by Dawn Brookes
Rachel was disappointed, but agreed with Marjorie’s logic. With all the banging and clanging around the dockside from cargo vessels being loaded and unloaded, it would be unlikely the crewman had noticed anything. Nevertheless, she zoomed in on him with the camera on her mobile phone and took a picture, just in case she needed to track him down later.
She showed the image of two men dressed in white overalls to Marjorie. “Technology these days is marvellous,” declared the elderly lady. “I can’t believe your phone can capture those dots of men with such clarity. They look like they are from the Philippines to me. Many cruise ship workers come from there.”
“Agreed. I’ll ask Chief Waverley if I need to, but I suspect you’re right about them not hearing anything – when I zoom in, I can see they appear to be shouting to each other over the noise.” She snapped a couple more photos of the front of the ship, and then noticed people staring down at her from their balconies. “Come on, Marjorie. Time to get back on board.”
Passing through security, Rachel spotted Waverley speaking to two other guards. He saw her coming through.
“Miss Prince – I gathered you were on board. Lady Snellthorpe – what a pleasure it is to see you again.”
Marjorie answered first. “Thank you, I feel much more secure now I’ve seen you.” Rachel detected a hint of sarcasm in her voice.
Waverley coughed, as he seemed to do when nervous or distracted. “We do our best,” he mumbled.
“What happened to that person we saw fall from the ship this morning?” Marjorie had him under the cosh and wasn’t going to let up any time soon.
He coughed again, and this time his neck reddened. He looked towards Rachel for help. “Erm. I didn’t realise you had witnessed that event. Perhaps we can talk about this later?”
Rachel noticed a large group of passengers were passing through security behind them. “Yes, we can do that. Come on, Marjorie, we’d better go and get ready for dinner.”
Marjorie was chuckling like a naughty schoolgirl as they got into the lift. Rachel had to smile.
Once they’d got off on deck fifteen, Rachel spoke. “I suspected you had a darker side, Lady Marjorie Snellthorpe – the poor man didn’t know where to put himself.”
Marjorie was still chuckling. “Serves him right for bungling things up previously.” She was referring to the cruise when they had originally met and Waverley had had Marjorie followed for a while.
“To be fair, it wasn’t just Chief Waverley that messed up. Carlos wasn’t great either, though I hate to admit it.”
“Ah, but I can forgive him because he’s a handsome young man, and he’s made up for it since.”
“I can see you’re going to be incorrigible over the next few days,” said Rachel, laughing.
Rachel walked Marjorie to her room and then crossed the rear corridor to her own suite. The luxury suites were magnificent. She appreciated the exquisite decor and the facilities were second to none. The suite had as much space as her apartment at home. The large sitting room overlooked one part of the balcony and the bedroom led out on to the other half, providing ample space for at least six people to sit outside in comfort. The suites were served by the butler, Mario, and he looked after them well.
She helped herself to a glass of mineral water from the well-stocked fridge and opened the doors to the balcony as her mobile phone rang with Carlos’s designated ringtone.
“Carlos, hi.” Her voice took on an endearing high-pitched note.
“Hello, darling. I knew you were on land today and wanted to hear the sound of your voice.”
“It’s wonderful you phoned. How are things?”
“Not too bad, I’m in Birmingham looking for a missing dog – stolen from a house in your neck of the woods, Knightsbridge. I’ve tracked the person who has it and I’m closing in. Lady’s with me.”
Lady was Carlos’s two-year-old Springer Spaniel, a recent acquisition from a friend who’d emigrated, and she now accompanied him on his investigative tours. The two of them had become inseparable, and Rachel had grown almost as fond of the dog as Carlos was.
“Oh, I do hope you find the dog you’re looking for. Why was it stolen?”
“Stolen to order. It’s a golden retriever puppy from a champion breeder. The family is distraught, as you can imagine – the dog had become the children’s pet, but I’m pretty confident I can get it back by tomorrow. Lady and I are going to pay a visit to the thief in an hour.”
“Be careful, Carlos.”
“Don’t worry, darling. I’ve got a detective pal of mine meeting me at the house, ready to arrest the thief if he doesn’t tell us where the dog is. Lady will sniff it out if it’s in the house, but he’ll have passed it on for sure. Anyway, that’s enough about me. How’s your cruise? Please tell me there are no dead bodies.”
Rachel swallowed hard as she answered. She’d promised him after the last cruise that she would tell him everything in future because he hadn’t known she’d been in danger. He’d been desperately unhappy she hadn’t told him what was happening at the time.
“I don’t think so—”
“Mamma Mia! Rachel – it can’t happen three cruises in a row.”
“As I say, I’m not certain, but Marjorie and I witnessed someone fall over the side when we were leaving the ship this morning, before we were ushered away. I don’t know exactly what happened to the person. It was probably an accident anyway.” Surely one white lie couldn’t hurt?
It was quiet at the other end of the phone for a moment, but Carlos sounded more chipper when he spoke again.
“Well at least that won’t involve you, whatever happened. Probably someone showing off to their mates.”
“Could have been, and you’re right, it doesn’t involve me.”
The line started to fade.
“The connection’s bad now, Rachel, and I have to get ready to leave. Take care and enjoy yourself. Stay out of trouble.”
“You too, and give Lady a treat from me. Bye.”
Carlos hung up and Rachel kissed the phone automatically. Then her thoughts turned back to the body over the side situation.
Chapter 6
Following an exceptional five-course dining extravaganza in the Coral restaurant, Rachel and Marjorie met up with Sarah.
“Have you eaten?” Rachel asked.
“Yes, I grabbed a quick bite from the buffet. I suppose the pair of you dined well?”
“I must say, the lobster tasted exquisite,” said Marjorie.
Sarah raised her eyebrows.
“Personally, I’m stuffed,” said Rachel. “The chefs should be arrested for cooking up such irresistible cuisine.”
“Since I became a cruise ship nurse, my culinary tastes have been extended beyond belief. Not always positively, but mostly so.”
“Oh, do tell, what don’t you like?” asked Marjorie.
“Well, durian certainly isn’t my favourite.”
Rachel looked confused.
“Oh, the fruit, you mean. It’s popular in south-east Asia, isn’t it?” said Marjorie.
“Yes, and you smell it before you see it. I could never enjoy it because it smells so foul. I did try a very small piece in Malaysia. The catering department doesn’t bring it on board for obvious reasons.”
The three women discussed food and drink as they made their way to an early evening show. The theatre at the front of the ship boasted luxurious tiered seating spanning two decks. They commandeered three seats at the rear so that Marjorie didn’t need to negotiate too many steps. No-one mentioned the man overboard situation and Rachel could feel the elephant moving into the room.
“I met Gwen and Brigitte along the Nyhavn today,” she prompted.
“Did you?” said Sarah. “I haven’t seen them since they got back on board. I was on call, and they were in surgery when I handed the on-call bag over to Bernard for the night. That’s why I only managed a rushed dinner.”
That explains it. She obviously isn’t aware we sa
w the man go overboard.
“I expect you were busy after the accident this morning,” whispered Marjorie.
The troubled look on Sarah’s face confirmed what Rachel had supposed. “How do you know about that?” she asked quietly.
“We witnessed it, didn’t we, Rachel?”
“Yes, it happened just as we were leaving the ship.” Rachel shot an apologetic glance at her friend.
“I’d hoped to keep you out of this one,” groaned Sarah. “But I suppose you might have found out anyway.”
Their conversation was interrupted as the cruise director Gordon appeared on stage and introduced the evening’s main act, a singer who’d been on America’s got Talent.
“Shall we talk about it afterwards?” whispered Rachel.
Sarah nodded.
Although the singing sounded respectable enough, Rachel found her mind drifting back to the morning and replaying various scenarios over in her head – drunken fall, bravado as Carlos thought, or push? It had looked like the Freddie Mercury lookalike, but it could have been another member of the band, or anyone else wearing a white jumpsuit for that matter.
Sarah ordered drinks, and when they arrived Rachel absentmindedly took hers from the waiter, before telling herself to switch off and enjoy the show – she would find out soon enough what had occurred.
The rest of the performance passed by in a blur until raucous applause brought Rachel back to the present. Sarah nudged her to move as they were blocking the aisle and people wanted to leave the auditorium. Marjorie looked happy.
“What a delightful evening. I’ve had a lovely day, but if you two young things don’t mind, it’s time for this old lady to retire. I expect you have things to talk about.” Marjorie winked.
Rachel kissed Marjorie on the cheek after she and Sarah had escorted her to the lifts in the midships area.
“Goodnight, Marjorie. See you in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Rachel. Goodnight, Sarah.”
Sarah kissed her too, and then the two young women made their way to the Jazz Bar, one of the many bars aboard the Coral Queen, which also happened to be one of their favourite haunts, although the lively bar didn’t provide a good opportunity to talk thanks to the volume of the music. Rachel suspected Sarah’s desperation to keep her out of another investigation confirmed that the man overboard scenario was suspicious. If not, she would have said something.
They ordered drinks, Sarah asking for cola while Rachel had a martini and lemonade. Then Rachel gave Sarah a look.
“You’re going to need to talk about it sometime.”
Sarah led her towards the edge of the room where they claimed a booth from people just leaving.
“It was the lead singer from the tribute band.”
“Was? That means he’s dead then.”
“Yes. They pulled him out barely alive, and after resuscitation and first aid, they took him to hospital, but he died shortly afterwards.”
“Were you involved?” Rachel sympathised with Sarah, who looked shattered.
“We all were. We managed to get him round before the ambulance came, but he died of a brain haemorrhage.”
“Is that unusual?”
“It could have been caused by his head hitting the water after falling from a great height, but witnesses believe he was unconscious when he fell.”
“Yes, I thought the same. He just dropped like an inanimate object.”
“It gets worse.” Sarah looked around for a brief moment, checking no-one was listening. “He’s the new cruise director’s brother – that’s how the band got the job, apparently. The entertainment officer, Rosa Doherty, is none too pleased as she didn’t like Dom, or any of them, from the off. She wanted to sack them – she’s had numerous complaints about them from female crew members, and some from passengers. What’s more, Alex spent the night patching a few of them up following a brawl in their manager’s room.”
Alessandro Romano, better known as Alex, was the ship’s junior doctor. Rachel had met him previously and liked him.
“I didn’t realise they were brothers. When you told me their names before, it didn’t register they had the same surname. So there could be motive among his band mates, if this is murder?”
“That’s the only reason they haven’t been sacked and escorted off the ship. Rosa wanted to give them the push this morning, but in view of events, Waverley says they must stay.”
“Any idea what Waverley thinks?”
“No, he hasn’t been near us today. From a distance, he looked stressed to say the least. He’s been busy interviewing distressed passengers who witnessed the fall. The security team has also been stretched due to a rowdy stag party who have been causing trouble with a group of cheerleaders. Jason says the chief’s at the end of his tether.”
“Oh dear – and then Marjorie made things worse with a pointed jibe.” Sarah looked confused. “She goaded him a bit over the incident, still miffed with him for having her followed on her last cruise.”
“Poor Waverley.” Sarah laughed. “He doesn’t ever get an easy time of it, but it always seems much worse when you’re on board. If you don’t take him up on his job offer soon, he might ban you from travelling on the Coral Queen altogether.”
Rachel feigned offence. “I can’t be responsible for every crime committed on board this ship! Anyway, this one’s nothing to do with me.”
“You don’t fool me, Rachel Prince – you can’t resist a challenge. You will start sleuthing soon, if you haven’t already.” Sarah smiled grimly. “Just don’t put yourself in danger, and remember you’ve got Marjorie to take care of. She’s a frail old lady and the excitement won’t be good for her.”
“Bah! There’s nothing frail about Marjorie – she’s as tough as old boots, in the nicest possible sense. Anyway, she’s already keen to get going on this – she’s arranged for us to hold a war council in the morning so we can come up with an investigative action plan.”
Sarah looked exasperated. “I don’t know who’s worse – you or her.”
Rachel gave a mischievous smile and then said more seriously, “I will take care of her. I’m not looking for trouble, but we might do a bit of snooping. I feel sorry for Waverley and he might need my help.”
“I don’t think he’ll see it that way, but I’ll find out what I can from Jason, as long as you promise you won’t do anything dangerous.”
“Guides’ honour,” answered Rachel.
“Hey, you two.” Bernard’s cheerful voice cut them off.
“Bernard, great to meet you again.” Bernard and Rachel hugged while Sarah moved along the bench seat to let him in.
“How can someone get more beautiful each time we meet?” Bernard said.
Sarah glared at him, knowing how fed up Rachel got with men constantly drawing attention to her looks, but Bernard remained oblivious. He was one of the few men who didn’t attract a cutting remark in return.
“I thought you were on call tonight,” Sarah said.
“I thought so too, but Gwen offered to do it because of the day we’ve had.”
“That’s nice of her,” replied Sarah.
“Did you hear about our day, Rachel?” He leaned in. “I guess you heard the one about the singer in the drink?”
“Bernard, that’s horrible!” Sarah admonished.
“Sarah’s just been telling me about it – I understand the grapevine suggests it might not have been an accident.”
Bernard giggled. “Well, it wouldn’t be with you on board, would it?”
“I don’t understand why everyone surmises it’s anything to do with me!” She laughed. “It’s your screening that’s gone to pot – obviously you just let anyone on board cruise ships nowadays.”
Following a period of banter, Bernard turned more serious. “The brawl last night sounds worse than we first believed.”
“What do you mean?” asked Sarah.
“We imagined it to be a drunken argument that got out of hand, but according to my
source, it was nastier than that. It turns out Dominic Venables had quite a few enemies, not least those in his own band. There were women involved too, with one of them swearing she’d kill him if he didn’t get his act together.”
“What women? They must have been crew if they were below the waterline.”
“My source didn’t see them, just heard the racket and told them to shut up or she’d report them. Poor girl works in housekeeping and was exhausted, says they were really loud.”
Rachel listened intently. “That’s a shame she doesn’t know who they are. Do you know if any of the men were up top at the time of the incident this morning?”
“Graham says they all deny being up there and none of them have decent alibis.”
“Oh, so Graham’s getting the sleuthing bug now, is he?” said Sarah, clearly ruffled. “Really, I can’t wait to hear what Waverley makes of that. What’s the matter with you lot?”
Rachel laughed at her friend’s angst and understood it to be concern over her getting involved following a few near misses in the past. A pacifist through and through, Sarah hated violence, although she’d witnessed her fair share as a nurse working in casualty on land and on a cruise ship. Nevertheless, she just wanted people to get along with each other and had always wanted to repair rather than destroy, a trait responsible for her becoming a nurse.
Bernard answered, “No worries there. Graham got the message last time, but he took Waverley for dinner tonight to try to help him relax after the day he’s had. He also had to report all injuries sustained by passengers and crew over the past twenty-four hours in case they’re related.”
Rachel put her hand on her friend’s arm. “Don’t worry, Sarah, it’ll be okay – sounds like some internal squabbling that’s got out of hand, so at least there’s not a killer running loose intent on inflicting random acts of violence or looking for more victims.”
Sarah nodded. “I’m sorry, but I will never be able to understand the mindset of a killer – death is so final—” Her voice trailed off and alarm bells sounded for Rachel – there was something else on Sarah’s mind she hadn’t shared.