Boats and Bad Guys Read online

  Sighing deeply, she scooped the kitten up from her nap, earning herself a “meeeooowww” of protest.

  “Hush, now,” she said. “Shelly will take good care of you and you’ll have a whole new apartment to explore. It will be like having a vacation.”

  Katie blinked at her and then snuggled into her arms. “You aren’t making this easier,” she muttered as she carried the kitten into the corridor. Katie’s contented purr just made Fenella feel worse.

  “Ah, there’s my new flatmate,” Shelly cooed as she opened her door only a few seconds after Fenella’s knock. “I’ve been waiting for you. I’ve bought you a new toy for each day that Fenella will be away and I’ve bought a box of special kitty treats and special bottled water, designed just for kittens.”

  “Bottled water for kittens?” Fenella echoed faintly.

  Shelly flushed. “It was on sale in the pet shop,” she said. “The shop assistant said it was much better for their tiny digestive systems than tap water.”

  Fenella couldn’t help but smile. “As soon as I get back, we’re going to go to a shelter somewhere to get you a kitten,” she told her friend.

  Shelly beamed. “I think that’s a good idea,” she said. “Otherwise I might be tempted to keep Katie.”

  Fenella gave the top of Katie’s head a quick kiss and then handed the seemingly unconcerned animal over to Shelly. “I’ll be back next Sunday,” she reminded the other woman. “And I will want Katie back.”

  Shelly grinned. “I know. I promise not to get too attached.”

  As Fenella turned away, she heard Shelly whispering to Katie about all of the fun they were going to have. Her neighbor definitely needed a cat of her own. Back in her apartment, Fenella grabbed her suitcase and headed for the door. The Sea Terminal was only a short walk away, and a glance out of the huge windows at the front of her apartment showed her that the sun was coming up on a lovely spring morning.

  “I just hope it stays like this,” she said to herself as she walked out of her building and turned along the promenade. The sea journey from Douglas to Liverpool took over three hours and she understood that if the wind picked up things could get quite rocky on the boat. The last thing she wanted was to arrive in Liverpool having been seasick for several hours.

  She’d walked past the Sea Terminal many times in the weeks she’d lived on the island, but she’d never had an occasion to go inside. The reservations for today’s journey had been made online and she’d been able to print her ticket herself. Inside the building, she found the check-in desk and waited in line behind an older gentleman and a young couple.

  “We’ll be boarding in just a few minutes,” the girl behind the desk was telling the man. “You can wait in our lounge, just through those doors.”

  “I want to be in the quiet lounge on the boat,” he shouted at the girl. “I like things nice and quiet and I don’t want any children underfoot.”

  “Yes, sir, you’ve booked a seat in the quiet lounge,” the girl told him.

  “Pardon?” he yelled.

  “I said, you’re booked into the quiet lounge,” the girl repeated herself more loudly.

  “Right, well, I’ll just go and wait then, shall I?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” the girl said. “Through those doors.” She pointed to a set of double doors to the man’s right.

  “Through there?” he asked.

  “Yes, sir. Right through there,” she said loudly.

  As the man headed off, slowly dragging his small suitcase behind him, the young couple approached the desk.

  “Wasting his money on the quiet lounge, with his hearing that bad,” the man muttered as he felt around in his pockets for his ticket.

  “But at least he’ll be away from children,” the woman with him said. “That does sound like a good idea. The last time I took the ferry, a small child wanted to talk to me for most of the journey.”

  The man grimaced and looked at the woman behind the desk. “Are there any more seats in the quiet lounge?” he asked.

  The girl grinned. “Plenty,” she said. “It’s only the middle of April, so it’s fairly quiet today. I don’t think you’ll have to worry about noisy children anywhere on board, but if you’re really worried, you can pay for reserved seats in the quiet lounge.”

  The pair had a quick conversation and Fenella lost interest. She looked through the doors where the older man had disappeared. The small waiting area reminded her of every airport she’d ever been in, with uncomfortable-looking chairs arranged in clusters. The room was only sparsely populated and Fenella didn’t know anyone among the passengers.

  That was hardly surprising, considering she’d been on the island for less than two months, but she still found herself looking at everyone as if expecting to recognize a familiar face. Often, she found herself smiling at someone who looked familiar, only to realize, as they stared blankly at her, that they resembled someone she’d known back in Buffalo, New York.

  “How can I help you?” the woman behind the desk called as the young couple made their way through the waiting room doors.

  “Oh, I’m sailing to Liverpool,” Fenella said. She handed over her printed ticket.

  “Okay, we’ll be allowing foot passengers to board very soon,” the girl said. “And I see you’ve booked a cabin. You’ll need to stop at customer service once you’ve boarded and they’ll be able to give you the key and tell you how to find your cabin.”

  “Excellent, thank you,” Fenella said.

  “You can wait in our waiting room,” the girl told her. “Listen for the boarding announcement soon. They’re just loading up the last of the freight. Then they’ll load car passengers and foot passengers.”

  Fenella nodded and walked through the doors into the waiting area. A quick look around confirmed that she didn’t know a soul. Not feeling like making new friends, she dropped into a seat and pulled out a book. Within minutes she was miles away, joining a detective who was hunting a killer through the Florida Everglades.

  “Good morning, passengers. At this time, we’d like to invite all of our foot passengers to make their way on board for today’s sailing to Liverpool.” The announcement interrupted an exciting part of the story, but Fenella was eager to get underway, so she didn’t mind. She was going to have over three hours in her cabin on the ferry to read, anyway. Saving the book for later was probably a good idea.

  All around her, everyone was getting to their feet and gathering up their belongings. Fenella picked up her handbag and began the long walk from the building to the ferry, dragging her suitcase behind her. She was surprised when she arrived at a security desk.

  “Please put your suitcase and handbag on the belt and walk through the metal detector. Thank you,” the man at the desk told Fenella.

  Thinking that this was even more like flying than she’d realized, Fenella was quick to comply. As she collected her bags after their trip through the x-ray machine, the man she’d been behind at the check-in desk tottered up.

  “This is a lot of bother,” he complained loudly. “You aren’t making the car passengers go through all of this and they could have anything in their cars, you know.”

  “Yes, sir,” the man behind the desk said with a long-suffering smile.

  Fenella gathered up her belongings and continued along the long corridor. In the distance, she could see the ferry, seemingly bobbling up and down gently in the sea. Just watching it made her feel slightly seasick. Reserving a cabin had seemed like an extravagance when she’d made her reservations, but now she was glad she’d done so. At least she’d have the space to lie down if she did feel sick and her very own bathroom if she needed it.

  She slowed her walk and looked down at the long line of cars that were snaking their way onto the ship. If this was a quiet sailing, she wondered how busy they could get. There seemed to be an awful lot of cars filing into the belly of the boat. Maybe, if she ever learned to drive a stick shift, one day she could bring Mona’s fancy sports car with her
on the ferry. Then she wouldn’t have to rely on friends or the train for getting around in England. Driving a stick shift on the wrong side of the road still seemed like an almost insurmountable challenge to her. The racy red sports car was a huge temptation, though. Fenella had always dreamed of owning something like it, although she couldn’t imagine that she’d ever have bought it herself.

  It’s your imagination, she told herself firmly as she stepped onto the ferry and immediately began to feel as if the ground was shifting under her feet. They were still solidly anchored in Douglas Habour, so the boat was barely moving, she thought.

  Having no clear idea of where to go, Fenella settled for following the handful of other foot passengers who were ahead of her. They climbed a flight of stairs and went through some doors. On their heels, Fenella found herself in a large room with windows all along the outside. There were several spacious seating areas, a small and partly closed off children’s play area, a café with its own row of tables and chairs, a small gift shop, and exactly what Fenella was looking for, a customer service desk.

  “How can I help you today?” the girl behind the desk asked, giving Fenella a bright smile.

  “I have a cabin reserved,” Fenella told her, pulling her ticket out of her handbag.

  The girl took the sheet and studied it for a moment. “Yes, Ms. Woods, let me see here.” She turned, still holding the paper, and began flipping through some cards on the desk.

  “We’ve half our summer staff in here doing training,” she said after a moment. “They keep moving things around and not putting them back where they belong. The cleaning staff isn’t any better. Someone managed to spill a cup of coffee all over the desk this morning, and when the cleaning crew came to sort it out, they just started binning everything that was on the desk. I had to spend an hour going through the rubbish looking for the papers I actually need.”

  “Oh, dear,” Fenella murmured. “How unfortunate for you.”

  The girl sighed deeply. “I wasn’t even meant to work this morning, you know,” she said in a confiding whisper. “But someone pulled a sickie at the last minute and management knows they can always ring me and I’ll come in. I should start saying no, really I should. Maybe they’d appreciate me more if I wasn’t so available.”

  I’d appreciate you more if you’d give me my cabin key, Fenella thought, swallowing hard as the ship tipped slightly to one side. Or maybe it didn’t, as she seemed to be the only one who’d noticed.

  “Ah, here we are,” the girl said, pulling a large folder out from under a pile of papers. “The cabin assignments for the journey. Let me see where they’ve put you.”

  Fenella watched impatiently as the girl ran her perfectly manicured finger down the short list of names. Eventually she found Fenella.

  “Ah, you’re in 206,” she announced. “Now, where have they moved the key tray to?” The tray was unearthed a few minutes later, as Fenella’s stomach lurched and the line of impatient passengers grew behind her.

  “206, let’s see,” the girl said. She frowned. “No keys for 206 here. I wonder what’s happened to them.”

  She dug around on the desk again, flipping through dozens of small scraps of paper, each of which seemed to have only a few words jotted on them.

  “Here it is,” she exclaimed after a moment. “The sink in 206 is out of service. Well, that’s no good. They aren’t supposed to just make a note of it and leave it. They’re supposed to make sure that no one is booked into that cabin for the next journey and…” she sighed and trailed off. “The good news for you,” she said to Fenella, “is that we aren’t very busy today. I can move you to another cabin.”

  “Excellent,” Fenella said. “I’m looking forward to sitting down and relaxing.”

  “Yes, well, let me see which cabins are empty.” The girl went back to her list and then back and forth between the list and the key tray. “It doesn’t look as if very many passengers have picked up their keys yet,” she said after a moment.

  Fenella glanced at the long line of passengers waiting behind her. It was hardly surprising that no one had their keys yet.

  “I’ll put you in 212,” the girl said eventually. “No one is booked into it and you’re traveling alone, right?”

  “I am,” Fenella agreed.

  “That’s good, because for some reason I only have one key for that cabin. I’m sure the other will turn up in one of the cleaner’s pockets or something, but for today, it won’t matter.” She handed Fenella a key and then turned a huge fake smile on the next person in line.

  “And how can I help you?” she asked.

  “I’m sorry,” Fenella spoke quickly. “But where am I going?”

  The girl’s smile faltered as she glanced back at Fenella. “Up the stairs and follow the signs,” she said in a bored tone.

  Fenella grabbed her bags and walked away as quickly as she could. The cold stares she got from the rest of the passengers who were waiting suggested that they blamed her for the long delay. She shook her head and looked around for a staircase. Luckily there were signs and she followed one now that said “Cabins,” which led to a door that opened into the promised flight of stairs.

  The stairs were steep and awkward with her suitcase, but Fenella was feeling quite desperate to sit down or maybe even lie down. At the top of the stairs arrows pointed out which way to go for which cabins. She made her way along a short corridor, happy to find cabin 212 in the middle of the hall. Her key turned in the lock and she pushed the door open.

  Getting the suitcase through the fairly narrow doorway was a bit of a struggle, but she managed it. There was a restroom on the right as she walked in, and she smiled as she spotted the tiny porthole in the far wall. A few steps into the room, she stopped and stared. There were four berths, although one of the top ones was folded up against the wall. The second top berth, however, was occupied.

  “Hello?” she said cautiously, taking a step closer to the man. Standing on her tiptoes, she took a better look and then shuddered. The man was staring at the cabin’s ceiling with lifeless eyes, a thick rope around his neck. There was no doubt in Fenella’s mind that he was dead, and it looked as if he’d been strangled.

  Chapter Two

  She tripped over her suitcase walking backwards as quickly as she could. Nearly falling to the floor, she caught herself by grabbing onto the ladder that was neatly hung on hooks near the door.

  Oh, goodness, I’ve just left my fingerprints on the ladder, she thought to herself as she fumbled with the doorknob. Those same fingerprints would be all over the door as well, she realized, as she wrestled her case back into the corridor and pulled the door shut behind her. For a minute she simply stood in the corridor, breathing deeply. An elderly couple appeared at the top of the stairs and let themselves into one of the other cabins as Fenella tried to think. After several minutes, she realized that the ferry was getting ready to sail. That wasn’t a good thing.

  Her mobile phone was, as always, lost somewhere in the bottom of her bag. She found it with shaking hands and then punched in a number from her speed dial. The phone rang twice before a familiar voice spoke.

  “Fenella? I thought you were sailing this morning,” Daniel Robinson said in her ear.

  Tears sprang into Fenella’s eyes at his friendly tone. “Oh, I am,” she replied. “But there’s a dead man in my cabin.”

  The short pause that followed had Fenella picturing the man on the other end of the line. No doubt he was wondering if he’d heard her correctly. As a senior police inspector with the Douglas Constabulary, Daniel Robinson had seen his fair share of dead bodies, but Fenella doubted he was used to getting calls about them from his friends.

  If they even were friends, she added to herself. The man was attractive, in his late forties, with light brown hair and gorgeous hazel eyes. He and Fenella were both fairly new arrivals to the island, and in the last few weeks they’d started spending the odd Friday or Saturday evening together at the Tale and Tail. Recently, Dan
iel had suggested that they exchange mobile numbers so that they could let one another know when they were going to be at the pub, but the relationship hadn’t progressed beyond that point as yet. Fenella kept reminding herself that she was still getting over her last boyfriend, a man she’d been with for a great many years, but she really liked the handsome policeman.

  “Are you sure he’s dead?” Daniel asked after a moment.

  “Quite sure,” Fenella answered.

  “I suppose you’d know,” the man replied.

  Fenella winced. She’d met Daniel over a different dead body only six weeks earlier and then encountered him again when she’d found a second dead man a few days later. If someone had told her before she moved to the island that she’d be finding three dead men in less than two months, she never would have believed them.

  “Has the ferry sailed yet?” Daniel asked.

  “I don’t think so,” Fenella replied. “I can’t actually tell for sure from here, and I’d rather not go back into the cabin to look out the porthole. I can go downstairs, if you want me to.”

  “No, I’d like you to stay exactly where you are and make sure that no one goes in or out of that cabin. Do you think the man died of natural causes?”

  Fenella could hear the hope in his voice. “Only if being strangled by a rope is now classified as a natural cause,” she said tightly.

  Daniel sighed. “Hold the line,” he said. As Fenella stood in the corridor with her heart racing, she could hear the rumble of Daniel’s voice as he spoke to someone else. Unable to make out the words, she tried to imagine what he might be saying. After a moment she shook her head. She really didn’t want to think about what he might be saying about her, not now.

  “Where are you exactly?” Daniel’s voice startled her.

  “In front of cabin 212,” she replied.

  “Are you alone?”

  “Well, there isn’t anyone else in the corridor at the moment,” Fenella said. “I saw a couple going into one of the other cabins, though.”