Innocent Murderer (11 page)

As we moved out into the corridor, Martha leading the way, I said, “Martha, what are you doing up at this time of night?”

She stopped in the corridor and I crashed into her.

“Some weird noises woke me up and I couldn't get back to sleep. I looked out the porthole and there it was. I knew you'd want to see it.” Martha continued down the hall. She could be so infuriating.

We walked up a couple of decks and then outside, where we took the starboard stairs up to the observa
–
tion deck. And there it was. Actually, there they were.

Two vibrant rainbows, one snuggled inside the other and arching across the deep blue of the sky. The sun was bal
–
anced on the horizon, a red orange globe.

I could clearly see each colour of each rainbow — so clear and precise that there was no fading out at the edges or anywhere along the enormous arcs. They were perfect, stretching from Baffin Island across the ship and halfway to Greenland. We were the only ones up there and we stood and watched as the ship knifed its way through Baffin Bay to Lancaster Sound. In this uninhab
–
ited place of history and intrigue we could have been sent back three thousand years and it would have looked exactly the same.

I turned and looked toward the stern of the ship and gasped. In the golden light of the sun, which was try
–
ing — unsuccessfully — to set, lay a monster of an ice
–
berg, taller than the ship and slowly receding from us. We moved to the far rail as if drawn by a magnet and watched it as it slowly glided away — or that's what it seemed like as we moved away from it.

I glanced down over the railing and saw the pool below. There was a white towel hanging over the rail. But that's not what caught my attention. There was a hunk of some sort of clothing floating near the surface, rising and falling with the movement of the ship. I was trying to make out what it was when my eyes shifted and I found myself looking down into the depths of the pool. At first it looked like some kind of weird white reflection through the wavy water, but then I recoiled when the reflection materialized into the unmistakable body of a naked woman.

Chapter Eight

I
charged over to the stairs and, grabbing one railing in each hand, swung myself down the stairs, two at a time. I could hear Martha struggling down behind me, cursing her long flowing gown. Even before I got to the ladder I'd whipped off my sweatshirt and kicked off my shoes.

“Get help!” I yelled at Martha, and in a flash I had my sweats off and jumped into the pool. I felt nothing. No cold. No fear. Just the incredible focus of my goal. I swam down and took hold of the person under the chin, my fin
–
ger momentarily getting caught on her necklace. I kicked hard and slowly rose to the surface. As I did so I could see the bundle of clothes, her clothes I guessed, floating languidly like a ballet dancer. And that's when I saw it: a face among the clothes was staring back at me, wide-eyed and lifeless. I nearly choked on a mouthful of water and almost let go of the first body. But I managed to kick up and broke the surface, raking in the air the way a croupier rakes in the chips.

Martha had disappeared to get help. I was all alone. I tried to hoist the body up the ladder but the superhu
–
man strength that visits some people in moments like this wasn't calling on me. I wasn't sure what to do. I couldn't save them both, so I closed my eyes and did artificial res
–
piration, trying not to think about anything at all, espe
–
cially about who I was trying to save.

Suddenly an extra pair of hands reached down and grabbed the body under the arms, pulling it out of the pool. I watched as Duncan laid her down on the deck and began to take her pulse. The captain had arrived and went over to help Duncan. I heard him suck in his breath and looked over to see him stooping over the body, one hand holding his head, his expression, what? Dum
–
founded? Shocked? No, there was more. If I hadn't been so cold and shaking that I could barely see I would have sworn that Jason was crying. Someone threw a blanket over me as I looked up at Jason and said through chat
–
tering teeth, “There's another one.”

“Save your strength,” said Jason as he glanced back at me. And I realized he hadn't heard me.

“There's another one,” I said loudly.

“Another what?” asked Jason, his voice strangely hoarse.

“Another body.”

I pointed with my finger at the bundle of clothes, but I didn't take my eyes off the body Duncan was working on. It was Terry. Her face was grey and lifeless, but still as beautiful in death as it had been in life. I felt sick and cold and hopeless. How can life be so tenuous? I turned away, my stomach heaving, and saw the second mate jump in the water to rescue whoever was in the bundle of clothes.

I think we all knew our actions were in vain. Their bod
–
ies looked as though they'd been deserted for a long time.

The doctor had arrived, and she and Jason pulled the sod
–
den mass out of the water and laid it down beside Duncan, who was resting on his haunches, a look of resignation on his face. He moved over to the body clad in the salt and pepper coat, and pushed the hair from her face.

Jason gasped and I heard him mutter “Oh, no,” as we gazed down on Sally, who had finally realized her wish to be free of her torment.

It seemed surreal, standing there wrapped in a blan
–
ket that wouldn't keep Scruffy warm, in the land of the midnight sun, with the bodies of two women lying at our feet. I noticed someone had covered Terry. Beautiful, arrogant Terry. Timid, lovelorn Sally.

What had happened here that took two lives away?

I shivered. Looking up, I saw a row of people gaping at the bodies, and then felt angry that the end of two lives could become a spectator sport. How had they found out at this crazy hour of the morning?

Martha tugged me on the arm, pulling me toward the stairs. I hadn't even known she was there. I stopped and looked toward where the rainbows had been but they had evaporated, just like the souls of those two women had. I started walking down the corridor when Martha grabbed my arm and steered me into the sauna.

“You get in the sauna. I'll get you some dry clothes,” she said and was gone.

Like an automaton I stripped off my wet under
–
clothes and went into the sauna. It was lonely in there, the chattering voices of moments past assailing my ears as I sought to make sense of what had just happened. Terry must have been taking a late night sauna or it wouldn't have still been warm in there. Thumbing her nose at the world she jumped, alone and naked, into the pool. I was remembering her the other night. She'd stayed close to the ladder and used the dog-paddle. Perhaps she couldn't really swim. Perhaps she'd inhaled some water or jumped too far away from the ladder. Sally had happened upon her, roaming the decks in sorrow, or insomnia, or both? She'd jumped in to rescue her and they'd both drowned.

But other, less charitable, ideas were crowding my mind. Something suddenly flitted through my brain so fast that all I knew for sure was that it was important. I idly wondered how something can be important if you can't remember it.

Martha came back and collected me as if I was some fragile vase, shepherding me down the hall to my room. She wouldn't let me do anything except get into bed and drink the hot chocolate she had somehow made materi
–
alize. My body glowed with the warmth from the sauna, and the heat of the hot chocolate was delicious.

I was exhausted, but just as I was snuggling down into my covers, as Martha heaped yet another blanket on top of me, there were three soft raps on my door. I started to get up but Martha held up her hand and went to get the door.

“How is she?” Even in a whisper Duncan's voice is loud, deep, and rumbly. “Dear girl. I thought I should make a house call, make sure everything's okay.”

Since Duncan's “house calls” usually involved dead bodies, that wasn't very reassuring. He came into my room and took up a position leaning against my port
–
hole, which Martha had shut down tight, so that the air was already getting stale.

“The ship's doctor kicked me out. Took umbrage at my being at the scene before she was.”

“She wouldn't do that,” said Martha.

“No, but she did usher me out.”

“What have they done with the, um, bodies?” I asked as I sat up in bed. I always felt at a disadvantage with Duncan because he's over six feet tall, but now I was a whole lot shorter and had to tilt my head back farther than usual just to see his face.

“The authorities have ordered the captain to put them on ice until they can be delivered to pathology back in Ottawa.”

“Any guesses?” I asked innocently.

“Guesses?”

“About how they died?”

“Whoa, whoa, Cordi. Put the reins on your imagina
–
tion. It looks like a straightforward situation. No guesses needed. No hanky-panky here.” Duncan's mention of hanky-panky stopped me dead.

“I didn't say anything about hanky-panky,” I said slowly. But maybe subconsciously I had. Or maybe I was just too damn tired to know my own mind.

“I wondered if you had a guess about the sequence of events.”

“You mean who died first?”

I nodded.

“We may never know that, but one thing's pretty sure — one of them must have tried to save the other and they both died in the attempt. Of course, forensics could turn up something else, but if you're a betting woman put your money on the former.”

I wasn't a betting woman, but I suddenly knew why Duncan's scenario didn't wash.

Chapter Nine

I
lay sleepless in bed until early morning. I was thinking about giving in and getting up when I heard my door qui
–
etly opening. Who the hell could be visiting at this ungodly hour? I wasn't about to wait in bed to find out. In a flash I grabbed my blanket and flattened myself against the wall by my inner door. I could hear somebody padding around the outer room and time seemed to stand still, as it is wont to do when someone scares the shit out of you.

Whoever it was started towards my door. I tensed myself, making sure I timed it just right. As they entered the door I raised the blanket over my head, flinging myself and it over the intruder, and we both crashed to the floor.

The blanket began flopping around like a giant jump
–
ing bean. I could hear the muffled cries of protest coming from under the blanket and suddenly realized they were saying something I could understand. “Cordi, you idiot, it's me!”

Who the hell was “me”? I thought.

“Martha!” yelled the big lump inside the blanket.

Shit. Hastily I got up and pulled the blanket off Martha, who looked as though she had just been bagged by a hunter, which she sort of had.

“Lord love a duck, Cordi. What are you doing?”

“Trying to defend myself. Why didn't you knock?”

“I did.”

“You didn't.”

Martha groaned and rolled onto all fours and pushed herself up with some difficulty.

She brushed her staticky hair off her face. “Who did you think I was for god's sake? Don't tell me you're still thinking there's some mad person on board out to get you? First the frayed ropes and then the mystery person and the hawsehole. I thought you'd got over that.”

“I have.” I lied.

Martha gave a sign of relief. “That's good.”

“But I do think we now have a possible murderer on board.”

Martha pinioned me with her astonished stare. “Listen to yourself, Cordi. You're going off half-cocked. Who ever wanted you dead anyway? As for Terry and Sally … accidental deaths — that's what they'll say. I know it's early yet, but so far there's nothing to say otherwise.”

“Yes there is,” I said.

Martha cocked her head at me. I waited, relishing the silence leading up to my revelation.

“Terry was wearing a necklace,” I said triumphantly.

“So?”

I stared at her. This was not the reaction I'd had in mind. “Remember what happened in the sauna?” I asked.

And suddenly Martha's light bulb went on. “She chewed Sally out for being so stupid as to wear a neck
–
lace,” she said slowly.

“Right. So what was she doing in that pool while wearing a necklace?”

Martha screwed up her face in thought. “She decided to take a late night dip.”

“Without a sauna? That water is barely above freez
–
ing. No one in their right mind would do that.'

“Okay. She came out to see the midnight sun before turning in. Lost her balance and fell in. That's when Sally saved her.”

“Stark naked?” I was going through the scene again in my mind's eye. The single towel over the railing.

She looked at me then and I saw the beginnings of a convert. “So how did she get into the pool?”

Just then the PA system crackled to life. “Would Cordi O'Callaghan and Martha Bathgate please report to the bridge at your earliest convenience?”

Martha and I exchanged glances. I started searching around for my clothes while she went into the head to calm down her electrified hair.

When we came up on deck the sun was washing the distant hills of Devon Island with golden tones. The pack ice prowled off the port side, making it impossible for us to go into Pond Inlet. People were very disappointed about that, but the ice was acting strangely this summer and the ship's crew couldn't do anything about it. No one wanted to be stranded in the pack ice.

Martha and I marched up to the bridge. Jason was talking to a few passengers and there were at least six other people lined up along the fore windows, binocu
–
lars glued to their eyes. I looked out the window and saw an iceberg the size of a three-storey apartment building slowly coming toward us, as graceful as a dancer. But that's not what everyone was looking at. We walked over to see what all the fuss was and saw two wrinkly walrus trying to sun themselves on the smallest little ice floe. Their massive bodies undulated with myriad folds of blubber and overlapped into the sea so that it looked as though they were sunbathing on water. Every time they moved their little ice floe bobbed them precariously up and down. All around them were dozens of much bigger ice floes, but for some reason they had chosen this tiny little one. I wondered which of the two would be left lying on the iceberg when it got too small for both of them. Of course, I knew, even though it made no sense in terms of the iceberg. The bigger one would win out. He was a monster, probably fourteen hundred kilograms.