Baked Alaska

by Josi S. Kilpack

  “I’m not. So you can see why it’s hard for me to believe that even though you wanted your husband dead, you didn’t intend to kill him with that wine.”

  “I told you—I wanted him sick,” Tanice said, her words clipped. “I wanted him humiliated. That was my payoff. As it is, I’ve had to accept the fact that everyone thinks he’s going into the ground as an honorable man, instead of the dog he was.”

  She seemed sincere, but a woman who planned to nurse her husband through an illness she inflicted on him specifically to make herself look doting could surely feign sincerity.

  Sadie glanced toward the door, already thinking of the next step of her plan now that she knew what she needed to know. Hopefully, Officer Jareg was still in his office. “I think it would be best if we went and talked to Officer—ooph—”

  Sadie’s head cracked against the wall and then the floor before she realized what had happened. The instant she figured out she was on the ground, she reached out and grabbed for Tanice, who was in the process of leaping over Sadie’s body. She managed to snag the hem of Tanice’s pants, sending her into a dive as she fell through the doorway.

  Tanice rolled onto her back and kicked at Sadie’s head, not holding back an ounce of her strength in the process. Sadie saw stars and was forced to let go of Tanice’s pant leg. She rolled onto her stomach and grabbed again. This time she got nothing but air and lunged forward in time to see Tanice get to her feet and bolt down the hall toward the elevators.

  “Security!” Sadie screamed at the top of her lungs as she tried to stand, blinking quickly in the hope it would help her head stop spinning. She heard a door open and looked to her right, where a woman with a pink turban wrapped around her head peeked out. “Call security!” Sadie screamed. The woman slammed the door.

  Sadie made it to the far wall in the hallway and got to her feet, turning toward the elevators but knowing there was no way she could catch Tanice. The floor was pitching and rolling like they were in open sea instead of in port.

  She headed for the security office instead, using the walls to keep her upright as she made her way down the hall. She was a few feet from the curtain when Hazel stepped out.

  “Get Officer Jareg right now,” Sadie said, her head throbbing. “Tanice is going to try to get off the ship!”

  Chapter 33

  “Do you need more ice?” Pete asked, sitting across from Sadie in the ship’s infirmary located on deck four. Sadie didn’t remember how she got there.

  She did remember Officer Jareg finding her in the hallway and asking her what happened. Seriously, she was attacked a few yards from his office; they really needed to get their security finer tuned than this.

  She remembered telling him that Tanice was on the run, and then she slumped against the wall, nauseous and hurting. Someone called Pete from her cell phone—three times in a row before he finally answered, they said later—and about the time she realized she was in the infirmary, Pete had arrived, full of concern and questions. The nurse told her she might have a mild concussion, and she was supposed to stay still, sitting up in a very uncomfortable chair, for at least an hour so that the medical staff could keep an eye on her.

  “It’s fine,” Sadie said to Pete. Her head had gone numb several minutes ago. The nurse had held the ice pack in place by wrapping what looked like plastic wrap around Sadie’s head several times. It was quite likely a sight to behold, and Sadie was glad not to have to look at it herself. A part of her, though, noted the fact that she wasn’t embarrassed to have Pete see her in such a state. That had to be a good sign about how their relationship was developing. “Did they find her?”

  “I don’t know,” Pete said. “The ship’s still on lockdown—no one on; no one off.”

  Sadie remembered him saying something about how the only reason he was able to get on the ship was because security officers had escorted him. The staff told the other passengers that it was a routine inspection of the ship and opened the dining rooms early.

  “Are we stuck in port until they track her down?”

  Pete lifted both shoulders. “I have no idea. I’ve been here for a good forty-five minutes, right?”

  Sadie nodded even though she wasn’t sure. Her head felt foggy, but she wasn’t sure if it was because of having been kicked in the head or from the medication they’d given her to take the edge off the pain. “Have you talked to Shawn and Breanna?”

  Pete shook his head. “Shawn was there when I got the call, though.” He pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit a button. “When I got on the ship, I texted them both, telling them to hold tight, knowing they would want to try to come see you personally.”

  She didn’t want them coming—they both had important things to do right now; it was bad enough for Pete to see her like this. “Will you call them and give them an update? Downplay it a little if you think you can get away with it. They have enough to worry about.”

  Pete nodded, then stepped out into the hall to make the phone calls.

  The ship’s engines started to hum, indicating that the ship was about to depart, and Sadie swallowed a lump in her throat as she thought about Breanna and Shawn still in Skagway, watching her and Pete sail away. And Maggie—where was she? Was she okay? Did the fact that they were leaving port mean that Officer Jareg had found Tanice? She’d wanted to ask someone about the possibility of Shawn and Maggie rejoining the cruise, now that they could point at Tanice for the wine—but she knew it was too late. Breanna had booked the hotel rooms, and a federal officer was on his way to Skagway. Revealing Tanice’s motives hadn’t happened soon enough to make a difference.

  Sadie wasn’t in a small exam room, rather she sat on a chair in the middle of what looked like the working part of the medical center. There was a stack of files on the far counter and an entire filing cabinet a few feet past that. Knowing information was so close made her wonder what she could learn in this room, and yet there was really nothing on this ship she wanted to know more about. The questions she had about Lorraina, Maggie, and the e-mails Shawn had sent wouldn’t be answered here.

  She closed her eyes and leaned back, and although she didn’t like the fuzzy feeling in her head, it was nice not to feel so bombarded with trying to figure things out. A minor head injury was nothing compared to the satisfaction of knowing the answers had been found. Tanice had poisoned the wine, so of course she found another way to get rid of her husband when her first plan didn’t work. Two cases solved—just like that. Tomorrow, the federal officer would get to Skagway, conduct his investigation, which would include the details of Tanice’s plan, and know that Shawn and Maggie were cleared. Sadie would see them again on Friday. She took a deep breath and let it out, relieved to know that things were coming together.

  She heard a door open and smiled in anticipation of Pete rejoining her, but opened her eyes to see Officer Jareg instead. He attempted a smile as he walked toward her while she sat up straighter.

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Fine,” Sadie said. It wasn’t necessarily true, but she expected that she felt as well as she could under the circumstances and figured he had more important things to worry about right now. “Did you find her?”

  He shook his head. “She may have gotten off the ship. We’ve alerted the airport and charter pilots.”

  “But she still might be on board,” Sadie summed up.

  “If she is, she’ll be found. People cannot hide on this ship for very long. We will be making up posters and talking to the staff so they know to watch for her. We are unable to stay in port any longer; there are tight schedules, not just for us but other ships as well.” Apparently nothing was more important than keeping the cruise going unhindered. “I don’t believe you are in any danger, if you are worried about that. She has nothing to gain from hurting you now.”

  Strange how that didn’t make her feel much better. She liked Officer Jareg and his staff, but she didn’t feel that they had Sadie’s best interests in mind. At the same time
, she didn’t know what Tanice would gain from coming after her either. If she were still on the ship, her only goal would be to get off of it, right?

  “I spoke with Mrs. Jefferies’s steward, and he admitted to getting her wine out of storage and later coordinating with another staff member to remove the tag from the wine bottle to hide his breach of policy.”

  “Will he lose his job?”

  Officer Jareg paused, and Sadie suspected he was considering what he could, and should, say. “When you are at sea for months at a time, trust is essential. We know that things happen, unfortunate things, and we have to deal with them strongly to keep other staff from feeling there are any allowances. You understand.”

  Sadie nodded. She did understand, but she also knew how important these jobs were to the staff. If the steward had had any idea the impact that wine bottle would make, he’d have thrown it off the ship.

  “I wanted to ask you some additional questions,” Officer Jareg said as he pulled a stool on castors out from under a desk and sat down a few feet away from her.

  “Okay.”

  “Has your son been on any other cruises to your knowledge?”

  She bristled automatically but remembered Pete’s concern regarding this line of questioning. “No, but I would know if he had been on other cruises. He’s a college kid, and I talk to him all the time.”

  “But you did not know he was in Tennessee with Ms. Juxteson,” Officer Jareg pointed out.

  Sadie bristled even more and took a breath. “He’s not a frequent cruiser. Why does any of this matter?”

  “What about Ms. Lewish—do you know if she’s attended other cruises?”

  “I have no idea,” Sadie said, trying to puzzle this out but knowing her brain wasn’t in top form. “But I believe she told the police in Skagway that this was her first cruise. Why is this important?”

  The door opened and Pete came in, shutting the door softly behind him before approaching them. Officer Jareg stood and they shook hands while he updated Pete on what he’d just told Sadie, though he left out the new line of questioning and didn’t answer her question about why he’d asked about other cruises.

  “I’ll be sure I’m with her whenever she goes anywhere just in case this woman is still on the ship and has some kind of vendetta,” Pete said. “Is Sadie medically stable enough to sleep without supervision tonight? We’re staying in separate rooms.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Sadie said, not liking the idea of a babysitter. To prove her point, she stood and thought she did a really good job of hiding how much the room spun once she got to her feet.

  “Let me have the nurse give her another assessment.”

  Sadie sat back down while Officer Jareg called the nurse in from another room. The attendant removed the ice pack and looked at Sadie’s eyes, checked the swelling on her head, and had her complete a few exercises like following her finger and walking in a straight line.

  “She’ll be fine,” the woman said, smiling at Sadie. “You must have a very hard head.”

  Sadie glared at the smile on Pete’s face, but he didn’t remove it as he took her hand. “Do you need anything else from us?” he asked Officer Jareg.

  “I will contact you if I do. I hope you get some rest and feel better in the morning.”

  The remainder of the evening was a somber one, and though Sadie wasn’t hungry, she sat across from Pete in the Tiara Room and picked at her food while they took turns updating one another on the details of what they’d done that day. There weren’t many surprises, though Pete asked to see the paper Sadie had taken from Officer Jareg’s office. He read it over, then handed it back without comment.

  “I think Tanice’s admission will go a long way toward clearing Shawn and Maggie,” Pete said. “Of course it would be more effective if the ship’s security team had Tanice in custody to verify everything.”

  “I’m sorry I let her get away,” Sadie said.

  “You didn’t ‘let her get away,’ and I wasn’t being critical, I just meant that it’s always more effective when someone gives an official statement. Still, when I left the police department, the mood had changed, and they were treating both Shawn and Maggie more like information resources rather than persons of interest. I think things are going in the right direction. The police should be getting more test results from Anchorage in the morning as well. Did you know there are several different types of cyanide? Maggie works with one specific type, and if they can prove the cyanide in the wine isn’t the same as the kind she works with, we’ll all breathe easier.”

  “So what do we do tomorrow?” Sadie asked. She was relieved things were going well, but feeling a bit sorry for herself all the same. “We had planned to do all this investigative work, but we’ve already solved the mystery of the wine.”

  “True, but there might be more information coming out about that—we won’t know until we get there.” Their waiter came by and Pete ordered dessert; Sadie didn’t bother.

  “I asked my contact about all the questions regarding whether Shawn or Maggie had been on other cruises, and he said they’re wanting to make sure the things that have happened on this ship aren’t related to things that have happened on some other ships—but he doesn’t know exactly what those things might be and admitted it might be nothing. I guess they have an entire department devoted to mitigating liabilities and that seems to be the group heading things up. Maybe it’s nothing.”

  Nothing but the reason Pete wanted them to stay on the ship. Sadie kept her teeth clenched until the temptation to say that out loud went away. Everything seemed to be compiling in her head, depressing her more and more by the minute.

  The plastic wrap had flattened her hair; she could feel it in the lack of movement whenever she turned her head, but attempting to revive her hairdo made her wince due to the tender spots on her skull. The people at the table next to them had had too many drinks and were talking and laughing really loudly, which was making her head hurt worse. She was ready for bed.

  “Sadie,” Pete said, reaching his hand across the table and putting it over hers. “They’re okay.”

  She stared at his hand as tears sprang to her eyes. She tried to pretend it was the pain medication, but that wasn’t really true. She’d gotten on this ship with both of her children, she’d learned hard truths, and now she’d left them behind. They might be cleared tomorrow, but how would Sadie even know that?

  “They’re okay,” Pete repeated.

  “I know that,” she said, wiping at her eyes with her free hand. “But I’m not sure I am. I’ve failed them in so many ways on this trip.”

  “That’s not true.”

  “It is,” Sadie said, finally meeting his eyes. “Shawn didn’t tell me about Lorraina, and I’ve been no help to Breanna with the wedding. You’ve been the rock—you’re the one they’ve listened to. You’re the one who’s been there when Shawn needed someone. You’re the one who’s kept me level and sane. You’ve slid so perfectly into exactly what I wanted you to be, and in the process, I feel like I’ve crumbled.” She looked at the plate of uneaten food in front of her. Saying so much of her heart out loud made her feel vulnerable.

  “Crumbled?” Pete said. “You found the woman who brought poisoned wine onto the ship and discovered what put Lorraina in a coma. Your kids know, without a doubt, that you are here to back them up. No one is faulting you for being emotionally caught up in this, Sadie, and you’ve been remarkable in forgiving Shawn, embracing Maggie, and supporting both Breanna and me. You’ve failed no one.”

  She was embarrassed at his words because it felt as though she’d solicited the compliments, which wasn’t what she’d meant to do. It had to be the pain medication; an unmedicated Sadie wasn’t so self-indulgent.

  “Sadie.”

  She looked up at him again.

  “We love you.”

  “I know that,” she said, wishing she’d kept her thoughts to herself. “And I’m sorry. I think it’s the meds making me all funny in the head
. I should probably turn in. I didn’t sleep well last night and all this is catching up to me.”

  “Want to go look at the stars?”

  She almost shook her head, but then she looked at him and felt his love and acceptance wash over her. Though she didn’t know why she’d said all she’d said, she didn’t doubt the sincerity of his assurances. “Are you sure you aren’t tired of me yet? And I don’t just mean this cruise—all I’ve done since we met is complicate your life.” There went those meds again!

  “And given me purpose,” Pete said. He stood from the table, her hand still in his, and came around to her side, leaning down to kiss her on the lips in front of all these people. “You breathe energy into my world,” he whispered, so close she could feel his breath move over her face. She felt the words down to her toes. He pulled her to her feet and smiled at her. “Come look at the stars with me. There is nothing better we can do right now than be together.”

  Chapter 34

  Sadie slept fine, probably because of the pain medication she’d been given, but woke up with all the stress of the day before running through her head, which still ached terribly. Despite the tender reassurances Pete had reminded her of last night, there were still some dark thoughts that wouldn’t leave her alone.

  How had things gone in Skagway for Shawn and Maggie? Had they learned anything about Lorraina that could answer any of the many questions building up about her? Had Breanna been able to reach a compromise with Liam and his mother on the wedding? Were her children having a good, healthy breakfast?

  She took a shower, wincing at the tender spots on her head—one in the back, and one just a few inches from her left temple—then did her hair and makeup. This morning, her gray-and-white hair made her feel old, and she wondered why she’d ever stopped coloring it. But then her hips felt bigger than ever as she pulled on her jeans, and her tummy felt pudgier, too. Maybe it was just one of those ugly days where she looked like she felt, and the best part of the day would be falling asleep at the end of it. She missed her children and worried about them—two things she couldn’t turn off.