Terror at Sea: Three mysteries aboard a cruise ship

by Debby Mayne

  “Bertrand?” I tilted my head as I held her gaze. “Your husband?”

  “No, my dog. My husband left me a long time ago, and I made the decision right after that to stay single and just get a dog.”

  “That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.” Betty turned to me. “Don’t you agree, Autumn?”

  I wasn’t about to agree or disagree since I had no experience with long-term relationships … or dogs. But I had to admit to myself that replacing a husband with a dog seemed a bit extreme.

  Aileen held her arms out to her sides with her palms up. “So after Bertrand died …” She squeezed her eyes shut and let another tear roll down her cheeks before looking back at me. “After my beloved Bertrand passed away, I’ve been going on cruises and train trips to keep my mind off of him and stay as busy as possible. It helps with the pain. When men ask me out, I go, but when things look like they might be getting serious, I cut things off. I don’t want to put myself in such a vulnerable position, ever again.”

  Betty snorted. “So the death of your dog made you turn to serial dating.”

  Looking at Aileen, it was difficult to wrap my mind around her dating the captain … or anyone else for that matter. She was an attractive but overly made up older woman, but she seemed more the grandmotherly type than a serial dater.

  “Serial dating?” Aileen gave Betty a curious look. “What on earth do you mean by that?”

  Betty bobbed her head. “Exactly what it sounds like. You don’t want to commit, so you date one guy after another.”

  I held my breath, half expecting Aileen to explode, but she didn’t. Instead, she laughed. “That’s a new one on me. Like I said, I’m not exactly dating. I’m just stepping out with men for entertainment.”

  Betty held up her hands, palms facing Aileen. “I don’t need to know the nitty gritty details.” She paused. “So you’re seeing these guys for …” She gave me a half smile before turning back to Aileen. “… for entertainment. And now you think someone wants to kill you for that?”

  “I don’t know for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that was somehow connected.”

  “Why would someone want to kill you, just because you’re dating … er, stepping out with these guys?”

  “The captain’s wife—”

  Now it was my turn to jump in. This was the first I’d heard about the captain being married, and that put a whole different light on things. “The captain’s married, and you’ve been dating him?”

  “I already told you, it’s not dating. It’s just stepping out. We went to dinner.”

  “And danced,” Betty reminded her.

  “But we never did anything else.”

  Now it was my turn to speak up. “Does the captain’s wife ever come on these cruises?”

  “She has in the past,” Betty said. “She’s actually quite a lovely woman.”

  “So you know her?” I asked.

  She nodded. “I do. I’ll tell you more about that later.”

  Aileen made a face as she pointed to our hands. “I see you ladies got your nails done. I hate those weird colors you girls chose. Why can’t you just get them painted red like normal people?”

  I was surprised when Betty didn’t blow a gasket and laughed instead. “You sound just like Myrna.”

  Aileen and I both spoke in unison. “Who’s Myrna?”

  “Myrna Myers. We were just talking about her, remember?”

  Aileen’s eyebrows came together. “Tom’s wife?”

  Betty nodded. “I’d like to make a suggestion … not that you’ll take it or anything.”

  Aileen and I exchanged a glance and waited for Betty to continue. This conversation was slowly opening up some possibilities for suspects, and as interesting as it was, I was getting both excited and nervous about finding out who might want a bunch of people dead.

  Betty leaned toward Aileen until she met her gaze. “Stay. Away. From. The captain.” She lifted her eyebrows. “Understand?”

  “I don’t see why you’d tell me to do that. I’ve already told you I’m not doing anything wrong.”

  The sound of more disorder in the hallway stopped our conversation. Betty hopped up, crossed the cabin, and opened the door. “Well, I’ll be …”

  Chapter 16

  “Who is it?” Aileen stood and started to walk toward the door, but Betty waved her back. “What’s going on, Captain Myers?” She emphasized his name, and I was pretty sure it was to give Aileen a reason to stand back. But it was too late.

  “Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize you had company. I can come back another time.” The captain’s voice sounded softer than I remembered—almost as though he were speaking to someone he personally cared about.

  “My guests won’t be here much longer. Can we talk up on the Lido Deck in an hour or so?”

  The captain glanced at Aileen and me before turning back to Betty. “I thought we might need some privacy. Want me to come back here in an hour?”

  “No.” The clipped tone of Betty’s voice alarmed me, and when I glanced at Aileen, I saw that she had the same reaction.

  Aileen’s eyes had narrowed to slits. She pursed her lips and shook her head after Betty closed the door and turned around to face us. Something about the look on Betty’s face didn’t seem right. She looked dazed … and guilty.

  “What’s going on with you and Tom?” Aileen asked. “Are you seeing him and not telling us?”

  “Why would you go and say something like that?” Betty’s gaze darted around the room, as though she wasn’t sure where to look.

  “Well …” Aileen took a couple of steps toward the door before turning around and addressing both of us. “Looks to me like a lot of fishy stuff is going on.”

  Betty contorted her mouth, but she didn’t say anything. After Aileen left, Betty turned around to face me. “What do you think about all this?”

  “It seems pretty complicated.” I left out the fact that she appeared guilty of something.

  She laughed. “That’s what people say when they don’t know what else to say.”

  “But it is, though, isn’t it?”

  Betty nodded. “I suppose so.”

  I didn’t want to appear nosy, but my curiosity was getting the best of me, so I decided to just go for it. “Now that Aileen isn’t here, do you want to tell me what’s happening between you and the captain?”

  She opened her mouth quickly but then clamped it shut just as fast as she sighed and sank back down on the corner of the bed. “Looks like you’re smarter than I thought you were. And it looks like I can’t pull anything over on you.”

  I probably shouldn’t have taken credit for knowing something I didn’t since it was just a wild guess based on her guilty expression, but I just sat there and waited for her to make a confession. Betty pursed her lips, swallowed a couple of times, and rubbed the back of her neck. She was clearly experiencing some intense discomfort.

  “Okay, if you don’t want to tell me, that’s fine.” I stood. “I understand.”

  “Wait. I’ll tell you everything if you’ll promise to keep it to yourself.”

  As tempting as it was to make that promise, I knew I couldn’t withhold information that was illegal. “I’m sorry, Betty, but if someone is doing something that’s against the law—”

  “Oh, it’s not against the law … at least I don’t think it is.” She made another face as she squirmed. “Oh, all right, I’ll tell you since you’ve probably already figured it out anyway.”

  I sat and waited as she summoned the courage. This was obviously more difficult for her than it was me, but I was still mighty uncomfortable.

  “The reason I stay on this cruise is to keep an eye on my sister’s husband.”

  “Your sister’s husband?” I asked. “What does that have to do with—?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, Tom Myers is married to my sister Myrna.”

  Betty couldn’t have surprised me more if she’d jumped out of a cake wearing a bikini. “The
captain is your brother-in-law?”

  She smiled. “Yep. But there’s a problem now.”

  I couldn’t wait to hear about the next kink. “What’s the latest problem?”

  “Well …” She pulled a tissue from her pocket and started fidgeting with it. “This is where it gets really messy. My sister and I have always been very close, but there have been times …” She grimaced.

  “What kind of times?”

  “She’s a couple of years older than me, so she blazed the trails, and I followed. People saw her as the smart sister, the go-getter, someone with her head screwed on straight, while I was the baby and the one who needed to be taken care of. That bugged me to no end.”

  This was a side of Betty I’d never seen. “I can imagine. But you still haven’t told me what the problem is.”

  “When Myrna met Tom, she came home and told me she’d met the man she was going to marry. I assumed she would get what she wanted because that’s what always happened.”

  I lifted an eyebrow. “Okay, and the problem is?”

  “She didn’t tell me who he was, so I was in the dark for a couple of weeks until she brought him to meet me.”

  “You didn’t like him?”

  “Oh, quite the contrary. I liked him a lot.” She gave me a sad smile. “In fact, I’d been dating him for several months.”

  I gasped. “Oh wow. You’re full of surprises, Betty.”

  “That’s because, unlike a lot of other people around here, I don’t tell everything I know.” She tipped her head forward. “And I’m not talking about you.”

  “So what exactly are you keeping an eye on the captain for?” I asked.

  Betty waved her hand toward the door. “For what Aileen’s doing. Myrna suspected there was some hanky panky, but she’s not able to travel more than a couple times a year.”

  “Is she not well?”

  “Oh, she’s plenty well.” Betty rolled her eyes. “It’s just that she doesn’t want to leave her precious little Poochie home alone too often.”

  “Poochie?”

  “Her Peek-a-poo dog. She treats that animal like it’s her child, and he’s spoiled rotten. He even has his own bedroom with a canopy bed.”

  I’ve known people who pampered their pets, so I understood. “Do you report back on what you see?”

  “To be honest, I don’t really see all that much.” She fidgeted some more. “Myrna pays half my fare, so I’m pretty much doing it for the money … and as I mentioned, the opportunity to get away from my kids.”

  “Does she know that you used to date him?”

  “Nope, and she’s not gonna know either. I figure what she doesn’t know won’t hurt her.”

  “But a lot of time has passed, and you’re sisters.”

  “I know. But don’t forget she stole my man away and married him.”

  This was way more information than I ever needed or even wanted to know, but now I couldn’t help myself. “So you’re saying you never brought up the fact that you were dating him when she first introduced you?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Betty chuckled. “At first, he and I thought it would be fun to pretend we’d never met. And then things got serious between them when he found out she’d been married before and got a lot of money after her first husband died … and at that point it didn’t seem right.” She glanced at the clock on her dresser. “You’ve been here a long time, Autumn.”

  “I know, and I was just thinking about going to my cabin. But I have one more question.”

  “Okay, I won’t guarantee that I’ll answer, but go ahead and ask.”

  “Do you have any thoughts about who might be poisoning people?”

  Betty shook her head. “Nope.” She stood up. “You need to leave now, Autumn. I need to get some rest.”

  I didn’t need to be told twice. I had my hand on the doorknob when I heard Betty say my name, so I turned around to see what she wanted.

  “You are not to tell a soul anything you heard in this room today.” She narrowed her eyes and gave me a strong warning look that sent a creepy chill down my spine and up my arm. “Understand?”

  “Yes, of course.”

  “Just making sure. Now you can go.”

  As I closed the door behind me, I spotted someone coming out of my cabin. “Hey, what are you doing in my room?”

  I thought it was a man at first, but after the person turned around, I saw that his or her hair was tucked up in a hoodie. Instead of replying, the person took off running.

  This was very unnerving, and I wasn’t about to go in my cabin alone. I was afraid someone might still be in there. I didn’t think Betty would want me to go back to hers, so I kept walking until I got to the elevator. I had to admit I was a little bit afraid to get on it alone, but I figured it was safer than going into a cabin that might still have an intruder.

  I headed for the ship’s office and saw someone I’d never noticed before sitting behind the desk. “Can I have someone from security check out my cabin?”

  The woman tilted her head and frowned. “Why? Is something missing?” Before I replied, she pulled a clipboard out from beneath the desk and shoved it toward me. “Just fill out the top form, write down everything that’s missing, sign it, and we’ll take care of the rest.”

  “Nothing’s missing … or at least I don’t know if anything’s missing. All I know is someone was in my cabin.”

  She made a sour face. “If nothing’s missing, how would you know someone was in there?”

  “I saw him … er, her coming out. I was down the hall.”

  “Which is it? A him or a her?” Now she had a mocking expression that got under my skin.

  “I couldn’t tell.”

  “If you can’t see very well, how do you know it was your cabin?”

  My frustration must have been evident because she lifted her index finger to signal for me to wait, picked up the phone, and pressed some buttons. Less than a minute later, I heard someone behind me say my name.

  Chapter 17

  When I turned around, I saw the captain striding toward me. “What’s this about someone being in your cabin?” The booming sound of his voice made my insides tighten.

  I explained what I’d seen—and that I wasn’t sure if it was a man or woman, and that I had no idea what the person looked like. He watched me with a look of apprehension.

  “So do you want me to have someone go back with you?” His voice had softened quite a bit.

  “Yes, I think so.”

  He turned to the woman behind the desk and told her to send someone to go back to my cabin with me. Then he faced me again with a troubled expression. “Someone will be here in just a few minutes. Were you planning to do anything else tonight?”

  “No.”

  “Good. After your cabin is checked, lock the door and don’t let anyone in.”

  “Okay.”

  He tilted his head forward with a look of concern. “And I mean it. Don’t open your door for anyone, even if you think you know the person.”

  I held his gaze and slowly nodded. “I won’t open it for a single person, regardless of who it is.”

  “You also need to stay mum about this. The fewer people who know what happened the better.”

  “I won’t say a word to anyone.”

  “If you have any more trouble, call down here, and ask to be connected directly to me. I’ll make sure you’re okay.”

  “Thank you, Captain.”

  He started to walk away but stopped and turned back to face me. “Would you like to join me at the Captain’s Table for dinner tomorrow night?”

  “I’m not sure I’ll be staying on the cruise.” I gave him a contrite look. “I might be flying back home tomorrow.”

  A pained expression crossed his face. “I can certainly understand you wanting to do that, but it might not be easy to get a flight out on such short notice.” He shifted his weight. “Tell you what. I’ll leave the invitation open. If you’re unable to g
et a flight, you’re welcome to join me. I’d like to keep an eye on you since you’ve somehow gotten mixed up in this mess.”

  I’d always heard that it was an honor to be invited to the Captain’s Table, and he was being awfully nice, but after what I’d recently learned about him, I wasn’t so sure. I didn’t want to offend the man in charge of the ship, so I swallowed hard and nodded.

  He smiled. “You’ll have to wear something nice. There’ll be a big group at the table, and afterward, we’ll have our pictures taken. And whoever would like can go on a private tour of some areas of the ship most passengers don’t see.” He paused. “And I’ll make sure we have an extra crewmember with us.”

  I offered a weak smile and hoped that sometime between now and then I’d be well on my way home. But if that didn’t happen, at least I’d be with a large group, which seemed somewhat safe.

  Someone wearing a cruise ship officer’s uniform arrived. Captain Myers explained what had happened and gave him instructions to check my room to make sure there was no one in there and nothing suspicious in my cabin. As soon as the captain left, the man gave me a long look.

  “Thank you so much for coming down.” I dug into my handbag, pulled out some cash, and handed it to him.

  “No problem. You must have made quite an impression on the captain. He doesn’t generally get involved with younger women.”

  “Oh, I’m sure he’s just being a gentleman.” I didn’t want him to get the wrong idea and think there was anything between the captain and me.

  “Captain Myers a gentleman?” He grinned and shook his head. “Now that’s an interesting thought.”

  I took offense to this man talking about his boss in a disrespectful manner, so I decided not to continue to engage in conversation with him. He followed me to my cabin, looked under the bed, in the shower, and in the closet.

  “Nothing looks out of line here,” he said.

  I glanced over at the desk and saw that there was a water pitcher beside my glass. “That wasn’t there before.”

  “What wasn’t?”

  “That water pitcher.”

  He frowned. “Are you sure?”