“No, this wasn’t a nightmare. When I went out, there were two men arguing, and the one wouldn’t do what the other one wanted, and he threw him overboard. They had a big fight and one of them killed the other!”
“It was the medication. It’s affecting your dreams. Making you confused.”
“No. It really happened!”
He nodded. “It seems very realistic. You’ll feel better once you’ve been up for a while.”
“It really happened!”
“Do you want breakfast?” Terry looked at his watch. “It’s getting pretty late. We want to be ready when it’s time to go on the tour.”
Erin looked at the little clock on the bedside table. On a normal baking day, she would have been up for five hours already. She rubbed her eyes again, then massaged the back of her head. She was feeling groggy and like she might be getting a migraine.
Was is possible that she really had just dreamed the whole thing? It all seemed so real.
Was it something that her mind had just produced, the same as all of her other nightmares?
“Just… some fruit. I need a shower and something for my head, do you want to go get something and just bring me something back?”
Terry nodded. “Sure. Not a problem.” He sighed and patted his stomach. “On a chilly morning like this, I could really use some bacon and eggs!”
“You could try some of that fake bacon and scrambled tofu.” They had all laughed at the idea reading menus the day before. Terry wrinkled his nose. “No… I don’t think so. Vegan pancakes are one thing. Tofu bacon and eggs are quite another.”
“I hear they’re really good. You can hardly tell the difference.” Erin couldn’t help teasing him in spite of how rotten she was feeling. If she weren’t so queasy, she would have been up to trying some of the more adventurous vegan foods, but she didn’t think she was ready for tofu for breakfast.
“If you don’t watch out, that’s what I’ll bring you for breakfast,” Terry warned.
Erin smiled and ducked her head, deciding she’d gone far enough.
“Have your shower then,” Terry said, looking down at his watch again. “I’ll be back shortly. We don’t want to be late for the tour.”
He let go of her hand and left to get breakfast. With a sigh, Erin pushed herself up from the bed and trudged to the bathroom.
Vic was bundled up in a thickly padded coat. She smiled merrily at Erin. “It might make me look as fat as Santa Claus, but at least it’s warm!”
Erin nodded. “It looks like it. You’ll enjoy today’s tour a lot more.”
“And how about you?” Vic cocked her head, looking at Erin. “I thought you’d be feeling better than yesterday too, but you’re still looking pretty peaked.”
Erin glanced around. She didn’t want anyone overhearing their conversation. The crew members were not their tour guides in Juneau, so she didn’t need to worry that the killer might be their guide for the day, but she hadn’t seen him well enough to recognize him if he tagged along on the tour in plain clothes. And she couldn’t be sure who else might be in on whatever scheme was going on aboard the ship. The other tourists should all be trustworthy, but she just didn’t know enough about what was going on to be sure.
“Something happened last night,” she told Vic in a low voice. “I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Something happened? Something like what? Between you and Terry?”
“No. It’s not safe, I’ll tell you later.”
Vic raised her eyebrows, interested. “You’ll tell me all about it?”
“Yeah. Later. When we’re alone.”
“But you’re okay, right?”
Erin swallowed. She was more scared than she’d ever been in her life, and she’d been through some pretty stressful situations. She shrugged. “Yeah. I guess.”
Terry and Willie came walking down the gangplank. Their heads were down, giving the impression that they were discussing something serious. Willie was walking slowly, somewhat hampered by his cast. K9 trotted along at Terry’s side. Vic looked at Erin, her brows furrowed.
“You’re sure you can’t tell me now?”
“No. Not now.”
Chapter Twelve
E
rin’s energy was flagging by noon. She didn’t know if she was up to going anywhere else. They went their different directions for bathroom breaks. Vic noticed Erin’s expression and gave her a hug around the shoulders. “You want to bow out this afternoon? Go back to the ship and you and I can hang out and talk?”
Erin was hesitant, but nodded. “Do you think the guys will mind? I know Willie is pretty interested in the fish hatchery.”
“So they can go. We can split up. I’m sure we won’t be the only ones who don’t go to the hatchery. We can go back to the ship as a group.”
One of the other tourists, a twenty-something with brilliant purple hair and a piercing in her nose, turned toward them.
“A lot of the group will be going back and skipping the hatchery,” she advised. “Seeing farmed fish can be very upsetting. I don’t know why they even included it on a vegan tour. Seems like they should have figured out that any kind of animal husbandry should be off the table.” She gave a short bark of laughter at her unintentional pun. “So don’t worry that you’re going to be the only ones.”
Erin smiled at the girl. “Thanks. I appreciate that.”
“Great,” Vic said briskly. “It’s decided, then. We’ll skip the rest of the tour today.”
They rejoined Terry and Willie in the main gathering area and Vic told them she and Erin were going to return to the ship with some of the others.
“I’ll go with you, then,” Terry said immediately.
“No, you don’t need to,” Erin protested. “You and Willie wanted to see the hatchery, so go. Vic will keep me company. We haven’t had any time with just the two of us. We have lots of gossip to exchange.”
Terry rolled his eyes. “I should have known.” He looked at Vic. “You’ll stay with her?” It was more of an order than a question. Vic raised her brows.
“Yeah, I’ll stay with her.”
“I just want to make sure… she’s still not feeling very well, and I don’t want her… left on her own.”
Vic patted Erin on the arm. “She’ll be just fine with me, officer.”
Terry looked like he would say something more. Erin knew he was concerned about her having nightmares.
“I’m not going to sleep. I just can’t do any more walking. We’ll catch some sun on one of the decks.”
Terry glanced up at the sky, where the sun was trying to break through a cloud. “I don’t think you’re going to get very much sun out here. Besides, you’d have to take off your coats and Vic would turn into an icicle.”
“We’ll find something else to do, then.”
Vic gave Terry a little shove. “Go on. I’ll take care of her.”
“What do you want to do?” Vic asked. “Go see a movie? Hit the gym? Maybe a game of checkers?”
“Let’s just go to my room,” Erin told her. “We need to be alone so that we can talk.”
“Okay,” Vic shrugged. “Whatever you want.”
Her eyes were curious, but she didn’t demand to know what it was Erin couldn’t tell her yet. She waited, knowing that Erin would spill once they were alone.
It still took Erin a few minutes to find her room, but she was getting faster at it, and it was easier when she was not all turned around and freaked out by seeing a murder right in front of her eyes. Vic sat down on the couch and turned to her expectantly.
“So, what’s going on?”
“Last night I went out for some fresh air, because I couldn’t sleep.”
Vic nodded.
“And I saw… I saw a murder.”
Vic blinked. She smiled as if waiting for the punchline. Then the smile disappeared. “What do you mean, you saw a murder? Here on the ship? What happened?”
“Two guys were having a fight. An argumen
t. And then a physical fight. And one of them knocked the other one out… and then threw him over the rail.”
“Over what rail?”
Erin motioned to the outside of the deck. “Over the rail. Into the ocean.”
“He threw him into the water?”
“Yes!”
“Threw him overboard?”
“Yes. He threw him overboard.”
Vic was aghast. “What did you do?”
Erin did her best to describe the minutes after witnessing the murder, when she had hidden, run away, and cowered on the secret deck, sure that he was going to catch her and throw her over the rail as well. Vic shook her head, her face pale and eyes wide.
“Land sakes! You must have been dying! I can’t believe it. So, then what? What did they say when you told them what had happened?”
Erin looked down at her nails. “I didn’t tell anyone anything. I just… I couldn’t handle it. I was so freaked out. Terry just took me to bed, and I took a sleeping pill and went back to sleep.”
Vic frowned at this. “You took a sleeping pill?”
“Yes.”
“And you just went back to sleep without telling anyone about this.”
Erin sighed. “I know it doesn’t make any sense when you say it out loud like that, but I was scared. I didn’t know who might be involved. With my luck, I’d go right to the crewman who had done it to report what I saw. I couldn’t. And I just wanted to forget and erase it and not have to think about it anymore.”
“And what about this morning?” Vic grabbed Erin’s hand and gave it a squeeze. “You told Terry about it?”
“You couldn’t tell by the way he was treating me? Yeah. I told him about it.”
“What’s he going to do?”
“He doesn’t believe me. He thinks it was just a dream. I just imagined it.”
“Could you have just dreamed it? You’ve been sick. Sometimes we dream pretty weird stuff when we’re sick. And Terry said… You’ve been having a lot of nightmares at home. He’s been worried about you.”
“I know he has. He keeps saying I should get therapy. I don’t want therapy. Been there, done that. I don’t want to tell anyone all of my troubles and I don’t want to meditate or take pills or any of the other things they’re going to suggest. I’ll just deal with it by myself.”
“Okay. As long as… you don’t think that’s what caused this. Maybe suppressing these dreams and these feelings is upsetting you so much that your unconscious mind is…”
“Throwing up murders in front of my face? You think that if I don’t go get counseling, I’m going to keep seeing people murdered?”
“I don’t know about that… but you might dream it. They say that your repressed thoughts and feelings come out in your dream. I know that’s been true for me. When I’m trying to… be something I’m not or live by someone else’s rules… I can tell from my dreams. Things get really disturbing. The feelings have to get out somehow.”
“I didn’t just dream this.”
“I didn’t say you did. We’re just talking about Terry’s theory. If it was a dream, then maybe you should consider therapy. Or if you think that the dreams are getting to be too much, then maybe you should think about it.”
“I’m not getting therapy. And I didn’t dream that someone committed murder last night. Somebody did commit murder last night.”
“Then you should go to the captain and tell him what happened. They’ll have to investigate. They’ll have to… I don’t know, dredge for the body. Call in the police. Figure out who it is that is missing.”
“Yeah.” Erin nodded. “That’s what I should do. I’m just really afraid that…”
“That he won’t believe you? Or that he’ll be the guy?”
“I don’t think it could be the captain. I’ve seen the captain, when we first got on the ship, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t him. It didn’t look like him. I know I only saw him from behind, but the captain is taller, and he stoops a little bit. I just don’t think… it didn’t look like him. But I’m more afraid that he won’t believe me. He’ll be like Terry and just think that it was a dream or that I’m being hysterical. I don’t want to be that woman. The one who causes everybody all kinds of trouble making things up. I just want… to do the right thing.”
“Telling the captain is the right thing. It wouldn’t be right to just pretend it didn’t happen. Somebody is going to miss the guy that got killed, sooner or later, and wonder what happened to him.”
“Yeah,” Erin admitted. She knew it was the right thing. She hadn’t been able to think of anything else.
But she didn’t want him to laugh at her or make fun or her, or just not believe that anything had happened. There had always been a body before. She’d never had to prove that there actually was a death before. Other than with Bella’s grandmother, and everyone had already believed that she was dead.
Chapter Thirteen
C
aptain Aro Jacobi was a tall, spare, serious-looking man. He looked very handsome in his suit and captain’s hat and had a full beard. He looked a little like a very neat and polite pirate. He looked at Vic and Erin and sat down behind his big desk.
“Ladies, I understand you want to talk to me about something…?”
Erin didn’t know how to start. She looked at Vic.
“Maybe I can anticipate,” Jacobi said. “I understand that there was a bit of a scene caused by one of my crew members, Mr. Saville, when you first boarded. I’m afraid that there are people on the crew who are not as… tolerant as they should be. There are still a lot of prejudices despite all of the training that we might do to eliminate it. I apologize for any hurt feelings or embarrassment that you may have suffered.”
Vic flushed a brilliant shade of red. “It isn’t that,” she said uncomfortably. “But… thank you. I do appreciate it.”
“I think that you will find that most of the staff is more tolerant. We have a lot of… minorities who take the tours, especially the vegan tour. A lot of the passengers will relate to you and your background. And the staff should, for the most part, feel completely comfortable in dealing with you and any requests or problems that you might have.”
“No, it’s not that. Really. It isn’t anything to do with me. It’s Erin,” Vic looked back over at Erin, trying to take the focus off herself. “I’m enjoying the tour, really. Things have been okay, other than when I first boarded.”
“Good, I’m glad to hear it.” He turned and looked at Erin. “And you, my dear? Have you been experiencing any prejudice from the staff?”
“Me? No. I’m… There’s no reason for them to… everything has been fine.”
He nodded. His eyes were clearly questioning, wondering why they had come up to bother him and take his precious time if there was not something seriously wrong. Erin supposed that there would always be women who just wanted to flirt with him or be invited to the captain’s table for supper or get some other sign of favor from him. She cleared her throat and looked down at her shoes.
“I was taking a walk last night. Late. Looking around the ship. I thought I might find the secret deck and spend some time there.”
Jacobi nodded encouragingly. “Yes, a ship like this can be quite the adventure. You wouldn’t be the only one who was intrigued by its secrets.”
“While I was looking for the deck, there were a couple of crewmen on the outside, the observation deck. And they were having a big argument.”
Jacobi continued to look at her, waiting for her to get to the point.
“They came to blows… and one of them… threw the other over the rail.”
His eyebrows climbed his forehead. Erin looked back down at her shoes, letting out her breath.
“I didn’t just dream it. I really did see it happen.”
“And who were these crewmen? Did you know them?”
“No. I didn’t recognize them. I only saw them from behind, so even if it was someone whose face I would recognize… I never saw
it.”
“They didn’t use names to address each other, even nicknames.”
“No.”
“Could you see any epaulets or rank insignia on their uniforms? Can you describe them in any way?”
“They were both about medium build… dark hair. It was dark outside, so I couldn’t make out much more than their shapes, not their actual hair color. One of them was slim, and the other was quite a bit wider.”
He considered this for a few moments. “There isn’t anything else that could help to identify them? How skinny? How fat?”
“Not… nothing unusual. Just average.”
“I see.” He nodded.
“I thought… you know, there must be someone missing from your crew. You can find out who it was, and then maybe you know who he was with. His family will need to know, and you’ll want to go back and look for a body…”
“No.” He shut her down, shaking his head.
Vic and Erin stared at him. “No what?”
“No, we will not be doing any of that. I’m not in the habit of wasting my time on wild goose chases. I’m sorry, I know you’re concerned about this, but chances are, you simply misunderstood what happened. They were pranking you, or you’d had a bit much to drink, or you just saw a couple of silhouettes and you didn’t really know what was going on. It’s fine. I don’t judge you. But I’m not going to waste my time on every spurious report that comes through this office. Now, if you don’t mind, I’ll get back to my work…”
Erin sat there, frozen. She’d never anticipated that he would listen politely and then write it off. She’d been prepared for some emotional reaction. For mockery, even. She was prepared to be harassed and pushed around. But she hadn’t expected to be brushed off.
“If that will be all, ladies…” Captain Aro Jacobi waited for them to vacate his office.
Vic stood up, looking at Erin. Erin got to her feet.
“You aren’t going to do anything?”
“No, I’m not.” He looked up at her from his papers. “You don’t have any sort of proof, do you?”
Vegan Baked Alaska (Auntie Clem's Bakery Book 9) Page 7