Connor Harrison stared at the cards in front of him. Staring back at him were the Ace, Queen, Jack and Ten of Clubs, as well as the Four of Spades. He took one last look at his hole cards, the Seven and Three of Hearts. He settled back in his chair and contemplated his hand, or lack of one. This would normally be the time he would simply turn all the cards over, signifying the he had folded, but he was going to try something a little different; a bluff. He wished his ‘good luck charm’ had not departed. The older lady, Jane Cranford, had been sitting next to him every day for the first seven days of this cross Atlantic cruise and he hoped she would continue to do so for the last three. He referred to her as the ‘lady card shark’. She had bested him in a number of hands, and he respected her poker abilities, especially in the favorite game at this table, seven-card stud.
The ‘lady card shark’ had glanced around just before she left, stretched and said, as she looked at her watch, “It’s way past my naptime. Does anybody want this seat?”
The woman who had quickly taken her place introduced herself as Andrea Nicholson. She appeared to know very little about the game, having to be reminded on several occasions that it was time to bet, call or whatever. She was a tall attractive blonde, but that didn’t help Connor with his present dilemma.
He had the task of convincing the three remaining opponents that he had filled that inside straight and that they might as well fold. The blonde next to him shifted in her chair. She appeared to be contemplating her next move, as did the two gentlemen sitting across from Connor and the blonde.
Connor looked down at the pile of chips and stacked them up. “Call your hundred and raise another hundred.” He pushed the chips out toward the middle of the table, realizing that this bet just about wiped him out. He waited for a few moments then said to the blonde, “Okay, your turn.”
“Oh,” she said, thinking about what she should do. At that moment, Connor felt a light tapping on his shoulder. He looked up into the face of a young man dressed in the uniform of the cruise line. The single stripe on his epaulet told Connor that he was a junior officer. He started to ignore the man but he figured the young lady sitting beside him might need some extra time to figure out her next move.
“Yes, what can I do for you?” he inquired of the young officer.
“Are you detective Harrison?”
“Yes,” Connor said, “but that’s retired detective.”
“Pardon me sir, but I was told to bring you with me…or wait for you, if necessary.”
“Okay, but as you can see, we’re right in the middle of a hand…”
“Yes sir, I can wait.”
“Good for you,” Connor answered. He leaned back in his chair and gazed out the window toward the lightly rolling ocean. He ran his fingers through his close-cropped dark hair flecked with touches of gray as he considered how the ten-day cruise on his favorite cruise ship had been going up to now, with just three days remaining.
His attention was returned to the game when it appeared the blonde had finally made up her mind what she should do. Connor glanced over at her cards and noted that she was showing the Jack and Eight of Diamonds, the Nine and Six of Spades, and the Eight of Hearts.
The woman sighed and said, “This hand isn’t worth anything.” She then proceeded to turn over her hole cards, trying to indicate that she was folding. Her action revealed the Two of Spades and Connor’s missing King of Clubs. Almost immediately one of the men across the table from them said, “Well, that’s one bluff that won’t work,” as he called Connor’s bet.
The former detective stared daggers at the young woman seated next to him, who, suspecting something was wrong with her actions, said, in a bewildered voice, “Did I do something wrong?”
Connor simply nodded his head as he said, “Yes you did.” One of the gentlemen across the table took the hand with a pair of Nines. At that point, Connor turned to the young officer waiting for him. “Well, that wipes me out, now, what can I do for you?”
“The Chief of Security would like to speak with you. If you have time, can you come with me?”
“Sure, since it looks like I’m out of the game.” He stood up, stretched his six foot two inch frame and began to follow the officer. He looked back one last time at the blonde who still bore a bewildered look.
The officer took Connor through a door marked ‘Crew Only’, up a set of stairs and soon was face to face with the chief of security for the MS Mermaid.
“Connor, I’m surprised to see you so quick. I thought I might have to wait a while.”
“Well,” he replied, “I was seated next to an idiot who didn’t know what the hell she was doing. She cost me a bunch of money in that game. But enough of that, why am I here?”
Connor waited for Paul Stuart, who happened to be his former roommate at Chapel Hill, to explain what was going on.
“It seems we have a slight problem.”
“And that would be…?”
“A missing passenger,” the security chief answered, flatly.
“Missing? How do you mean, missing.”
“I mean, he’s gone. Nobody can find him…and his wife has personally spoken with the captain.”
“Okay, but how does that involve me?” Connor questioned.
“Tell you what. Let’s go grab some coffee and I’ll fill you in.”
The pair left the security chief’s office and took the elevator to the cafeteria. As they settled in with mugs of hot coffee in front of them, Paul asked Connor, “Are you still enjoying retirement?”
Connor smiled, adding, “and traveling.”
“I could get envious, except that I know the circumstances.”
“Yeah, the reason I’m retired at forty-two.” Connor thought about why he was no longer working on the police force in Raleigh, and why he was able to do the traveling on this cruise ship. He and his police partner were chasing a couple of young thieves who decided to take a stand in an empty warehouse. Connor’s partner, Jimmy Killan, was caught out in the open and certainly would have died if Connor had not stood up from his place of cover. The young men took shots at him, one of them hitting him in the knee. Jimmy was able to take cover and return their fire. They went down, as did Connor. After his recovery and rehab he was offered a desk job or retirement. He chose the latter.
“I’d much rather be out there on the street where the action is, but I made my choice. Hey, but it looks like your career is doing well. You’re top dog here.” Connor paused then said, “So tell me about this guy that’s missing. Why is he so important and what am I supposed to do about it?”
“Connor, I need help on this one, and with your reputation of solving every case you ever work on, you and I can’t go wrong.”
“How do you know about my cases?”
“Connor, I’ve been following your career just like you’ve been following mine, ever since we left Carolina.”
The former detective smiled. They both had chosen Criminal Justice as their majors, but followed different career paths. Connor had spent three years in the Army as an MP, then, after his release from active duty he worked his way up through the ranks to become a homicide detective. Paul had chosen, instead, to sign on with the cruise line and worked his way up the corporate ladder to find himself the top security officer on the MS Mermaid.
“All right, tell me what’s so special about this guy that you need help.”
“It’s not him, it’s his wife. She is rich, and I don’t mean a little bit of money, I mean a lot. She cruises with us all the time and when she says ‘jump’ this cruise line jumps.”
“So?”
“So, just this. The captain asked me if I would enlist you to help us with the search for this guy.”
“You think he’s still on the ship?”
“He has a reputation for taking a drink or two, so maybe he is. Besides, my team would know if he got off and didn’t return.”
"I noticed that your boys are pretty thorough,” Connor observed, smiling, as he remembered how he had been forced to return to his own stateroom to retrieve his ship’s card, which he had forgotten, while trying to disembark at Nassau in the Bahamas. “They don’t let anything slide.”
“Yeah, they’re good.”
“Wait a minute,” Connor suddenly interjected, “you said the captain asked for me, specifically for me. How in the hell does he know about me?”
“I guess he’s been reading your press clippings.”
“Huh? What do you mean?”
“I kind of told him how good you are, or at least used to be, doing police work.”
“Hold it, I’m retired, remember and I’m on vacation!”
“Come on, you can spare a little time, can’t you. It probably won’t take long to find the guy,” Paul said, “and this is pretty important to the captain. He’s never lost a passenger before.”
Connor slumped in his chair, resigning himself to be a part of the task at hand. “Okay, where do we start?”
“We start by introducing you to the captain. He wants to meet you.”
Paul Stuart preceded Connor onto the bridge of the MS Mermaid. They stood quietly for a moment while waiting for the captain to finish a conversation with one of the bridge officers. Presently he nodded to Paul
“Captain Teesman, this is Connor Harrison, the detective I told you about.”
“Ahh, Mr. Harrison it is a pleasure. I hope you’re enjoying the cruise so far.”
He shook hands with Gerald Teesman and said, “Well, so far so good, as they say, but Paul was telling me we might have a slight problem.”
“Maybe not so slight. It seems the new husband of one of our favorite passengers has gotten himself missing.”
“So I’ve been told,” Connor said, nodding toward Paul. “What’s his name and what can you tell me about the couple?”
The captain picked up a folder from a nearby table. “Here is what we have.” He handed the document to Connor who quickly leafed through it. There were several photos, which the detective held up.
“His name is Robert Dowling,” the captain offered.
“I suppose this is the happy couple?” Connor asked, referring to a glossy photograph of a man and a woman.
“Yes, that photo was taken just as they were getting on the ship. We do that for everybody,” Paul said, “even for you.”
Connor recalled his photo shoot when he had just stepped off the gangway. He held up one other photo and asked, “Is this the missing guy?”
“Yes, that’s the picture we take for the security scans.”
The detective turned to the security chief and asked, “So how are we going to handle this?”
The captain answered by saying, “We’ve scheduled another life boat drill to get everyone out of Paul’s way. That will put everyone out on deck and Paul’s teams can do a thorough search of the ship.” He turned to the security chief and said, “Paul, I need for you to do one other thing for me. Please set up some meetings with the rest of the crew about this. Let them know that Mr. Harrison is working on this investigation and that they are to treat him just like a member of the crew.”
“Do you mean everyone?”
“Yes, I think so, but that will probably take too much of your time, so let your second in command handle it,” then as an after thought, he added, “do you think he can do the job?”
“Yes sir, Howard can handle it. Let me call him right now and get everything set up,” he said, reaching for his radio. After speaking with Howard, Connor and Paul left the bridge to be ready to begin the search.
The luxury cruise liner MS Mermaid appeared as a brightly lighted oasis in the midst of the ocean darkness. The twin screws of the ship churned up the water of the North Atlantic as they began pushing the fifty-five ton ship forward. As the midnight hour approached a lone figure appeared and lurched across the deck. He looked right and left then moved toward the stern of the ship, glancing out into the blackness as he walked. He staggered toward the rail, gazed down into the boiling water below, hesitated for a moment and then, as he leaned further, suddenly tipped over and plunged into the raging torrent. It took only an instant for the figure to be in the midst of the white water at the rear of the ship.
The vessel continued on its voyage to Le Havre in France, with no one on deck as a witness to what had happened; no one to call out to a crewmember for help. There were no hands to throw the man a lifeline or hurl a life preserver toward him. The ship sailed on its path, increasing its speed, while the crew on the bridge worked and the other passengers relaxed, enjoyed a drink in the bar or slept. No one knew that the ship had lost one of its guests; that there was now a missing passenger and a mystery that would soon envelop the entire cruise ship and especially one of it’s passengers.