Sunny Side Up

by Daniel Stallings

  “No, but I always got the feeling that it was something she did.” Something of the old suspicious flicker of light returned to his eyes. “Why does this interest you? You’re a little too curious. It definitely doesn’t ease suspicions that you were involved with her.”

  “I think someone might be trying to frame me.”

  This comment elevated both eyebrows. “Now why would you think that?”

  Li outlined his discovery of the trio of photos and handed them to the captain. Sharp gray eyes devoured every detail.

  “This doesn’t mean they aren’t your property, son.”

  Li hardened his face again, thrusting a stalwart chin towards his accuser. “If they were mine, I wouldn’t show them to you. But they aren’t. I thought you should know about it.”

  “Yes, I suppose you wouldn’t hand over evidence against yourself. But why on earth would someone take these pictures and then plant them on you? And who could get down to your bunk?”

  “I don’t know, but there’s something interesting about those photos. Look, you can see how her hat is covering her face. But there couldn’t be a hat on her face because she wouldn’t have burned there if she did.”

  “So?”

  Li drummed his fingers on the arm of his chair. “So someone must have walked on the Sunbathing Deck, probably just before David and I did, and put the hat on her face. Maybe he even took the pictures.”

  “But why?”

  Li didn’t know, but dammit, he was going to get some answers.

  CHAPTER 20

  Family

  Empress Deck 27. That’s what Daphne said. A twinge of guilt still gnawed at the bottom of Li’s heart. Okay, he lied. There wasn’t a complimentary bottle of champagne delivered to all first-time passengers on the Howard Line. And even if there were, he had absolutely zero authority to deliver it. But he needed to talk to Josh, and since Daphne was alone, her husband had to be somewhere. Why not their cabin?

  Maybe he was with someone.

  Li knocked with the brisk patter of a steward and waited. Feet shuffled within the room, more feet than given to one person. The door pried open. Josh Cole drilled his dusky eyes into the boy’s soul.

  “What do you want?”

  “I want to talk to Rosemary Hale.”

  A half-second—no longer than that—of shock flickered on Josh’s face. “Wrong number.”

  “I know she’s here.”

  “Get out of here now.”

  “Joshy…” The woman’s voice floated through the door. “Let him come in.”

  With seething reluctance, Josh stepped back. Li crept into the room.

  Rosemary perched herself on the corner of the bed, dressed for a luxury dinner in sweeping folds of emerald green, the perfect shade to set off her eyes. Her wild mane of red hair had been salon-tamed to sleek curls and waves like the curves of a classic car. Her smile glittered with white teeth, and her voice was thick with welcome.

  “Hello, Liam. I’m surprised to see you.”

  “I wanted to talk to you.” He glanced at a fuming Josh. “Both of you.”

  “Why?”

  The question was light, cheerful. Rosemary’s face radiated peace.

  “Because you’re brother and sister, aren’t you?”

  Josh bristled as if ready to sprout poisonous quills and pounce. Rosemary glowed with surprise and joy.

  “Yes, we are.” She giggled. “You’re a smart boy. I don’t think I mentioned my older brother’s name at all.”

  “You didn’t, but I thought you both were related long before our chat in Ensenada.”

  “Oh?”

  “A friend told me about what happened at the Airport-in-the-Sky.” Another quick look at Josh, whose hair simmered like a bed of new lava. “You slapped Mr. Cole when he lost his temper. I didn’t think you were the sort of woman who would slap a total stranger, particularly one who was furious to the point of assault. And the way he settled down immediately was suggestive too. I thought of it as a sister pulling up the reins on her angry brother, which dovetailed with the story of Mr. Cole’s sister, who had enough money to afford two tickets for a pricey, luxury cruise.”

  Rosemary’s grin nearly graced her earlobes. “Joshy always had a nasty temper.” She laughed, and it was a deep, throaty sound. “Then again, I do too.” Her eyes were as warm as sunlight on treetops. She was far away from anger. “I tried to strangle Charlegne at Fashion Week last year.”

  “And she deserved it!” Josh exploded. “The stupid, selfish bitch!”

  “Joshy…remember your temper.”

  “Remember my—? YOU hated her more than me! How can YOU ask me to be nice about the bitch who killed our brother?”

  “She’s dead.”

  Her voice rang brassy and pure. Li became aware of the belts of tension behind that placid, smiling face.

  Josh stewed in silence, his dark eyes glazed like the stare of a furious bull.

  Rosemary’s face animated with alarm. “What did you do to her?”

  “I don’t know what you’re saying!”

  “Yes, you do. You left Daphne alone not long after we returned to the ship from the island. Where did you go? What did you do?”

  “I didn’t do anything!” He rounded on Li. “This is your fault! Why couldn’t you keep out of my family’s business?”

  “Don’t blame him!” Blood bloomed to her face. “I’m the one who asked the question.”

  “Oh shut up, Rosie!”

  She launched to her feet. “Don’t tell me to shut up, Joshua! What did you do to Charlegne?”

  Josh’s voice cracked like a pubescent boy’s. “I saw her, okay? I saw her burn to death!”

  The air bled out of the room.

  Rosemary sank onto the bed, looking like she wanted the cream-colored blankets to swallow her. Her skin had a pale gray cast. Her eyes deadened to a mossy, swamp green. She wrung her fingers into bizarre knots.

  Josh rocked to and fro on his toes, anticipating a desperate launch to the door. His words were leaden and slurred, like the gurgle of a dead body being dragged through the mud.

  “You don’t know what it’s been like for me, Rosie. My little brother killed himself, the little brother who looked up to me…who treated me like a hero. Remember when he was five and he copied everything I did?” Tears bubbled in his eyes. “I loved Dusty. And I hated the bitch that broke his heart. I went insane with fury. How could she do that to him? How could she kill him? Daphne told me Charlegne was on the cruise the first night. I just went blank, like all my emotions canceled themselves out. Then I thought about Dusty. Even the tiniest suggestion of his broken, bleeding corpse brought back all the hate…the pain…the fury…” His fists locked at his side. “I had to do something, Rosie. I had to.”

  “Dear God, what did you do?”

  His eyes cut through the swelling of his face like Jack the Ripper’s shadow in a red light district. “I wanted to throw her over the edge of the ship. Let her feel what Dusty felt during those last seconds. And I wanted to see the look on her face when she fell.” Whether he meant it or not, a tiny smile curved the tips of his mouth. “I wanted her to suffer. She deserved it. So I went up to the Sunbathing Deck. I heard a steward say she was up there. I timed it perfectly. The deck attendant left on an errand. She was alone.”

  A cold tendril of fear, like a trickle of ice water, dripped down Li’s spine. Little prickles swarmed his arms and legs.

  “She slept in a lounge chair. Like nothing in the world troubled her, like she didn’t even care about my little brother’s blood on her conscience!” He snorted. “If she had a conscience. Seeing her lie there, totally at peace, just pricked my temper. I started talking to her. ‘Remember me, Charlegne? I bet you don’t want to. I’m Dusty’s brother. And I’m going to kill you.’ Something stupid like that. She didn’t react to anything I said. I stepped closer.”

  Rosemary’s lips crimped into a grim line. Her eyes filmed over with the images of her brother stalking h
is prey.

  “I saw her skin. Sunburn. She was roasting out there. The dumb bitch didn’t use any sunscreen.” Josh wet his lips with his tongue. “I smiled. It served her right to fry. And she had burns on her stupid face too. That made it even sweeter. She looked ugly. Just as ugly as she was on the inside. I watched for a minute or two. Then I thought: I’m going to make this one hell of a surprise when she wakes up.”

  “You put her hat on her face,” Li offered. His voice, calm, unruffled, seemed alien in the hot atmosphere of tension. He wasn’t sure if either sibling remembered he was there.

  Josh nodded slowly. “It was lying next to her seat. I picked it up and laid it on her face. It would be like a curtain lifting on a play. When she woke up, she would remove the hat and see how ugly she had become. She’d look like the Devil’s slut.” His eyes froze into solid chunks of frostbitten steel. “She never woke up.”

  “Did you notice a bottle of sunscreen anywhere near her?”

  “No…Nothing like that. Then again, I was too busy watching that bitch burn.”

  “Oh God,” Rosemary whispered. “My big brother…”

  Josh’s eyes drilled into his sister’s face. “I didn’t touch her, Rosie. I wanted to, but I didn’t. I never hurt her.”

  “But you didn’t do anything to save her.” Her words seemed to float into the cabin from far-off places.

  “Save her? Why the hell would I save her?”

  “Wouldn’t you save me?”

  Josh looked astounded by the idea. “Of course, I would! I would lay my life down for you, sis! Three Musketeers, remember? All for one and one for all!”

  “I remember. But I don’t think you remembered that Charlegne was part of that family too…”

  “I don’t believe this!” His tear-swollen cheeks blazed with fire. “Where did this insane compassion come from? You hated Charlegne! Why should we care that she’s dead?”

  “She’s still a human being.”

  “She killed Dustin!”

  “Did she? All I know is that you let a woman die…”

  Josh sprang at Rosemary, and Li stirred to defend her from a possible attack. Josh moved as spryly as a jungle cat. He knocked Li out of the way and cradled his sister’s shell-shocked face in his hands.

  “Rosie…remember the blood. Dustin’s blood. Remember how it was everywhere. On the rocks. On her hands. We had it checked. We knew it was Dustin’s without any doubt. The lab proved it. She killed him. She killed him just as she would have if she pushed him off that bridge. You know that. In your heart, you know she murdered Dusty. Our baby brother.” His voice dropped on the edge of whispering. “You know you hate her.”

  It’s like he’s trying to hypnotize her, Li thought. Trying to get her to remember the hate and absolve his guilt about leaving Charlegne to die.

  The spell didn’t seem to hold. Rosemary pushed her brother away. “Stop it! Stop talking about it! I just want it to go away! We never talked about her on this trip! You never mentioned her once!”

  “No, you did talk about her.” Li’s voice broke through like a burst of cold air on a sweltering day. This time, the siblings spared him a glance. Although from the looks he received, they would have rather had him disappear from life altogether.

  Rosemary barked at the boy. “No, we didn’t! Don’t put words—!”

  Li countered with a cool, sharp glare of his own, specially honed from the swords of his eyes. “Yes, you did. Your husband said that, after breakfast on the day we docked at Catalina, you didn’t feel well and stayed in your cabin while he went on deck. That’s not the truth, is it Mrs. Hale?”

  Rosemary clamped her lips together.

  “You had a fight with him, didn’t you? Maybe about Charlegne. He didn’t understand why you continued to hate the woman after all these years. So you told him to go away and leave you alone. But you didn’t stay in your cabin. You went to your closest ally—your brother, Josh, whom you invited on this cruise.”

  “I gave him the tickets as a chance for them to get away from their troubles at home with Daphne’s cancer. And I wanted a little family time after learning I was infertile.” Her eyes flashed warnings to the boy. “There is nothing wrong with that.”

  Li didn’t flinch. “Josh was furious about Charlegne being on the cruise. No doubt his dreams of murdering her were starting to grow. So when you came to his cabin saying that you had a fight with your husband about her, his plans crystalized. Charlegne should not live long enough to destroy his only remaining sibling. He broached the plan to kill her, didn’t he? That’s why you tackled him about what he did when you left him alone. Deep down, you’ve been insane with fear that he found some way to kill her.”

  Rosemary stayed quiet. Her brother’s breathing became heavy and loud, as if he tried to settle the fire kindling in his heart. Or maybe fan the flames.

  “You hated the idea of cold-blooded murder. Sure, you might have been able to kill her in the heat of the moment, but planning it…No, that you wouldn’t do. You told him off. He fought back. He insisted on killing Charlegne for revenge.” His gaze shifted to her brother. “That’s when your wife walked in, right, Mr. Cole?”

  “You can’t know that!” they both screeched.

  “It was the only way I could resolve a weird point. Why did Daphne forget her magazine in her cabin when she went down there specifically to get it? Answer: She must have walked in on something that put the thought out of her mind completely.”

  Rosemary’s words tumbled out in a rush. “She shrieked when Josh said murdering Charlegne was our only choice. We had to drag her into the cabin. It took us several minutes to get her to stop panicking. We had to swear on our souls that we wouldn’t hurt Charlegne.” Her eyes dropped to her tightly bunched hands. “I don’t think she believed our promises.”

  “Probably not.” His eyes continued to spear Josh. “I suspect this is why she continues to focus on all your good attributes, Mr. Cole. She never acknowledges your blatant fury or jealousy. She saw how very dangerous you could become, and it terrified her. She placates you, keeps you happy. Anything to keep your temper in check.” His throat tingled with a specific memory. “That’s why she called out to you before you had a chance to lay your hands on me yesterday. As a warning…”

  Josh’s gaze turned to the carpet. An ugly blush filtered into his cheeks. Li addressed Rosemary.

  “And after Daphne left, you went on the Prow Deck.”

  “I needed space. Talking to Josh only made things worse. I was only there for a few minutes. I even heard the announcement that the tenders were leaving. But I wanted to be alone.”

  “Did you see anything?”

  “No, I—.” Her brow furrowed. “Wait…I saw her. Charlegne. Or at least, her hair. I never forget hair that color. Just a blond flash as she climbed the ladder closest to me. The one that leads to the Verandah Deck directly below. She was going to the Sunbathing Deck, I’m sure of it. I didn’t hang around. I didn’t want to deal with her. I spun around and left by the Seaview Deck on the opposite side.”

  A glimpse of blond hair. More specifically, a hatless glimpse of blond hair. She arrived on the Sunbathing Deck wearing a hat. Now she showed up at a later time without a hat. Perhaps she was returning from her shower, ready to die from the pound of sleeping pills she swallowed.

  But who took that bottle of sunscreen?

  “Mrs. Hale, did your husband know his sister-in-law before this cruise?”

  Rosemary drew her eyebrows together in a sharp line. “No, he didn’t. Josh and Daphne practically eloped. Didn’t even tell me until they were already married. This trip was a way for all of us to get together for the first time. Marty will meet Daphne at dinner tonight.”

  And won’t he be surprised that the talkative woman he met is his sister-in-law.

  Li balanced a difficult question on his tongue. It wouldn’t hurt to see their reactions.

  “Did either of you know that Charlegne was pregnant at one time?”
<
br />   Josh sneered. “So that’s what happened. The whore got knocked up by some idiot she met God-knows-where. And she decides to dump my brother to be with this loser. What a dumb, selfish bitch.”

  Rosemary’s face wrinkled into a frown.

  CHAPTER 21

  Patterns

  Evening closed around the ship like a purple glove. Li watched gold-encrusted guests trickle past him, singing the praises of the Jewels of the Sea Dinner. No one noticed him, just as before this cruise from hell. He wondered what would have happened if Charlegne hadn’t singled him out. Would he still have a job? Would Paul have just dismissed him as a newbie with no future and not have enacted that lunatic vendetta? Li shook his head and strode to his destination.

  Horizons Art Gallery sparkled like a new chandelier. The picture window to the left of the door framed a large, black-and-white beauty shot of Charlegne Jackson in her modeling years. The poster propped on an easel flaunted Charlegne: A Retrospective in curling script.

  Li stepped inside and found his second objective gazing at a dress oozing down a wall like liquid silver.

  “Mr. Danforth?”

  The man turned. Travis wasn’t far off in his description, although he neglected to mention the doleful gray eyes weighing down his face. A cool, unruffled smile—a lawyer’s grin—unfurled over a sharp chin.

  “Is this the boy who infuriated Ms. Reilly?” Amusement fluttered in his eyes.

  Answering a question with a question, Li thought. Just like a lawyer.

  “Am I not welcome?”

  “Not by her.” The grin widened. “But I was interested in seeing the kid who caused all our headaches. Whatever you said, it unleashed the ugliest Priscilla I’ve seen yet. But to answer your earlier question, yes, I’m Steven Danforth, business manager to La Charlegne.”

  Steven’s manner stayed as calm as night around him. He had the most even temper that Li had ever encountered.

  So Li decided to go for the throat.

  “You’re the one who had sex with Charlegne the night before she died?”

  His conscience rapped him hard on the skull for being so blunt, but Steven, cool as the color of Li’s eyes, merely titled his head a bit to study the boy.