Heavenly Honeymoon (Zoe Donovan Mysteries Book 15) by Kathi Daley Page A

and Piper, so it made sense that I would bring this up to him before he could ask me about it. I’d also decided to let him know I’d visited the yacht with Ellie after our visit. I didn’t want him to hear about it from someone else, but I also didn’t want him to try to stop me from going.
    “Morning, Toad,” I greeted him as I entered the small, dingy office.
    “You are early today.”
    “I have a busy day planned with my family and wanted to be sure to have my mandatory check-in before things got too hectic. I don’t suppose you have any news?”
    “Nothing new.”
    “In the spirit of full disclosure, I want to tell you that Zak and I had lunch with Charles and Piper Belmont yesterday. I wasn’t snooping,” I quickly assured him. “Zak and Charles had business to discuss and I decided to tag along. Did you know the couple have visited a real haunted castle?”
    Toad looked skeptical.
    “Charles did mention that he’d been introduced to Ricardo by Chandella, who warned him to stay away from the guy. He didn’t say when this introduction occurred, but I guess it was during one of his previous visits to the island. His comment got me wondering about Chandella. Talin indicated that she’s Jensen Ewing’s mistress, yet Charles stated that he believed she was some sort of an executive assistant. He said she’d attended social engagements with him in Della’s absence.”
    “So?” Toad shrugged.
    “Do you think Della knows about Jensen and Chandella?”
    “I’m sure she does.”
    “And she doesn’t mind that her husband is cheating on her?”
    Toad snickered. “Mr. Ewing isn’t cheating. Men in this country frequently take mistresses if they can afford to do so. This does not diminish Mrs. Ewing’s role as Mr. Ewing’s wife. Do you have anything else to report?”
    “No. That’s it for now. I’ll see you this evening. Oh, I forgot to mention that Zak and I have been invited to a fund-raiser on Saturday for the animal shelter. I assume there’s no problem with our attending?”
    Toad shrugged again. “I don’t see a problem, as long as you are there to watch the movie and not interrogate the other suspects.”
    “So you do think there are other suspects?” I smiled.
    “Perhaps.”
    After completing my conversation with Toad I headed back to the house. Alex and Scooter were going to spend the morning at Kids Club and Zak planned to go surfing while Ellie and I met with Chef Sebastian on the yacht. If I could figure out how someone might have accessed the hallway undetected, maybe I could finally convince Zak and Talin that someone really had been in the hallway that night.
     
    Ellie and I arrived at the yacht at exactly eleven thirty. I could tell Sebastian was less than thrilled to see me, but I had to give him credit; he didn’t say anything about my presence and was quite gracious in his attempt to include both Ellie and me in the conversation. I felt a little bad when I realized he’d brought lunch for Ellie and himself, but rather than point out the fact that my presence was an obvious intrusion, he simply divided the meal between the three of us.
    Ellie and Sebastian did seem to have a lot to talk about. I understood that it was important for her to show interest in all the special gadgets that were required to prepare a meal at sea, but I really was more interested in access points to the hallway than I was the spice rack that Sebastian had contracted to be specially built for the kitchen.
    “Would you like to see the rest of the yacht?” Sebastian finally asked after a long conversation about the challenges of cooking when the sea was rough.
    “I’d love to.” Ellie grinned. “Zoe?”
    “I guess a tour would be fun.” I tried to appear nonchalant.
    “Why don’t we start at the top and work our way down?” Sebastian suggested.
    I’d already seen the top deck and was more interested in the lower two but didn’t say as much. I did learn during the tour that there was an