Deep Sea Dead

by Lori Avocato

  Before I made it to the door, Betty said, “Poor girl. Her mother left her father and two sisters when Jackie was only eleven. The other girls were much older, able to make lives for themselves. Jackie’s father spent more time at the local pub than at their flat. She practically had to raise herself-and didn’t do that great of a job, I might add.”

  The night was catching up to me, not to mention the golden liquid’s effects on my brain, so I leaned against the wall and said, “I could see why. Poor thing.”

  Betty hadn’t gotten up. She actually remained tucked in with her eyes shut. Odd, but at least she was giving me some info on Jackie. Now that I knew her background and that she’d gotten that advance on her paycheck, Jackie went to the head of the line for fraud suspicion.

  Betty continued, “At least she made it through nursing school-”

  “With Remy,” I added, but Betty opened one eye and gave me a look of “what the hell does that have to do with anything?”

  “But as far as she’s…she had told me, her life was beastly and that’s why she worked on ships. Not close to her sisters. No land connections really. No permanent home. No one to care or worry about…her.”

  “How about you, Betty? Do you have a land connection?”

  “Me mum and three sisters live in London. My life started out quite different than how it came to be. Nurses are poorly paid, so I joined the cruise line and…well, I really love it. So I’ve stayed. I especially like the Golden Dolphin. Most of the crew speaks English-which isn’t always the case, and the captain is a decent bloke. That makes a huge difference. If something doesn’t go right, he works it out. He’s not all mouth and trousers like some are.”

  Mouth? Trousers? Was she talking anatomy, wardrobe or about the captain? I stood, silent, not knowing what to say.

  “Oh-” She shut her eyes, turned toward the wall and said, “All talk and no action.”

  I smiled. “Yeah. I knew that was what you meant,” I lied, but Betty must have already dozed off. I wasn’t that good a liar anyway.

  When I finally woke and looked over at Betty’s bed, it was empty and very neatly made. That reminded me that Sunday was my last free day, so I turned over and fell back to sleep.

  After waking at nearly ten, I got up, showered, dressed and spent the day with my family.

  Turned out to be the longest day of the trip.

  But it came and went without incident-and, unfortunately without progress on my case. I noticed Jagger and Uncle Walt around the ship several times with their “dates.” Despite the dirty looks given to me from the singles around Jagger, I managed to pull him aside and fill him in on what I found out about Jackie.

  It was then he remembered to tell me what the French writing in her chart said. Cheater. Hmm. Was she referring to a lover? A friend? Remy? Claude?

  In French, Jackie actually had written about how much money “they” were clearing from scamming the insurance companies by overcharging the patients and pocketing the difference. It really wasn’t an earth-shattering discovery, but a solid lead.

  Bingo!

  What we now needed to find out was, who was working with Jackie, and did he kill her, since our only suspect was now dead?

  I emailed Fabio about the progress I’d made with a wee little lie that the case would wrap up soon. I left out the part about how Jackie’s murder left us with no live suspects.

  Technicalities.

  At least that’s what I told myself as the ship sailed through the finally calm waters on our way to Miami. We were to dock there tomorrow for part of the day and then head off to Bermuda. I was excited about seeing the island as I slathered SPF 45 sunblock on my fair skin.

  Most of the afternoon I’d stayed on the upper deck, making friends with the dolphins, whom I had named Johnny, Jake and Gilbert. Johnny, after-you guessed it-Johnny Depp, my favorite actor.

  Gilbert seemed to love to splash me, but I think we bonded. Made me miss my little Spanky all the more, although I knew he was in good hands with Miles’s friends Chucky and Bernard. They would be wonderful foster “parents” to Spanky.

  Johnny, or maybe Jake (those two looked like twins but I wasn’t sure if there were such creatures as twin dolphins) poked his nose at Gilbert and they torpedoed down into the tank. I’ll bet they gave the passengers in the Bottlenose Lounge a great show. The little aquatic clowns.

  I gained nothing new at any meals, and since I had to work tomorrow, I headed off to sleep early. Betty had a date with one of the crew’s security officers. Good-looking guy from England. I thought they made a perfect couple and told her so before I went to sleep-all alone.

  At least I looked damn good in my white uniform compared to the stinking scrubs I usually had to wear when I got shanghaied back into my old nursing career-usually on Jagger’s behalf.

  I leaned closer to the mirror to make sure my makeup (a Goldie special complete with lessons on how to apply) and hair looked decent. When I leaned back, I said, “Good to go.” With that I headed out of the cabin to the crew’s dining hall for breakfast. I only had a half hour before work, so not much time to do my investigative work if the opportunity arose.

  After a wonderful breakfast-buffet style-I walked to the infirmary, making sure I never told my mother about the spread of germs I probably just ate. I figured the staff were better at washing their hands and not touching food they didn’t take than the passengers-or at least I hoped they were.

  Topaz, sitting at the infirmiry reception desk, gave me a slight smile, a mumble and a nod.

  “Hey, Topaz. Good morning.”

  She looked up. I got ready to hear some snide remark or maybe no remark at all. Not sure why she seemed to instantly dislike me, I gave her my best smile. “I’m looking forward to working with you”-then I decided to pull out all the stops and use some psychology on the woman with black nails and matching eye shadow. “ I was thinking I’m so glad that you’ve been here awhile and can really show me the ropes.”

  Her dark eyes lightened.

  Thank goodness she didn’t ask how I knew she’d been there awhile. I made that part up as I aimed toward a congenial working relationship. “I’m excited about this different kind of nursing, and really glad you’re here.” With that, I remained silent and let all the gooey honey I’d just spewed out soak in.

  She stood up and waved a hand for me to follow. Not certain if this was good or bad, I said a speed-dial prayer to Saint T and followed like an obedient child, keeping my wits about me in case she had something harmful in mind.

  Maybe she was in on the fraud and had even killed Jackie!

  Topaz opened a door to a small kitchenette. Tan cabinets lined one side above a counter of white. The floor was tan-and-white-checked linoleum. Not a dolphin in sight. I guessed the ship’s designers had saved the mammals for the passengers.

  “This is our private sanctuary,” she said, opening the well-stocked refrigerator. Sometimes it gets too busy to leave for a meal, so the crew’s kitchen keeps it set up for us. Here’s the coffeepot. When you drain it, remake. Instructions are on the side, and here’s the coffee.” She opened a cabinet filled with all kinds of blends and even different tea bags.

  I could have used a swig of English Breakfast right then.

  Topaz concluded my tour of the “sanctuary” with the far wall of cabinets. “Each one of us has our own, for private-stock snacks.” She opened the last door. “Yours would be…shit.”

  Shit? What the heck did that mean? Exactly what kinds of snacks was I in for?

  Topaz’s cheeks drained of color. I turned to the cabinet, which was filled with stuff-cookies, books, even a file box, which seemed out of place in a kitchenette unless it held recipes.

  Messy, yes. But hardly a frightening sight.

  Topaz took her hand away from the cabinet door. And merely looked at me.

  “That my space?”

  “Remy’s,” she whispered.

  Yikes. That “stuff” was Remy’s? Talk about a find! “
Oh, how sad. Look, Topaz. Fix yourself a coffee, go on back out and leave cleaning the cabinet to me. I’ll just toss everything. Okay?”

  Please say “okay” and get the heck out of here so I can snoop.

  She nodded and left without fixing herself a coffee. Great. I reached up for Remy’s bag of Reese’s peanut butter cups. My hand froze in midair. It was kinda spooky, touching the stuff of a missing man.

  Maybe a dead man.

  Jackie’s fate had me thinking along those lines more and more lately. I told myself to calm down, that I didn’t know Remy personally and so had no emotional sorrow to prevent me from cleaning and snooping. I touched the bag of candy.

  No electric shocks. No premonitions of where Remy might be. And no lump in my throat.

  The bag landed in the trash along with a box of tea bags, which I could never bring myself to use, and all the other boxes and bags of snacks. Remy had to have worked out a lot to have such a good physique and be able to eat all this junk food.

  When I touched the file box, Is hut my eyes a second and prayed there would be something useful in it for me. I gave a quick eye sweep of the room. Topaz was gone-back at the front desk, I felt certain. Peter wasn’t there, nor was Rico, who I learned at breakfast was going to orient me today.

  Betty must have traded shifts after her “date” last night. Way to go, Betty!

  I smiled to myself and grabbed the box. Not sure what I’d find, I thought of the old fable of the lady and the tiger. If she picked the wrong door, she’d be eaten. What might happen to me? I held on to the top of the box for a few seconds before moving it. Maybe something would jump out at me! Maybe there’d be some dead mouse, who’d eaten Remy’s snacks, in the box.

  I leaned against the wall and gingerly opened the top.

  “Geez!”

  Twelve

  I stifled a scream as I watched a tiny black spider hightail it out of the file box. I shook my head and was damn glad Jagger wasn’t around to tease me unabashedly.

  After I chastised myself and decided most women (and lots of men) hated spiders or any crawly things, I looked into the box. A Swiss army knife, very worn, a broken compass, a few old receipts for purchases of clothing and cologne from duty-free shops in Bermuda and a key.

  Hmm. A key. Pay dirt?

  I should have turned the box over to the captain, but gave myself permission, with the logic that I needed it for my case, to keep the key for twenty-four hours.

  Despite the fact that I had no idea what it was to, I stuck it in my pocket and shut the box. Then I took a few paper towels and some Windex to wipe out the inside of what was now my cabinet. Not that I had anything to put into it, but I thought it was better cleansed of any Remy reminders.

  Or spider food.

  After I threw out the paper towels, I took the box and headed toward the reception desk. Rico and Topaz were playing cards.

  “Slow morning?”

  They looked at me.

  “Oh, hey, amore, how are you doing?” Rico asked. He looked at the box. “Taking notes about all of us?” He laughed.

  My eyes widened. Did he suspect something? I forced a laugh to hide any guilty look that might come across my face and set the box down. “Ha. Ha. Good one.” I leaned closer to him. “You’ve exposed me. I am an international spy. Got something to hide?” I laughed then said, “Seriously, I found this in my kitchenette cabinet.”

  “Remy’s old cabinet,” Topaz clarified.

  They looked at each other. I couldn’t see Rico’s face, but thought Topaz looked as if she knew something that I didn’t. Geez. Was this the ship of ghouls or ship of fools? And was I the number-one fool?

  It seemed as if they all had some secret, or at least things they weren’t sharing with me. There was something going on behind the scenes and no one was letting me see the dress rehearsal.

  “What should I do with this?” I set it down on the counter. They glared at it and then looked up at me. “My personal take is that I think it should go to the captain.”

  Rico nodded. “Sounds like a plan. What’s inside anyway?”

  I touched the top then stopped. “I have no idea. I didn’t open it. Didn’t feel right to pry.”

  “I’ll pry away,” Topaz said, yanking the top open. “Shit. Him and that stupid knife. Carried it with him. Used to practice throwing it at the walls on the lower deck. If the captain knew. Shit. Odd that old Remy didn’t take it with him.”

  Odd indeed.

  Maybe that’s why he’d used a steak knife to kill Jackie.

  Rico laughed while I wondered if they bought the fact that I said I hadn’t looked inside. I peeked behind Rico to the golden-mirrored wall to see if I looked guilty.

  Naw.

  Maybe I really was developing in my new profession. After three cases, I proclaimed that I was. I was nearly a full time fraud investigator, working my first case alone.

  Just because Jagger was on the ship as reinforcement, didn’t mean I had to share everything with him.

  And look how far I’d gotten!

  “And a key,” I told Jagger, after deciding I was smart enough to know when to use the skills of my reinforcement and mentor. On my lunch break, I’d caught him playing shuffleboard with the young kitten who never seemed to like my interfering and was always around “Jay.”

  Jagger introduced her as Bobbie Lee from Alabama. Southern debutante, I “declared” to myself and then felt a strong urge to slap the “darling” for being so domineering of my Jagger. Of Jagger that is. Of course he wasn’t mine.

  Bobbie Lee indeed. What kind of name was that for a girl anyway? A young, sexy and Southern girl. Ha. No wonder the possessiveness with her Jay. I think she would have shoved me overboard if given half the chance.

  I held onto the railing, so glad to see the seas calm and the sun sparkling on the crests of the waves. And Jagger in shorts.

  Bermuda white shorts. Part of the hot-weather uniform.

  Damn, but he had dynamite legs!

  A storm of heat spun inside me now. What a day this was turning out to be.

  After I tore my vision from Jagger’s legs-and yes, he did notice me staring and shook his head at me, I let go of the railing (but never turned my back on Bobbie Dear) and touched Jagger’s arm. “Could I have a moment with you? Please.”

  He gave me an odd look, and then said to his “date,” “Excuse me for a few minutes. Why don’t you go get us each a lemonade? Put them on my tab, of course.”

  At first I thought she’d break out in tears and have a temper tantrum, much like my two-year-old nephew was known to do, right in the middle of the shuffleboard court. But she rolled her eyes at me, gave Jagger a saucy smile and turned toward the bar. I don’t think kitten Bobbie ever served anyone lemonade in her life.

  I bit my tongue before saying, “I thought she’d never leave, and what the heck are you doing with her? I think there are statutory rape laws even out at sea.” I yanked Jagger toward the dolphin tank and found a quiet spot away from the bar. Nice and secluded.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, sitting in the shade.

  The guy didn’t even burn in the sun. Only turned a healthy golden shade. Then I clarified what I had started to tell him about the case, the box and my cabinet, and said, “We really need to find out more about Remy. I think he’s the solution to all of this.”

  Jagger ran his hand through his hair.

  I looked away. Gilbert the dolphin looked at me, and I think he smiled. Or maybe grinned. Men.

  Several passengers surrounding the pool looked at me. After a gracious smile, I turned back.

  “You’re right, Sherlock.”

  Damn, that felt good. “But how?”

  He looked at me. I thought he was going to say that it was my problem, but instead he said, “Let me get Bobbie Lee settled, and I’ll meet you in the infirmary.”

  Get rid of Bobbie Lee, was more like it, I thought.

  I felt something on my arm and swung around. Bobbie Lee stood th
ere glaring. Oh…my…God! Had I said that out loud?

  Jagger didn’t seem to notice, so I went with the assumption she didn’t hear me, but she must have gotten some well-deserved bad vibes from me anyway.

  “You promised to spend the morning with me, Jay. I’m afraid I’m not too pleased with all…of this.” She took her hand away from my shoulder and swept it through the air to indicate “this” included me.

  Not too pleased with me, kiddo? Ha. You ain’t seen nothing yet. I got up and turned toward her…then stopped. I couldn’t say a thing without giving away the fact that Jagger and I were working together. But boy, did I want to let her have it.

  “Well, I’ll leave you two alone. I have to get back to work anyway.”

  Jagger sat there silently. I know he had to be fuming inside. One thing I knew Jagger would not like was two females fawning all over him. Bobbie Lee was treading on thin ice. Me, I kept my fantasies in my head where they belonged.

  “Oh, Hunter!” Bobbie Lee called out.

  Before I turned to look were she was waving, I hoped there was someone else on the ship named Hunter.

  “Ah, what have we here?” Hunter Knight asked.

  Damn. I swung around. “Oh, hey. How’s it going?”

  “I’m fine, Pauline. Nice seeing you. How is work?”

  Maybe he was trying to tell me to get back to my job, but I took a quick look at my watch to see I had fifteen minutes left. I could stay here and see what went down between Jagger and Hunter.

  Hunter gave Jagger a very unpleasant look. “Are you on a break?”

  Oh, boy. I’d nearly forgotten that Hunter was Jagger’s boss. By the way Jagger sat there staring, I guess he hadn’t forgotten but sure would like to.

  “I’m working, Knight. Bobbie Lee and I are taking a break from shuffleboard for a lemonade.”

  Hunter looked at the table and at both of their hands. No drinks in sight.

  “Oh, I forgot to get the lemonades,” Bobbie Lee said and then laughed. “Got busy talking to Mike the bartender.”

  Now I shook my head.