He flipped through them while she took the potatoes from the oven. She looked up to see a pained expression on his face, as if he’d just noticed a worm in his half-eaten salad. “What’s wrong, Gunnar?”
“Nobody talks like this. Who wrote this dialogue?”
Bethany giggled. “Definitely not Shakespeare.”
Val transferred the potatoes to a serving dish. “Go for campy. That’s what Bethany did with her role on Saturday night.”
“Hmm. You want me to be a ham.” He didn’t look happy about the assignment. “What are the two men really like, apart from their roles?”
Val wished she knew. “I can only tell you how they behaved on the yacht. Middle-aged Damian was suave. Think Cary Grant or George Clooney. Young Trey was hostile to his former stepfather, Otto, and critical of the game.”
“So I should say his lines with barely concealed antagonism?”
Val rolled her eyes. “You’re overthinking this, Gunnar.”
He scowled. “I don’t say that when you add pinches of a dozen spices to a dish.”
His comment shocked Val. She’d had no idea he didn’t value her culinary experiments. Her ex-fiancé, for all his faults, had at least appreciated her cooking.
Bethany watched them warily. “To answer your question, Gunnar, the chip on Trey’s shoulder stayed there throughout the dinner.”
“How did Damian behave at the table?”
“Very cool,” Val said. “He looked faintly amused by the game.”
Bethany added, “His wife was not amused. She’s rather high-strung. When someone hinted that Damian pushed drugs on young women, she looked ready to erupt, even though it was just a line from the script.”
“How did Stacy react?” Val said. “From the galley I couldn’t see her face well.”
Bethany sat down at the breakfast table. “Stacy was preoccupied. Otto had to remind her to say her lines during the scenes, and she didn’t put much feeling into them.”
Val heard Granddad and the chief coming inside. “Let’s get the food on the table.” And raise the curtain on The Titanic Mystery by Otto Warbeck.
Chapter 16
With everyone gathered in the dining room, Val assigned seats. “Granddad will be at the head of the table, like Otto was on the yacht, and read his lines.” She consulted her seating chart.
“Bethany will sit opposite him in the hostess seat, playing Cheyenne’s part and the chaperone’s. Chief, please sit to her right, where Homer was. Since we don’t have his booklet, you don’t have any lines to say.”
He took a small spiral notebook from his pocket. “I’ll figure out which of you is guilty.”
Val pointed to the chair on Granddad’s left. “Gunnar will sit where Damian sat to play his part and Trey’s. I’ll sit across from Gunnar and play Louisa and Stacy. You’re all Titanic passengers trying to determine who’s responsible for what happened to a young woman on the ship.”
Bethany plopped into the hostess’s chair. “In each scene, everyone asks a question and gives an answer. One of us has a response to Homer’s question, so we should be able to figure out what he asked. One of us has a question for him, and I’ll try to remember his response.”
Val took her seat on Granddad’s right. “That will work for the first two scenes. For the last two, we’ll have to guess at his responses. Granddad, as the captain, you get to read the first lines. You can skip the part where he welcomes everyone to the captain’s table and get to the meat of the story.”
Granddad finished piling slices of beef on his plate, passed the platter to Val, and adjusted his bifocals. “I’m sorry to tell you that Annie Milner, a nineteen-year-old, disappeared from the ship last night. After a thorough search, we’ve concluded that she must have gone overboard. I’ve invited all of you to my table tonight because I understand you each spent time with her in the last few days. Perhaps one of you can shed light on what happened to her.” He peered over the top of his glasses at Val. “Mrs. Brown, I’ve noticed you taking pills. I hope the motion of the ship isn’t bothering you.”
Val picked up Louisa Brown’s script and tried to imitate her high-pitched voice. “I take pills for anxiety. We tempt fate if we believe any ship is unsinkable. I can’t rid myself of the fear that this ship is doomed.”
“Clumsy foreshadowing,” Gunnar mumbled.
Val ignored him, glanced at her script, and saw that she had to ask a question as Louisa and answer it as Stacy. “I understand you’re a widow, Lady Stacy. My condolences on your loss and on the aftermath of it. I read in the London papers that Lord Stacy amassed huge debts and gambled away the fortune you brought to the marriage.”
Gunnar groaned. “Such subtle dialogue.”
Val glared at him. She switched to a lower-pitched voice and spoke slowly to answer the question as Stacy. “I cannot deny it, but I have sufficient funds, or I wouldn’t be in first class.” With her job finished for the first scene, Val served herself potatoes and asparagus.
Bethany spoke up. “As Annie’s chaperone, I was concerned when I noticed certain people in first class who didn’t belong here.” She pointed at Gunnar. “I saw that you, Mr. Trey Turnstone, boarded the ship as a third-class passenger. How is it you’re eating in the first-class dining room?”
Gunnar put on a forced smile. “Yes, Madame Chaperone, my ticket is for third class. The captain invited me to his table because he was grateful to me for helping Annie down from the ship’s railing when she climbed there on our first night at sea. Captain, is the purpose of our gathering tonight to assign blame for what happened to Annie?”
Granddad checked his script. “The goal is to find out the truth about Annie’s disappearance. This will be my last voyage as captain. If we discover someone is responsible for her death, I’ll devote the rest of my life to making sure that person pays for it.”
The questions and answers continued in similar fashion through the first scene. But the “questions” in the next two scenes resembled witness statements and accusations, some of which Val remembered overhearing while she worked in the galley Saturday night. The chaperone drank to excess. The captain neglected his other duties while paying extraordinary attention to young Annie. Cheyenne, as a married woman traveling solo, had entertained another woman’s husband in her cabin—Damian.
Val exchanged a look with her grandfather when that tidbit came up. He must be wondering, as she was, whether Otto could have suspected an affair between his wife and Damian.
The revelations continued. Annie spent one evening alone with Damian and another evening with Trey, who took great interest in her jewelry. The insomniac Louisa slinked around the decks at night and was overheard telling Annie to stay away from Damian or she’d be sorry. That information came from Stacy, whose eavesdropping suggested she might be a blackmailer. Homer, often seen with Trey, was accused of trying to sell a diamond brooch that a woman on the ship had reported stolen.
Val sipped her wine, thinking about Otto’s assignment of parts. He’d created the roles of thief for Trey, fence for Homer, and heavy drinker for Homer’s wife, based on his suspicions about them. Did suspicions also explain why he’d given his ex-wife the role of blackmailer, Cheyenne the role of a cheating wife, Damian the role of philanderer, and Louisa the role of jealous wife? Val reminded herself that Otto had written the mystery game, possibly expecting a different couple at the dinner, the Kindells, not Damian and Louisa Brown.
Val called for a break before the last scene. She plated the Waldorf pudding while Bethany collected the dinner dishes from the table and Gunnar poured the coffee.
They went through the last scene of the game over dessert and coffee. Instead of questions and answers, the script consisted of pieces of “evidence” tucked into each booklet. A complaint from an unnamed passenger that Damian tried to induce her to use cocaine. Reports from cabin stewards of finding stolen jewelry in Trey’s luggage and cocaine in Damian and Louisa’s bathroom. A letter proving Annie was the captain’s niece. Ey
ewitness statements giving Homer and Stacy alibis for the time when Annie disappeared.
Stacy’s booklet contained proof she was a Pinkerton detective on the trail of international jewel thieves and a statement that she’d overheard Annie tell Trey to leave her alone. Annie then headed toward the bow of the ship.
Val put her booklet facedown. “Was someone waiting there for her, or was she followed? Did she fall from the same railing where she sat the first night at sea, or was she pushed?”
Granddad read from his booklet. “As the captain, I have a brief statement to make. Now that we’ve reviewed the evidence and clues, it’s up to us to decide who’s responsible for Annie’s death. I’d like to hear what each of you has to say.” He closed the booklet. “Notice there’s no mention of murder, but you can’t rule it out. Anyone want to guess what happened to her and who’s responsible?”
When no one volunteered, the chief said. “I’ll share my brief notes. Maybe it will become clearer who the culprit is as I do that. Speak up if you think you know who’s to blame. I’ll start with the chaperone. Retired governess. Drank a lot. Fell asleep early every night, allowing Annie to slip away.”
“Can’t blame her,” Granddad said. “Even if she’d stayed awake longer, Annie would have outlasted her and snuck out for some fun later.”
“Any other comments?” The chief looked around. “No. Then I’ll move on to the young wife traveling alone, Cheyenne’s role. It came out in scene three that Annie called her a seducer and threatened to telegraph her husband if she didn’t stay away from Damian.”
“I’ll bet Cheyenne pushed Annie overboard,” Granddad said. “She was jealous of her and afraid Annie would carry through on her threat.”
His comment didn’t surprise Val. In his eyes Cheyenne was guilty of murder, both in the mystery game and in real life. “Who’s next on your list, Chief?”
“The two with airtight alibis—Stacy and Homer. We know they’re not guilty.”
Not guilty in the game, Val thought, but possibly in reality.
The chief flipped a page in his notebook. “Trey, suspected jewel thief. Tagged after Annie until Damian charmed her. Accosted her the night she disappeared. She told him to get lost. Her emerald necklace got lost too.”
Bethany piped up. “Trey’s responsible. He resented how Annie treated him and wanted her necklace. She climbed up on the railing again. This time he saved her necklace, but not her.”
“Anyone else agree?” Chief Yardley asked. When no one spoke up, he said. “Now for the captain. Reputation as a ladies’ man. Spent many hours with Annie, his niece who’d been put up for adoption after birth. Blames himself for not assigning a crew member to keep her safe.”
“He’s taking partial blame,” Granddad said. “But that doesn’t mean someone else isn’t more to blame. Otto wouldn’t make himself the guilty one in his own game.”
The chief smiled. “But he’d be the least likely person. That’s the usual culprit in a mystery.” He turned to the next page in his notes. “Finally, we come to the married couple with cocaine in their cabin, Louisa and Damian. He hung out with Cheyenne at first. Switched his attentions to Annie. His wife threatened to ruin Annie’s reputation. Annie responded that Louisa was too ugly to attract any man.”
“Annie was a firebrand,” Granddad said. “Headstrong. Did what she wanted and feared no one. That turned out to be a fatal mistake.”
Was there a real Annie? If Val had learned anything by this exercise, it was that she needed to know more about the victim.
Gunnar spoke up. “Damian encouraged women to take cocaine, possibly so they’d submit to his sexual advances. If he tried that with Annie, she might have threatened to report him to the police, giving him a reason to get rid of her.”
The chief shook his head. “He had nothing to fear. The first laws against distribution of narcotics weren’t enacted until 1914. That’s two years after the Titanic sank.”
Gunnar shrugged. “So maybe he coaxed Annie into taking drugs. Under the influence of them, she fell or threw herself overboard. Either way, he’s responsible.”
The chief sat back in his chair and laced his fingers behind his head. “We don’t have a consensus here. One vote each for the cheating wife, the young thief, and the womanizing drug pusher. What’s your solution, Val?”
“Those three had reasons to want Annie dead, but there’s no evidence anyone killed her. Though it’s probably not what Otto had in mind, I’d blame the chaperone and the captain. They’re morally responsible for Annie’s death. She’d done something foolish by sitting on the rail the first night at sea. Someone should have watched her at all times after that.” Val looked at the chief. “Your turn.”
“You’re right. No evidence of a crime. Accident and suicide are also possibilities. When Annie climbed on the railing the first night, she might have intended to jump, like the girl in the Titanic movie. A young man coaxed her down from the railing once, but she could have tried again when no one was around to talk her out of it. In the absence of a witness who saw her jump, her death would go down as an accident.”
Val finished the last bite of her pudding. “That would happen in the real world, but not in Otto’s fantasy Titanic mystery. We haven’t found the envelope that contains the name of his culprit. But it’s clear where he was going with this game. He stuck the knife into everyone at the table, but he stuck it farthest into Damian.”
“The drug pusher and sexual predator,” the chief said. “He’s the worst of the bunch in the game.” He paused before his last few words and looked pointedly at Val.
Val interpreted his look as a warning not to leap from game to life. She agreed with him, at least about Damian. “Otto created characters who were dishonest, jealous, irresponsible, and unfaithful. He matched each fault with the guest most likely to have it. But Damian the man doesn’t necessarily have the faults of Damian the character. I heard he and Louisa were last-minute substitutes for another couple, who might have been the models for the mystery game characters.”
Granddad raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Who told you about this other couple? Cheyenne?”
Val guessed what he was thinking: Cheyenne could have invented the other couple to obscure the fact that she had manipulated Otto into inviting Damian to the dinner. Come to think of it, Cheyenne could have also invented the story of the Titanic artifacts to suggest Trey and Homer had motives for silencing Otto.
Chief Yardley put his notebook in his pocket. “There’s no proof Otto’s guests committed crimes like the ones in his script. Even if they did, you can’t assume his death was related to the game.” The chief caught Val’s eye. “Nothing in the scripts was worth assaulting you to get them.”
Though she agreed the game might prove a dead end, she refused to blame a random purse snatcher for her ordeal in the trunk. “That’s an easy conclusion now that we’ve gone through the game. Otto’s guests didn’t know what kind of damning information would come to light in the last two scenes or in his solution. Maybe that information wasn’t worth killing for, but it might be worth keeping it from the press and the police.”
“Fair enough.” The chief stood up. “I’ll take the scripts with me and send an officer to patrol this street tonight in case someone tries again to grab them. Thank you. This was more entertaining than most criminal investigations. And the food was way better than what I usually eat when I’m on a case.”
Granddad walked him to the front door.
Bethany sighed. “I’m disappointed. I was sure we’d find out Annie was murdered. These mystery games are always about murder.”
Gunnar pushed back his chair and picked up his plate and Granddad’s.
Val stood up. “Stop collecting the plates from the table, Gunnar. Granddad and I will clean up. You’ve had a long day.” Maybe that explained why he’d been so crabby tonight.
She thanked him and Bethany for coming and saw them out. Gunnar reminded her that she was having dinner at his place tomorrow.
She and Granddad cleared the table. While she loaded the dishwasher, he put away the leftovers from the leftovers.
“You know what the setup with the yacht and the mystery game reminded me of?” he said. “The plot of And Then There Were None. A man invites a bunch of people with nothing in common to an island. A taped voice announces they’re all guilty of something. Totally cut off from the rest of the world, they pay for their crimes one by one.”
The comparison struck a chord with Val. “Otto’s yacht was a floating island. For a while, we all wondered if we’d make it back to shore. Fortunately, we did. The accuser was the only person who died.”
“So far.” Granddad checked to make sure the back door was locked. “So far.”
Chapter 17
Val closed the dishwasher and turned to face her grandfather. “You’re expecting some more murders?”
“S’more murders. That would make a good book title.” He sat down at the breakfast table. “Louisa could be in danger from her husband or from Cheyenne. Maybe she and Damian exchanged murders, like in that Hitchcock movie. He’d kill her husband and she’d kill his wife. Those two would have a lot more money to play with if Louisa was dead.”
The femme fatale plot with a twist. Val wiped down the kitchen counter. “If you told the chief that, I’ll bet he said, You’re jumping to a conclusion.” Val had heard that line often enough from him.
“Yes, but I figured he’d change his mind after seeing that Otto cast Damian and Cheyenne as cheating spouses and Louisa as a jealous rich woman. Then you muddied the waters by bringing up that other pair who were supposed to be invited.”
“I thought the chief should know. He can decide if they’re relevant.” Val started the dishwasher. “The police would take a long, hard look at Damian and Cheyenne if both their spouses died suddenly and left them fortunes.” Val could tell by Granddad’s silence that he wasn’t going to argue the point.
S'more Murders Page 14