Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 03 - Secrets at Sea (11 page)

He chuckled; his dark eyes sparkled with a brightness and fervor I’d never experienced before. “I adore a woman who speaks her mind.”

Then he should like this comment, too, I thought. “The truth is as plain as the braces she probably had removed last week.”

Dorian touched his chest. “Ouch, you wound me.”

I scoffed, “Somehow I doubt that, Dorian.”

“It always hurts when a beautiful and, obviously intelligent woman doubts my sincerity.”

“It doesn’t take that many brains to see through you, Dorian. But beautiful, no, that I’m not.”

“Oh, on the contrary, Liza.” He reached over and stroked the side of my face.

It sent a jolt through my body. Normally, I’d never let a total stranger touch me, like this, but I couldn’t seem to move. I felt like a deer staring into the headlights of an oncoming car.

“Your face shows character.” His fingers traced down my arm. “And your body is exquisite.”

My pulse rate accelerated with each slowly uttered word.

When he got to my hand he lifted it, brought it to his lips, and kissed it.

It sent another shock through my body and I gasped.

His face morphed into a devilish grin, then said, “And you’re smart and feisty. It’s an overwhelmingly intoxicating combination.”

There wasn’t enough air in my lungs left to allow me to speak.

Thankfully, Brian came onto the balcony and announced. “They just said we are pulling away from the pier.”

“Wonderful,” Carmelita said. “Everyone raise their glasses.”

We all did as instructed.

“Here’s to a great cruise,” she said.

“Wind at our back,” Jack Stillman said.

“Love in our hearts,” his wife added.

“Scrumptious food,” Leslie said.

“Strong booze,” Melvin added.

“Lots of fun,” the girl who had arrived on Dorian’s arm giggled.

Dorian nodded to me. “Now, you Liza. What would you like to add to our toast?”

“A safe voyage,” I said.

He smiled and stroked my face with his finger, again. It sent another shiver through my body. I should be moving away from him. Why wasn’t I doing it? Then he added to the toast, “To new experiences with beautiful and exquisite people.”

I turned as Tom came through the balcony door. He scowled at Dorian.

Chapter 12

I actually blushed. It wasn’t like I was doing anything wrong, but there was no denying the charisma and pure-sex appeal that oozed from Dorian Graystone. It was like being hypnotized by a hot burning flame.

“To our cruise!” Carmelita said, then tapped glasses with Brian and kissed him.

Each couple did the same.

Tom took Dorian’s glass, touched mine and said, “And to keeping your hands to yourself.” He leaned in and kissed me.

Normally I close my eyes when Tom kisses me, but this time I didn’t. I watched Dorian smile, go over to his girl and touch her glass. He wrapped his arms around her waist and slowly brought her close to him. He glanced back and our eyes locked. His glistened and I could swear they were smiling at me. As he leaned down and kissed the girl, I could feel the heat from where I stood.

Tom pulled away. I quickly looked at him and said, “You found me.”

“I leave you for one second and you’ve already replaced me with Slick over there.”

I slapped him on the arm. “Oh, please.”

“I saw the way he looked at you,” Tom said, eyeing Dorian over my shoulder.

“What?”

“Like a cat scoping out a new toy or his next meal.”

And that was precisely what I felt like, but I rolled my eyes and asked, “What did Rudolph tell you?”

“He said the door to our room might have been open a few minutes unattended. As he finished up our room, a guest stopped by and asked for another pillow. He went and got it, but he’s not sure whether he closed the door when he left or not.”

“Well, that explains how the note got there but not who put it on our bed,” I said.

Tom nodded.

The girl with Dorian giggled loudly. Tom glanced her way.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said.

“Jealous?” I teased.

“No, but if I stay any longer I’m going to arrest her for underage drinking and him for contributing to the delinquency of a minor.”

I chuckled. “I think you might enjoy putting handcuffs on him.”

Tom grinned.

“Let’s say goodbye to Carmelita and the other guests.”

We walked over to where Carmelita sat with the other guests.

“Thanks for inviting us to watch the ship sail, Carmelita.”

“You’re welcome, dear.”

“Tom and I are going to go wandering.”

“Enjoy and don’t forget to join us for dinner tomorrow night. Our reservations are at seven at the Supper Club.”

“Thanks. It’s not fancier than the regular dinning room is it? I don’t have anything that extravagant with me.”

“Oh no, you can wear whatever you planned on wearing to formal night,” she said.

“Great.”

As soon as we left Carmelita’s cabin, Tom said, “I forgot about the formal nights. Let’s go down to the shops and see about renting me a tux.”

“Sure.”

We wandered down to the third floor, Atlantic Deck, with all the stores. The shops weren’t open yet, but the place to rent the tuxes was. Tom got measured and rented everything he needed for the two formal nights.

When we walked by the Excursion Desk, I said, “We need to check out the outings for Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo.”

“Great idea.” Tom picked up several pamphlets and price lists for each stop. “Let’s go back to our room and see if our luggage is there. I’d like to get out of these long pants and into some shorts.”

“Okay.”

Our luggage stood outside our door. Tom carried them in.

“You can do yours first,” I told him, “that way you can get your shorts out.”

“Thanks.” He put his suitcase on the bed and opened it. His clothes were all shoved in. He shook his head.

“I forgot your clothes are all a mess. They must have laundry service here.” I picked up the phone directory and flipped through it.

“They’re fine, Liza. I can just iron them when I need them.”

“First off, you iron? And second, I read on the cruise line’s website that they only have them in the guest laundry rooms and not in the cabins.”

“Why?”

“Fire.”

“Oh,” he frowned. “It will probably cost a fortune.”

“It’s no problem, the charge will just show up on my Navigator Card,” I said.

“Oh yeah, you better keep track of how much money I owe you.”

“It’s okay.” I smiled. “I know where you live.”

I found the steward’s number and dialed it. When someone answered, I asked, “Can I get some clothes cleaned and pressed?”

“Of course,” the woman said. “I’ll send your steward over with some bags. We’ll clean, press and fold the clothes. You’ll have them all back tomorrow morning.”

“Perfect, thanks.”

I told Tom what the lady said.

“Great,” he said. “I’ll just keep out a few things in case they lose my clothes.”

I nodded. “With our luck so far, that’s a really good idea.”

Rudolph arrived a few minutes later with several laundry bags. He waited while Tom and I shoved his clothes into the bags, then took the bags and left.

Tom closed his suitcase, stuck it under the bed and put mine on the bed. He sat down on the couch and started looking at the excursions for Puerto Vallarta.

I opened my garment section and took out my long skirt and blouses.

“Hey, those aren’t slinky,” Tom said, over the price list he perused.

“I told you I’m not the slinky type.” I hung them up in the closet, then took the clothes from the suitcase and put them on a closet shelf. When I moved my shorts, the duplicate pictures spilled out all over the floor.

A few slid all the way over to where Tom sat. He picked the one at his feet up, looked at it, and collected the rest. “Now these look familiar.”

“I told you I had duplicates.”

He shook his head. “No, you didn’t.”

“I thought I did,” I said. I put away my shirts.

He chuckled. “No, I’d remember if you had. You just didn’t want to share these with Ramirez, did you?”

“Well, there is that.” I inclined my head towards the photos.

He set the pictures down on the table and took up his price list. “Finish unpacking and then we’ll go through the pictures. There are many great outings in Puerto Vallarta. They’re not cheap but they do look fun.”

“How expensive are they?” I leaned over and tried to see the prices.

“Finish unpacking, Liza. Besides, I’ll pay for the excursions. You can choose whatever you want.”

I raised my eyebrows. “On my credit card?”

“Remember, you know where I live. I’ll get you your money.”

I laughed and finished unpacking.

When I was done, Tom put my suitcase under the bed with his and we sat down on the couch.

“So what did you find?” I asked.

He picked up a pamphlet. “ATV Adventure?”

I laughed. “Not during my lifetime.”

“I guess the Extreme Canopy is out, too.”

“What’s that?” I asked.

“Metal line between two mountains that you scale down.” His eyes glistened with excitement.

My eyes widened. Just the thought gave me a small heart attack. “We don’t have to do the same excursion.”

“No, we’re on this trip together. We’ll find something we both want to do.”

I checked out the brochures. “City tour?” I suggested.

Tom frowned.

“Off Road Bicycle Adventure?” Tom said.

I shook my head.

“What about Dolphin Encounter? You actually get to swim with the dolphins.”

“I like wild animals behind glass.”

“Okay.” He started flipping through the brochures again. Then he smiled. “I’ve got it.”

“What?”

“Horseback riding.”

“I like horses.”

“I know. You used to ride in high school, right?”

“Yes. I begged my parents to buy me a horse, so they let me take lessons and take care of a horse for an entire year. I enjoyed it, but it was way too much work. It’s an every day thing. You have to feed them, clean their stables, clean out their hooves, and walk them every day. Sure the riding was fun, but the rest was too much work!”

“Then this is perfect, it’s someone else’s horse.”

“I like it.”

He nodded and kissed me on the nose. “Me, too.”

“So where do we have to go to pay?”

“No place,” Tom said, then grabbed the remote for the television set. “You can do it all on your TV.”

“Wow, that’s great.”

“And let’s hope it’s easy, too.”

And it was, a few clicks and we were booked.

“What about the other ports, should we look at those and decide what we want to do?” I asked.

“We can,” Tom handed me the brochures for Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.

“I’d like to go on a catamaran. It would be nice to be on a big sail boat and go snorkeling.”

“You’re actually planning on getting in the water?”

“Maybe.”

He chuckled. “This I’ve got to see.”

“I might.”

“You want to bet?” he asked.

“No,” I told him.

He was right, I loved the beach and going to lakes and rivers but getting in the water was a whole other story. It was usually too cold and I was just not comfortable in it. My mom said I never was. Even as a child, I learned to swim and water-ski because Jordan did, not because I actually wanted to do it myself. Now that I am thirty-two years old, I just don’t have to keep up with my younger sister anymore.

We finally decided on a Shopping, Beach, and Lunch trip in Mazatlan and the Chileno Bay Snorkeling trip in Cabo San Lucas. Tom pushed the right buttons on the remote control and we were booked.

“Now,” Tom picked up the pictures and gave me a hard look. “Let’s talk about these.”

Chapter 13

I took the photos from Tom and started separating them into piles.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“My parents took six cruises.” I held up two pictures. “If you’ll notice, my mom looks different in the pictures.”

“I noticed that. Did she always change her hair?”

“Yes. Remember she taught a kindergarten-first grade loop.”

“Yeah, she kept the same kids for two years, right?”

“Yes. When she taught kindergarten she had to be at school earlier, so she kept her hair short, then she’d let it grow. By the time the kids were ready to go to second grade her hair was usually pretty long.”

“And the color?”

I laughed. “If she hadn’t dyed her hair it would have been totally white, so she’d stand at the counter in the drugstore and just choose a color that pleased her, normally some shade of blonde, brown, or red. But one time she went black. It was ghastly, so she never did that again.”

He laced his fingers in my hair. “You’re not ever going to change your hair, are you?”

“I might cut it.”

He looped his hand around to the back of my neck and brought his lips toward mine. Right before his lips touched mine, he said, “Not too much, love. I like it long and wavy.”

I leaned into him and we kissed. It started slow and tender but immediately was replaced with the hunger we felt for each other. Quickly, we pulled off our clothes and got into bed. Tom always made me feel like I was the most important thing in the world, especially in bed. For him, it was so important that I enjoyed every minute of it. He took pleasure in mine. And when we were both finally ready, it was like being together in a canoe and flying over a waterfall.

Afterward, Tom wrapped his arms around me and kissed the side of my neck. “I love you, Liza.”

Everyone has a spot that drives them wild; my neck is mine. So I groaned in pleasure but managed to get out, “I love you, too.”

I snuggled next to him and we lay there for a long time, not speaking, enjoying the closeness.

Finally Tom broke the silence, “Let’s take a look at those pictures.”

“Just can’t stand to lie here and do nothing, can you?”

Tom slid his hands up my belly and toward my breasts. “I can always think of something to do.”

Before they got to my breasts, I grabbed his hands. “I’ll get the pictures.”

I retrieved them from the table and brought them onto the bed where I finished sorting them into six piles.

“I recognize Carmelita, and those two other people,” Tom said.

“Yes, Melvin and Leslie Mitchell.”

“They drink too much.” Tom frowned.

“Yes, they did reek of alcohol, didn’t they?”

“We should ask Carmelita about the other people in the pictures,” Tom suggested.

I pointed to a tall, red-haired woman and a tall man who stood next to her. “I think this must be Norma and Donald Philips. Betsy told me the names of the people that usually traveled together.”

“Did you tell Carmelita about Betsy?”

“No.” I shook my head. “Maybe when the cruise is over. I don’t want to spoil her vacation.”

Tom pulled out a picture from each pile. Carmelita was in all of them. “She’s with a different man for every cruise?”

“Yes, Betsy called her a professional cruise escort.”

“In my line of business, there’s another name for that.”

“But she’s really nice.”

“Yes, she does seem to be,” Tom agreed, half-heartedly. “Let’s go through each pile separately and see if anything strikes us.”

I picked up the oldest pictures and we flipped through them. They included pictures of each couple, group shots, and a picture from the “send off” party where they were all holding glasses of champagne.

“Anything strike you?” Tom asked.

I shrugged. “Nope.”

“Me neither,” he said. “Let’s look at the others.”

We went through the second and third piles. Nothing. In the fourth pile we found two pictures that were exactly the same.

“You’ve got the original and the duplicate of this one.” Tom held up the two pictures.

“I must have missed that one when I sorted these at home.” I took one of them — a group photo of fifteen people. I recognized the three couples, Carmelita and her friend, Melvin and Leslie Mitchell, and my mom and dad. The others were strangers.

Tom pointed to the picture. “Isn’t that your friend, Dorian?”

“He’s not my friend,” I told Tom.

“Oh that’s right, he’s just the guy who can’t seem to keep his hands or lips off you.”

I rolled my eyes, but then concentrated on the picture. “I think you’re right, it’s him.” I pointed to the young girl with him. “That must have been his playmate of the day.”

Tom leaned closer and sneered. “Yep, she looks about sixteen and she’s holding a champagne flute.”

“That leaves seven people I’ve never seen before.”

“Seven unknowns out of fifteen, isn’t bad.”

“It only takes one,” I suggested, then pointed to a man in the back. “Could that be Brian?”

Tom looked closer at the picture. “It could be.”

“But he wasn’t there with Carmelita.” I indicated the man standing next to her. “This must have been her date for the cruise.”

Tom’s phone rang. He opened it up. “Tom Owens.”

He handed it to me. “It’s Justin.”

I took the phone. “Hello Justin.”

“Hi, Teach, how’s cruising?”

“It’s fine, Justin. How’s the research going?”

“Great, I sent the information I found out on Adam, his wife, and the dead woman to your email address. You should be able to pick it up on the ship.”

“Thanks, Justin. Anything unusual?”

“It’s hard to say. You’ll need to read the information. But I think the most bizarre thing is that I can’t find anything on Adam Sherman before 1978.”

“What do you mean?”

“He lived and practiced law in Arizona in 1978.”

“Okay, he had to go to law school someplace?”

“Nope, or at least not under that name.”

“Weird.”

“That’s what I thought. But I’ll keep looking.”

“Check Texas. Betsy said my parents knew Adam from Texas.”

“Okay, I’ll start digging in your home town and the surrounding areas. I’ll find him; it just may take me awhile.”

“Thanks, Justin.”

“You’re welcome, Teach.”

“How’s my dog?”

Justin laughed. “Read my email, I blogged her for you.”

“What does that mean?”

“Teach, you’ve got to come into the twenty-first century.”

“I am here, Justin. Does blogging have something to do with the computer?”

“Yes, it’s a running commentary.”

“Okay, I’ll check.

“If I find anything else, I’ll give you a call.”

“Thanks.” I hung up the phone. “Justin’s started a blog on Shelby.”

“That will be fun to read,” Tom said.

“You know what it is?”

“Of course.”

I shook my head. “Let’s get dressed and go and check my email. Justin sent some information to me.”

“Great. Ramirez said he sent me the police report on the dead woman, too.”

I told him what Justin said about Adam Sherman.

“That’s very interesting,” Tom said.

“What does it mean?”

“I don’t know but it usually means someone has something to hide.”

“I wonder what?”

Tom shook his head. “While you take your shower, I’ll call Ramirez. Maybe he’s found something on the note.”

“Fingerprints?”

“That would be nice. Then he could go and arrest the guy and we could enjoy our vacation.”

“What if the person is on the boat with us?”

“Then it will be good to know who it is. In fact, Ramirez could send us a picture, too.”

“Now that would be good.”

Tom nodded.

I got into the shower. It was small, but came with a shampoo and body wash dispenser. That was good, since I hadn’t brought any along. When I came out Tom was wrapped in a white terrycloth robe.

“Where’d you find that?” I asked.

He opened the closet and handed me one. “The room comes with them.”

“That’s nice.” I wrapped it around me and tied the cord. “What did Ramirez say?”

“There was nothing on the paper. No prints except yours and mine.”

“What about fibers or other trace evidence?” I asked.

He smiled. “You watch too much TV.”

“Was there any?”

“No, it was clean. But Ramirez has the lab checking to see where it was printed.”

“They can do that?”

“Sure, since 9/11, every printer puts a number on the back of the paper when it prints. You have to have special equipment to see it, but it’s there.”

“And if the printer was bought before 9/11?”

“Then we’re out of luck.”

Tom stood and stretched. “I’m going to take a shower. I don’t have to dress up for dinner tonight, do I?”

“No, on the first night you can pretty much wear whatever you want. Some people don’t get their luggage in time to dress for dinner, especially the ones who eat at five.”

“Perfect, I’ll wear my shorts.”

Tom got into the shower and I dressed in a skirt and top, put on some makeup, and dried my hair. It was cool; the blow dryer was in the vanity’s top drawer. You just opened the drawer and pulled it out.

I flipped through the pictures again. Could these be what the thief at the inn had wanted? Pictures of my parents and their cruising friends? Why would they be so important?

I laid the set on the vanity and took the picture of the fifteen people with me over to the bed. Who were those extra three people and were they important? I needed to take this picture to Carmelita and have her take a look at it. She would know who they were. Of course, I wanted to show it to Betsy and look what happened to her.

I threw the picture on the bed and got out one of the books I brought along to read.

Tom came out a few seconds later, with a towel wrapped around his middle. “Okay, that’s the smallest shower I’ve ever used.”

“I guess us taking a shower together is out,” I told him, grabbing the photo to use as a bookmark.

“I’d like to say we could give it a try, but we’d probably both get hurt in there.”

I nodded.

“Why are you wearing a skirt? I thought tonight was casual.”

“It is, but I’ve got these skirts which are a little too short to wear at school. It’s impossible to sit with my kids on the floor in them. I brought them along and, after all, my luggage is here.”

“Do you want me to wear slacks?” He asked.

The look on his face was pitiful. I laughed, “No, put your shorts on. It’s the only night you’ll get to wear them.”

“Thanks.” He grabbed the shorts he’d taken from his suitcase and put them on. They were a little wrinkled, but he put on a collared knit shirt and looked quite respectable.

When we were both dressed, we walked down to the Internet Café where Tom purchased an internet time plan.

“Can I print something that someone has sent me?” I asked the clerk.

“Yes, but only in black and white.”

“That’s fine.”

Tom checked his email and printed the report from Ramirez.

While he looked at it, I went into my email and opened up the one from Justin. There were several attachments I sent to the printer. I went back to Justin’s email. It was all about Shelby.

It started:

Hi Teach…

Here’s the latest on Shelby’s adventures at my house.

2:00 pm – repeatedly attacked vacuum until my mom finally gave up and got the broom.

2:30 pm – grabbed the broom from my mom’s hands and dragged it out the dog door.

I started laughing, Tom came over and asked, “What?”

“Read what Justin blogged about Shelby,” I continued reading the email.

3:00 pm – Shelby grabbed dusting cloth from my mom’s hand and buried it in back yard

3:30 pm - mom gave up cleaning

4:00 pm – phone rang, Shelby went nuts, mom tripped over Shelby and fell. Shelby licked her face.

4:30 pm – People came to the door to sell something. Shelby kept barking. Mom had to send the people away. Mom’s starting to really like Shelby.

That’s it for now, Teach. Talk to you soon.

“Shelby sure has something against anyone cleaning, doesn’t she?” Tom said.

“It’s not that, it’s just the movement. If you could figure out how to clean without moving, she’d be fine with it.”

“Did you print the stuff from Justin?” Tom asked.

“Yes.”