Love is a Many Splintered Thing

by Jamie Lee Scott

  “How can he keep this type of thing from her?” I asked, knowing full well how easily a wife could believe her husband and be deceived.

  “You believe what you want to believe, I guess,” Georgia said. She looked back over her shoulder. “Is Alan’s disappearance the reason we can’t go into Cabo?”

  “It is. We can’t let anyone who may have been involved in the disappearance off the ship. We may be letting a killer loose in Mexico.” Nick looked over at the growing crowd of passengers wanting to go shopping.

  Something Charles said came to mind. “Alan said this was an anniversary cruise. He told someone else he purchased the tickets several months ago. Yet we can’t find any record of him purchasing the tickets in the last eighteen months.”

  Georgia’s brows furrowed, and her nose looked as if she smelled a rotten egg. “We bought the tickets. Last month. Oy vey, that man can’t tell the truth if his life depended on it.”

  Bruce snickered. “Apparently, his life did depend on it.”

  I frowned at Bruce’s words. “No one said he’s dead. Just missing.”

  Bruce shrugged. “Sorry, but since the FBI was involved, I assumed he was dead. My mistake. But no great loss.”

  “Strangely, he also increased the payout on his life insurance policy earlier this year. Sort of coincidental, don’t you think?” Maybe I shouldn’t have shared that information. Nick looked at me with something that resembled confusion and reverence.

  “You’ve got to be kidding. Did he tell you he did that? Because I’m the one who talked him into it. Even though I couldn’t stand him, after all he did, Kendra is family. Alan wasn’t.”

  Not Alan isn’t, but Alan wasn’t. Interesting choice of words. “Why did you tell him to increase his life insurance? As it was, he couldn’t pay his credit cards. Now he’ll have a higher premium.”

  “I paid the premium. We both got the insurance policies when we were in business. I continued to pay it, even though Alan was persona non grata. Like I said, Kendra needed to be taken care of when Alan died.”

  Not if Alan died, but when.

  “You realize this makes you a suspect?” Nick said.

  Bruce’s mouth opened, as if he had something to say, then he shut it again.

  “How is he a suspect, just for wanting to make sure Kendra wasn’t left with Alan’s debt?” Georgia asked, stepping closer to her husband.

  “Back to the tickets. Why did you buy them? If you disliked Alan so much, why go on a cruise together?” Being in the same city was too much as far as I was concerned, but on the same ship, no way.

  Nick asked another question before they could answer mine. “Did Kendra know about the life insurance?”

  Georgia and Bruce shrugged in unison. Jinx.

  “You don’t know?” I said.

  “Let me put it to you this way: if she did know, Alan would probably have gone missing months ago. I’d take the money and run if I were her.”

  From behind us, someone called, “Hey, Bruce!”

  I turned to see Cal waving at Bruce and Georgia.

  Cal’s smiled faded when he saw me, but he waved. And I waved back.

  My heart raced when I took a closer look at him.

  “You know Cal?” I asked, looking at Bruce.

  “Yeah, sure, I guess. I mean he was one of the guys Alan played cards with. From OSU, you know?” Bruce spoke slowly, as if looking for the words to say the right thing.

  “Funny you didn’t mention that when I brought them up earlier,” I said.

  20

  Charles

  Max looked sharp in his FBI suit. While many agents wore inexpensive suits, Max’s taste in clothing forbid him from wearing a cheap suit. He did keep it to household names though, and this suit, though custom tailored, came off the rack at Calvin Klein. Navy suit with a white shirt and red tie. He could be POTUS in that suit, though I wouldn’t wish that job on my worst enemy.

  After eating fresh fruit, croissants, and strong French roast coffee, we got down to business. I told him everything I learned since talking to him. About the contradiction in stories from the Ohio State guys, about the blood being cleaned up after I expressly said not to touch it.

  “I need to get back in that room, but Roger isn’t going to do anything to help me at this point. I think the defense attorneys embarked with you.”

  “They did. And they made it clear we’d need warrants for any records, CCTV, or other evidence.” Max stood and straightened his suit pants.

  “What about getting into the room to see the alleged crime scene?” I asked.

  “We did discuss that I’d have access to the room.” Max pulled a key card from his jacket pocket. “Want to go take another look?”

  The security detail had been removed from the eleventh floor, and no one stood outside the Daly cabin. No one even noticed when we entered the cabin.

  Everything looked exactly the same as the first time. At least they hadn’t cleaned up the scene. Even though I had photos, the real thing was much better. Max pulled out his cell phone and began taking video, documenting from the time we entered the room. He spoke aloud about the things he noticed. The blood on the bed. Blood in the bathroom.

  In the bedroom, I remembered what Mimi said about the key card we missed. I walked around the far side of the bed and saw the key card still there.

  “Got a baggie?” I asked.

  “The crime scene techs will be here soon. They had a later flight.”

  “Do you have any way to pull prints?” I asked.

  “I have a piece of new technology we’ve been testing.” Max pulled a small black case from his pocket. “I’ve been carrying it everywhere. It’s not admissible in court, but it’s good for preliminary investigating.” He opened the case and removed a piece of plastic that looked like a transparent credit card.

  He placed the card over the top of the keycard without touching it, then put his cell phone over that, and pressed his screen. This caused all the fingerprints on the card to illuminate in fluorescent purple. He clicked and took a photo of the prints.

  I turned the card over and he performed the task again.

  “I need to make a call. Give me a minute.” Max walked out of the bedroom.

  I felt slighted. He didn’t want me to hear his phone call. But this was business, not personal. On the business side, I usually knew about all the latest gadgets, even if we couldn’t afford them for the agency. Max had a piece of technology I needed to look into.

  Max walked back into the room and found me staring out the porthole at the ocean. “You know there’s a better view from the living room. A full window that opens and everything.”

  “This is more fun,” I said. “Besides, your call was private.”

  “I called the tech company to see what we could do. There are a lot of prints on that keycard.” He put his phone back in his pocket. “He’s going to try to pull what he can.”

  There was a knock on the door. I walked over to answer it.

  When I opened the door, a tall, thin man with a bald head stood a few steps back, as if he almost changed his mind before I opened it.

  “Can I help you?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure, but maybe I can help you,” he said.

  I introduced myself and he told me his name was Russell Harris.

  “I called in the noise disturbance to security last night,” he said.

  “I can’t really invite you in, sorry.” I walked out into the hall, closing the door behind me.

  “Look, I felt like they blew me off last night. I’m telling you, I heard fighting. They said they stopped by the room and all was well. Then they walked away and didn’t really want to hear anything else I had to say. Just said to call again if I heard any more fighting.”

  “What did you hear?” I asked.

  “First, I heard yelling.”

  “Could you make out what was being said?” Best to get the information from the horse’s mouth. I should have questioned him earlie
r. No excuses.

  “I couldn’t really, but it was two men. At one point, I put my ear against the wall, but the yelling had stopped. I heard a couple of loud bangs, then I heard voices on the balcony. Not loud, though. It sounded like someone was talking on a phone. Just one voice.”

  “Did you recognize the voice? Had you spoken to the Daly family at all?”

  He shook his head. “Just to say hi, that was it. My wife didn’t like the woman from the start. Said she was snotty. Then I heard the man was missing. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had something to do with it. She seemed a little off last night. I saw her wandering the hallways, like she was lost. That was about half an hour before the banging started.”

  “Did you catch any of the conversation on the balcony?” I asked.

  “I didn’t. I tried to see past the little wall, but I couldn’t see anything. The man may have been just inside the door.”

  Bummer. I was hoping for something more. Only, I did have something more. I knew there were two men in the room at one point.

  “The head of security said you called at 12:17 in the morning. Does this sound right to you?”

  “It does. The yelling had stopped, but that’s when the banging started. But by the time they knocked on the door, all was quiet.” He looked down the hall. “My wife will kill me for talking to you. She said not to get involved.”

  “No, this is good. No one will know we spoke. But just in case I need to ask more questions, let me get your contact information.”

  Feeling better after I told him no one would know, he gave me his name, phone, and home address. He was from Iowa.

  “I’m not sure what else I can tell you, but the last noise I heard, before the security guard knocked on the door, didn’t come from the room. It was outside. I think Mr. Daly fell over the railing and hit that lifeboat. Later, around six in the morning, I looked out and saw it was hanging by just one side.”

  “Did you hear the man who answered the door and told security all was good?”

  “I didn’t, sorry,” Russell said.

  “Not a problem. But from what you’re saying, the person responsible for Alan going over the railing was still in the room when security arrived.”

  “Oh, no. So Alan really did fall over the side.” Russell’s skin paled.

  “I don’t know for sure.”

  “The thing is, it sounded like someone was tossing the place. After the fighting was over, it sounded like someone was mad, and maybe looking for something. No way was I going to go over and ask them to quiet down. Someone was really mad.”

  “Thank you, you’ve been a big help.” I looked at the information I’d taken from Russell. “Is this your home phone or cell?”

  “Cell. Feel free to call, but I’m not sure what else I can tell you.”

  We shook hands and Russell walked back to his room. No sooner had the door closed when a woman came around the corner. I hung out for just a minute to see her stop at the same door Russell just entered. Perfect timing.

  The door to the Daly cabin opened and Max walked into the hallway. “We can probably narrow down the suspects.”

  “Really?” This sounded interesting.

  “My guy was able to pull a dozen prints from the card. Only three of the prints belong to people who are still on the ship.”

  “But that doesn’t mean the person who the card belonged to is the suspect,” I reminded him.

  “It gives us a place to start.” He started reading. “Kendra Daly, Calvin Lambert, and Kennard Jensen. Other than Kendra, do those names ring a bell?”

  “Calvin and Kennard are rooming with three other guys. They all went to Ohio State together. This was a sort of reunion, I think. But Cal didn’t go to OSU; he’s a cousin to one of the other guys. He has quite a rap sheet.”

  “Let’s check with registration to see if any of these three people reported a lost key.”

  “If the key card is to this room, no one would have reported it,” I said. “It’s already in the room.”

  “Right, but then why are the prints of Kennard and Calvin on it? They weren’t in this room.”

  I stopped breathing for a moment. “Yes, they were. Cal was one of the guys who helped Alan back to the room last night. So his prints on the card make sense. But there’s no reason for Kennard’s prints to be on the card, unless it belongs to their cabin.”

  Max held the key card in his hand between a piece of tissue paper. He slipped the card into the lock. It didn’t open the door.

  “They may have changed the key when they closed the room,” I said.

  “Registration. Let’s find out.”

  21

  Mimi

  I took off after Cal. “Hey, wait up.”

  I looked behind me to see Nick still standing next to Georgia and Bruce, his mouth wide open. I guess I never ceased to amaze him.

  Cal stopped walking. “What do you want now?”

  “Breakfast?” I said and winked.

  “No thanks, I already had breakfast. What do you really want?” Cal asked.

  Nick walked up and stood beside me.

  “This is Nick Christianson, he’s here with the FBI, investigating Alan’s disappearance.”

  Nick put his hand out. Cal reluctantly shook it.

  “Nice watch,” I said. “I swear I’ve seen it before.”

  Cal looked down at his arm, then put his hands behind his back. “Yeah, so, it’s a watch. I’m sure lots of people have them.”

  “I’m not sure many people can afford a Rochette’s Live Oak,” I said.

  Nick snickered. “You mean Audemar’s Piguet Royal Oak?”

  I could feel the heat rise into my cheeks. “Yes, that’s what I meant.”

  “It’s not that big a deal,” Cal said.

  “Cal, how can you afford a $150,000 watch?”

  Cal spun one-hundred-eighty degrees and took off at a sprint.

  Nick looked at me, then took off after him. I looked down at the strappy leather sandals on my feet and walked in their general direction. Where were they going to go? We were on a ship, for goodness sake.

  I continued in the same direction, following the commotion Cal and Nick left in their wake, and finally came to a small group of people huddled around something interesting. That something interesting was Nick on top of Cal.

  Once Nick had Cal in a sitting position with his feet crossed, he called Max.

  Nick read Cal his rights, and that shut him up in a hurry.

  It seemed like an hour, but it was only about ten minutes before Charles and Max arrived.

  Once Max read him his rights a second time, Cal started singing like a canary.

  “Look, I just found the watch. I didn’t have anything to do with Alan. I swear.”

  “What makes you think the watch has anything to do with Alan?” I asked.

  Charles squatted down to speak to Cal on his own level. “Where, exactly, did you find this watch?”

  “I don’t know. I just found it.”

  “I don’t believe you,” Charles said, getting right in Cal’s face.

  “Fine. That Bruce guy gave it to me,” Cal whined.

  “How do you know Bruce?” I asked, sticking my nose in when I should have kept out of it.

  Cal looked around, as if someone might see him. Duh, we were on a ship full of people, and at least a few hundred gathered around us. “He wanted to get the watch from Alan.”

  “Bruce did?” Charles asked.

  “Yeah. When I was on my way back to the room, after leaving Alan in his, I ran into this bald guy. He said Alan had stolen the watch from him, and he wanted it back. Said he’d pay me to get it back for him.”

  “How much did he offer?” Max asked.

  “He said I could keep the watch if I got it back, and pawn it. Said it was worth over a hundred grand. It was his anyway, and he just wanted it back from the man who stole it.” Cal shrugged.

  “And you believed this stranger?” I asked.

  “
He ain’t no stranger, he’s Alan’s brother-in-law. And I knew he knew him, cuz he chewed him but good at the bar last night. So what did I have to lose? A hundred grand if I didn’t get it back for him.”

  “So you went back to the room? Without your friends.?” Charles asked.

  That’s when Ken approached us, saw the commotion, made a sharp right turn and headed back into the interior of the ship.

  “I guess Ken doesn’t even want anything to do with you,” I said.

  “Ken’s the reason I’m sitting here. It was his idea to go back to Alan’s room and see what else he had. I’d gotten Alan’s watch already. I didn’t want to go back.”

  “How did you get into the room? The first time, to get Alan’s watch?” I asked.

  “Bruce had a key to the room. He gave it to me. Alan was passed out on the bed, and I took the watch off his arm and ran.”

  “And when you got back to your room, you told Ken?” Max asked.

  “Yeah, sure, I mean, I was gonna be rolling in dough when we got back home. I couldn’t wait to tell someone. And when Ken found out how much the watch was worth, he figured Alan had more valuables in the room.”

  “What time was this?” I asked.

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t watching the time. I’m on vacation.”

  “What did Ken do?” Nick asked.

  “I told Ken about how he was flashing money, and all the big talk. Ken said, ‘He’s passed out?’ and I said he was. ‘Let’s go to breakfast, then leave early and go back to his room. See what he has.’”

  “So you and Ken left breakfast early and went to Alan’s room?” Nick asked.

  “Yeah, and that room was trashed! I mean tore apart.”

  “What do you think happened?” I asked.

  “Dunno, but when we entered the room, I thought Alan would still be asleep, but he wasn’t. Flipped out when we walked in. But we were in, so I said I came to check that he didn’t choke on his own vomit.”

  “Did he believe you?” Charles asked.

  “I don’t think so, because he said, ‘Which one of you losers stole my watch?’ I had the watch in my pocket, so I panicked. But now I think about it, the mess coulda been him looking for his watch. Guess he’s pretty proud of that thing.” Cal moved his arms from behind his back, still wearing the watch.