Adam rang the bell and whispered in her ear, “Remember what I told you. Say as little as possible at first. Suspects often reveal much more if you just let them talk.”

It was a full minute before they heard anything. Muffled footsteps came through the arched wood door.

“Who is it?”

Whitney instantly recognized Miranda’s voice. She nodded enthusiastically at Adam, and he smiled.

“Miranda, it’s me, Whitney.”

Dead silence. For a moment, Whitney thought her cousin wasn’t going to open the door. Then it swung open. The woman before them had copper hair in a spiked pixie cut, but there was no mistaking Miranda Marshall.

“Whitney, I-I a-a-ah…”

Whitney barged in, followed by Adam. Miranda’s expression darkened with an unreadable emotion. A thousand questions pummeled Whitney’s brain but she waited to see what her cousin would say.

“W-what are you doing here?” Miranda asked.

Instead of responding, Whitney looked around. The interior was furnished in Key West mode with comfy-looking woven wicker chairs and a chaise lounge-style sofa in the living area just beyond the entry. There were no paintings or anything on the walls or accessories on the end tables. The only homey touch was a hint of cinnamon in the air that must have come from the candles flickering on the coffee table.

Whitney turned back to Miranda and glared at her. And waited.

“Why are you here?” Miranda repeated. “It isn’t even two weeks yet.”

Whitney realized Miranda was referring to her two-week “honeymoon.” Evidently, her cousin didn’t think anyone would miss her for at least two weeks. “Some honeymoon.”

Miranda reacted to the unbridled sarcasm in Whitney’s voice by wincing just slightly. “I know you must be upset, but I can explain.”

“Don’t let me stop you.”

“Maybe we’d better sit down,” suggested Adam.

“Who are you?” asked Miranda.

“Adam Hunter.”

The air emptied from Miranda’s lungs in a rush. “Calvin’s nephew. Of course.”

She led them into a great room that faced the cove. The sun had set but there was still enough light to appreciate the fabulous view. Knowing Miranda was out here by herself, though, made it seem lonely and isolated. Whitney told herself not to feel sorry for her cousin until she knew more. Thanks to Miranda, she’d lost every possession she had-and was lucky to be alive.

Miranda took a chair while Adam and Whitney sat side by side on the sofa. Whitney let the silence lengthen.

Finally, Miranda spoke. “I didn’t want to lie to you, but…I needed to protect you.”

From what? Whitney wanted to scream, but Adam squeezed her hand to remind her to let Miranda talk.

“You see, I never expected you to appear on my doorstep, needing a place to stay. My plans were already in motion. I had to get out of town.” She waved her hand, gesturing to her surroundings. “We’d planned to come here. Everything was all set. I was just taking care of the final details when you surfaced out of nowhere.”

An uneasy hush followed her breathless explanation. Through the open doors that led outside, Whitney heard the soft purling of the surf on the sand.

“We?” prompted Adam.

Miranda studied Adam for a moment before saying, “Your uncle and I had been together for over two years. We planned to move here after-” she hesitated “-Cal stopped judging dog shows.”

Whitney waited, expecting Miranda to say more, but the only sound in the room was the waves on the shore, bringing a trace of salt into the cinnamon-scented room. Out of the corner of her eye, Whitney glanced at Adam and saw he was studying Miranda.

Finally, Whitney couldn’t stand the tension any longer. “Why would someone want you dead so badly that they would firebomb your house and nearly kill me?”

The thick lashes shadowing Miranda’s cheeks flew up. “What? Someone…”

“You heard me. Someone firebombed the cottage. By the grace of God, I wasn’t home at the time.”

Miranda stared at Whitney, her face stricken with horror. “What? I can’t imagine-” She jumped to her feet and rushed to the open doors that led out to the patio. Miranda faced the sea for a moment, then slowly returned to her chair. “I-I’m sorry-so sorry. I never thought it would come to this.” She frowned. “So soon. I didn’t expect anything to happen so soon.”

“Why don’t you explain it to us?” Adam asked, his voice sympathetic.

He must be playing the good cop, Whitney decided. He almost seemed like a stranger with no stake in these events. She was ready to scream at her cousin for not warning her about impending trouble.

“I-it’s a long story. I don’t know where to begin.”

“We have all night.” Adam glanced at Whitney. “Whitney nearly died. She’s lost everything she has-”

“Was Lexi killed?”

Whitney shook her head. “No. The dogs were with me, but the pipe bomb thrown into the cottage caused a fire. I lost everything but what I was wearing.”

“Oh my God.” Miranda closed her eyes for a moment, then directed her response to Adam. “I’d been living in the cottage awhile before I really got to know your uncle. He was away judging dog shows overseas most of the time. Then we started seeing more and more of each other. We fell in love.”

Whitney tried to imagine Miranda in love. Her cousin always had guys trailing after her, but she’d seemed older and more sophisticated than they were. Miranda had never been serious about any of them. Whitney could understand why an older, more worldly man would appeal to her cousin.

“Cal didn’t want me to work so hard. He began giving me money.”

“We know you were stripping at Saffron Blue,” Adam told her.

Miranda’s eyes flew in Whitney’s direction. A hint of crimson seemed to flower beneath her tan. “I did some stripping,” she replied apologetically.

“My uncle didn’t like that. Did he?”

A flicker of a smile brightened Miranda’s face. “No. Cal was old-fashioned in many ways. He insisted I quit.”

“He gave you three thousand dollars in cash at the beginning of every month, right?”

How did Adam know this? Whitney wondered, an uneasy feeling creeping through her.

Miranda nodded. “Yes. It wasn’t as much as I was making at Saffron Blue, but I didn’t need more.”

“What did you do with the insurance money you received from your parents’ death?” Whitney asked.

“I invested most of it in the stock market. Tech stocks were hot back then and I thought I would make a killing. At first, I did-on paper. Then I lost every penny. Luckily I’d kept some to live on, so I was able to help your mother when she needed it. That was the last of my money.”

A twinge of guilt passed through Whitney. She hadn’t known Miranda at all. She’d never considered her cousin to be the type who would risk money in the market, but she was wrong. It touched her that Miranda had used what little she’d had left to help Whitney’s mother.

“Last year Cal brought me down here,” continued Miranda. “I thought it was just a trip so he could fish.” She gazed wistfully out toward the ocean for a moment. “He adored fishing. He could spend hours bobbing up and down in a fishing boat waiting for a bite. I never saw the attraction. But what did it matter? I hung out on the beach, worked on my tan and read a book until sunset when the fishing boats came in.”

“Your passport doesn’t show any record of a visit here,” Adam said.

“Cal leased a jet. We took off from a private airport and landed on a private strip constructed especially for this development. I had my passport with me, but no one bothered to stamp it.”

Adam replied, “Private airfields are notoriously lax.”

“Turns out Cal wasn’t just interested in the fishing at Corona del Mar. He wanted to buy a place. He picked out this villa because of the view. He loved looking out at the ocean. You can see it from here, the kitchen and the master bedroom.” She drew in a slow, deliberate breath and tears welled up in her eyes. “Too bad he didn’t live to enjoy it.”