“I’m sure there’s a good reason,” I called out after Sheryl, hurrying to catch up with her.
“Bullshit, there’s never a good reason.” Sheryl turned to face me, her hands balled into fists. “We can’t afford a delay. We have an important client to meet. Oh what the hell am I telling you for?”
Sheryl spun around on her heel and yelled at Clyde.
“Where’s the pilot? I demand to speak to him,” Sheryl said.
“He’s busy right now, ma’am. Please return to your seat and get buckled in,” Clyde said, not budging.
“I will not. We’re on a tight schedule. We have to get to Victoria.”
“Ma’am, we’re landing. Return to your seat. NOW!” Clyde raised his voice. I’d underestimated him. He was quite effective at making himself understood.
When Sheryl turned around and started stomping down the aisle towards me, I was surprised to see the panicked look on her face.
“He doesn’t understand,” Sheryl said to me in a harsh whisper. “If we don’t make that meeting, we’re screwed.”
We were passing Aaron’s seat at the time and he must have overheard because he snorted loudly.
“What’s your problem?” Sheryl turned her fury on him.
“Nothing,” Aaron said, trying to return to his regular IT persona but was clearly having difficulty tamping down all the rage and frustration I’d stirred up earlier.
“Bullshit. You clearly have something on your tiny little mind so just have the balls to say it,” Sheryl snarled.
“Well, if anyone knows a thing or two about screwing people over, it would be you,” Aaron said.
“What the hell does that mean?”
“You know very well what it means. It means that you’re screwing the boss.”
Sheryl stopped dead in her tracks, her mouth dropping open with shock and all the blood draining from her face.
“It’s not what you think,” she said.
Both Cindy and Aaron snorted in response to that comment.
“It’s not an affair. We love each other. I’m going to have his baby.”
“What? You bitch.” Cindy stood up and launched herself at Sheryl. “How dare you!”
“It’s not like we planned it. It just turned out that way.” Sheryl backed away down the aisle.
“What are you talking about, you didn’t plan it? You’ve been having an affair for years,” Cindy said, glaring.
Which is when I came between the two women and asked, “Is that why you were planning to run off with Aaron, Cindy?”
Cindy screeched to a halt, surprise written all over her face that I knew her secret.
“I … We … I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“Oh no? You told Aaron you had enough money that the two of you could run away together. Where did that money come from?”
Suddenly Janet leapt to her feet and spun around to face everyone, saying, “A substantial amount of money is missing from the company accounts. I only just flagged the problem and was talking to Bob about it.”
“What?!” Sheryl turned to stare at Janet in disbelief.
“The money was transferred to Bob’s personal account,” Janet said. “I confronted him with it a short time ago but he claimed he didn’t know anything about it.”
All eyes turned to Cindy, who had reached Aaron’s side and was attempting to hide her red face in his shirt.
“Why you conniving witch,” Sheryl screamed and lunged at Cindy and Aaron. “You know all of Bob’s PIN numbers and passwords, don’t you? You’re the one who stole the money.”
“Get away from me or you’ll regret it,” Cindy yelled at Sheryl.
“Are you going to kill her just like you killed your husband?” I said, blocking the aisle so the two adversaries couldn’t reach each other.
“Yes, I am! She deserves it,” Cindy yelled at Sheryl in the stunned silence that greeted my remark.
“You killed Bob?” Sheryl asked Cindy, shock written all over her face.
Cindy suddenly became aware of her surroundings and how quiet it had become on the plane, realizing the necessity to hide her feelings and keep her mouth shut. She started shaking her head slightly, her eyes darting from one shocked face to another.
“No. No, she didn’t,” Aaron said, the first to recover from his shock. “I killed him.”
“No!” Cindy cried out, looking at him with tears welling up in her eyes.
“It’s true. I did it. I know all the access codes. I stole the money and I killed him,” Aaron said, taking Cindy in his arms and holding her tight.
“But you couldn’t have,” I said. “Because you didn’t know how to kill him. But Cindy knew, didn’t you?”
Cindy buried her face against Aaron’s chest, shaking her head back and forth, trying to ignore what was happening around her.
“You knew all about his weaknesses, didn’t you Cindy? All the things he kept hidden from the world. Like his allergies, for example.”
Cindy whimpered and cringed even further away from me.
“And I’d be willing to bet that whatever he was allergic to, that was the secret ingredient you added to your hand cream.” I seized Cindy’s handbag and held it up, so that everyone could see I had taken it into evidence. “He was surprised when you held his hands, and he pulled away pretty quickly, but you knew it wouldn’t take much to kill him, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. And give me back my purse.”
“You’re not touching that purse,” Sheryl said, blocking Cindy’s arm.
After that most of the Threncorp crew started to get into a fighting match. I just felt the bile rising from my stomach and realized I was actually looking forward to Regina, if it meant I wouldn’t have to be around these scummy, over-privileged people one minute longer. My work here was done. I sat down and buckled myself in.
Just then the plane banked steeply, making a sharp descent. I grabbed the arms of my seat, thankful I had my seat belt on, while all the rest of them went flying ass over teakettle, landing in heaps in the aisle and over seats.
“I told you to sit down,” Clyde called out, off in the distance, buckled into his seat next to the curtain, as the moans and cries of every Threncorp employee started up all over first class.
First class? More like no class.
The next book in this cozy mystery series is
“Victim in Victoria”
by Pamela Kenney
Below is the first chapter of “Victim in Victoria”
for your reading pleasure.
Nothing ruins your day more than finding a dead body.
I should know. I was a homicide detective for decades, but once I retired from the Toronto police department, I kind of expected the body count to decrease. I could not have been more wrong.
Silly me. I assumed by moving all the way across the country to the lovely city of Victoria, BC, that my crime filled days were behind me. So you can imagine my surprise when I couldn’t even make it to the West Coast without finding a corpse on the airplane.
But no more. I was determined to relax. Now that I was here, I was going to find a quiet spot, put my feet up and read a book. The perfect way to start my very first day in Victoria.
And I knew just where to go to accomplish it, in my lovely Art Deco hotel with its large, south-facing balcony complete with four wicker chairs, two tea tables and about thirty potted plants. Sure there was one other person on the balcony, but he was almost completely obscured behind tropical plants, so there was nothing whatsoever to come between me and relaxation.
But you know how it is when sharing a small space with another human being. Try as you might, you can’t help but notice things about the person. Like their aftershave. Or the hint of mothballs about their clothing. Or whether they’re breathing or not.
I wasn’t sure at first. I thought perhaps we were just breathing at exactly the sam
e time. So I held my breath. And it turned out I was right. It was way too quiet on the other side of the balcony. Quiet is good. Way too quiet is definitely bad.
I took a peek in his direction and what I thought, at first glance, was a man relaxing, possibly asleep, turned out to be a guy slumped down in his chair with his legs splayed out at awkward angles in a way that no living human could possibly find comfortable.
Reluctantly I got to my feet and tiptoed closer. Maybe I was over-reacting. Maybe thirty years as a police officer made me a little bit paranoid. Maybe I’d gotten it all wrong and I could go back to reading my book. Then I saw the blueish tinge to his face.
“Dammit!” I said, stomping my foot so hard that 28 of the 30 plants rattled in their pots.
When am I going to get away from murder and mayhem? I thought I was done with all this crap.
But no. They had dead bodies in Victoria too. And of course I managed to find one. Good job, Meg Spencer, you did it again.
I stalked over to the stained-glass door and stood in front of it, searching my pockets for a tissue or something I could use to open the door without leaving more of my fingerprints or obliterating other ones that were there already. Geez, will there ever be a time in my life when I can just open a door without having to think about fingerprints, for crying out loud? I shook my head as I stared at my weary reflection in the glass. Probably not.
“I just want to have a crime free life, is that too much to ask?” I yelled at the top of my lungs.
That’s when I heard footsteps start running away, as fast as they could, from in front of the hotel.
What happens next?
Go to Kobo.com to find out!
Other Books by Pamela Kenney
There are more books in this cozy mystery series!
Get the next one today! Go to: Kobo.com
For more information go to: PamelaKenney.com
Mile High Murder Page 2
