Free Set Sail for Murder by R. T. Jordan Page B

apparent lack of interest in buying her DVD collection. As the trio left the store, Tim backed out slowly, smiling and maintaining eye contact with Tiffany-Amber. As he blasted her with enough megavolts of sexual energy to keep her awake with an all-night fever, Polly teased her son. “Heartbreaker!”
    “Every girl needs a platonic bff.” Tim smiled.
    Soon, the trio was back in Polly’s cabin and Tim was unfolding the passenger information. Looking at the short list, Polly’s eyes instantly went to the column on the far right-hand side and shouted, “$29.99?! The bonus booklet alone, with never-before-published photos of me with Cher and Bette and Rock and Barbra should cost more than that!”When she finished being indignant she focused on the names listed on the sheet. Polly called out, “One. Two. Three. Bingo! Look at that. The last name on the list.”
    “Lawrence Deerfield!” Tim said.
    Placenta grabbed the piece of paper and looked at the name. Her heart sank. “The date of purchase was the day we set sail,” she said. “I will not believe that a man who finds me desirable is Laura Crawford’s murderer!”
    “Maybe you’re next!” Polly said. “What if this nut job is a celebrity serial killer?”
    “Lawrence is not a nut job. And I’m not a celebrity.”
    “You’re practically radiant with my reflected glory!”
    “Any radiation from me is the stored-up heat of finally canoodling with an attractive and talented man!”
    Tim wrapped his arms around Placenta. “Heck, even the other two names here don’t mean anything—yet. They could all simply be people with the sophisticated sense to own Polly’s classic DVDs.”
    “Sophisticated? On this boat?”
    “I’m going to the captain!” Polly announced.
    “Why?” Tim said.
    “There’s a killer on the loose!”
    “He knows that.”
    “But he doesn’t know who committed the crime!”
    “Neither do you!”
    “It’s probably Lawrence Deerfield.”
    “Probably?” Tim countered.
    “Where’s your evidence?” Placenta added. “A dartboard with Laura’s tattered picture? A piano accompanist who said he didn’t much care for Laura Crawford because she was responsible for getting him fired from a job? A purchase of DVDs at the bookstore? Unless you find something in Lawrence’s cabin with Laura’s blood or DNA on it, you’d better think twice about potential slander.”
    “I’ll bet he saw Laura and then flipped out,” Polly said. “He’s at the piano. Laura Crawford walks by and doesn’tacknowledge his playing—like most everyone else. It’s another insult from her. He decides that the ship is too small for the two of them. Anticipating being afloat for a full week with the shrew in close proximity was way too much for him to handle.
    “Under a spell of animosity, he planned the best way to get rid of his nemesis. He considered throwing her overboard. But cameras are everywhere. He’d have been videotaped and quickly arrested. He’s been on this ship long enough to know that there aren’t any cameras in the spa. Oh, and to make the murder especially symbolic—like the Zodiac Killer—he bought the DVDs specifically to slash her with a disc on which she appeared.”
    Tim said, “Your ideas are far-fetched, to say the least. For one thing, he’s playing piano almost nonstop.”
    “I presume he takes a potty break.”
    “He would have had to know that Laura was going to the spa, and that her masseuse would walk out during the treatment.”
    “Not a stretch, since she alienates everyone. Guessing that the masseuse might quit is an easy one.”
    “You’re getting mental.”
    “I’m being intuitive.” Polly tapped a finger to her temple. “You mentioned cameras. They’re everywhere. If Lawrence was performing in any of the lounges or the atrium we could match the time that Laura was killed with any time that he may have left his keyboard to take a murder break.”
    Placenta nodded. “We’ll be able to definitively