Page 43 of Last Date

“Right.” Merrick’s jaw clenched. “You were excited for your big date, so your head was in the clouds.”

I frowned at his sardonic tone.

Detective Bergen grunted. “Too bad. You might have seen the killer, but you were too twitterpated to notice important details.”

“Oh, come on. That’s not fair. It had nothing to do with having my head in the clouds. I’m just a civilian. I’m not trained to notice every little thing.” As irritated as I was at the detective, his comment made me feel almost relieved because it indicated he thought someone other than me was the culprit.

Merrick rasped, “So what happened next?”

“I got on the yacht, and Selena, Captain Roscoe’s daughter, greeted me with a glass of champagne.”

Both Merrick and Detective Bergen seemed to lean forward.

“Champagne?” Detective Bergen repeated.

I nodded. “Yes. She handed me a glass and told me Allister was waiting for me in the main saloon. When I entered the saloon, I found it empty.”

“Did you have more champagne?” Merrick seemed to hold his breath as he finished speaking.

“No. I drank the glass Selena gave me but planned on waiting for Allister to have more.”

“Therewaschampagne in the saloon though, right?” Detective Bergen nudged. “You could have had more, but for some reason, you chose not to.”

I frowned. “Yes. There was a bucket of ice with champagne, and there were hors d’oeuvres. I was trying to be polite by waiting for my host. I expected Allister to join me any minute.”

“But he didn’t.” Merrick’s voice was grim.

“No.”

“So you didn’t touch the bottle of champagne in the saloon?” Detective Bergen asked.

Frowning, I said, “No. I already told you that.”

Why are they so fixated on my champagne consumption?

“What did you do next?” Merrick asked.

“I waited maybe ten minutes for Allister to make his appearance. When he didn’t, I decided to go look for him.”

Merrick cocked his head. “Why did you do that?”

I sighed. “To be honest, I was a little offended. I didn’t understand why Allister was nowhere to be seen. It seemed odd to me that he’d had Selena greet me, but he wasn’t anywhere in sight.”

“Why didn’t you just ask Selena where he was?” Detective Bergen frowned.

“I guess it seemed easier just to see if he was in the next room. He’d invited me to be there, I was trying to figure out what was going on. I thought maybe he was sick or had… changed his mind about the date.”

“He wouldn’t have had Selena greet you if he’d changed his mind,” Merrick said.

“Maybe. All I knew was he wasn’t around. I was curious about why that was.” I shrugged. “So I went to see what was keeping him.”

“What happened next?” Merrick asked.

I winced. “I went into his private quarters and found him on the ground.”

“Did you immediately know he was dead?” Detective Bergen asked me.

I shook my head, stomach clenching. “I wasn’t sure. I… he… he was very still. There was blood in his hair, and I didn’t know what to do.” My voice was hushed as I stopped speaking. They let me gather myself, and then I continued. “I did CPR. I tried to save him, but it was too late.”