Chapter 43
FORTY-THREE
Alani
I’m sure most people would believe that after watching Linc Boswell perform on stage that he is a volatile person, but since living in the house with him I have found him to be the absolute opposite.
I stand close to the family room door beside Lucas trying to hear what’s happening in the foyer.
They’re all speaking in hushed tones and we hear nothing, so his sudden explosion of anger surprises me.
We both peer around the door and Mia joins us.
“What!” Linc reels back on his heels. “Do you honestly think I’d murder someone as a publicity stunt to sell more records? Trust me, I don’t need the money.”
“You’d better come and speak to the family.” Isabelle sounds very calm. She turns to Linc’s bodyguard. “Come with us. I would like a witness.”
We all spring away from the door and sit on the long black leather sofa as footsteps come toward the room.
“A body was found on the beach and it looks like it’s Allison.” Linc runs a hand through his hair and scans our faces. “She’s been stabbed and her throat cut—now these idiots believe it’s a publicity stunt for ‘Blood on the Tide.’”
“You need to calm down, Mr. Boswell.” A sweaty male detective with his sleeves rolled up follows him into the room. “We need to ask you all a few questions. It’s normal procedure. We are not accusing you of anything.”
“Is that so?” Linc shakes his head. “I reserve my right to remain silent. If you want to speak to me or any member of my family it will be with my lawyer present.” He turns to Max. “Call David Brunel and ask him to get to the house ASAP. Tell him the cops are here and accusing me of murder.”
“You’re being very hostile, Mr. Boswell. We haven’t read you your rights, and there’s no need for a lawyer at this time.” The female detective narrows her gaze at him. “What are you hiding?”
Linc pulls his fingers across his lips as if closing a zipper and sits beside Isabelle.
I’m trembling and Lucas’ hand covers mine. He looks at me and smiles. I’m so glad to have him here. The female detective, with eyes like a hawk, notices the exchange between us and zooms in on me as if I’m her next meal. I try to hold her gaze but it’s as if she’s trying to read my soul.
“You’re not one of the Boswells.” The female detective moves a few steps closer. “What’s your name and did you attend the party last night?”
I glance at Linc and he gives me an imperceptible nod. “Alani Fairchild and yes, I did attend the party last night.”
“When was the last time you saw Allison?” The female detective’s lips curl as if she’s won.
“She doesn’t have to answer your questions either.
” Linc flicks me a glance. “My lawyer will represent her as well. I would have offered you my full cooperation before you started accusing me of murder. Now, we’ll just wait until he arrives.
Or you can go on your way and find out who did this, instead of blaming me. ”
“We’ll wait.” The male cop dabs at his sweaty brow with a damp tissue. “Could I possibly get a drink of water?”
Beside me Mia grunts something unintelligible and picks up the house phone to order bottled water for everyone. I feel violently ill and push to my feet. “I need to use the bathroom.”
“Me too.” Mia follows me from the room. In the hallway she grabs my arm. “What’s up? You’re acting like a scared rabbit. Do cops frighten you?”
I rush to the bathroom. “No. It’s not that—I’m going to spew.”
When I come out, Mia hands me a wet towel and leans against the sink, observing me with curious eyes. I look at her. “I’ll be fine.” I wipe my face and the cold water revives me. “I’m still feeling the aftereffects of whatever drug someone slipped me.”
“You really need to sleep it off.” Mia shrugs. “It happened to me too but not at one of Dad’s parties, it was at college. It gets better—trust me, by tomorrow you’ll be back to your old self.”
I nod, glad she is finally opening up to me and acting interested. “Thanks. What was your major?”
“Art.” She winks at me. “Dad converted one of the guest houses into a studio for me. You must drop by sometime and I’ll show you my work.”
I rinse out the towel in the sink and smile at her. “I’d like that, thank you.”
“I guess we better get back to the interrogation.” Mia pulls open the door. “No doubt they’ll believe we’ve been colluding.”
As we walk toward the family room, Max and another man, in his fifties with piercing green eyes and dressed in golfing attire, walk into the room ahead of us.
“David, thank God.” Linc moves toward him. “Thanks for getting here so fast.”
“I was driving to the golf club, went past and saw the cops and then Max called.” The man frowns. “What happened?”
We follow and sit down on the sofa as before. My heart pounds as the cops follow my every move but I ignore them and take a bottle of water that Lucas hands me, and watch Linc speaking to his lawyer outside on the deck. When they return, the man introduces himself as David Brunel.
“My clients will endeavor to answer some of your questions.” Brunel turns to the detectives and then sits beside Linc, pulls a legal pad out of the briefcase he’s carrying, and rests it on his knees.
“Who was the last person to see Allison alive?” The younger detective isn’t addressing Linc, she’s looking at me.
I explain my only sighting of her and give the approximate time. The detective turns her attention to Isabelle.
“Not me. I went to my cabin around midnight. I told her before ten that I didn’t need her for anything.
” Isabelle shrugs. “I’m not sure why she insisted on coming.
To be perfectly honest I didn’t even notice she was missing this morning.
It was only when Linc told me that she didn’t disembark, we all became concerned. ”
“As your assistant, wouldn’t it be unusual for her to be missing?” The male detective stares at her long and hard. “Wouldn’t she be at your beck and call every minute of the day?”
“No, not exactly.” Isabelle pushes a long strand of hair over one shoulder. “But that’s what personal assistants do, she assists me personally.”
The detectives go from one to the other asking the same questions. Everyone gives their answers exactly as we discussed previously but Lucas leaves out the part that someone had spiked my drink.
“You mentioned that there must have been fifty people or more on board last night—guests and staff.” The female detective turns her attention to Linc. “What time did everyone retire?”
“Retire?” Linc smothers a smile. “Not many retire. They usually leave the party deck around midnight and head to the main deck. It gets very windy at night and the main deck has more shelter. The bar on that deck runs until everyone falls asleep. The staff are on duty until two, then they crash, security runs around the clock in shifts and if anything happened, they’d tell me or Isabelle—but nothing happened. ”
The cops alternate asking everyone where they were between the hours of two and six-thirty when Lucas went into the galley. At that time the kitchen staff were already starting to prepare breakfast.
“Where were you, Mr. Boswell?” The female detective moves her gaze over him.
“Read the newspapers.” Linc shrugs. “I slept on the pool table with three women, and about twenty or so other people were in the room at the time. There are photographs and likely footage of when Isabelle found me around seven.”
I look at Isabelle, who stiffens and the look she turns on Linc is pure hatred.
“Ms. Croft.” The male detective turns to Isabelle. “And you?”
“In my cabin—alone.” Isabelle flicks her nails, highly agitated. “I already told you I left the party at midnight. I didn’t see Linc until the morning.”
“Security helped me to my cabin around two.” Mia yawns. “I asked him to stay but he declined.”
I tremble as his attention moves to Lucas.
“I headed to my cabin before two, I guess. I don’t drink. I didn’t see or hear anything.” Lucas rests one bare foot on his knee and smiles. “Alani was with me, all night. We went down to the galley for coffee around six-thirty.”
“There’s one missing.” The detective frowns. “Your other son, Oliver. Where is he?”
“In his room.” Mia stretches like a cat and then folds her legs under her. “He left the party before ten and went to his cabin to play games. He lives in a games world and doesn’t like wasting time, talking to anyone. He eats in his room most times.”
“We’ll need to talk to him.” The detective moves his gaze to Linc. “Can you ask him to come down?”
Soon after Linc calls Oliver, he walks into the room, hair all over the place and with a “Why are you disturbing me?” expression on his face.
The same questions yield the answers Mia gave the cops.
I wait, holding my breath, my heart pounding so fast I’m sure they can hear it.
My shirt is sticking to my back, just like this morning when it was soaked in blood.
I try to keep it together but the visions of my blood-soaked clothes keep replaying in my head.
When the female detective uses my name, I jump and stare at her. “I’m sorry, can you say that again?”
“Is there anything you’d like to tell me?” She frowns at me. “You don’t look so good.”
I laugh. “I ate something that didn’t agree with me and Lucas was holding back my hair all night as I kissed the porcelain. I just went to spew again before. I went to school with Mia, Lucas and Oliver and these are good people. You need to leave them in peace.”
“Okay, that’s all for now but the medical examiner has found residue under the victim’s nails.
” The male detective runs an accusatory stare across everyone in the room.
“We’ll be back. If you’re as innocent as you say, you won’t mind giving us a DNA sample.
” He looks at the lawyer. “We’re waiting on a search warrant for the vessel, and we’ll require the list of names of everyone that boarded and left the yacht including the staff. ”