“Could you do me a favor, and not mention it to her? Or anyone else?”
“Sure. You’ve got to take this to security, right?”
“That’s right. I really appreciate you keeping it to yourself until Ethan — I mean, First Officer Lee, has had a chance to see it. I’m sure he’ll want to speak to Heidi.”
“No problem.” Louise walked over to the door and held it open for us to follow her.
I picked up the box before I did so, deciding that the whole contents should go with us right away.
The three of us exited the room and Cece pulled the door closed behind us. When Louise had gone off on her way, I turned to Cece.
“This changes everything, doesn’t it? Geraldine was trying to sabotage her own conference, but she had Heidi involved, too. I’m going to take this to Ethan.”
“Yep. I’ll come too. Maybe we can grab dinner after.”
“You don’t…” I was going to tell Cece that there was no need for her to be there, but then I figured, why not? “Yeah, okay. You were the one who found all this stuff after all. I’m sure he’ll want to speak to you.”
She was already on her way.
“Come on!” called Cece over her shoulder. She was half-way down the hallway, heading in the direction of the senior officers’ offices.
With the box of evidence we’d found in Geraldine’s room clutched against my side, we hurried to see Ethan.
Chapter 19
According to his schedule, Ethan was supposed to be in his office, and sure enough, he was. When we got there the orderly who was stationed out his office as a pseudo-secretary quickly confirmed through the intercom that we could go in, and the buzzed us through.
Immediately I felt the tension that had crept into my shoulders relax. There was something about the paneled office and its woody scent that mingled with Ethan’s aftershave that always calmed me.
When we entered, Ethan was standing up near the center of the room, and he wasn’t alone. Kelly, dressed in a sky-blue form-fitting dress was already there, talking earnestly to Ethan when we burst in, slightly winded from our hurried journey there..
“We’ve found something!” I said as we arrived.
Ethan looked pleased at the news — or maybe it was just because I was there — while Kelly looked surprised. Cece stepped up beside me.
“I found something in Heidi Webster’s room. Show them, Addi.”
“What is it?” asked Kelly as I walked over, pulling the yellow legal paper out of the box and holding it in front of me.
“It’s a list. A sabotage list.”
“What do you mean a sabotage list?” Kelly was frowning at it, the phrase not sounding familiar to her.
“Geraldine wrote it. She was trying to sabotage the conference. Presumably because Bernice was running it. Look — it says here, cause a power cut. Remember what happened in the Vendor room? And that’s just the start!”
“That power cut was sabotage?” Kelly’s voice was indignant. “She caused a crisis, for her own personal reasons? Who could do such a thing? Unbelievable!” Kelly stamped one of her bright blue heels onto the floor for emphasis.
“This shines a whole new light on everything,” said Ethan as he slowly ran his eyes down the list.
“I’m not surprised someone killed her.” Kelly was still indignant with rage that someone would have messed with one of the events that she was in charge of.
“Steady on,” I said. “We can’t justify murder, no matter how deserving they were.”
“Very deserving,” said Kelly darkly. “How could someone do something like that?” She jabbed a perfectly manicured finger at the list. “This is outrageous.”
“So what do we think was going on, exactly?” asked Ethan. “You found this list in Heidi’s room, not Geraldine’s. Correct?”
“That’s right. And that’s not all. There were also some pages of accounts, from Geraldine’s business. Cece thinks they show she was possibly committing tax evasion. Or that her business wasn’t profitable.”
“You could tell?” Ethan asked Cece with mild surprise.
“Don’t look so shocked. Just because I’m a housekeeper doesn’t mean—”
Ethan held up a hand. “I’ve known you long enough to know that you’re one of the smartest people aboard this ship, Cece. You don’t need to defend yourself. I just didn’t realize accounting was one of your areas of expertise.”
She shrugged. “I’ve got lots of areas of expertise.”
I felt proud of my friend. There was a lot more to her than she tended to project, often talking in self-deprecating ways about herself. She was overconfident in some ways, but in others she was quite the opposite.
“So,” said Ethan. “It looks like Geraldine was trying to sabotage the conference. Presumably because she was angry that Bernice had been chosen to chair it, and taken it in a very different direction. This is the first time they’ve been on a cruise, right?”
“Yep. First time out of the UK, too. Usually they would have their meetings at a larger B&B, or a town with several B&Bs they could all use. Geraldine was not happy at all about them all flying here and going on a cruise.”
“I know why Heidi was helping,” said Kelly.
We looked at her. I was a little dubious, since she had some rather whacky suggestions and explanations in the past, but I was always open to new ideas.
“She had bedbugs in her B&B, right?”
“Allegedly. It may just have been a nasty rumor started by Geraldine.”
“So, maybe she offered to help Geraldine sabotage the conference, and in return she would stop spreading the rumor about the bedbugs.”
While I thought it through, I slowly nodded. “It makes sense, but the only issue I have with it is that Geraldine was still spreading the rumor right up until she died.”
“That’s because the conference hadn’t been a complete failure yet.” Kelly was on a roll, and I thought she might even be on to something. “Thanks to our excellent management skills, everything was still running pretty smoothly, even with the power cut they caused and the other disruptions.” Kelly seemed quite proud of how we’d kept everything ticking along despite the setbacks. And I guess she was right. Despite the problems the events had still been progressing relatively smoothly.
“You could be right, Kelly. Any idea why Heidi would have Geraldine’s accounting records?”
Kelly hopped up onto Ethan’s mahogany desk, perched on the edge, and held up a small fist to her chin as she thought. After a few moments, her head jerked up and the fist exploded open and slapped down on her knee.
“She was going to blackmail Geraldine! She was so annoyed about the bedbug rumor, that she got hold of her accounts, and was going to try and blackmail her. But maybe Geraldine just laughed it off, or refused to make a deal. So she killed her!”
“You could be right,” said Cece, nodding too Kelly. “So first they made a deal about sabotaging the conference, and when that failed, Geraldine refused to take back the rumor about the bedbugs, and Heidi looked for some other way to get at Geraldine?”
“And then things escalated,” I said, nodding. “Perhaps Heidi confronted her in the maze and instead of blackmailing her, they had a fight. This all sounds possible, but I’m not sure if it feels right. Heidi is definitely hiding something though.”
“I’ll have her brought in,” said Ethan. “Let’s see what she has to say for herself.”
Ethan went and sat behind his desk and called down to his security office, requesting a couple of the ship’s guards collect Heidi from John Grillman’s and bring her to his office.
“She won’t be happy at being dragged out of dinner,” I observed.
“Tough luck,” said Ethan sternly.
“I haven’t had dinner yet,” said Kelly with a frown. “Maybe we could get something sent in?”
Cece walked over to Kelly, who was still sitting on the edge of Ethan’s desk, and offered her a piece of gum.
“
Pineapple and coconut?” Kelly scrunched up her face and shook her head. “I hate coconut.”
“I’ve seen you drinking Pina Coladas,” accused Cece.
Kelly looked up thoughtfully. “That’s different.”
“Try one. You’ll like it.”
Kelly shook her head adamantly. “No, thank you.”
“I’ll take one,” said Ethan to my surprise.
He held out a hand across the desk, and Cece handed over a piece with a smile. She seemed happy that at least someone was willing to try her favorite flavor.
“I’ll take one, too.”
I held out my hand and smiled at her sweetly.
“Only because he had one,” she said, jerking her head back behind her.
“That’s not it. I just changed my mind.”
With a suspicious look, Cece begrudgingly handed over a piece of gum to me. I unwrapped it, put it in my mouth and began to chew.
Ethan and I exchanged glances with slightly startled expressions. It wasn’t something that either of us particularly enjoyed, I surmised. The gum was incredibly sweet and with very pronounced both coconut and pineapple flavors. I chewed away politely.
“Good, huh?”
“Sure is flavorful.”
Ethan responded with a simple nod when Cece turned to him with raised eyebrows. He began to chew a little more dramatically and made an mmm sound.
“Best gum in the world.” Cece smiled proudly, as if she had made the product herself.
It was another few minutes before two security guys showed up with a rather annoyed looking Heidi in tow. To my surprise, just behind them, came the Captain.
Heidi didn’t say anything when she entered, presumably having gotten most of her complaining out of her system to the Captain on the way over.
“Ethan,” said the Captain. “You and I better deal with this.” He slowly ran his eyes over Cece, Kelly and me.
“You three can head off and have some dinner.”
“Don’t you want me to, you know, be there?” I asked him.
He shook his head. “Oh, no. This is sensitive stuff. Best leave it to the experts. Ethan here is in charge of security and I’m in charge of him!”
“I could stay and help, if you like?” said Kelly with a friendly smile. She hopped off the desk and walked toward the Captain.
The Captain patted her on the shoulder.
“Oh, no. You’ve been busy as a bee since the cruise started. You take a break, Kelly. No, Ethan and I will handle this. Right, champ?”
Ethan gave me an apologetic look and a barely-visible shrug of his shoulders to indicate he had no control over the situation. It was the Captain’s ship, after all.
“If you say so, sir.”
The Captain nodded. “In fact, I think sensitive issues such as this should be kept amongst ourselves in future. The other members of our crew and staff need to focus on their own jobs, not be distracted by other incidents that happen aboard. Divide and conquer, that’s what I say. It’s the best way to deal with a crisis.”
“Right, sir,” said Ethan. “Good night, everyone,” said Ethan to the three of us who were being excused.
“Is this going to take long?” asked Heidi testily.
“I hope not!” said the Captain brightly.
“Good night.” My words were echoed by Cece and Kelly.
The three of us left Ethan’s office, and closed the door behind us.
“Some thanks we get,” said Cece, clearly annoyed.
“Guess we get to have an early night.”
Cece looked at me in disbelief.
“Who wants an early night?” It was not a concept she was either familiar with or a fan of.
“I think I’m going to get some pizza,” said Kelly. “Do you guys want to come with me?”
“Might as well,” I said with a shrug. “Cece?”
“Yeah. Go on then.”
So the three of us went to have a few slices of pizza to round off the evening.
Although I didn’t complain out loud to Cece and Kelly, I was rather annoyed at the Captain. Investigating crimes was my thing on the ship. Sure, I was social media manager as well, but every time there’d been a crime aboard it had been me that was thrust, either willingly or unwillingly, into the position of solving it.
And now he was taking it away from me.
Or at least he was going to try to. It didn’t mean I was going to stop talking to people and stop listening to them though. And if my talking and listening led to me solving what happened, well, the Captain would just have to live with it. Wouldn’t he?
With an extra thump in my step, we headed to dinner and, for me, an early night.
Chapter 20
The next morning I hadn’t heard anything from Ethan apart from a text message late the night before, saying it had been a long evening and we’d try and catch up soon. It finished by saying Heidi was now in the brig but that she hadn’t confessed.
I took that to mean that the evidence was pointing her way and either the Captain or Ethan thought it was enough to lock her up. I just wasn’t certain that it was her, though. While I had no doubt that she’d participated in the attempted sabotage, I couldn’t see her as a killer.
Maybe I was just being prejudiced because of her lovely accent. Of course they had killers in Ireland too. But unless she confessed, I wasn’t going to write her off yet. I was going to keep my eyes and ears open and see what else I could find out.
After a quick breakfast in the staff dining facility, complete with slightly too watery coffee and slightly too rubbery bacon and eggs, I headed over to the Conference Suite to see what was happening.
There were supposed to be a few lectures given that day about various aspects of running a B&B, though unfortunately one of them — The Old Ways are the Best Ways - Avoiding Blunders and Missteps With Technology — was due to be given by Geraldine. Presumably that event was cancelled or replaced, unless they could find another suitably luddite speaker to take over the role.
When I arrived, the whole lobby area was buzzing with excitement. Everyone was talking to each other, in hushed but hurried snippets, sharing and spreading rumors and stories.
“… taken right out of the restaurant!”
“… sabotage!”
“… the reason the power went out! Shocking, isn’t it…”
“…in cahoots with one another…”
“… but I don’t get why she killed…”
“…her of all people!”
“… believed it, until she was locked…”
The rather public removal of Heidi from the group dinner had clearly not gone unnoticed. And it looked like they’d heard about the rest of it, too. This was somewhat surprising as Ethan usually tried to keep investigations quiet, particularly in the early stages before much evidence had been gathered. If I had to take a guess, it would be that the Captain had been blabbing.
All we really knew so far was from circumstantial evidence, and we didn’t have any proof yet that Heidi had actually committed the murder. Though it sounded like everyone thought she had.
A hand gently tapped me three times on the elbow. It was Bernice, who I’d hardly seen a sign of since the discovery of Geraldine’s body.
“Hi, I just wanted to thank you.”
“Oh?”
Bernice nodded. “It was you who found the evidence that Heidi was guilty. Thanks to you, our conference can continue without that black cloud hanging over us. Having the threat of a murderer hanging about wasn’t exactly giving us an atmosphere conducive to a successful gathering.”
“Oh, right. I see. I don’t know if it was actually proven? I don’t know exactly what’s happening, but I thought the security team were just talking to Heidi? Did she confess?”
Bernice tilted her head at me in mild confusion. “I don’t know. But after she was taken out of the dinner last night by security we all just assumed… and then we heard she’d been committing sabotage… I mean, it has to be her, righ
t?”
“She certainly seems to be guilty of something. But until we get a full confession I don’t think it’s nice to fully blame the murder on her.”
“Oh, okay,” said Bernice with what seemed to be an amused smile on her face. “We’ll just say she’s the alleged killer for the time being. Right?”
“Right. How are you getting on, now? I think the beginning of the cruise was quite tough for you. With Geraldine, I mean.”
Bernice’s face fell slightly as she was reminded of the first couple of days of the cruise when the former head of the association she was now in charge of had been so mean to her.
“It was. I was thinking of quitting, you know. I mean, she had me convinced I was a failure, that I was no good at all. I was going to quit.
“After that sign fell down and then she rearranged the sign-ups, I went to my cabin and I just stayed there all day and all night, not wanting to move.” She shook her head at the memory. “It was my lowest point.”
“I’m glad you didn’t quit. Perseverance is important.”
She nodded. “That’s what Alex said. Do you know him? Alex Martinez? He does desserts for us?”
I nodded and confirmed that I did indeed know him.
“Anyway, he reached out to me the next morning, and he said that I had to keep going! ‘Don’t quit!’, he said, ‘Keep keeping on!’ He said it was time someone stood up to Geraldine, and since I had won the chair position, it was up to me to be the one to do it. It really boosted my confidence.”
That was interesting. Alex seemed to be quite the two-faced manipulator. Did he admire Geraldine, or did he detest her? I’d been getting very mixed signals from him indeed.
“It’s good to have support. Vital, in fact.” I gave her an encouraging smile and raised my eyebrows at her to encourage her to keep going. What else could she tell me?
“It is, isn’t it? And when he told me I could come to him if I needed help, it was just what I needed to hear! He really is a great guy.”
“He sure sounds like it.” A great guy who just the day before had been telling me how much he liked and admired Geraldine, and how she’d been a mentor to him. But at the same time, he’d been encouraging Bernice to stand up to her, and to come to him if she needed help? Something didn’t add up. And it didn’t seem to have anything to do with Heidi.
Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 10 - Bed and Breakfast and Cruises Page 12
