Page 23 of The Situation Ship
“Do you think she was planting it in the suite?” Poppy asked, worried about who might want to listen to her conversations.“Why was she even in our suite in the first place?”
“She might have come by when you weren’t present for the muster drill.” Isaiah shrugged. “She discovered someone planting it and was murdered to conceal what she knew. Or she knew we wouldn’t be in our rooms because of the drill, and she was going to plant the recording device herself.”
“Or she just records guests to sell secrets or to protect herself from some self-entitled pricks. We shouldn’t jump to conclusions that her murder is related to the recorder,” Poppy reasoned.
“Why think it’s unrelated?” Isaiah frowned.
“Because if someone killed her because she recorded something she shouldn’t have, why didn’t they take the recorder with them?” Poppy snapped.
“Good detective skills,” Isaiah said, hitting the ejection button on the side of the recorder.
“Don’t sound so surprised,” she said, staring at the empty pocket.
“They didn’t take the recorder because they took the tape instead,” he said, returning the recorder to Patrice’s pocket.
“I’m going to inform the captain and see if we can return to port as soon as possible.” He took a picture of Poppy’s feet, the shower curtain, and the pool of blood.
“Where did you get the phone?” she gasped.
“Mr Eckells gave it to me so I could reach him at all times. I’m sure he’ll want to be apprised of what’s happening on his ship,” Isaiah said, looking up. “But this is our little secret. Not even Mina can know about the phone. Do you understand?”
Poppy nodded.
“Good. Sit on the lid of the toilet. Try not to touch anything.”
He took pictures of the soles of her bloody feet before handing her a towel to clean them, then placing the towel in a disposable bag he found in a drawer. Once most of the blood was off, she felt a little better.
“Stay with Mina in the hall until I come out. Don’t talk to anyone but me,” he instructed her coolly. “Don’t touch anything on the way out.”
Poppy nodded and left him alone with the body without looking back.
“Was that really Patrice?” Mina was pacing when Poppy joined her in the hall.
“Yes,” Poppy admitted. What was taking security so long?
“Do you think this has anything to do with the plan to kill you?” Mina fretted.
Poppy glanced up and down the hall to ensure no one was listening before pulling her into Mina’s room.
“Shh! No, I don’t think so.” She shook her head, not wanting to believe it.
“You can’t know that for sure. What if Patrice was mistaken for you? What if your ex and Duggery hired someone?” Mina said, rubbing her temples. “We couldn’t get into your room last night! Oh God, what if she was being murdered right when we were just outside the door?”
“Take a deep breath. There’s no way anyone would mistake us. She has dark hair and is far taller than me. You’d have to be blind and drunk to mix us up,” Poppy pointed out.
“Okay, fair point. But what are the chances that your manager was planning to kill you, and now you have a dead woman in your bathtub?!”
“You need to calm down before security gets here. This might not have anything to do with me. Patrice had a recording device in her pocket, so I guess she recorded the wrong person saying the wrong thing, and someone followed her to our suite and shut her up.”
“Right. I mean, if she was recording high-profile guests, she could’ve pissed off the wrong person,” Mina said, nodding along, starting to level out.
“You didn’t see or hear anything last night when you got back?” Poppy asked.
“No. I waited for you both to come back, but then I passed out watching TV. Even so, surely I would’ve heard someone being murdered, right?” Mina asked, pale and wide-eyed.“God, maybe I could have helped her if I hadn’t had the TV on—”
“You can’t blame yourself! You had a lot to drink. We also don’t know when she was killed. We might have all been out when she came by. Isaiah and I were only next door; we would’ve heard a struggle or someone calling for help, so you can’t putthis on yourself,” Poppy said, remembering how fast Isaiah had responded when Mina screamed in the bathroom. There was no way he would have ignored someone screaming for help in the middle of the night.
They both looked to the door when they heard voices in the hall.
