Love is a Many Splintered Thing

by Jamie Lee Scott

  “That’s not true at all.” Lyle stepped back.

  “I’d like to talk to her as long as she’s here.”

  Lyle rolled his head around as if his neck were sore. “Aw, man, she doesn’t want anyone to know she’s with me.”

  “Really? She didn’t live tweet your entire hook up?” Sarcasm was not becoming on me, but I loved it.

  “Oh, shit, I don’t think she did.” Lyle reached to his front hip, as if to check his pocket for his phone, but no pockets, no phone.

  “Please tell her to come out here and talk to me, or she’ll be talking to the FBI next.”

  Lyle went back in the room while I waited in the hall. Several employees passed by as I waited. I smiled and waved, and they looked at me as if I might be insane. Not far off the mark.

  Almost five minutes later, Emily slowly opened the door and stepped out of the room. She held her shoes in her hand, and it reminded me of Kendra leaving the bar the night before.

  “You get around, young lady,” I said. “Enjoy your youth, it doesn’t last long enough.”

  “Who are you? And what do you want with me?” She dropped her shoes to the floor and slipped her feet into them.

  “I’m Charles Parks. I’m a private investigator working with the FBI. Your good buddy, Alan Daly, went missing last night, and I wanted to ask you a few questions.”

  She hugged a sweater she held in her arms. “What about him? He’s an asshole.”

  “Yes, I’m gathering that. But you didn’t think he was so bad on the flight now, did you?”

  “Look, I had way too much to drink in the lounge while I waited for my flight. This trip was a rebound vacation. I was supposed to get married this weekend, and at the last minute, my fiancée took a job halfway across the country and dumped me. I’ve had a shitty week.”

  “So the Twitter thing was your way of getting even with him?”

  She nodded, looking me straight in the eyes. “I’m not even sure if he still follows me on Twitter, but my friends would see and make sure he knew. It was my final…” She flipped her middle finger of her right hand up.

  “But you decided you liked Alan? I mean, otherwise why would you call him out at dinner last night?”

  “That was stupid, and alcohol induced, too. I never drink, but I’ve been drinking all week, and making stupid decisions. Though, I have to admit, Alan could have been a catch if he weren’t married.”

  “Not really,” I said. “He was a drunk on a plane who cheated on his wife, who he says he loves.”

  “But he’s rich!” Emily said.

  “Is he? Or is that what he wanted you to think?”

  She raised her brows. “Oh.”

  “Look, you want to snag a rich one, pretend to be rich. Buy a pair of CZ earrings in a decent size, go to a shop like Anne Taylor, and have an attendant help you find nice, classic clothing. You only need five or so staples in your wardrobe. Make sure your shoes are good. Go to Nordstorm’s or Neiman and look at the shoes, then buy something similar at Payless. Then go sit in a bar at a very expensive hotel and watch people. How do they dress? How to they interact? Mimic them. Pretend you don’t need money or a guy. That’s how you snag a rich one.”

  Now her mouth opened a little to go along with her raised brows. “Wow, you’ve really thought about this.”

  “Not really, but I send my agents into high end establishments and they have to look the part. It’s how they learn to fit in.” I reached out and moved the strand of hair off her face. “And subtle makeup. So subtle it looks like you’re not wearing any, and yet you’re all painted up.”

  “Thanks for the advice I didn’t ask for, but that’s not why you called me out here.”

  Ungrateful wench. “No, it’s not. I want to know what contact you’ve had with Alan on the ship.”

  “Yeah, Lyle said he’s missing. That sucks. But I’m sure he’ll turn up. He probably passed out somewhere.”

  “I had considered the same scenario.” I hadn’t.

  “You think it’s something worse?” she asked.

  “I do. I know he embarrassed you. He lied, and he cheated. That must have made you really mad.” I looked at her intently, looking for changes in her expression.

  “I embarrassed myself. More than once. But, for real, I didn’t give a darn about him. I did want his wife to know what a loser she was married to, though. And confronting him at last night’s dinner was fun.” She smiled at the thought.

  “Even though Kendra punched you in the face and knocked you on your pretty little butt?” I enjoyed reminding her.

  “She hits like a girl. And yeah, it was so worth it.” She touched her cheek. “I’m just glad she had bad aim and didn’t give me a black eye.”

  “If you’d known he’d go missing, would you have done it?” Her answer would tell me a lot about her.

  “Absolutely. His wife shouldn’t be mourning his sorry ass. She’d be crying and upset over a guy who didn’t deserve her. Have you seen her? She’s stunning.” Emily’s animated gestures as she spoke told me volumes. She wouldn’t have killed Alan. She didn’t care enough.

  16

  Mimi

  Being with Cal drained my energy, and somehow made me feel dirty. But at least I got him to talk. I wondered how Charles had fared as I pushed open the room to our cabin.

  Startled, I said, “What are you doing here?”

  Charles looked up from his computer. “I’m checking out some financial records on our missing man.”

  “Kendra told me he had a drinking and gambling problem, but he’d pretty much gotten it under control, though she wasn’t sure after what happened on the plane.”

  Charles didn’t respond right away, engrossed in the screen of his computer.

  I went into the bedroom and picked out a new outfit to wear, then decided I was being foolish. I hadn’t even touched Cal, so I wasn’t dirty. Instead, I walked back to the living area and out to the veranda. The fresh air would wash away the mental dirt. When I was out there, I remembered the blood on the railing.

  Looking over the edge, I tried to find the blood. For the life of me, I didn’t see anything that looked like blood. Then I looked up, thinking I might see something from the eleventh floor. When I did, I realized we weren’t directly under Alan and Kendra’s room; we were two rooms over. I could see the crew fixing the hoist of the lifeboat that had been askew. The lifeboat Alan allegedly landed on, or hit on his way overboard. No blood on that, either. They’d probably cleaned it up, if there had been any blood on it at all.

  I heard Charles calling me.

  “Did you clean the blood off the railing?” I asked as I walked back into the cabin.

  “No. Why?” He continued to type without looking up at me.

  I stood right next to him. “I didn’t see any.”

  “No worries, mate, I took a sample before I even told anyone.” Charles’ Australian accent needed work. “I don’t trust these people. Max said they’d cover their butts before worrying about the victim.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” I sat in the chair next to him.

  “I didn’t think about it. But I’ve got more important information.” He pointed to the screen. “See that?”

  I leaned in and looked at what seemed to be a credit card statement. “What am I looking at?”

  “Alan told Lyle, the bartender, that he purchased the cruise tickets a while back, before he started having financial problems, and that he tried to get a refund, but decided to go on the trip anyway, after he couldn’t get his money back. But I’ve looked back eighteen months and don’t see any ticket purchases. In fact, his credit cards have been maxed out, with only the minimum payment made for almost two years.”

  “Interesting, but what does that mean?” So, Alan lied about the cruise tickets. How did that relate to his disappearance?

  “I’m not sure yet. No one seems to be telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.”

  “They aren’t under oat
h, so you’d expect they would?”

  “I wouldn’t expect it if they were.”

  I heard the crackle of the ship’s speaker system.

  “Good morning, passengers, this is your captain. You may have noticed, we’ve docked in Cabo San Lucas, but I regret to inform you, the disembarking of passengers will be delayed. Due to circumstances beyond our control, all passengers must stay on the ship. We are expecting this matter to be resolved in a matter of hours, so please be patient. Thank you for your understanding and patience in this matter. I’ll let you know the new time for disembarking as soon as I have more details. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience.”

  “What do you think that’s all about?” I asked.

  “The FBI is at the port, and they don’t want anyone to leave the ship until we have more answers,” Charles said.

  “Did you find out anything good?” I asked.

  Charles stopped typing and looked at me. “The college crew didn’t tell me much. They said they dropped Alan off at the room, then left to have breakfast.”

  “Really? That’s what Cal said, too. Did they tell you the room was trashed?”

  Charles cocked his head. “What? They didn’t say anything about being in the cabin.”

  “Well, did you ask if they had been in there?” Why wouldn’t he ask?

  “Not in so many words.”

  I told Charles what Cal had told me about the room being a wreck, and how he left before Marvin and Clay, then met up with them for the midnight buffet.

  “The rest is almost word for word. Did Cal say anything about seeing Kendra with Lyle at the buffet?”

  Now it was my turn to cock my head. “No, he didn’t.”

  “I talked to Lyle, and he swears that even though Kendra was all over him, it was innocent. When it went too far, he got up and left Kendra in the dining area.”

  “You believe him?” I asked.

  “Considering he had Emily in his room this morning, yes.”

  I stared at Charles, waiting for him to tell me this was a joke. “This is like a small town: everyone in everyone else’s business. Truth is stranger than fiction. And this reminds me. I need to talk to Emily.”

  Charles shook his head. “I’ve already talked to her. I’m a pretty good judge of character, and I believe her when she says she’s not dwelling on Alan. She said she only made the scene in the dining room because she wanted Alan’s wife to know what a jerk he was.”

  “Really? What about the texts? Didn’t you say she was super mad, and she wanted to see him or something?”

  He shook his head again. “I didn’t ask her about that. She seemed genuine. Said Alan was a rebound hook up. She wanted her ex, who had just dumped her the week before their wedding, to see her moving on.”

  “Ouch, that had to sting,” I said. “So you checked her off the list?”

  “I haven’t done anything, yet.”

  “Fine. What’s next?” I asked.

  “Let’s go over this,” Charles said.

  “Go over what?” I asked. “The tweets?”

  “You’re missing a few cards.” Charles reached out and smack the top of my head. “Let’s do what we’d do if it were our case. Start from the beginning.”

  “What do we know so far?”

  “Alan told me he was supposed to fly out with his wife, but he had to stay behind because of a problem at the restaurant, so he flew out on the later flight and hooked up with Emily. Also, he’d been drinking at the bar before his flight boarded. I’m sure he had a few more on board, at least according to the tweet images.”

  I listened, then added, “He and Kendra embarked on this cruise for their anniversary. Then Emily happened to be on board. Oops.”

  “Right, and that causes a rift between Kendra and Alan. Then we find out Alan likes to pretend he’s rich.”

  This caught me off guard. “What? What do you mean?”

  “He’s wearing an Audemar’s Piguet Royal Oak watch worth $150,000, carries around a wad of cash, and he talks like he’s loaded. Not to mention the money he lost at the blackjack table.”

  “If he’s that poor, he needs to sell the stupid watch,” I said.

  “That’s not really the point, is it? The wad of cash is really ones, but he has larger bills wrapped around the outside, making it look like a wad of hundreds.”

  “Old trick,” I said.

  “But when he was at the bar and got diarrhea of the mouth, he told Lyle he was broke. Up to his eyeballs in debt. And according to his credit cards, he is. But it still doesn’t add up.” Charles leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “Back to the timeline. Emily confronts him at dinner, then he goes out and plays cards instead of tracking down his distraught wife. That’s a flag. In the bar, he’s with the guys from the card table, not with Kendra. In fact, they only speak when she confronts him. Then she left. And that’s when he fell on the floor and puked.”

  “That about sums it up. But if this is an anniversary trip, why bring the in-laws?”

  “You said the trip was planned long in advance. Maybe it wasn’t originally meant as an anniversary trip,” I said.

  “Still, the in-laws don’t have a cabin on the same floor.”

  I didn’t know that part. “Have you approached them yet?”

  Charles glared at me. “Am I supposed to do everything?

  “Seriously? This isn’t even my investigation,” I said.

  “Yeah, but you were being nosy before Alan ever disappeared. Maybe you left the cabin last night while I slept. Maybe you confronted him, in a sick and twisted way at getting over your own grief and anger, then you fought, and in his drunken stupor, he fell over the railing.”

  I laughed so hard I almost peed myself. “You’ve got part of it right. Alan fought with someone. Or did he?”

  “What do you mean?” Charles unfolded his arms, leaning forward to look at his computer screen. “Roger said he got a loud noise complaint, but when security went to Alan’s room, he opened the door and said all was well. What time was that?”

  “I don’t know,” I said.

  Charles looked something up on the computer and said, “It was at 12:17 in the morning. So we know Alan was alive then.”

  “Great. That narrows it down,” I said, not really meaning it.

  “It does. We just need to check the key card activity from 12:17 am on. And let’s check only the people who knew Alan for now. Though, with all the geriatrics on this cruise, I doubt many were up past midnight.”

  “You can’t count them out. My grandma gets up at four every morning,” I said.

  “I’m still discounting them.”

  “Back to the noise complaint. Alan answered the door. No noise after that. What if Alan had been yelling and trashed the room himself?” I thought this scenario quite plausible.

  “I think that’s exactly what happened. He was mad. And he was looking for something. Something he desperately needed or wanted. But it wasn’t there. Could he have slipped and fallen while in a rage? That’s the blood in the bathroom. Head wounds bleed like a stuck pig.”

  My mind went back to the room with a fresh perspective. “Did you see a key card on the floor at any time?”

  “No, but I wasn’t looking for one. Why?”

  “Kendra said she saw a key card on the floor under the nightstand. She said she picked it up and put it on the nightstand. She said Alan never left the room, because the key card was there. But I told her he could have left the room without it. There was no logic.”

  “That wouldn’t have anything to do with Alan’s whereabouts.”

  “That’s what I told Kendra.”

  “Maybe it’s significant. I’ll try to get back in the room to check.” He closed the laptop and leaned back in the chair. “We don’t even know if there really was foul play. All we know is there’s blood in the bathroom, and Alan hasn’t turned up. Maybe something else caused the lifeboat to come unhooked, or whatever it was that happened. So man
y coincidences on this cruise, it’s almost like a dream, not reality. Like my brain has convoluted everything, but while I’m dreaming, it makes sense. When I wake up, it’s all a jumbled, incoherent mess.”

  “I have dreams like that all the time.”

  A loud knock sounded at the cabin door.

  I got up to answer, never expecting to see who would be standing there.

  17

  Charles

  Good thing I followed Mimi to the door. I expected it to be Roger, and I didn’t want him in the cabin. I didn’t want him to see what I’d printed out, and how I’d hacked a few of their systems to get that information. Even with the laptop closed, I didn’t have all the papers put away.

  I could feel the energy drain from Mimi when she opened the door.

  “Hey, what are you doing here?” I asked.

  Mimi stepped back from the door, not saying a word.

  “Max said he had an assignment, and it happened to be on the cruise ship you and Mimi had run away on,” Nick said, in a matter of fact tone of voice, and with no emotion. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. “You forgot this.”

  He had to reach out and lift Mimi’s hand. He shoved the phone in it, and she closed her fingers around it, but didn’t look at it.

  “Come in. We were just discussing the missing person. Did Max tell you what was going on?” I opened the door wide, shoving Mimi over, and letting Nick in. “Where’s Max?”

  Nick stepped into our room. “He’ll be here in a few minutes. He stopped to talk to the head of security. There will be two more agents coming in a few hours.”

  “The guests on board are going to be mad. They’ve postponed disembarking until the FBI arrives and starts their investigation. Don’t want the culprit stepping off in Mexico.”

  Mimi stood at the door, still looking shell shocked.

  “Mimi, come sit with us,” I said. I pointed to the set of chairs around the coffee table.

  Mimi’s brain must have come back online, because she walked over to Nick before he sat down and wrapped her arms around him. “I love you.”