Murder on the High Seas - The Devereaux CaseFiles Book 3

Chapter 27

It took roughly eight and a half hours for Reed and Ayah to get home to New York, with a ten minute taxi drive to the shop. It was getting late by then, just a little before eight o'clock that night, when they took in the time difference. It was the perfect amount of time to grab some dinner and then have a relaxing night. They had a few days to get used to the jet lag and let their internal clocks get adjusted to the six hour difference between Italy and New York. When they got into the shop, they were surprised to find Gideon and Anita waiting to greet them with warm hugs and claims that they had been dearly missed for the past twenty one days.

Reed couldn't blame Ayah for being more excited about seeing her dogs and her shop than answering their questions about the cruise. The dogs were waiting for them at home, boisterous but happy and the shop had been transformed. And she hadn't been there to see it. It was the whole reason he had wanted to get her away for a while, so that Gideon could surprise her like he wanted to. Now they could both see from the look on her face that it had worked. She was stunned into silence.

"How was the trip? Did you get a lot of romantic relaxation time?" Anita asked, quizzing them out of excitement. She had never been on a cruise but she imagined that it would be romantic and fun, that when they weren't relaxing they were out on adventures, discovering ancient cities and taking a million photographs.

"Not exactly." Reed confessed, much to her surprise. But she didn't get the chance to ask about it.

"How come you came here before going home?" Gideon wondered, hoping that Reed would tell him what had gone on aboard the ship. Although he had taken Murray's advice and kept his nose out of it, he hadn't been told not to ask someone who was there when it had happened. Reed had to have been mixed up in it, being on the same ship, and that meant he could settle his curiosity.

"We wanted to make sure it was still standing." Reed teased him gently, making him frown.

"Are you going to sit down and tell us about the trip?" He wondered hopefully, only to not be at all surprised that he was going to be disappointed. He could understand that they'd had a long flight and would be tired.

"Not tonight. It wasn't as uneventful as you would imagine and we're tired. Ayah wanted to check on the shop. Now that we've done that, we're going to go home, order in some food and have a quiet night. Then, we'll take you two out for dinner tomorrow and tell you all about it." He promised, wanting to hear how they had handled the shop, since he could already see how good it was looking. Shelves were up, books were unpacked and there were even more than a few finishing touches in place. It seemed that Gideon had worked his butt of trying to get it finished for their arrival. Once Gideon agreed to wait until that dinner to hear the news, Ayah gushed into happiness.

"It's so good to be home." She sighed, mostly to herself as she ran her hand gently over her meager bump, which was just beginning to show signs of her pregnancy. She hadn't put on much weight but he wasn't worried. He was just glad to see that they had all missed each other and were able to see each other again. More than once during the cruise he had wondered if they would make it off the ship.

"Gideon's being going frantic thinking something happened to you guys." Anita confessed much to their united surprise. Gideon frowned at her and looked a little embarrassed but Reed could see that he also looked absolutely sure that his worries were justified and he began to wonder if he really knew what had gone on aboard the cruise ship.

"I couldn't get through to call you. I called Raidon who asked Murray. I'll tell you about it tomorrow. Go home and get some rest. We can compare notes tomorrow night." He explained, sounding less than pleased with his own words. But when he mentioned comparing notes, Reed smiled and knew that he had an incline about the trouble they had got into and wanted to know all about it. Even if Anita didn't really believe him. They said their goodbyes and arranged a time for the next night before leaving and getting back into their taxi. It wasn't a long distance to their house, but it was late and they were tired, he didn't want Ayah walking that distance in the dark, even if he was there to protect her.