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He nodded. “I didn’t have time to read it—just confirm that it is the disk that got Simon killed. And Zeke.”
> She saw the pain in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Finally the truth will come out.”
She let herself breathe a sigh of relief, then instantly felt a stab of acute disappointment. If he had been telling her the truth about the disk and it clearing him, then all of this would be behind them once he turned it over to the police. He could go back to his life. She could go back to hers. Isn’t that what they both wanted?
She told him her theory about Odell.
Landry didn’t seem that surprised. Or that worried.
“What happens now?” she asked.
He pulled the disk from his pocket and turned it slowly in his fingers. “We get off this island.” He looked up at her, pocketed the disk and smiled. “I’ll go get the boat. Pack what you have to take and I’ll pick you up at the dock.”
She nodded, feeling a wave of doubt. Landry was leaving with the disk. She had the strangest feeling that he wouldn’t be back for her. That she wouldn’t ever see him again.
“Hey,” he said, lifting her chin with his finger. “You don’t think I’ll come back for you?”
Mind reader. She opened her mouth. Nothing came out.
Landry looked disappointed in her as he reached into his pocket and took out the disk. He opened the drawer where she’d put the gun and put the disk in the back, then held up his hands to show that he wasn’t doing some disappearing act with it.
“Lock the door behind me. I’ll be back for you,” he said and taking the gun with the silencer on it left.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The sun glided slowly across the sky toward the Gulf as Landry left. Wind moaned in the tops of the palms and the air seemed heavier, as if a storm was coming in. A big tropical one from the feel of it. He moved quickly, the growing storm making him all the more anxious to get off this island.
It was dark in the trees, the trail deep in shadow as Landry left through the archway, taking the path where he’d first found Willa.
So much had changed since then. He had changed. He couldn’t believe she’d found the disk. Even if the painting would have made Willa’s show, the disk wouldn’t have been in it. Landry shook his head, imagining how that would have gone over if he’d purchased the painting and found no disk inside.
Now all he had to do was get the disk to the right people. No small chore since someone knew where they were. Those shots at them in Everglades City had been to kill. They couldn’t go back there.
As he reached the beach where he’d hidden the boat, he realized what had been nagging at him all day. Why hadn’t the shooter followed them to the island to finish the job?
He froze as he looked into the bushes and saw that his boat was gone and knew why the shooter hadn’t followed them to the island.
Because there was already someone planted on the island to make sure he never left here with the disk.
His mind racing, he ran toward the old fisherman’s shack. As far as he knew Carlos’s was the only other boat on the island. He had to get Willa and the disk off this island and fast and he hadn’t heard Carlos return to the boathouse. Landry would check this side of the island before heading back. With luck he would find the old man and persuade him to either take them off the island—or lend them his boat.
Who was the killer on the island? Odell? The guy would be his first choice. Willa wouldn’t let him back in the apartment again, would she? What about the women? Either of the women looked like they could bite a man’s head off in a single bite.
As he reached the beach where he’d seen Carlos pull up his boat, Landry saw that it was empty. No boat. No Carlos.
He’d been so sure he would find the old man here, get the boat and get back to Willa. Once they were on the water, he planned to head up the coast. He’d rather take his chances out in the Gulf than go back to Everglades City.
But now he worried that there was no way off the island. No boat. No chance to get the disk into the right hands before it was too late.
Landry swore and started to turn back toward the trail and the villa when he saw something in the water. His pulse jumped as he stepped toward it. A piece of dark fabric washed in the waves. Kneeling down, he reached into the water and grabbed a piece of the fabric, half-afraid it would have a body attached to it.
He lifted out the black top Blossom had been wearing and looked toward the storm-blackened horizon for her body, his heart in his throat.
Dropping the top back into the water, he dove through the trees for the villa. He didn’t know what the hell was going on but he had a bad feeling the killer on the island was about to make himself known.
Landry hadn’t gone but a few feet when he heard a noise off to his right. He wasn’t alone.
