A Christmas Cruise Murder

by Dawn Brookes

  Following a period of friendly banter around the table, Sarah’s parents left to head for the cinema. Rachel and Sarah opted to hang around and order tea while Rachel filled her friend in on the meeting with the Gonzalezes and the subsequent revelations. They roared with laughter, causing a few heads to turn, when Rachel described how she’d told Stella Gonzalez to ‘go on’.

  “You’ll never forget that, will you? Bernard can be such a card at times.”

  “His humorous interpretation of counselling did relax me enough to go in there, so I will have to thank him.”

  “Don’t you dare! He’ll be unbearable.”

  “Okay, I’ll thank him in my head rather than out loud. Anyway, they were a nice couple, I thought, although Paulo could be a bit prickly. I sort of hope they’re not involved in this, but I find it hard to believe that Stella at least hadn’t been in contact with Sosa about the trip. It would surprise me if they hadn’t arranged to meet up during this cruise. They did seem genuinely shocked about the death, though.”

  “What about Paulo? Do you believe he was unaware of his wife’s contact with her brother and her intention to ask him to help recruit her nephew for financial help?”

  “He was harder to read. He did put on a good show of being affronted at finding out, but he doesn’t seem like the sort of man who wouldn’t know what was going on in his own household. I would very much like to speak to both of them separately and see if either of them trips up. Stella appeared to be telling the truth for most of the time and relieved to be getting it out in the open. Having said that, the tears dried up quickly once she knew her husband’s business was out of trouble, so her distress was more about money and not over her brother’s untimely death, that’s for sure.”

  “I don’t think I can hold that against her, he was a ghastly man by all accounts. Even Bernard didn’t like him and he likes everyone.”

  “As do you, Sarah Bradshaw, so if you don’t feel sorry about Sosa’s death, he must have been horrible. I haven’t managed to dig up any redeeming features about his character from anyone.”

  “I wouldn’t say I’m not sorry about his death, but perhaps the world won’t miss him too much.”

  Mishka arrived with tea and began pouring for them.

  “How are you, Mishka?” asked Sarah innocently.

  “I’m well, nurse. I enjoyed our talk in Fátima yesterday and I have had no further problems with my eyes since you treated them.” Mishka’s face brightened; it was hard for anyone not to like Rachel’s best friend, one of the kindest people on the planet as far as she was concerned.

  “I expect you’re all having to work extra hard since Stefan departed,” Rachel spoke quietly, although they were not in earshot of any other passengers.

  “We are, but it’s a burden we are happy to bear to be rid of the man.”

  Mishka left them to drink their tea.

  “Do you think it was him, Rachel?” Sarah whispered.

  “No, I don’t think so. A man so openly hostile doesn’t go to the top of my list. Our killer would be more subtle, I believe. Having said that, maybe he doesn’t have the brains to hide his feelings. Although some murderers play with you and almost challenge you to prove their guilt, and if that’s the case he is highly intelligent. He’s a paradox, though, isn’t he? One minute he’s having a religious experience, the next we find out he’s a drug dealer!”

  “Perhaps his religious experience will help him change his ways.”

  “You were at the meeting with Waverley. He sold drugs the day after his so-called spiritual revelation.”

  “It obviously wasn’t a Damascus Road enlightenment, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t real.”

  “My father always says that the proof of a religious experience is in the life that follows, otherwise it makes a nonsense of everything he teaches.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t argue with Brendan Prince about theology, but back to the present. We’re not doing very well with this one, are we? Jason’s frantic with worry over Brenda’s possible involvement. I do so hope it is one of the waiters.”

  “It could also be Claudia Kitova, who managed to keep herself under the radar until we found out she was also being blackmailed. We still don’t know why. I was hoping you or Bernard could speak to her and find out.”

  “Already done, Sherlock. Jason asked Bernard to find out, and he only told me what he’d discovered tonight after surgery so Jason doesn’t know yet. Apparently, the poor woman made the mistake of confiding in Sosa that she’d found a gold brooch belonging to a passenger and kept it. She felt guilty afterwards and asked his advice as to whether she would be fired if she handed it in a few weeks later. He told her yes, and then began blackmailing her.”

  “I do hope Waverley doesn’t go after her, although she might have been desperate enough if Sosa tried to extort more money from her than she could afford.”

  “You’re right, but she wanted to return the brooch, so she’s honest underneath it all. I can’t believe she would resort to murder.”

  “She does seem an unlikely candidate, but she was the last person to see him alive. Also he may have had something else on her that we haven’t yet discovered.”

  “But wouldn’t it be rather foolish to be the one to deliver his final meal, and then find the body afterwards?”

  “Or very clever,” said Rachel, rubbing her head, frustrated that she was no nearer to discovering Sosa’s killer than before. “Changing the subject, Sarah, do you think there’s something wrong with me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Twice now, your mother has assumed I’ve been missing Carlos when I haven’t even been thinking about him. It makes me wonder whether I love him at all.”

  “Don’t take any notice of Mum, you know what she’s like. To her, love is everything. She sees romance under every bush – I blame Barbara Cartland.”

  Rachel laughed. “But surely I should be thinking about him.”

  “Rachel Prince, I’ve known you all my life, and when there’s a puzzle to be solved, nothing and no-one gets in the way of it. Remember, we’re different people to our parents. We don’t hang on every word of the men in our lives, but it doesn’t mean we don’t love them. Mum’s a romantic, she sees the world through a glass.”

  “Perhaps. I still have so many doubts over whether I can ever truly commit again.”

  “Rachel, if you don’t stop harking back to the past, you won’t ever move on. It’s just plain fear, but you know in your heart of hearts that Carlos is the one for you. When did you last think of him?”

  “When I woke up this morning. I even debated paying the hefty price for maritime roaming. If I had done, I might have saved myself from being attacked.”

  “Mm. There you are. You compartmentalise, Rachel. That’s who you are and Carlos wouldn’t want you any other way. It doesn’t mean you don’t love him, he knows that. If there wasn’t a murder investigation going on, you’d most likely be pining away and running yourself to death up on deck sixteen.”

  They laughed at the reference to Rachel’s keep fit fanaticism. “Well that’s something I am missing. Perhaps I’m—”

  “Go on!” said Sarah and they both burst into another giggling fit, preventing Rachel from saying whatever it was she had been about to say.

  “Come on, let’s get out of here before Pash throws us out,” she said instead. The glare boring through the back of her head made her almost wish the new head waiter would turn out to be the killer. There were few people she disliked to any degree, but Pash was becoming one of them. She was convinced he would step into Sosa’s shoes in every way and the waiters’ current respite would soon be over. She had no doubt Pash would not be averse to a touch of blackmail himself, but perhaps she was just being unkind.

  Chapter 18

  The familiar figure of CSO Jack Waverley loomed outside Rachel’s stateroom when she returned.

  “If it wasn’t a cliché, I would say again we really should stop meeting like this
, chief.”

  “I can only apologise, Miss Prince. May I come in?”

  The seriousness in his tone and the ‘Miss Prince’ usage warned Rachel not to make any further wisecracks.

  “Yes, of course.”

  Waverley followed her through to the sitting area and flopped down on the sofa.

  “Drink?”

  “Scotch please.”

  Blimey, it must be serious. Rachel poured a whisky from the mini bar and helped herself to a tonic water.

  “What on earth’s the matter?”

  His right hand stroked through the receding hairline and the familiar cough preceded any attempt at conversation. He swallowed the whisky in one gulp.

  “Brenda’s gone missing. I don’t know what to do.”

  “I think you had better explain what you mean by gone missing. It’s quite difficult to go missing on the Coral, but I don’t need to tell you that. Is she not at work?”

  “We had a row after I questioned her father. She got it in her head I didn’t believe her when she told me she had nothing to do with Sosa’s death. She’s been on paid absence from the bakery since this business started; she’s due back tomorrow.”

  “Could you not just reassure her that you do believe her? Assuming you do, that is.”

  “Of course I do, it’s just that Richard’s alibi for the hours before Sosa’s death is that he went to his room to unpack, but nobody can confirm it. Also, he now admits he had a row with Sosa on the dockside. He denied it until I told him Goodridge had let me know a passenger had identified him, and then both he and Brenda became defensive. I challenged Brenda about the short time she went missing from the bakery after cutting her finger and it all got out of hand. I left them to cool down while I met with Goodridge in my office. I’ve just been back to our room. She’s packed a bag and disappeared.”

  “So she’s not really gone missing; she’s, erm, temporarily left you.” Rachel tried to sound calm.

  “I know what you’re thinking. You think I should have stayed out of it and let Goodridge speak to them.”

  “Well it might have been less confrontational. You know you’re too close to this, so yes, that would have been better, but there’s not much point worrying about that now.”

  “What am I going to do? I think I should just leave her to calm down. Wait until the case is solved, then patch it up.”

  “And leave Brenda thinking forever that you don’t trust her? No, you need to find her and convince her that you believe her now and that you were playing the role of bad cop, because that’s what she would be likely to face from anyone else, and you’d rather it came from you. Then you need to apologise.”

  “But I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “Chief, what’s more important to you? Your pride or getting your wife back?”

  He smiled for the first time since entering the room. “You’re wise beyond your years, Rachel Prince. I’m terrified of losing her; it scares me so much, it hurts. What would I ever do if she is involved?”

  “I don’t believe that, neither do you. Richard Jones may have come aboard to warn Sosa to stay away from his family, but do you seriously believe either he or Brenda could be involved in this? Also why would she implicate herself and the bakery? There’s no way she would have known when Sosa would order food.”

  “But it wasn’t in the food.”

  “Nevertheless, if she had known about the substance in the whisky, she would have somehow delayed his meal so the galley would play no part in the investigation. I’m sure your wife is intelligent, implicating herself would have been stupidity. The meal was ordered by coincidence.

  “I also don’t have your wife or father-in-law – not that I know him – down as cold-blooded killers. The more I think about it, the more I don’t believe it’s them – if they had killed him, it would have been a spur of the moment thing, not in this calculated fashion. And it was such a cruel way to kill someone, he must have been in agony.”

  “You’re right. I knew it anyway, but thank you, Rachel, I’m convinced.”

  “Now you’d better go and convey that conviction to your wife and father-in-law. Don’t let this fester.”

  Waverley hesitated. “I’ll ask you about your progress tomorrow, but for now, I need to find my wife. She can’t have gone far.”

  Rachel heaved a sigh of relief after he left and hoped she was right in her judgement that Richard and Brenda were truly innocent of any crime. Now it was time to work out her next steps.

  Usually she would go to the gym and mull things over during a workout, but her hip was still sore from the stitches and she didn’t want them to come apart. It was frustrating not being able to exercise as this was her go-to relaxation method. Perhaps some music would help.

  She picked up her iPhone and noticed there was a message from Carlos. There must have been a temporary signal again. Her heart leapt when she read it.

  Case almost solved, hope to join ship on one of the Canary stops. Will let you know when confirmed. Jason says I can bunk in with him.

  Now she was far too excited to concentrate on suspects and murder. Carlos would be joining the ship in time for Christmas; she couldn’t wait to let Sarah know, unless Jason had already told her. There was no signal on her phone to send a reply, but she picked up the stateroom phone and dialled her friend’s number.

  “Hello.”

  “Guess what?”

  “You’ve heard then.” Sarah giggled. “I wanted to tell you over dinner as I knew already, but Jason wouldn’t let me. He said it was down to Carlos to tell you. I’m so pleased, Rachel. We’re going to have a wonderful Christmas now. My parents will be over the moon.”

  “Nice that someone doesn’t know before me.”

  “It’s not like that. I was with Jason in Waverley’s office, before I met you and my parents, when the call came through. Carlos wanted to check he would have somewhere to stay before getting your hopes up, and Jason had to get approval from the captain. Guest services contacted head office and they will add him as Jason’s guest to join the ship as soon as we know when he’s coming. We can’t just let anyone walk on board a fully booked ship, you know.”

  “Oh, I should have thought of that, of course you can’t. Is Jason alright about it?”

  “He’s fine. He likes Carlos and was used to sharing with a lot more people in the army. Anyway he’s got a sofa bed in his room. The two of them will be talking late into the night – sometimes I think men are worse than women when it comes to gossip.”

  “I can’t thank Jason enough. This will be the best Christmas ever. Until I received the text message, I think I was shutting off my emotions; I was so disappointed not to be having our planned time together, I went into shutdown.”

  “I know that, Rachel. It was obvious to me – remember, I can read you. I recognised the signs.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “I almost did when you were worrying about your feelings earlier, but sometimes you have to work it out for yourself. Actually, I’m hoping Carlos will be a good influence on Jason. He might be able to get him to open up about Afghanistan and his own commitment issues.”

  “Do you want me to ask him to try?”

  “No, I don’t want Jason to think I’m manipulating things behind the scenes. That’s the last thing he needs. I would rather it came naturally, otherwise neither of them will be relaxed.”

  “You’re right. Carlos doesn’t do contrived. I do hope he’s right about solving his case within the next few days. If so, he’s worked really quick, but I’m not complaining.”

  “I expect he had added motivation.”

  They laughed and chatted for a while longer before Sarah turned serious.

  “There is just one thing. Carlos is not going to be happy that you have become embroiled in another case on board ship, and even less happy about your injuries.”

  “Good point. We need to get this case solved before he joins us and my wound needs to heal quickly. Th
ere’s nothing like a deadline to get me going. That reminds me, I forgot to tell you about Waverley’s visit.”

  “Oh?” Sarah sounded concerned.

  “No, it’s not like that. He wasn’t warning me off for a change, although I’m sure that will come again – you know what he’s like.”

  Rachel explained about the row he’d had with Brenda and his father-in-law and how Brenda had walked out.

  “Oh dear. I do hope he can smooth things over. Trust is so important in a relationship.” The wistful tone didn’t escape Rachel’s notice. She took a deep breath.

  “Sarah, Jason loves you. Whatever has happened in his past, the two of you will work it out together. I have to believe that otherwise there’s no hope for me and Carlos either.”

  “I hope so, Rachel, for all our sakes. For my part, there’s always something missing because I know that Jason finds it so difficult to completely commit. It must be hard for Carlos. Perhaps you and Jason should talk and me and Carlos can console each other over our half-hearted lovers.”

  Rachel laughed loudly. “Now there’s a thought. Of course it could be worse – if you and Carlos were together it would be too perfect, and if me and Jason were together we’d be forever in doubt. My father always says that relationships are based on joint respect and hard work once the passion has levelled out.”

  “He should know. Your parents make it work and your dad does enough marriage counselling to be an expert on the subject.”

  “He is, and I get what he means just as long as he doesn’t try to counsel me.”

  “He wouldn’t dare, but he’d be the first one I’d go to for pre-marital counselling if Jason ever gets around to asking me to marry him. At least you said yes when Carlos asked.”

  “I did, but he asked at the right time. There will be a right time for Jason. Oh Sarah, I’ve just realised what you said! That means you’re ready to marry if he asks. You’ve always said you’re not ready.”

  Rachel heard the giggle through the phone. “Well now I’m ready. I’m almost sorry because Mum will think it’s her nagging that’s got me here and I won’t be able to deny her the satisfaction of believing it even though it’s not true.”