In Shelter Cove (31 page)

Brianna swallowed hard, a knot growing in her throat. Gloria was married and at least fifteen years older than Derek.

“I saw them together once at my aunt’s art studio. She told me later that Derek had asked her to pose for him, and one thing led to another. She said she was sorry, and maybe she was, but she was also crazy about Derek. I’m sure they came up with the plan to steal the paintings together.” She paused. “I didn’t want to tell Jason this, because I didn’t want to be his source of information. It’s my family we’re talking about, and my job. My mother is ill. I need the money. No one can know that I tipped you off.”

“I understand. So if your aunt and Derek were in it together, where are the paintings now?”

Katherine looked down again. She picked one sketch up and smiled to herself. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before. It’s so clear. And Jason should have figured it out, too, because they used to go there all the time.”

“Shelter Cove?” Brianna asked in confusion.

“The caves,” Katherine replied, a light in her eyes. “They go way back under the bluffs, where it’s completely dry and very secluded, and no one ever goes there anymore.” She jumped to her feet and glanced down at her watch. “The tide won’t be coming in yet. I’m going to check it out. I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

“
Wait,” Brianna said. “I’ll come with you.”

“Lucas isn’t here?”

“No, his grandparents are watching him today.”

“Great. Do you have a flashlight? We’ll probably need it.”

“I’ll get one,” Brianna said. It felt good to take some action, and with a little luck, maybe Katherine’s hunch would pay off.

During the drive to the cove, Brianna was caught up in her thoughts. She couldn’t imagine Gloria and Derek together, but they did share a passion for art, as well as, apparently, each other.

“If Gloria was Derek’s partner,” Brianna began, “why wouldn’t Derek have told the authorities about her?”

“I don’t think you’re going to like my answer,” Katherine said. “Derek did some shady stuff. I suspect that if he’d turned the spotlight on Gloria, she would have done the same back. He might have had to spend a few more years in prison.”

“Okay, I don’t need to hear any more,” Brianna said quickly. One crime at a time was all she could deal with.

“I figure Derek hid the paintings where no one could find them, so that when he got out, he could reap the rewards for his prison time.”

“If Gloria was his partner, why didn’t she just sell them?”

“They must have had a falling-out. Something
went wrong with the plan. She let him take the fall because he didn’t hand over the paintings. And he took the fall, because she had too much on him. I’d always wondered if she was involved, but I didn’t know until today—until I realized there were forgeries, and only a handful of people could have given Derek access to the paintings.”

Katherine parked along the bluff, and they made their way down to the beach. The waves seemed bigger today as they came around the point. There were tall clouds blowing in off the ocean, mixed with some lower-level fog. In an hour or so, the beach would be completely socked in. As they approached the caves, Brianna felt trepidation. The water wasn’t near the entrance, but she had no idea how fast the tide came in.

“I can do it alone,” Katherine said, sensing her hesitation. “I’ve been in there a dozen times. I know how to get to the back. You can wait here.”

She didn’t like the fact that Katherine was so eager to go in on her own. While she’d been nothing but helpful, she was still a Markham. Maybe she wanted to get the paintings for herself. She could lie and say the paintings weren’t there, then come back to get them on her own later. “I’ll go, too,” she said.

“Great. It is a little less scary when there’s two people.”

As they made their way into the rocks, Brianna was surprised by how large the caves were. She didn’t feel as claustrophobic as she’d expected. Jason had said that several survivors had lived within these
caves for months. “This is where Ramón Delgado landed, right?”

“That’s right,” Katherine said, turning down a dark tunnel. She flashed the light on, the beam bouncing off the rocky walls. “Ramón wrote on the walls about losing his beloved Eve not only to the sea but also to his evil brother, Victor.”

Brianna grew more curious as they moved deeper into the cliff. The passageway narrowed and twisted and turned. She was glad to have Katherine leading the way, since she seemed to know exactly which shadowy passages to go through.

Eventually, the tunnel opened out onto a wider, more open space. Katherine pointed out the deep scratchings on a nearby wall. There were names, dates, and figures, as if the men were trying to tell their story with all they had left.

Katherine motioned her toward another passageway. As they walked, the space got smaller and narrower. Brianna began to feel a little panicky. “Are we almost there?”

“We’re there.” Katherine stepped back, motioning Brianna to go in front of her.

Brianna couldn’t see a thing. She turned back around and found the light shining in her eyes, blinding her.

She put up a hand. “Can you turn the light away?”

Katherine pointed the light toward the ceiling so they were facing each other again. Brianna didn’t like the look in Katherine’s eyes.

“This was almost too easy,” Katherine murmured.

Brianna suddenly realized she’d made a big mistake. “The paintings aren’t here, are they?”

“You’re way too trusting, Brianna. First Derek, then me.”

“Why did you bring me here?”

“Because you were getting too close to where the paintings really are. Derek figured it out and left you clues in his sketches. I guess it was some type of insurance. As soon as you told me he’d started drawing again, I knew I had to see those sketches.”

Brianna remembered the broken picture on her dresser. “Did you go into my house?”

“That was easy, too. The back door was open.”

“Why did you break my engagement photo?”

“Because it disgusted me,” she said, an angry light in her eyes.

“You
have the paintings, don’t you, Katherine? It wasn’t Gloria who was Derek’s partner, it was you.” It was suddenly all so clear.

“Bingo. But Gloria and Derek did have an affair. Derek loved women and slept with almost everyone he met. But he and I had a special connection. We painted together. We used the mirrors on each other; we were naked, bare, with no secrets between us and no lies. He and I were supposed to end up together. And then you came along.” Her lips tightened. “He wasn’t supposed to get engaged. He wasn’t supposed to bring you to Angel’s Bay to get married. He was flaunting you right in my face. It wasn’t love; you were just his trophy. The beautiful girl in the mirror that he had to have.”

“
So you set him up,” Brianna said, everything clicking into place.

“It didn’t start out that way, but when I realized he intended to marry you, he had to pay.”

“But you were out of town during the robbery.”

“I came back without anyone knowing. I got into the museum before Derek and took the paintings. When he arrived to swap the fakes, the originals were already gone. The security guard surprised him and had him cornered, so Derek knocked him out with his flashlight. That was a mistake.”

Brianna couldn’t believe how pragmatically Katherine spoke about the crime. “You say you loved Derek, but you betrayed him, and you let him sit in prison. You’re the reason he’s dead, Katherine. How does that make you feel?”

For just a moment, Brianna saw a flicker of guilt in the other woman’s eyes. Then she straightened and threw her head back.

“I didn’t know that would happen,” she said. “I was holding the paintings until he got out. I had decided to split it all with him like we planned, to make up for the time he’d spent in jail. And also because Derek had the right contacts. I would have had a lot of trouble selling them on my own. Then Derek had to go and die. I didn’t know what I was going to do. But you forced my hand—you and your questions.”

Brianna shook her head. “You did all this out of spite? You’re crazy.”

“Not crazy, just determined to get what’s
rightfully mine. My aunt and uncle treat me like dirt. They pay me nothing. They never respected my talent. Not like Derek did. We were both misunderstood artists.”

“So what now?” Brianna asked, feeling moisture seeping in at her toes. Katherine was between her and the entrance, and she had the only flashlight.

“Now we part company. I need to get the paintings, and I can’t have you getting there before me.”

“But I don’t know where they are.”

“Yes, you do.”

Brianna thought back to the sketches she’d looked at. “Are they at the gallery?”

“Good guess. I put the paintings in a place Derek would have appreciated, where people were looking at them each and every day but didn’t know it.
Gloria and Steve and Wyatt thought they were so much smarter than Derek and me, so much more talented, more capable. The three of them were fools. I’ll have the last laugh.” She switched off the light.

Brianna blinked in terror, surrounded by darkness.

“I know these caves like the back of my hand,” Katherine said, her voice echoing off the walls. “Derek and I used to make out down here. We even made love here once.”

Brianna followed Katherine’s voice, creeping forward, her hand sliding along the wall next to her. “Katherine, turn the light on. I won’t tell anyone. I don’t care anymore about the paintings. I just want to get back to my son.”

Katherine laughed. “Like you’d let me walk away now. Don’t worry about your little boy; the Kanes will raise him. They’ll spoil him just like they did Derek. But if you get out before the caves flood, maybe you’ll be able to catch me in time. I always did like a challenge. So did Derek. He never would have fallen for this.”

“Jason will figure it out,” Brianna said, trying to keep Katherine talking. She stumbled and felt water seep through her shoes. Panic rose in her throat. Had she taken a wrong turn?

“Jason has had five years to figure it out. He thought the crime was about money, but it was always about revenge. Money was just icing on the cake. Jason will probably miss you, though. You’ve got him wrapped around your little finger, just like Derek, but then Jason and Derek always competed for the same thing. That’s why he wants you—because he always wanted what Derek had.”

“Katherine, come on,” Brianna pleaded. She hated to beg, but she had to fight—not just for herself but for Lucas.

“I hope you can swim, because I lied about the tide. And when the waves start crashing over the rocks, the water comes in through all the cracks. It doesn’t take long to fill up the caves. Colin almost died here when we were kids. He said an angel saved him. Maybe one will come and save you,” she mocked.

“Katherine, stop. Come back.” Her words were
met with silence this time. Only the taunting sound of Katherine’s laugh echoed in the caves.

Brianna tried to keep moving, but she kept running into rocks. Battered and bruised, she had no idea if she was going in the right direction. Her feet were freezing, and there seemed to be more and more water swishing over her feet. Was the tide coming in?

She told herself to stay calm, to think. She couldn’t afford to panic. She could get out. Katherine didn’t have that much of a head start on her, and she’d probably turn her flashlight back on once she got farther away. She’d be able to catch some stray light from that.

But there was nothing but inky blackness, damp moisture coating her face, icy water licking up her legs. Something brushed against her face, and she screamed. A flurry of pebbles fell from above her.

Maybe screaming wasn’t such a good idea; she had no idea how stable the earth above her was. The shipwreck survivors had spent days in these caves, so there had to be someplace the ocean couldn’t reach. She just had to find it.

Why the hell had she followed Katherine? She should have known something was off, that Derek wouldn’t have kept paintings in a damp cave. But Katherine had been so excited and sure and had played it so casually, as if she didn’t care if Brianna came or not. And she’d been so hell-bent on finding those paintings, on proving Derek’s innocence, she’d
lost track of the big picture. Those paintings wouldn’t change her life. In fact, she didn’t need her life to be changed. She had Lucas. She might even have Jason, if she gave him a chance.

She stumbled again and landed in water up to her knees. She heard the rumble of the ocean. She was getting closer to the sea—but was she was going to make it in time?

Jason left the gallery as dusk settled over the town. He’d just finished a long meeting with the Markhams and Wyatt, and he’d finally gotten some answers. He needed to fill Brianna in. He’d tried her cell phone, but it had gone straight to voice-mail. He was hoping she’d be home.

Her car was in the driveway, but when he rang the bell, she didn’t answer. A bad feeling shot down his spine when he realized the front door was slightly ajar. He pushed it open, calling her name. There was no reply: no Brianna, no Lucas, no puppy. He glanced at the coffee table and saw Derek’s sketches.

Had Derek left her a clue that she’d gone to investigate? The three drawings that had been pulled out of the pile were of the gallery, Wyatt’s studio, and the beach. He’d been to two of those locations, and Brianna hadn’t been there, which left only one: Shelter Cove.

He drove like a maniac to the beach. As he neared the spot where he usually parked, he saw another car peeling out, leaving a cloud of dust
behind. Katherine was behind the wheel, and she was alone. Damn. He’d never thought Katherine would go straight to Brianna. What had she done?

He parked the car and jumped out, taking off on a dead run toward the beach and the caves. Fog and clouds made visibility difficult, and when he reached the entrance, the water was up to his ankles, and the current was surging.

He saw a flashlight by the entrance. The front was bashed in as if someone had tossed it against the rocks on their way out. Brianna had to be inside.

Shit!
He pulled out his cell phone. There was no signal. He tried the flashlight, but it didn’t work. Fortunately, he had a light on his key chain. It wasn’t much of a beam, but he turned it on as he jogged into the cave.