My mind was on Badar as I started climbing the stairs toward my deck to wash up before dinner.
What if he had done it and I’d distracted them with tales about petty, domestic unpleasantness?
Badar had easy access to the tunics. He could have carried Leah. He had opportunity.
Who didn’t fit all those?
As I’d pointed out, only the extremes of big and small could be eliminated. Also, whoever had been steering the ship that night. Though, for all I knew, the ship had cruise control and he could have dashed out, done Leah in, then gotten back to the helm.
I rubbed my forehead.
Okay, that was a stretch.
But the video hardly eliminated anybody as a suspect.
Among those not eliminated? Badar.
On the other hand, if Edgars had been sure about him, they wouldn’t have listened to me. So, something held the security chief back even before I pointed out the wide-open access to tunics.
Did he consider Badar’s motive weak, agreeing with Imka?
Leah raising her cane straight up as she snapped at Badar…
How physically threatening had she truly been? Badar could have held her off one-handed.
Plus, as unpleasant as Leah could be, she wasn’t the first annoying passenger he’d dealt with, even repeat offenders. Besides, his response at the muster had been to stay away from her. He might have been angrier after the confrontation at the towel counter, but he’d kept his cool then, too.
Getting him fired seemed a stretch, as Imka said. Edgars didn’t strike me as overly impressed by—
I stopped climbing steps.
It took another two beats for my conscious thoughts to catch up and realize why I’d stopped.
Another time Leah had raised her cane. Not threatening as she had with Badar … Not overtly threatening…
I looked up at the open risers a full flight above me. There wasn’t much space between them from this angle.
Turning my head, I looked across and up at the next half-flight of stairs. This allowed considerably more latitude. Someone on one half-flight had an open view through the openings to the next half-flight.
“What are you doing, Sheila?” Before I could answer or divert Petronella, she knelt on the stair where I stood. “Oh, you dropped something, you poor thing. And after the horrible trauma you’ve experienced. Let me help you look. What did you lose?”
Dropped?
But I was looking up.
She hadn’t waited for an answer. She slid her hands across the carpeted stair as if she could find an individual grain of sand if that’s what I required.
“I didn’t lose—”
“Oh, dear,” came another voice. Maya Russell. She hurried to Petronella. “Are you all right? Did you fall? These stairs can be so dangerous. You know a young woman fell at the beginning of the trip? That’s who they dropped off in Gibraltar, though she was healed enough to rejoin at Gran Canaria. Why they had to make that side trip when she was fine three days later except for that cast on her foot, I don’t know. Especially when those young women wear those outrageous shoes. It’s a wonder they don’t all break their necks. Not that I’d wish that on anyone. Especially after Leah—”
Ralph Russell stayed back, watching us.
Maya hiccupped from swallowing what might have been a sob. Or a laugh.
Jumbled emotions following the death of a long-time friend? Or something else?
Are you trying to kill this husband, too, Maya?
“Maya, I want to say I’m sorry about the loss of Leah. I know you had… difficulties, but you’d known her so long and so well.”
“We weren’t that close.”
“No, but… You’d cruised many times together. And to have someone else you knew die on a cruise must bring up feelings and memories—”
“We better go, Maya.” Ralph, standing between us, had a hand under her arm, urging her up. “It’s been a difficult day. Sure you understand.”
They were gone before I could even glimpse her face.
Four more people had joined us. Three gallant men from sixty to at least ninety and another woman.
All scoured the steps.
If I didn’t supply some object for their search, one of these canny folks might figure out what I had been doing … if Ralph hadn’t already.
Could Leah’s ex-husband know about—
Focus. I needed to focus.
“I dropped an earring,” I blurted. Automatically, I put a hand to my earring-less left ear, which matched my earring-less right ear. “Earlier. I got to my cabin, took one off and realized the other was gone.”
Not great, but better.
We all bent over searching the carpet. I got bored fast, knowing we were looking for something that wasn’t there.
I looked around at the shoes passing us. What else was there to do?
Running shoes in white, black, beige, one pair of red. Two pairs of practical black sandals. A tiny pair of white sandals that reminded me of some I’d had as a kid. Petronella’s practical close-toed flats. One pair of sandals. Four inches, but steady with a steadying wedge, unlike—
Shoes. Stairs. A cane … A cane stuck through the opening, even for an instant — as long as it was the right instant — would trip anyone. Especially anyone wearing absurdly high-heeled sandals.
But why?
Had Leah encountered Coral before?
That confrontation outside the elevator last night…
…Better change your tune toward me fast—
—worst cabin onboard seems like a palace compared to a prison cell—
—was in your way when the cruise started, but sure wasn’t when it was over.
Had Leah tried to get rid of Coral, then threatened her … only to have the other woman kill her?
If so, Leah knew some secret about Coral. But—
I jerked upright.
“What is it, Sheila?” Petronella grasped my arm. “Are you dizzy? Sick? Faint?”
“What? No. I’m fine. I, uh… maybe the earring’s in the pocket of what I was wearing before. No sense anybody looking more until I make sure. Thank you all for your help.”
I thanked more, they said I was welcome more, while Petronella fretted about my emotional state.
What actually straightened me up was realizing the security video did eliminate one person. Someone wearing a cast that would be impossible to miss even in grainy footage.
In a millisecond Coral spun from hot suspect as the probable victim of Leah’s cane trick, to eliminated. Maybe I was a little faint.