Death Takes a Holiday (10 page)

Kyle felt like groaning in frustration. “I don’t think that’s it, Steve.”
He covered his cup with his hand and shook his head softly when Meredith reached to take his cup.

“
Maybe Sara’s a fan,” Steve said excitedly. “I had a lot of female interest after my billboard went up.”

Meredith snorted as she filled up Steve’s cup. Instead
of laying it back on the table, she handed it back to him, slightly tipping the cup forward. Steve yelped as the cup slid off the saucer and fell into his lap. “Oh, I’m so sorry about that,” Meredith said coolly. She pointed behind her. “Bathroom’s that way.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Grace pivoted on
her heel. Following Meredith behind the bar, she angrily pointed at Steve and Kyle’s table. “What was that?” she hissed.

“What?” Meredith asked innocently.

“Meredith you can’t pour scalding hot coffee on the passengers.”

“Why not?”

“You could have seriously injured him.”

“No, I couldn’t. The coffee was cold. I forgot to turn it on. Besides, I didn’t do it on purpose.”

Grace looked at her in disbelief. “You aimed for him.”

“Well, this is ridiculous. How can they expect us to serve beverages on a moving train, anyway? It’s not my fault if I lost my balance.”

“What do you have against him—besides the obvious?”

“Oh, nothing. He just accused me of being a gold-digger and an arsonist.”

Grace’s mouth fell open. She wasn’t sure what she expected Meredith to say, but it wasn’t that.
“When did he do that?”

“Last year,”
Meredith ground out angrily. She took a deep breath. “I was innocent—”

The sound of cutlery tapping against
glass brought their attention back to the dining car.

Felicity had arrived.

She stood at the end of the car. One hand holding a crystal glass and the other a knife.

“What are you doing here, Felicity?”
Tracy asked. She turned to her husband. “Did you know she was going to be here?”

Robert shook his head.

“I can’t tell you how happy I am to see my old family. And I want you to know that I still think of y’all as family,” Felicity said placing her hand to her heart. “I’ve missed all of you and I’m so thankful to see everyone once again.” She looked around the room. “Well, we seem to be missing one person, but no mind.”

“Did you arrange this little reunion, Felicity?”
Asa Wellington asked.

Felicity chuckled. “I’m afraid not,
Mr. Wellington.” She laid the glass and knife down on the table closest to her and straightened. The smile she had greeted everyone with evaporated. Her stare turned hard as she looked from one person to the other. “Now that the niceties are over, I have something to say. I know why I’m here, but you’re not going to get away with this. I’m not going to let one of you kill me.”

Grace and Kyle exchanged shocked looks. No one else seemed surprised.

Lucas Kirby simply grinned. Crossing his arms, he leaned back in his chair and chuckled. “No one’s trying to kill you, Felicity.”

Felicity didn’t seem insulted. She
tsked and sadly shook her head at Lucas. “You can’t really believe that this was just some random act. Someone brought us here for a reason.”

“And of course, you immediately assume
d it’s to kill you,” Lucas said with a laugh.

Wellington turned in his seat and faced
Felicity. “What brings you to the Excursion, Felicity?”

“
I won two tickets in a contest,” Felicity said. “So, I decided to use the train as a basis for my next book. Imagine my surprise when I saw all of you here.”

Tracy sat forward, a worried look on her face. “Who sponsored the contest?”

Felicity looked at Parker. “Excursions International,” he answered for Felicity.

Tracy gasped. She turned frightened eyes to her husband.
“It’s the same company.”

Wellington turned toward Tracy.
“You won a contest, as well?”

Tracy took a breath. “
A family trip for three.” She shrugged helplessly. “Sponsored by Excursions International.”

Wellington leaned forward. “Do you remember signing up for the contest?”

“Well, no,” Tracy answered, “but . . . it looked legitimate.”

“I figured it was probably some trick to sell us something,” Robert said. “What about you
, Asa? Why are you here?”

Wellington
cleared his throat. “A potential client wanted to see me about some confidential matter. He arranged for the trip.”

“Have you met this person before?”
Robert asked.

“No, I can’t say that I have.
” Wellington appeared pained. “Someone appears to have gone to a great deal of effort to bring us all together.”

Grace looked over her shoulder at Meredith. The other woman was biting her fingernails.
As soon as she noticed Grace watching her, she ran back behind the bar and entered the kitchen.

“What about you, Sara?”
Kyle asked. “Did you win a contest, too?”

Sara
gave everyone a confused look. “I was going to take the Express, but the Excursion just seemed so exciting. It was sort of a spur of the moment kind of thing.”

Tracy leaned over to her husband. “Robert, I’m scared.”

Patting his wife’s hand, Robert Kirby said, “Don’t be. It’s just Felicity playing her little games.”

Felicity strode forward a few steps. “My little games? I almost died several times last year.
When you couldn’t get me, one of you went after poor Parker,” she said pointing to Parker
who just rolled his eyes, “and then when you failed to kill him, you got your poor daddy instead—”

“Poor daddy?” Lucas
repeated. “That’s not how you referred to him last year at the funeral.

Felicity smiled
brightly. “Well, absence makes the heart grow fonder, sweetie.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Meredith said
under her breath. Grace jumped, not realizing that Meredith had returned and was standing directly behind her once again.

“
Now,” Felicity said, “even though it broke my heart to think someone wanted me dead, I’m pretty tough. I was willing to overlook it. For Parker’s sake, I left and vowed never to be alone with any of you again.” She placed both hands on her hips. “But here we are. Now, I’m not naïve enough to think this little reunion is just a coincidence. Not after that sweet little message you left on my mirror this morning.”

Grace turned to watch everyone’s expressions. They all just stared at
Felicity with a mixture of confusion and disbelief.

Lucas leaned forward. “What message?”

When Felicity didn’t respond, Lucas chuckled. “That’s what I’ve always loved about you, Felicity, your wonderfully absurd imagination.”

Felicity
reached forward and opened a file folder lying on the table in front of Parker. She held up a piece of paper. Even on the opposite end of the car, Grace could see that the words had been cut and pasted from different sources. Felicity picked up another and another. “Did I imagine these, Lucas?” She dropped the letters down on the table. “I don’t understand what you hope to gain. I certainly can’t be a threat to you anymore. Victor cut me out of the will last year. What good would my death do now?”

Robert pinched the bridge of his nose. “Felicity, tell me something. You wouldn’t happen to have a new book coming out soon?”

“Why yes, I do.”

“Of course,” he said out loud while turning toward his brother and mouthing
“
publicity”
to him.

“It’s going to be another best-seller
, but I don’t want to talk about that. I want to talk about my next book. I had toyed with another erotic thriller, but those are becoming so boring. Perhaps I should focus on a true-life mystery. Someone murdered your father last year—”

“No, Felicity,”
Wellington said patiently. “He suffered a severe asthmatic attack and died when he couldn’t get to an inhaler fast enough. I spoke to the coroner myself. He was not murdered.”

Lucas tipped back his chair.
“Look, I was as shocked as everyone that he wasn’t murdered—”

“Oh, but he was
,” Felicity said. “In fact, he was poisoned. I’m betting it was cyanide. The husband in my last book was poisoned by cyanide. I think whoever killed Victor was hoping to pin it on me and I have it on good authority one of you was researching cyanide poisonings right before he died.”

“He had an autopsy,” Lucas said quickly.

“It wouldn’t have mattered,” Wellington said. “Unless there’s a reason to suspect cyanide poisoning, he wouldn’t have been tested for it.”

Tracy twisted around in her seat to look at Wellington.
“But they did test for it. We specifically requested a toxicology report, just in case he was poisoned.”

Felicity opened another file. She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to Tracy. “You can see for yourself. The
y didn’t check for poison.”

Tracy’s face paled as she read the report.

“Oh, sweetie, don’t look so stricken, it wouldn’t have mattered if they had. The coroner suddenly retired a few months after Victor’s death. He bought a nice big boat and went sailing off into the sunset.”

“So
?” Lucas laughed. “He was sixty-five. I’d say he was due to retire.”

“Couldn’t the body be tested for it now,” Grace said.

“No,” Wellington said, “there was a mistake at the funeral home. His body was accidentally cremated.”

“There wasn’
t anything accidental about it,” Felicity said. “No. Victor was murdered. He may have not been the intended target, but he was murdered just the same. I think one of you slipped something—”

“Perhaps in his drink?”
Lucas asked with a grin.

Wellington
cleared his throat. “The glass by his bedside was full, Mr. Kirby. It didn’t appear that your father had touched it.”

Robert took the coroner’s report out of his wife’s hand and flipped through the pages. “The coroner did test for poison and it came back negative.” He threw the report on top of the table. “I don’t know why it’s not in here
, but it did happen.” Robert leaned forward. “I know what you’re up to. You don’t actually believe he was poisoned. You’re just trying to drum up sales for your new book. Admit it.”

Felicity held up the letters. “How do you explain these?”

“Simple. I’m sure you and Parker are smart enough to use a pair of scissors and a glue gun.”

“
Well, how do you explain the brakes going out on Victor’s truck?”

Robert leaned back and crossed his arms.

“You can’t, can you?” She strode forward. “Like you couldn’t explain how come I got so sick the week before your daddy died. Or who took a shot at Parker Christmas morning. Or who knocked me out and dragged me into a burning building the night before. Or any of the other times Parker or I almost died between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.” She placed her hands on Robert’s table.

Tracy glared at Felicity. “You seem to forget that I almost died in that fire, as well.
Perhaps someone was trying to kill me,” she said, throwing up her hands.

Felicity waved her hand dismissively. “No one even knew you were in there. It was me the killer was after.”

“We know who set the fire. It was Jack and I’m sure he didn’t do it intentionally,” Tracy said weakly.

“
It wasn’t Jack,” Felicity said. “Who was it, Robert?”

Robert looked at her in confusion. “Why are you asking me? I wasn’t even there that night.”

“That’s not what I heard.” Her eyes flashing she laid her hands on Robert’s table. “In fact, I have it on good authority that
you were there. You saw it happen and you did nothing to stop it!”

“That’s not true,”
Tracy said quickly. “Robert couldn’t get home that night because of the snow. Remember?”

“Wh
at good authority?” Lucas asked. “Who have you been talking to?”

Felicity lifted her chin. “
It doesn’t matter.”

Robert shook his head.
“No one’s trying to kill you, Felicity. It’s all in your head. But if there is a murderer here, it isn’t one of us. It’s you.”

“That’s ridiculous,
” Felicity huffed.

“W
hy don’t you tell everyone what you told me Christmas morning?” Robert asked. “How you hated Father and wished he was dead. Why don’t you tell everyone what you were doing on the staircase that morning, Felicity?”

Felicity
backed up a few more steps. She seemed uncomfortable with the sudden change of subject. “Why are you acting so defensive, Robert? All I want to know is who really set that fire last year. Who are you protecting?”

Robert ran a hand over his eyes. “No one, Felicity
.”

Kyle raised his hand. “Just out of curiosity, when did Victor Kirby die?”

“It will be exactly a year ago tomorrow,” Asa Wellington answered.

A hush fell over the dining car.

*

“You can’t be back here,” Meredith snarled.
“The kitchen is for employees only.”

Parker blew out a frustrated breath. “Give me a break, Merry. Just let me take Felicity’s plate to her.”

Grace glanced over at Parker and Meredith as they prepared to go to battle over a plate of Trout Almandine and a baked potato, and rolled her eyes. She walked over to the tray of food behind Meredith, impatiently waiting for Oscar to finish the last quality check.