Millie was in luck. There, sitting in one of the padded lounge chairs, was Chloe Earhart. She looked up when Millie wandered over and blocked her sun.
Millie stuck her hand on her hip. The girl was too pretty to be a killer. Maybe she was blacker than coal on the inside. Millie grabbed the edge of a nearby chaise and dragged it close.
Chloe set her book on her lap. “I was looking for you earlier, wondering how the investigation was going. We’re running out of time,” she pointed out.
Millie thought the exact same thing, which was why she was there!
Millie set Scout’s carrier on the deck and unzipped the door. He stepped onto the deck and began to sniff the chair. “Stay close,” she warned him.
Scout looked back. Millie could almost swear that he nodded.
She turned her attention back to Chloe. “Oh! Great! Security is about to make an arrest.” This, technically, might be the case if Millie could just get a confession!
She watched as Chloe’s hand went to her throat. Her other hand tightened on the pages of her book.
“Th-That’s great news!” she stuttered. “Do you know who it is?”
Millie looked at her solemnly. “Yes. As a matter of fact, I do.”
The color drained from Chloe’s face. She slid her sunglasses on top of her head. “Who is it?” she whispered.
Scout was back. He stared at Millie and began to whine. She picked him up and set him on her lap.
“We both know who the killer is, don’t we, Chloe?”
“I-I don’t know who it is. That’s why I asked you to help me.”
Millie rubbed Scout’s chin thoughtfully. “Courtney was right handed. Someone who was left handed wrote the suicide note. Or, quite possibly ambidextrous. You know, someone who can write using both hands.”
Millie went on. “Last night in the casino, you ordered two drinks from the bartender. You signed one with your right hand. The second one, you signed with your left.”
Millie moved in for the kill. “Why did you kill your sister, Chloe? Did you hate her that much? Was it because she stole your boyfriend?” Millie glanced down at Chloe’s arm. The arm that had Kyle’s name tattooed on it.
Chloe’s mouth set in a straight line. She closed the book and sat upright in her chair. “She killed him. Courtney killed Kyle. She took him away from me! She had to die.”
Now it was Millie’s turn to be shocked. Courtney had killed Kyle? Why would she do that? What could make Courtney so angry that she pushed her fiancé, Kyle, overboard?
Millie shifted her gaze to the girl sitting across from her. Chloe was ready to talk.
Luckily, they were sitting alone in the chairs. The nearest passenger was several feet away.
“Kyle and Courtney had been fighting even before they got on the cruise ship. Kyle wanted to postpone the wedding. He confided in me that he was having second thoughts, that all they ever did was fight.”
Millie had to wonder if it didn’t have something to do with all of the women that were fawning over him.
“Courtney never admitted it, but I think Kyle told her he was still in love with me. That was the real reason he didn’t want to marry her. When she found that out, she became so enraged she pushed him overboard. If she couldn’t have him, no one would.”
“So you killed her.”
Chloe lifted her arm. The tattoo was large – and clearly visible. It was colorful. Pink and blue. Kyle’s name was blue. The heart around it was pink. “We were meant to be together forever and Courtney ruined it.”
The tears began to roll down Chloe Earhart’s cheeks. “Now I don’t have Kyle or my sister and it’s all Courtney’s fault.”
Millie shifted in her chair. It was Courtney’s fault that her sister had killed her? That was so messed up!
“So when Courtney confessed to you she had pushed Kyle over the rail, you decided she deserved to die,” Millie prompted.
“Only after the doctor. What was his name?”
“Gundervan.”
Chloe nodded. “Courtney told me she pushed Kyle in a fit of rage. When Doctor Gundervan told me Kyle was dead, I began to plot how I could get rid of Courtney. It was the only thing that helped me deal with the grief.”
“Revenge,” Millie interjected.
“Exactly. Since Court and I had similar handwriting, it was easy to write the note. I let myself in her cabin using Kyle’s key. When I got inside, she was so drunk; she had passed out on the bed.”
Millie frowned. That must have been right after she left.
“So I woke her up and told her to change. I told her that the doctor had been wrong and Kyle was still alive.”
“I snuck into Melissa and Adam’s cabin through the connecting door and grabbed the dress from their closet. We changed Courtney’s outfit and then I grabbed the pills from my bag. I told her to take a few to calm her nerves and then I promised her that we would go get Kyle.”
“She was so drunk, she kept gagging on the pills,” Chloe scoffed. “Finally, she just passed out so I took one of the pillows from the bed and…”
“You suffocated her?”
“Yeah.” Chloe shrugged. “I thought it would be harder than that.”
“So you decided to stay on board the ship and make sure that Melissa West was blamed for her death: the dress, the unlocked door between the cabins.”
An evil grin spread across Chloe’s face. “It was so easy.”
The grin disappeared. “You weren’t supposed to figure this out. You were supposed to see the obvious clues and figure out that it was Melissa!”
Scout was getting restless. He clamped down on the edge of Millie’s blouse and began to tug. Millie and Scout stood. “Wait here.”
The tears began to flow again. “I wish Kyle had lived. Why did he have to die?” Chloe began to wail loudly.
Millie pulled her radio from her belt and lifted it to her lips. “This is Millie Sanders. I’m looking for Dave Patterson.
“Patterson here.”
Millie pressed the button. “I need you to meet me outside the entrance to the VIP area. Stat.”
She fastened the radio to her belt and stared down at the young woman. “They have to arrest you.”
Chloe wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. “I know.” She lifted her head defiantly. “I’d rather rot in jail than know Courtney got away with murder.”
Courtney get away with murder? Millie shook her head. Talk about sibling rivalry, she thought.
Patterson was on deck in no time, accompanied by two somber faced security guards. “Chloe just confessed to killing her sister, Courtney Earhart.”
Millie lifted her phone. “I recorded the confession.” Millie had heard this was illegal in the U.S. without the other party’s consents. Of course, they weren’t in the U.S.
The two guards cuffed Chloe and led her away as Scout and Millie looked on. Patterson followed them out.
She patted Scout’s head. “I had that one half right.”
Millie shuffled into Andy’s office. He was sitting at his desk, his head bent over a clipboard. He dropped the pen and leaned back in his chair when he saw Millie. “Two for two.”
Millie let Scout out of his carrier. He promptly wandered around the small office to explore.
She sunk into the chair next to Andy and stuck her fist in her hand. “Not quite. I only had half of it right. Courtney pushed Kyle overboard. When Chloe found out, she was so enraged, she killed her sister.”
Andy raised his eyebrows. “Good heavens!”
“I know. Right? On top of that, I almost ran out of time.”
“But you didn’t,” he pointed out. “Speaking of that, it’s time to get back to work.” He shoved a piece of paper across the table. “I have a new assignment for you.”
Millie slipped her reading glasses on and picked up the piece of paper. “What do you mean I have to take a self-defense class?”
Andy leaned back. “If you insist on continuing to live on the edge, you ne
ed to learn to protect yourself.”
“But…”
“No buts. Meet me in the gym in 45 minutes. Bring your Taser.”
The end.
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Banana Nut Bread
Ingredients
2 eggs
1-1/2 cups sugar
½ cup shortening
1 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp salt
2/3 cup sour milk
3 very ripe bananas
½ cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)
*Preheat oven to 325 degrees
1. In large bowl, cream together sugar and shortening. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well.
2. In separate bowl, mix flour, baking soda and salt
3. Add dry mixture to the creamed mixture of eggs, sugar and shortening, alternating between that and the sour milk and bananas until all are well mixed.
4. Add nuts, if desired.
5. Pour into two lightly greased bread pans.
6. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour or until toothpick, inserted in center of pan, comes out clean.
7. Cool for 15 minutes or drizzle with optional topping (recipe below)
Orange Drizzle (optional)
Bake bread as directed above. Let cool for 10 minutes
Mix: 1 cup powdered sugar, 3 tbsp. fresh orange juice and 1 tsp grated orange rind. Drizzle evenly over warm bread.
Portside Peril (Cruise Ship Christian Cozy Mysteries Series Book 2) Page 14