by Mike Befeler
I decided to take my morning constitutional and see if Andrew was on the jogging track. Marion stirred from under the covers.
“Going somewhere, Paul?”
“I’ll take my walk around the deck and revel in being able to remember yesterday.”
“I remember last night very well.”
“You have a very positive effect on this old mind and body.”
“There was nothing old about your body last night. I’ll get up in a few minutes and we can have breakfast when you return.”
I headed up to the walking deck to see if I could find Andrew and, sure enough on the second pass, I spotted him up ahead looking over the railing.
“Admiring the ocean?” I asked.
“I saw two whales breach.”
“No kidding. Where?”
He pointed.
I squinted and waited in eager anticipation of finally seeing a whale.
Five minutes passed and nothing appeared.
“I think they’ll have to come up soon,” Andrew said.
“They’re hiding from me again.”
After another five minutes we gave up and decided to take our walk.
“What’s on your agenda today, Paul?”
“My bride and I are touring Butchart Gardens to see all the posies.”
Andrew chuckled. “We’re doing the same. It’s supposed to be quite a place.”
“You’ve never been there before?”
“No. First time. Helen and I have traveled to more tropical climes but haven’t visited the Northwest other than Seattle and Portland.”
“My first time in Victoria as well . . . as far as I can remember.”
“Say, speaking of your memory, you spotted me right off this morning.”
“Yup. My brain cells were supercharged last night.”
“Sounds like a story there.”
“Just a little quirk of my addled cranium. So today’s also my big day to see if I can resolve the Zarins, Gary and Gina show. There should be some fireworks.”
“Don’t get burned.”
“That’s the darn problem. All this is converging on poor little Victoria, but I haven’t pieced it all together yet. And Grudion is still off following me rather than trying to nail one of these other jerks.”
“Everything seems to happen around you, Paul, so maybe that isn’t a bad strategy for Grudion.”
“Yeah. I’m like the carcass attracting all the vultures.”
“I wouldn’t put it quite that way.”
We completed our laps and then Andrew said he needed to get back to Helen.
I took one last look out to sea to verify that the whales were still laughing at me and then returned to my cabin.
I let myself in. “I’m starving,” I shouted. “Are you ready for breakfast?”
No answer.
“Marion?”
Still no answer.
She wasn’t in the cabin. I opened the sliding door and peered out on the balcony. She wasn’t there either.
After coming back in from the fresh air, it struck me. The room smelled from a strange aroma.
Then I noticed a sheet of paper on the bed.
I picked it up and read: “If you want to see your wife alive, stay out of what doesn’t involve you.”
Chapter 19
My chest tightened as fear gripped me. One of the slimeballs had kidnapped Marion. What had I got my sorry behind and Marion’s attractive one into?
I now recognized the aroma wafting through the room—chloroform. I suspected one of the bad guys had knocked Marion out and dragged her away.
Think, Jacobson.
All kinds of names swirled in my recalcitrant brain: Zarins, Valdis, Gina, Gary, Ellen Hargrave, Inese, Erik, the Oldsters from Reno . . . Grudion.
Grudion was probably following me, but I didn’t want to shout in the hallway as it might alert whoever had kidnapped Marion and put her life at risk.
What to do?
I picked up the phone.
“I have a security emergency. Please have Mr. Grudion come to Paul Jacobson’s room.”
I waited and within five minutes a knock sounded on my door. Obviously, he was lurking close by and one of his people had reached him.
Opening the door, I pulled Grudion in and then shut the door behind him.
He dusted himself off. “Yes, Mr. Jacobson?”
“Someone abducted my wife.” I pointed to the note still lying on the bed.
He leaned over and read it. “Don’t touch it. I’ll have it checked for fingerprints.”
“I’m sure whoever did it didn’t leave any.”
“Maybe I’ll find your fingerprints, Mr. Jacobson. Is this a stunt of yours?”
“Just a Goddamn minute. My wife’s disappeared. Don’t start accusing me.”
Grudion leveled a gaze at me. “Just checking.”
I felt like I had been captured by the Scandinavian Gestapo.
“Also, notice the smell in here, Detective?”
He sniffed. “Chloroform.”
“Exactly.”
He reached for his cell phone and began jabbering in Swedish.
He snapped it shut and turned toward me. “We have an alert out for your wife. Care to speculate on who might have done this?”
“Half the ship and an irate Latvian crime lord come to mind. Grudion, if you were following me, didn’t you see anything?”
“No. I was watching you up on the jogging track.”
I punched my right fist into my left hand. “I thought so. Then you know I didn’t do this.”
He shrugged. “You could have done it during the night.”
I pointed a finger at him. “But I suspect you’ve been watching my room.”
He gave me a sheepish smile. “Let’s say that no one reported seeing you leave between the time you came in last night and going on your walk this morning.”
“There,” I said triumphantly.
“But you’ve been implicated in the disappearance of Mrs. Hargrave over a balcony. That may be your modus operandi for getting rid of people.”
“Okay, Grudion. Why don’t you cut out the horse crap and start looking for my wife?”
“My people are on it.”
“Good. Now what are you personally going to do?”
He flinched. “Me?”
“Yeah, you. You’re always giving me grief and traipsing around spying on me. I want to see some results from you this time. Remember, I’m a paying customer. And I’ll give you a hand. Let’s start with the cabin staff. They’re around the corridor all the time. They might have seen something.”
He gave me a weak smile. “Good idea.”
We left my stateroom and Grudion marched along the corridor and knocked on an inside door.
I caught up to him as the door opened. Two maids and a steward stood inside, folding bed linens.
“We have a disappearance from Room 10610. Mrs. Jacobson.”
One of the maids smiled. “Mrs. Jacobson. She’s very nice.”
“That’s my wife. Have you seen her this morning?”
“No, not since yesterday.”
“Have any of you noticed anything unusual? We think Mrs. Jacobson has been abducted.”
The other maid put her hand to her face. “That’s terrible.”
The steward looked thoughtful. “I saw a man accompanying a woman down the hallway this morning. She looked like she was drunk or sick.”
“Which direction were they headed?” I asked.
“Toward the front of the ship.”
“Can you describe the man?” Grudion asked.
“I didn’t really notice him.”
“Come on,” Grudion said. “Let’s check with the staff further up the hallway.”
At the next linen room, no one had seen anything. We continued forward and had a little more success.
“Yes,” a young woman said, pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. “I saw a man help a woman into the elevator. He was practica
lly dragging her.”
“Did you get a look at him?” Grudion asked.
“His back was to me. All I saw was a brown jacket and a baseball cap.”
“How tall?”
“About his size.” She pointed to me.
Grudion glared at me. “How long ago?”
“I’d say an hour.”
“See,” I said. “It wasn’t me. You were watching me on the jogging track an hour ago.”
“Did you see if they were going up or down?” Grudion asked.
The maid pursed her lips and wrinkles creased her forehead. Then a broad smile appeared on her face. “Yes. After the door closed I saw the lighted numbers change to nine and then eight. Then I turned away.”
“That’s very helpful,” Grudion said. He pulled out his cell phone, punched in some numbers and began squawking in his secret tongue. Then he clicked it shut and strode toward the elevators.
“What now?” I asked.
“I’m having the staff check all forward rooms on decks eight, five and four.”
“What about seven and six?”
“Those have bars, the theater, photo gallery and casino. Three of my men will start on deck seven and then move to six.”
“I’ll check out the casino,” I said. “Marion has been very lucky there.”
He shrugged. “It’s not open. We’re too close to Vancouver Island.”
“I’ll start in the casino anyway and meet you there after you check out deck seven.”
I took the elevator down, my old ticker beating like a Lionel Hampton set.
No one was in the casino area—all the tables and slot machines rested like exhausted sentinels in the dim light. So different from the night before with the mob of people coursing through and the sound of Marion and Helen hitting jackpot after jackpot.
I walked around the edge of the room and tried the handle on the door to the hallway I had been escorted down. Locked. At least I remembered that due to my sex-induced super memory. I found one more door and shook the handle. Also locked. Then I sniffed the air like a bloodhound. The old sniffer picked up the faint aroma of chloroform. Success.
I shook the handle again. Then I put my ear to the door. I heard a faint rustling.
“Marion. Are you in there?”
I listened again. A soft moan.
I stood back and kicked at the door.
Bam.
Pain shot through my leg. Damn. I had hurt my foot. I hopped around until the pain subsided. Next I stepped back and raced forward, butting my shoulder into the door. I bounced off like a ping pong ball. My teeth rattled and my shoulder felt like a piece of raw meat.
Rubbing my shoulder and limping, I decided to take the elevator up a floor to find Grudion. I gimped through the photo gallery and spotted him in a bar next door.
“Grudion, this is no time for a drink. I think I’ve found Marion in the casino.”
He strode up to me. “Let’s go.”
He took off toward the stairwell, and I limped along like Gunsmoke’s Chester behind him. I caught up to him in the casino and pointed to the door.
He extracted a key from an elastic tether on his belt and opened the door.
I shook my head. “That was sure easier than my attempts.”
Marion lay there in a crumpled pile.
Grudion bent down and checked Marion’s breathing and pulse. Then he stood up and punched in some numbers on his cell phone. This time he spoke in English. “Bring a stretcher to the casino immediately.”
I leaned over and gently patted Marion’s cheek. “You’re going to be fine.”
Her eyes fluttered and she licked her lips. I heard a faint, “Paul?”
“I’m here.” I gave her a hug.
Then two attendants arrived and carefully placed Marion on a stretcher. I followed as they took her in the elevator down to the fourth deck to the infirmary. Then they moved her to a cot. A doctor arrived and checked Marion’s pulse and examined her eyes. He extracted a glass vial from a drawer, broke off the top and wafted it under Marion’s nose.
She flinched, coughed and her eyes shot open.
“There. I think you’re coming to.”
He helped her sit up.
“Don’t try to stand up yet.” He handed her a cup of water and she took a sip.
I sat next to Marion and put my arm around her. “I was so worried about you.”
She turned her head toward me and gave a wan smile. “Oh, Paul. I don’t know what happened to me.”
“That’s what Mr. Grudion will try to get to the bottom of. What do you remember?”
“You’re asking me about remembering?”
I chuckled. “I’m glad you still have your sense of humor. I had left you in the cabin when I went for my walk.”
“Yes. And then I changed and was in the bathroom putting on lipstick when I heard a knock on the door. I thought it was you and you’d forgotten your key card.”
“But it wasn’t me.”
“No. I opened the door and something was thrown over my head. Then a foul smell. That’s the last I remember before waking up.”
“Did you see your abductor?”
“It all happened too fast.”
“So you don’t even know if it was a man or a woman?”
“No.”
“One of the service crew reporting seeing a man leading a sick or drunk woman, so that must have been your assailant.”
“Unless there was another unconscious woman being dragged away this morning.”
I hung my head. “This is all my fault. I riled up someone who took it out on you.”
After fifteen minutes the doctor suggested we try walking around the room. Marion seemed to have her sea legs again so after one last check of blood pressure and the light in her eyes routine, we were excused.
“I’m getting hungry,” Marion said.
“That’s a good sign.”
She looked at her watch. “Oh, dear. It’s too late for breakfast in the main dining room, but we can catch the buffet upstairs.”
“That’s the cruise life. No murders or abduction will keep us from our eating.”
We took the elevator to the twelfth deck, duly washed our hands in the clear antiseptic gel dispensed by a smiling attendant and entered the buffet line.
“Do you want to sit down, and I’ll bring some food to you?” I asked.
“No. I’m doing fine.”
We loaded up on eggs, sausage, pancakes, juice and coffee and found an open table near the windows.
I had taken two bites when I heard shouting behind me. I turned. “What’s going on?”
A man at the next table said, “Someone spotted a whale, that’s all.”
“Hot damn.” I looked out to sea.
Nothing.
I watched for five minutes and then returned to my food.
“I don’t understand it. Everyone sees whales and I haven’t spotted a cussed one yet.”
Marion patted my hand. “Be patient. You’ll have your chance.”
“But time is running out. We dock tomorrow and at my age this could be my last chance to see a whale. That’s provided I survive whoever is after us. I’m sorry that they’re taking it out on you now.”
“We’ll get through this,” Marion said. “And you’ll see your whale.”
“Is that a promise?”
“I can’t speak for the ocean, but we can always take a whale-watching trip to Maui.”
We finished breakfast without any additional whale alerts.
* * * * *
Back in our cabin I said to Marion, “I need to update Jennifer on my encounter with Karlis Zarins yesterday. Since that granddaughter of mine gave me a heads-up, I need to fill her in on the details.”
Marion reached into her purse, fiddled with the cell phone and then handed it to me.
“I know, push the green button,” I said.
Marion looked puzzled and then smiled. “That’s right. After last night you remember things from y
esterday perfectly.”
“Thanks to my sexy bride.”
Marion actually blushed.
I thrust my right index finger against the green button and the phone did its thing.
Allison answered.
“This is your father-in-law calling from Canada, eh.”
“Paul, it’s nice to hear from you. What have you and Jennifer been plotting? She’s been on her computer, muttering something about Latvia.”
“She’s my computer bloodhound seeking out information for me.”
“Well, here she is.”
I heard heavy breathing, and then Jennifer said, “Grandpa, this guy Karlis Zarins I told you about yesterday is a really bad dude.”
“I know. I met him after we spoke.”
“What? He’s there?”
“Yes. He kidnapped me with intent to do bodily harm. I just never expected that a crime boss in Latvia would be Inese’s father.”
“But you escaped?”
“I was rescued after nothing more than a severe reprimand, but he’s not one to mess around with.”
“I know. I’ve found out that he has killed numerous people and is the most feared man in Latvia.”
“Not currently. He’s now the most feared man in the Pacific Northwest.”
“You be careful. Now tell me the whole story.”
I recounted my diverted zodiac trip and concluded by saying, “And the worst part was I saw no whales.”
“Grandpa, that’s the least of your concerns.”
“I don’t know. It’s pretty serious, but several other things happened as well. I was busted for using a counterfeit quarter, and someone chloroformed Marion, abducted her and locked her in a closet in the casino. She’s okay now.”
I heard gasping and gurgling sounds on the line. Then Jennifer made me go through the details of all the episodes.
“You fall into one mess after another, Grandpa. But back to Inese’s murder. We now know that Inese’s father is a bad guy, and he’s searching for her killer. That means her death could be linked to his crime dealings.”
“Possibly. You suspected that when we spoke yesterday. The other scenario is that Gary and Gina bumped off Inese to eliminate a potential competitor for their part of Ellen Hargrave’s estate.”