by K. J. Emrick
But if she didn’t, then who would help Cream?
Chapter Seven
Avery agreed to meet her at the dog park. She felt so out of place there, without Cream.
Chaz fairly leapt into the room on his leash, and only Avery’s strong arms kept him from running free. He smiled at her warmly. “I was so glad to get your text message, Cookie. I thought after you left dinner I wouldn’t see you again until tomorrow.” He looked around the room, his expression turning puzzled. “Where’s Cream?”
“He’s missing,” she told him, barely holding back the tears. “Do you… have you seen him?”
“Missing? Oh, Cookie that’s terrible. Where did you see him last? I’ll help you look.”
Was he toying with her? Was Jerry right after all and did this wonderful, amazing man have a dark side that he hid so well?
No. It was impossible. She was standing right here with him. She was talking to him, and looking into his eyes, and listening to the real concern in his voice. Cookie still believed that Avery was a good man. He didn’t have Cream.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, hanging her head.
“Hmm? Sorry for what?” Chaz jumped at his lead again, and Avery unhooked him to let him run free around the room. “You haven’t done anything, Cookie. You don’t have anything to feel sorry for.”
“I feel like I do. Everything has gone wrong on this trip. I’ve tried to help. I’ve tried to do the right thing, and now Cream is going to pay the price.” Miserably, she put herself in his arms. “I don’t know what to do.”
He didn’t say anything. He just held her close and let her cry. It was nice, and yet… it didn’t feel right. It wasn’t what she was looking for.
This man was perfect, in every way that should matter to a woman. Anyone Cookie knew would be thrilled to be where she was right now, leaning up against this man’s chest. If circumstances were different. If maybe Jerry had just been brave enough to tell her what he was thinking, then perhaps she would feel that this was right.
Only, she didn’t. The longer she stayed in his arms, the more wrong it felt. She shouldn’t be doing this. She should be out finding Cream. What should have been a tender moment between a man and a woman was instead turning her feelings inside out.
“I shouldn’t be here,” she whispered against his shirt.
“Why not?” he asked. “It’s all right to want something for yourself.”
“I do. Just… I’m sorry.” She pushed away from him, holding her hand up over her mouth. “I’m sorry. I can’t do this right now. Can you understand that? Can you forgive me?”
He took her hand in his, and kissed her forehead. “There’s nothing to forgive, Cookie. I’ll start looking for Cream. If I find him, I’ll text you?”
She nodded, not really trusting her voice.
“Maybe I’ll text you anyway. I really would like to get to know you better.”
Then he turned and went to get Chaz, saving her from saying anything that might break her heart.
***
Wandering around the passenger decks, she ended up in front of Madison’s door.
When she knocked, Clarissa answered. “Hey Grandma. Mom’s still in bed.”
Still? It was certainly time to be going to sleep, but the way Clarissa said that made it sound like Madison had been in bed all day.
In fact, Clarissa was already in her pajamas, hair pinned up and ready for bed. Cookie didn’t realize how tired she was herself until that moment. She yawned, and stifled it behind her hand, and then tried to smile at her granddaughter even though she didn’t feel like smiling. “Your mom’s having a rough time, Clarissa. If we were home she could be around all of her friends and be able to grieve properly. Right now all she has is… us…”
The tears came again. Without hesitation Clarissa hugged her, and that made it a little better.
“Are you crying over Joseph?” she asked.
“Yes, I suppose so,” Cookie answered, “but for Cream, too. Someone took him. Someone took my friend.”
From inside the room, Madison sat up in bed. “Mom? Did I hear you say something about Cream?”
“Oh, dear, I’m sorry.” Cookie came inside, Clarissa still holding tight to her side, and closed the door behind her. “I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“No, that’s fine…” She closed her eyes and heaved a breath. “I feel like I’ve been sleeping forever. What’s going on with Cream?”
“Someone took him. Someone stole my dog.”
“Oh, no. Oh, Mom I’m sorry. This whole trip. Why did we ever come on this boat?”
“I’m beginning to wonder the same thing,” Cookie agreed with her. Although, remembering back to being in Avery’s arms, she couldn’t say it was all bad. “You can go back to sleep if you want. I wasn’t trying to disturb you.”
Madison ran both hands through her hair, and straightened the oversized t-shirt she’d been sleeping in. One of Joseph’s, Cookie noticed. Blinking, Madison folded her knees up to her chest. “I think I need to be awake. It feels like all I’ve been doing since they told me about Joseph is sleeping. I can’t take any more of those pills the ship’s doctor gave me. I don’t want to be this out of it anymore.”
Cookie brought Clarissa with her and together the three of them sat on the bed. “I think you’re entitled to take a little time. Your husband’s dead.”
“No,” Madison corrected her. “He didn’t die. Someone murdered him. And now someone took Cream. That’s horrible, Mom. You love that dog. Do you think it’s connected to Joseph?”
“I most certainly do. If we find who took Cream, we’ll find who killed Joseph.”
“But Grandma,” Clarissa said, “I thought you already knew? I thought it was Jessica’s brother, what’s-his-name.”
With a heavy sigh, Cookie shook her head. “I don’t think that anymore. In fact, I’m going to have to stop by Jessica’s next and apologize to her. Jayce isn’t our man.”
“How do you know?” Madison asked. “How can you be so sure?”
“It’s… a little complicated to explain. The short version is the killer left me a note warning me not to investigate anymore. Jayce couldn’t have written the note. That means we have to look somewhere else. Madison, what else can you tell me about when Joseph was in jail?”
“Mom, you should be thinking about finding Cream,” Madison protested. “Let Jerry and the captain worry about finding whoever hurt my Joseph.”
She managed not to react when her daughter mentioned Jerry. “That’s very sweet, dear, but if the two really are connected, then solving one mystery will solve the other. By telling me about Joseph’s past you’ll be helping me find Cream that much quicker. If you feel up to it, that is.”
Madison nodded. “I was pretty awful to you when you were here earlier, Mom. I’m sorry. I know you’re only trying to help.”
Cookie patted her hand. “I’m always here for you. Now. This man of yours had quite the checkered past, I take it?”
“Oh, it was nothing like that. It was only the one time, and like I say he was stealing from the place where he worked, not from people who were down on their luck. He was never a bad man. He knew it was wrong and after he got caught he never did it again.”
Hmm. There didn’t seem to be much there after all. Cookie had been hoping a clue would just drop into her lap. Obviously, she’d been hoping for too much. Again. “What was the business? The one Joseph stole from.”
Madison’s eyes slipped over to Clarissa.
“If you don’t want to talk about this here,” Cookie offered, “I’ll understand.”
“No, it’s fine. Clarissa and I don’t have secrets. After you left I… I told her everything. It’s not a very glamorous story but she needs to know these things. I’m still just a little embarrassed, I guess. For Joseph. He’s dead and now he has to have his name dragged through the mud. It just doesn’t seem fair.”
“I agree,” Cookie told her. “But if we’re going to find his ki
ller, I need to know. Is there more to the story than you told me before?”
“Well, no. Not really. Joseph stole money. He went to prison. He went straight.” Madison shrugged. “Netflix is never going to make a movie about him. He had a few interesting stories from being inside, and that was all.”
“Stories?” Cookie perked up at that. “I like stories. What did he tell you?”
“Oh, Mom, we hadn’t talked about it in years.” She rolled her eyes to look up at the ceiling. “He wasn’t proud of what he’d done.”
“I know, but still. Humor an old woman.”
“You’ll never be old, Mom.” After a moment to think about it, Madison started talking from memory. “There was one about a guy in the kitchens who could make cauliflower look like geese. Uh, there used to be a ski jump for the inmates in that prison he was in. I know, it sounds ridiculous but he swore it was true. Then there were other stories that weren’t so nice. Stabbings in the yard. That sort of thing. I remember one he told me about a knife fight that he tried to break up. One of the inmates died anyway, and the other guy blamed Joseph for getting his privileges taken away. I mean, that was the kind of crazy world he had to live in while he was in prison. No wonder he went straight when he got out.”
“And then he found us,” Clarissa said.
“Right, honey.” A faint smile rose and fell on Madison’s face. “Then he found us. We were lucky to have him for a little while.”
Cookie took heart in the fact that her daughter seemed to be coming out of her funk, just a little bit. “Do you remember the name of the inmate in the knife fight? Either of them?”
Madison shook her head. “No. Sorry. If he ever told me their names, I don’t remember them now.”
So that was a dead end. If an inmate at the prison had held a grudge against Joseph, and had seen him here on this cruise, that might have made a good motive for murder. Without a name to go with the theory, though, Cookie would be left going up to every passenger and basically asking, hey did you ever spend any time in Clinton Correctional Facility? And by the way, do you have my dog?
That probably wouldn’t work very well.
Of course, Jayce might very well know the name of the inmate, since he was in prison at the same time as Joseph, but she’d definitely worn out her welcome with him this last time. Jerry or Captain Abrams might have better luck asking him about that. Or Jessica, maybe. If Jayce hadn’t decided to just stop talking altogether.
Her list of things to do was getting longer by the minute, and she still wasn’t any closer to finding Cream.
“What about the crime itself,” she wondered out loud. “Let’s get back to that. What business did he steal from?”
“Reticulated Industries.” Madison answered without hesitation this time. “They aren’t in business any longer. I looked them up after Joseph told me about them. They weren’t ever anything special. They were listed on the New York Stock Exchange for a while, and now they aren’t.”
Okay. Another dead end. “And the money? You said he couldn’t pay it back?”
“Mom, it was several thousand dollars. There was no way for him to come up with that much all at once.”
“No need to get defensive,” Cookie said gently. “I’m not trying to criticize him or speak ill of him after the fact.”
Madison took a breath and held it before letting it go. “I know. I’m sorry. I just… just can’t believe he’s gone…”
Her voice broke. Cookie and Clarissa both reached for Madison at once and the three generations of Cookie’s family fell into a comfortable group hug. This was just about the worst thing they had ever endured. Madison was in no condition to help Cookie, and she wouldn’t expect her daughter to do anything but grieve right now. Clarissa would have to be here and be strong for her mother.
Which left Cookie to find Cream and solve the mystery. She had a few ideas, maybe even a solid theory forming up in her mind, but if she was going to be able to follow the clues to the end, she was going to need help. Usually she depended on her little friend, Cream. This time she wouldn’t be so lucky.
It was nearly midnight when she left Madison’s cabin. True to her word, her daughter hadn’t taken any more sleeping pills, but she had fallen into a deep sleep on her own just a few minutes ago. Clarissa promised to follow her mother’s example after she texted with her boyfriend for a bit. Cookie thanked her for being such a good daughter to Madison and gave her another hug. “Your Mom’s truly blessed to have you.”
“We’re lucky to have each other,” Clarissa said.
Cookie knew she should really get back to her cabin and get some sleep. Would Jerry be there tonight? She didn’t know. This last fight of theirs had been really bad. They’d both said things they would sooner take back. At least, Cookie had. She didn’t know what was going on in Jerry’s mind right now, if the man was thinking rationally or if he was just trying to move on. One thing was for sure. They’d have to figure it out sooner, rather than later.
There was so much for her to tell Jerry, about the mystery, about Avery, about the two of them, but the thought of seeing him so soon after she’d stormed off kept her from seeking him out. If he really wanted to talk then he could come and find her. She decided to check in on Jessica and Benjamin instead. She owed Jessica an apology, after all. Maybe she could get a few more clues from her at the same time.
Her failure with accusing Jayce was bad enough. She didn’t want to alienate Jessica as a friend, either. It was always better to think before acting. Sometimes, you just had to apologize after you made a move.
Then again, she wouldn’t know what her next move would be, until she was making it.
There were far too many twists and turns in this mystery. Just like all these hallways on the ship that she kept getting lost in. Hard to find your way around without a map.
The thing was, she was out of suspects. Without Jayce then her explanation of the murder didn’t fit. Where did that leave her?
Avery, her traitorous brain muttered. He was the only suspect left.
Preposterous, she answered herself back.
Why? Jerry could be right. Do you usually have attractive men starting conversations with you out of the blue, and then asking you to dinner?
I am perfectly capable of finding dates on my own, thank you.
You have to admit, the timing is suspicious.
I have to admit no such thing.
He knew your phone number. That’s the act of a stalker.
Or a man who really likes a woman.
He did show up late to the dinner.
So?
He had time to steal Cream. He said he had something to take care of, remember? That was his excuse for being late…
It’s not possible.
Isn’t it?
No! I looked him in the eye and he told me he didn’t have Cream, and I believe him.
You want to believe him. That’s not the same thing.
In the middle of a hallway she stopped. She didn’t know where she was, or why she had come this direction in the first place. Maybe she really was too tired to think. Worrying about getting Cream back was crowding everything else out of her mind. Exhaustion was making it hard to think. Something was nagging at her, and she felt like she should know what, but she just stood there in the hallway until she finally recognized that she was on the Paradise Deck, not far from Jessica and Benjamin Roth’s stateroom.
Well. Apologizing to Jessica was one of the many things on her growing to-do list, and she’d been meaning to come here anyway. Might as well get it out of the way.
Would they still be awake? Probably. She hadn’t seen them outside of their cabin at all, which made sense considering they had only just gotten married. They were young and in love. Who needed sleep when you had that combination?
She found their door again and sure enough, she heard the faint sound of music coming through it, punctuated by the laughter of both a woman, and a man.
That startled her e
nough to put her ear up to the double doors of their stateroom. Benjamin Roth was laughing? She hadn’t realized he knew how. That sound was so rare that she felt she should bottle it up and use it in her recipes. It would probably be as rarified as saffron and as bittersweet as extra dark chocolate.
A couple passed her with her ear still to the door. She straightened quickly as she noticed them watching her suspiciously. Clearing her throat from embarrassment, she knocked.
The laughter stopped. She heard Benjamin’s footsteps coming to the door, and then a pause as he looked out the peephole at her. She could almost hear him sigh. Almost.
When the door finally opened it was only far enough for Benjamin to lean his face through. “What do you want?”
The silent emphasis was easy to read. Go away.
“I was hoping to talk to Jessica, Benjamin.” Cookie made herself say the rest although it left a chalky aftertaste on her tongue. “I was wrong about her brother. I need to apologize.”
“We’re a trifle busy at the moment,” he told her, with a sly smile. He was in just his pajama bottoms, his naked chest bristling with hair and his feet bare against the floor, and Cookie could imagine what was keeping him and Jessica so occupied.
“Oh for crying out loud, Benji,” Jessica scolded him from inside. “Let her in.”
Clearly not wanting to, he swung the door wider anyway for her to come in. Cookie gave him a polite nod. It was clear that she might be on Jessica’s good side, but Benjamin was never going to invite her to their Christmas parties.
Jessica was sitting on the same couch where she had been the last time Cookie was here, but this time she was wrapped in a blanket up to her bare shoulders. The way she held the top of it tight against her chest, Cookie was fairly certain that she wasn’t wearing much underneath.
“Well,” Cookie said. “It appears that my timing couldn’t have been worse.”
Carefully, Jessica reached a hand out to her, smiling as she did so. “I’ve always got time for you, Cookie. Come on. Sit and tell me what’s on your mind.”