Rosemary’s jaw stiffened. “Then I don’t pity what happened to my brother. He destroyed an innocent woman.”
“Two innocent women.”
“But how did they do it?” Martin’s eyebrows met over his nose. “If they didn’t steal the sunscreen, then how did they murder Charlegne?”
“I’ll tell you everything I think happened. First, they had to deal with Ian in security. They couldn’t risk him noticing something. So David swapped Ian’s inhaler for one filled with a drug to render him unconscious and turned in the perfume-drenched wrap dress Charlegne wore the first day to the Lost and Found. Only a member of the crew could do that without looking out of place. Ian’s asthma kicked in, he used the inhaler, and he fell asleep. Now he wouldn’t notice anything that would happen on deck.”
“Why not kill Ian?”
“A death in the security office would certainly raise suspicions and point to the crew, which David did not want. Charlegne’s death had to be an accident or, even better, her fault. So it was best to just have Ian go to sleep.” Li gave a snort of contempt. “Of course, David didn’t mention security when he told me his prepared story about why he was so busy that afternoon. I taxed him with it later, and he had to admit something. He didn’t want the security office to come into it at all.
“Then they drugged Charlegne’s coffee at breakfast.” Li’s eyes hardened like a pond sheathed in ice. “I’m ashamed to say I helped him here. I told him I was delivering Charlegne’s breakfast that morning. He was waiting for that. When I left, he darted to the tray and dumped a large dose of the sleeping medication his accomplice smuggled onboard into her coffee. Then he waited for the door to open. Once Charlegne grabbed her tray and turned to walk back into the cabin, he raced to the door and slipped the tapered end of the doorstop between the jamb and the door itself. This propped the door open a hair and kept it from locking. He knocked on the neighboring cabin door—Aaron and Sally’s cabin. This was the steward’s knock heard by Mrs. Anderson. It was a signal that the drugged coffee was in Charlegne’s possession.
“Sally had left breakfast early. She waited for a minute or two, perhaps listening for the sound of Charlegne falling to the floor unconscious from the drugs. Then she slipped out of her cabin, went into Charlegne’s, and placed the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the doorknob, so no one interrupted her and no one discovered Charlegne’s unconscious body.”
“What did she do then?” Try as he might, Martin couldn’t help but be drawn into Li’s story of the murder.
Li regarded Martin with a small smile. “You saw Charlegne use sunscreen that morning. But there was no trace of it on her body. I could only resolve it one way. Mr. Hale…the woman you saw that morning was not Charlegne Jackson!”
Martin’s jaw went slack. “What? But…But I saw—!”
“You saw what you were meant to see. Sally dressed Charlegne’s body in a white bathing suit and then dressed herself in a duplicate she brought onboard. She placed the half-empty bottle of sleeping pills she brought on Charlegne’s nightstand to support the theory that Charlegne took the pills. I knew they couldn’t be Charlegne’s. Steven Danforth flushed all of hers down the toilet the night before. So this bottle belonged to someone else.
“Sally perched a purple sunhat over her eyes to disguise her face, grabbed Charlegne’s beach bag and sunscreen, and mounted the deck. You and Daphne saw Sally amble towards the Sunbathing Deck and even wave to you. This was totally out of character for Charlegne. She liked to march with purpose and didn’t give a thought to her surroundings. But Sally wanted you to notice her and pay attention to what she did.”
“How would she know we were there?”
“David made sure of that. When Daphne said that the staff here treated passengers like ‘shepherds to their flock,’ I think it was because, on some subconscious level, she felt shepherded into her seat. David led you there, so you could watch their planned accident.”
“But nothing seemed out of place!”
“Exactly!” Li pounded his fist on the table, and his eyes glittered like Excalibur again. “That’s the whole point! It had to be an accident. Everything had to appear normal. The coffee had to be safe to drink. The sunscreen had to be used. If either of those were compromised, it would draw attention onto the Sunbathing Deck…and to David. So they did all the drugging and subterfuge beforehand and had a substitute act like Charlegne to enforce the idea that it was just a tragic accident. After she pretended to fall asleep, you and Daphne left toward the Seaview Deck.
“And that’s how I knew Sally was the one who masqueraded as Charlegne! When you both left that way, neither of you mentioned seeing Sally Brent waiting for Daphne, which she was supposed to do at that exact time!”
“Well, I’ll be damned…” Martin let out a long, low whistle. “They planned everything.”
“Not everything. They made a few slips. Once the deck was clear, they had to hurry and get Charlegne in place. Sally signaled to David, who brought the unconscious woman up the ladder near the Prow Deck.” Li addressed Rosemary. “That was the flash of golden hair that you saw, Mrs. Hale. David and Sally scrambled to deal with Charlegne. They mixed up the chairs, putting her one seat too far to the right. And they didn’t put sunscreen on Charlegne’s body, because David wanted to see her burn. After she was in place, David left the hat by her seat to support the idea that she wore it. Of course, she never would have. Charlegne’s favorite color was white. She would have worn a white sunhat. Sally just grabbed whatever she could.”
“Why not leave the hat on her face?”
“Sunstroke affects the brain. It’s more dangerous to not wear a hat in the sun. So it was better to leave it off and have the sun do the dirty work.”
Rosemary shivered. Her husband settled a thorough kiss on her cheek.
“Then what happened?” she asked.
“Sally ran down the ladder by the Prow Deck to the Verandah Deck. She kicked the doorstop into Charlegne’s cabin, forgetting to remove the sign on the knob in her rush, and went into her own stateroom to change for her outing with Daphne Cole. And much later, David would turn the duplicate bathing suit into the Lost and Found just to be safe. Nothing from the crime could stay in their possession.
“But he had one more artistic touch to this murder, as artistic as smearing blood on the rocks. When David and I discovered the body, his hand went to his mouth. Perfect time to slip in an emetic smuggled onboard. He figured a murderer wouldn’t get sick at his own crime, so he produced the opposite reaction. He ran to the railing and vomited. His character is sound.”
“Dustin was always creative.” Rosemary’s voice was brittle. “That’s why I asked him to help out at my fashion shows. He had flair. He knew how to create a moment where fantasy seemed real. He just…He had imagination. I never thought it could be used for such horrible things. Oh God, Dustin…”
“Why now?” Martin asked. “Why did they decide to kill her now? After fifteen years?”
“First of all,” Li said, “the longer he waited, the stronger his fake identity became. Dustin would fade into a memory. David would become a real person. A lot of it also depended on when Charlegne decided to sail. There was a big production with her vacation this time, so David had enough time to warn his accomplice. Sally begged Aaron to take her on this cruise, something I couldn’t see her doing normally unless she had to be on the ship. And there was something else. Aaron Brent planned to escape criminal prosecution by fleeing into Mexico with his wife. Sally knew this and warned David. They had to act as soon as they could.”
“And one last thing: What happened to Sally Brent?”
“I think we all know what happened to her.”
The weight of those words sagged against all of their hearts.
“David couldn’t afford to let Sally live. He didn’t trust her to keep a secret. She didn’t hate Charlegne. Her conscience would get to her eventually. So he arranged to meet her on deck one last time.” Li’s eyes misted over as
he imagined the scene: the sky and sea blacker than his hair, a woman whose heart trembled for a meeting with her sweetheart…“He told her what to wear, had it all planned in advance. All black clothes from head-to-toe. Including a piece she got as a gift from Priscilla Reilly. The security monitors are in black-and-white. A shapeless, all-black form moving against a black backdrop wouldn’t be too noticeable. And the night shift officer at the security desk wasn’t as observant or nosy as Ian. So David took a desperate chance.”
“He threw her over the edge of the ship.” Martin looked shocked when the words came out of his mouth.
Li nodded, still lost in the nightmare. “He couldn’t trust her to drown, though. I think he was too scared of the chance she might live in some way. So she had to be dead or dying when he threw her overboard. Paul said we were missing a piece of cutlery yesterday. Cutlery. A knife. David stole a knife from the kitchen, met Sally, stabbed her, and threw her, together with the knife, into the ocean. The last piece of evidence in his crime.”
“Dustin…” Rosemary whispered. “Dustin, you monster.”
Martin caressed her face with his fingertips. “Rosie dear…”
It was clear they forgot about Li. The boy stood and walked out of the dining room to pack his few belongings. His brain, ever the Greek chorus, closed the narrative.
Here we have an unhappy ending to an unhappy story. I’m sorry, Charlegne.
CHAPTER 23
Long Beach
David’s things were gone.
Li didn’t spare a thought to who might have claimed his belongings. He was only aware of how cold and cramped his quarters had been.
He shuffled around the room, packing his life into a duffel bag.
He would never see this ship again.
The talk with the police went smoothly. Captain Crayle, self-appointed judge and jury, ruled everything as an accident. Charlegne’s murder, Sally’s disappearance, David’s death…all of it swept under the Accident rug. Li spent most of that discussion chewing a hole in his lower lip.
Did it really matter? The murderer was dead, killed by poetic justice. Charlegne and Sally could rest in peace.
Right?
So he answered the policeman’s questions, didn’t offer any of his ideas, and the officer said he could go home.
Home to an apartment that he couldn’t afford and would never be home.
“I guess this is good-bye.”
Framed in the doorway was Travis. His face was more apt for a funeral.
“Good-bye seems so permanent,” Li said, attempting a smile. “I thought you couldn’t wait to get my nagging butt off this ship.”
“Aw, come on, Li! I didn’t even get a chance to beg for free food yet.” He walked in and plopped on the mattress. “Maybe I’ll quit this gig. I’m getting tired of tossing booze to bastards. Then we can both enjoy poverty.”
A new realization crawled into Li’s face. He eyed his friend. “I think you’d better keep your job, Travis. You won’t be able to make money off the pictures you took.”
The color drained out of Travis’s cheeks. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“You took pictures of Charlegne when she was on the Sunbathing Deck. You meant to sell them to a magazine, didn’t you? For big money. How else would you be able to afford that overpriced belt in Ensenada? You’ve always joked about doing it. I think you’ve been making a nice profit on selling embarrassing or compromising photos of the rich and famous. Maybe even a spot of blackmail. You have a gambler’s view of the world. You like risk. Only this time you overreached yourself.”
“Shut up, Li!” The words chafed Travis’s throat like a rabid dog’s bark.
“When you figured out something was wrong with Charlegne and I wouldn’t tell you what it was, you panicked. What if she saw you take the pictures of her? So you hid the photos in my Economics textbook. Why Travis? Why me?”
“Because you’re a stupid goody-two-shoes!” Travis spat. “You were always doing your stupid ‘homework’ in that math workbook, and I thought you wouldn’t check your Econ book for a while.” He dragged the back of his hand over chapped lips. “I knew I couldn’t hide them in my bunk. Security likes to paw through my stuff all the time, because I’m a bartender, and they think I hide booze in my bunk. But nobody paid attention to you. After I made sure the pictures were safe, I turned my camera in to Lost and Found, so it wouldn’t be found on me.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. I can always buy a new one. Buy a better one.” He leveled a burning glare on Li’s face. “Give me the pictures, Li.”
“I can’t.”
“Don’t lie to me, you whiny little bitch. Give them to me or I swear I’ll stage a reunion with your father.” He balled his hands into crackling fists.
Li kept his face calm and his eyes untroubled. “I can’t give them to you, Travis. After I found them, I gave them to Captain Crayle. He had them destroyed.”
Travis’s face swelled with blood. “You did WHAT?”
He swung a punch at his old friend, but Li was ready. He grabbed Travis’s arm, twisted it, and yanked it behind his friend’s back. Travis growled. Both men were locked in a duel to the death with their eyes.
“Get out of my life,” Travis snarled.
He slammed his forehead into Li’s, ripped his arm out of the younger man’s grip, and stormed out of the room.
Li collapsed onto the bed, cradling his now throbbing head. Losing two friends in one day ranked at the top of his con list for this trip.
“Liam?”
Li, crumpling under the weight of his duffel and bumping through the crowd on the pier, stopped to see Rosemary Hale approach him. She was still a bit too pale and her stress lines cut deep into her skin. She pulled a muscle trying to smile.
“I…I just want to thank you for everything you’ve done.”
Exposing her brother as a murderer didn’t seem like charity to Li, so he said, “You don’t need to thank me. Really.”
Her smile faltered. “No, I…I need to…I lived in his shadow for so long. I let him influence me. And look what happened…” She swallowed a sob. “Marty and I talked and…we’re going to adopt. I owe it to myself and to my family to do things the right way. The way Dustin did it…” Her eyes clouded over. “No…No, I don’t want to think about it. I’m going to do things differently. It was unfair to Charlegne. I always thought she seemed happy when I tried to strangle her at Fashion Week. Now I know why. She suffered so much.” The smile reappeared, but it was timid and tiny. “Maybe if we can adopt twin sisters, we can name them Lena and Sally. I know it’s not much of an apology, but…”
“I just hope you and your husband can be happy.”
“We’ll…We’ll do our best. And I hope…I hope you have a chance to see your mom and sister soon. You’re a really good kid. I was happy to pretend you were my nephew. Your dad would be so proud.”
She’s right, you know, said a voice in Li’s head. I am proud.
“Oh! Before I forget, I wanted to give this to you.”
She handed him a slip of paper that looked suspiciously like a check. The number printed in a firm hand said five thousand dollars.
Li’s eyes practically rolled around on the concrete.
“M-Mrs. Hale! I-I can’t—”
“Please…I want you to have it. I defy any bank to bounce that check.”
Now genuinely smiling, she swooped down, kissed his cheek, and sashayed into the crowd before Li could protest again.
Five thousand dollars.
Five thousand dollars.
He had never had so much money in his hand at one time. Or in his life. He had no idea how far this check could go. And that scared him.
Then his brain started to spew with overdue, impossible dreams.
He wasn’t totally aware when he started to run, but now he raced to his apartment as fast as his tattered sneakers could take him.
On to the next job.
About the Author
Daniel
Stallings’ love of Golden Age detective fiction by Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Raymond Chandler, and Rex Stout inspired him to bring the style of the classic murder mystery to digital-age audiences in a modern voice. In addition to writing mysteries, Stallings works in theater as a producer, director, and actor. Combining his interests in mysteries and theater, Stallings operates Master Mystery Productions, which produces custom interactive mystery game events. He currently serves as President of the Eastern Sierra Branch of the California Writers Club. Stallings lives in the city of Ridgecrest in California’s Mojave Desert.
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