Man Overboard. Karen Leabo
she would have to tell her mother about Harrison’s lack of fidelity, but that could wait—at least until Aurora had drunk her first cup of coffee.
“Harrison seemed to think you were miffed at him.”
“Oh, he did, did he?”
“Were you?”
Paige weighed her answer carefully. “A bit. You should watch him, Mother. I don’t think his intentions are honorable.”
“I certainly hope not,” Aurora said with a wicked laugh.
“Mother!”
“Oh, Paige, would you lay off the ‘Miss Prim’ stuff? I’m a grown woman, and I don’t need you watchdogging my social life.”
“Someone should,” Paige muttered.
Aurora chose to ignore the dig. “So where are you off to this morning so disgustingly bright and early?”
Paige was relieved at the change of subject. “To breakfast and then the pool. Want to come?”
Aurora shuddered delicately at the mention of food. “No, thanks, not until I beat this hangover. I’d forgotten what a chipper little morning person you are. Now, go away. I’ll see you at a more civilized hour.” She shoved the mask back over her eyes and burrowed into the bed covers.
With a shrug Paige grabbed the beach bag, which felt as if it contained a bowling ball, and returned to her own room.
“What in the world is in this thing?” she wondered aloud as she opened the drawstring top and checked out the contents. There were two pairs of sunglasses, a tube of lip balm, under-eye moisturizer, three scarves, and four economy-size bottles of suntan oil, each with a different SPF. The outside zipper pockets held clips to Aurora’s electric rollers, a packet of tissues and a costume-jewelry necklace.
Paige examined the necklace. It was pretty, she decided. In fact, she would have thought it was the real thing if she didn’t know that stones of this size were well beyond Aurora’s means. Still, it was obviously an expensive piece of fakery. She would have to remind Aurora to take better care of it.
Paige laid the necklace on the dresser, intending to return it to her mother later. She selected a few essentials and put them back into the bag, plopped a wide-brimmed straw hat onto her head and headed for the Lido Deck.
* * *
“As nearly as we can pinpoint it, the theft occurred between 9:00 p.m. and 1:00 a.m.,” James said in a low voice, craning his neck this way and that to be sure there were no eavesdroppers lurking about. He and Harrison were going over the details of the break-in that had occurred last night, proving that the Mermaid cat burglar was on the prowl.
“What exactly was stolen?” Harrison asked.
“A sapphire-and-diamond necklace, worth a cool twenty-seven thousand dollars,” James said. “Fortunately the owner isn’t the hysterical type. She reported the theft very quietly, and I’ve convinced her to keep mum so our chief suspect won’t know we’re on to her. Which leads me to...did you get lucky with Aurora last night?”
Harrison sighed tiredly. “No. An elderly gentleman, a Dr. Waller, walked her back to her cabin at about two. I followed them, then stuck around in the passageway long enough to be sure she didn’t take a late-night stroll.”
“Then she isn’t responsible?” James asked, frowning.
“I didn’t say that.” Damn, he almost wished he could serve as Aurora’s alibi. He was growing fond of her, and it was getting harder and harder for him to believe she was a world-class jewel thief.
What was even harder to swallow was how Paige would handle her mother’s arrest. “Aurora went to the ladies’ room shortly after you were called away,” he admitted. “She was gone more than twenty minutes. I should have followed her, but I didn’t. She said she’d be right back, and I didn’t think that much of it.” He’d been too intent on dancing with Paige to think clearly, anyway.
“Twenty minutes would be enough time, barely,” James said, his irritated frown fading. Clearly he was eager to close this case, which had plagued him for more than a year.
“How did the burglar get into the cabin?” Harrison asked.
“A glass cutter was used on the terrace door. It was a clean, quick job. And, Harrison, the cabin that was hit is next door to Aurora’s.”
“Well, hell, that clinches it, then.” Aurora must have climbed over the railing of her veranda and worked her way over to the victim’s. Although the woman was fifty-eight years old, she was trim and athletic. The caper wasn’t inconceivable. “Any fingerprints?”
“Nope. Like I said, clean and fast.”
“Why didn’t you tell me as soon as the theft was reported?” Harrison asked.
James’s expression hardened. “Silly me. I thought you were making some progress with Aurora, and I didn’t want to mess that up. I was hoping you’d get into her cabin and find something useful.” He was clearly disgusted with Harrison’s lack of success on that front.
“Hey, you think this is easy? Aurora’s no pushover.”
“That’s not what I hear.”
All right, so maybe Harrison hadn’t tried all that hard, especially when Aurora seemed to be having such a good time with the doctor. “Don’t worry, she’ll invite me in.”
“You know, we could use a passkey. If we knew where the necklace was ahead of time—”
“Forget it,” Harrison said, cutting him off. “I work strictly by the book. We can’t search without the captain’s say-so, and he won’t give us that without stronger evidence. So Aurora has to invite me in.”
James laughed without humor. “Sometimes I wonder about you, Harrison. I’d be willing to bet I can get into Paige’s bed before you get into Aurora’s.”
Harrison’s hand clenched into a fist beneath the table. He longed to punch that self-satisfied smirk off James’s face. God, how he hated the other man’s attitude. At least Harrison had a halfway defensible reason for romancing Aurora. But James’s only motivation for putting the moves on Paige was so he could chalk up another conquest.
“Yeah, the more I think about it,” James continued, oblivious to Harrison’s suppressed anger, “the more I believe it’s essential for me to keep Paige occupied and safely out of the way. Aurora’s more likely to tip her hand if she doesn’t have to worry about her daughter. Not that Paige is really my type, but she’s not half-bad.”
Not half-bad? Harrison had to exert excruciating self-control not to lunge for James’s throat. Paige Stovall was the sweetest combination of strength and vulnerability Harrison had ever encountered, demurely feminine one minute and fierce as any lioness the next, especially when it came to protecting her mother. Fire and ice. How could anyone think she was less than magnificent?
With a jolt, Harrison realized he was jealous. That’s what he’d felt last night, all the way to his gut, when he’d watched Paige dancing with James, laughing with him, touching him. And when Aurora had unwittingly answered his fantasies by practically thrusting Paige into his arms, he’d felt as if the angels had smiled on him. Even though she’d danced with him under protest, he’d enjoyed staring down into those luminous eyes, watching the sparkling night-club lights play against her auburn hair, feeling the firm flesh at the small of her back beneath her silk dress.
She had enchanted him, and he’d completely forgotten himself. It had seemed as natural as breathing to caress her as they danced. It had also been a near-fatal blow to his investigation. He’d have to do a lot of fence mending if he wanted to salvage the operation.
He hadn’t confessed that blunder to James. He might still be able to pick up the pieces.
He allowed his hands to relax. It wasn’t