Berry.”
“Perry,” Garth repeated, as if he was beginning to consider the entire place a joke.
“Berry. Commodore Berry,” the man said, highly irritated. “Current elected head of the club,” he explained. “Beth, what’s going on?”
“There was a skull on my desk,” she said.
“But there isn’t now?” he asked.
“No,” she admitted.
The commodore squared his shoulders. “Miss Anderson is not given to hallucinations.”
“Beth,” Ben said quietly, “don’t you think someone might have been playing a little trick on you? A number of people—including me—have those skulls left over from last Halloween. They were part of the table decorations. And the master key does hang on a hook in the maintenance room. We should be more careful.”
“Ah, yes, a master key. Hmm. You decorated your tables with skulls?” Garth asked.
“It was Halloween,” Ben said.
“Beth, is it possible it was a prop skull?” the commodore asked.
Beth appeared torn. “It’s possible,” she admitted. “I saw it and…and panicked, then ran downstairs to call the police.”
“Why didn’t you just call from the office?” Garth asked.
Beth stared at him, lifted her hands, let them fall. “Because there was a skull on my desk! I didn’t expect it to pick itself up and disappear.”
“How many ways are there up to this level?” Garth asked.
“The stairway from the foyer leads up here,” Beth said. “And there are restrooms up here, with stairs from the hallway in front of the office downstairs and from the south side of the dining room.”
“I believe, Miss Anderson, that someone was playing a trick on you with an old prop. Whoever it was probably didn’t think you’d react so quickly by calling the police. That person came up and took off with the skull after you raced down the stairs,” Garth told her. “It was a prank.”
“I want something done,” Beth insisted quietly.
The officer let out a deep sigh. “We’ll file a report,” he told her. “May I use your desk?”
“Beth,” Ben murmured, “you’re actually going to make him do this? Fill out a report—over what was obviously a prank?”
“You bet,” Beth said.
The officer sat down. Keith decided that, at that moment, he would definitely be more useful elsewhere.
Wanting to see what Beth had been talking about, he entered the hallway and saw the doors to the restrooms.
He hadn’t realized that there was more than one way up here. Foolish on his part. He should have explored every inch of this place immediately.
The men’s room was large and clean. At the far end of the hall there was a doorway that led to two ways out. A carpeted stairway led down into the club. Another door led to a balcony area, with an outside stairway.
If someone had been in Beth’s office, there were plenty of ways they could have retrieved it after Beth went racing downstairs.
Had it actually been the skull she had seen on the island, though? Or had someone heard about her discovery on Calliope Key and decided to either tease her—or warn her—by putting a Halloween prop on her desk?
He followed the stairway to the balcony. From his vantage point, through the trees, he could see some of the cars in the parking lot. He could also see the acreage next door to the club. It was a public park. Anyone who was careful could come and go without being seen. All they would have to do was slip through the trees.
Had the couple from Nick’s followed her, then left their car at the public park? Crawled through the bushes to the club grounds and, somehow, broken into Beth’s office?
The scenario just didn’t ring true.
He took the stairs down to the dining area. Roger Mason was having lunch with a man in a captain’s hat. There was no one else he recognized in the dining room.
He walked out to the porch area. Amanda was at a table by herself, leaning back in her chair, broad white hat shielding her face from the sun, staring out lazily at the boats. He saw her cousin Hank at another table, having a beer with a group of men. Farther down from Amanda, he saw Manny Ortega involved in an avid discussion with Maria Lopez.
Without being totally obvious, there was no way to eavesdrop on their téte-â-téte. He regretted the fact, but knew it was important that he not betray himself.
Looking to the left, he saw that Amber and Kim were by the pool. He wondered if they’d heard about what was going on.
Amanda called out to him.
He strode over to her table. She was grinning wickedly. “So what’s going on up there? Has Miss Anderson finally snapped?”
“Pardon?”
“It’s all over the club, of course. No one could possibly miss the arrival of the police.” She indicated the inside dining room with a wave of her hand. “That’s the commodore my dad is speaking with now, poor man. I’m sure he’s beside himself with humiliation. We’ve never had the police here before. Ever.”
“I don’t think the man is humiliated. I think he’s worried about Beth. It’s a rather disconcerting thing, don’t you think, to see a skull on your desk?” Keith said.
Amanda laughed. “I heard there was no skull.”
“Even worse to see one and then have it disappear.”
She made an impatient sound at the back of her throat. “Don’t be ridiculous. She feels the stigma of her position here, you know.”
“Pardon?”
“We’re members. She’s help. She’s crying out for attention.”
His temper flared at that, but he controlled it, forcing a casual glance around. “You know, Amanda, I don’t think anyone here feels like that. Her father was a member. Her brother is a member. I’m sure she could work somewhere else, if she wanted to.”
Amanda laughed and picked up the frosted drink before her. “So you are sleeping with her. I thought so. Pity. I liked you best, you know.” She spoke casually.
“Well, thanks for the compliment, but I’m just pointing out the fact that we’re living in the twenty-first century,” he said smoothly. “It’s not an upstairs, downstairs world anymore.”
“So you believe she saw a skull?”
“I believe she saw something, yes. She doesn’t strike me as prone to histrionics.”
“Please. A skull? A real human
