“I don’t, but I don’t think she’s a murderer. If the body is found in her freezer and what with all the evidence you and R.J. put on it, I think Phyllis may be accused. I don’t think she knows anything.”
“So who does? By now you know the whole town, so who’s guilty?”
“I think somebody wanted Fenny’s gold and when he wouldn’t give it to them, they killed him. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it was their idea of a joke to put the body in our bathtub.”
David looked at her for a moment. “I bet if you went to a woman whose husband is a fisherman, she could get him to take you off this island.”
“I thought of that. In fact, I almost asked one of them to do it. After all, R.J. is the only one who has anything pending against him. The rest of us …” She shrugged.
“Ariel,” David said soft
ly, “did you hear anything that you’re not telling me?”
She kept her eyes on her plate. “Why did you kiss me this morning?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“The subject being that I must tell you everything I heard or thought? What about you? Where did you go this afternoon? You were gone for nearly three hours.”
“Never mind that. I think you should leave this island.”
“You’re up to something, aren’t you?”
“Nothing,” David said, his eyes wide.
“You are the worst liar in the world. I think we should try to find Sara and R.J.”
“I thought you hated him.”
“Maybe. Tomorrow’s Sunday so I think we should—”
“I have something to do tomorrow, so I want you to stay at Phyllis’s house and rest.”
Ariel looked like she was going to say something, but then she smiled. “David, you are the kindest person in the world. It’s as though you read my mind. There’s nothing I want to do more than stay in one spot and rest. Working has worn me out.”
David looked at her hard, but she yawned and her eyes seemed to droop at the corners. “Come on, sweetheart, let me take you home.”
“Home. What a nice thought. Do you think my mother is worried about me?”
“Frantic. You didn’t by chance tell her where you were going, did you?”
“I was Sara, remember?” Ariel said, allowing David to help her out of the booth. He liked it when she leaned on him. Smiling to himself, he led her back to Phyllis’s house.
While Ariel got ready for bed, David rummaged in the attic alcoves, searching for all that he’d need in the morning. He felt bad about leaving Ariel behind, but it was just for a few hours, then he’d be back for her. Today, while the women were making passes at him, he’d remembered something from when he’d explored King’s Isle. He’d never found the source of the hot springs as the other children had, but there were some other things he’d found.
Chapter Nineteen
“DAVID?” ARIEL WHISPERED. SHE WAS standing in the bedroom doorway wearing a toobig nightgown that Phyllis had lent her. “Are you awake?”
On their way back from the pub, the skies had opened and they’d been caught in a sudden storm. Cold and wet, Ariel had gloried in curling up with a cozy old quilt and a hot water bottle. She’d heard David rummaging about in the spaces under the eaves and wondered what he was doing. She’d also wondered what R.J. and Sara were doing. Was it true what Fenny Nezbit’s widow said, that R.J. was in love with Sara?
Ariel tried to remember all that Sara had written about her boss. He had been her major topic of conversation. What he did, who he saw, whose heart he had broken. “The women make such fools of themselves,” she’d written. “If they’d just realize that he likes to work for what he gets.” Had all Sara’s protest been a cover for her true feelings? Ariel smiled. If protests and talking endlessly meant love, then Ariel was in love with David.
In love with David? What an absurd thought! David was the dullest, most boring—
Ariel sighed, remembering how he used to climb the big old apple tree on his family’s farm and toss down the largest, ripest apples to her. She sighed again, remembering all the times he’d listened to her complain about her mother—and would then fix the problem for her. He could sweet-talk her mother in a way that nobody else could.
When she was fifteen, David had asked her what she wanted for her upcoming birthday. Ariel had grimaced. Her mother would give her something useful and practical, or something expensive and ornamental that she wasn’t allowed to touch.