Steele-Faced (Daggers & Steele Book 6)

by Alex P. Berg

  “Regardless, we parted ways, and the loss struck me deeply. I’d see her at social events here and there, sharing the occasional word, but we never had much time to ourselves. Until now. And seeing her here? Well, the encounter sparked feelings that had lain dormant for decades.

  “Honestly, I didn’t think she still harbored any feelings for me, but I’m an old man and not as inhibited as I used to be. Following the end of the first day of poker and my own elimination, I approached Verona and asked her to dinner. She hesitated, thinking my request was in some way related to my loss, but I assured her it wasn’t and she accepted. We ate, drank, and had a merry time, connecting on a deep, human level—I think, in part, because of my elimination from the tourney. Due to it, Verona knew my interest in her was genuine. Anyway, after dinner we walked the ship, which was largely empty due to the opera, before our feet eventually carried us to the pool.”

  “So you were there that night?” said Shay.

  Johann nodded. “It seemed a secluded enough place, and though neither of us harbored any delusions of youthful indiscretions, I think we both wished for our discussions to remain private. But it wasn’t long after we’d arrived, while reminiscing about a party we’d attended long past, that a twinkle sparked in Verona’s eye. She excused herself but told me to remain. I waited anxiously. Fifteen minutes later she returned wearing a brooch, one with an emerald at its center.”

  I’d almost forgotten about it. “Right. We found it on her but weren’t sure where it had come from.”

  Johann smiled. “I gave it to her. Not that night of course. Years before, at the party we’d been discussing. I thought she’d kept it for its beauty, but Verona assured me she’d held on to it for more than aesthetic reasons. And so we continued to chat, each of us warming to the other. An electricity crackled around us, and I—again, being an uninhibited old man—told her to say put while I retrieved something of my own. I went up to my room, looked for it, and couldn’t find it, so I asked one of my men where it was. They suggested it might’ve gotten lost and placed in the luggage down in the hold. I was forced to track down a porter, have him bring up the bags in question, and then, once I’d retrieved my item, I headed back down to the pool, hoping Verona hadn’t become irritated by my delay. And that’s when I chanced across the two of you.”

  “And this item…?” said Shay.

  Johann reached into his jacket pocket. From it, he produced a small box wrapped in black felt. He flicked it open. Something small and round gleamed within.

  “A ring,” said Johann. “The one I’d bought so many moons ago when I’d intended to ask Verona to marry me. I never got rid of it, and knowing she’d be a competitor…well, I decided to bring it. I don’t know if I would’ve asked her to marry me there in the pool room. Probably not. But I wanted to show her she wasn’t the only one to hold onto such mementos.”

  Shay sighed, a pained expression of the sort women give while reading romance novels. If I wasn’t so jaded, I might’ve acknowledged that the sniffle in my nose might’ve not been from allergies.

  Johann snapped the box shut. “And now, this memento has become something else. A reminder that if I hadn’t packed it away, resulting in my tardiness, Verona might still be alive. It’s a…bitter pill to swallow.”

  “Don’t blame yourself,” I said. “That sort of thinking only punishes the victims. But if we could continue…? When we met, you said you were meeting an old friend. Someone you weren’t sure was aboard?”

  “Yes. Verona,” said Johann. “Admittedly, it was a rather metaphorical way of putting things, but I thought the woman I’d loved had been lost to drink and the steady march of time. She hadn’t. At least…she hadn’t to me when I uttered those words.”

  Shay cleared her throat. “And after you met us…you headed back to the pool?”

  Johann nodded again. “I found a crewman guarding the door. He refused to let me in. Said the space was being cleaned. At first I despaired, thinking Verona had slipped out on me, but as I gave it more thought over the course of the night, I began to suspect the worst. Clearly, I already knew Ignatius had gone missing. To be honest, I suspected the two of you after that odd meeting near the pool.”

  I glanced at Steele, not wanting to reveal what, or who, had been bundled on the linen cart. Maybe Johann already knew and didn’t want to mention it.

  “Speaking of your man Lumpty—er, Ignatius,” I said, “let’s talk about him. The night he went missing, you suspected he’d been killed, of course.”

  “I think I made my opinion of that clear yesterday morning,” said Johann. “He is dead, is he not?”

  Shay nodded. “Stabbed in the back in the ship’s hold. Speaking of which, I don’t suppose you’d know what he was doing down there?”

  Johann cleared his throat and sat a little straighter. “Ah. Yes. Well, clearly you were aware of the rumors regarding this poker tournament. So was I, as I already made clear. My men are very protective of me, and of their own employment, so they took it upon themselves to investigate all of you, my competitors.”

  “Investigate how?” I said.

  “Again, I wouldn’t know,” said Johann. “But they might’ve looked into your personal property to see if any of you were in possession of equipment that would allow you to cheat at cards or have documents tying you to a conspiracy. Again, all performed entirely of their own volition.”

  “Of course,” I said. “And this all occurred the first night aboard the Prodigious?”

  “Theoretically, if it occurred, it would’ve occurred then,” said Johann.

  I glanced at Steele. “Well, that explains who broke into our apartment.”

  “The first time, anyway,” said Shay.

  I turned back to Johann. “And your men. Were they assigned—I mean, did they voluntarily choose to investigate the possessions of specific parties?”

  “They did.”

  “Who did Ignatius investigate?”

  “To my knowledge,” said Johann, “he’d taken it upon himself to look into the dealings of Miss Skeez, Mr. Hornshoe, and Miss Lang.”

  “Miss Lang?” I asked.

  “Wanda.”

  Wanda. Of course. “And I don’t suppose your men took it upon themselves to sift through our belongings multiple times?”

  Johann eyed me with curiosity. “No. Just the once.”

  “What are you thinking, Daggers?” said Shay.

  I gave my partner a smile. “I think it’s high time we talk to the person responsible for the second break-in of our stateroom.”

  37

  I knocked on Wanda’s door again and waited. Still no response.

  “Guess she’s not in,” said Steele.

  “Good thing we have this.” I dug around in my pocket and produced Olaugh’s skeleton key. I flourished it before sliding it into the lock and turning.

  I walked into Wanda’s stateroom, a smaller, one bedroom unit much like Jimmy’s. Unlike Jimmy’s, Wanda stood smack dab in the middle of hers. She eyed us—literally! She’d finally removed her glasses, revealing dark brown irises that were almost as hard to read as the rest of her.

  “Excuse me,” she said. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  My experience at the door hadn’t prepared me for her presence, but I could sling dialogue off the cuff with the best of them. “Couldn’t be bothered to answer the door, huh, Wanda? Still brooding over your poker loss, I assume. It’s alright. I know how it feels, except I had my victory snatched by the jaws of defeat and you sort of puttered and died. Not sure which is worse.”

  “That wasn’t an invitation to chat,” replied Wanda in her reedy voice. “And you still didn’t answer my question.”

  “We’re just returning the favor,” I said. “Isn’t that right, Steele?”

  Shay nodded and smiled. “We’re normally big on privacy, but we’re also big on retribution. Plus we’re at sea, so that irons out some of the thornier issu
es at play.”

  Wanda’s eyes narrowed and she took a small step to the side. “Who are you?”

  “Jake Daggers and Shay Steele,” I said. “We fibbed about our names. I’d say we lied about our professions, but I don’t think I ever told you what it is we do for a living. In case you’re curious, my tax returns don’t list ‘professional playboy’ under the occupation slot. Rather, there’s something far more murdery listed there.”

  That made Wanda freeze. “Ok, look. I don’t know who you’re working for or what your beef with me is, but whoever it is you’re after, it’s not me. I played a clean game, and I didn’t hurt anyone. For the love of the gods, don’t kill me!”

  “Kill you?” I said. “Who do you think we are? Hitmen? As if I’d list that on my tax return. Please. We’re homicide detectives with the NWPD.”

  “What? Police?” Wanda blinked, but she recovered quickly. “In that case, I have even less to say to you than I did before.”

  “Do you, now?” said Shay.

  My partner sidled up next to me and slid her hand into my jacket’s breast pocket. I was about to ask her if this was really an appropriate time to get handsy when she pulled it back, my kerchief held between her fingers. She crossed to the bar and, using the handkerchief, plucked a used glass from a tray.

  Shay stepped back with glass in hand. She held it up to the light. “You know, I’m not trained in forensics, but I’m competent enough to take a set of prints. And smart enough to dust for them after our quarters are broken into.”

  It was a bluff, but Wanda didn’t know that.

  The woman in black held up her hands. “Okay, look. Yes, I did break into your quarters, but I didn’t take anything, alright. Is that what you want to know?”

  “We want to know everything,” I said. “Start talking.”

  “Why should I?” said Wanda. “And how do I know you’re even cops? You could be bullshitting me for all I know.”

  “You want proof?” I said. “We left our badges ashore, but we could drag Boatswain Olaugh down here if we need to. And as for your motivation to help, I think we’d be willing to drop the B and E charge against you if you talk. That’s assuming you’re not guilty of stabbing anyone in the back.”

  “Whoa,” said Wanda. “Cool it with the murder accusations.”

  “Then start flapping your gums in a constructive manner,” I said. “You can start with why you broke into Steele’s and my room.”

  “I broke in because you were stalking me like a creeper,” said Wanda, “and I wanted to know what you and your lady friend’s game was—which I only now discovered.”

  “You heard the rumors,” said Shay.

  “Of course I did,” said Wanda. “Who didn’t? And the two of you, coming in as a pair? That was suspicious enough to pique everyone’s interest, even before you tried to follow me at lunch that first day.”

  “Orrin told me much the same thing before we started,” I told Shay.

  Wanda flinched at the dwarf’s mention but didn’t offer anything. I trained my eyes on her. “Well. Keep talking.”

  “What about?”

  “Where were you the first night we were all aboard the ship?” I asked. “When all the rest of us were at the mixer and in the ballroom?”

  “I was…meeting with someone.”

  “Who? Orrin?”

  Wanda blinked. “Yeah. How’d you know?”

  Orrin hadn’t been at the mixer. Her flinch had given me the idea, but I didn’t go into detail. “What did you discuss?”

  “If you must know, we hashed out an alliance.”

  “An alliance?” I said. “Of what sort?”

  “Of the same sort he expected you two to have,” said Wanda. “He approached me that first night on account of my skill and play style, or so he said, asking if I’d heard the rumors about an impending scam. He thought you two might be up to something, being a couple and all. He proposed fighting fire with fire. I didn’t like the idea of a partnership, but he presented a convincing argument. So we agreed not to go to battle over the same pots, and should one of us win, we’d split the earnings.”

  “And would you have?” I asked. “If you’d won?”

  “Are you really questioning my integrity?” asked Wanda.

  “Yes, but I suppose the answer doesn’t matter.” I turned to Steele. “What do you think?”

  She shrugged. “Orrin was in the high stakes room this morning, same as me. He seemed pretty upset when Ghorza won. An alliance with Wanda would explain that.”

  Eyes back on Wanda. “Would Orrin confirm what you just told us?”

  “Well I sure as hell hope so.”

  “Did you break into anyone else’s apartment?”

  Wanda chewed on her lip. “Assuming I did…”

  “No B and E charges, I promise. Just tell me.”

  “Yes,” she said. “Verona’s and Theo’s, the night of the opera. I didn’t find anything. I would’ve kept going the next day, but the news of Verona’s death threw me for a loop.”

  “And what were you doing in the engine room?” I asked.

  “Trying to shake my tails,” she said.

  “Tails?” said Shay.

  “That’s right,” said Wanda. “Jimmy, plus some member of the ship’s crew. Not sure who, but I’d seen him hanging around the high stakes room.”

  “That’s Steck,” said Shay. “He’s with us. You’re sure the other was Jimmy?”

  “Please,” said Wanda. “That moose is hard to mistake.”

  “Well, so much for Jimmy’s testimony,” said Shay. “Daggers?”

  I chewed on my thoughts. Wanda’s story sounded good, but for all I knew, she was lying through her teeth. If she’d told the truth about Orrin then surely he’d corroborate her tale, but that didn’t mean much either. Both had been unaccounted for during the time of Lumpty’s death. That said, I didn’t suspect Wanda of throwing Jimmy under the rickshaw. Too much of the evidence pointed toward him attacking me in the engine room. But did he murder Verona, or was it someone else? Orrin couldn’t have done it. He’d been at the opera. And I didn’t suspect Wanda had the strength to do so.

  I leveled a finger at Wanda. “I don’t know what your game is, but trust me, Steele and I are getting to the bottom of this. We’re the best homicide detectives New Welwic has to offer, and if you think you can get away with murder on our watch—”

  “Again with the murder accusations,” said Wanda. “I’m telling you, I didn’t kill anyone! I’m a poker player, pure and simple. I have no reason to want anyone dead.”

  “Maybe,” I said. “Someone sure did.”

  “Daggers?”

  I glanced at Shay. “Yes?”

  “What about Ghorza?”

  “What about her?” I asked.

  “Besides Wanda, Ignatius was investigating her the night of his murder. She and Jimmy had a fight during the opera, which Jimmy claimed was over something mundane, but afterwards he tried to choke her. And she won the tournament, which all evidence suggested would be rigged in some capacity.”

  I scratched my head. Ghorza. Of course, Ghorza. We’d even headed to her stateroom following the conclusion of the poker tournament, assuming she might be guilty of the expected fraud, only to find Jimmy attacking her. Upon discovering the welt on his ribs, I’d been so sure he’d been the murderer that I’d completely forgotten to follow up with the orc woman. All told, the timing of the fight seemed a little convenient. It couldn’t have been staged, could it?

  I gave Steele a nod. “You’re right. Let’s go. Wanda? Stay here until we sort this out, otherwise all promises of B and E immunity are off the table.”

  Steele and I headed back into the hallway, crossed to the other side of the promenade deck, and made our way to Ghorza’s room. This time, we weren’t alerted ahead of time by crashes or yells of dismay, but something almost as sinister waited for us.

  A door ajar.

 
I clenched my jaw and pushed on through, adrenaline rushing through my veins as I anticipated a fight or the presence of yet another body. I got the latter.

  “Ghorza!”

  The big orc woman lay on the floor, her arms sprawled out at her sides. I rushed over to her and squatted down beside her. I didn’t see any blood, nor any wounds, but that didn’t mean a lot.

  “You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said as Shay joined me. “Here I was sure that—”

  Ghorza startled, reaching out and grabbing me with two hands. Her eyes fluttered. “What the…? I… Where…? Vlad?”

  I nearly jumped out of my shoes. It made me feel better that Shay did, too.

  “Ghorza!” said Shay. “You’re alive!”

  The woman kept babbling, incoherent. Her grip on me loosened, and her eyes, though open, remained unfocused.

  A heavy chest on the far side of the living room caught my eye. Its ornate, banded top had been propped open. I could see bare wood within.

  “Shay?”

  She caught my glance. “That looks like a ship’s chest. The sort where money from the poker tournament would’ve been held.”

  Would’ve. It was gone.

  Ghorza kept babbling. “Vlad…? Where…?”

  I glanced into the bedrooms. The elven manservant was nowhere to be found.

  The truth hit me like a ton of bricks. “Gods, how could we be so stupid.”

  “Pardon?” said Shay.

  “The con,” I said. “It wasn’t a fraud. It was a robbery. And based on Ghorza’s condition, I’ll give you one guess as to who was behind it.”

  I think Shay knew exactly who I was talking about, but before she could answer me, her voice was drowned by a resounding ship’s horn.

  38

  The blare lasted a good five to six seconds. When the sound finally died, I turned to Steele. “I wonder what that was all about.”