“That doesn’t make him a murderer, though,” Ryan said.
“How about a thief?” Liz asked. “My father told me the necklace and earrings that were stolen were almost priceless.”
“But very hard to fence,” Ryan said. “If someone melted the gold and took out the emeralds, they’d only get a small percentage of their actual insured value.”
“Minna and Francie told me Regina wasn’t left anything in her father’s will from the loot he’d recovered in his treasure hunts. She was only allowed to wear the jewelry, and upon her death everything would go to museums. The same with the property at Castlemara.”
When Betty was done e-mailing Liz the photos of the will, the prenup, and the pill bottle, Liz stood. “I’d better get back to the kitchen and make sure everything is shipshape. And I want to check on Pierre.”
Betty gave Liz a knowing glance, and Liz explained to Ryan about Pierre’s recent memory loss and befuddled behavior.
“My nana had Alzheimer’s and she did well on medication,” Ryan said. “So there’s always hope.”
Liz and Ryan locked gazes, both thinking about the firefighter from Ryan’s company who’d been in the car accident. There was always hope.
“I’ll check on Pierre when I go upstairs,” Betty said. “Liz, you should get some rest. You have an early day tomorrow.”
“Thanks. Let’s reconvene after I talk to Francie and we look over the photos Ryan took.”
“I feel like one of the Hardy Boys. Do we need a name for our new mystery club?” Ryan grinned.
Liz laughed and turned to Betty. “Can I tell him?”
“Yes, but if he discloses my secret to anyone, it will be under penalty of death.”
Liz told Ryan about Betty’s ghostwriting career.
“My mom read Nancy Drew and my dad read the Hardy Boys,” Ryan said. “I think Dad still has them somewhere. I read them all, too. They were blue-spined hardcovers.”
Darn, Liz thought. Another plus to put under Ryan’s Nice column, almost offsetting the Naughty.
Later, when Liz entered the lobby to make sure the hotel was secure, she found Captain Netherton sitting on a wicker chaise, sucking on the stem of his unlit pipe. It was the first time the debonair captain had looked his seventy years.
He gave Liz a weak smile that didn’t engage the laugh lines near his blue-green eyes.
“Are you okay, Captain?”
“Yes, my dear. I always rally, even when I’m up against the perfect storm.”
“Did you and Agent Pearson get everything straightened out?”
“Of course. I explained to her that I was just repaying Mrs. Harrington-Worth for the exorbitant tip she gave me when she chartered the Queen of the Seas.”
“And Betty and Aunt Amelia?”
“Ah, the lovely ladies of the Indialantic by the Sea. Yes, I bought them the same perfume. Your great-aunt for all her generosity in letting me stay here and giving me something to do to fill my retirement days. And the lovely mystery writer for being so accommodating to my big mutt, Killer. That David Worth is out of his gourd with grief, I suppose. And he seemed as drunk as can be, so I’ll cut him a little slack.”
Liz remembered how badly Regina had treated her husband and wondered if there was a side to him that no one ever saw. If he didn’t marry her for her money, that must be the Regina he was grieving for.
“Your suite is next to the Worths’—I mean, where the Worths were staying…um, prior to the robbery. Did you ever overhear anything? Arguing, any visitors?” she asked.
“Not that I can think of. These are all the same questions the lovely detective keeps asking.”
“How about Saturday? Anything strange?”
“Well, just as you, I was at the emporium, manning the raffle table. Now that I think about it, before going down to dinner I heard Regina raising her voice at her husband. She asked him if he was drunk, because he was slurring his words. I didn’t hear anything after that, and I went downstairs to the dining room, where Iris served me dinner.”
“What time was that?” Liz asked.
“Around seven.”
“And what time did you hear the commotion later?”
He put down his pipe and yawned before answering. “It was around seven thirty.”
“Were you with Iris the entire time?”
“I know you’re trying to make sense of everything. I myself have started a logbook about that night. Must be my military training, but there is no way that Iris was out of my sight for more than a few minutes. Between you and me, we actually shared dinner together.”
Liz would probably find a bottle of Coco Mademoiselle in Iris’s bathroom. “One last question, when you found David and Regina, was David conscious?”
“David was in a semi-stupor. He crawled into the sitting room and kept repeating, ‘Why does it hurt so much? Why does it hurt so much?’”
After leaving Captain Netherton, Liz went back to check the kitchen. Iris had cleaned up and everything was sparkling. She grabbed her handbag from the pantry and went out the kitchen door. After the door closed behind her, she grabbed the handle and tested it. Locked. Would things ever return to normal?
Once home, she printed the photos that Ryan had taken on his phone while he’d been in David Worth’s suite. He would be an asset to the CIA. Regina’s will was as Ryan had said it was when he’d perused it. David stood to gain nothing from her death. What Minna and Francie had told her must be true. Castlemara would be left to the Barrier Island Historical Society and all the treasure would go into museums after her death, which was the reason Regina hadn’t been allowed to sell any of the jewelry from the San Carlos. Any true assets that Regina had upon her death would go to her feline, Venus. That last fact said a
