by Diana X Dunn
“That brings us to opportunity.” Alex smiled. “Luckily, that narrows the field slightly. Again, we’re assuming that the same person committed both murders. Max can be ruled out, therefore, because he was in his cabin with Suzy when the first murder took place. Suzy can also be ruled out because she was with Luke in the ballroom when Genifer was killed. I understand that Randy was with Max when the second murder took place, so he can be eliminated as well. That leaves Henry, Peter, Marta and Captain Grayson.” For a moment no one spoke.
“That is ridiculous,” Captain Grayson announced, standing up. “You start with an assumption that is probably incorrect and then you make up all sorts of drivel about each of us and we are supposed to believe that you have solved the murders? Nonsense.”
Alex waved a hand. “Please, sit down,” he said. “I’m nearly finished. When I’m done everyone will have a chance to tell me what they think of my conclusion.”
Captain Grayson looked angrily at Luke. “Are you seriously going to let him continue?”
“Just for a few more minutes,” Luke replied. “Then we will see what happens.”
The captain sat back down reluctantly, shooting an angry look at Luke and then Alex.
Alex nodded. “Thank you,” he told him. “Now, as I was saying, that leaves only four possible suspects. It seems likely that one of them is the murderer, but which one? I was certain that the solution was hidden in the wrist-con that Genifer slipped in my pocket last night.”
“Which you should have immediately turned over to the police,” Luke snapped.
“Yes,” Alex agreed. “I should have immediately turned it over to the police, because unfortunately, it’s now missing.” Uneasy glances went around the room again.
Suzy spoke up now. “I blame myself,” she told everyone. “I told Alex it could wait for morning. Then I went to try to find Luke for him and ended up telling all of you all about it. I didn’t even stop to think that you were all suspects. Suspects who would want to get your hands on that device.” Suzy shook her head sadly. “It’s missing now and it’s my fault.”
Alex reached over and patted Suzy’s arm. “It isn’t your fault,” he assured her. “It’s the murderer’s fault. The murderer stole it from my room.”
Suzy nodded slowly and looked over at Luke to gauge his reaction. Luke, however, was steadily focused on their chief suspect.
Alex sighed. “That theft is another reason why we wanted you all here together. The murderer took the wrist-con and I suspect that he or she is carrying it around in a pocket or bag. It’s too important to leave lying around.”
No one suddenly and suspiciously patted a pocket or looked nervous. Alex continued. “Suzy has the number for the wrist-con.”
“So, if I call it right now, we can just wait and see where it rings.” Suzy said, looking around the circle. Every face had incredible tension etched across it.
Slowly, she pulled out her M-ped and punched in the number that she had been given by Randy. A moment later a buzzing noise made everyone jump.
“It’s a trick,” Captain Grayson announced as he stood up, his pocket buzzing merrily. “I took the battery out of Genifer’s wrist-con as soon as I got my hands on it. It can’t be making noise.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out his M-ped and a wrist-con. “See?” he demanded. “It’s my M-ped that’s ringing, not the wrist-con.”
As he held up two devices, Captain Grayson suddenly seemed to realize what he was saying. “That is,” he stammered, “I mean....” He stopped speaking and headed for the door. When he got there, he found that Luke was already waiting for him.
“I think I’ll just take both of those,” Luke said, dropping both devices into an evidence bag.
“My having that wrist-con doesn’t prove anything,” the captain tried again. “I found it on the bridge an hour ago and stuck it in my pocket until I could find out who it belonged to.”
“Why take out the battery, then?” Luke asked calmly.
“Anyway, even if I took it, that doesn’t mean that I killed anyone,” the man now insisted, muddling up his own defense.
“No,” Luke agreed easily, “but once we get the information off this device, we should know a lot more.”
Captain Grayson seemed to crumble in front of their eyes. “I couldn’t help it,” he told Luke. “I loved her so very much, and she loved me, I know she did.”
Suzy and Alex exchanged looks. They hadn’t been expecting a confession.
“I assume you mean Chrystal?” Luke checked. “Before you go any further, I have to remind you that I’m recording this for the official police record.”
The man nodded, clearly beyond caring now. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. We loved each other, but she couldn’t see that being with me was just as good as being with Max Hart. She was using him, but he didn’t see it. Then she started to get worried that Max might find out about us. So she told me she didn’t want to see me anymore. She started all that nonsense about going to SunInc and getting off the ship for a while. I couldn’t stand the idea of not being able to see her all the time.” He looked pleadingly at Luke. “You must understand?”
“So you killed her?” Luke kept his tone and his face neutral, while punching in codes in his M-ped, calling for backup.
“I didn’t mean to,” Captain Grayson insisted. “She wanted me to sneak her into Suzy’s cabin while Suzy was with Max. She said she wanted to leave her a note, telling her to leave Max alone. But then, when I let her in, she started going crazy. She destroyed all of Suzy’s clothes and filled her shampoo with acid and stuff like that. She wasn’t behaving like the woman I loved. I didn’t know what to do.”
“So you killed her?” Luke calmly asked again.
“I gave her something to calm her down and I put her on Suzy’s bed.” The man was talking in a daze now, lost in the retelling of the events. “She looked so lovely and peaceful. And then, I realized that when she woke up she would still want to leave me. I decided that if I couldn’t have her, no one should. I had already taken the knife away from her. It was so easy to just slip it into her heart.”
Marta gasped and began to cry softly. Max and Randy moved over to sit on either side of her and Max began to gently rub her back.
“I think we should go,” Luke said to the man, reaching toward the security panel to open the door.
“No,” Max said in loud voice behind him. “I want to hear the rest. I want to hear him explain why and how he killed my baby.”
Suzy winced and shook her head. “Let it go, Max,” she suggested softly.
“I won’t,” Max answered impatiently. “Go on then, tell us all the rest,” he demanded of his ship’s captain.
Captain Grayson laughed nastily. “Oh yes, little Genifer, your wonderful daughter,” he snarled. “Would it shock you to know that she started trying to seduce me when she was still in her teens? Or that she used to invite me to join her and her friends in New York for massive group sex parties? Or that she was trying to blackmail me to get enough money to get away from you?”
Max’s face crumpled and tears formed in his eyes. “I did my best with her,” he insisted to Marta.
“You did the best you could with her,” Marta choked out between tears. “She was always a wild child. You gave her a home and security and love. It was never enough for her.”
Max frowned. “For all of her faults, she didn’t deserve to die,” he angrily told the captain. “Why did you have to kill her?”
“She saw me coming out of Suzy’s cabin after I left Chrystal. She didn’t tell me right away, but she even captured it on the camera on her M-ped. I’d shut down all of the ship’s security cameras. Wasn’t she pleased with herself that she’d thought to record me? She said she thought I was stealing stuff from the guests, but she was delighted to discover that I’d been killing Chrystal instead. That way she could blackmail me for really big money.”
“So you killed her?” Luke asked the question yet again. It seemed to be w
orking, so why change it?
“Yeah, she was easy. She wanted me to meet her in her room and she’d invited Alex to come up too. She figured she would be safe if he was there, I guess.”
A sad and guilty look flashed over Alex’s face. Suzy read the look and patted his arm, firmly shaking her head at him when he looked at her. There was nothing he could have done to save her.
“It was easy to just shut the elevators down as soon as Genifer got to the penthouse level. I was already waiting for her, and I’d left her a treat. As soon as she saw the drugs, she gobbled them up. She could never resist chemicals. She was asleep in seconds, and then I just had to inject a little bit more into her system and she was gone. I restarted the elevators and took one down to the ballroom to join the party.”
Max looked unbelievably sad and angry all at once. “I can’t believe that you worked for me,” he said finally. “I thought of you as part of the Maximilian Hart family.”
“Ha, some family,” the captain shot back.
Max just shook his head and then turned and buried it in Marta’s shoulder. Randy hugged them both, turning away from the rest of the room.
Luke tapped on the door’s security panel. When the door swung open, three armed police officers entered and surrounded Luke and Captain Grayson. “You need to come with us,” Luke told the man.
Captain Grayson shook his head as if to clear it. “You can’t prove anything,” he said angrily, as realized he was being arrested. “I will fight this.”
Luke sighed. “Your confession was recorded,” he reminded the man. “You’ll be serving life in prison.”
The captain looked stunned, as if that idea had never occurred to him. “I won’t,” he shouted and then he pulled away from the officer who was holding his arm.
Captain Grayson punched the unsuspecting officer in the face and as he fell to the ground, the captain grabbed his weapon. Everyone in the room gasped and quickly began to panic. Luke took a cautious step backwards, motioning to the other police officers to step back as well. No one wanted to take on an armed man with nothing to lose.
Suzy reacted quickly with her years of training. Staying alive was more important than staying in character. She pushed Alex to the floor and pulled Max, Marta and Randy down as well. Peter and Henry had followed suit and the group now huddled on the floor behind one of the couches. Suzy grabbed a bowl from the couch and caught Luke’s eye. He nodded very slowly.
Captain Grayson was waving his arms and shouting, telling everyone to stay away from him. Suzy waited until he was looking away and then threw the bowl at his head. Her aim was excellent and it smashed into the back of his skull as he shouted at Luke to get off his ship.
The captain spun around, grabbing his head and shouting with surprise and pain. With his back turned, Luke tackled him from behind. As the pair crashed to the ground, the gun slid out of the captain’s hand and skittered across the floor. Suzy grabbed it quickly and turned it on the man who was motionless under Luke.
One of the other officers stepped around the men on the floor and took the gun from Suzy’s grasp. She hesitated for only a moment before shifting back into character, happy to release the gun to the proper authority. Behind them, everyone was slowly climbing back up from the floor and falling into seats on the sofas.
Luke had Captain Grayson’s hands securely manacled behind his back before he slowly raised him to his feet. There was a trickle of blood sliding down the prisoner’s neck from the wound in the back of his head where the bowl had made contact.
“Let headquarters know that we are bringing in the murderer, with a full confession. He’ll need medical attention as well.” Luke spoke quietly to one of the officers. The policeman who had been attacked by Captain Grayson now stood up slowly as well. “We need to get O’Malley medical attention, too,” Luke added.
The officers left, escorting a dazed Captain Grayson to a waiting transport. Luke turned back to the room.
“Thank you all for your cooperation today,” he said. “I’m glad that we were able to solve these horrible crimes before The Mirage sailed away again. Please know that you are welcome to stay as long as you like on SunInc. I’ll be sending an officer over here, and also to the resort, in a short time to collect final statements from everyone. I would appreciate your cooperation. Once you’ve given your statement you are free to go and have a wonderful life.”
Everyone nodded vaguely and Suzy could see that they all looked as if they were in shock. As the door shut behind Luke, the entire room let out a long breath.
“You were amazing,” Randy spoke first, gushing to Suzy. “I was terrified, but you just grabbed that bowl and threw it straight at him.”
“It was a ten-thousand dollar cut-crystal candy dish,” Marta informed them all. “It was part of a set of ten and I’m not sure it can be replaced.”
Suzy shrugged. “I’m sorry,” she said, though she didn’t sound apologetic. “I guess I was just excited and it seemed like a good idea at the time.”
Max chuckled. “It was a great idea and the dish doesn’t matter in the slightest,” he assured her. “That madman could have killed us all with that weapon.” He shuddered and grabbed tightly to Randy’s arm.
“He did kill two people,” Marta reminded them all sadly.
After an awkward silence, Alex cleared his throat. “I really did appreciate you all giving us time to do this today,” he told them. “We thought we knew who the murderer was, but there really wasn’t any evidence.”
“But there will be on that wrist-con,” Henry reminded everyone.
“Ah, right,” Alex grinned. “About that wrist-con….”
Suzy held up a hand. “Let’s not bore everyone with the technical details,” she told Alex with a wink. “I’m sure we all have things we would rather be doing right now.”
At that, Henry and Peter both jumped up. “I’m going to finish packing and get out of here,” Peter announced, looking at Max. When he got no response, he headed out of the room.
“I need to go too, I guess,” Henry said. He, too, looked at Max.
“Actually,” Max said in reply. “If you can give me a minute, I want to sign a few things for you before you go.”
Henry looked delighted as he sat back down.
Marta stood up with a sigh. “I suppose I better go and see about finding a new ship’s captain,” she announced.
Max nodded at her. “I still want to sail at nine tomorrow morning,” he told her. Marta sighed again but didn’t say anything else.
Suzy stood up and pulled Alex up with her. “I think we should get out of your way,” she told Max and Randy. “I’m glad everything has been sorted out.”
Max stood up and grabbed her hands. “I want you to stay,” he told her. “Go and pack and come back and spend another week or two with us. I’m going to invite a bunch of others as well. We all need cheering up.” He turned toward Alex. “You can come as well, if you want.”
Alex shook his head. “Sorry, but I have to get back to work,” he told the other man. “I have a book to finish.”
Max nodded and then looked back at Suzy. “Please, come back and sail with us for another week or two? Randy and I will be so bored without you.”
Suzy looked from Max to Randy and back again. She couldn’t think how Suzanna Barr could possibly say no to the request. “I’ll go and get packed and be back before too long.”
Max smiled a satisfied smile while Alex frowned deeply. The pair headed toward the door, with Max, Randy and Henry not far behind. Alex remained quiet all the way off the ship and into the waiting police transport that Luke had left behind for them. Then he exploded.
“What do you mean you’d love to go back on board? Are you crazy?”
Suzy shook her head. “I love sailing around the world with Max,” she gushed, nodding at Alex to indicate their police driver who could hear their every word. “ Besides, I’m afraid that if I say no he might never invite me again.”
Alex glared
angrily out the window all the way back to the resort.
Sixteen
Alex didn’t say a word as they left the police transport and made their way into the resort. Suzy waved her keycard in front of the elevator control panel and the pair rode to the penthouse level without speaking. Suzy knew that the conversation they were about to have wasn’t going to be an easy one, but she was temporarily reprieved when they arrived at her door to find Luke there waiting for her.
“Well,” Luke said as a greeting. “I guess you guys must be really pleased with yourselves?”
Suzy nodded and smiled at him. “We cheated, of course, but the end result is all that matters.”
“You nearly got a whole bunch of people killed as well,” Luke said caustically. “But I guess that doesn’t really matter either?”
“It was your officer who allowed a murderer to take his weapon away,” Suzy remarked mildly. “I can’t see how you can possibly be blaming us for poor training on the part of the local police.”
Luke flushed and then turned to walk away. Suzy put out her hand and stopped him. “I’m sorry,” she said. “That was uncalled for, at least as much as your remark was.”
Luke hesitated for a moment, clearly still angry. Suzy guessed he was more upset that she and Alex had solved the case that he hadn’t, but she wasn’t certain.
“We were able to set a trap,” Suzy pointed out. “You couldn’t do that. You had to stay within the law, but we were able to break the rules and trip him up. You should be very pleased with how it all worked out.”
“I’m glad that the murderer is behind bars,” Luke admitted gruffly. “I would have preferred to get him there using regular police work. Your cheating wouldn’t have stood up well in court if we didn’t have a confession to go with it.”