Chapter Thirty-Four

“Finn? Do you have your cell phone with you?” I didn’t trust that Sully or the Inspector had radioed ahead to alert Positano’s authorities of Ida’s murder. And, if I had any chance of getting help and off Athena before Neil and Antonio came on board, I needed to act quickly.

“Sorry, Kat. I forgot to charge it last night. I left it in my suite.”

I glanced at Tatiana. “How about you? Do you have your phone with you?”

“No.” Tatiana narrowed her eyes. She looked worried. “It’s in my father’s cabin, why?”

“What’s wrong, Kat.” Finn looked concerned. “Don’t you have yours?”

“No.” I explained how Carlo had taken our cell phones when he escorted us to Dede’s suite. “And I don’t suppose the wall phone is good for ship-to-shore?”

“It would be,” Finn said, “except you’d have to go through the operator, and since you’ve been locked in, I doubt you’d be put through.”

I joined Dede and Marco on the balcony and looked overboard as the small motorboat pulled beside us. One of the crewmen threw a short rope ladder from the Marina Deck’s open portal to Neil and Antonio below. I watched as they climbed aboard.

“So, what happens now?” I asked.

“We wait.” Marco returned to the food cart, grabbed a soda, and sat down. “Athena’s scheduled to be here for the day. If Captain Rob doesn’t want to call any unnecessary attention to us, he won’t do anything unexpected. Athena will remain moored out here in the bay. Some residents will come and go as they like, and we’ll leave at about nine p.m. As scheduled.”

“And what are we supposed to do? Wait until the Professor and Inspector Garnier decide what to do with us?” Without a phone or any way of contacting anyone on shore, the best thing I could think of was to dive from Dede’s deck and try to swim ashore. But if the dive didn’t kill me, Dede’s deck was at least three stories above the waterline, the swim might. I’d be lucky to get a hundred yards from the ship before one of the Professor’s henchmen would spot me in the water, and then where would I be? Probably right back where I started, or worse, isolated somewhere below deck where I’d be easy enough to dispose of without concern.

“I doubt there’s much we can do.” Marco popped the tab on his soda can.

“And what about me?” Tatiana started for the door. “I won’t be locked in like some prisoner.”

Finn grabbed Tatiana by the arm. “Think about it, Tatiana. Right now, nobody but us knows you’re here. And if whoever’s standing guard outside the door sees you walk out, it might not go so well for you. Don’t forget, these people murdered your father. They won’t stop there if they think you’re on to them.”

“So, I’m stuck with you then?” Tatiana ripped her arm from Finn.

“Hey, you wanted to see Dede, and I got you in. But I doubt I’d be as lucky hiding you beneath the cart again, and I’m not willing to risk it. So, if I were you, I’d stay.”

Finn’s beeper sounded. The color drained from his face as he checked his pager for a message.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I’m being summoned to the Bridge.”

“Is that unusual?”

“Not necessarily.” Finn tucked his beeper back inside his butler’s cummerbund and headed to the door. “I’ll be in touch.”

* * *

Twenty minutes later, Captain Rob made a shipwide announcement. “Residents. This is Captain Rob. Welcome to Positano. We will begin our tender service shortly. Temperatures today are expected to be in the mid-nineties. Doctor Jon suggests residents take a bottle of water with them when they leave the ship and not forget their sunscreen. Please be advised Athena is here for the day only, and we will depart promptly at nine p.m. Enjoy your day.”

“Did you hear that?” I looked at Marco. Dede was sitting beside him on the sofa. “Where’s Captain Byard? Why isn’t he on deck?”

“Good question.” Marco got up and went back out on the deck. “And an even better one is, why haven’t we seen any sign of the Italian authorities? Unless, of course, Captain Rob hasn’t reported Ida’s death—”

“And doesn’t intend to,” I said. I was standing inside the sliding door when the guard outside Dede’s cabin entered unannounced. His presence was so sudden and unexpected that Tatiana crouched out of sight behind the chair where she had been sitting. All of us were frightened.

“You!” The guard yelled at me. “Away from the door. And Marco. Inside. Now!” The guard, a midshipman I hadn’t seen before, waited for Marco to come inside, then crossed the room, banged the outside door shut, and closed the blinds behind him. “Nobody goes out on the deck until the Chief says so.”

Dede stood up. “Excuse me, young man, under whose authority do you barge into my apartment and try to hold me hostage? Do you know who I am?”

“I know Chief Sullivan has placed you under house arrest.”

“With what evidence?” Dede demanded.

“According to the Chief, you were the last to see Ida Churchill alive. You’re a suspect.”

“You think I had something to do with Ida Churchill’s death?”

“I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m only following orders.”

“And where is Captain Byard?”

“I don’t know, ma’am. All I’ve been told is to make sure you and your friends here remain in your quarters and that no one goes out on the deck.”

* * *

I waited until the guard left. Marco took a seat at the bar, and I grabbed a bunch of grapes from the food cart and sat down on one of the small swivel chairs next to the coffee table. Tatiana crawled out from behind the second swivel chair and took a seat. She looked pale, leaned across the table, and took several grapes from my hand.

“So you write story about Athena.”

“That’s why I’m on board.”

“Yes, I know. My father tells me about you.”

“About me?” I was surprised to hear Tatiana say her father had spoken to her about me, but not totally. Gossip was rampant aboard Athena, and I was an anomaly on board, a travel reporter, much younger than the average resident, and unexpected. But still, I wondered why Oleg would bother to mention me to her. “When was this?”

“He calls me when Athena is in Ischia. I know he is upset. His voice…it is anxious, and he says he will talk with you that night.”

“But we didn’t talk. And unfortunately, I don’t know what your father might have wanted to tell me. But maybe we can work together. I’ve got a lot of questions, and I’m sure you do too.” I put the grapes on the table and dusted my hands. “The way I see it, there’s been three suspicious deaths aboard Athena. The previous Captain. Your father. And now Ida. And I know you think Neil had something to do with your father’s death. But the thing is, I was with Neil the night your father died. I was having dinner with Neil and Antonio when we heard someone had fallen overboard.”

“My father didn’t fall.” The anger in Tatiana’s voice was palpable. “Someone pushed him. I know it.”

“But why? Because he knew about the Gang of Eight?”

“No. Is more than that. I told you I found ledgers in my father’s cabin.” Tatiana explained that her father was Athena’s bookkeeper. The job, along with a luxury apartment, was part of Oleg’s agreement with Neil for helping to broker a deal with the Russians for Athena’s dilapidated hull. Once Athena had been remodeled with upscale condos designed for senior living and christened, Oleg became the resident property manager. It was his job to oversee condo sales and collect association dues. Neil was too busy traveling to concern himself with the responsibility, and Walter, Dede’s husband, didn’t feel up to the task as his health was beginning to fail.

“And you think the ledgers prove Neil had something to do with your father’s death?”

“There are two sets of books. What do you think? One that shows Athena is deeply in debt. The other I don’t understand, but I believe it proves my father knew too much, and that—”

“Neil needed money and was using Athena to pirate stolen antiquities across the Mediterranean to pay the bills.”