Out Of His Depth, page 11
“No,” said Lucy, “No, it doesn’t Janet. What’s your husband’s name by the way? You are here with your husband aren’t you?”
“Yes, yes I am. Shall I put his name down too?”
“Yes please,” said Lucy, pleased with her forward-thinking, “we might need his details as well.”
Barker was impressed with Lucy’s improvisation and left her to it and loitered about near the door, keeping half an eye open for other attendees. A handful of people had walked by and a couple were standing around in the lobby outside.
“What are we here for? Who else is coming?” said Janet, adding her husband Malcolm’s name to the sheet.
“Well, Janet, it’s a bit strange. It seems that there’s more than one winner of the competition, and we wanted to find all of you so we get the full picture. It was an unofficial competition you see, and there’s been a few problems contacting Savenas about it. But it has no effect on your cruise. We just want to get as much information as possible.”
“How many winners are there?” Janet asked.
“We don’t know yet,” said Lucy, “That’s what today is for. To see who’s involved and that you’re all getting the service you were promised. Galaxy wants to make sure you’re all happy and safe. Have you bumped into anyone you know so far?”
“No, should I have done?” replied Janet. “Oh, I did see a young man a couple of times who I thought I recognised. Couldn’t place him I’m afraid. On his own, I think. A bit strange looking.”
“Oh well, never mind. It’s amazing how often you bump into familiar faces on holiday isn’t it?” said Lucy, looking at Barker and wondering how long she could keep this up.
Barker shrugged back at her just as the door creaked open again and a couple walked in and looked at him as curiously as Janet Merrifield had done a few minutes earlier. They were younger, in their early thirties, but equally puzzled.
“Good morning. We wondered what this ‘Friends of Savenas’ was about. Is it to do with the competition?”
“Yes, yes it is. Good morning. Lucy over there will explain and take your details,” said Barker, ushering them forward into the room.
Sam and Jordan Smithson walked over to Lucy, shook hands, took a seat, and listened to much the same as Janet had before them. Lucy was stretching the introductions out as much as she could in the hope that more people would arrive, but with no idea how many to expect she eventually ran out of ideas and was about to try to hand over to Barker, when a slightly scruffy younger man in shorts and t-shirt walked through the door, closely followed by a petite young Asian woman around the same age. Barker assumed they were a couple, but they both politely denied it when they were introduced to Lucy and asked to sign the sheet on the clipboard. Janet looked pointedly at Lucy and mouthed the words, “That’s him,” while tipping her head slightly in the direction of the new arrival, as if Lucy was supposed to learn something from it. The young woman smiled and waved timidly at Janet, who frowned at first and then beamed. “Oh hello Jasmine! We were just talking about bumping into people we knew weren’t we?” she said, glancing at Lucy, “And I said I hadn’t so far. How are you?”
“That’s probably everyone now,” said Barker, shutting the door a little too firmly, and walked up to the front of the room.
“Probably, yes,” said Lucy, ‘Do you want to take over for me John?’ she said, looking at Barker hopefully. He recognised that as an instruction rather than a request and took over.
“Oh OK. Thank you for coming to see us, everyone. We had no idea how many would turn up…”
“What’s the problem?” interrupted the young man who had sat on his own in the second row of seats.
“Problem? I’m sorry, what’s your name?” replied Barker.
“Marcus. Yeah, what’s the problem? There’s no drinks, no food. This isn’t supposed to be fun is it? So there must be a problem.”
Slightly thrown by Marcus’s attitude, Barker continued, “Thanks Marcus. Well, yes and no. There’s no problem with your cruise, but the competition you entered, well we think it was fraudulent.”
A few eyebrows were raised as the visitors began muttering to each other.
“Do any of you know or have any connection to Savenas?”
Silent shaking of heads and looking around at each other.
“Galaxy have no knowledge of this competition,” Barker continued, raising his voice a little, “Except that your tickets were paid for independently by several different entities in different parts of the world. You’re as entitled to be here as anyone else, so don’t worry about that. Do you all have a ticket like this?” Barker held up one of the tickets he and Lucy had taken from the staterooms.
Everyone except Marcus nodded. “My Mum and Dad got one but gave it to me when it arrived. They get seasick. So why do we need to know this if everything’s OK?”
Barker breathed in deeply. “I’m an officer from the Metropolitan Police in London. We think you might be in danger. We think the person that gave you your tickets could be responsible for some of the incidents that have happened on the ship this week.”
The stunned silence that followed seemed to last for minutes as Janet’s mouth fell open, and everyone stared at Barker, including Lucy, who was almost as stunned, more at Barker’s decisiveness than what he actually said. She hadn’t expected him to come straight out with it.
“Bullshit!” shouted Marcus, “Why would you say that?”
“Because, Marcus…” Barker began, “Look, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you all but it’s important you know, for your own safety. There have been several deaths on the ship since we left – more than you might be aware of – and at least two of them also had these tickets.”
“Two?! That’s called a coincidence.”
“We’re going to find the others, I’m sure. And if we don’t…”
“What a waste of time,” said Marcus as he stood up and walked to the door.
“Marcus, stop, please,” Barker pleaded, “stay in your room. Everyone should stay in their rooms for a couple of days until we know more. Sit on your balcony, use room service, watch a mov…”
“I don’t have a balcony. I traded it for an inside stateroom. I don’t like the sun,” said Marcus as he opened the door and left.
Keen to avoid any more early departures, Lucy decided to step in and soften the blow a little.
“We really hope we’re wrong, but we just want to be absolutely sure that there’s no risk to you at all. John’s right. You should stay in your rooms until we know more. I know it’s a lot to ask and you don’t know us but…”
“‘You’re the singer.” Jasmine interrupted, “From the bar, from the Atrium. Why are you telling us this? Why isn’t someone from the staff here?”
“Well I…John and I…We…”
“I asked Lucy to help me,” Barker interrupted, saving Lucy’s blushes, “I needed someone who knew the ship, how things work and what normally happens on board. But I can’t ask the crew. They wouldn’t tell me anything, their job is to keep everyone calm and sort it out later.”
“But why not let them?” said Jordan, sat right in front of Barker.
Barker hesitated before adding, “Because I think I might be involved too. I think they might have attacked my wife.”
More silence.
“Look I hope we’re wrong, but give us twenty-four hours to find out something else. If we don’t come up with anything I’ll buy you all dinner in one of the speciality restaurants – your choice.”
Chapter 60
In Funchal, Rebecca Collins had been summoned to the hospital to sign for the release of her husband David’s body. His mother Diane had wanted to be there but delays meant they’d had to get a return flight the previous day and couldn’t wait any longer.
Rebecca walked down the sterile hospital corridors in a daze and found the office where she’d been told to report to and ask for Dr Mendes. She waited ten minutes before being ushered into a small room with just a few chairs and a low table, like the one she’d been in on the day she arrived when the doctor told her how she thought David had died.
Dr Christina Mendes walked in a few seconds later, closed the door behind her and gently smiled at Rebecca.
“Good afternoon Rebecca. We have the coroner’s report and it does confirm that David died of natural causes,” said the doctor quietly.
After a deep breath, Rebecca replied. “But he was so fit. We had no idea he had any health problems, certainly none that could kill him.”
“I know. It’s such a shock when it happens like this, I’m so sorry. It not as uncommon as we would like to think, I’m afraid.”
“There was nothing suspicious? Nothing that seemed strange?”
“No. Our tests found nothing. We’ve been very thorough. It does mean that we can release his body for transportation home. Will your insurance company take care of that?”
“Yes,” Rebecca nodded, staring out in front of her, “we always bought good insurance. Never expected to need it.”
Chapter 61
“So did we achieve anything?” Lucy said to Barker as they sat on the Starboard side of the ship at a table by the window in the Skyscape restaurant during the brief lull between breakfast and lunch. Both nursed a mug of over-brewed coffee.
“I’m not sure,” Barker replied, turning his gaze back to her after staring out to sea for several minutes.
“We got a few names, and we know more tickets exist,” Lucy said positively.
“We’re no further on though. Where does that leave us?”
“You’re the policeman. You tell me.”
“We need to tackle Maria again. She’s the only person we know is involved somehow.”
“That’s not gone well so far.”
Barker looked up at Lucy with a blank expression.
“Sorry,” said Lucy.
“It’s OK, I’m just thinking back to what she said. ‘They will hurt the ones closest to you. You of all people should know that’, ‘They will hurt you again’ and what she said about Rob.”
“For what it’s worth I think we should come at it from a different angle.”
“How do you mean?”
“Well, we don’t know who Savenas Seaways is do we? There’s got to be a clue there.”
“Probably just a made-up name.”
“Maybe, but it’s got to be worth trying to find out who’s behind it. That’s going to give us more than Maria Cortez.”
“Maybe you’re right. I’ll go and do some digging, see what I can find.”
“I’ll speak to Igor again. See if he can give us anything else. He’ll do anything for a few Pina Coladas.”
Chapter 62
Sir Lynden Oscar Pindling is regarded as the Father of the Nation of the Bahamas, having led it to independence in July 1973 and served as its Prime Minister from 1969 to 1992. The International airport named after him was having a busy day as the season began to ramp up to its usual Christmas peak, when tourists from Europe would arrive for some winter sun. Two pale-faced people, one male one female, walked side by side wheeling carry-on cases from their arrival gate into the immigration area and looked vacantly around. They didn’t look as happy to be there as most of the other foreigners arriving that day. They had travelled together but were not a couple. And they hadn’t come for a holiday.
Paul Sanderson’s older sister Samantha had won a competition that sent her on the holiday she’d always dreamed of, a Caribbean cruise, only for it to turn into her worst nightmare. Charlotte Hamilton was the twin sister of Samantha’s husband, Jonathan Howard. The couple’s parents had to stay at home to look after their now orphaned children, while Paul and Charlotte volunteered to travel to identify their bodies.
The airline had taken pity on them and given them first-class accommodation on board so they had both got some sleep on the nine-hour flight from Heathrow. But neither of them looked fresh when they arrived, still shell-shocked, in the capital of the Bahamas, Nassau.
After shuffling in the immigration queue for ten minutes, Charlotte stepped up to the desk just before Paul. The man behind it took a long look at her and waved to an official at the side of the room, who squeezed the button on the side of the radio attached to his jacket and spoke into it.
“Is this Mr Sanderson?” the man behind the desk said, gesturing at Paul to come forward.
“Yes. Yes it is,” said Charlotte weakly, turning to look behind her.
“Please, go to that gentleman over there. He will take you to the security office.”
The man with the radio was already on his way over and gestured to Charlotte and Paul, who easily fell into step behind him as he led them out through a side door.
Chapter 63
Around midday Barker stepped out of a glass elevator on Deck Six, turned right, and walked around the Atrium and into the iCafe for the second time. He knew how old-fashioned an internet cafe was these days, but there were a lot of older people on board and the ship’s WiFi was so expensive. It was probably better to pay for it in small chunks so you knew how much debt you were racking up.
He had no idea how much he could find out about Savenas Seaways using just a search engine and a lot of luck, but it was the most obvious thing to do first. He logged in using Lucy’s password again, waited a few seconds for it to connect and typed Savenas Seaways into the empty search box. A list of random websites and products and blogs with Savenas Seaways in their name came up and his heart sank for a second. This could take forever. He typed ‘Savenas Seaways company’ to try to narrow it down. A more focussed but still long list appeared and he realised he didn’t know which country Savenas Seaways would be based in, if any. But he figured it would be good to start with British or American business so looked for the filter to reduce the results further.
Barker sifted through the likely entries one by one, checking if anything about them rang any bells. He became so engrossed in the search he didn’t notice the tall, thin older man sit down at a PC in the row behind him until he spoke.
“I thought you’d know who they are.”
Barker, slightly startled, sat up from his hunched position and turned around on his swivel chair to face the man. “I’m sorry?”
“I thought you’d know who Savenas Seaways are. You know, since you organised a meeting about them.”
The man looked directly at Barker accusingly.
“I don’t recognise you from the meeting,” Barker replied guardedly.
“That’s because I wasn’t there,” said the man.
“I’m not following.”
“Well, I was there, but not at the meeting.”
“You’re going to have to explain…”
“I was hanging around outside. I waited for the meeting to end to see who would come out. I recognised some of the people who attended, but not you or your friend. So how come you don’t know who they are?”
Barker was getting frustrated with the man and turned back to his PC saying, “You should’ve come to the meeting.”
“Perhaps. But it turned out I didn’t need to once I saw who was there. I believe I know who Savenas Seaways are and I think I can help you. My name’s Eric Spencer.”
Barker turned his chair around again and looked the man up and down.
“The man from the Atrium?”
“You’ve done your homework.”
“You’re looking well.”
“Thank you. I was lucky. I’m a fairly fit man and he was a bad shot.”
Barker looked around to make sure there was nobody listening.
“So who are Savenas Seaways and why are you willing to help?”
“Well, I’m helping because somebody shot at me, and I think that person was hired by a company called ABJ Transatlantic who are a client of mine.”
“A client? Who are ABJ Transatlantic?”
“I’m an accountant. I retrained after leaving the Navy. I had contacts in the merchant navy so I found work with shipping and cargo companies like ABJ.”
“So what does that have to do with Savenas Seaways?”
“Savenas is an anagram of Vanessa, The MD of ABJ puts money into a subsidiary company of that name when he wants to hide it, or when he’s being less than honest about where it’s come from. Vanessa is the name of his dead wife. Very few people would know that. When I saw ‘Friends of Savenas’ in Stardate I was curious, bearing in mind what’s been going on.”
“Why would you suspect them of anything like this?”
“Well, Mr…?”
Barker hesitated, should he give his real name or a fake name? He went with real name. “Barker.”
“Well, Mr Barker, ABJ is a major shareholder in Galaxy Cruises. I might be wrong, but something just doesn’t smell right.”
“You think they’d go as far as trying to get rid of you?”
“Unlikely but not impossible. They might make it known how useful it would be if I met with an accident. Word spreads to the wrong sort of people, favours are owed. One thing leads to another…”
“And you end up with a bullet wound?”
“Just a graze really. I had worse when I was on active service, but I’m older now.”
Barker’s phone pinged with a text message alert, from Lucy.
Igor has room info. Got a date with him at nine. Can fit you in for dinner at seven ;)
Pick you up at ten-to. You can tell me all about Savenas Seaways.
“Good timing,” Barker muttered to himself. For a couple of seconds he wondered what he was supposed to do with the information from Igor, then he remembered he still had the Sea Star and Lucy would know that.
“Urgent?” said Eric Spencer.
“No,” replied Barker, “Important but not urgent. Tell me more.”
Chapter 64
When Lucy arrived in Skywalker’s nightclub just after nine, Igor was sat on a stool by the bar talking to the bartender and a group of women who probably knew him from his work on the Guest Relations desk. He wasn’t the sort of person who could blend into the background. Lucy had deliberately been late so she wouldn’t have to hang around for him, knowing that he was always early and never alone for very long.
