Laura Marlin Mysteries 2: Kidnap in the Caribbean by Lauren St John Read Free Book Online Page A

about it.’
    Laura was still smiling when they reached the stairs to Deck C. She was about to start down the steps when she noticed a small hook in the wall level with the second step, at around ankle height. There was a matching one on the other side.
    That got her thinking. Her uncle had fallen because he’d tripped in the darkness on what he thought was a loose carpet string. Only trouble was, there was no carpet on the steps. There was just steel and a strip of industrial rubber that was well secured and highly unlikely to be the cause of two sprained ankles.
    The hooks made Laura suspicious. They reminded her of Matt Walker’s first case: The Rocking Horse Mystery . He’d investigated the death of a millionaire businessman who’d fallen and hit his head on a marble fireplace in a seemingly empty room. It turned out that a rival had set up a tripwire – a strand of near invisible fishing line secured between two armchairs at ankle-height. It was designed to topple the man in the exact spot where he was likely to do himself most damage.
    In order for someone to do the same thing to Calvin Redfern, they’d have had to hide nearby so that the tripwire didn’t kill or injure anybody else. On the right side of the stairwell was a narrow, dark space just wide enough to accommodate a very slim man. Or a woman.
    Tariq looked up at her. ‘Is everything all right?’
    Laura skipped down the remaining stairs and unlocked the cabin. She was allowing her imagination to get the better of her. Thousands of people took tumbles down steps every year without imagining it involved a hidden assassin.
    She smiled. ‘I’m fine. How about we take Skye on deck and try to make friends with a waiter or chef? I’d like to find him a nice juicy bone for his dinner.’

FOR A SIBERIAN HUSKY like Skye, genetically programmed to run through snow for hours at a stretch, pulling heavy sledges, a cruise ship was not the best environment. Laura spent a lot of the first day worrying about how he was going to cope with being cooped up in a cabin with only a limited amount of exercise in the mornings and evenings. Until, that is, she met Fernando.
    Fernando was a waiter who seemed to spend more time smoking on deck than carrying trays, but he was dog crazy. When Laura and Tariq showed up at the galley door looking for a bone for Skye, he went into raptures over the husky.
    ‘Oh my,’ he said, palms pressed to his cheeks, ‘never did I think I would have such a lucky day as this. A Siberian husky – a champion among dogs – on board the Ocean Empress . Oh my, life suddenly looks very much brighter.’
    Not only did he immediately rush away to fetch Skye a T-bone steak, he had an exercise solution – one he used with his own greyhound back in New York.
    Laura couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘A treadmill?’
    ‘You mean, one of those running machines in a gym?’ Tariq asked.
    Fernando grinned. ‘Wait till you see for yourself.’
    It turned out that the manager of the ship gym was his best friend and glad to assist them. As soon as Fernando had finished his shift, he introduced everyone and showed Laura how to train Skye to use the treadmill. At first, the husky was scared of the noise the machine made, but in no time at all he was sprinting along as if he were competing in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska. He caused quite a sensation among the other passengers. Fernando was very impressed.
    ‘You’d never know he only had three legs. He’d give Mattie, my greyhound, a run for her money and she’s like a pocket rocket.’
    He was so taken with Skye and Skye with him that Laura agreed right away when he begged her to allow him to exercise the husky in his free time.
    ‘This is the thing that will save my sanity. Otherwise all I do is miss Mattie and get bored. Nothing to look forward to but ocean, more ocean and more ocean.’
    Laura found it extraordinary that anyone could get bored on the floating city that was the