Yeah, right, Liz thought. How could Aunt Amelia sleep on the same floor where a woman had just been murdered? After Agent Pearson left, she said, “Auntie and Betty, you can sleep in the beach house with me.”
Aunt Amelia said, “Thank you, darling. That would be a relief. Naturally, I’ll have to bring Barnacle Bob and Venus.”
“Naturally.” Liz wondered how the bald-headed parrot and bald-bodied cat would get along.
“I appreciate the offer,” said Betty, “but I plan to sleep in my own bed. I’m not that worried someone will come after me for my jewels.”
Liz looked at her. “Are you sure?”
There was a knocking from the outside door to the office. Ryan, who had remained mute during the exchange with Agent Pearson, got up to answer it. Liz overheard Ryan introducing himself to Iris. To Captain Netherton, she heard him say, “Good to see you again, Captain. Sorry it’s not under better circumstances.” Then Iris entered her father’s living room/dining room and took the seat vacated by Pops. Ryan and Captain Netherton remained in her father’s office. She heard the low buzz of conversation, but couldn’t make out any of it.
Liz poured coffee into a cup for the housekeeper. Iris’s face was a pasty white, and her right leg jiggled nervously. Liz wanted to ask her what had happened, but thought better of it. She asked, “Milk? Sugar?”
“No. Nothing,” Iris said in her raspy smoker’s voice. “I could go for a shot of tequila if you have any?”
Fenton took a few long-legged strides to the small kitchen, opened an upper cabinet, and retrieved a bottle. “Will brandy do?”
“Yes, please.”
Captain Netherton and Ryan entered the room. The captain said, “I could use a spot of brandy myself, old chap.”
Aunt Amelia said, “Pierre, how about you? I’m sure you could stay here, in my nephew’s apartment.”
“I’ll be fine, Amelia. Like Betty, I’d rather sleep in my own bed. I’m on the opposite end of the hotel from the Oceana Suite, and lately I sleep like the dead.”
Iris gasped, but Pierre didn’t notice, not realizing his faux pas.
“Iris, how about you? Do you want to go to your mother’s or somewhere else? I can’t ask you to stay at the hotel after what happened.”
“Yes, that is a good idea,” Iris replied. “I will pack a few things and be on my way.”
Captain Netherton stood. “I’ll escort you to your rooms. This is no time for a lady to be alone.”
The housekeeper shrugged her shoulders and downed the brandy in one gulp.
After a long period of silence, Ryan finally said, “I think our hour’s up. We can retire. Captain Netherton, you’re free to bunk with me in the caretaker’s cottage.”
“Oh, thank you, my boy. I will stay in the hotel to protect Betty, although I doubt she would say she needs protection.”
Betty glanced at the captain, opened her mouth, then closed it. Liz saw the tug-of-war between her feminist side and the romanticist in her.
There were many questions Liz wanted to ask Iris and the captain, but for Aunt Amelia’s sake, she wouldn’t bring them up now. Plus, her father had the inside track with Agent Charlotte Pearson. Liz would have to wait until tomorrow.
Before leaving the apartment to help Aunt Amelia collect Barnacle Bob and grab a few items to take to the beach house, she pulled Ryan aside and asked, “What were you talking to Captain Netherton about?”
He looked down at her, but remained silent.
“Look, buster, my great-aunt’s life’s work is tied up in the Indialantic.”
“I thought she was an actress most of her life?”
“Semantics. She has put everything she has made for almost four decades into this hotel, and now the emporium. If you know anything about Regina’s murder, then I want to know. I’d also love to hear what you’ve learned from Brevard County Fire and Rescue. I’ll be agreeable to work with you on Dad’s case if you’re forthcoming with me on anything you can dig up on the murder.”
“I’ll have to think about it.”
“I guess you like to work alone.”
“Okay, okay. Meet me tomorrow morning at the caretaker’s cottage, and I’ll tell you what I know.” He looked down at her hand still holding his wrist. “Now is it okay if I take my seventy-five-year-old grandfather home? Or do we have to make a deal on that one, too, Bossy Pants?”
Ugh. He was back—“Here’s Johnny…” At least she knew what she was dealing with. The kinder, gentler Ryan had thrown her off balance. Never again.
Later that night, when Liz was in bed and Aunt Amelia and her animalia were secure in the guest room, something hit Liz like a proverbial brick. Where was Captain Netherton’s cane? And what had happened to his limp?
A few hours later, she woke in the pitch dark with her heart pounding. After the night of the scar, Liz had spent weeks living through nightmares, waking up drenched in sweat, shivering, and cold. She prayed they wouldn’t come back to haunt her after what had just happened. As she drifted back to sleep, she remembered why she’d woken. She’d dreamt that a ghostly Regina Harrington-Worth had entered Liz’s bedroom, her arm outstretched, holding an emerald-and-pearl necklace dripping with blood, her head floating above her shoulders where her neck should have been.
Chapter 19
Liz sat on her deck, looking into a cup of black sludge topped with swirling coffee-ground flotsam. Aunt Amelia wasn’t just a bad cook, she was a bad beverage maker, too. Her great-aunt had set up the automated coffeepot the night before and was still asleep in the guest room. Liz had checked on Aunt Amelia earlier and saw Venus snuggled in the crook of her great-aunt’s legs. Even though she wore a nose strip, Aunt Amelia still snored. When Liz had carefully backed out of the room, she’d heard Barnacle
