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I shake my head at her. “He wanted to help himself to you.”
“Wait a minute.” Sassy inches back. “I caught Brad stealing.” Her eyes glow my way. “He knew I was going to tell Elvie. And I would have had I not succumbed to some invisible peanut I inhaled.”
My mouth contorts as I try to piece it together.
“Trixie, I had to do whatever it took,” Becky Lee pleads as she begins to back away. The chatter of conversation is nearly drowned out by the music dominating this empty area of the dining room. I doubt a living soul could hear us. And I know for a fact at least one dead soul is listening in.
I scoff at the woman before me. “You sure did do whatever it took.”
“I had to!” The words explode from her. “Look, I don’t care for orange jumpsuits, Trixie. And I’m trapped in the world’s worst marriage. But I won’t be for long. Brad helped me amass a decent nest egg. And I’m getting my act together, I swear.”
“In nursing school?” I ask as I tip my head her way.
Becky Lee freezes solid.
“Your sister isn’t taking those classes, is she?” I say, inching toward her. “Youare. You were Brad’s mistress and you kept that up so he wouldn’t turn you in. He was blackmailing you.”
A sickly sound escapes her throat, something between a growl and a sob. Her bun has started to come undone, making her look wild around the edges. Like a cornered animal deciding whether to flee or fight. My guess is, she’s about to attempt to do both.
“You don’t understand,” she hisses as she sways on her feet. “He promised to help me escape, to start over. Then he threatened to tell Patrick everything unless I kept?—”
“Kept sleeping with him,” Sassy finishes with disgust. “What a prize.”
I inch back, studying Becky Lee for a moment. “He was a prize you didn’t want. It was getting too dangerous. You were flying too close to the sun. And with nursing school paid for, you didn’t need him anymore. And that’s why you killed him.” My shoulders bounce as if I just spewed common knowledge. “But why something so violent? I wouldn’t have pegged you for someone who would knife a person in the back.”
That toxicology report of Ransom’s hits me like a lightning bolt.
“Oh, Becky Lee,” I groan hard. “You didn’t plan on stabbing him, did you?” The night of the murder flashes through my mind in jags. “You were serving drinks that night right before the party.”
“No—” She shakes her head. “You’re getting the details mixed up.”
“It was you, all right. You gave Brad and Elvie those glasses withKiller KingandKiller Queenwritten on them. Oh my word, you tried to poison him first, didn’t you?” It comes out scolding—as it should. “I remember him sweating and coughing.”
She flinches and I know I’ve struck gold.
“What did you use?” I ask. “Let me rephrase that. Which poison didn’t get the job done?”
“Tetrahydrozoline,” she says lower than a whisper as the look of defeat sweeps across her face.
“Oh wow.” My fingers rise to my lips. “Eye drops?”
Sassy gleams like a flash of lightning. “She did it! You got a confession out of her.”
Not really. He didn’t die from poisoning as far as I know.
“Yes, eye drops,” Becky Lee snips sharp and loud as she goes from defeated to an all-out rage. “But they weren’t working.”
“Oh, they would have worked at the right dose,” I muse. “I’ve seen it done before, right on this ship.” An entire litany of dark memories flits through my mind. “But that kind of poisoning takes time to initiate. It wasn’t working fast enough for you, so you took matters into your own hands. You took that knife from the display table and you finished the job yourself.”
“I wasdesperate,” she cries, and her voice cracks. “He was going to tell Patrick everything. He said he was going to ruin everything for me!”
“Just like Sassy Forenza almost ruined everything when she found those mysterious bank transfers?” I ask, and both Becky Lee and Sassy freeze solid. “The two of you killed her to protect your secret, didn’t you? Your dirty little secret and his.”
“What?” Sassy lands right next to me and her features turn sharp and angry.
“I didn’t kill her.” Becky Lee’s hands fly in the air as if it were a stickup. “He told me all about it. He did it. He acted alone, but he said because I knew I was culpable as well if I ever told anyone. Trixie, you have to believe me, Brad was an expert at getting what he wanted.”
“You’re not so bad yourself,” I say. “How did he kill her?”