A Cruise to Murder Read online

  Sarah and Bernard, a Philippine male nurse, were scheduled to be in the passenger lounge later, collecting questionnaires about recent vomiting or diarrhoea from the passengers. Sarah had discovered that seasoned cruisers did not admit to any such illness, knowing that they would be confined to their staterooms for a few days if they did. She hated telling new cruisers, who were just being honest, that their first few days would be limited to their rooms. It was a necessary precaution, however, because the Norovirus (Norwalk) could spread around a ship like a wildfire and ruin everyone’s holiday. Medical and nursing staff would be called out ad infinitum to attend to every passenger or crew member who had picked it up.

  Sarah had only encountered one episode of Norovirus early on in her cruising experience, and luckily the medics had managed to contain the outbreak in one small part of the ship. The Coral Queen boasted a high standard of hygiene, but buffets were lethal if this marauder invaded.

  I would ban buffets altogether if it was left to me. Sarah knew that the restaurant and buffet staff did their best to ensure that passengers used hand gels on entering any dining area, but there were always a stubborn few who snubbed them.

  The Canary Islands cruise they had just been on had turned out to be excessively busy. Lots of sea days always meant busy times in the medical centre. Sarah had been on call for the past seventy-two hours and had been up most nights, attending to minor ailments and injuries. Many of the ailments were due to excessive drinking by both passengers and crew. The crew tended to let their hair down during their time off in the bar below the waterline. Sarah had ventured into the crew bar on rare occasions, but it was not for the fainthearted.

  “It’s like a viper’s nest down there,” Janice, the senior nurse warned her when she first joined ship, but at least one visit to the bar was a necessary initiation for Sarah so that she knew what to expect during on-call hours.

  Sarah had noticed that most nationalities tended to group together with their own countrymen. Seating was scarce in the crew bar, whereas alcohol was abundantly available. During her very first cruise, she was having a drink with Bernard when a fight had broken out between a Romanian and a Russian, and it didn’t end well.

  Crowds gathered round as it turned nasty.

  “So much for a quiet night,” Bernard moaned, holding Sarah back. “Wait for security or you might end up hurt.”

  Security arrived and pulled the men apart. Sarah could see there was blood everywhere. She had spent the night helping the doctor to stitch the Romanian man’s face. He’d ended up with stitches that ran from above his left eye down to his chin due to an injury sustained from a broken bottle.

  Bernard had dealt with the Russian kitchen worker, who’d suffered a broken nose and had two front teeth knocked out.

  “He was ugly before, now he’s grotesque,” Bernard whispered to her afterwards.

  “You’re incorrigible,” Sarah replied.

  “Serves him right for ruining my down-time.”

  “What happens to them now?” Sarah had asked Janice.

  “Security are here to collect them. They will be locked up and thrown off ship at the next port without any fare home.”

  Discipline on board a ship had to be strict otherwise rival factions could create chaos. The crew knew the consequences of serious misdemeanours. Sarah understood the need, but couldn’t help feeling sorry for the two men, knowing they would have very little money when they were escorted off the ship.

  “There is a no tolerance policy towards this kind of violence,” Janice explained.

  Other drink-related mishaps commonly involved passengers with drinks packages and those who sneaked liquor on board. These passengers also accounted for many of the night-time call-outs. Occasionally there would be passengers or crew members who had taken drugs. Sarah had been surprised to discover that passengers could be locked up for drugs offences if security felt it necessary, but it was uncommon. Crew had to undergo regular drugs tests, and any who tested positive were also chucked off ship at the next port.

  Sarah was thankful there had been no serious illnesses or injuries during the latest cruise. In general, both crew and passengers had been happy – barring a few disgruntled passengers who would never be satisfied. She smiled as she thought of how nice it would be not to have to see Mr Bragen ever again. Mr Bragen had been a passenger with a chronic leg ulcer who, in spite of having his own attending private nurse, insisted on turning up to one of the surgeries held twice daily to have his dressings checked. She would hear him before she saw him: a loud and uncouth man who always demanded to be seen straight away.

  “No, I will not take a seat. Where’s my nurse?”

  Sarah would cringe before straightening up and heading out to the waiting area.

  “Mr Bragen, please come through. What a pleasure it is to see you again.”

  “Like hell it is. Let’s just get on with it and none of your British charm. I’m immune.”

  I couldn’t agree more, and thankfully not all Americans are like you!

  “As you wish.” She would smile at Delia, his private nurse whom she had got to know quite well, as she wheeled him into the surgery.

  “How do you put up with him?” she had asked privately. Delia had sniggered.

  “I have very thick skin, and for the money he pays, I would do almost anything.”

  Delia helped Sarah to deal with this rude man, and she was right – he paid well and left generous tips. He even gave Sarah a gold brooch. She would have refused it, but he had sneaked it on to her desk while she wasn’t looking, along with a thank you card, on the last day. By then, she was too busy to track him down to return it.

  Anyway, no more Mr Bragen. I can’t wait to see Rachel today.

  Sarah was three months into a nine-month contract with Queen Cruises, and she had finally got used to the shifts and facilities available aboard ship. It had taken a while to adjust from hospital life to that of a nurse on a cruise ship, but she enjoyed the work and managed to get some time off when the ship was in port. In many ways, working on a cruise ship beat hospitals on land. Time off was shared between herself, Bernard, Brigitte and Janice. The doctors also shared time off between themselves. As long as there was a doctor and two nurses on duty when the ship was in port, the others could go on land. Other than that, they were never really off duty because they had to respond to emergencies night and day.

  Sarah had saved up quite a bit of time off so that she would be able to spend time with Rachel. Bernard and Brigitte had been happy to take extra trips on the Canaries cruise when she had explained Rachel would be travelling alone.

  “Poor girl,” said Brigitte. “Men are scum.” She did a pretend spitting motion.

  “Hey – am I invisible?” Bernard protested.

  “You are not, but you should be.” Sarah nudged him playfully. Bernard was in fact happily married with two children back home in Manila. “Poor Rachel, she has had a horrid time. She was absolutely besotted with the man.”

  “As you can’t bring yourself to say his name, I take it you didn’t like him,” Brigitte observed.

  “To be honest, I never took to Robert.” Sarah said the name pointedly. “Obviously, even if I had liked him, I wouldn’t now, but he completely took over Rachel’s life. Right from the start, he took her away from everything and everyone that she knew.”

  “Controlling then?” asked Bernard.

  “Yes, it was subtle at first, but I recognised his controlling nature early on. The signs were there, but it was impossible to broach the subject with Rachel. Even when she phoned, he always seemed to be there. It was as if she wasn’t allowed to speak without his permission. I was going to try to talk to Rachel about it, but I chickened out. She was so happy and I didn’t want to make her sad.”

  "Perhaps as well, or she might not have been able to face you now when she needs you,” said Brigitte.

  “You’re right, but I had already decided it was Rachel’s choice and I was going to try to l
ike the man.”

  Sarah couldn’t help thinking that Rachel was better off without him, but knew that it would take some time for her to recover from the breakup.

  “As I said, men are scum.” Brigitte folded her arms and glared at Bernard, who smirked.

  “She’s a fitness fanatic, so I am just hoping that she enjoys the cruise and I have done the right thing persuading her to join me, especially as our time together will be limited. But it’s got to be better than working all hours, which is the way that Rachel has been dealing with it.”

  “Don’t worry, we will cover for you as much as possible. Anything to help a damsel in distress.” Bernard turned to Brigitte. “As you see, not all men are scum.”

  That conversation had been a few days ago. Sarah was pleased that she worked with great people, even though change was on the horizon.

  Once Sarah was washed and dressed in her passenger deck officer uniform, she was ready for the day. She smiled to herself as she looked at the four different uniforms in her wardrobe.

  “You have four uniforms to be worn on different occasions, and woe betide you if you get it wrong.” Janice had given her a tour on her first day and then showed her to her living quarters. “There is a day uniform to be worn in passenger areas and a night uniform for the same areas. You can wear scrubs during surgery hours and when in the medical centre, and for formal nights you wear this baby.” Janice held up yet another white starched uniform that was even more pristine than the others.

  “I will do my best to comply,” Sarah had answered, but what had seemed very confusing then was now second nature to her. As a nurse, she had officer status and proudly boasted two and a half gold stripes on her epaulettes.

  After putting on the day uniform, she made her way two doors down to see Janice. Janice had been senior nurse on the ship for a year, but she was moving to another ship after a short break to see her parents in Scotland. Sarah had been trained by Janice, and in spite of a fifteen-year age difference, they had become good friends.

  Janice opened the door dressed casually in beige cotton trousers and the t-shirt Sarah had bought her as a leaving present. The bright yellow letters spoke volumes: ‘LIFE IS FOR LIVING’.

  “You’ll never believe it, I slept in!” Janice exclaimed. “Thankfully, I packed last night so I’m ready to go.”

  “I’m going to miss you,” said Sarah, to which Janice smiled.

  “You’ll be fine. You never know, you might get someone your own age to talk to.”

  “And I might get a dragon!” Sarah smiled wistfully, although she was not one to be negative. They hugged briefly, and then Janice turned to grab her hand luggage as her suitcase had been collected the night before and would be waiting for her in the baggage hall on the dockside.

  “Good luck, Sarah, and enjoy yourself with your friend. I’d better get going before they keep me on board.”

  They walked together towards the lifts and hugged before Sarah took the stairs to the medical centre. Janice wasn’t the only one leaving today. Marek, the junior doctor (or ‘baby doc’ as junior doctors are known on board a cruise ship), had completed his contract and decided that ship medicine wasn’t for him. He missed his girlfriend, a ward sister at St Thomas’s Hospital in London, so he had managed to get a job as a locum GP in Hackney. He was hoping to ‘pop the question’ as soon as he got to London.

  Dr Graham Bentley would be staying, which was a good thing because he was so experienced in ship medicine and brilliant in an emergency. Dr Bentley was the chief medical officer and the first in command of the medical team.

  It had taken Sarah a while to get used to the cruise-line hierarchy at first. The chief generally saw passengers and the baby doc was responsible for the health of the crew. The nurses saw both passengers and crew members, with the senior nurse ensuring everything ran smoothly and that passengers were billed appropriately.

  Bernard and Brigitte were also staying, so at least Sarah could still have a laugh. They had similar senses of humour – humour that only nurses could share.

  Among the many other staff moving on today, the one that was hardest for Sarah to take was Barry. The engineering officer was being moved to join the same ship as Janice. Sarah and Barry had got on from the first time they met and had become good friends. His impending move was one of the things that had stopped them becoming a couple; that and the small matter of his being engaged to the assistant cruise director on the ship he was soon to be joining. Sarah had fought off her feelings and Barry’s advances, determined not to do to someone else what had been done to Rachel and having a stubborn belief in right and wrong. Her faith had taken a battering over the past five years, but although she no longer went to church, she still had a strong moral code that she couldn’t quite shake off.

  “It’s perhaps as well he is leaving – it could only have ended badly.” Bernard had comforted her the night before by helping her to avoid a long goodbye. Barry had made it obvious Bernard wasn’t welcome, but at Sarah’s request, he had stuck to her like glue, and Barry had finally given up.

  Sarah knew that the long hours and the close proximity of other crew members resulted in multiple casual relationships on board. For some girls, it was their first time away from home, and they equated the freedom that came with it with being free to sleep around. It didn’t always go to plan, as the men often promised much and delivered little. Some of these relationships even ended up in crew presenting with venereal diseases. There was one crew member who attended surgery regularly for antibiotics, and no matter how much Sarah and the doctors tried to advise him to practise safe sex, he just didn’t get it.

  “Why should I? I can get treatment when I need it.”

  Marek had threatened not to treat him the next time, but they all knew that a doctor couldn’t withhold the treatment, if only for the sakes of the girls that he slept with.

  “One day you will have a resistant strain of the disease and then I won’t be able to treat you. When that happens, you will be sacked to safeguard the rest of the crew.”

  Sarah took a deep breath as she unlocked the door and entered the medical centre.

  Chapter 3

  “It seems to be taking an inordinately long time to get there.” Marjorie knew the journey from London to Southampton was only about seventy miles. She hadn’t really been taking much notice of the road, but now she looked out of the window, she could see that the M3 was virtually at a standstill going north. Although she was travelling south, the car was going very slowly.

  “What’s happening, Johnson?” she asked the chauffer of the white Rolls Royce they were travelling in.

  “We passed an accident a while back, ma’am, but we’re almost at our turn-off. We have plenty of time.”

  Johnson hesitated as if he wanted to say something.

  “Is there something else, Johnson?”

  “You seem to be worried about something ma’am. Are you sure that you should take this trip alone? You have only just got over the accident and Lord Snellthorpe trusted me to look after you.”

  “You know that Ralph and I loved cruising and he would have wanted me to carry on.” She wiped a tear away from her face. “I will be fine on board the Coral Queen. The staff will look after me and I have plenty of books to keep me occupied.”

  “Yes, I’m sure they will, madam.”

  Lady Snellthorpe was touched by Johnson’s concern for her welfare. Her maid had told her that he had tried to get tickets for the cruise but found it was fully booked. The maid said Johnson had checked the day before, deciding to spend the money left to him by Lord Snellthorpe on the cruise, so that he keep an eye on her from a distance.

  The nagging feeling returned.

  Marjorie Snellthorpe was deep in thought. She hardly ever travelled in the Rolls, but the Bentley was in the garage having a respray following her minor bump the previous week. Her mind wandered back to that event. She had decided to go shopping on her own, much to the dismay of her housekeeper, Mrs Ratton.
A car had crashed into the side of hers as she was turning a corner. The driver had seemingly come from nowhere, and when they collided, he stared at her menacingly. As he appeared to be getting out of the car, her first thought was that she was about to be a victim of road-rage, but a woman had come to her assistance. The driver had jumped back into his car and driven off at speed.

  It had been traumatic, and when the police came, Marjorie had been unable to give them much information. She could remember the face of the driver, but nothing about the car, other than that is was possibly grey. The police had been sympathetic but unable to take it any further, and she had agreed that they were unlikely to be able to track the driver down.

  She shuddered as she thought of the accident, still uncertain whether it had been deliberate. Marjorie had not thought so initially, but as she remembered how it had occurred and how intimidating the man had looked, a nagging feeling that it was not an accident wormed its way into her mind.

  She had shared her concerns with her son, Jeremy, but he’d scoffed at her as he always did.

  “Don’t be ridiculous, Mother, you have been watching too much American television,” he shouted. He always seemed to shout these days. “Why would anyone want to crash into you on purpose?”

  “Why indeed? I’m sure you’re right, Jeremy, perhaps I get a little over anxious since your father died. I miss him terribly.”

  Her son had changed the subject all too quickly and asked her for yet another injection of cash into the family business.

  “Jeremy, you have had three large sums of money in the past twelve months. Why do you need more?”

  She could see that her son was fighting to control his temper. He had always hated being challenged, but since taking over the management of the business, he had become overly quick to fly off the handle.

  “Mother, you don’t understand business. These are difficult times and we need to keep competitive.”

  “We’re not in trouble, are we?” Marjorie was worried. Although she didn’t understand the business, she did understand money management, and Ralph had always warned her about Jeremy’s spending habits. She hoped rather than believed that the money was going into the business as she signed the cheque.