Chapter 29
CHAPTER 29
I spot the exact brunette I’m looking for just as she heads for the exit.
I lean toward my specter sidekick. “Come on, Bea,” I say. “We’ve got our suspect.”
“Finally!” Beatrice shimmers with excitement, her aura glowing brighter than a hot pink sun. “Let’s nail her to a wall and send her straight to the hot place.”
“I don’t know about that. Committing a homicide isn’t high on my list tonight.”
We weave through the crowd, dodging Tinsley and Jennifer who seem to be attempting a karaoke version of “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” at the top of their lungs.
The scent of perfume mingling with booze hangs heavy in the air, and the disco lights swirl madly as we slip out onto the outdoor deck.
The cool night air hits us, and it’s a refreshing contrast to the warm, chaotic atmosphere inside.
“There she is,” I whisper.
Hetty King leans against the railing while staring out at the ocean as if she were spellbound by the dark clouds hovering low, and she seems to be ignoring the fact there’s a wild wind pushing through as that hurricane gets closer.
I take a deep breath before stepping forward.
A few people are mingling around nearby. There’s a couple of women chatting among themselves and a man standing near them in a dark suit with a baseball cap pulled low over his head.
It’s him again!
It’s that strange man I keep seeing, lurking around everywhere we go. I probably shouldn’t be paranoid, but on a night like tonight, it’s sort of a given.
For a second, I consider heading his way and confronting him, but soon the women next to him head back inside and he follows along.
And just like that, the deck is empty in this area. We’re facing the bow and almost no one ever comes this way. Although there are a few requisite chairs set out and a couple of tables. Mostly it acts as a private area for the crew.
“Hetty,” I call out as Bea and I make our way over with our hair blowing wild. Okay, so it’s just my hair blowing wild. Beatrice’s mane looks impeccable and it’s so not fair.
The woman turns my way and her foil-colored dress reflects the moon above.
“Trixie,” she says, elevating her voice a notch over the roaring wind. “How are you enjoying the party?” She attempts a smile, but her face hardly moves a notch. She really should look into dissolving those fillers. Although if I’m right about my hunch, she won’t have to worry about fillers ever again. I’m pretty sure there’s no day spa in prison.
“We need to talk.” The words come from me a touch more somber than I meant them to.
“Sure.” She blinks my way. “Is this about the party?” She presses a hand to her chest as if she were relieved. “I’m so sorry. I tried to tell Elodie that it didn’t need to be so raunchy, but she kept insisting that the raunchier the better.”
“I believe it,” I say as I toss a quick glance at the thrashing waves as they form angry whitecaps as far as the eye can see. The Emerald Queen is starting to sway with the rhythm of the stormy sea as well.
“Let’s cut to the chase,” Beatrice says. “There’s food to be had, and I don’t want to spoil anything, but I overhead Nettie saying something about male strippers.”
She would.
I shake my head at Bea as if to tell her that there will be no strippers. I hate to burst her bubble, but Nettie talks about male strippers on a daily basis and she’s yet to manifest one. I mean, I know Elodie mentioned them, but she only did that to get under my skin. Didn’t she?
Oh my word, she better have.
“Hetty, I have to ask you a few questions,” I finally tell the woman.
She inches back. “What kind of questions? Don’t tell me the girls are trashing the lounge. They can be a rowdy bunch. I’ll put a stop to this myself.” She tries to make her way past me, but I quickly block her path.
“It has nothing to do with the party. But it does have to do with the cruise.” I wince because it’s never any fun asking someone if they’re responsible for taking another life.
“Get her, Trixie!” Beatrice floats up beside me, her eyes glowing like flames. “Let’s see if she can talk her way out of this one.”
I square my shoulders and take a step closer. “I know about your past, Hetty. Or should I say Lucy? ”
Hetty’s eyes widen for a split second before she regains her composure. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I know you worked for Big Bite Burgers, and I know your real name is Lucy Taylor. You and the victim switched identities, didn’t you? That’s why no one knew about Lucy’s family or her past in Oklahoma. She was right about being from Oklahoma, though. I was able to look up Hetty King, and Lucy’s picture surfaced. It was in an article about domestic violence. She was an advocate, but she was also a victim.”
Hetty closes her eyes tight for a moment. “It was something Hetty— Lucy —insisted on doing,” she growls. “She wanted to keep herself safe, you know? She needed a new place far away from that monster that beat her.”
“That makes sense,” Bea says just as the ship rises beneath our feet due to the coming storm.
“It does make sense,” I say, never taking my eyes off Hetty. “But there was something in it for you, too. And if I’m right, you’re the one who initiated the idea. You see, Lucy’s ex is still in prison for what he did to her. He was never a threat once she moved to Connecticut to start a new life. In fact, I was able to easily ascertain that she had a thriving business as an event planner back in Oklahoma. You took that from her, right along with her identity.”
“I did her a favor,” she hisses, her eyes glowing like coals, and come to think of it, so are Bea’s.
“You were running from the police. She did you a favor.” I stab my finger her way as I make my point. “It turns out, Big Bite Burger Corporation had an internal breach right around the time a woman named Lucy Taylor was in charge of their accounts. You embezzled enough funds to throw them into turmoil, and I’m sure you did it expertly, but eventually, you were going to get caught. So you cut and run—all the way to Connecticut. You met up with Hetty and convinced her to switch lives. I bet you promised her the moon.”
“She didn’t want the moon.” Hetty folds her arms across her chest as her chest begins to rise and fall dramatically with each new breath. “She wanted money. Lots of it.”
“And you had buckets of it to give her,” I say. “The money you stole from Big Bite Burger. What I don’t get is why you killed Beatrice Fiddlefae.”
Both Beatrice and Hetty gasp with horror.
“Wait a minute.” Beatrice floats up a notch and the sky takes on a pink aura. “Hetty always brought the fruit salad. I ate it dozens of times. And it never had cantaloupe in it before. In fact, the first time I had it I asked for the ingredients. I asked if she ever put cantaloupe in it and she said she wouldn’t dare. She hated them.” She gasps again and covers her mouth with her fingers. “I had told Lucy about my allergy.” Her glowing eyes flit to Hetty. “But why would she kill me? How was I possibly a threat to her?”
Hetty glares over at me and shakes her head. “Beatrice had to go. She was threatening to ruin Lucy’s life because Lucy ruined hers. And I couldn’t risk her digging around for any dirt. Don’t you get it? Any enemy of Lucy’s was an enemy of mine. Beatrice Fiddle-faddle was nothing but collateral damage and it was all her hotheaded fault.”
“Hotheaded fault?” Beatrice’s voice lowers several octaves as she roars her words over the expanse and sounds as if her voice box morphed into a megaphone. “Trixie, go ahead and say what you have to say to the woman. I’ll finish her off.”
“You lied to me consistently on this trip,” I tell Hetty. “The day we were at the cave at Grand Bahama, you told me you were a certified accountant, but when I asked about it you walked back on it. You lied to me about not living in Bangor. Amber is the one who let me know you used to work for a big fast food corporation, Big Bite Burgers—that she thought you did their billing or something of that nature. This trip was your idea. Lucy couldn’t afford a luxury like this. I bet if I dig a little deeper, I’ll find out that you bought Lucy’s ticket.”
She turns her cheek as if I struck her.
“She couldn’t afford to be here, but you knew this was the perfect venue to carry out your plan,” I continue. “You told me yourself that she wanted to host this bachelorette party at your book club, but since it was meeting at your home, I’m guessing you didn’t want any blood on the carpet. A cruise ship is much more convenient all the way around. And the evidence? Jennifer said that the necklace she wore that night kept coming loose. That you offered to tighten it, but you did the opposite, didn’t you? As soon as it slipped off, you took it. You had other plans for it. You planted that necklace of Jennifer’s in Lucy’s cabin to make her look guilty. You bought that sash covered with glitter and made sure Jennifer embraced everyone at the welcome party—including Lucy. You told me so yourself.”
The night of the welcome party comes back to me—that glorious confection.
“The cake!” I say a touch too gleeful. “Of course, Jennifer didn’t want to cut into it. You handed her the knife by the blade. I thought it was odd at the time. Then when Jennifer put the knife down, I bet you pocketed it somehow. That’s why the police found two sets of fingerprints on it that didn’t belong to the victim. You went to Lucy’s cabin and waited for her and then you took care of a problem you no longer cared to have. With so many people on this ship happy to see Lucy go, I bet you thought you were home free.”
A moment of silence slices by as she glares daggers into me. “I was home free until you showed up. You and those nosey old ninnies you hang out with.” She takes a step my way and jabs a finger in my chest. “I saw you snooping around, asking everyone you could questions. You didn’t think I was onto you while you pretended to chitchat with me that day at the cave? I saw right through your little amateur sleuth routine. You didn’t fool anyone. Least of all me.” She sniffs hard. “Yes, I killed Lucy, and I killed that Fiddle-faddle fool, too!”
“ Hey ,” Beatrice growls. “Who are you calling a fool?”
Hetty zooms forward and grabs me by the shoulders of my beaded dress, her puffy face just an inch from mine. “And I’m going to kill you, too.”