When the knock came at the door, I managed to extract her and stand up to answer it. I’ll admit I was weak enough to glance down at my shirt. It was a God-awful mess.
At the door was the steward with our order. He brought in the tray and laid it on the small dressing table. ‘My condolences, Ms Monte,’ he said, which just got her started up again.
I whisked him out of the cabin and sat back down on the bed and began patting her back. ‘Esther, you gotta buck up. There are questions that have to be answered.’
Rubbing her eyes with her fists, like a little kid, she finally looked up at me and said, ‘Like what?’
First I handed her the cup of coffee and some sweetener and added sugar to my tea, stirring it with my finger since the steward hadn’t seen fit to bring an iced-tea spoon – or any utensil for that matter.
Finally answering her question, I said, ‘Like, did anyone have a problem with Lan—’
‘I just told you! He was nice to everybody! And everybody loved him!’
‘Well, somebody didn’t!’ I said. She looked at me like I’d just stepped on her puppy. Which I suppose I sorta had. ‘I’m sorry, Esther, but the man’s dead. And somebody poisoned him.’
‘Could the poison have been meant for someone else?’ she asked. ‘Like Crystal?’ Then her eyes got real big. ‘Yes! Can’t you just imagine how many people want to kill Crystal? Like Lucy Tulia, for one!’
‘Lucy?’ I said. ‘Why in the world would Lucy—’
‘Because Crystal was after her man, that’s why!’ Esther said.
‘What makes you say—’
‘Because I saw Crystal coming on to Mike! And I heard him flirting back, that’s why!’
‘When was this?’ I asked her.
‘Right before Josh went missing,’ she said. ‘You and Jean had gone to your cabin early – I think Jean was sick of us, and who could blame her?’
‘Oh, no, I don’t—’
‘Please,’ she said and gave me a look. I shut up. ‘Anyway, Vern and Crystal had gone back to their cabin, which just left Lucy and Mike and Rose and me. We three ladies went to the bathroom together—’
‘Yeah!’ I interrupted. ‘Why do y’all do that?’
She gave me another look, which I guess I deserved, and went on, ‘—which left Mike alone. I was the first one to come out and Mike wasn’t at the table. Then I heard his voice by the entrance to the club right there?’ she said, and I nodded to show I knew where she meant. ‘And I looked and saw Crystal with him. Vern must have gone to sleep and she’d snuck out. Her back was to the wall, her arm was extended around Mike’s neck, one knee up rubbing his thigh, and he was leaning forward, one arm supporting himself against the wall, and the other, well, it appeared to be wandering.’
‘Shit,’ I said.
‘Yeah, I know,’ Esther said. ‘I was hoping that like you and Jean, those two were an exception to the rule.’
‘What makes you think Jean and I are?’ I asked out of curiosity.
‘Have you ever seen the way the two of you look at each other?’ she said, then laughed slightly. ‘I guess not. Hard to see the look on your own face.’
I nodded. ‘Glad you noticed. I think we are definitely an exception to the rule. So,’ I said, clearing my throat, ‘did they notice you?’
‘Not until I said, “Cut it out!” in a loud whisper. I could see Lucy and Rose coming out of the bathroom.’
‘So what happened?’
‘Mike turned white and moved away and Crystal just laughed, patted his junk and moved away. The girls didn’t see her.’
‘Patted his junk?’ I repeated.
‘It means—’
‘I know what it means. It just seems kinda—’
‘Gross? Yeah. Even Mike seemed taken aback by it.’
Well, shit, I thought. I was not happy. Now I was going to have to interrogate Mike, and I had begun to think of him as a sorta friend. Shit.
Meanwhile, Back In Prophesy County
Since Holly seemed to have such a calming effect on Elizabeth Hunt, Emmett decided to let her do the interview. Back in the closet where they kept the stationery was also where they kept all the seldom-used equipment they’d purchased over the years. Emmett remembered, when he first signed on with the sheriff’s department, Milt showing off some of the goodies stored there. One of the goodies was a communication system: a mic and an ear bud. So when Dalton was back with Mrs Hunt’s canister of oxygen and her cannula, Emmett made him sit with her while he took Holly to the bullpen.
‘This,’ he said, showing her the ear bud, ‘goes in your ear so you can hear me. What I want to do is give you questions to ask her; and then you repeat them to her. And I’ll hear the answers through the interrogation room’s audio system.’
‘You go in the break room and talk in the walkie,’ Holly said, ‘so I can see if I can hear you.’
He nodded and moved to the break room. Staring out the window in the door, he pushed the button on the hand-held walkie and said, ‘If you can hear me hold up three fingers.’
Looking through the glass-topped door of the break room he could see her with three raised fingers. ‘If you can hear me, give me the one finger you’d like to use the most.’
Grinning, Holly held up her middle finger.
‘Well played, Miss Humphries,’ he said into the walkie. ‘Well played.’
Johnny Mac – Day Seven
Johnny Mac, Early and Lyssa went to the outdoor part of the children’s pavilion and waited until the pavilion babysitter was looking the other way, then jumped over the fence onto the deck. They scurried around the deck to a door which led to the food court, which was quite close to the corridor that led to the pool area. Janna’s dad’s back was to them; she glanced their way, then quickly back to her dad, and tugged on her earlobe. They hustled through the door and into the pool area, home free.
The kids hurried through the pool area, down the long promenade to the elevator that took them down two floors to the doorway that led to their cabins. They were quiet and watchful as they made their way towards the cabin Lyssa shared with her mom. So quiet that they were able to hear a conversation going on at the open door of a cabin a few doors away. They slowed on hearing it.
‘I love you,’ a man’s voice said.
‘I love you, too, baby,’ a woman’s voice said.
Lyssa whispered, ‘That’s Mrs Weaver!’
‘That’s not their cabin,’ Johnny Mac whispered back.
‘I know!’ Lyssa whispered again, wiggling her eyebrows.
Crystal Weaver must have heard them, because the door to the cabin closed with her on the outside. ‘What are you little hellions doing out on your own?’ she said, grabbing Johnny Mac by his shirt front. ‘I thought your daddy was going to keep y’all under lock and key? Does he even know y’all are off on your own again?’ She fairly shouted it all, spittle flying everywhere.
‘Let me go!’ Johnny Mac said, pulling away from her grasp on his shirt.
‘Oh no you don’t, you little bastard!’ she yelled, and grabbed him by the arm.
Lyssa jumped on Crystal’s back and began hitting her with her fists. On seeing this, Early gained the courage to try a fairly ineffective karate chop to the arm Crystal was using to hold onto Johnny Mac. As ineffective as it would have been in any other situation, Crystal was not a terribly physical woman, and it was enough – added to the monkey on her back – to make her let go of Johnny Mac and begin swatting at Lyssa, who had begun pulling her hair. The red tresses came off in Lyssa’s hands and she fell to the ground.
All this happened just about the time Johnny Mac’s father, the sheriff, rounded the corner from Lyssa’s mom’s cabin.
Milt – Day Seven
I heard all sorts of noise coming from around the corner and coulda sworn some of the voices sounded like kids. I had a bad feeling as I rounded that corner. And I was right. A well-stacked blonde with short, spiky hair stood over Esther’s daughter Lyssa, while Early and my s
on tried to pick the little girl up. Lyssa had something fuzzy in her hands that I didn’t immediately recognize.
‘What’s going on here?’ I said to the blonde. She turned to face me, and I recognized her. ‘Crystal?’
‘I thought you were going to keep these brats locked up? Look what they’ve done!’ she said, touching her head as a tear sprang to her eye.
‘Dad! Listen—’
‘Don’t even start, John!’ I said. ‘Lyssa, is that Mrs Weaver’s . . . ah, hair?’
‘Yes, sir,’ she said as Early got her to a standing position. She handed me the wig, which I handed to Crystal.
‘Thank you,’ Crystal said, another tear falling from her eye.
‘Ma’am, I suggest you go on to your cabin now,’ I said to Crystal, ‘while I deal with these children.’
‘I hope you do!’ she said and stalked off.
I turned to the three kids and pointed in the direction of our suite. ‘Our cabin now!’
With both boys holding Lyssa’s hands the three charged off, with me following at a slower pace. They were waiting for me at the door, which I unlocked and opened for them to enter. I pointed to Jean’s bed. I wanted to sit on my bed, which was closest to the sliding glass doors and meant that the glare would be behind me, giving me a good view of the three miscreants, but giving them a more obscured view of me.
‘Why in the hell did you grab Mrs Weaver’s wig?’ I asked. I mean, I was curious.
‘I didn’t!’ Lyssa exclaimed.
‘See, Dad—’
‘I’m not talking to you, John,’ I said. I never call him John, or at least rarely do it. Only when I’m seriously pissed at him. I could see his whole body slump.
‘Early,’ I said. ‘Please tell me why you were out of the children’s pavilion.’
‘No, sir,’ he said.
I looked at him in surprise. He’d been such a great stool pigeon up to now.
‘Why not?’ I asked.
‘My name is Early Rollins, sir. I don’t have a rank, and I don’t have a serial number, sir.’
‘It’s all my fault,’ Lyssa said.
Both Johnny Mac and Early said, ‘Don’t!’
But she just shook her head at them. ‘I wanted to see my mom. I was real insistent about it and I talked Early and Johnny Mac into taking me back to my cabin—’
‘Why didn’t you go by yourself?’ I asked, which I thought was a reasonable question.
Lyssa just stared at me. She didn’t seem to have an answer for that.
‘Dad?’ Johnny Mac ventured.
‘Yes?’ I said.
Johnny Mac took a deep breath. ‘OK,’ he said. ‘Early and I told Lyssa we’d go back with her. We talked Janna into keeping her dad busy and, when the babysitter wasn’t looking, we hopped over the fence onto the deck.’ He took another deep breath. ‘It was all my idea and all my fault.’
‘Well,’ I said, ‘I hope you’re ready to give up your plans for college.’
‘Huh?’ he said.
‘Just kidding,’ I said. ‘But when we get back home you’re grounded for a month, and I’m serious about that.’
He sighed. ‘Yes, sir,’ he said.
As I started to get up, Lyssa said, ‘Don’t you want to know what we found out about Mrs Weaver?’
I settled back down. ‘Other than her being a blonde, you mean?’
Lyssa waved her hand at me, a gesture I’d seen her mother use a dozen times on this cruise. ‘Oh, that’s nothing compared to what we heard!’
‘OK,’ I said. ‘Give.’
‘Well, we saw a lady’s backside sticking out of an open cabin door, and then we heard this male voice say, “I love you” and she – Mrs Weaver – said, “I love you, too, baby.” Just like that!’
‘How did you know it was Mrs Weaver?’ I asked.
‘I recognized her voice,’ Lyssa said. ‘And I told Johnny Mac who it was, but I whispered and he whispered back, but still she must have heard, because she turned around and the man she was talking to – the man who loved her’ – (and here she made a face and exaggerated the word ‘love’) – ‘slammed the door to the cabin and she started screaming at us—’
‘And then she grabbed my shirt,’ Johnny Mac picked up the narrative, ‘but I pulled away, and then—’
‘She grabbed Johnny Mac’s arm—’ Early said.
‘And then I jumped on her back—’ Lyssa said.
‘And starting hitting her and I karate-chopped her arm—’ Early said.
‘And she let me go!’ Johnny Mac said.
‘But then she started hitting at Lyssa—’ Early said.
‘And I started pulling her hair,’ Lyssa said. Then all three calmed down. And Lyssa finished with a big grin. ‘And that’s when her wig came off in my hand and I fell down.’
I sighed. I didn’t know what I was going to do with these kids. They were ignoring orders from their parents, running wild on the ship, pulling people’s wigs off and all sorts of stuff. Standing up, I said, ‘You boys stay here. If either of you step out that door,’ I said, pointing at said door, ‘the next bed you see will be in one of Chief Heinrich’s holding cells.’ Turning to the girl, I said, ‘Lyssa, I’ll walk you to your mom’s cabin.’
With that, I left the suite, hoping I wasn’t going to have to break Jean’s cardinal rule and beat my son.
Milt – Day Seven
I didn’t have the heart to tell Esther Monte what her daughter had been up to. I just knocked on the door, said, ‘Somebody wants to see you,’ and ushered Lyssa in and shut the door behind her. Then headed back to the cabin. Halfway there I ran into Mike Tulia and his daughter Janna.
‘Jeez, Milt! They got away. With the help of a co-conspirator!’ he said, giving his daughter a dangerous look.
‘I found them,’ I said. ‘The boys are in the cabin for the rest of the cruise and Lyssa is with her mother.’
‘Yeah, well, I’m taking this one to her mother! Lucy’s the disciplinarian in the family.’ He looked down at Janna. ‘You’re in for it now, girl,’ he said.
Janna did not look happy.
‘Meet you at the bar in half an hour?’ I said to Mike.
‘No sweat. Make it fifteen,’ he said, and headed off towards their cabin.
Since I had the boys and Jean and I were separated, she had her phone on her, so I called, wondering where she was. She picked up on the third ring. ‘Umm?’ she said.
‘Where are you?’ I asked.
‘Having a massage at the spa. After this I’m having a facial.’
‘I didn’t win it for you at bingo, so now I’m paying for it?’
‘Exactly!’ she said with a laugh.
‘OK. That’s good. I’ve still got some business to take care of. The boys snuck out of the pavilion again, but I found them and they’re currently under house arrest.’
I could tell by her voice that she’d shaken off the masseuse and was half sat up. ‘Are they OK? Who’s watching them?’
‘They’re fine, and no babysitter this time. I told them if I caught them out again, I’d have Chief Heinrich put them in his holding cells until we got to Galveston.’
‘God, you’re a mean man,’ she said, her voice – and presumably her body – calming down.
‘Enjoy yourself,’ I said and hung up. Now I had to deal with Mike, and it wasn’t going to be fun.
I made it to the bar and ordered a light beer. My jeans were getting a little tight; I figured it was from the regular beers I’d been drinking aboard ship. It couldn’t have anything to do with my dining-room antics – the food was free; therefore, no calories.
Mike joined me in less than the allotted fifteen minutes. ‘Jeez, these kids! I don’t know what to do with the little shits!’ he said.
‘I told mine that one more incident and I was having Heinrich put them in a holding cell,’ I said.
Mike shook his head. ‘One of the girls would just find a way to break them out.’
I laughed, then sobered. ‘
Listen, Mike,’ I said. ‘I heard something I need to confirm with you.’
‘What’s that?’ he asked, being handed a full-bodied bottle of Corona with a lime wedge on top.
‘I heard it through the grapevine that you and Crystal spent some alone time together.’
Mike choked on his Corona. ‘Shit. That’s no grapevine, that’s Esther, right?’
‘Yeah. She mentioned seeing the two of you together.’
Mike sighed big time. ‘We weren’t “together” together, if you know what I mean. Crystal snuck back to the bar after Vern went to sleep, pulled me into that foyer to the comedy club and got frisky.’ He sighed again. ‘OK, I thought about it. She was coming on to me big time – God only knows why – and I thought about it – a lot. But then I kept thinking about what you said, you know?’
I frowned. ‘What did I say?’ I asked him.
‘You know, about losing everything for a piece of ass. And it’s true. Just because she’s got a nice outside doesn’t mean the sex would be any better than what I’ve already got. ’Cause what I’ve already got is pretty damn good. And just when I was thinking that, along comes Esther and makes it look like I only stopped because I got caught. And I swear, Milt, that’s not the case.’
‘So you haven’t been seeing her before this trip?’
The look on his face was total confusion. ‘Huh?’ he said. Then, ‘Shit, no! I didn’t even meet her until the morning of the cruise. Lucy and I stood up for them at the wedding. I knew she had to be a knockout, ’cause why else would Vern dump his wife of twenty years? I mean, he and Lois always seemed really tight.’ He shook his head. ‘See? Perfect example of your theory about losing everything over a piece of ass! He lost custody of his boys, he lost his house he’d paid millions for, and he lost his best friend – Lois. All for plastic boobs and a red dye job.’
I looked at Mike with new respect. ‘It’s not a dye job, it’s a wig,’ I said.
‘No shit?’ He laughed. ‘I wonder if Vern even knows that?’
Dark Waters Page 19