On a scale of one to a million, what had transpired on Queen of the Seas was close to a 999,999. An extra point taken away because there was some good news—with the exception of one person—everyone was alive.
When the Queen of the Seas docked, Liz tried to run on board. “Oh no you don’t, Liz.” Charlotte morphed into her official role of detective Agent Pearson. “You know you aren’t allowed on the boat until I check it out.” Then she turned to her fiancé. “Fenton, when my team arrives, please send them and the paramedics inside. I trust you’ll make sure no one leaves or comes on board.”
“Okay, we’ll make sure,” Liz answered for her father. Before Charlotte could correct her pronoun usage, she continued, “Don’t you think Ryan would be an asset until the ambulance arrives? He’s had emergency training from being on the FDNY.”
Charlotte hesitated, then said, “Okay, Ryan, come along.”
Liz and her father stood sentry at the foot of the gangplank. Liz felt awkward and kept her gaze toward shore, avoiding the quizzical eyes of those above them on the ship.
Garrett called down, “What’s going on? Why can’t we get off?”
Fenton called up, “Please be patient, sir. Agent Pearson is on board checking on the situation.”
When Fenton asked his daughter who the man was, Liz quickly explained. She also pointed out who cousin Wren was.
Only a few minutes passed until they heard sirens. Just as the ambulances and sheriff’s cars pulled up, Liz saw Charlotte and Ryan coming down the gangway with Dorian. Each holding an arm. Captain Netherton followed behind the trio. In one hand he held what looked like a white linen tablecloth turned into a knapsack and in the other, Farrah’s cage. The ferret’s black raisin eyes peered out from beyond the mesh screen. Too bad ferrets couldn’t talk like macaws, Farrah might tell them a thing or two.
Dorian wore a long, gossamer, full-length gown with flowing sleeves in a kaleidoscope of jewel-toned colors. Liz noticed her salt-rock engagement ring was missing. Dorian stumbled on the dock’s uneven planks, and like a curtain, her long violet hair covered her face. When she flipped back her head, purple rivulets of mascara ran down her tear streaked cheeks. “I had a premonition,” she mumbled, “I’m to blame. There was a curse I should’ve learned how to reverse.” Liz darted over to Dorian, wanting to take her into an embrace.
Charlotte motioned her back. “Better give her some breathing room.” What Agent Charlotte Pearson really meant was, don’t compromise evidence, until we know what’s going on.
“He’s dead. My Julian’s dead.” Dorian murmured, incredulously.
Paramedics scurried toward them with two gurneys, followed by four agents from the sheriff’s department. One pair of paramedics stopped near Dorian and the other pair hesitated.
Captain Netherton looked at Charlotte. “Should I show them where to go?”
“Please, Clyde, that would be great.”
“If it’s something he ate,” Captain Netherton said, “I thought using the tablecloth to wrap up Mr. Rhodes’s dishes would be the quickest way to preserve any contaminated food. We left everything as it was in the stateroom from when Susannah called us in. It only happened a short time ago. I immediately called the coast guard and they told me not to move him, that I should pull into the dock, and wait for the sheriff’s department. Of course, I attempted CPR, but it was too late.”
Charlotte nodded. “You did good, Captain.”
He passed her the tablecloth knapsack just as a coast guard cruiser pulled up next to Queen of the Seas. Then, for some reason the captain handed Liz the ferret’s cage. She was about to protest, thinking about her kitten Bronte waiting at home and how the two of them would interact. Then she glanced at Dorian’s forlorn face and took the cage. “Hey, little guy, I mean gal,” Liz said in a soothing tone. Aunt Amelia always taught her to be sensitive to a pet’s feelings. However, this particular pet wasn’t in her wheelhouse.
Charlotte motioned to an approaching officer. “Tell the coast guard that the Brevard County Sheriff’s Department will take over. I’ll contact them as soon as I get back to my office.”
“Want me to take that tablecloth to one of your officers?” Liz asked.
Charlotte gave her a suspicious look. And based on the past, rightly so. “No.” She handed the tablecloth and its contents to a young officer who’d been shyly standing away from the action. “Get the food analyzed as soon as possible. We have to know what we’re dealing with.”
Surprise showed on the young officer’s freckled face. She pulled back her shoulders and stood straighter. “You can count on me, Agent Pearson.” Then the officer took off down the dock, taking slow steps and swaddling the sack like it contained a delicate robin’s egg.
Turning to a sobbing Dorian, Charlotte said in a soothing voice, “I think you should take a trip to the hospital Ms. Starwood, and let them check to make sure you’re okay. I’ll have your family meet you there.”
“Dorian let out another sob and glanced at Liz who was holding Farrah’s cage. “Please take care of my baby. She’s all I have left. And she will be my only conduit to Julian from this point forward.”
Ignoring Charlotte’s admonitions about not touching Dorian, Liz squeezed her hand. “Have no worries Dorian, I’ll take care of her. But soon you’ll be back to be with her. I’ll tell Auntie about what happened as soon as she returns from the Merfest Regatta.”
“Thanks, Lizzy,” Dorian said, tears still streaming down her cheeks. One of the attendants went to help Dorian onto the stretcher. “Just give me your arm, young man. I don’t need that thing.” She put her arm through his and they walked down the dock toward the waiting ambulance.
After the ambulance left the parking lot, Liz glanced up at Queen of the Seas and saw that Susannah had joined the others on the upper deck.
“What’s going on?” Phoebe screamed down at them. “Where is Mother going? What’s with the ambulances and where’s future stepdaddy?”
Charlotte looked up. “Please remain where you are until one of my officers can get a statement. Soon you can follow your mother to Melbourne Hospital.”
Branson pulled his sister back from the railing and whispered something in her ear that seemed to calm her. In fact, she actually smiled. Had big brother told her that something must have happened to Julian because he was the only one missing?
Charlotte went back up the gangplank, followed by new members of her team. She told Fenton, “When Keisha arrives please send her in. You might as well go back to the hotel. I don’t think anyone here is going anywhere until we find out how Mr. Rhodes died.”
It was only a few minutes later that the medical examiner arrived. When she passed, she nodded her head toward them. Keisha Jones knew Liz’s father from his days as lead public defender for Brevard County, and Liz and Ryan from the last couple of murders at the Indialantic. Liz hoped she’d rule that Julian died from natural causes. However, glancing at Ryan’s face, she had a feeling there was nothing natural about how the future groom died.
“Wow,” Liz whispered to her father, “Glad we didn’t cook the food for the rehearsal dinner. And I’m thrilled Auntie hasn’t arrived back from the regatta yet. I can’t believe Julian Rhodes is dead. Wasn’t Dorian the one who was getting threatening letters? Do you think it’s related? If they ate or drank the same thing and were poisoned it might prove she’d been the target, and someone just took Julian along for the ride.”
“Poison, daughter? We know nothing of the kind. Pull in the reins until we know more. Where did Ryan disappear to? He was just here.”
Liz knew exactly where he’d gone. After Charlotte had boarded Queen of the Seas with her second team, Ryan followed unnoticed. Liz was proud of her P.I. boyfriend and wished she could have done the same.
Twenty minutes went by until they saw the stretcher with Julian’s body travel down the gangplank. Following behind the body were Keisha and two CSIs. As the body passed Liz and Fenton, a section of the sheet covering the body slipped off. Before the attendant could cover him, Liz got a quick glimpse of Julian’s contorted face. Even though long released from it, his pale blue eyes still held pain. His face seemed frozen in a combination of shock and horror. White foam covered his lips and chin like shaving cream. The image was something that would take Liz years to forget and reminded her of another face she’d viewed six months ago wearing death’s mask.
Keisha passed, giving Fenton a look that Liz deciphered to mean, this is no natural death. Whether by accident, or on purpose, it would soon be determined. One of the CSI’s held a plastic bag with a half filled bottle of SWS water. Had Liz been right? Had Julian been poisoned? Is that what Keisha and Charlotte thought? And what about Dorian? Had she ingested the same substance? Liz prayed she’d be okay.
As the gurney with Julian’s body traveled down the dock, it made slow repetitive thumping sounds over the uneven planks of wood. To Liz, it sounded like a funeral dirge. She and her father stood silent for a few minutes either out of respect or shock. Or a combination of both. “Dad, I’m going to try to get Susannah aside. Seeing she was the one who found him, and of everyone here, she seems the most upset.” They glanced up at the main deck, at Susannah’s ghostly, tear stained face. “Dorian’s kids look almost gleeful and Wren, well Wren looks like Wren, can’t put my finger on her part in all this.”
“All this? Let’s not jump to conclusions. This could have been a simple case of unintentional food poisoning or maybe he had a heart attack.”
Not many people who had a heart attack foamed at the mouth. “He was shellfish allergic.” Liz thought back to last night’s dinner. “What if someone had stowed aboard the Queen of the Seas?” Her first thought was the figure dressed in a baseball cap and dark clothing.
“One thing at a time. It’s Auntie I’m worried about,” he said.
Liz put her hand on her father’s arm. “I’ll wait on the dock for her to get dropped off. Kate and Alex have an event at Ryckman Park. Ryan and I were supposed to meet them there. I’ll text her our apologizes but I won’t tell Kate what happened until later. She deserves to enjoy her time in the spotlight.”
“Agreed. Your great-aunt will want to be at the hospital with her friend. I’ll drive her. Just have her come to my office.” His office was at the rear of the Indialantic, only five hundred feet away. “I’m going to head there now. I don’t want to be in the way of Charlotte’s investigation and I also don’t want to witness how soon it will be before the vultures descend.” He was referring to the media. “Come by if you need to talk or need the comfort of these old arms.”
Keeping things light, she said, “You’re not old. Fifty five’s the new thirty.”
“I rest my case. Your twenty-eight would be the new ten. And I’m always worried. Especially with what happened last New Year’s Eve.”
“Dad, I’m fully recovered. At least there’s no connection between me and Julian Rhodes if this does turn out to be foul play. No worries.”
“I won’t worry, if you won’t.”
“Have I told you lately, I love you?”
“Yes. But I never get tired of it.” He bent down and kissed her on her brow. “Stay out of trouble.”
She kissed him back on his smooth cheek and waited for Aunt Amelia to show up, trying to find the right words to tell her what had happened.
Unfortunately, there weren’t any.
It appeared that instead of a wedding, they would soon be planning a funeral.