Heavenly Honeymoon (Zoe Donovan Mysteries Book 15) (5 page)

“Other than the fact that the man was a regular visitor to the island as well as an abusive dog hater, can we find out anything else about him?” I asked.

“I can find out what brand of toothpaste he favored if you wanted to know that,” Zak confirmed.

“I don’t think that level of detail will be necessary, but what about phone records during the past few weeks?” I asked.

Zak frowned at the computer. “I can pull up his guest records for the resort. Chances are they’ll list a cell phone number. Once I have that, I can dig up a record of his calls, assuming he used a registered phone and not a burner. This is going to take some time. Maybe you want to go get the kids.”

“Okay. I could use a walk and I’ll take Charlie with me.”

It really was the perfect day. I willed myself to relax and enjoy the white sand beach, clear blue sky, aqua water, and close-to-perfect temperature. Maybe we’d go to one of the restaurants that offered outdoor dining that evening. There was going to be a spectacular sunset if the lack of clouds littering the sky was any indication. Once Ellie arrived and could stay with the kids, maybe Zak and I could partake of the moonlit walks I had fantasized about prior to our arrival.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into the Kids Club reception area was a midsized dog sleeping on a dog bed behind the registration counter.

“New dog?” I asked Oria.

“He’s a rescue I’m fostering until we can find him a forever home. We don’t have a shelter on the island right now, but I’m part of a group that takes strays and abandoned animals into our homes until new families can be identified.”

“That’s really awesome. I admire your commitment to our four-legged friends.”

“It isn’t an ideal situation, but we do the best we can with what we have to work with.”

“I operate a rescue and rehabilitation shelter where I live,” I revealed.

I spent the next fifteen minutes chatting with Oria about the challenges of operating such a facility. I found that the two of us had a lot in common, especially our love of animals. If we lived in the same part of the world, I knew we would be friends.

“There’s a fund-raiser for the shelter we’re hoping to build this weekend if you’re interested,” Oria offered.

“I’m very interested. When is it?”

“Saturday evening, on the beach at the far-east end of the island. We usually show an old movie on a giant screen that’s really an old sail, and there’ll be food and beverages for purchase. After the movie, for those who want to stay, some of the local bands will provide music. We’ve done similar fund-raisers in the past and they’re always a lot of fun. And they’re kid friendly if you want to bring Alex and Scooter, although it will be a late evening.”

“It sounds awesome. I’ll mention it to Zak, but I’m sure he’ll be all for it.”

“The movie starts as soon as it’s dark enough to see the film on the makeshift screen, but most people come early to share a meal and scope out a good spot. If you do make it, look for me and I’ll introduce you to some of the other members of the shelter committee. They’re a fantastic bunch who really care about the animals on the island.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks.”

I found Scooter and Alex and we headed back to the house, where I hoped Zak had good news. It occurred to me, now that I’d had a chance to think about things, that it was odd that Ricardo had been invited to be a dinner guest on the night of the cruise in the first place. He was simply a vendor for the resort. One of hundreds, most likely. The other guests were all rich businessmen staying in the VIP section of the resort, who were invited to attend with their wives. Ricardo and his escort date didn’t seem to fit the profile. As soon as I returned to the house I mentioned that to Zak, who agreed.

“I can ask Jensen about it,” Zak said. “I really hadn’t stopped to consider that until you mentioned it.”

“Did you find anything odd in the phone records?” I asked.

“I’m not sure if it’s odd or not, but Ricardo didn’t have a cell phone registered, nor had he made any calls from the landline in his room since he’d been here. I suspect he uses a burner phone, which I find odd because he’s a salesman. I would think he’d need to have a public number so his clients could reach him.”

“Maybe he used a phone owned by and registered to the company he worked for,” I suggested.

“Good idea. I’ll see what I can find out.”

By the time I got out of bed the next morning Zak had returned from the airport with Ellie. I hugged her like I hadn’t seen her for months, even though it had actually only been five days. I’d really hoped that once we got through the wedding things would calm down and level out a bit, but so far that wasn’t the way things were turning out for either of us.

“I’m so glad you’re here.” I squeezed her extra hard. I couldn’t imagine the mental turmoil she must be going through.

“Me too. Thanks for encouraging me to come. I feel better already.”

“Let’s get you settled in and you can catch me up with everything that’s going on,” I suggested.

“Honestly, I’d much rather focus on your investigation. I’m exhausted from trying to imagine what Levi’s new job is going to do to our lives. I could really use a mental vacation from the whole thing.”

“Okay, then let’s get you settled in and I can catch you up on the investigation.”

“Where are the kids?”

“Scooter is hiking with Kids Club and Alex is in her room, working on her book. It seems her parents are going through a rough patch, and while she won’t admit it, I can tell it’s really affecting her. I think she just needed some alone time.”

“I might have something that will cheer her up.” Ellie smiled.

I followed Ellie to Alex’s room, where she handed the girl a bag. “Phyllis sent these for you.”

Alex looked inside and her face lit up like she’d just been given a sackful of puppies.

“What is it?” I asked, assuming correctly that it wasn’t puppies.

“Books.”

“But I thought you had your Kindle. Isn’t it full of books?”

“Yes, but these are special books. When I was FaceTiming with Phyllis the first day we arrived here I mentioned I really wanted to learn more about the history of the island, and she said she’d try to track down some material about this area.”

“You FaceTimed with Phyllis?”

“I FaceTime with Phyllis all the time. I’ve learned so much from her. More than I’ll ever learn at the school I’ve been attending. Not that it was a bad school; it’s just that the curriculum is focused on providing a general education for the average student.”

Alex’s statement sounded like something one of her parents might say. They were trying to get her accepted into a high school for gifted students even though she was only ten. I was worried about her ability to adjust socially if she had to attend classes with students so much older than she was.

“That’s great,” I said, rather than voicing my concerns. “What did she send?”

Alex showed me each book and explained what she hoped to learn from it. She really did know what information she wanted and seemed to have a good understanding of how to find it.

“Oh, look. This one has information about the church,” she gushed.

“The church?” I asked.

“It’s the oldest building on the island. It sits atop a bluff you have to hike up to. I really hope we can go see it while we’re here.”

“It sounds like a fun trip.”

“Did you know the entire population of the island was wiped out during a hurricane almost two hundred years ago?” Alex asked.

“Really? I didn’t know that.”

“I think this volume will have more information about it.” Alex opened an old book with yellowed pages and began reading. I could see by the look on her face that she was going to be occupied for the rest of the day, so I led Ellie out to the patio, where Zak was sitting at a table working on his computer.

“Wow, this is beautiful,” Ellie gasped.

It really was a gorgeous place to sit and while away the afternoon. Not only were the aqua sea and white sand just beyond the patio wall but there were tropical flowers of a variety of colors growing in pots that decorated the outdoor space.

“So fill me in,” Ellie encouraged.

“Let’s take a walk while we talk,” I suggested. “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 off.”

“Maybe I can strike up a conversation with Sebastian,” Ellie offered. “One chef to another.”

“We’ll go to the steak house for dinner,” I suggested. “What about Kai?”

“Kai’s personnel records indicate he works in food services, but they aren’t any more specific than that. I’ll see if Jensen wants to meet for drinks in the next day or two. Maybe if I can get a few drinks in him he’ll spill what he knows about the passengers on the yacht that night. If I remember correctly, he seems to be a talker when he’s had a few.”

“Great. It looks like we have a plan to at least get started with the staff interviews. As for the guests, any idea how we should approach Charles and Park?” I wondered.

Zak leaned back in his chair and gazed out over the ocean. “Charles and I had begun a conversation regarding a piece of software he was interested in developing when Jensen interrupted to show him the bridge. I could call to invite him and his wife to lunch if Ellie doesn’t mind staying with Alex.”

“I’ve been itching to spend some time with a lounger and a good book ever since I walked out onto this beautiful patio,” Ellie answered. “You guys go ahead and do the detective thing. Alex and I will stay here and read.”

The restaurant where Zak had arranged to meet Charles and Piper was located in the VIP section of the resort, on a cliff overlooking the tall waves that surfers from around the world came to conquer. The red brick patio was lush with the same colorful flowers that grew in the wild within the jungle interior. White tablecloths set with real silver and crystal goblets added elegance to the colorful décor.

Charles and Piper turned out to be entertaining lunch companions once we assured them I’d had nothing to do with the murder on the yacht. They were wonderfully colorful individuals who had traveled the world and had many fascinating stories to tell. I’d never been anywhere until I started dating Zak. To be honest, I’d really never had much of an interest in traveling. Ashton Falls is one of the most beautiful places on earth, and I guess I just couldn’t see a reason to go anywhere else. But in the past thirteen months Zak had taken me to Hawaii, Alaska, New York, and now Heavenly Island. He’d opened my eyes to a world I never knew existed.

“So the castle was actually haunted?” I asked with just a slight air of doubt.

“I swear,” Piper declared. “When Poppy suggested we vacation in an Irish castle all I could think about was drafty hallways and ancient plumbing, but it turned out to be one of the most fascinating experiences of my life.”

I looked at Poppy—Charles—for confirmation that his wife wasn’t pulling my leg. He shrugged and smiled. “It’s true. The ghost was dim-witted, but the bloke had been six feet under for a good long while.”

I really wanted to believe them because how cool would it be to visit a real haunted castle? Still, there was a small part of me that thought this rich and cultured yet slightly nutty couple was teasing me.

“Not everyone who visits the castle sees the ghost,” Piper warned. “If I hadn’t gotten up to go to the loo I would have missed him entirely. Of course once I knew he was real I got up and looked for him each and every night.”

“How was he?” I asked. “I mean, was he scary and mean or more Casperish?”

“He wasn’t much to look at, but he seemed harmless,” Piper answered. “I can give you the contact information for the castle if you like. Maybe you can talk your Zachary into taking you for a look.”

I glanced at Zak.

“I’ll take you anywhere you want to go,” he said.

“It would be fun to stay in a real castle,” I admitted.

“Be sure to request a room in the tower,” Charles instructed. “I asked around a bit before we went and learned that the majority of the ghost sightings have occurred on the top floor.”

“Do you know who the ghost is supposed to have been?” I asked. I had to admit I was hooked.

“He was the laird of the castle in the late sixteen hundreds,” Charles began. “According to the legend, the man kidnapped the daughter of one of the peasants who lived in the village. He kept the girl in the very tower where we stayed. It seems the son of one of his knights fell in love with the girl and vowed to find a way to free her. He convinced some of the villagers to start a fire in order to distract the men guarding the castle, and then he snuck up the back stairway toward the tower. The laird was too smart to fall for such a trick and was waiting for the young man when he arrived. The two men fought and the laird ended up plunging from the balcony to his death on the rocks below.”

“And the young man who tried to save the girl?” I asked.

“He was convicted of murdering the laird and beheaded.”

“That’s an awful story.” I frowned.

“Most ghosts are associated with tragic deaths,” Piper reminded me.

“Yeah, I guess. What about the girl who’d been kept in the tower?” I asked.

“When the laird died his son took over and ended up falling in love with the girl. They eventually married and had many children. The line was a strong one that has endured. In fact, the current owner of the castle is related to the ghost in some way.”

“I guess that part is romantic. It does sound like an awesome adventure.”

“If you get over to the UK, pop over to Wales and give us a ring,” Piper encouraged. “Poppy just loves to give visitors the grand tour. Don’t you, dear?”

“I have to admit that part of me has always felt I should have been a tour guide rather than a businessman.”