Murder on the High Seas - The Devereaux CaseFiles Book 3

Chapter 14

It was the fourteenth day of the trip before Reed made any headway in Eddie's murder. Three days had gone by since Griffin had asked him to take on the case. Apart from a few interesting cabins that had made Ayah giggle in embarrassment at what they found, they didn't find much to help. Old Mrs Glenn had a diabetic kit in her cabin which Reed had taken along to the restaurant, leaving it in Palmer's care to make sure that she got the medicine she needed. At the same time, he confiscated the two syringes inside the case and one that was sitting in the waste basket of her cabin, to make sure that it hadn't been used against Eddie. There were three or four more left for Mrs Glenn to use and Palmer seemed a capable enough lad to take care of the matter himself.

The only other turn up they found, was a small vial in the room of a Mrs Hilton, with a torn label that only had the remaining small case letters 'niti' which looked to be only part of the word, seemingly the middle of it. What it meant, neither of them had a clue but when Ayah spotted a framed photograph of Mrs Hilton and her husband on the bedside table, they had enough of an incline to know that Benny was involved up to his neck in the whole affair. Benny was Mr Hilton.

Despite that knowledge, there was nothing concrete to use as evidence, as Benny could easily say that his wife had discovered his hidden life and thought that he was in trouble. Women who loved men like Benny usually did anything they could to protect them from prosecution or from being threatened. It would be a plausible story, unfortunately. Until Reed could take something much more logical to Griffin, he was going to keep searching.

The best thing that Griffin had managed to do for him, since he and his men had taken over the control of the ship, was set up a chemical lab where he could process his own fingerprints and blood evidence. He didn't find it a daunting task, as he had undergone such training for the agency. With Ayah's help, the crime scene would finally get investigated as it should have been all along. The Captain was safely kept out of the way, in his own quarters, guarded along with the rest of the staff to make sure that if any one of them were guilty, they could be held accountable. But, if he was honest, Reed didn't suspect anyone other than Benny. His actions before and after Eddie's death, his face and his whole demeanor screamed that he was guilty. But gut instincts didn't cut it in court.

"What do you think Griffin wants with the ship?" Ayah asked as they sat in the new lab, waiting on a special dye to take effect. She was less afraid now that Griffin was in charge, and letting them roam freely. She knew that it had nothing to do with them and that Reed was just cleaning up the mess someone else had made and keeping everyone else on the ship safe. Since she had let that knowledge sink in, she was no longer worried or frightened, but fully involved in the solving of Eddie's murder.

"I'm not sure yet. It's definitely got something to do with Brigit. But other than Eddie's murder, I see no other reason to take the whole ship hostage. Unless your friendship made it necessary." He hypothesized, flicking through the doctor's medicine book. He noted all the drugs and medications that contained the letters 'niti' somewhere in the middle of the word. And yet, they both knew that his theory didn't make any sense. Griffin obviously knew who they were and that they posed him no threat. He could simply have approached Reed, identified himself as part of the agency and asked him and his wife to back away from Brigit for a while, so that they could take her 'safely' into their care.

It wouldn't have been hard and had someone shown him the necessary paperwork of the agency, or given him some common knowledge that only an agent would know, then he would have been happy to given Brigit over to them. It didn't matter what they wanted her for, she was obviously important.

"Anyway, we don't have time to focus on that right now. I'm not finding anything here that fits with the letters and symptoms we've got. I'm going to try an internet search. Maybe see if it's some kind of poison or alternative therapy drug." He sighed in complaint, turning his swivel chair to face the laptop, before starting his search. Ayah was left sitting there, not knowing what to do other than to twiddle her thumbs in anticipation for the eventual moment when her wonderful husband would once again solve the case all by himself. Well, her hormones were raging, she was craving food and the heat inside the lab was starting to irritate her. She simply couldn't sit still any longer.