Page 22 of The Situation Ship
Blood. The smell is blood.
Patrice, the woman who had greeted them only yesterday with warmth and a bright smile, stared up at Poppy accusingly with wide, blank eyes.
Poppy wanted to scream or call for Mina, but no sound came out; her vocal cords had knotted together painfully. She covered her nose and mouth to stop herself from gagging, breaking out into a cold sweat. All she could do was stare at the poor woman with a knife sticking out of her chest where her heart should be.
There was so much blood that she could barely make out Patrice’s once perfectly pressedMidasuniform. The cream shell-shaped tiles were painted red, and the grout was varying shades of brown.
A scream shocked Poppy out of her frozen state. Mina had followed her inside.
“Don’t look, don’t look at her!” Poppy cried, trying to turn her away from the horrible sight.
“Is she—?” Mina stammered,covering her eyes even though she was already facing the wall.
“She’s gone,” Poppy choked.
Isaiah ran in with his gun drawn.
“Mina, go outside and call security. Then go out into the hall and wait. Don’t touch anything,” he instructed. Mina didn’t need to be told twice.
“Wh-what do I do?” Poppy stammered, trying not to look at Patrice.
“Just stand there. The scene has been disturbed enough, and you have blood on your feet,” Isaiah said calmly. “I don’t want you to trek bloody footprints around the room.”
Poppy looked down. She hadn’t even realised she’d stepped in a small pool ofblood. “Oh God, I think I’m going to pass out.”
“Just breathe and focus on me. What did you see when you first came in? Did anything look out of place or disturbed? No detail is too small.”
Poppy took a deep breath and tried to focus her thoughts. “I don’t think so. Mina helped me unpack my toiletries yesterday, and they’re still in the same place by the sink where I left them before we went out,” she said, trying not to think about the cold, thick slime beneath her feet. “The shower curtain was open when we left. Closed shower curtains always give me the creeps.”
“You didn’t see the blood before you opened the curtain?”
“No, I only realised what the smell was when I opened it…” She saw for the first time that blood was dripping from the end of the shower curtain. “Please get me out of here.”
“I will, I promise, but I need to get this straight. When you opened the curtain it must have come out of the tub and dripped on the floor, but there was no blood on the floor for you to notice when you came in?”
Poppy nodded shakily. “I must have pulled the curtain out. I didn’t realise it, and then I froze. I didn’t snap out of it until Mina screamed.”
“You’re in shock. Freezing is a totally normal response,” Isaiah said calmly.
“Our butler is dead in the bathtub. There is nothing normal about this!”
“Sorry– this is just a normal Tuesday for me,” he answered, examining the bathtub. Her nausea increased the closer he gotto the body. He was studying the knife when something sticking out of Patrice’s pocket caught her eye.
“Wait, is there something in her pocket?” she said, swallowing her horror. “I think it’s an old tape recorder.”
Isaiah looked at her as if he was expecting her to have a panic attack, but she met his gaze levelly. She was used to pushing down the tough stuff.
“I’ll be right back. Just close your eyes and breathe.” Isaiah disappeared and returned a moment later wearing black latex gloves. She wouldn’t ask why he had them, but maybe they were part of some bodyguard/detective start-up kit.
Carefully, he removed the object from Patrice’s body.
“Why would she be carrying around a tape recorder?” Poppy asked, trying to get a better look.
He stood up and showed her the small device.“Have you seen this before?”
“No, it’s definitely not mine.”
“Hmm. She might have been using it to record guest conversations. Since they don’t allow phones on board, it makes sense that she’d need some other device.”
