CSCI pt 51 - the fast-paced mystery thriller at sea, Cruise Ship Crime Detectives

Welcome to Cruise Ship Crime Investigators. The book series. Book 2 Serial Killer. Chapter 14. And another. Ruby points to the standard guest data sheet with photograph. Eric Clifford is our section three. He's missing. He could be the murderer and therefore on the run. Kieran follows Ruby but Hunter steps back to the previous wall. Hunter? She asks. Master attendance was checked with the small infrared digital cruise card scanners. Ruby nods, a little put out. No facial recognition? He asks. No, done the way it's always done. Plus, it was a masked ball night. Ruby adds. Guests still had their masks on at the master stations? Kieran asks, beginning to follow Hunter. Ruby nods again. Yeah, we had one body, but two guests registered as missing. So the sea search continued. It wasn't a head count. It was a cruise card count, Hunter suggests. You had two cruise cards missing and three people missing, Kieran adds. Yeah, Ruby admits, as if she must come clean that she may have missed something. One person swipes two cruise cards. Is that what you're thinking, Wetosky? Kieran asks. Could be. Seems the three heads are better than one, Ruby Jenkins, Hunter says, giving her a wry smile as he's noticed she's a little edgy. We can help each other. I hope so, she says. Let's do the third wall. Ruby retakes control. Is his wife missing? Kieran says, pointing to Betty's sheet on the next wall. No, they traveled together. He liked to drink and they drank separately. This is his detailed bar bill for the evening, revealing a drink every 20 to 30 minutes, all in the Lido. Kieran lifts the sheet and sees the other bills going back throughout the cruise. A man of habits. An alcoholic, Hunter suggests, looking at how much this guy drank. No wonder Head Office called us. They don't want to lose their best customers. And I bet you guys are being paid a fortune for this, Ruby says with a touch of jealousy. Fortune, Hunter says, flatly engrossed in the bills. Absolute fortune, Kieran agrees. Ruby is annoyed but bites her lip and reads from her notes. His wife says they were on board to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary, due on the date we were in Bora Bora. Says they've never been apart in 40 years, her words. But he was in the bar every night drinking without her. She admitted he was a drunk and sometimes never made it back to the cabin at night. She likes a gin. She's been in the casino, at the machines most nights, or so she says. Never been apart or never been together, Hunter asks. Have you rung Elaine? Kieran reminds him. Elaine? Ruby asks. We got married, Hunter nods. Congratulations. It won't be if he doesn't ring her, Kieran adds. Chapter 15. Let's walk. I'll walk you to your suite. You can ring from there, Ruby says, handing them both a folder of evidence copies. She leads them out from deep down in the ship. They need to get up where the guests' suites are. From their cruise cards it looks like Betty goes to bed about 22-30 hours and leaves Eric in the bar until it closes. I haven't questioned her on that. She's still sleeping. The doctor gave her a mild sedative because she's been up all night, like the rest of us. Hunter opens his folder as the elevator takes the three up. Lawrence of Arabia? He asks. The mad fourth wall, all in there. Both men listen as they digest the printouts. The text on the napkin has a search result of Lawrence of Arabia. The wording is too strange to have another source, Ruby suggests. Sure, but when did the killer write on a napkin? When did the killer put Clifford's cruise card in Kirschner's pocket? Hunter asks. As you said, it was only last night and I'm still building this. Great job. Is this an accidental switch of cruise cards, maybe by a waiter after drinks? Someone got my cruise card from a waiter on my last ship, Kieran shares. Hunter looks at him accusingly. You were just sleeping with too many women. You didn't know who had your cruise card. Ruby looks at Kieran sternly. She does not approve. I'm saying it's possible. Ruby shakes her head. Eric Clifford's drinking is precise. He has a regular bar and my guess is a regular waiter. I doubt it was a waiter error or that he was sleeping around. Her last remark was aimed at Kieran. The note in Donna's mouth can't have been written for her on the spot. It was too dark up there to write this accurately, correct? Kieran asks. Yeah, pitch black, Ruby replies. So the napkin was either premeditated for her or it was meant for someone else, Hunter says. Kirschner, Kieran offers. Or Clifford if he's dead, Hunter adds. Lights out on the sun deck 2245 hours. Kieran looks at Eric Clifford's bar bill. Last drink purchased at 2205 hours, but history tells us he always stayed until the bar closed. But look, that night Clifford vanished at some time between 2206 and 2236 because he would have had another drink by then. What happened in that time? Diners went to the Sun Terrace. Lights back on at 2306 hours, Hunter says, circling the times. Where are you two going with this? Ruby asks. All three are connected by time. It's possible all three were dead for whatever reason long before roll call at Master Station, Kieran states. But we only had two missing. Ruby stops. Nope, you only check cruise cards. You don't match cards to faces, Hunter says. Our killer could have been checked in twice. Once with his own cruise card, second with Kirschner's. Let's hope that's the arrogant mistake which starts to give him up. But Clifford could be the killer and he checked in with Kirschner's card, she insists. Then he would have wanted to drink last night, Kieran says. Drink may hide individuality and make the book a scatter of featureless puppets. Is he hiding he's a drunk or being drunk hiding him? Maybe he never stopped drinking, just used someone else's cruise card. Pull Kirschner's barbell, Hunter suggests. Chapter 16 Wash Same Clothes Washed but still in the beach wear he had on under his jumpsuit, Hunter leaves his cabin door to swing closed behind him. He walks the width of the beam to the other corridor and enters Kieran's suite. I cruised for seven years, never had a suite. This new job is working fine for me, Hunter says. Kieran sits on the bed tying his pumps. These are still damp, we need clothes. We should expect to be treated like this from now on, as well as the handsome paycheck, Hunter says happily. Is your girl all right with us being brought in? She seemed edgy. She's not my girl and I'm sure she only did about six months under me when she was training. This is her ship, she's bound to resent us a little. It's up to us to make it work because being the visitors is our future. I think we work well as a team, Kieran says standing. They fist bump and leave, walk to the crew-only restricted bridge area and knock on the captain's quarters. A crew member opens the door and Neil Beckhams them into his suite, which trumps theirs. I guess it's been a few years since you were dropped into action like this, he asks. What we do, sir, and as the ships are at sea, it's where it happens, Hunter shrugs. Like the circling sharks, staff wait to serve them. They both choose food and wait for it to be plated and a wine waiter offers a choice of red or white. Do you mind if I have a beer, Hunter asks. Certainly, sir, which one? IPA. The waiter nods to him, then to another waiter who goes to the room phone, allowing him to move round to Kieran. White, please. The waiter makes himself scarce. I asked Ruby to pull a bar bill, but my guess is she's watching security footage to try and see who checked the dead man's cruise card in at the 1am muster station, Hunter says. We have so few internal cameras I can't imagine her being long. In the main, they look at the art gallery and in the shops, not at the muster stations. She's a good one, Hunter smiles, then his face changes to panic. Problem? Neil asks. Do you mind if I phone my wife, sir? She doesn't know I'm here. The captain indicates the phone. Hunter rises with some pace, ignoring the food being served. If you don't mind, captain, I haven't eaten since breakfast, Kieran says. Given the nod, he eats. Head office has appointed Dwight Ritter. He's ex-military and a data expert. He will act as a point man in the Miami office. Apparently, he knows Sherlock Holmes, the captain fishes. Holmes 2 is a software program, Kieran answers. What does it do? Captain Neil asks. It analyzes masses of information from multiple sources. He'll be able to run a check on everyone on this ship, crew or guest and find connections, then connections to evidence as we discover it. We couldn't do that manually, not even with a huge team and time, Kieran answers. A waiter delivers a bucket of beers on ice. One is cracked open, poured and taken to Hunter, who toasts them both. Love him being back on a ship. No offence, but I'd rather you weren't here, Neil toasts with a smile. Fair enough, Hunter laughs. Kieran pulls out a pad and lays it beside his plate as they eat. We need to interview the waiters in Eric Clifford's favourite bar, the Crow's Nest Lounge. My guess is he sat at the same bar stall every night. Real drinkers all sit at the bar, especially the solo ones, and his wife left him for the casino. Something triggered him to leave the bar, Hunter says, still waiting for the connection to his wife Elaine. He finishes a beer and pauses a second. The stargazing, the captain asks. We have a hunch he got swabbed up in the stargazing, the timeline connects them all. Was the woman killed during stargazing? She must have been, between lights out and being found. That puts the killer laying next to her. Do you remember who that was? Kieran asks. No, so he killed her in front of my eyes. She was killed in front of many people's eyes, which for me means it wasn't Eric. Eric doesn't look physically skilled or fit enough to have done it, then escape, then kill Kirshner, unless Sherlock tells me different. I get the use of Sherlock, but the napkin. What made the killer write the quote from Lawrence of Arabia? The captain asks. We ask Sherlock, sir, Hunter says. The Lawrence film needs to go on our timeline as a possible trigger. We know he killed Donna, Kieran adds, but assume he wasn't meant to be there. That means the napkin may not have been for her. She's collateral damage. Then, under the cover of darkness, real darkness, with everyone looking up at the stars, he slips away down to deck nine. Then he bumps into Kirshner. Another case of wrong place, wrong time. Kirshner can finger him. Bang, Kirshner's dead, but the murderer takes Kirshner's cruise card, plants Eric's card on him, and tips him in the sea. It must mean Eric is dead. We have three murders, all probably done within minutes. Four murders, Ruby says from the doorway. Everyone in the room, including the waiters, look on in shock. Nothing like this happens on a cruise. Eric Clifford, the captain asks. No, sir, it's a member of the orchestra, Bogdan the saxophone player. Elaine, sorry, Hunter whispers into the phone as the others move swiftly to the door. Sorry, sorry, sorry, I'm on a ship. We have a serial killer on board, back in about 10 days. Love you, darling. Put the champagne on ice to celebrate our first job.