Riverboat Roulette Read online

  “Okay,” I said. “It’s resisting between the eleven and the twelve, so we round up to twelve and add five.”

  “That’s seventeen,” George said.

  “Seventeen is our first number. Bess, write that down.”

  “Okay,” she said. “Why do you add five?”

  “It’s just a quirk of the lock that the first resistance point is always off. On these locks, which are the most common brand, it’s off by five. Other brands it’s by two, others three, and so forth.”

  I stretched my hand and got to work on finding the second number. I pulled down harder on the shackle again, and this time I spun the dial counterclockwise. It offered a lot of resistance, and after three turns, the dial wouldn’t move at all anymore. It stuck at number twenty-three.

  “Is that our second number?” George asked.

  “It is,” I said.

  “Got it,” Bess said. “We have seventeen, twenty-three.”

  “Okay,” I said. “Here we go. Let’s find this last number.”

  “And the money,” George added.

  “And the money,” I agreed. “I’m going to say a bunch of numbers, Bess, I need you to write them all down.”

  I spun the dial clockwise a few times to reset the lock. Then, starting at zero, I turned it clockwise, pulling down on the lock as hard as I could. Every time the lock caught, I told Bess a number.

  When I was done, I asked her to read them back.

  “Four, sixteen, twenty-four, twenty-five, thirty-two.”

  “Hey,” George said, “Four of those are multiples of four.”

  “And one’s not,” Bess said.

  “The odd one out is our last number,” I said, as I spun the dial clockwise again to reset it. “Okay. Read me back the numbers.”

  “Seventeen,” Bess said. I turned the dial to seventeen.

  “Twenty-three,” she read out from her notes.

  I went counterclockwise all the way to twenty-three.

  “Twenty-five.”

  I turned it clockwise again, back around to twenty-five.

  “Moment of truth,” I said. I pulled down on the lock and the shackle gave way, giving us access to the locker.

  “That was amazing,” Bess said.

  “Thanks,” I said. “And now if you ever forget your locker combination, you know how to open it up. Okay, let’s see if Andy has the money.” I unhooked the lock and swung open the door. It was a generous locker. Andy could easily fit the money inside . . . but it was empty, except for his jacket and his phone.

  None of us said anything, but we were all disappointed.

  I picked up Andy’s phone. “Joanne paid Andy to take her into the restricted area. Maybe they discussed the terms over e-mail.”

  “Are you sure about this?” George said. “Reading someone’s e-mail is a big deal.”

  I hesitated. George was right. This was an invasion of Andy’s privacy.

  “He might have helped steal a hundred thousand dollars from charity,” Bess countered. “I think it’s worth reading the e-mail to find out one way or another.”

  George didn’t look convinced, and I could understand why. Just because one person did something wrong didn’t mean I should do something wrong trying to catch them. It was that old cliché that two wrongs don’t make a right. I looked at my watch. I had only a little over an hour left; I was running out of options.

  “How about this,” I suggested. “I’ll search the e-mail for Joanne’s name, and I’ll only look at e-mails from her. That way I’ll only see messages that incriminate him.”

  George thought for a second and then nodded. “That seems like a fair compromise.”

  Luckily, his phone wasn’t password protected, so I was able to open his e-mail app with no problem. I opened it and entered JOANNE into the search bar. Dozens of e-mails popped up.

  “Not to pressure you,” Bess said, “but you need to be back in the game in five minutes.”

  I skimmed through the most recent e-mails as fast as I could, trying to be mindful to ignore any that did not seem relevant to this case. Finally I landed on a promising one.

  “Joanne isn’t the culprit,” I said.

  “How do you know?” George asked.

  I handed her the phone, and as she and Bess read the e-mail, I watched their eyes.

  “Joanne and Patrick want to buy the Delta Queen!?” George squawked.

  I nodded. “It makes sense. They paid Andy to take Joanne into the restricted area so they could see just how well the inner workings of the ship were holding up. Now they’ll know exactly how much the boat is worth the minute it hits the market.”

  “So they can put their offer in while everyone else is still assessing the boat’s value?” Bess clarified.

  I nodded glumly. “The only suspect we have now is Brett.”

  “You always say that eliminating a suspect is just as important as discovering a new clue,” George reminded me.

  “I know,” I said, “and that’s true. I just don’t feel like we ever got a handle on who the suspects are. I think we’re missing someone.”

  “Well, let’s get back out onto the casino floor,” Bess said.

  “Yeah,” George said. “We’re lucky no one’s caught us in here yet.”

  We shut the locker and headed back to the casino.

  “The game starts up again in two minutes,” George said, as we walked onto the main deck.

  “It’s still the only way I can get close enough to—”

  Before I could finish my sentence, there was a scream from outside, followed by a splash.

  George, Bess, and I looked at one another, alarmed.

  “Woman overboard!” the PA system blared. “Woman overboard!”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Locked Out

  WE FOLLOWED THE CROWD OUT of the main room and to the deck outside. It seemed like the entire gala was there. Questions filtered their way through the crowd.

  “Who fell in?”

  “Is she okay?”

  “How cold is that water, anyway?”

  We pushed through to the railing, earning some dirty looks in the process, and leaned over to look into the river below.

  “There,” George said, pointing to a figure splashing in the water, frantically waving her arms.

  “It’s Catherine!” Bess exclaimed.

  George and I looked closer.

  “You’re right,” I said.

  “Excuse me, coming through! Out of the way!” I heard Buddy yelling. I turned my head to see him charging toward us, clutching a life preserver that was attached to a rope. Carefully setting the life preserver down, he tied the rope to the railing.

  “Hang on!” he yelled as he leaned back and heaved the life preserver over the side of the boat with a strained groan. It hit the water with a loud splash.

  “Grab on to it and put it over your head, under your shoulders. When it’s in position, give me a thumbs-up.” He was yelling so that Catherine could hear him, but he didn’t sound scared. He sounded like he knew exactly what to do.

  I felt my heartbeat slow down a tad. Buddy was taking charge of the situation. Everything was going to be okay.

  George, Bess, and I peered over the railing along with the entire crowd. Below us Catherine struggled to hang on to the life preserver. It seemed to keep slipping out of her grasp.

  “What’s happening?” Bess asked, her voice tense. “Why can’t she grab it?”

  “That water’s probably thirty degrees,” George said. “Hypothermia could already be setting in.”

  “Just grab it and put it over your head! You can do this!” Buddy hollered.

  “Shouldn’t someone jump in after her?” George asked.

  “Not yet,” Buddy explained. “She’s conscious and she’s following directions. I don’t want to risk anyone else’s life yet.”

  The wake of the boat kicked off a small wave. It washed over Catherine, who bobbed below the surface. We waited for her to come up, but she didn�
�t. The water remained still and dark.

  I looked over at Buddy. “Come up. Come up. Come up,” he repeated to himself over and over under his breath, as if he were begging her to surface. I looked at his face. He no longer looked confident and in control; he looked terrified.

  I felt my heart race and my breath quicken. If Buddy was scared, then I knew this was serious. Beside me George’s face was frozen, as if she couldn’t move until she knew Catherine was okay. Bess stared at the water.

  I looked down. There was still no sign of Catherine. The life preserver bobbed on the water’s surface.

  A murmur made its way through the crowd as people realized that something was seriously wrong. My stomach felt like I had swallowed a stone.

  “Now I’m going in,” Buddy announced. He climbed up on the rail and was about to jump when all of a sudden there was a splash. Catherine burst through to the surface, gasping for air. She grabbed hold of the life preserver and slipped it over her head and under her shoulders, exactly as Buddy had instructed. Then she waved her hand above her head.

  “She’s giving the thumbs-up sign!” Bess said.

  “Pull her up! Pull her up!” George shouted.

  Buddy hopped down from the railing, grabbed the rope, and slowly towed Catherine to the boat. After he had pulled her up and over the railing, she collapsed onto the deck, breathing hard. She was shivering and her skin was shriveled and pale. A crew member rushed over with a blanket. Buddy took it from him and wrapped Catherine in it. It almost looked like he hugged her for a second, but it was fleeting. I briefly wondered if they knew each other.

  Mrs. Marvin rushed over and enveloped Bess in a hug, then hugged George and me.

  “I’m so glad you girls are okay,” she said. “When I heard someone had gone overboard, I was sure it was one of you because of the case.”

  Margot fought her way over to Catherine as well.

  “What happened?” Margot asked.

  “I don’t know,” Catherine said, rubbing her eyes and then tugging on her ear, as if getting the water out. “I realized I dropped my keys when I was out here earlier. I came out to look for them, and before I knew what was happening, someone pushed me over the side.”

  “You’re sure someone pushed you?” I asked.

  Catherine gave me a look like this was the dumbest question she had ever heard. “Of course I’m sure,” she said.

  “Did you get a look—” I started, but Buddy cut me off.

  “We all have a lot of questions for Catherine,” he said, “but we need to get her inside and warmed up before she gets hypothermia.”

  He helped Catherine up and ushered her inside, his arm around her protectively. Margot and Mrs. Marvin held back.

  The excitement over, most of the crowd drifted back inside. Only a handful of people stayed out in the cold.

  “Please tell me you know who did this,” Margot said. Mrs. Marvin looked at me hopefully.

  “Well,” I said, “we know that Joanne and Patrick don’t have anything to do with it.”

  “That’s great,” Margot said sarcastically. “I also know I didn’t do it. The point is to find out who did do it.”

  I knew she was under a lot of stress, but I wished she could be just a little more kind.

  “Right now, Brett is our prime suspect,” I said.

  “Brett Garner, our guest of honor?” Margot hissed, gesturing toward him standing a few yards away. Even in the midst of a crisis, he still had his backpack. There was definitely something important in there.

  I nodded.

  “Do you have any proof?” Mrs. Marvin asked.

  “Not yet,” I said, “but Catherine may have seen more than she thinks she did.”

  “You think the thief was trying to get her out of the way?” George asked.

  “It’s possible,” I replied. “We need her to go over everything she saw before the money went missing. Something she didn’t think was important could actually be a clue.”

  “Well, I can tell you for a fact that that Brett Garner didn’t push Catherine over the side of the boat,” Margot said. “I saw him sitting at the table when Catherine went overboard. Who else?”

  “Um, well—”

  “Great,” Margot said, walking away from me midsentence. “My money gets stolen, my employee’s life is endangered, and my crack detective hasn’t got a clue.” The door slammed behind her.

  My friends looked at me sympathetically.

  “Don’t take it personally,” Mrs. Marvin said. “Margot is a genius when it comes to cats and dogs, but she’s not as good with people. I have faith in you.”

  “Thanks,” I said, but I couldn’t help feeling like I was letting Mrs. Marvin down.

  “I’m going to find out how Catherine is doing,” Mrs. Marvin said.

  “You guys should, too,” I said to George and Bess, pulling myself together. “If she feels up to answering questions, see if she remembers anything.”

  “Sure,” Bess agreed. “What are you going to do?”

  “I’ll take a look out here and see if there are any clues.”

  Bess, George, and Mrs. Marvin went back inside. I looked across the river as a lighthouse blinked on the shoreline.

  I didn’t know exactly where Catherine went over the railing, so I headed toward the bow of the boat. If I was lucky, maybe in the exertion of pushing Catherine over, the culprit had dropped something.

  I thought the deck was empty, so I jumped when a voice spoke out.

  “You coming back to the game?”

  I looked up to see Brett standing in front of me. For the first time all evening, he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses. With his big round eyes, he looked significantly less intimidating than he did with his shades on.

  “You coming back into the game?” Brett repeated, and I realized I hadn’t answered.

  “In a minute,” I said.

  “Well, don’t take too long,” Brett said. “Or we’ll have to start without you.”

  “I know,” I said.

  He walked away, and I was left shaking my head. He was definitely an odd guy. I hoped that after all this George would find a different favorite poker player.

  I continued my search of the deck. My dad had taught me that when police conduct searches, they break the area into a grid to make sure every section is searched. I tried to follow the same technique. I found what I assumed were Catherine’s keys (there was a key chain that said CATHERINE attached to them) and some scattered cocktail napkins people must have dropped in the commotion, but nothing that pointed toward the culprit.

  I stuck the keys in my purse, reminding myself to give them back to Catherine when I saw her. I was disappointed that I hadn’t found anything more.

  I headed back toward the door to rejoin my game. But when I pulled on the handle, it didn’t move. I tried again, harder, but still nothing.

  The door was locked!

  CHAPTER TEN

  A Daring Journey

  I KNOCKED ON THE DOOR, but with the music blaring, no one could hear me. I knocked louder, but it was no use. No one even glanced toward the door.

  I pulled out my phone, hoping that maybe the lack of cell service George had observed earlier was temporary, but I was out of luck there, too. My screen showed no bars.

  Through the windows, I could see that people were going in and out of doors on the other side of the boat. If I could get over there, I could get back inside, but how to get there?

  I walked to the back of the boat. The wall of the engine room abutted the end of the boat, separating the deck I was on from the one on the other side. But when I looked more closely, I noticed a narrow ledge that ran against the wall; I could definitely slide myself across that to get to the other side. The only problem was that directly beneath it the paddle wheel churned, propelling the boat forward. If I fell, I would almost certainly hit my head on one of the slats. I could get seriously hurt, or worse.

  I paused. There were good risks and there were bad risks. Bes
s and George would notice I was missing soon enough and come looking for me. But after how long? I knew they would be thorough with Catherine, which could keep them occupied for a while. I was already shivering, and I needed to get back to the table before I was out of the game. If I was going to try to make my way across the ledge, I needed to do it before I got any colder.

  Not to mention our culprit was getting more and more dangerous. Pushing Catherine off the side of the boat was serious. Who knew what he or she would do next?

  I looked at the ledge again. It was narrow and it was a long way down to the river, but I couldn’t think of a better move.

  I spied the life preserver Buddy had thrown to Catherine, sitting in the middle of the deck. Buddy had tossed it aside once Catherine was back onboard. I picked it up, surprised by how light it was. It seemed like Buddy had really put his back into throwing it over the side of the boat, so I had imagined it to be much heavier, but it only weighed a pound or two.

  I slipped it over my head before noticing that there was a large rip in the side of it. This wouldn’t do me any good. Sighing, I put it back on the ground. A vision of myself plunging into the dark, cold water flooded my head, but I shook it off. I could do this.

  I climbed onto the ledge until I was sitting on it facing the river. As soon as I did, a cold wind blasted my face. I realized that I had been protected from the wind on my side of the boat. It was hard to keep my eyes open. My hands struggled to keep a tight grip around the ledge, which was narrower than I had realized. When I looked across, I saw that it was about forty feet to the other side. Time to get moving.

  I extended my right foot to the side and hooked it to a steel bar below me, using the leverage to pulley myself along the railing. When I looked back I realized I’d gone about six inches. Only eighty more moves like that and I’d be across. I repeated the motion again and again. After a while, it was like my body was there, but my mind was elsewhere. All I was focused on was sliding six inches at a time. I looked down and realized I had made it halfway across. Despite the conditions, I found myself smiling. My hands were numb, and my feet ached, but I was doing it!