Saltwater Secrets - Amelia Addler Page 0,60

Hank, and when Jade spotted him, it seemed like they locked eyes for a moment. Matthew mouthed a hello and waved, and Jade waved back with a smile.

Margie clutched the program in her hand. Had Jade said anything to Matthew yet? It was interesting that Laura wasn’t with him…or was it? Maybe she couldn’t make it. Maybe she didn’t want to make it.

Or maybe…Matthew uninvited her. Every time Margie saw them together, she caught a moment of twisted anger in Laura’s expression. It never lasted long, but it was there. It made her whole sweet-faced facade seem superficial.

Margie wouldn’t get her hopes up. At least not yet.

The lights flickered a few times, and someone from the county council spoke, asking everyone to take their seats because the presentations were about to begin.

Jade was up first. After being introduced, she and Morgan approached the podium. The screen lit up behind them and Margie grabbed Hank’s hand – unlike hers, his was dry and warm. She held onto him and stared straight forward, frozen in the fear that something may go wrong.

The presentation lasted thirty minutes. It got off to a bumpy start, because the screen wasn’t working quite right at first, but as soon as Morgan corrected it, everything moved quickly. They made some sort of presentation that zoomed and swooped, cutting seamlessly into parts of the video that Luke had created.

Jade and Morgan alternated speaking, soliciting laughter and commanding the attention of the crowd for the entire time. When a round of applause broke out, Margie felt like she could finally stop holding her breath.

It was over, and they were absolutely brilliant.

They took their seats and Eric Burke stepped up. He commanded the podium himself, and his presentation came off much more like a sales pitch. It wasn’t bad – he clearly had a lot of experience – but he didn’t have the same heart as Jade and Morgan. Margie recognized that she was a tiny bit biased, but the crowd didn’t seem to respond as well.

After his presentation was finished, there was a ten minute break before they’d take time for questions from the audience. Margie jumped up from her seat, eager to congratulate Morgan and Jade on their presentation. But when she got to the stage, Jade was nowhere to be seen, and Morgan couldn’t account for her disappearance.

Margie told herself not to panic – that Jade probably went to the bathroom or the lobby and wasn’t kidnapped or anything dramatic. She looked around for Matthew anyway – he was coming up to talk to Morgan now. Maybe Margie should enlist him early?

No, no. She was panicking. She passed by him, waving hello, quickly moving to the lobby to see if Jade was already taking questions there.

No luck. She was about to begin a search of the bathrooms when she heard a murmuring over the speakers; the crowd in the lobby quieted to listen.

“Listen man, I’m really sorry about how this all turned out.”

Margie paused – that sounded like Eddie’s voice. But why? She peeked into the theater – he wasn’t on stage. Where was he that he was near a microphone?

“Oh yeah? You’re sorry? Do you have any idea how much money I’m going to lose on this?”

“Jared, come on – things got a little out of hand, don’t you think?”

“That’s not how I see it. You had a job to do, and you failed. Miserably.”

Margie froze – everyone in the lobby was silent now, straining to listen. Who was Jared again? Was he that young man from the county council who always wore a fancy suit? It sounded like him, his flat tone, his controlled voice…but Margie couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“Whoa – that was a mistake. I didn’t mean for anything to actually happen. I was just trying to scare her, I didn’t want her house to catch on fire.”

“If you knew what was good for you, you would’ve finished the job. You would’ve made sure that she never caused us problems again.”

Margie gasped. She spotted Hank from across the room – he was looking around, wildly trying to find where the voices were coming from.

“I’m not a killer,” Eddie said.

“Obviously. I should’ve hired someone else. You couldn’t even make it look like an accident. Get out of the way – there are far more important people for me to talk to, and I need to salvage your mess.”

Margie looked back into the theater and spotted Jade. She was sitting on the stage with