Slay Bells Ringing

by Emily James

  Their room looked at first glance like it’d been a robbery. Most thefts on a cruise ship were crimes of opportunity—someone left their jewelry lying around and the cleaning crew couldn’t withstand the temptation, or someone forgot their cell phone on the deck and it wasn’t there when they went back. Breaking into a room and tossing it didn’t fit with either of those.

  We should look and see if anything was missing. If something was, it could help us prove who did it. It’d also be good info to give to ship’s security for when they had enough evidence to question a suspect.

  They might even be able to search a room for it. I honestly didn’t know what the law was about searching a person of interest’s room on a cruise ship out at sea. Police weren’t allowed to search a rented hotel room without a warrant any more than they were allowed to search a private residence without a warrant. But that was in American territory and not on a cruise ship in international waters. Things might be different here.

  Either way, that was a moot point until we knew if anything was missing. If nothing was, then we’d know this had been personal and not about stealing something at all. If nothing was missing, then the mess was either due to a struggle or whoever took Garth wanted it to look like the room was robbed.

  I called the security office and told them we needed to get back into Carrie’s original cabin because she’d forgotten a few things. I put the handset back into the cradle and turned around.

  Carrie was staring at me. “You lied to them.”

  The way she said it made me think I might have put a crack in her image of me as a female Matlock. “They wouldn’t have let us back into your room otherwise.”

  “It’s not that.” She gave a cringe-shiver. “If I hadn’t known you were lying, I wouldn’t have been able to tell. My ex-boyfriend used to take advantage of that all the time. I was hoping I’d get better at knowing, but it looks like I’m not.”

  I wasn’t sure whether I felt sorry for her or envied her. That level of innocence could put her in danger of being used, but it would also be so freeing to not instinctively question everyone and their motives. My brain picked up too many small details and tells for me to ever have the kind of rest and confidence that Carrie would have.

  But if I had peace, I also wouldn’t have a career. It was a trade I was willing to make to feel like I was doing something good and worthwhile.

  Carrie walked beside me down the corridor. I had to take two strides for every one she took. It wasn’t just the length of her strides that struck me, either. She had a natural grace, like a ballerina.

  She slowed, making it easier for me to keep up. “What are we looking for?”

  “Anything that should be there and isn’t.”

  In some ways, looking for what was missing here was easier than if we’d needed to look for something out of place or missing in a home. Most people knew what they’d packed for a trip and could make a mental list. She might have a more difficult time knowing which of Garth’s possessions were missing, unfortunately. She wouldn’t have packed his bags.

  Carrie gave a sharp nod and put on what I imagined was her game face. Her expression had a strange scrunchiness to it, like she was concentrating hard.

  The same security officer who’d responded to our earlier call waited for us outside their original cabin door. He unlocked the door with a swipe of his key card. “I can’t let you go in alone. My boss is waiting for instructions from corporate on what to do with the room.”

  Carrie might not realize what that meant, but I did. They didn’t believe Garth Bodie was on the ship anymore. They might not think any foul play had happened, but they did know they had a missing passenger who’d either disembarked without being properly logged out at our last American stop or who’d gone overboard at some point along the way. Or was dead and stuffed into the bowels of the ship somewhere where no one would find him without knowing where to look.

  I wouldn’t be much help in knowing what was missing and what wasn’t, but I didn’t want the security officer to question why I was here if it wasn’t to help. “I’ll collect up those items we talked about from the bathroom,” I said.

  For a second Carrie looked confused. She really wasn’t good at play acting. Then she nodded. “Thank you.” Her words squeaked out.

  The security officer must have thought she was simply upset. He solicitously held the door open. “You first, ma’am.”

  Carrie headed for the main part of the cabin, and I ducked into the bathroom. There were two sets of toiletries resting on the edge of the tub. Carrie must have actually forgotten to grab her shampoo and conditioner when she packed up her belongings earlier. I scooped up the ones that looked like they were feminine.

  I turned in a circle and pulled open the drawers, but there was nothing more in the bathroom. Carrie really must have been struggling to think clearly if she took Garth’s toothbrush and deodorant and forgot her own shampoo.

  “Our passports,” Carrie said from the other room, her voice unnaturally loud as if she wanted me to hear. “That’s one of the things I forgot. And Garth’s wallet. I wouldn’t have been able to sleep if I left them here.”

  That last part had to be for the benefit of the security officer.

  I exited the bathroom, her shampoo and conditioner in my hands. “I got the rest.”

  “That’s everything then,” Carrie said.

  The security officer practically tripped over his own feet trying to get to the door to open it for her. I didn’t blame him. I thought Carrie was more beautiful without all the heavy makeup she usually wore, too.

  “Do you need me to see you back to your room?” he asked.

  Carrie opened her mouth, closed it, then looked at me.

  “I’m going with her, but thank you.”

  He gave her one more smile, tugged on the door of the room, and left.

  I waited until he was out of earshot. “Was anything missing?”

  She held open Garth’s wallet. At least two hundred dollars nestled inside. “Nothing. Not even his cash.”

  They left Carrie and Garth’s passports behind, too. They weren’t looking to steal and sell identities.

  That meant this was most likely personal. Whoever broke into their room did so to get at Garth. The room was either disrupted in the ensuing struggle or the perpetrator did it to make it look like a robbery.

  There hadn’t been any blood, though. Garth had probably been alive when he left the room. I suspected they threatened that they’d hurt Carrie unless he came quietly. There weren’t many other reasons a man would go with someone who likely wanted to hurt them. Threatening a loved one had been how my Uncle Stan’s murderer convinced him to do things he hadn’t wanted to do.

  Unfortunately, just because he left alive didn’t mean he was still alive. They might have taken him for a ransom, or they might have simply wanted to kill him someplace more private, where it would be easier to dispose of his body without being spotted.

  Carrie watched me as if she were trying—and failing—to figure out what I was thinking. “What do we do next? If this wasn’t robbery?”

  The way she said it made me think she suspected that it wasn’t robbery, but she still needed my reassurance.

  “It doesn’t look like robbery. So now we need to figure out who might have wanted to hurt Garth.”

  Chapter 5

  “There are hundreds of people on this ship,” I said. “We have to try to narrow it down. Was there anyone on board who knew Garth?”

  Carrie fiddled with one of her dangly earrings. “I’m not sure. I haven’t known him long enough to know all the people he might know. He didn’t say he saw anyone he knew, though, if that helps.”

  Not really.

  Their short romance could make this case close to impossible. Then again, I’d once defended a man whose whole defense was that he’d hallucinated a grizzly bear. I felt like making the joke that my middle name was Impossible Cases, but the thought of adding that mouthful to my already
ungainly name made me want to cringe.

  Besides, no one, not even Matlock—heck, not even my parents—succeeded in all their cases. I didn’t want to give Carrie false hope. This time, I might fail.

  But I’d do my best to make sure that didn’t happen.

  “What about anyone who acted strangely around him? Or did he have an argument with anyone?”

  Carrie shook her head, then stopped and tugged on her earring. Her earlobe extended far enough that it looked like she was going to rip through it. “Garth told me about one guy he thought was going to hit him. The guy didn’t, though.”

  She said it like the fact that he didn’t hit Garth and only wanted to made him not a viable suspect. “You weren’t there?”

  She let go of her ear. “Garth didn’t want me going to his poker games.” She smiled in a way that filled her whole face. “He said it was no place for a lady. No one ever called me a lady before.”

  Part of me wondered where Carrie and Garth had met. I reined my curiosity in. Unless it was pertinent to the case, it was none of my business, and I’d been accused of being too curious for my own good. Carrie would tell me eventually if she wanted to. If I had to guess, however, I might guess someplace with exotic dancers.

  Since she hadn’t seen the argument, she wouldn’t be able to describe the man, but that shouldn’t matter. “The ship’s casino probably has cameras. Most casinos do, to stop cheating. We’ll be able to ask security to check their recordings.”

  Carrie was shaking her head hard enough it set her earrings bobbing before I even finished. “It wasn’t a public game. Garth didn’t like the limits and rules the ship set.”

  Well, that definitely gave us a place to start—and added a problem. “If the game wasn’t legal, we’ll have a hard time finding out who was there. And then getting anyone to admit to being there and seeing anything even if we do.”

  Carrie mushed up her lips. “The game was legal. Garth told me. They waited until we were in international waters, he said. He had to be right, because it was a staff member who told him about the game.”

  I didn’t know whether to massage the band of tension that bloomed above my eyebrows or be excited by the lead. The game might be legal in international waters, but staff probably had it in their contract that they couldn’t engage in outside gambling.

  “Did Garth tell you the man’s name?”

  “Nope. But I know who he is. He works in the fitness center. I took a class with him yesterday.”

  If he worked in the fitness center, he might have also known that Carrie routinely worked out at the same time every day. It was too soon to say, but I felt like stealing a phrase from one of my favorite TV detectives—Monk. He might be the guy.

  * * *

  I turned Carrie around and headed us in the direction I thought would bring us to the security office. Carrie had to redirect us once. I counted that as improvement.

  The man sitting behind the desk in the security office glanced up as we entered. His gaze landed on the bottles of shampoo and conditioner in my hands. Maybe we should have dropped them by Carrie’s cabin prior to coming, but the longer we waited, the lesser our chances that Garth might still be alive. And the lesser our chances that we’d catch his killer if he wasn’t.

  I shifted the bottles to put them behind my back, but that made my chest stick out, like I wanted him to look at it. Which he then did.

  Heat rose up my neck, scorching my skin enough to set my t-shirt on fire. I brought the bottles back to the front and tucked them into the nook of one arm. “We need to speak to whoever is in charge of the search for Garth Bodie.”

  He gave me a look that would have been a sigh if it were audible. “That’s me.”

  “I’m his wife,” Carrie blurted.

  At least she picked up on the fact that the man was going to have a hard time taking us seriously. It might have been better to take the extra few minutes so we didn’t show up with arms full of toiletries.

  I moved forward one step. “Carrie remembered someone who had a disagreement with Garth. We thought it was possible he might have had something to do with Garth’s disappearance.”

  The man did sigh this time. It reminded me a bit of Chief McTavish every time I brought some crazy idea into his office. “I know you’re worried about him, but life isn’t like TV shows.” He smiled, but his lips looked made from plastic. “I promise you that this is probably all a misunderstanding. Even if it isn’t, I guarantee that nothing criminal happened here.”

  I squinted at his name tag. Hart. The rest of the staff on the cruise ship had first names on their name tags. It figured the security officers wouldn’t. It automatically gave them more authority. When you only knew a person’s last name, you tended to add Ms. or Mr. in front. It was a psychological trick. A smart one. Carrie already looked like she was ready to give up and back away.

  I handed her the shampoo and conditioner and pulled out my phone. Hopefully he’d think I planned to use it to take notes.

  I knew how my mom would handle this situation. Given what a delay could mean, I was going to have to borrow her tactics. They worked, even if they weren’t always the way I wanted to deal with people.

  I put on a smile that I hoped was a good imitation of my mom’s—her smile had just enough warmth to bring down people’s defenses and enough cold steel to say Don’t mess with me. I held out a hand. “I forgot to introduce myself. Nicole Fitzhenry-Dawes of Taylor Fitzhenry-Dawes, LLC. I’m the Bodies’ attorney.”

  “Their attorney.” His tone said What kind of people bring their attorney with them on vacation? like he suddenly thought the whole thing might be a set-up.

  “And friend,” I added. “Right now, we don’t know for sure what the situation is with Mr. Bodie. Mrs. Bodie”—I swept my hand toward Carrie, who looked a bit like a spooked deer—“and I think it would be best to treat this as a worst-case scenario rather than not taking it seriously enough and opening the cruise line up to a lawsuit down the road.”

  Lawsuits weren’t the kind of law I practiced, but Hart didn’t need to know that.

  The look he gave me was that mingling of fear, anger, and frustration that people got when you pressed their hand. It made me feel like one of those slime ball ambulance-chasing lawyers on TV.

  Please let him give in, I prayed.

  I didn’t want to have to push things further and suggest I could escalate this to whoever was above him. I wasn’t against doing that if I had to. A life was at stake. I just didn’t want to make this man feel smaller than I already had. My mom might have had no problem doing so, but it wasn’t the way I would want to be treated, so I didn’t want to treat anyone else that way, either.

  He got up from his desk. “You have to understand that I’ve never investigated a missing person’s case before. What next step do you and Mrs. Bodie feel would be appropriate?”

  Bingo. My mom would be so proud. The man clearly valued his job over his pride, which made sense. Unfortunately, many people in the service industries had to. They weren’t always treated well by patrons.

  I also got the impression that he didn’t think this was anything serious, but he was willing to humor us rather than have us stir up trouble with the main office.

  If humoring us meant he let me take point on this, then I’d go with it. He could think he was humoring me all he wanted. I opened my mouth to tell him we wanted him to question a person of interest as to his whereabouts during the window of opportunity.

  I stopped before the first word came out. If I phrased it that way, he really would think I’d been watching too much TV, and then he’d ignore me, lawyer or not. “Mr. Bodie had a confrontation with a staff member during an unsanctioned poker game. We think there could have been continuing animosity that got out of hand.”

  That sounded professional and not TV-ish.

  For a second, an oh crap look flashed across his face. He might have liked it better if we’d named a passenger. If we were wrong, he’d have to face
a hostile staff member every trip in perpetuity. Assuming this didn’t get the man fired.

  Hart straightened up and pulled his shoulders back. “And what is this man’s name?”

  “It’s either Nat or Nick.” Carrie hugged the shampoo and conditioner to her body. “I don’t remember exactly, but he works in the fitness center.”

  “It’s Nat,” Hart said.

  His voice was deadpan. I couldn’t read anything from it. Which left me unsure as to whether to be impressed that he knew every staff member by name or to read into it that this particular man had caused him trouble in the past.

  “I’ll deal with the poker game separately.” He picked up the receiver of the phone on his desk. “Let me give him a call about where he was this morning. We might be able to resolve this quickly.”

  That was smart, actually. It wouldn’t tip our hand. Assuming Nat had been involved, if he showed up here and saw Carrie, he’d be instantly on his guard. To avoid that, we would have needed to leave. I’d rather stay and be able to hear what was going on. Hart hadn’t dealt with criminals and criminal cases before. I had.

  You put yourself in a position of authority, my mom’s advice played in my head as if she were standing next to me. Now make him feel like your equal again so that you’ll have an ally.

  I held up my pointer finger in a one-second gesture. “Could you put him on speaker, please?” I leaned forward as if I was about to share a secret and inclined my head toward Carrie. “That way we can set Mrs. Bodie’s mind at ease.”

  I was hoping he’d hear I want to resolve this quickly, too.

  His hand hovered over the buttons for a full two breaths. By the third, I held mine.

  Finally, he set the receiver on his desk. “Of course.”