Dark Passage

EIGHTEEN

‘Unless you have the rotating eye skills of a chameleon, it’s hard to watch out for your drink at the same time you watch out for that cute guy on the dance floor. No matter how self-aware you are, there’s always a chance of getting an unexpected pharmaceutical present in your beverage on a night out. Any drink, even an innocent tonic water, can turn into a cocktail that takes you to the Twilight Zone if it’s unattended.’

http://howto.wired.com/wiki/

Up at the Tidal Wave, Wesley Bray, as usual, had his hands full. Teens and parents, signing in, signing out, wave upon wave. The rock wall was open, we learned from one of the parents standing in line, as well as the bungee trampoline, and don’t we wish we could do that. Other events included a blindfold obstacle course, a silly dives contest in the pool area, and another showing of Hunger Games.

David and I waited impatiently until Wesley had finished gathering the rock-climbing contingent and had sent them off to the stern of the ship with one of the youth counselors.

‘Wesley,’ I said.

He looked up from his clipboard, his curious look changed to recognition, then back to serious again. ‘We are so glad to hear that your niece has been found, Mrs Ives. How is she doing?’

I gave what was becoming my stock answer. ‘Fine, under the circumstances.’

I was surprised that he knew my name. Then it occurred to me: the staff had been briefed.

‘We’ve just been meeting with the security officer, Wesley, and he tells us that the surveillance camera that covers the bar in there…’ I pointed to Breakers!, where two bartenders were already busy fixing drinks. ‘… well, it was out of commission.’

The line between Wesley’s eyebrows deepened as he seemed to be considering what to say, then relaxed as he came to the right decision. ‘That’s true, I’m afraid.’

‘I’d like you to meet someone, Wesley.’ I turned to David Warren. ‘You knew David’s daughter, I believe. Charlotte Warren.’

Wesley’s eyes widened as recognition dawned. ‘Char. I did. I’m so sorry for your loss, Mr Warren.’

David nodded in acknowledgement, his mouth set in a grim line. I wondered how many times he had heard those empty words coming out of the mouths of Phoenix Cruise Lines’ personnel.

‘Do you also remember a passenger on that cruise, a young girl named Noelle Bursky?’ I asked.

‘Oh, Lord, how could I forget? She disappeared from Breakers! on…’ He blinked. ‘Oh, shit. I don’t think I better say any more.’

‘I’m going to be perfectly frank with you, Wesley,’ David said as he eased closer to the counter. ‘We think, and by “we” I mean Mrs Ives here as well as the security professionals aboard the Islander; we believe that the same person who abducted Mrs Ives’s niece also abducted Noelle Bursky and pushed my daughter overboard to her death. If that’s true, then the list of suspects is narrowed down to individuals who are here on Islander who were also on Voyager that day. We know you fall into that category, but we also know that you were right here on duty at the time Julie Cardinale was assaulted. What I’d like to ask you now is, do you remember anybody who was hanging around Breakers! that day, anyone who either worked or was also a passenger on Voyager?’

During this long speech, Wesley eyes had been riveted on David’s face. Once the speech was over, Wesley took a deep breath, then gazed over David’s shoulder, as if his answer lay somewhere out at sea.

‘Wesley?’ I said.

Wesley started, and turned his dark hazel eyes on me. ‘I wish I could help, honestly, but I simply can’t remember anyone hanging around that day, other than the parents who were coming to drop off or pick up their kids, you know?’

‘You sign them all in on that clipboard?’ I asked.

Wesley nodded.

‘Do you still have the sign in sheets from yesterday?’

‘Of course. We have to keep them until the cruise is over, then they get filed away.’

‘Do you mind if we look at them?’

Wesley stood silently for a while, gnawing on his lower lip. Then he reached under the counter and pulled out a plastic file folder, flipped up the flap and withdrew several sheets of paper, stapled together in the corner. ‘I can’t let you take them, you understand, but you can look at them here.’ He leaned forward. ‘Please don’t tell anyone I did this.’

I favored him with a huge smile. ‘Promise.’

David and I moved to the end of the counter so as to be out of Wesley’s way, and also, not coincidentally, out of range of the security camera, which was probably functioning perfectly now.

I leafed through three pages of names, neatly printed in boxes, with Time-In and Time-Out and the parent’s signature in other boxes ranging out to the edge of the paper on the right.

‘Jesus,’ David said. ‘There are a lot of Crawfords.’

‘Yeah. So I noticed. But I don’t think any of these Crawfords were cruising on the Voyager, do you?’

I ran my finger down the sign-in sheet until I got to the rows covering the time when Julie arrived. There was Georgina’s signature, and in the next row down, the signature of Katie’s dad, Steven Krozak. As David hung over my shoulder, I called up the Notes app on my iPhone and tapped in the names of everyone who’d signed in between the time when Julie arrived and the time she supposedly headed for the restroom. ‘No name pops out at me,’ I said, tucking my iPhone back into my pocket.

When Wesley was free again, I handed the sign-up sheets back to him with thanks. He hastily refilled them in the plastic folder. ‘That help?’

‘Afraid not. But thanks anyway.’

‘No problem. That kind of thing… drugs… just shouldn’t happen – not here, not anywhere. Makes me sick. I hope they find the bastard, lock him up and throw away the key.’ He paused. ‘But don’t quote me on that, please.’

‘Wesley, one other thing,’ I said. ‘Do you remember if there was anything in particular about the day that Noelle was abducted and yesterday, when Julie went missing? Did they have anything in common at all?’

Wesley laughed out loud. ‘Mrs Ives, everything is in common on Phoenix Cruise Lines. The titles of the movies change, of course, and some of the games, but management keeps the schedule more or less the same for every cruise. Movies, pizza afterwards. Talent shows, scavenger hunts, trivia contests. Same old, same old. Events that are weather dependent, like the bungee trampoline and the rock climbing wall? That’s harder to predict. They’re both open today, for example, but I remember that the rock wall was closed on Voyager that day because of high winds, so we were a bit more crowded in Breakers! than usual, and much more crowded than we were in here yesterday.’ He shrugged. ‘Sorry I can’t be of more help.’

‘It’s OK, Wesley. We appreciate your cooperation.’

‘Come on,’ I said to David. ‘I can see that Kira’s on duty in the bar.’

David and I eased our way past a clot of boisterous teens heading out of Breakers! and approached the bar. Rohan wasn’t on duty, but Kira was there. Her back was turned as she added ice to a rank of four blenders, dropped fresh fruit into three of them, and set them whirring. She snagged several glasses, made a U-turn, then stopped short when she saw us, pressing a hand flat against her chest. ‘Whew! You startled me.’

I flashed my brightest smile. ‘Sorry! We just wanted to speak to you for a minute.’

She swung her arm in a wide arc, taking in the chaos on the bar in front of her – trays holding drinks, French fries, slices of pizza, hamburgers – then swiped sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand. ‘Don’t have anything else to do. Hah! As if.’ She raised a hand to summon one of the servers, and pointed to the drinks tray. ‘Look,’ she said after he’d taken the tray away, ‘I’m really happy to hear that your daughter turned up.’

‘My niece, actually, but thank you. We are, too.’

‘You and your husband want something to drink?’ she asked.

I decided not to correct her. ‘No, thanks. We’ll be picking up a sandwich at Surf’s Up shortly. We just wanted to ask you a couple of questions about yesterday.’

Kira dried her hands on a towel she had tucked into her waistband. ‘Sure. Shoot.’

‘You heard that my niece’s drink was drugged, didn’t you?’

‘Yeah, man, shook me up, I can tell you.’ She considered me with serious eyes then said, ‘God! You don’t think I had anything to do with that, do you? No way!’

I smiled in what I hoped was a reassuring way, not wanting to alarm her, afraid she’d clam up. ‘Relax, Kira. I don’t know how the drug got into Julie’s drink, but I’m fairly certain you didn’t do it. If you had, there would have been no reason for the security camera to have been covered up, would there?’

‘Well, that’s a relief.’

‘The only reason to do that would be if it was someone who wasn’t normally in Breakers! Someone who couldn’t afford to be seen.’

‘That makes sense.’

‘So, can you think back to yesterday? Did you notice anyone come in who didn’t belong?’

‘Two sours and a muddy moo!’ a waiter called out.

‘’Cuse me,’ Kira said. We watched while she filled two plastic glasses with lemonade and a third with chocolate milk, fitted plastic lids on the glasses then slid them down the bar, tossing three paper-wrapped straws in their wake.

When that was done, she turned back to us. ‘So, you asked if anybody came into Breakers! yesterday who didn’t belong. Gosh, it was so busy!’ She stared hard at the ceiling as if the answer was written on one of the crabs, lobsters, seashells or miniature surfboards that decorated the rafters. ‘A parent or two, couple of big brothers and sisters, but they never stay very long. Everyone else was staff. Wes, of course. He popped in from time to time looking for a particular kid when their parents showed up to collect them. Channing was here for a bit while waiting for Pia to finish her shift at the Oracle, sitting with a couple of boys at the end of the bar, teaching them card tricks.’ She grinned. ‘He’s so amazing. He wrote one boy’s name on an ace with a marker pen, then…’ She paused, blushed. ‘But you don’t want to know about that. That photographer from CLIA came through, taking pictures. He might have noticed something. Then, let’s see… ah, Ethan Hines, and…’

‘Hines? The activities director?’

‘Yeah. He’s, like, the big boss. He had this new guy with him called Liam – don’t know his last name – who’s been shadowing him this cruise. Liam’s going to be activities director on, let me think… yeah, on the Odyssey when it comes out of dry dock next month. Then Jack Westfall stopped by to shoot the breeze, like I have the time!’ She spread her hands, palms up, empty. ‘That’s about it!’

‘Jack Westfall is staff?’ I asked. ‘I saw him at the Neptune Club reception, so I assumed he was a passenger.’

‘Well, technically, he’s a passenger, but his wife runs the art auction concession, so he’s always around. We think of him as staff. I do, at least. He’s one of those “little acts of kindness” types, like yesterday when he saw I was so slammed he stuck the straws in the glasses for me.’ She leaned forward across the bar, spoke softly. ‘The stewards say he’s an awesome tipper!’

‘What was he wearing?’ David asked.

‘Wearing? Like I can remember!’ Kira whipped the towel out of her waistband and wiped away the wet rings on the bar. ‘Wait. He had a black shirt on. I remember thinking he should always wear black, makes you look thinner, especially if you’ve got that little paunch thing goin’ on.’

My heart raced and blood roared into my ears. I reached out blindly and grabbed David’s arm, then held on tightly. Perhaps I was gasping like a beached fish, perhaps not, but when I could breathe again, I thanked Kira and dragged David out of Breakers! and hustled him down the staircase to a table in a quiet corner of the pool deck.

I thought I knew the answer to this question, but I asked it anyway. ‘David, who ran the art auction on the Voyager?’

‘I don’t even have to consult my files, Hannah. Eastaugh Galleries. The company belongs to Nicole Westfall. She inherited it from her father, an old-school art dealer out of London named Cyril Eastaugh. Moved the business to West Palm in the eighties. Jack sits on the board, but otherwise he just tags along for the ride.’

‘Do you realize what was going on yesterday when Julie was abducted? The art auction! As auctioneer, Nicole would have been busy, wouldn’t she? She would have been nowhere near their stateroom. What do you want to bet they have one of those suites that might look like “somebody’s living room” to a teenager totally spaced out on drugs? Jesus, I think I’m going to be sick!’

I didn’t realize that I had been gripping the table with both hands until I felt David’s hand on mine, squeezing gently. He kept his hand there while I continued to vent, running through a litany of medieval amusements that included thumbscrews, the rack, the wheel, and a device that could be heated in red-hot coals and applied to… well, never mind.

‘The auctions are always on the same day, you know,’ David said quietly. ‘The last day of the voyage but one. That’s the day Noelle Bursky disappeared, too.’

‘He put it in the straw,’ I said with conviction. ‘The sonofabitch put powdered Ketamine in a straw and stuck it into their drinks.’ I looked up and caught David’s eye. ‘What do we do?’

David took a deep breath. ‘What if we could get a positive I.D.?’

‘That means Julie.’

‘Yes.’

‘How the hell do we engineer that?’

‘They’ll be having a fire sale in the gallery today. Everything must go and all that crap. Jack Westfall is likely to be there. If not, you can try to catch him at dinner. The Westfalls are usually at the last seating, unless it’s lobster night at the Garuda Grill.’

‘How do you know all this, David?’

‘I’ve been watching these people for a long, long time.’

‘So, let’s say Julie identifies the creep. Then what?’

David’s gaze was steady. ‘Why don’t we cross that bridge when we come to it?’