“Has she confessed?”
“No. In fact, she’s insisting she’s innocent.”
“Wow. All along, I thought it was Bruce Ellis.”
Nic’s cell phone chimed. “I need to head out. Patterson is holding a meeting to update the security department.”
Suharto started to follow, and Nic stopped him. “As a precaution, I would like you to stay with Millie until we reach Bermuda, and Kate Moxey is removed from the ship.”
“Of course. I will be glad to.”
“You’re a good man.” Nic squeezed Suharto’s shoulder. “I also plan to meet with Patterson soon to discuss promoting you to level three security.”
Suharto blinked rapidly as he puffed out his chest. “I will take a new position with pride.”
“I’ll see what I can do.” Nic excused himself while Millie joined Suharto for her first cup of coffee.
There was a hint of humidity in the early morning air, and Millie could’ve sworn she heard the palm trees swaying, calling her name. They were almost home, and it made her heart happy.
While they enjoyed their free moments, Millie and Suharto discussed the day’s schedule.
“You still look troubled, Miss Millie.” Suharto studied her face.
“I’m not getting a warm and fuzzy. Something doesn’t feel right.” Millie checked her watch. It was late morning in the UK. “Halbert swears he saw the strangler on more than one occasion. I’m going to call him.”
She dialed his number, and he picked up right away. “Hello, Millie.”
“Hello, Halbert. How are you doing today?”
“Very well. A dockhand gave me his old fishing rod and tackle. I’m going fishing.”
“That sounds like fun.” Millie shifted the phone to her other ear. “The strangler has been caught.”
“He has?”
“She. It’s a woman. Her name is Kate Moxey.”
“A woman?” Halbert grew silent. “They’re wrong. It’s a man. The strangler is a man. I would put my life on it.”
“You’re sure?”
“I am.”
They chatted for a few more minutes. Millie thanked Halbert, promising to talk again soon, before ending the call. She waved the phone in the air. “Halbert swears the strangler is a man.”
“We will talk to Patterson after his meeting. In the meantime, I will be with you, Millie. You will be safe.”
“Thanks, Suharto.” Millie exited the bridge, while Suharto hung back, planning to follow her from a distance.
Up first was Andy’s before-the-crack-of-dawn, early morning staff meeting. She headed to the stairwell and began making her descent, mentally ticking off the list of things she needed to discuss with him. She wondered if Patterson had cancelled her guest services desk duty and then wondered if he would leave her probation in place since her hunch had proven to be wrong.
At least she had tried.
Millie covered the sets of stairs at a quick pace. She was almost to the employee exit, adjacent to the deck four passenger corridor, when she heard a tink.
She spun around, catching a glimpse of someone behind the cutout near the fire extinguisher.
With shocking speed, the shadowy figure was on top of Millie, dragging her to a nearby exit, a crewmember shortcut to a lower deck.
She tried to scream, but there was an unbearable pressure pressing down on her windpipe. Millie fought against the pressure and pain as she pried the Viper from her jacket pocket.
Her attacker had Millie’s neck in the crook of his arm as he kicked the door open. In that moment, she realized if her attacker reached the railing, he could easily throw her over the side of the ship and into the ocean. No one—not security, not Suharto, would ever know what had happened to her.
She dug in her heels, blindly fighting back, kicking at the person who held her in a powerful grip. She began to feel lightheaded. With a burst of pure adrenaline, Millie shoved the Viper against her attacker’s arm and pulled the trigger.
ZAP.
A jolt of pure electricity transferred from the Viper and through the strangler’s long-sleeved jacket. In an instant, his death grip loosened, and Millie’s attacker fell to his knees.
Bruce Ellis’s cold-blooded black eyes—the eyes of a ruthless killer—stared back at her.
“Help!” The pressure on her windpipe made the cry for help little more than a desperate whisper.
She scrambled backward, her eyes never leaving Ellis.
As if possessed by some superhuman power, Bruce Ellis lunged forward and grabbed Millie’s ankle. She fell hard on the concrete floor and began clawing her way to the stairwell.
Ellis’s grip tightened and Millie screamed, this time louder.
A door banged shut.
“Millie!” Suharto’s voice echoed in the stairwell.
“Down here,” she wheezed.
Suharto bolted down the steps and flung himself at Millie’s attacker.
As soon as Ellis released his hold on her ankle, she twisted sideways and went after him, zapping him a second time with the powerful stun gun. He jerked back, his body stiffening as he let out a garbled breath.
Suharto grabbed his radio. “Charlie! Charlie! Charlie! Aft stairwell deck four.”
Things moved fast as security arrived on scene. Patterson was only seconds behind them.
Millie crawled to the wall and propped herself against it as she watched the security team pat Bruce Ellis down.
Patterson waited until his men cuffed the killer before joining Millie. “Are you okay?”
“I’m…I’m fine.” Millie struggled to maintain her composure as the realization she’d almost died hit her full force. “He was choking me. He tried to drag me outside, to the railing.” Her voice cracked. “He was going to throw me over the side. No one ever would’ve found me.”
“You’re safe now.”
“Yes. Yes.” The shock of what had almost occurred hit her full force, and a tear slid down her cheek. “Thank God we’re all safe now.”
*****
The head of security radioed Nic, who promised to meet them downstairs in Patterson’s office. Suharto joined Millie, and they watched as he, along with a small army of security guards, escorted the handcuffed strangler down the steps and to the ship’s holding cells.
They reached his office, and Millie’s legs trembled as she sank into an empty chair near the door.
Nic burst into the room moments later and rushed to his wife’s side. “Patterson said the strangler attacked you in the stairwell and tried to drag you outdoors.”
“It was this close.” Millie pinched her thumb and finger together. “He came out of nowhere. He was choking me and dragging me. Like I told Patterson, I would’ve vanished.”
She pulled the Viper, the police-grade stun gun, from her pocket and carefully placed it on his desk. “If not for this, I would’ve been dead. I’ve decided I’m going to put this on my Christmas list.”
Chapter 25
It wasn’t until the next day, after Millie had recovered from her near-death experience at the hands of the Southampton Strangler, that Sharky tracked her down and asked her to stop by.
He was in his office when Millie arrived, perched atop his PRV. Millie grinned when she spied Sharky’s cat sprawled out in the basket attached to the front. “I see Finn is enjoying his new ride.”
“We both are. I even upgraded to a larger basket to give him more room.”
Millie scratched Finn’s ears. He batted at her hand and began purring loudly as he playfully nibbled on her finger.
“I heard what happened yesterday morning. You’re a celebrity around here and probably in Southampton too,” Sharky said. “I gotta say, you’re pretty gutsy to take on the strangler.”
“Not by choice. He was targeting me. Now that you mention it, there are a few blanks that need to be filled in. Do you mind if I give Patterson a call?”
“Be my guest.”
Millie lifted her radio. “Patterson, do you
copy?”
“Yes, Millie. Go ahead.”
“I’m in Sharky’s office and was wondering if you had any updates on the strangler.”
“As a matter of fact, I just met with the captain and security staff. We’re wrapping up our meeting. Hang tight, and I’ll join you.”
“Ten-four.”
Sharky watched as Millie replaced her radio. “How did you…”
“Figure out who it was?” Millie pulled the now crumpled note from her pocket. “I knew I was on the strangler’s radar, but I couldn’t figure out why. So, I started taking a closer look at his victims. Edith Branson was first. She and her husband were business owners. They owned a large manufacturing company in Southampton.”
Millie handed Sharky the sheet. “The next victim was Sophie Young, a postgraduate student who worked alongside her father, a UK lawyer. The third victim was what triggered it for me. One of the stories I read mentioned she had been a juror, and not long after the trial, was convinced she was being stalked.”
“Ah.” Sharky ran his finger down the list. “Rich business owner, trial lawyer, juror.”
“Bingo. Separately, it might not mean much, but then Nic and I were at a cocktail party that was attended by acquaintances of Clarissa Sinclair. One of them, Hilda Ellis, was convinced she was being followed and had snapped a blurry photo of her stalker. She showed it to me and then texted me a copy.” Millie stopped, staring at Sharky expectantly.
“And…” Sharky rolled his hands. “You’re the super sleuth. What am I missing?”
“Who would care about being photographed while stalking someone?” Millie answered her own question. “The Southampton Strangler, who was already suspected of being on board the ship.”
“Okay, so the lady manages to snap a picture of some weirdo following her.”
“Not just any weirdo. Her husband. My theory is Hilda suspected her husband, had known something was up. I think the last straw was during a conversation she and I had at that cocktail party. We were discussing the surveillance cameras on board the ship, how all the common areas are under surveillance. She told me she read stories of secret cameras being installed in hotel rooms and was going to check their cabin.”
“And she found something else instead,” Sharky said. “Something that implicated her husband.”
“I believe so. That’s why I told Patterson after Ellis tried taking me out to go back to Hilda and Bruce’s cabin and tear it apart.”
“To find what?”
Millie lifted a finger. “Good question, and one I hope Dave Patterson can answer.”
“I heard he arrested some chick after finding out she may have killed that reporter in Southampton,” Sharky said.
“Kate Moxey. That’s what I don’t understand. How is Kate Moxey involved?”
Patterson arrived, and he wasn’t alone. Andy was with him. “There’s our super sleuth hero.”
“I have to admit, this one was a doozy,” Millie said. “So, now that you have Bruce Ellis locked up and are getting ready to turn him over to the authorities in Bermuda, what did you find?”
“Remember when I mentioned a twist?” Patterson asked. “How the authorities discovered skin beneath Clarissa’s fingernails, but determined it didn’t belong to the strangler—Bruce Ellis?”
“Right.”
“As you already know, it belonged to Kate Moxey. All the people in Clarissa Sinclair’s party submitted DNA samples before boarding the ship. Hers was a perfect match.”
“That’s what I don’t understand. Moxey was the strangler, too?”
“No. Bruce Ellis and Kate Moxey were having an affair. Clarissa must’ve somehow discovered it, she confronted Kate, they argued, and Kate killed her.”
“Wait a minute.” Millie did a timeout. “The Moxeys are swingers. Why would it matter?”
“Money.” Patterson rubbed his thumb and fingers together. “According to the Ponsfords, Kate and Harry Moxey were moving to the US after being disinherited by their wealthy families because of their lifestyle. Kate was after Bruce Ellis’s money. From what we can piece together, she planned to ditch Harry as soon as they reached the States.”
“Because of the settlement,” Millie guessed. “So, Kate knew Bruce was the strangler and yet she still planned to leave her husband for him?”
“She swears she had no idea. Did she?” Patterson shrugged. “Only she and Bruce know. At this point, what does it matter? She has blood on her own hands.”
“Wow.” Sharky let out a low whistle. “I guess it takes all kinds to make the world go ‘round.”
“Did you search the Ellises’ cabin?”
“We disassembled it piece by piece. There’s a small cubby beneath the bathroom sink. It’s used to access the pipes. We removed the panel and found some interesting items hidden there.”
“A blue tennis shoe and a charm bracelet.”
“Yes. Both items have been identified as belonging to the strangler’s victims. Unfortunately, Hilda put your life in danger when she shared the picture of her stalker with you. All we can surmise is Bruce found the picture on her phone and noticed she’d forwarded a copy to you.”
Millie wagged a finger. “Now, there was another clue. After Hilda was found dead, I delivered flowers to the Ponsfords and the Moxeys. They mentioned Hilda and Bruce’s holiday home in Florida and then said something about settlement money. That’s when the lightbulb went off.”
“Settlement money, manufacturing company, daughter, not to mention, employee of a trial lawyer, the juror,” Patterson said. “The Ellises, after years of litigation and going back and forth with the lawsuit, finally received a settlement from Edith Branson’s company. The trial lawyer, Arthur Young, who represented Branson, managed to get the settlement amount reduced.”
“Ah.” Millie leaned her hip against the desk. “And the juror, the unidentified jogger, was in favor of the reduced settlement. Bruce was furious, so furious he decided to kill them. I’ve been trying to figure out how he ended up getting a substantial settlement until yesterday, when he tried to take me out.”
“His eye,” Patterson said. “Bruce Ellis lost one of his eyes in a warehouse accident while employed by Branson’s manufacturing company.”
“I wonder why he took a five-year hiatus and then started up again.”
“I don’t know.” Patterson rocked back on his heels. “Maybe he figured the authorities were closing in and decided to cool it. There are some things in a serial killer’s mind, or in any killer’s mind, we’ll never know. There’s always a chance that Bruce Ellis wasn’t the original strangler. It’s something the authorities will have to figure out.”
Millie reminded him of the incident when she suspected someone was following her in the stairwell. “It happened before Hilda forwarded the picture to me, and it threw me off.”
“It could have been one of two things,” Patterson said. “Number one, your overactive imagination was engaged.”
“But Andy saw someone too,” Millie insisted.
“I did,” Andy said. “Although it could have been nothing and I could’ve avoided getting zapped.”
“I am sorry for zapping you. I’m also sorry I ever suspected you of being the strangler.”
“Me?” Andy’s brows furrowed. “How could you possibly think it was me?”
“The fact that you left the ship early the same morning Clarissa’s body was found and then, after discovering she’d managed to injure her attacker...”
Andy interrupted. “I came back with a shiner on my forehead.”
“And scratches on your arm. By the way, how did you get the scratches?”
Sharky chuckled. “I can explain that. Better yet, I’ll show you.” He picked Finn up and carried him toward Andy.
The cat clung to Sharky, hissing loudly.
“Finn doesn’t like you,” Millie said.
“I never have done well with cats.”
The cat recoiled, hissing a second time.
“See? I
can’t even get close to Finn.” Andy stepped away from the hissing cat as he placed a hand over his chest. “Dogs, on the other hand, adore me.”
“It could be your loud voice,” Millie said. “Keep quiet and then try to pet Finn.”
“He’s going to attack me again.”
“Andy,” Millie chided.
“Fine,” Andy whispered as he gingerly held out his hand.
Finn shrank back, and then his small black nose started to wiggle.
“Slowly.”
With his hand palm up, Finn cautiously sniffed Andy before backing away.
“By George, I think you’re onto something, Millie,” he said in a soft voice.
She dusted her hands. “Another mystery solved.”
“To answer the other part of Bruce’s suspicions about you, my theory is he thought you and his wife were getting too cozy, and he was trying to scare you,” Patterson said.
“Which makes the most sense. So, now it’s time to toss out my probation and I have a credit for future use,” Millie joked.
“Depending on what it is. I reserve the right to change my mind.” Patterson turned his attention to Sharky. “Still enjoying your new set of wheels / rescue vehicle?”
“It’s a sweet ride. I’m really looking forward to a nighttime water rescue practice run.”
“We might be able to squeeze one in during our stopover in Bermuda.”
Sharky’s eyes lit. “I can’t wait. Hey, Millie.”
“No way. You’ll have to find someone else for the next water rescue.” Millie started shaking her head. “I’ve had enough excitement to last me for the rest of this voyage.”
The end.
Dear reader, I hope you enjoyed reading “Southampton Strangler.” Would you please take a moment to leave a review? It would mean so much. Thank you!
–Hope Callaghan
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