Betty, whose life was built on revenge from never having the lover she’d wanted, aided Peter in anything that would hurt Jackie. However, he swore Betty didn’t know about the murder plan.

That night in the fog, she had dressed in the salmon tee shirt and threw the picture of Jackie and Remy overboard-then consequently tried to add me to the fishes’ diet. In the weather, we never noticed she wasn’t as tall as Remy, but she was as wide.

I looked down to see she had on a similar rope bracelet to Jackie’s. Peter must have taken it off the corpse and given it to his love. Eeyeuuw. Was it any wonder that Betty didn’t return Peter’s feelings?

While under cover on the ship, Remy, truly wanting to help his Jackie find happiness, had managed to find out that their land connection was one of Peter’s old girlfriends, and that Peter had set her up with the job in the New York billing office. Once Jackie was killed and all eyes had focused on him, Remy thought he could never come clean and convince anyone that he was innocent.

It had been Jackie’s handwriting on the chart, calling poor Claude a cheat because he dated one of the hairdressers onboard. He was lucky not to have gotten involved with Jackie.

Look what had happened to Remy.

I glanced at him as he stared at Peter and Betty. Sorrow filled Remy’s eyes, and I wished things could have been so very different. He finally caught me staring at him.

“I’m sorry. About your head. Pushing you. I thought you were a Fed or something. That’s why I ran. No one would have believed me if I told them the truth. I just needed more time to prove it.” He looked from me to Peter. “He killed my Jacqueline.” Tears ran down his cheeks.

I walked over and gave Remy a hug. “I know. I know.”

Betty yelled at me to get away from her Remy.

Tim shouted for her to shut up at the same time Jagger did.

What’s a girl to do with two men so very protective of her?

I laughed inside, and once the safety officers came and removed Peter and Betty from the infirmary, Rico and Kris cleaned the place up.

The captain had said that if there were any injuries that needed tending to by the physician, Doctor Peter was to be taken from lockup and, under the constant watchful guard of the FBI and security crew, treat the passengers.

I wondered if we were going to sail at warp speed to get back to New York and back to our normal lives.

Hope Valley was looking really good right about now.

There really was no place like home.

Tim came forward and looked at me. “I’d be proud to work a case with you again, Sherlock Holmes.” He kissed my hand and held it in his for a few minutes.

Yikes! I thought Jagger was going to explode.

Then Tim took me into his arms and kissed me so very gently on the lips. I couldn’t even look at Jagger after that. I hugged Tim and whispered, “Me too. Me too.”

With that he was gone. Jagger looked at me and said, “Well…you…you did good, Pauline. You did good.”

Although he usually only used my real name when he was pissed or deadly serious, this time I knew it came from the heart (not to mention the fact that he surely didn’t want to use the same nickname for me as Tim had), and Jagger was nothing if not honest.

I took him by the arm and said, “Come on. Let’s make the most of this cruise. I want you to meet three friends of mine.”

And off we went to see Johnny, Jake and darling Gilbert.

Acknowledgments

To all my fabulous readers who have fallen in love with Pauline, Goldie, Miles, Jagger (Yum!), and the entire Sokol family. Without your dedication, there would be no Pauline Sokol Mystery Series. Thanks!

To all my family, friends, and fellow authors. You know who you are. Thanks for all the support and encouragement, and for keeping me writing. Oh, and listening to my complaining when I’m not in the mood.

To Jay Poynor, my agent, who has believed in me from the query letter on. Thanks, Jay.

Thanks, too, to Erin Brown, the most supportive and helpful editor ever! I appreciate all your input and the fact that you don’t embarrass me when I write typos like locks instead of lox. Here’s to many more books together!

About the Author

After serving in the Air Force as a registered nurse, LORI AVOCATO decided to give up nursing to write fiction. She lives in New England and is a member of Mystery Writers of America, PASIC, the Author’s Guild, and Sisters in Crime. She’s raising two teenage sons, one husband, and two dogs. Lori is the author of three previous novels featuring Pauline Sokol-A Dose of Murder, The Stiff and the Dead, and One Dead Under the Cuckoo’s Nest. Visit her website at www.loriavocato.com.