“Okay. I’d better get down there. Thank you so much for your help, again.”
He nodded. Erin forced herself to turn her back on him to hurry back down the stairs to where Vic was waiting outside the door of her cabin. She was down two flights when Terry came bursting through one of the doors into the stairwell. K9 was at his side. He grabbed Erin and pulled her to him in a bear hug. “Erin! What happened, what’s wrong?”
“Vic and Willie’s cabin was broken into.”
“Oh.” He breathed out, a sigh of relief. “I was worried that someone was hurt. Everyone is okay?”
“Yes. Sorry. I didn’t mean to panic you. I didn’t know how to find you, so I just told K9 to go get you.”
“Well, he did that.” Terry paused to scratch K9’s ears and praise him. “Good boy. Good job, K9.”
K9 panted happily, his tail waving back and forth like a flag. His tongue lolled out as he looked at Erin, obviously expecting something from her too.
“You are a good dog. You knew just what to do, didn’t you? I wish I had a cookie to give you for doing such a good job.”
“Just give him a pat,” Terry suggested. “If he got a cookie every time he followed instructions, he’d be as fat as a whale.”
Erin obliged, patting him and scratching around his ears and collar. “You’re a good, good dog, K9.” She stood back up straight. “We’d better get back down to the room. Vic was down there by herself and I don’t think I should have left her alone.”
Terry’s lips tightened and he nodded. “No, I don’t think you should have.”
“I didn’t know what else to do, I just knew I had to go get help. I should have told her to lock it and come with me, but we both just automatically thought that she should stay there to keep an eye on things. I guess the burglar is probably long gone by now, but we weren’t really thinking.”
“It’s okay. I’m sure she’ll be just fine for the few minutes she was alone.”
Erin nodded. “Let’s go see.”
They hurried down the stairs one more flight. Erin could hear a man’s voice as they reached the bottom of the stairs and got to the hallway, and looked down the hall in concern, worried that it was someone harassing Vic. But it was one of the crewmen, a security guard apparently. He looked into the room and instructed Vic to stay outside while he went in to have a closer look. Erin and Terry hurried up, and Erin gave Vic a hug.
“Is everything okay? I really shouldn’t have left you here. I’m sorry.”
“You did what I told you to. I told you to go get help, and you did.” Vic nodded at the room. “A security officer and Terry. I couldn’t have asked for much more.”
Erin gestured to the emergency phone on the wall a few yards away. “Apparently, we could have just called for security from there.”
Vic stared at the phone, then looked back at Erin, laughing and rolling her eyes. “It was right there and neither of us thought to use it. Duh.”
Terry shook his head at both of them. “You need to be aware of what you can do. On a ship like this, away from cell towers and with all of the iron in the decks, your phones aren’t of much use. So you need to use the intra-ship communications. Like the phone or the crew’s radios.”
“Yeah. Figured that out now,” Vic said. “Thanks for the advice.”
Terry shrugged. He looked into the cabin and gave a low whistle. “When Erin said that it had been broken into, I thought it had just been left with the door open. But this is a little more than I expected! They did a really thorough job of tossing it, didn’t they? Is there anything missing?”
“I don’t know. I backed right out again, and Erin went to get help while I kept an eye on it. I don’t see anything that’s obviously missing, but I’m going to have to go through everything to be sure. It’s not like I had a lot of valuables in there. Do you think this was just theft? They just wanted something that we had left in the safe or on a dresser?”
“If that was all they wanted, the whole room would not have been tossed. I think we have to assume that it was more than that. They were sending you a message.”
“What message?” Erin asked quietly, afraid she already knew.
Terry looked at her, his lips a thin line. He spoke quietly, his eyes going to the security officer to make sure he couldn’t hear. “I think the message is along the lines of ‘mind your own business’ and ‘don’t make trouble.’ I really don’t like this. I didn’t want to have to start an investigation into what you saw the other day, and this just confirms it for me. I don’t want to put you girls in danger. You need to stay with us. No more going out even if you are with other friends or with K9. It just isn’t safe.”
“No way,” Vic argued. “I want to be able to come and go as I please. Why should I have to be under guard all the time? It isn’t fair.”
“Because people have seen you and Erin together, and they know that Erin is the one who claims to have seen someone killed.”
“The crewman who called security for me creeped me out,” Erin confided. “He was the same body shape as the killer. He offered to come down here with me, and…” She suddenly found herself shaking.
Terry put his hand on her arm. “Erin, it’s okay. You’re okay. You’re safe.”
“I know.” Erin tried to talk in a normal tone and not let the tears enter her voice. “It’s just the adrenaline. I’ll be fine.”
He hugged her to him, murmuring soothing sounds and waiting for the shaking to pass.
News of the burglary of Vic’s room had spread quickly through the ship. Erin would not have expected it to circulate so fast without cell phones and social media, but apparently the traditional lines of gossip were working just fine. It wasn’t long before Captain Jacobi put in an appearance to get a report from his security staff. He eyed the people gathered in the hallway whispering.
“People need to go back to their own cabins or to meet for the tour,” he advised in a clear, quiet, authoritative voice. “Please don’t congregate in the hallways, it is a safety hazard. Everything is under control. You don’t need to worry.”
“Captain Jacobi,” Terry acknowledged as the man reached them. They were still standing outside of Vic’s room, though Vic and Willie had now entered to talk to the security officer.
“That applies to you folks as well. There’s no good to be done just hanging around here. It attracts extra attention, something you don’t want at this point.”
“I am a police officer—” Terry started.
“As I told you the other night: not on this boat, you’re not. The only police on board the Carolina are my staff. You don’t have any authority here. If I tell you that you should move on, then that’s what you do.”
Terry’s jaw clenched. Erin waited for him to get angry and to call Jacobi out for his negligent security and all that had happened to them so far, but he didn’t. He just kept quiet, his lips pale and his face a tight mask, and said nothing by way of objection.
“Vic is my friend,” Erin said. “We want to be here to support her.”
“I understand the sentiment, but I would like you to return to your own cabin or gather with the tour group getting ready to go. You are not helping anything by blocking the passages and drawing attention to the situation.”
“But this is serious! People should be paying attention. Someone just broke in here and went through all of Vic’s stuff. The whole room looks like a bomb went off.”
“Maybe it was personal,” Jacobi suggested. “If someone was really out for valuables, they would look in the usual places and leave everything undisturbed so that you didn’t even know that someone had been in there. The two of you have been throwing around unfounded accusations and asking questions, Miss Webster challenges the gender norms, and you clearly didn’t come for the vegan food. Even if you haven’t done anything wrong, you have upset people. Maybe someone is telling you to cool it and just let people enjoy their vacations.”
Erin opened her mouth to object, but Terry gave
her hand a squeeze. She looked at him and held her tongue.
“How is the investigation into the missing crewman going?” Terry asked, changing the subject.
“The investigation is in the very early stages. The crew has plenty else to do without having unnecessary busywork being thrown at them. So far, I have found nothing to be of any concern.”
“Someone was killed!” Erin protested, her voice going up several notes, “How can you say that isn’t something to be worried about? I’m not just talking about a room not being dusted properly. A man was killed!”
“So you say. But you have been sleepwalking and hallucinating. I have not found anyone on the crew who has concerns about a missing crewman, or about any other criminal forces on board the ship. You are worried about something that didn’t happen. You dreamed you saw something untoward, but I have found nothing to indicate that there is any reason for concern.”
“You have a missing man, right? You’ve at least discovered that, haven’t you?”
“You could ask me the same thing at any time on any tour. We always lose crew. Most of the staff are young people. They make bad decisions and decide they don’t want to stay on board. They go ashore, drink for a few days, and miss the boat. Or they have a falling out with another crew member and decide they just don’t want to be here. It happens on every tour. There are always people who have been offended and think they don’t owe me any kind of explanation or notice. It’s just something that we deal with.”
“So you don’t believe there was any violence.”
“No,” Aro Jacobi shook his head. “I think I made that very clear when you came to meet with me. But you tried to do an end run around the rules, having a police officer pressure for an investigation.” Jacobi looked at Terry. “I have a lot to do, and investigating tall tales is not something that is productive. It takes time away from the things I really need to concentrate on.”
Terry didn’t apologize or back down. But he didn’t say anything that would make the captain any angrier, either.
Jacobi sniffed and walked into the cabin to talk to his security officer, picking his way over through all of the dumped clothing and personal items on the floor. Vic returned to the doorway where Erin was standing.
“We should get ready for the tour.”
Erin was surprised. “You still want to do the tour? Don’t you want to stay here and clean up and see what they have to say?”
Vic shook her head. “I can clean up tonight. And I already know what they’re going to say. It’s already been said.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
A
s they traipsed after the tour guide, lagging back behind most of the group, Erin talked quietly to Vic about the recent developments.
“Do you think there was anything stolen? I know you haven’t had a chance to look through everything yet, but do you think there’s anything?”
Vic shook her head. “Nothing obvious. Like I said, it wasn’t like I had jewelry or anything else that was worth anything. The safe was still locked, and my passport and everything was still there. I don’t know what else they would have stolen. My panties? I think that Terry and the captain are right. It was supposed to intimidate us. Make us think twice about pursuing this investigation.”
Erin glanced over to Terry and Willie, who were having their own low discussion. “I think that Terry still doesn’t believe I saw what I did. He went ahead and talked the captain into investigating it, but I don’t think he believes I saw anything.”
Vic bit her lip thinking about it, then shook her head. “I think you’re misjudging him. He might not have believed it to begin with, but I don’t think he would go ahead and talk the captain into opening an investigation if he didn’t really believe it. He’d still be telling you it was just a dream.”
“If he believes me, then why isn’t he doing more? He’s a cop. He could be investigating it himself. He could be asking people questions, looking for any clues that might have been left behind. Why were we the ones to find the button? He should have found it.”
“Terry can’t investigate. It’s not his jurisdiction. He has to stand back and let the captain and the crew investigate. He obviously hates it.”
Erin stole a glance at Terry. He didn’t look happy, that was for sure. Was Vic right? She had assumed that his frozen expression was because of her, that he didn’t want to show her that he still didn’t believe her. But was Vic right? Maybe the reason he looked so angry was because he couldn’t do what he normally would. He had to stand back and let someone else do the work, even if the job was inferior.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Do you think they’ll find anything out in their investigation? Or do you think they’re really investigating it at all?”
Erin thought about it. She eventually shook her head. “I don’t think they’re doing anything. I mean, the first step would be to talk to me, wouldn’t it? If they were really investigating a murder or a missing crewman, then wouldn’t they have talked to me? And to the rest of you to see if I was stable? I don’t see any sign they’re doing anything. No questions, no taping off the area and searching for forensic clues. They hadn’t done anything as far as I can tell.”
“So you think it’s just words? You don’t think Captain Jacobi is really investigating it at all?”
“No.” Erin sighed. “I never would have guessed that the ship would be so isolated. It’s like an island all by itself, with a different culture and social structure and police force. It’s really… different than anything I expected.”
Vic nodded.
The tour guide had finished his spiel and Erin and Vic looked up and down the street, deciding where to go first. The stores and other buildings were just as they had been shown in the brochure, a little ghost town, looking like the movie set from a western.
“We should look through the shops,” Vic said, looking at the brochure in her hand. “We’ve got until dinner for that. Then after we eat, it’s the graveyard tour.”
Erin gave a shudder. “Why would we want to go on a graveyard tour?”
“It’s really interesting. There are a lot of cool old gravestones, and they have all kinds of stories about the men who are buried there. The famous ones, anyway. I was looking at it online last night, and it’s a really cool old place. Actually, there are a few graveyards, but we’re just going to the biggest one. If we want to visit one of the other ones, we need to do it on our own, they don’t have a tour scheduled.”
“I don’t know. I’m not big on graveyards.”
In fact, Erin didn’t even know if she’d be able to set her foot inside of one, not after her last experience.
She’d always been a little paranoid about death. Maybe it had to do with her parents dying when she was so young, or maybe it was just part of not believing in an afterlife. The church ladies seemed much more casual about death and funerals. They believed that there was more after death, that the soul had merely gone somewhere else.
But looking beyond the end of her journey, Erin saw nothing.
It felt good to eat in the dining room together. Erin was hungry rather than nauseated, so she could enjoy it. When Chef Kirschoff heard that they were there, he again made his way out of the kitchen to greet Erin and her friends and to tell them how happy he was to have Erin on the tour with them and how she was going to help him to make a superb vegan and gluten-free Baked Alaska.
“Erin is great at coming up with gluten-free recipes,” Vic bragged. “She’s always thinking about ways to cook new things without gluten. Stuff that you never see in the stores. And everyone is always amazed at how good they taste. She has the only bakery in Bald Eagle Falls, and everybody goes there, whether they need to eat gluten-free or not.”
“Well, not everybody,” Erin moderated.
Vic rolled her eyes. “Maybe there are two or three who don’t. But people are always saying how good it is.”
Kirschoff beamed. “And I have her on my boat,” he s
aid expansively, as if it were his very own ship and he’d personally arranged for her to attend.
He pointed out several options on the day’s menu and helped them each pick the dishes that suited them.
“We always make sure we have something hearty on the menu for the men,” he told Willie, after pointing out the seitan stew. “Men who work hard and need a lot of calories aren’t going to be satisfied with a salad, are they?”
Willie nodded agreeably. “I haven’t gone hungry so far,” he assured the chef. Kirschoff smiled and patted him on the shoulder, and after a few more words, headed back to the kitchen.
“You made a good impression on him,” Vic commented, raising an eyebrow at Erin.
Erin’s cheeks got warm. “Just a couple of cooks exchanging recipes.” She turned her head to look at Terry. His face was alert, frown lines between his brows. “What is it?”
She wondered fleetingly if he’d been bothered by her talking to Chef Kirschoff or thought she was flirting with him.
Terry’s eyes focused on her, acting as if he’d been unaware of her presence up until then. He considered her question. “They’ve paged Captain Jacobi three times.”
Erin shrugged. “So…?”
“How can they not know where the captain is? Maybe his radio is not working, but then why wouldn’t he get in touch with them after the first page?”
Erin considered. She looked at Vic and Willie, gauging their expressions. Terry was definitely the most concerned of them. Vic and Willie were thinking about his response but, like Erin, they weren’t sure what to make of it. It didn’t seem like such a big thing for the man to have to be paged three times. Maybe he was doing something important that he couldn’t drop. Maybe he had gone off ship for something and word hadn’t reached whoever wanted him. The ship had to be able to run without his direct control. The man couldn’t be on duty twenty-four hours a day.
“Maybe he’s busy,” Erin ventured.
Terry didn’t argue. He sipped his soft drink and looked around. Erin didn’t see anything out of place. Everyone was relaxed, eating their dinners or visiting with each other. The crew members that she could see didn’t seem concerned over the captain being paged repeatedly. It couldn’t be anything too out of the ordinary.
Vegan Baked Alaska (Auntie Clem's Bakery Book 9) Page 13
