Under the Jamaican Moon (Katy Marshall Romantic Mysteries Book 1)

by Sheila Lee Hall

  Under the

  Jamaican Moon

  Book One of the Katy Marshall

  Romantic Mysteries

  by

  Sheila Lee Hall

  Under the Jamaican Moon

  © Copyright 2015 by Marvin L. Schroeder. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher.

  Cover design by Craig Pritchett

  Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication data has been applied for.

  This book is entirely fiction and does not describe any person or personality and place known to exist. A descriptive resemblance to any person living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  This book is dedicated to

  all readers who have yet to

  fulfill their dreams, hopes

  and destiny.

  Table of Contents

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Destiny

  Chapter 2

  A Fateful Decision

  Chapter 3

  The Blue Dolphin

  Chapter 4

  Isla de los Muertos

  Chapter 5

  The Secret of Zombie Island

  Epilogue

  Preface

  Katy Marshall stood transfixed. Just as she had suspected, the so-called marriage had been a sham. In the dim light of the room, her hands started to shake as she tried to peer through the blinding tears that streamed down her face. The blood slowly drained from her face, but it had to be true. She was nothing more than a pawn for Sam Kutsun, who was trying to get back the many millions he had lost in the oil industry. Yes, it had to be true! There it was, right in front of her, there could be no doubt.

  Katy carefully picked up the attaché case she had thrown across the room. It was absolutely necessary to place everything back in the case where it had been. She suspected and was quite sure the twenty-million-dollar insurance policy on her life and the Cuban offshore oil and gas leases had been together — so they needed to be placed in the same outside pocket. The pocket had been closed at one time, but the worn strap had been broken when it hit the sharp corner of the dressing room table. As she stood there, she looked at the foggy image of herself in the mirror which stared defiantly back at her. Katy Marshall had reached her limit!

  “You S.O.B.,” she sobbed through her partly clenched teeth. “Two can play that game.” She was absolutely sure of one thing, there was now going to be another strange twist to her life. She had survived before — she could do it again.

  Destiny

  Felix thought he had heard some noise at his apartment door during the early morning hours, but believed it to be only the wind. He had burrowed his head under his pillow until the noise seemed to go away. He was lying on the bed, spread-eagle on his stomach, in his usual au-naturel exposure. As a young teenager, he never could stand any kind of night wear. Even when he was much older, his mother would occasionally come into his room at night to close a window or get some clothes. She would look at him and say, “Well, I see you are still bare-ass to the world.” Even now, in his middle thirties, he had not changed his sleeping habits.

  An imposing figure at 6'3" and 230 pounds, he had achieved a long and lean muscular look due to the dedication he had given to weight training. He had become used to the many female eyes that always seemed to look his way. He was sure he had inherited his mother’s Danish heritage. However, his striking Nordic background was now starting to become a hindrance — and also an annoyance!

  Several weeks ago he had been on the driving range at a golf course, practicing for a golf tournament. His caddie Jimmy slid up to him and said, “She said I should give this to you.”

  Felix looked at him and said, “Another one?”

  Jimmy pointed to somebody behind him and said, “She’s over there.” A young, attractive blonde was standing twenty to thirty feet behind them, clad only in short cutoffs and a revealing blouse. Smiling at him, she very coyly waved.

  Felix stared at the note. It said, I have whatever you want, and gave a phone number. Felix smiled and turned to hit some more golf balls. Finally he said, “Well, put it in the golf bag with all the others.” As he thought about it some more, he turned around to Jimmy and said, “Ask her if she has any cold pop — it’s been a hot day.”

  As Felix was about to finally get up, he thought about an even crazier incident that happened several months ago. He was driving his Mustang back to Denver, when he stopped at a small convenience store in a shopping center in Vail, Colorado. Another car pulled up alongside his car. A young male jumped out and immediately ran up to the ATM machine and tried to get some cash. He kept dropping his wallet as he tried to pull out one or more credit cards, but then kept dropping the cards as he frantically tried to put them in the ATM.

  As Felix observed the scene, an older blonde opened her passenger door and got out to lean in Felix’s window and said, “I don’t know if that kid will ever get me my three hundred dollars.” The wind started blowing what money the kid had managed to get from the ATM all over the parking lot.

  As she stood watching the kid trying to crawl under a car at the end of the parking lot, she said, “You know, you and I could have a lot more fun. Why don’t you and I just leave and find some nice quiet place.”

  Felix gave her his one and only answer, “I’m a day late and a dollar short.” She would have to settle for the eighteen-year-old kid and whatever part of the three hundred dollars he could find.

  He came back to reality as loud pounding now started on the apartment door. It was loud to begin with, but kept getting louder and louder. There was no doubt about it this time. His alarm clock said 5 a.m. As he grabbed his bathrobe, the thought suddenly crossed his mind, Is it Katy?

  The disheveled figure of Katy Marshall suddenly materialized out of the morning gloom. “Where in the hell were you?” Felix had forgotten their midnight rendezvous.

  “Well, actually, Katy, I forgot to tell you, I really like redheads.”

  He ducked as an object sailed past his head, hitting the lamp and ricocheting off into the room.

  Felix tried to explain what had happened as he led her into the room. “Look, Katy,” he monotoned, “I just plain forgot. Something else very important just came up at the same time. As I told you several days ago, I have been trying to play in the Jamaican Open, but I needed to find a sponsor to get in the tournament. Several months ago, I played in a Pro-Am in Phoenix with some old guy who had to be the worst golfer in the world. Little did I know he was a multi-billionaire!”

  Felix sat down on the bed on some crunchy object as he tried to continue with his story. “Anyway, last night I got a call from his secretary offering to let me play under his sponsorship. Even my entrance fee is picked up.”

  Katy just stood there. “So what are you saying — you prefer golf over me?” Felix again shifted his weight. He knew it was not going to be easy, no matter what he said.

  Katy was aware how important golf was for his future. Suddenly, she became embarrassed. The beach blanket had started to slip showing she no longer was wearing her bikini swimsuit. Felix started to get wide-eyed. As he shifted his weight, a sudden crunch reminded him he was sitting on something. Holding up a small box, he could only stare at it. “I don’t believe it,” he said. “‘Extreme Magnoms — supersize,
and black and ribbed.’ Where on earth did you find these? These would be great for an elephant.”

  Katy turned red-faced. “Well, I didn’t know,” she murmured. “It was all they had.”

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  Katy tried to ignore him and tried to change the subject. “You know, it probably worked out for the best that you didn’t make it. The bad thing is that I buried the two-liter bottle of Old Jamaican rum under two coconut trees before I left the beach.”

  Felix now sat upright. “You mean, you buried a seventy-five-dollar bottle of Old Jamaican rum where anybody might find it? How could you do that?”

  Katy sat down with the blanket now completely wrapped around her. “Well, let me tell you what happened last night. Actually, the whole night turned out to be completely weird.”

  Katy stared at the broken lamp she had hit with the box. “I got to Sunset Beach about midnight. It was so quiet and peaceful. The waves had calmed down and were just lapping very gently against the seashore. The moon was bright, and it was warm, and with no…” The beginning memories of her night flooded back.

  “Well, I thought at first it couldn’t have been better. I placed the blanket in the shade of several old coconut trees as I found a very level spot. Even if somebody had come along, nobody would have found us.” She lapsed into silence as what could have been came back to her. She just had to continue. “So, I thought when you eventually turned up, it would be very nice. I really owe you my life for saving me from drowning.”

  Katy again shifted on her chair. “I really wished you had managed to come. Anyway, I guess I fell asleep. It was so romantic, just thinking what it would be like when you finally came. Anyway, I suddenly felt something tickling my feet. I thought, ‘Felix, I’m not going to let you know that I fell asleep.’ Suddenly, I felt something tickling my nose. Finally, I sat upright and said, surprise!”

  Katy leaned back and sighed. “I looked down and there was a sand crab. It wasn’t you at all. At my foot was another sand crab. In fact, the whole beach area had crabs crawling all over it. I heard that does happen occasionally, but why did it have to be last night? I guess it really didn’t make any difference the way it turned out — which is why I finally decided to bury the bottle of Old Jamaican rum.”

  Felix had sat very quiet as he listened to her story. “Well,” he finally said, “it looks like the only thing that might be lost was the bottle of Old Jamaican. Tomorrow, I have to catch the water shuttle to the mainland to finalize my playing in the golf tournament. Perhaps things will work out better another time. Here, you can have the Magnoms.”

  Katy coyly smiled. “What would I do with them, go wading in the Gulf Stream? But listen, I haven’t told you my entire story of this weird night.”

  Felix felt he had heard everything. Nothing could be more weird than what he had just heard. Katy lowered her voice and looked around the room. “You know the rumors about zombies, well I have seen them.”

  Felix just grinned. “Sure,” he said. “Everybody has seen them. That’s why people come to this island; they all want to see zombies. How much of that rum did you really drink last night?”

  His comments now made Katy mad. She had been stood up by somebody more interested in golf than her. Not only that, she had walked a mile to a deserted beach at midnight, almost been bitten by some crabs, had lost her bikini somewhere, probably lost a bottle of Old Jamaican, and here was this idiot thinking she was drunk! Yet, he hadn’t heard the rest of her story.

  The box went sailing back across the room near Felix. “Well, I’m sorry I’m so confused about everything, but you certainly don’t help. Why don’t you try using these black things sometime? If nothing else, you could hang them from the chandelier as a decoration!”

  Felix got up from the bed, and then sat down again. “Okay,” he said, “I have to admit it was my fault the way things turned out. Unfortunately, I still have to leave fairly early tomorrow morning, but I really do want to hear the rest of your story.”

  Katy took a deep breath. “What I am going to tell you is so strange that I don’t think you or anybody else will ever believe me.” She stopped for a moment to summon up her courage. “When I finally decided you weren’t coming, I decided to go back to the resort. As I said, I buried the bottle, wrapped the blanket around me and started back. I don’t know where in the hell I lost my bikini. But, I couldn’t find the trail back. When the moon started to go down, all the shadows charged. Everything looked different.”

  Katy sat there trying to make sure she had all the details right. “I walked up and down the beach, making sure I didn’t step on any of those damn crabs, until I found a sign pointing to the zombie cemetery. I knew that trail would eventually come back to the resort, but it was a much longer route. Any trail, at that point, was welcome.”

  Katy paused, now in deep thought. “It was very scary. The vegetation almost covered the trail in places, and you got the feeling that some headless zombie would reach out and grab you. Sometimes the trail almost disappeared among the ferns, coconut trees, and God knows what else. Finally, I found what I knew had to be the main trail.

  “After I found this trail, I had to sit down because I was absolutely exhausted. As I was sitting there, I started to hear some strange sounds coming from another trail that must also have gone to the beach area. These trails joined about where I was sitting.

  “The sounds were muffled at first, but I knew somebody, or something, was coming. The sounds kept coming closer and closer to where I was sitting and I crouched even lower and lower behind the shrubbery. I didn’t think that I would be seen. The shadows and dim light made it difficult to see what was coming. Finally, I could make out what had to be a zombie. He wore old, tattered clothing, had big eyes that glittered and stared, and had his head tilted on an angle. He was carrying one end of an old weather-beaten, wooden-type coffin. On the other end was another zombie — only he looked worse than the first one.

  “They grunted as they walked, swaying back and forth as if another heavy body was in the coffin. Right in front of me, they put the coffin down and looked up and down the trail to see if anybody was watching them. I stayed very still and covered my face so only my eyes might be visible — but I kept them closed! My heart was pounding so loud I was sure they could hear it.”

  Katy shook as she continued her story. “When I heard them shuffle their feet in their style of walking, I opened my eyes again. They had picked up the coffin and were now on the same trail I had been following. When they started to disappear in the gloom, I thought I could probably follow them. Very carefully I started up the trail and with my bare feet they wouldn’t hear me. My feeling was that as soon as they stopped, I wouldn’t be able to hear grunts and the shuffling of their feet, so I would be able to stop without alarming them.

  “I followed them because I felt that they were up to something. What could it be? I mean, they weren’t even supposed to exist! What was in the coffin — and why were they heading for the zombie cemetery? These thoughts were going on in my mind as I carefully crept up the trail behind them. Several times I stopped when I heard no noise. When the sounds started again, I also started moving. I knew that the old zombie cemetery had to be somewhere up ahead.”

  Katy leaned forward and now spoke so softly one would suspect she had just seen another zombie. “The trail started becoming wider and the shadows had also started to disappear. I found another trail slightly off the main trail. As I went along that one, I could see that they had stopped, and were now in the old cemetery. They had set the coffin down, were walking around, and suddenly they disappeared, along with the coffin. I kept staring through the gloom but they were gone! It was if they had disappeared into their graves.”

  Felix had been so entranced by Katy’s story that he didn’t move after she had stopped talking. “Goodness,” he thought, “Not only
do we have zombies on this island, but now we have zombies disappearing into their graves.” Obviously, he and Katy would have to take a look at that old cemetery and see what they could find at some later date.

  Felix finally stood up and said, “This is starting to be like a game of golf. If you hit the ball behind a tree or under a bush, you’ve got to figure out what to do. Anyway, I will have to leave in several hours to catch the shuttle. It only runs once a day.” He stopped and looked at Katy, and said, “Throw me that box. Pedro is a poor fisherman and with his 12 kids, could probably use them.” As Katy wrapped the blanket even more tightly around her and started to rise, Felix leaned back in his chair and smiled. “If he has no immediate use for them, he can probably use them as fish traps.”

  The door slammed shut as Katy Marshall stepped out in the early morning gloom to consider her life — past, present, and future.

  . . . . . . . . . . . .

  As Katy laid poolside later in the day, her mind raced through the events of the last few days. First, she could understand why Felix probably considered her to be another “scatter-brained” female. She had come on too fast for him to understand her. He was so utterly different than any other male she had ever met — had golf so completely fried his brain? He could probably walk up to a good-looking blonde sunbathing in the nude on a beach and simply say, “It looks like you’re having a good day,” and walk on without a backward glance. What was it with him! All her life she had been hit on by men, mainly old men trying to relive their youth; actually, it was usually old fat men if she remembered it correctly.

  Her life had started to unravel when she met Sam Kutsun in her law office in Denver. Things really had unraveled when she woke up in the Hilton in Las Vegas with a drunken Sam Kutsun claiming to be her newly-wed husband. It continued when she ended up on this crazy island with zombies on it. Her mind started to wander in the late afternoon heat. How had life gotten to this point? How had it all started to happen…