Eye of the Beholder

is fine here." Alexa settled deeper into the chaise. "I just called to see how things were going there."
    " Maui is great, as always." There was a smile in Vivien's voice. "Lloyd is out on the golf course as we speak. He'll be back soon. You're sure everything is okay back there? I wasn't expecting you to call."
    Alexa took a sip of sauvignon blanc and contemplated the Cubist-inspired geometric pattern of her black, brown, and yellow rug.
    "I met the owner of the new Avalon Resort & Spa today," she said.
    There was a short, brittle pause on the other end of the line. "You met young Trask ?"
    "I wouldn't call him young. Not anymore. Maybe never."
    "It's all relative, isn't it? But, yes, I suppose he would be twelve years older now, wouldn't he? That would make him, what? Thirty-four?"
    "Thirty-five."
    "Did he remember you?"
    "No, thank goodness. And it was a very casual sort of meeting. I didn't even give him my name."
    "I see." Vivien sighed. "Well, it's not as though we didn't know that he was coming back to Avalon for the opening of the resort."
    "When are you going to admit that you scheduled your vacation so that you and Lloyd wouldn't be here while Trask was in town?"
    Vivien hesitated. "I suppose it was rather obvious, wasn't it?"
    "Uh-huh."
    "Lloyd refuses to be concerned, but I felt that, at best, it would be awkward for both of them to come face-to-face at the reception."
    "Ever the diplomat, hmm?"
    "Ever the coward." Vivien chuckled. "Besides, Lloyd and I were long overdue for this vacation."
    "You just got back from a cruise."
    Vivien let that pass. "I'm sure that Trask has made his peace with his father's death."
    Alexa thought about Trask standing on the wrong side of the guard rail, gazing down into the canyon below Avalon Point. "What makes you so certain of that?"
    "Well, it's obvious, isn't it? He's been a wealthy, successful man for several years. He's got resources. If he'd intended to rake up the past, he would have done so long ago."
    "Maybe."
    "He didn't even bother to visit Avalon during the construction of the resort," Vivien reminded her. "He let his staff handle everything."
    Alexa sipped wine. "True."
    "I'm sure he's only there now to handle the formalities associated with the opening of the hotel. He won't stay more than a few days, at most."
    "Probably not." There was a beat of silence. "Mom?" -
    "Yes?"
    "About what happened twelve years ago?"
    "What about it?"
    "What if Trask hasn't made peace with the past? What if he's back in town to cause trouble?"
    "I really don't think he would have waited this long to come back if he'd had revenge on his mind." Vivien's own anxious uncertainty was painfully clear beneath the surface of her assured words.
    "I was too young to pay attention to the details of the events," Alexa said slowly. "But I do remember that Lloyd was involved in a partnership with Harry Trask and another man."
    "Dean Guthrie."
    "Right. Guthrie. That's the name. He's still around, isn't he?"
    "Yes, of course. I never did care for the man. He drinks too much and he's got a violent temper. I forget how many wives he's had. Three, at least. He divorced the last one a few months ago. Someone said she's a jewelry designer, lives out in Shadow Canyon , I believe."
    "Looking back on it, Mom, do you think there's any chance that Trask was right about his father's death not being an accident?"
    "My God, Alexa, you can't possibly believe that Lloyd would—"
    "No, of course not," Alexa said hastily. "Never in a million years. But what about Guthrie? You just said he drinks too much and he has a temper. Do you think he might have had something to do with Harry Trask's death?"
    "I talked to Lloyd about it at the time," Vivien said quietly. "He has always been convinced that, even though Guthrie has a temper, he's not a killer."
    "Lloyd was always pretty good at figuring out what made people tick," Alexa admitted.
    "You should know," Vivien said gently.
    Alexa recalled how patient and understanding Lloyd had been with her during those tumultuous years after she and Vivien had moved into his home.
    She had fiercely resisted the notion of anyone trying to take her father's place. Lloyd had never tried to do that. She still remembered the conversation she had overheard between her mother and Lloyd shortly after they had married. Vivien had been worried about Alexa's failure to accept her new husband.
    Lloyd had been as steady and calm about Alexa's icy attitude toward him as he was about