Dead in the Water (Kate Ryan Mysteries Book 10) (20 page)

“And I saw one guy sprawled out on the floor covered in food and broken dishes,” Maggie said.

“And one guy scrambling away,” I said, seeing the incident flash in my mind. That was exactly what I saw. But what does it mean? Probably not a damned thing. “Monty, can I talk to the guys in the kitchen?”

“Certainly. Shall I bring them here?”

“No. Let’s meet them out on the deck. I need some fresh air.”

*******

We stood on the deck in the bright morning sun. It really was a beautiful day. And the expanse of Lake Superior still amazed me. It was indeed like being on the ocean. No land in sight in any direction.

“It is beautiful,” Maggie said, standing beside me at the railing.

“Yeah.” I turned to her. “Sorry about this.”

“Why? You had nothing to do with this.” She smiled and toyed with the buttons on my shirt.

“I know, but geesh, Maggie. I wanted this to be special and memorable.”

She laughed and tugged at my shirt. “Oh, it’ll be memorable.”

I laughed along with her. “You know what I mean.”

“I do,” she whispered. “And I love you for it. And when this is over, Miss Ryan, you and I have some serious…”

We both realized then we were not alone on the poop deck. Simon and Hannah smiled happily as they listened.

“We’ll discuss this later,” I said to Maggie, who continued to laugh.

“Don’t stop on our account,” Simon said.

“Oh, shut up…” I would have continued, but Monty arrived with three of the crew.

“Here they are, Kate,” Monty said. “Gentlemen, you will cooperate and answer any questions Kate has.”

“Thanks,” I said. “Last night, there was an incident in the kitchen at dinner. We all heard the crash, and I got a glimpse of it when the kitchen door swung open. Do you remember it?”

All three men rolled their eyes and nodded. One spoke up.

“It was me. I was carrying the dinner tray, and Larry was in front of me. All of the sudden, he turns back and runs right into me, knocks me over, and takes off through the kitchen, leaving me lying there in a mess.”

“Why did he do that?” I asked.

“I have no idea. He was on his way out to the dining room—”

“I saw it, too,” another crew member said. “He stopped like someone shot him. Then he turned around so fast, he ran over Tom here and sent him flying. Larry just kept right on going, even with us yelling at him.”

“And have you seen him since?” I saw the blank looks; they all shook their heads. “Never saw him again? He never returned to his room?”

“Come to think of it, no. We were so busy with dinner, then cleaning up.”

“I was exhausted and just wanted to get back to my bunk. Then this thing happened. What do you think caused all this?”

“We’re still not sure,” Monty chimed in. “Is that all, Kate?”

“Yeah,” I said, scratching my chin. “Oh, wait. What does this Larry Smith look like?”

“Tall, older guy. Kinda rough around the edges, ya know? Blond hair.”

“Rude, if you ask me. He was only with us a couple days before we left, but he kept to himself. Never wanted to eat with us, ya know…”

“Yeah,” the other man said. “I found him down by the engine room. Told him he shouldn’t be down there, he should be in the kitchen. You know what he told me?”

I shook my head.

“Told me to f-off and mind my own f-ing business. I was going to argue with him, but honestly, he scared me.” He let out a nervous laugh and looked at Monty.

“Okay,” I said slowly. “Thanks, guys.”

After they left, Monty turned to me. “What do you think?”

“Well, every member of the crew is accounted for but this Larry Smith character. Logic tells me he’s involved in whatever this is. If there is something…”

“And he was down in the engine room,” Maggie said thoughtfully. “Why would someone who works in the kitchen be in the engine room?”

“No reason,” Monty said. “Everyone knows where they should and shouldn’t be. He had no business down there unless…”

“Unless he had business down there,” I said with a shrug. “But where the hell is he?”

“Maybe he did fall overboard?” Hannah suggested. “Maybe that’s the splash Shirley heard.”

A thought streaked across my mind. “Or maybe that’s what he wanted her to think.”

Maggie’s eyes grew comically wide. “You mean he…?”

“Okay, hold on,” I said quickly. “Let’s get things in order. If this theory about EMPs is true, then…” I looked at Monty. “Can you please get Paul and Shirley?”

“Certainly.” He practically ran down the narrow staircase.

“What, Kate?” Hannah asked.

“I need more information on this EMP theory. I know nothing about it.”

“What are you thinking?” Simon asked. “You look like the proverbial cat…”

I grinned at the idea. “I feel like it. There has to be a logical explanation for all this. And while I don’t believe in coincidences, there just might be one here.”

“You do think there’s a connection with our case back home and this, don’t you?” Maggie asked.

“I do. I’m probably all wrong, but my guts tell me otherwise.”

“I love your guts,” Maggie said.

“Bleck…” Simon winced and shook his head.

Paul and Shirley were way ahead of Monty as they ascended the stairs. They looked flushed with excitement.

“Monty said you needed us,” Shirley said, practically giddy. Paul tried to be nonchalant, but I could tell he was just as intrigued as his wife.

“I do. I need some more information on these EMP things. Let’s sit.”

We all gathered around the table on the ship’s deck.

“Paul, you said to produce the damage that we incurred here, the device had to be very powerful. Can you elaborate on that?”

“Sure, if I can. Like I said, anybody can put an EMP device together. All you need is plenty of copper wire, a capacitor from a disposable camera, and an on/off switch. You attach one of the wires coming off the coil to the switch and the other to one of the wires going into the capacitor. You get a wire going from the switch to the other wire going into the capacitor. When you’re finished, you need to charge the capacitor. When that’s done, you’ve created an EMP.”

“And that’s good enough to destroy what?” Maggie asked.

“Oh, nothing really. Maybe a calculator or something like that, but you have to be close to it.”

“So to do what Shirley is suggesting, you’d have to have a huge device?”

“Not necessarily,” Paul said. “You have to have a lot of juice. And I mean a lot to burn out the navigational system on a boat. If someone was a tech wizard, I’m sure they could put a huge punch in a small package.”

“He’d have to be very tech savvy,” I said to him.

“Very. He or she would really have to know what they were doing and have access to all the components.”

“Would the device have to be close to, say, the engine room?” I asked.

“Hell, yeah,” Paul said.

“I read in this article that the man-made device, not a nuclear blast, would have to be in the proximity of what you wanted to fry,” Shirley said. “And they said to be careful because it would take out anything within its range, considering how powerful you made it.” She looked around the table. “Hey…Was I right? Is that what caused all this?”

“I don’t know. But I can’t think of anything else that would cause so much damage to all the mechanics on this ship but not harm one person,” I said.

“Except Mr. Whitehead,” Shirley added.

“We don’t know if his heart attack is any part of this,” Maggie reminded us. “That could just be a horrible coincidence.”

“And mood killer,” I mumbled, then felt the pinch on my thigh.

“I’m not so sure,” Paul said. “There’s a good deal of research being done with medical devices in regard to electromagnetic interference.”

“So it wouldn’t be way out there to think Mr. Whitehead’s experimental pacemaker was affected by this?” I gazed out at the open expanse of the lake. Could all this be possible?

“Not at all. Especially since we really don’t know for sure what happened.”

“What would happen to the device afterward?” Maggie asked. “Could it be reused?”

Good question.

“Hmm. I don’t know,” Paul said. He looked at his wife for help.

“Nothing in the article. Sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter, really,” Hannah said.

“Why not?” I asked her.

“Well, if this indeed happened, then someone had to do it, and that someone would not want any evidence of such a device, whether it could be used again or not. He’d want to destroy it.”

Now that was a good point.

“Hannah, you’re absolutely right.” I leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Maybe that was the splash I heard,” Shirley said eagerly.

“No,” I said. “You heard that splash at eleven. The lights went out at midnight.”

“She’s right, honey. If all this is true and someone wanted to disable the ship, the minute he turned on the device, it would work immediately.”

“Oh, right.” Shirley dejectedly sat back.

“But how about this for a scenario?” I felt like I was onto something, what I didn’t know. “Miss Markham heard someone running, then a splash right after the lights went out, right? Then what if that was our mystery man, Larry Smith, throwing the device overboard to get rid of the evidence, as Hannah suggested?”

“That makes sense,” Maggie said. “But then what did Shirley hear at eleven?”

Another good question. We sat in silence, each of us thinking of a good explanation, I’m sure. It was Simon’s gentle cough that had our attention.

“Something to share?” I asked.

“Didn’t you say that all the emergency supplies were missing? Flares, battery backups, flashlights, and the like?” he asked, sporting a superior grin.

“Yes. And your point?” I asked, trying to be patient. My knee started bouncing, then I felt Maggie’s warm hand and gentle squeeze.

“My point, dear Kate, is this. Perhaps that’s what Shirley heard at eleven o’clock. Our Mr. Smith throwing all the supplies overboard.” He sat back and grinned. “Splish-splash.”

“Of course!” Shirley exclaimed. “Brilliant.”

“That does make sense,” I said with a wary grin. “Very good, Simon.”

“Thank you. I may go into the PI business. Do you need another partner?” he asked sweetly.

“Not on your life,” I assured him.

“So,” Hannah said. “We have a wonderful theory and a plausible one…” She looked at me.

“Yes. And we have the possibility that Phil Bledsoe, who is our client in Chicago, is the son of David Bledsoe, who was Monty’s disgruntled partner.”