Annabelle Archer BoxSet, page 85
part #1 of Annabelle Archer Series
“She’s a bride. She’ll be easily distracted by all the hoopla,” I said. “And with the ceremony jammed into the main salon, it will be too crowded to notice who’s there or not. He’s not in the wedding party. And besides, once she finds out she’ll be devastated. I’d rather her have a few happy memories of her wedding day before she finds out.”
“At least she’ll get her ceremony and be married. Once they find out Brody is dead, who knows when they’d even consider a wedding? Annabelle’s right. It’s the nicest thing we could do for Kristie considering how close she was to him. The longer we can go without destroying this day for her, the better.” Kate’s voice sounded wooden as her eyes stayed locked on Brody. “The string quartet is already set up in the main salon. I can start moving guests down.”
I pulled one of Richard’s fingers away from his ear. “It’s not like he’s going to get more dead in half an hour. This way the bride gets her ceremony. If Reese hasn’t called me back by then, I’ll tell Daniel.”
“What about my reception?” Richard said. “No one will remember my crab puffs and Gruyère beggar’s purses if you upstage me with a dead body.”
Kate eyed him. “So you don’t have a problem with hiding a death, but you have a problem with your food taking second billing to the murder?”
Richard made a face at her. “You make me sound so catty when you put it like that.”
“So how will we keep Daniel from finding the body before the ceremony is over?” I asked. “And we can’t let the TV cameras from Diamond Weddings anywhere near this.”
We all looked down at the wet corpse lying in the steam room.
“Once Kristie walks down the aisle, I can come down here and guard the door,” Fern said.
I hesitated for a second wondering how Fern would explain prowling around the corridor in front of the gym. Then I remembered he managed to get away with more than the rest of us ever could with his combination of moxie and charm.
“Okay. And once the ceremony is over, we’ll let Daniel find the body.”
Richard cleared his throat.
“Fine,” I said. “Once cocktails are over. Now let’s go get this bride down the aisle.”
39
“If you’ll proceed downstairs to the main salon, the ceremony will begin shortly.” I directed a group of guests toward the staircase, trying to sound as pleasant as possible as I yelled over the rain pounding on the roof of the ship. I’d already circulated through the crowd once, but only a handful of people had made their way to the stairs. At this rate, I’d lose my voice before I got the crowd to the ceremony.
It usually took three passes through a room for people to actually follow directions and, as I had done at many weddings before, I longed for a tiny cattle prod. Although I was pretty sure it would be illegal, I was also sure guests would move faster once they were zapped with a hundred volts.
“The bar will reopen after the ceremony,” I reassured a cluster of women in long glittery gowns who stood in line to refill their vodka glasses. They ignored me and didn’t budge. Either they couldn’t hear me over the downpour or they were well on their way to getting soused.
I glanced at an ornate clock hanging on the wall above the ice bar. At this point Kate had probably gotten the groomsmen in place and reviewed the cues with the string quartet while Fern moved Kristie and her attendants upstairs. I had to get these guests down so we could start the ceremony. I walked up to the bartender behind the ice bar, putting my hand on the slick freezing surface for a moment for balance. Then I pulled it away and wiped it on my wet pants. Not much help there.
“We need to close the bar so we can get these lushes downstairs for the ceremony,” I said, keeping my voice low so the nearby cameraman wouldn’t hear me and film me trying to close the bar. That was not how I envisioned my network debut.
“Good luck,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve never seen people go through straight vodka like this. You might start a riot.”
I sighed. There was only one thing to do. I dragged a black rubber busing bin out from the bottom of the back bar, then pulled the bottles of vodka one by one out of the ice and put them in the bin. I bent down into a squat and heaved the bin up. “Problem solved.”
I angled the bin with vodka so guests couldn’t see it as I pushed my way through the glass door to Mr. Barbery’s study. I placed the bin behind one of the leather sofas and pulled the sofa forward to hide them completely. I wiped my wet hand on the front of my pantsuit.
Through the glass door I could see the bartender gesturing the bar was closed and pointing toward the stairs. Like magic, the guests began moving downstairs. It was true that when you moved the booze, you moved the people.
I smoothed down my wet suit jacket, and my hand felt a bump in the front pocket. I dipped my hand inside and found the gummy bears I’d stashed earlier in the day and forgotten about.
“Annabelle.”
I jumped when I heard my name whispered and looked around the room to see where it had come from. I could have sworn I was alone in the room.
“Over here.” The voice came from a crack in the wall of books I’d never noticed before. It looked like one panel of the bookcase was actually hinged like a door. Did Mystic Maven have hidden rooms and passageways?
I stepped back. “Who’s there?”
“It’s me, Mandy. Hurry in here before someone sees.”
I was too startled to ask any more questions before she grabbed my wrist and pulled me behind the bookcase. As Mandy slid the panel back into place, I looked around me. We stood on the dimly lit landing of yet another spiral staircase that appeared to go down into the ship. “What is this?”
“It’s a secret passageway leading to the master suite and then down below to the storerooms. It’s how Mr. Barbery gets around the ship.”
That explained why we rarely saw the bride’s father when we were on board. I turned to Mandy and pulled my wrist out of her grasp. She no longer wore her Mystic Maven uniform. Instead she was in jeans and a dark blue fleece zipped up to her neck. Her hair looked dry, so I knew she must have arrived before the storm. “What’s going on? Why did you disappear and why are you hiding in secret passageways?”
“Didn’t you get my message?”
I shook my head. “What message?”
Mandy chewed the edge of her thumbnail. “Then you don’t know what’s going on?”
I grabbed her by the shoulders. “What are you talking about?”
“Kate said you’ve solved crimes before,” she said. “I figured you would know what to do with the evidence.”
I knew Kate’s offhanded comment when we first met Mandy would come back to bite me. I needed to have a serious talk with Kate about her over sharing problem. “What evidence?”
“An envelope that was dropped off at your apartment the other night.”
I let my head drop. “That was from you?”
“Yes. Do you still have it?”
As I waited for more explanation, I could hear the sounds of prelude music reverberating through the walls. “Yes, but I don’t understand. Why bring it to me?”
Mandy waved a hand. “We have a bigger problem. The information belongs to the captain and he knows it’s missing.”
I didn’t like the idea of having something that belonged to the captain. He didn’t seem like the type to let stealing slide.
“Are you sure he cares? I mean it’s just an envelope of receipts and arrest records for people I’ve never heard of.”
“So you saw what was inside?” Mandy started chewing her thumbnail again. “Trust me, he cares.”
“Okay,” I said. “But what is it? Does it have something to do with the murder or the accidents or the fire?”
“I don’t know,” Mandy said. “I didn’t know what to think when I found out so I ran.”
“Found out what?” I asked. This girl was not making sense.
Mandy wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Those arrest records are all for members of our crew.”
I swallowed hard. This really was the Ship of the Damned.
40
“So, let me get this straight,” I said, my voice echoing in the closed stairwell. “You discovered that half the crew was replaced with criminals. How?”
Mandy gave a small wave of her hand. “Snooping in the captain’s office.”
I studied her as I dug a gummy bear out of the mini cellophane packet in my suit pocket and popped it in my mouth. It was a little sticky from the rain, but I didn’t care as long as I got the sugar rush. “Does that mean you have a criminal record, too?”
“No, but I don’t think I was supposed to be here. My name is Amanda Fraser and there is an arrest record for an Amanda Frasier. I must have been hired by accident.”
“I don’t get it,” I said. “Why hire a crew you can’t trust to work on a ship filled with valuable art?”
Mandy shrugged one shoulder. “You’ve got me. Maybe he keeps the files in case he needs leverage on us. But I got freaked out when I saw them, so I ran. I had no idea everyone I was working with was a criminal.”
The muffled prelude music grew louder. It sounded like the string ensemble was playing and from the muffled notes I could tell it was the song for the parents’ entrance. I couldn’t stay hidden in this secret staircase much longer.
“Why did you come back on board?” I asked.
“Curiosity, I guess. Once I left I started thinking about why the captain would hire all of us and keep files. Something isn’t right about this.”
I took the crumpled bag of gummy bears from my pocket and held it out to Mandy. She shook her head. “That’s an understatement,” I said. “Do you think this could be connected to the murders?”
“It must be.” Mandy paused. “Did you say murders?”
“Can you promise to keep a secret?” I tucked the cellophane candy bag back into my pocket after taking out a pair of slightly damp orange bears.
She gestured to the cramped landing. “I’m hiding in a secret passageway. Who am I going to tell?”
She had a good point. “There’s been another murder on board.”
Mandy put a hand over her mouth. “Who? When? I haven’t seen anything on the news about it.”
“It just happened,” I said. The string ensemble switched to the music for the bridal party’s entrance, and I felt relieved Kate was going forward with the ceremony. “Fern found the body about a half hour ago.”
“Are the police here?” Mandy looked nervous.
“Not yet,” I admitted. “They don’t know about the second murder.”
Mandy looked a little confused. “You didn’t tell the police you found a dead body?”
“We’re definitely going to,” I said quickly. “Just as soon as the ceremony is over. And maybe part of the cocktail hour. From the sounds of the music below, the ceremony should be over in about twenty minutes.”
Mandy’s eyes widened. “Do you think what I found out about the captain and crew is related to this?”
I popped another gummy bear. At this rate, I would need to invest in family-sized bags for future weddings. “It must be, although I can’t figure out how the second dead body is connected to any of it.”
“Who is it?”
“Brody.”
Mandy paled. “What? Are you sure?”
“Pretty sure. He’s lying in the steam room without a pulse.”
Mandy hitched in her breath and gave a jerky shake of her head. “I can’t believe it. Who could have killed him?”
“Well, I saw Jeremy Johns trying to set another fire in your quarters. He overheard me saying we were going to turn him over to the cops and took off running. Maybe Brody found him and confronted him and got the worse end of it.” I thought about the bloody gun in the father’s safe. “Or maybe it was someone else.”
The muffled notes of the bride’s processional came up through the staircase, and I imagined Fern doing his usual primping of the veil and dress at the back of the aisle, which, in this case, was the doorway into the main salon from the casual dining room. I felt a twinge of guilt about missing the processional, but I knew Kate and Fern could get a bridal party down the aisle in their sleep.
“That designer overpowered Brody?” Mandy asked. “I don’t know.”
“I agree, but if it’s not Jeremy, then who could it be?”
Mandy shook her head. “I have no idea. But it doesn’t look good for me to be on board again, does it?”
“Now that you mention it, showing up right as another person is murdered probably doesn’t look so good.”
“Do you think I could slip off without being seen?” she asked.
“Maybe, but do you have anything to hide? I’m sure if you explain everything, the police will understand. It’s not like you had a motive to kill anyone.”
She stopped biting her nail. “It’s not the police I’m worried about. What if the killer wants to get rid of me too?”
“Why would they want to do that?”
“What if it all has to do with the crew and the criminal records? What if I saw something I saw in those files that points to the real killer? Those files were originals.”
“Wait.” I grabbed her arm. “So the only copy of those papers is—?” I didn’t want to hear the answer to my question.
41
“No one knows where the papers are, though, do they?” I asked Mandy. Even though Leatrice drove me crazy, I couldn’t stand the thought of her in danger.
“Not unless they followed me when I delivered them.”
That was only slightly reassuring. I listened, but the only sound was the unrelenting rainfall on the fiberglass hull, made even louder in the enclosed stairwell. That meant the ceremony was taking place, but the recessional hadn’t started yet. I took Mandy’s hand. “If you’re going to get off the ship, you should do it now while everyone is occupied at the ceremony. Once the security team finds the body, no one will be able to leave.”
She nodded and reached to push open the hidden doorway. “I’ll slip out through the back stairs and send you a message once I’m safe. Or if I think of anything that could help you find the killer.”
I peered down the staircase that wound narrowly down into the lower levels of the ship. “Where did you say this leads?”
“There’s a secret exit on each floor. First, the master suite—”
I stopped her. “That’s perfect. The Barberys won’t be there since they’re at the ceremony. It should be deserted.”
We exchanged a quick hug, then Mandy slipped through the hinged panel of books and I started down the twisting staircase. I wanted to make sure the security team was far away from the steam room.
I reached another narrow landing with a door. I pushed it just enough to open a crack. I could see I’d reached the master suite, and the room seemed empty and silent. I pushed the door far enough so I could slip out and I pulled the door closed behind me. In this room the secret door was part of a shelving unit to the side of the king-sized bed. To the left of the bed was a doorway leading into a sprawling closet, and beyond that a short set of curved stairs that led up to a large Jacuzzi tub. I couldn’t help gaping. The master suite took up as much space as all the rest of the bedrooms put together.
I’d never ventured inside the room because Mrs. Barbery was usually holed up inside with Jeremy Johns. Now I understood why the stepmother spent all her time here. It was stunning. Cream silk covered the walls and the bed. A modern painting of deep blue waves hung over the bed along with a crystal chandelier. Glass walls took up the entire front of the room and looked out over the bow of the ship. I imagined the view was incredible when the ship was at sea. Right now all I could see were gray skies and sheets of rain.
I sat down on the bed and pulled out my phone. With Mrs. Barbery and everyone else upstairs at the ceremony, this was probably the best time and place to make an urgent call.
“Leatrice?” I said when she answered the phone.
“Annabelle?” She wasn’t used to me calling her, and the connection wasn’t the best because of the storm. “Isn’t the wedding today?”
“I’m at the wedding,” I said. “Do you remember the envelope you gave me? The one Mandy dropped off?”
“Yes, dear.” She said, her voice going in and out. “I almost forgot. Such . . . nice girl. Is . . . important?” Leatrice asked. “I can bring . . . to you.”
“No!” I said. The last thing I needed to add to the mix was Leatrice. “It’s fine. People are looking for that envelope. Can you just make sure no one goes in my apartment?”
The phone cut out. At least I knew the potential evidence was safe and sound in Georgetown. Well, as safe as anything could be with Leatrice watching over it. I dropped the phone into my pocket and tiptoed over to the door, peeking my head outside. The hallway was empty, so I darted out and closed the door silently. I hurried to the staircase at the end of the hall and wound my way down to the level below.
“Annabelle! There you are!” Fern’s voice made me skid down the last two stairs, and I clutched the handrail to keep from falling.
I stared at him. “What are you wearing?” He appeared to have on nothing but a large beige towel wrapped around his chest with a matching towel wrapped around his head as a turban.
“I’m a diversion.”
“You certainly are,” I said.
“You told me to keep the security team away from the steam room. That’s what I’m doing. If anyone comes down, I’ll say I’m about to take a steam.”
“In the middle of a wedding?” I asked. “Doesn’t that strike you as an odd thing to do?”
Fern waved a hand and giggled. “Like a slecurity officer would know.”
I wondered just how much Champagne Fern had ingested to make him think running around a wedding in a towel was a good idea.
“But you’ll be happy to know Kristie and all her hussy bridesmaids got down the aisle.”
“Were any of them sober?” I asked.
Fern shrugged.
I glanced at my watch. “We probably only have ten minutes before the ceremony ends. That means we only have to keep the murder secret for about another hour at most.”
