Page 116 of Backtrack

Cutter put his hand on the hatch again. “This is the raceway?”

She nodded.

“Can you get to other decks?”

“Hell yes, you can,” the bartender said. “Pretty sure they used these raceways when they were building the ship. Ladders will take you up to Deck 5 or down to pretty much any deck below the waterline. Some places don’t even have cameras. I’ll tell you right now, you do too much exploring and you’re gonna trip over a condom or two. It’s a favorite after hours hidey-hole for … you know.” She nodded at Malosi’s body, then motioned over her shoulder to Frida. “He’s married, but these nine-month contracts get lonely.”

“Got it,” Lola said. “You’d better step out until your security officers get here. This is a crime scene.” Then, to Cutter, “This had to be Leo Bouchard.”

“Yep,” Cutter said.

“Are we going after him?”

“He’s long gone by now,” Cutter said. “We’ll take a look back there and see what we can find, but we need to get this scene buttoned up for Ajit. Go ahead and call FBI Juneau. Who’s that new agent?”

“Sarah Nguyen,” Lola said. “She’s been there a month. This’ll be a good case to get her feet wet when we arrive in port tomorrow.”

“We’ll also need to call Ketchikan PD and let them know Bart Preston’s potentially connected to this.”

Lola hunkered down beside the body, careful not to step in the pooling blood. Forearms resting on her knees, she glanced up at Cutter. “I know you’re gonna tell me I need to stay in my lane, but don’t you ever wish that just for once we could run down one of these homicides to the end?”

“Nope,” Cutter said, matter-of-fact. “I’d hate to lose you, but the Bureau is always hiring.”

“Yeah, nah.” Lola gave an exaggerated shudder. “The paperwork would kill me. Still …” She shook her head, moving on to an entirely new train of thought in typical Lola Teariki fashion. “Aw, Abraham …” she said under her breath. “You poor dumb egg …”

CHAPTER 52

Ajit left the dead security officer’s body where it lay and turned the thermostat in the storeroom as low as it would go. He shut down the crew bar completely for the rest of the night and assigned two security officers to guard the doors until the ship docked in Juneau. The FBI would take over from there.

Cutter and Lola walked the length of the hidden run behind the bulkhead but found nothing beyond a couple of cigarette butts and, as the bartender had predicted, a used condom.

Ajit distributed photographs of Leo Bouchard to every crew member on the ship, along with a strict warning that he’d likely been the one to murder Malosi. Anyone who spotted him was to contact the nearest senior officer at once, but not to approach.

Under ordinary circumstances, locating anyone on the ship would have been a simple task. In taking the ship’s security cameras offline, Abraham Malosi had in effect helped his own killer get away with murder—for the time being.

The entire Video Management System, or VMS, had been destroyed. Several key components needed to be replaced when they docked in Juneau. The big cheeses at company headquarters decided there was nothing to gain by alarmingThe Polar Star’s passengers about the cameras being out, or that a killer was hiding somewhere on the ship. Ajit blushed when he told Cutter of the corporate decision but reasoned that as long as people thought the cameras were operable, most of them would stay on their best behavior.

It was almost nine thirty p.m. by the time Cutter and Lola reachedtheir cabin. Ajit had walked with them, discussing the ship’s security and contingency plans along the way.

Cutter pulled up the camera feed for Joellen’s cabin door. “Ajit, would you mind posting a security officer?” he asked. “I’d feel better if there was someone physically present in that hall.”

“Yes, of course,” Ajit said. “She is by far the most likely to be under any threat from—” A soft knock interrupted him. He smiled, as if he’d been expecting it. “You had to leave in such haste, I took the liberty of having The Steak House remake your dinners.”

Lola’s face popped around the corner. “Sweet as, Ajit! I thought I might have to eat my own arm.”

Cutter opened the cabin door to find their Ukrainian server with a covered cart. A somber look crossed her oval face. She introduced herself again.

“I am Polina Kolisnyk,” she said. “From Lviv, Ukraine.”

Lola motioned her in, bouncing on her toes like she might burst with curiosity at any moment.

Polina rolled the rattling food cart into the room and then stood back, hands clasped at her waist. “Ajit told me why you had to leave so abruptly.”

“The food can wait.” Lola motioned toward the sofa. “Please sit down.”

Polina shot a nervous glance at Ajit, who gave her a polite nod and excused himself to attend to his duties. She smoothed the front of her blouse with both hands and took a seat on the end of the sofa nearest the door.

“Back in a flash,” Lola said, disappearing into her room.