“You can’t do this, Heather,” said Brian.

  “Oh, watch me,” said Heather.

  “I’ve always been a loyal husband to you, haven’t I?”

  “Except those times when you tried to hit on other women!”

  “But they always turn me down, so that doesn’t count!”

  “Rubbish. I have enough evidence to divorce you and take what is rightfully mine. Twenty years is long enough, Brian. In fact it’s too long!”

  “Okay, so if you could please focus,” said Odelia, trying to get a word in edgewise.

  “I didn’t kill anyone,” said Heather. “But I’m not so sure I can say the same thing about Brian.”

  “What?! I didn’t kill anyone either!” said her husband.

  “You were in Emily’s bed yesterday,” said Odelia.

  “That’s right,” said Heather. “So what happened, Brian? Did you try to pull the same stunt last night only to find this other fellow there? Did you pull a knife on him and kill him out of sheer spite?”

  “You’re gibbering, woman,” said Brian. “I was nowhere near Emily’s cabin last night. I was in ours, waiting for you!”

  “You shouldn’t have bothered. I’m never going back to you, Brian. Never, you hear me!”

  “I should have known this was coming,” said Brian, sagging a little. “The moment you started talking about babies again.”

  “You’re the one who never wanted kids, Brian, not me. So can you blame me for leaving you? And yeah, I’m having a baby. Just like Amanda!”

  “You’re having a baby?” asked Odelia, who was having a hard time keeping track of the conversation.

  “Absolutely! But not with this wet mop. I’ve got an appointment with the same doctor working a miracle for Amanda, and she tells me there’s all kinds of possibilities these days. I can pick a donor, and try and have the baby myself. Or I can find a surrogate mother.” She released an exalted breath. “I’m finally going to be a mother—no thanks to you, Brian!”

  “But I want to be a daddy too, honey!”

  “Don’t you honey me, you pompous worm. We’re done!”

  “But sweetheart!”

  “Can we please focus on Emily?” Odelia asked.

  “Who’s Emily?” asked Brian, turning to Odelia.

  “The woman you tried to get into bed with!” said Heather.

  “There’s only one woman for me, sugar,” said Brian. “And that’s you. That will never change.”

  “You mean you will never change,” said Heather.

  “I can change. I will change. I’m changing already! For you I’d do anything, sweet pea!”

  “Can you please tell me where you both were last night?” said Odelia, on the verge of giving up on this couple—or ex-couple.

  “I was discussing my bright future with my best friend Amanda,” said Heather finely. “And Brian was probably in bed with Emily and this mystery man, organizing a knife fight by the looks of things.”

  “I was in our marital bed, awaiting the imminent return of my precious beloved wife,” said Brian.

  “Liar,” said Heather.

  “It’s true!”

  “Maybe Odelia should have talked to these two separately,” said Dooley as the marital bickering went on unabated.

  “Yeah, that was probably a better idea,” I agreed. As it was, I didn’t think the Johnsons were likely to have killed anyone. They were too busy trying to kill each other—even if only verbally.

  Finally Odelia had enough, and dismissed them both. And they had just left when the door swung open again and Matthew Brown walked in, looking a little furtive.

  “Okay, can we do this quick?” he said.

  “Don’t tell me. You’re also getting a divorce?” said Odelia, who was holding her head in her hands. I had the impression she was about to develop a serious migraine.

  “Divorce? What are you talking about?” said Matthew as he took a seat. “No, I just got fired by Steven, and he wants me off the boat ASAP.”

  “Okay, Mr. Brown,” said Odelia, collecting herself with some effort. “What can you tell me about last night?”

  “Last night? Oh, you mean that business with the dead guy? Well, nothing special. I was in my cabin, fast asleep. I actually woke up from all the screaming. And when I went to see what was going on, I found everyone gathered in the corridor, and apparently Emily had killed some guy last night. Don’t ask me why. Probably some ex-boyfriend.”

  “You put some documents in Emily’s cabin yesterday. Why did you do that?”

  Matthew shrugged. “It seemed like a good idea at the time. I was hired by Car World a couple of months ago, and they wanted me to spy on Steven. You know, earn my keep. But when I called my contact over at Car World I caught Emily eavesdropping on me. So I just figured I’d deliver a preemptive strike and spike her guns. Make her look bad in front of Steven. And it worked. He figured she was the spy.”

  “Until you were revealed as the spy, and not Emily. That must have made you very upset.”

  “I knew it was coming. In fact it surprised me a great deal that it took him so long.”

  “Why did you do it? Wasn’t Steven paying you enough?”

  “It’s not that,” said Matthew with a grimace. “It’s just that Steven is one of those micromanagers. Wants to have a finger in every pie. Control everything and everyone. He hates it when people show initiative, or organize their own work. No, everything has to be done exactly the way he says. You can’t believe how stifling it is to work like that. I felt choked all the time. Not to mention bored out of my skull. Every little detail, every little thing I did had to be planned and approved by Steven. It just drove me mad.”

  “And Car World is offering you more freedom?”

  “Oh, absolutely. I’ll be able to run my own department. Make my own decisions. Organize my own time. It doesn’t sound like much but it makes all the difference, Mrs. Kingsley, it really does.”

  She smiled. “Yeah, I can see how that might be the case.”

  “You wouldn’t like it if your editor told you exactly how to write, what to write and when to write it, would you?”

  “No, I don’t think I could work like that,” she agreed.

  “Well, then you know exactly how I’ve felt for the past five years. Anyway, I should have known, since my predecessor warned me. But the money was so good I took the job anyway. Now I wish I hadn’t.”

  “Okay, so Emily King,” said Odelia.

  The secretary held up his hands. “I’m sorry that I planted those documents. I just needed to buy more time. I was still in negotiation with Car World about my pay packet. When you see her tell her I apologize unreservedly. She’s a nice girl and it wasn’t personal. She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “So even though you planted those papers on her, you didn’t plant that dead body?”

  “Absolutely not,” he said emphatically. “My job is important to me, but not important enough to kill for.”

  Odelia glanced down at me, and I nodded.

  “Okay, Mr. Brown. You can go,” she said.

  Matthew got up and adjusted his shirt. “If I may ask, what will you do now?”

  “Now I have to find a murderer, or else Emily will go to prison for a crime she didn’t commit.”

  “It’s this family,” said Matthew. “They’re so amazingly rich that they think they can get away with anything—even murder.”

  “You’re saying your former employer killed that man?”

  Matthew gave us a lopsided grin. “Not personally, of course. He probably hired someone.”

  “Do you have any evidence of Steven’s involvement?” asked Odelia, interested.

  “Nope. Let’s just say I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happened. People like Steven Griffiths figure that the law is for other people. They reckon they can make up their own rules. Sadly enough reality shows that he may just have a point.”

  CHAPTER 39

  As Odelia sat compiling her notes on the recent interviews, Ella Nakamura came breezing in. She took a seat in front of us. “And how is it going, colleague?” said the wizened-faced woman. “Figure out who done it yet?”

  “The more I talk to people, the more confused I get,” Odelia lamented. “And the further away from the truth of what happened.”

  “Yeah, I know the feeling,” said the private detective with a grin. “You just have to go through everything again more slowly, and try to see the connections. Maybe interview some of these people a second time, or even a third or a fourth. You may have noticed people don’t always tell the truth.”

  “Oh, I know,” said Odelia. “At least one of them must have told me a lie, since Emily couldn’t have killed that man, so one of the others must have.” She pressed her fingers against her temples. “What strikes me as… remarkable, is that one of them is the killer, and yet I have absolutely no idea who.”

  “You’ll get there,” said Ella. “You’re a clever cookie.”

  “Okay, so can I ask you a question, Ella?”

  “Shoot.”

  “The key to Emily’s room. The captain says there’s one spare, and it’s kept in that lockbox over there.” She pointed to the lockbox in question. “Only the captain and the purser have a key to that box. So how is it possible that someone entered Emily’s room last night, put that dead man in her bed, and left again? It’s almost like a magic trick. I mean, the doors are pretty flimsy, and someone could have forced their way in. But the police would have noticed if the lock had been damaged. Which leads me right back to that key.”

  “Magic tricks always have a logical explanation,” Ella reminded her. “The trick is to figure out the trick.”

  “So what is the trick?” asked Odelia hopefully.

  She smiled. “I don’t know if you know this, but our dear captain has a serious drinking problem, causing him to pass out stone cold every night. You could literally fire off a cannon next to the guy and he wouldn’t budge. And what’s more, he doesn’t lock his cabin, just in case there’s an emergency.”

  Odelia sat up a little straighter. “So what you’re saying is that someone could have taken his keys off him, and he wouldn’t have noticed?”

  “Exactly. So this whole story about the lockbox etcetera etcetera is just a bunch of baloney. Anyone who wanted to enter Emily’s cabin—or any cabin, for that matter—would have had no trouble at all getting into that lockbox, taking that key, and putting it back later.”

  “Now that is interesting,” said Odelia. “Cause I have to admit the whole business about the key had me completely stumped.”

  Ella spread her arms. “Like I said, every magic trick has a perfectly logical explanation. You just have to figure it out and crack the code.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to know who took that key, would you?”

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I like to turn in early, so by ten o’clock I was dead to the world. I know it’s not a great trait for a detective. Since in our profession the most interesting stuff happens after dark.”

  “Too bad we don’t have access to the police. They might be able to tell us some more about this Daniel Taylor. In my experience the identity of the victim is as important as the identity of the potential suspects.”

  “I can’t help you there either, I’m afraid,” said Ella. “Heather hired me back in the States, and Amanda smuggled me onto the boat under the guise of a crew member. But I don’t have any contacts with the local police.” She reached down and tickled me under the chin. “Can’t you call that husband of yours? Maybe organize something through Interpol?”

  “I did. The problem is these things take time. And the Audrey will only be here for another week. So by the time the request is approved—if it’s approved—my suspects will be gone and so will the evidence.”

  “It’s tough having to investigate a case in a different jurisdiction,” said Ella. “Especially when the local police don’t want to cooperate.”

  “Oh, well,” said Odelia. “That just means I’ll have to try a little harder.”

  “That’s the spirit,” said Ella. “Have you ever considered launching your own detective agency? You’d make a great PI.”

  “I’m happy just being a reporter,” said Odelia with a smile. “And working on the odd case from time to time.”

  “Maybe you’re right,” said Ella as she rubbed her eyes. “Sixty percent of the cases I get are divorces. And I can tell you after a while that gets pretty old!”

  “What’s the other forty percent?” asked Odelia, curious in spite of herself.

  “Employee theft and industrial espionage,” said Ella with a yawn. “You’d be surprised how much thieving goes on out there. And none of it is particularly fascinating.” She got up. “Anyway, my job here is done. My client is getting her divorce, and if all goes well a nice fat settlement on top of that.”

  “So you’re leaving?”

  “Afraid so.”

  Odelia looked a little disappointed. She probably felt she had found a kindred spirit who might even help her solve this crime.

  Ella must have noticed, for she walked around the desk and patted Odelia on the back. “You’re going to crack this case, honey. I can tell. And when you do, you have to tell me how you did it. Let’s stay in touch.”

  “I will, thanks,” said Odelia.

  “Oh, can you ask her if she has seen Frankie?” I asked. I’d just remembered about Amanda’s missing doggie. But unfortunately Ella hadn’t seen Frankie either. I just hoped she hadn’t come to any harm.

  CHAPTER 40

  Amanda closed the door to the cabin and approached her husband. Steven was on the couch working on his laptop. The frown cutting a deep groove between his brows told her he was reading work emails again, even though they were supposed to be on holiday. Then again, the work never stopped, and even though she didn’t particularly like it, she understood.

  “Steven,” she said as she took a seat next to him. “We need to talk.”

  “Mh?” he said distractedly.

  “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

  “What is it?” he said, but his eyes were still glued to the screen, and it was clear he wasn’t listening. Not really. So she grabbed his laptop and closed it. “Hey! I was reading that!”

  “Listen to me, Steven,” she said. “I have something very important to tell you.”

  “Is this about Emily and that dead guy again?” he said.

  “No, this is not about Emily and the dead guy. This is about us, and it’s important, so you better pay attention to what I’m about to say, all right?”

  “Fine. What is it?”

  “I know we haven’t really discussed this, but I want to have another baby,” she said, seeing no sense in beating about the bush. It seemed as if the whole world knew about her plans now, and even though she had wanted to wait, she also wanted Steven to hear it from her first, not from some random gossipmonger.

  He stared at her, then laughed. “Funny,” he said. “Though I really don’t think this is the time to be joking, honey. Not with everything that’s going on.”

  “It’s not a joke. I’m serious. I want to have a baby.”

  “But… but you’re…”

  “If you’re going to say I’m old I’m warning you now, Steven Griffiths. I took a self-defense class and I’ve mastered the karate chop.”

  “But honey. Our kids are grown up. Pretty soon they’ll have babies themselves.” He gave her a look of suspicion. “This is Heather’s idea, isn’t it? She’s the one who’s always going on about having a baby.”

  “No, this is not Heather’s idea, though she might be thinking along the same lines as me now that she finally had the courage to divorce that horrible husband of hers.”

  “Heather is divorcing Brian?” he said, looking surprised.

  “Yes, she is, and good for her. That man’s wandering eye and hands have been a source of frustration for all of us for years.”

  “True,” Steven admitted. “Still, I never thought she’d go through with it. But you’re right. Good for her.” He rubbed his scalp. “This is going to make things a lot more difficult, though. We’ll have to start inviting them separately from now on. No more shared dinners. Though they might part as friends.”

  “Yeah, right,” Amanda scoffed. “Look, can we get back to what we were discussing and leave Heather and Brian’s business to Heather and Brian?”

  “Yes, the baby,” said Steven, nodding. “You’re forgetting one thing, honey. Ever since I had that operation, things in that department are a little… difficult.”

  “I know, and that’s why I took my precautions.”

  Steven frowned. “What precautions? What are you talking about?”

  “Before you had your prostate removed I talked to Doctor Klein, and he told me that chances were that you would never be able to have a baby again.”

  “I remember. I was there when we had that talk. And we both agreed that wasn’t an issue, since our baby-making days were over.”

  “I had a second talk with Klein. Privately. I asked him if it was possible to provide a backup.”

  “Backup? What backup.” And as she gave him a pointed look, he got the picture. “Oh, that kind of backup.” It took him a while to get with the program, but then he saw all. “You mean you went behind my back and had some of my… stuff frozen?”

  “That’s exactly what I did. I didn’t think you’d mind—but also I didn’t think you’d approve. But then again, I have my rights, too. And so I want to use this backup plan to have another baby.” When he started to speak, she held up her hand. “Before you say I’m too old, Doctor Zuckerberg says I’m fine and I should be able to carry a baby to term.”

  “I was going to say: isn’t that dangerous? For you, I mean.”

  In spite of herself she was touched by his concern. “The risk is perhaps a little greater than I would have liked, but with the right medical care and Doctor Zuckerberg’s excellent team at Hampton Cove Hospital…”

  Suddenly, and much to her surprise, Steven teared up, and for a moment he had trouble speaking. Then he said: “A baby. Who would have thought?”