“Maybe. Who did she argue with?”
Lily shook her head. Lowered her voice. “No, not her. It was Mr. Oxley and another man. I’d seen Delilah with the other man too. Tall, good-looking, mustache. I think his name is Max something.”
“Max Lawton?” Nora asked.
Lily’s brow creased in concentration. “I think so. I didn’t listen too much. It’s not polite to eavesdrop.”
“Indeed it isn’t,” Aunt Julia said as if the very thought of eavesdropping would never cross her mind. “So, you heard them argue the night she died and then what?”
“Nothing. I went to my cabin. I room with Joy, the other singer. We’re not supposed to stay out late or fraternize with the guests. It’s so old-fashioned.” Lily looked at Nora for support and Nora nodded, feeling pleased that Lily recognized her as a modern woman. It was nineteen twenty-six for crying out loud; women should be able to cavort all night if they wanted.
“So you have no idea what Delilah, or the other men, did that night?”
She shook her head.
“And you haven’t seen anyone go into her dressing room?”
“No, just Mr. Oxley packing the trunks.” Lily pressed her lips tighter. “No, wait, I think I did see the other man in the hallway here. Max Lawton, you said his name was?”
Nora nodded and glanced at Julia.
“Okay, well, we better get to lunch, I don’t want them to run out of the icebox cake.” Aunt Julia chuckled and ushered Nora out of the room.
“Well now, wasn’t that interesting. Mr. Oxley failed to mention his little argument with Max Lawton,” Nora said as Aunt Julia raced toward the dining room.
“Yes. Moves them both up on our suspect list now, doesn’t it?”
Lily fiddled with the bracelet on her wrist as she watched the two women walk down the hallway toward the dining room. She didn’t like that they were nosing around. They’d been poking about in Delilah’s dressing room the day she’d died. What were they up to?
She glanced down at the jet bracelet. It wasn’t very expensive, but it was pretty. Perhaps she shouldn’t have taken it from the dressing room, but it was not like it was real. And she hadn’t had much choice. She’d been trying it on when she heard Giles bringing the two busybodies in and never got the chance to put it back on Delilah’s dressing table. Now that she was dead, well… it wasn’t like she would miss the bracelet and since it was simply costume jewelry no one would think it odd that Lily was wearing it.
The only person that might notice it was new to her was Joy, but Joy had no concept about the value of jewelry—she couldn’t tell dime store paste from a diamond. Not that Joy would say a bad word about Lily, not after Lily kept Joy’s big secret of how she snuck out of their room almost every night. Silly, in this day and age, to have to sneak around like this but Mr. Hendricks was old-fashioned and didn’t like the help to hang out after hours. He was too afraid it would bother the passengers on such a small ship.
Of course, Delilah had threatened to ruin that for Joy by tattling.
Like she could talk! Carrying on with two men. Delilah must have seen someone sneaking out of Lily and Joy’s room while she was also sneaking around. Delilah had assumed it was Lily who had been sneaking off, but it had actually been Joy. Lily never snuck out. She’d had to beg, but had finally gotten Delilah to promise not to tell and had warned Joy.
Joy had been grateful that Lily hadn’t let on about her extracurricular activities. Naturally that little act of kindness had paid off when there was an opening for the lead singer. Lily hadn’t told on Joy and that had kept her from getting fired, so it was only right that Joy pretend she didn’t want the lead-singer job so Lily could have it. One good turn deserves another. And it was only right that Lily have this bracelet, too.
Lily jangled it again. There was nothing to worry about. The old lady and her niece hadn’t even glanced at her wrist and she shouldn’t feel guilty. Delilah had been mean and hadn’t deserved nice things. Now that she was dead, her jewelry would go to her family, and though Lily did feel bad that she’d taken this one little thing, her family would never miss it. Anyway, she couldn’t very well return it now. Oxley had packed all of Delilah’s things already.
“Thank goodness they haven’t started serving yet.” Aunt Julia weaved her way through the full dining room, finally landing at a pair of empty seats at the Hinchcliffes’ table just as the waiter was taking the orders. “Good thing we know what we want.”
“Good thing,” Nora agreed. She gave her order of pork chops to the waiter, and Aunt Julia followed with the salmon salad with a side of asparagus. “Oh, and save a piece of icebox cake for us to split, would you?”
“Well now,” Martha said after they’d all ordered. “This is a lovely cruise despite the little… err… problem earlier.”
“It is,” Aunt Julia agreed.
Beau yawned, eliciting a pointed look from Martha. “Are you quite so tired? Yawning in public is so uncouth.”
“Sorry, I slept so soundly last night that I think I overdid it. Can’t seem to stay awake.”
Martha narrowed her gaze. “Really? That happens to me sometimes if I take too much of my sleeping powder. You don’t take it, do you?”
“Oh no. I don’t have any trouble sleeping, do I, pookie?” Beau turned to Vera who giggled.
“No, you sleep like a baby.”
Martha, Vera and Beau rambled on about sleeping until Nora felt like yawning herself. Mercifully, the lunch soon came and they all tucked in. Nora and Aunt Julia split their order. The salmon was perfectly cooked with a maple glaze and the greens crisp and fresh as if they’d been picked that morning. Nora marveled at how they could keep them fresh on the boat like that. The pork chops were tasty and the asparagus had a lovely lemon sauce drizzled over it.
“Well, we must be on our way. I’m working on a puzzle in the library and want to get back to it.” Martha pushed up from the table.
Beau and Vera followed her lead. “We’re taking a stroll. I want to get as much time out on the decks as we can before we pull into port tomorrow night. Would anyone like to join us?” Beau asked.
Julia glanced at Nora. Nora didn’t really want to join them; their body language indicated they wanted to be alone and who wanted to spend the afternoon watching them snuggle and coo? “No, we have to go over your wardrobe, Auntie, don’t you remember?”
Aunt Julia brightened at the excuse. “Yes! Yes, of course.” She turned to Beau and Vera. “So sorry, we’ll join you some other time.”
After they left, Aunt Julia nudged her chair closer to Nora. “I wonder how to get some concrete evidence on Max Lawton.”
“Good question. He’s a cool customer. I doubt he’ll give away what is actually going on inside his head. We’re going to have to catch him at something.”
Aunt Julia pressed her lips together. “If he’s the one who took the picture, he might have it on him, or he might be planning to get rid of the evidence.”
“We can’t very well search his room, and besides, he couldn’t have taken it because when we saw him in the hallway the picture had already been taken and Oxley was in the room so he would have seen him,” Nora pointed out.
“Maybe they are in on it together. Or he’d taken the picture earlier and hidden it somewhere.”
“Now you’re grasping.”
“You may be right. Still, I think he is up to something, but it might be hard to find anything incriminating on him. Maybe one of us could get an invitation to his room, though.” Aunt Julia gave Nora a pointed look. “I think he has eyes for you.”
“Aunt Julia! Surely you aren’t suggesting…” Nora shifted in her seat to cover her knees with the bottom of her silk jade-green dress. “I might be a modern woman, but I’m not that modern!” Max Lawton was rather handsome and wrangling an invitation to his room wasn’t totally distasteful, but he was a suspect for crying out loud!
Aunt Julia looked disappointed. “I guess it was worth a try. We have t
o do something though. The boat docks tomorrow evening and Artemis Leonard will be coming on board. I need to have this case wrapped up before he gets his hooks into it!”
Chapter Fifteen
“Oxley could still be the killer,” Aunt Julia said later on when they were in her room going over the clues again. “Did you notice anything in his demeanor when we were talking to him in Delilah’s dressing room?”
Nora thought back to the encounter. “As I said back then, it was evident something was bothering him. What exactly, I have no idea. I mean, his girlfriend and the star of the show were just murdered. He was packing her things, which would put anyone out of sorts.”
“True, but he didn’t seem too much out of sorts.”
“Good point. But then there are the pictures and bracelet. He wouldn’t have taken the picture, and since he was packing everything there would be no reason to misplace the bracelet. It doesn’t add up.”
“No, it doesn’t. I have my own theory on that… but then that means other parts don’t add up.” Aunt Julia eyed the cigarette holder that Nora had been fiddling with in her hand. “Everyone always looks so pensive when they smoke. Do you really think it will help me sort out the clues? Maybe I will try one.”
Nora looked down at the holder, its silver tip glinting in the light streaming in from the window. “It’s not as great as you might think.”
“You’re always trying to get me to be more modern. This might be the time.” Julia snatched the holder from Nora’s hand. “But not on the main deck, I don’t know if I want everyone to see me. Let’s go to that little private area near the boiler room where we caught Max Lawton after we saw him following Oxley. Passengers rarely go there so we can continue our discussion on the clues without anyone overhearing.”
Aunt Julia walked purposefully along the deck, nodding to passengers with whom she’d made an acquaintance but avoiding any conversation. When they got to the restaurant she looked around furtively before opening the door to the maintenance area and stepping into the narrow hallway. She was becoming quite dramatic in her old age, almost like a character from one of her books.
She turned to Nora, holding her hand out for a cigarette, a conspiratorial smile on her face. “Looks like we made it here without anyone being the wiser.”
But as they progressed toward the small deck area, the smell of smoke wafted out and it became clear they weren’t going to be alone.
Aunt Julia sniffed, her forehead creasing. “That doesn’t smell like cigarette smoke…”
A second later, she was proved correct as the deck came into view. Max Lawton was leaning against the railing, a piece of paper in one hand and a lit match in the other.
“He’s burning the picture!” Aunt Julia lunged at the railing.
Max whirled around, a look of shock on his face. “What are you…?”
Max was tall and Aunt Julia had to leap to grab for the, now smoldering, paper in his hand. Unfortunately, she tripped, causing the upper half of her body to teeter over the railing.
Nora lunged forward, grabbing onto an ankle. Max grabbed an arm. Meanwhile Aunt Julia balanced precariously on the railing, her upper body carrying the momentum to topple her over.
“Let go!” Nora yelled at Max.
“What?” Max looked stunned. “She’ll fall over.”
“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” Nora tugged on the ankle while Aunt Julia flailed for purchase.
“What are you talking about? She attacked me!” Max gave a heave and finally Aunt Julia teetered in the right direction and stumbled away from the railing.
Her gaze fell on the smoldering paper. He must have taken it out of the frame and was trying to destroy the evidence. She snatched it up and held it in the air. “Aha!”
Max cursed under his breath. “I figured you were going to be trouble. Give me that.”
Aunt Julia blew on the paper. “Not on your life; this is evidence!”
Max stepped toward them. They’d maneuvered around such that he was blocking their escape. Only a wall was behind them. “I can’t let that paper get out. It’s too important. I don’t want to take drastic measures to ensure it remains unseen.”
Aunt Julia’s bravado wavered only slightly as he advanced on them and she realized their predicament. Nora wracked her brain for a way out. He didn’t seem to have a weapon so maybe they could rush him.
“Oh no. I need this picture to prove that you killed Delilah Dove!” Aunt Julia said.
Max stopped. A look of confusion spread over his face as he looked at the singed item in Aunt Julia’s hand.
“Picture? What are you talking about? I didn’t kill Delilah.”
Julia snatched the paper to her chest. “A likely story.”
But now that Max mentioned it, what Aunt Julia had in her hand didn’t look like a photograph. It looked like a regular piece of paper.
“Is that what you think?” Max pulled his jacket open.
Nora gasped and stepped in front of Aunt Julia. “Don’t shoot her!”
“Shoot?” Max looked amused as he pulled out a little billfold, which he opened to reveal a gold shield stating that he was a detective in the newly minted Bureau of Narcotics and Prohibition. “For your information, members of the Bureau of Narcotics and Prohibition don’t go around shooting people or killing singers.”
“You mean you’re… but you were on the boat before Delilah was killed. You couldn’t be investigating her murder.”
“That’s right.” Max glanced behind him to make sure they were still alone as he put his badge away. “I’m not here to investigate that.”
“But why, then?” Nora asked. Oh no… had he said the Bureau of Narcotics and Prohibition? Nora glanced nervously at Aunt Julia, picturing those innocent iced teas and soda waters she claimed she’d been drinking. “Is it the moonshine? I swear Auntie doesn’t have anything to do with that.”
Amusement flickered in Max’s eyes. He glanced at Julia. “You don’t say. Don’t worry, I’m not here about moonshine.”
“Well then, why are you here?” Julia demanded.
Max sighed. “I suppose I’ll have to tell you if only to stop you people from nosing around. You could ruin my investigation and get yourself hurt or worse. But you have to promise you won’t mention it to anyone.”
Aunt Julia pressed her lips together. Clearly she was having a hard time transitioning from Max being her prime suspect to working for the BNP. But her curiosity won out. “Okay, we promise.”
She glanced at Nora who nodded. She was curious too.
Max reached out for the paper. “First, hand it over.”
Now that things had slowed down, Nora could see it wasn’t a photo at all. It was a note. “We thought you stole a photo from Delilah’s room and were destroying the evidence,” she said.
Max took the paper from Julia and held it up for them to see. “You were close. This is a note I took from her room and I was destroying it, but not because I killed her. She was working with me to prove that Clifford Oxley is an opium dealer. I’ve been on his tail for some time and believe he is now using the Miss Delta Belle to move his product along the river.”
Nora’s brows shot up. “Seriously?”
“Does the government joke about things like this?”
“I suppose not,” Nora said. “Are you trying to tell me that Delilah was an agent for the government?”
“No… She was a civilian. You might say we had some leverage to get her to work for us.” Max shrugged as if using leverage on citizens was a given in his occupation.
“Her brother,” Aunt Julia said.
Max’s left brow quirked up. “You’re astute. Yes, her brother, Rodney, is in jail for several bank robberies. That was one of the reasons she used a stage name. We offered a deal for a reduced sentence if she helped us out. Gotta use our resources as we can.”
“So if you think Oxley is trafficking drugs, and Delilah was actually working with you to prove that, then was her relationship with
Oxley just so she could get close to him?” Aunt Julia asked.
Max nodded.
“And if Oxley found that out, he’d surely kill her,” Nora added.
“Well then, you should arrest him!” Aunt Julia handed back the note.
“I wish it were that easy. I need proof and so far I’ve got nothing.” Max looked at the note. “That’s why I had to make sure no one found this in her room. If Oxley killed Delilah because he found out she was working with someone in law enforcement, I don’t want my cover blown and him to know it was me.”
“Of course,” Nora said. “Now it makes sense. The way he seemed detached when he was packing her dressing room. He was upset but not in the way a lover would be grieving. He was angry and nervous about his drug business.”
“What makes you think that Oxley wouldn’t have guessed it was you?” Aunt Julia asked.
“I made it a point not to engage with him at all. In fact, I tried to avoid him so he wouldn’t even know I existed. But we argued when he found me backstage the night Delilah died. I was trying to get access to an area where I think he has the drugs stashed when he caught me. I had to pretend I was lost, but I’m sure he was suspicious of why I was down there.”
“We’re not certain he knew she was working to expose him,” Nora pointed out. “If he really is running drugs, then that would be enough by itself to make him nervous and not react normally to the death of Delilah. We can’t get too invested in believing he’s the killer.”
Aunt Julia nodded at her. “Very good. Now you’re thinking like a detective. We don’t want to be blinded to other possibilities.”
Max narrowed his gaze at Julia. “What is your interest in this anyway?”
Aunt Julia laughed. “Oh, nothing really. I’m just a hobbyist and Giles Hendricks is a good friend. But maybe you need someone unofficial on the case. We could help each other.”
Max looked skeptical. “How so?”
“Well, if you’re going to be looking for proof that Oxley is using the Miss Delta Belle to transport drugs, and we’re going to be looking for Delilah’s killer, there may be some common ground so we could compare notes, that sort of thing,” Aunt Julia said.
Murder on a Mississippi Steamboat Page 10