Not waiting for them to respond, she turned and started walking towards the elevators. She heard both Tom and Carol following her, and they stepped into the elevator along with her. They were looking at one another, as if trying to communicate telepathically.
Stepping into the outer office, she motioned to Diane. “Hold all my calls for fifteen minutes.” She showed the couple into her office.
Once everyone was seated, she motioned for Carol to talk.
“It’s just… we just…” Carol looked between Tom and Jade. “Disagree on something.”
“Okay.” Jade nodded. “It’s normally not my place to interfere in a personal relationship, but when it bleeds into my business…”
“We understand,” Tom said eagerly as he took Carol’s hand in his. “It won’t happen again.” He started to stand up.
“Is it true?” Carol asked, pulling her hand free of Tom’s. “About the missing girl?”
“Yes, Megan Evans went missing late last night from the beach. Do either of you know anything about it?” she asked, eager. Was this what they were fighting about? Coming forward? “If you have any information, I promise, you won’t be in trouble. We’re just hoping to bring Megan back to her family, safe.”
Carol looked over at Tom for a moment.
“No,” Tom said. “We don’t know anything about it.” Carol bit her bottom lip.
“Carol? Is this true?” Jade asked.
Carol turned to Jade and slowly nodded. “I… thought I saw her leave to the beach. That’s all.”
“Did you see anyone follow her?” Jade asked, knowing full well the woman was hiding something.
“I…” Carol started after looking at her husband. “It’s just…” She seemed to straighten up. “I might have.”
“You did or you didn’t?” Jade sat up, excited that there might be a witness. “Could you pick him out if I show you some pictures? Do you know if he was a guest? I can have the police…”
“No.” Tom stood up. “Carol is mistaken,” he said firmly. He took his wife’s arm and hauled her up. “We’d better get back to work.”
Jade watched the couple quickly leave and wondered what the hell was going on. Before she could think about it further, her phone rang and didn’t stop ringing for almost another hour.
She spoke to several press outlets wanting to set up interviews and even more concerned guests or future guests. Wyatt was right, she was there to do a job. Normally her father would have filled that role. Her father. She’d completely forgotten about calling her parents back. They must be off the train by now and somewhere they had good service.
Quickly finishing the call that she was on, she immediately dialed her parents and filled them in.
She hadn’t realized she’d skipped lunch until Diane poked her head into her office and asked if there was anything she needed before she left for the day.
Looking at her watch, she realized that it was past six o’clock. How had she not realized it was so late?
Instead of heading downstairs, she headed home. Walking into her place, she could feel the tension release almost instantly. Moments after removing her shoes and pouring herself a glass of wine, Wyatt knocked on the door.
“Come in,” she said, motioning. “Drink?”
“I’ll pass, but I ordered us some dinner. It should be here soon. We can talk after.” He pulled her into his arms.
“Mkay.” She relaxed into the kiss.
“I missed you,” he said softly into her hair.
“Ditto.” She sighed and relaxed further.
After their food arrived, they took it out onto the patio and ate while they watched the sun sink in the sky. She was enjoying another glass of wine as Wyatt started talking.
“We’re looking into how it might have been possible to get Megan off the island. We have set up other measures, or will after tonight, to fix a few of the resort’s blind spots.”
“Blind spots?” she asked.