Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 03 - Secrets at Sea (3 page)

I fell asleep dreaming about Space Mountain at Disneyland. Enjoying the speed, taking the curves and feeling the wind rushing through my hair - it was fabulous!

Suddenly I startled awake. Someone stood in my bedroom’s doorway. I screamed.

Chapter 3

My screaming set off Shelby. She barked, jumped from the bed, and charged the intruder.

I heard Tom’s loud and stern voice. “Shelby! Get back on the bed!”

She stopped, turned quickly, and came flying onto the bed and into my arms.

“Don’t yell at her.” I petted the dog. “You scared her.”

“I know. But remember what happened the last time she came barking at me.” Tom put down the suitcase he carried.

I cringed. “Oh yeah, the black eye.”

“Yeah,” he smiled. “I don’t think it would look good in our cruise pictures.”

I smiled. “That’s true. Coming to bed, love?”

“Of course.” He started to unbutton his shirt. My heart skipped a beat at the first glimpse of the hair on his chest and broad shoulders. He stopped and asked, “Where’d you put the lockbox I left here?”

“It’s under my bed.”

Tom retrieved the box and locked his guns inside, one from his shoulder holster and the other from his anklet. I didn’t grow up with guns and never thought I’d ever fall in love with someone who always carried two.

Would they let you bring them on a cruise? I wondered. I doubted it. “Where are you leaving your guns while we’re gone?”

“You know I never go anywhere without my guns. I’m taking them with me.”

“To Mexico.”

He frowned. “Okay, I’ll leave my Glock here, but I’m not going anywhere without my ankle piece.”

He placed the guns in the lockbox and pushed it back under my bed, finished undressing, and climbed into bed.

I moved toward him and he wrapped his arms around me. His face brushed softly against my back. He worked his way up and kissed my neck. “Thanks for inviting me on your vacation, honey.”

I turned around and kissed him, long and hard. One thing led to another, as it usually did with Tom. Afterwards, we lay in each other’s arms. It was so nice, Tom’s breathing slow and steady on my neck. He always fell asleep quickly and easily. I, on the other hand, always lay in bed for a long time before I fell asleep, rehashing the day’s events or a lesson I’d taught or planned to teach the next day. Tonight I thought about the cruise and Adam’s and my parents’ deaths. They probably had nothing to do with each other. But at least I would be spending a week on a cruise ship with Tom. My mom and dad had always enjoyed themselves. Maybe we’d make it our yearly tradition, too.

The next morning, Saturday, I woke up to the most wonderful smell, Tom cooking breakfast. I lay in bed and reveled in the bacon, eggs, and waffle aroma. Did I even have those in my refrigerator?

I wrapped myself in my robe and strolled into the kitchen. Tom looked showered and dressed, and I could see his little ankle gun bulging under his pants’ cuff. He whistled and fried bacon.

“Good morning, honey.”

“Good morning, love,” I leaned in and gave him a big kiss. As I did I reached around him and stole a piece of bacon.

He frowned at me. “Tricky.”

“I try.” I pointed to the eggs. “I had that stuff in my refrigerator?”

“No,” he shook his head. “I brought it with me. You never have anything good in your refrigerator.”

“I do too,” I said.

“Oh yeah, I found a pizza box, four Chinese food containers, and cheese covered with some hideous smelling fuzz.”

“I had Chinese Chicken Salad in there, earlier.”

“What happened to it?”

“I ate it.”

“How many times?”

“Just twice.”

Tom shook his head. “I’ve never met anyone else who makes something and then eats it until it’s all gone. No one else would eat it twice in a row.”

“If it was good once, then it’s good twice.”

“Most people eat something else in between.”

“Well,” I huffed. “I’m not most people.”

He reached around my waist and pulled me toward him. “And I’m grateful you have your own way of doing things, honey.” He kissed me on the nose.

“Nice sidestep.”

“I do the best I can.” He smiled and pointed toward the kitchen table. “Have a seat and I’ll bring your breakfast.”

“Oh.” I winked at him. “I love to be waited on, especially by someone as cute as you.”

“Just get over there and sit down.”

“I’m going, I’m going.” I sat down and Tom brought me a plate with two waffles, two eggs over easy, and three slices of bacon. I pointed to the plate. “Hey, this is too much food.”

“It’s what you usually eat.”

“I know, but I’m going on a cruise. The food is supposed to be fabulous and I need to lose a few pounds before I get there.”

Tom lowered his head and grimaced. “You think the food is going to be better than mine?”

“No.” I took a deliberate bite of eggs, then continued, “But I hear you can eat twenty-four hours a day.”

He set his own plate next to mine. It had one waffle, an egg, and no bacon. “I see. Does that mean we’re going to go from one food table to another the entire cruise?”

“Maybe.”

He shook his head. “I hope they have a gym on the ship.”

“I think they do.”

“Good. If I’m going to be eating all day long, I’ll need to exercise.”

“Maybe I’ll exercise with you.”

Tom leaned his head back and his eyes went wide. “You, the Never Exercise Queen?”

“Maybe.” I shrugged.

“This trip is sounding better and better.”

Shelby sneaked up and I gave her a piece of bacon. Tom frowned at me, but I ignored him. “Hey, by the way where did you leave Duke?”

“Jessie is watching him.”

“Oh, that’s great. She loves him.”

“Yeah. She still calls me Sheriff D and spends many hours at the station. I think she might become a K-9 police officer.”

“You never know.” I didn’t want to burst his bubble, but Jessie told me she was going to be a teacher. She was an amazing girl. There aren’t too many who can be kidnapped at five, brainwashed, rescued ten years later, and just pick up their lives again.

Tom interrupted my thoughts. “What time do you want to get going?”

“As soon as we can. I made reservations at a Long Beach Motel for tonight. They know we won’t be there until late afternoon. We can’t get on the ship until one o’clock on Sunday.”

“That’s fine. Do you have a map to the motel?”

“No. But I’ve got the address.”

“Perfect, my SUV has a GPS system.”

I still hadn’t bought a new car since I crashed my 1962 red VW bug into a ditch several weeks ago. I just couldn’t decide what kind to get. I had bought the VW used and it had worked well for the ten years I owned it. But I didn’t like the new VW bugs, so I needed to spend a few days going from car dealer to car dealer, test-driving cars — an experience I didn’t want to endure. Maybe I could get Tom to wear his uniform and take me. Who would lie about the price to a cop?

Tom and I enjoyed his wonderful meal and then he loaded our suitcases into his car while I cleaned up the kitchen and showered.

After giving Shelby several doggy treats, we were finally on our way! The drive was long and boring. We drove down Highway 5, where every mile looks exactly like the last, brown hills covered in ugly scrub oak trees. I filled the time by telling Tom the latest news about Justin and my call from Jordan. Later I tried to doze, but I was never good at sleeping in a car. Tom hummed along to the radio, which was another deterrent to my falling asleep.

We stopped for lunch at a fast food restaurant, not Tom’s favorite food.

“Can’t we just go to Denny’s?” he begged.

“No, I want to get to Long Beach and settle into the motel.” Actually, I wanted to see if any of my parents’ friends were staying at the motel, but I wasn’t ready to share my real reason for taking the cruise with Tom, just yet.

“But fast food is just that, fast and terrible.”

“Not really, some places have salads and wraps, now.”

“We’ll see,” he huffed.

We drove past one fast food restaurant after another, while Tom complained about their menu choices. Finally I got him to stop at Quiznos. He ordered a huge salad with flatbread. I had a Chicken Carbonara. It was hot and oozing with cheese, mushrooms, and carbonara sauce, whatever that was, and it was good.

“This is pretty good,” he said between bites.

“See, I told you all fast food isn’t bad.”

He frowned at me. “I wouldn’t exactly call this a fast food restaurant, honey.”

“Why not? The food was fast, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah but,” he pointed outside. “No drive-through.”

I shrugged and resumed eating my yummy lunch. I wasn’t much of a sandwich eater, unless it was hot. But this was quite good.

Thirty minutes later we were back on the road and the scenery was as monotonous as the last several hours. “So tell me how things are in Gainesville,” I asked Tom after only a few miles down the road.

“Things are the same since the last time you asked. That would be before lunch.”

I sighed.

“Are you bored already, Liza?”

“God, yes.”

He laughed, “You just can’t stand the silence, can you? Always need to fill it up.”

I laughed with him, “That’s true.”

He handed me a box. “I brought you a book on CD.”

I smiled. “Great.” I flipped it over and started reading about the book, the story of an ex-FBI agent who worked as a sheriff in a small town. “Small town sheriff?”

“It probably gets everything wrong about being a sheriff in a small town, but I thought you would enjoy it. She saves the town, I’m sure.”

“Okay,” I opened the box, took out the first CD, and put it in the player. The story started immediately. It began with bones floating down the town’s main street. It should be good, I thought.

Listening to the book made the time go quickly. Tom kept his scoffing at the sheriff comments and swearing at the LA traffic to the minimum. It was around four when we pulled off the freeway and headed toward the hotel.

“So where are we staying?”

“It’s called the Nordic Inn.”

He frowned.

“What?”

“I try and stay in places with names I recognize, like Holiday Inn, Best Western, and the Marriott.”

“Then this will be an adventure for you.”

He glanced out the car window at three women walking down the street. “Oh yeah, it’s going to be an adventure, all right.”

Their skirts were a little short and the tank tops out of style, but they looked nice enough. “They’re probably tourists, like us?”

“You think?” Tom smirked and we continued down the road.

A few miles later, I pointed to the left side of the street. “There it is.”

Tom pulled into the parking lot. It was a quaint motel with a Scandinavian flair with peaked roofs and even a large white windmill at one end.

“How did you find this place?” Tom asked, with just a hint of sarcasm to his voice.

I could have said it was where my parents stayed, but revised my answer, “I found it on the Internet. They gave it four stars out of five.”

He raised one eyebrow. I wish I could do that. The kids in my class would get a kick out of it.

It was true about the Internet, but as we pulled closer I could see the place was in need of new paint and a landscaper.

And bless Tom’s heart, he didn’t say a word when the door to the office squeaked and shook as if it would fall off its rusted hinges. He just pulled it open and stepped aside for me to enter. Behind a tall counter sat a young woman dressed in what looked like a Scandinavian barmaid costume, suspenders, white frilly shirt and all. Her nametag said, “Brenda” and she was totally engrossed in a paperback with a picture of a bare-chested man carrying a scantly dressed woman slung over his shoulders on the cover. I’m a big advocate of reading, but I’m not sure this girl was old enough to read an “erotica” novel.

Tom cleared his throat, which startled Brenda. She jumped and gave a little gasp. But I have to give her credit; she composed herself quickly, set the book on the counter, tucked her long blonde hair behind her ears, and smiled. “May I help you?”

I stepped forward. “I have a reservation.”

“Name please,” she said.

“Liza Wilcox.”

She typed on her keyboard and then said, “Oh yes, here you are. King size bed, no smoking.” She frowned and bit her lower lip.

“What’s the matter?” Tom asked, his tone lowered with each word.

“Well,” Brenda looked up. “There was a water leak in the room assigned to you.”

“Okay,” Tom said. “Just give us another room.”

“I’m sorry, sir. The only room I’ve got left has twin beds.”

Tom shook his head. “Let’s get another hotel, Liza.”

“No!” My voice rose with the panic I felt. How was I supposed to find the people who traveled with my parents if we left this hotel?

He frowned. “Why not, for God’s sake?”