Andrei opened the hatch to the crew cabins and stumbled down the passage.
Helen could hear Phil sputtering and shouting, even though the phone was in her pocket. She took it out.
“What the hell are you doing?” Phil shouted. “He’s drunk and you’re on that boat alone with him.”
“I have my cleaning caddy with me. I can shoot him in the face and blind him. I have to hang up now and see if Mitzi is okay. I’ll call you as soon as I can.”
She hung up over Phil’s furious protests.
CHAPTER 25
Helen heard hoggish grunts and swinish snorts coming from a crew cabin in the passage. Andrei, she decided. She slid open the door. The Bulgarian engineer was sprawled motionless on the lower bunk, mouth open, left arm flung out. His chest wasn’t moving. Maybe he was in a coma. Or dead. She’d read about death from alcohol poisoning and Andrei had drunk a lot in a hurry.
Helen moved closer to check. She wasn’t losing a crew member on her watch. The engineer erupted in a loud snort and an explosion of alcohol fumes. She leaped back and softly shut the door.
Andrei was dead drunk, not dead.
Time to open that backpack he’d abandoned in the crew mess. The boxy bulge inside tantalized her. It was the right size for a haul of emeralds. Helen wanted Andrei to be the smuggler. He was the most dislikable crew member. Once she caught the smuggler, this case was closed. She’d stay as a stew until the boat docked in Fort Lauderdale, but then she’d be free.
A whimpering Mitzi met Helen at the crew mess hatch. She was limping slightly. Helen picked her up. The poodle was warm, soft and light as a powder puff. As she petted her, Helen gently felt the tiny body for bruises or breaks. Mitzi didn’t yelp when she touched her.
“Good girl,” Helen said, gently setting the little dog back on the floor. “What meanie would kick you?”
She fetched Mitzi another peanut butter treat. Mitzi sat up and danced.
“I think you’re okay, girl,” she said. “I didn’t see Andrei kick you, but I’ll let the captain know he has a possible puppy abuser on board.”
“Sh! Don’t wake him. I’m trying to get him arrested for smuggling.”
The bright-eyed poodle wagged her tail. Helen quickly unzipped the backpack. She saw green. Lots of green.
A huge dark green box marked “Fine Chocolate Liqueurs.”
No! That couldn’t be. There must be some mistake. There had to be. The box was shrink-wrapped with plastic, so she couldn’t open it. Helen rattled it.
That was not the sound of loose gemstones. Helen’s heart sank. Andrei was no smuggler.
She took out her phone and checked her messages. She had one from Phil with an attachment and twenty-six from her sister, Kathy. She listened to Kathy’s first message. Her little sister was crying with fright. “Helen, it happened. I knew it would. You have to call me
Helen didn’t bother listening to Kathy’s other messages. She could almost see her sister anxiously pacing in her homey kitchen. I did this to you, Helen thought. You had a perfect life in the burbs until I married Rob and put you on the road to worry. No wonder your hair is getting grayer.
Kathy must have been sitting next to the phone. She answered on the first ring in a heartrending whisper. “Helen! What took you so long? Never mind, Phil told me. You’re in the Bahamas. You have to come home now, Helen. He’s alive and he wants thirty thousand dollars.”
“Who’s alive?” Helen asked.
“How do you know?” Helen asked.
“Because he talked like Rob. He used that voice-changer thingy again, but only Rob says those things.”
“Kathy,” Helen said. “Slow down and tell me exactly what was said.”
“Okay, okay. He called right before Tommy came home from school. He said, ‘Tell Sunshine if she wants to keep her nephew out of the newspapers, I need sixty thousand.’ Rob always called you Sunshine.”
“It’s a common nickname, Kathy.” But Helen felt the panic clawing her insides. Rob couldn’t be alive.
“He also said a good Catholic like Mom would be happy that her favorite son-in-law was buried in the church. It’s him. I know it’s him.”
“Kathy, that proves nothing,” Helen said. “The blackmailer saw us bury Rob in the church basement. The whole neighborhood knows Mom was super devout.” Inside, the panic broke loose and scrabbled up her rib cage, trying to crawl out. Helen had kept this secret too long.
“He said you owed him thousands and he was going to collect every nickel,” Kathy said. “It’s Rob.”
It sure sounds like my greedy ex, Helen thought. But Kathy and I tried every test we knew to make sure Rob was dead. There was no movement, no detectable heartbeat, no breath. How did he survive?
Because he’s Rob. If the nation was nuked, only Rob and the roaches would crawl out from the ashes. Her mind was racing. He was alive.
“Helen, are you there?” Kathy asked.
“Kathy, this is good news,” Helen said. “If Rob is the blackmailer, he can’t call the police. Ever. He’d have to admit he was blackmailing us. If he made it out of that basement alive, he should have told the police right away. Instead, he acted like Rob and started demanding money from me. Don’t you see, Kathy? This is good news. Tommy is off the hook.”
“Unless I’m wrong and it’s not Rob,” Kathy said. “Then we’re in trouble. Can’t you come to St. Louis?”
“No, honey,” Helen said. “I’m out of the country. I won’t be back for at least four days.”
“What should I do? He wants the money tomorrow.”
“Pay him,” Helen said. “We knew this might happen. That’s why I set up the joint accounts. That’s my share of the money from the sale of the house Rob and I had. I’ve lived without it so far. It will buy us a little peace of mind. Get thirty thousand in cash and give it to him.”
“And then what?” Kathy’s voice trembled. “He’ll call again and he’ll want sixty thousand dollars. He doubles his demands each time. You don’t have that kind of money.”
“We’ll catch him next time,” Helen said. “I promise. Just pray it really is Rob. Then Tommy will be free—we’ll all be. I have to hang up, Sis. You’ll be okay.”
“Promise?” Kathy sounded younger than her four-year-old, Allison.
“Absolutely. I love you,” Helen said. “I have to call Phil.”
Boy, did she have to call Phil. He’d left ten messages while she’d talked to her sister. She opened the attachment first. It was a good shot of Blossom, with silky black hair, red lipstick and skintight jeans.
Helen tried to head off Phil’s anger by a rapid-fire announcement: “It’s me, I’m fine. Kathy’s fine. Andrei is not the smuggler.”
“But—” Phil said.
Helen didn’t allow him an opening. “Cut the lecture,” she said. “You don’t need to protect me. If I’m your partner, you have to trust me.”
“Trust you!” Phil yelled. “Partners keep each other informed. What you did was—”
Helen heard a clunk and checked the security camera. A short young woman was coming up the gangplank, carrying a huge load of something. Blankets? Clothes? Helen could see only her blond hair and muscular legs. Mira.
“The head stew is back,” Helen said. “Love you.” She hung up.
