Murder Times Two

by Diana X Dunn

  “I was just trying to protect myself,” she sighed. “Max likes his traveling companions to behave a certain way, and I’ve sort of broken the rules by not actually getting drunk and disorderly with him. I really don’t want to be asked to leave.”

  “Why not?”

  “Being Max’s guest is like social currency,” Suzy tried to explain. “I come from old money, but Max is in a different league. Being his friend confers a certain status that can be useful in our circles. Being thrown off The Mirage can kill you in those same circles.”

  “Something certainly killed Chrystal.” Luke commented dryly.

  Suzy flushed. “Okay, that was a poor choice of words,” she admitted.

  Luke stood up. “I am by no means done talking with you,” he told her. “For now, however, I think I’ll go, before the doctor comes in again to try to throw me out. I’m not happy that you lied to me about your alcohol consumption. It makes me wonder what else you might have lied about. Would you like to tell me anything else before I go?”

  Suzy mentally ran through the whole gamut of half-truths that she’d told. “No, I don’t think so,” she told the man.

  He frowned. “The entire ship is under house arrest as such. No one is allowed on or off the ship without my approval. All communications will be fully monitored as well. We’ll be docking at Sunshine Island, Incorporated later this evening. At that time a full crime scene team with be coming on board. Unfortunately, you’ll not be able to get back into your cabin for the foreseeable future.”

  Suzy waved that away. “I’m sure I can manage. Marta can find me something to wear while I order up a few things to keep me going. I assume that I can have packages delivered while we are under arrest?”

  “Packages are fine, but they will be inspected. As I said, all communications, in and out, will be monitored.”

  Suzy kept her face neutral while cursing loudly in her head. She needed to get in touch with Michael and the only way she could have done that without being detected was with the M-ped that was now drowned and in police possession.

  Luke stopped at the door. “One last chance to make any changes to your statement.”

  Suzy shook her head, but the comment worried her. It suggested that her statement didn’t match something that he’d already been told. There was nothing she could do now but brazen it out and hope he found the murderer soon. It was worrying to think that they were all confined to a ship where a murderer was running around loose.

  It was tempting to stay in the medical wing for the rest of the day, but her curiosity as to what was happening on the rest of the ship won out over her desire to avoid Luke Nolan. Marta was able to supply a pair of shorts and a T-shirt that sort of fit her so that she didn’t have to walk around in the surgical gown that the doctor had supplied. The police had taken the evening gown and shoes she’d been wearing the previous night as evidence.

  The ship was making slow and steady progress toward SunInc. The estimated time of arrival was now eight in the evening. That meant that Suzy turned up to the evening’s formal dinner not at all properly dressed for the occasion. Max was the only person in the dining room when she arrived and he looked as if he hadn’t slept in weeks.

  “Max, I’m so sorry that I’m not exactly dressed properly,” Suzy began as soon as she made eye contact. “I’ve ordered a bunch of clothes and shoes and things and they should be waiting for me at SunInc. I can eat somewhere else if you don’t want me at your table tonight?”

  Max rushed to her side and took her hands in his. “Don’t be silly, you poor thing,” he told her. “I can’t imagine how terrible finding the body must have been for you. And now to find yourself as that policeman’s number one suspect. I’m surprised you didn’t just stay in bed.”

  Suzy didn’t have to fake a startled look. “What makes you think I’m the number one suspect?”

  Max flushed. “Oh, I didn’t mean,” he stuttered. “That is, I just thought, since you found the body and everything.”

  Suzy looked him straight in the eye. “What did you hear?” she demanded.

  “Some of the others were speculating that you had a pretty strong motive, that’s all,” Max mumbled. “They might have been talking in front of the police.”

  “What possible motive could I have had?”

  “Someone suggested that you and Chrystal were fighting over me,” Max sounded apologetic. “I told them that that was silly, that we were all just friends, but they seemed to think that Chrystal was trying to get rid of you and you didn’t want to go.”

  “Chrystal wanted to get rid of everyone but you,” Suzy told him, “but I didn’t pay any attention to her, she was a social climbing bitch.”

  “What do they say about speaking ill of the dead?” Luke Nolan had come into the room quietly. Suzy and Max spun around as he spoke.

  “Just being honest,” Suzy told him as she walked away from Max toward the bar. She poured herself a generous portion of something blue and noxious-looking from the selection on the top of the bar and took a large sip. She needed to be careful since her neutralizing tablets were now under police lock and key in the crime scene that used to be her cabin. Still, she knew her limits, and right now a drink was definitely called for.

  Max joined her at the bar and poured his own drink before offering to fix something for the policeman.

  “Just water,” Luke told him. “I’m working.”

  Max frowned at him. “I invited you to join us for dinner so that you could have something to eat and relax,” he told the man as he filled a glass with water. “Surely you’ve done enough hours of hard work for today to be allowed to take a break.”

  Luke shrugged as he took the glass. “Until we find the person responsible for Chrystal Sands’ murder, I’m on the job constantly.”

  “How very dedicated of you,” Max flirted lightly.

  Suzy watched as the others slowly filtered in. Everyone crowded around Max, offering sympathy at the loss of his playmate and complaining about the house arrest. Suzy found herself being completely ignored by them all. Even Randy simply gave her a grin before joining the crowd around Max. Luke was similarly ignored, but that was less surprising.

  Henry grabbed Max for what looked like an intense conversation, while Randy hovered around Peter, even though they didn’t appear to have anything to say to one another. Captain Grayson looked morose as he made monosyllabic replies to Genifer, who had been on time and looked uncharacteristically subdued tonight.

  After several minutes, Suzy refilled her drink and headed over to the policeman who had stationed himself near the door.

  “Looks like we’re both unpopular tonight,” she remarked casually.

  “I can understand why no one wants to talk to me,” he answered, “but I’m less clear on why you are being avoided.”

  “I don’t know,” Suzy replied. “Someone did suggest that I am the prime suspect in the murder, though, so maybe they’re avoiding me just in case it’s true.”

  “I don’t know that I would call you the prime suspect,” Luke responded, looking at her speculatively. “A suspect, certainly, but your motive doesn’t seem as strong as some of the others. Anyway, if you did do it, you were very quick and very efficient. I’m not sure you could have managed it.”

  Suzy grinned inwardly. She was both quick and efficient when she needed to be, but it was important that this man not realize that. She frowned at him. “I think I may have just been insulted.” She staggered slightly and then leaned against him gently. “I suppose I should be happy I’m not the prime suspect, even if you do think badly of me.”

  Luke looked at her, seemingly amused.

  “I better stop drinking.” She stood very close and whispered to him. “I’m not really used to it and it does make me misbehave.” She winked at him, pleased to see a mix of desire and frustration flash across his face.

  “Dinner is served,” Marta announced as she swept into the room.

  Max took his seat at the he
ad of the table and for a second no one seemed to want to sit next to him. Genifer finally claimed the seat where she’d sat the previous evening. After another brief hesitation, Randy took the seat that had been Chrystal’s the night before. The two business rivals sat on opposite sides of the table, with Captain Grayson randomly dropping into one of the remaining chairs. Suzy slid into a seat across the table from him and Luke took the one next to her.

  Suzy leaned toward him, now in full flirt mode. “Marta’s a great cook. You’re in for a real treat.”

  “I don’t normally eat much real food,” the man frowned. “I prefer bars. They provide all of the calories that I need and are perfectly nutritionally balanced.”

  While Suzy generally agreed with that, tonight she needed to stay in character. “Wait and see,” she promised.

  It was difficult for anyone to enjoy the meal because of the obvious tension in the room. No one spoke throughout the many courses and, as they reached the end of the meal, the room was almost unbearably uncomfortable. It was likely that the only thing that kept everyone from exploding was the vast quantity of alcoholic drinks that were being consumed. Luke looked amazed as bottle after bottle of expensive wine was brought in and very quickly dispatched. That was in addition to a number of pitchers of fruity cocktails that were being continually emptied into everyone’s glasses.

  Suzy had mostly given up on the idea of staying sober in favor of staying in character. Suzy Barr was focused on forgetting about the mess she was in, therefore she drank her fair share of the various concoctions that Marta prepared and the wait staff poured generously.

  “Oooh,” she cooed to Luke toward the end of the meal, when Marta had filled up her glass with something orange and sparkling. “This one is really good.”

  Luke simply looked at her, deadpan.

  Suzy laughed. “Stop that,” she giggled, all eyes on her in the silent room. “You have to try this one,” she insisted, waving to Marta to fill Luke’s glass as well.

  Luke stared into Suzy’s eyes. After a moment’s hesitation he took a cautious sip from the glass. A second later he flushed as the alcohol hit his system. He frowned at Suzy and put the drink down. After a moment, he pushed back his chair and stood up.

  “I think I better get up on deck. We should be docking soon,” he announced, keeping his eyes on Max.

  “What happens then?” Henry asked.

  “The crime scene team will come on board to process the scene. What happens from there pretty much depends on what they find.”

  He nodded toward Max and headed for the door. After a moment he turned back and sat down in his seat next to Suzy. “Forgot my case,” he shrugged as leaned down to pick it up from the floor by his chair. He got back up, the case with his M-ped and other information on the investigation now in his hand. Everyone was silent as he left the room, but as soon as the door closed, it seemed as if everyone had something to say.

  “He’s gorgeous,” Randy sighed.

  “And he thinks one of us is a murderer,” Henry reminded him.

  “I suppose one of us must be, mustn’t we?” Genifer looked bored as she spoke.

  “Don’t be stupid, Genifer,” Max snapped at her. “It must have been one of the staff.”

  Marta was collecting dishes and an offended look crossed her face as Max spoke, but she held her tongue. She was responsible for hiring, training, and supervising the staff and Suzy was sure that she resented the suggestion that one of them might be a killer, even if the alternative was that one of her boss’s guests had done it.

  “Let’s not fight amongst ourselves,” Captain Grayson suggested. “We should let Detective Nolan do his job and we should just get on with our lives.”

  “Fat chance of that while we are all stuck on this ship,” Peter snarled. “I’ve got a business to run and I can’t do that from here when all of our calls are being monitored, can I?”

  “Surely any legitimate business can’t be hurt by the police monitoring your communications?” Henry suggested nastily.

  Peter just rolled his eyes and then chugged down the rest of his drink.

  “I’m sure the police will want to talk to everyone further, once the crime scene team has done their job. I think it might be best if we all just returned to our cabins and waited to see what happens next.” Max made it sound like a suggestion, but it was really an order.

  Everyone got up, most of them staggering after the copious amount of drinking they had done, and they all slowly left the room. Suzy had been given a new cabin far away from her previous one. Her new home was every bit as luxurious and well appointed as the old one had been, and it felt even more spacious as she had nothing whatsoever to put on the shelves or to hang in the massive closet. Marta had found her a few more T-shirts and shorts from somewhere and she’d left them carefully folded on Suzy’s bed. She had also left her a supply of shampoo, shower gel and cosmetics, for which Suzy was grateful.

  Suzy waited until she was in the bathroom with the door shut to examine the small vial that Luke Nolan had dropped in her lap while he was picking up his case. She opened it and shook out the contents. The tablets were clearly labeled with the brand name of one of the most popular drug and alcohol neutralizing agents on the market. Suzy wondered if Luke simply didn’t like her when she’d been drinking and wanted to encourage her to stay sober or whether he understood her desire to play along with Max without actually getting incapacitated.

  Whatever the reason, his little gift suggested that he wasn’t quite the impartial investigator he was meant to be. Either he was attracted to her or he’d been tipped off as to her true identity. The former could be very useful to her, the latter would be even more so. But first she had to try to figure out which one it was.

  Six

  Suzy was bored and frustrated. After taking one Luke’s tablets, the mind-numbing effects of the alcohol were gone. Now she was desperate to talk to Michael, eager to talk to Max, and worried about talking to Luke. She turned her thoughts toward finding a way to get a message to Michael. All communications were being monitored, which made things complicated. There were a dozen different coded messages she could send to Michael, but none of them would say exactly what she wanted to say.

  Of course she could simply get off the ship. She had the skills to make her way into SunInc undetected, once they docked. There, she would be able to contact Michael and he could have on a flight home in hours. But that would mean abandoning her identity as Suzy Barr, one that she had spent years establishing. It would also mean that some other agent would have to start from scratch to establish a link to Maximilian Hart. The time that that would take would be time where Max’s movements would go unmonitored. The presence of both Henry and Peter on the boat suggested that some major deal was about to happen. The agency needed someone in place right now.

  Michael would have already noticed that her M-ped was no longer transmitting. No doubt he was already investigating exactly what was happening on board the ship, probably working with someone highly placed in the SunInc police department. It was even possible that he’d spoken to Luke Nolan. What he would not do is make any attempt to contact her directly or do anything that might expose who she was. She was deep undercover and it was her job to make contact when and if she needed to do so.

  Half an hour later, the ship docked and everyone was called to the ship’s main lounge. It was a room that was usually the scene of numerous parties on board, but with so few guests this time, Suzy hadn’t been in it this week. She joined the group dotted around the comfortable seating area, everyone sprawled across chairs and couches, trying to look as if they hadn’t a care in the world. Several policemen in uniform were spread throughout the room, discouraging conversation. Whether that was by accident or design, it was hard to say. Everyone sat up straighter and tried to look focused and serious when Luke came into the room.

  “Good evening,” he began, looking carefully from one person to the next. “The crime scene team is now working in the
cabin where the murder took place. In the meantime, I’m going to start working back through everyone’s statements with them. I’m hoping we can clear up a few discrepancies that have arisen now that I’ve talked to everyone.”

  Suzy and the others all exchanged nervous glances. What discrepancies? In which statements? The tension escalated dramatically as Luke continued.

  “I’ll be talking to each of you in turn in the office next door. After we’ve talked I’ll have an officer walk you back to your cabin. I ask you to remain there and get a good night’s sleep. I would rather no one was walking around the ship after the interviews, so that our investigators can focus on their jobs. Tomorrow is another day and I have no doubt that there will be further questions to be asked and answered then as well. Does anyone have any questions for me before we start?”

  “How soon will we be let off the ship? And when will we be allowed to leave SunInc?” Henry demanded.

  “No one will be allowed off the ship until the ship has been thoroughly searched and the crime scene team has completed their work. As for leaving SunInc, I would hope that you would all be willing to remain here until the investigation is complete and the murderer is safely behind bars.”

  A quiet murmur went through the group, but Suzy couldn’t be sure what was said or who said it. Luke looked carefully at each of them again and then nodded at the uniformed officer at the door.

  “You have the list,” he told him, “I’ll see them in that order.”

  A moment later the officer at the door called Max for the first interview and everyone else settled back in their seats.

  Genifer was restless almost immediately and she entertained herself by fixing herself a drink and then flirting mercilessly with the cutest of the uniformed men. He looked to be only in his early twenties, wearing a poorly fitted uniform and sporting a bad haircut. Suzy was grateful that at least it gave her something to do as she watched the uncomfortable scene unfold.