Cruise to Murder (Z & C Mysteries, #2) (11 page)

“I still want to look down the well. I don’t see anyone to be afraid of
, so let’s not leave here until we see what is at the bottom.”

They both were leaning into the well and the glow of the flashlight was shining back on their faces in the dark.

“Okay, there’s a metal ladder going down the side of the well’s wall, all the way to the dry dirt floor. What say we climb down just to take a peek? If we don’t think it is safe to go any further, we’ll come back up and take a cab to the police station.”

Claire’s plan seemed reasonable to Zo. So down they went, Claire leading with the flashlight.

When they reached the bottom, they both peered further down into the tunnel, which amounted to hewn-out stone and dirt with wooden beams holding it all up.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt just to walk a little ways down
,” Claire whispered.

“Okay,
” Zo agreed. “I don’t see any bunny. I wouldn’t be surprised if he were the mastermind of all of these goings on.”

They walked a ways with no incident, so they walked a ways further, always ready to run, listening for any sound that would cause them to turn around.
The tunnel suddenly took a turn. As the two came around the bend, they stood at the mouth of a dark cavern. “What do you want to do now, Mom?”

“Shall we shine a light in?”

Claire flashed the light in and saw that it was somewhat of a small arena. They entered carefully.

“Wow. I’m guessing a cave behind the caves.” Claire moved her flashlight around the cavern and saw other tunnels leading off.
As she turned with her light in the direction she came from, she was shocked to see two bare-skinned men with bone necklaces, loincloths, feather headdresses, tribal tattoos, and red painted faces. “Mother, we have a situation.”

Zo
turned around and to her horror the natives looked at her through vacant eyes.

CHAPTER TEN

She took
Claire by the wrist and started backing up slowly. “Normally, the sight of bare-chested men would make me happy. Not right now… Run!”

They sprinted past the men, the light of the flashlight shaking along as they went.

“Turn out your flash light and follow my pull as we run for that opening,” she whispered in Claire’s ear.

The light went out and they started running in the remembered direction around the zomb
ie-looking men for the cave opening, when (pop-pop-pop) lights went on around the cave walls. They were soon taken in the hands of the two huge men. Other men of the same appearance stood up and walked out from behind rock formations, which previously concealed them. Zo and Claire were brought to the middle of the arena.

There was a raised stone platform in front. Everyone stood silently looking to it and waiting. Soon
the white bunny with the polka dotted bowtie hopped up and sat down in the middle of it.

“See there
, Claire? He is the ring leader, mastermind. Just like I suspected.” None of the men moved a muscle and continued to stare directly ahead.

A figure in a gilded
face mask plumed with colorful feathers came to the platform. He had long, black hair that was decorated with red beads. The bunny hopped away. He, too, had a bone necklace, but also had a more modest covering of a golden material around his waist. A follower handed him a staff with a lighted crystal globe. The staff itself was carved in a swirl to the bottom. He looked in the direction of the mother and daughter, speaking in a deep, microphoned voice—“You may speak.”

“
You must be a techno-Koona of whom would be—cannibals?” asked Zo.

“Mother…” Claire hoarsely whispered in distress.

The leader laughed. “You would be techno-cally right.” He continued, “You have conveniently interrupted our meeting tonight, but you are welcome. In fact, you are invited to our feast. Ha ha ha. Bring two poles and bind them.”

Two men ran forward with two round, six inch poles in width, and staked them into the middle of the dirt arena. Then Zo
and Claire were bound to them.

The figure raised his hand and p
ointed out to the left. “Mr. D.J., would you provide us with inspirational music?”

Kettle drums began pulsing and the men circled with their spears and lit them on fire. “We keep a little of the old tradition
, Zo and Claire.”

“You know our names?” a
sked Claire.

“How could we not? You have been awful nuisances.”

“Why didn’t you eat Mr. Belmont?” called Zo. “Aren’t you behind the murders?”

A tribal man pointed a fiery spear at her throat. “Not so fast, Mr. Sergeant at Arms. Let us mind our manners. We have no reason to rush here.”
The leader continued, “There is evil all around. Even within well-dressed, affluent, educated people. Mr. Belmont was up to his fingertips in greed and warmongering. He was also a liar, who was pretending to still be financially stable. He got what he deserved.”

“What about Mrs. Belmont?” Claire was now confident enough to ask.

“Mrs. Belmont? She was a victim of jealousy. Another woman murdered her, who was just as greedy as Belmont. We had nothing to do with her. We only murder as-needed. For instance, you have threatened our society’s well-being by nosing around. We are a
secret
society.”

“One more question.”

“Yes, Mrs. Kane. By all means, a last request.”

“What then is your main
purpose in these caves? Secrecy and murder? There has to be a better reason than cannibalism. I don’t know that I take you for being a standard Koona Cannibal.”

“Very discerning. Oh, we are warmongers also. Except ours is as necessary. Mr. Belmont’
s reason was money—Capitalism. Ours is for a better life. We would take down Imperialistic nations and bring peace to the world.”

“Peace by force. Imagine that. How are
you going to achieve that holed-up in caves?”

“Time to move on with the entertainment.”
The drums picked up again. He raised both arms and the men yelled together, “Ho!” and began to step-dance and chant around Zo and Claire. Every so often the natives would all rush to a duo who held spears pointed at the women, and then would rush backward to their larger circle.

A large ornate
chair was brought for the chief to sit on. He was served a drink as he watched the evening’s festivities. Pretty soon, it appeared the chief was nodding off, as his masked head would droop. A definite snore soon resounded out from his unseen microphone. The dancers continued their routine, closing in on the mother and daughter, and then marching backwards into their circle.

When the circle closed in the next time, o
ne of the dancers pointed a red hot spear tip at Zo. He spoke in words that were not in sync with the chant, but kept the beat to blend in. “When your ropes drop—run out the way—you came in. Ho! Wait for Claire’s ropes—to drop. Hoooo hah!”

Zo
could see that Claire heard the same message, because she gave a knowing look to the native. She could feel the heat of her rescuer’s blade near her wrists. Seconds later, with the help of the same glowing hot blade, a loose part of Claire’s ropes, behind her back, were burned and cut.

A
fter one more circled approach, Zo felt her ropes drop against her palms. She held on to them, until Claire’s hands were completely free.

With t
he next retreat of the natives into the larger ring, Zo went and grabbed Claire. They ran between some of the chanters, who didn’t even blink, out of the arena.

But this time they had no flashlight and
Claire who was ahead, called back to her mom, “Take hold of the neck of my blouse, I’ll keep a hand touching the wall, so we don’t get lost.”

Zo listened
. They only fell once. They got back up, reorganized and took off again. Finally, they saw a pool of light from what had to be the moon shining down the well.

After reaching the top of the well, Claire made sure she helped her mother out. “I feel another scream
, Mom.”

Zo began to cry. “Come on! I can cry and run
, too. Let’s get out of here.

As they ran Zo said, “All I could think about is watching my sweet daughter killed right before my eyes.”

“Thank God, Mom, we were helped, so we could escape. Nobody ran after us. How would you explain that? Where are we going?”

“Just keep running! It will come to us.” About that time Zo could hear
another set of feet running. As she turned to see what lunatic was behind her, the bunny whizzed on by them.

“He looks like he is late for a very important date. Follow him!”

The bunny stopped every once in a while and looked back at them taking time to chew a little cud. As soon as the girls would get close enough, he would take off again.

Pretty soon they ended up at a resort hotel, called Sea Winds. It had thatched roofs, palm trees, a pale blue lighted swimming pool and soft music wafting through the eaves. The bunny stopped at the lobby’s brass doors. Claire picked him up and walked inside.

Soon
the Kanes were standing at the front desk, the bunny sitting in front of the receptionist. “We need a room,” Claire said, trying to compose herself.

The woman registrar
looked at the sweaty, dirty, messy women with a judgmental eye. “You have no luggage?”

“No,” answered Claire.

“No purses with ID… and a rabbit who
is
dressed appropriately.”

“
True,” acknowledged Claire.

“I’
m afraid the policy of this hotel does not allow for transients,” the woman said, looking down over her glasses and narrow nose.

“Hand me the telephone and I can clear up your concern immediately
,” Zo insisted.

“We don’t allow personal calls from the desk phones. There is a pay phone in the lobby there.”

Zo reached over the desk counter and picked up the phone, lifted the receiver, and pushed in a phone number.

“Hi, Lew. This is Zo
ey Kane. Claire and I are standing at the reception desk of Sea Winds Resort Hotel. I wonder if you can vouch for us with the lady here, because we don’t have luggage or a purse… and our makeup and hair is a mess… And, we have a rabbit with us… Yes. You guessed correctly. You know us too well.” Zo laughed. “I will be calling the police. We are okay, thanks… Sure.” She handed the phone to the astonished registrar. “He wants to talk to you.”

“Hello? Yes
, sir. Right away! Yes, I will. Yes. Yes.” She hung up and motioned for the man standing down at a computer behind the counter. “Rod, please take Mrs. and Miss Kane to the top floor—the Island Sun suite.” Looking at Zo and Claire, she said, “You have carte Blanche, compliments of Mr. Kipperman.” Then addressing Rod again, she added, “Make sure the staff knows these are guests of Mr. Kipperman. And the rabbit gets whatever he wants.”

“I would l
ike to use the desk phone again,” Zo said.

“Yes
, ma’am. I also apologize for the inconvenience I’ve caused you.”

“Thank you. All is well.”

After a moment of listening to ringing on the other end, a voice answered, “Detective Bennard speaking.”

“Hello
, Detective. This is Zoey Kane—Vacationer. I have some important, distressing news to tell you. This must be immediate. Send many police to Mr. Belmont’s cottage above the Koona Caves. Enter the well there down a ladder. Then, follow the tunnel with weapons drawn, which will open into a cavern. There are about fifty tribesmen with spears. And a chief—he has admitted murder.”

“How do you have all this information
, Mrs. Kane?”

“Because we discovered the tunnel from the well, were bound and escaped with our lives. If you hurry
, you can catch them all and have three murders solved and I’m thinking two suicides as well.”

“Mrs
. Kane, I am dispatching police units now and I will be personally over to see you for a report. Uh, where would that be?”

“We are at
Sea Winds in the Island Sun suite.”

“Very swank! I’ll be there in
approximately twenty…”

“Okay,
” Zo hung up. “We are ready to go to our room. Where are the elevators,” she read the name on the woman’s lapel pin, “Ms. Dobbs?”

“You will be taking that private elevator over in this corner here.” She
then nodded to Rod.

“This way please,” he said
, and the two followed him where he entered a code to open the doors. “Here is your key card, which will also open these doors. The elevator takes you right to a small foyer to your door. This key card also opens your suite door. Any visitors will call you from the desk. We will open the elevator for them from there. Would you like me to accompany you?”

“No. We can take it from here
, Rod. We are expecting Detective Bennard. Send him up please. Also, send us up lobster dinners, a nice creamy soup and mint herb tea. Send up four of all of those. Oh, don’t forget bunny food and a cat box with litter.”