psychic crystal 03 - killer cruise

by Marilyn Baron

  “Jack and Kate spent their honeymoon in Bermuda. They’re looking forward to showing us around. I can’t wait to do some shopping.”

  “Is it true that the sand in Bermuda is pink?” Will wondered.

  “Absolutely,” said Kate. “And they have some of the best beaches in the world, surrounded by turquoise waters. And the houses are so colorful, painted in sea greens and sky blues, yellows, and lilacs.”

  “I’m ready for some adventure,” Will admitted.

  “Murder isn’t adventurous enough for you?” Juliette snickered.

  “There’s lots to do there,” said Kate. “When we dock, we should rent motorcycles and ride around the island. And most people don’t know this, but Bermuda is actually comprised of a hundred and eighty-one islands, islets, and rocks. Or we can go horseback riding. And Jack and I know some great restaurants. We’re going to be there two days, so we’ll definitely want to go to the beach. Bermuda is a shipwreck-diving capital, and there’s more golf per square mile than anywhere else in the world. There are some great water sports, like sailing, windsurfing, water skiing, body surfing, snorkeling, deep-sea fishing, kayaking, windsurfing, and swimming with dolphins.”

  “We haven’t seen a porpoise, a dolphin, or sea life of any kind out here yet,” Will remarked, “except for those super-sized crows of yours.”

  “They’re not my crows,” mumbled Juliette under her floppy sun hat.

  “The one I saw seemed pretty attached to you.”

  Two women ambled by in walkers.

  “Unless you count those women walking at a turtle’s pace, but not a sea turtle.”

  “That’s not very nice, Will,” Juliette chided. “But you’re right. We haven’t seen a dolphin, and dolphins swimming with the ship are a sign of good luck. But I did see a shark following the ship. That’s a sure sign of inevitable death.”

  Will shuddered. “Have you noticed that the average age on this boat is a hundred and six? I’ve only seen one cute honey so far, and that’s you,” Will continued. “And of course, you, Kate.”

  “Keep that up, and I’ll turn you into a sea turtle. You know we’re not on this cruise for our enjoyment. This is an assignment. So far no one has been able to turn up any leads by conventional means. So Kate and I are going to have to resort to some psychic solutions.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Kate and I spent almost the entire morning cooped up in the security office looking at the rest of the ID shots, and neither of us could identify anyone who resembled the art thief,” Juliette said, as the two couples sat down to lunch in the main dining room. “He should be easy enough to spot on the ship, he’s so tall. And that beard is so distinctive. But he’s laying low, either in the crew quarters or in one of the guest rooms. I hope he hasn’t taken anyone hostage.”

  “The crew hasn’t turned up anything, either,” said Jack. “Maids have gone through the rooms, the luggage areas, everywhere anyone could have hidden a stack of paintings, and we’ve got no leads.”

  “You worked with an artist to create a sketch, and they’ve circulated the picture of the man you saw in the gallery, but it’s turned up nothing,” Jack reported. “It’s as if he disappeared into thin air.”

  “Maybe he jumped off the ship,” Will suggested.

  “Not with those priceless works of art,” Jack said.

  “I don’t think we’re ever going to find him,” Kate despaired.

  “We can’t give up,” Juliette said. “And we won’t.”

  “I’ve been doing some Internet research on those paintings we saw,” Kate said. “One of them was stolen from a Viennese Jewish family. It’s been missing for seventy years, ever since the outbreak of World War II. I have no idea how it could have ended up on this ship or how any of those paintings ended up here.”

  ****

  After lunch, Juliette stopped at the row of lounge chairs arranged under the deck.

  “Kate and I will stay here out of the sun, order some drinks, and consult the universe.”

  “Consult the universe?” Will snarled. “What kind of hocus pocus is that?”

  “It’s best you don’t ask, Will,” Jack advised. “When the two of them get together, well, they’re a powerful force you don’t want to cross.”

  Jack turned to Kate. “Will and I will be here at the bar while you two commune with the cosmos.”

  “Jack, I’m a grown woman. I don’t need you to babysit me.”

  Jack looked at Kate’s stomach. “I think you do need a babysitter, and I told you I wasn’t going to let you out of my sight.”

  Kate sighed.

  “You told him.” Juliette smiled.

  “Yes, and he is becoming even more protective of me, if that’s possible.”

  “He loves you. I think it’s sweet.”

  “It’s not as if we’re in any real danger.”

  Juliette looked heavenward, where some ominous clouds were forming over the ship in an otherwise clear sky.

  “That’s not clear. I think we are in danger, until that murderer is apprehended. So let’s get to work. And if Wade Randall or whatever his real name is turns out to be our murderer, he now has my cabin number, which I foolishly provided on that bidding form.”

  Kate shivered.

  Kate and Juliette settled into their lounge chairs. A girl came over and took their drink order and then left them alone after she’d brought their drinks.

  Juliette took Kate’s hand.

  “Now, I want you to concentrate. Clear out all extraneous thoughts. Focus on that night we were in the gallery. He must have been disguised, so focus on the man’s eyes, his thoughts. See if we can locate him, for surely he’s still aboard this ship.”

  Kate drained her mind of all thoughts of the baby, Jack, the business. She felt the temperature drop and tightened the terrycloth bathing suit cover-up around her shoulders. Juliette was controlling her mind now. She was in some kind of a trancelike state. Juliette still had hold of her hand.

  “Do you see him?”

  Kate nodded.

  “Describe what you see.”

  “He’s in shadows, but I know it’s him, and he’s watching me, watching us.”

  “Do you see the paintings?”

  “No.” Kate kept her eyes closed and concentrated. When she opened them, a ghostlike figure swept by. He was tall, dressed in deck shoes, jeans, a navy golf shirt, and a black parka, with the hood partially covering his bearded face. He glided by so quickly it was as if she’d imagined him.

  “There.” Kate pointed toward to the elevator, shouting to Jack and Will. “That’s him.”

  Juliette opened her eyes. A large crow lighted on her deck chair. “I saw what you saw.”

  “Was he real?”

  “It was definitely him.”

  Jack and Will ran toward the elevator, pressed the button, and rode it to an upper floor.

  Then a long shadow fell across Kate’s chair and a man towered over them, blocking the sun. Kate removed her sunglasses.

  Juliette placed her arm protectively across Kate’s stomach, and her breath caught in her throat. “It’s you.”

  “Ilona.” The name came out like a song on a breeze; then a chilly wind swept up and swirled around her. “I know it’s you. Did you think you could hide from me? Did you think I wouldn’t recognize you after all this time?” He paused and whispered seductively, “I’ve come to take you home.”

  Juliette tightened her hold on Kate.

  “And you”—he turned to Kate—“stop looking for me. Don’t get in my way, or you’ll end up at the bottom of the ocean.”

  “Leave her alone,” Juliette ordered, clutching the violet talisman around her neck.

  “And, young lady, if you tell anyone you saw me, that will be the last thing you do. I’ll find you and deal with you and that nosy detective husband of yours.”

  Kate shuddered and held on to Juliette’s arm. She flung her other hand across her belly. Instinctively, Juliette placed her right
hand on top of Kate’s to protect the new life growing inside her.

  Then, as fast as it had descended on them, the presence disappeared.

  “What was that?” Kate asked.

  “Ageless evil. Some kind of wicked incarnation of the man we saw in the gallery, maybe the man himself. He could have been projecting his image. One minute he was running across the deck in the opposite direction, and the next he was here at our side.”

  “Is that even possible?”

  “You can exist and communicate on two levels and be in two different places at the same time. I’ve seen things. Things I can’t forget. He is hypnotic. He is trying to feed on my power. I’ve never seen anything like it, not over here, anyway.”

  “What do you mean, ‘not over here’? And why did he call you Ilona?”

  Juliette sighed. “It’s a long story. Maybe I’ll tell you some day. But right now, we have to find Jack and Will and warn them. They’re no match for this man. “He’s very powerful. A true dark spirit.”

  “He looked like a vampire, like in those movies and TV shows.”

  “In the way he moves, yes. And his aversion to the sun.”

  “There aren’t really vampires, are there, Juliette?”

  Juliette stiffened. “I’ve learned not to rule anything out. I believe anything’s possible. But this one is smooth and cunning. He wants what he wants, and I have a feeling he always gets what he wants. If those paintings are worth what you say they are, then he will do anything to protect them. We need to increase protection on the summit conferees. And you must never be out of my sight or Jack’s. He claims he’s after me, but the man sees you as an impediment, and he’ll stop at nothing if he thinks you’re in his way.”

  Jack and Will strode toward Kate and Juliette.

  “It’s like he dissolved before our eyes,” Jack said as he reached them. “We were chasing him into the elevator, and suddenly he was gone. He was running, and then—it was as if he materialized in another dimension. He must be a magician.”

  “Don’t underestimate him,” Juliette said. “If he’s a magician, then he’s practicing black magic. He’s more than a simple art thief. He’s very dangerous.”

  Will covered Juliette with his windbreaker. “Juliette, you’re shaking, and the sun is shining in the sky.”

  “Thank you,” Juliette said, wrapping her arms around herself.

  “We, um, had an encounter with our art thief,” Kate explained.

  “You saw him again?” Jack asked.

  “Yes. You went after him, but suddenly he was right in front of us, blotting out the sun. He warned us to stop looking for him, or else…”

  “He threatened you?” Jack paced the deck.

  “And you,” Juliette whispered, her voice shaking.

  “He seemed to know Juliette,” Kate said, “but I know that’s not possible.”

  “Okay, we need to find this man soon. We’re going to be docking in Bermuda, and he’ll try to get off the ship. We don’t have much time. I’m going to go see the captain. Kate, you’re coming with me.”

  Jack helped Kate out of her lounge chair, kept hold of her hand, and they headed toward the elevators.

  “He blotted out the sun?” Will asked, lowering himself onto the chair Kate had just vacated.

  “Yes,” Juliette replied. “He’s much more dangerous than I thought.”

  “You make him sound like a monster.”

  “In a way, that’s just what he is,” Juliette said. “He’s killed for his artwork, and he’ll not hesitate to kill again.”

  Will stared at Juliette. All the color had gone from her face.

  “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Juliette blew out a breath.

  “I never wanted to talk about it again. It’s been such a long time. I thought I-I’d forgotten. I tried to forget. I didn’t want to tell my daughter.”

  Will pick up Juliette’s hand and held it.

  “You can tell me anything, Juliette. Does this man remind you of the Reverend Carter Coulter?”

  Juliette shuddered. “Carter was evil, but not on this level. There is something truly malevolent about this man. I recognize his spirit. There was a man…”

  Juliette bit her lip.

  “A man… Go ahead,” Will prompted.

  “I told you I was from Hungary. I was born into a family of gypsies, Roma. But we’re called many things. We had no permanent home; we moved from place to place. And then, one day, we settled on the land outside a grand castle. The estate was isolated, desolate, near the top of a hill—a mountain, really—in the hinterlands, near Transylvania. The count who ruled that land was evil. He permitted us to live on his property, but for a price. It was my mother who paid that price. She was the most beautiful woman in all the land.

  “Every night, after dusk, she would go up to his castle made of stone, many stories high, and stay until dawn the next morning. She would come down from the castle, bruised and disheveled, her head hung low, but with a large basket full of fruits and candies and fresh honey from the count’s drowsy bees, the finest bottle of red wine, fresh-baked breads and cakes of all kinds, and all manner of meats and cheeses. Food fit for a king. So we would have a feast, my mother and I.

  “ ‘What happened to you?’ I would ask her repeatedly. For it seemed that this man had feasted on my mother. She shook her head. But I could see that she was smeared with evil. We did not have a protector. I never knew my father, although my mother said he was a prince from a faraway land and that they had fallen in love. But when I was born, the prince’s wife, who was barren, came to my mother intending to drive her off the land. She planned to steal her child and pass me off as her own. So my mother bundled me up and we left the land before my mother had a chance to say goodbye to her prince, her one true love.”

  “Sounds like a fairy tale,” said Will. “A dark fairy tale.”

  “And now my mother seemed to be under another man’s spell. ‘That is our curse,’ my mother said. ‘We are irresistible to men.’ We never saw the man during the day, and when he did appear at the edge of his property, he was draped in black from the brim of his top hat to his leather wingtips. He would put out a hand as if he was waving an invisible wand, and my mother sprang up as if in a trance and walked up the hill with him to his castle.

  “Every day, it was the same. She would come back down alone, her lips swollen, bites across her breasts and on her neck, but with a basket full of sweets. And every morning, it was our ritual, I would bathe her and treat her wounds. And we would enjoy the feast. ‘Does it hurt?’ I would ask. ‘No, my child. Not much,’ she would reply.

  “Months later, she removed the amethyst talisman on the long silver chain from around her neck and placed it around mine. It had been a gift from the prince, my father. She had never taken it off before. ‘You have the gift of sight. You have powers I could never dream of. And remember, no one can take your powers away from you—unless you let them. Your road will be difficult and sometimes dangerous,’ she cautioned, ‘but one day you will find happiness and true love like I’ve known.’ ”

  “How old were you then?” Will asked.

  “I was fifteen, still a child, but I looked much older than my age. I was beginning to get second glances, leering looks, from boys and men who would come by to do business with the man in the castle. I could feel the count’s eyes on me from a high window in the castle. My mother gathered up some belongings—clothes, food, and gold coins she had saved. ‘Take this and run,’ she said. ‘Get as far away as you can from this wicked place. Go across the ocean. I love you.’ She kissed me and held me tight. ‘I have heard the women in the castle talk. Tomorrow he will come for me and make me his forever. You must not be here. He has taken an abnormal interest in you and wants to make you his own. That was the price I paid. I offered him my body if he would leave you alone, and soon I will no longer interest him. He is not satisfied with only me. I will not be coming back down to the camp after tonight, so please
, I beg you, leave now.’ ”

  Will was patient, waiting for Juliette to continue, but when she was quiet, he spoke. “What happened then?”

  “The ladies gathered around to bathe and dress my mother in the finest silk gown, a wedding gown, I think, and arranged her hair and placed a sparkling diamond tiara on her head, with jewels fit for a queen. They whispered that she was the chosen one. How lucky that the count had sent for her. She was beautiful, a sacrificial bride. She walked slowly but with no hesitation up to the castle, sometimes slipping, but with her head held high. That was the last time I saw my mother. I screamed her name, but she never look back. I think he had some kind of hold on her. ‘Where’s your power?’ I cried out to her. But I knew she had given it to me.”

  Will covered Juliette’s hand protectively with both of his. “That must have been frightening for a child your age to bear. How did you manage all alone? How did you come to be in Casa Spirito, in Florida, such a long way from your home?”

  “That’s just it. We never really had a permanent home. I rode out of the property with a man in a wagon who was on his way to Calais. From there I was to buy passage to England and then on to America. But when the man stole most of my gold coins, I was forced to work until I had enough money to pay for my passage. I could have sold my necklace, but it was my only connection to my mother, and I couldn’t bear to part with it. Once I got to America, I was alone and terribly lonely, drifting from city to city, until I met Carter and I thought I was finally home. I thought he was the man my mother spoke of. My true love.”

  “The Reverend Carter Coulter, the man who fathered Kate? The man you killed?”

  Juliette nodded and retold the story.

  “In the beginning, Carter Coulter was like a savior. He took me in, set me up in my own shop. It was the first time in a long time I’d had any kind of stability. I owed him everything. I told him I would repay his kindness, but he didn’t want my money. He said he recognized my talent. He was also very powerful. I…I f-fell in love with him—or I fell under his spell. And by the time I realized he was just using me, I was pregnant, with no place to go, and then when she was born he stole my daughter from me.”