An Isle of Man Ghostly Cozy Collection - ABC

by Diana Xarissa

  Having no clear idea of where to go, Fenella settled for following the handful of other foot passengers who were ahead of her. They climbed a flight of stairs and went through some doors. On their heels, Fenella found herself in a large room with windows all along the outside. There were several spacious seating areas, a small and partly closed off children’s play area, a café with its own row of tables and chairs, a small gift shop, and exactly what Fenella was looking for, a customer service desk.

  “How can I help you today?” the girl behind the desk asked, giving Fenella a bright smile.

  “I have a cabin reserved,” Fenella told her, pulling her ticket out of her handbag.

  The girl took the sheet and studied it for a moment. “Yes, Ms. Woods, let me see here.” She turned, still holding the paper, and began flipping through some cards on the desk.

  “We’ve half our summer staff in here doing training,” she said after a moment. “They keep moving things around and not putting them back where they belong. The cleaning staff isn’t any better. Someone managed to spill a cup of coffee all over the desk this morning, and when the cleaning crew came to sort it out, they just started binning everything that was on the desk. I had to spend an hour going through the rubbish looking for the papers I actually need.”

  “Oh, dear,” Fenella murmured. “How unfortunate for you.”

  The girl sighed deeply. “I wasn’t even meant to work this morning, you know,” she said in a confiding whisper. “But someone pulled a sickie at the last minute and management knows they can always ring me and I’ll come in. I should start saying no, really I should. Maybe they’d appreciate me more if I wasn’t so available.”

  I’d appreciate you more if you’d give me my cabin key, Fenella thought, swallowing hard as the ship tipped slightly to one side. Or maybe it didn’t, as she seemed to be the only one who’d noticed.

  “Ah, here we are,” the girl said, pulling a large folder out from under a pile of papers. “The cabin assignments for the journey. Let me see where they’ve put you.”

  Fenella watched impatiently as the girl ran her perfectly manicured finger down the short list of names. Eventually she found Fenella.

  “Ah, you’re in 206,” she announced. “Now, where have they moved the key tray to?” The tray was unearthed a few minutes later, as Fenella’s stomach lurched and the line of impatient passengers grew behind her.

  “206, let’s see,” the girl said. She frowned. “No keys for 206 here. I wonder what’s happened to them.”

  She dug around on the desk again, flipping through dozens of small scraps of paper, each of which seemed to have only a few words jotted on them.

  “Here it is,” she exclaimed after a moment. “The sink in 206 is out of service. Well, that’s no good. They aren’t supposed to just make a note of it and leave it. They’re supposed to make sure that no one is booked into that cabin for the next journey and…” she sighed and trailed off. “The good news for you,” she said to Fenella, “is that we aren’t very busy today. I can move you to another cabin.”

  “Excellent,” Fenella said. “I’m looking forward to sitting down and relaxing.”

  “Yes, well, let me see which cabins are empty.” The girl went back to her list and then back and forth between the list and the key tray. “It doesn’t look as if very many passengers have picked up their keys yet,” she said after a moment.

  Fenella glanced at the long line of passengers waiting behind her. It was hardly surprising that no one had their keys yet.

  “I’ll put you in 212,” the girl said eventually. “No one is booked into it and you’re traveling alone, right?”

  “I am,” Fenella agreed.

  “That’s good, because for some reason I only have one key for that cabin. I’m sure the other will turn up in one of the cleaner’s pockets or something, but for today, it won’t matter.” She handed Fenella a key and then turned a huge fake smile on the next person in line.

  “And how can I help you?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry,” Fenella spoke quickly. “But where am I going?”

  The girl’s smile faltered as she glanced back at Fenella. “Up the stairs and follow the signs,” she said in a bored tone.

  Fenella grabbed her bags and walked away as quickly as she could. The cold stares she got from the rest of the passengers who were waiting suggested that they blamed her for the long delay. She shook her head and looked around for a staircase. Luckily there were signs and she followed one now that said “Cabins,” which led to a door that opened into the promised flight of stairs.

  The stairs were steep and awkward with her suitcase, but Fenella was feeling quite desperate to sit down or maybe even lie down. At the top of the stairs arrows pointed out which way to go for which cabins. She made her way along a short corridor, happy to find cabin 212 in the middle of the hall. Her key turned in the lock and she pushed the door open.

  Getting the suitcase through the fairly narrow doorway was a bit of a struggle, but she managed it. There was a restroom on the right as she walked in, and she smiled as she spotted the tiny porthole in the far wall. A few steps into the room, she stopped and stared. There were four berths, although one of the top ones was folded up against the wall. The second top berth, however, was occupied.

  “Hello?” she said cautiously, taking a step closer to the man. Standing on her tiptoes, she took a better look and then shuddered. The man was staring at the cabin’s ceiling with lifeless eyes, a thick rope around his neck. There was no doubt in Fenella’s mind that he was dead, and it looked as if he’d been strangled.

  2

  She tripped over her suitcase walking backwards as quickly as she could. Nearly falling to the floor, she caught herself by grabbing onto the ladder that was neatly hung on hooks near the door.

  Oh, goodness, I’ve just left my fingerprints on the ladder, she thought to herself as she fumbled with the doorknob. Those same fingerprints would be all over the door as well, she realized, as she wrestled her case back into the corridor and pulled the door shut behind her. For a minute she simply stood in the corridor, breathing deeply. An elderly couple appeared at the top of the stairs and let themselves into one of the other cabins as Fenella tried to think. After several minutes, she realized that the ferry was getting ready to sail. That wasn’t a good thing.

  Her mobile phone was, as always, lost somewhere in the bottom of her bag. She found it with shaking hands and then punched in a number from her speed dial. The phone rang twice before a familiar voice spoke.

  “Fenella? I thought you were sailing this morning,” Daniel Robinson said in her ear.

  Tears sprang into Fenella’s eyes at his friendly tone. “Oh, I am,” she replied. “But there’s a dead man in my cabin.”

  The short pause that followed had Fenella picturing the man on the other end of the line. No doubt he was wondering if he’d heard her correctly. As a senior police inspector with the Douglas Constabulary, Daniel Robinson had seen his fair share of dead bodies, but Fenella doubted he was used to getting calls about them from his friends.

  If they even were friends, she added to herself. The man was attractive, in his late forties, with light brown hair and gorgeous hazel eyes. He and Fenella were both fairly new arrivals to the island, and in the last few weeks they’d started spending the odd Friday or Saturday evening together at the Tale and Tail. Recently, Daniel had suggested that they exchange mobile numbers so that they could let one another know when they were going to be at the pub, but the relationship hadn’t progressed beyond that point as yet. Fenella kept reminding herself that she was still getting over her last boyfriend, a man she’d been with for a great many years, but she really liked the handsome policeman.

  “Are you sure he’s dead?” Daniel asked after a moment.

  “Quite sure,” Fenella answered.

  “I suppose you’d know,” the man replied.

  Fenella winced. She’d met Daniel over a different dead body only six weeks earlier
and then encountered him again when she’d found a second dead man a few days later. If someone had told her before she moved to the island that she’d be finding three dead men in less than two months, she never would have believed them.

  “Has the ferry sailed yet?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Fenella replied. “I can’t actually tell for sure from here, and I’d rather not go back into the cabin to look out the porthole. I can go downstairs, if you want me to.”

  “No, I’d like you to stay exactly where you are and make sure that no one goes in or out of that cabin. Do you think the man died of natural causes?”

  Fenella could hear the hope in his voice. “Only if being strangled by a rope is now classified as a natural cause,” she said tightly.

  Daniel sighed. “Hold the line,” he said. As Fenella stood in the corridor with her heart racing, she could hear the rumble of Daniel’s voice as he spoke to someone else. Unable to make out the words, she tried to imagine what he might be saying. After a moment she shook her head. She really didn’t want to think about what he might be saying about her, not now.

  “Where are you exactly?” Daniel’s voice startled her.

  “In front of cabin 212,” she replied.

  “Are you alone?”

  “Well, there isn’t anyone else in the corridor at the moment,” Fenella said. “I saw a couple going into one of the other cabins, though.”

  “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?