[Lady Justice 11] - Lady Justice and the Cruise Ship Murders

by Robert Thornhill

  “Amy, look at me!” I said with as much authority as I could muster. “Take my hand --- NOW!”

  She looked into my eyes and summoning every ounce of strength that she could muster, she let go of the cedar and lunged for my outstretched hand.

  My hand closed around her slender wrist and she grasped mine.

  “Now the other one,” I said.

  She released her grip on the only thing that was firmly anchored to the mountain and we found ourselves dangling in mid-air held only by my partner’s grasp.

  “Got her!” I said. “Pull us up!”

  I felt Ox’s muscles tense and we were raised maybe six inches, but we quickly returned to our original position.

  “Can’t do it!” he said. “I have no leverage hanging out here like this. The girls are going to have to pull me back up to where I can get my elbows on solid ground.”

  I thought about Maggie weighing a hundred and twenty and Judy weighing a hundred and forty hauling Ox’s two hundred and thirty pounds, plus me and Amy, back up the cliff and I got a bad feeling.

  “Okay,” I heard Judy say, “let’s do this together --- one --- two --- three!”

  I heard grunting and huffing, but we didn’t budge an inch.

  “Again!” she said, “one --- two --- three!”

  More grunting, but still no movement.

  I had never felt so helpless in my life.

  My arms were aching and I didn’t know how much longer Ox could hold on.

  Just when things seemed most desperate, I heard an unfamiliar voice, “HOLY CRAP! WHAT’S GOING ON?”

  “We could use a hand here,” Judy said.

  “Sure! What do you want us to do?”

  “Help us pull the big guy back over the lip so we can pull those two up.”

  I heard some scuffling around, and then slowly we were being lifted.

  I heard Ox let out a big sigh and felt myself moving rapidly up the cliff face. When I reached the top, hands reached out and pulled Amy and me onto the trail.

  I was breathless and poor Amy was sobbing uncontrollably.

  Maggie held me close, “I thought I’d lost you.”

  “Nope, can’t get rid of me that easy,” I said with a lot more bravado than I was feeling.

  Ox had grabbed the hand of the closest stranger, “Thanks for your help.”

  “Good thing we decided to take a hike,” he said. “I’m Billy and this is my life-partner, Ernie. Glad we could help. Anything else we can do?”

  “If you wouldn’t mind making the trip back to the lodge, we could sure use a rope,” he said pointing to Mark clinging to the ledge below.

  “Sure thing, we’ll send someone up.”

  By the time they were out of sight, Amy had regained some of her composure.

  “How did this happen?” I asked.

  “We were hiking the trail and had just turned this corner when two people came from behind that outcropping and pushed us over the edge.”

  “Did you see who pushed you?” Ox asked.

  “No, it all happened so quickly. One moment we were on the trail and the next moment I was hanging from that tree branch. Do you think --- you know --- the gold?”

  “I’d say that was a definite possibility.”

  The Stewarts were to meet with Alfred Quimby the next day to search for a fortune in gold and it was obvious that someone wanted them out of the way.

  CHAPTER 9

  Louis French and the Larsons huddled together by the bald eagle exhibit at the nature center where they could see both ends of the Alpine Loop Trail.

  A half hour earlier, they had seen two men run to one of the tour guides and have an animated conversation while pointing back up the trail. The tour guide had spoken briefly on her walkie-talkie and shortly afterward, two men with security patches on their shoulders headed up the trail with a coil of rope and a first aid kit.

  They suspected that their plan had not been entirely successful.

  “You definitely saw them go over the edge of the cliff?” French asked.

  “Absolutely!” Luke replied. “The woman screamed bloody murder. We didn’t stick around because we didn’t want to be seen. We figured that the three cops couldn’t be too far behind them.”

  “I stalled them as long as I could,” French said. “I can’t imagine how they could have survived that fall.”

  A few minutes later, they saw the Stewarts, their four friends and the two security guards coming down the trail. The Stewarts had a few cuts and scratches, but seemed to be in pretty good shape considering the fact that they had just been pushed off of a cliff.

  When the group was out of sight, Louis said, “It had to be those damn cops. It doesn’t look like we’re going to eliminate the Stewarts as long as they’re hanging around. I think that we should concentrate on getting rid of those four first and then we’ll go after the Stewarts again.”

  “Any ideas how we can accomplish that?” Gwen asked.

  “Yes, I do. You’ll get rid of them once and for all tonight. I’ll charter a seaplane to Skagway and meet you there tomorrow. Here’s what I want you to do ----.”

  The first thing we all wanted to do after we boarded the ship was to take a long, hot shower. Our bodies ached from the strain and exertion of our experience on the mountainside.

  I let Maggie go first while I gulped a handful of ibuprophen and collapsed on the bed.

  As I lay there, I replayed the day’s events over in my mind.

  The Larson’s had been right behind the Stewarts all day long, but were nowhere to be seen on Mount Roberts.

  Out of the blue, some stranger asks us to take his picture and occupies our attention just long enough for the Stewarts to get a good head start up the mountain where they’re attacked by two unseen people --- the Larsons?

  I was mulling this over when Maggie stepped out of the shower wrapped in a white fluffy towel.

  “Your turn,” she announced.

  Suddenly, my attention was diverted from the mysterious to the sublime. I pulled my aching body from the bed and was about to reach for the towel when she noticed the look in my eye.

  “Back off, Romeo,” she said, pulling the towel tighter.” In case you hadn’t noticed, you’re a bit ripe. Get some of that mountain washed off and we’ll talk.”

  She was right, of course, so I turned the water on as hot as I could stand and let the shower beat down on my 70 year old body.

  The ibuprophen must have kicked in, and that, along with the steaming shower led me into a state of semi-consciousness. I don’t know how long I was in la-la land, but when the water started running ice cold, it was a rude awakening.

  As I dried off, I remembered Maggie’s words, “Get some of that mountain off and we’ll talk.”

  The mountain was off and I was ready to take her up on her offer, but when I stepped out of the bathroom, Maggie was dressed with her hair combed and make-up on. I had learned a long time ago that when the hair’s combed and the make-up’s on, it just ain’t going to happen.

  She must have seen the disappointed look on my face. “Hey, don’t blame me! You’re the one that zonked out in the shower. We’re supposed to meet everyone in the Rotterdam in fifteen minutes, so you’d better hurry.”

  When the six of us were seated and had given Den our order, Mark spoke, “We had a visitor in our cabin just after we boarded the ship, an Alejandro Reyes, the ship’s security officer.”

  I had wondered how long it would take for Reyes to look for a possible connection between the Stewarts and the murders in cabin #415. They had kept the news of the murders under wraps so far.

  “Did he come right out and tell you about the murders?” I asked.

  “No, he talked about everything but that. We hadn’t cleaned up yet and he asked about our cuts and bruises. We told him that we had a hiking accident. He asked if there had been any problems since we were upgraded to a balcony room, and we told him ‘no --- no problems’. We played dumb all the way.”
/>   When we were on the mountainside waiting for the rope to arrive to pull Mark up the cliff, we all decided not to tell the security people about the attack. It would only raise questions and there really wasn’t anything they could do at that point. Whoever had pushed them was long gone.

  “Well, there’s no question now that someone knows about the gold,” I said. “Tomorrow, we meet Quimby at Skagway. Maybe we can get to the bottom of this once and for all --- until then we all need to be on our toes.”

  After dinner, we all went to the ship’s theatre. A comedian was the featured performer. His witty banter was just the thing that we all needed to take our minds off of nearly being killed.

  We had noticed that the vast majority of passengers aboard the Statendam were senior citizens. In fact, Ox had made the comment that he felt like he was on a floating nursing home.

  The comedian was obviously quite aware of this fact and much of his monologue was ‘old folks’ oriented.

  “The bartenders have concocted a special drink just for this cruise,” he quipped. “It’s made of Viagra and prune juice. They call it the ‘Get Up and Go’!”

  The audience roared and I thought of my old friend, Jerry. He would make a great cruise ship comic.

  We were all in a much better mood as we headed back to our cabins.

  We had just brushed our teeth and slipped into our jammies when we heard a rhythmic thumping and some thrashing around coming from across the wall in cabin #399.

  “Sounds like Ox and Judy might be --- uhhhh --- spawning,” Maggie observed.

  “Well, there’s definitely something ‘fishy’ going on over there,” I replied.

  “So are you up for some ‘spawning’ of your own?” she asked with a flirtatious toss of her head. “As I recall, you were earlier in the evening.”

  “As long as I don’t die right after,” I said, slipping my arm around her waist.

  “Oh, you won’t be dead, but you’ll think you’ve gone to heaven,” she said, turning off the light.

  After our ‘spawn’, I wasn’t dead, but I was dead tired from the day’s adventures and I drifted off into a sound sleep.

  I was awakened by Maggie shaking me vigorously, “Walt! Wake up!”

  My first thought was that my sweetie had enjoyed our earlier tryst so much, she was back for more. I had taken care of business, if I do say so. “Maggie, maybe in the morning,” I mumbled, “I just don’t know if I’m up for another one right now.”

  “No, no, not that. I smell smoke! Wake up!”

  That got my attention.

  I sat up and sniffed and I, too, definitely smelled smoke.

  I turned on the light and we saw a gray haze on the far side of the room coming from underneath our door.

  After our little roll in the hay, we were both too spent to get up and put our jammies on, so we were both buck nekkid as our room filled with smoke.

  “Quick!” I said, “Throw on a robe. We’ve got to get out of here before we’re overcome.”

  We threw on our Holland-America robes and headed for the door. I turned the handle and gave it a pull, but it wouldn’t budge and the smoke was getting thicker by the second.

  I braced my foot against the wall and gave another tug, nearly pulling my arms out of joint.

  It’s stuck --- or somebody’s locked it from the outside,” I said. “We need to look for another way out.”

  “The window!” Maggie said, jumping on the bed and throwing the curtains aside.

  It was obvious right away that the tiny window in the cabin was made for looking and not escaping. There was no way to open it.

  Just then, I heard a loud crash from the adjoining room, and a ‘thump’, ‘thump’, ‘thump’. Ox was beating on our wall.

  “Walt! Can you hear me? Our cabin’s filled with smoke and the door won’t open!”

  I thumped back and yelled, “Us, too!”

  Maggie was coughing and the tears were streaming from her eyes from the acrid smoke.

  “Get down on the floor away from the door,” I yelled. “Smoke rises.”

  Maggie hit the deck and I looked around for something --- anything to get us out of this mess.

  Then I thought of the shower curtain rod.

  I ran into the bathroom, jerked the curtain off of the rod and pulled the rod with all my strength. The screws popped out of the wallboard and I had a battering ram in my hands.

  “Get back from the bed,” I said. “I don’t know where the broken glass might land.”

  When Maggie was safely back, I hurled the rod at the window just as I remembered how my old hero, Tarzan, had done it with his spear in the movies.

  The rod bounced back on the bed, but there was a spider-web crack in the glass.

  A second heave and the window shattered into a bazillion pieces. I pulled the glass-covered sheets off the bed and grabbed Maggie.

  The shattering of the window had created a draft and the smoke was billowing onto the deck outside.

  I threw the curtain rod out the window and said, “I’ll go first and then I’ll help you out.”

  She nodded.

  I stuck my head out of the window and saw the sharp glass shards on the deck below that would cut our bare feet to ribbons.

  “Hand me some pillows,”

  I tossed three pillows onto the deck and went through head-first.

  As soon as I was on my feet, I reached in and lifted Maggie to safety.

  I could hear Ox still beating on the wall.

  I pounded on his window, “Get away from the window! Can you hear me?”

  “I hear you,” he replied, “but whatever you’re going to do, do it quickly!”

  I hit Ox’s window as I had my own and it shattered on the third blow. Smoke poured from his room as it had from ours.

  I could hear coughing coming from inside. “I’m sending Judy out first. I’ll be right behind her.”

  “No you won’t,” I heard Judy reply. “Have you looked at the size of that window?”

  It hadn’t occurred to me that Ox’s king-sized body might not go through the hole.

  “You go first,” Judy ordered. “Walt can pull from outside and I’ll push from in here. Now go!”

  I watched as Ox’s big frame filled the window.

  He stuck his arms out first, followed by his head and then his shoulders. I thought we were home free until we came to his gut. He was wedged tight and wouldn’t budge.

  “Suck it in, fat boy,” I heard Judy yell.

  Ox took a deep breath and moaned, “I shouldn’t have eaten that extra chili dog.”

  “Let’s do it on three,” Judy said. “You pull and I’ll push. Ox, SUCK IT IN!”

  “One --- two --- three!”

  It all happened at once. I pulled, Judy pushed, Ox sucked it in and let it all out of the other end.

  I heard the “PLLLLLLLPPPPPTTTT” as the gaseous vapors exited Ox’s backside.

  His gut contracted like air rushing out of a balloon. I heard Judy mutter, “Good Lord!” and Ox’s momentum carried him out the window and squarely on top of me. Unfortunately, the big guy was pretty much naked too.

  It was about that time that Alejandro Reyes and his security team came hustling around the corner.

  The first words out of his mouth when he saw two semi-nude men locked in an embrace on the Lower Promenade deck was, “Mr. Williams, I think it’s time we had a talk!”

  Reyes took the four of us to one of the security rooms.

  While we sat wrapped in our terry robes, Reyes was on his walkie-talkie.

  After he signed off, he approached us with a serious expression. “It seems that someone disabled the smoke alarms in both of your rooms and in the corridor and then sealed your doors with a bead of J-B Weld. After the weld had time to harden, they set the fires in front of your doors. Someone just tried to kill the four of you and I think you know why! Talk to me!”

  At this point, things were so far out of hand I knew Reyes wouldn’t buy another stal
l, so we told him the whole story.

  When I had finished, he just sat motionless for the longest time. I could tell that he was fuming, but he was trying his best to stay calm.

  “So let me get this straight,” he said. “The four of you, including three police officers, knew that the Stewarts were on a treasure hunt for gold, that the people that occupied their former cabin had been murdered, that the perpetrators were still on my ship and you didn’t bother to tell me?”

  “In our defense,” I replied, “we really didn’t know for sure until today when they were pushed off of a cliff, that they were the actual targets, and, if you recall, on the day when the people in cabin #415 were killed, I offered our assistance and you basically told me to get lost.”

  He thought for a moment, “Yes, I suppose that I did. So here we are. It’s quite obvious that the murderers are still on board and that they have some pretty sophisticated equipment in order to get into your cabins. Any ideas?”

  I looked at my watch. “We’re supposed to meet this Quimbey fellow in just a few hours to go with him on this wild goose chase. The Stewarts and Quimby have never met, so my guess is that the perps were going to kill the Stewarts, meet Quimby in their place, and if gold was actually found, whack the old guy and make off with the gold.”

  “I’m with you so far,” he said.

  “The hitch in their plan was that the Stewarts were moved and they snuffed the wrong people. Then we got involved and that complicated things for them. After they made their move on the mountain today and we pulled the Stewarts to safety, they probably figured that we had to be taken out of the picture if they were going to have a chance at the gold.”

  “But since you’re still in the picture,” he asked, “any thoughts as to what they might try next?”

  “Since we meet Quimby in just a few hours,” I replied, “it’s probably too late for them to try to take the Stewart’s place, but I certainly think you need to have someone watch our cabins until morning.”

  “Agreed.”

  “With the seven of us together, I don’t think that they will try anything tomorrow while we’re actually hunting for the gold. If, by some miracle, we do strike it rich, their next move will probably come when the gold is on board ship and we’re out to sea. If that’s the case, I think we can be ready for them.”