Deadly Stakes

by Ivy Dawson

  “Mark,” Shae warned, “since when would someone who’s seasick eat anything? Come on, let’s do this properly, please.”

  “Don’t talk to me like that,” Mark said angrily. “I’m still your boss.”

  “I know, you keep reminding me.”

  “Can we stay on track?” Caleb asked with a frown.

  “Good idea,” Mark said, “I’m going to fix this once and for all. Let’s go,” he gestured forward. “I’ll prove that she ate the wrong thing. I think the kitchen kept her plate; we can check what she ate.”

  “What if someone put something in her food?” Caleb challenged, refusing to budge.

  “If she was as careful as you say, then she would’ve checked her food before eating,” Mark said.

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Caleb said, his face slowly turning red from anger. Shae put a comforting hand on his shoulder and shook her head. He looked down at her, before stepping away uncomfortably. The action surprised her and made her feel vaguely ashamed. She hoped he didn’t think she was flirting with him or something. Shae decided to keep a safe distance from the pastor, just in case.

  “I’m going to talk to her family,” she decided. “Which cabin are they in?”

  “Don’t bother our guests,” Mark said, frowning at her.

  “I’ll be careful,” Shae assured him, “and maybe you should take your own advice.” She nodded at Caleb, who still looked angry.

  Mark looked at the pastor and rolled his eyes. Asking Mark to play nice was like asking a shark to stop swimming.

  “They’re in cabin 102F,” Caleb told her quickly.

  Shae nodded and left before Mark could say anything else. When she looked over her shoulder, she noticed him and Caleb walking toward the dining room.

  As she walked onto the main deck, she noticed that Alexa was still in the same place and so was Jax. She smiled at him before quickly walking over to Alexa.

  “I need your help,” she said.

  “You usually do,” Alexa said with a yawn, “but I’m busy.”

  “You’ve got the whole day off,” Shae reminded her. “I just need you to come and talk to the victim’s family with me.”

  “I hate that part,” Alexa whined, propping herself up and taking her sunglasses off. “Why can’t someone else go with you?” She looked past Shae and smiled mischievously.

  “What are you doing?” Shae hissed as Alexa waved Jax over.

  “Wiggling out of this,” Alexa said, still smiling. “Hey, Jax. How are things going?”

  “A little slow,” Jax admitted, smiling in confusion. “What’s going on?”

  “There’s been a murder,” Alexa said dramatically, and Jax looked at Shae to make sure. Shae shook her head and he raised an eyebrow at Alexa. “And Shae needs to go talk to the family. Do you want to go with her? Say yes, it’s my day off and I really don’t want to.”

  “I could just go alone,” Shae pointed out, shaking her head at Alexa’s theatrics.

  “No!” Alexa said vehemently. “You can’t! What if something bad happens to you? Like, what if the murderer decides you know too much? You need Jax’s help.”

  “There hasn’t been a murder,” Shae told her seriously, “yet.” She looked at Alexa with intent, and her friend smiled without a trace of shame.

  “I don’t mind going with you,” Jax said pleasantly, laughing slightly at their exchange. “It might be interesting to see what’s going on.”

  “You don’t mind?” Shae asked cautiously.

  “No,” Alexa said, leaning back into her lounger and putting her sunglasses back on. “He’d love to. Wouldn’t you, Jax?”

  “Yeah,” Jax said dryly, shaking his head at Alexa. “Sure.”

  Shae had to fight to keep herself from smiling and started walking.

  “So,” Jax said, catching up to her easily, “where are we going?”

  It took the time from the main deck to the guests’ cabins to explain what was going on. She knocked quickly on the right cabin, and they waited in anticipation.

  Shae realized that he was standing close enough for her to smell his cologne. It was a spicy, subtle smell that made her want to blush. He noticed her looking at him and winked at her. This made her smile, and that’s what Trinity’s husband opened the door to.

  “Can I help you?” he asked, frowning at them.

  He held the door against his body so that they couldn’t see in, but Shae heard someone move.

  “Yes,” Shae said quickly, “we’re here to ask a few questions about what happened to Trinity Moretti. Do you mind if we come in?”

  “Let them in,” a soft voice said, and the man rolled his eyes. He walked away, leaving the door open. Jax and Shae looked at each other uncomfortably before walking in behind him.

  “Please excuse Tony,” a woman said. Shae was struck by how beautiful she was. The woman was tall, with straight black hair and an angular face. Her bright blue eyes were rimmed red, and her face was puffy. “He wasn’t raised, he was dragged.”

  “Don’t talk about my mother like that,” he snapped, sitting sprawled out on the couch.

  “Did I mention your mother?” the woman, probably Serenity, said coolly.

  “You insinuated,” Tony growled. Serenity pursed her lips slightly and folded her hands primly on her lap. Shae noticed that Serenity’s clothes were modest, and slightly outdated.

  “How can we help you?” Serenity asked calmly.

  “Well, we’d just like to ask what happened to Trinity this afternoon,” Shae said gently.

  “Did Caleb ask you to come?” Serenity asked with a peaceful smile spreading over her face as she mentioned the handsome young pastor.

  Tony snorted unattractively and turned to look at Jax.

  “You should hear these women talk about that pastor. It’s like they’ve never seen a man before. What’s up with that?”

  “It’s almost as though we’ve never seen a good-looking man before,” Serenity said bitingly, glaring at Tony.

  “You’ve got a big mouth,” Tony told her, “that’s your problem. It’s why no man can stand to be around you. And you look like my granny. When she was old, because my granny was a good-looking broad in her time.”

  “I’ll be sure to add incest to your list of sins,” Serenity told him primly. Tony jerked as though she slapped him.

  “Take that back!” he yelled. “Take that back, right now!”

  “Excuse me,” Shae said, trying to get them to focus on what was really important.

  “What are you going to do?” Serenity taunted. “Call your mommy on me?”

  “You’re such a stuck-up cow,” Tony seethed, clenching his fists.

  “Oh, wow,” Serenity sneered, “look at the big man. He knows how to use words!”

  “I’m going to the bathroom,” Shae decided, standing up and looking at them in turn. “Where is it?”

  “You start a fight and now you’re going to foul up our bathroom?” Tony asked incredulously.

  “Don’t be stupid, Tony,” Serenity said, wrinkling her nose at him. “It’s right there.”

  Shae nodded and walked over to the bathroom. When she closed the door, she heard them start fighting immediately. She felt sorry for Jax; it wasn’t pleasant being caught up in that room. The fighting was making it hard for her to think.

  Shae closed the toilet lid and sat down quickly. She hid her face in her hands and tried to think about what she wanted to ask them. After a few minutes, she got up, and splashed her face with water. Out of habit, she flushed the toilet.

  She pushed the lever, but nothing happened. She pressed it again, frowning this time. The fighting was still going on, so she quickly lifted the toilet’s cistern lid to see if there was any water to flush with. Jax was in maintenance, so he could check if there was a problem.

  When she lifted the lid, she noticed the problem immediately. Someone had wrapped a bottle with a plastic bag, and it was blocking the water’s way out. Shae lifted the bag and took
the bottle out. It had no label. She opened the lid and sniffed cautiously.

  The watery liquid smelled slightly of sulfur. The shouting from the other room got louder, and Shae realized that she wasn’t going to get anything useful out of Tony or Serenity. Thankfully, the bottle might be more helpful than either of them.

  Chapter 3

  “I guess we’re lucky to have Dr. Zooberg onboard,” Jax said thoughtfully, sitting across from Shae at the café. “He does a lot more than most GPs.”

  “He’s a little weird, but we need him,” Shae agreed. “He’s always so willing to help. And he’s got a lot of different interests. I don’t think I’d get very far without him.”

  “I don’t believe that,” Jax said, leaning forward as they spoke. “You do pretty well on your own. Look at how you got us out of that room.”

  “All I did was tell them that we were leaving,” Shae laughed. “I still can’t believe that I got that bottle out without either of them noticing.”

  “They were more focused on killing each other,” Jax said, grimacing. “I don’t think we should’ve left them alone. They’re one insult away from killing each other.”

  “Sorry to drag you into all that,” Shae said, wincing as she remembered the shouts that followed them out of the cabin. “I had no idea what would happen. I thought we’d just be able to talk to them.”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Jax frowned and took his phone out of his pocket. His brow furrowed further as he read through his message.

  “Is it urgent?” Shae asked in concern.

  “Yeah, I’m afraid so,” Jax said. “One of the ovens is broken. We need to get it fixed before the dinner rush.”

  “I understand,” Shae nodded, taking a sip of her coffee. A part of her was sorely disappointed, but she did understand. His department kept things running smoothly, and she didn’t want to be responsible for a major disaster.

  He hesitated before getting up and quickly paying for the coffee. He stopped and looked at her thoughtfully. She was about to ask if something was on her face when he spoke again.

  “Do you want to meet up again?”

  “Uhm,” Shae said, her heart squeezing in surprise, “you mean like a date?”

  “If you want to call it that,” he said with an easy smile. He was smiling, but she noticed that his ears were turning red. The sight warmed her heart. He was as nervous as she was.

  “Okay,” she said immediately, sitting forward, “when?”

  “I don’t know,” he said with a laugh. “Let me figure it out, and I’ll let you know?”

  “Okay,” she said, trying not to smile too widely.

  “Okay,” he said, his eyes twinkling as he looked down at her. They both stayed there, smiling like idiots, before his phone beeped again. He jumped in fright, gave her one more smile and walked off quickly.

  She was still waiting for Dr. Zooberg, so she decided to relax and get another drink. She waved a waiter over and gave him her order. A few minutes later, Mark walked up with a scowl on his face.

  “We checked everything,” he said angrily, pulling a chair out and sitting down. Shae wanted to remind him that she hadn’t invited him to sit down, then decided against it. It would be easier to work with him if she didn’t challenge him on everything. “She didn’t even go near the sauce table. This is ridiculous. Who would’ve thought? The lovesick pastor might be right.”

  “You think he’s lovesick?” Shae asked, sipping the last of her drink. The waiter came past and put her fresh drink on the table. Mark took it absently and started sipping on it.

  “What is this?” he asked, looking at it in disgust.

  “Mine,” Shae said, frowning at him. “You’d better drink it now, I’ve already paid for it.”

  Mark had the decency to look ashamed of himself and sipped dutifully at the cup.

  “Yeah, it’s obvious,” he said, gagging slightly. “He’s like a man possessed. Who would act like that if they weren’t in love?”

  “They could’ve just been really good friends.”

  “A man doesn’t cultivate a friendship like that with a woman if he isn’t in love with her. Especially not a man who’s usually so careful about that stuff. Think about it, he’s a pastor. He shouldn’t be around a married woman so much. Not unless he couldn’t help himself.”

  “Not unless he was in love with her,” Shae realized. “I wonder what her husband would’ve done if he found out what was going on.”

  “Nothing,” Mark said firmly, “because this isn’t a murder. It was an accident.”

  “I don’t know,” Shae admitted, taking her phone out as it vibrated. “Come on, we need to go to Dr. Zooberg. He’s got something to tell us.”

  “Not that weirdo,” Mark grumbled, finishing Shae’s drink.

  As much as she wanted to defend him, Dr. Zooberg was a weirdo. He looked like a scrawny owl and acted like a hummingbird on drugs. He was always doing something and spoke at the speed of light. It was as if he had a hundred thoughts all at once and wanted to say them all out loud before they disappeared.

  “It was strange that you found the bottle in the toilet,” Dr. Zooberg said. “It’s not the best hiding place, but then again, we’re not dealing with professionals. Most professionals wouldn’t be so careless. They’re much more careful. It’s why they’re professionals, I suppose. Like my one friend, he was good. No one caught him. Not ever.”

  “What did you find?” Mark asked in annoyance, grimacing as he looked around himself. Shae wanted to smack him, but she decided not to.

  “Poison,” Dr. Zooberg said emphatically, his eyes widening even further behind his thick round spectacles.

  “No,” Mark groaned, leaning on the table and covering his face with his hands. “This was supposed to be an accident.”

  “Was he close to the deceased?” Dr. Zooberg asked, tilting his head curiously.

  “He’s just lazy,” Shae said, rolling her eyes in annoyance. “He doesn’t want to look into the whole thing.”

  “Oh,” Dr. Zooberg gave him one more curious look before turning back to Shae. “As I said, the bottle you gave me was poison. It took me a while to find it, because it’s an obscure poison, I think they got it online. Quite easy to get poison online if you know where to look. Anyway, this specific poison is called Sirtutoxin. It’s illegal for obvious reasons.”

  “What does it do?” Shae asked, glancing at the plain white bottle that was sitting on his desk. It didn’t look dangerous, but it sent a shiver down her spine.

  “In certain amounts, it can send a person into anaphylactic shock,” Dr. Zooberg said with a grimace. “I think they use it in mines with the explosives. It was not meant to put into someone’s body. The stuff tastes foul, I don’t think she ate it. She would’ve tasted it immediately.”

  “Maybe someone injected it into her?” Shae said thoughtfully.

  “It would have to be one of the three people onboard who knew how allergic she was, and how careful she was with her food,” Mark said, and Shae realized that he was more interested in their conversation than he looked.

  “Well,” Shae said solemnly, “I don’t think we should let them walk around while we’re docked at port.”

  “No, they shouldn’t be walking around at all,” Mark decided.

  An hour later, Shae found herself in a small, windowless room. She guessed that it was a supply closet that Mark cleared out for this purpose. She was sitting behind the simple table when Mark escorted Serenity into the room.

  She looked around with big eyes and sat down with wide eyes.

  “Serenity,” Shae said gently, “please don’t be scared, we just have a few questions that we need to ask you.”

  “Is it true?” Serenity asked in a trembling voice. “Was Trinity poisoned?”

  “I’m afraid so,” Shae said sympathetically. Mark didn’t say anything, but he sat down next to Shae and eyed Serenity suspiciously. Shae hoped that he wouldn’t say anything too insensitive.

&nbs
p; Serenity blinked a few times before bursting into tears.

  “I can’t believe it!” Serenity said, choking on her tears. “Why would this happen?”

  “Someone did this to her,” Mark said, leaning forward on his elbows, “and we need to find out who. Do you have any ideas?”

  Shae nodded, impressed by Mark’s questioning. He noticed her impressed expression and looked away. She realized that she had made him uncomfortable, so she quickly turned back to Serenity.

  “Yes,” Serenity nodded immediately, “I know who did this. It was Tony.”

  “We noticed that you and Tony don’t like each other,” Shae said slowly.

  “I hate him!” Serenity spat venomously. “I know we’re not supposed to hate people, but he’s different. Anyone would hate him.”

  “I understand that there are strong feelings involved,” Shae said patiently, “but we need a reason why. Please tell us why you think your brother-in-law killed Trinity?”

  “He ruined her,” Serenity sniffed, wiping her tears away. “When they were teenagers, he convinced her to run away with him. After they got married, he was an awful husband. You know he’s got a gambling problem, right?”

  Shae frowned and quickly made a note of that fact. She reminded herself to take Serenity’s accusations with a pinch of salt.

  “So, the local bad boy steals away one of the church girls, marries her and then turns out to have a gambling problem?” Mark summarized. “Wow, crazy.”

  “My poor sister,” Serenity said, blinking away more tears. “She didn’t know what she was getting herself into. She loved him so much, but he was always yelling at her. I think he even hit her a few times.”

  “But you never saw it happen?” Mark asked carefully as Shae made another note.

  “No,” Serenity admitted begrudgingly, “but she wasn’t the same around him. He took the light out of her eyes. I hate that she had to marry that idiot.”

  “Had to?” Shae echoed.

  “They ran away,” Serenity nodded, “but they ran out of money, so they came home. But my mom and dad said that she had to get married to him otherwise they couldn’t support them. I think Trinity was pregnant. I mean, my parents could support them if they were living in sin!”