Page 43 of The Situation Ship
Poppy didn’t dignify his comment with a response. She simply picked up his clothes from the bed and tossed them at him. Isaiah caught them quickly, chuckling to himself as she blushed.
“What are you doing here? I thought you were off with your driver?” he asked, dropping the clothes on the desk and turning his attention back to Mina.
“You really underestimate me, don’t you?” Mina picked up the tape recorder and waved it at him. “A simple ‘thank you, Mina; we are lucky to have you’ would suffice. ‘Thank you for getting the tape recorder so we can listen to the tape withouthaving to go to a creepy morgue and search through a dead woman’s belongings’.”
Isaiah rolled his eyes, drying his hair roughly with a towel. “Thank you, Mina.”
“You’re welcome, Isaiah.”
“If you two are finished, can we listen to the tape?” Poppy interjected.These two bicker like siblings.
She grabbed the small tape from the bedside table, thinking that hiding blackmail material next to a dusty bible seemed ironic. Inserting the tape into the recorder, she pressed the rewind button until it clicked.
For a moment, she hesitated, her thumb hovering over the play button.
“Do you want me to do it?” Isaiah asked.
Poppy wasn’t sure why she felt so afraid – it was just a button – but she couldn’t bring herself to press it. Instead, she handed the recorder to Isaiah, her mind racing with fear and uncertainty.
He set it down on the dresser between the three of them and pressed play.
All they heard at first was static. Poppy frowned, about to check if the tape had been inserted incorrectly, but suddenly Calliope’s voice rang from the recorder.
“How dare you try to justify your mess? You can forget about the other half of your money. You fucked up, and I’m not paying for a messy job,” she snapped. Poppy had never seen this side of her before.
The other voice was just a static whisper; she couldn’t make out who she was talking to. Could Calliope be using a phone or a radio?
“Don’t take that tone with me. You said you would make it look like a simple overdose. No mess, no investigation – and most importantly, you were supposed to do it whenPoppy wasn’t home. You promised me no witnesses,” Calliope barked.“You’ve had unfettered access, and you screwed it up.”
Poppy’s stomach flipped.Calliope plotted to murder Martha?It felt like the rug had been swept out from underneath her. The two had had a tense rivalry, but Poppy had never thought Calliope would hate Martha so much as to hurt her.Witnesses? Is she trying to have me killed now because she thinks I’m investigating Martha’s death?
Whoever she was talking to had had unlimited access to Poppy’s home. Was she talking to Dug? Poppy’s eyebrows rose. Based on their conversation in the boutique, Calliope hadn’t known that Dug had been fired since Martha’s death, so his access was gone now. Still, she didn’t understand why Duggery, after so many years of loyal service, would be willing to betray her aunt just to strangle some cash out of Calliope. He would’ve made more in the long run if her aunt had lived and Poppy remained under his thumb. The pieces didn’t quite fit.Who the hell was she talking to? Were they on the ship, or had she smuggled on a phone? She’d hoped the tape would give her answers, but it was only adding to her questions.
“All you had to do was swap out her pills with the higher doses I gave you, and it should have knocked her out cold. There’s no way she should have been able to get out of bed,” Calliope continued.
Poppy felt a surge of shock and disbelief at the depth of the woman’s hatred. She must have been really desperate for that Academy Award.Duggery had been in charge of securing her aunt’s ‘prescription’, so he must have swapped out the pills for something more potent but underestimated the tolerance she had built up over the years.
“How can you tell me not to worry? Falling down the stairs? Breaking her neck? Poppy witnessed it. What if she insists on investigating the pills Martha was taking—?”
Calliope was cut off, and there was a moment of quiet before she spoke again.
“Calm down? Are you a fool or an idiot? You promised me that you would get rid of Poppy.”
That’s why Dug persuaded Joshua to kill me.Poppy was the only one in her aunt’s life who could have thrown suspicion on her death. At least Joshua had had the sense to back out.
“Don’t make the mistake of underestimating Poppy. She was raised by the devil in disguise, and you must take every precaution before proceeding. Don’t contact me again if you know what’s good for you,” Calliope threatened, and the static returned.
The tape recorder clicked, cutting off the rest of the conversation. On the small tape, that was all there was room for.
Poppy took a moment to process what they’d discovered.Thinking back on the night of her aunt’s death, she couldn’t help but wonder if the pills would have killed Martha without the extra push.Was she already a dead woman walking when she took the plunge?
She saw Isaiah’s lips moving, but she couldn’t hear him. She rewound the tape to listen to it again, but he placed his hand over hers, snapping her out of the trance.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
Poppy nodded, swallowing the bile rising in her throat. Dug and Joshua were only pawns in a bigger game. Calliope was the puppeteer.
A plan formed in her mind. After the opera, she would find Calliope. She didn’t want Mina or Isaiah around during their conversation in case she had to confess to things she didn’t want them to know. There was no point in Calliope wasting resources trying to harm her. Poppy would keep the tape as insurance, and they could continue their voyage in peace.Mina and Isaiah would be safe.
