“Bob told the waitress he was there to check the air-conditioning vents. He went around the corner from the lady and Surfer Dude’s booth, opened his stepladder and unscrewed the vent cover. Bob heard everything the lady and the dude said.”
“Very cool,” Helen said. “What was it?”
“I’ll tell you as soon as you get back,” he said.
“Can’t you give me a hint?” Helen begged.
“All I can say is our client was right. The lady has a boyfriend.”
“Anything else?” Helen asked.
“Oh, yes,” Phil said. “Your sister’s called four times so far tonight. She won’t say why, but she wants to talk to you, no matter how late.”
“I’ll call as soon as I hang up,” Helen said, hoping her voice didn’t shake. She had a good idea why Kathy had called.
“How about you?” Phil asked. “How was your trip?”
“Rough,” Helen said. “A waterspout was sighted and we had to find a safe harbor in Bimini. Then Louise the second stewardess disappeared—or quit; I can’t tell which. She supposedly hitched a ride home on a Miami fishing charter. The Bahamian officials are looking for her. But Louise left behind some seizure medicine. I think that points to a disappearance.”
“Why would she quit like that?” Phil asked.
“She’s sick of her job and wants to be with her boyfriend in Fort Lauderdale. I heard her say that myself. But if she didn’t take that charter boat, she must have fallen overboard. That means she’s dead, Phil. It makes me sick to think about it.
“Oh, and a guest used to date a hooker with the same name as our client’s stepmother. Can you e-mail me the photo you took of her? I want to show it to the captain.”
“And the other staff, too,” Phil said.
“No, I’m supposed to be undercover,” Helen said. “There’s a lot going on here. I think the first mate is smuggling something. The creepy first engineer, Andrei, met some guy at the Lauderdale marina and he may have made plans to meet up with someone tonight. Everybody is off the yacht now except me. Wait a minute! Phil!”
“What? Helen, talk to me.”
“There’s a little boat approaching the yacht,” Helen said. “It doesn’t have any running lights. Stay on the phone with me until I know who it is.”
Helen peered out the window on the main deck. “It’s the Bulgarian engineer. He’s staggering drunk and carrying something in his backpack. How did he get so smashed in two hours? He’s coming in by the swim platform. I’d better watch him in case he falls.”
“Helen! Don’t do anything stupid.”
“He’s so drunk he’s in more danger of hurting himself than me,” Helen said.
“Don’t hang up,” Phil said.
“Sh!” she said. “He’s aboard now, crashing around the lower aft deck. I’ll stay up on the main deck.”
Helen heard knocks, thunks and a curse as the Bulgarian engineer made his way to the crew mess. Then she heard a tremendous crash and a yip. What if that brute kicked the poodle?
“I think he hurt Mitzi,” Helen said. “I’m going downstairs to check. I’ll keep the phone on.”
“Helen! What do I do if anything’s wrong?”
“Call the captain’s cell phone. You have his number.”
Helen slipped her phone into her pocket and cautiously made her way down to the crew mess. Mitzi was cowering behind a laundry basket. The Bulgarian engineer was gobbling cold leftover pasta out of a plastic bowl. Next to him was a backpack with a square bulge.
“Helen!” His smile revealed yellow teeth. His accent was thicker when he was drunk. “Have surprise for you. You like chocolate, no?”
“Yes,” Helen said.
“Good. I bought big box of chocolate liqueur. Gourmet chocolate bottles filled with Jack Daniel’s, Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Baileys Irish Cream.” He patted the backpack. “You have some with me?”
“Sure,” Helen said. She wanted to see what was in that backpack.
“All ladies like chocolate,” he said, and exposed more teeth. Andrei would have to drink his women into bed, Helen thought.
Andrei stood up. “I take piss first. Then we open chocolate and be friends.”
Classy as ever, Helen thought.
Andrei opened the hatch to the crew cabins and stumbled down the passage.
Helen could hear Phil sputtering and shouting, even though the phone was in her pocket. She took it out.
“What the hell are you doing?” Phil shouted. “He’s drunk and you’re on that boat alone with him.”
“I have my cleaning caddy with me. I can shoot him in the face and blind him. I have to hang up now and see if Mitzi is okay. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
She hung up over Phil’s furious protests.
CHAPTER 25
Helen heard hoggish grunts and swinish snorts coming from a crew cabin in the passage. Andrei, she decided. She slid open the door. The Bulgarian engineer was sprawled motionless on the lower bunk, mouth open, left arm flung out. His chest wasn’t moving. Maybe he was in a coma. Or dead. She’d read about death from alcohol poisoning and Andrei had drunk a lot in a hurry.
Helen moved closer to check. She wasn’t losing a crew member on her watch. The engineer erupted in a loud snort and an explosion of alcohol fumes. She leaped back and softly shut the door.
Andrei was dead drunk, not dead.
Time to open that backpack he’d abandoned in the crew mess. The boxy bulge inside tantalized her. It was the right size for a haul of emeralds. Helen wanted Andrei to be the smuggler. He was the most dislikable crew member. Once she caught the smuggler, this case was closed. She’d stay as a stew until the boat docked in Fort Lauderdale, but then she’d be free.
A whimpering Mitzi met Helen at the crew mess hatch. She was limping slightly. Helen picked her up. The poodle was warm, soft and light as a powder puff. As she petted her, Helen gently felt the tiny body for bruises or breaks. Mitzi didn’t yelp when she touched her.
“Good girl,” Helen said, gently setting the little dog back on the floor. “What meanie would kick you?”
She fetched Mitzi another peanut butter treat. Mitzi sat up and danced.
“I think you’re okay, girl,” she said. “I didn’t see Andrei kick you, but I’ll let the captain know he has a possible puppy abuser on board.”
“Yap!” Mitzi said.
“Sh! Don’t wake him. I’m trying to get him arrested for smuggling.”
The bright-eyed poodle wagged her tail. Helen quickly unzipped the backpack. She saw green. Lots of green.
A huge dark green box marked “Fine Chocolate Liqueurs.”
No! That couldn’t be. There must be some mistake. There had to be. The box was shrink-wrapped with plastic, so she couldn’t open it. Helen rattled it.
That was not the sound of loose gemstones. Helen’s heart sank. Andrei was no smuggler.
She took out her phone and checked her messages. She had one from Phil with an attachment and twenty-six from her sister, Kathy. She listened to Kathy’s first message. Her little sister was crying with fright. “Helen, it happened. I knew it would. You have to call me now! Please. I don’t care if it’s two in the morning.”
Helen didn’t bother listening to Kathy’s other messages. She could almost see her sister anxiously pacing in her homey kitchen. I did this to you, Helen thought. You had a perfect life in the burbs until I married Rob and put you on the road to worry. No wonder your hair is getting grayer.
Kathy must have been sitting next to the phone. She answered on the first ring in a heartrending whisper. “Helen! What took you so long? Never mind, Phil told me. You’re in the Bahamas. You have to come home now, Helen. He’s alive and he wants thirty thousand dollars.”