It’s probably just the sound of the ship settling, she thought, trying to calm her nerves. “Is anyone here?”
There was another moan, louder this time, and then silence.
Her heart beating fast, Grace walked to the secret door. She was just about to open the door when a bloody hand clamped down around her wrist and dragged her back through the dark recess behind the pirate ship.
* * *
“Tucker!” Grace wrenched her hand out of his grasp. “What are you doing?”
Tucker put his bloodstained fingers to his lips. “Shh. They might hear you.” Pressing his hand to his side, he groaned as he doubled over.
Concerned, Grace placed a hand against his back. “What’s wrong?”
“They stabbed me,” he whispered. “I crawled in here and passed out.”
She peered into the darkness at him. “Okay, wait here. I’ll go get help.”
He grabbed her wrist again. “No, if they catch you, they’ll kill you too. Just help me get out of here. Please.”
Sighing, she slipped her shoulder underneath his arm, and helped him out of the recess and into the workshop. Once in the light, she gently lifted up his tux jacket and gasped at the amount of blood staining his white shirt.
She propped him up against the spiral staircase as she ran back toward the bathroom. She jerked a towel off the rack and hurried back to him.
“Listen,” she said pressing the towel to his side, “I want you to hide again while I go get help.”
He looked at her with pain-filled eyes. “No. Please. Just get me out of here.”
“Tucker, you’re bleeding. We don’t have time to argue about this.”
“It’s not as bad as it looks. I just need to get to someplace to hide. Please, can we go to your cabin?” When she hesitated, he added, “Bruce and Penny are going to kill me if they find me.”
“Then let’s go to someone in authority. They’ll arrest them and you’ll be safe.”
“I can’t.”
“Why not?”
“They’ll just say it was an accident. There’s no way anyone will believe it’s intentional. If I got Bruce in trouble with management, he really will kill me. Besides, I’m not sure they’re the ones who did this to me.”
“Bruce and Penny were the ones with the swords,” she pointed out as she lowered his jacket down over his wound.
“I know, but I think there was someone else out on the stage tonight. I felt someone come up behind me while I was in the locker, but I couldn’t see who it was. Please, Grace, please help me. I’m scared to death and I don’t know who to trust.”
Grace bit her lip. Coming to a sudden decision, she came around to his uninjured side, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, she said, “All right, but if you pass out I’m calling for help.”
He nodded, wincing as she helped him exit the pirate ship and out of the theater. Moving slowly, their arms wrapped around each other, they made their way to the elevators and then toward Grace’s cabin. Once inside, she helped him to the bathroom.
He sat down on the floor and she knelt next to him, slowly pulling his jacket down and off his arms.
A pocketknife fell out of his pocket and clattered to the floor. She picked it up and stared at it.
“I fought back,” he said with a hint of pride in his voice. “I was afraid something was going to happen tonight so I came prepared. I don’t know if I got him though.”
Grace opened the knife. “There’s blood on the end,” she said snapping the blade back in place. Reaching for a towel with one hand and turning on the tap with the other, she said, “You want to tell me what’s going on?”
“If I knew I would tell you. I just know someone is trying to kill me.”
Grace helped him remove his shirt next. “Who?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Bruce, Penny, or Rycroft. Courtney’s father hates me. Maybe it’s him.”
“Is he on board the ship?”
“No.”
“Then let’s focus on the ones that are here.” She winced in sympathy as she helped him get cleaned up. “Why not tell the authorities?”
“And tell them what? I didn’t see anything. All I know is that someone came up behind me and tried to stab me. Besides, I know a couple of the guys on security. They’d never believe me.”
Grace gestured to the blood. “I think you’ve got more than enough evidence here, Tucker.”
“If I tell them, it’ll be all over the ship what happened.”
“Yeah, so?”
“Courtney will hear about it. She’ll find out that I’ve been lying to her ever since I met her. She’ll divorce me. Grace, I can’t lose her. She’s all I have in this world. I would rather die here than have her find out that I lied to her three months ago about who I am.”
“Oh for goodness sakes, you worked for some magicians. That’s not exactly the crime of the century.”
“You don’t understand,” he whispered desperately. “She will kill me if she finds out I’m the one that told Leo about her. No one can know what happened, especially not her.”
“Why are you afraid of her?” she asked. “Do you think she might be the one who attacked you?”
He leaned his head back against the wall and closed his eyes. “I don’t know who attacked me or why for that matter. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
“We heard you scream several times after you went into the locker. Is that when you were stabbed?”
“All that was fake,” he said, hissing as she removed the towel and added another to his side. “It was later towards the end while they were pulling out the swords. I had just slipped back into the locker for the last reveal when I heard the secret door open. I knew right then I was in trouble and took my knife out. There was no reason for someone to open the door. No one should have been back there. A few seconds later, I felt someone come up behind me. I shifted to the side but not soon enough. I felt the knife cut me and then I struck out with my pocket knife.”
“You’re lucky you were on alert and ready for them.”
He nodded wearily. “Ever since I boarded I’ve felt as though someone was following me. That incident on the stairs wasn’t an accident. Someone did try to push me.”
“What happened after you tried to stab them?”
“They took off. It just all happened so fast. I crawled out and then slipped into the back of the pirate ship and hid. I think I must have passed out at some point. When I came to, Bruce was screaming about how he was going to kill me. I decided it might be best to stay hidden.”
“Smart move.” She felt a wave of dizziness as she pulled the towel away from his side and examined his wound. “Listen, you wait here, I’m going to call for a doctor.”
“No,” he whined. “Please, no.”
“Tucker, listen to reason. You need a doctor. I can’t…”
The sound of the front door opening caught their attention.
Suddenly, Courtney’s voice could be heard coming from the living room. “Are you sure you haven’t seen Tucker?” she asked.
“Nope,” Kyle responded, “not in a while.” His voice rose slightly. “Grace, are you in here?”
“Don’t tell Courtney I’m here,” Tucker pleaded. “Please Grace. Let’s just keep what happened between me, you, and Kyle for right now.”
Grace sighed as she turned on the tap water and washed her hands. “Just stay here. I’ll go get rid of her,” she said shutting off the water and returning to the living room.
Kyle smiled as soon as he saw her. “Look who I found on the Lido Deck,” he said gesturing to Courtney who had made herself at home on their couch.
Courtney raised her head from where it rested on the armrest. She raised her hand lazily in the air by way of greeting. “I don’t suppose you’ve seen Tucker?”
“Uh, no, not at the moment.” Grace made a face. “Have you lost him?”
“I haven’t seen him since dinner.” She kicked off her shoes. “I’ve been all over thi
s ship. My feet are killing me. I’m starting to worry about him. Do you think I should go contact someone?”
Kyle exchanged a look with Grace. “Actually, Courtney, I think we should tell you something—”
“That’s right,” Grace said, quickly interrupting her husband, “we think you should go to your cabin and rest.”
Courtney frowned. “Huh?”
The sound of water turning on in the bathroom caught Kyle’s attention. His brow furrowing, he jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Wh—”
“Oh, I must have left the water on.” Grace grabbed him by the arm propelling him towards the bathroom. “Do me a favor and go turn it off for me.” She turned back to Courtney. “Yeah, you look exhausted. You should go to bed and get a good night sleep.”
“But what about Tucker?”
Grace blinked. “You know, if I were you, I would just let him find somewhere else to sleep tonight.”
“B-But it’s the first night of our honeymoon?” Courtney sputtered in shock.
“Even more reason to get some rest. You must be exhausted from the wedding and all the traveling you’ve done today. If I were you, I’d be climbing into bed right now. I’m sure Tucker will show up soon enough.”
“But Kyle said something about you two changing and going dancing tonight. I thought we could all go together.”
Grace laughed. “Dancing? Oh, I couldn’t possibly.”
“Why not?”
“Why? Because . . .” Grace bit her lip. She hated lying. She especially hated it when she had no idea why she was doing it. Searching for an excuse she said, “Because—”
Kyle appeared at the door. He made a beeline for Courtney, taking her hands and pulling her to her feet in one swift motion. “Grace and I have to go to bed.”
“But it’s only nine o’clock,” Courtney said glancing at the clock on the wall as Kyle dragged her to the door. “I thought you wanted to go dancing.”
“I did. I really did, but I recognize that look in Grace’s eye.” He dropped his voice to a whisper. “I think my bride’s rather anxious to get me in bed. She’s rather insatiable.”
“Oh.” Courtney smiled knowingly. “I get it. Okay.” She gave Grace a little wave. “See you bright and early tomorrow morning for breakfast, kay?”
“We’ll probably be sleeping in, but maybe brunch,” Kyle said before shutting the door.
Grace crossed her arms. “I really wish you could come up with better excuses for me.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” he said kissing her lightly. “I thought that one was pretty good myself.”
“How’s Tucker?”
“He’s about to pass out in our bathroom.”
“That’s it,” she said reaching for the phone. “I’m calling for the doctor.”
“Good idea.” Dropping his voice to a whisper, he said, “When they get here, tell them that Tucker’s me.”
“What? Why?”
“We don’t want whoever it was that tried to kill him to know that he’s here with us,” he said reaching for the complimentary champagne bottle on the bar. He pulled open the balcony door and tossed the bottle onto the deck, shattering it into pieces.
“What did you do that for?”
“It’s not a deep cut,” he said bending down and picking up a large shard of glass. He returned to the living room. “Tucker can tell them that he dropped the bottle and then slipped and fell and cut himself on the broken glass on our deck.”
“How is that going to help? Tucker needs to talk to the Captain or someone. There needs to be an investigation.”
“Don’t worry. There’s going to be.” He stopped at the door to their bedroom. “By us.”
Grace groaned. “I knew you were going to say that.” She balled her hands on her hips. “The only reason I brought him here was so I could get him calmed down enough to listen to reason.”
“And he has.” Kyle grinned. “He just hired us to find his killer.”
Chapter Nine
“Don’t worry, Mrs. Dragovich,” the doctor said as he headed for the door, “it wasn’t as bad as it appeared. Your husband will be just fine.”
“Oh, thank you, Doctor,” Grace said. “I really appreciate it.”
He shook his finger at her. “Now, no more drinking and dancing on the balcony for the rest of the trip.”
Grace forced a smile to her face as she held open the door. “We’ll try to stop. Have a nice night.”
She just started to close the door when a hand snaked out and prevented her from closing it. “Oh, my gosh,” Courtney said as she barreled in. “The steward just told me that the doctor was over here. Are you two okay? What happened?”
“Oh nothing. Kyle just slipped on some glass on the balcony.”
She gasped, her hand flying up to her mouth. “The window broke?”
“No, the champagne bottle.”
Courtney’s gaze fell to the bar. “The champagne?” Her mouth opened in horror. “Oh, you poor thing. I saw the bottle on the bar when I was here and I thought to myself that I should have taken it right then and there.” She bustled to the bar. “Well, don’t you worry, I will get rid of it all,” she said raiding the minibar, divesting of every source of alcohol. She lifted up a candy box of bourbon chocolate and regarded it with a perplexed look. “Does chocolate with alcohol centers count?” Before Grace could say no, Courtney shoved it under her chin. “Better safe than sorry,” she said wrapping her arms around a dozen or so of the complimentary liquor bottles.
“Really, Courtney, it’s not necessary, my meth-myth- moth—.” She paused trying to remember the name of her supposed condition. “My phobia really comes and goes.”
Leaning back as far as she could, Courtney balancing the bottles and chocolate on her chest said, “No, don’t look. I’ll have it out of here in a jiffy. Don’t you worry about a thing.” She paused at the door. “I don’t suppose you could get the door.”
With a sigh, Grace reached for the doorknob.
“Don’t look,” Courtney warned as she limboed out the door and into the corridor. “Are you two going on the island tour tomorrow?”
“I doubt it. I think we’re just going explore the ship some more.”
“You’re not missing much. I went on the island shopping tour last time. Really, it’s just this little tourist trap. The prices were absolutely outrageous. Maybe we can go swimming and lay out. Kay?”
“Kay.”
Kyle poked his head out of the bedroom as the door closed behind Courtney. “Okay, let’s go.”
“Go? Go where?”
“To the scene of the crime.”
“What about Tucker?”
“Oh, he’s sound asleep.”
Grace looked at her husband in amusement. “In our bed? You do remember we’re on our honeymoon, don’t you?”
He grimaced. “Yeah, I’m not too thrilled about him staying with us either, but there’s not much we can do about it. Unless you’d like me to kick him out and let him fend for himself. I’m sure his wife would take care of him.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“You still think Courtney wants to kill him?”
“Did you see her face during dinner as she was talking about Rycroft and him humiliating her during the magic show? She’s starting to, or she already suspects Tucker was the one who told Rycroft about her.”
“I can’t see her stabbing him during a magic trick.”
“I can. It would be poetic justice. Honestly, as much as I like her, I don’t think the girl’s all there.”
“But how did she get backstage? Bruce or Penny would have seen her.”
“Maybe not. You saw the place. Perhaps she slipped through when no one was looking and hid somewhere. There’s plenty of hiding places backstage. All she had to do was wait.”
Shaking his head, he opened the door and let her pass through. “She’d have to know how the trick worked to pull it off.”
She pressed her finger to her mouth while
gesturing to Courtney’s door. They tiptoed past the door and made their way to the elevators.
As soon as the doors closed, she said, “You’re probably right.” She had to admit Courtney was a long shot any way. It was just Tucker’s fear that kept her going back and giving serious consideration to Courtney as a suspect. The far more likely culprits were the ones on the stage at the time. “What about Bruce or Penny then?”
“What’s their motive?”
“I don’t know, but they had access to Tucker and they were carrying swords around.”
Kyle made a face as they walked out of the elevator. “I doubt they would be stupid enough to kill him during their own trick. Can you imagine what would have happened if Bruce had opened the locker door and Tucker had come tumbling out dead? Bruce was almost arrested the last time he injured one of his assistants. He lost everything. He couldn’t get work anywhere and his reputation was in tatters. I can’t believe he’d want to go through all that again.”
“But he did threaten to kill Tucker. We both heard him.”
“After the fact. If you ask me, it was an accident. He and Penny got carried away and Tucker paid the price.”
“Tucker’s convinced it was intentional. He thinks someone was hiding backstage.” She reached for the door handle. “It’s locked.”
“Allow me,” Kyle said reaching into his pocket. He looked both ways before whispering, “Keep watch.”
Grace groaned. “I hate this part.”
“Do you know of another way to get into the theater?”
“No,” she said turning around. “What happened after you chased the others out of here?”
“Nothing. Rycroft disappeared into the crowd and Penny and Bruce split up. By the time I made it back to the theater, you were gone.”
Spotting Penny coming off the elevator, she reached behind her and touched Kyle’s shoulder. “Here comes Penny. I think—” Before she could finish the rest of her sentence, she found herself enveloped in Kyle’s arms, being kissed passionately.
Penny cleared her throat. “Is there any particular reason why you are making out in front of the theater?” she asked when they finally broke apart.
The Body in Davy Jones' Locker Page 9