Ghostly Seas: A Harper Harlow and Rowan Gray Mystery

by Lily Harper Hart

  “The thing is ... they had to know that this would all be on video.”

  “Maybe they thought the note would work and you wouldn’t question anything.”

  “Maybe.” Jared wasn’t convinced. “Either way, we have to get to that room. Harper will do whatever it takes — including something incredibly stupid — to get to Zander.”

  “Then we’ll stop her from doing that.” Quinn was grim. “Rowan will help her do something stupid if she thinks it’s the right thing to do. We have to stop both of them.”

  “Here’s hoping they don’t need us to save them from themselves.”

  “That would be a nice change of pace, huh?”

  19

  Nineteen

  Rowan and Harper secluded themselves in a linen closet about four doors away from Monica’s room. They couldn’t be sure she was inside, and until they decided how to approach her, they didn’t want to risk being seen.

  “I think it would be best for me to knock on the door alone,” Rowan announced.

  Harper immediately started shaking her head. “No way. He’s my best friend.”

  “I know that, but I’m an official member of the team.” Rowan held up her handy-dandy identification badge as proof. “I can say I’m there for official business.”

  “Official photographer business?”

  “Er … they don’t need to know what the business actually is, just that it’s official.”

  “They’re going to ask.”

  “They might not.”

  “Of course they’re going to ask,” Harper snapped. “They probably have my friend tied up and hidden in their room. They’re not just going to allow you entrance.”

  “Yeah, well … .” Rowan trailed off, chewing on her bottom lip.

  “Besides, I can’t let you do it yourself,” Harper added, opting to be pragmatic. “We promised Quinn and Jared we would be careful. Separating is not careful.”

  “Yeah, but … they’re going to know something is up if they see you.”

  “They’re going to know something is up if they see either of us. In fact … .” Harper forgot what she was about to say when an ethereal figure – one she recognized – popped into view. She yipped like a small dog and took a huge step back.

  “What’s wrong?” Rowan asked, instantly alert.

  “There you are,” Tasha announced, her eyes flashing with impatience. “I’ve been waiting for you to find me for weeks.”

  “You’ve only been dead a few days,” Harper replied dryly, finding her voice. “And you need to learn to knock or something if you’re going to pop in on people like that.”

  “Who are you talking to?” Rowan asked, glancing around curiously.

  “Tasha,” Harper replied. “She’s decided to grace us with her presence.”

  “I’ve decided that you might be right,” Tasha clarified. “I think I’m dead.”

  “Oh, really?” Harper’s tone was withering. “What was your first clue?”

  “I can walk through walls and no one can see me but you.”

  “That was a rhetorical question,” Harper gritted out.

  “Well, be more specific next time.” Tasha turned prim. “Are you here to save the psychic?”

  The question caught Harper off guard. “What psychic? Mark Brady?”

  “That would be the one. The other psychic has him,” Tasha said.

  “But … why?”

  “What is she saying?” Rowan asked, her patience wearing thin.

  Harper held up a finger. “Just a second. It will take too long if I have to repeat everything for you. Let me get the story and then I’ll tell you.”

  “Oh, well, I guess I’ll just stand here while you talk to thin air then.”

  Harper flashed a brief smile. “Great. Thanks. Please continue, Tasha.”

  “There’s nothing else to say,” Tasha said. “The female psychic has the male one tied up in her room … and she’s not being very nice to him. She keeps telling him that he’s a jerk and no one will miss him. She’s threatening to throw him off the ship.”

  “Did she say why?”

  Tasha shrugged. “Apparently he screwed her over years ago on some job. They were dating and he was supposed to be her mentor, but then he had sex with some girl he went to high school with and cheated on her. Then he promised the woman he cheated with that she would be able to take over as his opening act, but she couldn’t because she was terrible at reading people. It’s a whole big thing.”

  “It sounds like it,” Harper said. “Um … have you been in Monica’s room recently?”

  “Not today.”

  “Can you go in there and see if she has another man held captive in there?” Harper asked sweetly.

  “She has another man in there?” Tasha was flabbergasted. “She’s really racking them up, isn’t she?”

  “I need to be sure,” Harper stressed. “I’m looking for Zander.”

  Tasha sobered. “He was nice to me the night it happened. He listened. I’ll check for you. Wait right here.”

  “You do that.” Tasha was already gone before Harper finished her sentence so she took the opportunity to tell Rowan what was going on. The ghost was back before Harper finished the story. “Well?”

  “He’s in there,” Tasha confirmed. “He’s not gagged or anything, but he is tied up and sitting on the floor. The female psychic hasn’t allowed a maid in since the boat left dock and the floor is dirty so he’s complaining about that.”

  Despite the serious situation, Harper smiled. “He’s okay.” She was so relieved she finally felt as if she could take a breath.

  “He seems okay … other than the complaining, I mean.”

  “He always complains. That means he’s okay.” Harper rolled her neck, making a decision on the spot. “We need to get in that room. I say we knock and just shove her out of the way the second she opens the door. If we get in trouble for breaking and entering, I’ll take the heat for it.”

  Rowan wasn’t keen on the idea. “I don’t know. What if she’s armed?”

  “She’s not even in her room right now,” Tasha countered.

  Harper’s eyes filled with fire. “Why didn’t you tell us that?”

  “I didn’t know it was important.”

  “Come on.” Harper tugged Rowan’s arm and dragged her out of the closet. “Can you sweet talk a maid into letting you into the room? Monica isn’t there.”

  Rowan brightened considerably. “I don’t see why not. I’m getting good at sweet talking people.”

  “Yeah. You’re a real pro. Come on.”

  IT ONLY TOOK ROWAN TWO MINUTES to track down a maid. There was one in the hallway several doors down. Rowan explained who she was, flashed her badge, and told the maid it was a matter of life or death that she be allowed into the room.

  The maid was so disinterested in the story she merely shrugged and waved her universal keycard in front of the scanner. The second the door buzzed, Harper pushed it open and rushed inside … and then almost fell over because of what she saw.

  “What the … ?”

  Rowan followed her gaze, her eyes going wide.

  “Harp!” Zander struggled against his bindings, his voice hoarse and his back against a wall. “I knew you would find me. Did you catch the hint I left in the note?”

  “The part where you called me Helper? Yeah, I caught it.” Harper snapped back to reality, gave mechanical bits and pieces spread out on the floor a wide berth, and hurried to Zander’s side. “I told Jared you were in trouble,” she muttered to herself as she attacked the ropes. “Did he believe me? No. He said it was perfectly normal for you to misspell my name.”

  Zander let loose with a nervous titter. “Yes, well, he’s not the shiniest penny in the roll. Hurry up, Harp.” He turned whiny. “The floor is dirty.”

  “Yeah.” She stared at him for a moment before throwing her arms around his neck. “I love you.”

  “Oh, good grief.” He couldn’t pat her back to offer comf
ort so he merely stared at Rowan over her shoulder. “Will you please help me?”

  Rowan didn’t immediately answer. She was too busy staring at the device on the floor. When she finally found her voice, it was shaky. “Is this a … bomb?”

  Zander nodded. “Yes. They built it themselves.”

  “They?” Harper pulled back, furrowing her brow. “Are you saying Monica isn’t working alone?”

  “Monica most definitely isn’t working alone,” a voice said from the doorway, causing Harper and Rowan to snap their heads in that direction. There, her face flushed with anger and frustration, stood Destiny. “How did you get in here?”

  Rowan merely shrugged. “I asked a maid to let me in.”

  “But … that’s not allowed,” Destiny complained. “In fact, it’s against the law.”

  “Think again,” Rowan shot back. “This room isn’t your property. We’re leasing it to you as a guest of the company, but we have control over who stays and goes.” Rowan knew the information thanks to Quinn quoting it to her over and over again since her arrival on the ship. “You have no rights here. You signed them away when you checked in.”

  “Well, that doesn’t sound right.” Destiny made a face. “It doesn’t matter, though. You can’t be in here.” She dug in her pocket and came back with a knife. It looked to be a steak knife from the dining room, which threw Rowan for a loop.

  “Are you going to kill us with that?” Rowan asked, dubious.

  Destiny nodded without hesitation. “I am. I’m not going to let you ruin our plan.”

  “And what is the plan?” Harper asked, freeing Zander’s arms with a final tug on the ropes. “By the way, where is Mark Brady? We know he’s in here.”

  “He’s tied up in the tub,” Destiny replied, matter-of-fact. “He won’t behave himself so we’ve taken to dousing him with water when he’s a jerk. Oh, don’t look at me that way. We tried to be nice and untie him so he could do his business, but he fought us so now he has to do his business in the shower.”

  “Ugh.” Harper and Zander made disgusted noises as the reality of what Destiny was saying washed over them.

  “That’s pretty gross,” Rowan said, keeping an eye on the knife. “Why did you take him?”

  “Why do you think?”

  “Because he screwed you over,” Rowan replied without missing a beat. “I get that. He screwed with your business.”

  “He also screwed her,” Harper added, thoughtful. “Tasha said in the storage room that Mark cheated on Monica with someone he went to high school with. I’m guessing that was Destiny.”

  “It was me,” Destiny agreed, her lips twisting into an unattractive sneer. “We were supposed to spend our lives together. He told me he’d always had feelings for me from way back in the day. Do you want to know something? He lied about that. He didn’t have feelings. He just wanted to get in my pants.”

  “He threw over Monica to be with Destiny,” Harper mused out loud. “He was going to bring you with him, add you to the team, but you couldn’t read people well enough to work the scam.”

  “Oh, that’s a load of crap,” Destiny complained. “I could read people better than him. He just got tired of me. He can only get it up for the same woman for a few weeks before he gets bored. He’s a complete and total jerk.”

  “Is that why you took him?” Rowan asked, legitimately curious. “To make him pay?”

  “Partly,” Destiny replied. “We also needed to be able to take his time on the main stage for the rest of what we had planned.”

  Rowan’s eyes darted between the bomb and Destiny. “And what’s that?”

  “We need a lot of people to die on this ship,” Destiny replied simply. “We need what happens here to be a big story.”

  “But … why?”

  “Because they’ll get endless coverage if they’re part of it but unharmed,” Harper answered for the woman. “They’ll say they felt something ominous hanging over the ship, that they knew something was wrong, and that no one listened to them.

  “They’re going to make a big scene, and probably tonight,” she continued, her mind working. “Monica has the stage again tonight. She’s going to lay the groundwork for a tragedy … and then ensure the tragedy actually happens.”

  “Oh, well, you’re smarter than you look.” Destiny beamed at Harper. “That’s not going to help you right now, but it’s nice to know you grasp things without a lot of explanation. I hate explaining things.”

  “You can’t get away with this,” Harper argued, her voice calm. “You’re outnumbered. Even if you managed to stab one of us with that knife, the other two would overpower you and get away. You’re done here. This is over.”

  Destiny’s expression darkened. “It’s not over.”

  “But … it is.”

  “It’s not,” a new voice announced, stepping from the hallway into the room. It was Monica, which wasn’t a surprise, but the item she held in her hand was cause for concern. “She’s not alone … and I have more than a knife to subdue you.”

  “Is that a gun?” Harper asked, confused. “It kind of looks like one … and yet not.”

  “It’s a plastic gun,” Monica announced, venom positively dripping from her tongue as she glanced between faces. “You know, 3D printed. They’re all the rage.”

  Harper merely shook her head and remained silent.

  “I don’t understand what’s happening here,” Monica exploded. “I left for fifteen minutes to grab some coffee and somehow this room has turned into Grand Central Station. Explain yourself, Destiny.”

  Destiny’s cheeks flooded with color. “Explain myself? Are you actually blaming this on me? They let themselves in. I found them here.”

  “You weren’t supposed to leave the room!”

  “I needed to run back to my room and get something.” Destiny’s fury was on full display. “I have a right to take care of my needs as much as you have a right to feed your caffeine addiction. It’s not my fault they managed to get in here. You’re the one who stole the gay guy and made it so they were suspicious of us.”

  “He was asking too many questions,” Monica shot back. “He knew we were up to something.”

  “I honestly didn’t,” Zander countered, sheepish. “I was asking questions because I thought you were a scam artist. I didn’t know you were a crazy loon who had plans to blow up the ship.”

  “Not the whole ship,” Monica said. “Just a small portion of it. I want enough people dead to make national news. Once that happens, my career will be set.”

  “And what are you going to do with us?” Rowan asked.

  “I’m going to have to kill you.” Monica was apathetic. “If you would’ve minded your own business, there’s every chance you would’ve survived. Only a small fraction of people on this ship are going to die. Now you’re guaranteed to be one of them. That’s on you.”

  “No, it’s definitely on you,” Harper said, her eyes traveling to the bomb. “How did you get that on the ship?”

  “I packed the necessary parts and then stole certain items – like ammonia – off the maid carts. It wasn’t difficult.”

  “But … how did you know how to do it?” Harper pressed.

  “I looked up instructions on the internet.”

  “Oh, well, how industrious.” Harper briefly snagged Zander’s worried gaze before licking her lips. “You’re not going to be able to explain away our deaths as an accident if you shoot us, and we’re not going to go quietly. How do you think this is going to work?”

  “I’m going to shoot you and dump your bodies over the railing,” Monica replied. “You can’t be part of the big story because you’ll serve as a distraction so you’re going to have to disappear before we unleash our plan.”

  “I see.” Harper absentmindedly scratched her nose before focusing on Rowan. “What do you think?”

  “I think they’re crazy,” Rowan replied without missing a beat. “I think they’re both certifiable. I think they’ve come up
with the weakest plan ever and I can’t believe they actually managed to hide Mark Brady for days. I just … this is ridiculous.”

  “Hey!” Destiny was insulted. “We spent a lot of time coming up with this plan.”

  “Which makes you morons,” Rowan said. “I mean … what were you thinking? You can’t get away with this. You’ll kill people, sure, but you’ll never be able to play heroes because you’ll be in jail.”

  “No. We’ve worked out every possible scenario,” Monica argued. “I’ve even got this little snag figured out. I’m a genius. I … .” She went rigid, her eyes widening to the size of saucers as her shoulders danced.

  Rowan couldn’t quite grasp what was happening until she noticed a rectangular device poking through the door frame and contacting Monica’s skin. There was a hand attached to the tool, and when she followed it to a face, she found Quinn staring at her. He looked more disgusted than relieved.

  “Hi.” She waved at him, exhaling. “I see you got the message we sent through Demarcus. That was my idea, by the way. I told him to tattle on me.”

  Quinn bobbed his head as Monica’s body dropped to the floor. He carefully moved the gun away from her hand with his foot. “Demarcus doesn’t like it when you refer to him as a tattletale,” he said finally.

  “I know.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m good. I knew you were coming. That’s why we kept them talking.”

  “And because you kept them talking, that allowed us to get more than enough information to lock them up for life,” Quinn said. “You’re still in trouble.”

  “Oh, but we didn’t do anything,” Rowan protested.

  “You should’ve waited for us.”

  “That’s on me,” Harper announced, ignoring the way Destiny clutched the knife and glanced between faces. The woman was obviously panicking. “I insisted we save Zander because I couldn’t bear the thought of him suffering without me.”

  Jared appeared in the doorway beside Quinn, his expression dour. “You’re in trouble, too.”

  “Oh, no.” Harper vehemently shook her head. “I’m not in trouble. Not even a little. I told you Zander was in danger and you didn’t believe me. Helper was a total cry for help.”