Keeping up with Kelly’s stream of crises was enough for me.
Chapter 13
The next morning, I was back in the Vendor Exhibition room. I’d spent the previous afternoon darting back and forth across the ship, accumulating a good backlog of pictures that I could slowly drip-feed out over the coming days, giving me a chance to get back to investigating.
While Heidi was my primary suspect, I wasn’t aiming to talk to her directly, not without Ethan. It would be good to get opinions and thoughts from a range of different people about all of the suspects I’d managed to come up with.
This time, in the vendor room there were going to be a series of talks and demonstrations as the day progressed. Each vendor would have a chance to explain to everyone en masse what it was they were selling and why the association members should be throwing their money at them.
When I arrived, I thought I might first try and have another chat with Jake. I wondered how he was holding up, and whether he’d overcome the apparent shock he’d been suffering from the day before. He might even remember seeing someone or something that he hadn’t told us yet.
When I got inside, I started to walk toward’s Jake’s table, but before I got there I could see that he was absent, that end of the table being quite barren.
“Cornstalks!” I muttered under my breath. I went to give myself a light punch to the thigh, but as I did so, my arm caught the display next to me. Then things went downhill.
It was a tall, cardboard cutout board explaining the benefits of bamboo sheets over old-fashioned cotton or polyester. It was very light, and as it started to topple backward I reached out and snatched at it with my other hand to pull it back forward.
My enthusiasm was a little too much, and the board promptly began to fall toward my head. I shoved both hands up into the air and placed them on top of my hair, just before it thumped me.
“Let me give you a hand.”
Embarrassed, I offered my thanks as I turned to see who it was that was lifting the display off me. It was Bernice, the chair of the conference, who I had not seen any sign of since the day before.
Working together, with four hands we managed to get the bamboo sheet information display standing back upright again and properly balanced so that it was no longer on the verge of falling.
“There, that’s it,” said Bernice. “Nothing seems to be going right around here,” she said, almost as an afterthought to herself.
“I haven’t seen you since yesterday,” I said to her. “How are you coping?”
Bernice slowly shook her head, and then nodded her head toward a table across the room. “Come on.”
I followed her to see a display that Sam and I had not noticed the day before. Considering what was on offer, it meant that it must not have been there the day before. It was a company called Pillow Chocolates, and they offered a range of individually wrapped cocoa treats that B&B owners could place on their customers pillows.
“Have a sample,” said Bernice, pointing to a little paper plate with half a dozen varieties of the so-called pillow chocolates.
Not wanting to be rude, I took a couple of them and slowly began to unwrap one that promised a strawberry fondant filling. I hadn’t had any fruit yet so I figured this would be a fine substitute.
“It’s not going very well for me, is it?” said Bernice as she unwrapped a coffee flavored chocolate of her own.
“It’s certainly been an eventful start to your annual meeting. What happened yesterday was just terrible.”
Bernice chewed and swallowed the chocolate quickly, and then screwed up its paper wrapping and dropped it back onto the table near a small pile of them.
“It was terrible. I know people had their differences with Geraldine — myself included — but to do that. It’s just unbelievable, isn’t it?”
“It would be unbelievable if it hadn’t happened.” I popped the strawberry chocolate into my mouth and chewed on it. The flavor was delicious and I wondered whether Swan couldn’t start providing pillow chocolates for its staff. Fat chance.
“Poor old Geraldine.” Bernice breathed a gentle sigh as she said it, sad for the loss of her rival. Or doing a good impression of it anyway.
“You and her didn’t get on, did you?”
Bernice’s eyes narrowed just slightly and she slowly shifted from looking at me to staring at me.
“What do you mean?”
“Oh nothing, just that she didn’t seem to be very friendly toward you. She was quite mean yesterday, in fact.”
“That’s just the way she was. Tough, but fair. She got those signups sorted out yesterday after I messed it all up, didn’t she?”
“If everyone had signed up online there wouldn’t have been any problem,” I pointed out.
“That may be true, but our association clearly wasn’t ready for such a giant technological leap just yet. It was my fault really, wasn’t it?”
I was beginning to get suspicious. Bernice was trying hard not to appear like she hated Geraldine. But she must have, after everything that had happened between them. So why was she trying to downplay it all? Was it just because she didn’t want to speak ill of the dead? Or was she trying to push aside any hint of suspicion.
“I didn’t see you yesterday after… you know. You must have been very busy keeping everything going behind the scenes, right? Were you up half the night dealing with it all?”
Bernice unwrapped another chocolate, slowly nodding her head as she did so. “Yes. It was such a shock to me, and then so many people were in shock, there was just too much to deal with.” Something or someone seemed to catch her eye. “Excuse me, I’ve got to be getting on.”
She popped the chocolate she’d just unwrapped into her mouth and span around, quickly walking away from me.
But I wasn’t done with her yet. The more I spoke to her. the more I wanted to speak to her — it seemed to me like she was hiding something. And I hadn’t even heard her opinions about some of my other suspects either.
I quickly followed behind Bernice, and then managed to squeeze in beside her so that we were walking side by side across the room.
“I’m going this way, too,” I said nodding my head forward.
We were passing by Alex Martinez’s dessert supply company, but he was too busy talking to Heidi Webster to greet either of us. The two of them had their heads together — perhaps because the background noise of the venue was too loud for them to hear each other properly. Or perhaps because they were having a confidential conversation.
“I heard quite a few people didn’t like Geraldine,” I said to Bernice as we reached the far side of the small room. We were near a woman selling hypoallergenic pillows who I also had not seen the day before. Perhaps the vendors were having to rotate through the room, I mused. Or maybe some were just slow getting set up.
Bernice looked at me with what seemed to be relief on her face. Was it because I’d changed the topic from her to someone else?
“That’s right. Some people found her rather difficult to get on with. Once you were her enemy you’d sure know about it.”
I glanced around, trying to see if there was actually a reason Bernice had hurried over to this side of the room. I couldn’t see one. I surmised that she had just been trying to get away from me.
“I heard,” I said with raised eyebrows, “that she was telling people Heidi’s B&B had bedbugs.”
Bernice nodded. “That’s true. About Geraldine saying it, I mean, I don’t know about the state of her beds. I’m not sure I believe it though.”
“No? Why not?”
“Because her business is clearly going well. It wouldn’t be if she genuinely did have bedbugs. She’d be struggling to keep her head above water.”
“How do you know her business is going well?” I asked quizzically. Perhaps the association members had to submit details of their accounts to the organization, I mused.
Bernice nodded her head back the way we’d come.
“She�
��s talking to Alex Martinez. He does catering, but he’s not cheap. If she can afford his desserts for her business, she must be doing well. They look like they were in a pretty in depth conversation.”
“I see, that makes sense.” And it did, kind of. Unless they weren’t talking about desserts. They could have been talking about something else. Like Geraldine.
“I… I’ve really got to get going. There’s all kinds of things I have to get done.”
“Oh yeah? Like what?” I asked sweetly. “I might write about it for the ship’s blog…”
Bernice shook her head at me rapidly. “Oh, no, no, no. You wouldn’t want to do that. It’s just boring, managerial, administrative type things. Paper work. Numbers. You know, the dull stuff.” She held out a palm in front of me. “Don’t even ask me about it!” She forced out a laugh that came out more like a cat being nicely strangled and turned to hurry off.
This time I decided to let her go. I’d chased her once already and I couldn’t keep doing it without arousing too much suspicion or animosity. Bernice really didn’t seem keen to talk about what happened to Geraldine the day before though. Was it because she knew something? Or was she just afraid of being implicated since so many people saw her humiliated by the other woman the day before?
It sure gave me more to think about.
Across the room, Heidi and Alex were still in deep conversation. I initially decided I was going to loiter until they’d finished, and then see if I couldn’t make another attempt at sparking up a conversation with Heidi.
But before I’d got even the tiniest amount of loitering completed, my phone rang. I pulled it out of the back pocket of my jeans and glared at the screen when I saw who was calling. I knew it wouldn’t be anything good.
“Addi? Addi? Addi?” said Kelly the second I pressed the button to connect the call.
“Ye—”
“—Major emergency! I need you to listen, now…”
Chapter 14
It’s funny how one person’s major emergency is another’s minor irritation.
I held the phone up to my ear, but not too close, and listened as Kelly ranted and raved.
“… and the customer — who didn’t even tell me their name — said that you took a photo of them when they didn’t want it taken, but I told them you wouldn’t have done that and even if you had they could ask to have it deleted from the website and then they said it wasn’t on the website but if it was on the website they’d want it removed but because it wasn’t they weren’t sure what—”
“Kelly?” I interrupted. “Where are you?”
“In the lobby of the conference suite. Anyway, the passenger then said that—”
I disconnected the call and briskly crossed the room, to see Kelly standing just outside, staring at her phone and shaking it in one hand.
“Hi, Kelly, I’m here. What’s the matter?”
“Oh! There you are thank goodness! You’ve had a complaint but it doesn’t sound like something you would have done so I don’t know what to do.”
Kelly began explaining again, about how a customer thought I’d taken a picture of her, but she didn’t want the picture to appear anywhere online.
“She said you were using a big camera, and that—”
I held up a hand to interrupt her. “I don’t have a big camera. I use a smartphone, remember? I think the passenger must have me confused with someone else. And if someone asked me to delete a picture, I’d do it right away anyway.”
“Oh. That makes sense. She said she’s going to come to my office this afternoon and I don’t know what to do though. Perhaps you should be there.”
Yeah, right.
“I think what you need to do, is consult with your superior, Kelly. It’s clearly not actually about me. Why don’t you ask the Captain? He’s full of bright ideas. I’m sure the two of you can come up with a good plan to deal with this.”
“The Captain?” Said Kelly, a tinge of excitement audible in her voice and visible as a slight glint in her eye.
“Yes, I think that would be a fine idea. You and him could work on this little problem together. I’m sure the passenger will be impressed if they see the Captain get involved, and they’ll be more likely to believe him, too, since he’s such an important authority figure.”
“You’re a genius, Addi! I guess that’s why they pay you the big bucks!”
“They do?” I asked quizzically. My pay wasn’t that great, but one good thing about working on the ship was that you didn’t get much of a chance to spend it. I was certainly saving more than I ever had in any other job I’d done.
“Well if they don’t, they should,” said Kelly happily. “I’d better scoot. I’ll see the Captain, then this passenger, and then I’ve got a million other things to be getting on with…”
“You do that. Enjoy your day and let me know if I can help with anything else.”
“Oh I will,” she promised rather ominously.
When she’d hurried off with her customary double-speed clicking of her heels, I turned to go back inside the room, wiping my brow with relief at another ‘crisis’ averted. Just as I was about to enter, Alex Martinez walked out at a brisk pace.
I stared at his departing back as he hurried away from me. I hadn’t spoken to him since the incident, and I was curious to hear what he had to say. Just as I had made up my mind to follow him, I felt someone touch me on the elbow.
It was Jake Cheltenham, and he had a rather nervous look on his face.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?”
I glanced again at the retreating figure of Alex. He looked to be in too much of a hurry for me to talk to him anyway. Figuring I was sure to have another chance soon, I acquiesced to Jake’s request.
“Let’s sit down.” There were a few chairs along the wall of the lobby area, and I pulled one out for each of us. “What’s up?” I asked when we were seated.
Jake sat right on the edge of the chair, leaning forward, elbows resting nervously on his knees and his whole body twitching like he might make a sudden move to run at any moment. His hair hung down low, almost touching the top of his quivering knees.
“I’m worried, nervous. I don’t know what to do and I don’t know who to talk to.”
“It looks like you’re talking to me.”
“Yes, you don’t mind, do you? It’s just you seem nice, and you work on the ship and you were there.”
“Right. So what is it that you’re worried about?”
I could guess, but I wanted to hear what he said in case I was wrong. He might even let some interesting new information slip.
“I’m worried that security will think it was me that killed Geraldine.”
“Because you were the first on the scene?” I patted him gently on the leg. “That doesn’t mean they think you did it. Usually the perpetrator tries to run away, but you were just standing there.”
“That’s true, I was. I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. At first I didn’t know what I was looking at, and then when I realized it was a person, I didn’t realize it was Geraldine. People look different when they’re… not moving. Then when I saw it was her, I still couldn’t quite believe it, I couldn’t process it. How could it be her? Why was it her? Was it some kind of a prank? I just… it was too much for me. I was overwhelmed.”
I nodded sympathetically. I knew from personal experience what it was like to have your morning ruined by finding a dead body.
“Then after, those security people, they asked me so many questions. I think they think it was me because of what Geraldine had been saying to people.”
Ah. Now we were getting somewhere. The day before I’d heard from Geraldine herself what she was saying about Jake’s software. About how it had been hacked and some B&Bs had nearly gone bankrupt because of it.
“What exactly happened between you and her? With the software, I mean.”
Jake leaned forward even farther but somehow, through some miracle of physics, managed to avoid fallin
g off the chair completely.
“I think you heard it from her yesterday? But she was telling people that my software was hacked and some people were put out of business. But that wasn’t true. It wasn’t true at all! A couple of people had problems with their computer systems, but it was nothing to do with me or my software. They had old hardware that failed. There was no hacking, or software failure, or anything of the sort. She just hated everything to do with technology or even any kind of change in her industry.”
“I see. And so you’re worried that gave you a motive to kill her? And that you’ll be prosecuted because of it?”
He nodded glumly. “It looks bad, doesn’t it? I mean, I was right there! I had a motive! The murder weapon was right at my feet!”
“Steady on, you’re supposed to be convincing me you didn’t do it.”
“Right. I didn’t do it, but they’re going to think I did. I mean, those rumors Geraldine were spreading were awful, but they weren’t enough to kill over. My software could work with all kinds of businesses, not just B&Bs. Even if she ruined the whole industry for me, with a few tweaks I could sell it to golf courses, fitness clubs, bowls clubs, badminton clubs… all kinds of businesses! I only started with B&Bs because I grew up in one and I knew the industry. It’s just a stepping stone for me, that’s all.”
I gave him a sympathetic smile and another pat on the knee. I wasn’t sure whether breaking into all those other markets would be as easy as he was making out, but I believed he wasn’t the killer for other reasons.
When we found Geraldine, she’d been hit on the head with a stone. It looked like something that had happened in the heat of the moment using a nearby weapon. She’d been hit right on the front of the head.
Surely there’d been yelling or arguing, or shouting or something. But Sam and I had been right there, just outside the maze, when Jake had gone in. I was pretty sure the murder must have happened before Jake, Sam and I arrived. Unless it happened in complete silence. Which was possible, but unlikely. And Jake didn’t seem the killing sort anyway.
“It seems to me that Geraldine was probably killed sometime before you arrived. I actually saw you enter the maze just before Sam and I went in. I’m sure we would have heard something if it happened while you were in there.”
Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 10 - Bed and Breakfast and Cruises Page 9
