Mystral Murder (Julie O'Hara Mystery Series) (6 page)

***

Throughout the night, whether it was in the casino, the lounges, the theatre, or anywhere else people gathered, the conversation was predictable:

“Didn’t I tell you a woman jumped? She must have been very depressed.”

“I heard she owned an international travel agency. She was rich. What did she have to be depressed about?”

Some passengers thought it must have been an accident:

“It was really wet on the deck last night, did you notice? I think she probably slipped and went over.”

“You’re right. I bet she did slip. Someone said she was drunk, too.”

And then there were those who always thought the worst:

“You wait and see. Someone pushed her. Was she married?”

“Yeah, a young guy, a ball player.”

“He did it. Wait and see. It’s always the husband.”

***

At midnight, Joe was standing on their balcony. Like so many other passengers on the
Mystral, he was captured by the drama of the search swirling around the ship. With admirable efficiency, the life-jacketed crew had dropped flame floats and beacons. Rescue boats had been launched from port and starboard, with at least one crew member in a full immersion suit.  A US Coast Guard MH-60 helicopter circled above, its powerful searchlights scanning the water.

Joe stepped back in. “Julie, come look at this.”

She went out with him and they stood at the rail. “Can you believe this?” he asked. “A gigantic ship and four-thousand people, all stopped to search for one person?”

But Julie wasn’t impressed,
she was frightened. The trolling searchlight spotlighted a shark fin here and there, and was immediately devoured by darkness. No matter how she tried not to focus on that, there was a blackness out there that swallowed everything beyond the Mystral. Her latent fear of the sea came roaring back and Julie backed away from the railing, which suddenly seemed like the edge of a cliff.

For a moment, it had felt like Adrienne was standing there with her.

“I’m going to bed.” Julie shivered and quickly ducked inside.

*
* * * *

CHAPTER
16

A
drienne was no longer in a physical body, but was an amorphous presence in a void where infinite dots of light were coalescing and taking shape. The shapes were coming and going, evolving in a way that Adrienne found intensely desirable.

Oh, how she wanted to go with them! She was composed of the same dots of light…but unlike the others, she was not changing and moving on.

She was paused as “Adrienne”, a person who had been pushed out of her life too soon, abandoned like a small child at a stopover on a highway. She had not matured…her relationships hadn’t reconciled…and her death was unjustified.  Worse, she found herself tied to the place of her untimely death.

But fate had provided a surrogate who could help her. Adrienne’s last powerful, random thought had reached Julie O’Hara, who was nearby in a receptive, hypnotic
state. Julie had felt Adrienne’s terror, had viscerally connected with her at that moment. 

Adrienne could move freely above the ship or within it, but not away from it…and she did that, watching all that went on, particularly her surrogate…who had the power to set her back on her path.

For now, she would wait…in a cocoon with a ship named Mystral.

*
* * * *

W E D N E S D A Y

~

CHAPTER 17

I
t was nine-thirty in the morning, and Julie and Joe had gotten breakfast trays in the Horizons cafeteria and taken them outside to one of the empty tables near the pool bar, which didn’t open until eleven. The summer sky was a clear powder-blue and a freshening salt-sea breeze ruffled the umbrella over their table. Julie tilted her face up to the sun. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and smiled. Their paper napkins began to lift in the breeze and Joe gulped down his orange juice and set the empty glass on the napkins.

Their ship was cruising toward its home port - Port Canaveral, Florida - but very slowly. As usual, the
Mystral’s stabilizers kept the giant liner on an even keel, though a US Coast Guard cutter on the port side could be seen riding fairly large swells. The ship’s own rescue craft were still combing the route as well, despite scuttlebutt that there was “zero chance of finding the MOB” at this point in the search.

Julie and Joe had been talking about home.  They shared office space in Joe’s refurbished family home on Lake
Eola, in Downtown Orlando, and they had spent the prior hour on their cell phones, checking in with their respective secretaries.  Julie was especially concerned about her cat, Sol, an oversized Bengal who couldn’t be let out because he scared the neighbors, who invariably thought Sol was an escapee from a zoo. Julie’s secretary, Luz Romero, was staying at Julie’s lakefront condo, looking after him.

“So how’s Sol?” Joe asked.

“Aside from tossing around my pens and pencils on a daily basis, he’s fine.”

Julie kept them in a plastic mug on her living room desk.

“Merlin. The cat does that all the time. Why don’t you just put them in a drawer? Then you wouldn’t have to play pick-up-sticks every time you come home.”

“It keeps him busy. Can you imagine what he might get into otherwise? I have to pick my battles with him,” Julie said. “Did you talk to Janet?”

Janet Hawkins was Joe’s investigative secretary.

“Yeah, I did. I asked her to get me as much info as possible on Michelle Sinclair.  But what’s your interest in the doctor?”

“I don’t know, call it a hunch. I couldn’t help studying her; there’s an underlying, unreadable quality about Michelle Sinclair. She told Alice Kent she was from a small town in Maine. I think she said ‘Heraville’.  She looks as if she might be French, that’s why I suggested Janet check out northern Maine near the Canadian border. We can chat up the Byrnes and Dale Simpson, but Dr. Sinclair is another matter.  My gut tells me she had a problem with Adrienne. Also, I think she’s involved with Captain Collier.  When he turned toward her, I caught him preening a bit, straightening his cuffs. She tilted her head away from him, too.”

“I get the cuff straightening.  But she tilted
away
from him?”

“It was unconsciously sexual; she was exposing her neck to him.  It’s more obvious when a woman swings her hair over.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Don’t get me wrong, neither of them was doing anything obvious. At first, I assumed it was just subtle flirting, but they were sitting a shade too close throughout the meal. Everyone has a personal zone reserved just for loved ones, you know? That’s what I’m talking about. When someone ‘crowds’ you, when you feel like that, it’s because someone is violating that private space. In my opinion, Michelle Sinclair was inside Andrew Collier’s personal zone. As I said, nothing about it was obvious. I don’t think passengers on a short cruise would pick up on it, but crew members might.

“And that means a frequent cruiser like Adrienne might have, too.  What do you think the cruise line’s policy is on a relationship like that? Could that have been a problem?”

“Good thought, Merlin. I’ll call Janet. HCL must publish employment policies.”

“I know Michelle had an intense dislike for Adrienne, Joe. Her expression changed the moment Captain Collier introduced Adrienne to the other diners, and even more so when Adrienne stood up to pitch herself and her agency. Of course, everyone thought that was presumptuous. Nobody else stood up when they were introduced, not even
moi
.”

Joe laughed.
“Right. If anyone should have taken a bow, it was you.”

Julie grinned. “No, I’m serious. When Adrienne stood up, Michelle Sinclair turned and pulled her head back a bit; she also looked down her nose. They were barely noticeable, micro-expressions, but you know how I’m always examining everyone. I don’t think anyone else noticed it.”

“Bien sur,” Joe said, “of course, my all-knowing-one.”

“Touché.
If I’m so smart, how come we’re not in Paris?”

***

The ship’s Medical Center had just opened its doors to the patients waiting outside.  Doctors and nurses alike groaned as the crowd, sniffling and coughing, played musical chairs in the tiny waiting room, an inconsiderate display that left a woman standing with a cast on her leg.

“Here, please sit down,” Michelle said, pulling a chair from behind the reception desk. “How are you feeling today?”

“I’m doing okay, Dr. Sinclair,” the older woman said, “but I need some more of that medicine. My ankle’s hurting.”

“I’ll get that for you right now. Did you bring the prescription?”

The woman handed her the script and Michelle headed into the pharmacy to get the medicine.

She was humming as she searched through the shelves.  Dion Jimenez - a newly hired young doctor on his first cruise - was ogling her bare legs in her trademark white sling-back heels, when she suddenly turned around and caught him. “Yes, Dr. Jimenez? Are you looking for something?”

“Oh, no.
Sorry. I heard you humming…just wondering why you sound so happy this morning? Seeing how busy we are and all.”

Michelle grabbed the package of medicine and said, “The day goes by faster when you’re busy, don’t you think?”

Love has changed my perception of time,
she thought.

Anticipation and excitement were new emotions for Michelle Sinclair. There’d been no joy in her childhood, no pride of achievement when she graduated college and medical school. And then, swiftly after certification, things went from bad to worse. Another step, another lie, another year, what did it matter?

Time, without hope, simply passed…of no importance. 

And then, at age thirty-nine, she was assigned to the
Mystral and met Captain Andrew Collier. One year later and Michelle could hardly wait for nightfall. 

Andrew won’t have to be on the bridge tonight. No one expects to find Adrienne.

Two happy thoughts in a row.

*
* * * *

CHAPTER 18

J
ulie had guessed right.  She’d scanned the Adults’ Pool area for only a minute or so before she spotted Cathy Byrne on a chaise, tanning with her hat over her face. On the near side of the pool, Julie passed Lottie Pelletier, the woman she’d met in the Windward Lounge prior to the Captain’s Dinner.  Apparently asleep with her knee up, she may have been unaware that her bathing suit cover-up had fallen open. She was very fit looking for an older woman, but the shocking, shiny pink of an old burn scar covered most of her upper thigh.

Oh, dear.
Poor woman.

Julie continued stepping around pool bodies until she got to Cathy.

“Hi, Cathy. May I join you?” Julie asked, simultaneously draping her pool towel over the chaise next to her.

Cathy removed her hat.
“Oh, hi, Julie. Sure, sit down.”

“It’s really warm today,” Julie said.

Always safe to start with the weather.

“I know! I don’t usually like the pool because it’s too cold, but I’ve been in a couple of times already. It’s salt water, you know.”

“I didn’t, but that makes sense. It’s so blue; it looks like the swimming pool at my condo.”

“Well, that’s the Caribbean, isn’t it?”

“Any more news about Adrienne?” Julie asked, angling herself toward Cathy.

“No. They don’t expect to find her alive, I hear.”

“Is the water
that
cold?”

“No, it’s not the water. It’s the fall…and the sharks.”

That was dispassionate,
thought Julie.

“It’s so awful,” Cathy said, upon seeing Julie’s raised eyebrows.

Shit, I’ve got to watch my expression.

“Do you think she jumped?” Julie asked.

“Adrienne? No. I think she fell. She was really drunk.”

“Did she drink a lot?”

“You saw her, Julie. She was bombed. Not to ‘speak ill’ and all of that, but look how she was with Joe.”

“That aggravated me, I must admit. Joe doesn’t remember anything, he was so drunk. That was very uncharacteristic …but there you are…‘Life is like a box of chocolates’…”

“’You never know what you’re going to get,’” Cathy finished the Forrest Gump quote with a laugh. “Except you
do
when it comes to men.”

“I understand Adrienne came back to the club?”

Cathy paused, as if weighing her answer. “Yes, she brought your book. She wanted you to sign it.”

“No kidding!” Julie said, touched that Adrienne would come back for that.

“No, she did.”