“Maybe this will change your mind.” He held up the spare set of keys and left the rabbit’s foot dangling in the wind. On the way down from the cockpit, he’d almost made up his mind to tell her about the affair with Erica and decided against it. One more little lie to keep the story clean, for now, wouldn’t hurt much. Over Jenn’s shoulder, he could see a wall of rain coming on the forward edge of the front. It wouldn’t be long.

He jiggled the keys. “I was looking for the spare set—”

“You’ve had those the whole time?” she interrupted. “Alex!”

“Sssshh, please, just listen. I’m trying to explain. I was looking for these, and I found this.” He held up his cell phone. “You said no phones on the trip, but this is an old one. I’d forgotten it was on board and when I checked to see if it still had any charge left, there was no signal.”

A heavy rush of wind drove raindrops into their skin—water needles pricking relentlessly. Jenn dipped lower into the warm water of the hot tub. Alex zipped his windbreaker and pulled the hood over his head, then shoved the cell phone into a dry pocket.

“So what?” Jenn said, scowling. “You’ve got a useless phone.”

Alex pointed at her. “Exactly. Think about it.”

“I don’t get what you’re—oh, my God. Wade said he…”

Alex nodded.

Jenn quickly pushed herself up and out of the hot tub and wrapped a white terrycloth robe around her body, tying it at the waist. The rain had dampened the outside, but the interior was soft and comforting. “But, wait. Is it possible he had service? I mean, just maybe?”

Alex lifted a shoulder, let it drop. “Possible? Not very. I mean, I can’t say for sure, but I think he’d especially have a hard time if he were down in one of the rooms. You’d think a signal would already be weak enough, and then with all the electronics on board…I don’t know. I doubt it enough that I’m questioning his truth, or what he says is truth. And besides, think about it, he was the one who told me not to call in the Coast Guard right away.”

“Yeah, but what if he was up here?”

“I was in the cockpit. I would’ve heard him or seen him.”

“You were passed out, weren’t you?”

“Not the whole time. I remember waking up and looking around to make sure everything was okay. Last night’s full moon made it look like daylight out here, and he said he talked to her until, what, four in the morning?”

“You know what you’re saying, right? That Wade… Are you sure it’s not possible?”

“If it’s even remotely possible, there’d be like a one percent chance, possible, but not probable.”

“What if we got his phone off of him somehow and checked his calls?”

Alex shook his head. “Battery is dead, remember?”

“He could be lying about that.”

“If he’s lying, he’ll accuse us of trying to blame him and just throw it into the ocean or something. If he’s really a killer, he might even do something worse.”

“What if he shows us, and it’s fine?”

“Jenn, I’m positive he didn’t have service.”

“But not a hundred percent.”

“No, not a hundred percent. Ninety-nine.”

“We can’t just accuse Wade. I feel…bad.”

“Sweetheart, listen to me. It’s the only thing that makes sense. Sharon and Laura are fine, you said you were on Chet and Laura’s floor all night by yourself listening to them snore. Mark and Terri can—I don’t know, I guess they can reasonably account for their whereabouts because you heard them arguing for so long. I know I didn’t do it, and I believe that you didn’t, so who’s left? Wade. Wade’s left. He was by himself all night, and we can assume that he’s lying about being on the phone.”

“What possible reason would he have to murder Erica? It doesn’t make any sense. None. We can’t assume anything.”

“We have to. We have to assume it’s him until we can get back.”

“Say we do, then what? If he suspects you know, he’s never going to let you take us back in, Alex. He’ll kill us all. He’ll make up some story about how everybody on the boat went mental and he killed them in self defense. If he’s the only one left, it’s his story against the evidence that he’ll know how to clean up since he used to be a detective. It’s lose-lose, all the way.”

“That’s stretching it.”

“But not entirely impossible.”

Alex cycled through a number of options in his mind and all of them led to nasty outcomes. Wade was dangerous, but was he also armed? Had he brought a gun on The Harlot? Had he planned to do this ahead of time, knowing that they would be miles out to sea with no escape? Was it a crime of passion? Was it something in the moment? Had he been so turned on by Erica’s display that he’d approached her, and she’d rejected him?

That had to be it. It had to be. If Erica had said no when there had been so many stories of her loose morals and even looser panties, Alex could see how that would flick a switch of insanity. He himself had never gotten to the point of wanting to actually murder Jenn for her constant rejections, but he had gotten frustrated enough to envision holding her against a wall and shouting his dissatisfaction in her face. He’d done it just yesterday morning when she’d waffled about where she was sleeping.

If Wade had been having trouble with his marriage at home—facing rejection, fighting with his wife—if he had already been pushed to a fragile breaking point, Erica’s denial could have triggered his pent up emotions.

He put his hand on Jenn’s cheek, stroked her skin with his thumb. “You know whatever happens, I’m here to protect you.”

“I know that. And, I’m… I’m sorry. You know, for the past year. I should’ve… If I had done things differently, maybe this… And now she’s…” Jenn couldn’t stop the tears.

Alex pulled her close. He let her cry.

Both of us could’ve done things differently.

***

Alex stood with his back to the wall. He was on the starboard side of the stairwell leading up from below deck. Chet stood in the same position on the port side.

“Pssst,” Chet hissed.

Alex looked at him, held his fingers to his lips.

Chet whispered, “Okay, okay, but are you sure about this?”

Alex nodded, pretended like he was locking his lips closed and tossed the imaginary key over his shoulder.

Chet swallowed hard.

Alex had trusted Chet with his suspicions about Wade. He had to. Chet was the only viable option. For Alex’s plans, Mark was too small, and, besides, Terri hadn’t let him out of her sight since earlier that morning. Plus, Alex had recalled Chet’s reaction when they had first seen Erica’s body. Chet’s response had been one of legitimate fear, surprise, and repulsion. If he wasn’t innocent, he’d certainly done an incredible job of acting like he was.

Jenn, standing at the top of the stairwell, nervously whispered, “Are you ready?”

Alex mouthed, “Go.”

She asked Chet the same. He shook his head no, shrugged his shoulders, and then nodded. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

“Okay,” Jenn said quietly, “here goes.” She stepped closer to the doorway and shouted down. “Wade? Hey, Wade?”

All three heard a muffled response of, “Yeah? Everything okay?”

“The others are kind of concerned that you’re down there by yourself. Maybe you should come up, huh?”

His voice coming closer, he replied, “They know I’m down here searching for evidence. What’s the problem?”

“Just come up, please. Maybe if you reassured them?”

“Fine.”

Alex could tell by the sound of Wade’s voice that he was at the bottom of the stairwell. Jenn confirmed this by waving and forcing a fake smile. “Hey, sorry,” she said, then put her hands on her hips and backed away.

“Yeah, yeah.” The footsteps and the voice were close now. “I thought they were cool with it?” Closer still.

Wade appeared in the doorway, groaned as he pushed himself up the last of the stairs and onto the deck. Alex tried to flatten his body against the wall as much as possible. Wade took two more steps toward Jenn, and her flickering eyes betrayed Alex and Chet’s position.