Getting Old is the Best Revenge (24 page)

"We need to talk. It's very important."

"All right." She pokes Elio again. "Pass me the towel and help me out." Elio obeys instantly. Looks like Angelina's reheated love doesn't stop her from being the boss.

Our group settles at an outdoor table as far away from the deck action as possible. I make sure no one is within hearing distance.

After the drinks we've ordered have arrived, all look to me to tell them what this is about. Except for Elio, who stands up, taking his drink with him. "I guess I'll just leave you ladies to your hen party and go find myself a poker game."

I say, "Mr. Siciliano, you're going to want to hear this."

Before he can argue, Angelina pulls him back down into his seat. He glares at me, arms crossed. "Can I smoke a cigar, at least?"

There are seven loud "nos" at that. He finally gives up trying to annoy us. He's trapped.

"And enough with the Mr. and Mrs. How about Angelina and Elio?" Angelina offers up to me.

"Yes, thanks, Angelina."

Angelina looks at Amy. "How are you today?" she says with concern.

"All right," Amy replies.

I take a deep breath.

"What I'm about to say to you will sound incredible. I can hardly believe it myself. In my wildest imagination I could never envision such a thing happening. I've figured most of it out, but I need both Angelina and Amy to put the final pieces together for me."

My girls lean in closer. Amy and Angelina look at one another curiously. I am sure they're unable to think of any way in which they could possibly be connected.

Bella slurps her drink, then giggles in embarrassment. "Sorry."

I continue. "All of this started for me over a month ago when I was trying to show off in front of my boyfriend and his son. Both policemen."

I stop. My girls look surprised. I never got around to telling them about Jack being a cop, as well. Only Evvie knew.

"Then Sophie won a free cruise and we turned up on the
Heavenly."
Sophie smiles at being referred to.

"I better stay in the present and work backward. On the ship we accidentally meet Amy, who is lost and puzzled because she can't find the three women she was supposed to meet for the bridge tournament. I need you, Amy, to tell everyone, were these women close friends of yours?"

"No," she answers. "As a matter of fact, I only met them six weeks ago at the last bridge tournament on this very ship. We got along so well we all agreed to meet again for the next one. This one."

I smile. "Aha, I thought so."

"What's with the 'aha'?" Sophie wants to know.

"First things first. Amy is told at the purser's office that one ticket was canceled. Two were no-shows."

I take a long sip of my drink.

"I went with Amy to see the purser again today. He informed us that Mrs. Johnson had died. It further seems that one of the tickets belonging to another of the women is being used by someone else. Two names are mentioned: Johnson and Martinson. I don't react because these are fairly common names. And because I have a senior moment and my mind doesn't make the connection--until I am in the bingo hall this morning and it hits me like a hurricane. I know these names."

Angie startles. "
I
know one of those names. My cousin, Josephine Martinson."

Amy looks at her, mystified. "Jo Martinson is your cousin, and you're on this ship and she isn't?"

"Josephine died a few weeks ago. I used her ticket. Elio bought another one and here we are."

"Oh, no," Amy says, looking at me finally having to believe what I told her earlier.

Now my girls are about to jump out of their skins.

"The one who died and lost her diamond ring in the cave? Elizabeth Johnson? I was in that cave. I found her ring!" Sophie is nearly leaping out of her seat.

"Don't tell me the third woman was Margaret Sampson?" Evvie says incredulously.

Amy nods yes.

"She died of a heart attack playing golf," Ida adds. "We saw it in the newspaper."

Amy is stunned.

I look pointedly at Evvie. "All three of the women Amy is supposed to meet. What a coincidence."

"You ought to know, Gladdy doesn't believe in coincidences," Evvie informs the group.

"Let me go back again for a moment. At that dinner with my boyfriend and his son, Morrie, the young policeman was talking about his cases. I was telling him about mine."

Evvie interrupts to tell Amy, "Gladdy and us girls are detectives."

"That's how we met," says Angie. Elio glares at her. "I had a small problem they solved," she adds, smiling sweetly at her problem.

Amy is still dumbfounded as Ida hands her one of our cards.

"So, I tell my boyfriend and his son, I can't believe these coincidences. At this point it was Margaret Sampson and Josephine Martinson who had died within less than a week of each other. They dismiss my theory. I decide to check it out and do a little investigating with my sister, Evvie."

"So that's what you were doing at Jo's funeral, detecting?" Angie says to me.

Evvie says, "We were sure surprised to see you there. We didn't know you were Josephina's relative."

"You saw them at the funeral? How come I didn't see them?" Elio is annoyed at not being in the know.

She gives him a playful pinch on the cheek. "Because you're half blind,
rospo.
Besides, I didn't want you to."

"How come you never told us about the funeral?" Ida asks me indignantly.

"Yeah," Bella says petulantly. "Only Evvie gets to know everything."

I sigh. "It's a long story. I'll tell you later."

I turn back to Angie. "Believe me, we were just as surprised to see you there as you were to see us."

She looks at Elio. "I caught them lying when

they tried to tell me they have a Chinese Catholic uncle."

Evvie says, "You caught us spying and we needed an excuse."

Bella is confused. "Who has a Chinese Catholic uncle?"

Evvie pats her on the back. "No one, sweetie."

"Then Elizabeth Johnson died. Three heiresses in less than three weeks."

Amy's voice is tremulous. "You're saying all the women I was supposed to meet died in the same month?"

"Let me put it this way: They all died
after
you were on that first cruise together."

I give everyone a few moments to think about this. Then I say to Amy, "You mentioned that your husband was also on that cruise. Were any of your new friends' husbands along?"

Amy says slowly, nervously, "All of their husbands were on board. While we played bridge, they hung out together and gambled in the casino."

"I was informed that all three of these women died of natural causes. In fact, I was made to feel that I was a failure for going against all the 'facts.' That the husbands had perfect alibis. In fact, there was no motive for these so-called individual crimes. There was no connection whatsoever between these three deaths.

"Well. Now we have the connection. All four couples did meet. Logic then tells us that since someone has been trying to kill Amy, then the other three women had to have been murdered, as well, and you were to be the fourth victim."

With that, Amy faints. Angelina screams. Elio is on his feet, cursing. And my girls are just plain flummoxed.

40

Amy Tells All

W
e all fan Amy with napkins. She slowly comes

to.

Evvie asks, "Are you all right?"

She nods but just barely.

Angelina is clutching Elio. The girls are in shock. I feel terrible, but what else could I do? We have to get to the bottom of this. A murderer is loose on this ship.

Elio suggests we go to their stateroom.

Somberly we follow the Sicilianos. Sophie and Ida are supporting Amy. The winds are picking up. We hold on to our sun hats so they won't blow away.

I notice a couple of things as we enter the Sicilianos' stateroom. The room is enormous. It's actually a suite with a French door that opens onto a private balcony. Probably cost a fortune. The other is Amy's visceral response. I see her clutch at her stomach. Has she been in this room before?

We settle her down in an easy chair. She does not want to lie on the bed. We all take seats except for Elio, who paces. No one is saying a word, but they steal glances at me.

"Do you need anything?" I ask Amy. "Water? Tea? Should we call the doctor?"

"No." Her voice wavers and is very low. Her hands are trembling. I take a small blanket from the bed and place it across her knees.

"I'm so sorry," I say.

Evvie says to me, "Maybe we should wait until later."

"No," Amy says again. "I need this over with."

Elio demands to know "What did you mean, they had no motive? They had millions of motives."

"Wait," I tell him. "I'll get to that."

I ask Amy, "How did you meet Margaret and Josephine and Elizabeth?"

"At the bridge sign-up. We were placed at the same table. We instantly connected. We were familiar with one another since we all came from Florida and were involved in similar charities. We knew people in common at our country clubs."

"You were all rich," says Sophie, never known for her subtlety. Evvie throws her a dirty look.

"Yes. And we were great bridge players. We won games easily and there was an instant camaraderie. There was something about being on the ship . . . I guess a determination to have a good time." She pauses.

"Your husbands," I prompt her.

"We didn't all meet right away. Harry and I met Tom and Elizabeth at dinner the first night. We were seated at the same table. She and I smiled at one another, as if sharing a delightful secret. Both our husbands were younger and very handsome."

"Yes!" whispers Evvie victoriously. She glances at me knowingly.

I shake my head to silence her.

"The four of us met Jo and Bob in the gambling casino. We looked at one another and grinned. How funny. How perfectly marvelous."

"He was young and gorgeous, too!" Bella can't resist.

"Yes," says Amy sadly.

"Don't tell me!" Ida exclaims. "So were the last couple!"

"Yes. Margaret and Dick. We had all married younger men. Poor younger men."

"Talk about your coincidences," Elio echos my comment.

"T
om, Dick and Harry,
" says Evvie, who can't resist. "Great forties movie with Ginger Rogers." She grins.

"And 'Bob'? Where'd he come from?"

Amy continues. "That's what we said. What were the odds on all of us finding one another? The guys thought it was a great big joke, and soon they were telling stories about what they had been doing before we women rescued them from nothingness.

"And everything seemed funnier. The men instantly took to one another. They hung out together when we were playing bridge. And then all eight of us became inseparable the rest of the trip."

She stops. "May I have water?"

Elio instantly brings a pitcher and a glass and puts them on the small table beside her. He looks at his wife, who sits scrunched down deep on the couch, seemingly dazed. He sits down beside Angelina and reaches for her hand.

We wait expectantly.

"I don't know if I can go on," Amy says. "I'm so ashamed."

"Please," Angelina says. "I need to know."

She calms herself and begins again. "Then suddenly, things got wild. The men started drinking more while we played, and then they wanted us to join them and catch up. Every night we partied in each other's rooms."

I look around and realize that Jo Martinson must have reserved this same room on her last trip. It was creepy imagining these things happening where we now sat.

"One of the men brought drugs. Ecstasy, cocaine, who knows what." Amy pauses. "The parties escalated. Beth and Meg were gung-ho for it all. They were flirting with our husbands. Jo and I were uncomfortable. Then, the last night on board, things got ugly."

Amy rises and opens the door and walks out onto the balcony, keeping her back to us. We can see her lean over the railing with her head hanging down. The wind is blowing her hair.

Evvie starts to get up. I touch her arm to keep her down. Sophie and Bella are now whispering to Ida.

Amy remains outside. There is a rustle of movement in the room, but we stay where we are.

I look at Angelina, still huddled down in the couch. What must she be thinking?

Finally Amy comes back in and sits down again. "Money does funny things to you. I wasn't born rich like Elizabeth or Margaret. Jo and I talked about it the few times we were alone. We grew up middle-class. But as we watched the other two, we realized that we had become like them. We felt privileged. We had come to expect people to cater to our every want. We were above everyone else. Special. Worldly. It didn't always come easily, but that's what Jo and I had learned in order to belong.

"My family was horrified when I married Harry. My first husband died and left me very wealthy. I was alone for a long time. Finally, watching my rich friends, I decided I could buy a man like I would a new Rolls or a second home in Europe. I met Harry at the vet where I brought my show dog, my
bichon frise,
to be cared for. He was an assistant--you know, cleaning cages, feeding the animals. But I took one look at him and I knew I could have him. Harry grabbed at the chance. He didn't pretend to love me, but he knew the rules. Be my companion, in bed and out. Behave lovingly to me in public. I gave him a long leash." Amy laughs. "He lived a separate life. I didn't care what he did as long as he didn't embarrass me."