“Daniel?” Kate spun around, pulling away from me and causing me to stumble back a few steps.
Daniel Reese wore black cargo pants and a black Polo-style shirt with his security company’s logo stitched in white. He’d clearly gotten the memo stating we wore black to weddings.
“What’s this about Jeremy Johns?” he said, looking at each of us in turn.
Kate rested a hand on his bicep and leaned close to him. “We think he’s your arsonist.”
Daniel raised one dark eyebrow. “Isn’t he the one nobody gets along with?”
“We can’t stand him,” Fern said, lowering his voice and closing the door behind him until it was only open a crack and the sound of laughing girls all but disappeared. “He’s a complete diva with questionable taste. Have you seen the colors he combined upstairs? Gauche meets garish.”
“But that’s not the reason,” I said, shooting Fern a look. I wanted Daniel to take us seriously, not think we were basing our accusation on bad taste in colors. “I discovered Jeremy with a can of lighter fluid in the crew quarters. I think he was trying to set another fire.”
“That does change things,” Daniel said. He pulled a cell phone out of his pants pocket. “I’ll tell Mike.”
“You don’t think he’ll need to shut down the wedding, do you?” I asked.
“He’ll just want him for questioning. Your wedding can go right ahead as planned.” Daniel spoke low into the phone, explaining what we’d discovered about Jeremy. Then he disconnected and slipped the phone back into his pants. “He’s in the middle of something. I’m going to bring Jeremy Johns in for him.”
I felt relieved we could get Jeremy out of our way without flashing blue lights and cops crawling all over the ship. “There’s one small hiccup. We don’t know where Jeremy is. He heard us talking about his motive and ran off. Kate and I were chasing him but he got away.”
“I knocked her off her feet.” Fern winked at me. “She’s the only girl who can ever say that.”
I rubbed my backside, which still smarted from hitting the floor. “Lucky me.”
“So he’s hiding somewhere on board?” Daniel asked.
“Unless he got off the ship,” I said. “He was running toward the back staircase when we were stopped.”
Daniel nodded. “I’ll have my guys search the ship.”
Voices came from inside the guest room. Fern poked his head inside for a moment then reappeared. “I have to get back to those two-bit hussies.” He blew us kisses then disappeared inside the room and closed the door.
“He calls everyone hussies,” I explained to Daniel. “Bridesmaids, I mean. Not you. He wouldn’t call you a hussy. Or a tramp.”
“Annabelle.” Kate gave me a pointed look, and I stopped talking.
Daniel grinned, and I was reminded of his brother’s expression every time I embarrassed myself. “I’m going to talk to my team. If you see Jeremy Johns, don’t try to stop him yourself. Call me.”
Kate and I agreed, then he walked off down the corridor. I pulled Kate with me in the other direction. “We need to check on Richard.”
“And give him the latest dirt on Jeremy. It will make his day.”
Kate was right. Richard would take particular glee in knowing Jeremy was suspect number one. We wound our way up the back staircase, passed by a cameraman setting up a tripod, and walked along the outside of the ship until we reached the narrow metal ramp leading to the dock. The rain was coming down in fast, heavy drops, and I made a mental calculation of how wet we’d get making the dash down the ramp and into the catering tent a few feet away. I put my arms over my head and ran forward, slipping a bit on the slick ramp on the way down and catching the rope railing for balance. I skidded onto the dock and pushed through the plastic flaps of the catering tent. Kate was right behind me and bumped into me when I stopped.
The landscape of the tent had changed since I’d been in it earlier. Instead of just Richard, a pair of pantry cooks, one tall and bald and the other short and round with curly dark hair, stood at the tables. They were loading trays of hors d’oeuvres into the warmers as Richard inspected the food. The savory smells hit me the moment I opened the tent flap, enveloping me and making my stomach growl. I’d had a bottled coffee and a banana on the drive in, but had been too nervous and anxious about the day to eat more—a decision I now regretted.
“There had better not be a drop of water on this food,” he said. When he noticed us, he looked up. “Can you believe this? We didn’t even get the food unloaded before the rain started.”
I saw all the trays were covered with plastic wrap. “It looks fine.”
Richard didn’t seem mollified. “For the moment. Now I just have to keep it from wilting until it’s time to serve.”
“That’s not our biggest problem,” I said. “Have you seen Jeremy?”
“Maybe he ran past the catering tent a little while ago?” Kate asked.
Richard crossed his arms. “We’re trying to keep the flaps closed and the rain out. Unless he ran into this tent, I didn’t see him. Why?”
I gave Richard the quick rundown. Kate jumped in with an explanation of our low-speed chase through the ship and Fern knocking me off my feet.
“So Daniel is going to take Jeremy in for questioning,” I said. “But we don’t know where Jeremy ran off to. He could have run off the ship, or he could still be hiding on board.”
“He wouldn’t leave the ship before the wedding,” Richard said. “His ego is too big. He wants to hear everyone say how gorgeous the party is.”
“Do you think anyone will actually say that?” Kate asked. “Have you seen the décor?”
For once, I had to agree with Kate. “If he isn’t already on the lam, the police or the security team will grab him the second he shows his face.”
“Mark my words.” Richard wagged a finger at us. “Jeremy Johns is still on board.”
A man holding a stack of silver trays wrapped in plastic pushed through the tent flaps behind us.
“Perfect,” Richard said. “More trays. Put them down right here.”
Kate and I squeezed to the side to let the man get by us.
“We’d better get back inside,” I said. “We’ll let you know when we’re closer to serving time.”
“Give me at least a thirty-minute warning. It’s going to take me longer to plate up out here.”
Kate pulled back the plastic tent flap. The rain had intensified to hard, stinging drops. I wished all of my umbrellas weren’t safe and dry in my car trunk. Not that umbrellas were much use when the rain blew sideways like this.
“Run for it!” Kate grabbed a nearby napkin, threw it over her head, and dashed past me up the metal ramp. Just before I started after her, I stopped in my tracks. Through the rain I’d seen a figure appear on the top deck then duck back down. I shook my head. It couldn’t be.
Had I really just seen Mandy, the missing chief stew, or were my eyes playing tricks on me?