The Missing Passenger

by Liz Turner

  “With your close friend,” Sarah interrupted, giving Sebastian a pointed look.

  “Oh…” Billy stepped back, waving his finger between the two of them. “I see what’s going on here…”

  “Billy,” Sarah soothed, desperate to keep her love life personal, “you don’t understand.”

  “I think I understand perfectly,” Billy said in a strangled voice, unwelcome tears springing into his eyes. “You’re in love with another man, aren’t you?”

  Sebastian and Sarah silently stared at each other for a few seconds.

  “What’s going on here?” Gabriella asked as she rounded a corner, stunned to find her chief-of-security sobbing, and Sarah’s secret boyfriend red-faced and handcuffed.

  “A minor misunderstanding, Gabi,” Sarah explained, mortified.

  “I want to see all three of you in my office later,” Gabriella snapped. “We have enough going on around here,” her eyes darted sideways to Rachel, “without your emotions adding to the chaos of this cruise. Am I understood?”

  Sarah and Billy stared at their shoes, nodding mutely like naughty children who’d just been caught in the act by a severe school teacher. A helpless Sebastian could only shrug his shoulders.

  “Mr. Harlow, remove those cuffs at once and release this passenger,” Gabriella ordered.

  “Yes, Mrs. Fischer.” A bumbling Billy bounded into action, his nervous fingers fidgeting with the lock as he struggled to remove the handcuffs.

  “Now, please excuse us.” Gabriella nodded to Rachel, signaling that they should proceed.

  Sarah gave Gabriella one last guilty look as she passed by.

  “I’m sorry you had to witness that,” Gabriella said to the shocked Rachel, who seemed to work hard to hide her amusement. “It’s been a terrible cruise—and I haven’t even told you about the ghost we are dealing with!”

  “Ghost? As in a haunted ship?”

  “Well, it seems that way.” Gabriella sighed. “None of it is real. But someone is definitely up to something that has the entire cruise ship convinced we have a poltergeist onboard.”

  “That’s insane.” Rachel laughed, her face reflecting her obvious shock. “And hilarious. I suppose it’s made your life a living hell though, trying to keep everything under control. I suppose the rumors have to be expected when you have a public death onboard a ship.”

  “Here we are.” Gabriella offered Rachel a reassuring smile. “Are you sure you can handle this? He’s been kept safely in our morgue, so he’ll be preserved. But seeing a dead loved-one is difficult.”

  “I’m ready,” Rachel said bravely.

  Gabriella tapped on the door and waited for the doctor to buzz them in.

  “This is Dr. Pattison,” Gabriella introduced. “Let me assure you that Nancy did all she could to assist your grandfather in his last moments.”

  “Thank you,” Rachel said as her eyes brimmed with tears again. “Thank you for trying to save him. Most of my family would have watched him die, hoping they could speed it up somehow. But you people, as complete strangers, fought for his life. I’ll forever appreciate that.” She tugged at a sleeve and wiped her eyes as she struggled to hold in the sobs ripping through her slight frame.

  Gabriella felt an emotional lump clog her own throat, rendering her momentarily speechless.

  Dr. Pattison waited for the nod before slowly and carefully sliding out the morgue tray holding Peter Newland’s body. The tray pulled out with ease and all three sets of eyes dropped onto it.

  “Is this some kind of joke?” Rachel asked.

  Gabriella and Nancy stared in bewilderment at the bare steel-top where the body of Peter Newland had safely been stored away two nights ago.

  Nancy slid the compartment back and pulled out the second tray, but it, too, was empty. She then pulled out the third and final tray, which was also vacant, before returning to the first tray as if halfway expecting the vanished body to magically returned to its original position. “I have no explanation for this,” she spluttered. “Peter Newland’s body was right here after I did the post-mortem check…”

  “She’s telling the truth,” Gabriella backed her up. “He was safely stored here. Nobody else has access to the ship’s morgue, not even me.”

  Rachel stared at them, her eyes unblinking as she tried to comprehend what she was hearing. “So you’re telling me my dead grandfather’s body is missing?” she shrieked. “I’m wondering if any of this is true, or if it’s all just my imagination…” She agitatedly ran her fingers through her hair.

  “You’re not dreaming, Rachel.” Gabriella took the young woman by the shoulders and stared into her eyes. “Something strange is going on here, but we’ll figure it out.”

  Meanwhile, Nancy shook her head in disbelief. “It’s just not possible, not from a medical standpoint…”

  “You’re sure that he was dead?” Gabriella hissed, not wanting to be heard by Rachel.

  “I was sure! You don’t just accidentally diagnose someone live as dead without realizing it! There were hard proof signs that Peter Newland was no longer living,” Nancy said heatedly.

  “Didn’t you say there have been rumors of a ghost ever since my grandfather died?” Rachel asked, her eyes widening.

  Gabriella and Nancy both locked eyes on the pale Rachel.

  Gabriella would normally dismiss Rachel’s observations with the roll of her eyes and a condescending sigh, but ever since she’d encountered the bodiless flap of fabric on the deck the previous evening, she’d felt slightly less inclined to mock the believers.

  “Wait,” Nancy held up a hand. “I have an idea. Billy told me he’d been servicing and reconnecting some old security cameras around the ship. I had to leave the morgue open for him two days ago so he could attach some wiring or something.”

  “Right. Let’s pay Billy a visit and see if the footage can tell us anything,” Gabriella said.

  The small group hustled quickly out of the morgue, unwilling to spend another unnecessary second in the room that seemed capable of losing dead bodies.

  Ten minutes later, a grinning Billy proudly clicked his way through several windows of security footage. “You should really install more cameras onboard,” he said matter-of-factly to Gabriella.

  “We value the privacy of our passengers,” Gabriella countered, annoyed that he was questioning the way things were run on her ship.

  “I’m just saying, it comes in handy when there’s a dead body on the loose.”

  Nancy snorted with laughter, but Gabriella silenced her with a threatening stare.

  “It’s all right,” Rachel said and then sighed. “It’s not every day that a dead body takes a walk, although apparently, my grandpa was notorious for his sleepwalking. Grandma Lilah told me about one day when she found him getting ready to go fishing, despite being fast asleep the entire time.”

  Gabriella felt the name sting her memory. “Lilah. Where do I know that name from?” she muttered.

  “A passenger, maybe?” Nancy suggested.

  “No…” Gabriella massaged her temples, thinking.

  “A ‘Lilah’ was mentioned in all the security reports I submitted,” Billy recalled.

  Gabriella snapped her fingers. “That’s right! Many of the passengers claimed they heard the ghostly figure howling for Lilah!”

  “It can’t be a coincidence,” Rachel whispered, her eyes lighting up.

  “Right. So this is the footage from two nights ago, in fast-forward,” Billy informed, redirecting their attention as he pressed the play button.

  A grey scene of the corridor outside the morgue remained stagnantly on-screen, nothing out of the ordinary occurring. Two hours flashed by and once it was around three in the morning, there wasn’t much foot traffic in the lower part of the decks.

  “Wait,” Gabriella ordered, her eyes picking up a flicker of movement. “There!” She pointed at a shadow suddenly cast on the corridor floor, showing that the morgue door had swung open.

  All eye
s watched as the elderly Peter Newland, ghostly white and visibly shivering from his ordeal in the morgue, stepped out on shaky legs into the passage. They could see his old, wrinkled face scan right and then left, before slowly ambling away. He was wearing a pair of female nurse pants and had wrapped himself in a white sheet.

  As he stumbled off screen, Billy rewound the footage, and they gawked at the scene a second time.

  “That is definitely my grandfather,” Rachel announced.

  “I think it’s safe to say we’ve found our ghost—and he seems very much alive,” Gabriella said.

  “But if he was alive, why didn’t he ask for help or report himself?” Rachel asked, confused.

  “I think he tried to,” Gabriella admitted, slowly piecing the perplexing events together. “I found a note scratched into my cabin door asking for help.”

  “But why not just speak to someone?”

  Nancy pointed to the screen again. “Look at his face in the footage. He looks like he’s completely out of it, almost drugged. And watch how he walks—he’s practically dragging his feet under him.”

  “It’s bizarre,” Rachel said. “That’s my grandfather, but a weaker, skinnier version of him.”

  “Maybe we can figure all of this out when we find him,” Gabriella said.

  “Where do we even start looking?” Billy asked. “I mean, he has evaded us for this long…”

  “We just follow the trail of clues.” Gabriella gave them a Cheshire-like grin, thrilled that their clues were finally leading somewhere concrete.

  Chapter 8

  A Ghostly Compromise

  Rachel shifted nervously in her seat as she waited. It had been over an hour and the ‘ghost’ had yet to make an appearance.

  The lights had been dimmed, creating a safer atmosphere for a stowaway corpse to approach and be received back into society. Rachel was seated at a dinner table, heavily loaded with enticing treats and tantalizing desserts to lure the ravenous Mr. Newland to the spread.

  Billy had successfully cornered off this section of the ship so it wouldn’t be overrun by inquisitive tourists hoping to glimpse the elusive poltergeist.

  “Anything yet?” Billy whispered into Gabriella’s ear.

  She shook her head, watching as Rachel stood and walked over to the giant potted plant they were hiding behind.

  “He could be anywhere on this ship,” Rachel groaned. “We need a stronger lure or something to catch his attention.” She thought for a second before her eyes sparked with an idea. “Play ‘I Can’t Help Falling in Love’ by Elvis over your sound system. It was the song that he and Grandma Lilah danced to at their wedding.”

  Gabriella gave the nod to the maître d’, who immediately set about his task. Shortly thereafter, Elvis sang gently over the speakers throughout the restaurant.

  Gabriella sidled over to Nancy, who stood behind another potted plant, swaying to the gentle old love song.

  “My husband loved this song,” Nancy admitted with a sad smile. “It played at our wedding too, though he hardly danced with me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Gabriella said sincerely. “He’s an idiot for leaving you.”

  Nancy snorted. “You know, it amazes me that a man like Peter comes back from the dead and can’t even remember his own name, yet he walks the deck at night crying out for his lost love. Do you think it’s possible for two humans to find each other and love for so long and hard that it transcends death?”

  Gabriella shrugged as she mulled over her friend’s words. “I’m not sure. It’s the love I like to think the captain and I have and desperately need to hold on to if our marriage will weather the storms that keep coming our way.”

  “I think you and the captain will be just fine.”

  “He said he would schedule some off-time so we could discuss things,” Gabriella informed. She had almost forgotten his promise to herself, with everything that had happened that day. “It’s nice that he also takes note of what’s wrong between us and works to fix it. It never feels like a one-sided marriage with one person doing all the work.”

  “My marriage was almost always one-sided. Anyway,” Nancy sighed, “I’m tired of dwelling on the past. It’s time to move on. And I have to admit, I’ve noticed a certain someone looking my way.” A blush spread across her porcelain cheeks.

  “And who might that be?” Gabriella demanded in a hushed whisper.

  “Billy Harlow.” Nancy giggled as she blurted out his name.

  The two women eyed Billy from a distance, who was oblivious to their scrutiny and giggles at his expense.

  “Well, what do you think?” Gabriella asked, grateful someone of the opposite sex was finally looking Billy’s way.

  “He’s a good-looking guy and I get his humor, it’s just…” Nancy paused. “He seems like the kind of guy who will chat up any lady who looks his way for more than a second. I don’t want to risk getting hurt again, especially over a guy who might move on to someone else within five minutes.”

  Gabriella nodded, admiring the reasonableness of her friend. “I hear you. Maybe just watch from a safe distance. If he’s really interested, he’ll prove it. Don’t play hard to get, but just guard that precious heart of yours for a while until you know his actual intentions.”

  “What do you think about Billy?”

  “He seems like a sincere person who wears his heart on his sleeve. But honestly, I don’t know him well enough yet. I like him though.” Gabriella chuckled. “He keeps things interesting.”

  “What are you two talking about?” Billy asked, mimicking their hushed whispers.

  Nancy jumped about a foot into the air and then giggled.

  “We were just discussing love,” Gabriella admitted with a naughty smile. “You know, Peter’s love for Lilah after all these decades is just beautiful…”

  “I agree,” Billy said. “And it looks like the song worked.”

  Gabriella whipped round and saw the old man, oddly dressed, as though he’d stolen random clothes from a range of exotic passengers. His eyes were wide and confused as he stumbled into the dining area until they locked on Rachel.

  “Rachel?” he asked in a frail, hoarse voice.

  “Hey, Grandad,” she said through tears.

  “I thought I would never see you again.” The old man began sobbing as he staggered into her arms.

  “I’m here. I followed your map and all your clues,” Rachel explained. “And then I heard you’d passed away, and everything was so crazy, I didn’t know what to believe! And now, you’re right here in my arms…”

  “I don’t know what happened,” Peter wailed. “I was dancing with your grandmother when everything went black and I fell to the floor. I felt my heart stop beating, and I lost consciousness.”

  “Come and sit down.” Rachel guided her grandfather to a comfortable chair. A waiter instantly descended on them, offering something to drink.

  “Water and a cup of tea for Grandfather, please,” Rachel ordered quickly before dismissing the intrusive waiter.

  “And then,” Peter continued, his hands shaking, “I woke up in darkness that’s blacker than night itself. I couldn’t breathe. It was so cold, and no one could hear me screaming for help. I was so afraid, Rachel! And so alone. I had to escape!”

  “And you did,” Rachel said, realizing he was describing the deep pit of the morgue he’d been sleeping in.

  “I couldn’t find my medicine anywhere,” he complained. “So I think it’s made me go crazy. I’ve wandered this floating island for hours, trying to find my way home. But I couldn’t!”

  “It’s okay now, Grandpa.” Rachel patted his hand. “I’m here and I will take excellent care of you. We’re on the cruise ship that you booked for us, and they will help you get better.”

  They chatted for some time, and slowly Peter understood what was going on. After Rachel watched her grandfather down two gallons of water and consume half a chicken, she nodded to Nancy and Gabriella.

  “Hi, Peter,” Gab
riella said, seating herself next to him. “I’m so glad we found you. Do you remember me?”

  Peter stared at her blankly for a few seconds before blinking a few times, the recognition creeping into his old eyes. “The captain’s wife?”

  “That’s right.” Gabriella beamed a warm smile at him. “You paid a visit to my cabin asking for help, but I wasn’t there.”

  “Yes…” The old man nodded. “I seem to remember that. I left you a note.”

  “Got it,” Gabriella said. She looked up at Nancy and continued. “This is your doctor. She will take good care of you tonight. I’ll have a bunk set up in your hospital room so that Rachel can stay with you the whole night. You were terribly sick, Mr. Newland, and we need to monitor you tonight to make sure you’re okay.”

  Peter nodded mutely, though anxiety almost crushed his fragile and panicked features. “I-I need to find my medication, doctor,” he stammered.

  “What are those pills for, Peter?” Nancy asked gently.

  Peter paused for a few seconds. “The manager says they’re vitamins to help my condition. They’re especially ordered in for me.”

  “The manager?” Rachel asked in alarm. “But you don’t have any conditions. How long have you been taking them?”

  “About two months. I think I need to sleep now. My body is exhausted and everything is spinning.”

  Nancy nodded to a nurse on standby, who led Mr. Newland away to a waiting wheelchair.

  “Rachel,” Nancy addressed her, “with your permission, I would like to try finding out what’s in those meds your grandfather’s been taking. I can find a way the next time we anchor at a port.”

  “I would like to find out more about those pills too.” Rachel chewed intently on a nail. “I know it’s my grandfather, but he seems like he’s going through withdrawals or something.”

  “Well, he’s been through a terrible ordeal,” Nancy explained. “But I do suspect the pills he was taking were far stronger than vitamins.”

  “We’ll look into it,” Gabriella promised. “Now, enjoy your time with your grandfather. I think we all better appreciate just how precious time is.”