Mystral Murder (Julie O'Hara Mystery Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

reflected the eerie glow of the pool’s underwater lights, and the silence of the place hung heavy on the salty air. 
    She was headed mid-ship toward Horizons, the long buffet-style cafeteria, remembering that the Solaria Spa was beyond it, up a short flight of stairs on Deck 12. When she got there, she found it locked -down and empty, save for a few folks cleaning up after the midnight buffet.
    How am I going to get to the spa? The only way is through the restaurant. It won’t do me any good to go back down and walk through the Promenade to the rear elevators. The only one that goes to Deck 12 is the one that goes right to the Top Hat club. I’m sure as hell not walking through there.
    She stood back by the pool bar and looked around.
    Wait, the jogging path probably goes that far.
    Julie retraced her steps and climbed the pool area stairs leading to the Sport Deck on top. It was cloudy with very little moonlight, but she could see that the port side jogging path did, indeed, go back as far as the spa and there was a light slowly sweeping fore and aft.
    The non-slip runner’s trail tripled its width as it curved through Solaria’s columned portico and headed back on the starboard side to the front of the ship.  Two of the matted chaises Julie had remembered were placed, one each, on either side of the glass doors.  The spa behind them looked closed, but Julie tried the doors anyway to confirm it. There was an outside cabinet on the left and she tried that, too. It was unlocked and contained white, waffle-weave cotton blankets.
    Julie shook out one of the covers and plopped down on the nearest chaise. She was utterly tired, yet wound-up at the same time. In all of their time together, she and Joe had never had a fight like this, never had a night like this. There had never been any reason to doubt his love for her, but tonight she had come in a distant second after alcohol. What did that mean for the future?
    Would the real Joe please step forward?
    Fishing in her pocket, Julie pulled out the bottle of tiny pills, swallowed one and settled back. She tugged the blanket up to her neck and tried to stop thinking about Joe and worrying, a complete impossibility. She thought back to when they’d first met, how she’d initially disliked him, had avoided and rebuffed him. Of course, in retrospect she knew why. Because he was everything I wanted in a man, because I knew I could fall for him. Letting Joe into her heart had made her vulnerable. The prospect of losing him now was more than she could bear.
    Julie shivered and looked around. Where’s the moon ?
    The overhang held a soft, recessed light, but it was too weak to fend off the dark, cloudy night. Julie wanted to get up and go back to the cabin, but the hypnotic sleeping pill was doing its job and lethargy was overtaking her body. Soon, she was asleep. It was a fitful slumber pierced with an ominous dream of turtles and a dark, flickering sea…a dream that vanished when she awoke.
    ***
     
    Adrienne Paradis was also on the Sport Deck, smiling and swaying in the balmy Caribbean air.  She stood with one hand on the railing, her eyes half closed in a state of epiphany. Dale. Gill and Cathy. Dr. Sinclair. How could she see so clearly now what she couldn’t see before?
    She smiled, opened her eyes and looked over the railing at the dark sea twelve decks below. The Mystral’s lights danced and sparkled across the waves.
    Tomorrow I’ll set things straight.
    But tomorrow was not to be, for in the next moment Adrienne’s arms were flailing and she was airborne, falling headfirst into the night. As the surface rushed to meet her, synapses in her brain made a fleeting connection to baby turtles…
    Moonlight on the water leads them into the sea...
    * * * * *
     
     
     
    T U E S D A Y
    ~
     
    CHAPTER 10
    J ulie had no idea what time it was when she opened her eyes. The sky was lighter in the east off to her left, but the sun wasn’t yet over the horizon. She had a slight