Annabelle Archer BoxSet, page 114
part #1 of Annabelle Archer Series
Fern shrugged. “Stay alive and get some sun? Sounds like a good plan to me.”
“Aren’t you always telling me to have more fun?” I asked Kate.
She gave me a suspicious look. “I’m not used to you listening to me.”
“So here’s where the party is,” Alan called as he walked around the edge of the pool toward us. “Mind if I join you? I’ll shout the next round of drinks.”
“Shout?” Kate asked.
“Sorry.” He laughed. “Aussie for buy.”
I patted the lounge chair next to mine. “Be my guest. We’re squeezing in the last bit of R & R before we have to fly home tomorrow.”
“I’m crushed the time has flown by so fast.” Alan pulled off his T-shirt to reveal a well-muscled and neatly manscaped chest, and I noticed Fern’s look of approval.
“I’m just as crushed.” Fern tossed his beach bag to the chair on the other side of Alan and untied his sarong to reveal a pair of Spandex boy-leg trunks. He noticed me eyeing them and winked. “They’re like the ones Daniel Craig wore in that James Bond movie.”
“They’re rainbow striped,” I said.
Fern looked down at them. “Well, one does want a pop of color. Think of me as a more fabulous version of James Bond.”
“Consider it done,” I said as Fern adjusted his man bun.
“Here.” Alan produced a candy bar in a shiny purple wrapper with the words ‘Violet Crumble’ emblazoned in yellow from end to end. “Australia’s best export, aside from me.”
“A candy bar?” Kate eyed it.
“Not just any candy bar,” Alan said. “This one melts in your mouth.”
Fern took it out of his hands and tore open the the wrapper. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”
He passed it to me after taking a bite and groaning with pleasure. I took the chocolate bar out of the wrapper and bit the other end. Instead of being soft nugget or caramel, the insides crackled in my mouth and then melted, giving me a rush of sweetness.
“Why don’t we have these at home?” Fern asked, taking the candy bar back from me.
Alan grinned. “You’ll have to visit me to get more.”
“A trip to Australia could be fun,” I said, feeling the effects of the sugar rush combined with my cocktail.
Kate waved over a waiter as she stretched out on the lounge chair next to mine, pointing to my lychee martini. “We’ll all take a round of whatever she’s drinking because it’s obviously magic.”
So much for my quiet pool time, I thought, as Fern began chatting up Alan while Kate pawed through her beach bag. I glanced around, noticing a group of fellow FAM trip attendees setting out towels in a cabana across the pool from us. I waved at them, and Brett and Kristina waved back, beckoning for me to join them.
I remembered what Alan had told me about Brett’s argument with Jeremy. Now would be the perfect time to ask him about it.
“I’m going to swim over and say hi.” I pointed to the cabana as I swung my feet into the ankle-deep water and swept my hair up into a topknot to keep it from getting wet.
Kate pulled off her bathing suit cover-up that covered up next to nothing. “I’ll join you.”
I hurried to lower myself into the deeper water before Kate stood up next to me in her tiny bikini. I inhaled sharply as I sank up to my neck in the cool water, swimming a few strokes to warm up my muscles and get blood flowing. After the heat of the sun, the pool felt freezing.
Kate swam up next to me, her teeth chattering. “It’s frigid in here.”
“Keep moving,” I said, cutting clean strokes through the water, but keeping my head out of the water so my high ponytail didn’t get soaked.
We reached the other side of the pool and rested our arms on the edge. Carol Ann lay on a lounge chair with her eyes closed while Seth and Topher sat in chairs across from her.
Brett lay stretched out on a towel on the floor and rolled his head to one side, smiling at us, his teeth gleaming white against his LA tan. “Is it as cold as it looks?”
I stared at my own reflection in his mirrored sunglasses. “Not once you warm up.”
Kate bobbed next to me in the water. “Tell me when the warming up happens.”
Kristina came and sat on the edge, hanging her legs into the water next to us and leaning forward so that her fluffy blond hair fell around her face. “Can you believe we have to leave tomorrow? I feel like we just arrived.”
“We did just arrive,” Seth said, running a hand over his stylish stubble.
“At least we made it for the grand finale evening.” Topher pushed his square hipster glasses higher on his nose. “It sounds like it’s going to be an extravaganza.”
“I just saw it listed as ‘wedding show’ on the daily itinerary,” I said. “And I saw that we need to wear all white.”
Brett waved a hand in the air. “There’s an all-white night on every FAM trip.”
“This time the all white is because of the purification ceremony we’re going to be a part of,” Seth said, pouring some tanning oil into his palm.
“We had breakfast with the hotel manager this morning,” Topher added. “Apparently, we’re going to be treated to a traditional Balinese wedding ceremony followed by a purification ceremony by a Hindu priestess.”
“So that’s why Buster and Mack ran off so quickly after breakfast saying they had a lot to prepare for before tonight,” Kate said to me.
“The resort has really outdone themselves,” Kristina said. “I’m going to be sad to leave, and especially sad to leave my suite.”
“I’m fine with leaving,” Brett said, propping himself up on his elbows. “The resort is gorgeous and the island is beautiful, but I’m not a fan of murder on FAM trips.”
“Agreed.” Kristina scissored her feet in the water. “This was a first for me.”
Kate and I remained silent since murders at events were not a first for us.
“It’s amazing how much tension there’s been considering we’re in such a relaxing setting,” I said. “And a lot of it had to do with Jeremy.”
Seth muttered something rude about him.
“Exactly,” I said. “You hated him, we hated him, Brett hated him.”
Brett looked over at me sharply. “What do you mean I hated him?”
I tried to assume my most innocent expression. “I assume you hated him since you warned him he might leave Bali in a body bag.”
He blinked a few times before his shoulders gave way, and he slumped over. “Okay, fine. I admit it. I’d watched him manipulate people for years at Inspire. Pushing people to do things then sitting back and watching the devastation without any personal repercussions. I thought he was despicable.”
His confession startled me. So did Kristina’s nodding.
“I felt the same way,” she said. “And it was my idea to threaten Jeremy. Brett and I noticed him scheming with Sasha, and we were convinced he was behind Veronica and Dina’s deaths. We decided there was no way he was going to get away with it again.”
“You thought he was the killer, too?” Kate asked.
“Of course.” Kristina pulled her legs out of the water. “He was the only person who made sense.”
Brett shook his head. “But I guess we were wrong. We probably shouldn’t have tried to take matters into our own hands, but . . .”
“We’re planners. We’re used to fixing things,” Kristina finished his sentence.
“See?” I whispered to Kate. “We aren’t the only people who meddle.”
I couldn’t help but smile as I looked at the two California planners who’d had the same theories we’d had. Even though they were way more glamorous than me, I felt we were kindred spirits. Too bad we’d all been wrong.
Carol Ann bolted upright in her lounge chair causing Seth to jump. “Do you think people will remember anything from the trip aside from the murders?”
“Of course they will.” Topher leaned across and patted her leg. “And it sounds like tonight will be one for the books.”
Carol Ann rubbed a hand over her face. “You have no idea how many months of hard work went into planning this trip. It was supposed to launch an entirely new division of our company. What resort wants to hire a company to promote them if the guests drop dead right and left?”
“I think it’s just bad luck,” Kristina said. “Veronica and Dina went on FAM trips all the time and nothing happened to them.”
“And you couldn’t have known that adding Sasha to the list would mean she’d bring Jeremy and then he’d end up being one of the victims,” I said.
Carol Ann swung her head in my direction. “Who said I added Sasha to the list?”
“The guys from Insider Weddings,” I said, trying to make my tone sound light even though I knew my words weren’t. “According to them, they had nothing to do with Sasha being here.”
Carol Ann’s face darkened and she gave her head a jerk, as if trying to shake something loose. She stood up, her face flushed crimson, and scooped her beach bag off the floor. “I’m not going to sit here and be accused.”
As we watched the woman stalk off, Kristina’s mouth gaped open. “What just happened?”
Kate looked at me. “Is it just me or did Carol Ann just move herself into the position of number one suspect?”
27
“That was a bit of an overreaction,” Kate said as we swam back across the pool.
Seth and Topher had gone after Carol Ann to try to calm her down, but I doubted they would have much luck. The sweet Southern belle had looked seriously steamed.
I adjusted the straps of my peach halter-style one-piece suit as we approached the lounge chairs where Fern and Alan were lying, eyes closed and faces toward the sun. “Usually people don’t get that angry unless they have something to hide.”
Kate rested her arms on the ledge of the pool. “I’m with you that she sounded super guilty just now, but I still can’t figure out why she’d sabotage her own trip.”
I hoisted myself out of the water in one movement, pivoting so that I was sitting on the edge with my legs in the water. The warmth of the sun felt good as it hit my skin, and I stretched my arms behind me and leaned back to get the full effect. Twisting my head around, I noticed Fern’s mouth open as he snored softly. I put a finger to my lips to tell Kate we should talk softly.
“I know what you mean,” I whispered. “She’s talked about nothing but how important this trip is to launching the new division of her company.”
“Unless all of that talk is a diversion,” Kate said, keeping her voice low. “It does provide her with a sort of alibi. She could be a wolf in cheap clothing.”
“Sheep’s clothing?” I asked.
Kate shook her head at me. “Since when do sheep wear clothes?”
I let it slide and focused on the possibility of Carol Ann being the killer. “That would be pretty devious. To create an entire FAM trip as a diversion from your real goal of killing a bunch of the guests?”
Kate pulled herself out of the pool and stood dripping beside her lounge chair before she reached for the fluffy beige towel rolled up at the end. “When you say it like that it sounds pretty messed up. I’m not sure if I can picture Carol Ann as that much of a schemer. Or that much of a psychotic killer. And what’s her motive?”
I stood up and waded through the ankle-deep water around my lounge chair until I could sit down. I lay down on the towel I’d draped across the chair earlier, enjoying the heat of the terry cloth and letting the water on my skin evaporate in the sun. Kate stretched out next to me, dropping the straps of her bikini and tucking them into her black bandeau top, although with the small amount of fabric covering her, I didn’t think tan lines would be much of an issue.
“There must be a motive we don’t know about,” I said quietly. “It seems like too much of a coincidence that she managed the guest list, and the people who ended up on it had a shared history that apparently got them murdered.”
Kate’s eyes lit up as she noticed a frothy green drink on the table next to her. She leaned over and took a sip from the long pink straw “We’re assuming all the deaths are connected. It’s entirely possible that someone offed Jeremy because he was a nasty person.”
I tapped my fingers on the towel. It hadn’t occurred to me that the same person might not have committed all three murders, but Kate had a point. Jeremy had plenty of enemies who might have seen an opportunity to get rid of him amid a string of murders. There were even people on my own team who might have considered it.
Fern jerked awake and leaned over Alan, who appeared to still be asleep. “Who are we talking about?”
“Carol Ann,” Kate said. “She freaked out when we confronted her about putting Sasha on the guest list. Annabelle thinks she must have a reason to have killed everyone.”
Fern’s eyes grew wide. “You do? Sweet little Carol Ann? How could anyone with that accent be a cold-hearted killer?”
“We’ve come across innocent-looking killers before,” I said. “Even really good-looking ones you thought could never be guilty, remember?”
Fern shook his head. “Such a tragedy.”
“If you ask me, the sweet ones are more likely to be killers.” Kate took a long sip of her drink. “All those cheerful Lily Pulitzer patterns and repressed emotions can’t be good for you.”
Kate could never be accused of repressing herself with her clothes since most of her wardrobe consisted of outfits I considered too tight, too short, and altogether too much.
Fern nodded. “I’m surprised all serial killers don’t wear hair bows.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “If we go by that theory, every sorority house at every big Southern university would be packed with serial killers.”
“Sounds about right to me,” Kate muttered.
Fern tucked a few loose strands into his topknot. “I’m not saying they’re all practicing, but the inclination is there. Trust me. I’ve done enough of their big hair to know.”
“Okay.” I picked up my slightly melted lychee martini and stirred the contents with my straw. “I guess with that twisted logic we’ve established that Carol Ann could have killed all three people. But we haven’t determined why she would have or even how she did it.”
Alan’s eyes fluttered open. “Am I having a bizarre dream or are you all discussing serial killer sorority girls?”
Fern patted his shoulder and giggled. “Definitely a dream, sweetie.”
Alan sat up and looked at the empty martini glass on the side table next to him. “That drink was stronger than I thought. Am I already hungers?”
I sighed. “We were actually talking about the possibility of Carol Ann killing the three victims.”
“The trip organizer?” Alan asked, rubbing a hand across his closely trimmed dark beard. “I thought she was cut that her FAM trip was ruined by the murders?”
“We think that may be a ruse to throw us off her trail,” Fern said.
I snapped my fingers. “Do you remember how the drink delivered to Dina was supposedly from Carol Ann? What if it really was from Carol Ann after all?”
“So like perverse psychology?” Kate asked.
Alan looked confused. “Does she mean reverse psychology?”
“Maybe,” Fern said under his breath. “We never really know.”
“Carol Ann was obviously at the dinner the first night, and she had access to the tables before guests arrived, so it would have been easy for her to slip something into Veronica’s water glass or the wine that was pre-poured,” I said. “And she could have sent Dina the poisoned cocktail.”
Kate turned to her side and propped herself up on one elbow. “What about Jeremy?”
I closed my eyes and thought back to the night at the villas. Lots of people had been up from their seats during dinner. I tried to remember what I’d seen when I’d looked around the long table. Had Carol Ann been one of the missing guests?
“What happened to washing your hands of the case?”
I snapped my eyes open at the sound of Richard’s voice. He stood behind my chair, his hands on his hips.
“Where have you been?” Kate asked, raising her cocktail to him. “You’re missing all the fun in the sun.”
Richard cocked an eyebrow at me. “It sounds like what I’m missing is more amateur sleuthing.” He glanced at the pale mark on his wrist where his Gucci watch usually resided. “When I left you no more than an hour ago to go get a massage, you were determined to lay out in the sun and forget all about the murders.”
“I tried,” I said.
“She did.” Kate nodded. “When we got here, she was in full sun-worshipping mode. I mean, as much as she could be while wearing SPF one thousand.”
Richard’s head swiveled to look at Kate. “So are you the one who sucked her back in?”
“Me?” Kate gave him an affronted look. “When have I ever talked Annabelle into doing something she shouldn’t?”
“Where should I begin?” Richard asked.
Kate ignored his remark. “We only started discussing the case again because Carol Ann freaked out when Annabelle mentioned adding Sasha to the guest list. I guess she didn’t like being busted like that so she stormed off.”
Richard scanned the pool area. “When was Carol Ann here?”
“Technically, she was over there.” Fern pointed at the cabana across from us then gave Kristina and Brett a finger wave. “Annabelle and Kate swam over while Alan and I stayed here and worked on our tans.”
“We were having a lovely conversation until I mentioned Sasha,” I said. “Then she ran off and Seth and Topher went after her.”
“Well, that explains what I saw in the lobby just now.” Richard tapped a finger against his upper lip.
I sat up. “What did you see?”
“Topher was comforting a sobbing Carol Ann, while Seth was with Dahlia and Kelly at the front desk trying to arrange an early flight home for the three women.”
“She’s leaving before the farewell party?” Alan asked.
“Or making a run for it,” I said.
28
