Peggy Dulle - Liza Wilcox 03 - Secrets at Sea by Peggy Dulle Read Free Book Online Page B

station the minute we get off the boat.”
    “Thanks.” Hansen nodded at Tom, then at me. “Come on, Jack. We’ve got other people to interview.”
    And they left. I let out a long breath. I hadn’t realized I’d been holding it for so long.
    I got up. “I’m starving, Tom. Let’s go and get something to eat.”
    I started toward the door and Tom grabbed my arm.
    I looked up at him, “What?”
    “Have a seat.” His jaw set in a determined way I’d seen before.
    “Why?” I asked.
    He glared at me. It made me very uncomfortable. The pit in my stomach startled tumbling. I sat down on the couch. “Okay, so what?”
    He reached into his pocket and took out my photos and he laid them out one by one on the coffee table. With each picture, my stomach hurt more, my pulse accelerated, and I held my breath again.
    When he set down the last pictures, he turned and stared at me. He picked up the six pictures with Betsy in them and laid them on top. “Now, will you tell me exactly what the hell is going on?”

Chapter 6

    Before I answered, I had a few questions. “Have the police seen these?”
    Tom frowned, “I’m the one asking the questions, Liza,” I started to speak but he put his hand up to silence me, then he continued, “and you don’t get to change your answers based on whether the police have seen these or not.”
    “I wouldn’t change my answers to you,” I said. Okay, that wasn’t exactly the truth, but I’d certainly never totally lie to him.
    He sat down in the chair Detective Hansen had vacated, propped his elbow on his knee, put his chin in his hand, and stared at me.
    When he did that one eyebrow thing again, I smiled and said, “I love the way you can make just one eyebrow go up. It’s a gift, you know.”
    “Liza!”
    I jumped. “Okay, okay.”
    “Let me start for you,” he said and pointed to a picture. “These two people are your parents. I recognize them from a photo you have hanging in your house.” He pointed to the other photos with my parents in them. “I assume these are all them, too, unless your father went with a different women each time.”
    “My mother liked to change the way her hair looked. She did it all the time.”
    He smiled. “Okay, and this woman,” he pointed to several pictures, “is Betsy Ruiz – the dead woman lounging at the pool.”
    “Right!” I said.
    “Okay, so I know all of that. Why don’t you fill in the rest?”
    “These are pictures from their cruises.”
    “Cruises?”
    “Yes. My mom and dad went on a cruise each summer. They had a group of friends they always went with.” I pointed to the pictures, “These are the friends.”
    “You told the detectives you didn’t really know Betsy Ruiz, was that correct?”
    “Yes, I never met her until today.”
    “You lied to them.”
    “No, I didn’t.”
    He shook his head, “Liza, when people say they ‘met someone’ it means they actually had a conversation with them. If you just saw her at the pool and she was dead, you wouldn’t say that.”
    “Oh, that’s a good observation, Tom. I’ll have to remember that when I’m asking questions.”
    “Liza!”
    “Oh, all right. I met Betsy a few minutes before she was shot. Ramon told me she was at the pool so I went over and spoke to her. She seemed like a really nice person. We talked about my parents and the cruises they’d gone on. She told me all about the cruising group.” I pointed to the pictures. “I had these and I wanted her to tell me who they were.”
    “Why?”
    Okay, I love the man but if I told him I was going on this cruise to investigate my parents’ and possibly Adam’s deaths, he would drag me into the car and take me home.
    While I figured out what to say, Tom stood, “If you’re going to lie to me, we’re going home.”
    I held up my hand. “Wait.”
    He beckoned me with his hand. “Spill your guts, Liza. Come on, it’s easy. You’ll feel better after telling me.”
    I sighed.
    “I’ll feed you a