Deep Sea Dead

Twenty-one

The Bottlenose Lounge could have been empty for all I cared. I ran so fast to the doorway, out into the hallway and up the stairs that the people shouting obscenities at me had no effect on me.

Jagger needed me.

When I got to the top of the stairs, I heard footsteps behind, but didn’t care. I yanked the door open and ran through. On the top of the tank, sitting near the edge and holding a knife…was Betty Halfpenny.

Oh…my…God.

No wonder she was so unusually nice!

I grabbed a life preserver from the wall, and rushed toward the water.

“Keep out, Sokol! You two have ruined everything,” she warned in a deadly voice. “Unless you want to be next.” She cackled. A cackle with a British accent.

Very eerie. Kinda like Mary Poppins without manners.

I stood on the edge of the tank, ready to dive in.

Betty grabbed my arm and sliced across my shoulder with the knife.

“Ouch!” I ignored the pain and smacked her across her face with the life preserver. I hoped it left a permanent imprint. “Let me go. He’ll die!”

“Then he shouldn’t have stuck his nose in my business.” She swung the knife again.

I ducked this time and realized Betty was not a very good fighter. Too proper, I imagined.

“I found your little camera. And some emails from a Fabio. You two have been spying on me…on us. Damn you, Pauline. Things were going so well until you came onboard.”

I shoved her with all my strength. She stumbled to the deck. I dove into the tank, forgetting my fears, forgetting the fact I couldn’t swim well, but not forgetting that by now Jagger was probably lying at the bottom of the tank.

The crystal clear water didn’t prove a detriment to my swimming lower. I couldn’t yank the life preserver down so I hung onto the rope and let the donut part go. It floated to the surface of the tank.

My lungs hurt worse than when I had run after Remy.

There, below, was Jagger, limply floating like a piece of seaweed.

I pumped my legs as hard as I could, and before I got closer, his body was propelled toward me, then past, then upward.

In awe I watched Johnny pushing Jagger’s body to the top. I turned, tightened my grip on the rope, and tried to swim upward. My lack of oxygen fought me all the way, until I felt something poke into my back. At first I feared Betty had thrown her knife down then looked to see my buddy Gilbert pushing me upward!

We reached the top of the tank in a second, a whoosh of air flew from my lungs and a deep intake of breath kept me conscious. Before I could thank them, I grabbed onto Jagger and pulled him to the edge.

The door to the stairwell swung open. Tim and the other agent rushed out-followed by Remy!

“Help!” I splashed the water to get their attention. “Tim!”

Suddenly Betty got up and flung the knife at me. It was the dolphin-handled steak knife. In her fury, she nicked my other shoulder with it. I swung around to see the knife splash into the water.

“You bitch! Now you’re in trouble!” I shouted, and then gasped. “I’m not going down after that, you know.”

Tim grabbed Jagger and lifted him over the side while the other agent pulled me out with the aid of several crewmembers. I heard a cough, a gurgle of water and, “Sherlock. Is she-”

Tears mixed with the tank water on my cheeks. “I’m fine. I’m fine.” With that I collapsed into the surprised agent’s arms.

Under the watchful eye of an armed Tim, Doc Peter stitched up both Jagger’s and my wounds. Sure it felt odd to have your doctor being guarded at gunpoint, but out at sea now, we had no other choice.

Peter had killed Jackie.

Betty had freaked out and told Jagger about the killing when he confronted her by the dolphin tank and accused her of medical-insurance fraud. Being ever so proper, it made it difficult for her to accept the nasty accusations-and it wasn’t true.

I’m sure Jagger skillfully goaded her into confessing more and more. I only wished I could have been there to hear-and help him, but he’d said Betty was insanely in love with Remy and really wasn’t involved in the fraud.

Her obsession had been only for Remy, and she hated Jackie because Jackie had found out-and teased her about her feelings, along with saying that Remy would never love her. Betty knew it was true. She’d had a past filled with weirdo boyfriends and never had found her real love.

“Ouch!” I said as Peter yanked on my arm.

Tim and Jagger both moved in as if for the kill.

Through clenched teeth Tim said, “My finger could just slip, buddy,” while Jagger said, “Don’t hurt the lady, Doctor.”

Oh, boy. Just what I needed. Stitches under pressure. I wondered how gigantic the scar would be.

I smiled to myself, lying on the exam table, Rico and Kris at the side and a sterile green paper sheet around my neck and back to keep the area germ free. I’m sure Peter couldn’t make one tiny slipup with all the watchful eyes around me.

I peeked up at Jagger. “What about Peter’s wife?”

“She and those kids were hired family. Actors, who knew nothing of the fraud or murder. Imagine. The guy had planned to have them come onboard as decoys. This way, he could make the moves on Betty behind the scenes while in the open professing to be a loving husband and father. Who would suspect a nice family physician to be involved in fraud? Peter thought he’d covered all the angles.”

“Stop talking about me as if I’m not here,” Peter whined.

Oh, boy. I could see that gigantic scar on my back now. “Well, Peter, you should have thought about the kind of attention you’d get when you killed Jackie,” I said. “Ouch!”

Tim looked down at me. “It might not be a good idea to antagonize the suspect while he’s stitching up your shoulder.”

Despite the pain-I swear Peter only gave me half the numbing drug on purpose-I laughed.

“I’ll put the dressing on,” Rico said, pushing Peter out of the way. I think he wanted to smack the guy, like the rest of us had the urge to do.

Peter slumped into a chair next to Betty, who sat like a proper statue under the guard of the other FBI guy, whose name I never did learn. A few of the crewmembers stood at their sides. Although Betty was handcuffed, Peter took her hand into his.

She glared at him and pulled back. “Blast you, you birk!”

Yikes. I had no idea what that meant, but I was guessing Betty didn’t have the same feelings for Peter as she had for Remy.

Spurned love sure can mess things up, I thought, as Rico helped me to sit up.

“Stay put a few seconds to make sure you don’t get woozy, amore.” He kissed my cheek.

Tim and Jagger took a step forward.

After a few minutes I proclaimed I was fine and got up. With only one stagger, I landed in Jagger’s arms, with Tim still holding his weapon on Doc Peter. The safety officer was now handcuffing the doc.

What a sad, wasted life. He could have been a prominent doctor, but after going bankrupt by being greedy in his practice and having a penchant for overspending, he devised this insurance-fraud scheme and involved his coworkers onboard the ship-and Betty, the woman he professed to love. According to her actions, she didn’t love him back, but Jagger said she sure loved the illegal money that he showered on her.

Her family had been wealthy until her father had an affair and ran away-with his inheritance. There went his title and Betty’s family’s income. That’s why she took money from Peter-no matter where it had come from.

Peter had fallen for Betty on his first cruise as a doctor on the Golden Dolphin. The more he persisted, the more Betty grew to hate him-since it interfered with her trying to accomplish the impossible-to snag Remy away from Jackie. But being so crazy in love, Betty never gave up trying.

However, Jackie, the consummate risk taker, went along willingly with the fraud scheme. I’d bet for the thrill of it and not as much for the money.

Remy, in fact, turned out to be the innocent one. That’s what he’d been trying to tell me in Bermuda. He’d found out about the fraud and had reported it to the captain who in turn told the insurance company fraud unit. After snitching, Remy thought it best to go under cover himself, because he worried about Jackie’s involvement, so he disappeared-hence my job. That’s why the papers were in his file box.

But since he was so in love with Jackie all the way back to their days in nursing school, he must have gotten scared she’d get caught. So he tried to convince her to get off the ship with him at the next port and never look back. In fact, he may have broken some law there.

Typical for Jackie, she’d refused. However, Peter had gotten wind of Remy’s interference from Betty, who had her own agenda involving Remy. Peter worried that Remy’s love could influence Jackie and she’d rat him out…so he’d taken care of her. No way could a dead woman blow their good deal. Peter then took the opportunity to get rid of her body in the sea, as if that would prevent him from being found out and tried for murder.

Betty, whose life was built on revenge from never having the lover she’d wanted, aided Peter in anything that would hurt Jackie. However, he swore Betty didn’t know about the murder plan.

That night in the fog, she had dressed in the salmon tee shirt and threw the picture of Jackie and Remy overboard-then consequently tried to add me to the fishes’ diet. In the weather, we never noticed she wasn’t as tall as Remy, but she was as wide.

I looked down to see she had on a similar rope bracelet to Jackie’s. Peter must have taken it off the corpse and given it to his love. Eeyeuuw. Was it any wonder that Betty didn’t return Peter’s feelings?

While under cover on the ship, Remy, truly wanting to help his Jackie find happiness, had managed to find out that their land connection was one of Peter’s old girlfriends, and that Peter had set her up with the job in the New York billing office. Once Jackie was killed and all eyes had focused on him, Remy thought he could never come clean and convince anyone that he was innocent.

It had been Jackie’s handwriting on the chart, calling poor Claude a cheat because he dated one of the hairdressers onboard. He was lucky not to have gotten involved with Jackie.

Look what had happened to Remy.

I glanced at him as he stared at Peter and Betty. Sorrow filled Remy’s eyes, and I wished things could have been so very different. He finally caught me staring at him.

“I’m sorry. About your head. Pushing you. I thought you were a Fed or something. That’s why I ran. No one would have believed me if I told them the truth. I just needed more time to prove it.” He looked from me to Peter. “He killed my Jacqueline.” Tears ran down his cheeks.

I walked over and gave Remy a hug. “I know. I know.”

Betty yelled at me to get away from her Remy.

Tim shouted for her to shut up at the same time Jagger did.

What’s a girl to do with two men so very protective of her?

I laughed inside, and once the safety officers came and removed Peter and Betty from the infirmary, Rico and Kris cleaned the place up.

The captain had said that if there were any injuries that needed tending to by the physician, Doctor Peter was to be taken from lockup and, under the constant watchful guard of the FBI and security crew, treat the passengers.

I wondered if we were going to sail at warp speed to get back to New York and back to our normal lives.

Hope Valley was looking really good right about now.

There really was no place like home.

Tim came forward and looked at me. “I’d be proud to work a case with you again, Sherlock Holmes.” He kissed my hand and held it in his for a few minutes.

Yikes! I thought Jagger was going to explode.

Then Tim took me into his arms and kissed me so very gently on the lips. I couldn’t even look at Jagger after that. I hugged Tim and whispered, “Me too. Me too.”

With that he was gone. Jagger looked at me and said, “Well…you…you did good, Pauline. You did good.”

Although he usually only used my real name when he was pissed or deadly serious, this time I knew it came from the heart (not to mention the fact that he surely didn’t want to use the same nickname for me as Tim had), and Jagger was nothing if not honest.

I took him by the arm and said, “Come on. Let’s make the most of this cruise. I want you to meet three friends of mine.”

And off we went to see Johnny, Jake and darling Gilbert.