1 Shore Excursion (30 page)

M
uch later that
evening Jay was released and returned to the
Rapture
.

Dr. Sledge confirmed Jay’s perfume allergy, Helga produced a charge slip showing
Abe’s
perfume purchase on the last night at sea, and Abe’s fingerprints were found on the tube along with Sylvia’s.

A
fter Jay
had
left the hot tub, Abe, or perhaps even Sylvia,
had apparently
poured the perfumed oil into the
water
. A
s Sylvia relaxed in the warm, fragrant water
,
she
had been
throttled from behind with my missing pink scarf.
Tiny cuts on her body marked the spots where her bikini had been sliced away with a knife, perhaps the very knife that Muriel
said she
had
found on the deck.

I shivered in the cold night air as Jay and I stood by the rail on the Lido Deck and watched the police drive away with Abe and Morgan.
Abe was still loudly protesting his innocence and
proclaiming
his love for Sylvia.
Morgan said nothing.

The Russians didn’t care what Abe or Morgan said or didn’t say.
They just stuffed them
into the Tupelov and drove off
.

Jay put his big arm around my shoulders.
“That Morgan was really rotten, Sidney,” he said.
“He is
truly
a killer, too.
Vargos told me late this afternoon that the
authorities said that the
badge they found on
Morgan
was real, all right, the same one he flashed at you.
It just didn’t belong to him.
It belonged to t
he dead guy on the carousel, the one you called Homeles
s
Guy
, who followed you in New York.
He
was the real spook, and Morgan is being charged with his murder.
Morgan killed him at Tivoli.
Homeless Guy was working on the ship, disguised as a crewman.
He was following us.
He may have even followed you in
to
the park that night, Sid, to warn you. But he slipped up somehow, and Morgan wised up and killed him.”

“So the note the waiter brought me in the restaurant that night must have been from Homeless Guy
, Jay
. I
had a strange feeling, felt
uneasy
on the paths in the gardens, as if I was being followed.
I feel certain
now that
Homeless Guy
must have
followed
me off
the ship to the park
.
I
guess he wanted
to
warn
me. He
’d already
tried twice before
, remember?
.
Only this time, someone made sure he wouldn’t succeed.
”

“
All I
know, Sidney
,
is that
Morgan was no more a secret agent than your Aunt Min
nie
. A
s for your boy Fernando
...”

I looked up at him.

“Please.
Let’s just don’t say anything more about him,
okay
?
And he’s not my boy.”

My
memory of
my special evening
at the ballet
with
Fernando Ortiz
is
burned into my brain as
one
of my top ten most embarrassing romantic experiences ever, and
—
as Jay will be happy to tell you if you’ve got a couple of hours
—
some of those were pretty
dreadful
.

When
Jay’s
snickering finally subsided
,
I
posed
a question that had been bothering me since he told me the news about Morgan.
“Jay, do you think I need to find somebody to tell about seeing Homeless
Guy
in New York?”

He shook his head, smiling.
“No, Nancy Drew.
They know that.
They’ve got it all figured out. They know now that Homeless
Guy
was following you in New York and on the trip,
even on the ship,
hoping to catch the smugglers.

“How
did
Sylvia g
et
the red bag, Jay? Do you think Al gave it to her?”

“No, I
know
he didn’t. Sylvia took it out of his cabin
the same night we were there
.
She found it while we were hiding.
It was Sylvia who
slipped
in
to search while we were in the closet.”

“Sylvia!
She would have been my last
guess.
I thought it was a man.
The bag must have been in that cabinet. The one we heard open and close. And Sylvia had a knife? How could you know all this, Jay?”

“Monique told me.
Monique and Sylvia were good friends. Sylvia told her everything, all her troubles, and Monique did all she could to help her.
Sylvia carried the knife everywhere for protection after she left Abe because she was afraid of him. Monique got the knife for Sylvia from a guy she dates, one of the chefs.
”

He gave me a little hug.

“
Now let
it
all go, Sid
.
I
t’s time to pack it
all
in for the night. You’ve done enough for one little senior citizen’s cruise, don’t
you think?
C
ool those
jets, babe
.
We’ve solved the mystery, and thanks to you, I’m out of jail. I
t looks like this gig is finally over
.
T
omorrow we’re out of here.”

After a major consultation with the Russians, the cruise line, and the embassy, plus about a million calls to and from New York, we had finally gotten everyone to agree
to fly us and
the remaining High Steppers home the following afternoon.

The
Rapture of the Deep
would remain in St. Petersburg for another day while the investigation was wrapped up
; t
he
n the ship, carrying
the remaining passengers,
would finally sail for England.
By that time I should be back in my apartment in New York with this
nightmare
behind me.

“I still can’t believe it, Jay.
I mean, really, who would ever suspect a High Stepper?”

“Apparently that’s what Abe and his boys thought, too, Sid.
That’s why they picked poor Ruth to act as their mule.

“One of the Interpol guys told me off the record that they believe that this
was
probably not the first time the High Steppers have been used as unwitting couriers by Abe’s gang.
He’s traveled with us before, remember?”

“Yeah, and he never really fit the normal High Stepper profile, did he?”

“Sidney.
Think about what you just said.
I
s
there a
normal
High Stepper profile?”

“Um. No, I guess not.”

“My guy also said that we, and particularly you, were
also
followed in New York by
Fernando’s
driver, who, of course, was
really
part of the
ring
, too,
and
not just a driver.”

“Back to Homeless
Guy
, Jay.
Who did he work for?”

“They wouldn’t tell me.
They just said that he was on the other side,
the good side,
trying to catch Abe’s gang.
But he got too close to Morgan
,
so Morgan took him out
at Tivoli.”

“Jay.”

“Yeah.”

“Do they know for sure which one killed Ruth and Al and Sylvia?”

“Well, they don’t have a confession yet.
Abe’s
insisting
he didn’t kill any of them.
And remember, t
hey’re still looking for Fernando
.
They haven’t caught up with him yet, but they will. And when they do, he’ll sing.
I bet that the Russians will find out everything they want to know by the time they finish their interrogation.
How would you like to spend
the rest of your life
in a Russian jail?
I almost did.
If it hadn’t been for you I guess I’d be on my way to Siberia by now, if they still do that.
A Russian prison camp would be really
bad
.”

“That would be only a little worse than facing up to Diana, Jay.
I can tell you, I’m not looking forward to hearing what she has to say when we get back to the office.
She probably blames us for the whole thing.”

Well, I think that witch should have the decency to apologize.
We deserve a
raise
for what we went through
.”

“Yeah, right.
Like that’s going to happen.”

“Try not to mention Tiger Woman
anymore tonight,
okay
, Sidney? You’ll spoil my evening.
I’m going to karaoke. Want to come?”

“Not tonight, Jay.
Thanks, you go ahead.
We’re leaving in the morning and I have to
tie up a few loose ends
.
And you know what? I don’t think anything can spoil this night. I mean, it feels pretty fantastic to have finally
worked it all out
and be headed home, doesn’t it?”

“
Yeah, babe, it does. It sure does.”

I was standing on the Sun Deck, watching the
moon rise
in the night sky, when I saw him step out,
alone this time, onto the flying bridge, and bend to adjust his telescope.

“Hey, sailor,” I called up to him. “How about showing me some stars?”

He stared down at me for a moment, and then, with a bro
ad smile, unlatched the gate and pulled me up
on
to the flying bridge.

W
e loaded the bus with the High Steppers early Wednesday morning.

Stingy
Diana and Itchy had handsomely sprung for a tiny little farewell tour of St. Petersburg
between
the airport and home, probably to try and head off the lawsuit that the Levy sisters were loudly advocating.

“How cheap is that?” Jay
whispered
, after we heard the arrangement. “I’ll bet Itchy is going to have to cough up
a lot
more than
this pitiful little shore excursion
before it’s all said and done.”

Jay was doing the bag count, tagging each piece as it went
in the compartment
under the bus.
I stood at the bus door, helping those who needed it up the steps.
Things were pretty much back to normal.
Well, normal for the High Steppers, I mean.

“Stop! Stop the bus!”

Gladys Murphy rushed down the gangway, wild-eyed, followed by her husband Pete, who looked exhausted.

“What’s wrong now, Gladys?” Jay asked.

“We can’t find Muriel,” Gladys shrieked.
“We’ve lost her.
What if something’s happened to her?”

“Ain’t nothing happened to Muriel unless she passed out dead drunk in some deckhand’s bed,” Angelo Petrone
murmured
to his wife. “But he’d have to be drunk, too, and blind.”

“Now, now, Gladys,” I said, “Calm down.
Muriel’s
okay.
We’ll find her.”

“Stop all that screeching, Gladys,” Gertrude Fletcher snapped. “Nothing has happened to Muriel. I saw her not ten minutes ago outside the Sunset Lounge, drinking vodka out of her purse.”

“My baby, my baby,” sobbed Gladys.

Great.
Just great.
Now I’ll have to go and find her
, I thought.
We couldn’t hold the bus a minute longer and
still
have enough time for a shore excursion.

“Get on the bus,” I said to the Murphys.
“I’ll go back for
Muriel
and bring her to the airport in a cab.
She’ll have to miss her tour, but you shouldn’t have to miss yours.
Enjoy your tour and don’t worry.
It’ll be fine.
Just get on the bus. I’ll bring her.”

Jay rolled his eyes and whispered to me as he climbed aboard, “Very noble, Miss Marsh, quite a sacrifice, missing the last shore excursion with the High Steppers to round up a stray. I’m not sure yet who is getting the better deal here.
You might owe me.”

“Well, we don’t have much choice, do we, Jay?
We can’t just leave Muriel on the ship and it’s not fair to make the others miss any more of St. Petersburg.
Depending on the shape she’s in, we might catch up with you at the Hermitage, or I might just have to take her straight to the airport.
I don’t know.”

“You know, Sid,” he said, handing me Muriel’s passport and air ticket, “I’m really glad you have this overdeveloped sense of duty.”

“Yeah, right,” I told him. “Me, too. You be sure and thank my grandmother for that the next time you see her.”

“O
kay
, High Steppers!” he shouted, bounding up the steps and grabbing the mic.
“Let’s roll!
And just wait ’til I tell you
all
about
Ivan the Terrible
!”

The doors whooshed
shut
and
the bus
pulled away from the pier
.
I waved goodbye until it was out of sight
;
then I turned and headed back up the gangway to look for that ridiculous Muriel.
It was just like Gladys to ride blithely off on the bus, leaving Muriel to me.
Now where could she be?
We had already paged her repeatedly on the loudspeaker.

Wonderful
, I thought.
I will just have to search all eleven decks of the
Rapture
until I find her
.