Chapter 34
Sheila tossed and turned. She couldn’t get her last conversation with Steve out of her mind. He wanted her to come home, which was sweet and maddening all at once. He knew how important this trip was to her. He’d never even asked about her meetings. So frustrating! Would he ever recognize her need for more than a family? He mouthed it all the time. He seemed proud of her. But when it came to really taking it seriously, did he?
Up until this point, she had tried not to care. It didn’t matter how he felt. She’d forge ahead. But what did that say about their marriage?
She sat up, flicked the light on, and sat on the edge of her bed. How to get to sleep? If she were at home she’d make herself some warm milk with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a drop of honey. Sometimes bourbon. But she’d drunk her weight in gold already and was not hankering for booze at all.
She could call room service—but the idea of a stranger coming into her room in the middle of the night unsettled her.
She glanced at the clock: 1:18 A.M. Which of the closest cafés or restaurants were still open? She dressed in her running clothes and headed out the door.
When she walked into the all-night café, she was surprised by the crowd. Didn’t anybody sleep anymore?
“What can I get you?” the man behind the counter asked as she approached.
“Warm milk?” Sheila asked.
“I’ve got just the thing,” he said. “Milk with vanilla and cinnamon sound good?”
She nodded. “Sounds delightful.”
“Please have a seat and I’ll bring it to you.”
She searched for an empty table and, much to her surprise, she spotted Randy alone, eating. She sauntered up to his table. “Why, hello there,” she said before she realized how upset he was. “Are you okay? Do you want to be alone?”
“Oh . . .” He waved his hand. “I’ll be fine. Just feeling sorry for myself. Please sit down.” He was eating a huge bagel with cream cheese. “I’m so hungry,” he mumbled.
“I can’t sleep,” Sheila said. “I’m here for warm milk. I thought you had a hot date tonight.”
He wiped his face with a napkin. “Hmph. I did. I’m no good at the dating thing. I was much better in a committed relationship.” He took a drink of water. “Sometimes I miss him more than other times. Night time is hard. We used to, you know, talk about our days, our dreams. I miss the companionship.”
Shelia reached out and touched his hand. “It will get better,” she said.
Looking up, she spotted the creepy guy. sitting just beyond Randy. He was there with Rhonda from Life Arts, who draped herself over him in a most unattractive manner. Every now and then she kissed him or reached up and touched his face or hair. The man appeared completely disinterested.
“This dating business,” Randy said. “I am reminded what a lousy judge of character I am. Whew, boy.”
“What do you mean?” She turned her attention back to Randy. Rhonda and the creepy man were disturbing to watch.
“I thought Matthew was cute, sure. But I also thought he’d be interesting, him being a security chief and all that.”
“Not interesting?”
“If you call crazy interesting . . .”
“What?”
“Yes. Very odd. I’m not sure how he holds it together to do his job. It’s troubling,” he said. “I’ve been sitting here and thinking things over. I can’t think of a way to soothe myself about it. There’s been two murders on board and the chief of security is nuts.”
“Surely not,” Sheila said.
He nodded vehemently. “Listen, I don’t like to judge people. But that man is bat shit crazy.”
It was a bit odd to be sitting here with Paige’s only child, who looked and acted a good bit like his mother. He said things like Paige, with the same inflections. But this “crazy” business troubled Sheila. They sat next to a window that looked out over a clear night sky. She glanced out at the horizon, then back to Randy, trying not to watch Rhonda make a fool of herself in public.
“What exactly do you mean?” When the server brought her milk, she looked up and said, “Thank you.” After the man left, her attention focused back on Randy. “Well?”
“I don’t want to scare you,” he said.
“As if I’m not scared already. And a bit beat up,” she said, smiling and pointing at her head. “I think you should tell me.”
He sat back in his chair. “Okay, but let’s keep it between us, for now.”
She nodded. What could it be that had him so troubled?
“He thinks he’s a vampire,” he said.
“What? Who?”
“Yes, the chief of security thinks he’s a vampire,” Randy repeated. “He was quite serious about it. Scared the bejesus out of me.”
She was struck speechless. A vampire?
“What do you say to that?” Randy continued. “And that was my first date after breaking up with a brilliant, creative man. Just my luck.”
“I—I—”
“Yep,” he said.
Sheila took a sip of her milk. The warmth and the sweetness comforted her as she mulled over the news.
“Needless to say, I told him I was not interested in dating a vampire—or even having a fling with him. But I did look up vampires on the Internet and there are people who claim to be vampires out there. People who actually drink blood,” he said.
“Seriously?” Sheila said.
“Yes, some people are into this vampire lifestyle—and I hope that’s what our friend is talking about. But there are also some serious psychiatric problems associated with people who claim to be vampires, people who crave human blood,” he said, with a low voice.
“He reports directly to the captain,” she said. “I can’t imagine he hasn’t picked up on this.”
“Oh, he doesn’t tell everybody, of course; it’s a secret that he bestows on a lucky few.”
“Aren’t you the lucky one then?” Sheila said. Suddenly a giggle erupted from her. She couldn’t even try to stop it. Oh, it wasn’t funny, she told herself, stop. A man responsible for the safety of the ship might be bat shit crazy. Not funny at all. She tried to stop her laughter.
But Randy’s eye caught hers and the next thing she knew, they were both laughing uncontrollably.
Tears ran down Randy’s face. “Oh my God,” he said, finally calming down. “What have we gotten ourselves into?”
Shelia took a deep breath and settled herself, suddenly feeling tired. She took another sip of her milk. “I’m not sure,” she said. “But I have a new goal: just to get off this ship in one piece.”
Then it hit her with a startling thud. Her face must have reflected her thoughts.
“What?” Randy said.
“If the man thinks he’s a vampire, then he might think he needs to kill to survive.”