“What do you want to do?” Kyle asked.
“I think we need to stay close to them today. Why don’t you follow them back to the cabin?”
“What will you be doing?”
“Visiting the brig. Hopefully, Meredith will be willing to talk to me.”
* * *
“Uh uh,” Meredith said with a shake of her head as she leaned back in her bunk in the brig and crossed her arms. “I’m not telling you anything.”
Grace reached her arms through the bars separating her from Meredith and made a pleading motion with her hands. “I’m trying to help, Meredith. You’re facing a murder charge, for goodness sakes.”
Meredith let out a bark of laughter. “Don’t be ridiculous.” She tilted her head to the side and speared Mulligan with a withering look. “The great detective over there doesn’t have a case.”
“Keep dreaming,” Mulligan called out from his desk. “I’ve got you dead to rights. We caught her stealing food from the kitchen.”
“I was planning on barricading myself in and not leaving until we reached the states.”
Mulligan leaned back in his chair and propped his feet on the desk. “She then resisted arrest; bit the Captain’s thumb.”
Meredith laughed. “There’s a murderer on board and I was simply defending myself.”
“Even still, how does that make her a murderer?” Grace asked.
“A witness came forward and said that Merry was seen arguing with Bruce the day he died,” Mulligan countered.
Grace glanced back at Meredith who shrugged. “He didn’t want to do that little girl’s birthday party. Said he wasn’t a children’s magician and to forget it. I called him a jerk and then Alex threatened him.”
“He did? How?”
“Said something about Leo coming back from the dead and that maybe he might be willing to do it. Bruce freaked out and slammed him against the wall.”
Mulligan placed his hands behind his head. “Tell her what you did to Penny the day she disappeared?” He gave Grace a smug smile. “They had a little fight down in the crew’s quarters.”
Meredith sat up, her eyes flashing. “You betcha there was a fight. She tried to kick me out of my cabin. I had spent all night reinforcing my door and I wasn’t about to let her have it.”
“Yeah, okay,” Grace said, “but what’s her motive for killing Alex?”
“She wanted his job. Kept telling everyone who would listen that she could do a better job than him.”
“I could, but that’s beside the point,” Meredith said. “Like you could get me on one of these floating death traps again.”
Grace crossed her arms as she stared at Meredith. “I got to tell you, Meredith, it’s not looking good for you.”
Meredith rolled her eyes. She motioned for Grace to come closer. “I’ll be out of here as soon as we reach the states,” she whispered. “I have an alibi for Bruce’s death. I was on the Lido Deck calling out bingo numbers the night he died. There’s pictures of me doing it splashed all over the ship’s screensaver.” She pointed towards the computer just as her picture appeared on the screen holding a bingo ball in her hand. “That was the first and only night I played bingo. Idiot over there,” she said jerking her chin towards Mulligan, “was at the bar hitting on one of the waitresses the whole time. See? Look at the screen.”
Grace did as she was told, and sure enough, Mulligan appeared sitting at the bar with a dopey expression on his face as a girl in a grass skirt and coconut bra handed him a drink.
“That’s Lola,” Meredith said, “and she’ll vouch for me when the time comes.”
“Why isn’t she vouching for you now?” Grace asked in exasperation.
“Are you insane? Look at these bars. Look at those guards out there,” she said jerking her chin towards the window separating the cells from the security guard offices. “I’m much safer in here than you are out there.” She stretched out on her cot. “No, siree, I’m staying right here until we dock. If I were you, I’d confess to something.”
“I’ll pass. I do have one more question however. Kyle and I want to go on the honeymoon extravaganza excursion on Turquoise Island. Who do we talk to now?”
Meredith frowned. “There’s no honeymoon extravaganza excursion.”
“Sure there is. Courtney Bernard’s father bought the whole package for her.”
Meredith shook her head. “Never heard of it.”
“Maybe he bought it from a private company then,” Grace mused.
“No way. The cruise line owns that island. The only excursion available is through us.”
“Is that why Mrs. Bernard bought that lock yesterday?” Mulligan asked. “She better not go to the lighthouse. The place is dangerous.”
Meredith folded her hands behind her head. “Sounds like a trap if you ask me.”
Chapter Twenty-three
Grace spotted Kyle across the atrium hurrying towards her. “It’s Tucker,” he said at the exact same time she said, “It’s Courtney.”
Grace blinked. “Tucker? No way.”
“I just got off the phone with Courtney’s father,” Kyle said taking her hand and leading her out of the atrium. “Courtney changed the beneficiary of her life insurance to Tucker just before they got married. She dies and he gets over ten million dollars. Oh, and get this, her dad didn’t set up any honeymoon excursion for them. Tucker’s been playing us from the beginning.”
“I figured as much but it’s not Tucker,” she said as they got into the incredibly long line to exit the ship. “It’s Courtney. She bought that lock yesterday afternoon, not him, which means she must be the one who set up the phony excursion.”
“Where are they now?” she asked.
Kyle made a face. “I lost them.”
“What?”
“Tucker pulled a fast one on me. One minute he and Courtney were in their cabin getting ready and the next they were gone. I didn’t even hear them leave. I’ve been looking for them ever since.” He glanced at his watch. “The carriage will pick them up in a half hour,” he said as they shuffled forward a few steps. “Which means they’re either in line or on the island waiting to start their excursion.”
Grace stood up on her tiptoes, trying to see how long the line was. “I bet they’re already on the island.”
“Well, at the rate this line is moving,” Kyle said, “all we’ll have to do is stand here and see which one returns alive.”
“We need a plan.”
“I just gave you one.”
“A better plan. According to Courtney, the last stop on their itinerary is the lighthouse. I’m pretty sure whatever is going to happen is going to happen there. We need to get there first.”
“And do what?” he asked as they shuffled forward a few more steps.
“Set our own trap.”
* * *
Grace climbed up the creepy, deserted lighthouse’s cast iron spiral staircase and stepped onto the platform. The hurricane had taken out most of the glass windows surrounding the giant lantern, and what windows were left were nothing more than a spider web of cracked class. Clear plastic covered the windows to the west, blocking the view of the ocean and part of the parking lot.
She walked around the lantern and over to the plastic cover. Bending over at the waist, she lifted the plastic up and stepped through the opening and onto the catwalk. A giant scaffold, evidence of the islands ongoing renovation project, stood in front of her. She glanced towards the second scaffold six feet away.
A strong wind swept over her pushing her hair into her face. She roughly shoved it back as she walked towards the second scaffold. While she walked, she stared down at the waves as they crashed over the rocks below. Dark grey clouds loomed overhead blotting out the afternoon sun and dropping the temperature. She pulled her thin grey sweater closed and belted it at the waist before stepping closer to the old rusted railing, laden down with hundreds of love locks, that surrounded the catwalk.
From this vantage point
she could see the lighthouse keeper’s house and the stone staircase embedded in the cliff face leading down to the parking lot.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t count on hearing Tucker and Courtney arrive. Between the strong wind and the roar of the waves, Grace could barely hear anything else. She had no choice but to keep a lookout. The last thing she wanted was to be ambushed. She just hoped they hadn’t approached while she was downstairs.
She glanced down at the lovelocks.
“Be careful,” Kyle warned from behind her as she reached out to touch one of the locks. He stepped through the plastic cover and walked up to her. He pushed against the metal railing causing it to swing out with a groan. “If anyone wanted to kill someone, they couldn’t have picked a better place for it,” he said bringing the rail back and popping it into place.
She took a careful step back away from the edge. “What time is it?”
“Nearly three.”
She shivered as the wind swept over them again. “They should be here any moment. Are we ready?”
“I hope so.” He reached into his pocket. “There’s just one more thing left to do.” He held out a heart shaped lock and held it out in front of her. “I didn’t have time to get our names professionally engraved, but I don’t think I did to bad carving them into the metal.”
She smiled as she held the lock in her hand, her thumb swiping across the Kyle loves Grace etching. “It’s perfect. When did you get this?”
“While I was running around the ship looking for Courtney and Tucker, I spotted a bunch of locks in the gift store.” He took the lock from her and attached it to the railing. “I had a feeling we would be coming here so I picked one up.”
Wrapping his arms around her, he held her close as she tossed the key out into the ocean. She tilted her head to the side and kissed him, wishing they could spend the rest of the afternoon alone and not trapping a murderer. “Is our hiding place ready?”
“Mmhmm. Ready and waiting. Now all we do is wait for Tucker to make his move.”
“It’s not Tucker. Don’t forget, he was in our cabin recuperating when Bruce was killed.”
“He could have snuck out as soon as we left.”
“We would have seen him.”
“Not if he went through the backway. We were in front of the theater dealing with Penny and Alex for a while. He had plenty of time to kill Bruce.”
She shook her head. “Courtney has the most motive. She hated them all. They humiliated her on stage. A woman scorned and all that. Tucker’s the only one who is left. That’s why she brought him here to this lighthouse where the lighthouse keeper’s daughter died. Poetic, don’t you think?” She rubbed her hands down her arms as another gust of wind swept over them, hard enough to make her shift her footing to hold herself upright.
Kyle tightened his arms around her.
“I don’t like this,” she said leaning back against him. “It’s too risky. It wouldn’t take more than a second to push a person to their death up here. I say we confront them as soon as they arrive.”
“Which one? You believe it’s Courtney and I believe it’s Tucker. We have no proof of anything and they’ll both deny they’re the killer. They’ll go home and then eventually we’ll hear through the grapevine that one of them is dead. I hate to say it but we don’t have a lot of options here.” He kissed her temple. “Don’t worry, no one is going to die today, and as soon as the killer makes his move, I’ll come out and stop him.”
“Or her.” She bit her lip. “I feel kind of bad. I really liked Courtney. I hate thinking of her as a murderer.”
“Good, because she’s innocent. Tucker’s the killer.” He frowned. “Although to tell you the truth, I’m not too happy about that fact either.”
She groaned. “Usually by now we’re on the same page. I think we should call this off. Something’s just not right.”
“I don’t think it’s up to us,” he murmured softly. “They’re coming here whether we want them to or not.”
“Something’s not right,” she repeated, her thoughts in turmoil as her mind replayed everything that had happened since they boarded four days before.
She wasn’t certain as to who the killer was, but she was positive that someone was supposed to die at this lighthouse today. The killer went to a lot of trouble to set up the phony honeymoon excursion to let it go to waste.
Still…despite her argument with Kyle, she couldn’t really believe Courtney could kill anyone. The fright in the girl’s eyes when she was in the shipwreck seemed so real. She had been so scared. So was Tucker when she found him bleeding backstage. But if neither one was the killer, who was left? Merry and Mulligan both had alibis for Bruce’s death and their other suspects were either dead or missing at sea.
She closed her eyes and tried to think. According to Alex, Leo told him he had an appointment with death here at the lighthouse three months ago. Courtney admitted to running into him here, but what if there was someone else waiting for him. Who could it be and why on earth would they meet here of all places? Why not the ship?
Kyle pressed his lips to her ear. “A penny for your thoughts.”
“Cute.”
“You seem so far away.”
“I was just thinking about who Leo was planning to meet at this lighthouse.” She glanced at the lovelocks littering the railings. “Maybe we should check the locks and see if Leo’s name is on any of them.”
“I don’t think he was here for romance. He was putting on a show for people.”
“That doesn’t make sense. The lighthouse was condemned. No one was allowed up here so why would he be performing here of all places?”
“Oh, I’d do it.”
“Yes, I know you would, but I can’t see Leo doing it. It’s not like the public was out here. The crew had warned them away. The only reason people were here at all was to see the damage the hurricane had done. Not to mention he was drunk at the time,” she added. She glanced down over the railing. “How could he get down there in less than a second? Without killing himself, of course.”
“Depends on how the illusion was set up.” His brow furrowed as he glanced down at the rocks below. “If he had a…well, if…” He stopped talking as he left her and walked around the catwalk. After a moment, he walked back shaking his head with a look of consternation on his face.
“What?”
He looked up at her. “What do we know about Leo’s brother?”
“Louis Rycroft? Nothing other than he’s rich and that he’s somewhere in France at the moment.”
“Who said?”
“Leo.”
He bit his lower lip as he looked back over the railing. “Hmm, Lou and Leo.”
“What are you thinking?”
“Lou and Leo Rycroft worked together as magicians.”
Grace tilted her head to the side to look at him. “Yeah?”
“Harry Houdini and Harry Blackstone both used their brothers in their acts before. The magician would disappear and the double would reappear somewhere else with no one the wiser. My father used a double a few times too. Not a brother, but a cousin of his that looked enough like him to fool people from a distance. You know, growing up I used to wish I had an identical twin. It would have made disappearing and reappearing in another place so easy.”
“I saw a movie like that once. So, what are you saying? Lou and Leo were twins and both were here three months ago.”
“That would explain how Courtney was able to see him up here, then a second later, down there. It was Lou up here, and down there with Courtney was Leo, drunk as usual.” He pursed his lips together in thought. “What if Leo really did die three months ago? You should have seen that costume Alex took out of the bank. It was covered in blood and you said it yourself that it was a miracle he survived when Bruce and Penny threw his body overboard.”
“If Leo’s dead that means we’ve been talking to Lou all this time. But why would he pretend to be his brother?”
He snapped his
fingers. “I know. He came to find Leo’s killer. His brother disappeared so he came to investigate.”
“Then why didn’t he say something to us? Why keep up the ruse that he loved Penny? He was moping around the ship like the love of his life died. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Kyle thought for a moment before eventually giving her a lopsided grin. “It was just a theory. I mean why else would Lou come on the ship and pretend to be his dead brother if it wasn’t to find his killer? Maybe he got too close to the truth and Tucker finished him off for good. Leo or Lou did say he was going to expose the killer last night.”
Grace bit her lip, lost in thought. “No wait. That’s not why.” She gasped. “It’s Lou. It’s been Lou all along.”
The corners of his lips quirked up in amusement. “I know. That’s what I’ve been saying for the last minute or so.”
“No, Lou killed his brother.”
Kyle frowned. “Then who killed him last night?”
“No one. For all we know, he could have staged the whole thing.”
“But why come back to the ship pretending to be his own brother if it wasn’t for revenge or to find his killer?”
Suddenly the answer came to her. “Money. Two months ago, Lou and Leo’s grandfather died leaving them both a huge fortune. The night before, I witnessed Leo change his will and leave everything to Lou.”
“That’s convenient.”
“Yes, it is. He killed Leo once and tried to pin the crime on Bruce and Penny, but something went wrong. Instead of his body being found and Bruce and Penny taking the fall, they hid the death, got rid of the body and then they kept up the pretense that Leo was still alive. As long as Leo was alive, Penny could get her hands on Leo’s inheritance. That’s why Lou came back as Leo. One to get rid of Penny and Bruce, the two people who messed up his plans to begin with, and two, to make sure everyone knew Leo was dead. Once those two things happened, all he would have to do is sneak off the ship and go back home, and then wait for the authorities to give him the sad news of his brother’s unfortunate death. The will I witnessed will go into probate as soon as Leo is officially declared dead and then Lou will inherit everything.” She pursed her lips together angrily. “You should have heard the way he talked while lying on that hospital bed. According to him, Leo was an idiot and Lou was the greatest man that ever lived. That doesn’t sound like a man secretly grieving over the loss of his brother.”
The Body in Davy Jones' Locker Page 22
