No Ordinary Man. Suzanne Brockmann

get married after just one date.”

      “Prince Eric and Ariel did,” Kelsey countered. “And so did Belle and the Beast.”

      Jess gave Kelsey a kiss. “If only,” she said, “life could be as simple as a Disney animated movie.”

      “MURDER ON SIESTA KEY—Victim Twelve?”

      The sensational newspaper headline caught Jess’s eye at the gas station, inside the little attached convenience store.

      A woman had been murdered on the beach on Siesta Key. Last night. Not more than a mile from the Pelican Club.

      Jess quickly skimmed the article. The coroner’s report estimated the victim’s time of death at about 1:30 a.m.—just shortly after she had left the club. Minutes after that disastrous kiss.

      Where had Rob gone after that? What had he done? He certainly hadn’t gone onto Crescent Beach and slit a woman’s throat. Had he?

      The unpleasant truth was that Jess couldn’t say that for sure. She didn’t know Rob well enough. She knew he had a dark side and a violent past. But just how dark and violent?

      According to the article, the police were hesitant to link this death to the Sarasota Serial Killer. All of the previous murders had been committed in the victims’ own bedrooms—this killing was done right out in the open, on the beach, not far from where Jess’s parents owned a house. And the woman didn’t fit the killer’s usual type. She was older, with light brown hair.

      Not that it really mattered. Either way, the poor woman was dead.

      And Jess couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that the dead woman could well have been her.