Waves of Murder by J B Raphael Read Free Book Online

at a good rate of knots. He left the door open, but re-thought and put the champagne bottle back on the table with one flute. He washed the other one and put it back on the tray after washing the bottle. That could have been a mistake, but what’s not there can’t incriminate, he thought, he should have touched her fingers on the bottle, but it was too late now. He opened the door with a tissue, slowly looking up and down the corridor. He put a ‘do not disturb’ sign on the door knob, after wiping the shiny surface and the door handle. He saw nobody on his way back to his stateroom, and got into bed beside Lorna, who was asleep, quietly.
    The Queen of the Atlantic, pride of Cunard, arrived in New York on schedule, with the usual fire boats sounding their horns and spouting huge amounts of water, with the ship also sounding it’s horn.
    Because he didn’t want his name linked, Lorna had left the jewellery in a safe deposit at the reception. He didn’t want to go through US Customs carrying them. They did the usual sights, Times Square, the Empire State Building, “Wow,” they said, “we’re nearly 1000 ft up.” The East River looked like a little stream, Jon joked that if you looked up from the observation deck, you could see King Kong’s claw marks! “Can you?” she said, looking up, then realised she had been had. “King Kong didn’t have claws, he had fingernails!” she said. Jon burst his sides laughing, and then Lorna joined in when she realised it was a gag, and then playfully punched his shoulder. On the way down, Lorna asked, “Did it really knock that aeroplane out of the sky?” They started laughing again, to the amazement of the other people in the lift. They walked down 5th Avenue, or may be it was up, Jon laughed, he wasn’t sure. They got back to the ship at 5.30pm after looking in at Macey’s and Bloomingdales, fabulous stores, they said, but not as good as good old Selfridges, they laughed again.
    Back in their stateroom, they showered and had wonderful sex, got dressed and went down for dinner, feeling marvellous, and now they could act like a couple with Helen out of the way. “Let’s go to the nightclub,” Lorna suggested.
    “Okay, and then perhaps to the casino,” he said, he wanted to be seen more and more with Lorna, so that from now on staff and crew would only remember him as being with her. They danced and drank at the club, making sure that they were noticed as an involved couple. In the casino, which was not very busy, the croupier had trouble keeping his eyes from Lorna’s cleavage. Jon changed $200 into chips and was soon $500 up, this time Lorna was only a spectator but stayed close to Jon, showing affection. At 1 o’clock, Jon was about $2000 up and decided to cash in his chips.
    The girl behind the pay desk said, “A different lady luck tonight?”
    “Er, yes, but the other lady was only a fellow player, and has now found someone else. That’s life!” he added, feeling a little worried that she had noticed and remembered. He took his winnings and left. They were soon in their stateroom, both very tired. They collapsed into bed, and slept soundly for eight hours.
    Breakfast was taken in the coffee shop, latte’s and Danish pastries, huge ones just like New Yorkers liked them. Central Park seemed like a good place to start their walking tour, “It’s an enormous park,” Lorna said.
    “Yes,” Jon replied, “ a zoo, boating lake and enough muggers to sink our cruise ship,” he said. They laughed and decided to take a horse and carriage ride around it. An hour and a half later they were back at Central Park’s south gate and decided to have a drink in the Grand Bar of the Plaza Hotel, which was just across the street.
    Up the steps, they were greeted by a liveried doorman, with an enormous white smile, “Welcome to the Plaza Hotel,” he said, as he opened the door for them.
    Jon slipped him a ten dollar bill and winked, saying, “This is New York ain’t