Cruise to Murder (Z & C Mysteries, #2) Read online

  Claire just sat smiling. Zo answered, “Thank you. We would love to attend.”

  “Great! Just go through that door over there. I’ll be looking for you. Save a little room for more to eat—lobster and crab, already shelled. See you then.” He bowed, turned and headed back with Zo’s and Claire’s thanks following him.

  “Gosh, he sure looks different without the glasses!” Claire remarked. “Cute.”

  “Honey, look carefully to your right. What do you see standing lined up with the other waiters in their black waistcoats?” Zo looked down and adjusted her neckline to be inconspicuous.

  Claire nonchalantly started to generally gaze around the room, until her eyes rested on a waiter who was not chatting with the rest, but was staring with vacant black eyes at Zo.

  “Mom, want me to go beat him up?”

  When the two looked back again, he was gone.

  The ladies got up from the table and headed down the hall, joking about all the different things they would do to him, if they had the chance.

  Back at their suite the two were getting ready in their separate rooms for the after party Larry had invited them to.

  “I think I will be the lady in red tonight!” Claire called. “You ought to wear that gold and pink number, Mom!”

  “Got it!” her mother called back. “…Claire! Guess what I found in my purse?!”

  Claire met her in the sitting room. “What?”

  “Recognize this?” She held up a grass doll. “I haven’t been to any shops where this could be bought. Bruce destroyed the doll that I thought I had accidently picked up. What does this tell you?”

  “Oh, Mother. That stuff is only in the movies—a voodoo doll? Is that what you are thinking?”

  “I don’t believe in this stuff, either; but, it tells me someone is not wishing me well, so I am going to be studying those around me. You watch, too.”

  “No doubt! Butch must have recognized that doll he unraveled. So the game’s afoot, Sherlock.”

  “This makes me madder than blazes.” Zo had a determined look to her light brown eyes.

  Larry Potter had everything organized beautifully. An ice sculpture of a dolphin on a wave was the stage’s centerpiece. Crab and shrimp cocktails were set out around it. He rubbed his hands together in what appeared to be anxiousness. He pulled up a sleeve to his suit to glance at his watch, when suddenly the mother-daughter duo entered through the stage door.

  The women paused a moment, as if posing. They were taking in the scenery before continuing. Claire’s sleek dark hair was pulled into an elegant twist at the back of her neck. She was wearing gold hoop earrings that matched a long gold-chained necklace—a medallion landing right at the bust of her shimmery red dress.

  Zo’s pale pink draped dress, the style of a Greek goddess, was accessorized by one gold arm cuff and a large dinner ring. The sides of her hair were pinned with ornamental combs, causing a cascade of sensual strawberry blond locks.

  Larry blinked a couple times and then exhaled.

  “Pretty amazing, huh?!”

  “Oh, hi, Butch. Yeah, their kind of flair is rare.”

  “Kind of like old Hollywood glam.”

  Larry turned his head and took a long look at Butch. “I didn’t expect that kind of sensibility about you, Butch.”

  “There is a lot about me people don’t expect. That’s what I like. In fact, my native name means, Unexpected man who reaches lofty places.”

  “And what would that be?”

  “You can’t pronounce it.”

  Zo and Claire were walking in smooth, long strides their direction.

  “Hey, Butch, I didn’t expect you to be here!” Zo said.

  “See?” Butch remarked to Larry, then continued, “Remember, lady, I am a dancer. I have to feed my belly, get some energy in me, before you can watch me do some magnificent splits action on the stage tomorrow.”

  “Oh, you mean you are performing on the ship?”

  “Yes, some dude broke his leg. The entertainment director of the ship called my agent this afternoon. Needed a replacement.”

  “Gives new meaning to ‘break a leg.’” Zo raised her eyebrows.

  “Yes, Mother.” Claire chuckled.

  An orchestra from behind the back curtains started a melody. The ship took a hard roll to one side, causing Claire to stumble in her heels. She reached out, trying to balance herself, and landed in Larry’s arms.

  Butch commented, “Geez, if you liked the guy, I could have just told him for you.”

  Larry smiled and used the opportunity to hug Claire. “I’m used to girls throwing themselves at me.”

  More guests started to arrive to the stage party. Larry had a few pieces of his magician’s equipment lined against one side. Soon, there was standing room only.

  People started to dance, and Larry said, “Claire, you are already in my arms. Let’s take this opportunity to dance, shall we?”

  That left Butch looking at Zo and Zo looking at Butch. They knew what was coming next. “Ask me,” Zo said.

  “Okay, okay. Madame, would you care to dance with me?”

  “I guess so…”

  “That sounds convincing.”

  She giggled. “I didn’t mean it like that. Excuse me. I would love to dance.”

  He struck a pose, holding a hand out to her elegantly, his feet apart. “Let’s see if you can keep up.”

  “Well, there’s a lot to me you don’t know. I can head-bang, for instance. Ask my daughter.”

  Without a moment longer, Butch had her twirled around him like a helicopter’s propeller. He let go of her and she unwound round and round, sliding across the floor with the lean of the ship—toward Larry’s large black, disappearing trick cabinet.

  Zo made contact. Thud! Clank. Clunk. The handle was knocked and the door flew open. A woman leaped out of the cabinet, flinging her arms around Zo’s shoulders.

  People gasped and screamed out.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Zo grabbed the woman by an arm, flipped her over and pressed her against the stage floor.

  “You win!” Butch called out, rushing over. “Zo, don’t move. Your opponent is a dead woman.”

  Zo looked her in her lifeless brown eyes. Her blond hair was matted with some blood, and the shine of the stage lights reflected a twinkle from one gold starfish earring.

  “Mother, are you okay? Oh goodness, it’s Marilyn!”

  Butch said, “Zo, is now a bad time to ask you to an after-after-party?”

  Zo was back in her state room with Claire. The fall and fumble with the dead blonde, caused the back of her dress to rip. Her right ankle was also throbbing a bit in pain.

  “That was pretty freaky,” Claire remarked. “I think we figured it out—a love triangle.”

  “Yes, I wonder what’s up with Mr. Belmont lately. We haven’t seen him around. We don’t even know where he is staying, since the police took over his suite.”

  “Maybe we should put it all behind us now. Forget about it… What do you say, Mother, that we dress down for the rest of the night? We need to relax.”

  “You’re probably right, as usual…” Zo sighed with a slight smile.

  “Oh, what was that after-after-party Butch was talking about? Are you going?”

  “It was a private party.”

  “Really, so I can’t come?” she teased.

  “Well, the private party consists of just him and me. But if you show up with Potter and sit one booth over, what’s the harm?! What do I know of Butch, anyway? He had the nerve to laugh at the fact a dead woman tore my dress and sprained my ankle in a fight.”

  “Okay, see you later, because I am supposed to be meeting Larry in…,” she looked at her watch, “forty-five minutes.” She dressed in skinny gold pants and a draped gold top.

  “Glad you dressed down!” her mother called out.

  Soon Zo left to meet Butch, making sure the card key was with her in her black evening purse. When the elevator had reached the ei
ghth deck, it dawned on her she forgot her lipstick. Back she went.

  As Zo reached for the card, she saw that the door was not totally closed. There was no one in the hallway. Zo blamed herself for not pulling the door shut. Heading in to her bedroom, she gasped, startled by a shadowed figure of a stranger in the darkness. She hadn’t yet turned on the light.

  “Where is the medallion?” His voice was a dry, coarse whisper.

  “You smell dead,” she uttered.

  He stepped forward, revealing his deathly stare. “The medallion!”

  “Okay… move aside.” She was trying to think fast.

  The man stepped to the side to allow Zo to walk around him. She reached into her makeup bag and pulled out the cameo she found at the Koona Caves. “Now, will you get out?!”

  The man didn’t answer. Instead, he took the pin and turned it over a couple times. “It’s time for you to go now,” he said in an even tone. He lifted a hand toward her neck.

  Rage overtook Zo. “Not on your tintype!” She grabbed her purse and pulled out the straw doll. “I suppose you are the one who has been slipping me grass dolls?!”

  His eyes glazed over and his lips parted, exposing brown teeth.

  “You’re just kind of dry all over aren’tcha?! You got any spit in that hole for a mouth? Well, eat this!” She shoved the doll into his mouth, and he fell back against the wall in terror, his eyes widened.

  The zombie-ish man spit it out and his body convulsed. Zo grabbed the doll and made kiss gestures all over his face with it—“Smack, smack, smack, smack, smack!” She then pushed it down the back of his shirt as he was howling, trying to run out of the room.

  He sounded like a wounded dog as he took off down the hallway. Zo ran to see where he went. She spotted the medallion on the floor and picked it up.

  She returned to her room and locked the deadlock, then called Room Service to report what had happened. Soon Security officers showed up, followed by Butch.

  “I was just wondering what was keeping you. I was expecting a problem, but not this kind,” Butch said with animation in his eyes.

  “I want you to tell me what you know about these grass dolls, since you seem to have a little ritual of unraveling them.”

  A long, low horn sounded off in the night.

  “Okay, let’s do it over a steak at our after-after-party.”

  “Yeah, that wouldn’t be over a stake in the Koona Caves after-party, would it?”

  “You are suspecting me somewhere in this?” Butch looked wounded.

  “I’m thinking you are a believer.”

  “I admit to being superstitious and not taking any chances, like throwing salt over my shoulder for better luck, but that doesn’t make it my religion.”

  “Let’s go to dinner, I am suddenly hungry.” She brushed it off.

  “Good idea. My treat. Have anything you want.”

  “Oh, thanks.” Zo smiled knowing that there would not be any charge, as dinners are free on a cruise.

  As they sat together in a booth, Butch explained, “There are people who absolutely believe that voodoo is powerful and these are the people who suffer physical effects from it. Because in their mind, it is a reality. So, the man reacting like that, is understandable.”

  “He needs to see a doctor.” Zo was making an understatement, remembering his smell and appearance.

  Zo felt fingers tap her shoulder and she jumped. It was Claire and Larry Potter in the next booth behind. “Did you hear the horn? There was a man overboard.”

  “Yes, but I didn’t know what it meant. Really?”

  The waiter brought Butch and Zo’s steaks. They each began a ritual of adding a dash of salt, then pepper, and finally a heavy drizzle of steak sauce. “You’re my kind of diner,” Butch remarked.

  “So tell me, Butch,” Zo said as she shoved a tender piece of meat into her mouth with much hunger, “what else do you know about the voodoo man? I saw a necklace of small bones when I pulled open his shirt to stuff the doll down the back his neck.”

  “Wow, you really did him in!” he answered around the juicy bit in his mouth. “First, you made him eat the curse that he meant for you with the doll. Then, you gave him the kiss of death; in this case, multiplied by five. Right? I think that is what I heard you tell Security.”

  “Yes, that is right.”

  “Then, you made that curse ride him down the back of his shirt, meaning it would be coming within moments.”

  “Don’t forget the bones necklace.” Zo took another bite.

  “That… is a little more perplexing.” He stopped and looked her in the eyes. “That is a Ritual Necklace of the Koona Cannibals. Human bones.”

  “Lovely! How do you know so much about them?”

  “Live here, duh!”

  “I suppose you’ve been dating their sisters and going to the Saturday night Koona dances,” Zo said glibly. “Look, I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. Forgive me?” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

  “You kissed me.”

  “Yes.”

  “You missed.” He pointed to his mouth, nicely shaped, accentuated by smoldering eyes.

  Zo leaned in and he gave her a soft kiss.

  “Can you, by chance, swing from sail to sail?”

  “There are no sails on this ship.” He smiled. “Why?”

  “Never mind…” She let out a little giggle.

  “Why don’t you guys spin the A-1 bottle.” Potter laughed from his booth.

  “Shhhhh. They are at a private party,” Claire cautioned.

  “Then I guess you and I ought to go dance.” He slid out of the booth and turned and offered his hand to Claire to join him.

  “What is that?” Larry asked, and then sang, “Heavenly shades of night are falling. It’s twilight time…” They moved into an embrace on the dance floor.

  “You don’t think we are going to kiss tonight, do you, like Mom and Butch?!” Claire was coy.

  “Now why would I think that?” He winked and pulled Claire in a little closer.

  It was around 3 a.m. by the time the mother and daughter finally went to bed. Their feet ached and their backs, too. It was a long day and night and they planned on sleeping in.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Claire was awoken by what she thought to be a foghorn. She stretched in her bed. Looking through to rumpled blankets in the other room, she realized her mother was already up.

  Zo walked over, her eyes red. She placed a tissue against her nose and blew.

  “Ah, so you were the foghorn…,” Claire acknowledged. “You are sick?!”

  “Yeah, but it is… achoo! …nothing.”

  “It doesn’t sound like nothing. But I hope it is nothing, because I am looking forward to checking out the Koona Caves again. Check out this brochure I picked up at Customer Service yesterday!”

  Zo grabbed it and read, “The Koona Caves date back to prehistoric times. The local Koona Voodoo community used those caves anciently to hide from predators, dwell with their families, and congregate. Legend has it, the Koona Voodooists have roots in cannibalism. It has been said they crush human bones and mix them with their potions.

  “Learn more about the Koona Caves and its rich history on a guided tour, each afternoon at 2 p.m.” She handed the brochure back. “You get dressed. I’ll go down and sign us up before the bus fills up, and then meet you for breakfast at our usual buffet.”

  Later, the two stood in the Koona Caves tour line. They followed behind the guide, boarding their bus with other vacationers. What they all wore in common were sunglasses, including a cute toddler girl whose glasses were pink and heart shaped.

  As they drove along, a buzz of conversations highlighted the drone of the motor, screech of the airbrakes and the whine of acceleration.

  “Well, did Larry kiss you and was it magical or at least great?”

  “Yes. It was a polite, quick kiss at my door.”

  “Phooey!”

  “What kind of mother are you?!”
Claire mocked with a smile.

  “His philosophy must be, ‘A kiss in time saves nine.’”

  “A stitch in time…”

  “Whatever! You are a sophisticated beauty. What real man wouldn’t want a more meaningful kiss than that? …Don’t trust the man now. What’s he got all bottled up?”

  “Or, he is very sweet and shy and doesn’t want to make any mistakes with me.”

  “We are here, people. Get your cameras,” announced the lady guide with black dyed hair graying at the roots and too red of a shirt with sleeves at the elbows. The bus rocked to a stop.

  The tourists sounded like a cattle stampede as they clomped down the aisle and off to the beach.

  As they all gathered into the last and largest cave, the guide stood on a little higher mound of sand to say, “As you can see this is the largest of the caverns. The first one, as you discovered, smelled of rotting fish, because the beach is such as the tide washes in there and leaves fish and seaweed behind. That cave is the favorite of the crabs and shore birds.

  “The second cave is too small for people and I wouldn’t want to go in there just on account of that, because whatever is in there has got to be slimy and threatening! Eeew.” She grimaced.

  “And then, this here,” she waved around to indicate the entire dimension, “is the cave of legend. This is where all the infamous cannibalism and various voodoo rituals took place. This Koona sect was very scary. The missionaries and governments that be, came in and broke it all up. There were executions by hanging for public warning and warfare to clear it all away. Still, it is said that not all of it was cleared away; that there are still practices of sacrifice, voodoo domination and even cannibalism this very day.”

  Everyone murmured and some responded, “Wooooo.”

  “So,” the guide went on to say, “I wouldn’t be last man out of here. Know what I mean? You can look around here by yourselves for twenty minutes and then we will head out to a beach café for some local color and then back to the ship.”