Baked Alaska

by Josi S. Kilpack

  Twenty minutes later, Sadie had written down as many details as she could about her encounters with Lorraina, her conversations with Maggie, Shawn’s version of the story, and Breanna’s experiences from tonight. She developed a preliminary timeline dating back to October of the prior year when Shawn first got in touch with Lorraina and ending with Lorraina being transported to Anchorage. Had Shawn gone through the same website as Maggie had to find Lorraina?

  Sadie wrote down that question, then filled the rest of the page with additional questions she hoped they could find answers for tomorrow. When she finished, she felt completely overwhelmed. There were so many details to discover.

  It was after midnight; day four of the cruise had begun and the heaviness she’d felt when she first saw Shawn talking to Lorraina had only gotten worse. She let out a sigh, put down the pen and paper, and rubbed her eyes.

  She wasn’t sure she’d be able to sleep without a sleeping pill, but remembering how mixed up this morning had been when she’d overslept helped her commit to a lousy night’s sleep if it meant not sleeping through tomorrow morning. She went through her nightly routine of removing her makeup, brushing her teeth, and slathering herself with creams that promised younger-looking skin in less than a week. Never mind that she’d been using them for years and was still aging, albeit gracefully. Just before she got under the covers and turned out the light, she said a prayer for her son. And Maggie too.

  Chapter 19

  Sadie slept for a few hours, but started checking the time on her phone around five o’clock, waiting for a more reasonable time to wake up. She was on vacation, after all. Or at least, she was supposed to be. She tried to fall asleep again but finally, a little after six thirty, she got up and took her clothes into the tiny bathroom. She got dressed by the light of her phone, careful not to bang her elbows on the walls and wake Breanna up.

  She used her lipstick to write a note on the mirror telling Breanna she was going to walk around the track that circled deck five and would meet her at the Tiara Room at nine for the pre-breakfast discussion, as planned. She grabbed her jacket and her ship-card and let herself into the hallway.

  Worried about getting crossed wires within the group, she borrowed some paper from the customer service desk and wrote notes to both Pete and Shawn about where she was, then slid them under their doors. She hoped that would make it easier for everyone to meet up. She liked everyone being on the same page. She should have brought her walkie-talkies from home.

  It was cold on the track, colder than she’d expected it to be, and she zipped her jacket up all the way and walked faster in order to stay warm. It took two and a half laps before she wasn’t shivering anymore, and from that point on, it was a nice stretch of the legs. The ship was moving south toward Skagway, and the shoreline was still a thick forest as far as the eye could see in every direction. The water was an angry gray, but gentle as it lapped against the sides of the ship and carried them forward.

  She reviewed everything she’d learned last night, over and over again, until she felt as though she knew every detail backward and forward and round and round. She needed a good solid conversation with both Shawn and Maggie, and there was the pending discussion with the security office about the wine. Why wouldn’t they know about the gift tag? It was right there!

  She was on her tenth lap around the track—just starting her third mile—when she came up alongside Mary Anne, one of the women she’d met that first day along with the young mom, Jen. Sadie slowed her stride and fell into step with her new friend. After saying hello and some general small talk, Sadie asked about Mary Anne’s husband. She said he was resting up before the next qualifying round of the blackjack tournament at eleven o’clock. He’d played in the first qualifying round Monday, but hadn’t made the top score.

  “Pete played in one of those rounds, too. He didn’t make it, though.”

  “Glen’s very good. He’s won these things more times than I want to admit,” Mary Anne said, leaning closer to Sadie as though sharing a secret. “He once earned enough to pay for all our on-ship expenses.”

  “Nice,” Sadie said with a smile, grateful to be able to push away the difficulties she’d been pondering all morning.

  “So, what are your plans for Skagway?” Mary Anne asked.

  “We have a whale watching trip planned,” Sadie said, even though she wasn’t sure her group would go.

  “I guess they’ll remove the body from the ship once we pull into port,” Mary Anne said.

  “What?” Sadie asked, unable to hide her surprise. She automatically thought Mary Anne was talking about Lorraina, but “body” denoted someone had died, and Lorraina was in Anchorage, alive at the last update.

  Mary Anne shrugged. “I think it would make more sense to keep it here until we return to Seattle, don’t you think? I bet it’s expensive to ship a body back from Alaska. And there’s no doubt they’ve got extra freezer space now that we’re halfway through the food they loaded from Seattle.”

  Sadie was thoroughly confused and a little disgusted by the idea of storing a body in freezers meant for food. Been there, done that, couldn’t eat salad for a month. “What body?” Sadie asked, hoping for some clarification.

  Mary Anne turned toward her with an animated expression. “Didn’t you hear?”

  “Hear what?”

  “A gentleman died last night, at the buffet. They do try to keep these things quiet, I suppose. In fact, they tried to tell us that he was going to be okay, but he was dead before he hit the floor.”

  Lorraina was in a coma with an abnormal tox screen—could the wine she drank have been poisoned?—and the next night someone dies? What kind of cruise was this? “What happened, exactly?”

  “Heart attack,” Mary Anne said with a sharp nod.

  “What time did this happen?”

  “Oh, eleven thirty or so. Glen and I had gone to the late show at ten. You know, you always get a better show the second time around; all the performers are warmed up by then. Besides, we have our dinner reservation in the Chandelier dining room at seven thirty every night. They have the best food on the ship. After the show, we went to the buffet and were just finishing up when a woman screamed. All these crewmen came running and closed off that part of the room.”

  Sadie had been in the Lamplighter Lounge until ten thirty, but the lounge was on the opposite side of the ship from the buffet. Still, she expected that there would have been some kind of alarm, or at the very least gossip, if someone died so publicly. Then again, Mary Anne was the first person, other than Pete and her family, that Sadie had talked to since last night.

  “That’s terrible,” Sadie said. She kept to herself her experience of when her husband, Neil, had collapsed. Even after all these years, she wasn’t prepared to face that memory right now.

  “It is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they lose one or two every trip. I mean, you know what they say about Alaskan cruises, right?”

  Sadie shook her head.

  “They’re for the newlywed and the nearly dead.” She laughed at her joke. All Sadie could manage was a weak smile.

  Chapter 20

  Sadie knocked on Pete’s door until he answered, his hair sticking up in a hundred directions and his eyes puffy as he squinted into the bright light of the hallway.

  “Sadie,” he said, scrubbing a hand over his face. “What’s the matter?”

  “I was just talking to Mary Anne,” Sadie said.

  “Who’s Mary Anne?”

  “One of the women I went to all those classes with on Monday. The older one. Remember?”

  “Oh, right,” he said, but Sadie suspected he didn’t really remember. He’d seemed only partially attentive when she told him about Mary Anne and Jen.

  “She said a man had a heart attack at the buffet last night.”

  Pete blinked and looked thoughtful, as though trying to determine why this was important enough for her to have woken him up so early. “That’s terrible,” he said, but stil
l sounded confused.

  In the wake of his reaction, Sadie wondered if she was being paranoid. There were a lot of elderly people on the boat; Sadie had seen some in wheelchairs and others with portable oxygen tanks. Maybe it was to be expected that not everyone would make it back to port. But she’d gone to the trouble of waking him up, she might as well explore her reason behind that. “I was thinking—what if the wine Lorraina drank was poisoned? It might explain the strange tox report, right? And if so, then that would mean someone was poisoned and someone else died two days later. Doesn’t that seem weird to you?”

  “First of all, we don’t know that Lorraina was poisoned, though I suppose it’s possible,” Pete said. “Second, did this man who had a heart attack have a history of heart disease? Was he over the age of seventy? Had he just eaten a double bacon cheeseburger with extra mayo?”

  “You think I’m being dumb,” Sadie said. It wasn’t a question.

  Pete smiled and reached out to grab her hand and pull her toward him.

  She stopped at the threshold; they’d made a rule a long time ago about going into one another’s sleeping space. It was a good rule.

  “I think I could really use a cup of coffee,” he said, giving her a quick kiss. She was careful not to inhale in case he had morning breath. She wanted nothing to shatter her belief that someone as wonderful as Pete could never have halitosis.

  “I’m sorry I woke you,” she said, feeling sheepish and a little bit too warm being so close to the man she loved when he wore nothing but a white T-shirt and a pair of athletic shorts.

  “Why don’t I take a quick shower, and we’ll talk this over before everyone else gets up. Then we can make a plan for the day,” Pete said.

  “You say the sweetest things,” Sadie cooed. He knew how much she liked plans, and the offer helped dilute her embarrassment of possibly making too big a deal about this.

  He winked and gave her hand another squeeze before promising he’d be ready in fifteen minutes. Sadie didn’t know how that was possible, but she agreed to meet him at the Coffee Counter by the reception desk.

  She’d read the entire four-page onboard paper from Monday by the time Pete joined her. The ship was in sight of the Skagway pier; they would be docked in an hour.

  His hair was still wet, but his expression looked more awake. They ordered their morning beverages of choice, and Pete asked what she knew about the man who died the night before.

  Sadie had already told him everything she knew, but she didn’t mind repeating herself and stretched out the information to make it feel more substantial. In the end, she had to admit that the connection was still rather weak, but Pete was too polite to say so.

  “So, did Shawn send you those e-mails?” she asked, changing the subject.

  Pete glanced at her with an uneasy expression that made her tense, then shook his head. “I didn’t check my e-mail this morning, but I waited ‘til almost midnight last night. I bet I spent $30 in Internet fees waiting for him to send them over.”

  “You didn’t call his room to ask him where they were?”

  Pete paused, that uneasy expression still in place. “Actually, I did. He didn’t answer.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t freak out,” Pete said, putting up one hand. “And let me talk to him about it, okay? I think I’m a safer choice right now.”

  Sadie clenched her jaw and took a breath even though she knew he was right. “Breanna read the e-mails,” she said. “Or at least the versions of them Lorraina sent to Maggie. What if Lorraina changed them? It’s easy enough to do, and it could explain why they sounded as mean as Breanna said the e-mails were.”

  “What did they say?” Pete asked, frowning.

  Sadie summarized what she knew, and Pete looked more worried than ever. As much as she appreciated that he didn’t use his detective-face around her as much these days, seeing his true fears reflected in his expression made her nervous.

  “Why don’t we go find Maggie and see if she’ll let us read them too?” Pete said. He picked up his coffee cup and quickly emptied it; he was suddenly in a hurry.

  Sadie didn’t love the idea of bombarding Maggie with such an uncomfortable request so early in the morning, but she couldn’t deny her own anxiety about seeing the e-mails for herself. “Okay,” she said, not bothering to finish her tea.

  They stood just as the cruise director made an announcement that they were approaching Skagway and would be docked in half an hour.

  “What’s Maggie’s room number?” Pete asked.

  Sadie made a face. “I don’t know.”

  “Okay, so we need to ask Breanna then,” Pete said. “Should we call the cabin to save time? She’s up by now, right?”

  The large clock on the wall behind the reception desk read 8:40—Breanna should be up. “Yes,” Sadie said, looking around. “Where’s the closest courtesy phone?”

  Pete pointed toward a phone on the wall just to the right of the customer service desk, and they wound their way through the other tables and passengers to get to it.

  Sadie accidentally kicked a woman’s purse and stopped to apologize just as Pete put a hand on Sadie’s arm. She lifted her head and looked at whatever he was looking at. Two police officers were walking toward the reception desk. Regular ship security wore white shirts; these men were dressed in blue, like regular street cops. Pete stepped ahead of her, and she stayed close as he began moving toward the officers instead of the phone. She sensed he was trying not to be obvious.

  The two officers approached the desk, turning enough that Sadie could read Skagway Police Department> above the name tags on their shirts. How did the Skagway police get on board when the ship was still half an hour from docking?

  The desk clerk made a phone call, and a minute later, a security guard met them. Sadie stepped forward and pretended to read the day’s itinerary posted on the customer service desk about ten feet away from them. Pete had moved to the other side of the officers and pulled out his cell phone as though checking a text message. If the officers were worried about being overheard, they would likely have moved away, but that didn’t seem to be a concern.

  “Thank you for coming,” the security officer said. Sadie didn’t recognize him from the other interactions she’d had with security so far. The three men exchanged handshakes.

  “Where is he?” one of the officers said.

  He? Were they talking about the unfortunate heart attack victim?

  “We’ve had his steward keeping an eye on his room. He hasn’t left yet.”

  Not the dead guy then.

  “It’s good you had us come. We wouldn’t want him to get off the ship without us.”

  The security guard agreed, and Sadie tried to catch Pete’s eye. They really needed to see those e-mails as soon as possible, preferably before they had to confront Shawn about not having sent them. And yet Pete was still intently listening, though seemingly focused on his phone.

  “Certainly,” the security officer said. “I’ll escort you. It’s room 749.”

  Sadie gasped. Pete’s gaze snapped to hers in an instant. Room 749—Shawn’s room?

  Chapter 21

  Sadie headed for the closest stairway. She didn’t know how long it took her to push past other passengers and run down the stairs to deck seven, but she was out of breath by the time she banged on Shawn’s door. She scanned both ends of the hallway but the officers didn’t appear.

  She heard Shawn’s doorknob turn, and as soon as he pulled the door open an inch, she pushed her way through, forcing Shawn to walk backward until his legs hit the double bed in the middle of the room and he was forced to sit. Sadie shut the door behind her.

  “What was in those e-mails?”

  “Wh-what?” Shawn said, standing up. He didn’t have a shirt on, so Sadie grabbed one out of the closet and threw it at him.

  “Those e-mails. What did you say? Did you threaten Lorraina? Did you tell her you’d call the police on her or worse?”

  �
�Mom,” Shawn said, looking completely shocked and just offended enough that Sadie felt some relief. He pulled the T-shirt over his head, his puffy hair springing back after being pushed though the neck hole. “What are you talking about?”

  Her brain was moving too fast for her to keep up with his questions. If she didn’t know two police officers were on their way to his room right now, she’d have backed off. “Why didn’t you send those e-mails to Pete last night?”

  “The onboard Internet wasn’t working.”

  “Shawn, don’t you dare lie to me.”

  His eyes narrowed. “I’m not lying,” he said, sounding angry. “I went to the computer center and the Internet was down.”

  “So, then, what did you do? Did you go to your room?”

  “No, I went back to the Lamplighter. Are you going to chew me out for that, too? They had that magician guy doing the grown-up magic show.”

  Sadie wasn’t sure she wanted to know what happened at a grown-up magic show. “You went alone?”

  “Yes, alone. I waited for the Internet to get fixed, but when I went back to the computer center, it was closed. I figured I’d use Bre’s laptop this morning. What’s your deal?”

  “My deal is that two police officers from Skagway are on the ship and coming to your room. Maggie showed Breanna the e-mails Lorraina forwarded to her, and in those e-mails you threatened her if she didn’t leave you alone. I think the police are going to arrest you!”

  “What?” Shawn said, his eyebrows going up and his eyes going wide. He shook his head. “I didn’t threaten her—I swear I didn’t—and the computers were down, Mom. Let’s get Bre’s laptop right now and—”

  A knock at the door silenced him, and Sadie spun around to face the door, the only thing separating them from the police officers. She turned back to Shawn. “Okay,” she said, making a calming motion with her hands as she took a step toward him. “We need to handle this the right way, okay?”