by S. Y. Robins
4
Hannah avoided Nick for the next day, not happy that he had reprimanded her the way he had and still feeling like he was stalking her. There was something about him that she really liked but she also had a lot of questions. She was on this cruise to start a new career, not to find a guy and she decided to treat him as a superior and nothing more. When the autopsy results came back the news quickly spread amongst the staff, especially since it meant the police would be staying longer. The man had died of poisoning, which meant someone on board not only had poison, they also had a way to get it in his food. The restaurant and kitchen staff was immediately suspected but Hannah found that unbelievable as she couldn’t imagine any of them poisoning someone else.
It also immediately made everyone suspicious of one another and Hannah was getting some weird looks. Apparently Alaina had made the comment that it must be her as she was the only kitchen staff who was new and now several of the others, especially those who hadn’t talked to her yet, were giving her weird looks. She tried to ignore them but it was hard when the police came into the common area with the announcement that they might be questioning some people. The first to get questioned was the room service staff, as they had delivered him food and something to drink and it was the most logical.
Hannah went about her duties as normal, and that night she noticed that several guests came back a second time for certain desserts which made her feel better. It wasn’t until very late that night that she went to bed, and when she did she had put the murder out of her head completely and focused on the fact that she was successful in her job. She still had little accidents constantly but they were able to laugh it off and nothing major had happened to cause problems.
When there was once again excitement in the common area when Hannah appeared for breakfast, she sighed and immediately knew what was going on. “Who was it this time?” she asked easily as she served herself some breakfast.
“How do you know something happened?” Alaina asked snidely.
“It’s easy to see with the mood around here. Something happened and I’m just drawing conclusions. I’m assuming I’m right?”
“You are but that’s suspicious,” Alaina said back. “And it doesn’t help that it was that guy you were flirting with the other day. Worried you’d get fired?”
“I have nothing to be worried about since I didn’t do anything wrong, though you are quick to point the finger so maybe you are trying to divert attention?”
“Ladies, let’s not fight. The police will question all the kitchen staff followed by the restaurant staff. The Captain wants this resolved as soon as possible, it is causing panic and that’s the last thing we need on a ship,” Nick said from the side where he had quietly been eating. “We need to provide a united front to the guests and none of this bickering and accusing. It doesn’t help and we still need to make sure everyone has a great experience.”
Hannah mumbled something not so flattering about Nick’s scolding before walking out of the room to Nick’s raised eyebrow. She made her way to the restaurant, where the police were already questioning some of the staff who weren’t running around preparing breakfast. She ignored all of them though and walked to her kitchen, where one of the kitchen help was already working on preparing some of the puddings which were easy to make and after the last incident she had sworn them off completely.
“Miss? Do you have a moment to talk to us?” one of the police officers asked her as she was frosting one of her cakes.
“If you give me five minutes, I was getting ready to take a break anyway. I just need to finish this chocolate cake.”
“I will wait. That cake looks really good.”
Hannah smiled. “It is, maybe when we are done you’d like to try a slice?”
“I might take you up on that. I will let you get back to work, I’ll be right over here.”
Hannah returned to finishing her cake, which she hoped really was as good as she’d said. It was the only one of her cakes that used dark chocolate, but the cake hadn’t been as big of a hit as she thought it would be. She had other cakes with milk chocolate, which might be why, and she was already trying to come up with ways to change the cake to make it better liked. She had always preferred dark chocolate herself, but she knew some found it too bitter.
She was also determined to find out who was responsible for these poisonings. She knows it’s not her, as she would never even think of doing that, but that didn’t mean someone else in her kitchen wouldn’t and it also meant that others in the restaurant could have. It was suspicious that it didn’t affect more people, so it had to be something not many ate. Focusing back on her cake she saw that it was done and after cleaning up her workstation she turned to the police officer, slightly nervous despite the fact she knew she was innocent.
“I’m ready, would you like to stay here? There are some stools over there we can pull up to the counter.”
“That’s fine, as long as we have privacy.”
“My help went to lunch already, so we’ll be alone for another twenty minutes or so. Do you mind if I eat something while we talk?”
“No, that’s fine I understand I’m interrupting your lunch. First, I’m assuming you’ve heard the cause of death for both men over the last two days?”
“Yes, I have. Poisoning, right?”
“Yes. Do you have any idea what might have caused the poisoning?”
“No idea. I imagine they didn’t take it voluntarily, but I have no idea how they would have gotten it. Anyone who works in the kitchens or the restaurant would have access to all the food and drink though so that’s quite a few people.”
“True. I have to ask, but did you poison anyone, either purposely or accidentally?” the officer asked, ignoring Hannah’s incredulous look.
Her first thought was to tell him that if she did she wasn’t about to tell him, but then she thought better of it and shook her head. “No, I did not. I would never do that.”
“I see. Do you have any suspicions on who might have done that?”
“No, but I haven’t given it much thought either.”
“What if I told you we suspect this restaurant because both men ate here?”
“I would tell you that I still don’t know. I honestly don’t know anyone here well enough to have any kind of opinion on who might be responsible. I do hope you catch whoever it is though.”
“Where do the ingredients used in the kitchen come from?”
“My ingredients come from the central pantry that is between the kitchens. There is a few shelves that are for my ingredients and then there is a few shelves in the main refrigerator that my supplies come from. The rest is for the main kitchen, and anyone who works in either kitchen has access to it. The other dessert chef uses the same pantry and refrigerator since it’s not far from the kitchen that she uses.”
“This is your first job on a cruise ship, correct?”
“Correct. I’ve worked in other restaurants but this is the first time I’m working on a ship.”
“That’s all the questions I have for now, but if you think of anything or see anything suspicious, please let me know.”
“I will. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open. Would you like some cake?” Hannah asked, determined to find out who did this quickly. It sounded like they thought it was coming from her kitchen and she hated that they did as she had been trying so hard.
“I would love some, thank you,” the officer said with a smile, putting his notepad back in his pocket.
Hannah got up and got a small plate and fork out, before cutting a slice of cake and handing it to the officer. She easily covered the remaining cake back up before putting the remains of her own food away, not particularly hungry anymore. She had gotten into the habit of eating in the kitchen before going to explore the ship, not wanting to deal with Nick or the others now that they were giving her odd stares. She knew it would be better if she was around others to give her an alibi, but she doubted it would make much of a differ
ence as they were determined to find fault.
Once the officer had left and she had put the plate and fork with the rest of the dishes for the dishwasher she started to make her way to the upper decks, wanting to enjoy some of the sunshine while she could. It was a beautiful day out and on the upper decks she had a 360 view of the ocean which she thought was one of the most beautiful things she had seen in a long time. Especially with the sun hitting the water just right, she found it strangely calming.
Standing on the front of the ship, looking forward at the direction the ship was going, she thought about the murders that had happened. Both men had eaten at her restaurant, and both men had had some interaction with her before dying. It almost felt targeted towards her, but she doubted that could be true as she hadn’t done anything to anyone. She started thinking about who could possibly want to target her and her first thoughts were Nick and Alaina. Nick had been everywhere and had access to everything, while Alaina had access to all the kitchens as well. Nobody would look twice if either of them were in a place they shouldn’t be, and Alaina had hated her from the start while Nick had been stalking her and she had no idea why. She wished she could just come out and ask him what his deal was, but she wasn’t sure he would take it right if she did and if he said something about her to her superiors or the captain, she might never get hired on another ship again. Determined to keep a closer eye on both of them, she turned back to looking out over the ocean and clear her mind at least for the time being. She could worry about all of this when she went back down.
5
Hannah had been watching her supplies much more closely, and she noticed that Nick never went into the pantry or refrigerator even if he came to the kitchens. That left Alaina and she was determined to find out if she was responsible, but if she wasn’t, she’d at least know what staff member had been in there most. While many had access, not many would actually go in there. When the news came of another death, Hannah just sighed and went back to work, not sure if she wanted to find out who it was. She had a bad feeling that it was somehow connected to her, and it worried her as perception was much more important than truth when it came to keeping her job. If guests even thought she might be responsible, they would never eat her food again even after it had been proven someone else had really been responsible after all.
Nick came into her kitchen, which wasn’t entirely unusual but the look on his face was solemn and almost sad, which worried Hannah. “Hannah, could you stop for a moment?”
“Hold on, I need to finish this part or it will be ruined,” Hannah replied, before knocking the entire bowl off the counter, splattering both of them with the mixture. She looked at it in horror before turning to Nick. “Well I guess the bowl thought we were done. What’s going on?”
“There was another death.”
“I heard. I’ve been in here though.”
“I know. It was the police officer who interviewed you yesterday.”
Nick was watching her expression and she knew it, and she also knew her face was showing absolute horror. She had liked the guy and he had been very nice to her, but it also once again connected a death to her kitchen and to her and that meant all the focus would be on her. She had to find out who was responsible and she had to find out soon before catching them in the act. At this point, the officers wouldn’t accept just her word, they’d want proof and nobody would be stupid enough to admit to a triple homicide just because she said they did it.
“I can tell from your facial expression that you are shocked. I need you to pull out the chocolate cake you served him. He was bragging about it, saying it was amazing, but it was also the only thing he had eaten in a long time. His partner said he had been interviewing people and hadn’t taken a break yet, which he apparently tended to do when involved in a case. His partner is just outside the door, waiting to take the cake and get it tested.”
“It’s the one right there, feel free to take it. I honestly didn’t do this and if my cake comes back with something, I will be hell bent on finding out who messed with my ingredients. I take pride in the work I do and poisoning people is definitely not on my list of things to do.”
“I’m not accusing you Hannah, but we have to figure this out. Don’t worry, we will catch whoever is responsible.”
Hannah just nodded and waited as Nick got the officer to bag the cake and take it with him. It saddened her as she had worked so hard on those cakes, and she took pride in each one she made. She also wondered why only some people were affected and not all of them, but that wasn’t nearly as important as finding out who was responsible to begin with. The rest of the day she tried to focus on her work, but every time she turned around something else went wrong. When trying to break eggs into the mixer, she accidentally dropped the whole egg in and had to throw out the entire mix because of all the shell pieces.
Next she knocked over the whipped topping she had made for several of her cakes before she was able to put it in bags, having to start over on that as well. She ended up taking almost an hour longer to do everything that day, simply because of all the mistakes she was making and it was making her even more irritated. By the time she was done she sat down on a stool, her head in her hands, glad to finally be done. She knew it wouldn’t take long for the cake to come back, but she didn’t want to know the results, dreading what would happen. If it came back positive for poison, she was fairly certain she’d get arrested quickly or at least taken in for more questioning. If it came back negative, they were still as far away from the truth as they had been which wouldn’t be what they wanted either. She wanted to get this figured out, but no matter what the test results said, she wasn’t going to like it.
Hearing a noise coming from the store room, she looked around the corner to see who was there to see Alaina going in with a small packet in her hand. When she came back out, she no longer had the packet which Hannah thought was suspicious. She knew she couldn’t be seen from where she was sitting, and after leaning back she thought about how she should probably get a simple poison test to make sure nobody else died from eating her cakes. Not sure how to get that, she made a mental note to ask the officer when he came back and got up to go to her room. She just wanted to relax on her bed for a bit before going to sleep, needing the time to relax. It had been a while since she had read a decent book, and now seemed like as good of a time as any, knowing it was hard enough to get time to herself that she should take the opportunity. She was thankful that she didn’t encounter anyone when she walked through the halls to her room, and when she got there she quickly changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt. Grabbing a book she slid under her blankets, letting her head fall back on the pillow with a sigh.
The following morning she decided to come up with a plan. She was going to use Nick, as he seemed to be everywhere anyway and he seemed to look kind of hurt whenever she brushed him off. If he saw her testing her dark chocolate, then saw Alaina going in, and then saw her testing it again it would be proof. She could be completely wrong but at least Nick would know she was serious about not being responsible for all of this. First she had to find a way to test the chocolate though and for that she needed the officer, assuming he would be able to help her. After grabbing a quick sandwich in the common area, she went in search of the officer which ended up being easier than she thought it would be. He had just finished breakfast in one of the smaller restaurants when Hannah saw him coming down the hall straight at her, clearly looking like he wanted to talk to her. “Do you have a moment?”
“Yes, I was actually looking for you,” Hannah said with an easy smile.
“Let’s go into the kitchen, since we were relatively private there before. I promise this won’t take long.”
Hannah easily led him to her kitchen, where she was able to close the doors even though they didn’t have locks, which meant they had some privacy. Once there, she started the coffeepot like she always did when first getting there in the morning before turning to the officer and waiting for him to start t
alking, which she was glad he did quickly as she knew why he wanted to talk to her.
“I will just get right to the point. Your cake came back positive for poison, but only small traces in some parts. Our best guess is that some ingredient that is only used in some parts of the cake was poisoned.”
“I actually have a suspicion of one ingredient, which is dark chocolate. This is the only cake I use it in, and I use a different supply of dark chocolate for the decorations than I do in the rest of the cake. I did not do this, I would never do this and I’m determined for this to end and the real culprit to be caught. I know you have no reason to believe me, and I know everything points at me.”
“Unfortunately, it does. We will be watching everything closely and I ask that you check all your ingredients before using them.”
“That’s actually why I was looking for you. Is there a way for me to test my ingredients to ensure they don’t include anything else?”
“Yes. I have a few kits right here, which will test any ingredients you use. Simple put a small amount in this vial, and it will turn purple if poisoned or green if safe. I have more kits coming, but especially focus on your chocolate.”
“Thank you. I will test everything I use. Are there any other suspects?”
“I can’t discuss that with you, I’m sorry. Also, you can’t be in the kitchen by yourself so make sure you have someone with you when you are baking. As you can see there are labels on the vials, make sure to label them especially if they come back purple. Any questions?”
“No thank you. The kitchen help should be here soon and I need to get to work. Thank you for the kits.”