19. Secret at Supper #2
“Sadly, you’re mistaken. The neighbours confirmed that neither left the house the night he died,” Isaiah said, successfully drawing everyone’s attention back to him.
“The wife clearly found out about the affair and killed him,” Douglas scoffed.
“But how?” Isaiah asked.
No one had any ideas.
“How do you seal an envelope?” Isaiah asked Poppy.
Poppy frowned. “Lick it?”
“Precisely. The wife painted the envelope seals with a substance I won’t name. I don’t want to give any spouses at the table any ideas.” This earned him a few laughs, some more nervous than others. Poppy certainly wouldn’t blame Naomi for wanting to poison her husband.
“She poisoned him?” Naomi gasped. “Surely that would have taken—”
“Months,” Isaiah finished for her. “Revenge and patience can be best friends in the right circumstances. She bought the substance from her plastic surgeon, who was practising with an expired license, so we had no way of knowing about him or the drugs he was illegally selling. Since the doses were so small and consumed over a long period, his symptoms would have been minor until it finally stopped his heart.”
“How did you catch her?” Sophia asked, and the table leaned in. Everyone was so desperate for an answer that Poppy would have heard a pin drop.
“When we first went to the house, we took some discarded bin bags from the skip. My partner’s idea –I can’t take credit for his forward thinking. We tested the envelopes the girlfriend had given us and those in the house for the same compounds, and sure enough, we had our murder weapon.”
“Serves him right,” Samantha huffed. “I don’t blame her. Cheated on for years, and she had the patience and brains to develop such a scheme. I wish she hadn’t been caught.”
“It’s my job to investigate. What happens after that is up to the judge and jury,” Isaiah said, as the guests stared at him in admiration.
“Thank you for entertaining us. It’s thrilling to discover how the pieces come together.” Sophia clapped her hands gleefully.
Poppy noticed his forced smile as the table erupted into applause. She hadn’t needed to hear the story to know he was a great investigator. If he wasn’t, he wouldn’t be sitting beside her now.
The guests started to ask more questions – could he tell them about another case? How long had the woman got? How had he felt about it?
Poppy didn’t want to know the answers. He had protected her, a confessed killer, and she couldn’t help but wonder if he would one day regret putting aside the truth to protect her and grow to resent his feelings for her.
With the dessert plates being taken away, she decided it was time to make a break for it.
“Thank you so much for having us, but I’m starting to feel a little seasick. If you wouldn’t mind excusing us,” she announced, placing a hand over her stomach to emphasize her point.
“Thank you,” Isaiah whispered, pulling out her chair. She should have known he would suspect her sudden illness.
“Yes, please go and get some air. We’ve kept you long enough, and thank you for coming,” Sophia said, walking down the table. “I really hope we can talk again soon. Our aunts would want us to look after each other now that they are gone.”
Poppy was surprised when Sophia wrapped her arms around her and squeezed tightly. She froze before returning the gesture to avoid seeming rude.
“Thank you again for having us,” she said, unsure what else to say. “I’m sure we’ll cross paths again,” was the best she could come up with.
“I’ll make sure of it! Now, be off with you,” Sophia said, shooing them out of the dining room.
They said a quick goodbye to the table, but the guests had already moved on to other topics.
“If you didn’t feign being sick, I was going to. Every minute at that table felt like an hour,” Isaiah asked, pulling her close to his side with a mischievous grin. Poppy had never been so happy to skip dessert.
“Smarter than you look. I had to get you out of there before they made you get up on the table and dance,” Poppy replied, kissing his cheek.
“You handled their nonsense like a champ, and I definitely owe you one. Add one slice of cheesecake to my debt.” It felt like a weight lifted from her shoulders as they escaped the party.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got my dessert right here.” He ran his hand over her waist, sending shivers up her spine as they walked past a few other half-empty dining rooms and restaurants.
“You’re insatiable.” Poppy rolled her eyes – not that she minded being his dessert. In fact, she was looking forward to an after-dinner treat.
“Only when it comes to you,” he said, kissing her hair.
“Stop that. We need to focus.”
“You’re right! I’m all business.” Isaiah removed his hands from her and stepped to the side for emphasis. “Since we didn’t discover anything new from our fellow dinner guests, I have an idea,” he said, directing them toward the rainforest bar, the only one that seemed to be crowded.
“It had better not involve food. I think those twelve courses will keep me stuffed for the rest of the trip,” Poppy said, placing a hand on her food baby.
“Don’t worry, this doesn’t involve food.
Did you notice the mirrored walls in the glass room?
The waiters were using those secret passages, and I was thinking that if we can follow the passages to the lounge deck where we last saw the killer disappear, we might be able to find something and salvage this night. ” He offered her his hand.
“It couldn’t hurt to try,” she said, happily taking his hand as he led her inside.
The sounds of monkeys chattering and chirping birds, combined with the heavy foliage and rocking of the ship, overwhelmed her senses.
The storm was ramping up as the night wore on, and the décor made it feel like they were trapped inside a swaying rainforest. She struggled not to laugh as Isaiah tried to walk in a straight line.
The place was packed, so they went unnoticed.
That was precisely what they wanted to get into the staff area, but they had to linger a little so they wouldn’t get caught.
“Forgive me for my lack of grace,” he said, gripping her hand tighter and looking as adorable as Bambi on ice. “How are you doing this in heels?”
“Years of dancing. I think you just want to hold me closer,” she teased.
“That’s a bonus.” He winked, bracing himself against a table filled with guests downing their umbrella-filled cocktails. He apologised for interrupting them, but they were too drunk to care.
“Just focus on one of the trees. Any fixed point will help you with your balance,” Poppy said,putting her arm around him before he ended up on the floor.
“Right, fixed point.”
Poppy watched as Isaiah spotted and followed a waiter carrying a tray.
“Hopefully, he’ll lead us to a passage opening,” he murmured as they walked towards the bar.
Unfortunately, the waiter started taking drink orders behind the bar instead of leading them to the hidden entrance.
“Keep your eyes on the other waiters. Those clearing tables will have to discard the glasses, so it shouldn’t take too long. ”
They didn’t have to order drinks; the bartender placed two fruity cocktails in front of them as they stood at the bar waiting.
“We might as well enjoy ourselves while we wait,” Poppy mused, smelling the strong scent of banana from her cocktail.
“Oh God,” Isaiah said, taking a long draw from a sparkly straw. She wished she had a camera to get a shot of his face. His lips puckered, and he shivered. “That’s deceptively strong.”
“Since we’ve some time to kill, was that story you told at dinner true?” Poppy asked, taking a sip of her own drink. He wasn’t lying about the strong taste of liquor; from the bright yellow colour she had been expecting something sweet, not bitter.
“No.” He smiled to himself.
“Are you kidding?” Poppy shoved him playfully, tipping him off balance again. She grabbed his jacket to stop him from falling over.
“I’d never talk about official cases over dinner. I just wanted that guy across from us to shut up,” he admitted.
“How did you come up with it so quickly?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper, as they watched the waiters around the room.
“Some old crime show episode. Not a bad episode, but licking all those envelopes? Could you imagine the paper cuts?”
He grimaced, but Poppy was distracted by a waiter disappearing through the side of a tree between the lagoon and the stage.
A secret passage, just like the one the killer must have slipped into.
Poppy wished security had thought to put some cameras in the passages.
Clearly hers wasn’t the only situation they wanted to hide.