Murder on the Ocean Odyssey by Peter Black

Author:Peter Black [Black, Peter]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oakbridge
Published: 2023-09-17T16:00:00+00:00

12

Ruth and Logan spent the next thirty minutes searching the upper decks before finally coming across Colonel Tom in the theatre.

Ruth had to privately admit she was glad to see him, but there was no way she’d show that on the outside.

He hurried down the steps at the front of the stage and raced up the middle aisle. “Thank goodness you’re okay.” He halted and looked between them. “Where were you? We were so worried.”

Logan folded his arms and scowled. “We should ask you the same thing. Where’s everyone else?”

“We were checking out the doors’ security logs,” Ruth said. “Looking for any signs the killer’s been moving about the ship.”

“What did you discover?” Colonel Tom asked.

Ruth sighed. “Not a lot.”

At that moment, Jeremy sauntered onto the stage. When Colonel Tom looked back at him, Jeremy shrugged and scratched his beard.

“Damn.” Colonel Tom faced Ruth again. “When we realised you’d gone, all three of us came looking for you.” He took a breath and gestured over his shoulder. “We were supposed to stay together, but Laura has gone missing.”

“What is it with everyone vanishing on this damn boat?” Logan glanced over at Jeremy and back again. “She’s not a set of car keys. You don’t misplace a person. Where was she last?”

“Here.” Colonel Tom motioned around them. “We were checking the place out, looking backstage, and under it, in the dressing rooms . . . She was right behind me one minute and gone the next.”

“Show us where you were,” Ruth said. “We’ll retrace your steps. She probably hasn’t gone far.”

“We’ve already tried that,” Colonel Tom said. “That’s what we’d done when you arrived. She’s not here.”

Ruth pointed to the stage. “Let’s look again.”

Colonel Tom nodded. “Very well.”

They followed him back onto the stage, and then the four of them headed through the wings, down a flight of steps, and along a corridor that ran across the back of the theatre. Rows of doors stood open on either side.

Ruth glanced inside each as they passed: several dressing rooms, a cupboard of cleaning supplies, and another filled with racks of costumes.

“This is where we’d gotten to.” Colonel Tom waved into a room with various sound equipment. He went to leave.

“Where are you going?” Ruth asked.

“I thought it prudent I try to bust open the ship manager’s filing cabinet and get that emergency radio.”

Ruth shook her head. “First, I need to know exactly where you last saw her.”

Jeremy stepped inside while Colonel Tom remained by the door, peering in.

“She searched all these rooms with us.” Colonel Tom pointed at the master dressing room. “There, I think.”

“Wait here a minute.” Three doors down, Ruth glanced into the room with a dressing table, a mirror surrounded by lights, and a wardrobe. A door on the right stood open, which led to a bathroom.

She pulled back and eyed an emergency exit at the end of the corridor, but to reach it, Laura would’ve had to walk straight past Colonel Tom, and he would have heard her push down on the bar.

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