Dead Girl Running (Cape Charade #1)(53)

“What kind of dressing?”

“What do you care? I’ve seen you. You’ve been in the resort eating all day. This is for me.”

He looked even more startled and offended.

Wow. He was spoiled.

She pulled the list of possible Librarians out of her pocket and handed it over. “Here. See what you think.”

He pulled a stool up to the eating bar and looked over her chart and her profiles.

“I like the pilot, too,” Nils said. “Chad Griffin. In and out, travel the country, transport the goods, stay here when the weather’s bad and check up on everything.”

“I’m prejudiced against him because I don’t like the man, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t the Librarian.”

“Why did you put Carson Lennex above him?”

“Archaeology degree. The man knows his stuff, he has a huge book collection, went to Machu Picchu on vacation. Which a lot of people do, but…” She shook up the simple dressing of red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and extra virgin olive oil, drizzled it on the greens and dug in.

“Fascinating.” He pulled a pen out of his pocket and scribbled a note on the list. “I would have never suspected him. He’s too old and too famous. So I would have never done the research. Good job.”

“Snooping pays off.”

“I thought you’d include your local policeman, the guy who took the body to the coroner.”

Nils was asking all the right questions. “He’s disappeared.”

That got Nils’s attention. “When did you find that out?”

“This evening.”

“Disappeared to where?”

“If we knew that, he wouldn’t be disappeared.” She waved him to silence and told him about Leo’s call. “I was aggravated with Lloyd for not getting back to me, but now he’s vanished and no one thinks he deliberately ran off with the body. Not even me, because if he’s the Librarian, that would be stupid.”

“It would. Foul play is suspected?”

“The sheriff has her men searching for him, but the countryside is wild and includes many places to hide someone who is kidnapped, or to stash a body.” She stared into the salad and reimagined the rugged mountains, the dense forests, the long stretches of beach battered by ocean. “As we’ve discovered.”

“So only two men made the list?”

“I do suspect a man simply because in the greater world a man is more likely to command the respect and be in the position to obtain power. But if your suspicions are right, that the Librarian is using Yearning Sands Resort as a base, the possibility exists it could be a female because the hospitality business is predominantly female. We have a lot more choices here.” She pointed at the names on the chart. “I’m suggesting these two because they have the physicality to handle the rigors of the job. Pickups, drop-offs, if needed.” She paused a beat. “Murders.”

“I also had Mara Philippi on the list,” he said smugly. “She has a murky background.”

That brought her interest into sharp focus. “What does that mean?”

“It means I don’t believe the research I was able to assemble about her. There are legitimate reasons for her to have faked credentials. She might have worked at a federal agency that obscured or changed her records, she might be in witness protection, she might be running from an abusive relationship—”

“All of which explains her obsession with fitness and fighting—and none of which explains her obsession with winning the International Ninja Challenge.”

“Maybe she’s throwing up a smoke screen and has no intention of entering the contest,” he suggested.

“She says she’s already entered and been accepted.”

“Have you seen proof?”

“No.” Kellen finished the salad. “You’re right—she could be lying and will sadly announce she didn’t make it. But I don’t think so. I think if Mara is the Librarian, she has such an impenetrable ego this is really the challenge—to show herself on television and online, to be seen by the world and make fools of everyone.”

“You have quite an unflattering opinion of her.”

Kellen struggled to explain. “She’s not an easy person to be around. She’s demanding. She’s selfish. I don’t know her any better than I did on the day we met. She has said that everyone here has secrets.”

“Do they?”

“No one comes to live at the lonely, battered edge of the continent unless they’re escaping a past.”

“What are you escaping?”

Her temper crackled. “You tell me. You did the research.”

“I’ve never seen blue eyes spark quite like that.” He leaned forward. “May I kiss you?”

She couldn’t have been more horrified. “Good God. Why?”

He threw back his head and laughed, and for the first time since she’d met him, he looked carefree. “Because we’d be good together.”

“I’m not here for that. If that’s the game you’re playing—”

“No!” He held up one hand. “This is not some long scene I’ve concocted to seduce you. Forget I said anything. It was an impulse. I’m not usually given to impulse, but you’re an unusual woman. Intriguing.”