Curried Lobster Murder: Book 14 in The Darling Deli Series by Patti Benning Page B

up,” she replied.
    “I’ve been doing research, like I promised,” he told her. “I haven’t found anything useful, though.”
    “That’s okay,” Moira said. “I have.”
    She told him about what had happened in the theater. When she was finished, they both fell silent for a moment, David shaking his head slowly.
    “Don’t leave your room,” he warned her first.
    “Of course I won’t. I already made that promise to Candice. Is there anything you can do there? Would the police be able to help?”
    He gave a grim laugh. “Moira, you are far, far out of the jurisdiction of any law enforcement agency I know. You’re going to have to depend on whatever security they have on the ship to help you.” He groaned. “I hate this.”
    “I know,” she said. “Me too. I feel so helpless, I just—”
    She broke off, something about his expression sending a jolt of fear through her.
    “Moira,” he said quietly. “Who’s behind you?”
    She spun around just as the woman lunged at her, nylon rope held tightly between her gloved hands. Moira avoided the loop of rope by pure chance, kicking out as the woman stumbled toward her. The force of their collision sent Moira into the desk, where the tablet fell over with a clatter, and the woman stumbled to one knee.
    “Mom,” Candice shouted from the next room. “Is everything okay?”
    “Everything’s fine, sweetie,” Moira shouted back, determined to keep her daughter safe if it was the last thing she did.
    The woman was beginning to get up. The deli owner tried to grab the rope from her, and a silent struggle ensued. In their throes, the woman’s hood fell off, revealing not Sofia, but Nadine. The other woman yanked the rope out of Moira’s hands as her grip went limp in surprise.
    “You?” Moira blurted out, confused. “Why?”
    “I need that money,” Nadine hissed. “You’d do the same in my position.”
    Moira tensed, ready for the woman to reach for her with the rope again, but now that she had been identified and confronted, the other woman seemed less eager to attack her.
    “No, I wouldn’t,” Moira whispered back, still determined to keep Candice from realizing that anything was wrong. “No amount of money is worth killing someone.”
    “Your kid is, though.”
    The deli owner blinked, confused. “I don’t understand.”
    “My husband is leaving me, like I told you,” Nadine said. To Moira’s surprise, her voice cracked. “I need the money to hire a lawyer that will help me fight for my kids. Otherwise he’s going to get full custody. I’d kill everyone on this ship if it meant I could keep my babies.”
    “Oh.”
    The deli owner let her hands drop, shocked by Nadine’s revelation and shocked by her own reaction to it. It didn’t excuse her murdering people, of course, but she couldn’t help but feel some sort of bizarre sympathy toward the other woman.
    “Don’t look at me like that,” Nadine grunted.
    “Like what?”
    “Like you care what happens. Like you could even begin to understand what I’m going through.”
    “Of course I can understand that, I’m a single mother, too,” Moira said. “What was your plan, though? Just kill us all? Don’t you think the judges would notice?”
    “I didn’t want to kill anyone,” Nadine said, twisting the rope in her hands nervously. “Bobby… I lost control with him. At dinner that first night, he was bragging and bragging about how good his restaurant was and how many local contests he had won. I knew I couldn’t beat him, and I panicked. But with you and Daphne, I was careful. I just gave you enough rat poison to make you sick.”
    “What about Hector?”
    “He didn’t eat with me,” the other woman said plaintively. “I asked him to, and he refused. How else was I going to slip poison to him? I know I’m not good at cooking, not like the rest of you. If you were all still around for the competition tomorrow, I would have been the next one disqualified. I had to act