Read Online Deceived by Patricia H. Rushford - Free Book Online

buckled.
    â€œJennie! What’s wrong?” Lisa jumped up from the deck chair and ran to her cousin’s side. “You look awful! Are you seasick?”
    Jennie took another deep breath and closed her eyes.
    With Lisa and Matt supporting her, she stumbled the few steps to a nearby deck chair and collapsed into it. “Stay with her,” Matt ordered. “I’ll go for the ship’s doctor.”
    â€œNo.” Jennie put a hand out to stop him. “Not the doctor—I need to…get Gram. Someone locked me in the sauna.”
    â€œAre you serious?” Lisa asked.
    Jennie nodded. “Did you see anyone?”
    â€œNo,” they said in unison. “We just arrived a few minutes ago,” Matt finished. “Any idea who might have done it?”
    â€œI hate to even suggest it, but you two and Dominic were the only ones who knew where I was going.”
    Matt frowned. “You think Dominic did this?”
    â€œThat’s unreal,” Lisa interrupted. “What possible reason could he have to hurt you?”
    â€œI don’t know, but who else knew? I suppose someone could have followed me. I bumped into a guy just as I went into the fitness center.” Jennie shuddered at the possibility.
    â€œThere were other people out on deck, too. Maybe someone overheard us talking.” Lisa glanced up at Matt as if she expected him to have an answer.
    â€œLook.” Matt hunkered down between the two chairs. “I say we eliminate Dominic as a suspect right now. He’s probably asleep. But if it will make you feel better we can go down and check—that is if you think you can make it.”
    â€œI can make it.” This time when Jennie stood she felt almost normal. Normal enough, at least, to find some answers.
    A few minutes later the trio stood outside of the stateroom Matt and Dominic shared. Matt slid a plastic card into the slot on the door and turned the handle. “You guys stay out here. I’ll talk to him.”
    Matt stepped into the room and closed the door. A few seconds later he popped back out. “He was asleep. I told him what happened. Give him a minute to get dressed.” Matt closed the door, but in the brief time it had been open, Jennie had spotted Dominic lying in a rumpled bed, looking as if he’d been roused out of a sound sleep. A pang of guilt that she’d even suspected him jabbed at her conscience.
Way to go, McGrady. Great way to treat a new friend.
    Embarrassed, Jennie offered an apology. “Oh, Matt, tell him to go back to sleep. I’m sorry I bothered him.”
    â€œIt is no trouble,” Dominic assured her as he stepped into the hallway. Concern etched his bronzed features. “You are okay?”
    â€œI’m fine—at least I will be when I find out who locked me in that sauna and why.”
    Dominic finished buttoning his shirt. “Now we must call the ship’s security officer, no?”
    â€œYes,” Jennie affirmed. Using the phone on the desk in the boys’ room, she called security, then called Gram and J.B. Lisa had pulled out her cell and then put it back in her bag. She must have realized they couldn’t use it on the ship.
    Ten minutes later, Matt, Lisa, Dominic, Gram, J.B., and the security officer crowded around the small sauna while Jennie explained, again, how she’d been locked in. “Are you certain the door wouldn’t open?” the dark-haired officer asked. He’d introduced himself as Daniel Lee. Under his polite demeanor he sounded annoyed, as though she’d made the whole thing up.
    â€œPositive.”
    Daniel opened and closed the door several times. “As you can see, Miss McGrady, the door has no lock. Hence, you couldn’t have been, as you say, ‘locked in.’ If you couldn’t open the door, someone must have been leaning against it. I suspect your friends here were playing a joke on you.”
    Lisa’s mouth