Cold Grave (17 page)

Laura turned the screen so Anya could see. ‘Nothing until twenty three oh three. There were six drinks put on her room card at the one time in the Stag bar, up on the pool deck. It’s an open disco. Two white wines and four beers apparently signed for by Lilly Chan.’

That was the same bar she’d been at with Martin and Karen last night, Anya thought. ‘Someone served an under-age girl that many drinks?’

‘For a girl who didn’t drink, that’s a bucketload of alcohol,’ FitzHarris announced. ‘Maybe she wasn’t the goody-two-shoes her sister made her out to be.’

Their mother may have allowed them some freedom, but she was strict. She would have definitely checked the bill before paying the balance at the end of the cruise. Either Lilly was rebelling and didn’t care, or this was a mistake.

‘Can you identify which staff member served her?’

Laura nodded. ‘There’s a code on every receipt. We collate them at the end of each cruise because the bar staff work on commission. There it is. He’s one of our longer serving barmen.’

‘Hopefully, he might remember who she was with.’

Laura continued to search. ‘From the receipts, that was a busy first night, but let me check something.’ She typed away, while FitzHarris helped himself to a chocolate eclair, this time grabbing a napkin as well.

‘There were twenty-eight separate transactions within five minutes of Lilly’s.’

The office phone rang and Fitz answered it.

Anya took the opportunity to ask Laura, ‘Do you think your superiors would approve free room-service meals for the family of the girl who died? They’ll be either in their cabin or the suite my family is staying in.’

‘I don’t see why not. We only charge for room service because food is freely available on board around the clock. We do make exceptions if people are sick. I can’t see this is any different.’ She clicked away with a smile. ‘William’s made sure you won’t be charged for room service on your account. I’ll clear it for the Chan party as well.’

Anya already liked her.

FitzHarris slammed down the phone and grabbed a set of keys. ‘I need to sort out the Chan cabin before I do anything else. Anya, is there any chance you could look at the CCTV footage of the bar at that time. It shouldn’t take too long since we have an exact time she was there now.’

‘Or when someone else used her room key.’

‘Point taken. If you could identify Lilly Chan for Laura it would be a great help. If she wasn’t there, I need to know who was.’

‘Isn’t Doctor Crichton on holiday?’ Laura asked.

Piecing together the puzzle of what had happened to Lilly was a challenge Anya wanted to help with. Martin had definitely matured and had surprised her by acknowledging he understood why she felt the need to help if asked. Besides, Ben was enjoying kids’ club so much she felt it would have been selfish to insist on spending time with him.

‘Carbohydrate overload, bad weather and being stuck inside watching surveillance TV . . . What about this isn’t a holiday?’

‘Leave you two to it.’ FitzHarris half-smiled and headed out the door, closing it behind him.

Laura plugged in a series of codes. ‘I’ll pull up the footage. There’s a camera opposite the bar, and another above it.’ Anya, hungry again, bit into a bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Now they knew the exact time and date, the footage was surprisingly quick to locate.

‘I’ve taken it back half an hour to see who is in the field of vision. I don’t know what the girl looked like, so let me know the moment you see her.’

The camera was a wide angle, with a fish-eye view of the bar and dance floor in colour.

It didn’t take long. ‘There. Stop. The girl in the red top, blue jeans. Long black hair.’

Lilly appeared to the left of the screen with a book in her hand. She wore flat sandals and walked like a dancer, with straight posture and feet slightly pointed outward. It could have been Jasmine; the sisters were so much alike. At her side was a taller fair-haired girl, who looked around the same age, in an above knee-length fitted strapless dress and medium heels, with a small bag slung across her shoulder. The pair paused near the bar and disco area to watch the dancing. The blonde wore a hair band with something like a flower on top that caught the light.

Shortly after, the blonde pulled Lilly by one hand onto the dance floor. Lilly placed her book on the platform next to the DJ’s station. The pair danced together, at first self-consciously, and then with less inhibition.

The time was 22.53. It wasn’t long before they attracted male attention. The girls didn’t seem too interested but two men stayed close. Anya noticed writing on the backs of the men’s shirts. Suddenly, one man took Lilly’s friend in his arms and spun her around, knocking another reveller over in the process. It was unclear whether the girl welcomed the lift or not.

Lilly tugged on the man’s arm but he was already carrying her companion to the bar.

‘Can you freeze that and magnify it at all?’

Laura obliged. ‘These aren’t exactly the latest cameras, so we’ll lose quality. It looks like a four letter name. B . . . last letter R. It’s hard to see if that’s two Es. “BEER”. How original. I’ve seen these guys. They all wear bowling shirts, only with different colours and names on the backs. They go where the young women are.’

‘Toolies, we call them,’ Anya said. ‘Older men who hang around schoolies parties hoping to have sex with intoxicated girls.’

‘Nice.’ Laura plucked some pastry from the inside of a croissant. ‘The food and beverages manager asked me to check out a group who caused a scene when they boarded in Honolulu. There are sixteen of them in total, but it sounds like five or six are the real troublemakers. They paid bottom dollar and they’re taking advantage of the all you can eat. First they hit the buffet then they go to one of the restaurant sittings. What they paid for the cabins doesn’t even cover the cost of their food.’

‘That doesn’t make good business sense, surely.’

‘I used to work in accounting. The first sixty-five percent of cabins pay running costs. Profit comes from onboard spending. An empty cabin is a loss of potentially thousands of dollars. It’s cheaper to upgrade someone and heavily discount the smaller cabins at the last minute to ensure bodies are in bunks. The return comes from what they spend on drinks, gambling, shopping and company excursions in port.’

‘So bar staff work on commission as incentive to sell more drinks?’

Laura burrowed out more of the croissant. ‘There’s a high profit-margin on alcohol, it makes financial sense to reward staff who bring in the most money.’

Anya thought back to the flag of convenience. With the company registered offshore, anything brought on board in the US would be duty free. Alcohol would be bought cheaply and sold at premium prices. It was in the cruise line’s best interest to promote a culture of drinking.

‘What about the casinos?’

‘Drinkers gamble more,’ Laura said, matter-of-factly. ‘It’s why there are bars in there too, and why they only close for a couple of hours in the morning.’

No wonder the fares were cheap for groups. Discretional spending was how the company really made its money.

‘What about responsible service of alcohol? Can the barman who supplied under-age drinkers be charged?’

‘At sea, US drinking laws don’t apply. We can sack staff who behave irresponsibly, but they can’t be charged with a criminal act if they serve under-age passengers.’

The revelation stunned Anya. Lilly had no idea how vulnerable she was. Her focus returned to the screen. ‘The second vowel’s an “A”! That one says “BEAR”.’

The video played again. Another man, in a blue shirt, put his arm around Lilly and steered her toward the bar. The clock said 22.58 pm. The first two letters of his name looked like a ‘V’ and ‘A’.

Once on her feet again, the companion said something private to Lilly, who nodded. She was no longer standing confidently. One of the men pushed in at the bar and appeared to order drinks. Bear blocked the girls’ path out. They were sandwiched between the two men. Bear wrapped an arm around each girl, securing their place, which gave Anya a better view of the blonde. The girl reached into her bag and then said something to Lilly again, this time with open hands.

They seemed to disagree, then Lilly pulled something from her left front jean pocket and was shoved closer to the bar.

‘She didn’t order. Just got stuck with the bill,’ Anya said. The barman had barely seen her. The men had ensured it.

Four bar staff faced a barrage of customers. Lilly had to squeeze between two patrons to sign the docket with an extended left hand. Her key was returned and she slid it into her back pocket. The first man appeared two minutes later with a tray of drinks and the girls were led to a crowded table. The man had short, fair hair and was slightly overweight. Two of six men vacated their seats and the girls sat, steered into chairs on opposite sides of the table. Each had a wine placed in front of her. The men all drank beer and raised their glasses. Lilly picked hers up and seemed to look to her companion for guidance. At the group’s urging, she took a sip before putting the drink down. Her companion drank half of hers quickly.

Once again, Lilly was dragged onto the dance floor, but this time by one of the other men, in yellow. For a brief moment, his back was in clear view: GENNY. The blonde was one step behind.

Anya felt a knot in her chest. The scene was one that played out every night, and could have been anywhere in the world. Only this time, Lilly had less than seven hours left to live.

15

Anya watched as Lilly was manhandled by the older men. She looked so vulnerable. If only someone – anyone – had intervened, she could still be alive. As a pathologist Anya was able to detach from the cases she worked on, but talking to Jasmine had given her an idea of the person Lilly was, and had hoped to be. Lilly had a womanly body and brilliant mind, but at sixteen she didn’t have the wherewithal or confidence to handle the situation. Her friend didn’t appear to be faring any better.

All but two of the men joined them on the dance floor, with breakdancing moves. Other passengers chose not to compete for the space.

The time was now 23.08 pm.

Lilly and her friend were surrounded by the group of older men. Her friend stumbled and fell to the floor. Bear lifted her up and carried her back to the chairs, where she drank the rest of her wine. She was now laughing and it looked as if she were enjoying the male attention.

Meanwhile, Lilly pushed her way back to the table, grabbed her companion’s hand, but was summarily dismissed. Genny slid his arms around her waist and pulled her back to the dance floor, this time engaging in a ballroom hold. Within minutes he had Lilly smiling as he spun her in and out. Her hair fell freely around her shoulders and waist. She was graceful and attracted glances from men and women. Genny was suddenly in demand, as women offered themselves for a whirl around the floor. His friends continued to entertain Lilly who appeared to have lost her initial shyness. On the surface, this was a group of strangers on holiday enjoying the freedom and fun.

The clock ticked over: 23.42.

Fitz re-entered the office and shut the door behind him. He took up position, leaning against a filing cabinet.

Laura showed him some of the footage. He watched a while before commenting. ‘See the way they block the girls at the bar? These guys work as a team. Not only do the women pay, the drinks are hidden from them. Not that we could ever prove it.’

They all seemed to have the same thought.

‘Our bartenders are trained to put the glasses on the counter to pour, so the passengers see exactly what goes into them,’ Laura explained.

‘Your barman could have done that. The men still had the opportunity to spike the drinks with GHB.’

FitzHarris turned to Laura. ‘Do we know anything about them?’

‘It’s their first time cruising with us. That’s not to say they haven’t sailed with other lines. They’re loud, unruly and generally obnoxious, nothing out of the ordinary.’

Anya stood, and made herself a mug of strong, black tea.

‘Where are their cabins?’

Laura tapped away again. ‘Eight are scattered, but there are two four-berth cabins on deck one. Not adjacent, but on the same corridor.’

‘That’s the same deck where Martin stayed,’ Anya said.

‘You said he complained about antisocial behaviour that first night,’ FitzHarris added. ‘Let’s see.’ He glanced at the cabin numbers then back to a chart of the ship’s layout on the wall. ‘The same corridor.’