‘People are in and out of these rooms all the time: cleaners, maintenance people … everyone,’ Leo continues. ‘I can’t imagine the police will find anything definitive. We’re offshore, the crew are from all corners of the globe, we’re not really a priority for a small island police force.’

It’s not clear to me whether he thinks this is a good or a bad thing, and it doesn’t seem my place to ask.

‘And as far as anyone thought until the autopsy, Rick’s death could well have been an accidental overdose, like you said initially,’ he adds. ‘I can’t imagine any investigation being very thorough, to be entirely honest. By the time they get anywhere significant with it, we might well be back cruising again. We’ll be pretty low priority, given that we’re only passing through.’

Is he trying to convince himself? Or hoping no one looks too closely? I guess anyone would be unsettled by a death on their watch. He is, after all, in charge here. The buck stops with him.

‘I thought I’d seen it all in my many years at sea, but this is new to me,’ he says. He draws his hand across his face. ‘I guess we’ll have to tell the crew that there could be a killer on board.’

36

Alice

21 January 2022, 13:00

The Caribbean

Rumours have been flying around the ship since poor Rick was found dead.

I’ve been trying not to pay too much attention, as I liked Rick and the things they are saying are pretty derogatory. So far we seem to have everything on the table from him owing money he couldn’t pay to dealing drugs which he had stolen from someone else.

For me, he was simply someone fun and easy to hang out with, who knew just about everyone on board and all the gossip, but according to what everyone else is saying, it seems like he had hidden, murkier depths.

Since his death, I’ve learned that he was widely considered as ‘up for anything’ with just about anyone, male or female. One of the other theories circulating is that he was killed by a jealous lover, angry that Rick had been doing things with someone’s girlfriend (or boyfriend) that he shouldn’t have been.

I guess it’s possible, though I find it hard to believe anyone would want to kill Rick. He was a bit rough round the edges, sure, but I never saw any malice in him.

Leo stands up at the beginning of lunch and makes an announcement:

‘The autopsy results following the death of your friend and colleague Rick have now been returned.’ He clears his throat and shifts awkwardly. ‘There’s no easy way to say this, but it seems that he was suffocated with a pillow while there was a large, but not fatal amount of drugs in his system.’