by Diana X Dunn
Suzy watched the group as they made their way from the shuttle parking area toward the ship. A SunInc police officer was stationed at the entrance to the ship, holding the list of names that Max had supplied. He checked everyone off on the list before they were allowed onboard. Suzy made her way slowly toward the large multi-purpose room where the lunch was being held. This was yet another room that had been used frequently on previous journeys, but that Suzy hadn’t been in yet on this one.
Inside the room she made her way patiently through the crowd, greeting her friends with quick hellos and meaningless chatter. She couldn’t afford to call attention to any one particular relationship, so she made certain to greet Alex in the same offhand manner.
“You must be Alexander Knight,” she smiled at him.
“And you must be Suzanna Barr. Please call me Alex,” he grinned back.
“Everyone calls me Suzy,” she told him. “I’m glad you could make it.”
“It was nice of you to invite me,” Alex looked impatient with the small talk.
“I look forward to getting to know you better later,” was all that Suzy said as she slid past him to greet yet another guest she knew. This time it was one of Genifer’s friends, but they had met previously and Suzy endured a long conversation with him about a dozen people she barely knew.
Genifer herself, meanwhile, was monopolizing Alex. Never shy around attractive men, she had zeroed in on Alex as soon as she’d come into the room and she was now flirting with him in a way that Suzy found incredibly annoying. She didn’t have much time to be irritated, however, before it was time for lunch to be served. Everyone quickly found their assigned seats and Suzy was disappointed to find that she and Alex were at different tables.
Max arrived just before the staff began serving and he quickly made his way around the room, shaking hands and greeting people that he knew well. He made a point of introducing Marta and Captain Grayson to the guests, assuring everyone that if they needed anything they should just ask either of them, and by extension not him, although he didn’t put it that way.
Suzy suffered through lunch at a table with many of the people whom she had invited as well as a few of Genifer’s friends. The conversation was pointless and mostly revolved around what other people were doing. The idle rich were amazingly fascinated with their own kind. Unfortunately, that was often all they were interested in talking about. For the most part, Suzy simply tuned out the chatter going on around her and concentrated on eating and thinking about Chrystal’s murder.
In another hour they would all be leaving the ship and heading into SunInc. That opened up a range of unpleasant possibilities and made it much more unlikely that the murderer would be caught. Suzy frowned over her dessert. While she hadn’t liked Chrystal, she still wanted to see her killer discovered. She couldn’t help but think that she ought to have been able to solve the case. Yet she felt uncertain as to the identity of the perpetrator.
After lunch everyone headed for the SunSet Paradise Resort and the wing of luxury suites that had been reserved for them. Suzy was pleased to find herself in a suite on the penthouse level, near Max. That suggested that he still considered her a friend, which was very important for her work in the future.
In the suite, she found a list of guests and their room numbers. Suzy was pleased that Randy had been given a suite on the penthouse level as well, which would hopefully go some way toward reassuring him of his own place in Max’s affections. Suzy noted that Alex was only one level below her own. She read through the guest room assignments, figuring out that Henry and his guests were on the lowest level, with Peter on the level above that. That probably meant that Peter was slightly more in favor than Henry, although Suzy doubted if any work would get done during the next twenty-four hours. Max wanted to party right now, not work.
Suzy's own collection of associates and Genifer's friends were scattered on the remaining floors, where suites were larger than those on the lower levels and fewer guests were accommodated on each floor. Suzy was surprised to see that Luke also had a suite on the floor below her. That might get complicated if Luke were to get jealous of Alex or vice versa. Suzy couldn't worry about that, however. She needed to focus on getting Alex to help her contact Michael while also hopefully helping Luke solve the murder.
Within minutes of her arrival at the resort, there was a knock on her door. Suzy glanced at the security screen by the door and smiled. Alex hadn’t wasted any time. She opened the door and then led him out to her balcony so that they could talk. They sat opposite each other at the small table and chairs set that was even less comfortable than it looked.
Before he had said more than “hello”, she held up her hand. She tapped on the screen of the suite’s control panel, turning on the sound system on the balcony. She turned the music up to an almost uncomfortably loud level, selecting a channel of new-age alternative experimental jam music that was full of the sounds of what fans of the style liked to call “non-traditional instrumentation”. As the sound of a racing jet engine crashed into the noise made by a crying baby, Suzy smiled and sat back, satisfied that the cacophony should mask her conversation with Alex. She was still going to be very careful, however.
“It’s nice to meet you after hearing so much about you from Julia,” she told Alex.
“Are we being monitored?” he questioned.
“I don’t know,” Suzy answered. “I’m playing it as safe as I possibly can.”
Alex nodded and then sighed. “Nothing is ever easy or straightforward with you, is it?”
Suzy shook her head. “I guess Julia must have warned you about me? If you want an easy life, you definitely don’t want to get involved in mine.”
Alex studied her for a long time. Then he sighed and took her hand. The familiar jolt of electricity surged through her.
“Julia told me that you were cute,” Suzy began, “and I’m hoping you might help me out with a little job as well.”
“Of course,” Alex was quick to reply.
“I just need you to run a small errand for me,” she told him, not wanting him to worry about all of the possibilities that helping her could potentially entail. “I need you to contact my friend Michael for me. I need him to ship me a new M-ped with all the standard features, and I need it done in a way that will be unquestionably normal.”
Alex frowned. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Just get that message to Michael and he can worry about what I mean,” she told him.
“Okay, I guess. Do you want me to call him now?”
Alex pulled out his M-ped and waited for a number.
“No, not now, and not from your own device,” Suzy explained. “You need to go into town and buy a new, non-registered M-ped. Then you need to contact Michael. Alternately, you can call him from a public booth, but in that case you need to find one that takes cash and pay that way.” She gave him a private number that would access Michael directly, no matter what time of the day or night he managed to call. She had written it on a tiny piece of paper, so that she didn’t have to say the number out loud.
“Why can’t you just do it?” Alex looked confused.
“I’m under house arrest here,” Suzy explained.
Of course Alex didn’t know anything about the murder on The Mirage, so Suzy spent a few minutes filling him in very generally on what had happened over the last several days.
“So you can see,” Suzy concluded, “I don’t want to do anything that might draw any attention to myself. The M-ped that Marta supplied is great, but it doesn’t have all of the features that my old one had and Michael can get me one that does. Michael’s connections might be a little bit suspect, though, and I’m pretty sure that all my calls and communications are being monitored. The police have the right to do that in murder cases.”
Suzy hoped that if anyone was listening that they would conclude that her contact for the new M-ped dealt in illegally hacked devices that had features that weren’t strictly legal. It was t
he sort of thing that the very rich would want and that someone like her should be able to source.
Alex shook his head. “I don’t understand any of this,” he told her.
“What’s important is that you are much cuter than Julia said you were,” she told him, standing up and pulling him up with her. She took a step to the edge of the small space and looked out across SunInc. Then she turned toward Alex, pulling him closer to her.
Suzy grinned and leaned her head against his shoulder. She spoke very quietly into his ear. Even the best monitoring equipment in the world would struggle to pick up anything that she whispered to him.
“I’m deep undercover here,” she told him. “I need to do everything I can to preserve that cover. It has taken me a couple of years to build up this persona that Max Hart likes and maybe even trusts a bit. I really don’t want to throw away all of that hard work if I don’t absolutely have to.” She nuzzled into his neck. Anyone watching would be seeing something that looked totally at odds with what was really happening.
After a moment, she continued. “Someone on that boat killed Chrystal, and I don’t know who it was or why they did it, but I’d like to find out. The problem is, I can’t trust anyone. Luke, the officer investigating, seems to like me and trust me. If I had my M-ped I could find out exactly how much I’m being monitored and also see all of the police records and other information, and then I could probably figure it all out.”
Alex nodded. He pulled Suzy tightly to him and then cupped her chin in his hand, tipping her face toward him. “I have to keep reminding myself that we really only just met a few months ago,” he told her. “I feel like I’ve known you forever, no matter that you look different now, and I simply can’t stop thinking about you.”
Suzy nodded slowly. “This probably isn’t the best time to be talking about us,” she told him. “I really need your help right now.”
Alex nodded and then slowly lowered his lips to hers. The long slow kiss made Suzy forget about everything except Alex. His body felt hard and unyielding as it pressed her against the balcony railing. She found herself pulling him closer still, and the kiss deepened.
A knock on the door to her room finally broke them apart. Suzy took a second to catch her breath and steady her pounding heart before she headed toward the door. She walked quickly, counting down from ten as she crossed the room, trying to regain her composure. She wasn’t sure how she felt when she saw Luke on the security panel. Alex followed her slowly across the room as she pulled the door open.
“Luke, hello,” Suzy forced herself to smile as naturally as she could.
“Hello, yourself,” Luke grinned back.
His smile faded as Alex arrived at the door. “I didn’t realize that you had company,” he said, in a suddenly stilted tone.
“This is Alex,” Suzy told him. “He’s a friend of a friend. I invited him to join the party because my friend Julia said he was really good fun.”
Luke raised an eyebrow at the remark, but offered his hand to Alex. The two shook hands and studied each other. Suzy noted that they were very similar in height and weight, but Luke was slightly more muscular. Studying them with an impartial eye, she decided that Alex was more outwardly attractive, but Luke was more interesting looking. They were both seriously gorgeous men and for a moment she wished that she could simply enjoy their company and forget about her job, Chrystal, and Max Hart.
After an awkward moment when no one spoke, Alex sighed. “I should be going. I have a few errands to run in SunInc.”
“If you don’t mind,” Luke told him, “we are asking all of Max’s guests to remain at the hotel for now. There are a lot of amenities at the resort that you can take advantage of, and that helps us keep track of everything in terms of the security for tonight.”
Alex exchanged looks with Suzy. If he was confined to the resort, he couldn’t contact Michael for her.
“Didn’t you say you wanted to have a swim?” Suzy hoped Alex would get the hidden message that she didn’t want him to argue with Luke.
“Yeah,” Alex muttered. “I guess I’ll hit the pool.”
As he turned to go, Suzy caught his arm. “We still have a lot to talk about,” she told him. “We have so many mutual friends to catch up on. Let’s meet at six for dinner in the dining room. See if you can reserve us a private room.”
“Sounds good,” Alex grinned at her and then gave her a quick peck on the cheek. “See you around six.”
Luke was frowning when Suzy turned back from the door.
“How do you know him again?”
“He’s a friend of a friend,” Suzy waved a hand, hoping to dismiss the topic. “He seems quite interesting and I really need to warn him about a few of the players who will be at the party tonight. Some of those women would eat him alive.”
Luke laughed. “I already met a few of them,” he told her. “A few of Genifer’s friends seemed to think that I would be eager to twirl with them for some reason.”
Suzy laughed. “Bored rich girls,” she shrugged. “They can’t imagine that any man wouldn’t want them and they are usually right.” She looked a question at Luke.
“I wasn’t even remotely attracted to any of them,” he answered her. “I don’t like rich spoiled women.”
Suzy wasn’t sure how to answer that. The look he gave her suggested that he wasn’t actually putting her in that category, in spite of her cover.
“I didn’t mean to scare away your new friend.” Luke didn’t sound sincere, but Suzy ignored his tone. “I just wanted to check in with you and see how you were doing.”
“I’m fine,” Suzy smiled at him and took his arm. “Come on in and let’s chat.” She led him to a comfortable couch in the small sitting room and pulled him down to sit beside her. “I hope you have time for a little visit?”
“Just a short one,” Luke said grumpily as he settled next to her. “I have a ton of work to get through this afternoon before the big event tonight.”
Suzy rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I have ever been less excited about a party in my life.”
“I think the only one actually excited is Max,” Luke said.
“I would guess that most of the guests are pretty excited,” Suzy countered. “Of course, they don’t know anything about the murder, so why not?”
“Did you tell Alex about it?”
“I mentioned it,” Suzy said sheepishly. “He wanted to go for a walk into town and I had to tell him that I wasn’t allowed to leave the hotel.”
“We decided to simplify things by asking that no one leave. Max doesn’t want anyone to know about the murder, so we’ve been telling anyone who asks that the high security is because Max has been receiving threats.”
“What sort of threats?”
“The imaginary kind,” Luke said dryly. “If anyone pushes, I’m saying that they were vaguely worded but warranted extra security. It also explains why we aren’t letting anyone on The Mirage.”
Suzy nodded. For a crowd like this one, none of that would seem extraordinary. The very rich occasionally found themselves targeted by anything from random jealous lunatics to organized anti-wealth groups that wanted to force the redistribution of wealth more fairly between social classes. Often the definition of fair redistribution for them seemed more designed to line their own pockets than benefit society’s truly needy populations, but that was another matter.
Luke spent a few minutes chatting with Suzy about some of the other guests before telling her that he had to get back to work.
“Enjoy your dinner with your new friend,” he told her as she walked him to the door.
“It’s always nice to make new friends,” she replied innocently.
Luke just looked at her for a minute, obviously wanting to say something but feeling that he shouldn’t. Finally he sighed deeply and pulled open the door. He paused again in the corridor and then sighed a second time. He glanced up and down the hallway, and seeing no one he leaned back in toward Suzy, dropping a qui
ck kiss on the top of her head.
“Take good care of yourself,” he told her seriously. Then he turned and walked quickly away, not looking back at her.
“You too,” she whispered after him.
Suzy walked back into her suite and crossed the room. On the balcony, she switched off the blaring noise that filled the small space. Then she headed down the resort’s extensive range of shops and boutiques. She had a certain image to maintain, so she spent a long and boring hour, flitting from shop to shop, buying a pile of dresses and gowns, shoes and handbags, that she didn’t really want but needed in order to stay in character. A long and hot shower helped clear her head once she returned to her suite.
She dressed very carefully for her dinner with Alex, frowning at herself in the bathroom mirror as she realized just how much time and effort she was putting into her appearance. The dress she had chosen was a light blue sheath that clung to her every curve. It was perfect for a romantic dinner with Alex. She would change into something more formal before the party.
When Max threw a party, he expected everyone to dress in their very finest. A Maximilian Hart party was only just slightly less important than an audience with royalty or a country’s president, at least in Max’s eyes. Suzy sighed as she looked again at the dress she had chosen for the party. It was very formal and very sexy and she really hated it. At least she had dinner with Alex before she had to put on the tight, restrictive dress. She was looking forward to dinner.
Alex had secured them a small private room on the upper level of the resort's spacious dining area. The room had glass walls on two sides, affording them a view of the dining area on one side and the beach on the other. Suzy gave Alex a warm hug when she arrived and then sank into a chair facing into the dining room. With the touch of a button on the room's control panel, Alex made the glass on either side mirrored on the outside, allowing them to see out, but no one to see inside. It only took them a moment to scroll through the menu and program their choices.