Onboard SS ERIN 0830 08NOV17:
Tom Dodge and Elizabeth Turner were walking along the deck together. Suddenly Tom heard the sound of a shot. He gently grabbed both of Eliza's hands and pushed her against the bulkhead. Releasing her hands, he said, "Don't move until I return". As Eliza looked up at him with a suprised look, Tom took off and moved quickly to the corner and looked towards the port passageway to the bow. He saw the Professor standing with his back to Tom Dodge looking at a man lying on the deck. Tom could see a revolver in his hand. He looked back to see where Eliza was standing. He held up his hand towards her signaling stop. Then he coughed once and began walking towards the Professor being careful to make very heavy steps. The professor did not move keeping his eyes on the man lying on the deck. The Messenger came down the ladder from the upper deck followed closely by the Captain. Tom noticed that the messenger was wearing a holster with a sidearm. "That's new" he thought.
When the the Messenger and the Captain were both on the main deck, the Professor raised both his hands with a pistol still in his right hand and said "I had no choice, he was trying to kill me with that sword."
Examining the man on the ground dressed in black with a sword still in his hand, the Captain said "Looks like we found our killer!" Ciruela dropped his hands and with a maneuver so quick that only Dodge saw it; flipped the pistol so that he was holding it by the still warm barrel and offered it to the Captain. The Captain looked at Ciruela and responded "Keep your pistol. You're not the killer we're looking for." Recognizing the man on the ground, the Captain added "Joe Totsuiko is the killer we are looking for.
The Messenger bent down to examine the body and said "I think he's dead?" The Captain turned back to the Messenger and ordered him to fetch the Ship's Doctor.
Tom who was still walking slowly towards the men standing by the body of Joe Totsuiko said "I left Miss Turner around the corner. If you would please excuse me, I must attend to her." Receiving no response, he turned around and returned to Elizabeth who had not moved from where Tom left her. When he reached her, she put her arms around him and hugged him closely. She asked Tom what had happened. Tom gently responded "It's better if you don't know." "Please" she said "I want to know" and looked up to him with doe eyes. Realizing that the girl was falling for him, Tom sighed and responded "Professor Ciruela killed Joe Totsuiko with a pistol on the deck."
The Ship's Doctor arrived and examined the body. He looked up at the Captain and said "He's dead Captain." Looking at the sword, the Captain asked "Is that the weapon that killed Señora Blanco?" Without hesitation, the Doctor responded "Señora Blanco's wounds could not have been inflicted by a sword."
Turning to the Messenger, the Captain ordered him "Tell the Second Mate to search the body and help the Doctor move the body. Then tell the Stewards to notify all the passengers to meet in the Ship's Lounge at 1030 [10:30 a.m.]."
When the Captain entered the Ship's Lounge at 1030, all of the passengers, the Ship's Doctor, the Second Mate and the Third Mate were present (the First Mate was on the Bridge). Tom Dodge noted that both mates were armed (not usual on commercial passenger ships at sea). He also noted that their pistols were not American made.
The Captain explained what had transpired last night (omitting the details of how Señora Blanco died). He explained that the crew had been quietly searching the ship including the passenger cabins (while the passengers were at breakfast). He told them that most of the male passengers had weapons in their cabins. The weapons were left where the were, because they were not used in the murder of Señora Blanco. He told them that the missing crewman was probably killed by Joe Totsuiko and thrown over the side. Finally he explained that Professor Ciruela killed Joe Totsuiko in self defense when he tried to kill the Professor.
When the Captain was finished, Señora Pavo Real asked if the Captain was going to turn the ship around and return to New York. When the Captain replied "no", Señora Pavo Real turned to Col. Mostaza and said "We must immediately turn around. I insist you support me on this!" Col. Mostaza turned towards the Captain, rolled his eyes and said " I will speak privately with the Captain Señora Pavo Real." At this point, the Captain interrupted with " That won't be necessary. Although it is not on our itinerary, we will be stopping in Panama. One of Doctor Lorenz's patients is ill and currently in Panama. Yesterday after we sailed, he requested to be put ashore in Panama to treat his patient. Any passenger that would like to stay in Panama will be allowed to leave the ship." Eliza asked "Can we go ashore to see the sights while the ship is in port." The Captain smiled at Miss Turner and said "I'm sure we can do something for you and your charming sister." While Elizabeth blushed and looked at Tom, her sister blurted out "YES!"
Lunch was a somber affair, the conversation was muted. Much of what passed for conversation was speculation about Joe's motives for killing two people and trying to kill a third. At The Professor's table, Ciruela was repeatedly quizzed on his actions and his bravery.
Nothing significant happened to the passengers and crew during the afternoon. The Turner sisters took a tour of the deck three times (escorted by Tom and his son). Each time they looked carefully for Pirates, but there wasn't a single ship in sight all day.
Dinner was more relaxed. Everyone tried to forget the unpleasantness and tried to have a good time. Conversation was frequent and pleasing. After dinner, the dancing kept the women smiling as all the males were attentive to their charms.
When the Turner sisters grew tired, they asked Tom and his son if they might take a stroll on the deck. Tom and Junior were quick to agree and a party of four left the party for a private walk on a night with a full moon.
When they turned into the starboard deck passage, both girls immediately stopped and shrieked! - THE PIRATES WERE BACK.
With a look of concern, Tom asked Eliza "What's wrong?"
"The - The Pirate Ship It's back"
Tom asked "Where?"
Eliza and Chrissie both pointed at the menacing ship. Tom looked but saw nothing. Then Tom Junior said "I see it too!"...
Comments
The pirates need a certain
The pirates need a certain mental image to see them ? Just like Ghosts?
Love how this is developing !
Karen
Re: The Pirates Need A Certain
If there are Pirates out there, I'm sure they can see just fine. If you reread the last two (2) chapters so far, only Tom Dodge and the Second Mate are having a vision problem being unable to see a [Pirate?] ship.
Somebody should complain to the crazy person writing this nightmare about using ambiguous text.
True...
Are you telling us with authorial certainty that the "pirate" ship exists and Tom Dodge and the Second Mate can't see it, as opposed to the two of them being right and the Turners only seeing an induced vision or projection or some such? I thought that was still an open question. (We know what Tom Jr says he sees. But he could simply be supporting the girls for reasons of his own.)
Eric
Re: "True..."
OMG! You sound like me forty-five (45) years ago trying to pin down a really annoying teacher who thinks he can out fox a sixteen (16) year old.
[You know, 45 years later is starting to become a little too coincidental here].
Let's see if I can do a passable imitation of a really annoying teacher:
Smoked Herring was salted and smoked ("kippering") until it would turn reddish brown in color. "Kippered" Herring had a strong oder that was described as "strongly pungent".
In 1807, William Cobbett claimed that he used "Red Herrings" to train his hunting dogs. He would lay a "false trail" for the hunting dog trainees by using "Red Herrings".
Today "Red Herring" is usually used to mean:
"Something, especially a clue, that is or is intended to be misleading or distracting"
"Red herrings" are commonly used in mystery stories. An example would be the using an altered version of a drinking song to suggest to someone asking a question that what they are thinking is so ridiculous it must be false.
"Red Herring" was an ongoing gag in the movie CLUE.
[ARGH!!! I hated it when teachers did that to me! Trying to teach me something new when all I wanted to know was "what is going to be on the @#€€£@ test". Did you notice that that messed up teacher didn't even answer my @#€€£@ question!]
...wait- maybe it's only
...wait- maybe it's only ladies that can see the pirates? Hmm...perhaps his son isn't really his son?
OK that's a long shot, but I'm grasping at straws. Great use of a dead man telling no tales to cover up another murder!
I'm told STFU more times in a day than most people get told in a lifetime
Re: "...wait- maybe it's only"
Well, that's one theory...
So, how do you explain no pirates during three walks before "happy hour" but after "happy hour" two young girls and a son see a pirate ship that Tom Dodge (a real manly man who knows how to hold his liquor) can't???
"What do you do with a drunken passenger?
What do you do with a drunken passenger?
What do you do with a drunken passenger Early in the Morning?"
{based on an old drinking song}
"Now this is..." - Famous Movie Quote
If the Pirate Ship's an Illusion...
...and mind manipulation of some sort is involved -- if we're not dealing with the supernatural and people are looking at the same thing and seeing it differently, that seems to follow -- my bet was on Dr Lorenz; as a presumed German physician back then he might well have been trained in hypnosis. I'm not sure, though, whether his plan to get off early changes that guess.
(If he's a German national as Dodge thinks, with the US now fighting the Axis in the World War it'd seem unlikely that he'd be permitted to practice medicine in North America. I wouldn't have thought that he'd be able to openly stay in the US at all.)
If he is involved in the illusion and he's really planning to get off at Panama, it may be that he and/or the captain expect the situation to come to a head before then. (If they see the pirate ship after the Erin goes through the canal, it's presumably either supernatural or illusion.)
I've been trying to decide whether the captain refusing to involve his medical expertise in the initial investigation of Sra. Blanco's wounds involved something the captain knows that everyone else didn't.
If Lorenz really were headed for California, he'd most likely get there quicker finding a ship in Panama heading up the North Pacific than staying on the Erin into Chile and waiting for them to reload for California, if they're going there at all. Dodge's question as to why he'd choose ocean travel over rail seems straightforward enough if he's an enemy alien.
Eric
Dr. Lorenz
In the movie Across the Pacific, Sidney Greenstreet (Dr. Lorenz) was a Japanese Agent (the events depicted in the 1942 movie occurred in 1941 prior to the Pearl Harbor attack). A you tube video of a scene in that movie is actually part of my story. In my story, Dr. Lorenz is a German. In 1917, Japan was an member of the Allied Powers (the United States became one of the Allied Powers in 1917).
The information available to Tom Dodge (through the 08NOV17 breakfast) was that Dr. Lorenz was returning to California. This implies that Dr. Lorenz was going to get to California by crossing Cape Horn and traveling up the Pacific Coast of South America??? Stopping in Panama was not in the itinerary of the SS ERIN. The Captain stated during the 1030 meeting that AFTER sailing he requested to be put ashore in Panama to treat one of his patients who was currently in Panama. Question: if Dr. Lorenz knew he needed to go to Panama, why wouldn't he have booked passage on a ship going to Panama instead of a ship that was NOT scheduled to stop in Panama??? In 1917 there were a lot more ships stopping in Panama (the fastest and safest way for a ship to get into the Pacific was through the Panama Canal).
Before World War II, the First World War was known as THE GREAT WAR. Germany was part of THE CENTRAL POWERS ( Germany, the Austria-Hungarian Empire, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire). The Axis Powers didn't exist until the late 1930(s).
More on Dr. Lorenz
I forgot to mention that the reason for not allowing the Ship's Doctor to consult with Dr. Lorenz was that the Captain wanted to keep the murder of Señora Blanco a secret until the killer was found.
Tantalizing clue:
In my story, who authorized the SS ERIN to change its itinerary was not disclosed. I can't imagine a Ship's Captain having the authority to deviate from his scheduled itinerary except in case of dire necessity...
Why Would a Ship...
...going from New York to Chile go all the way around Brazil toward Cape Horn and the dangerous crossing there when it could save days by using the Panama Canal? Just used a map and a ruler: the trip between Panama and Santiago Chile is less than half as long as the one between the north coast of South America and Santiago -- literally thousands of miles shorter. Relatively speaking, steamship fuel probably isn't expensive (do cabbages work?), but it still has to cost more that way than whatever the toll was for the canal. And even with refrigeration, produce remains perishable, so time is important.
I thought you meant that they weren't planning to lay over in Panama before this came up, but I hardly thought they'd eschew the canal. In any case, it does seem as though Lorenz was anticipating the stopover when he boarded in New York, that he wanted to travel on a ship where the rest of the passengers wouldn't be anticipating the stop, and that he and the captain both knew about it.
(There would have had to have been a cable after departure about Lorenz's Panamanian patient, unless the entire crew was in on it. Whether that means Lorenz had a confederate off the ship depends, I guess, on whether someone on board could have faked it without others catching on. I suppose the communications officer could.)
I did watch the Across the Pacific video after you told us it was essential to the plot here, though I didn't catch the character names except for Joe. The synopsis of the film plot on Wikipedia has Lorenz plotting to blow up the canal locks after the ship stops there when passage through is refused; Bogart's character Leland is under cover spying on him for the US while working with him as a disgruntled American soldier of fortune. (I thought you said somewhere that there were four names in common with your story; I'm only seeing three: Joe, Le(a)land and Lorenz. Lealand here was looking through Lorenz's luggage, so he's likely doing something similar to Bogart's character. And that may mean that Dodge and his alleged son aren't spying for the US and Dodge's scheme, whatever it turns out to be, is totally self-serving. (We know there's something, since he says that Tom Jr is playing a role.)
Sorry for messing up the alliance/war terms. I looked at Wikipedia, so I've no excuse. I did know that Japan wasn't on the German/Austrian side in 1917.
Eric
(I've spent way too much time on this...)
"why would a ship..."
The ERIN's official itinerary is New York to Valparaiso with no stops.
Supposedly, Dr. Lorenz is on his way back to California. However, he booked passage on a ship that is not scheduled to stop in Panama. Therefore, he would have to book passage on another ship from Valparaiso to a port in California. Tom Dodge was puzzled why a Doctor would return to California via Chilie instead of taking a train from New Yoek to California (which would be far cheaper and weeks faster).
In a 1030 meeting with all of the passengers, The Captain stated that the ERIN would be making an unscheduled stop in Panama because Dr. Lorenz AFTER BOARDING requested to be put ashore in Panama to treat one of his patients currently in Panama. Now that sounds very suspicious. If he knew beforehand that he needed to go to Panama, why not book passage in a ship to Panama. If he didn't know beforehand, how did he find out after the ship sailed?
Even if the ERIN makes a stop in Panama, it's heading South to Chilie not west through the canal.
I had a better idea of what
I had a better idea of what was going on before I read all of the comments after this chapter.
The ship is only seen in moonlight ( ala ghosts in Pirates) The ship is only seen by the two sisters or whom they are hugging. The Canal is relatively new construction. Destroying it would limit the ease US warships have to join the fight with the Krauts
Karen