Murder on the Orient (SS): The Agatha Christie Book Club 2

by C. A. Larmer

  Alicia recalled her and nodded.

  Perry continued. “Those two seem like the unlikeliest of pals, not that I’ve seen them together much. Anita was in the bar on her own for most of the night I think, dipped in and out. Didn’t dance, that I recall, but she can sure knock back the booze. She left just before we did.” He sighed. “So, let me think. We decided to call it a night, we were getting the death stare from a couple of the barmen—”

  “The Aussie one?”

  His eyes squinted. “No, I don’t think any were Aussies. Anyway, we were making our way to our cabins via the upper deck; someone wanted to get some fresh air. I was with the sisters, but one of them got a bit cross with us… Can’t remember which one now.”

  “Billie,” Alicia prompted, and he nodded.

  “We were carrying on a bit, pretending to reenact episodes of The Love Boat. I was Captain Stubing.” Missy giggled, and he smiled, but it was only fleeting. “We were just above Corrie’s cabin. I didn’t know it at the time, they told me later. That’s when we heard a woman scream.” He shuddered. “It was more like a shriek. Worse was the splash. Like a rock just dropping into the water.”

  “What did you do?”

  “We kind of froze for a second, trying to comprehend what we’d heard, and then Millie or Tillie, one of them started screaming and rushed to the edge of the railing. That’s when it hit me. That’s when I realised we had just heard someone go over. I tell you there is nothing more chilling to the bone than that, the very thought…” He broke off, his eyes welling up, but he brushed off their concerns along with his tears and continued, “So we stood there shouting down to the water, hoping whoever it was could hear us, and then one of the sisters said, ‘Shhh!’ See if we can hear her!’ So we shut up for a few minutes, then I don’t know, Tillie ran off to get help, Millie and I kept scanning the water, but it was so dark.”

  Alicia frowned. There had been a full moon the night before and she said, “There should have been some light from the moon, surely?”

  “If there was it was hidden behind a cloud. Big pity, really, because it might have helped. I remember grabbing a life buoy and throwing it over, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

  “That was smart,” said Missy.

  “I wasn’t really thinking to be honest. We were all on automatic pilot. I was so relieved when the crew came running and they finally stopped the ship and turned back. It felt like an eternity before that happened.”

  “So when did they work out that it was Corrie who went over?” asked Lynette.

  “Sooner than you’d think. We were up on the deck with the captain and some of the crew, trying to explain what we’d seen, where we were standing, and I guess that’s when it clicked. The captain suddenly just turned and ran. I’ve never seen a man in his sixties run so fast. Anders told me later that’s when he realised we were right over his wife’s private balcony. You can’t see down into it, the upper deck is like the roof of the balcony, but I guess he put two and two together. Of course he may have thought it was old Dame Dinnegan at first because her cabin is right next to Corrie’s apparently, but once he checked on his wife, well…”

  Alicia raised a hand to her throat. “Imagine what was going through that poor man’s mind as he raced down to their room. Imagine opening that door, looking at that empty bed, rushing to the balcony—”

  “Yes, okay then,” interrupted Claire. “This is horrific enough without your grisly imagination making things worse.”

  “I don’t think things can be much worse,” said Lynette before turning to her sister. “What’s Anders’s problem by the way? Telling us to leave it alone! He acts like we’re a pack of dimwits who’ve never looked into a disappearance before. What did he think we were doing when Barbara Parlour vanished? Playacting?”

  She shrugged. “He’s a cautious guy, Lynny, you know that. Don’t worry. He’ll come round, he always does.”

  “He’d better because, if we really are going to do this, he’s the one with the inside track. We need his help.”

  Perhaps they didn’t.

  Dermott was walking towards the group now, freshly dressed in chinos and a thin woollen sweater, and after commiserating with Perry, he quickly filled them in on what he knew. It was clear he, too, had his sources.

  “I hear they’re checking the CCTV footage from the public decks now,” he said, leaning against the railing. “They’re hoping one of them might have caught something, perhaps some glimpse of what went on, but they’re not holding their breaths.” He sighed. “I had a word to my buddy, Pane. Says the captain hasn’t shed a tear. Not one single drop.”

  “He’s probably still holding out hope,” said Lynette.

  “I’d say he’s in shock,” countered Perry.

  “In any case, he’s being a true professional,” said Missy. “He must be made of stern stuff that guy. I mean, imagine trying to hold it all together when the love of your life has just flown over the side of your own ship. He must be so distraught.”

  Dermott coughed discreetly, and when they all looked at him, he said, “I really shouldn’t be saying anything…”

  “Oh go on then,” said Perry, leaning towards him.

  “The thing is, Pane tells me they’d had a fight, the captain and his wife during dinner last night, quite public in front of several guests, so it’d be public knowledge by now anyway. He stormed off, she headed back to her cabin.” He gave them a knowing look.

  “So, what are you saying?” said Claire. “You think she was so upset she threw herself into the ocean?”

  “I guess we’ll never know,” he replied, and that’s when Alicia remembered.

  She jumped up from her deck chair. “I need to see Anders again. I need to know why he stood me up last night!”

  “Oh for goodness’ sake,” Lynette said. “Your love life is not a priority at this point.”

  But it wasn’t Alicia’s love life she was thinking about. She’d just remembered whom Anders had stood her up for, and she was determined to find out why.

  Chapter 2

  Nurse Dee was determined to block Alicia from Anders’s surgery.

  “Not unless you’re sick or have an appointment, I’m sorry.” She placed her hands on her ample hips and stood in front of the closed door as if prepared to tackle Alicia to the floor if need be. “The doctor is completely swamped as you can imagine. We’ve got several passengers in great distress, and he has to be available in case they find…”

  She let the sentence trail off, and Alicia sighed.

  “I understand that. Really I do.” She let her shoulders droop. “It’s just that, I’m not feeling too crash hot myself.”

  She wasn’t exactly lying. With the morning’s adrenaline now wearing off, her hangover was back with a vengeance and her head was thudding like the ship’s engine.

  The nurse looked at her more closely. While it was clear she didn’t want to believe this sudden onset of illness, there was something decidedly peakish about the woman standing before her. As if to accentuate the point, Alicia slumped into the nearest chair.

  Dee’s lips pursed together and she said, “Fine. Stay there. I’ll see if he’s available.”

  She tapped on the door and vanished inside for just a moment before returning with Anders at her heel.

  “Alicia, are you okay?”

  She moaned. “Not really. I’m not feeling too good. Must be the shock or something.”

  “Oh yes, I can see that, you look terrible.”

  “I do?”

  “Yes, come in please.”

  Alicia tried not to be offended as she followed him into his surgery and closed the door behind her. The second the door was shut Anders grabbed her hands and led her to a seat in front of his desk.

  “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  “You are?”

  “Yes, I need to talk to you, in private, wasn’t sure how I was going to manage it. It’s about Corrie. I have to confess something.”

&nb
sp; Alicia felt her heart sink. She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it.

  Had Corrie been with Anders last night after dinner? Was that why the Captain and Corrie had been fighting?

  Getting to her feet she said, “Look, Anders, it’s not the reason I—”

  “I was with Corrie last night!”

  And there it was.

  She sat back down.

  “Around the time you and I were supposed to meet, well, Corrie asked to see me.”

  She blinked then frowned. “Oh, you mean before dinner? I already know that, you went to the bar together.”

  “No, we weren’t at the bar. We went back to Corrie’s cabin.”

  Alicia’s lips formed a perfect O, but she couldn’t manage to say anything. Her mind was doing all the talking, and most of it was high pitched and hysterical.

  He finally picked up on her distress and said, “It’s not what you think. Corrie said she had something important to discuss. I would have told you sooner, I meant to tell you after dinner last night, but, well, I’ve been so preoccupied with Mrs Jollson’s death.”

  “Cecilia Jollson? I thought you said it wasn’t suspicious.”

  “No… Well… it’s just… Look, that’s not important now. We need to talk about Corrie.”

  “What about her?”

  He took a deep breath, then sat forward in his chair and explained.

  Corrie had been jovial before dinner, he remembered that now, in seemingly high spirits as she dragged him into her cabin, and for an awkward moment he thought as Alicia had that the woman was going to proposition him.

  But it was a very different kind of proposition she had in mind.

  Pulling him onto the silk chaise longue in her suite, she had said quite calmly, “I’m not one for beating about the bush, so I’ll come straight to the point. I want to ask you a favour; I’ve got a job for you.”

  It was not what he had been expecting, but she misread his surprise. “I can pay. I have plenty of money.” She smiled then. “More than I need.”

  “It’s not that, it’s just, well, I already have a job.”

  “I realise that, dummy! But as I say, I will pay you handsomely and it’s a mystery, see? I know you love a good mystery.”

  He remembered the missing kaftans and said, “Yes, murder mysteries,” meaning fictional ones, but again she misunderstood and her eyes lit up.

  “Exactly! That’s why I need you. You and the others.”

  “Others?”

  “Your book club friends, of course! I don’t know who else to trust. Everyone else… well, they’re all compromised.”

  “Compromised?” repeated Alicia now, and he lifted one shoulder.

  “I have no idea what she meant by that, and to be honest I didn’t think to ask. I was more intrigued by what she meant by ‘murder mystery’. I asked her and she said, quite matter-of-factly like she was just chewin’ the fat, ‘Why, my murder of course.’”

  Alicia sat back with a thud.

  He sat back too, as if giving her time to digest it.

  “I didn’t take her seriously,” he said eventually. “I thought she was being melodramatic—is that the word Dermott used about her? He’s not wrong. She is a little like that, loud and theatrical. Was like that.” He closed his eyes briefly. “I kind of dismissed it, laughed her off, told her she was being silly.”

  “And how did she respond to that?”

  “She said she had proof someone was out to get her.”

  “And did she?”

  He nodded. “She showed me a letter. It was frankly ridiculous. It looked amateurish, comical even. Like someone was winding her up. It had been written in really childish scrawl, like it had been made to look amateur, and it said something like, ‘Stop doing what you’re doing or you’ll get what’s coming to you. This is your final warning!’”

  Alicia considered the words for a moment then asked, “Did she say what they meant by that?” He shook his head. “Wow, that’s pretty nasty. Corrie must have been devastated.”

  “That’s the thing. She wasn’t upset so much as amused like it was all a practical joke, which is why I didn’t take it seriously either. She said she wanted me, well, us, the book club, to look into it for her. Work out who sent it and report back. She asked if I could get us all together for a meeting to start investigating.”

  “How were we supposed to investigate that?”

  “She said, ‘You’re the mystery experts. Check out the handwriting, compare it to a few of the passengers.’ I kind of humoured her and said, ‘Anyone in particular?’ and she just laughed then. She said, and I think I remember this correctly, ‘There’s 280 passengers on this ship, most of them fat, female and over fifty. My guess is, it could be any of them. I’m younger, richer and have my pick of men. Isn’t that motive enough?’ She stopped then and added something like, ‘If only they all realised there’s only one man for me now.’”

  Alicia was gobsmacked, but he continued on.

  “Of course I didn’t take it at all seriously. The letter seemed like a practical joke to me, and I told her that. I told her to just throw it away, said I’d get her something to settle her nerves, and I did. I ran and fetched her some antianxiety medication before dinner. I figured that was all there was to it, but…”

  “But now you’re worried she really was murdered?”

  He stared at her puzzled. “What? No! Not at all. Sorry, you misunderstand me.”

  Now she looked puzzled and he explained.

  “I’m worried that the medication I gave her made her groggy. Maybe it’s my fault Corrie slipped overboard!”

  The intercom buzzed shrilly, and both Anders and Alicia nearly jumped out of their skins. It was Nurse Mandy, and she had a slight edge in her voice now.

  “Doctor, I have a patient here waiting to see you.”

  He swallowed hard and leaned across the desk to press a button. “I’ll be right out, thanks, Dee.” He glanced back at Alicia. “I’m sorry, I’d better get on.”

  She didn’t budge. “Listen, two things: first of all, there is no way your medication had anything to do with what happened to Corrie.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “Because she screamed, Anders. When she fell overboard, Perry heard Corrie scream. So she couldn’t have been groggy and out of it. She knew what was happening and she didn’t like it one bit. But there is a way you can set your mind at rest. That’s my second point.” His eyes widened. “You can go back into her cabin and check. Look for the meds; see if she even took any. And while you’re there try and find that letter. It could be the key to everything.”

  “Okaaaay.” His eyes narrowed. “Listen, I’m telling you this in confidence, right? This doesn’t mean I think you should all start running around like headless chickens investigating.”

  “Well, you might not, but Corrie clearly does.” He frowned so she said, “I’m sorry, Anders, but she wanted to ask us—the book club—to investigate that letter. It might be the reason she went overboard. Surely it has to be connected.”

  “Yes, but we’re not experts. I keep telling you this, we’re not employed—”

  “We are employed! Corrie employed us, or she tried to before she was silenced.”

  He sat back in his chair, and his frown hardened into a scowl. “Come on, Alicia. You’re letting your imagination run away with you again. We don’t know what really happened. As I say, she could just have been groggy, and it could be my fault.”

  “Exactly! That’s why you need to do yourself a favour, get into her cabin, have a bit of a rummage, and find out!”

  Chapter 3

  It didn’t take long for Anders to put his mind at rest. All the medication he had prescribed was still in an unopened packet by Corrie’s bed, and he exhaled heavily not even aware he had been holding his breath.

  The security man at the door looked across and Anders pointed a gloved hand at the packet with a victory smile.

  He hadn’t bothered making up a
story, had simply presented himself to the ship’s head of security, a beefy geezer he’d already met called Paul Packer. Paul had sealed the cabin off to preserve the evidence; that was just standard procedure. Official investigators would come aboard once they docked in New Zealand. And while Packer had already searched and photographed the cabin personally, he hadn’t thought to enlist the doctor to specifically look for medication.

  “Good idea,” he’d told Anders. “See if she has any antidepressants or antipsychotics or whatever you can find.”

  The sooner they proved the woman was off her rocker and had willingly thrown herself into the sea, the better it would be for all of them, Packer decided, including the captain. Packer had already heard about the couple’s spat that night, and he was desperate to clear Van Tussi’s name. He knew how these things went. The whole ship would be whispering and pointing the finger at the poor man and, deeply loyal to his chief, he was damned if was going to let that happen!

  With instructions to wear gloves and not touch a thing, Anders was allowed free reign of Corrie’s cabin, and so he took the opportunity to do as Alicia suggested and started searching for evidence.

  The stateroom was palatial, as you’d expect for the captain’s digs, but Anders knew that the top dog barely spent any time in it. He was usually too busy at the ship’s command station, the bridge, which was located just above the promenade deck on the forward side of the ship. Famous for never wanting to stray too far from the action, Captain Van Tussi also had a smaller sleeping berth just to the portside of the bridge.