I held up my bottle of Bud Light and said, ‘Here’s to our wives; may they always have us by the balls.’
He grinned and clinked his Corona to my Bud Lite. ‘Amen, brother,’ he said.
ELEVEN
Meanwhile, Back In Prophesy County
The break room doubled as the observation room, so no one was allowed to use the soda machine while a suspect was being interrogated. Emmett put the ‘in-use’ sign on the glass window of the break room, popped a dollar in the soda machine and got himself a Dr Pepper, turned on the sound from the interrogation room and sat down at the break table. Holly was already talking to Mrs Hunt.
‘So sorry about your oxygen, Miz Hunt,’ she said. ‘I wish we’d known!’
‘I tried to tell that sheriff of y’alls, but he wouldn’t listen to me!’ the old biddy said.
Holly laughed. ‘Well, you know men!’ she said.
‘Don’t I, though. Hell, Darby was just like his father. That man had a lump of coal for a heart, I’m telling you the truth.’
‘Good,’ Emmett said into the walkie. ‘Keep her talking about her husband.’
‘So what happened to your husband?’ Holly asked.
Elizabeth Hunt grinned like the Cheshire cat. ‘I killed him,’ she said.
‘I’m thinking her elevator don’t go to the top floor,’ Emmett said.
‘How so?’ Holly asked, with a quirk of her head.
‘Fed him to death! The man did love a breaded and fried pork chop! Mashed ’taters, chicken-fried steak, fried chicken, rice casserole, macaroni and cheese. Sometimes all in the same meal, come a Sunday. We used to do it up grand come a Sunday,’ the old woman said.
‘Sounds delicious,’ Holly said, although Emmett could tell she was gagging just a little bit. The girl was like a vegetarian or something.
‘You know it. But Darby comes home and he won’t eat a thing. I fix him all the things that used to be his favorites – butter beans and ham hock, collards, five-layer chocolate cake, but he wouldn’t eat a damn thing! Just sits there and picks at his food, like mine wasn’t good enough for him after he been in the pen. You think the food in the pen’s any good?’
There was silence for a moment, then Holly shook herself. ‘Oh! You’re asking me?’
‘You’re the one I’m talking to, aren’t I, for God’s sake!’ the old woman said.
‘Well, I’d guess that the food wasn’t that good in the pen,’ Holly summed up.
‘Damn straight!’ Mrs Hunt said, puffing out her chest. ‘I even made him cheese enchiladas!’ She leaned forward and said, ‘I got a friend, Miranda, she’s from Mexico. She taught me how to make ’em. They’re real good. Want me to make you some?’
‘Sure!’ Holly said with more enthusiasm than Emmett figured she meant. ‘Did Darby like the cheese enchiladas?’
‘Hell, no!’ his mother said. ‘Stuck his nose right up at ’em. Accused me of trucking with Mexicans. I said as how I only had that one friend, so that would be trucking with “a” Mexican, not “Mexicans!”’ She laughed heartily at this. ‘After he came home he was right mean about coloreds. You know, all of ’em: black ones, Mexicans, Jews and A-rabs. Couldn’t abide them A-rabs. Heard a lot about that once he got home, I can tell you that!’
‘So bring up his death,’ Emmett said in Holly’s ear. ‘See if she has any idea who might have killed him.’
‘I was so sorry to hear about Darby’s death,’ Holly said.
‘I wish he’da married you,’ the old woman said, patting Holly’s hand. ‘You’da made a better wife that that damned Cheryl, always with the stuck-up ways. Never did like that little bitch!’
‘Well, ma’am, I wasn’t even born back then,’ Holly said.
‘’Course you were!’ the old lady said.
‘Don’t argue with her,’ Emmett said in Holly’s ear. ‘She’s a taco short of a combination plate, remember? Just let her rant on and let’s see what happens.’
There was a barely discernible nod of Holly’s head. ‘So who do you think shot him? Did you see anybody outside that night?’
The old lady shook her head. ‘Didn’t see nothing ’cept what was on the TV. We were just sitting there watching the TV, one of my favorite reality shows – the one where they dance?’ Holly nodded her head. ‘I like that one. They wear real pretty clothes. We were just watching that then the whole front window plumb blows out! And I turn to my boy’ – her face got red and she began to tear up – ‘to say how somebody broke out the window, but my boy, my Darby, he’s lying back in his chair and there’s a hole right between his eyes. Right between his eyes!’ She screamed the last part and began to bang her head on the table.
Holly ran around the table and grabbed her head. ‘Oh, Miz Hunt, don’t do that! Please! I’m here, it’s gonna be all right. Please, Miz Hunt!’
The old lady turned and buried her face in Holly’s Deadhead T-shirt, and began to cry. Holly patted her back and looked up at the mirrored wall, behind which Emmett sat. She didn’t know where he was, yet she was staring right at him. Funny how that works.
Johnny Mac – Day Seven
‘This has been a weird trip,’ Early said.
Both boys sat on the bottom bunk in their part of the suite, Transformer figures in hand.
‘Yeah,’ Johnny Mac said. ‘But kinda fun, too.’
Early grinned. ‘Yeah. And, well,’ and here Early’s face grew red, ‘I kinda like Lyssa.’
Johnny Mac nodded. ‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘She’s nice.’
‘I mean,’ Early said, his face darkening, ‘like – like. Ya know?’
Again Johnny Mac nodded. ‘Me, too. I mean, Janna.’
‘Yeah?’ Early said.
This scintillating conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door. Both boys looked at each other, then at the door, then back at each other and jumped up, running to open the door. Janna and Lyssa were on the other side.
‘Hey,’ Johnny Mac said with a big grin, echoed by Early.
‘Hey,’ both girls said in unison.
‘Y’all wanna go spit in the ocean?’ Janna asked.
The grin left Johnny Mac’s face. ‘Can’t,’ he said. ‘My dad threatened to have us locked up in security if we got out again. And I think he meant it. How did y’all get out?’
Janna shrugged. ‘My mother made me promise I wouldn’t leave the cabin. She keeps doing that, although it rarely works.’
‘Mine took sleeping pills and is out like a light. She has no idea where I am. Can we come in?’ Lyssa asked.
Johnny Mac and Early looked at each other, shrugged, then Johnny Mac said, ‘That would probably be against my dad’s rules. But,’ he said, and grinned, ‘I got a deck of cards. If y’all sit on that side of the doorway and we sit on this side, we can play cards!’
Everybody grinned at this solution so Johnny Mac ran into the bunk-bed area and came back with a deck of cards.
‘Anybody know how to play Crazy Eight?’ he asked. ‘It’s just like Uno, ’cept the take two cards are the twos, and the change suit card is an eight. Wanna try it?’
‘Sure,’ Janna said and sat down, Lyssa following suit.
The boys sat down on their side of the door jamb, but on sitting down Johnny Mac found something poking him. He reached in the pocket of the shorts he’d pulled out of his dirty clothes that morning, and found the note he’d discovered under the door days ago.
‘Oh, shit!’ he said. ‘Look at this! I forgot all about it. What with two murders and everything!’
Everyone stared at the note: You breathe a word about today and you’ll be sorry. Sure would be a shame if your mom had an accident! Don’t tell anyone about this note or anything else, or oops, SHE FELL DOWN THE STAIRS, OFFICER.
‘Where did you get this?’ Janna asked.
‘It was under the door when we got back here one night,’ Johnny Mac said. He looked at Early. ‘Which night was it?’
‘It was the night after we were in Georgetown,’ Early said. ‘See wh
ere it says, “You breathe a word about today—” Today must be that day in Georgetown.’
‘Yeah, I think you’re right,’ Johnny Mac said.
‘Then it must have been written by Josh!’ Lyssa said.
‘No,’ Janna said. ‘That’s not Josh’s handwriting. It’s too . . . neat. You could barely read Josh’s writing. I know – he sent me a note one time and it took me and my mom both to figure out what it said.’
‘Why was he sending you a note?’ Johnny Mac asked, wondering why a teenager would be sending a little kid like Janna a note. He wasn’t jealous, he told himself, it was just wrong.
‘We were all going to their lake cabin for the weekend and he sent a note through his mom – this was before Crystal, of course – for me to bring my scooter.’
‘You have one of those electric scooters?’ Lyssa asked.
‘Yes, and I love it! But the roads around the lake cabin are dirt and—’
‘Ladies!’ Early said. ‘This note, OK?’
‘Oh, right,’ Janna said. ‘OK, so Josh didn’t write this. And I know Ryan didn’t either—’
‘It looks like a woman’s handwriting to me,’ Lyssa said.
‘It does!’ agreed Janna.
‘We need to check out Josh’s cabin,’ Lyssa said. ‘See if we can find anything incriminating.’
‘Don’t you think the ship’s security people have already done that?’ Johnny Mac, as son of a sheriff, pointed out.
‘Probably, but they weren’t looking for notes written by a woman!’ Janna said.
‘Exactly!’ Lyssa agreed.
‘Didn’t Josh share a room with Ryan?’ Johnny Mac asked.
‘Yes, but Uncle Vern moved him into their cabin when Josh died. The security people wanted that cabin closed off, and Uncle Vern didn’t want Ryan in there by himself, you know, after what happened and all,’ Janna said.
‘I bet old Crystal loves that,’ Early said with a big grin.
‘Yeah, I bet!’ Lyssa agreed, grinning back.
‘So how do we get into Josh’s cabin?’ Johnny Mac asked. ‘Especially with us not being able to leave this one.’
‘We don’t leave, the girls go,’ Early said. ‘And as to how – I think we need to call a steward. I have a hankering for a soda.’ He was grinning from ear to ear, but Johnny Mac didn’t have a clue as to why.
Milt – Day Seven
When Mike and I finished our beers, I headed down to the security office to talk to Heinrich. He was in his office staring at the computer.
‘Anything interesting?’ I asked.
He hit something, and said, ‘No. You?’
‘Well, maybe. Seems Crystal Weaver has a lover and he’s on this ship.’
Heinrich’s eyes got big. Made me feel good – I knew something he didn’t! It’s the little things that get us through our golden years.
‘And I take it it wasn’t Lance Turner,’ he said, sitting back in his chair.
‘Nope. Somebody we don’t know about.’ I told him about the kids’ encounter with Crystal in the ship’s corridor. ‘However, the lady does get around! She went after Mike Tulia earlier in the cruise. He says he was gonna turn her down, even before he got caught,’ I said.
‘What makes you think the guy in that cabin wasn’t Mike?’
‘It wasn’t his cabin. And the kids have been around Mike enough to have recognized his voice. They recognized Crystal’s. And, besides, how would he get into somebody else’s cabin?’
‘There are some empty ones on the ship. Do you know what the cabin number was?’ Heinrich asked.
‘No, but the kids might. You want to go get ’em and see if they can find the place?’
‘Sure,’ Heinrich said, standing.
Johnny Mac – Day Seven
They were in luck – the steward was Louisa, the one they had the first couple of days and who was new and a little scatty. They needed that.
‘Hi, kids,’ she said, coming up to the open door. ‘Y’all need to get in or out – can’t have you blocking the corridor. It’s not big enough for two people as it is.’ But she said it all with a smile, which took the sting out of the reprimand.
The girls got up and went into the cabin with Johnny Mac, while Early got his soda from Louisa and then proceeded to hug her. Startled, she hugged him back and laughed. ‘How sweet are you!’ she said, not noticing him slipping the skeleton card out of her pocket.
‘You’ve just been such a big help to us is all,’ Early said and smiled.
She patted his head, waved at the other kids and took off. Closing the door behind her, Early turned to the others and held up the skeleton card.
‘Oh my God!’ Janna said, covering her mouth with her hands as she began to laugh.
‘This’ll get us into any room we want!’ Early said.
‘Good thing Josh is already dead – if he knew you had that, he’d be ripping off the entire ship!’ Lyssa said.
Johnny Mac stood up and walked slowly up to his friend. He held out his hand and Early took it and the two embraced in a manly fashion. ‘You’re the bomb,’ Johnny Mac told him.
Milt – Day Seven
Heinrich and I headed to our cabin where the boys were holed up. Thankfully they were right where I left them, playing cards on the bottom bunk of their part of the suite.
‘Hey, guys,’ I said upon entering the room.
‘Hey, Dad!’ Johnny Mac said with some enthusiasm, until he saw Chief Heinrich and froze in place.
I instantly knew what my son was thinking – that Heinrich was there to take the two of them to the brig.
I smiled and shook my head. ‘Nobody’s going to jail, boys, so lighten up.’ I saw my boy breathe again. ‘We need you to take us to where you saw Mrs Weaver when the whole wig thing happened.’
The boys looked at each other and Johnny Mac shrugged his shoulders. ‘We can try, Dad, but all these halls look alike.’
‘True enough,’ I said, ‘but I know where I was when I found y’all, so maybe we can figure it out from there.’
Both boys nodded and we headed out. I went to the door of Esther Monte’s cabin and took off down the corridor I’d been on, and rounded the first corner. It sure did look exactly like every other corridor.
‘OK, this is where I turned and saw y’all. How far up do you think you were?’ I asked the boys.
Johnny Mac and Early jogged up a few doors then turned and looked at me, conferred, then walked towards me a door more, then another. ‘About here, I think,’ Early said.
Heinrich checked his roster of cabin occupancy. ‘That room is occupied by a retired couple from Ohio,’ he said. Scanning, he said, ‘But the cabin one back is unoccupied.’
The boys turned and walked back to that door, looked back at us, conferred again and Johnny Mac said, ‘Yeah, this could be it.’
Using his pass key, Heinrich opened the door of the unoccupied cabin. It was bigger than our cabin by about twice the size, had a king-sized bed, a real dresser and a bigger bathroom. The king-sized bed, however, was unmade and obviously used fairly recently.
‘You got DNA capabilities aboard ship?’ I asked Heinrich. He just stared at me.
‘Figured you didn’t.’
‘Why would you need a DNA test, Dad?’ Johnny Mac asked. ‘I don’t see any hairs or anything like that.’
The boy watched too many CSI shows, but even so, some things he didn’t understand, thankfully – like certain fluids that I had no intention of telling him about.
‘You’re right, son,’ I said. ‘I don’t see any hairs either. Why don’t y’all wait in the corridor while the chief and I take a look around.’
Johnny Mac – Day Seven
Johnny Mac and Early had barely stepped out of the cabin, door still open, when Janna and Lyssa shot around the corner from Lyssa’s cabin.
‘Johnny Mac!’ Janna cried out. ‘We’ve been looking for you!’
‘We got in and boy, did we find—’
‘Shhhh—’ both Johnny M
ac and Early said, grabbing the girls and pointing into the cabin.
‘What’s going on, John?’ Johnny Mac’s dad said as he came to the door.
Johnny Mac smiled big at his dad. ‘Look who found us!’ he said.
‘Hi, Sheriff,’ Janna said with her sweet smile.
Lyssa gave the sheriff a finger wave.
‘Aren’t you girls supposed to be in your cabins?’ the sheriff asked.
‘Yes, sir,’ Janna said. ‘That’s where we’re headed.’
The two girls, hand in hand, turned tail and headed back in the direction of Lyssa’s cabin.
‘What were they talking about, John?’
‘Huh?’ Johnny Mac countered.
‘They got in what? And what did they find?’
‘Gee, Dad, I don’t know. They were fixing to tell us, then you interrupted and scared them and they ran off.’
‘You know, boy, I can tell when you’re lying,’ his dad said.
‘Sir, I am not lying. They were going to tell us something, but you came to the door and it scared them and they ran off. I do not know what they were going to tell us. Do you know what they were going to tell us, Early?’
Early looked at Johnny Mac for a moment, then smiled big. ‘No, Sheriff, sir, I do not know what they were going to tell us. And that’s the truth.’
Johnny Mac’s dad gave them the stink-eye for about a full minute, then walked back into the cabin.
Meanwhile, Back In Prophesy County
Emmett spoke softly into the walkie. ‘Holly, get her cleaned up, give her a soda and see if she wants something to eat. I got more questions once she calms down.’
Again, the slight nod of Holly’s head.
Emmett left the break room, taking down the ‘in-use’ sign as he did. Just in case Holly brought the old woman into the break room to pick out her own soda. You just never know.
He went back to his – Milt’s – office, sat in his – Milt’s – really nice swivel chair with the arms and the high back, and thought. Did the McDaniels do this? If so, which one? Or was it like that old movie Jasmine made him watch, that Agatha Christie thing, where they all did it? It wasn’t like he didn’t know who Agatha Christie was, like Steve McDaniel had implied; he’d seen all the movies. In the movie he was thinking about, all the suspects took a turn stabbing the bad guy, but old Darby Hunt just got shot the once. And, like his mama said, right between the eyes. Now it took a hell of a talent to break through glass and manage to shoot somebody right between the eyes. Emmett couldn’t have done it himself. Hell, he didn’t know anybody who could. It seemed to him that if someone in the McDaniel family was that good a shot he’d have heard about it. But who else was there? He wondered if Beth Atkins, Darby Hunt’s daughter, had a boyfriend – or for that matter, a girlfriend, if his hunch was right – who felt the girl needed to be free from a dad like Hunt? Even though she’d been legally adopted by her aunt and uncle, old Hunt might have thrown a stink now that he was out.
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