“I saw it on the model, in the library.” His face darkens. “I showed Sienna, too.”
“How convenient,” mutters Jaxon. He turns back to the group. Millie’s hanging behind the others, still avoiding his gaze at every opportunity. “Well, I know what I saw. Someone was up there.”
“Are you sure?” asks Priscilla. “It could have been a trick of light—”
“Someonewas standing in that window. And since Millie and I were outside, and Malcolm was...” He swallows, changing tack. “Well, it had to have been one of you.” He looks at Kenzo, Cate, and Priscilla. “My money’s on Kenzo.”
The horror writer rolls his eyes.
“But whoever it is,” Jaxon presses on, “they seem to be fine with people accusing an innocent man of murder. So that’s nice.”
“We’re not accusing you of murder—” starts Priscilla.
“Well, Millie is,” offers Kenzo.
“—but,” continues Priscilla with a warning look, “given everything that’s happened, I think fornow, it would be best, Jaxon, if you stayed in your room.”
Jaxon flinches. “Is that really necessary?” He scans the group, which is, admittedly, smaller than it was two days ago.
“I think I would feel safer,” whispers Millie, refusing to meet Jaxon’s gaze. “If he was locked in.”
Jaxon tries to back away, but there’s nowhere to go. Not with them all blocking the stairs. “But I didn’t do anythingwrong.”
Kenzo rubs his neck. “Look, one body is an accident. Two is a pattern.”
“Three,” adds Cate, “if you count the editor going AWOL.”
Jaxon snaps his fingers. “Maybe Rufus killed Sienna before he took off with the boat. Has anyone considered that?”
But no one’s listening, at least not to him.
Priscilla lets out a world-weary sigh. “It’s nothing personal, Jaxon, but—”
“Like hell it’s not,” he says. “You can’t justlock me in.”
Kenzo flexes his fingers on the ax, and the next thing Jaxon knows, he’s being corralled down the hall, toward his door. “Come on, Mill,” he says, but she’s turning away, letting Cate lead her down the hall.
“In you go,” says Kenzo when Jaxon stops outside his room.
Jaxon looks to Priscilla, who at least has the decency to seem conflicted about all this. “You’re seriously going to lock me up? Because of something Milliemighthave seen?”
She rubs the furrow between her brows. “It’s not forever. But until we get to the bottom of this...”
“Okay, but there’s no bottom, because it was an accident. Think about it.Whywould I push him?”
“You didn’t exactly get along,” says Kenzo.
“I don’t get along with you either,” he snaps, “but I haven’t tried to kill you.”
“Yet,” says Kenzo. “As for motive, well, he took that potshot at you yesterday. Maybe you wanted to finish what he started. Or maybe you just thought you’d tip the odds further in your favor.”
Jaxon shakes his head. “You’re wrong.”
Kenzo shrugs. “Better wrong than dead.”
He prods Jaxon with the blunt side of the ax, and Jaxon grits his teeth as he shuffles back across the threshold into the room. He spots the key jutting out of the lock and lunges for it, but Kenzo gets there first. “Cool old doors,” he says. “They lock from either side.”
Jaxon looks to Priscilla. “Someone’s lying, and it’s not me.” But it’s no use. Her expression is now set. His stomach growls. “What about food?”
