THE UNEXPECTED COINCIDENCE
Chapter Four
Daniel stood in shock, not
knowing what to say, what to think. He just stared at the blood. His cousin’s
blood. He felt no anger; he felt nothing, only confusion, confusion over the
death of his only true friend.
He felt a hand lay across his
shoulder in sympathy. He ignored Keisha; he wanted to burn this image in his
mind so he would never forget what happened on the RMS Titanic.
"Get the
Master-at-Arms," he managed to whisper, hoping that Keisha would do the
task he set her.
He felt her apprehension and
realized quickly that no one would listen to her. He sighed gently and turned
away from the corpse.
"I will go," Daniel
muttered, and left the room quickly, not wanting to look at the body of his
cousin anymore.
The tall man strolled down the
corridors, ignoring the greetings of people he met, causing them to mutter
about young people these days.
He reached the Master-at-Arms
without incident; he entered the white room, stepping carefully on the red
floor.
"There has been an incident
in my stateroom. I require your assistance," Daniel said in a monotonous
voice that held no emotion.
The slightly large Master-at-Arms
stared at Daniel, clearly uneasy with the tone Daniel displayed.
"What incident?" he
asked.
Daniel wondered how you could
tell someone of a murder on a high class, luxury ship.
"It is probably better if
you came with me," Daniel muttered eventually, leading the way back to his
stateroom with the Master-at-Arms and another officer.
The tall, brown-haired man
seriously hoped that Keisha had the sense not to hide in Kathy’s room.
After heading up several
staircases and elevators, the small party arrived at the stateroom. With a
slight bit of apprehension, Daniel opened the door and was at once met with the
sight of his cousin’s body.
He barely heard the gasps of the
men behind him.
"She was like this when I
got back from dinner. I left dinner early and she was like this," Daniel
said, as the men determined whether she was dead or not.
The Master-at-Arms seemed to be
at a loss for words.
"Are you going to remove the
body, or am I going to have to leave it rotting here for the rest of the
voyage?" Daniel asked in a cold tone, much unlike his own voice.
It felt as if ice had enclosed
around his heart, keeping him from feeling the true loss of his cousin.
The men mumbled an apology and
requested a sheet to cover the body.
Daniel slumped into his own room
and ran into Keisha, who was listening at the door. She turned her beautiful
eyes onto his, showing the sympathy she felt for him. It was enough to crack
some of the ice that had enclosed around him.
Not wanting to get too emotional,
he walked past her and opened the large oak wardrobe.
After a few moments of rummaging,
the twenty-four-year-old found a spare sheet in the wardrobe and quickly left
the room.
He handed the cloth to the
Master-at-Arms, ignoring the look of disgust that he conveyed when he looked at
the body.
It took a few moments to wrap the
body, and the white cloth quickly became stained with red patches.
"We will take the body to
the carpenter, who will be able to knock together a coffin for the trip. We
will then put her in the cargo hold until the trip is over, unless you would
rather toss the body overboard."
Daniel’s look of anger was enough
to stop the mumblings of the officer who was speaking.
"The captain will be
informed and we will take it from there. What was her name?" the
Master-at-Arms asked, as he flipped open a notepad that was concealed in a
pocket.
"Katherine. Katherine
Churcher," he replied dully, not showing any emotion.
"Age?" the ruddy-faced
man questioned.
"Twenty-seven."
The interview lasted a couple of
minutes; Daniel even revealed that she was his cousin, explaining the situation
that had happened years before.
"We are sorry for your
loss," the man said, departing the room about two hours after he entered.
The carpet was now clean, showing no traces of the carmine fluid that had
tainted it.
"You can come out now,
Keisha," Daniel said, making sure that no one was around.
At once his bedroom door opened,
revealing the dark-skinned woman that he was hopelessly infatuated with, even
after all the things that had happened.
She came over and sat down next
to Daniel on a chaise lounge. The raven-haired woman placed a hand on his arm,
offering comfort and support.
"I am so sorry, Daniel; I
should have been paying attention, not relaxing myself into these
luxuries," she said, waving her unoccupied arm around the luxurious
stateroom. "For what it’s worth, Katherine was a great woman, and I will
miss her."
Daniel started crying then. For
the first time in about ten years, he allowed the salty tears to fall down his
cheeks.
Keisha embraced him gently,
allowing all the tears to wash out of his system.
However, their intimate moment
was ruined by someone barging in the door. Luckily, Keisha was wearing a floor
length dress that exposed none of her skin, and her hands were behind his back.
Her head also faced away from the door, meaning the intruder saw none of her
dark skin.
"Bad time, Daniel?"
Caledon Hockley asked, noticing the intimate position.
"Hide in Katherine’s room;
don’t let him see your face," Daniel whispered into Keisha’s ear.
The woman nodded, slowly slipping
away from him and hiding in the room across the way.
"You’ve been crying, Daniel;
you surely cannot have had a worse night than mine."
Cal sat down next to Daniel,
showing concern for someone other than himself, which was a rarity.
"Katherine was
murdered," he whispered slowly, trying to ignore the exclamation that Cal
made.
"Rose almost fell overboard
trying to see the propellers. Silly girl," Cal said, obviously trying to
change the subject.
With immense difficulty, Daniel
managed not to look at him scornfully. He knew that Rose was not stupid enough
to do something like that.
I will have to talk to her
tomorrow, he thought
while he bid good night to Cal, who was leaving.
"What else is going to go
wrong on this trip?" he exclaimed out loud, as he left to take a
well-deserved bath after a stressful day.