Vegan Baked Alaska (Auntie Clem's Bakery Book 9)

by P. D. Workman

  “He was gluten-free and had other allergies too?”

  “Celiac disease can lead to a leaky gut, which can result in all kinds of other intolerances and allergies. If you have a gut that allows molecules that haven’t been broken down to their component parts that the body can use being absorbed into the bloodstream, then your body has to fight them off as invaders, and you start reacting to anything that is in your regular diet. I know a number of celiacs or people with other gut problems that have long lists of things that they can’t eat. And the list is always growing and changing as they change their diets.”

  He nodded. “That makes sense. I am always suspicious of the people who claim that they can’t have dozens of different foods. I think they are just being picky because they want things made a certain way. But as a chef, you have to assume they are telling the truth anyway, because if you don’t believe them and end up poisoning them…” He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “You could end up with a wrongful death suit, if not in jail.”

  Thinking of her experiences with Angela and Trenton Plaint, Erin gave a shudder. “Believe me, that is not a situation you want to get caught in.”

  One of the wait staff appeared at their elbows, hovering close. “Miss Price’s escort has arrived.”

  Erin was surprised at first that Terry hadn’t come all the way into the kitchen for her, but decided on balance that probably wasn’t a very good idea with K9. The cruise might allow his service animal to come on the cruise, but that didn’t mean that animals were allowed in the kitchen. She touched Kirschoff on the shoulder.

  “Thanks so much for letting me come and play,” she said. “I really needed the distraction, and that was a lot of fun.”

  Kirschoff gathered his index cards into a pile. “And I have a lot of information I didn’t have before, so I can start tweaking other recipes as well. It’s important to have a foundation to build on. This was very helpful.”

  Erin went with the waiter back through the kitchen to the dining room, where Terry was waiting with K9. Though he was good at hiding it, Erin thought he looked tired, lines of fatigue showing around his eyes. Usually, she was in bed before he was, but she’d seen him after enough disasters or long shifts to recognize the exhaustion.

  “Should have known I’d find you in the kitchen,” he said with a smile.

  “Yes, you should have. I was going to get in there sooner or later.”

  “I hope you didn’t make a pest of yourself.”

  She knew by his tone that he wasn’t serious. They headed back toward their cabin.

  “So…? Are you going to tell me what happened?” she asked.

  “I’m really not at liberty to share anything right now.”

  “You can tell me something. Was it the captain? Did something happen to him?”

  Terry didn’t answer right away, walking along beside her at a measured pace. “Yes,” he said finally. “It was the captain. I imagine that much will be out by now.”

  “Was he in an accident? What happened?”

  “He’s dead.”

  Erin grabbed Terry’s arm. “What? What happened to him?”

  “Unknown causes right now.”

  “Does that mean it was a heart attack or stroke? Or…?”

  Terry’s face was pale. He considered his answer, scratching his head. “That is yet to be determined. Right now… our initial guess is that it could be an allergic reaction.”

  “Could be?”

  “That’s not the only option. The doctor happens to know that he had a severe peanut allergy. But it could have been a heart attack. Or… poisoning.”

  Erin got goosebumps. She looked up at him. “Are you saying he was murdered?”

  “There will have to be an investigation, but I still don’t have any jurisdiction.”

  “Then what have you been doing the last few hours?” Erin looked at the time on her phone, calculating how long he had been occupied, apparently, just in finding out that the captain was dead from possible poisoning.

  Terry gave a sheepish smile. “Well, I may have pulled rank as the only actual police officer on board. But that’s not going to get me very far. They’re already contacting their owners, who I assume will tell them to shut up and freeze me out.”

  Erin stroked his arm, both to comfort herself and to keep him calm about the situation he faced. “So what will they do? Will they get someone onto the ship at the next stop? What are they going to do with the captain’s body?” She had a sudden vision of a burial at sea, disposing of the captain’s body before an inquiry could be made.

  “They’ve transferred him down to the morgue. I was overseeing procedures, trying to maintain chain of custody for any evidence, but I’m afraid nobody on board is trained in handling of evidence or crime scenes.”

  “The morgue? Are you telling me there is a morgue on the ship?”

  “There is a morgue on every cruise ship.”

  Erin’s jaw dropped. “Really? You’re kidding me!”

  He nodded vigorously. “People die on cruise ships all the time. They are old and have a heart attack or die in their sleep, or influenza or norovirus goes through the ship and people start dropping like flies. Or other things happen. You can’t predict. So every cruise ship has a morgue that can accommodate at least two or three people, and if they end up with more, they start using the refrigerators.”

  Erin gaped at him. “Gross! Do that many people really die on ships?”

  “Apparently so.” He gave a sheepish smile. “I didn’t know either. I got my education today.”

  “So what are they going to do? They must have to call in the authorities now.” Erin started thinking about the man who had been thrown overboard. If police were being sent to investigate the captain’s death, then maybe they would be open to hearing about the man who had gone over the rail. Maybe it was even connected. “Do you think it has anything to do with the other death?”

  “One thing at a time. First of all… no, they’re not keen to call in any authorities. I talked to them about it and tried to talk them into something, but they were pretty resistant. They’ll talk to the cruise line bigwigs tonight, and my guess is that by morning they’ll have a new position, and no one will be coming to investigate.”

  “Buy why wouldn’t they? The captain has been killed!”

  “The captain has died. There’s no proof at this point that he was intentionally killed. It might have been natural causes.”

  “But they’ll want to find that out, won’t they?”

  “As I’m learning more and more about these cruises… I’m not convinced that they will. The operating model seems to be that they cover up anything negative, and continue to make a profit. You don’t talk about people disappearing or getting thrown overboard. You don’t talk about epidemics on ships, or morgues, or the captain kicking the bucket. Rather than investigating, you cover it up. Getting the captain to agree to open an internal investigation was like pulling teeth. And whether or not this was the result of his agreeing… I don’t know. But it’s an awfully big coincidence if there is no connection between them.”

  “And cops don’t like coincidences.”

  “No one likes coincidences.”

  Erin nodded. She didn’t like it either. Was it possible that the captain had found something, so he was killed for it? Or maybe he was getting close to finding something out? They hadn’t just thrown him over the rail, so it wouldn’t look too much like it was connected; but leaving the body on the ship didn’t actually prove anything.

  “So what are they going to do? They won’t look into it at all? They won’t call the police or FBI in to investigate it?”

  “I’m doing the best I can, but they’re not properly equipped for a murder investigation. And I expect to be told at any point to get out and stay out. I’m trying to preserve any evidence, but for all I know, it could be dumped in the middle of the ocean tomorrow.”

  “So they’ll just keep him in the morgue until… when? Unti
l they’re back at Seattle?” obviously, they wouldn’t bring him out in British Columbia, getting the RCMP or some other Canadian police force involved. If they had to get police involved, they would want it to be US police.

  “That’s what it looks like. Then they’ll turn the body over to someone… from what I can gather, they’ll just notify the family and have them send a mortician to pick him up. They aren’t a US ship, so they aren’t under any obligation to have the US police conduct an investigation.”

  “That’s insane. Is that what they usually do when someone dies on board? There’s no investigation, they just turn the body over to the family when they get home?”

  Terry nodded. They arrived at their cabin, and Terry unlocked it. He turned on the light and they both looked around cautiously, afraid of finding that the room had been tossed like Vic’s.

  “And what about those cruises that take months? They just… keep the body on ice until they get home?”

  He nodded.

  “But then if the family does want an investigation, it’s been five months. All of the evidence is gone and everyone has forgotten what happened.”

  “Exactly.”

  “But that’s outrageous!”

  “It keeps their reported crime rate nice and low. If nothing is ever reported to the police, then there aren’t any statistics to show that they’re lying when they say there is no crime on board the ship. A cruise is the safest kind of vacation you can take, because there are no reports of any kind of crime taking place. Or if there are reports, they are at a much, much lower level than they would be in the continental United States.”

  Erin sat down on the bed. “Did you know any of this before we came?”

  “No. I’d never heard anything about the crime rates on board cruise ships, or the way that criminal activity is dealt with, or not dealt with.”

  “What if something happens that everyone sees? What if someone stabs someone else with a steak knife or gets in a drunken brawl over poker? Do they just put them in house arrest in their cabin, and then let them go again the next day?”

  “Pretty much. All cruise ships have morgues, but they don’t generally have brigs. There is no secure detention area. People simply aren’t arrested on board. They’re warned off, maybe put in their cabin to cool down, and that’s it. If someone is really disruptive, they just put him off of the ship at the next port of call and he can find his own way home.”

  Erin frowned. “Well, that’s one thing if you’re put ashore in Alaska, but what if you’re halfway around the world? How are you supposed to find your way home?”

  “I don’t know. That’s up to you. I’m told that when you sign on for something like this, you pretty much sign away all of your rights to safety and agree not to sue them. You say that you know you’re going into a risky situation, and that you won’t hold them responsible for anything that happens on the cruise.”

  “Do you remember signing anything like that?”

  “I remember we had to sign a few forms when we sent them our passenger information. But… I didn’t really read it. It was all legalese; I figured it was the same kind of thing as you sign when you go on a bungee jump. They’re not responsible if you jump and the rope breaks. But I didn’t have any clue that it was so wide ranging, or that we were going into something dangerous. I just figured they use the same form for all of their cruises, whether you’re going somewhere politically unstable or prone to hurricanes or somewhere quiet and uneventful, like Alaska. I didn’t actually think… that anything untoward could happen on a ship touring Alaska. It isn’t like we’re early explorers, who don’t know the way. It’s the same route that thousands of people travel every week. It didn’t sound dangerous.”

  Erin nodded. “I guess there was stuff to sign in the package, but I didn’t read it either. I thought it was just that I wouldn’t bring drugs on board or sue them if someone stole my diamond broach.”

  “Exactly.” Terry nodded and sat down beside her. “I think that’s the impression that they intend to give. This is just paperwork that’s legally required for your own protection, sign it and send it back. Who would read all of it? And if you did read it… why would you sign it? Why would you agree that the cruise line and crew didn’t have any liability for anything that might happen to you on your vacation, including getting killed, lost at sea, or being put ashore in a foreign country without any way to return home? Would you sign something like that? Knowingly?”

  Erin considered it. She held Terry’s hand, alternating her fingers between his, then lay back on the bed, relaxing. “I don’t know. I might still have signed something like that. Because I didn’t think that anything dangerous was going to happen. Why worry that someone says you can’t sue them if you lose a finger, if you’re not planning on putting your fingers near any blades? It’s just one of those things… you do it because it just sounds too ridiculous and far-fetched to be true. Like the liability warnings on trampolines or stereos. Don’t operate while sleeping. Don’t immerse in water. Don’t use as a projectile on a catapult. You just laugh because it’s so ridiculous that they would think they have to cover their butts for something like that.”

  “Yeah. I can see that. You think there’s no way that could happen to any reasonable person, so you’ll just be reasonable, and you’ll never have to worry about the consequences of what you signed.”

  Terry reclined beside her. “I’m going to have to go back out.”

  “What? I thought you were done!”

  “No. I just thought I’d better take a break and make sure everything was okay with you. You need to get to sleep soon if you’re going to go on the tour tomorrow. I’m not sure what I’m going to be doing, but I need to get as much of the investigation done as possible before anyone puts on the brakes. Maybe it won’t amount to anything, but I feel obligated as an officer of the law to do what I can, however little that might be.”

  “Are you going to be up all night?”

  “I don’t know. Probably not. I assume everyone will want to knock off before long. You go ahead and go to sleep. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  “Okay.” Erin raised their intertwined hands to her lips and kissed his finger. “I’ll miss you.”

  She was amused to see a little color enter his features. He smiled like he hadn’t since they’d first gotten onto the ship, the dimple appearing in his cheek.

  “Maybe when I get back, if it’s not too late, we could spend a little time together.”

  Erin nodded. “Yes. That would be nice.”

  He loosed his hand from hers and stood reluctantly. “I’m going to take K9 with me. Is that okay with you?”

  “Yes. I’ll be fine. I’ll lock the door after you.”

  “Chain it too.”

  “I will.”

  Erin wasn’t sure if she would, since if it were chained, she would have to get up from bed to let Terry in when he got back from his investigation. But she wanted to be safe, so she knew she should.

  “See you later.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  E

  rin took some time to get to sleep, tossing and turning restlessly. In spite of the fact that she’d been fantasizing about being able to go to sleep without someone else in her bed to elbow her or wake her up or whom she had to be careful not to awaken, she missed having Terry there. As much as she worried about keeping him awake with her restlessness and nightmares, it was a comfort to have him there beside her, watching her and keeping her safe, and cuddling her in his arms when she got upset. She finally had the bed to herself, and she didn’t like it.

  She eventually fell into a restless sleep, but was awakened several times by nightmares, or by the sound of footsteps progressing down the hallway outside and loud voices of people who had been drinking and were on their way back to their cabins. She’d never liked sleeping in hotels, and ships were the same sort of thing, living in close quarters with others and having to hear their comings and goings. She should have put in
earplugs, but by the time she thought about it, she was too sleepy to consider getting out of bed to put them in. She’d end up waking herself up more and then wouldn’t be able to get back to sleep again.

  Just count sheep. Or cupcakes.

  She tried to listen to her own advice, but it was not working. She turned over, hugged the pillow to her, and closed her eyes again. She’d grown up living in a lot of different places. She could get to sleep wherever she wanted to. She didn’t have to be in her own bed.

  At least that’s what she kept repeating to herself.

  It was amazing how much she missed Terry, when they had only been sleeping together sporadically for a short period of time and had never spent every night together until the cruise. But she missed the feeling of his weight on the mattress and his warmth close to her, knowing that he would hold her if she got scared or upset.

  Finally, she heard Terry’s key and the door opening. He moved slowly, furtively, so as not to wake her up. She supposed she should tell him that he’d already woken her up, but that seemed rude. She rolled over as if she were still asleep and just trying to get more comfortable. In a minute, she felt his weight next to her and he crawled in beside her, quiet as a mouse.

  “You were a long time,” Erin murmured, moving closer to him and reaching out for him. “Did you find anything out?”