Aeronaut Gone Page 7

  Ro rubbed the back of her neck. “Did you call for him?”

  “Of course we did,” Truman said. “He hasn’t answered.”

  Ro took a slow breath in, admitting, “I woke with the worry that the Captain wouldn’t get enough rest. Perhaps he’s fallen asleep somewhere. We shall split up and find him.”

  “I don’t think I’ll be able to enjoy a coffee or the view from an unmanned airship.” She tried to keep her voice light but she felt a tremor in her speech that belied her intentions. “Is it safe for us to leave the helm?”

  The two men glanced at each other and then Truman ventured, “Perhaps for a few minutes. I think it’s more important we have the right man at the helm. I’ll check his cabin.”

  “I’ll wake the twins. They slept in hammocks. Perhaps they know something,” Neville said.

  “I’ll get Hettie,” Ro said, scowling. They were going to end up with the worst end of this deal. “We’ll wake Betsy and Daisy and Jade.”

  Ro watched the two men go in different directions and then turned back to break the news to Hettie.

  Once back in the cabin, Ro found Hettie, dressed and showing no signs of a hangover.

  “What black magic is this?” Ro asked, slamming the door just to see if Hettie would flinch.

  Instead Hettie just lifted an eyebrow and then said, “I remembered where my aspirin is and I called on the spirits of my ancestors.”

  “You’re so full of nonsense. Did you drink more rum?”

  “Never.” Hettie shuddered. “I found crackers, aspirin, and water and my good heart finished the rest of my cure.”

  “You’ll be wanting some rum in a moment,” Ro muttered.

  Hettie shook her head. “The memory of this morning is too fresh. So, absolutely not. Did you find Truman?”

  Hettie busied herself tying the last of her boot laces, concentrating intensely. She avoided Ro’s gaze, so Ro guessed Hettie was fibbing about feeling fully better, but what did it matter?

  “He’s missing,” Ro said flatly.

  Hettie gasped and looked up, flinching at the sudden movement. “What? Truman is missing? How is that possible? This ship is too small to hide, and he’s not so weak in the knees that he can’t face a little of your censure.”

  “Not Truman. The captain. The boys found the bridge deserted this morning. They’ve gone to search his cabin and wake the others. We need to wake the women and look for him, so we don’t die a terrible, terrible death.”

  “Why on earth would we want to wake them? I can’t handle their shrill cries.”

  Ro shrugged. “It seems like they should know we might die at any moment.”

  “No,” Hettie said, rubbing her brow and wincing slightly.

  “Maybe one of them had a wild encounter with the aeronaut and he’s just sleeping it off in their quarters?”

  “Not when they share,” Hettie snapped, shuddering. “Let’s find the man and scold him without having to listen to their idiocy. Come, let’s find him first. We can congratulate ourselves on being the winners.”

  “We won’t be able to say we checked everywhere if we don’t check with them,” Ro pointed out. Hettie winced and then put some cotton in her ears, steeling her shoulders.

  True to form, Daisy and Betsy panicked and raced from their cabin, not concerned—for the moment at least—about their state of dress. If they survived this, Ro thought she’d never stop laughing once the always overdressed Betsy realized she’d run out of her cabin without so much as a robe over her nightdress. Jade, Hettie’s friend, was calm, but tense.

  “He must have needed to relieve himself,” Jade said.

  Hettie and Ro had thought the same thing, so they shrugged. But Hettie added, “I think he would have come when the doctor and the detective called then.”

  Jade paled a little further and muttered something low as one of the twins’ wives reached new decibels with her shrill screams.

  “I’ll go keep them calm,” she’d said to Hettie. Hettie paused her and handed over the small bag of cotton. Jade grinned wickedly, shoved some in her ears, and went after her cousins-in-law.

  “They’re how I imagine chickens would be, with their heads cut off.” Ro scowled as she climbed up the hatch.

  Hettie shook her head in disgust. “I’m tempted to push them overboard myself.”

  With the women out of the cabin, Hettie started rifling through the women’s things.

  “What are you looking for?” Ro asked and started searching one of the twin’s luggage trunks. “I don’t think we’ll find the aeronaut in the luggage. Unless he’s been chopped up, in which case, I’m sure I don’t want to know about it.”

  Hettie sighed, but continued her search. “I don’t know. It seems like a reasonable way to pass the time. I’m not willing to go on deck until those women stop wailing. They make me ashamed of my sex.”

  Ro giggled nervously. They walked a fine line between pretending nothing was wrong even though they were both becoming more and more afraid. It seemed almost as though they were hurtling through the sky rather than sailing along peacefully.

  “I think this is Douglas’s case,” Ro said, chatting absentmindedly to keep from thinking of their plight. “Oh!”

  Hettie turned; her expression seemed to expect to find Captain Herzfeld in pieces. Ro turned around what she found, showing Hettie. To Ro’s satisfaction, Hettie’s eyes bulged.

  “Would you look at these photographs? My goodness, Hettie, it’s Lola Harris and Roberta Fields.” Ro double checked the name plate on the trunk. Douglas Longmont. “Why does Douglas have nude photographs of those women? Do you think he’s having an affair with them?”

  “Yes,” Hettie said instantly.

  “Or,” Ro suggested, “maybe he’s blackmailing them in some way?”

  “Yes,” Hettie agreed without delay.

  “I knew those twins were trouble. Handsome, certainly, but more trouble than their looks should allow them.”

  Hettie sifted through the stack of papers and pictures. “Oh my heavens! Ro, look at this.”

  Ro gasped. “It’s Daisy. Isn't she lovely?”

  “Don’t look. It’s rude. She is lovely, though. Did you forget?”

  Ro shrugged and then demanded, “What?”

  “Douglas is married to Betsy.”

  Ro blinked rapidly, her gaze narrowing as she realized just what the nude photograph of Daisy in Douglas’s luggage meant.

  “Why does Douglas have a nude photograph of his brother’s wife? Do you think they are carrying on behind Frederick’s back?”

  “Yes,” Hettie said.

  “He’s obviously a cad, a womanizer. She’s one of a stable of women if she has found herself in his bed. How must that feel? To know you’re cuckolding your husband with his twin while also being one of many?”

  “Maybe that’s what those Longmonts have been fighting about. Do you think they all know?” Hettie scrunched her nose.

  “I suppose it’s poor taste to ask your friend, Jade.”

  “We’re not that good of friends.” Hettie shrugged, and they closed the trunk, keeping the pictures out. “I think I’ll relieve him from the temptation of looking at these photographs for now.”

  “Or ever,” Ro said, the shock fading to anger on behalf of the women. Surely they had posed for these photographs, but had they known they’d be put into a file of several other women for Douglas’s…she shook her head.

  “We can address his philandering ways later,” Hettie said, placing a hand over her stomach. “The headache is fading with the aspirin and reappearing at the idea that we could be unmanned.”

  Chapter 10

  Back on deck, the tension was high. The twins ignored their distressed wives and Jade worked to calm them. She was shooting her cousins dark looks while she failed to shut up her cousins-in-law. Meanwhile, seemingly unbothered, Truman and Neville were back at the bridge talking in hushed voices.

  Where was Jade’s husband? The twins’ father? Gran
dfather Longmont? Had anyone told them they were potentially facing death?

  “No sign of the captain?” Hettie asked, gathering the attention of Truman.

  Neville had noticed her almost immediately, which had somehow made Hettie feel as though she were the most beautiful woman on the planet. She glanced at Truman, noticed Ro staring him down and elbowed her friend. Those two could resume their argument when they were safely on the ground. For now, a truce was necessary. Like it or not, Ro needed to admit that his presence made her feel better.

  “No, we may have to face facts that he’s abandoned ship and that we’ll need to land this ourselves.” Truman glanced at the calm Hettie and Ro and then beyond them to the loudly weeping Daisy and Betsy.

  “Land it ourselves?” Ro demanded, with a low hoarse whisper. “What about the steering and keeping it—and us—airborne?”

  Truman’s voice broke through her fear. “Dr. Hale and I shadowed Captain Herzfeld. I think we might be able to manage it.”

  Might. Hettie took a deep breath in and told herself not to panic. Working together, she and Ro had solved murders. They’d found happiness. Maybe even love. They’d done impossible things, and they could do them again.

  He thinks they might be able to manage it. Hettie focused on what she knew. They were smart, intelligent people.

  “We don’t need to land it really,” Hettie said, suddenly, sounding firm. “We just need to lower it enough that we don’t die.”

  “Then we’d be in the jungle,” Ro hissed. “With the frogs, and the alligators, and those shrews.”

  “I’m just saying,” Hettie hissed back. “We take it one step at a time. Let’s get lower. If that goes well, we’ll land. But as long as we’re low enough and not crashing, we have a chance.”

  Ro bit her bottom lip and whispered only to Hettie. “This was supposed to be magical.”

  “It can be as long as we’re together,” Hettie whispered back. “As long as we survive the landing, we’ll be fine.”

  “We’ll need to decide where to land,” Neville said. He glanced at the others and then crossed to the little space where Captain Herzfeld had his map. “Funny he didn’t bring it.”

  “We need to think about that later,” Ro told him. “None of this feels right, and I find it all very suspicious.”

  Truman nodded. “That man loved this ship. Him not being on it? It’s more than a problem, it’s suspicious, and quite frankly, we need to assume that everyone—except us—could be hiding something and never be alone.”

  Hettie glanced over the side. The sun was rising. The birds were shrieking, yet somehow not louder than those stupid women. The verdant canopy rolled out below them as though it were a carpet. Really, Hettie thought, Captain Herzfeld had already brought them down quite a bit.

  “You know,” Hettie muttered, “if we don’t smash into those frogs or land on a panther, we may well survive already.”

  Truman crossed to her and then looked down. “With the tree branches breaking our fall, very possibly.”

  “It’s odd that he didn’t bring the maps,” Neville agreed, “but the compass is missing. Herzfeld is German. He doesn’t know this jungle well enough to just leave the ship willingly. I think we need to assume that something terrible happened. If Herzfeld abandoned us willingly, he’d have taken the maps. If he was unwilling and…and…foisted over the side, whoever did that wasn’t smart enough to keep the compass that Herzfeld was wearing.”

  Hettie sighed and then glanced behind them before whispering, “Look, I agree that this doesn’t add up.”

  “It doesn’t,” Ro repeated.

  “If it were one of the Longmonts, any of them really, I wouldn’t even be all that surprised.” Hettie glanced around. “But Captain Herzfeld keeps us all safe. And as much as they’re all idiots, the Longmont family are not stupid enough to be unaware of that.”

  Truman nodded along with Hettie and said, “We’re still going to stay aware. We’re still going to stay together, and we’re still going to focus on getting to safety. After which, we’ll discover what happened to Captain Herzfeld and ensure justice.”

  “All right, Neville,” Hettie said, “you find us a way back to safety.”

  “Truman,” Ro added, “you fly the ship.”

  Hettie and Ro glanced at each other and then back out at the jungle.

  “So magical,” Hettie muttered low. “We should search the rest of their things. We only went half-way through Douglas’s bag and through the fripperies that idiot Betsy brought along.”

  The twins’ wives had dropped to the deck, pressed their backs against the side of the ship. They were leaned into each other as though they weren’t half-enemies. Daisy snuffled into a handkerchief and Betsy stared into the distance as though she’d seen something horrible.

  Hettie’s mouth twisted as Jade crossed to the two women and handed them each a drink. Jade was elegant, put together, dry-eyed, and acknowledged Hettie and Ro with a nod. The twins, Hettie finally noticed, were arguing at the end of the ship. What were they fighting about, Hettie wondered? Which of them had hurt Herzfeld? Hettie’s vote was on either of those men being somehow involved.

  Ro leaned into Hettie’s side and said, “We should go down and go through their cabin.”

  Before Hettie could reply, Jade’s husband Willem, Grandfather Longmont, and his son, Mr. Peter Longmont exited the hatch.

  Grandfather Longmont allowed his son to steady him while Jade’s husband approached her, wrapping a hand around her waist. Somehow, despite being shorter and almost tubby, he seemed far manlier than those tall, svelte twins. There was an air of solid reliability about him that engendered a level of trust that Hettie wasn’t sure was safe given that Herzfeld was missing.

  Ro winked at Hettie and then they slipped down the hatch. Using the break in the moment, they searched through the gentlemen’s room. There was nothing to be found at all. A rather large supply of cigarettes from Mr. Peter Longmont. Will showed signs of having bedded down on the floor. For a moment Hettie wondered why he didn’t take a hammock as well and then thought of the frail Grandfather Longmont. It was to be there as a strong arm.

  Once again, Hettie’s disgust of the twins grew. Will was, Hettie was sure, strong enough to look after himself and his grandfather, but there was little sign of the other two having volunteered to help. Or even to have thought of volunteering.

  “The poor man must be all cramps and aches after sleeping down there,” Hettie said. “I find as my liking of him and Jade increases, my dislike of the twins and their wives decreases.”

  “Agreed,” Ro muttered. “I find that as much as I regret your invitation to this family, I can understand why. Jade is delightful. It was, I suppose, reasonable to assume the rest might be like her, but I feel certain we’ve learned better.”

  “We have,” Hettie agreed. “I was a fool. I’m glad Grandfather Longmont is getting his dying wish, but…”

  “But,” Ro muttered, “Douglas and Frederick may well push me over the edge. Figuratively I suppose.”

  “Though,” Hettie muttered, “we may have to throw them and their idiot wives overboard literally.”

  “There’s nothing here,” Ro said. “And who’s surprised? Grandfather Longmont is dying and Herzfeld was giving him his dream come true. Mr. Longmont has already bypassed any inheritance from his grandfather and has no reason to want to harm Herzfeld. Will is out and out delightful and I refuse to believe the same man who’s waiting on his grandfather is somehow conspiring against the rest of the family.”

  “Especially,” Hettie agreed, whispering as she put her ear to the door and listening if anyone else had come down the hatch. “I believe many of the very elderly sleep very lightly. I think Grandfather Longmont would have realized if Will left the cabin.”

  “Would he say though?” Ro whispered back.

  “Yes,” Hettie said instantly. “He’s so salt of the earth honorable, he’d turn in anyone he thought might have committed a crime.
I think we need to assume that if something nefarious happened, these three had nothing to do with it.”

  She opened the cabin door and they found that the tiny space at the bottom of the hatch was still empty. The two friends slid back into the cabin of Betsy, Daisy, and Jade. It seemed unchanged since their last search, and they quickly opened small trunks and dug through. There was nothing more to find, she thought, and then her gaze was caught by paper that curled out of a pair of rolled socks.

  Hettie shuddered as she unrolled the socks, finding a small stack of papers. She read through them rapidly. Her mouth twisted and she muttered, “I suppose it was too much to expect that we’d find a letter saying, ‘I was the one who knocked Herzfeld over the side of the ship.’ But it is rather interesting that Douglas is in quite so much debt.”

  “Do you think that’s what happened?” Ro asked. “And are you really surprised that Douglas owes people money? We were just discussing previously whether he blackmailed those girls with their naked pictures. I find it a very small leap to discover he lost money on races or poker or whatever it was.”

  Hettie shrugged and asked, “Is there a certainty that something happened growing in you?”

  Ro hesitated, biting at her bottom lip, but she slowly nodded her head.

  “Why though?” Hettie asked Ro, who shook her head.

  “It doesn’t make sense.”

  “But neither does Herzfeld….what? Sleep walking over the side? I hardly think so.”

  They slipped back out of the cabin and heard a nearing step overhead. The two of them shot each other terrified looks and then they almost flew through their own cabin door. The moment it closed behind them, Ro abandoned the door for the bottle of rum, pouring herself a small glass and draining it in one full gulp.

  She held the bottle out to Hettie who shook her head, placing her hand over her stomach. “I’m not right yet, I fear.”

  “You’ve put on a game face,” Ro told Hettie.

  “At this point,” she said, adjusting her hat. “I’m not sure if I’m feeling ill because of an excess of drink or because of our imminent doom.”