KING’S BAY METROPOLITAN INN

Brent cannot take it any longer. He has been doing his best to circulate through the reception, enjoying himself as he catches up with family and friends. No matter how much he manages to lose himself in a moment, though, he keeps searching for his wife--and more often than not, he finds her in the vicinity of Philip Ragan. When Philip and Lauren move away to get drinks, Brent feels his reservations fall away, and he marches over to Molly.

“Can I talk to you?” he says.

“Of course.” The softness of her voice surprises him; he expected her to bristle at the request. But it is that openness that makes this a crucial conversation. She is too trusting, too welcoming.

“I want you to watch yourself around Philip.” He knows it sounds crazy even as he says it, but that does not make it any less necessary.

She stops just short of a full eye-roll. “That’s the problem? What, are you... jealous?”

“No! Molly, I don’t trust him.”

“Why not?” As soon as the question leave her lips, the answer follows on its heels. “Is this about his mother? Do you seriously think she’s some kind of insane crime lord?”

He rushes to spit out his justification. “It isn’t as crazy as it sounds. Say she was in cahoots with Nick, for whatever reason. She sends her son to King’s Bay, he gets close to someone in the family she hates--” “Brent, this is lunacy.” From out of nowhere, Claire swoops in. “Is everything all right?” she asks them, fully aware that it is not. “It isn’t any of your business,” Molly says.

Her tone sets Brent off. “It is her business. It’s all of our business, Molly. Every one of the Fishers, everyone who’s been hurt by these people.”

“No. It’s nuts.” She sticks her finger in his chest, something he has never seen her do before. “Philip and his mother are perfectly normal people. She’s this society lady who plays tennis and goes to auctions. They live in this amazing house up on a hill, and the locals call it the Castle in the Clouds because of all the fog. You couldn’t ask for anything more idyllic or--perfect. She is not Nick Moriani, Part Two. You two do whatever you want, but leave my friend alone.”

With that, she storms away from them. In spite of her utter refusal to believe him, Brent hopes that she will at least internalize his warnings, keep them in mind as she deals with Philip. He knows it is a stretch, and yet... it isn’t that much of a stretch.

Then he notices the expression on Claire’s face. She seems spellbound.

“What’s wrong?”

“What did she say? The Castle in the Clouds?”

“Yeah. How pretentious is that?”

Claire stares him directly in the eyes, as if willing him toward a realization. “Castle in the Clouds. Do you remember what that lady said--the psychic, or whatever she said she was, in Brazil?”

Brent remembers the woman who called herself Senorita Estella, despite her advanced age. She was their cellmate for the brief time that they were tossed into a holding cell in a Brazilian jail, back at the beginning of this investigation. And no matter how crazy Brent sounded warning Molly about the Ragans, Senorita Estella sounded a hundred times more unhinged.

“The Palace in the Sky,” Claire says. “She said that’s where we would find our answers. The Palace in the Sky.”

Now he knows how Molly felt a moment ago. The idea is so out-there, so utterly bizarre, and yet...

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