Hello everyone! Sorry about the delay between this chapter and the last but its here now, lol.
Thanks for the reviews:
yellow-faith- I'm sorry to hear that you were looking forward to the party, but who knows, there may be one down the pipeline. Thanks for the review!
Ayane Lightoller-Murdoch- Thank you so much for what you said, I'm glad you liked it, and I am not saying who killed her, but prepared to be surprised.
Insectlover- OMG! I forgot Fabrizio, sorry about that, I knew I was forgetting someone. I'm glad you liked it, and I hope you will like this chapter also.
CHAPTER FOUR
MYSTERY
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 R.M.S Titanic.
"Get the Master of Arms." He managed to whisper, hoping that Keisha would do the task he set her.
He felt her apprehension and realised quickly that no one would listen to her. He sighed gently and turned away form 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 Caucasian strolled down the corridors, ignoring the greetings of people he met, causing them to mutter about young people these days.
He reached the Master of Arms without incident; he entered the white room, stepping carefully on the red floor.
"There has been an incident in my state room, I require your assistance," Daniel said in a monotonous voice that held no emotion.
The slightly large Master of Arms stared at Daniel, clearly uneasy with the tome Daniel displayed.
"What Incident?" He asked in his instantly recognisable accent.
Daniel wondered how you could tell someone of a murder on a high class profile, luxury ship.
"It is probably better if you came with me." Daniel muttered eventually, leading the way back to his state room with the Master of Arms and another officer.
The tall brunette 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 seen 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 of 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 said 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 24 year old found a spare sheet in the wardrobe, and quickly left the room.
He handed the cloth to the Master of 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 over board?"
Daniel's look of anger was enough to stop the mumblings of the officer that was speaking.
"The Captain will be informed and we will take it from there. What was her name?" The Master of 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.
"27"
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 the 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 state room.
"For what its worth, Katherine was a great woman, and I will miss her."
Daniel started crying then, for the first time in about 10 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 into 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 goodnight 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.
…………….
There we go, I know it is a lot shorter than the other chapters, but I thought this event deserved its own chapter.
Please Review!
Dan.