Steele-Faced (Daggers & Steele Book 6) (8 page)

I spotted Steck’s head past one of the stacks and called out to him. “Steck. What’s going on? Why in the world—”

I cut myself off as fate gave me the answer to my own question. A broad-shouldered guy in a light gray suit jacket and matching slacks lay face down in a pile of suitcases and trunks that had come loose. An incision about an inch wide cut through the back of his jacket, just underneath his left shoulder blade, but that wasn’t what drew my attention. The blood that soaked the entire back of his coat was.

“Gods, Steck,” I said. “What the hell happened?”

“I…don’t know,” he said as he scratched his thin hair. “I…guess someone stabbed him, and he fell into these suitcases, knocking them over.”

Steele joined me at my side, followed closely by Boatswain Olaugh and the crewman. She glanced at the dead body. “That’s not what Daggers meant and you know it. You told us this was a vice and fraud case. That we were here to ferret out a card cheat or two. So what exactly did you fail to mention in the briefing this morning? What are we
actually
doing aboard this ship?”

“What?
I don’t know,” said Steck. “I mean, I didn’t keep anything from you in the briefing. This
was
supposed to be a vice case. Or a fraud case. However you want to label it. Nobody was supposed to die. I have no idea what happened, or why, or even
who
this is. I swear!”

Steck gestured as he talked, tucking his hands under his armpits, wiping them on his pants, tucking them into his pockets, but never letting them stay still for more than a second. He made the crewman seem calm.

“Alright,” I said. “Let’s settle down and tackle this like professionals. Steck, what happened? What do we know?”

He shook his head. “Ask James here. He found the body.”

I turned to the sailor. “That’s you?”

He nodded. “Yes, sir. James Willis.”

“Tell me how you found this man.”

James rubbed his hands together nervously. “I came down here in search of a bag for Mr. Tallsdale. He’s one of the ship’s passengers, up on the B deck. He meant to bring the bag with him, but it was put in storage by mistake. So I came down to retrieve it, and when I entered, I found this.” He pointed at the dead body.

“And then what happened?” I asked.

“Nothing,” said James. “I ran to the bridge to inform the Boatswain. He summoned Mr. Steck here, and he told me to get you and Mrs. Waters—er, I mean, Detective Steele. Whichever.”

“No one else has been by in your absence?” I asked. “Nobody else knows?”

“Just the five of us, to my knowledge, sir.”

“And did you touch anything?” I asked. “Has the scene changed in any way since you first arrived?”

“No, sir,” he said. “Not to my knowledge.”

I turned to Olaugh, who stood at attention with his hands behind his back. “Who has access to the luggage compartment?”

“Any of the crew, in theory,” rumbled the half-orc. “All the
Prodigious’s
interior doors that are capable of locking use the same key, apart from the staterooms, of course. Those have separate keys, for guest security.”

“I assume the luggage compartment locks,” I said.

“Yes,” said Olaugh.

“And
was
it locked?” I asked James.

“Ah…” He scrunched his brow. “No, actually. I turned my key, but the latch didn’t click. It was open already.”

“How often is this area patrolled?” I asked Olaugh.

“Not often, during a regular trip,” he said. “Even less so now.”

“What do you mean?”

“The short answer is our staff is busy attending to the opening night festivities,” Olaugh said. “The longer answer is we didn’t think there would be a need. As you can see, the space is largely bare. We have storage to accommodate long trips, but this maiden voyage is quite short due to the poker tournament you’ll be competing in. After we complete that, we’ll dock and head on a longer voyage. Only a few of the guests are staying with us for that longer voyage. This is largely their luggage.”

“So, basically, pretty much anyone on board could’ve gotten in here, and no one was likely to have seen who actually did.” I sighed. “Wonderful.”

I turned back to the body. Given the disorderly pile of luggage and Shay’s restrictive dress, she couldn’t kneel next to the body, so she’d settled for seating herself on a nearby trunk, her legs pressed together and folded off to the side. The pose helped bring the dress’s mermaid inspiration to life, though I had a hard time imagining a mermaid in such a brilliant scarlet.

I waded into the suitcases beside her. “Well at least somebody picked the right color to wear tonight.”

“As if you had any choice,” said Shay. “But blood will stain this dress as easily as your shirt. They’re completely different shades.”

I took her word for it. “Find anything?”

Shay brushed back some of the stiff’s hair. “Look familiar?”

“Sure does,” I said. “Unless I’m suffering from premature Alzheimer’s, that’s Lumpy.”

“Lumpy?”

“Yeah,” I said. “One of Johann’s three thugs. Humpty, Dumpty, and Lumpy.”

“I’m not surprised you already named them,” said Shay, “but I am surprised with your choice of monikers. Especially since there were three of them and only two names from that nursery rhyme to go around.”

“Hence, Lumpy,” I said.

“If anything, it should be Lumpty.”

“Lumpty?
That’s not even a word.”

“Neither are Humpty or Dumpty,” said Shay.

“Fair enough.” I pointed at the body. “So what else did you find?”

“Well, I can’t tell a whole lot from this angle, but this incision appears to be the only one on his back, at least. As far as I can tell, it would be enough. See the angle of entry? It indicates a downward strike into his back, and given the placement of the wound, I think it could’ve pierced one of his lower ventricles, assuming the knife was long enough. It would explain all the blood, anyway.”

I smiled. “Look at you. You’re like a mini Cairny.”

“I’m taller than she is, but I get your drift,” said Shay. “Why don’t you move him off the suitcases so we can look at him from the front and check his possessions?”

“And risk sullying my suit? Not on your life.” I waved to Olaugh and James. “A little help?”

The pair came over, and under my supervision, moved Lumpty to the floor and onto his back. James almost dropped him prematurely due to his nerves, but Olaugh was a rock.

I knelt down and took a look at the guy. He had a bit of a scrape and a bruise on one cheek, but his face had been pressed against the brass-banded corner of a trunk. If he fell into it, it could’ve easily caused the contusion. Apart from that, I didn’t spot any obvious scrapes, cuts, or bruises, and though his hands—empty, unfortunately—were callused, they didn’t show signs of struggle.

“Stabbed in the back, plain and simple,” said Steele, echoing my own thoughts.

I checked Lumpty’s pockets and actually found things. Multiple things. His coin purse, filled with a fair amount of silver, a silk handkerchief, a pair of brass knuckles—not illegal, but not exactly encouraged either—and a key with a chain similar to the one on Shay’s and my own room key. It read one thirty-five.

“That’s a promenade deck key,” said Olaugh. “It wouldn’t get the man in here.”

I knew that. I also had a pretty good idea whose key it was. I pulled one last item from Lumpty’s jacket: a slim, black leather case long enough to hold pens. I cracked it open.

“Looks like Lumpty didn’t need a key.” I held up the lock picking set for everyone to see.

“Well, knowing one of our own isn’t in on this makes me feel better,” said Olaugh. “Though not much.”

“We can’t rule anything out at this point.” I stood and turned to Steele. “What do you think?”

“I think a lot of things,” she said. “I think this case just got a whole lot more complicated,
and
more dangerous. And I think Steck should be counting his lucky stars he brought us on board instead of a pair of detectives from another department.”

Giving thanks seemed beyond Steck’s ability at the moment. He still stood at the foot of the luggage pile, staring into the disorder.

I waved him over. “Steck. We need to have a pow-wow.”

“What is it?” he asked. “Do you have some idea who did it?”

“Yeah, didn’t you see the note the killer left tacked to the back of the stiff? Of course not, man. Get your head in the game. What we need to do is figure out a game plan.”

“Why are you asking me, then?” said Steck. “You’re the homicide detectives.”

“Yes, but this isn’t a normal case,” I said. “We’re undercover on a fraud investigation that hasn’t even started yet, and already somebody tangentially related to said investigation has turned up dead. We’re cut off from the rest of our support teams, and we’re in international waters, which makes jurisdiction tricky. So the question is, how do we approach this?”

Steck sighed. “Guys, I’m not going to lie. Having this case slip through my fingers before it even starts is going to haunt me for the rest of my career, but we don’t have a choice. A murder trumps a potential fraud any day of the week. The homicide investigation has to take precedent.”

“Agreed,” said Shay, “but that doesn’t mean we should abandon our mission.”

I thought I knew where she was going, but I made her say it nonetheless. “Go on.”

“Given the rumors about something fishy going down during the poker tournament and the fact that Lumpty here—Daggers’ designation, not mine—was in the employ of one of our three prime suspects, I’d say there’s about a ninety-nine percent chance his murder is related to the tourney and was perpetrated by one of the players. Because of our limited jurisdiction, we stand a better chance of figuring out who killed him by staying undercover than we do by blowing it.”

I nodded. “I’m with Steele. This puts more pressure on our shoulders, but the mission is still the same. We’re just going to have to unravel a murder while we sort out what we came here to do. And that means more work for you, too, Steck. We don’t have additional detectives or a coroner or a CSU team, and because Steele and I have to remain undercover, you need to be our eyes and ears. You’ll need to do the legwork.”

“For what it’s worth, we stand ready and willing to help,” said Olaugh.

“And we appreciate it,” I said. “You can start by giving us a full list of every passenger with luggage in this compartment. Maybe that way we can figure out what Lumpty was doing here. Steck—I’m going to need you to interview all the bartenders and waitstaff from the mixer. Steele and I know when Lumpty left the party, but we don’t know precisely where the other potential suspects were and at what times. Hopefully some eye witness accounts can narrow down the suspect pool for us. And see if you can find any other crew that might’ve seen what happened down here.”

Steck nodded.

“I’ll make sure the staff comply,” said Olaugh. “And I’ll make sure they meet with Steck one on one. As far as they’ll know, he’s a compliance inspector, making sure people are doing their jobs.”

“Good thinking,” I said. “Olaugh. I’ll need you and Steck to move the body to a safe, secure location out of sight from prying eyes. And someone’s going to need to clean this place up. I’m guessing you, James, due to the muzzle we’re keeping on the operation. Given what we know, that’s about all we can do at this juncture, unless you know more about mortuary science than you appear to, Steck.”

The vice cop adopted a horrified expression. “You’re kidding, right?”

Shay nodded. “It’s what he does.”

“Just because somebody died doesn’t mean we need to get sober,” I said. “Although finding a dead body does have a way of taking the edge off a buzz. Regardless, we all need to keep a clear head from here on out. Stay in touch, stay vigilant, but keep your lips sealed. If word of this spreads, it could create a panic, never mind sending our killer into hiding.”

“And it would create unnecessary negative publicity for the
Prodigious,”
said Olaugh.

I wasn’t particularly worried about that part, but I let Olaugh think I cared. As the ship’s security officer, I’d need his help if I had any chance of solving the murder and Steck’s fraud case, both.

12

After checking ourselves carefully to make sure neither of us sported any blood stains, and after returning my dinner jacket, Shay and I headed back up to the mixer, but by the time we arrived, things had largely died down. All our fellow competitors had exited the lounge, and the few we hadn’t met didn’t rush from the shadows to make our acquaintance.

Luckily, the waitstaff still lurked and were more than happy to unload their uneaten appetizers on me. I made up for my lack of a formal dinner with fifteen or twenty bite-sized morsels, all the while wishing I could round up everyone in the room and put their feet to the fire, but I’d simply have to wait and let Steck to the heavy lifting.

More drinks tempted me, but I followed Shay’s advice and abstained. Apparently, the powers who ruled over the
Prodigious’s
gaming enterprises determined eight o’clock sharp would be a good time to start a poker tournament despite teasing everyone with free beverages the night prior. With that in mind, Shay suggested we turn in early. I escorted her down to our suite, but as we walked, it wasn’t thoughts of sleep that milled about my brain.

The murder of Johann’s bodyguard had momentarily hijacked my thoughts. I kept revisiting the evidence in my mind’s eye, but at the same time I hadn’t forgotten my evening with Shay. The sultry, playful looks she’d given me at the mixer. The feeling of our bodies pressed against one another on the ballroom floor as music flowed through us and sweat slicked our skin. The coolness of the winter breeze and the warmth of Shay’s touch as we stood shoulder to shoulder on the
Prodigious’s
deck.

I doubted Shay’s and my compatibility more often than I cared to admit. Not because of any serious
in
compatibility on our parts. Sure, there was an age difference between us, as well a difference in maturity, with Shay being the far more responsible and sensible of our pair. And we had different tastes in music and literature and art and even basic aesthetics, so it was only natural for me to wonder, even discounting the fact that I tended to overthink aspects of every relationship I’d ever been in—either that or underthink them, as my ex, Nicole, might argue. But we also shared moments that made it obvious whatever doubts I had about us were largely unfounded. Our locking of lips a few days prior was one. The smile Shay had given me on the dance floor this evening was another. Both of those had burned into my long term memory. I’d never forget them, and I’d never ignore what they implied about Shay’s feelings for me.