Heavenly Honeymoon (Zoe Donovan Mysteries Book 15) (6 page)

At this point the conversation drifted to business opportunities in the UK and I tuned out. Hearing Piper’s tales of world travel had been both entertaining and fascinating, but listening to a discussion about economic trends was downright tiresome. I’d really been enchanted by the story of the ghost of the castle and the legacy he left. If life settled down a bit and the opportunity afforded itself, I very much wanted to make a trip to the Emerald Isle.

“Jensen seems to be interested in the same general idea,” Zak said, bringing the conversation around to the island and the people we were there to investigate.

“Yes, we’ve engaged in several discussions regarding the idea.” Charles nodded.

“So you’ve been to the island before?” Zak asked, even though he already knew the answer to the question.

“On many occasions. Jensen and I go way back. Since before he built the resort. Piper and I visit the island every year or two so we can catch up. His wife, Della, went to Oxford with my younger sister.”

“Really?” Zak said. “When Jensen offered to show you the bridge I just assumed it was your first time on the yacht.”

“It was my first time on
that
yacht,” Charles responded. “That one is a new addition to his fleet. We haven’t been here in over a year.”

“I wish I’d asked for a tour,” I commented. “I would have liked to meet Captain Jack. I hear he’s an interesting man.”

“The bloke is nothing more than a salty old sailor. I’m not sure why Jensen keeps him on staff. I imagine they have a history of some sort.”

“Does it take more than one person to pilot a yacht of that size?” I asked.

“No. It’s mostly computerized.”

“I see.” I tried to appear both interested and uninformed. “When you visited the bridge did you happen to see any of the other guests or crew?”

“Trying to figure out who might have whacked our philandering salesman?”

“Given the fact that I seem to be the prime suspect, I’d like to figure out who really did it,” I answered honestly.

“I’m afraid that other than Jack, I didn’t see anyone lingering about,” Charles answered.

“I suppose you must have known Ricardo before the cruise if you’ve visited the island often,” I fished.

“I don’t know him well, but I was introduced to him on one occasion by a shared acquaintance who later warned me that the man was heavily invested in seedy activities, so I would be best served to avoid him. I was actually surprised Jensen invited him to join us the other evening. He normally reserves invitations on his yacht for his most important guests.”

“And the shared acquaintance?”

“A delightful woman named Chandella. She works as some sort of executive assistant to Jensen and has attended quite a few social gatherings as Jensen’s guest when his Della wasn’t available.”

The conversation paused as the waiter took away our salad plates and replaced them with the main course. I’d ordered baked salmon over arugula.

“This looks delicious,” I commented. I wanted to say something about the true nature of Chandella’s job, according to Talin, but decided to let it go. “I know the chef who worked the dinner cruise normally works at the steak house near the beach. Do you happen to know who’s responsible for this wonderful creation?”

“I do.” Charles smiled proudly. “His name is Jimbo. I can introduce you, if you’d like.”

“I hate to bother him if he’s busy.”

“Nonsense. Jimbo loves it when people fuss over his food.” Charles waved the waiter over and asked him to request an audience with the chef. The man nodded and headed toward the kitchen.

I almost spit my wine directly into Charles’s smiling face when the dark-skinned man I’d seen on the yacht walked through the dining room and out onto the patio.

“Are you sure it was the same man?” Ellie asked a couple of hours later. We were sitting on loungers at the pool, watching Scooter and Alex splash around.

“I’m sure.”

“But you said he in no way indicated that he recognized you.”

“Maybe he was just covering. If he killed Ricardo, he wouldn’t want to draw attention to the fact that he was on the yacht the night of the murder.”

“What does Zak think?” Ellie asked.

“He said there was no indication the man recognized me. He’s certain I’m remembering the whole thing wrong. Still, he did say he’d try to find out where Jimbo was at the time of the cruise.”

I waved to Scooter, who was yelling to me to watch him while he did a cannonball into the water. The ensuing splash created quite the frenzy when a huge wave covered a pair of teenage girls who were sunbathing. After explaining to Scooter that cannonballs were best saved for our private pool at home, I returned to Ellie and our conversation.

“If we have a chance to speak to Sebastian when we go to dinner tonight, let’s find a way to ask him if Jimbo was on the yacht that night. If he
was
there he must have been in the kitchen.”

“I thought you said Zak said every single person on board was interviewed when they disembarked,” Ellie reminded me.

“He did say that.” I found I was growing both irritated and frustrated. “But I also know what I saw. If I imagined the guy with the knife, what are the chances I’d imagine a guy who looked exactly like a real person living on the island?”

“Maybe you’d seen Jimbo before and your mind filled in the blanks.”

“That isn’t what happened,” I snapped.

Ellie looked hurt by my sharp tone.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know why I’m taking this out on you. You’re just trying to help. I guess I just feel so frustrated that I saw a man everyone keeps telling me I couldn’t have seen. I don’t know how he got on the boat or where he went after I spoke to him in the hall, but I do know what I saw. The thing is, I have absolutely no way to prove Jimbo was on the yacht the night of the murder.”

Ellie squeezed my hand. “I believe you. I really do. If Jimbo was on the yacht we’ll figure out a way to prove it.”

“He wasn’t on the yacht.” Zak walked up from behind us while we were talking. He sat down in the lounger next to mine.

“What do you mean, he wasn’t on the yacht? I saw him.”

“On the night of the murder he worked in the restaurant where we had lunch. I spoke to three different staff members who all verified that he was there until closing. There was no way you could have seen him.”

I let out a long breath. Maybe I really was losing my mind.

“Is there any possibility that the staff is just covering for Jimbo?” I asked.

“I guess there is a possibility, but I kind of doubt it. Besides, Jensen keeps a close eye on his staff, especially the ones who work in the VIP area of the resort. If you’re that sure you saw Jimbo on the yacht I guess I could access his employee record.”

“I’d appreciate that,” I answered. “As for the other staff, I spoke to Oria when I picked Scooter up. She confirmed that Rosa does work at Kids Club part-time, but she hadn’t seen her for a couple of weeks. It seems they’ve been shorthanded in food services so she’s been concentrating her hours there. She did say Rosa’s helped out with dinner cruises in the past. I asked whether she thought Rosa might know Ricardo, and she confirmed that because he sold restaurant supplies almost everyone in food services would know him to some degree, but she didn’t think they were all that well acquainted.”

“I guess we leave her on the list,” Zak said.

“Did you have a chance to ask Jensen about drinks?”

“I called his office and left a message, but he hasn’t gotten back to me. I’m sure he will. In the meantime, how about a swim in the ocean?”

“The kids seem happy in the pool,” I pointed out.

“I can watch them,” Ellie offered. “In fact, take your time and enjoy a few hours to yourselves. This is, after all, your honeymoon.”

I’m happy to say Zak and I made
very
good use of our time alone.

Later that evening, the five of us went to dinner in the steak house as planned. The further we dove into the facts surrounding Ricardo Jimenez’s death, though, the more terrified I became that I actually
had
killed the man. I’d been furious with the jerk and I
had
gone to the kitchen to fetch the knife. Maybe I really had plunged the knife into his back, causing my mind to supply an alternate killer who really wasn’t there.

Of course that was nuts. I wouldn’t really kill someone, no matter how mad I was at them, and I certainly wouldn’t forget doing so if I had. The only explanation was that someone had killed Ricardo between the time I’d returned the knife to the man in black and the time I found his body in the hallway. It did seem odd that no one had heard anything. Sure, the group in the lounge had been talking to one another, creating a certain level of noise, and there had been soft music playing in the background, but still, if someone stabbed me in the back I’m sure I’d get off a good loud scream before I died. At the very least there should have been the sound of a scuffle.

Unless . . .

I let myself consider all the possibilities. Suppose someone could have snuck up on Ricardo from behind and placed a hand over his mouth before plunging the knife in his back. For that to occur, the person who did the stabbing would have needed to be both tall and strong. The killer could have used an aid to immobilize the man prior to stabbing him, like chloroform.

I wondered about the knife that had been used. Yes, I’d gotten my fingerprints all over it when I’d removed the knife from the man’s back in an effort to perform CPR, but could anyone else’s fingerprints be on it as well? I wondered if Talin would be willing to share information if I asked him nicely. I realized he didn’t know me the way Salinger did, but we’d come to an understanding of sorts during my interview on Tuesday.

“Is something wrong with your food?” Alex asked.

I realized all I’d done since the main course had been served was push it around on my plate.

“No, but Zak and I had a big lunch. I guess I never had the chance to burn it off. How’s your scampi?”

“It’s really good. Do you want to try a bite?”

“Thanks, but I think I’ll pass this evening. Maybe another time.”

“I’ll share my hamburger with you if you want,” Scooter offered.

I smiled at the ten-year-old with ketchup all over his face. “Thanks, but I’m not really hungry. How was Kids Camp today?”

Scooter proceeded to fill the silence with a solid ten minutes of very detailed descriptions as to how really awesome Kids Camp had been. Ellie had been trying all evening to cheer me up, but she seemed to have given up. Zak was a lot more quiet than usual. The only conclusion I could come to was that even he was beginning to suspect I was guilty of murdering Ricardo Jimenez.

“It’s going to be okay,” Ellie whispered to me when I failed to laugh at Scooter’s joke.

“Maybe it will and maybe it won’t,” I whispered back as Scooter continued with his story. “I’ve gone over the scenario in the hallway in my mind a million times. I know what I saw, but every single piece of evidence seems to counter that memory.”

“Memories are tricky things,” Ellie sympathized. “Especially during stressful situations.”

Zak, Ellie, and Alex all laughed at Scooter’s story and I laughed as well, even though I had no idea what he’d just said. There was a voice in my head telling me to go back over things again to try to figure out anything I might have missed.

I’d gone to the kitchen to find a knife for the cake. The room was empty. The dishes were done and the food had been put away. I remember that Jerrell was still at the bar, but I have no idea where Sebastian, Kai, and Rosa had gone off to. In a way, it was odd that they weren’t hanging around just in case someone needed something from the kitchen. I remember seeing the knife on the counter. I walked over and picked it up and then started back toward the lounge, where the others were waiting. It was at that point that the dark-skinned man in black clothing, who I was certain looked exactly like Jimbo, intercepted me. He told me that I had the wrong knife. He then took the knife from me and assured me he’d bring the right one. I’d continued on to the lounge.

If no one in the lounge had seen him, he couldn’t have come from there to the kitchen, so where
had
he come from? I tried to picture the hallway. There weren’t any intersections in it, so there must have been a door to another room that I hadn’t noticed.

Suddenly, I knew I needed to get another look at the interior of the yacht. I just needed a way to score an invitation.

“Sebastian will see you now,” the waiter informed me. “He thought you might want to see the kitchen, so he suggested he’d speak with you there.”

When we’d first arrived I’d asked for an audience for Ellie and me on the pretext that she was a well-known chef in Ashton Falls. I suppose the whole chef thing might have been a stretch, but Ellie was the best cook I knew and I was certain she could hold her own in a conversation with Sebastian.

“Thank you.” I looked at Ellie. “Are you ready?”

“I am.” She put her napkin down on the table next to her mostly empty plate.

Ellie and I followed the waiter through the restaurant to the immaculate kitchen. I could tell by the look on her face that Ellie was in awe. Not only was the room large and modern, with state-of-the-art appliances, but the five men who were working with Sebastian were going about their tasks with a precision that was truly amazing.

“Wow,” Ellie finally managed to utter. “Your kitchen is amazing.”

“Thank you. I designed it myself when the restaurant was built almost fifteen years ago.”

“So you’ve been here almost from the beginning,” I commented.

“Almost. The resort currently has five restaurants and this was the third one to be built.” Sebastian turned to Ellie. “So you are a chef in your hometown.”

I watched the hustle and bustle of waiters coming in and out to gather plates filled with fabulous-looking food that the kitchen staff had assembled with admirable efficiency. I knew the chitchat portion of the conversation was necessary, but I really hoped Ellie would get around to asking about the yacht. Rosa, Jerrell, Kai, and Sebastian all had attended the dinner cruise as part of the culinary staff. Other than Captain Jack, they really did make the best suspects.

“By the way, the dinner you prepared the other night was to die for,” I interrupted. “I do hope you had a chance to have some?”

“The kitchen staff and I ate in the lounge on the bottom deck while the guests were all on the upper deck after dinner,” Sebastian confirmed. “I must say I really did outdo myself with the stuffed lobster.”

“That must be why no one was in the kitchen when I went in there to look for a knife,” I commented.

“Jerrell remained on the upper deck in the event that anyone needed something. You should have asked him to fetch a knife if you needed one,” Sebastian scolded.

“Yes, in retrospect that’s what I should have done. I just figured I’d find Rosa or Kai in the kitchen because they’d done such a fantastic job of taking care of our needs up to that point.”

Sebastian looked at me oddly. I suppose my statement could have come off sounding like a complaint, although I was actually just fishing for additional information on the movement of the kitchen staff.

“Yes, the pair do a good job,” Sebastian eventually replied.

“It must be quite a challenge to cook for a large group on the yacht when you’re used to the spaciousness of this facility,” Ellie commented.

“Not really. The number of guests I must feed during a dinner cruise does not even compare to the number I serve in the restaurant each evening.”

“I’m sorry I missed the cruise.” Ellie sighed. “I would love to have seen the kitchen on the vessel. There’s something very romantic about the notion of cooking at sea.”

Was Ellie flirting?

“I’d be happy to show you the kitchen any time you’d like,” Sebastian offered. “We wouldn’t be able to actually take the boat out without Captain Jack in attendance, but I’m sure Mr. Ewing won’t mind if I gave you a tour. I’d need to clear it with him first of course, but I don’t anticipate a problem.”

I nodded at Ellie to accept. This might provide me with the opportunity I needed to sneak around and figure out how the man I know I saw did what he did.

“Would tomorrow work?” Ellie asked.

“Say eleven thirty?” Sebastian confirmed.

“I’ll meet you there.”

Ellie and Sebastian chatted for a few more minutes before he waved the waiter over to take us back to our table.

“Way to go, Ellie,” I complimented once we’d returned to our table.

“How’d it go?” Zak asked.

“Ellie flirted her way into an invitation to take a tour of the yacht,” I answered.

“I wasn’t flirting. I really am interested.”