His parents never accepted me. His mother made sure I understood I wasn’t family. Maybe I needed to be trafficking drugs and people in order to fit in. And how did I not see any of this? Then again, thinking about alcoholics, drug addicts, and such, they are good at lying and living a double life. The smart ones, anyway. If you’ve been fooling people and lying all your life, you get good at it. I’d gotten good at it. But I was only fooling myself.
They said he went into witness protection alone because he didn’t think I’d leave my family. I couldn’t say if I would or wouldn’t have, because I was never given the chance to decide. If I thought my family would be in danger, I’d have left them without a second thought. And if he left, leaving me in jeopardy, that would have been selfish. Instead, he chose to fake his death with the help of WITSEC. At least from what Jared said, WITSEC had helped him start his new life.
The room seemed to be closing in around me as I considered Dominic’s life and actions. Then I thought about Lola. Was she really just to keep me from being lonely? She’d kill for me. She’d proven herself. He knew, long before he “died”, that I needed protection. She was his way of taking care of me. My heart hiccupped as I wondered if I’d see Lola differently now. I shook my head. None of this was her fault.
And then there was Nick, caught in the middle. He was an investigator on the car bombing in which Dominic really did die. What would he learn that he couldn’t share with me? Would I have the strength not to ask? Would our lives be forever changed by this revelation about Dominic? I might have more answers at this point if I hadn’t run away.
Wallowing in self-pity, I swore I heard Charles’ voice coming from down the hall. It had to be my imagination, but I jumped out of the chair and ran to the front of the room.
“Charles,” I said.
“I hear you’re sticking your nose in business that isn’t yours,” Charles said.
I looked at the floor. Guilty. But I wouldn’t admit it aloud.
Charles walked into the room. “Come on, Sherlock, let’s have a sit down.”
I glared at Roger before following Charles into the room.
To my surprise, Roger followed us. “Let’s sit at the table. It’ll be easier to talk.” He called down the hall, “Could you please shut the door?”
The front door closed as Roger walked to the veranda and closed the door, effectively shutting us in.
Once we all settled into chairs, Charles said, “We’re going to help Roger investigate, at least until the authorities board the ship.”
I wanted to reach across the table and throat punch Roger. He had wanted nothing to do with me, but he brought Charles right into the fold. I resisted. I needed something to keep me occupied and to keep my mind off my crazy life.
“Okay, I’m in. Give me the details.”
Charles looked at Roger, then me. “Before he speaks, you need to know, the person who went over the balcony early this morning could be either Kendra or Alan. We don’t know which yet, because neither can be located.”
I gasped. Fate? We’d never have even taken notice of the couple if Charles hadn’t seen the Twitter thread. And then we got a little too involved, making sure they knew us.
So much for our vacation.
“We did get a report at 12:17 this morning of yelling and banging in the Daly cabin. When our security arrived at the stateroom, Mr. Daly answered, wearing only his boxer shorts, and said all was good. When asked if there was a fight, he said he’d been sleeping. No fight in his cabin.”
“And that was it? Could it have been another cabin?” Charles asked.
“Sure, I guess, but after being in the Daly stateroom, I know it wasn’t. We’ve just started to investigate. We got a call about a lifeboat looking like it was going to fall. When our maintenance team arrived, one of them said there was a substance that looked like blood on the boat.”
“There’s blood on the railing of our balcony,” Charles said. “I thought a wayward bird had flown into the railing. Now I’m not so sure. We need to test the blood.”
“We aren’t equipped for that sort of thing. And now that you mention it, your cabin is two floors down from here. Directly under the Daly stateroom.”
“I need to make sure the butler doesn’t clean the blood off the railing. It may be evidence for the FBI,” Charles said.
“I’ll have my office clerk check the cabin key log.”
“Cabin key log?” I asked.
“We know every time you use your key to enter your cabin, to get a drink, whatever. It’s a ship security measure. Let me make a call.”
“Do the cabin keys show which passenger used it?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have that information. Passengers can exchange keys without knowing. They put them on the table, and the kids pick up the key the dad had been using. The keys are registered to a cabin or to specific staff. If your butler enters your cabin, and he’s Jesus Gonzales, I know he’s been in your cabin. If Jesus was ever caught letting someone else use his key, he’d be fired.”
“We need to look at the logs,” Charles said.
“Let me make a call first.” Roger stood and walked out on the veranda. When he came back in the room he said, “Your stateroom hasn’t been cleaned yet. I told them you forgot to put the sign out and to let your butler know. He won’t be going into your cabin today.”
“Good,” I said.
“But here’s the thing,” Roger took a deep breath. “It’s not my job to investigate. Should it end up that one of our staff is involved, I’ll have to fall on the side of the cruise line. If I investigate, I’ll be doing it from the defense attorney’s perspective, not the prosecutor’s. Do you understand?”
“Max explained how this works. I get it. I’d expect you to follow the letter of the law, but you’re no longer law enforcement. Your loyalties are messed up.” Charles was holding back; I could tell he wanted to say more.
“Just let us in the cabin,” I said. “We can take a look, take some pictures, and you can do whatever you want. If it comes down to it, you’ll still keep your job. Charles is good at coercion, so you can say he made threats. He’s talented, he can do that sort of thing and get away with it. If it’s not staff, you’ll come out clean either way.”
Roger paced the space in the interior cabin. After three passes, he stopped. “Fine. The cop in me can’t just let this go. Let’s take a look at the room. But we’ll need to be extra careful because we don’t have booties or gloves.”
“Call down to food service; we can use gloves from the kitchen. Tell them to bring them now. We can look around while we wait for them to arrive. Have one of your security personnel at the service elevator. The fewer people who know what’s going on, the better.”
Roger called. “Okay, let’s go take a look. The gloves should be here soon.”
10
Charles
I found it difficult to believe Roger would work with us so willingly, but if I wanted to keep an eye on him, I had to take him at face value. In the end, he’d do what he needed to do for himself, not for the victim. If there was a victim.
We didn’t even know what had happened, or if anyone was really missing. The lifeboat being knocked out of place did indicate something happened. And the blood on the railing outside on our balcony may have meant someone or something hit the railing, but it could also have been old, and from a cut someone previously in the room had sustained. That last thought grossed me out. I hoped they cleaned the staterooms, especially the high dollar suites, better than that.
No crime scene tape had been put up, for obvious reasons, like they didn’t have any, but a security guard stood outside the door.
“We did use our key to gain access to the room, but other than me, no one has touched the door or been in the cabin.” Roger used his key once again, covering his hand with his sleeve to turn the door handle. He pushed open the door, then held it with his foot for us to enter behind him.
I stopped before entering
. “Someone will be bringing food service gloves up. Please knock on the door when they arrive,” I said to the guard.
He nodded, and I entered the room. Roger moved his foot and the door shut behind me.
Mimi stood in the middle of the living room, looking around. “Something went down in this cabin. Could have been a rowdy party, or…” she walked into the bedroom before finishing the sentence, “not.”
A rowdy party thrown by a heavy metal band, I thought. Whoever called in the banging and yelling had been spot on. But there was something more. Not only were the lamps overturned, the chair knocked over, and the TV screen shattered, all the drawers and cabinets had been opened. The place was littered with dishes, silverware, towels, and anything else you expected to find in a fully furnished suite on a ship.
The small refrigerator had been left open, and the sliding door to the veranda was ajar.
“This looks like someone was looking for something,” I said.
“Exactly what I thought,” Roger said.
Mimi came back into the living area. “You need to see this.”
We followed Mimi into the bedroom. She pointed to the bed. “That’s blood.”
I took a closer look without actually touching anything. “It’s not a lot, though. Could be from a bloody nose. Like from the air being too dry, or from being punched in the face.”
“Well, look in the bathroom,” Mimi said.
I took one step into the bathroom and knew we had a crime scene. The room had been destroyed: mirror broken, and blood all over the counter and sink. The towels had been pulled down, but one lonely rabbit shaped towel sat on the back of the toilet. I wanted to ask the rabbit towel what he’d seen.
“Still could be just a bloody nose, except the hair on the edge of the bathtub. That hair looks like it’s from a scalp, as if someone’s head smashed into it.” I walked out of the bedroom and back to the main area. Roger and Mimi followed.
“Either someone was looking for something, or this was staged. I can’t decide which,” Mimi said.
“The consensus is unanimous. I’m leaning toward looking for something,” I said.
“What makes you say that?” Roger asked.
“Alan wanted everyone to know how successful he was. In his conversations, he dropped hints at having money. Went on and on about how well his new restaurant was doing. He wore designer clothes and flashy accessories. And he was falling down drunk last night.”
“You know the people staying in this cabin?” Roger asked.
I explained about the Twitter thread and cheating on his wife, then I told him about the girl being on the ship and confronting him.
“But he didn’t seem all that broken up about his wife storming out of the dining room. We thought he went after her, but I found her in the bar, drowning her sorrows and flirting with the bartender. Charles found Alan with a group of college aged guys, playing blackjack,” Mimi said.
“He’d lost a stack of money, maybe several stacks. Too drunk to even know what cards he was playing. Then he’d just buy more chips and keep playing. The boys played along, and got up when he did. I wonder if he bragged about his restaurant to them. He left the bar with them. Could they have come back to the room?”
Roger looked around. “Could have. It would be difficult for one man to fight off several younger guys.”
“There were only three, and they didn’t exactly look like athletes. Alan looked like he may have played football in college and kept in shape,” Mimi said.
“He did look fine,” I added.
“I wonder who the couple was who seemed upset with Alan?” Mimi said.
This made me think. We needed to know who the boys were, and who the couple was. But we also needed to be sure it was Alan who may have gone overboard.
“We’re assuming here. It could have been Kendra. She left the bar in quite a state, and if I remember correctly, Lyle went after her. Or so I assume, since he left the bar right after she stumbled out.”
“You’re right,” Mimi said. “It could have been a sexual assault, ending in someone going over the railing.”
That theory flew right out of the sliding glass door when the front door of the cabin opened and Kendra stepped inside.
“What the hell? Where’s Alan? I’m gonna kill him; this is going to cost a fortune.” She looked around at the mess, then at us. “Don’t I know you?”
Mimi stepped forward. “We met last night at the bar.”
“Yes, I remember, sort of. What are you doing in our cabin? And where’s Alan?” She took a few more steps into the room.
Roger stepped forward. “Mrs. Daly, I’m Roger Stires, head of security. We’re wondering the same thing about Alan. When was the last time you saw him?”
Kendra’s face went blank. She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. She closed it again. While looking at her, I realized she was still wearing the same dress she’d been wearing last night. Her face held traces of her makeup, even though the mascara had run down her cheeks. She still looked lovely, in a raccoon sort of way.
“Kendra?” Mimi said.
“I…I don’t remember,” she said. “I…oh, this is so embarrassing. I couldn’t find my key, so I roamed the halls for a bit, then ran into my sister and brother-in-law. They’re on the cruise with us. I stayed in their cabin last night.”
“Who are your sister and brother-in-law? What cabin are they in?” I asked.
“Georgia is my sister. Bruce is my brother-in-law. I don’t know their cabin number. I didn’t think to look.” The lines in her forehead deepened as she seemed to be considering the rest of her answer.
“What’s their last name?” Mimi asked before I could.
“Wallis, Georgia and Bruce Wallis. I could call them,” Kendra said.
“That won’t be necessary,” Roger said. He turned his back to us as he pulled out his phone to make a call.
“Do you by any chance know the three gentlemen your husband was with in the bar last night?” I asked, already knowing her answer.
“Alan was in the bar?” she grimaced like she’d been caught.
“Yes. You don’t remember smacking the crap out of him, then storming out?” Mimi said.
“I barely remember being in the bar,” Kendra said.
Sure you do, I thought.
The door flew open and slammed against the short wall behind it. In walked a lithe man who looked to be in his fifties, with tan, leathery skin, dressed all in white. The hat on his head of close-cropped hair and the epaulettes on the shoulders of his shirt told me he was the captain of this ship.
“What on earth is going on in here?” he demanded.
Roger stepped forward to take control of the situation. “Sir, there appears to have been a disturbance in this room. We believe one of the occupants may be missing. The other occupant, Mrs. Daly, just arrived with her friends.”
Kendra started to protest, but I wrapped my arm around her as if to comfort her. “She slept in her sister’s cabin last night, and this is what we saw when we entered her cabin this morning.”
The captain looked at his watch. “It’s barely morning.”
”We had a disturbance call around midnight, but when we came to check, the occupant of the cabin, Mr. Daly, said all was well, and there was no disturbance as far as he knew. Said he’d been asleep until he heard the knocking.” He stepped back again. “Then we got a call a few hours later about one of the lifeboats. It looked like it had been partially unhooked. When my staff when to check, we realized it was right under the cabin with the disturbance call.”
His face looked like a sunburn under a tan when he said, “And why was I not notified immediately?”
“Sir, I left a message about an hour ago,” Roger said.
“Captain, hi. I’m Charles Parks. My friend Mimi and I are working with Kendra Daly here to find her husband and find out what happened to this cabin.”
“Captain Alfonse DeMatto.” He shook my hand. “I’m not sure th
is is any of your business, though. I’ll have my security team take over from here.”
“But what about Mrs. Daly?” Mimi asked. “This is her stateroom.”
“Mrs. Daly, if you could please pack a few of your things, with Mimi’s help, we will get you set up in another cabin.” He sounded too officious for my liking.
I could almost hear the wheels in the captain’s head turning, trying to figure out how to spin this when he explained it to his superiors.
Mimi walked into the bedroom with Kendra and I heard her say, “I’ll get your things from the bathroom, you grab some clothes.”
“I can get my own things, thank you,” Kendra snapped.
“I’m not offering,” Mimi said. “I’m telling you how it’s going to go.”
I heard Kendra gasp, but I didn’t know if it was because she walked into the bathroom, or didn’t like Mimi’s tone. I didn’t really care. Kendra didn’t seem all that innocent to me.
“Let’s step outside,” I said.
“And who exactly are you?” Captain DeMotto resisted my directions.
I may have stretched it a bit when I said, “I’m a liaison with the FBI.”
Now he not only resisted, he stepped backward away from me. “And how does that work exactly?” Before I could answer, he turned to Roger. “You contacted the FBI before you contacted me?”
And it looked like the proverbial poop was going to hit the fan.
“That’s not exactly how it went down, but yes, the FBI has been contacted. When we have a missing passenger, and there’s evidence of foul play, that’s the protocol.”
“Protocol states that I’m in charge of this ship, not you!”
“Be that as it may, I’m here because I was already on the ship. I was contacted by the FBI to oversee the initial investigation. We’d like to wrap this up before the passengers are ready to disembark, or we will have to delay their gratification.”
Alfonse huffed in response. “Will there be agents at the dock?”
“There will,” I could easily confirm.
Love is a Many Splintered Thing Page 6
