Cruise to Murder (Z & C Mysteries, #2) (10 page)

Zo
and Claire were standing still and silent, hardly breathing, when Claire pointed to the wall in front of them. There was a shadow creeping toward them of a man. The shadow moved a hand, pulling out what appeared to be the shadow of a gun.

He jumped around, gun pointed at the now empty corner. His targets had vanished. Blinking in rage, he pocketed his gun and trotted, merging with the crowd, looking again for the two.

It was a busy evening. People were either going to dinner or coming back headed for a theater show. Zo and Claire wound their way through the crowd as fast as they could go.

Looking behind in nervousness, their eyes darted back and forth to see how close their assassin might be to shooting one of them.
They spotted him about twenty feet back. Their hearts pounded against their chests. They managed to wedge themselves into a filled elevator that was about to go up.

The elevator was
stopping at every floor, letting people in after a few would get out. The thought of their pursuer possibly being behind the door each time was a terror.

The
elevator doors opened at the level just before their cabin’s floor. A few people pushed their way out and then a woman in a wheelchair was being sweetly accommodated. People moved tighter up against the walls of the elevator carriage. Helpers took their time, pushing and pulling the wheelchair backward and forward, to line it up for exiting.

“Aaaaagh!” Clai
re screamed, shocking everyone to a pale standstill. She pushed her mother forward past the wheelchair and its entourage, out into the lobby. She followed, squeezing herself through and out.

“Sorry
, Mom, that scream has been in me since the photo gallery. They just took too long on that last stop.”

“Claire, honey. You poor sweetie!” But Zo was just as full of adrenaline.

One woman was heard to say, “Well, I never!”

Claire responded, as she and her mom headed for the stairs, “You mighta, if you knew what we know!”

“What does she mean by that?” asked another woman in worry. “Never mind. Let me off! I don’t like elevators anyway.”

Half the passengers rushed
out.

Zo and Claire were finally at the
ir home lobby, when around a corner a big man stepped in front of them. “What’s the hurry? Why are your eyes wild? What’s happening, you two?” He took hold of Zo who wrenched herself free to continue to run toward the hallway to their room.

“Get away, Butch!” Zo commanded.

“Huh?” Butch looked confused.

“Get away from us or you will be killed!” The women were running
toward their cabin.

“What did I do? I don’t kiss
that
bad.” He yelled after them, jogging behind.

“Not from us. From the freak with the bone necklace, who is out to shoot us!” They kept running
.

“Another freak?” Butch questioned
, surprised. “Wait!” He quickened his steps to a run. “I want to die with you!”

“
Yeah, he says that now, Claire, but wait till the first shot is fired. Then wee-wee-wee all the way home—to Momma.”

They were breathing heav
ily. Zo had her key card out and was trying to insert it, but her hand was shaking too much.

Claire took it, inserted it and opened the door. “You think they have Depends that big?”

“Ha ha ha. Good one!” Both of them slammed the door shut, Claire dead-bolting it.

“Let me in!” Butch was pounding on the door.

“Oh, crappers! Let him in,” relented Zo.

“
Is a zombie making you say that, Butch?” quizzed Claire.

“No one in sight. Wait! Help! Help!”

Claire quickly opened the door to help. Butch stepped in dusting his shirt off at one shoulder. “Hi, ladies,” he said nonchalantly, then put his hands in his pockets and rocked from toes to heels as the two looked at him a second, dumbfounded.

C
laire slammed the door shut, dead-bolted it, and the duo sprinted to the patio door—throwing it open and looking at the life boat that hung in the left corner.

Two shots came through the dead bolt.

Zo and Claire climbed into the boat, with Butch scrambling from behind.

“What do we do?” Claire yelled.

“Push, pull handles and knobs until you get results!” answered Zo. They yanked and pounded, pulling what might even remotely resemble a button, level or drop-rope.

Something worked, because
the boat dropped suddenly and then eased on down the few stories of the ship, until it landed in the waves, sending Zo sprawling.

The engine s
tarted up and the two looked forward, seeing Butch seemed to know what he was doing. “Where to, ladies?”

“To the Koona Caves.”

“What? Not there!”

“Claire, call 911 and tell them to meet us back at the well at Mr. Belmont’s cottage.”

“Mom, I don’t have my phone. I lost it running.”

“I’ll call.” Butch opened his phone and began punching in the numbers.

“You ought to get an up-to-date phone, Butch.”

A shot was fired and then four more. Everyone ducked down. Then one more rang out. A man could be seen in the
moonlight falling off the ship into the waters far below. Then nothing.

T
he boat bounded softly over the waves, with just the lull of the engine and sea spray to the face. Everyone was silent. The dark ocean, with its moonlit silver crests, was very comforting.

The only thing moving
within the boat was a pair of ears.

“What
’s that?” Claire pointed.

Butch turned and looked
. “We have a stowaway.”

It was the bunny. His ears
flattened against his back, since being noticed.

“Are you running away from Larry
the Great again? You look so dashing in your black bow tie with white polka dots.” Zo smiled.

He twitched his little pink nose.

“I’ll take that as a
yes
you are.”

As they
closed in on shore, the smoke from Belmont’s shrouded the cliffs and caves. The ladies repositioned themselves, sitting next to each other along one side of the boat. Their hair blew back from the wind. Butch was silent as he stood at the helm, pulling a lever to slow down.

Claire put an arm around her mother. “We’re going in, huh?”

“I’ve never been one to
completely
run away. Let’s face the demon, which is a whole lot easier since we’ve called the police to meet us there.”

A corner of Claire’s mouth turned up in an anticipating smile.

Butch eased on the gas some more as they neared the shore, then suddenly jumped out into the three feet of water, pulling a rope, so the boat’s bottom was against the sand. Zo and Claire climbed out, stepping into the cold water. Claire grabbed the bunny before walking up the beach. Butch tied the rope around a large stone.

“
Well, ladies…,” he put his hands on his hips, going over to them, “are you sure you want to enter the Koona Caves? We can always stop for a drink and just dance the night away.”

“We’re sure,” the mother
and daughter said resolutely.

“Okay, okay.” He put his arms up in a surrend
ering stance. “Which cave? And what are you looking for anyway?” He narrowed his dark eyes.

“The one by the well,”
Claire said, “and we are not sure.”

“As long as it isn’
t in the stinky one, ’cause that is where you two are on your own.” He waved his hands to wipe the thought out of the air.

“
Oh, why not?!” Zo asked. “Just because it has a warning sign and no trespassing sign? Where’s your testosterone?”

“Yeah,” Claire added. “
Just because we might reek of fish a week or two is no big deal.”

“Mama!” Butch exclaimed. “Belmont’s is burned down, girls. What could you possibly do up there?”

Zo and Claire looked to each other, hesitant.

“Okay, you two need to tell me what is up, before I go with you further. What do you know? What trouble are you getting me into?”

Zo spoke. “The ship is on lockdown right now; voodoo dolls are hitching rides with me; there have been three murders thus far—Mrs. Belmont, Blondie and Mr. Belmont; hoodlums are trying to get a pin that I found; and crazed natives are chasing us, trying to make bone necklaces out of us. And then, there is the fire.” She breathed in.

“In other words, Butch, we are in deep
voodoo doodoo and need to solve the puzzle.” Claire raised her brows. “…Reminds me of a recent situation.” She thought of
The Riddles of Hillgate
.

“Well, you’
re right about crazed natives. I’ve been after your mother since I threw a flaming spear at her table in a
love
dance. Have you thought of just handing over the pin to the troublemakers?” Butch continued, “If that seems to be what they want?”

“Nah, I would rather be cursed, strangled by a zombie, chased, shot at, have dead people grab me, be in a fight with a man with a knife, and cause a dog and a man to spontaneously combust in a temper tantrum
,” Zo affirmed, nodding.

“Besides, we’re too deep into this mystery now,” Claire said matter-of-factly. “We couldn’t take ourselves out of it if we tried. If we just handed over the pin, I am sure we would be killed, anyway.”

“We would be killed! That’s what I overheard.”

Butch folded his arms, placing a finger over his lip in consternation. “Okay. Let me see this pin
again.”

Zo pulled it out from under her shirt. She lifted it up toward the moon
. The light shined through the iridescent broach. “There is a tunnel that leads from the well down to the caves. And it says here, ‘Go the second mile.’”

“We better go to Mr. Belmont’s well then.” He stuck the pin in his pocket. “I’ll bring some of the extra rope from the boat, in case we need it.”

Claire nodded. “Sounds good. I wish we had a flashlight.”

“The boat should have one of those in its emergency box!” Butch said,
and started jogging back over to it. “…And flares and other things we may need. Maybe some beef jerky!”

When he returned, he asked, “What makes you think that the people who caused this fire, or the zombies, are not around? I mean, if you are right and this is a sinister, crazy ring of people
?”

“Oooh, didn’t think about that one.” Zo frowned.
“Claire, be a good girl and wait for Mom in the boat.”

“Hah! No way.”

“Alright then. Let’s go… Anyone see any red and blue flashing lights?”

“We have to get up the
sandy hill a bit before we can tell that.” Claire started walking while cuddling the bunny, stroking his back.

Finally, they were standing in front of the burned down cottage. “I didn’t know fires like this smelled this strong.” Zo wrinkled her nose.

The cottage looked like tossed match sticks burned to the end. The remaining stone chimney and stone elevation stood as a monument.

“No cops yet, Mom.”

Butch began patting all his pockets. “Uh, ladies. I didn’t actually complete that call. Remember all the shots fired and then the guy committed suicide with the last shot? It distracted me, and I really don’t remember anything about my phone since then. I’ll run back to the boat and look for it.” He turned and trotted toward the boat, disappearing down the hill.

“Suicide? Like that other weirdo
that cornered me in my room?” Zo addressed. “Will the mayhem ever stop?”

“If
they
were
suicides. And not the murdering of zombies who botched their assignments.”

The bunny suddenly jumped out of Claire’s arms and hopped over to the well. He
made a final hop to the well’s stone rim, looked down a moment and then leaped down into it.

“Well,
Alice
, I guess we better go over and see why the bunny went down the hole,” said Zo.

“We can’t see down a hole at night without a flashlight,
Mother. Where’s Butch?”

They headed for the slope of the hill to see what was keeping him. When they looked down, they didn’t see Butch… or the boat.

“What did I tell you? Wee-wee-wee. Of course, you know what this means… His lips can never touch mine.”

“That’
ll teach him, Mom. Look, there’s a flashlight on the ground, there.” She pointed. “I’ll get it.”

When Claire got back up the hill, she complained, “I am so disappointed in Butch. But, at least he threw the flashlight onto the beach for us.”

“Yeah, remind me to take it back to the ship when this is all over, so I can shine it in his face and spotlight him as a coward.”