Twelve Angry Guests

Chapter 12

Dinner was another five-star delight but there was no invite for after-dinner drinks and Carlton, whom they had all been informed was their brusque butler, stated that they should return to their villas.

"We're quite safe at our place," Jessica informed them on the walk back. "I'll tell you all about it there."

"I think we have some promising news as well," Gordon added.

"This should be a most successful meeting then."

"I should have been on your team, we got drenched." Miller said.

Parker laughed and gave him a playful punch on the arm. "I managed a cognac while we were prowling around the house."

"Bugger."

With everyone settled comfortably and drinks from the room bar, Jessica explained about the visit to the resort house. They found the room with the monitors, picked the lock and shut off the feed to this villa. The record pad they found showed that nothing had been written since Malcolm left, which meant nobody else watched.

"We saw where he noted that the cameras were covered in our room and Gretta's. We also saw the activity in that other house."

"How much time did you guys have, and won't he know you were in there?"

"The whole foray took less than ten minutes. If he checks the feed activity when he gets back here he will. But for now, I don't imagine that's a risk."

"So we can all speak freely." Deborah said.

"Yes and I am eager to hear what we all learned." Jessica glanced at Gretta and nodded.

"Well aside from stopping every few feet to wring out poor Miller, we discovered there is a jeep at the airport, along with the limo, and the driver stays there with the two-man maintenance crew and the tower operator.

"There has to be a radio in there," Arny added, "if we ever get a chance to use it."

Verna raised her hand and drew smiles from around the group. "We didn't see any sign of automatic weapons like those other men Gretta mentioned."

"She's right. Hand guns probably but not always on them."

Gordon spoke for their group, telling about the encounter with the man at the house and the subsequent discovery of the two cars and an outboard motor.

"That would mean here's a boat somewhere." Jeff sat up, eager for more.

"Correct. And we found it at a dock on the beach down behind that other house. There was a small cruiser with twin outboards and an old rowboat with a motor mount." Hart added.

"Sam Spade, here also noted that the man we spoke to was carrying."

Deborah lifted her glass to Gordon, drawing comments and chuckles from the rest.

"Okay," Gretta sat forward. "We now know how many are on the grounds. We know they are armed and with what. We know where there are means of transportation both on the island and by boat, and we know that Malcolm trusts nobody."

"I don't see how that last bit helps." Parker said.

"It could be leverage with his staff. Never pass up opportunities to gain information."

****

Malcolm's plane touched down just after midnight and a quick drive to the resort house had him immediately checking his video room. The only change he noticed was the audio from Jessica Stroud's villa was off, and that could only be done from his control room. He ran checks on all the cameras and found nothing else had changed; they were all recording normally.