Murder at Sunrise Lake - Christine Feehan Page 0,25

her friends, but what could she really say? There was no murder. There was no body. There was no explanation she could give them without turning her world upside down. Nothing made sense to her right now. It had to be an outsider, not someone who lived and worked in the town.

There were so many people with temporary jobs. She pressed her fingers to her temples. People came and went. Even at the resort she hired the same staff, but they didn’t all stay year-round. Still, she couldn’t imagine any of the people she knew— not even the ones she wasn’t particularly fond of— as a serial killer. But an outsider wouldn’t have knowledge of a fishing spot that only a very few locals used.

“Are you okay, Stella?” Raine asked.

“Yes, I was just thinking about the things Shabina was telling us. I know Zahra has run into prejudice occasionally because of where she comes from, but it’s always been from outsiders. They start asking about her accent and then get all weird with her. I never once considered that someone would be that way with Shabina.”

“Let me take a guess,” Raine said. “One of four. Bale Landry, Sean Watson, Jason Briggs or Edward Fenton. It’s one or all of them. College buddies. Very superior to women. They were mixed up in a fraternity that made lists of female students, particularly ones that appeared to be of different ethnicities. Those in the fraternity were to sleep with as many of the women as they could, any way they could. They would pretend to like them, date them, or they would simply get them drunk at a party. If the woman was innocent, they scored more points for that.”

“That’s disgusting,” Stella said. “There was an entire fraternity of male students at a college dedicated to hurting female students emotionally like that? That’s vile and sordid and so disgusting it turns my stomach.”

“It was a game to them. They had a point system,” Raine said. “If I gave you all the details, it would really turn your stomach. I’d like to say it was college shit, but as far as I’m concerned, by the time you’re in college, you’re responsible for what you do. Your moral code is developed, and clearly the four of them don’t have one when it comes to women. I’m fairly certain they’ll cheat on their wives if they get married. I was appalled when Harlow went out with Bale.”

“You told her.”

“I showed her the evidence. I don’t usually do that sort of thing, but I wasn’t going to let one of my close friends fall into a trap like that. When she walked, he was really angry.”

“Do they know you had anything to do with her finding out about them?” Shabina asked.

“She didn’t tell him she knew about his stupid game or even that there was a tie between the four of them. She just ended their dating. Harlow has never really done relationships here so it wasn’t a huge leap for him to believe that she might get cold feet and run for it,” Raine said.

“Sean asked Shabina out a while back,” Zahra supplied. “She declined and he’s been terrible ever since. He called the police on her today and accused her of trying to poison him. Guess who showed up to check out the complaint?”

“We are so not talking about this again,” Shabina said. “I’m going to get dessert. Raine? Did you order?”

“I wasn’t hungry for lunch, but asked for coffee. Would love dessert, whatever you made as the special.”

Shabina stood up and did her best to glare at Zahra. “Don’t you dare talk about me while I’m gone or you don’t get any dessert. It just so happens to be your favorite.”

Zahra flashed her impish smirk, the one that let her get away with just about anything. Shabina hurried away, glancing over her shoulder several times, trying to look stern.

Raine burst out laughing. “I take it Craig Hollister came in, and technically, that’s talking about him, not Shabina.”

Zahra’s eyes lit up. “That’s true. Yes, Craig came, but she didn’t embellish much. You didn’t happen to look into Craig’s background, did you, Raine?”

Raine looked indignant. “Well, I haven’t looked into his background yet because he likes Shabina but I’m not entirely certain she’s that interested in him. If I was going to snoop, it would have to be a far more interesting person.”

Zahra shook her head. “Sam. I would think you would find him totally intriguing,