by Ava Dunne
One of the wide, metal gray doors to the garbage room was partially open. Slime Alley. What a disgusting place to meet a lover. What a convenient place to meet someone you hoped to kill.
I slid into the room. The mixture of decaying scents overwhelmed me. I coughed, trying not to gag. I saw the big blue bins on one side of the room, like the containers we used in Brooklyn, but on steroids. Each had stenciled on it the name of the cruise line, the Charisma, and if it held plastic, metal, glass, or paper. Beside the recycling bins were three black bins, all with lids, marked “compost.” Did they use compost on the terraces? Wouldn’t that stink? I knew the plants on Kristina’s terrace were real, but assumed the rest of the foliage on the ship was fake. That got me wondering if there were gardeners on the ship. Focus.
Could one bury a body in one of those beds on the penthouse terraces?
A row of floor-to-ceiling closets covered another side of the room, on the wall at right angles to the compost bins. These were deep, painted black, with “garbage” stenciled on the doors. All but one of the doors were latched. The stench coming out of that particular closet made me gag.
I crossed the room and pushed up against the door, intending to close and latch it. I hoped it would make it easier to breathe. The contents resisted, and pushed back against me. The door swung open, and a large black trash bag tumbled out at my feet. A hand flopped out of the bag.
I screamed.
“I see you found Gary.” Andrew stepped through the doorway. “Kiki gave you the message. Good girl.”
“Andrew!” I gasped. “She told me Viktor was going to meet me here.”
“That’s what I asked her to say. Kiki’ll do just about anything for me. She’s useful.” He grinned. “Not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but useful.”
“Did you give Viktor’s package to Kulap?”
“Yeah, I told Viktor I was going in that direction.” Andrew smirked. “He doesn’t like to run his own errands. Even when it means getting some tail.” He shook his head. “Viktor doesn’t have good taste. You’d look like a whore in those pieces. I got you garments that are elegant.”
It was Andrew Kulap witnessed arguing with Geri the day she was killed. Not Viktor. The man who handed Kulap the package for me was Andrew. It was probably Andrew I heard Geri arguing with the day she died. The meant Andrew. . . no.
“Oh, my god. The body.” What he said finally got through to me. “It’s Gary? You knew he was here?”
“Of course I knew,” said Andrew. “I put him here.”
“Did he die of alcohol poisoning?” I asked. I’d made enough assumptions. I shouldn’t assume Andrew was guilty. “Shouldn’t he be in the freezer?”
“Why should he share freezer space with Wendy? And Geri?” Andrew asked. “He’s not coming back to port with us anyway. I’ll get rid of him before ECO Wen finds him.” Bohai Wen was the ship’s Environmental Compliance Officer. Andrew saw the expression on my face. “Don’t worry. They’re not being stored next to the food. Wen quarantined a special freezer.”
I swallowed the rising bile. “People are looking for Gary.”
“People will accept the fact that he murdered Geri and then threw himself overboard in remorse.”
I swallowed again and stared at him. Time to face reality. “But that’s not what happened, is it? How’d you do it?” His eyes were bland and dead. How could I have imagined I found warmth in them before?
“He was drunk,” Andrew shrugged. “Too drunk to put up a fight. It’s Sebastian’s fault.”
“Sebastian thought Gary was safe and sleeping it off.”
“Sebastian went off to be your knight in shining armor. Oooh, a launch sprung a leak. Sophie went into the ocean. Again. Sebastian had to come galloping to your rescue. He thinks he’s a stallion.“ Andrew shrugged. “Once Gary passed out, I smothered him with his pillow. It’s not like there will ever be an autopsy. They won’t find him, once I toss him over the rail.”
“Did you sabotage the launch?”
“Yes, in all the commotion about getting Gary-the-drunkard back on the ship. I figured it would be a good distraction while I took care of Gary. I didn’t know you’d be on that one. Not your lucky day, was it?”
My stomach lurched. “Did you hurt Roz?”
“She had a rendezvous on Nassau, with an ex. Some hoity-toity Scandinavian yacht captain. What would he want with someone like her? He could seduce an heiress. It was easy to drop a little powder into the drink as the waitress passed. It was supposed to knock her out before she got back to the ship, make her miss departure and get fired, but she’s strong as an ox. I was going to finish it on the ship that night, but you interfered. I slipped a little more into the drink she had in CB, hit her in the dark, near the crew pool. She never knew what happened. If she’d come down to the infirmary, it would have been easy. Head injuries are so unpredictable.”
Thank goodness Roz hadn’t let me talk her into taking her to the infirmary, I thought. She’d be dead. It would be my fault.
“First, I thought you were going to take care of her yourself, but you didn’t.” Andrew stared at me. “That was a disappointment.”
“Why would you hurt Roz?”
“She annoys me.” Andrew stared at me and took another step closer. “I want in.”
“You want what?”
“I realized I had to prove myself to you, but I have. I was good enough to be Geri’s partner. I’m good enough to be yours.”
“My partner in what?”
“You’re much smarter than Geri, and you pull off the innocent act really well.” Andrew stared at me with admiration. “You actually got people to believe you. I nearly believed you, when you tested me by telling me Geri was a blackmailer and I pretended I had no idea.”
“You’re a good actor.”
“That I am.” Andrew chuckled. “But not as good as you. You’ve got the Chief all tied up in knots about you, so he can’t see straight. That’ll work for us. You even have an NYPD detective eating out of your hand. Smart move. Is he as good in bed as Veronika says?”
“I didn’t sleep with him.”
“I should hope there wasn’t much sleeping involved.” Andrew snickered. “What better way to divert his attention than keep his nights busy? It’s not like it was a secret, from anyone. I made sure word got around. That way, even if he made a move against you for Geri’s murder, he’d have no credibility. You were just his type, too. Geri couldn’t have pulled it off. Geri was too aggressive. Two-faced. She had to go.”
“You told people I was sleeping with Duncan?”
“I know what you’re doing, though,” he continued, like I hadn’t spoken. He gave me the creeps. “You’re upping the stakes, and you’re right. Why settle for the people who are barely earning a living when you can go for the real money? Regular payments from the staff are just that, regular. But the real scores come from the passengers. Guests.” He grimaced at the term we were ordered to use. “They have more to lose. How much is Kristina paying you to keep you from going to the press about her miscarriage?”
“What the hell are you talking about?” My temper flared.
“Was the brooch just a down payment? You can’t wear it on the ship. Too many people saw it.”
“I’m not wearing it because she has it back.”
“Luke’s a good candidate. You think of that yet? “ Andrew wasn’t listening, and now I started getting scared. “That’s why you need me. I can finger them. With Luke’s PTSD, a slight change in meds, setting off one of his triggers, it’ll tip him right over the edge. I’m sure he did plenty over there in the Middle East he doesn’t want his adorable little high school sweetheart wife to find out about.”
“He fought in a war.”
“Civilian casualties cause outrage. I’m sure he had some. If not Luke, not this cruise, someone else.” Andrew waved a hand, changing the subject.
“That’s despicable.”
“It’s good business. You must have been
furious when Geri wanted out. But I took care of everything for you. Smoothed the way so you could step in and take over. I looked for Geri’s cash stash after she died. I couldn’t find it, so you must have. Now, I want my cut.”
“Duncan — Detective Cooke found it.”
“Did he at least split it with you?” Andrew’s eyes lit up. “Is he corrupt? Imagine what we can accomplish with a cop in our pocket. You’ll have to keep sleeping with him, but I can’t imagine that’s much of a hardship, is it?”
“Duncan’s not corrupt.” My temples throbbed, and my stomach churned. The scent of death and rotting vegetable peelings didn’t help. I wished I was psychic, so I could send out a telepathic call for help. Sebastian, Duncan, Dhruv. I didn’t care who showed up, as long as someone did. But I knew, deep down, I could only rely on myself to get out of this alive. No one was coming to rescue me. I’d have to rescue myself.
“That’s a shame.” Andrew calculated. “The Chief’s a straight-arrow stick in the mud, but I’m sure you can keep him busy. You have a thing for law enforcement? Is it the uniform? Is that why Viktor was so attractive to you and to Geri? All that free-spirit Namaste crap, but you really like the idea of someone in uniform, someone in control? Who thinks he’s in control and then you flip ‘em? I like, it, I like it.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You don’t have to pretend with me anymore. Sure, I started as one of her victims. That girl was a whiz on Internet research. She found out about those patients who died when I worked in nursing homes. She knew I did them a favor, did their families a favor. I was merciful to them, and saved their families tens of thousands of dollars. I mean, with these healthcare reversal bills in Congress all the time, who can afford elderly relatives anymore? But the medical board wouldn’t see it that way, so I had to make sure no one found out.”
My stomach did another flip-flop of protest as I realized Andrew just confessed to murdering elderly patients in a previous job. The situation Harmonia and I discussed, the crime not happening on the ship — that was true. I’d suspected the wrong person. Now I was with the right person, and how was I going to escape?
“I showed Geri I was worth the partnership, and she took me off the list,” Andrew continued. “I work in the medical facility. Everyone confides in his doctor or nurse. I could get stuff on people that no one else could.”
“Like Kristina’s miscarriage. That’s why you told me.”
“I figured you could use it.”
“Did you tell Geri about Wendy’s pregnancy?” Keep him talking, use the time to think. To plan. Didn’t they have a pitchfork to turn compost? Something, anything that I could use as a weapon?
“Sure.” Andrew grinned, proud of himself. “Geri might have gotten it out of Wendy eventually, but Wendy already stopped trusting her. I’m the one who encouraged Geri to keep pretending to be her friend. Who do you think gave Geri the contacts so she could help Wendy get rid of it?” Andrew’s face darkened. “But Geri wanted out. She actually bought into that white picket fence life Gary promised her. Said Gary was a genuinely good guy, something she never had in her life before, and together, they could make a fresh start. Where would they go? Iowa or something?”
“Nothing wrong with Iowa, but that would be so unfair to you, after all you’d done for her.” I tried to sound sympathetic. If he kept talking, maybe I could figure a way out of this mess.
“Geri saw Gary as a way to re-invent herself, become the person she thought she wanted to be. She wouldn’t have lasted more than a month. It wasn’t in her nature to be good.” Andrew snickered. “She and Gary planned to elope, when the ship docked in New York tomorrow.”
“So you killed her.”
“If I hadn’t, she would have started to blackmail us.” Andrew made a derisive sound. “People like Geri don’t change. They don’t suddenly turn good. She would have changed her focus, that’s all. Focused on us.”
I swallowed a repeat of the protest that I never met her before setting foot on the Charisma.
Andrew smirked. “I knew, once I overheard Gary running off at the mouth to you, his ticket was punched. I wanted to drop him over the side that very first night, but Sebastian kept getting in the way.” Andrew’s mouth twisted. “Sebastian gets in the way a lot. You’re going to have to do something about that, you know.”
My mouth was dry. “What do you mean?”
“I’ll provide the means. You set up the opportunity. He’s nuts about you, anyone can see that. Making a lot of the girls on board jealous. Sebastian Anger’s a hot commodity.”
“You want to kill Sebastian?” I stared at him in horror.
“He’s in our way, babe,” Andrew said in a soft voice, taking another step closer. I backed up, knocking into one of the recycling bins. He put his hands on my shoulders. “We’re not going to let anyone get in our way, are we? We’re going to be very happy together.”
“Says the man who tried to strangle me on the Sun Deck and tried to drown me on Diamond Island.”
“I never tried to strangle you. I have no idea what you’re talking about. Yes, I gave you a little scare in the water off Diamond Island. To make sure you didn’t feel immortal. Untouchable. That’s why I hired that guy in Nassau. He was supposed to push you into the harbor. I was going to rescue you. Be your hero. Not Sebastian. Me. But the hire was a doofus, and couldn’t even do that simple job.” He caressed my cheek. I worked hard not to flinch. “You’re not untouchable, are you? We’ll get to touch each other a lot as partners.”
The thought of having sex with him made me want to vomit. I couldn’t let him know that, though; not if I wanted to get out of this alive. Not if I wanted to get justice for Wendy. For Gary. For Geri. For every patient Andrew had killed, when he didn’t have the right to play God. Damn him. I would find a way to damn him.
Don’t upset him. Make him think you’re playing along.
“You started the rumors about me?”
“I wanted you to turn to me. As you did last night. We could have taken it further, really cemented our partnership if it hadn’t been for that awful Roz.” He grimaced, and I sent up a prayer of thanks for Roz’s interference. “I dropped a few hints to Kiki and Nicolette. Let them run with them. You’re friends with Roz, so Nicolette’s delighted to discredit you. I planted seeds with the talkative ones on the ship and watched them blossom. The ship’s a Petri dish for gossip.”
“Did the other Purser leave because of you?”
“Walter? He had a lot of secrets. Never embezzled from the ship, but he had a secret in every port. Could have paid for our children’s tuition. He cut and run. It’s okay. We can track him down. He’ll be worth tens of thousands of dollars in the long haul.”
Another wave of revulsion splashed over me at the thought of bearing Andrew’s children. I forced myself steady. “The two Supper Club dancers who quit?”
“Regular assignations with passengers,” said Andrew. “For money.”
“What about Wendy?”
“Wendy came to me begging for sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication weeks ago,” Andrew boasted. “Dr. Zhao was worried about her, wouldn’t give her any. He wanted her to get a full workup with her regular doctor on her next break. I slipped her what she wanted. Forged one of the other nurse’s signatures on it, so it looked like she was stealing drugs. Nurse got fired. Stupid bitch. She wanted to turn me in, but I knew she didn’t have the training she claimed on her resume. She lied once, to get the job; she had no credibility. I didn’t expect Wendy to completely melt down. She was going to talk to the FBI.”
“She did,” I said. “She told the agents everything.” I hoped I hadn’t just signed their death warrants.
“Between us, we can convince them that she lost her mind.” Andrew shrugged. “Once Wendy got hurt, it was easy to switch her pills to something stronger.”
“You made her overdose?”
“Everyone knew she’d been going through a rough time,” Andrew counter
ed. “It got to be too much for her. Sure, you’re a suspect now, but they’ll rule Wendy’s death as self-inflicted.”
“You really think you can pull off Gary’s murder and Wendy’s murder as suicides?”
“Cruise life is stressful,” Andrew said. “You know that. The fact that you were questioned about finding Wendy and about the theft of Kristina’s jewelry was icing on the cake. Gave me the chance to step in and comfort you. Publicly. No good if you break down behind closed doors. The crew pool was the perfect setting last night. When you’re exonerated, that’s what everyone will remember. We can be open with our relationship then, especially once Sebastian is out of the way. I got the chance to prove myself to you again. I’ve spent a lot of time this cruise doing that.” He watched me. “Are we getting into jewel theft now?”
“No,” I snapped. “I didn’t take Kristina’s jewelry.”
“How’d you get it back to her?” Andrew asked.
“Since I didn’t take it in the first place, I didn’t put it back.”
“You’re amazing.” Andrew shook his head. “You play it close to the vest. I could fall in love with you. Really, really fall in love with you.”
The thought of that made me want to throw up. Play along with him. “We have to sit down and plan. Carefully.”
Andrew smiled. “I knew you’d see it my way.”
Time to test the new tactic. “I appreciate everything you’ve done for me, truly I do. But if we’re not cautious, it’s all going to be for nothing.”
“I bow to your superior deviousness.” Andrew mocked, bending at the waist.
“First thing we need to do is get out of here.” I tried to brush past him. “Who knows when someone from one of the restaurants will show up to throw out the trash? Or Wen, doing his spot-checks? We can’t be found with Gary.”
“Not quite so fast, lovey,” Andrew grabbed my arm and whirled me around. “Full partnership. We’re not going anywhere until you promise me full partnership. Sealed with a kiss. At first.”