Read Online Heavenly Honeymoon (Zoe Donovan Mysteries Book 15) by Kathi Daley - Free Book Online
Authors: Kathi Daley
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“I’m sure Charlie needs to stretch his legs.”
Charlie and I walked down to the beach with Ellie, filling her in on everything Zak and I had discovered. We had a list of suspects, and so far we’d eliminated ourselves; Della, due to her pregnancy; and Dezi and Lucinda, because they didn’t seem to have known Ricardo prior to the dinner cruise. Zak was in the lounge from the time Ricardo disappeared until I found the body. He remembered Stefana had been sitting at the bar, nursing a drink and chatting with the bartender, who we’d identified as Jerrell, during the entire window of death. So we’d eliminated them from the suspect list. Likewise, Kim and Piper were sitting at a table discussing a movie they had both seen during that same window of time, so we’d eliminated them as well. Zak had been speaking to Charles when Jensen offered to show him the bridge. The men had left together but had returned individually. After Charles left with Jensen, Zak entered into a conversation with Park that had lasted until shortly before I found the body. Park had excused himself to use the men’s room right before that, and he’d seemed to be away longer than expected, which is why his wife, Kim, went looking for him. She was the one who’d found me kneeling on the floor next to the body.
Based on the approximate time of death and the movement of the people within the lounge, it seemed that Charles, Park, and Jensen were the only ones with opportunity other than myself. Of the identified staff, we assumed Captain Jack was busy steering the boat, but we hadn’t actually confirmed that, and we hadn’t as of yet established the location of Sebastian, Kai, or Rosa. That left us with seven suspects, as well as the mystery man to whom I’d given the knife.
“This is going to be a lot harder without Salinger to feed us information,” Ellie said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Plus we don’t really know any of the suspects, so it isn’t going to be easy to just enter into casual conversations like we usually do at home. We need an inside man, especially to show us around and allow us access to the staff who were on board that night.”
“Have you met anyone on the island who you might be able to go to for help?” Ellie asked.
“Just Toad, the man I’m required to check in with twice a day. He doesn’t strike me as being superknowledgeable about the art of investigation, but he does seem to know about the island. And Talin, the man who interviewed me, seems pretty smart, but I sense it will be hard to get much out of him. In fact, he flat out told me to stay out of it. Zak knows Jensen, but at this point he’s still a suspect. Oria, the woman who babysat for the kids while we were at the dinner, runs the Kids Club. She seems really nice and we had a nice conversation yesterday. She’s on a committee that’s trying to build an animal shelter on the island. By the way, we’re invited to attend a fund-raiser on Saturday night. All of us.”
“What kind of fund-raiser?” she asked.
I explained about the movie on the beach.
“Sounds like fun.”
“Let’s head back to see what Zak has found out. Maybe we can wrap this up today and then we can spend the rest of the week on the beach or at the spa.”
“It looks like Rosa also works at Kids Club from time to time,” Zak offered after we returned. “If I remember correctly, she served the food on the night of the dinner, and her personnel records show that she works part-time in the restaurant and part-time with the kids.”
I looked at the clock on the wall. “I know you told Scooter you’d pick him up after lunch. I can go instead and ask Oria about Rosa’s schedule. Did you find personnel records for Kai and Sebastian?”
“Sebastian is the head chef in the steak house. He normally works Wednesday through Sunday evenings. The steak house is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. He was on the yacht on Tuesday, which would have been one of his days
Charlie and I walked down to the beach with Ellie, filling her in on everything Zak and I had discovered. We had a list of suspects, and so far we’d eliminated ourselves; Della, due to her pregnancy; and Dezi and Lucinda, because they didn’t seem to have known Ricardo prior to the dinner cruise. Zak was in the lounge from the time Ricardo disappeared until I found the body. He remembered Stefana had been sitting at the bar, nursing a drink and chatting with the bartender, who we’d identified as Jerrell, during the entire window of death. So we’d eliminated them from the suspect list. Likewise, Kim and Piper were sitting at a table discussing a movie they had both seen during that same window of time, so we’d eliminated them as well. Zak had been speaking to Charles when Jensen offered to show him the bridge. The men had left together but had returned individually. After Charles left with Jensen, Zak entered into a conversation with Park that had lasted until shortly before I found the body. Park had excused himself to use the men’s room right before that, and he’d seemed to be away longer than expected, which is why his wife, Kim, went looking for him. She was the one who’d found me kneeling on the floor next to the body.
Based on the approximate time of death and the movement of the people within the lounge, it seemed that Charles, Park, and Jensen were the only ones with opportunity other than myself. Of the identified staff, we assumed Captain Jack was busy steering the boat, but we hadn’t actually confirmed that, and we hadn’t as of yet established the location of Sebastian, Kai, or Rosa. That left us with seven suspects, as well as the mystery man to whom I’d given the knife.
“This is going to be a lot harder without Salinger to feed us information,” Ellie said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Plus we don’t really know any of the suspects, so it isn’t going to be easy to just enter into casual conversations like we usually do at home. We need an inside man, especially to show us around and allow us access to the staff who were on board that night.”
“Have you met anyone on the island who you might be able to go to for help?” Ellie asked.
“Just Toad, the man I’m required to check in with twice a day. He doesn’t strike me as being superknowledgeable about the art of investigation, but he does seem to know about the island. And Talin, the man who interviewed me, seems pretty smart, but I sense it will be hard to get much out of him. In fact, he flat out told me to stay out of it. Zak knows Jensen, but at this point he’s still a suspect. Oria, the woman who babysat for the kids while we were at the dinner, runs the Kids Club. She seems really nice and we had a nice conversation yesterday. She’s on a committee that’s trying to build an animal shelter on the island. By the way, we’re invited to attend a fund-raiser on Saturday night. All of us.”
“What kind of fund-raiser?” she asked.
I explained about the movie on the beach.
“Sounds like fun.”
“Let’s head back to see what Zak has found out. Maybe we can wrap this up today and then we can spend the rest of the week on the beach or at the spa.”
“It looks like Rosa also works at Kids Club from time to time,” Zak offered after we returned. “If I remember correctly, she served the food on the night of the dinner, and her personnel records show that she works part-time in the restaurant and part-time with the kids.”
I looked at the clock on the wall. “I know you told Scooter you’d pick him up after lunch. I can go instead and ask Oria about Rosa’s schedule. Did you find personnel records for Kai and Sebastian?”
“Sebastian is the head chef in the steak house. He normally works Wednesday through Sunday evenings. The steak house is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. He was on the yacht on Tuesday, which would have been one of his days
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