High Intensity by Dara Joy Page A

everyone a suspect, including that wit-challenged cat. I'll advise Blooey and…" He was about to say Hambone.
    Zanita looked at him and arched her brow.
    "Ah, I'll alert the crew to watch their backs and keep an eye on the suspects."
    "Suspects? Suspects in what?"
    "I don't know yet."
    "Tyber, try to remember that this is supposed to be a simple ghost-hunting investigation. You really don't need to liven it up any more than that."
    He took her hand again and resumed the walk. "If that's all it is, well and good. But if it isn't, then—"
    "Someone is making it seem as if it is," Zanita finished for him.
    "Yes. And that is what we really need to find out."
    She bit her lip. "You act as if the ghost is not even in the picture! I don't think I like that. You promised me—"
    "He's in the picture, all right—but only as a footnote, right now."
    Zanita looked back at the house one more time and froze in her tracks. She yanked on Tyber's arm.
    "What is it, baby?" Concerned, Tyber turned quickly toward her.
    "You can see our room from out here!" she gasped. "You told me that no one could see us!"
    Tyber's brow furrowed. "That's curious."
    "I'm going to kill you! How could you let us— What's curious?"
    "Someone moved the hammock on the veranda."
    Zanita followed his gaze. "Where was it before?"
    "Right in front of that juniper bush to the left of the window."
    "Maybe the secret passageway is on the veranda," she quipped sarcastically.
    Tyber didn't react to her jibe. He just looked pensive.
    "Well, I think I've had enough walking for tonight. It's getting cold. Why don't we go in?"
    "Uh-uh. We need to go around to the other side of the house." Before she could say anything, he took her arm and half dragged, half led her.
    "How come?"
    "I'm memorizing the outside layout, including any possible entrances or exits."
    Zanita viewed the sexy genius askance and took a shivery little breath.
    Tyberius Augustus Evans was her kind of man.
     
    Chapter Five
    "Stop going through my underwear!"
    Zanita was indignant.
    Tyber's lips twitched. "I'm just making sure nothing was tampered with, baby. Besides, I thought you liked me going through your underwear."
    "Will you be serious? You've checked this room thoroughly three times! Nothing has been changed, left, or altered. And just what do you think anyone would be doing in my underwear?"
    Tyber chose not to answer that. He held up a skimpy pair of pink lace panties, letting them dangle from his forefinger. "They could have planted something in… when did you get these?" A dimple popped into his left cheek.
    Zanita grabbed the bit of lacy frill from his hand and stuffed it back into the drawer. "Never mind that."
    "Someone was in this room. They were here for a reason. I want to know why."
    "Are you going to examine my nighties, too?" she flung at him, exasperated.
    "What nighties would those be?" he drawled, giving her one of his special looks. The kind that had a tendency to turn a woman into Jell-O. The kind that said, "You don't ever wear nightgowns around me."
    She flushed. "When are you going to check out the veranda?"
    "Not now. It's too dark to see anything, and I don't want to put the light on out there; it will only draw attention to the fact that we're searching for something. I'll check tomorrow in the daylight. In the meantime, I'll place the hammock back in its original position. That way, if there is some hidden trapdoor out there, no one will be able to use it without us knowing about it." He walked over to the French doors and, after checking the locks, opened them and stepped out onto their private porch.
    Zanita leaned against the door frame as Tyber dragged the hammock back in place. "What would be the purpose of having a trapdoor on a porch? I never heard of that. Do you think there is something stored under there? Perhaps a hidden room of some sort?"
    "Could be. But my guess is that it's a passageway under the main part of the house. Probably built when the house was