Murky Seas (A Rowan Gray Mystery Book 2)

by Lily Harper Hart

  Rowan stared hard at Jamie so she could gauge his reaction. She wasn’t disappointed, only it wasn’t Jamie who initially reacted.

  “Son of a … I knew we took this too far.” Gary swore under his breath as he kicked something behind the bar counter. “I told you that going on cruises and holding conventions was too big of a risk. Did you believe me? Did you listen at all? Of course not. Claire didn’t either and look what happened to her.”

  “Stop talking about Claire,” Jamie snapped, his temper flaring. “You know I don’t want to talk about her and yet you keep bringing her up. Why?”

  Rowan scratched her cheek, the final pieces of the puzzle almost snapping together … but not quite. She was close to figuring out the ultimate clue and yet she hadn’t crossed the finishing line just yet. Thankfully she didn’t have to. Someone else picked that moment to join the party – and she served as a monumental distraction for everyone involved.

  “What’s going on?” Penny asked, glancing around the empty bar. “Did you guys literally chase all of the women away so you have no one else to hit on or something?”

  Rowan swiveled in her chair, fixing Penny with a frightened look. “Run. They’re dangerous.”

  Penny stilled, surprised. “Dangerous? I hardly think so.”

  “They are,” Rowan insisted, her tone fervent. “They killed Daphne. They won’t hesitate to kill you. You have to run.”

  Penny didn’t look convinced, or perhaps she was merely drunk and couldn’t process what Rowan said, but she remained where she was instead of fleeing. “But … .”

  “Run!”

  QUINN HELD up his hands to still the security guards behind him, his eyes dark when they landed on Rowan. When the Cara G Cosmetics women spilled into the main lobby and announced pirates were taking over the ship, he obviously had his doubts. They were drunk and giggling, hardly showing signs of fright. Still, he wanted to be sure so he called for backup. Now he was glad he did.

  “The one behind the bar has a knife,” he said, keeping his voice low. “I’ll be going for him. I need you guys to split up and wait for my signal. You’re in charge of grabbing the guy closest to Rowan. He’s unarmed and I don’t want him putting his hands on her.”

  The man to Quinn’s right nodded. “We’ll handle him, sir.”

  Quinn fervently wished he could be the one to take out Jamie, but since Gary had the knife that wasn’t an option. As head of security, he would never ask his men to complete a task he wasn’t willing to take on himself. That meant Gary was his responsibility.

  “I can see Demarcus over there, too,” Quinn whispered. “He looks injured, but I’m too far away to really see what’s happening. Have medical on standby because I want him checked out right away.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Okay, get into your positions,” Quinn instructed. “I’m going to try and talk them down first. I don’t see that happening, but I have to at least make the attempt. I … what the hell?” Quinn wrinkled his brow when he saw another figure moving toward the bar. “Crud. There’s another civilian involved. It looks like Penny Parker. You’re going to have to get her out of harm’s way, too.”

  “We’ll handle it, sir.”

  “Let’s do this.”

  WHY ISN’T she running? Rowan couldn’t wrap her mind around the lackadaisical look on Penny Parker’s face. Either the woman was drunk or she didn’t fully grasp what was happening.

  “Penny, you have to get out of here right now,” Rowan ordered, her voice taking on a tinge of desperation. “They’re crazy … and dangerous … and what are you doing?” Rowan’s mouth dropped open as Penny hoisted her small body up on one of the barstools. She was calm – calmer than she had any right being – and Rowan had a sneaking suspicion something else was going on.

  “I need something to drink, Gary,” Penny announced. “Then, once you’ve done that, you can tell me what’s going on. I would love to know why you’re holding the ship photographer hostage when we all agreed to lay low until we hit port tomorrow.”

  Rowan’s heart squeezed painfully. “You’re involved in this, too, aren’t you?”

  Penny didn’t bother turning around. “Involved? It was my idea. We’re going to take over Cara G Cosmetics. Claire did it, after all, so why shouldn’t we?”

  “But … who are you people?” Rowan felt sick to her stomach as her gaze bounced between faces. “How did you all get involved with one another?”

  “I think I can answer that.”

  Rowan sucked in a breath when she heard Quinn’s voice, swiveling quickly to find him approaching the group from the east. He held his hands up, as if to prove he didn’t have a weapon, and he shot her a reassuring smile before focusing on Penny and Gary.

  “Oh, well, great,” Penny muttered, tugging a hand through her hair as frustration took over. “This just keeps getting worse and worse. I should’ve seen this coming when I agreed to work with you guys, but I was too greedy to give it the serious thought it deserved.”

  “I think greed is what cost all of you,” Quinn interjected, casting a warning look at Jamie when the man shuffled closer to Rowan. “If you touch her I will rip your heart out of your chest and feed it to you.”

  Unlike when Demarcus issued his threat, Jamie had the good sense to take Quinn at his word. He visibly gulped, paled a bit, and then took a step away from Rowan. “I don’t want to hurt her. If you force my hand, though, you’re not going to like the outcome.”

  “If your hand goes anywhere near her, you’re not going to like the sound of breaking bones that will accompany your death,” Quinn spat. “Don’t even look at her.”

  “Fine.” Jamie rolled his eyes as he took another step away from Rowan.

  “Oh, bravo,” Penny intoned, making a face. “That was downright heroic. You’re a man after my own heart. Are you sure you want to stick with her? I’m about to become a very wealthy woman and I’m sure I could find a place for you in my operation.”

  “You’re not about to become anything,” Quinn countered. “Preston Dickerson, the corporate attorney for Cara G Cosmetics, in case you’ve never heard that name, is having the accounts frozen even as we speak. As for the port you mentioned, that’s not happening either. The captain put the kibosh on the stop earlier in the day, and once I realized what was happening here, I sent a full security detail to his office. He’s untouchable, and much like the U.S. government, we don’t negotiate with terrorists on the Bounding Storm.”

  Penny’s mouth dropped open. “You’re making that up.”

  “I’m not,” Quinn shot back. “We knew something was amiss when we realized that Daphne DuBois was really a wanted grifter from Minnesota. Dickerson is trying to track down Danielle Studebaker right now. We know she’s dead, but he’s moving for all of Cara G Cosmetics’ financials to be frozen until things can be sorted out.

  “That means, James Fisher, that you won’t inherit a thing because your sister didn’t really own the company,” he continued, his eyes flashing when they locked with Jamie’s. “You’re not getting one thing.”

  “I knew it!” Penny hissed, smacking her hand against the bar. “I knew this would go south. Why couldn’t you just listen to me when I told you to wait, Jamie? No. You couldn’t do it. You had to come on this ship even though I told you it was a bad idea. Then you got in a fight with your sister and now look where we’re at!”

  “I figured it had to be you, Jamie,” Quinn said, bobbing his head. “You couldn’t look her in the eye when you were doing it, could you? That’s why you attacked from behind. She was drunk, but she recognized you and let you into her room. You thought you had everything covered when you hacked the registry – that was smart, by the way, and I can’t wait to hear how you accomplished it – but you didn’t count on me using outside search engines to run the prints in the room.”

  “I guess I’m better with computers than security procedure,” Jamie sneered.

  “It really doesn’t matter,” Quinn said. “I�
�m just curious how you three got together. How long ago did you start planning your takeover? Oh, wait, let me guess. Claire was a mean and nasty boss and Penny accidentally bonded with Jamie at some point and the truth came spilling out. Am I close?”

  “Pretty close,” Penny conceded. “Jamie and I were involved for a bit. We didn’t last because of his roving eye, but I didn’t forget what he told me about Claire. I realized I had a great chance to take over the company if I played my cards right. Unfortunately for me, I partnered with idiots and now I’m stuck with nothing.”

  “You’re stuck with worse than nothing because you’re going to prison,” Quinn supplied. “You were better off before you killed Claire. Why didn’t you simply blackmail her?”

  “I tried, but it didn’t work,” Penny muttered. “When Jamie and Gary first showed up I knew they wanted to kill her right away. In fact they were going to do it on the beach but had to settle for some other poor sap who heard us planning how we were going to steal the company. I told them it was a bad idea, but they didn’t listen. It took me forever to talk them out of it and I promised to blackmail Claire myself if they would just hold off. When I did, though, she laughed at me.”

  “That’s because Claire knew what you didn’t,” Quinn supplied. “She knew that you couldn’t blackmail her without taking down the entire company. So, yeah, you might’ve had a certain amount of power, but Claire knew as well as anyone that if you used that power no one would get anything.”

  “I didn’t mean to kill her like I did,” Jamie offered, morose. “She was out of control that night, though. She kept yelling that I was stupid. She was upset because you wouldn’t pay her the attention she thought she deserved. I just … snapped.”

  “I don’t understand,” Gary pressed. “Does this mean we’re not going to get rich?”

  “It means we’re not going to get anything.” Penny drained her drink and got to her feet. “Give me the knife, Gary.”

  Gary balked. “This is our only weapon.”

  “And are you really going to try and use it?”

  “There’s only one guy,” Gary said, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “I can take one guy.”

  “No, you can’t,” Quinn countered. “You have no chance of taking me.”

  “Besides that, there’s more than one guy.” Penny jerked her chin in the direction of the shadowed deck over her shoulder. “He’s got men surrounding us. I’ve seen them moving in the dark and we’re outnumbered … by a long shot. We have no chance of escape. I guess, in theory, we could jump over the side of the ship. I’m guessing, however, that sort of death is going to be worse than going to jail.”

  Rowan kept her hands flat on the table as she watched Quinn work. She was fascinated by his technique, and the raw resignation Penny displayed as she prepared to surrender. “Do you wish you didn’t do it?” The question was out of Rowan’s mouth before she thought better of uttering it. “Do you wish you would’ve done something else?”

  Penny flicked her eyes to Rowan and shrugged, briefly wrapping her fingers around the knife handle as Gary dropped it in the palm of her hand. “I wish a lot of things. Mostly I wish I didn’t let myself become this … person … I see in the mirror every morning. I saw Claire go the easy route and prosper. I thought that I could do it, too.”

  Penny heaved out a sigh before resting the knife on the counter and taking a step back. “There are no easy routes in life. I knew that and yet somehow I forgot it.”

  “Yeah? Well, you’re going to have plenty of time to think about it in prison,” Quinn said, gesturing for Gary to walk out from behind the bar. “Now, if everyone will remain still, I promise we’ll process you as quickly as possible.”

  Rowan watched him work for the next few minutes, only getting up to check on Demarcus and wait with him while the medical team checked him over. Once Jamie, Gary, and Penny were in custody, Quinn hurried to Rowan and Demarcus so he could look them over with his own eyes.

  “Are you okay?” Quinn tugged Rowan to him, smoothing her hair. “He didn’t hurt you, did he?”

  “I hurt myself a bit when I fell off the stool, but otherwise I’m fine.”

  “Good.” Quinn kissed her forehead and focused on Demarcus. “What about you?”

  Demarcus’ eyes were glassy. “I hit my head.”

  “I heard. We’re going to take you to medical for observation tonight. Is that okay?”

  Demarcus shrugged. “I hit my head.”

  “Yeah, you’re a little out of it.” Quinn kept his arm around Rowan’s waist as he shuffled to the side to make room. “We’re docking early tomorrow. We’re on course to hit the mainland before eight. We’ll handle the bulk of this then.”

  Demarcus offered a half-hearted wave. “Cool. Did I mention I hit my head?”

  Quinn chuckled. “It’s hard. You’ll survive.”

  22

  Twenty-Two

  “I was starting to worry you forgot about me.”

  Rowan glanced up from the water where she waded and fixed Quinn with a worried smile as he heaved out a sigh and sank to the sand. They were on the mainland for the day, the prisoner transfer taking place in the early morning hours while the bulk of the Bounding Storm’s staff dealt with disgruntled guests. Despite the murder and potential trouble the night before, the guests didn’t want to cut short their vacations. Rowan was thrilled that she didn’t have to deal with the complaints.

  Despite his obvious weariness, Quinn returned the smile and gestured for her to come closer. “I could never forget about you. Come here.”

  Rowan automatically did as he instructed, although she couldn’t tamp down the building worry in the pit of her stomach. “Is everything okay?”

  “Yes.” Quinn patted his lap. “Hop on.”

  Rowan arched an eyebrow, surprised. “You want me to sit on your lap? It’s ninety degrees out here.”

  “And you’re in a little dress, there’s a breeze, and I really want to touch you.”

  Rowan’s smile was gentler this time and she slid between his knees so she could nestle her back against his chest. “Better?”

  “I’m tired, but this is definitely better.” Quinn pressed a kiss to her cheek as he ran his hands over her shoulders. “It’s done. The local police have taken all three of them into custody.”

  “I figured as much when I read your text.”

  “I’m sorry about that.” Quinn’s expression was rueful. “I wanted to call you, but I was running low on time.”

  “I would like to think I’m not so needy that I don’t understand it when you have to deal with murderers. I’m okay.” Rowan patted his hand. “I’m fine. In fact, I shared a nice and leisurely breakfast with Sally while you were up before the sun. I’m probably better off than you right now.”

  “I’m okay.” Quinn said the words, but his sigh told another story. “Do you want to hear it?”

  “Part of me doesn’t, but it will drive me crazy if I don’t.”

  “Danielle Studebaker is dead. Claire and Jamie poisoned her dinner five years ago. They befriended her, lied to her, learned as much as they could about the company, gained access to the bank accounts, and then they killed her. Claire proceeded to take over the Daphne DuBois persona and it happened pretty much how I theorized. She slowly replaced workers and started raking in the dough.

  “At first Jamie and Claire were happy with their haul,” he continued. “They couldn’t believe that they managed to fool everyone and skimmed a ton of money from the company. At a certain point they realized they could run a long con and perhaps never get caught.

  “Gary and Jamie were friends in high school and they brought him on later,” he said. “He did various tasks without being a familiar face at the company in case they needed to use him for something else. Jamie handled most of the computer work, but Gary did a lot of the heavy lifting. When Jamie and Penny got involved, he let Claire’s real identity slip when he was drunk one night. That’s when the greed went in
to overdrive.

  “It seems that Claire wanted to keep the bulk of the money for herself since she was taking on all of the risk and Jamie and Gary thought it should be an even split,” Quinn explained. “That caused a riff … blah, blah, blah … and Penny, Jamie and Gary decided to blackmail Claire into giving them what they wanted.”

  “We both know that didn’t work,” Rowan noted. “Had they really thought it through they would’ve realized that. I guess greed overrules rationality, huh?”

  “Yeah. Jamie approached Claire when she was drunk and wanted her to sign a contract giving him half the company. She called him names and treated him terribly so he snapped and killed her.”

  “Do you think he would’ve killed her under different circumstances?”

  “I can’t answer that,” Quinn replied. “I think perhaps Claire was always destined for death. She helped create the situation and, not that she deserved to die, she did kill another woman so I can’t muster a lot of sympathy for her.”

  “What about Danielle’s body?”

  “Jamie is going to take police to the location as part of his plea bargain. He’s also going to go into great detail about how he managed to hack our computer system. We’re looking at some massive upgrades there.”

  “They’re going to give him a deal?” Rowan couldn’t help but be surprised. “Why?”

  “Because this is a mess and they don’t want it to wind through the court system for years,” Quinn answered. “It’s pretty straightforward now. They’ll all do at least forty years for Danielle’s death – which Gary wasn’t around for but knew about after the fact – and Claire’s murder. That’s on top of the sales representative who overheard them plotting before we left port. They admitted to killing her, too. Aside from that, Cara G Cosmetics will probably survive in some form, although I have no idea what.”

  “Well, I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing, but I’m glad all of those women won’t be losing their livelihood.”