Claire Gulliver #04 - Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

by Gayle Wigglesworth

  “Did you ever see her with Anita?”

  Claire was startled by that idea and then thought about it. Finally she shook her head. “No, I don’t remember ever seeing them together. Actually, I don’t think I ever saw Anita except in Mrs. Bernbaum’s cabin the first couple of times I was there.” Then she asked, “Why? Do you think Kim was involved with Anita?”

  Then she said thoughtfully, “You know Richard was certain Anita had gotten off the ship to teach Mrs. Bernbaum a lesson about how important she was to her. But now, considering what Richard did to Mrs. Bernbaum I’m not sure I can give any credence to his theory.”

  “We found some personal items in Kim’s cabin which we believe belonged to Anita. A small bag with a hairbrush, toothbrush, make up and a few clothes, and more importantly, we found Anita’s ship identification card in the bag,” the woman told her gravely.

  “Oh, my god! You think they did something to Anita, don’t you? Oh, my god! This was all planned!” Her voice quaked with horror as she sat back from the table. She felt chilled and at the same time she felt perspiration running down her back. “And he was so caring, so attentive. That poor woman. He was just conning her, and all the time he was planning to kill her.” She couldn’t stop the shudder that ran through her.

  The lieutenant and sergeant just looked at her, keeping their expressions neutral, however their eyes were sympathetic. They had not yet become so inured to evil that they couldn’t be appalled by what people were willing to do to get what they wanted.

  “It appears so. Kim came out from Florida with him. We think they intended to see what they could get from his only relative. Luckily for him she was wealthy and alone. She must have appeared to be an easy mark except for her caregiver, who was apparently too protective. That was unfortunate for both Mrs. Bernbaum and for her caregiver. We got lots of information from Miami. The Captain appreciated your sending the link to that newspaper story. Dr. Richard Walmer has quite a history in Florida, no wonder he was thinking of moving his practice to California.”

  When they finally finished with Claire, she staggered out of the conference room in time to slip into a seat in the darkened theatre, part way into the lecture, happy for the time to help put her thoughts back in order. She didn’t know why she was so shocked and horrified when she heard how Richard had planned this whole trip so he could kill his aunt. She knew it was true. It had all become clear to her when she found the syringe. But thinking it and hearing it stated as fact by the police were two different things. She still felt chilled by the cold brutality of it. She still wanted to scream at him; to claw at him; to somehow hurt him for his gall in sitting there at the table with all of them, night after night, pretending. And all the time he was planning, calculating how to rid himself of his aunt.

  And what about Richard’s blonde friend, Kim? She looked normal. Pretty, youngish, vivacious, yet she was a vicious monster. She not only was willing to push them overboard, but she seemed to be an advocate of that action. And now it appeared she might have played a role in Anita’s disappearance. It all seemed too wicked, too vile, to accept.

  When the lecture was over she found Millie. Her mother didn’t even mention that Claire didn’t show up for their tentative coffee date, which led Claire to think that Millie’s own interview was probably as stressful as hers had been. They agreed to meet Ruth for lunch at the buffet and went their separate ways. Millie went to a cooking demonstration, and Claire to find a quiet corner to read her book or just to stare out at the passing nothingness of the ocean.

  * * *

  The ship had slipped under the Golden Gate Bridge before the sun had even risen and was secured to Pier Thirty-three by six o’clock. When Ruth, Millie, Claire and Lucy met in the dining room for their last breakfast the entire ship was in an uproar as everyone prepared to leave. They had all been issued color coded luggage tags the night before, which dictated the order of the disembarkation. The luggage had to be packed and placed outside their doors before midnight last night, each passenger keeping only the essentials for the morning.

  Their luggage, sporting lavender luggage tags indicating they would not be processed until ten o’clock, was long gone, the last of their essentials were packed in their carry-on bags, so now the ladies were going to have a leisurely last breakfast.

  Last night had been bittersweet. Everyone at the table had exchanged addresses, and Claire, Pearl and Ian had taken so many pictures it was as if the paparazzi were on board. And as this was the last night, it was also time to distribute their little envelopes with gratuities to the dining room personnel. This was done with many thanks and hugs and promises to remember. Then people dispersed to their cabins to get their packing done. Later Lucy and Claire had gone up to the Starlight Lounge and found Millie and Ruth, Sean and Ian. Later Antonio arrived and had a drink with them before he and Lucy disappeared.

  Claire had watched them go, wondering if Lucy was really as unconcerned with this parting as she said she was. But now today, Lucy appeared in fine spirits, anxious as they all were to get home and back to her life.

  That’s what Ruth said to them. “Isn’t it funny that no matter how much fun you have on vacation you’re still so happy to get home?”

  Lucy nodded in complete agreement. Millie looked surprised. “Do you feel that way too? I thought it was just that I don’t travel much, so naturally I am anxious to be home.”

  And Claire thought, but didn’t say, that every time she took a trip she was just thankful to get home alive. What was it about travel that seemed to put her in danger? But Lucy, who knew about Claire’s other trips muttered so only Claire could hear, “And for once you had a trip that was just normal, Claire. This is how traveling is supposed to be. The excitement of travel comes from seeing new things and having new experiences, not from avoiding death and destruction.”

  Claire looked at her smiling friend with amazement. Just then she realized that Lucy was entirely clueless about Richard’s perfidy and Mrs. Bernbaum’s death. But this was neither the time nor place to tell her about what had really happened. Oh, well, she thought, let her have this time to enjoy, the newspapers will apprise her of the real excitement of this cruise soon enough.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “Hey Mom, where are you?”

  “In the kitchen, dear. Come on back.” Millie looked up and smiled at her daughter. “How nice, you’re early. I hope you’re not too hungry to wait for Ruth. She won’t be here until about 5:30.”

  “No, I’m early because I talked to Sean Dixon this morning, and he said he would come by and give us an update. He’ll be here in a few minutes, okay?”

  “Of course, I’ll be glad to see him, you know that. And I confess I’ll appreciate hearing what is really going on. I swear between the television reports and the newspapers, I’m not even sure I know what happened, and I was in the middle of it.”

  Claire nodded. She felt the same frustration. The newspapers were full of the story. It was just what they loved to exploit, a local woman, intrigue and treachery, and a romantic setting on board the ship. But even though she had been there, it was hard to reconcile what she knew happened to what the papers said happened.

  She smiled at the memory of the phone call she had gotten early one morning when the story first appeared in the newspaper. Lucy couldn’t believe she had been so involved in her shipboard romance she missed the entire drama unfolding around her, including, and this really rocked her to her toes, Richard’s attempt to rid himself of Millie and Claire by dumping them overboard. “But why didn’t you tell me? We were rooming together for god’s sake,” she protested.

  Claire finally calmed her down by reminding her that it happened near the end of the cruise and the few times they were together they were also surrounded by other people. It wasn’t appropriate to tell her then. She wasn’t keeping it from Lucy, she assured her. After all, Lucy was privy to details of some of Claire’s other adventures which no other person knew; it was more that she just hadn
’t had the opportunity to tell her.

  So Lucy had been mollified, as well as stupefied, but finally satisfied. Now she was in England on another research trip for her current book, so she would miss their first halibut dinner. Ruth caught the fish, Millie was cooking it and Claire agreed she would help eat it.

  Claire helped herself to a bite of the tomato her mother was cutting up for the salad when the door bell rang. “That’s Sean. I’ll let him in.”

  After all the hugs and inquires about Sean’s wife, Maureen, and the newest antics of his grandchildren, they settled around the kitchen table to talk. Claire and Millie had wine, but Sean declined, saying Maureen had him on a tight regime to control his escalating blood pressure.

  “Well, ladies, Richard’s fingerprints were all over the syringe and empty bottle of potassium chloride. The coroner found the needle mark on Mrs. Bernbaum’s arm. But if you hadn’t grabbed the bag before it dropped into the ocean, Millie, we would never have had proof that Mrs. Bernbaum hadn’t died a natural death. Apparently potassium chloride is hard to detect in the body, so if you hadn’t alerted us to the possibility the coroner says he most likely wouldn’t have detected its presence. Richard was being very clever. If he had held onto that bag of stuff and hidden it in his luggage he would have, most likely, gotten away with murder.”

  Millie put her hand over her heart, her eyes wide as she shook her head in disbelief. “I still can’t believe it. I wasn’t thinking about what he was throwing away. It’s just that when I saw that plastic bag, I grabbed it. I felt I had to save the porpoises.”

  “Lucky for us you happened to catch him as he let go of it. Apparently he became very nervous about someone checking for evidence, and he felt he had to get it off the ship. It was just his bad luck that you were looking for him to tell him about his aunt at the same time he was trying to dump it.”

  They all looked at each other a minute thinking how one small thing could destroy a carefully wrought plan. Except for Richard’s determination to get rid of the evidence, he might have been sucessful.

  “We discovered Kim rented a car in Juneau and we have a few of Anita’s fingerprints on the inside and the passenger’s door handle of that car. So there is a connection, somehow, between Kim and Anita, but we don’t have a body. The Juneau police are using tracker and cadaver dogs to search in areas that match the mileage recorded on the odometer during the rental, but winter has moved in there and the weather has hampered them. They say now they will have to give up the search until spring. But, I think we can safely assume that Anita was murdered even if we never find a body,” he told them gravely. “The D.A. thinks he has a strong case against the two of them. And who knows, come spring, they might find a body. And, of course, your testimonies will be important in getting a conviction.”

  “That wicked, wicked man.” Millie was enraged all over again. “I hope he won’t be getting any of Mrs. Bernbaum’s money.” She looked at Sean questioning. “He won’t, will he? Isn’t there a law about that?”

  Sean nodded. “Mrs. Bernbaum wrote a codicil to her will before she left on the cruise leaving the bulk of her estate, which is substantial, to Richard. However, if he’s found guilty of either her murder or complicity in her murder he will not inherit and it will go to the charities, which were originally named.”

  “So it was all about her money? I hope he rots in jail.”

  “He might get the death penalty. Premeditated murder can carry the death penalty in California,” Sean said grimly.

  Millie paled. “Death? I don’t know about death,” she stammered. Then her anger flared again. “Well, I won’t be on the jury so I won’t make that decision, but I have to admit that while we were struggling on that balcony I could have easily killed him to stop him from choking Claire. I guess it was lucky for all of us I didn’t have a weapon available.”

  Claire nodded. She knew there was nothing like fighting for your life to stir your adrenalin. Then it was pretty hard to make moral decisions about whether or not you believed in the death penalty.

  “There was another item of interest in her will though.” He continued, “It was about that brooch you told us about, the Heart of Persia?”

  Millie and Claire nodded, their expressions expectant.

  “Well, it turns out it’s paste.”

  “Paste? What do you mean paste?” Millie didn’t understand.

  “Paste, not quite worthless my experts tell me. After all, there is some skill in producing the piece, but still of no serious value. The rest of her jewelry was genuine and quite valuable. And we’ve done our research, so we know there is a Heart of Persia. The last time we were able to trace it was in a robbery attempt in the late fifties. It was returned to its owner then and no one has seen it since.”

  “But that can’t be. Mrs. Bernbaum said it was real. She loved that piece. Her last husband, Bernie, was a jeweler, so surely he would have known if he had a paste copy when he returned it to Mrs. Bernbaum.” Millie looked at Claire, seriously confused. “I just can’t believe she had a fake and didn’t know it.”

  “Mom, maybe she did know. Maybe she had a copy made and gave the original back as Nate asked her to do?” Claire liked that option because there were other explanations she didn’t like at all.

  “Maybe she did. That would make sense.”

  “Well, if that was the case, why was the Heart of Persia listed in her will? She willed it to Sean Rourke, of Chicago Illinois, actually Sean Gallagher Rourke, or to his heirs. The attorney is searching for him now.”

  Claire and Millie looked at each other. “Sean Gallagher? There was a Sean Gallagher on the cruise. Mom, did Sean or Ian say anything about Rourke being a family name?” Claire asked.

  Millie shook her head. “No, Claire, I don’t believe that. It’s too far-fetched. Sean, Rourke, and Gallagher are all common names. And we even have a Sean right here. We don’t suppose he has anything to do with it, do we? Why would we think Ian and Sean were connected in some way to Mrs. Bernbaum’s brooch?”

  But Claire wasn’t convinced. She didn’t say anything more. How could she when she had never told anyone about Ian’s interest in the Heart of Persia? But she was sure there was some connection.

  Now she wondered if Ian had somehow switched the real Heart with a fake, and so they had put the paste copy in the safe.

  Or maybe Bernie Bernbaum had given his wife a paste copy of the original to make her happy? Surely, as a jeweler, he would have known the difference between real and paste.

  Or had Mrs. Bernbaum replaced the Heart with a copy and sold or given the original away? And if she had, why had she left the bequest in her will?

  Or perhaps someone had stolen the Heart from her sometime during all those years Mrs. Bernbaum had kept it in her house, replacing it with paste so she never knew the difference?

  Or had the brooch won in that card game so many years ago only been a paste copy? Had any jeweler ever appraised it?

  This puzzle made Claire’s head hurt and the worse part was she suspected she would probably never know the answer to this riddle. Even if she asked Ian she knew she wouldn’t believe his answer.

  “Sean, thank you so much for stopping by and sharing this information with us. I admit I was getting very confused from all the stories I read in the papers.” Millie hugged Sean when he stood up to leave.

  “Well, it’s the least I can do. I swear I don’t know how Claire gets involved in these situations, and this time you were put at risk too. But, I do appreciate her attention to details. It would be a shame to let these people get away with their crime.” He smiled at them both and turned to head for the door.

  “Here, Sean, I’ll see you out.” Claire hurried after him.

  At the door she said, “Sean, do you think it’s something I do? Could I avoid these situations, do you think? Did I put my mother in jeopardy somehow?”

  He patted her on the shoulder in a fatherly manner. “Claire, you can’t look the other way when a crime or an inj
ustice happens right before your eyes. I wouldn’t want you to, and your mother wouldn’t either. I don’t know why. Maybe you have too much of your father in you. He was a great police officer, you know. I do worry about you, and so does your mother, but you can only live your life as it comes. And thanks to you, Richard Walmer is not getting away with his scheme.”

  She shut the door behind him thinking about his words. She was satisfied that Richard wouldn’t be living “happily ever after” on Mrs. Bernbaum’s money.

  She’d keep in mind that Mrs. Bernbaum died painlessly. She led a long and active life and in the end she had successfully completed her life quest. It was the best spin she could put on the whole affair and, even if she never knew what happened to the real Heart of Persia, she would remember, after all, much of life was a mystery.

  THE END