“Yes, Sanjay. Good evening. What’s this about? Is there an emergency?”
“Good evening, Captain. Emergency? Well, Sir, I think we might possibly classify it as such.” Sanjay had a grim look on his face and a dire tone to his voice.
“Would it be possible to come in, Sir?”
Captain Andersen jerked his head around enough to look at Breath. His face was flush with angst. Turning back to face Sanjay, “this may not be the most convenient moment, Sanjay. Could you come back a bit later? Or, I could meet you in your office, if that will suffice.” Norse was frantically trying to buy the time necessary to get Breath out of his cabin as well as a moment to compose himself. After all that he had been through in the recent few short hours, he was mentally and emotionally drained.
“Sir, I presume you have company? Could it be your daughter, Breath Olsen Andersen?”
Norse Andersen almost choked over hearing Sanjay mouth Breath’s full name. Added to that shock, like magic, from around the corner, in the passageway, Staff Captain Jan Becker suddenly emerged.
“Please allow us to enter, Captain,” Sanjay said with authority in his tone. “I will need to have a visit with all of you about what has been going on these last few days. This togetherness will prove to make my job a tad less complicated.” Sanjay and Jan Becker stepped into the cabin as Captain Andersen held the door wide open, his mouth agape.
Sanjay motioned for Jan Becker to be seated. Then, he greeted Breath. “Good evening Miss Olsen. Or, would you now prefer Miss Andersen?”
“Whatever. Obviously, you’ve been snooping into my private life.” Breath had lost her usual charm and smile.
“Yes…snooping. We security types would rather call it investigating. That is our job, is it not?”
“So, what is the emergency, Sanjay?” Captain Andersen was attempting to reassert his position.
“Sir, I have just completed my interview with Staff Captain Becker. May I report that it was most interesting and quite informative? You see, I love putting puzzles together and the Staff Captain offered several large pieces which fit perfectly. One needs all the pieces to view the picture of the puzzle flawlessly.”
“Yes, yes. So, get to the point, Sanjay. I’ve got a lot of other duties to attend to, as you are fully aware.”
“Of course, Captain. You have been a very busy man. But, all those duties were not limited to your position as Master of the North Star. It now appears that you were involved with settling family matters. I might phrase it, ‘settling an old family problem’.”
The tension in the cabin was tighter than the lines securing a ship to its berth in port.
“Excuse me, Captain. Could I have that piece of paper on the table next to your lounge chair? I think it had gone missing and I’m sure we are happy to have found it.”
When Captain Andersen made no move to hand over the newspaper article, Sanjay simply moved over and retrieved it himself.
“Yes, thank you, Sir. I think this will be one of the final pieces to our puzzle. Excuse me for using this metaphor, again. Or, as they say, ‘is it a simile?’” As serious as the matter was, Sanjay couldn’t help from enjoying this finale to the drama that had so employed him all week.
“I hardly think this is a time for humor, Sanjay.”
“To the contrary, Sir. For me, it is the best moment. Of course, for the rest of us in the room, it definitely is not a good time for humor.” Sanjay allowed the silence to be damning.
“If it pleases you, I would like to verbally lie out on the table, as I see it, the puzzle for you to likewise see. When Mr. Sam Stydd, or as we now know him to be, Rolf S. Stuttgar, was lost overboard, I admit I was as lost over the ‘why and who’ as anyone. You see, I couldn’t figure out the motive. Without that, everyone and no one is a suspect. Everyone had their alibi. As usual, they were tenuous at best. Alibis are invented or lied about by suspects a vast majority of the time.
“I kept coming back to our Chief Engineer as the perpetrator in Sam’s overboard escapade. His relationship as the grandson, though, I have to be honest, placed a roadblock in my thinking. Though family members are prime suspects in murder cases, the connection between Sam and Hans Stydd felt very authentic. But, who, then, could I suspect?”
All eyes were fixed on Sanjay. There wasn’t a stir among any of them. Perhaps they felt it would turn the spotlight onto them and betray some guilt on their part.
“Then, when I discovered that Mr. Kris Sanders and Mr. Led Daley had lied about the ‘casino errand’, as their lady companions had attested to, I began to see how the puzzle had widened out. None of the casino staff had laid eyes on either of them. Also, Miss Maggie Cortez, in her interview with me, mentioned that Miss Breath Olsen had gone out of the Star Top lounge in search of their male companions. When she returned from her excursion to find the missing men, Miss Cortez noted that Miss Olsen seemed stressed and out of sorts. Her outward physical demeanor didn’t compute with me since she had only gone on a simple look see in the casino. I then became even more interested in finding additional pieces to this growing puzzle.’
It would have helped Sanjay’s audience to have a coach yell, “Breathe!” at this moment.
“To add to the confusion, along came the mysterious death of our chief engineer, Hans Stydd. Did this have a connection to Mr. Sam Stydd’s death or was it a simple coincidence. Let me tell you, Ladies and Sir, to an investigator, there is always a meaning in a coincidence. Coincidences sometimes bring the logic of a case together. And in this instance, it did just that for me.
“I’ll admit I was thrown off for awhile. I concluded that, for some motive yet to be deciphered, the unthinkable occurred to me. Could our staff captain be the murderess in Sam Stydd’s case? She had the unquestioned mobility to go and do whatever she wanted. Mr. Stydd’s nurse was in the Star Top lounge with companions. She had already mentioned to them that the chief engineer, Sam’s grandson, was sitting with him in Sam’s cabin. That synched it for me. The staff captain and the chief engineer were in this together. But, I still did not have a motive.
“Then came the chief engineer’s death. That threw my think tank theories out with the bath water, so to speak. Excuse me, again, for mixing my metaphors. As you are aware, English is an adopted language in my country.
“The real break came when Kris Sanders confessed to his entry into the chief engineer’s cabin. I now became privy to the story of the smuggled Van Gogh. The smugglers were identified…the chief engineer and our staff captain, along with Kris, our art auctioneer in an assisting role. So, if Captain Becker and Hans Stydd killed Sam, why was Hans disposed of? I was more in the dark than ever.”
Sanjay had been pacing around the backside of his audience. He moved around to the middle of the encircled suspects and stood immediately in front of Breath.
“So, I began thinking of you, Miss Olsen. Just who was this caregiver? This nurse assigned to Mr. Sam Stydd? No one seemed to know much of your background. As an investigator, I have resources. I wired our home office and asked for a search of your credentials. They reported back that they found your records at the school of nursing. You were indeed a nurse. But, they discovered in your transcripts from your elementary and secondary schools a family name which, for whatever reason, you chose not to be using now. Thus, I found out about our Miss Breath Olsen actually being Miss Breath Olsen Andersen. Yes…Andersen. A family name I was totally aware of everyday of my current professional life aboard the North Star cruise ship.”
Sanjay remained in front of Breath for a dramatic moment and then turned about and faced his Master of the North Star.
“I may have jumped to a conclusion, but I could only think that this, too, became too much of a coincidence. Miss Breath Andersen and Captain Norse Andersen. Sir, I knew you had been married once, but were now divorced. So, I wired our home office, again, and asked them the maiden name of your ex-wife. It came back as no huge surprise. Your ex-wife’s maiden name was Olsen. That wrapped it up for me
…except for the motive! What was the driving force propelling these scurrilous affairs?
“The key to my mystery puzzle piece came when I rehashed the interview with Kris Sanders. The one piece missing in my puzzle. The old newsprint Kris Sanders claimed had been smuggled on board with the Van Gogh. He couldn’t produce the damning evidence because it had been stolen from his room during the night.
“It came down to this: who had master key cards that unlocked the room doors? Again, Captain Becker was fingered. But, after checking the log book, I read the documentation that she was on the bridge all night and did not leave it until her relief arrived at 0600. Captain Becker had an air tight alibi for that night. But, you, Sir, did not. And, you, Sir, certainly do have a master key card.
“In my self evaluation, I will need to mark myself down because of an almost fatal error. I’ve been thoroughly trained not to overlook the ‘fatal flaw’ in finding evidence and including suspects. I did fail in that regard. I allowed my training as a ship board security officer to override my land base experience. You see, we don’t have the unique reality of serving under a Master when on land. It is a concept developed over eons of time by the sea going community. The very reason we refer to one such as yourself, Sir, as the Master. Literally, the god of the ship when underway. I had left you out of my calculations. You became the fatal flaw in my investigation.”
Captain Andersen made a motion to object. “Sanjay, this is the raving of a maniac. I’ll have to call in security and put you away in the brig until I can sort all this out.”
“But, Sir, I have this sorted out already. And this piece of paper, this evidence becomes your damnation. It verifies what Kris Sanders had been claiming all along. You were attempting to protect the name of the mastermind behind the infamous Mayhem shipyard matter. The chief cooperator on the civilian side of the equation was your father, Wolfgang Andersen, now Chairman of the Board, emeritus, of Royal Danish cruise lines. Miss Breath Olsen Andersen’s grandfather. After you divorced your wife and she subsequently died, Wolfgang Andersen and his wife, your grandparents, raised Breath when still very young.”
Captain Andersen now literally jumped out of his chair. “This is preposterous. We are alone in this room. Your claims mean nothing. There isn’t anyone here who would vouch for any of this in a court of inquiry. Even though you found out the truth about me and my daughter, what good is it going to do you when you are rotting away in a brig for your rank insubordination?
“It was necessary for us to rid our lives of that fool, Rolf S. Stuttgar. The grandson of that fool, Hans, brought him here aboard my ship. Ever since the state had released him from his life sentence in prison, I was overwhelmed with worry that he would do a ‘tell all’ to the world. I couldn’t believe my luck. Now, I had him on board my very own vessel. I felt like the fox welcoming the chicken into the fox’s den.
“I had even more good luck when I found out that Hans was overcome with remorse about smuggling that Van Gogh on board. The night he sat with his granddad, he had been drinking and began blubbering to his sleeping granddad about the smuggled Van Gogh. Breath had come down from the Star Top lounge earlier than Hans expected and overheard him. She called me and told me the whole sad tale, the same as she had done once before when she discovered the truth of the existence of that now infamous article. Remember, Breath had worked in that old folks home for her nursing residence requirement. Once, again, my dear Breath was in the right place at the right time.” Andersen let out the laugh of the devil.
“It was obvious to me that that the damning article would have been smuggled along with the missing painting. It was all too coincidental. But, I needed to see the article with my own eyes to make sure it was the original news story written so many years ago. Then, I would destroy it once and for all. I couldn’t bring myself to entrust anyone else to do that. It could always be used as a resource for blackmailing me and my family. It became clear that I needed to rid myself of the only other person who knew about the smuggling. Hans liked to drink, so poisoning Hans was a no brainer. I would add a bit of poison to the bottle and he would administrate his own demise.” Norse Andersen was shouting. Spittle flying out of his foaming mouth. “The final solution to all my problems. No one left to hurl any monstrous accusations.”
“Except…for me.” Staff Captain Jan Becker stood up and glared directly at Captain Norse Andersen. She now commanded the bully wheel house.
“I had an aunt who just happened to live in the same retirement home as that reporter. She had been shown the article more than once. She revealed the contents of the article, including the name of your precious patriarch. I suspected for a long time that you had to have some inside connection in order to rise to the lofty position you held. A position I worked for and deserved, but could never seem to achieve. If I could only get my hands on that precious piece of ancient newsprint, I would have your job in a heartbeat.
“I heard from my aunt that the article was hidden in the reporter’s room. The reporter was destitute. It was easy for me to make him an offer he couldn’t refuse and obtain it. I needed a way to get it onboard and remain hidden until I could use it at the opportune moment. I noticed the Van Gogh print hanging on the wall in the reporter’s room. I easily put two and two together, or should I say, one newspaper article and one Van Gogh. I hid it inside the frame wrapping on the back side of the Van Gogh. Brilliant! When the painting came up missing, the retirement facility people simply listed it as lost. Nobody cared. I could then smuggle the Van Gogh aboard along with the article and incriminate you and your father whenever it suited me best.”
Jan Becker collapsed back into her chair. She was exhausted, having finished the solo performance of her life. Now, it was the other Captain in the room’s chance for rebuttal
“What a fool you are, Jan. All this for nothing, because when I make my report to the authorities on land and with the home office, you will be the one accused of smuggling. I don’t think the promotion board of RNC will seriously consider you for promotion to Master. More than likely, they will prosecute you as an example of failing the high standards a Captain is to maintain. You have proven yourself a sorry excuse for a naval officer.”
“Of course, Jan, I knew that the Van Gogh had ended up in Hans’ cabin. I saw it the first night we set sail when I went to his room for a report on the new propeller refit. I also noticed how attached he had become to JW scotch whiskey. There was an easy fix to get that painting out of his room without his ever knowing. He would die a happy drunk, the poor chump.
“Later, when I removed the painting from the wall, I noticed the freshly applied scotch tape at the bottom. When I opened the backing, I reached inside for the paper…it was gone. Damn interference. There was no point in taking the painting, so I hung it back on the wall. It was only a matter of time before I found out that Kris and his consort possessed the Holy Grail. As you now know, I was able to, may I say, retrieve it from his domicile.
“I repeat there is no one who can testify about any of this, Sanjay. Anyone, at least, who wouldn’t self incriminate. I remain the Master of this ship and my word about all this will go unquestioned. My command cannot be relegated by any member of the staff or crew, be he the Chief of Security or even the Staff Captain, herself. I’m sure you have all enjoyed seeing ‘Mutiny on the Bounty’ more than once. Learn your lesson well, Shipmates, the Captain is always right.”
“I beg to differ, Sir. What I will now tell you will prove to be a bitter pill to swallow. All during this time in your stateroom, I have had the two way radio, which is on my belt, switch to record. I have also had it tuned to the frequency which allowed my security lieutenants to hear every word spoken in this stateroom.
“I must thank you for your eloquent admission of guilt. I couldn’t have asked you to do better, myself. We will all now be considered credible witnesses at your trial.”
“But, what about this one?” Captain Andersen furiously pointed his finger at Jan Becker with great dis
dain.
“Yes, Sir, Captain Becker will pay a great price for her involvement. Though, she will not be accused of murdering Rolf S. Stuttgar, alias, Sam Stydd, nor the poisoning of Hans Stydd. You and your daughter, Breath, will share in that distinction. As for Captain Becker, she will undoubtedly find this a terminal point in her career aboard any sailing vessel.
“Captain Andersen, Captain Becker, Breath Olsen Andersen, I officially arrest you for crimes to be brought against you with the due process of the law.”
With that, Sanjay Mehta took his two way radio off his belt and said, “Alright, Lieutenants, you may come to the Master’s stateroom. We won’t be in need of handcuffs. We are still at sea. I don’t think any of our prisoners have acquired the skill to walk on water.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
The port authorities, local police and senior staff from the corporate offices of Royal Danish cruise lines had assembled awaiting the arrival of the North Star and her now dethroned Master. An ambulance and hearse also were lined up to undertake their sensitive duties. Indeed, a most unusual ensemble gathered in place of the usual welcoming committee.
Chief Security Officer Sanjay Mehta walked Lucky and Led to the ship’s de-embarkation kiosk. “Led, I’m pleased that we could work out the details so as not to implicate you in regards any chargeable offense. The deaths of a guest and a Chief Engineer were sad enough. But, the arrest of our Master of the ship, his daughter and our Staff Captain were personal tragedies. It placed a great strain upon the entire staff and crew. You must realize how essential the Master of a ship is to all of us, especially when we are at sea for long periods of time. All of work so closely with the Staff Captain. Such a shame. I think there will be a long time of mourning the loss on our beautiful North Star.”
As he shook Sanjay’s hand, Lucky spoke up. “Thanks for your consideration of all the facts. I don’t believe Kris or Led had any intent to commit a crime. To the contrary, it worked out that they found the clue that helped you bring the whole affair to the best end. Or, as you said, Sanjay, it furnished you with the final piece to the puzzle.”
Cruise to Mayhem Page 11