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Bess waves him off. “He was probably going to say we don’t have permission from the cruise line to do something like that. Wes is highly conscious of anything that could be a liability. That’s what makes him such a good captain.”
“I am conscious of things that can cause a liability,” Wes says. “Such as landing a helicopter on a moving ship without proper authorization.” He tips his head toward Ransom. “I logged two hundred formal complaints last night from that little stunt.” He looks my way. “No offense to you, Trixie. But the only time a helicopter is allowed anywhere near the ship is if there’s an emergency that a smaller vessel like a boat can’t solve.” He turns to Ransom once again. “You knew you weren’t supposed to land that bird on my ship. You were supposed to hover.”
“My apologies,” Ransom says. “But Mrs. Troublefield made it clear she wasn’t about to jump out of it.”
“Ransom.” I laugh, mock socking him in the arm.
“I think we’d best change the subject,” Bess says before doing a double take at her gray-haired bestie. “Nettie, why in the world are you stuffing food into the mouth of that dummy on your arm?”
Sparky’s head twists and twitches her way. “Who you calling a dummy, dummy?”
Bess rolls her eyes. “Nettie, if you keep feeding him, he’s going to explode like a piñata full of rotten shrimp tacos.”
Nettie snorts. “If you’re impressed with this, you should see how much cake this guy can put away.” She puts down her fork. “All right, let’s get to dessert. Who’s up for a little murder?”
“Me,” I say quickly. “Ransom, is there anything new with the case?”
“You tell me,” he says, pursing his lips.
“Who are your suspects, Detective Troublefield?” Wes asks, sounding more than genuine. “No offense to Quinn, but as far as I’m concerned, you’re the only viable detective on the ship.”
“What about me?” Ransom asks with marked irritation.
“If you were half the detective she is, you’d know the answer to that,” Wes quips.
“All right, boys,” Nettie says. “Go on, Trix. Who’s on first?”
“Okay.” I pat my hands clean. “There’s Jane Hunt. The night of the murder, Jane had a streak of blue liquid dried on her arm.”
Ransom nods. “The exact color of the liquid Julia was drinking.”
“That’s right,” I say. “But she was drinking, too. Everyone in that room had a cocktail in their hand. And, of course, Jane is one of the partners in Lemonade Lipstick. She said she ponied up a million bucks to get the company running. And Travis Weatherly implied it was all she had, too. Anyway, Jane was canceled for lying about endorsements on her social media channels. And according to Nadine, Julia was the one who outed Jane.”
“Something must have gone terribly wrong between them,” Sparky says, inserting himself into the conversation.
“Maybe not,” I tell him—I can’t help it. He really does have his own little personality, quirky as it might be. “It turns out, Julia Edwards couldn’t keep a secret to save her life.”
“And in the end, it might have cost her just that,” Ransom says.
“You said it.” I sigh at the thought. “Then there’s Nadine Dixon.”
“Rumor has it, she’s in her sixties.” Bess shakes her head. “That woman looks like a teenager. How is it that the younger generation has seemingly forgotten to age?”
“That’s true,” I say. “And it’s also why my ex is swimming in money.” Stanton isn’t just the top plastic surgeon in Maine, his services are coveted all over the world. And lucky for me, I get half his earnings for the next ten years. That is, if a judge agrees to it. For all I’ve put up with, I should have it all. “Anyway, Nadine seems pretty business-minded.”
Wes nods. “She mentioned that she took care of the loans and contracts with the manufacturing plant.”
“Interesting,” I say. “She’s the one that told me about Julia’s relationship with Travis. She admitted that you couldn’t trust Julia with anything.”
Nettie leans in. “Isn’t she the one who created a toxic environment on her reality TV show?”
“That’s right,” Wes says. “Her own sister came out and admitted it was true.” He shrugs. “I did a little research of my own. If you ever need a partner, Trixie, let me know.”
“I see you don’t mind putting her in the line of danger,” Ransom growls.
“Relax,” Wes tells him. “I was kidding.” He shakes his head my way with a wink and I laugh.
“Okay, then there’s Travis Weatherly himself,” I say. “He dated Julia. She tried to extort a million bucks from him, too. And when he didn’t cough it up, she made good on the threat to out him and his cheating ways. It didn’t end well for him. He lost everything.”
