by Dawn Brookes
“Thankfully not all people are consumed by malice,” said Marjorie.
“I may be putting Gordon Venables back under house arrest, though. I can’t take the risk of him harming his wife, but if he sent that letter, he’s a bigger fool than I gave him credit for. I’ll be speaking to him after you ladies have left. I can see he’s just arrived.”
Waverley walked to the door and spoke to the security guard, Ravanos, as he and Gordon Venables took a seat outside.
“I can see you’re busy, so please don’t feel the need to delay. Marjorie said you wanted to see me.”
“Yes.” He glanced towards Marjorie, unsure whether to continue, but decided to do so. “I wanted to ask if you have discovered anything new about the tribute band members. If Venables is innocent, it has to be one of them.”
Marjorie gasped and Rachel, flabbergasted, eyed him with suspicion. “Why are you asking me? I thought you wanted us to stay out of your investigation.”
Looking flustered, he answered, “I’ll explain. One of our security officers, erm, fell down some steps last night and had to be admitted to hospital in St Petersburg.” He coughed again and looked at them both, trying to gauge their reaction. Seemingly encouraged, he persevered. “To make matters worse, since early this morning, another guard has gone down with chicken pox, and Dr Bentley says he can’t work until all the spots stop blistering. Normally, we would manage, even with two down, but there is so much going on with the stag party, the murder investigation and a spate of robberies. My team is struggling to deal with it all.” He rubbed the top of his head where the hairline was visibly receding and sighed. “That’s why I took the risk of letting Venables go on condition he remained in the ‘crew only’ part of the ship, didn’t go near his wife and informed Ravanos of his every movement. We can’t pick up a replacement for the injured officer until we return to Southampton. Rachel, I can even offer you a temporary contract with excellent remuneration.”
His pleading eyes made Rachel laugh. She looked at Marjorie, who was stifling a giggle.
“I don’t think so, thank you, but we might do some informal snooping if it doesn’t ruin Marjorie’s holiday. I haven’t spoken to anyone from the band since the gig on the lido deck. They were on our tour bus today but didn’t notice us.”
“You don’t need to worry about me,” Marjorie said keenly. “I’ve been to the ballet in St Petersburg and that was the most important thing for me. Ron and Mabel are sharing the next two trips with us and I’m sure they won’t mind looking after this old girl if Rachel needs to be elsewhere. Are you sure you wouldn’t like the temporary contract, Rachel? It would give you a trial run to see if you might like to be a security officer in the future.”
“How much is a generous remuneration?” Rachel grinned at Waverley.
Waverley relaxed back in his seat and smiled for the first time since they’d entered the office. “It would be more than a month’s salary for a few days work. You’re also due compensation for the incident yesterday – our insurance negotiator will be in touch about that.”
“Thanks again for the offer, but I still don’t want to take the contract. I will agree to do some informal investigating. Marjorie and I will see what we can find out, if anything. The murderer obviously believes they’ve got away with it if Gordon is innocent, but I’m sure you haven’t ruled him out entirely?”
“Not at all. I’ll take you up on that offer as long as you’re both discreet. I can’t have you putting yourselves in danger if you’re not in our employ. I can’t seem to get anything out of that lot anyway. I’ve done background checks into all three, along with their manager – two of them have been arrested in the past for drugs offences – both cited as personal use. The manager also has a previous conviction for fraud, but over twenty years ago, and nothing since.”
“I can guess which two have the drugs offences,” said Marjorie.
“Me too, Nick and Ray?”
“For once, Miss Prince, and with respect, Lady Snellthorpe, you’re wrong,” said Waverley gleefully. “It was the manager Jimmy Walker again, but his crime goes back donkeys’ years, and Dalton Delacruz.”
“Now that does surprise me, but as you say, it was for personal use and not unheard of in their line of work.”
“Did you find out why Ray videoed the fight between Gordon and Dave Hughes?”
“I did enquire, he said it was instinct – apparently gets out his phone whenever he spots an incident – says it might make him rich one day. He surrendered the footage, and to be honest, it was poor quality, jumping all over the place. He was probably drunk when he took the video.”
“He won’t be giving up the day job, or in his case, the night job, anytime soon, then?” Rachel got up to leave. Marjorie looked at Waverley with a twinkle in her eye.
“You are having a difficult time of it, aren’t you?”
“You’d better believe it.” He chuckled. “It used to be such a cushy number working on a cruise ship. Things are looking up for me, though.” Rachel noticed him fiddling with the box he had shoved in his pocket on their arrival.
Once out of earshot of Waverley’s office, Marjorie took Rachel’s arm. “Come along, Rachel Prince, this calls for a celebration. We are now semi-official sleuths.”
Rachel wasn’t convinced about involving Marjorie as she rubbed her left shoulder, still smarting from the pain of her near miss. The last thing she wanted was for Marjorie to be in any danger. She looked at the white-haired old lady fondly and determined she would protect her at all costs.
“What do you suppose he hid in his pocket when we arrived?”
“An engagement ring, of course. He’s positively glowing. If that’s not a man in love, then I’m in my dotage.”
“You’re a savvy one, that’s for sure, and certainly not in your dotage. I take it you’re joining us in the Jazz Bar this evening?”
“If you don’t mind? I’m far too excited to sleep. Perhaps we can go to the Culture Lounge or whatever they call it afterwards – might as well get started.”
They could feel the beat from the bass throbbing through the floor and drowning out any chance of speaking. Sarah was in uniform and dragging her on-call bag behind her. Marjorie put her fingers in her ears as they squeezed through hordes of middle-aged people enjoying the songs of their youth. Rachel hung on to Marjorie to make sure the frail old lady didn’t get pushed over by exuberant patrons.
They managed to snag a recently vacated table in one of the recesses of the nightclub. Rachel caught the eye of a waiter and ordered drinks.
“I’m not sure this is such a good idea. What are we hoping to find out? And I’m decidedly conspicuous in uniform,” Sarah complained, not at all happy that Waverley had recruited Rachel and, by implication, Marjorie into his investigation.
Rachel thought her friend could be right: the chances of them discovering anything during a performance were negligible, but Marjorie had seemed so keen, and she didn’t want to disappoint her.
“Now we’re here, let’s just have a drink. We don’t have to stay for long.”
The three women sat in silence, watching the band perform. The replacement lead singer delivered as loud and competent a rendition as his predecessor, but lacked the charisma of the late Dom Venables. The band played The Show Must Go On, which seemed nostalgic and appropriate in view of what had happened.
“We’re not going to find out anything. This is silly, and Waverley should not have asked you to get involved at all. I don’t know what’s got into him.” Sarah had continually stated this throughout the evening, and Rachel had done her best to reassure her friend they would be careful. She sighed, knowing that Sarah had a point, especially as she had already been attacked once. Now the killer probably knew who she was. Could one of the band have hit her over the head? It was a disturbing proposition.
Looking at the lead singer, Rachel suddenly realised where she’d seen him before.
“That man, the new lead. He was the guy hanging
around the atrium that day Waverley spoke to the rest of the band!” She took out her phone and scrolled past pictures of St Petersburg and Tallinn to the photo of the couple she’d snapped on the day Marjorie had had a migraine. “Look, it’s him!”
Sarah and Marjorie studied the photo. “You’re right, but what’s the significance?” asked Sarah.
“It means they were on board the ship when we arrived in Tallinn. We’d docked and people were leaving the ship, but they didn’t have any hand luggage, and Jimmy said the new singer would be joining the cruise that day. I wonder if he’s been on board all along, with the woman in the photo. Apparently, he has as much reason as any of them to kill Dom Venables, and now look. He’s stepped into his predecessor’s shoes very comfortably, don’t you think?”
“If you’re right, he has to go to the top of the suspect list,” said Sarah.
Marjorie looked pleased. “Put us in charge and case solved almost immediately. We do need to check whether he was already on board when we got to Tallinn, though. He might have arrived early and joined the ship that day. It’s not impossible.”
Marjorie was right. They needed to find out the man’s identity and when he joined the vessel, but they seemed to be getting somewhere at last.
“On that note, shall we call it a night?” Rachel asked. The others agreed, and as if on cue, Sarah’s radio beeped, calling her to a medical incident.
Chapter 25
The Coral Queen docked in Helsinki, Finland on Sunday morning, where Rachel and Marjorie took a private tour to the Nuuksio Reindeer Park. Marjorie had expressed an interest in visiting the park when they were making plans the day before, but time was limited due to the need to be back for the wedding of Eva and Darren (formerly Jefgeny). Ron and Mabel chipped in with the hiring of a private car, giving them the opportunity to do both.
Rachel would have liked to have seen more of Helsinki, but didn’t want to miss the wedding, and as Sarah had been asked to work, she had decided to shelve the ice bar experience for a future cruise. Marjorie narrowed the options down to either seeing reindeers close up or heading to town for shopping. Rachel thought this was a no brainer.
“I’ll take the reindeers.”
The delight on Marjorie’s face confirmed she had made the right choice. They were duly rewarded with a pleasant and comfortable car journey, plus the enchanting experience of being able to feed the reindeers by hand.
“Such gentle and placid creatures,” remarked Marjorie.
Rachel agreed: they oozed calm, and for an hour, any concern over the investigation into her own attack and the murder of Dominic Venables was dissipated by the serenity of the magical experience among the beautiful reindeers.
“It’s like all my childhood dreams come true. The idea of walking among the reindeers and meeting Rudolph was always far more exciting to me than receiving presents.”
“What an extraordinary child you must have been,” said Marjorie wistfully.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still liked the presents,” Rachel added, “but I love animals. Sarah would have enjoyed this, I’m sure. If she hadn’t been a nurse, she would have been a vet.”
“Where is she?” asked Mabel.
“She’s on duty, doing morning surgery, and then she’s helping decorate the crew area ready for the wedding later.”
One of the reindeers interrupted the conversation, giving Rachel a gentle nudge, requesting more food. She giggled.
“Alright, you, here, take some.” The plucky animal took the food from Rachel’s hand.
After taking photos, feeding the animals and wandering around the park for an hour, they retired to a tepee where a log fire burned brightly in a central fire pit. Marjorie had been as excitable as Rachel all morning and was now in her element.
“How delightful,” she said. “I love the smell of forest and burning wood.”
“Well I’m loving the aroma of that coffee,” said Mabel. “Let’s find a seat.”
They sat on fur-covered benches close to the log fire. The older people had chilled off, having spent so much time outside – it was a clear day, but with a brisk wind blowing, the temperature had dipped into the late teens. They soon warmed up when served traditional coffee and freshly made cinnamon cake.
The outing ended too soon for Rachel, who would have loved to have gone for a long walk through the national park. She determined to come back one day and do just that. The private car driver returned them safely to the ship and received a generous tip from Ron for his trouble.
On exiting the taxi, they heard the loud voices of Nick, Ray and the new lead singer, providing Rachel with a stark reminder of her promise to Waverley the day before. She groaned, attracting inquisitive looks from Ron and Mabel who knew all about the death of the obnoxious singer, but not about the attack on Rachel, or her and Marjorie’s part in the investigation.
“Is something the matter?” asked Mabel.
“I enjoyed being out in the countryside for a while, that’s all. Now I have to decide what to wear to a wedding!”
“What exciting lives you two lead. We need to get out more, Mabel.” Ron put his arm affectionately around his wife’s shoulder.
The company parted ways as Ron and Mabel were taking a shuttle bus into the city centre. Marjorie paused to purchase some souvenirs before going through port security.
Rachel watched the rowdy group of musicians who appeared to be leaving to go out for the afternoon. Dalton and Jimmy weren’t with them, but a woman appeared from one of the souvenir shops and joined them. It was the woman Rachel had seen with the replacement lead singer a few days before, for certain.
I must remember to ask Waverley who they are and when they first boarded the ship. If they were on board prior to the murder, it added to the likelihood that one or both of them could have been involved in Dom’s death.
Did the other members of the band realise they were on board?
Another disturbing thought entered Rachel’s head: the whole band might be implicated, making Marjorie’s flippant remark about Murder on the Orient Express a chilling possibility.
Surely not?
The entourage passed within inches of Rachel, but were too wrapped up in conversation to notice her. It was the first time she had seen them laughing and joking with no arguments. Rachel’s gaze followed them until they boarded the next shuttle bus heading into town.
It took ages to decide what to wear to the wedding, the dilemma being that Rachel had only brought a mixture of casual clothes and evening dresses, but nothing in-between. Finally, she settled on an aquamarine cocktail dress, white stiletto shoes, a white jacket and handbag to match.
Having spent so much time choosing a dress, she had little time to do anything with her hair, so the long blonde mane was quickly brushed through and tonged into loosely flowing waves. Marjorie was already walking along the back corridor towards her room as Rachel dashed out.
“I see you didn’t have any problem choosing what to wear, elegant as always.” Rachel loved Marjorie’s outfit: a lush pink suit with matching fascinator. It was the perfect choice for a wedding.
“Coming from someone who would look beautiful in a bin bag, that’s rich.”
Rachel took her friend’s arm and they made their way upstairs to the chapel, arriving suitably early. Rachel spotted Jefgeny, now Darren, standing nervously at the front, talking to friends. The chapel was already two-thirds full with crew from all over the ship. Sarah called them over to where the medical team was seated in a row.
“We saved you seats.”
The medical officers stood out from the other guests because of their whites and gold striped epaulettes. Rachel greeted them with a cheery hello as Marjorie sat next to Sarah and Rachel sat next to her.
“I do hope nobody gets ill.” Marjorie leaned over to address Dr Graham Bentley, whom she and her husband had known for years. “Otherwise, young Graham, you will have to leave discreetly.”
Rachel never asked why Marjorie called the
senior medical officer, who had to be in his fifties, ‘young Graham’. It was obviously a private joke shared between them.
“Don’t you worry, Lady Snellthorpe, our French angel can deal with most things.”
Brigitte was the only absentee from the medical team. She had been at home in France when the rest of them had got to know Eva and Jefgeny.
Rachel recognised a few of the crew from the casino where Eva worked and could hear a group of men speaking Russian.
“I assume they’re from engineering?” she questioned.
“Yes, the groom’s friends. The best man is one of them. It’s such a shame his sister can’t be here, but it would be too dangerous for him,” Sarah answered.
Jefgeny had been required to sever all ties with family when he bravely reported a conspiracy at a company he worked for in a prior life, hence his new name.
“I can’t get used to thinking of him as Darren. Is Eva’s family here?”
“Her mother’s over there.” Sarah pointed to a lady in her fifties with tightly pursed thin lips, wearing a floral dress. She looked austere, in spite of the brightly coloured attire.
“She doesn’t look very happy considering it’s her daughter’s wedding,” Rachel whispered.
“Rumour has it she doesn’t approve of her daughter marrying a Russian. That’s Eva’s sister and brother-in-law next to her. Apparently the mother doesn’t approve of the brother-in-law either, so at least Darren will be in good company.”
“Is that little Erik?” Rachel saw a baby wrapped in a lime-green shawl being held by Eva’s sister.
“Yes, he’s gorgeous. I’ve already had a cuddle.”
Jefgeny/Darren spotted Rachel and made a beeline for her. Before she could stand up, he’d smothered her in a warm embrace.
