Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Ezra and I returned to our room. We made the decision to save the news of what happened to Sebastian until morning.
It was late, and no doubt Gilly, Scott, Jordy, and Pippa were already down for the night.
After crawling into our comfortable bed, sleep hit us fast and hard.
We were out like the lights in seconds, not minutes.
The following morning, we gathered everyone in Pippa and Jordy’s room.
The walls were paper thin, but their room was the farthest from the new widow’s.
It felt safer to discuss her husband’s death there than in our room.
Coffee was passed around while Ezra and I filled the group in on everything from the night before.
“We see a few drownings every year in the emergency room,” Scott said.
“It’s possible to drown that quickly, but since you administered CPR right away, I’m skeptical he was alive when he went into the pool,” Scott said, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees.
“I’d love to get my eyes on the doctor’s medical findings to see if there was actually any water in the lungs. ”
Gilly, looking much better than she had the night before, shook her head as she gave me the stink eye. “Why am I even surprised that if there’s a dead body on our vacation, you’re the one to stumble over it?”
She aimed that at me, but Ezra spoke first. “More like the dead body stumbled over us.”
“Okay,” Pippa said, her voice brisk and no-nonsense.
“Let’s say we’re running with the idea that someone else was at the Resplendent last night.
Someone dragged the body onto that chair or something like it.
Who, though? And how did they get him to the top deck without anyone noticing?
Did they have an access card? Wouldn’t their room number register when they swiped it? ”
“All good questions with no good answers,” I said. “The obvious suspect is Callie, the wife. This is her second husband to die. She’s either got awful luck, or she’s involved. Then there’s Charise, our clumsy steward.”
“Oh!” Pippa grabbed her phone from the coffee table. “I downloaded this video at the wifi bar last night.” She tapped the screen and pulled up the clip.
Our steward Charise, her hair longer when she was on the show, appeared on stage wearing a sparkling red dress and matching glittery blue heels.
She belted out a lyrical and haunting rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner as if she belonged on a Broadway stage.
Her high notes soared, and her low notes were rich and powerful.
“She sounds terrific,” Gilly said. “Her voice is amazing.”
The camera shifted to the judges. Sebastian sat in the middle, not just unimpressed but bored out of his mind.
Charise’s expression changed as she noticed his lack of enthusiasm.
When Sebastian glanced down at his phone mid-song, her expression fell even more.
Next, he yawned as she sang a run, and that was it.
Her voice cracked on the final, powerful note.
“That was so rude,” Scott said, wincing.
“That’s not even the worst part,” Pippa said. “Wait for it.”
The first judge, who I recognized as Emerson Lake, an R&B singer from the seventies, leaned forward, smiling warmly.
“Charise, your voice is stunning. You’ve got something really special.
Your raw, emotional tone gave me chills.
” He splayed his hands. “But I noticed you holding back a little. Trust yourself, child, you got this.”
The second judge, Molly Damsel, a pop diva from the eighties, nodded eagerly.
“I agree with Emerson. In the beginning, you connected with the song beautifully, and that’s rare.
But as the song went on, I could see your confidence waver, especially on the big notes.
” She smiled at Charise. “That’s okay. It happens to the best of us.
It’s something you can work on. When you let go of all that fear, you’re going to be unstoppable. ”
Charise fidgeted with the microphone, nodding. “Thank you, Molly.”
“You’re great, you’re great,” Molly repeated as she leaned back in her seat. “Sebastian,” she said. “What did you think of Charise’s performance.”
And then it was Sebastian’s turn to speak.
He made a show of looking down at the table before dragging his eyes up to Charise.
“Total, one hundred percent dreadful. It makes me wonder if you two were in the same room as me.” He turned his words to Charise.
“Your voice is a six out of ten, but your stage presence is a zero. It was about as bad as it gets. I don’t know why you’ve had any encouragement whatsoever. ”
“Come on, Sebastian,” Molly said. “She wasn’t that bad.”
“She wasn’t good either.” He gestured toward Charise, who looked like she’d been slapped. “Whatever the opposite of entertaining is, that was you. Pathetic.”
The host stepped in, placing a hand on Charise’s back. “Is there anything you’d like to say to the judges?”
“I...I...I’ve been taking vocal lessons since I was five,” she managed, her voice shaking. “I know I can sing circles around the other contestants. If you give me another chance, I’ll prove it. I’m a fighter.”
Sebastian scoffed. “From what I just witnessed, you couldn’t fight your way out of a paper chippie cone. As for your vocal instructor, what he’s taught you is criminal. He should be blindfolded and made to listen to you sing while a firing squad takes aim.”
“That’s not fair,” Charise said, her voice breaking as tears fell. “I—”
“If you want to be rude because you can’t handle constructive criticism, you can leave the stage.”
“But—”
“I said, leave.”
The video cut off as she ran offstage.
“Holy cow.” My chest felt tight with secondhand embarrassment. “That was the most brutal thing I’ve ever seen, and I’ve had visions of murder. He verbally eviscerated her.”
“Yep,” Pippa said. “That’s why I recognized her last night.
She was the first person voted out of the top ten that season.
I’ve seen him say some mean stuff to contestants, but nothing like that.
After that episode, his critiques were more gentle, mixing good with the bad.
I’m pretty sure a producer had taken him to task about crossing the line from smart-mouthed mean-girl into hateful bully territory. ”
“She made it all the way to the top ten just to be treated like that?” Gilly’s hands curled into fists. “I’m not sad he’s dead, if I’m being honest.”
I couldn’t blame her. I barely knew the man, but after watching that, I wanted revenge for Charise too.
“There were worse singers in the top ten,” Pippa said. “But he seemed to have a real bee up his butt about Charise.”
I nodded. “After seeing that, I’d say she’s definitely at the top of the suspect list.”
“Do you think Callie’s been informed yet?” Scott asked.
“I’m sure they told her last night,” I said. “But I didn’t hear anything from her room.” I glanced at Ezra. “Did you?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”
“Hmm.” I sipped my coffee. “I’m sure they’ve found her by now.”
“Well, we can’t do anything about it right now,” Gilly said with a sigh. “So, I vote we go get breakfast. After that, I want to hit the sun deck, catch some rays, and read.”
“And the murder?” Pippa asked, raising a brow.
“If it is a murder,” Gilly said, playing devil’s advocate, “let’s leave it to the professionals.”
Ezra shot her a dry look.
She wiggled her fingers at him. “You know what I mean. Ship security professionals.”
“And if they try to cover it up and call it an accident?” I asked.
“If that happens, you have my permission to ruin your first real vacation in years,” Gilly said. “Until then, leave it alone. Okay?”
I didn’t want to argue, so I nodded. Ezra caught my eye, his brows slightly raised. I gave a small shake of my head.
Good. He was still with me, and I was with him. Gilly hadn’t found Sebastian. She didn’t do CPR or watch him get shocked again and again with no result. She hadn’t heard the second person on the deck. She wasn’t invested the way Ezra and I were.
“Okay,” I said finally. “Let’s get breakfast and see where the day takes us.”
There was a consensus to eat breakfast in the main dining room, where we’d had dinner the night before.
The breakfast cooked to order sounded delicious, and I was in the mood for some over-medium fried eggs, bacon, and crispy hash browns.
The chances were slim to none that Charise would work both breakfast and dinner shifts, but I’ll admit that was partially the reason for my vote.
“I’m having the avocado toast with the poached egg,” Pippa said with enthusiasm.
“How millennial of you,” I teased.
She rolled her eyes. “I’m practically Gen X.”
Gilly snorted a laugh. “Pippa, sweetheart, I love you like I love my left foot, but in no way, shape, or form are you practically Gen X.”
She lifted her hands and began lowering fingers one at a time. “My parents neglected me. I was left to fend for myself before and after school...” She paused, seemingly stumped.
“Go on,” Gilly told her. “I’ll wait.”
Pippa put her hands down. “It’s too early in the morning to think this hard.”
“All right, Nora. Let’s show her how it’s done.” Gilly held up both hands.
“Latchkey kid,” I said.
Gilly put a finger down.
“Nuclear hot metal slides that burned the skin off your thighs.”
She put another finger down.
“Trash eighties.”
Gilly laughed again and put her next finger down.
Pippa’s brow dipped. “What’s a trash eighties?”
“I’m glad you asked,” Ezra muttered.
“It was the TRS-80 computers we had in school. This was before the internet. We had DOS-based computers that you could program. I made a program that would find the sine, cosine, or tangent of an equation as long as you knew two of the numbers. I used it to cheat in math.”
Gilly snickered. “I programmed Pixel Dog to walk across the bottom of the screen.”
Scott chuckled. “That’s my girl.”
“I’m sorry I asked,” Pippa said with a sigh. “To stop you from going on and on, I’ll concede that I’m not Gen X.”
“Awww.” I stuck my lower lip out in a pout. “We’ll let you have Xennial if it will make you feel better.” Even if she was a few years away from her forties.
“It will make me feel better,” she said brightly.
Our conversation going to the dining room was easy and breezy. Literally. The wind was crazy on the open part of the deck you had to pass to get to the restaurants.
When we got to the main dining area, Gilly whistled. “This place is huge.”
It wasn’t decorated as fancy as it had been for dinner, but the sea maiden was still dumping water over her head.
“Stay away from open flames and the fountain,” Scott warned, and we all laughed again.
On their first date, Gilly tripped into a flambé, her dress caught on fire, and Scott tackled her into a koi fountain to put her out.
Her dress, unfortunately, became see-through when wet, and everyone got a good look at her fancy red underwear and bra.
The thought of that night, even with the dead body, made me smile.
“I won’t order any flaming desserts,” she promised.
The hostess told us it was open seating, so we picked a table near the fountain. That’s when I saw the security chief, Rebecca Hansen, just outside the entrance. I tapped Ezra’s leg and used my chin to gesture in her direction.
“Come on,” he said, getting up.
“Where are you going?” Gilly asked.
“We’ll be right back,” I told her. “If the server comes around before we do, order me a coffee and some orange juice.”
“Gotcha covered.” She gave me a thumbs-up. “What about you, Easy?”
“I’m coffeed out,” he said. “I’ll take some ice water, though.”
We made a quick beeline to the entrance, worried Hansen would leave before we could catch her. When she saw us coming, I could tell she was debating whether or not to make a run for it. Lucky for us, she stayed put.
“Good morning, Mr. Holden and Ms. Black. Can I help you with something?” she asked.
I came right out with my first question. “Did you look at the video footage from the spa area?”
“I can’t comment on an open investigation. With what you told me about your experience with police work, you should know that.”
I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice. My mother always said you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. “So, you did see the second person on the video,” I said. “I don’t understand why you can’t just say it. It only confirms what we told you.”
“There’s no video,” she blurted before snapping her mouth shut. “I shouldn’t have told you that.”
“What do you mean no video?” Ezra asked suspiciously. “You probably have a dozen cameras up there.”
We hadn’t noticed any, but it stood to reason.
“We have two. One pointed at the hydrotherapy pool area and one by the bar. It’s an exclusive area, and our guests pay for privacy, so we don’t put cameras on the hot tubs, the steam room, or in any of the shower or bathroom areas.”
“You said you have one on the pool,” he poked. “I don’t understand the problem.”
“And it’s not your problem to understand,” she gritted out between her teeth in a hushed voice. “But, if you must know, there was evidence of rodents near the camera’s mount, and the wiring in the back had been chewed through. There is no video.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Isn’t that convenient.”
Hansen gave me a chastising glance. “There’s not a single thing convenient about it, Ms. Black. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to work.”
“Hey,” I said before she could get away. “Did you inform Callie Caldwell about her husband’s death yet?” Before she could lecture me on open investigations again, I added, “She’s my neighbor. I don’t want to say the wrong thing if I run into her.”
Hansen sighed, then nodded. “Not yet,” she told us. “She wasn’t in her cabin last night.” My face must’ve registered alarm because the security chief continued. “We have a few all-night activities open, like the casino and such. I’m getting ready to go to her suite now and try again.”
“I’d ask if you’ll keep us informed,” Ezra told her, “but I’m pretty sure I know the answer.”
“Now we’re starting to understand each other,” Hansen said. “If I require anything more from the two of you, I’ll come find you.” She whipped around on her heel and speed-walked away.
I looked at Ezra. “Did you buy that about the rat?”
“Oh, I definitely think there’s a rat,” he said. “But the kind that moves on two legs, not four.”
Speaking of rats, where was Callie? Her scarcity kept her at the top of the suspect board, and it would take overwhelming evidence and a strong alibi to change my mind.