The Body on the Lido Deck

by Jane Bennett Munro

  “Who killed her?” Jessica asked.

  Nigel shook his head. “We never found out. We couldn’t detain the ship, any more than the Barbados police could detain this one. It sailed away, and all the evidence went with it.”

  “So if it weren’t for you two,” Jessica said, “we might never know who killed Leonie either.”

  “We still might not,” Nigel said, “but not for want of trying.”

  “Do you know which officer Evie had an affair with?” I asked.

  Jessica shook her head.

  “It might interest you to know,” Nigel said, “that the first officer on that ship was none other than Colin Sloane, our captain.”

  Jessica gasped.

  “Does that ring any bells?” I asked.

  Jessica stared at me, eyes wide, as if in a trance. That deer in the headlights look.

  “Jessica?”

  She shook her head and came out of it. “No. No, it doesn’t. Not at all.”

  I didn’t believe her.

  Neither, from the look he gave me, did Nigel.

  9

  Love is strong as death; jealousy is as cruel as the grave.

  —Song of Solomon 8:6

  “IS IT POSSIBLE that Leonie’s mother got involved with Colin Sloane when he was a first officer on that other ship?” I asked.

  We’d reunited after our respective naps and showers for cocktails in the Ocean Lounge, which was still empty, the better to discuss things best not overheard. The bar staff would soon be wondering what was going on if we continued to meet like this. If that happened, we’d have to find another place for our clandestine meetings.

  “I’ve known Colin Sloane for twenty-five years now,” Nigel said. “He knew perfectly well that if he got caught fraternizing with a crew member it could mean the end of his maritime career. He’d climbed the ladder all the way to first officer and was waiting to get a ship of his own. Some wait all their lives and never get one. Why would he jeopardize that by having a fling with the cruise director?”

  “Maybe she put the moves on him,” I suggested. “Maybe he never had a chance. Maybe she made him an offer he couldn’t refuse.”

  “But kitten, that would have jeopardized her career as well,” Mum objected.

  “Not as much as it would jeopardize his,” Hal said. “Perhaps she meant to get him to marry her. Then she wouldn’t have to work.”

  “That might have worked twenty-five years ago,” I said. “It sure wouldn’t work today. Most families need two salaries just to get by these days.”

  “Especially if they have children,” Hal said.

  “Was Colin Sloane married twenty-five years ago?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” Nigel said.

  “You never asked him? You didn’t know him very well, did you?”

  “Honey,” Hal said. “Guys don’t ask those kinds of questions of each other.”

  “Well, they should,” I said. “If he was married, he stood to lose that too. Wouldn’t a divorce have an effect on whether he got to be a captain or not?”

  “Things like that do tend to come out in a divorce,” Nigel said. “That would be the last thing he’d want to have happen.”

  “He wasn’t married at the time,” Mum said suddenly, “but he is now. He’s been married for twenty-four years. He has one son and no grandchildren. He said so at dinner last night.”

  “See?” I said. “Women can ask questions like that and nobody thinks anything of it.”

  “Actually, I didn’t have to,” Mum said. “I was talking about Little Toni and then he started talking about his son, who also works on cruise ships, and it just went from there, just as natural as can be.”

  “Does the captain’s wife ever sail with him?” Hal asked.

  “She does sometimes,” Mum said. “She’s here now. She joined the cruise at Bridgetown.”

  That jibed with what Mrs. Levine had said. “Then why wasn’t she at dinner with us last night?” I asked.

  “I did ask him that. He said she was tired. She’d been at the races all day.”

  I knew from reading Dick Francis mysteries that horse racing was just as popular in Barbados as it was in England. “Does she own horses, or does she just like to gamble on them?” I inquired.

  “She owns racehorses,” Mum said. “She comes from a very wealthy family. I believe they even own this cruise line. She spends quite a lot of time in Barbados, especially in the winter when she’s not cruising.”

  “So if they weren’t married yet, she probably wasn’t with him on that other cruise,” Nigel said.

  “What ship was that anyway?” I asked. “Was it this cruise line?”

  “It was this cruise line,” Nigel said. “As I recall, it was the Southern Cross.”

  “Jessica didn’t actually come right out and say it was Colin Sloane that Leonie’s mother was having an affair with, did she?” Mum asked.

  “No, love,” Nigel said. “She just gasped and stared into space.”

  “Like a basilisk,” I commented.

  “What’s a basilisk?” Hal asked.

  “A snake,” I said.

  “A mythical snake,” Mum said, “that can kill you if it looks at you.”

  “That’s pretty circumstantial,” Hal commented. “She could have had other reasons for reacting that way.”

  “Like what?” I asked. “Like maybe she’s having a fling with the captain right now and is realizing that if Evie had an affair with him back then and got murdered, then maybe she’s in danger now?”

  “Holy shit,” Hal said with disbelief. “You just came up with that right off the top of your head, just like that?”

  “Well,” I said defensively, “it’s another reason for her reaction. Maybe everything we know about the captain is circumstantial too. He could be as pure as the driven snow for all we know.”

  “What a turnabout,” Nigel said. “This morning you were talking about the captain trying to cover up the murder. You were wondering if he would even have called the police if you hadn’t been there. Now you’re defending him.”

  “No, I’m not. I’m being a devil’s advocate.”

  “Okay then,” Hal challenged me. “Do you have any other suspects in mind?”

  “How about Rob?”

  “The doctor? I thought he was your new best buddy.”

  “I told you last night that the only people I knew for sure weren’t involved were the four of us. If the evidence suddenly disappears, we’ll know it’s him.”

  “Not necessarily. What if the captain orders him to get rid of it?”

  “Can he do that?” I turned to Nigel. “Can the captain order the doctor to destroy evidence? That’s a crime in itself.”

  “Only if he gets caught,” Nigel said.

  “Lovey,” my mother said to him, “have you talked to the captain about calling in Scotland Yard yet?”

  “Not yet,” Nigel said.

  “You need to,” I urged him. “The sooner, the better.”

  “What’s all this?” Nigel looked at each of us in turn. “Ganging up on me?”

  “Here’s the thing,” I said. “Don’t you see? If the captain agrees to call in Scotland Yard, and we go to Rob to get the evidence to send to them, and it’s gone, then what?”

  “Toni,” said my long-suffering husband, “quit nagging.”

  “She’s got a point,” Nigel said. “Time may be of the essence here. I’ll go see if I can talk to him now. We may be able to send it off from San Juan tomorrow if we’re lucky.” He drained his drink and got up.

  “Want me to go with you?” I asked.

  “Toni, old thing, I love you dearly, but the captain doesn’t.”

  “That would be a ‘no’,” Hal said.

  “Okay. I get it. You don’t have to hit me o
ver the head with a brick.”

  “Sometimes we do,” Hal said slyly.

  “Hal, dear, enough,” said Mum. “She’s right, you know. We’ve only three more days. Once we reach Fort Lauderdale, it’s out of our control.”

  The long blast of the ship’s whistle made further conversation impossible and told us that our departure from Philipsburg was imminent. It always gave me such a cozy, safe feeling to know that my loved ones and I were safely aboard. I didn’t know if anyone ever actually missed the ship, but if anyone did, it wouldn’t be me. The panic I’d felt in St. Thomas when I’d bought a ring at Diamonds International and had to wait for it to be sized had been bad enough. I’d heard the ship’s whistle while still waiting in the store. Luckily, the ship’s jewelry expert had been there too, and they certainly were not leaving without him, I reasoned. But it had been very unsettling all the same, and I determined never to repeat the experience.

  People began to drift into the Ocean Lounge, making it unsafe to continue our conversation about possible suspects, so we went up to the Lido deck where we could watch the ship leave Philipsburg while enjoying our drinks. I ordered a second martini with extra olives, as the late seating for dinner was still two hours away, and I was getting hungry. The waiter, a smiling Filipino named Arturo who knew all of us by name, gave me an entire glass full of olives. I thanked him profusely and put a generous tip on the receipt.

  I spotted Rob Welch, still in scrubs, at the bar and waved at him. He came over. “Just finished with office hours,” he said. “Mind if I join you? Where’s your stepfather?”

  “Not at all,” I said. “Nigel’s off talking to the captain. This is my mother, Fiona, and you remember my husband, Hal. This is Dr. Robert Welch, the ship’s doctor.”

  “I’m delighted to meet you, Doctor,” Mum said with a smile. “I appreciate your helping Antoinette with this case.”

  Rob looked sidelong at me. “Antoinette?”

  “Nobody calls me that except my mother,” I informed him, “and the only reason she does is because I can’t stop her.”

  Rob smiled back at my mother. “Please call me Rob. Everybody does. So,” he said to me, “what’s Nigel talking to the captain about?”

  I thought perhaps I shouldn’t mention calling in Scotland Yard just yet. It might give Rob incentive to destroy the evidence sooner rather than later if he was the killer. “They know each other,” I said. “Nigel was involved in a murder on a ship where our captain was first officer.”

  “Really,” said Rob with interest. “When was that?”

  “Twenty-five years ago,” I said. “Nigel was only a detective inspector then.”

  “Does the captain remember him?”

  “Definitely,” I said. “He was the one who mentioned it to me.”

  “Who was murdered?”

  “The cruise director, a woman named Evelyn Hodges.”

  “How did you know that?” Hal asked.

  “From Jessica, our cruise director,” I said. “Apparently she knew the family.”

  Rob looked pensive. “Hodges. That’s interesting. I went to university with a girl named Maggie Hodges. Probably no relation, though.”

  I had to physically restrain myself from reacting. Could it just be a coincidence? “That is interesting,” I said. “Our cruise director, Jessica, also went to school with a Maggie Hodges. This particular Maggie Hodges became a professional singer and changed her name.”

  “Anyone I might know?”

  “She changed it to Leonie Montague,” I said.

  There was no hiding Rob’s reaction. He went white and seemed to have some difficulty catching his breath. “You mean the girl who got crushed in the roof?”

  “The very same,” I said. “Are you all right? You look like you’re about to pass out.”

  He wiped his brow with a cocktail napkin. “I’m quite all right. It’s just a bit of a facer to realize you’ve assisted at an autopsy of someone you knew in school.”

  “Are you quite sure,” said my mother, “that it’s the same Maggie Hodges? That’s not such an unusual name.”

  Rob took a gulp of his drink. “It’s her. I’ve kept track. I went to medical school, and she went to London to become an actress.”

  “You kept track,” I repeated. “Just how well did you know her?”

  “Toni,” Hal said. “Don’t pry.”

  Rob didn’t answer right away. Instead he put his elbows on the table and his face in his hands.

  I touched his arm gently. “Rob?”

  He looked up. His face looked haggard, his eyes full of pain. “We were engaged. She broke it off just before we graduated.”

  “Why?”

  “Blimey, you don’t give up, do you? It just so happens that I don’t know why. She wouldn’t tell me. I tried and tried to get her to talk to me, but she wouldn’t. Finally I had to give up and move on with my life. That do you? Or do you want to pry some more?” He drained his drink, shoved his chair back so hard it fell over, and stomped out.

  I sat staring after him in consternation. It certainly hadn’t been my intention to piss him off, but I knew that running after him to apologize wouldn’t do either of us any good. He needed time to cool off.

  People at the tables around us were staring. “Now look what you’ve done,” Hal said. “You’ve pissed off an officer. The captain’s gonna throw us all off the ship if you don’t watch out.”

  “You need to apologize, kitten,” Mum said. “Although perhaps not right this very minute.”

  Nigel reappeared. He picked up Rob’s chair and sat down. “I say, Toni, old dear, whatever have you done to the medical johnnie? He looked like he was about to kill somebody.”

  “And naturally you just assumed it was something I did.”

  “It usually is, isn’t it?”

  I couldn’t really argue with that, so I told him.

  “Interesting,” was his response. “Do you suppose we’ve another possible suspect?”

  “Maybe,” I said. “How did you do with the captain?”

  Nigel told me that the captain had grudgingly agreed to call in Scotland Yard, and that he, Nigel, would act as intermediary, thereby obviating the need to fly an agent to Fort Lauderdale from London.

  “They do want the evidence we’ve collected, but we’re going to have to figure out how to package it to send,” he said. “Any ideas?”

  “Well,” I said, “we need a couple of boxes about so big.” I illustrated by holding my arms about a foot apart. “And a smaller box for the wood chip and the vitreous. Then we need a lot of plastic bags, preferably the kind that can be sealed. They’re also going to have to have proper labeling for biohazardous material. Does Scotland Yard have labels or containers that they use for that purpose?”

  “I’ll have to ask them,” Nigel said, “but they can’t get them to us in time even if they do.”

  “Maybe if they can describe what they need, we can imitate it. Maybe the labels can be e-mailed and printed here. If you can find out before we go to dinner, maybe after dinner we can go down to the infirmary and retrieve the evidence. And then maybe the purser can help with finding mailing materials, and then we can mail them in San Juan tomorrow.” I was talking so fast that I stumbled over my words.

  “Toni, old dear, do slow down,” my stepfather begged me. “These old ears can’t hear as fast as you’re talking. First, I have to see about making a ship-to-shore call. Then—”

  “Why do you need to call? Can’t you e-mail them?”

  “I don’t know the e-mail address,” Nigel protested. “And I’ve never sent an e-mail in my life.”

  “Nigel, old thing, really,” I said. “You’ve simply got to drag yourself into the twenty-first century. Wait. Let me go get my laptop. We’ll Google them.”

  “I’ll go with you.”

  We too
k the stairs down to the Nav deck and our cabin.

  My laptop was gone.

  10

  Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibers.

  —Victor Hugo

  WE LOOKED EVERYWHERE, even under the beds, but no joy.

  “Do you think you left it up on the Lido deck?” Nigel asked.

  “I don’t think so, but we can look.”

  We went back up to the Lido deck. I started looking under tables and on chair seats and windowsills.

  “Antoinette,” said Mum, “whatever are you doing?”

  “Looking for my laptop,” I said.

  “Isn’t it in the room?” Hal asked.

  Would I be looking up here if it was in the room? Really? “No, sweetie, it’s not,” I said.

  “Where did you see it last?” Mum asked.

  I thought for a minute. “On the desk in our room. I downloaded my pictures on it and then e-mailed them to Pete and to the Barbados police. But it’s not there anymore.”

  “Or anywhere else in that room,” Nigel said. “We fairly turned it upside down.”

  “Did they take the charger too?” Hal asked.

  I had to think about that. I always left my laptop plugged in when I wasn’t using it, because it only took a couple of hours to use up the battery. I’d noticed right away that the laptop was missing, but the charger? I always packed an extension cord and a surge protector with multiple outlets so I could charge up my laptop, my e-book, and my smartphone. The surge protector sat on the desk with all the chargers plugged into it. Had there been three cords plugged in, or just two?

  “No,” I said finally. “That’s dumb. Whoever took it must not be the brightest bulb on the tree. Unless …”

  “If someone took it to prevent anyone from using those pictures, they wouldn’t care if it was charged or not,” Nigel said.

  “Well, it was all for nothing, because those pictures are still on my phone,” I said.

  “Well, you’d better hang on to it,” Hal said. “Now, hadn’t we better go get ready for dinner?”