The South Pacific Murders

by Sylvia Massara

  The area around Dr Barry’s body had been cordoned off with rope and canvas sheets that hanged from it like curtains in order to block the body from public view. At this time, however, there was no one around; plus the captain had closed off this side of the deck with “Do not enter—maintenance in progress” signage.

  “Once we established this was no accident,” Dobbs took up where Smythe left off, “we called the captain and he joined us immediately with Mark and the ship’s doctor. The doc ID’d the victim since he knew Barry from years ago. He also confirmed Barry suffered a broken neck as a result of the fall. No defensive wounds, no signs of a struggle. The guy didn’t even see it coming.”

  I looked up the stairwell and counted fifteen steps. Yes, a fall from the top definitely had the potential to kill someone.

  “So what now?” This from Chris.

  “Back to CCTV footage search,” Dobbs replied with a sigh. “When I came out here, there was no one else about. I didn’t know how long the victim had been dead, but the doc gave us an approximation of maybe one hour.”

  “What time did you find him?” I was thinking someone would have to break the news to Martha Barry; and this would probably fall on me because I knew her better than the others.

  “It was around 6.15am.”

  “I take it no one went to see Mrs Barry yet?”

  Dobbs shook his head. “No. We needed to secure the scene and close off access to any passengers who might wander this way.”

  Smythe cast a look at me. “Mia, can we count on you for this?”

  “Sure. I already know Mrs Barry, so this is better coming from me. What are you guys going to do?”

  “As I said, it’s going to be CCTV duty for us,” Dobbs answered. “That is, after we remove the body to the morgue.”

  “Jerry Garcia and his men will dust for prints around the railing, but I doubt they’ll find anything,” Smythe informed us. “Good thing Garcia’s an ex-cop and always carries the essentials with him.”

  “Even a gun?” Chris asked.

  “A few, I believe,” Smythe said. “And it’s just as well. I’m fairly certain this is the work of the same killer. And I have a feeling he’s not finished yet.”

  I nodded in agreement at his chilling prediction. “We’ll leave you guys to it. Chris and I will see Mrs Barry and hook up with you later.”

  The captain approached us with his companions just as we were about to leave. “Thank you for your help, Mia and Chris. I overheard you’re going to see Mrs Barry.”

  “I was talking with her earlier, Captain. I’ll report to you all after I break the news and talk to more of the convention people.”

  I grabbed hold of Chris’s wrist in preparation to go, but not before I caught a glint of admiration in Mark Evans’s eyes. I was therefore glad I’d taken the time to throw a flowing white cotton dress over me before coming out on deck.

  ~~~

  “They have a morgue on the ship?” Chris remarked as we made our way down to the cabins.

  “Yes. People do die of natural causes, you know. So they have to have one to keep the bodies until they reach port. What did you think?” I cocked an eyebrow at him. “They throw the bodies to the fish?”

  He harrumphed. “Know it all!”

  Martha Barry did not seem too devastated when I told her of her husband’s demise, and I fleetingly wondered whether she’d tripped the cheating doctor to fall down the stairs rather than waste time on a divorce. My gut told me, no.

  We’d had to knock on her door several times before she answered. When she finally opened it and saw us, she seemed genuinely surprised through her sleepy eyes; and after excusing ourselves, I’d asked her to telephone Joy Gerard to join us. I thought her friend should be present for support.

  “I know I should be showing my grief in some way,” Martha said as if reading my mind. “But in light of the shock at finding out Jim was cheating on me, I guess I’m still feeling angry.”

  Joy Gerard lay a hand on Martha’s arm. “My dear, I’m sure the grief will come, irrespective of what he’s done.”

  “We’re very sorry for your loss,” I put in on behalf of Chris and me.

  Martha nodded a ‘thank you’ and regarded me with questioning eyes. “So you don’t think this was an accident? I mean, who’d want to kill Jim?”

  I’d told Martha about the fishing twine. She had a right to know someone had done away with her husband, and that his death wasn’t an accident.

  “Can you think of anybody who’d want to do this, Mrs Barry?” Chris took the opportunity to ask.

  She paused in thought for a moment and then shook her head. “No. Not that I can think of. But then again, it seems I didn’t know Jim very well after all.” At this, the beginning of tears gathered in her eyes.

  Joy handed her a box of tissues from the night table. The ladies were sitting on the edge of Martha’s bed, while Chris and I simply stood, leaning against the cabin wall.

  “If you don’t mind, I have another question; and then we’ll leave you be,” I uttered.

  Martha wiped her eyes with a tissue and nodded.

  “What time did your husband go jogging this morning?”

  “Around five,” Martha replied. “Jim always goes... I mean, went... jogging at that time, even back home.”

  “Thank you, Martha.” I gave her a sympathetic look. “And please don’t worry about a thing. Captain Wilkins will be by later to chat with you. He’ll make all the arrangements for your husband’s body to return with you to Sydney.”

  “I appreciate it, Mia. I don’t think I can cope with anything right now.” She looked rather lost when she said this and my heart went out to her. Poor lady—finding her husband was a cheat, and now he’d been murdered by someone on the ship.

  Joy took charge. “You leave her in my care, Mia. Martha will be fine. And if there’s anything else I can help you with, be sure to call me.”

  Chris and I took our leave of the ladies and made our way to the buffet restaurant for breakfast. We sat outside, toward the back of the ship. The breeze was mild and the temperature was beginning to warm up. It was going to be a perfect day—except for the murder, of course.

  “You realise we now have four suspects,” I told Chris. “I want you to do an internet search on these people to see what you come up with. And while you’re at it, check on Dr Barry. It’s a shame we didn’t ask Martha whether we could go through his belongings. Remind me to do this later. Who knows what we’ll—”

  Chris held up a hand in front of my face. “Wait, wait. Slow down, Mia.”

  “What is it?”

  “You’re going too fast, that’s what.” He took a sip of his coffee while I attacked my scrambled eggs on toast. “First of all, who are the four suspects?”

  I swallowed what was in my mouth and took a sip of coffee before I replied. “Well, remember when van Horn was killed and I said we had three suspects? I thought Martha might have gotten rid of van Horn because he was the leader of this so-called cheaters’ club.”

  Chris nodded. “Yes. And then we decided the timing was wrong because she’d only just found out about Barry cheating on her. We also decided the captain and Mike Yuen didn’t have a strong enough motive, namely because van Horn wasn’t a surgeon and, therefore, not instrumental in what happened to the captain’s wife and Mike Yuen’s career.”

  “Exactly. But now things have changed. There’s Enrico Lotti for starters.” At the look of confusion on Chris’s face, I further explained. “I never had time to tell you since I didn’t see you after dinner last night.” Then, I told him about Enrico’s story—his career as a doctor in a hospital where he was passed over for promotion due to his partner’s HIV diagnosis; the doctors on the recruitment panel who’d turned him down, and who also happened to be on the ship; plus Enrico’s quick way to reassure me he held no hard feelings despite everything that happened.

  “Wow!” Chris exclaimed before I continued.

  “Then, there’s M
ike Yuen. Guess who gave him the wrongful medical advice that led to an unnecessary operation.”

  “Barry!” Chris’s eyes were the size of saucers.

  “Enrico told me this while he was talking about his own problems. He also mentioned the captain’s wife and her botched operation were performed by none other than Dr Weinstein.”

  “Wow!” Chris said again, this time looking thoughtful. “So there’s a huge connection here—van Horn and Barry, both on the recruitment panel in Enrico’s case; Barry cheating on his wife; Barry operating on Mike Yuen... hmm... And then there’s Weinstein, operating on Mrs Wilkins.”

  “Shit!” I cried out rather loudly and attracted a few looks my way from some of the other passengers around us. I lowered my voice and said, “Weinstein’s onboard this ship.”

  Chris grinned. “And I’m sure you’re going to warn him.”

  “Bloody right, I am.” I gulped down the rest of my coffee and stood up, already thinking ahead as to how I was going to bring up the subject of the murders in order to warn Weinstein that he could be next. But this would implicate the captain because he had a motive; and we had no proof at all as to who was behind the murders. I frowned at the conundrum.

  “Don’t go yet,” Chris urged, breaking into my thoughts. “I’m still computing all of this.”

  I made a face at him. “Well, compute in a hurry, boyo. I’ve got things to do and so do you.”

  “Just think of this—two murders with possibly different motives, plus four suspects to boot.”

  I drummed my fingers on the table. “And your point is?”

  “My point, Ms Ferrari, is this might not be the work of the same killer.”

  My eyes opened wide. “You’re right. And if so, Smythe’s wrong about this being the work of the same killer.” I considered this for a moment; then said, “Okay. But what are the chances of having more than one killer onboard?”

  “Hey, it’s only a theory. We could be wrong, you know,” Chris pointed out.

  I threw him a confident look. “You might be wrong, Chris Rourke. I’m never wrong. So on this occasion, I’ll have to reserve judgement until I know more.”

  He laughed. “I’ll say this much for you, Ferrari; at least, you’re confident no matter what.”

  “Shut up and pay attention.” I mock-slapped him around the head. “I need to talk to Dr Cliff Downes before anything else.”

  “Who’s he?”

  “Barry’s mate, remember? The one who’s a member of the cheaters’ club Martha alluded to. I mean, for all we know, most of these doctors could be in the same club, and Martha’s lost it and decided to do them in for being cheating bastards. Only, I don’t think she did it.”

  Chris sighed. “You’re confusing me again. I say we discuss the whole thing with Dobbs and Smythe. Who knows, maybe they found something on the CCTV footage by now that’ll give us more information.”

  “Yes, you’re right.” I frowned with frustration. The situation could go either way—we more than likely had a killer doing all the doctors or as Chris hypothesised, we had multiple killers. But this seemed improbable. Even so, we needed to consider every angle.

  “What are you going to do about Weinstein?”

  Chris’s question brought me out of my reverie. “I don’t think the killer will strike again so soon. I think he’s satisfied for the time being. Let’s discuss it with the others before we proceed to warn anybody. And we need to keep this between the four of us. After all, if Weinstein gets lopped off it’ll look suspect on the captain. And if he’s the killer, we don’t want to alert him we’re in the know.”

  Chris nodded. “This brings us back to the theory of multiple killers.”

  “I’m not so sure about that. Plus there’s also another possibility—we could be absolutely wrong, and the killer is someone we haven’t yet thought of.” This had been playing at the back of my mind. I felt we had to find a common motive linking the killings to one murderer, especially if Smythe was right and the killer was not yet done.

  A shiver ran down my spine and I pushed the gruesome thought away. I said to Chris, “You go and do your internet search and add Cliff Downes to the list. I’m going to find him and suss him out.”

  ~~~

  Dobbs called a lunchtime meeting so we could have a catch-up. We met at Horizons, the a-la-carte restaurant, at 1.30pm. We purposely agreed to meet late so the restaurant wouldn’t be crowded and we could get more privacy.

  We sat at a booth by the window and while we ate—all of us ravenous—we remained silent, occasionally glancing out at the ocean and the endless horizon beyond. Once we reached the dessert and coffee stage, however, we looked more energised and had full bellies.

  “I don’t know why I’m so hungry on this ship,” Dobbs commented. “All I can think of is food.”

  I smirked. “It’s the sea air, Dobbs; plus the fact that Eileen isn’t here to stop you.” Dobbs’s wife would have kept him on the straight and narrow.

  Dobbs made a face at me and stuffed his mouth with bread pudding. The rest of us had opted for coffee rather than dessert.

  “We reviewed the CCTV footage after security removed the body,” Smythe reported. “The only thing we caught was someone’s leg. The angle of the camera was just so, that most of the stairwell was in a blind spot.” His brow furrowed with frustration and I could relate to it.

  “What did the leg look like?” I drained my coffee and signalled the waiter to bring me another.

  “It seems to belong to the killer all right—black pants, black jogging shoes; just like the other night. Of course, we’re not one hundred per cent sure.”

  Chris asked, “And that’s all you have?”

  Dobbs finished his dessert and sat back, looking replete. “Not all. We saw Barry while he jogged around the track. Then, he went off camera when he neared the stairwell. Unfortunately, we didn’t see him trip and fall, but we’re fairly sure he wasn’t pushed. The fishing twine would’ve done the job of tripping him.”

  “So when did you see the leg?” I said.

  “Earlier. It was around 4.00am and still dark. I don’t know how the killer managed to evade the other cameras. All we saw was the empty track and then a leg appeared near the top of the stairwell. But the camera didn’t show any more than this.”

  “It seems the guy knows his way around the ship and where the cameras are placed,” I commented.

  “He’s obviously done his homework,” Smythe remarked. “In any case, he was out there prior to the doctor taking his exercise. We can only surmise he came up the same stairwell from the deck below and tied the fishing twine near the top step. He then disappeared through a doorway near the stairwell on Deck 13. This is where the CCTV caught the image of his leg.”

  I sighed feeling tired and was glad when my cappuccino finally arrived. I needed another caffeine hit. The waiter asked if the others wanted more coffee, but no one had finished their first yet. “I take it there were no prints around the stairwell,” I stated once the waiter walked off.

  “No. It was a long shot, of course. The killer would’ve worn gloves.” Smythe finished the rest of his coffee in one gulp and looked at both Chris and me. “How did you get on with breaking the bad news?”

  I related what had happened at the interview with Mrs Barry plus the conclusions Chris and I reached regarding the suspects, their motives, and the possibility of multiple killers versus one killer, as Chris had suggested.

  “While it’s one thing to consider multiple killers,” Smythe addressed Chris, “I’m fairly sure this is the work of one person.”

  Dobbs nodded. “I tend to agree.”

  “Yes, me too,” I said. “However, it was a good point Chris brought up. It helped to illustrate we have different motives at present. There’s the cheaters’ club for Mrs Barry, a sabotaged career for Enrico, and two operations gone wrong—one for Mike Yuen and the other for the captain’s wife.”

  “You’re right,” Chris agreed. “The chances of
having a killer for each motive is too farfetched. But what you said later made sense.”

  “And what was that?” Smythe asked.

  Chris answered before I could speak. “Mia suggested that for all we know, the person could be someone we haven’t yet thought of. But if we could find a common thread among the victims we may be able to narrow the list of suspects.”

  Smythe threw me a thoughtful look and I quickly buried my face in my coffee, not wanting him to see me blush. “That’s a good point,” he conceded.

  “I’m following the angle of the cheaters’ club,” I informed the group at large, keeping my gaze trained on Dobbs. “So far, we know van Horn and Barry belonged to the same club. It’s the one thing they have in common.”

  “It’s certainly worth looking into,” Dobbs replied. “I mean, there’s a strong possibility this could be the case for the others.”

  “Which brings me to the reason why I think we should actually warn Dr Cliff Downes,” I put in. “I told you earlier about Mrs Barry informing me that her husband was talking on the phone to Downes about the cheaters’ club as she was coming out of the shower. This is how she learned her hubby was cheating on her.”

  “So we think if the killer is after the doctors who belong to this club, then Downes could be next,” Chris finished for me.

  Dobbs and Smythe regarded me without speaking, each lost in their own thoughts. Finally, Dobbs nodded. “Well, I don’t see any harm in warning the guy, do you?” He eyed Smythe.

  Smythe agreed. “True. But bear in mind the doctor might deny everything because he doesn’t want us to know he’s a part of this club.”

  “Yes, I know,” I said. “But I want to question him nonetheless. I couldn’t find him this morning, so I’ll go in search of him later. He may be able to shed some light into the club as well. After all, what we know about it so far is what Mrs Barry told us. There’s also the question of whether we warn Weinstein about the killings. He’s the one who operated on Mrs Wilkins.”