Heavenly Honeymoon (Zoe Donovan Mysteries Book 15) (7 page)

“You were flirting,” I insisted. “And it worked. I really think I can figure this out if I can take a look around. I especially want to get a look at the lower level of the yacht. If there was a dark-skinned man on board, and there was, he must have been hiding below the main deck where we spent the majority of the evening.”

“Sebastian didn’t exactly invite you to come along,” Ellie reminded me.

“So I’ll just show up. What is he going to do? I’ll excuse myself to use the ladies’ room while he shows you the kitchen. I won’t need long. All I need to figure out at this point is how the man I saw could have gotten into the hallway without going through either the kitchen or the lounge, and where he might have gone after he killed Ricardo Jimenez.”

I decided it would be in my best interest to feed Toad a small amount of information so it wouldn’t look like I was keeping things from him. It would be easy for him to find out that Zak and I had dined with Charles and Piper, so it made sense that I would bring this up to him before he could ask me about it. I’d also decided to let him know I’d visited the yacht with Ellie after our visit. I didn’t want him to hear about it from someone else, but I also didn’t want him to try to stop me from going.

“Morning, Toad,” I greeted him as I entered the small, dingy office.

“You are early today.”

“I have a busy day planned with my family and wanted to be sure to have my mandatory check-in before things got too hectic. I don’t suppose you have any news?”

“Nothing new.”

“In the spirit of full disclosure, I want to tell you that Zak and I had lunch with Charles and Piper Belmont yesterday. I wasn’t snooping,” I quickly assured him. “Zak and Charles had business to discuss and I decided to tag along. Did you know the couple have visited a real haunted castle?”

Toad looked skeptical.

“Charles did mention that he’d been introduced to Ricardo by Chandella, who warned him to stay away from the guy. He didn’t say when this introduction occurred, but I guess it was during one of his previous visits to the island. His comment got me wondering about Chandella. Talin indicated that she’s Jensen Ewing’s mistress, yet Charles stated that he believed she was some sort of an executive assistant. He said she’d attended social engagements with him in Della’s absence.”

“So?” Toad shrugged.

“Do you think Della knows about Jensen and Chandella?”

“I’m sure she does.”

“And she doesn’t mind that her husband is cheating on her?”

Toad snickered. “Mr. Ewing isn’t cheating. Men in this country frequently take mistresses if they can afford to do so. This does not diminish Mrs. Ewing’s role as Mr. Ewing’s wife. Do you have anything else to report?”

“No. That’s it for now. I’ll see you this evening. Oh, I forgot to mention that Zak and I have been invited to a fund-raiser on Saturday for the animal shelter. I assume there’s no problem with our attending?”

Toad shrugged again. “I don’t see a problem, as long as you are there to watch the movie and not interrogate the other suspects.”

“So you do think there are other suspects?” I smiled.

“Perhaps.”

After completing my conversation with Toad I headed back to the house. Alex and Scooter were going to spend the morning at Kids Club and Zak planned to go surfing while Ellie and I met with Chef Sebastian on the yacht. If I could figure out how someone might have accessed the hallway undetected, maybe I could finally convince Zak and Talin that someone really had been in the hallway that night.

Ellie and I arrived at the yacht at exactly eleven thirty. I could tell Sebastian was less than thrilled to see me, but I had to give him credit; he didn’t say anything about my presence and was quite gracious in his attempt to include both Ellie and me in the conversation. I felt a little bad when I realized he’d brought lunch for Ellie and himself, but rather than point out the fact that my presence was an obvious intrusion, he simply divided the meal between the three of us.

Ellie and Sebastian did seem to have a lot to talk about. I understood that it was important for her to show interest in all the special gadgets that were required to prepare a meal at sea, but I really was more interested in access points to the hallway than I was the spice rack that Sebastian had contracted to be specially built for the kitchen.

“Would you like to see the rest of the yacht?” Sebastian finally asked after a long conversation about the challenges of cooking when the sea was rough.

“I’d love to.” Ellie grinned. “Zoe?”

“I guess a tour would be fun.” I tried to appear nonchalant.

“Why don’t we start at the top and work our way down?” Sebastian suggested.

I’d already seen the top deck and was more interested in the lower two but didn’t say as much. I did learn during the tour that there was an exterior stairway on the port side that allowed a person to move between decks without accessing the interior stairway we all had used the night of the dinner. That fact alone seemed worth the long and boring conversation I’d just endured.

Luckily, the tour of the top deck went quickly, so it was only a short wait before we went down to the main deck, where we’d been entertained on the night of the dinner. As I suspected, the hallway where I’d found Ricardo’s body provided access to the stairway leading to the bottom deck, where the bedrooms were located. There was a sliding door veiling the staircase, which is why I hadn’t noticed it on the night of the cruise. I realized this was the staircase Sebastian and the other staff members must have used when they headed down to have their dinner. I asked him if he’d seen a man in black on the lower deck that evening and he said he hadn’t.

The most interesting thing I found out about the 150-foot yacht was that not only did it feature a helicopter pad but it also had a docking bay that held two WaveRunners. As I considered the fact that one of the two WaveRunners was missing, I suddenly knew how my mystery man had left the boat. Now all I had to do was prove it.

Zak was back from surfing by the time we got back to the house. Ellie offered to pick up the kids from Kids Club and then spend the afternoon with them so Zak and I could have a little alone time. There was a marina near the house that rented sailboats by the hour, so we packed a hamper with champagne and fruit, cheese, and crackers and set off for a trip to a secret cove Zak had heard about from some of the local surfers.

It was a beautiful day, with just enough of a breeze to power the small boat without it being so windy as to feel overpowering. As it had been every day since we’d arrived, the sky was a deep blue that matched the sea almost exactly. The local gossip line still spoke of a storm on the horizon. Based on the chatter we’d overheard, it sounded like we could expect the arrival of wind and rain at some point on Sunday. Oria had warned me that these storms tended to come on all of a sudden, so it was best to count more on the accuracy of the weather report than the current conditions.

When we got to the cove where Zak was headed we found a small, isolated beach that was completely deserted. We anchored just offshore and then, placing our food hamper, towels, and other supplies on a rubber raft, swam from the boat to the shore.

“Now this is the life,” I commented as I stretched out on the blanket we’d brought and let the warm sun caress my back and shoulders.

“I’ll admit this is closer to the honeymoon I imagined than most of this trip has been.”

“Oh, I don’t know. The hike to the waterfall was pretty special.” I grinned.

Zak leaned over and kissed my shoulder. “I guess we’ve done okay. Not that I want to break the mood, but how was your trip to the yacht?”

I filled him in on what I’d discovered, including the fact that a WaveRunner was missing.

“I had no idea the yacht was outfitted with personal watercraft. Maybe someone did sneak in before the boat sailed, hid out belowdecks, killed Ricardo, and then grabbed a WaveRunner to make a getaway.”

“I told you I wasn’t imagining things.”

“I should know by now never to doubt you.”

I rolled over and looked around at the deserted beach. “I suppose there might be a way you can make it up to me.”

Zak leaned over and kissed me. “Yeah? What exactly did you have in mind?”

By the time we’d returned to the boat and headed back to the marina the wind had all but died. It was obvious the trip back was going to take a lot longer than the one to the cove.

“Did Jensen ever get back to you?” I asked Zak.

He nodded. “I’m supposed to meet him in the bar at six thirty.” He looked at his watch. “Maybe we should have headed back sooner.”

“I think the wind will shift once we get around the point,” I said. “Are you joining us for dinner?”

“Yeah. I told Jensen I wanted to buy him a drink to thank him for allowing us to use the house, but I planned to slip in the few questions we’d discussed and be back to the house for a late dinner. Maybe we can just BBQ on the patio.”

“I’ll stop to get some supplies after I check in with Toad,” I offered. “I think the kids would enjoy a casual dinner after all the nights we’ve made them clean up at the end of the day.”

“They seem to be having a good time,” Zak observed.

“Yeah, they are. I wish I didn’t have this murder investigation to deal with. I hoped we’d all have more time to spend together. I’m going to miss them when they go back to school. I wonder if Alex’s parents ever heard back from that high school they were trying to get her in to.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming school year,” Zak informed me. “I know you’re concerned that Alex won’t fit in if she boards at a high school, and I agree. I also agree with her parents that she’s outgrown her current school scholastically.”

“It’s a difficult situation.” I sighed. “I understand that it would be a waste to leave her where she is, but I want her to have a normal childhood, or at least as normal as a ten-year-old genius can.”

“I’ve been thinking about things since you first brought up the situation. I have an idea how we could open the school for a limited number of students this fall.”

“So we’re really going to do this? The school?”

“I thought it was what you wanted.”

“It is. It’s just all happening so fast.”

“If we want to have a facility built in a year, we’ll need to move fast. If you’re having second thoughts, now would be the time to voice them.”

“No,” I decided. “No second thoughts. I’m excited about having Scooter and Alex nearby, and when we decide to have our own little Zimmermans, a school nearby will be a perfect solution for them as well. What’s your idea for Alex for this year?”

“There are actually three minors we’re interested in educating: Alex, who needs a specialized education to meet the needs of her advanced rate of learning in pretty much every area; Scooter, who possesses average intelligence and would do fine in any elementary school but needs a stable living situation in order to thrive; and Pi, who’s suffering academically overall mainly due to his reluctance to attend classes but possesses a brilliant mind when it comes to understanding and being able to manipulate various forms of technology. Like Scooter, Pi needs a stable living environment.”

“How’s your request to become Pi’s guardian coming along?” I asked.

“I still haven’t heard back, but I don’t see a problem with the request being approved—unless, of course, my new wife is actually convicted of murder.”

I glared at Zak.

“In any event, the development of Zimmerman Academy seems to be the answer to all these challenges over the long run. The problem we face now has to do with finding a solution to the educational needs of these three individuals for the upcoming school year.”

“And?” I knew Zak must have figured something out or we wouldn’t be having this discussion, although he seemed to be taking the long way around to get to the point.

“I spoke to Phyllis about the situation with Alex. She agrees with us that the girl has special needs. She told me she’d be willing to homeschool Alex if we were to have her come live with us.”

“I’d be happy to have her live with us.”

“I figured as much. However, the conversation brought us around to providing Alex with a broad education that would encompass all her needs. Phyllis pointed out that Alex would benefit socially from attending school with her peers, although she agrees that if she were to attend middle school she might not be challenged academically.”

“And you’ve come up with a solution?”

“Perhaps. Our idea is to have Alex attend middle school half a day. Yes, she’ll still be the youngest student at the school, but a ten-year-old attending classes with twelve- and thirteen-year-olds is much preferable to attending classes with fourteen- to eighteen-year-olds.”

“You said she’d go to the middle school for only half a day?”

“Phyllis and I and maybe a few others would work with her in the afternoons to make sure she’s as challenged academically as she deserves.”

I hugged Zak. “It sounds like a perfect solution. Have you spoken to Alex’s parents about it?”

“Not yet. I wanted to run it past you first. I mean, we
are
a newly married couple, and I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about having a houseful of kids right away.”

“Houseful?” I asked.

“I just figured that as long as we had this awesome teaching team on board, we could have Scooter and Pi move in with us as well. Scooter will do fine at the elementary school, and we talked about using the same half-day option with Pi at the high school that we discussed for Alex.”

Alex was a perfectly behaved angel who in many ways was more mature than I was. Scooter could be a handful, but Zak seemed to be able to handle him. But Pi? Pi was a teenage dropout with behavior issues. Was I really ready to take that on?