Free Death on the Bella Constance (A Jesse Watson Mystery Series Book 6) by Ann Mullen Page A

just dinner.”
    “A dinner that requires a nine-hundred dollar dress and a tux
that costs almost as much.”
    I held out my wrist to show off my diamond bracelet and said,
“Yeah, but don’t you feel magnificent?” I smiled.
    “Yes, I do,” he said, smiling back.
    “Then it was worth it.”
    Billy leaned down, pulled me up into his arms, and kissed me
passionately. My heart skipped a beat. When he let go of me, I just stood there
mesmerized for a second.
    “Now, that’s what this cruise is about!” I said. “Love, sex,
and fun. What else do you need?”
    “We need to get moving if we don’t want to be late.”
    I kissed his cheek and then walked over to the bed to get my
purse. That’s when I noticed the bottle of champagne sitting in a bucket of
water. I turned to Billy as he was putting stuff in his pockets and said, “We
forgot about our champagne, and now the ice is melted.”
    Billy glanced over at the table and said, “We’ll get more ice
later. I’m sure there’ll be plenty of champagne floating around during dinner.”
    “We’ll save this bottle for later,” I remarked. “I’m sure
it’ll be fine sitting right where it is.”
    Billy looked up at me and said, “I’m ready. How about you,
pretty lady?”
    “You know the right thing to say at just the right time.”
    “It’s easy around you.” Billy kissed me again, and the minute
our lips touched, in the background through the computer speakers, we heard a
man’s voice rising almost to a yell. We turned our attention back to the
computer, and listened to a woman cry.
    “Somebody’s getting violent,” I said. “He just slapped his
wife.”
    Billy turned, walked back over to the computer, and hit a
key. The screen came up, instantly displaying the split-screen showing the
three rooms. I stood beside him and watched the monitor. Two of the couples
were changing clothes. Billy hit a key and blacked out their rooms again,
allowing us to concentrate on the room where the two people were arguing. The
woman was holding her hand to her face as if she’d been slapped. The woman was
Nell and her violent husband, Utah Hawks.
    “Don’t you ever put your hands on me again!”Nell
yelled .
    “And just what are you going to do?” Utah asked in a sneering way. “Go cry to your mommy, or
better yet, your old man?”
    Their arguing continued, but the intensity slacked up. It was
obvious that Nell was trying to smooth things over. She walked up to him and
spoke softly, so softly that Billy and I couldn’t make out what she was saying.
    “Let’s go,” I said. “They’re making up. He slapped her, and
now she’s begging for his forgiveness. We know how that’s going to end. It’s
always the same old thing. The abused tries to find a reason to let the abuser
off the hook. I want to slap them both.”
    “You sound as if you speak from experience. You never told me
anything about some guy slapping you around. I’ll kill him! Who is he?” Billy
joked.
    “You know I’m not talking about myself.”
    “I know. It was one of your friends. Her husband beat her,
you told her to leave him, and then he got killed in a car wreck. Now, the
friend isn’t your friend anymore, because … I don’t remember. May we go now?”
Billy hit a key and the screen went black.
    “I’m ready,” I said, looking back at the computer. “Maybe she
wasn’t whispering sweet nothings in his ear, maybe she was threatening him.
Loukas is her father.”
    “Jesse…”
    “If Loukas found out that Utah beat up on his daughter, he’d have a conniption fit.”
    “Stop, right there,” Billy calmly said as he put his hands on
my shoulders. “Your wild imagination is at it again.”
    I took a deep breath and then replied, “You’re probably right.
My mind can get a little hyper. Sometimes I imagine all sorts of things. I’ll
bet that’s why I’m such a great private investigator.” I grabbed my purse,
walked over to the door, and when Billy opened it, we were