A/N: I decided to try something different this time and went with a TV movie from 1974. Hope you enjoy!
Death Cruise (1974)
The top deck of the cruise ship was filled with hundreds of passengers all gathered by the railing as they tossed confetti and streamers and waved to the people down below on the dock to see them off. It was pure pandemonium, and Leslie Shay resented being caught in the middle of it, having to push past all the people she did to make it to the railing.
"Come on, Leslie, hurry up!" Kelly Severide, her husband of more years than she cared to remember, called behind him as he reached the front first.
"Well it's not my fault we're late," she said as she caught up to him. "We would've been here in plenty of time if you hadn't been gone all morning."
Kelly rolled his eyes, "Oh come on, Leslie, every time I'm out of your sight more than five minutes you start accusing me of-"
"I'm not accusing you of anything, Kelly," the blonde woman smugly replied, "maybe your conscience is bothering you."
Her dark haired husband responded just as smugly, "I'm an insurance salesman, remember? I don't have a conscience."
A hundred feet or so to the left of Mr. and Mrs. Severide, was another couple, Mr. and Mrs. Matt Casey. Casey looked down at the crowd through his sunglasses, while his wife, Gabby Dawson-Casey, threw confetti towards them and waved cheerfully.
Casey couldn't stifle the small laugh that escaped when he asked his wife, "What're you waving to people you don't even know for?"
Gleefully, Gabby answered, "It's like a parade, Matt, you're supposed to wave, whether you know anyone or not."
Matt shook his head. "Not me."
Gabby put her hand down and turned towards her husband and said, "Well, Matt, they say you don't fully appreciate something unless you pay for it."
"No," Casey took off his sunglasses, "I appreciate this free cruise, I really do."
Christopher Herrmann and his wife Cindy were making their way across the deck, with a steward ahead of them wheeling most of their luggage on a cart.
"I hope I didn't forget anything," Cindy commented.
"You brought everything but the car, Cindy," Christopher pointed out.
"Whenever we go on a trip, I always worry," his wife said. "Did I turn off the gas in the oven?"
Herrmann turned to his wife and answered, "I don't think so, sweetheart, ours is electric."
Dr. Daniel Charles, changed out of his civilian clothes into a white naval uniform, headed up the steps to the bridge of the cruise liner and found himself face to face with Captain Wallace Boden.
"Captain Boden," the doctor said.
"Doctor Charles," the captain responded.
"I'm sorry," Daniel let out a small laugh, "I haven't been in uniform since I was discharged from the Navy, I don't know whether to shake hands or salute."
"This is not the Navy, Doctor," Boden answered. "I wanted to thank you again for taking this job on such short notice. Usually the people who take this cruise are in very good health, they spend most of their time relaxing and taking it easy, so there shouldn't be much for you to do, barring the unforeseen of course."
Cindy Herrmann paced through their state room as she unpacked their luggage and called to her husband through the bathroom door, "Did you tell Annabelle how to get in touch with us incase of an emergency?"
"Annabelle is 24 years old," Herrmann called back, "she has her own home, a child, and a perfectly capable husband who can handle any emergency that might arise."
Cindy couldn't let it go at that. "I just don't want to give them the feeling that we've sailed away and abandoned them."
"They probably won't even know we're gone," Christopher responded. He exited the bathroom in matching red and white Hawaiian style shirt and shorts. Cindy just stared at him for a moment before declaring, "I think I'm going to be seasick."
Herrmann raised an eyebrow. "How can you be seasick? We haven't even left the dock yet."
"Christopher, what if any one of the kids needs us and we're not there?" Cindy asked.
"Well then they're just gonna have to muddle through without us," he answered.
Matt Casey lay on the bed in their state room and looked at the rear view of Gabby as she finished applying her jewelry to go with her dress she'd changed into for dinner.
"I wonder why it is that I like to watch you put your clothes on, more than I like to watch you take your clothes off," he said with a sly smirk.
"It's because you're perverse," Gabby told him as she sat on the edge of the bed and stared down at him.
Casey looked up at his wife and asked, "Do you know why I married you?"
"Because of my keen mind and my stimulating wit," she said.
"No," Casey shook his head, "because every time I look at you, it's love at first sight again."
"Oh come on, sweetheart," Gabby grinned down at him, "we both know you married me for my money."
"68 dollars and 27 cents?" Casey raised his eyebrows.
"Well we've all got a price, you just happened to come cheap," she told him as she leaned down to kiss him.
That night in the dining room, Table #24 was occupied by the Caseys, the Herrmanns and Leslie Shay-Severide, as well as Dr. Charles, who had been asked to talk with several of the passengers and answer any questions possible, due to a shortage in the staff, the officers were divided up to meet with the guests and gather information from them during the cruise.
"Actually, Mr. Casey, I can't tell you very much about the ship," Daniel said, "you see I'm only a temporary replacement for the regular ship's doctor."
"What happened to him?" Matt asked.
"Oh it was very tragic, he tripped on the golf course and broke his ankle," Dr. Charles said with a straight face, further adding to the guest's small outbursts of laughter. "So, this is my first Caribbean cruise and probably my last."
"It's our first cruise too," Gabby spoke up, and added, "but we won it."
That got the attention of everyone else at the table and several sets of eyes stared at the young woman.
Gabby was largely oblivious to this sudden burst of attention and explained, "This company called E&M Promotions had a contest and we won a three-week cruise on the Caribbean."
Up till now the table had been short one occupant. Leslie Shay looked into the crowd and saw Kelly finally making his way towards them, she waved him over.
"I'm sorry, darling," Kelly said as he sat down beside her, "I hope I didn't hold you up, I was taking a look around the ship." He reached across the table to shake hands with the men and introduced himself and got acquainted with the other passengers.
Kelly looked around at the four other people and asked, "Have we met somewhere before?"
"I don't think so," Casey answered.
"That's funny, you all look very familiar," Kelly noted. "Well, I'll remember, I never forget a face." He turned to Leslie and asked under his breath, "So did I miss anything?"
"Well as a matter of fact," Leslie answered, "Mrs. Casey was just telling us how they won this cruise in a contest."
Kelly looked at the people on the other side of the table and said with slightly widened eyes, "No kidding, so did we."
"E&M Promotions, three weeks all expenses paid," Herrmann parroted in agreement.
"Well what do you know?" Kelly asked in awe, "there must've been more than one first prize."
Over dinner the three couples traded tidbits about their personal lives, though some were more forthcoming than others.
"My grandfather was a lawyer, and my father was a lawyer," Matt said, "and they both graduated from Columbia...what about you, Mr. Herrmann, what do you do for a living?"
The older man looked at the blonde man with an air of disdain and asked, "Does it really matter?"
"What do you mean?" Casey asked.
Herrmann perched his elbows on the table and folded his hands together in front of him as if he was in contemplation and said, "Well if I told you I was a ditch digger you'd form an opinion of me from that, and if I told you that I was a wealthy, powerful, industrial magnet, you'd form an opinion based on that, the simple answer to that simple question, instant status, so I'll tell you what, I'm gonna let you figure it out for yourself, and you let me know what you come up with."
Casey felt mildly humbled by this comment and said modestly, "I'll grant one thing, you don't seem stupid."
Herrmann shrugged and replied, "That only proves I could be a very smart ditch digger."
Kelly was still mulling over the possibility they had all met before, he took a drink of his wine and then out of nowhere interjected, "Atlanta, you ever been there?"
"Many times," Herrmann answered, and that was all the more he was willing to say on the subject.
Kelly shrugged, "Well, I'll think of it."
The next morning at breakfast, Dr. Charles paid a somber visit to Leslie Shay's table and without a word, placed an item on the table in front of her.
The blonde woman looked at the object and looked up at the doctor with a puzzled expression and said, "That's Kelly's cigarette case, what're you doing with it?"
"It was found on the deck," Dr. Charles answered, "Mrs. Severide, why didn't you report your husband missing?"
Leslie looked up at him a bit wide-eyed, then turned to the other occupants of the table, the same couples they'd dined with the night before. With a small laugh she answered self consciously, "I don't know that he is missing."
"Well when was the last time you saw him?" Daniel asked.
Leslie thought, and answered quietly, "Dinner last night."
Dr. Charles squinted in confusion. "He didn't return to the state room at any time since then? You must have been worried."
"I think, curious would be a better word," Leslie said a bit coldly.
"Mrs. Severide, we're on a ship in the middle of an ocean," Dr. Charles said matter-of-factly, "your husband is gone all night and your feeling is one of curiosity?"
Leslie looked up at him defiantly. "Doctor, this is not the first time my husband didn't come home all night. The first time it happened I was worried, now I'm just curious."
Dr. Charles took in a breath and said remorsefully, "I'm sorry, Mrs. Severide, I don't mean to pry, but the captain is very concerned, your husband may have fallen overboard."
Leslie's eyes opened to their full capacity, an expression of shock and denial on her face.
"We're searching the ship," Dr. Charles said, "we'll let you know as soon as we have any information."
Leslie turned her eyes down towards the table and said hollowly, "I should've reported him missing, but I thought he was with another woman, and I'd look ridiculous. He liked to make me look ridiculous for some reason...but I forgot we're on a ship...and people can fall off a ship..."
With that she burst into tears.
Casey stood on the top deck with his arms around his wife who had her gaze out towards the ocean, Gabby had been in a somber, quiet mood all day.
"Don't look so sad, come on, Gabby, we hardly even knew Kelly Severide," he told her.
"Well it's not just Kelly Severide," Gabby replied as she turned to him, "it's how awful it must be to be down there in the water, call for help, and just watch the ship get smaller and smaller."
Christopher Herrmann entered his state room and was met with an unusual and unfamiliar sight, his wife seated across from him, drinking a glass of gin she'd poured from a bottle that was too big to be from their mini-bar.
"Where'd you get this?" he asked as he picked up the bottle.
"I brought it with me," Cindy's words were slightly slurred.
"It's not even noon," Herrmann said as he opened the blinds, "don't you think you're rushing the cocktail hour?"
"I'm bored!" Cindy yelled at him.
"Oh Lord," Herrmann rolled his eyes.
"Christopher," Cindy addressed him, "You still have your work, but I don't have mine anymore. As you pointed out, the children are grown up and gone, and I'm bored! The magic is gone, all 30 years of it. This may not be easy for you to swallow but you were never the magic the children were, and I thank you for them. The children were my whole life, because without them I would've had no life at all, because you were always out to lunch. Now all of a sudden it's just you and me, just the two of us, I'm sorry, Christopher, but that would really have to be magic."
Herrmann couldn't deal with his wife's ranting so he left their state room and headed to the ship's bar for a drink. He found himself seated next to Matt Casey who was also in the process of having a drink. Herrmann raised his glass and said, "Here's to the women, God bless 'em."
Casey raised his glass in like and added, "Amen."
Dr. Charles found Gabby Dawson-Casey on the deck taking part in a form of recreation he wouldn't have expected from the mere sight of her, skeet shooting. As the targets flew into the air she pulled the trigger and shattered them with an unbelievable accuracy. He came up towards her as she took a breather to reload.
"You do that very well," he commented.
She turned towards the doctor and said with a smile, "Oh it's really very simple, you just pretend the clay pigeons are people you don't like."
"Whoever it is, I'd hate to be in his shoes," Dr. Charles noted.
"Not really," Gabby said, "I take it all out on the clay pigeons."
A sudden scream got both of their attention, as well as several other members of the ship, and they followed the sound to an older woman standing at the foot of the stairs leading up to the deck and saw the body of Cindy Herrmann sprawled over them backwards with a bloody head wound.
Captain Boden gestured to the report in his hand and said with an air of disbelief, "Dr. Charles, you're saying it's murder."
"I'm just saying that two accidental deaths with no witnesses is more than a coincidence," Daniel said as they sat in the captain's quarters.
"You state in your official report that Mrs. Herrmann fractured her skull in a fall down the stairs," Boden pointed out.
"Yes but you see," Daniel leaned forward, "she could just as easily have been hit in the head with a heavy blunt object and then dropped down the stairs."
"Then why don't you say that?" Wallace asked as he slapped the paper.
"Well I couldn't be sure," Daniel stood up, "I'm not an expert in forensic medicine. Anything is possible."
"You can't have it both ways, Doctor," Boden told him. "What is it, accident, or murder?"
"The only thing I can state with medical certainty is that Cindy Herrmann is certifiably dead."
"Then let's leave it at that," Boden said as he stood up, "until we get to Maracaibo."
"Yes sir, and what about the other people at table 24?"
Boden shrugged. "Let them enjoy the rest of the cruise, they paid for it."
"No they didn't," Daniel responded. "Not one person at that table paid for this trip. They won the cruise in a contest, all of them, they discussed it at dinner the first night."
Wallace had a skeptical expression on his face. "I wonder why I wasn't told? Contests are usually coordinated through the public relations department of the steamship line. I would've been informed."
"Let me see," Daniel wracked his brain, "They said the name of the company that sponsored the contest was E&M Promotions."
Boden shrugged. "I've never heard of it. But of course that doesn't mean anything, I've been sailing out of Miami for eight years and just found out they had a Miami team, the Miami Porpoises."
"Dolphins I think," Dr. Charles corrected the captain.
Boden shrugged again. "Same generic family. Get me the address of that promotion company, I'll contact them by radio."
"Yes sir, and what about the people from table 24?"
"What do you suggest?" Wallace asked. "That we tell them someone is trying to kill them? Lock them in their state room? Change the report to murder, and I'll do that."
Matt Casey and Gabby were on the deck when they saw Christopher Herrmann coming down the stairs with a set of papers in his hand.
"Mr. Herrmann," Gabby approached him, "we're terribly sorry for your loss, if there's anything that we can do..."
Herrmann shook his head, "No, I don't think so...I never realized there was so much paperwork involved..." he turned to the young woman and said grimly, "They're keeping her in the refrigerator."
The next evening tragedy struck again, and another member of Table 24 was found dead on the ship. Leslie Shay-Severide, dead from two gunshots.
"Alright, Captain," Dr. Charles said, "This one I will certify as murder."
Boden responded with a grim expression on his face, "I've already notified the authorities in Miami, I've asked them to give me all the information they can on the people at that table. I also notified the authorities in Caracas, asking them to take jurisdiction in the case."
"Caracas?" Dr. Charles asked. "What about the American authorities? The state department."
Wallace answered, "This ship is Norwegian registry, Doctor, under maritime law that means that the murders occurred in Norwegian territory, United States have no jurisdiction in this case." He noticed Daniel pacing the room, looking at the obvious evidence of the crime scene, and inquired, "What are you looking for, Doctor?"
Dr. Charles answered, "The two bullets that killed Mrs. Severide went through her body, and yet I can't find a trace of them in this room. She must've been killed somewhere else and then brought to this cabin."
Boden conceded, "Very good, but where was she killed?"
The doctor shook his head and only said, "I'll know that when we find the two bullet holes."
Christopher Herrmann, Matt Casey and his wife Gabby were all under guard in the conference room. Herrmann was explaining to the younger couple that he had been the one to find Leslie. The two had started to bond through their mutual loss of their spouses, and they'd planned to have dinner together, he'd gone to pick her up, and that had been when he found her body.
Sardonically, Casey commented, "If this keeps up, that refrigerator's going to be stocked full by the time we reach Maracaibo." He then realized what he'd said and told Herrmann, "Sorry."
There was a knock at the door and a steward opened it up allowing Captain Boden in.
"Captain, I'd like to know why we're all being held prisoner here," Herrmann spoke up.
"The steward is not here to keep you in, it's to keep other people out," Wallace explained.
"The question is why?" Christopher demanded to know.
"Mr. Herrmann, we have reason to believe someone is trying to kill you," Boden said bluntly. He looked around and told the three wide-eyed people, "All of you."
"You see," Dr. Charles took over, "we found out there is no such company as E&M Promotions, it's just a post office box."
Casey looked up at the middle aged man with glasses and asked, "Then where did the tickets come from?"
"According to the Miami police, they were purchased from a travel agency with a postal money order," Daniel answered. "The whole thing seems to just be a trick to get you here." He looked around and told the passengers, "The thing I'm curious about is the reason for these murders. Is there something you all have in common? Maybe an enemy? Someone you've all known at one time or another?"
Casey shook his head, scoffing, "No, before this cruise we never even met each other."
Gabby's eyes widened again as she remembered, "Kelly Severide said he remembered us from somewhere. Atlanta, 1970."
Herrmann's jaw dropped in silent recollection, as he added, "Yeah, but then he said, 'It'll come to me', like he was close to remembering."
Daniels' eyebrows raised as he observed, "And then he was the first to die."
Herrmann thought back. "I was in Atlanta at that time, I was there on a business trip."
Casey's eyes lit up as he gestured to Gabby and jogged her memory, "We were there on our honeymoon in August."
Herrmann blinked. "Second week in August?"
Gabby nodded, looking like she was trying to swallow a lump in her throat. "Yes."
Casey's eyes widened as he asked, "Are we just going to wait here to be killed?"
"I've taken that into consideration, Mr. Casey," Boden announced, "I'm closing the ship down tight, everyone will stay in their cabins until we dock, the rest of the passengers are being informed right now. There'll be a guard in every corridor, every stairwell, every deck, any man who's not on duty will be standing watch."
The three of them were escorted out of the conference room and walked single file back to their state rooms with the steward leading the way.
Gabby walked faster to fit alongside her husband and clung to him. They were halfway to their state room when she jolted, and realized, "I forgot my purse." She broke contact with Matt and told him, "I'll be right back!"
She moved quickly but cautiously turning the corridor and heading back to the conference room, ever alert, eyes and ears open for the first sign of anything unusual. The door to the conference room was still open but the inside was dark. Nervously, Gabby walked in and made her way back to the table and grabbed the strap of her purse, when she heard the sounds of a struggle taking place out in the hall. Her heart leapt in her throat and she was slower, her body rigid with fear as she went to see what it was. Turning the corner, her heart jumped in her throat as she saw Matt's body sprawled on the floor, beaten to death.
And then there was one.
Christopher Herrmann had been found shot to death in his state room shortly after dinner had been delivered. The steward who'd been standing guard outside his door had been knocked out, and when he came to he was unable to describe the person who had attacked him.
Once the ship docked, Dr. Charles sat at a table and pored over the personal belongings of all the murder victims, trying to find some link, some answer, any clue as to who was behind this and why. He finally hit on an idea, and left the ship to find the nearest phone booth, and made a series of phone calls. He finally got an answer he was looking for, and hopped on a motorboat to a hotel a mile away. Entering the main lobby he made his way to the front desk and told the clerk, "I'm Dr. Charles, I called you earlier. The gentleman I'm looking for, I'm not sure of his name, but he would've checked in sometime in the last 24 hours and he would look something like this," and showed a picture to the man.
The clerk's eyes bulged but otherwise there was no readable emotion on his face as he answered, "He looks exactly like that, sir, Mr. Kroger, he's out on the beach right now."
Dr. Charles nodded. "Thank you."
He walked from the hotel, down to the wet sand of the beach, and there he saw a lone figure sprawled face down on a towel. Daniel walked right up to the man in swim trunks who seemed to be unaware of anybody's presence, and stated, "Good afternoon, Mr. Severide."
Kelly slowly raised his head up and looked at the doctor, a smug grin on his face.
"Well, good afternoon, Doctor, this is quite a coincidence."
"Not really," Daniel shook his head, "I thought you might need your passport." He dropped it on the sandy ground alongside the man.
Kelly ignored it and merely commented as he grabbed a handful of sand and let the grains spill between his fingers like an hourglass. "I was brilliant, the execution, the planning, all completely flawless..." he looked up at the doctor, "but here you are...how did you find me?"
"The killer had a key to your state room," Dr. Charles explained. "There were only three keys, the steward had one, one was in your wife's purse on deck, and you had the third key."
Kelly nodded dismissively, "Excellent."
"After that," Daniel said, "it was just a matter of matching the description on the passports: height, weight, color of eyes, I had two that were very close, so here I am."
Kelly stood up, shook out the shirt he'd been laying on and put it on. "There's nothing the police can do to me, nothing anyone can do to me. Five Americans murdered in Norwegian territory en route to a Venezuelan port. Would you care to walk, Doctor?"
The two walked side by side through the sand and Kelly boasted, "A complex maritime legal question, it'll take the international courts years just to figure out who has jurisdiction in the case. But you already knew that, so why'd you come here?"
"To find out the reason," Daniel answered. "Why did you do it?"
"Very simple," Kelly answered nonchalantly, "I wanted to kill my wife."
"Why?"
Kelly chuckled. "Only a man who's never been married would ask a question like that. There's another woman."
"According to your wife," Daniel recalled, "there were lots of other women. What about the other people you killed?"
Kelly shrugged. "Merely to confuse the issue, one murder is easier to solve than five."
Daniel sneered, "So you killed three perfect strangers. You wife was heavily insured, wasn't she?"
"You're on the wrong track," Kelly remarked, "they were all heavily insured. You see, I work for the insurance company, so I had to pick the names very carefully, find some common ground, something in the past."
Daniel nodded. "That would be Atlanta, 1970."
"Exactly," Kelly sounded pleased with himself. "The police will start with the crime and work backwards, what did these people have in common? What happened in Atlanta? How did their paths cross? The answer: they didn't. So no matter how you approach this crime, Doctor, it's absolutely flawless. The perfect crime."
"Except for me," Dr. Charles interjected.
Kelly stopped walking. "What can you do?"
Daniel walked a few more steps before stopping and turning towards the younger man. "I can tell the police that Mr. Severide is Mr. Kroger."
"Kelly Severide's dead, he fell overboard, remember? And soon Mr. Kroger will disappear too, and I'll have a new name."
"The name of the beneficiary on your wife's insurance policy," Daniel said.
"Nope, her brother's her beneficiary," Kelly answered with a smug grin.
"On your insurance policy then."
"Nope, I left everything to my dear late wife," Kelly replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "Probably go to her brother too."
"You're hiding something," Daniel walked up to the man and stared him in the eyes, "Now if everything was as perfect as you say it is, why would you have to hide anything? There's something I haven't found out yet, but I promise you, Mr. Severide, I'll find it."
Kelly smirked at him. "I'm sorry, Doctor, I'm afraid your time has run out."
Daniel saw the gun aimed at him. He never saw Kelly pull it, just saw the muzzle aimed right at him.
There was a loud bang, two loud bangs, far too loud to be caused by any handgun, and Kelly Severide fell to the sandy ground, dead. Dr. Charles turned and saw Gabby Dawson-Casey standing on the hill overlooking the beach, a shotgun in her hand, the same perfect marksmanship she'd shown on the ship's deck during her skeet shooting sessions.
Gabby walked down the hill to the beach and approached Dr. Charles.
"What're you doing here?" Daniel asked.
"I knew you'd find him," she answered, sounding slightly out of breath, "I wanted to be here when you did, so I followed you."
"Well, your timing was perfect anyhow," Daniel commented.
He thought of something and looked at her. "Mrs. Casey, who is the beneficiary of your husband's insurance policy?"
Gabby's eyes became hard and her jaw clenched as she opened the shotgun to insert two more shells. Before she could, Dr. Charles grabbed Severide's gun off the ground and aimed it at her.
"Please don't load that gun, Mrs. Casey," he said. "How long have you and Kelly Severide been planning this?"
Gabby's eyes widened with a look of confusion. "Planning what?"
Daniel just commented, "Must've seemed like the perfect idea, Severide gets rid of his wife and your husband, and then the two of you split your husband's insurance...at least that's what Kelly thought, but I suspect you were planning to kill him all along."
He grabbed the shotgun away from her and asked simply, "Shall we go?"