two men accidentally run into each other that first day near the simulators? Had Basil seized the opportunity to eliminate the first name from the Sandwich Island Society's hit list?
Oh, my God! Had I just blown my Jennifer French theory to hell? Was it Basil, not Jennifer, who'd killed Professor Smoker? And if Basil had done the killing, had he also stolen the treasure? But why would he want Tilly's treasure if he already had one? WHY WAS THIS SO FREAKING COMPLICATED?
Frustrated and confused, I circled around the display case, stopping dead in my tracks when I ran into Nils Nilsson on the other side, standing before a column of photos. Oh goody, just my luck. I was alone in a room with Nils Nilsson, of felonious - assault - with - baseball - bat fame. I wondered if he'd notice if I shuffled quietly backward and started running.
"Do you know how one goes about purchasing these photographs?" he asked without removing his gaze from the display case.
Since I was the only other person in the room, I guessed he was directing that question at me. "Uhh -- You see those numbers in the bottom right-hand corner of each photograph? I think if you give that number to someone in the general store, they'll have copies made for you."
He nodded his thanks before slipping back into statue mode. I slatted my eyes at him. There was definitely something weird going on here. "Did you find one you like?" I asked, inching closer to see what he was looking at.
He bobbed his head toward the case. "The boarding photo. You think it's a good likeness, yah?"
"I noticed that picture the other night. Yeah, it's a great shot. You guys are really photogenic."
"It's especially good of Ansgar's hair. I think his family will like it."
"Yup. He has one great head of hair. Soooo..." I said, angling to snare more information, "did he ever show up last night?"
"Yah." He turned his head, looking down at me with dull eyes. "But not aboard ship. He showed up on the hiking trail to the Secret Falls with his head caved in. Ansgar is dead."
Oh, my God. The dead body the paramedics had been discussing at the hospital had been Ansgar? A lump the size of Delaware caught in my throat. "Nils, I'm so sorry."
He nodded. "There was much competition between Ansgar and me. There has always been great rivalry between Nilssons and Norstedts. But I would not have chosen to beat him in this way."
I hoped his use of the word "beat" was a linguistic faux pas and not a subliminal reference to anything more deadly.
"His identification was missing," Nils continued, "so it took the authorities many hours to notify his family. Gjurd and I will leave the ship once we reach Kona, so we can fly back to Kauai and accompany his body home."
"You're going to finish the cruise? You're not going to fly back to Kauai right away?"
"The authorities tell me they cannot release Ansgar's body for many days yet. Not until their investigation is complete. Gjurd and I feel that Ansgar would want us to finish the cruise, despite the misfortune that has befallen him."
"But...are you sure it's Ansgar? If his identification was missing, how --"
Nils slapped the tattoo on his upper right arm. "His name was here. Like mine. Ansgar Norstedt. World Navigators Club. This was how the authorities traced him."
"But...you said last night that his name was listed in the computer as having reboarded the ship."
He gave his beard a thoughtful scratch. "I was wrong."
A frisson of unease snaked up my spine. Okay, so if Ansgar hadn't reboarded the ship, who had?
Chapter 14
By three o'clock, the heavy sea had lost its fizzle, going flat as old ginger ale. By four o'clock, guests began crawling out of their cabins, looking anxious to make up for lost time. By five, I'd checked in with each member of my Iowa contingent, and by six, all eleven of them were gathered in my Royal Family Suite, listening to the sordid details of what they'd missed in the last twenty-two hours.
"I contacted the head of security this morning about the puzzle box's disappearance," Tilly informed us, "but it was a rather disappointing conversation. He wanted to know if there was anything of value inside the box, and when I said I didn't know if the contents were valuable or not, he sighed condescendingly and instructed me to reexamine my cabin. He suggested I may have