“Where’s Trisha?” I asked the heavyset woman.
“She’s indisposed. Walk straight ahead, don’t say a word, and you won’t get hurt,” the woman hissed in my ear. I jerked as she poked something hard in my back.
“Not now,” I thought.
She took off the dark robe she had over her arms and placed it around my shoulders.
“If this is about the necklace, you can take it from me now,” I pleaded.
“Shush and keep walking.”
She poked me again, and we walked behind the live band. My mind raced as I thought how I could throw her off balance. If I do, will she shoot me in front of everyone?
“What happened to my friend?” I reflected, glancing around the restroom. We strode to the elevators where a man was standing. I mouthed ‘Help me’ at him but instead of approaching the woman, he stood there and waved at her.
“My husband looks good in a suit, doesn’t he?” she asked.
My heart sank to the floor.
We stepped into the elevator and she pressed the button for the first deck. I thought I saw a couple stroll by when the doors closed.
“Give me your phone,” she said into my ear. “And you better not drop it.”
I complied and handed the device over my shoulder for her to receive. I could still feel Larry’s room card in the bottom of my pocket.
Chapter 21
Kidnapped
After I was escorted to the elevator, my friend, Trisha, staggered out of the ladies restroom, and held on to one of the wide pillars near the dance floor. She then took a few steps toward the dancers and lost her balance, falling face first onto the floor. Everyone gasped as someone bent down to assist her. Larry, noticing the crowd around her from his table, ran over to discover her crumpled body on the floor.
He bent down to her. “Trisha, Trisha, wake up,” he shouted.
“Larry, I don’t feel so good,” she moaned.
“Where’s Susan?” he asked her and looked around at the other undercover dancers. Trisha tried but the words wouldn’t form. No one else answered him.
A couple of officers rushed over and called for the doctor on board. Larry ran over to another officer and the Master of Arms while a medic, who was one of the dancers, bent down to examine his wife.
“I think they have Susan Edwards,” he said and then looked back at his wife.
“Sir, you stay with your wife. We’ll look for your friend,” the officer said.
Larry looked at them and again at Trisha. He returned to his wife, whose pale complexion reminded him of crime victims before they lose consciousness.
“I’m a doctor,” said one of the ship’s officers assisting his wife on a chair.
“I’m okay, Larry. Go find Susan,” she coughed.
“But–“
“Larry, go,” she ordered.
A man in a white jacket with the doctor bars on his shoulder bent down to examine her. Larry didn’t know which way to turn until Trisha again told him to find Susan.
He turned and hurried after the officers in the elevator lobby.
“Did you find out which way they went?” Larry asked M.A. Farmer as soon as he saw the ship’s officer. He envisioned Susan hurled overboard by unknown thugs.
“A porter said a couple of women came by here ten minutes ago and went up the stairs,” the officer reported.
“Where is he?” He knew from experience when witnesses disappear, they can’t be reliable.
The Master of Arms looked around and turned toward Larry. “He was here just a minute ago.”
“And you believed him?” Larry asked, looking around for another guest. “Has anyone seen a woman about my height with short curly blond hair?”
The passengers filing out into the lobby shook their heads.
“Please, she’s been kidnapped,” he pleaded again.
An older man and woman came forward.
“We saw a blond woman with another lady get in this elevator,” the man said, pointing toward the row of elevators.
He and the officers with the Master of Arms, looked at the lighted numbers above the elevator doors. They could tell one of the elevators stopped for a moment at Deck Five and then continued down to the first deck.
“What’s down there besides the Purser’s office?” Larry asked.
“Just access to the cargo bay,” the Master of Arms replied.
Larry and two other officers caught the next elevator down while two other midshipmen started running down the stairway.
—-
The woman in the blue chiffon dress still had the sharp object in my back when our elevator stopped on Deck Five for a passenger. I’m guessing she had a gun. Before I could warn the person away, my escort sprayed him with something that caused him to lose consciousness and knocked him out. That’s when I saw her derringer in her tight left fist. As he fell down, she threw the canister down and pressed the Basement button. The elevator doors shut closed. I guessed she didn’t want to spray me. She would have a handful trying to move an unconscious person my size.
“Really, you can have the necklace. I don’t need it,” I implored. “I’m not good with identifying people either.”
“Shut up,” the woman said to me.
The elevator stopped on the first deck. She prodded me again and we began walking to the end of the hall. “Where are all those crewmembers when you want one?” I asked myself. I looked down the hallway for a crewmember, a porter, but saw no one.
She stopped at one of the Crew Only doors and rapped the back of her hand against the steel panel. When it opened, she pushed me into the darkness. If I hadn’t remembered to lift my leg high over the floodgate, I would have landed on my face. The hatches had an upraised barrier that prevented water from crossing in if there was ever a ship leak. I knew this from my husband when we last cruised together.
She prodded me onward through the dark cavern. I noted the crates and many large pieces of baggage set against the left side of the interior wall.
