“It’s got to be. How else would he have found out about you?”
Courtney glanced at Tucker out of the side of her eye. “You didn’t tell her?”
Tucker’s mouth fell open. “No! Absolutely not. I can’t believe you would think that. I would never betray your confidence. Never.” He vehemently shook his head. “Never.”
Tucker doth protest too much came to Grace’s mind, as he continued to insist somewhat desperately that he wasn’t involved. Couldn’t be involved and it was all Penny’s fault. Grace got the feeling that he was lying and by Courtney’s expression, she thought so too.
“You wouldn’t betray me,” Courtney said. “Especially not to a total stranger, right?”
“Right.” Laughing, Tucker said, “I don’t know Penny. Why would I talk to her? It’s crazy.” He suddenly angled his head to the side as he looked around the room. “Where’s the waiter? We’ve been sitting here for a while. You’d think they’d bring us bread or something.”
Courtney lifted her gaze to Kyle’s. “What were you going to say about my sister?”
“Just that you miss her too.”
The corners of her mouth lifted up in a mirthless smile. “But how did you know I had a sister? Maybe I’m an only child.”
“Then I would have changed it to an aunt or another female relative the moment you started to shake your head. The same way I changed my guess on your birthday. You gave it away. There’s really nothing to be afraid of. It’s all for fun.”
“But it wasn’t fun.” Her voice became small. “Everyone laughed at me. He made everyone laugh at me. He was…cruel.” A sad expression crossed her face for a moment. “Let’s change the subject. I’d rather talk about happier things. I’ve got a surprise for you,” she continued while interjecting a note of cheer in her voice. “We’re going on the scuba diving excursion in two days and I wanted to see if you two wanted to go with us.”
“We’d like to,” Kyle said, “but they’re sold out.”
Courtney did a little patty cake. “Surprise! I got two extra tickets for you.”
Kyle smiled brightly. “Great! That’s wonderful. Thanks.”
Grace’s shoulders sagged. “Yeah, thanks,” with a little less enthusiasm. “How did you get tickets?”
Tucker snorted. “Courtney tracked down the cruise director and badgered him—”
“I did not badger him,” Courtney said. “I just nicely asked him to find me two more tickets.” She tilted her chin up and said proudly, “My daddy is on the Gemstone Sea Cruises’ board. Whatever you want, you just let me know and I’ll make sure you get it.” The sad expression returned for a moment. Just a moment before disappearing again. “It pays to be friends with me. So, if you’re not happy with the cruise you just let me know. No one wants to make my daddy angry.”
“No kidding,” Tucker muttered softly.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Courtney asked sharply.
“Nothing. I just wish…he liked me more.”
“Of course he likes you.” She glanced at Grace and Kyle. “My daddy likes everyone.”
“Not everyone.” Tucker leaned forward. “Her father gave me a gold-plated shovel as a wedding gift.”
Kyle who had just taken a drink choked suddenly.
Courtney glanced from Kyle to Tucker and back again. “What’s wrong with that? It was a lovely gift. I know it’s not usual but still…I thought all men liked tools.”
“Honey, it was an insult,” Tucker said. “Even I understood that.”
“How is that insulting?” Courtney asked.
Tucker rolled his eyes. “He gave me a gold shovel. He was calling me a gold digger.”
“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” Courtney said with a dismissive wave of her hand. “He thought you would like it.”
“He hates me.” Tucker shifted in his seat to reach for the glass pitcher on the table. Wincing, he pulled his hand back and held it against his chest.
“Are you okay, Tucker?” Grace asked.
“My knee is throbbing a little and I twisted my hand when I went down.” He glanced from Kyle to Grace and back again. “Thank you by the way for saving me. I really appreciate it. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t been there.”
“I would have saved you, sweetie.” Courtney patted his arm causing him to wince in pain. She winced in sympathy. “Oh, baby, here,” she said picking up a glass filled with amber colored liquid and handing it to him, “have a drink.”
“Oh, Court,” he said with a whine, “you know I hate drinking.”
“It’s brandy. How can you not like brandy?” she asked pressing the glass to his lips. “Come on, it’ll make you feel better.”
He angled his head back. “Sweetie, you know what alcohol does to me. I lose all control.”
“Oh, just take a drink,” Courtney said forcing the drink down his throat. “I’ll be here to make sure you don’t start acting crazy.”
Kyle and Grace exchanged uneasy glances.
“Tucker,” Kyle said, “do you really think you should be drinking right now?”
Tucker pushed the glass out of the way long enough to talk. “Oh, it’s okay. I turned twenty-one last month.” He wrinkled his nose at the glass within inches of his face. “I just don’t like the stuff.”
“It’ll be good for you,” Courtney added before trying to force-feed her husband more liquor. “It’ll numb the pain.”
“You know what would work better? Pain killer.” Grace jerked her thumb over her shoulder. “I have some aspirin in my cabin. Why don’t I go get some for you?”
A loud cry of anger erupted from Bruce Pritchard’s table. Grace turned in her seat towards the commotion. Glancing past Kyle, she watched in fascination as Penny stood up and slapped Bruce Pritchard across the face.
Everyone turned to stare as the magician grabbed her wrists. “Would you calm down?” he snarled at her.
“Calm down? Calm down? Is that what you’d like me to do?” Penny wrenched her wrists out of his hands then gestured to doors where Leo Rycroft stood. “What’s he doing here, Bruce?”
Enthralled by the drama going on to her right, Grace barely noticed as someone pulled out the empty chair on her left and sat down next to her.
“Penny,” Bruce whispered harshly as he came to stand next to her, “control yourself.”
“Is this some kind of trick?” Penny’s mouth formed a perfect circle. “That’s what it is, isn’t it.” She backed away from him with her hands up. “Oh, I get it now. It’s all some great big illusion, isn’t it? You’re both trying to get back at me. He’s mad at me because I left him for you and you’re mad at me because I finally realized that I don’t need you.”
Bruce looked around at the sea of shocked faces staring at them. “She’s just had a little too much to drink, folks.”
“I haven’t had that much. Not yet,” she yelled as she turned on her heel and strode toward the door. She stopped next to Leo Rycroft.
“I’m so sorry, Penny,” Leo said with a bemused shake of his head. “If I’ve done something to upset you, darling, I—”
A sharp slap across his face silenced him.
“See,” Courtney said, “I’m not the only one who can’t stand that guy.”
“They’re so unprofessional,” a familiar voice said from her left. “It’s just drama twenty-four seven with them.”
Grace and Kyle spun around in their seats and faced the newcomer.
Meredith Mallory sat next to them staring down at the menu on the table with a scowl on her face. “Look at all this high fat food. What are they trying to do? Kill their passengers?”
Grace’s mouth fell open in shock at finding her former roommate and co-worker from the Crystal Palace Excursion train seated next to her.
“Just a word of warning, I wouldn’t eat the chicken.” Meredith “Merry” Mallory flipped a page of the menu. “Not unless you would like to spend the night in the doctor’s office. You think with the pri
ces people pay they could afford to put out a half way decent dinner that didn’t give you food poisoning.” Another page flipped by. “Stay away from the beef Wellington too.” She issued a disgusted sigh. “And the lobster.”
Grace recovered from her shock long enough to shout out, “Meredith!”
Meredith tilted her head to the side. She frowned as she peered closely at Grace’s face. “Do I know you?”
“It’s Grace. Grace Holliday.” She felt Kyle touch her arm. “Drake. I mean, Dragovich.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell,” Meredith said returning to her menu.
Courtney waved the glass in her hand around. “Don’t feel bad, Grace. I keep forgetting my new last name too.” She turned back to her husband. “Here, sweetie,” she said holding the glass to his lips, “have some more.”
Tucker grimaced as he took a drink. Finally, he pushed her hand a way with a shudder and a look of disgust. “Why does it taste funny?”
Grace sucked in her breath as a single horrible thought suddenly occurred to her.
Poison.
Chapter Six
Courtney brushed droplets of brandy from her gown while spearing Grace a dirty look. “What are you, a teetotaler?”
Grace set Courtney’s glass of brandy down in front of her. “It’s not that,” she began slowly as she tried to come up with an excuse for lurching out of her chair and grabbing the glass out of Courtney’s hand. “It’s just that I…I…” Unable to come up with a good reason that didn’t make her sound crazy or like an uncontrollable alcoholic, she threw a desperate look for help towards Kyle.
“Grace is methyphobic,” Kyle said adopting a concerned look on his face.
Grace and Tucker’s brows furrowed in thought while Courtney gasped, her hand flying up to her mouth in horror.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Courtney said as she leaned over the table, dropping her voice to a low whisper. “I had no idea. You poor thing. How horrible for you. Is there a cure for it or are you…” She pressed her hand over her mouth as though not wanting to give voice to her fear.
Meredith slid her chair away from Grace. “Is it contagious?”
“No,” Kyle said. “She’s just deathly afraid of alcohol.”
Realizing she should have looked elsewhere for help, Grace softly shook her head as Kyle happily described her supposed fear in excruciating detail.
“She can’t be near the stuff,” Kyle said with a long-suffering sigh. “As you see it drives her absolutely crazy.” He took the brandy from Grace’s hand and moved it to the other side of the table. “It’s okay, Grace,” he said, his blue eyes twinkling as he stared at her in amusement, “everything’s fine now.”
“Thank you,” Grace said dryly.
Eyes wide, Tucker turned to his wife. “I think I might have that. I really hate the stuff.”
They looked up as a waiter appeared at their table. Grace and Kyle hurriedly reached for their menus as Courtney and Tucker consulted with one another on what they wanted to eat.
Pressing their heads close together, they each held one end of the same menu as they tried to decide. “How about the lobster?” Courtney murmured.
“No, she said the lobster was bad too,” Tucker whispered, glancing over the top of the menu towards Meredith.
Courtney frowned. “I don’t understand. The food wasn’t bad last time.”
Tucker shot a furtive glance towards Meredith before adding, “Well, something must have happened or else why would she warn us.”
Their heads dipped below the menu.
There was some stealth whispering between the two behind the menu before finally they lowered the menu and Tucker announced, “We’ll have the fettucine Alfredo.”
Meredith gave a delicate shudder. “Your funeral,” she muttered.
Courtney tugged on her necklace as she leaned her head close to Tucker’s. “What did she say?”
Meredith handed the waiter her menu. “A plain potato please. Which means no butter, no cheese, no bacon, and absolutely no sour cream. I would prefer it not be cut or opened in anyway. Bring me whatever canned fruit you have and some canned green beans. Hopefully, they’re not expired. I’ll also have a glass of Chardonnay.”
Courtney sucked in a breath while throwing Grace a panicked look.
The waiter stepped behind Grace.
“I’ll have the beef Wellington…” Grace glanced at Courtney and with a sigh added, “and a glass of water.”
Kyle leaned into her. “I’ll get the lobster and we’ll share.”
“Deal.”
Orders in hand, the waiter did a quick turn on his heel and hurried to the kitchen.
As they waited for their meals to arrive, conversation quickly turned to family and weddings and it wasn’t long before they were sharing wedding pictures.
Courtney swiped her finger across the screen of her phone, and then held it out for all to see. “And this is us cutting our wedding cake.” Her face glowed as she stared down at her screen. “I worried that the Swarovski crystals in the shape of a crown would be too heavy as a cake topper and would overpower the cake, but the ten tiers balanced it out quite nicely. The crystals scattered throughout really tied it all together.” Swipe and turn. “This is me shoving cake into Tucker’s face.” Another swipe. “This is my Uncle Bill performing the Heimlich maneuver on Tucker.” Swipe. “This is us at the emergency room.”
Grace smiled and nodded politely as Kyle pointed his phone at everyone. He had taken over their portion of the show and tell after Grace had run out of her own wedding pictures to share. Since then, he had been happily showing everyone pictures of his pet bunny, Abry, whenever Courtney paused for breath.
“This is another one of Abry as we were packing to leave.” Kyle turned his phone back around and swiped his finger across the screen. “And this is him trying to climb into my suitcase.” Another swipe. “This is him running away with Grace’s bra.” Swipe. “This is Grace chasing after him in just a towel—”
Grace took the phone away from him. “So, Meredith, was that Lucas out on the bridge this morning? That was a pretty impressive proposal.”
“He’s a moron.” Meredith’s brow furrowed as she stared at Grace. “How do you know my ex-boyfriend?”
“Because I met him on the train during New Year’s. You and I worked together, remember?”
Her eyes narrowed.
“I helped you serve dinner.”
The furrow on her brow deepened.
“We shared a cabin and you hid all the food you stole from the kitchen in our cabin.”
Her face immediately brightened. “Oh, Grace.” She waved her hand dismissively. “I’m sorry. I blocked that whole horrible incident out of my mind. It was the absolute most hellish experience of my life. I’m still fighting with my temp agency for hazardous duty pay.”
“Why, what happened?” Courtney asked.
Grace reached for a breadstick. “Someone was murd…” She stopped mid-word as Meredith spoke up.
“I got paid peanuts to be the only waitress for over eight people during a New Year’s train ride through a blizzard. The cabin was the size of a matchbox and the so called chef they hired couldn’t boil water without my help.”
“And someone was murdered,” Grace added.
“Murdered?” Tucker turned to Kyle, excitement coloring his voice. “I bet they hired you to find the killer.”
“Well, not exactly,” Kyle said. “There was another detective on board. A couple of them in fact. I just happened to be there when the murder happened.”
“Wow! Did you figure out who the killer was?”
Kyle looked at Grace proudly. “My wife did.”
Meredith’s head rose. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at Grace. “Wife? When did you two get married?”
“Just last week,” Grace said taking Kyle’s hand. “We’re on the second week of our honeymoon.”
Meredith looked less than pleased. “Huh. I guess my invitation must have gotten lost in th
e mail.”
“Or perhaps you threw it away because you couldn’t remember who we were,” Kyle pointed out sweetly.
Meredith made a dismissive motion with her hand. “It’s probably sitting in some room deep within the bowels of this ship of fools.”
“Why would your mail be in the bowels of the ship?” Grace asked.
“I work here.”
“Doing what?”
“I’m an assistant cruise director.”
Grace’s eyebrows rose. “How did you get that job?”
“I was doing one of my comedy acts here three months ago and they offered me the job.”
Courtney gasped. “Oh, my gosh! I remember you now.” She turned to Tucker. “Honey, she was the comic we liked so much. Remember?” Turning back to Meredith, she gushed, “You were so funny. I thought I was just going to die laughing.”
“Really?” Grace asked still dumbfounded that the dour, disgruntled, depressing, and frequently dissatisfied Meredith Mallory was an actual comic, and if her ex, Lucas Kirby, could be believed, an incredibly funny one.
Courtney clapped her hands together as she began laughing. She grabbed Tucker’s arm. “Oh, sweetie, remember her joke about the ship capsizing and how we were all going to die?” She burst out laughing. “Oh goodness, I never laughed so hard in my life. Remember how it started raining and thundering during her act and she…she…” She he gulped for air between peals of laughter. “She talked about a typhoon hitting the ship,” she said as her voice went supersonic, “and knocking the ship over and how we’re all fools.”
Tucker’s face lost a bit of color as he glanced out the windows nervously. “Yeah. Does it look kind of cloudy out there tonight? I barely see any stars.”
Courtney wiped a finger across her eyes. “It was so funny.”
“I wasn’t joking,” Meredith said, which caused Courtney to laugh even harder. “If I didn’t need the money so bad I’d get off this death trap at the next island. I can’t understand people paying good money to sail around the middle of the ocean. It’s absolute madness.”
“Stop!” Courtney cried as tears streamed down her face. “You’re killing me.”
The Body in Davy Jones' Locker Page 6
