Silence fell over us again. I didn’t want to add to the uncomfortable feeling that had settled in amidst that silence, but another unresolved issue bubbled up in my mind.
“Just so I’m clear about this. If Martin Santo is the third man Wendy Cutler and David Engels spotted this morning, he’s our killer and not Passenger X. So, in addition to Martin Santo who's a passenger on board using a name that’s not on the manifest, there’s still the matter of an unidentified man overboard. That means there are two passengers unaccounted for on that manifest. Any progress figuring that one out?” I tried not to hyperventilate as I imagined Max asking that question. Maybe the cabin fever that struck in here is contagious, I thought as I tried to calm myself down.
After more than twenty-five years of Max’s tantrums, I was more afraid for him than I was of him. I’d play the retirement card the moment he got out of line with me. Jack didn’t work for him so good luck pulling that Ari’i nui routine with Detective Wheeler.
No, what I dreaded was the melodramatic scene he would make. I did not relish the prospect of watching Mad Max’s face turn ashen with excessive grief, smacking his head in disbelief at his team’s failure.
“Why, why, why me?” he had lamented on more than one occasion. As he paced in circles, I had braced myself for that moment when he would rend his garments in anger and despair. It hadn’t happened yet, but two unidentified passengers—one overboard and the other a slasher roaming loose on his newest, top of the line cruise ship—just might do it. Oh yeah, there was also the matter of stolen jewelry and two women who were on the passenger manifest but have since vanished.
Worse even than Max’s woe-is-me victim act was this awful shade of purple he turned when he got in touch with his inner Rumpelstiltskin. His eyes wild and bulging, his fists balled up, writhing, and jumping up and down, he bore an even greater resemblance to Olly-Olly. Not a healthy thing for a man in his seventies, who worked eighty hours a week and consumed way too much junk food.
“Max wants answers, guys. What am I going to tell him?” My question hung like an ax waiting to fall in the silence that filled the cabin. “Would it be wrong just to ignore the message and pretend I didn’t get it until morning?” I wondered aloud. A resounding round of “nos” broke the silence.
I wanted to believe them. The theme from Jaws pounded in my head, though, as I imagined Max closing in on our ship like a Great White or a giant squid. By morning, he’d be in Tahiti—way too close for comfort. Why put off my encounter with the Big Chief? I began to compose a message to Max as I waited for Jack and the others to finish their work. I reminded Max about how good Jack is at his job, but he had to give him and the others involved in the investigation more time. Max had been so grateful that we’d solved the mystery surrounding the disappearance of his leading lady in the remake of The Lonely Swan Prince. The actress portraying Princess Christiana seemed to have vanished into thin air from her dressing room at Max Marley Studios. When I had put that into a message, I hit send.
IT’S ALL-HANDS-ON-DECK. INVESTIGATION STILL ONGOING. YOU KNOW HOW WELL JACK HANDLED CHRISTIANA’S DISAPPEARANCE. GIVE THE DETECTIVE TIME TO WORK HIS MAGIC. BESIDES, HE HAS ME AT HIS SIDE. WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT? SEE YOU IN TAHITI.
I sighed when I heard that whoosh sound. Suddenly, an image of a coffee cart in the hallway near the vanishing actress's dressing room resonated with what Bill had said about a laundry cart in the corridor near Tina’s cabin.
“Bill, could the costume have fit into that laundry cart left outside Tina's stateroom?”
“Probably, but there’s still no sign of Tina or that hoodie-wearing man we picked up on video earlier near the theater exit. We looked for him. Lots of people are coming and going, but none of the ones we’re looking for.”
“Where does that cart go when they’ve finished cleaning the cabins?” I asked.”
“The Stateroom Stewards use dedicated elevators that take them down to the laundry where they can dump the soiled linens and towels or drop off personal items guests leave in the small laundry bags found in each stateroom.”
“Are those elevators under surveillance, too?”
“Yes. Not on CCTV like the access points to more sensitive restricted areas. We’ve reviewed the recorded footage from those cameras. There's no sign of passengers forcing their way onto the crew elevators or stewards allowing members of this pack of wild dogs onto them.”
I relented. Still, I couldn’t let go of the idea that the wild dogs appeared to have the run of the ship. The thieves knew their way around the kitchen, the theater, and were familiar with the location of surveillance cameras. It takes moxie to tamper with those cameras and craftiness to get away with it unless they had help from the crew.
Max is going to have to wait until tomorrow to hear this from me, I thought. I was glad I had already sent him a message before I hit bottom as Jack and Bill had done when they got caught up in that stressful interaction. Who could blame them?
13 Pearls in a Bottle
Jack and I escorted Maggie back to the infirmary with the evidence collected from the devastation in that cabin. Maggie checked the blond hairs and concluded they were a good match for those obtained from Abby’s locker. Little else seemed to be of immediate value, other than that overshoe and the gem Maggie had found.
Photos on Maggie’s computer of the fake necklace confirmed that the gem was one of those missing from the bad copy of Marsha Steven's expensive piece of jewelry. Another photo revealed the sole of the shoe was a perfect match to the markings in that print found near Jake Nugent. Maybe the fingerprints they had also collected would turn out to be of value. Who knew?
Dog-tired, we headed back up to Deck 2 toward the adult end of the ship where The Captain’s Table was located. Nearby, was the Pearls in a Bottle Lounge—the bar where Justin claimed to have met Martin Santo for the first time.
“We still have a few minutes before dinner. Feel like having a toast to surviving day 8 of our honeymoon, Jack?”
“Why not? That is something to celebrate, isn’t it?”
Hawaiian music was playing softly in the background as the hostess led us to a secluded booth toward the back of the beautifully appointed bar and lounge. The room glowed with backlit glass tiles in various shades of aqua lining the walls in wavy strips. Above them, milky white tiles mimicked the frothy waves that rolled onto the nearby beaches. The wall behind the bar was lit too, with tiny bubbles floating upward, accenting bottles on glass shelves.
The bubbles appeared to be moving through real water, unlike a similar display on the walls in our suite. Ella had been happily chasing bubbles rather than fish when we returned to our suite yesterday. Our ingenious cats had not only figured out how to activate the images on that wall but had changed them.
The butler who had introduced us to the “Marveling Wall" when he demonstrated the technological wonders of our suite, assured us that he had not changed the video display. I hid the remote but left the motion-activated sensors on. Ella enjoyed it so much. Miles got a break, too, if Ella ran herself ragged chasing things that moved on the wall rather than him.
Maybe Ella knew what she was doing. Those bubbles were mesmerizing. It could have been that my brain was turning to mush after the day we’d had. Or maybe I was just grateful that the décor in here was so pleasant and relaxing and devoid of Marvelous Marley World characters.
“Here’s to no sign of Penelope, Perroquet, or Olly-Olly anywhere,” I said. Not waiting for our champagne to arrive, I used the water our hostess had poured after seating us to make that toast.
“No tiki-tiki song playing in the background, either. Cheers, one-week-wife!”
“What a day, one-week-husband. Any idea what is going on?”
“I’m working on it. No sign of the murder weapon, although there could be a fillet knife missing from the kitchen. As you suggested, Adam and I checked.”
“Don’t tell me. While I was in the tub, right?” I asked.
“Yep,”
Jack replied.
“And you called me unstoppable,” I said. “Could be a knife missing—what does that mean?”
“I don’t need to tell you what goes on in a busy kitchen. Gerard and Paolo’s personal knives are easy to track down, and we’ve accounted for them. The poissonnier—fish chef—was insulted that we even thought his knife could be missing. It didn’t help that I’d never heard of a fish chef before. When he cooled down, he admitted that he wasn’t sure how many fillet knives were in his area of the commissary kitchen. Most kitchen staff don’t use them elsewhere, but with so many kitchens on this ship, who knows? Sometimes less well-trained kitchen staff grab the wrong knife and take off with it.”
“Does Gerard back him up on that?”
“Yes. Gerard said he couldn’t be sure where the knife had come from that had been used to stab that raw duck left outside his door. Most likely, a knife from the commissary since it was a boning knife, but he agreed that knives ‘migrate’ from one place to another on board.”
“Well, that's a lot of potential suspects if not only commissary kitchen staff but crew members in the galley kitchens were able to get their hands on the knife used to kill Jake Nugent.”
“Not just kitchen staff, Georgie, but anyone who passed through those areas, like waiters, expediters, stewards picking up room service items,” Jack shook his head. "It's discouraging to get information that widens our search rather than narrowing it.
“I’m sorry, Jack. I get your point. It's like the proverbial needle in a haystack to pick out the thieves' accomplices from among the crew when there are hundreds to choose from.”
“Too many cooks and crooks in the mix for the time being. All our primary suspects like to shop, too. That plastic we found could have come from several shops on board. So far, purchases from Tina, Abby, Jake, and Justin have all turned up at stores that use bags made from that plastic. The only oddity that stands out is that Jake Nugent’s purchases included a few items more likely to be found on a woman’s shopping list than that of a single man on a cruise alone. Maybe he had something going on with one of his thieving partners as you suggested when we were in Abby's trashed stateroom.”
“What sort of items?”
“Nail polish, nail polish remover, and a nail-mending kit. Cotton swabs and baby powder—stuff like that.”
“Was it clear nail polish?” I asked.
“Yes. Why?”
“Clear nail polish can be used for all sorts of things. In high school, we used it to stop a run in our stockings from getting worse. I’ve used it to prevent an eyeglass screw from falling out of my sunglasses. I don’t know if Jake could have used it to keep those loose gems in place on that necklace, or maybe there’s an adhesive in that mending kit that could have done that. My mom used to put clear nail polish on her costume jewelry to keep it from tarnishing, I don’t know if it could have secured loose gems.”
“That's helpful to know, Georgie.”
“Just don’t ask me what a big Texas jewelry salesman would be doing with baby powder, so maybe you’re right that there’s a woman involved.”
“We did find that loose gem in Abby’s cabin, so maybe Jake Nugent had been there. If Martin Santo wasn’t the only man in her life on board this cruise that could have made things even more complicated,” Jack offered.
“If she was involved with both Jake Nugent and Martin Santo that could explain why Martin Santo slit Jake Nugent’s throat this morning.”
“Could be. The guy they tossed overboard before they turned on each other could have been another of Abby’s suitors if she was working all the men in the theft ring. We still don't know what Jake was doing with that fake necklace. Maybe he and Abby were planning to replace the stolen necklace with the phony one and keep the original—or already had the original, and that's what that search was about.”
“Well on a ship with a man overboard and no missing passenger—why not a stolen necklace that gets stolen a second time? It fits with the notion that the murder and mayhem is about double-dealing. Tina must have found it, since we didn’t when we went through Abby’s cabin. Or it was never in there in the first place. How did Tina miss that gem and that shoe?”
“That seems odd to me. The gem is tiny, so I could see her missing that or leaving it behind. That shoe’s another matter. Maybe you had it right when you said this is about two-timing as well as double-dealing. Maybe she found the mate and left the other one behind. If all she was out to do was prove that Martin Santo had been unfaithful, finding one of his shoes in that cabin would have done the job. She had to be in a bigger hurry than we were and, if that cabin is any indication of Tina’s state of mind, she could not have been thinking clearly.”
“Or, maybe she found the necklace before she got around to checking for anything under the bed. At least you all got to Jake Nugent’s cabin before anyone else did. You searched it, didn’t you?”
“Yes—not the way Tina, or someone else, searched Abby’s cabin. Bill secured Jake Nugent’s cabin immediately this morning. His luggage was still there, and we went through that thoroughly. No real necklace or fake gems. No nail polish or baby powder or any of that stuff, either, even though we didn’t know we were looking for those items, then. I’m confident we would have noticed anything that suggested a woman had been in that cabin. The only person caught on film going in or out of that room in addition to Jake Nugent, was room service and the ship’s steward bringing fresh towels and cleaning up.”
“Without the dead bodies, this would almost be comical. Not very stealthy to create as much commotion as they have on this ship and yet they remain hidden. They're everywhere and nowhere all at once.”
“I agree. Not the most professional gang of thieves. Yet, getting their hands on Marsha Stevens’ necklace without her noticing it was being taken was a slick move.”
“A big score for amateurs, too, if that’s what they are. I still don’t get why Marsha Stevens would risk wearing a quarter-million-dollars’ worth of jewelry on a cruise. Even though she still has the earrings, that necklace was a big loss. I haven’t seen the list Bill gave you of all the missing and stolen jewelry items. If the tennis bracelet and engagement ring are indications of what they steal, that necklace has to be worth more than the rest combined even including the expensive watches lifted from men at the spa.”
“I have seen the list, and you are correct.” Jack had more to say, but our hostess returned with two glasses of champagne and a couple of oysters. Those oysters weren’t meant to be eaten. Apart from the excellent wine list with several fine wines in a category they called “Bottled Pearls,” the establishment’s claim to fame was oysters guaranteed to contain a pearl. Cultured pearls, to be sure, but still a charming souvenir of a cruise to the South Seas.
“On the house,” she said as she set those oysters down with our drinks. “Happy honeymoon!” Then she went to work, opening those oysters in front of us.
“What a pleasant surprise,” I said.
“Wow, these are beauties!” she exclaimed a couple of minutes later. She held each one up, then rinsed, and dried them before slipping them into a tiny velvet bag. “Can I bring you anything else?”
“Champagne and pearls are perfect,” I replied. “Thank you so much.”
“Thank you,” Jack added. “We’ll have to take off for dinner in a few minutes. Will you need anything else from us?”
“No, we swiped your card when you came in, so you’re all set.”
“I have a quick question. What do you do if you seat a guest who doesn’t have a card with them?”
“I’d apologize, but I wouldn’t seat them until they went and got it,” she replied. “Those cards make sure no one can charge to the wrong cabin—accidently or on purpose. Part of the fantasy on MMW’s Fantasy of the Sea is the cashless world. Hopefully, that means less worry about money during the trip. All-inclusive means just that—if you opt for that package. Convenient, huh?” our waitress asked.
“Marvelous,�
�� I said. “What else would you expect from MMW Fantasy of the Sea?”
“Just keep that card handy, and all your dreams can come true,” she said picking up the items she’d used to serve us.
Jack wasn’t ready to let her go quite yet. “Is there any way someone could be seated here, or at the bar, and drinking without a card with them?”
Our hostess thought about that for a moment. “Well, if they came in with someone else—like the two of you—only one member of the party has to have a card with them. Is that what you’re asking?”
“Yes,” Jack nodded, and then muttered, “I think so.” In a louder voice, he thanked our hostess, and she slipped away.
“You’re thinking about Justin’s encounter with Martin Santo, aren’t you?”
“Yes. It’s possible that Justin was telling us the truth. Since Martin Santo doesn’t show up on the passenger manifest, he couldn’t have had a key card. If he had already started drinking before Justin sat down, he must have had another companion picking up the tab before he bummed drinks from Justin.”
“All the transactions in here are time-stamped, I’m sure. You might be able to identify his earlier drinking companion.”
“You’re right. I’ll ask Bill for the names of other passengers who bought drinks an hour or so before Justin made his first purchase. Maybe we’ll find a name we recognize.”
“Or a new one that matters, Jack.”
“That’s possible, too, although we need more suspects like we need a hole in the head,” Jack said.
“I was wondering about that. This series of escapades is like a less well-organized version of the operation in that Ocean’s Eleven movie where they robbed the casino. Three men in the fight this morning, two women passengers helping lift jewelry, plus at least two crew members if Gerard’s right that more than one person was involved in disputes in the commissary. That’s seven people already, and Justin makes eight.”
“Yeah, not all that surprising that they’ve started killing each other if you look at it that way, is it?” Jack asked. “Too many mouths to feed, even with that bonanza they scored stealing that necklace.”
Murder at Sea of Passenger X Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery #5 (Georgie Shaw Cozy Mystery Series) Page 11