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He stopped in the middle of the room. “You’ve been through a lot, it sounds like. I figured you might need a friend.”
She smiled at him. “I do.”
Silence stretched between them as they just stood looking at each other. For a moment Willa had the strangest feeling that she might need the gun she’d hidden. She took a step toward it.
Odell seemed to come out of a daze. “The hole behind your couch. Right.” He turned and surveyed the couch. “Looks even worse than mine.”
All Willa could think about was Landry. Was he in Odell’s apartment? She’d noticed that Odell had closed his door, but hadn’t locked it—just as she knew he wouldn’t. Unless he was working, his door was usually open.
She helped Odell pull the couch away from the wall. While he went behind it to peer into the hole, she stayed on the other side near the end table and the gun.
Landry, she realized, hadn’t even asked her if she could shoot a gun. She guessed he’d just assumed that since she was from South Dakota…
“This is quite the hole,” Odell said. “Goes back in quite a ways. Don’t see any indication there has been any kind of creature in here, though.”
“What do you think made it?” she asked, getting on her knees on the cushions to peer over the back of the couch.
To her surprise she saw that Odell had a small pocket knife in his hand. She recalled the knife cut in the tape on her box of supplies from the dock. Odell. He’d opened the box. That’s how he knew she was an artist. Was that also how he knew she was from South Dakota? Something in her supply box gave her away?
Or had Odell known long before then? Was she the real reason he’d come to Cape Diablo? And Landry thought Odell’s interest in her was romantic. Willa suspected he couldn’t be more wrong.
Odell sat down, his back against the wall as he looked at her. “I’d say a person made the hole in your wall.”
“Why?” She tried to hide her surprise at seeing the pocket knife that Odell had folded and put into his pocket again.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed but the old gal upstairs doesn’t just sneak around a lot at night,” Odell said. “She’s looking for something.”
Willa thought about her missing painting. “Like what?”
“I saw her digging around the villa, poking in the walls,” he said. “It wouldn’t be that unusual for a smuggler and pirate like Andres Santiago to have hidden all kinds of things in these walls—gold, coins, even jewels or I suppose currency.”
Willa feigned interest. “Are we talking a lot of money?”
He laughed and leaned toward her conspiratorially. “There are those rumors that Andres hid a small fortune on this island before his disappearance. Seems he didn’t trust banks. So it’s not too surprising that there were also rumors after that about fortune hunters who came out to the island disappearing, as well.”
“You don’t think—?”
“That the old gal would kill to keep a treasure she felt was rightly hers? You better believe it. Not to mention the Ancient Mariner from the boathouse. I think he’s in love with Alma. And we all know what a man will do to protect the woman he loves.”
“That is very true,” Landry said as he leaned over the couch to smile at Odell. “Honey, there is a man behind our couch. I hope you can explain this.”
Willa hadn’t heard Landry come in and obviously neither had Odell. Odell looked both startled and embarrassed, quickly getting to his feet and dusting himself off as he retrieved his flashlight.
“I found a hole behind the couch when I started rearranging the living room and I was worried there might be something in there,” she quickly explained with a grimace. “Something icky.”
Landry shook his head and grinned at Odell. “Just like a woman. What is it that makes them want to rearrange the furniture all the time?”
Odell shook his head. “Nothing in the hole to worry about anyway,” he said to Willa, and smiled. “Let me know if you need help again.”
“I doubt that will be necessary,” Landry said, his smile gone. He tossed Willa her camera. “Got that photo you wanted, darlin’.”
Odell left, but not before stealing a glance at Willa.
“You made him think I was coming on to him,” she whispered the minute the door was closed.
“If I hadn’t acted jealous, he would have been suspicious and you have to admit, having him look into a hole behind the couch is suspect. Brilliant,” Landry added quickly. “But later when he’s over there by himself, he’s going to wonder.”
She stared at him, trying to gauge what he’d found out, pretty sure by his mood that she already knew. “Was it the disk?”
