“What text? I didn’t get a text.” Liz took out her phone, brought it up to the tip of her nose, and read: I called all the nearby hotels that allow pets, and none of them were booked for Thursday night, the night the Worths checked in. Their claim, that staying at the Indialantic Hotel was their only recourse, was a lie. I also talked to Josie from Josie’s Flower Shop. She saw Edward Goren walking toward Squidly’s around seven, when she went to pick up an outdoor potted tree she’d left behind, which means that his alibi might be legit, if the murder happened at 7:30, as Captain Netherton said. Let’s meet later this afternoon. Betty.
Liz recalled that Regina had been the one who wanted to the leave the hotel. It was David who’d said he’d called around and found that all the hotels were booked.
“I can’t believe David Worth is going to get away with killing his wife,” Ryan said. “Hopefully, they’ll catch him.”
“What if Edward recants his story about stabbing David, giving David an alibi for Regina’s murder? Edward was pretty delirious. What if he dies?”
Strobe lights flashed up ahead. When they reached the dock, an ambulance was already pulling away with its siren blaring—a good sign that Edward was still alive. Agent Pearson was standing next to Liz’s father. Liz removed her arm from Ryan’s and ran toward them.
“Dad! How badly is Edward hurt?”
Her father wrapped her in a bear hug and said, “It’s pretty bad, but we won’t know more until he gets checked out. He was unconscious when we got here.”
Agent Pearson had a phone to her ear. She put the phone into her suit jacket pocket and said, “David Worth’s Bentley just went off the Sebastian Inlet Bridge. There’s no chance he could have survived. We are going to have the CSIs go over Mr. Goren’s boat for evidence. Do you have any idea what went down here?”
Ryan said to Liz, “Why don’t you go check on Aunt Amelia? I’ll stay and explain everything to Charlotte and Fenton.”
Liz felt relief, since she was so emotionally drained. The adrenaline rush she’d had earlier had sapped all her energy, and she was worried about her great-aunt. “Thank you.”
She trekked slowly back to the hotel in the fog. When she entered the lobby, Barnacle Bob was in a frenzy, flapping his wings and squawking in parrot talk, not English. “What’s wrong with him?” she asked.
“He’s probably upset about the way that hooligan David Worth roughhoused Amelia,” Betty said.
Liz moved toward Barnacle Bob, then lifted his brass stand and cage, then carried them over to Aunt Amelia.
Aunt Amelia said, “There’s my pretty boy. Don’t you lose a feather worrying about me.”
“Rude young man,” Barnacle Bob said.
“Yes, he was. But I am fine, my feathered friend.”
Barnacle Bob calmed down. He whistled, then said, “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
Aunt Amelia let out a full-bodied laugh, her huge, dangling earrings slapping against her chin. “Don’t you know it, old buddy.”
“Where’s Ryan?” Betty asked.
Liz looked at Aunt Amelia before she continued. Her great-aunt looked like she was back to her competent self, and so Liz told them what she’d witnessed at the dock.
Aunt Amelia said, “So Edward stabbed David Worth in order to give him an alibi?”
Betty said, “That explains something I just realized. The bottle of oxycodone that David Worth was supposedly using for the pain after he’d been stabbed, had actually been prescribed days before. The immediate pain from a stab wound would be much less if you were hopped up on megadoses of painkillers.”
Wow. Liz should have picked up on that clue, but even “Mr. Investigator,” Ryan Stone, had missed it. Pre-medicating also explained what Captain Netherton had told Liz about David’s slurring and the behavior he had overheard coming from the Oceana Suite on the evening of Regina’s murder.
“There’s one more thing. David Worth’s Bentley just went off the Sebastian Inlet Bridge. Agent Pearson said there is no chance he could have survived.”
Aunt Amelia gasped. “Why do I get the feeling you two have been leaving me out of things? I’m not a fragile hothouse flower.”
Liz took her great-aunt’s hand. “We didn’t want you to worry until we had more than just supposition.”
“Then what you’re saying is, David Worth killed his wife by strangling her with an Ace bandage? Why did he do it? For her money?”
“It wasn’t for money, because he didn’t get any,” Betty said. “I think we will learn more when Edward confesses his role in the crime.”
“I can’t believe David Worth is dead,” Aunt Amelia said.
Barnacle Bob repeated the old Timex watch jingle, “Takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”
“Not this time, BB,” Liz said.
Chapter 37
A month later, Liz was in the hotel’s luggage room with her great-aunt.
After David’s body had ironically washed up near Castlemara, Aunt Amelia arranged a double funeral for the Worths. Divers located the Bentley under the bridge. Nearby, on the ocean floor, they also recovered a suitcase filled with gold bars that Edward had given David in exchange for the jewels that, in his mind, he, not Percival Harrington II, had salvaged from the San Carlos. In a storage space leased by Edward, Agent Pearson found an entire glass display cabinet of priceless jewelry recovered from the San Carlos. There was even an easy chair in the center of the space, where Edward could relax and peruse his collection, finally one-upping “Percy.”
Edward confessed that, months ago, he’d contacted David about buying a few pieces of Queen Maria Luisa’s jewels from Regina before they were scheduled to go to the Sotheby’s auction—the same auction that Minna said Regina’s father had canceled
