Boats and Bad Guys

by Diana Xarissa

  “What about the cabin you found the body in? Are you sure there wasn’t anyone inside it? Maybe in the loo or the closet?”

  Fenella gasped. “I don’t know,” she said after a moment. “I wasn’t looking for anyone. I was just happy to get to my cabin. I was looking forward to sitting down and relaxing.”

  “Right, so there might be someone in the cabin,” he said. Fenella got the feeling he wasn’t actually speaking to her.

  “Stay on the line with me,” Daniel told her. “We’ve help on the way.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” Fenella said. “Although I’d quite like to go just about anywhere right now.”

  Daniel chuckled. “Hang in there. We’re trying to stop the ferry from sailing.”

  Fenella sighed and leaned back against the wall. Another older couple emerged at the top of the stairs and let themselves into one of the neighboring cabins. The man gave Fenella a curious look, but the woman with him grabbed his arm and pulled him into their cabin.

  “So, how was the pub last night?” Daniel asked a moment later.

  “Oh, it was fine,” Fenella said, feeling confused by the change of subject.

  “Did Shelly and Peter both go with you?”

  “They did, and we all missed you,” Fenella said, knowing for certain that she’d missed the man, anyway.

  “Duty called,” he told her. “I had to cover for Inspector Harrison. Maybe next time.”

  “That would be good,” Fenella said.

  “May I have your attention, please,” a voice came over the public address system. “Due to a security issue, our sailing for today has been delayed. We ask for your patience as we deal with the matter. The ship should be on its way within the hour.”

  “We’re going to be on our way within the hour,” Fenella told Daniel.

  “Not if you’re right about what you’ve found,” he told her. “And I have no reason to doubt you.”

  “I’m not going to be very popular with the other passengers,” she remarked.

  “It isn’t your fault,” he said sternly. “Unless you killed the man, that is.”

  “Of course I didn’t,” Fenella snapped. “I don’t even know who he is.”

  Another person appeared at the top of the stairs, and Fenella was pleased to see that it was a uniformed police constable this time. The man looked terribly young with his sandy brown hair and matching eyes.

  “Good morning,” he said politely.

  “This simply won’t do,” a plump, dark-haired man in the ferry company’s uniform said from behind the constable. “We need to get underway. This ship is due to get across and then back again today. We don’t have time for this nonsense.”

  “Just give us a few minutes,” the constable said in a soothing tone. “An inspector is on his way to investigate what was reported to us. Once he’s had a chance to do that, we can work out what happens next.”

  “You have ten minutes and then we’re sailing, with you and your inspector on board if need be,” the man snapped. He spun on his heel and stomped off back down the corridor.

  “He’s not happy,” the constable said to Fenella with a grin.

  “Yes, well, I see his point,” Fenella said. “If I hadn’t found the body, I’d be eager to get underway as well.”

  “Are you talking to me?” Daniel asked in her ear.

  “Oh, sorry, no. There’s a constable here now,” she explained.

  “Excellent. I’m nearly there. Stay on the line, just in case, but you can chat with Constable Hopkins while you wait for me.”

  “You look quite pale,” the constable said, looking concerned. “Are you okay?”

  “Not really,” Fenella admitted. “I don’t think I’m a very good sailor.”

  “The ferry hasn’t even left the dock yet,” the man said. “It gets a good deal rougher from here. You should try some sickness tablets. My mum swears by them whenever we have to sail.”

  “Maybe I will,” Fenella said. “I’m just glad I forgot to have any breakfast this morning.”

  The man nodded. “You’re American, aren’t you? What brings you to the island?”

  “I was actually born here,” Fenella replied, ready to tell the same story she felt like she’d told a hundred times since she’d arrived. “My family moved to the US when I was only a toddler and I grew up there. Recently, my aunt passed away and she left me her entire estate, including a lovely apartment right on Douglas promenade. I decided it was time for a major change in my life, so I quit my job, dumped my boyfriend, and moved everything I could carry over here to start again.”

  When she finished speaking, she blushed. She didn’t usually blurt out all of those details all at once like that. Clearly finding a dead body had rattled her nerves.

  “Your aunt? You aren’t Mona Kelly’s niece, are you?”

  “I am,” Fenella admitted, pretty sure she knew what was coming next.

  “Ah, Mona was a character,” he told her, repeating what everyone said about the woman. “She was larger than life, was Mona. I remember on one of my very first days on the job, I stopped her for speeding. She told me to ring the Chief Constable and ask him about the ticket. I was terrified, but she was very persuasive. In the end, I ripped up the ticket to get out of ringing the man.”

  Fenella laughed. “She certainly was a character,” she agreed.

  “A few days later I got a note from the Chief Constable,” he added. “He told me to never worry about ringing him if I needed to, but that maybe I should just let Mona off with a warning if I ever stopped her again. I’ve heard her flat is the most luxurious in the whole of Promenade View Apartments.”

  “I don’t know about that,” Fenella said. “But it is very nice.”

  “So where were you going today?” the man asked.

  Fenella opened her mouth to reply, but stopped when she heard voices on the stairs.

  “You’re wreaking havoc with our schedule.” The ferry employee was back, this time with Daniel Robinson following behind him. “I must insist that you conduct this investigation with great speed and get off the ferry within the next ten to fifteen minutes.”

  “If this is a false alarm, we’ll be happy to oblige,” Daniel said. “If our witness did see what she thinks she saw, however, I’m afraid the ferry isn’t going anywhere today.”

  “That’s impossible. I’ll ring the governor if I have to,” the man snapped. He spun around and headed for the stairs. Just before he reached them, he turned back. “On second thought, I think I’ll stay and see exactly what’s going on here,” he announced.

  “Suit yourself,” Daniel said. He looked over at Fenella and smiled. “You don’t look like you’re feeling very well,” he said softly.

  Fenella blushed. “I’m feeling a bit seasick,” she admitted. “And upset.” She nodded toward the cabin behind her and then shuddered as an image of the dead man flashed through her mind.

  Daniel nodded. He slipped gloves onto his hands and then reached for the doorknob. “Who has the key?” he asked when the door wouldn’t open.

  Fenella reached into her pocket and found the key that she’d dropped into it earlier. She held it out and he frowned.

  “I suppose your fingerprints are all over this,” he said with a frown.

  “Yes, and all over the door and the ladder inside,” she said apologetically.

  He raised an eyebrow but didn’t ask any questions. Instead, he took the key and turned it carefully in the lock. Fenella leaned against the opposite wall as the inspector, the uniformed constable, and the man from the ferry company all made their way into the cabin.

  “Oh, but he’s…” the man from the ferry company exclaimed, dashing out of the cabin. Fenella just got a glimpse of his pale face, with his hand covering his mouth, as he ran for the stairs.

  Daniel wasn’t far behind him. “I’m sorry, but you aren’t going anywhere today,” he said, his face grim. “And I’m going to have to ask you stay right here for a short while longer. It�
��s going to take some time to get the people I need down here.”

  “I’m fine,” Fenella lied. “You focus on your job and I’ll work on not throwing up.”

  Daniel frowned and dug around in his pockets, eventually pulling out a small plastic bag. “It’s an evidence bag,” he explained as he handed it to her. “If you feel sick, try to get sick in there. It’s the best I can do for now. The last thing we want is anything contaminating the crime scene.”

  Fenella nodded weakly and leaned back against the wall. Her head was starting to ache and if the headache turned into a migraine, she would be sick for sure. The third glass of wine from the night before seemed to be sloshing around in her stomach as she closed her eyes and tried to force herself to breathe steadily and slowly. Surely it wouldn’t be too long before someone else from the police arrived. And once that happened, they would have to let her off the ferry, wouldn’t they?

  Although it felt like many hours passed with Fenella standing in the corridor, when she checked her watch as the police escorted her and the rest of the cabin passengers off the ferry, it had only been forty minutes since she’d rung Daniel.

  “We’d like you all to please wait here,” one of the uniformed men told the small group. “Inspector Robinson will be coming to take statements from you shortly.”

  “Statements? What sort of statements? What’s going on, anyway?” a young woman demanded.

  “The inspector will tell you whatever he can when he arrives,” the man said. “I’m not authorized to say anything about anything.”

  Fenella sank into the first chair she came to and rested her head against the back, closing her eyes tightly. The world still seemed to be rocking back and forth slightly as she breathed in and out. When she opened her eyes, she could see the ferry, still bobbing gently in place. While she watched, the cargo doors opened and a few cars began to emerge from the interior of the ship.

  “Ms. Woods? Inspector Robinson would like to speak with you, please,” Constable Hopkins said at her elbow.

  Fenella blinked a few times and then stood up slowly. Feeling as if her legs were still trying to cope with the rocking of the boat, she stumbled as she followed the young man across the room. She could feel the eyes of all of the other cabin passengers on her as she went.

  The constable led her through a door marked “Staff Only” which led to a short corridor. He stopped at the second door on the right and tapped lightly on it.

  “Come in,” a voice called.

  The constable pushed the door open and then stepped back to let Fenella walk into the room.

  “Ah, yes, right,” Daniel said from a chair that was behind the cheap metal desk in the center of the room. “I’m just waiting for someone to find me a couple more chairs.”

  Fenella nodded and looked around the room. The walls were bare, and aside from a small and badly battered filing cabinet in one corner, the desk and Daniel’s chair were the only things in the room. There were no windows, and the florescent bulb in the ceiling fixture flickered several times as they waited.

  “It’s a spare office,” Daniel explained after a moment. “The ferry company isn’t using it at the moment, so they said we could talk to sus, er, witnesses in here.”

  “You can say suspects,” Fenella told him. “Having just been through this twice, I know I’m a suspect.”

  “Actually, you might not be,” he replied. “We’ll have to see what the coroner says about an estimated time of death, but the victim had certainly been dead for more than a few minutes when I arrived on the scene.”

  “And the killer wasn’t hiding in the bathroom to make things easy for you?” Fenella asked.

  “Unfortunately, no.” Before he could continue, someone else tapped on the door.

  “You needed chairs?” the tall man in the doorway asked.

  “Yes, please, two if you can,” Daniel replied.

  The man nodded and then pushed the door open as far as it would go. He carried in two hard-looking plastic chairs and set them in front of the desk.

  “Was there anything else?” he asked.

  “No, that should be good for now,” Daniel said. “Thank you.”

  The man shrugged and then turned and walked out of the small room.

  “Have a seat,” Daniel suggested to Fenella.

  She sat down on the seat and wiggled around, trying to get comfortable.

  “They aren’t the nicest chairs I’ve ever seen,” Daniel said sympathetically.

  “They’re less comfortable than they look,” Fenella replied.

  “I’m not sure that’s possible.”

  “Oh, it is.”

  Daniel opened his mouth to speak again, but another knock interrupted him. “Come in,” he called.

  “You wanted me?” the man who stuck his head into the room asked.

  “Yes, I do,” Daniel said. “You’ll take notes, please, while I interview people.”

  “Yes, sir,” the man said smartly. “And how are you, Ms. Woods?” he added, smiling at Fenella.

  “I’m fine, Constable Corlett,” she replied to the young man. His dirty blond hair needed a trim and his green eyes looked tired. “Has that baby come yet, then?” she asked.

  She’d first met the man six weeks earlier, when she’d found a dead body in the alley behind her apartment building. At that time he’d been eagerly awaiting the arrival of his first child.

  “Oh, aye, he has,” the man replied. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his mobile phone. “I can show you a picture if you like,” he said, glancing at the inspector.

  “Oh, yes, please,” Fenella said quickly.

  Five minutes later Fenella had admired several dozen photos of the bald and toothless baby boy. She’d heard all about how he ate constantly, could hold up his own head for several seconds at a time and always greeted his father with a huge gummy smile at the end of the day.

  “I mean, they aren’t supposed to be smiling yet, you know? But he’s going to be a smart one, our little Odin,” the constable said.

  “You’ve named him Odin?” Fenella asked, trying not to sound as surprised as she felt.

  “Oh, aye, well, that was the wife’s idea. She loves the whole history of the island and everything. She reckons she has Viking heritage, so she wanted to give him a Viking name,” the man replied, flushing.

  “It’s very unusual, at least,” Fenella said.

  “It isn’t really,” the man told her. “At least not on the island at the moment. Viking names are all the rage. She goes to a mums’ group and there’s another Odin, an Orry and an Olaf there.”

  “Really? And probably no Fenellas,” she said.

  “I don’t think so,” the man replied. “Fenella is a rather old-fashioned name, really.”

  As opposed to Odin, Fenella thought but didn’t say.

  “I hate to interrupt,” Daniel said. “But we really do have a case to work on.”

  Fenella flushed and the constable quickly slipped his phone back in his pocket. “Sorry, sir,” he said quietly.

  “It’s fine,” the inspector assured him. “I was waiting for a text anyway, but now I have it, so we can go ahead.”

  The constable sat down next to Fenella and pulled out a notebook. Daniel had a similar one on the desk in front of him already.

  “Ms. Woods, we’ll be taking notes and recording this interview, if that’s okay with you,” Daniel said formally.

  “Of course it’s fine. I’ll do anything I can to help you get this case solved. You know that.”

  Daniel nodded. “All I need for right now is a statement from you about finding the body. If you could walk me through your day, please, starting with what time you woke up and going on from there.”

  Fenella sat back in her chair, wincing as the hard plastic pushed on her tailbone. She closed her eyes and tried to relax her mind. “I had my alarm set for six-thirty,” she said after a moment. Without opening her eyes, she slowly took the two men through her day, from getting ou
t of bed right up to looking at Constable Corlett’s baby photos. When she was finished, she exhaled deeply, feeling as if a weight had been lifted from her for some reason.

  When she opened her eyes, she watched as Daniel wrote something in his notebook. From where she was sitting, it looked as if Constable Corlett had filled several pages in his.

  “Please take me through last night,” Daniel said after a moment. “Maybe from six o’clock onwards?”

  Fenella nodded and then told the men about the sandwich she’d had for dinner before her trip to the pub with Shelly and Peter.

  “And you went home alone?” Daniel checked.

  “All alone. Katie didn’t even wait up,” Fenella replied.

  “You still have the cat, then?” Constable Corlett asked.

  “I do. No one ever came looking for her,” Fenella said. “I can’t imagine why they didn’t, but I’ve become quite fond of her since she strolled into my apartment and made herself at home.”

  “Are you quite certain you don’t know who the victim was?” Daniel asked her.

  “He didn’t look familiar,” Fenella replied. “But I only glanced at him and from a weird angle. It’s possible I might know him, I suppose, but I don’t know very many people on the island, really.”

  “What makes you think he was from the island?” Daniel asked.

  Fenella frowned and thought for a minute. “I suppose I was just assuming that he was travelling from the island to Liverpool, the same as me. Surely the body can’t have been there from a previous journey? The cleaning crew would have found it, if that was the case.”

  “We aren’t ruling out anything at this stage,” Daniel said. “You said that the woman at customer service told you that they have all sorts of staff training going on, getting ready for the busy summer season. From what I’ve been told, no one seems exactly sure who cleaned which cabin when this morning.”

  “Oh, dear,” Fenella said softly.

  He had her repeat the conversation she’d had with the woman at customer service a second time.

  “She told you there was only one key to the cabin?” he checked.

  “That’s what she said,” Fenella replied. “She blamed the cleaning staff for misplacing the second.”