fireworks, June, and nothing you do will stop Gigi from moving into your brother’s house if he wants her there.”
“Oh!” She flung herself down into a chair, which protested with a loud creak.
“Let’s make it official then. The motion passes,” Dmitri called out joyfully. “Let’s have another round of drinks, shall we?”
“No more drinks,” I said pointlessly.
“I have something I’d like to bring to the council’s attention,” Sudsy said as June pouted from her seat.
“Is it on the agenda?” I said. “If it’s not on the agenda, then we’re not talking about it today.”
“How could I put it on the agenda? I only got the phone call this morning. Anyway, I have been contacted by a small Michigan production company, Grand River Films, and they’d like to use my Beech Tree Bed & Breakfast location for a movie! Isn’t that something?”
Well, it wasn’t on the agenda, but that was pretty good news. We’d had movie crews on the island a handful of times before, and they were always a fabulous source of revenue, not to mention being great for publicity.
“Think of the business this would bring, what with their crew needing places to sleep and eat. They hinted at some big-name stars, too. I think this could be a real boost to our entire economy, especially in light of our jewel thief situation.”
“There’s no jewel thief situa—” I said, or tried to say, before being cut off by Maggie Webster.
“Speaking of the jewel thief,” she said, leaning over the table, “I heard he once snuck into the governor’s mansion while the governor and his wife were sleeping and made off with her grandmother’s pearls.”
“That’s not true,” I said.
Gertie leaned forward, too. “Did you also hear that he’s got loot buried all over the island? Just like a pirate. I wish I’d come across his secret map. We could all be rich!”
“There’s no map,” I said.
“Delores Crenshaw told me she heard that in the summer of 1992 he actually camped in that little cave by Bent Rock. He’d sneak out at night to get food from the restaurant dumpsters, and sometimes he’d bathe in the pool at the Imperial Hotel.”
“No, he didn’t,” I said.
“I heard he’s French and a descendant of the Marquette family. You know, as in Marquette Street, right here on the island.”
“He’s not,” I said.
“I think he must be staying on the island right now. Why else would that FBI agent come around and start asking questions?”
“He wasn’t an FBI agent,” I said.
The room filled with voices and stories and hearsay and exaggeration, and absolutely no one was listening to me at all. I thought about stomping my feet or pounding my fist on the table. Maybe I needed a referee’s whistle. Or a megaphone. That might do the trick.
“I heard he’s stolen dozens of items from hotel guests but replaces them with cheap replicas so no one notices until it’s too late.”
“He comes from a vastly wealthy family and only steals for the pure joy of it.”
“He donates money to children’s charities and only keeps enough to live on.”
“Mrs. O’Doul recognized the man in the pictures that the investigator showed her, only she couldn’t recall where she’d seen him before.”
“She probably saw him in her grocery store. He was probably stealing food and she didn’t even realize.”
I sighed and sat down, resting my elbows on the table. There was no point in trying to stop this flood of misinformation. I looked out into the bar again, and Leo smiled at me, replacing my frustration with the city council with a brand-new kind of frustration. Frustration of a sexual nature. A frustration that had been growing inside me since dinner the other night. I kept trying to ignore it because it was pointless. Even if Leo did pursue me, I wasn’t interested in a meaningless fling because . . . because it would be meaningless. If I put my heart on the line, it was going to be for something substantial. Something real that could last. Still, I couldn’t deny he’d gotten under my skin, and no man had done that in what seemed like an eternity. It wasn’t just that Leo was handsome. It’s that he was nice. We hadn’t done anything together other than talk, and yet the conversation had seeped inside of me and had left a mark.
Leo disappeared from view but seconds later appeared in the doorway of the meeting room with a tray of drinks. He set a Jack and Coke in front