ve been here my whole life. A sunset cruise is still romantic.”

“I’m glad you think so, because we’ll probably stay out a lot later Monday to make up for

this,” Marshall said. “It will be a great sunset cruise as we all head back in.”

Jack watched as Genevieve slipped from her bar stool and said something to Bethany,

who nodded. Then Genevieve gave them all a wave, saying she was heading out.

Jack noticed that everyone in their group watched her leave. Odd. Everyone still seemed

concerned about her or…

Suspicious.

He shook his head and swigged his beer. Genevieve. What the hell was going on with

her?

Thor made no pretense of doing anything else. As soon as she left, he followed her.

Okay, he was a stalker. Definitely a stalker. But he was more worried about her than ever.

She stopped a block from the bar, turned and waited for him.

“I’m all right,” she told him.

“I’m really worried about you,” he said flatly.

“Don’t be.” Strange, after the day they’d spent, the last thing she wanted was for this man

to be worried about her. She didn’t want to like him, but she did. She wanted admiration

and respect from him. She even, she admitted to herself, wanted him to think she was cool, savvy and sexy. What she didn’t want was for him to be worried about her.

“You walked off on me all of a sudden,” he reminded her. “You ran away. Great way to

end a date.”

“We weren’t on a date.”

“Great way to end lunch and a drink with a friend, then.”

She flushed. “I’m sorry. It was just…well, this hasn’t been a great day.”

She started walking again, not that she really knew where she was going, but just because

she felt awkward standing around on the sidewalk. He fell into step beside her, silent for

several minutes.

“Genevieve, what did you mean that…the woman you saw in the water wasn’t the

woman we discovered today?”

She shook her head. “I must have been mistaken.”

“You really might have been,” he said gently.

“Please don’t tiptoe around my feelings as if I’m really ready to be committed,” she told

him.

She saw him half smile, shaking his head. “At the moment, I’m not. Any time you’re in

the water, you can be taken by surprise. The water can play tricks and she was, well, she

wasn’t in good shape. You might have seen seaweed or fish moving around her, and that

might have made her seem alive, hard to recognize when you saw her again later.”

“Right,” she murmured.

“But you don’t believe that.”

“I said you could be right.”

“Then again, maybe you did see a different woman, and that’s a much more frightening

and serious thought.”

She stared at him sharply. “What do you mean?”

He sighed. “I mean the killer might have had more than one victim,” he said.

A chill snaked along her spine, and she shook it off.

“Sorry,” he murmured.

“No, no…you’re right.”

“Actually, at the moment, it doesn’t seem as if anyone in the area is panicking. It’s sad,

but it feels distant to people. I certainly hope there won’t be any panic, but I think women need to be careful,” Thor murmured. “Um, where are we going?” he asked.

She paused, half laughing. “Frankly, I don’t know. I guess I just needed to get out of there.”

“Strange day,” he said. “You keep going into bars, then running out of them. It’s as if you

don’t want your own company, but you’re not sure you want any other company, either.”

“You’re right. I’m not sure what I want,” she told him, then hesitated. “I’m also certain

that either Victor or Alex played a prank on me this morning, and that’s still driving me

crazy. There was a mannequin on my porch when I got up, and I dumped it in the water.

Then it was gone—and the real corpse was there.”

“Don’t let it bother you,” he told her. “They were talking about it this morning. Victor

denied it, but after what had happened, who would want to admit it? The point is,

Genevieve, don’t drive yourself crazy. There are explanations for the things that have

been happening. You just have to wait and find out what they are.”