White Wedding. Jean Barrett

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СКАЧАТЬ graves and somebody minded?”

      Allison rounded on him indignantly. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting? Because if you are—”

      “I’ll tell you what he’s suggesting,” interrupted a coldly angry voice from the shadows of the dining room. “That I had something to do with the florist’s death.”

      The startled members of the group around the fireplace looked up to find Chris Beaver standing in the doorway. There was a dangerous expression in his dark eyes as he moved rigidly into the lounge.

      “That’s right, isn’t it, McGuire?” he challenged Hale.

      Shaking off Allison’s restraining hand, Hale rose to his feet and confronted the other man. “Maybe it’s more than just a suggestion,” he said recklessly. “Maybe it’s an accusation.”

      An outraged Chris charged before anyone could stop him. His fist slammed into Hale’s face. Ronnie screamed as the others came to their feet. But it was Jack who sprang between the two men, separating them before the incident resulted in a full-scale brawl.

      “You all right, McGuire?” he demanded.

      The lawyer, pressing a handkerchief to his bleeding nose, nodded and glared at his attacker. “You’ve got a bad temper, Beaver. Some people might say it’s a murderous one.”

      Chris would have gone for him again, but Jack held him off. “That’s enough,” he ordered. “From both of you. No more senseless accusations and no more wild punches. We’ve got enough to handle without you two losing your heads.”

      Chris, looking grim, pulled away from Jack. Without a word he turned and headed toward the kitchen. Allison started to go after him.

      “Chris, wait!”

      The proud, retreating figure never paused. He brushed silently past his bewildered brother-in-law, who had just arrived in the lounge doorway, and disappeared into the darkened dining room.

      A sickened Lane, suddenly needing to put distance between herself and the nasty scene she’d just witnessed, left the fireplace and drifted across the room to one of the French doors overlooking the bay. From this position she sympathetically watched Allison realize that it was her fiancé she was supposed to comfort, not Chris Beaver. Allison tried to put a concerned hand on Hale’s arm, but he shook it off.

      With Hale in this kind of nasty mood, Lane wondered how she would ever find the courage to approach him on the subject of her sensitive mission. Or whether now there would even be the opportunity. But she’d promised, so eventually she must find a way.

      An uncertain, puzzled Nils Asker went on hovering in the doorway until Jack pressed him for the news they were all waiting to hear.

      “How soon can we expect the sheriff?”

      The lanky Nils shook his head, reporting gloomily, “We can’t. Not for now, anyway. I kept trying, but the phone is useless. It’s that devil of a wind out there. Communication tower on the mainland must be down. It can happen along the peninsula with these cellular phones, the power getting interrupted when the weather’s nasty like this.”

      “Dear God!” Ronnie cried. “You mean we’re cut off out here with a dead body on our hands?”

      “Until the phone’s on again,” Nils admitted. “Should be back in service by morning. That is, if this wind ever quits long enough.”

      “And what if it doesn’t?” Jack asked. “What then?”

      Nils took a slow, deep breath before answering. “Then I cross over in my truck as soon as there’s enough light.”

      “And I, for one, am going to be riding with you,” Ronnie insisted. “I have no intention of staying trapped out here.”

      Nils shook his head stubbornly. “If I end up going, I go alone. I know the ice, and I can make it. But if there’s whiteout conditions still, it’s gonna be real tricky. And I won’t risk a passenger with me.”

      “He’s right,” Dan agreed. “We’re much safer waiting here. Besides, the sheriff will expect us to remain on the scene. Involved or not, we’ll all of us have to answer a slew of questions.”

      His affirmation brought on a fresh burst of objections and speculations. Dan quietly slipped away from the commotion at the other end of the room and joined Lane where she remained at the window.

      “Sorry about this,” he apologized in a low, grave voice.

      Lane gazed at him, not certain what he was referring to.

      “Out there,” he said, nodding at the glass behind her.

      She realized then that he was talking about the wind that was still blasting fearfully around the corners of the lodge. “You’re apologizing for the weather?”

      He smiled gently. “In a way I do blame myself. You see,” he explained, “Allison made me responsible for checking out the forecast for this weekend. You know, making sure we weren’t going to get snowbound here.”

      “But there isn’t any blizzard.”

      “No, but these winds... The thing is, I let someone else do the checking for me.” His gaze traveled in the direction of the group at the other end of the lounge. “And they promised... Oh, well, I’m being foolish. The forecast was probably off. And, anyway, you don’t think about freak winds stranding you if it’s precipitation you’re worried about.”

      Lane had no opportunity to hear a further explanation. A storm of another kind had surfaced across the room.

      “Here we go,” Dan muttered. “Ronnie is being Ronnie again.”

      He left Lane to rejoin the group as Ronnie, in a loud voice, raised another storm of objection and demand.

      “I don’t care how safe you all keep insisting we are! It’s only a theory the murderer left the island, not a guarantee! This is a big house, and that lunatic could be hiding anywhere inside! I think the least the men could do is offer to check the lodge from top to bottom before we all go to our rooms for the night. I’ll never sleep a wink otherwise!”

      Veronica Bauer was clearly no advocate of equal rights for women, Lane thought wryly. Not in this situation, anyway.

      Jack, leaving the others to placate the tiresome, difficult woman, crossed to Lane at the window. “What was that all about just now?” he asked her in a low voice.

      She knew he was referring to her hushed exchange with Dan Whitney. Jack was far too observant. And his virile nearness was still much too disturbing. She shared with him the judge’s brief conversation.

      Jack frowned. “What was he suggesting? That someone here deliberately withheld the truth about the weather conditions for the weekend?”

      Lane shook her head. “I’m not sure. I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.”

      At the other end of the lounge Ronnie seemed to realize Jack had left the circle that was supposed to be paying attention to her. There was displeasure in her expression when she looked around and discovered СКАЧАТЬ