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his head had been.
    â€œI swear to God, I’m going to get that sucker,” Sam said before he stomped from the water and back toward the main building.
    Dalton surfaced and waved at Lyon. “Get my camera, will you? And have Bobby take the boat out a hundred yards with everyone aboard except Sam. I’ll meet you guys out there.”
    â€œThat man should be quarantined on an uninhabited island,” Bea said as she climbed aboard the houseboat.
    â€œDo you know where Bobby is?” Lyon asked as he followed his wife aboard.
    â€œThey told me he was on board. Let’s look in his stateroom.”
    They walked through the main saloon and back toward the rooms. The last door was slightly ajar. There was a couple on the bunk.
    Katrina Loops did not have on her string bikini, in fact neither she nor Bobby Douglas wore anything. Lyon and Bea quickly turned and hurried back down the hall but not before they were viewed with alarm by the embracing couple.
    â€œWait!” Katrina rushed down the companionway after them, wrapping a large terry-cloth towel around her large frame as she ran. She clutched at Bea’s arm. “Please don’t say anything to anyone. Please.”
    â€œWe didn’t intend to,” Bea answered.
    She turned to Lyon. “He’d kill me if he thought I was doing it with anyone else.” The woman had momentarily lost any vestiges of sophistication, and had reverted to a teenager’s fear of authority.
    â€œNot a word,” Lyon promised.
    She looked at each of them a moment, clutched the towel tightly around her neck, and then hurried back down the hall.
    â€œI have questions,” Bea said when they were seated on deck under the awning. “Would Sam have bludgeoned Dalton to death if he had caught him during that wild chase?”
    â€œThe way I read Sam, he would have beaten the hell out of Dalton, but not killed him.”
    â€œMaybe true over the practical joke,” Bea said. “But in other areas I’m not so sure.”
    â€œMy question,” said Lyon, “is, if Katrina is so concerned about Dalton finding out she’s having an affair with Bobby, why in the hell do they do it in the middle of the day on Dalton’s boat with the door open?”
    â€œI think she wanted Pan to walk in on them,” Bea said.
    â€œAh, that was the game plan.”
    â€œAn ancient method of hiding the real reason for suspicion,” Bea said.
    â€œWhat have you heard about Douglas? I don’t believe Dalton’s story about running drugs.”
    â€œPandora tells me that he’s a ranked tennis player and will be the pro here at the resort when it opens. He’s crewing this barge only until his leg tendon mends. Let’s see if we can find a drink. I need something to help me recover from World War Three.”
    Dalton changed clothes, but not before closing the drapes in the main saloon and insisting that they all sit Indian fashion on the floor. No one commented on the unorthodox seating, but they all knew that it gave them protection from possible gunfire.
    â€œIsn’t anyone going to talk to me?” Dalton asked.
    â€œNo one wants to talk to you and Sam wants to kill you,” Pan said. “Bambi was so embarrassed that she ran off the job crying hysterically that the only reason she tried to do it was because she didn’t want to die a virgin.”
    â€œWhat!” Dalton yelled. “Bambi was a virgin? Why wasn’t I told? I would have demanded the right of droit du seigneur . Where’s my camera?”
    â€œI threw it in the water! You jerk!”
    Dalton smiled bitterly. “That wasn’t a very nice thing for Miss Conviviality to do.”
    â€œOh, stop it! I was never Miss Conviviality and you know it. The only votes I ever got were from my high-school football team when they selected me as Miss Community Chest, and I’ll leave that one to your imagination.”
    â€œThat