“Did you ever think that Kathleen might be in any danger?” Jed asked, sitting up.

“I never thought that Allison might be planning to kill her, but, yes, I did get the feeling that she was trying to damage our marriage. I mean, I couldn’t believe it when I saw her walking down the dock toward us the first afternoon we were here. She was wearing a tiny bikini; her hair was shimmering blond and hanging down her back; she looked like Kathleen. Not beautiful like Kath, of course, but like an… an imitation of her.”

“Which is why you couldn’t take your eyes off her, right?” Susan asked.

“Why I-but you weren’t even on the island yet. How did you know that?” Jerry smiled. “Kathleen must have told you that.”

“She did. She thought you were… well, infatuated with Allison.”

“God, no! I couldn’t stand the woman. And I was shocked. I didn’t trust Allison. The fact that she had turned herself into a replica of Kath made me very uncomfortable. I thought she was up to something, but I never even considered something like planning a murder.”

“You and she had been meeting in the city, right?” Susan asked.

“We met once in early January. She called me up at work and asked if I’d take her to lunch. I couldn’t think of any reason to refuse, so we met at the Four Seasons.”

“Didn’t she look the same there as she did this week?” Peggy asked.

Jerry paused a moment to consider her question. “No, I don’t think so. Her hair wasn’t as blond and it was tied back somehow. She was wearing glasses, I think. And it was snowing outside. She had on some sort of black wool suit. She looked like every other woman in the city. We talked about general things. Nothing significant.”

“Except that you told her we were all coming here for a vacation,” Susan pointed out.

“Yes, I’m afraid I must have. I know I was thinking about it. The weather was awful. We had a new client at work who was making everyone miserable. Susan, when you came up with this idea for a trip and found Compass Bay, it was almost all I could think about for a few days. I probably told Allison about it before we’d finished our first course.”

“Had you kept in touch with her after June died?” Jed asked.

“No. She helped me clean out the house, but I didn’t see her for a long while after that. She sent Christmas cards and birthday cards, but, well, I’m not awfully good about that type of thing.”

Susan smiled. In her experience, not many men were.

“Why were Allison and James meeting in town?” Frank asked.

“I don’t know for sure. But my guess would be that James wanted to end their deal. He seems to be a nice young man, not a killer. So he suggested they meet away from here and in a public place.”

“But Jerry met her instead,” Susan said.

“Do you think Allison would have let him back out of their agreement?” Jed asked.

“Probably not. And she really had a lot of power over him. If she had gone to Lila and told her what James agreed to, he would have lost his job for sure. And everything he was trying to protect when he agreed to kill Kathleen would have vanished anyway.”

“So maybe he did know that Allison was lying out in the gazebo. Maybe he knew who he was killing,” Ro suggested.

“That is possible,” Susan said slowly. “But we won’t know unless James is found.”

“Unless?” Jerry asked. “Don’t you think he’ll be found?”

“He has lots of friends, lots of relatives. My guess is that he was smuggled off this island by some of them and he won’t be back. But the Caribbean is made up of many islands and has many more resorts. He’ll take a new identity, find a new job, and in a few months he may be taking other American tourists out to see other coral reefs.”

“That’s entirely possible,” Jerry agreed.

“Allison must have really hated you,” Rose spoke up. “To want to kill your wife and then have the murder blamed on you.”

Jerry looked over at her. “You know, she really must have. And I never had any idea. None at all.”

THIRTY-FOUR

“Well, I’m surprised to find you three alone. I thought you’d be the center of attention after solving the murder.”

Susan, Jed, and Jerry opened their eyes and realized Kathleen was back.

Jerry jumped up to give his wife a warm greeting. “Kath, I can’t tell you how good it is to see you,” he said, embracing her.

She smiled up at him. “It’s good to be back. New York is freezing.”

“Did you see the kids?” he asked.

“No, your dad took them to the movies while I was there. I wanted to look around the house, but I didn’t want to upset them by popping in and then leaving immediately. As far as they know, I’ve been here the entire time.

“Your mother was sweet. Even solved a small mystery for me,” she added, smiling. “Why didn’t you tell me you can’t swim?”

“What? Jerry swims. I’ve seen him in the water at the club hundreds of times,” Susan protested.

“That’s what I said to her,” Kathleen admitted. “But his mother explained that Jerry never learned to swim. Some sort of inner ear problem when he was a kid. We’ve all seen him in the pool at the Field Club-standing in the water helping out the kids. That’s not swimming.”

“Caught,” he admitted. “I’ve always been embarrassed about it. Everyone we know swims.”

“So that’s why you wouldn’t go out in the kayak with Kathleen!” Susan said.

“True. That’s an awfully big ocean to someone who doesn’t really feel comfortable in the water. Sorry to disappoint you,” he added, pulling Kathleen closer to him. “I should have told you before we got here.”

“Jerry, I’m not disappointed. I don’t care if you swim or not. I just didn’t understand your reluctance to do things. If only you had explained.” She sat down on the lounge her husband had just vacated. “So why are you three all alone?”

“If you had been here an hour ago, you would have found us surrounded,” Jed said. “Everyone wanted to know what Susan had discovered and how she did it.”

“So where are they now?”

Susan chuckled. “Lila decided it was time for the Miss Marple hour to come to a close. She announced a complimentary cocktail party for guests. I was abandoned in minutes. They’re all down on the beach gorging on crab canapés and rum punch like there’s no tomorrow.”

“For one of them, that just might be true,” Kathleen said.

“Who?” Jed asked, immediately concerned.

“Randy, Veronica’s husband. They’re an odd couple: She’s drinking big-time, and he’s abstaining but trying to hide it. Susan and I decided she was probably an alcoholic and he was the world’s greatest enabler.”

“And you found out something else?” Susan asked.

“He’s seriously ill and his medication means that he can’t drink. I traveled back from the States with a doctor, a very indiscreet doctor, who is treating Randy down here with medications that haven’t yet been approved for use in the States.”

“That’s sad,” Jerry said.

“Everyone here has their own story,” Susan said. “I’ve been thinking so much about Jerry and June and Allison that I guess I haven’t really gotten to know anyone else.”

“You know what I’ve been wondering? I’ve been wondering how Allison knew what Kathleen looked like,” Jed said.

“My fault,” Jerry admitted. “Like the proud husband and father that I am, I showed Allison photos of my family when we met for lunch in the city. I made everything pretty easy for her, when you think about it.”

“You’re not at fault here,” Susan said. “You have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about.”

“She’s right. You can’t blame yourself for any of this,” Jed added.

“Unless you suspected that Allison had something to do with the accident that killed June and the kids?” Kathleen asked gently.

Jerry looked over at her and frowned. “I had been thinking about that recently. When we met in the city, Allison said something weird. She said that sometimes some people deserved to die. It came at me out of left field, and I began to wonder how much she hated June and the kids.”