‘I was just saying that Missy and I assumed Potter had surfaced while we were at the back of the train.’
‘I’m afraid not,’ Pavlik said. ‘Are you sure—’
A squeal of metal on metal, followed by a thud. I was thrown into Missy and the two of us slid down the wall. Zoe grabbed onto Pavlik, who struggled to keep his own balance as the train tilted precariously and shuddered to a halt.
The lights flickered, but managed to stay on. ‘Everybody OK?’ Pavlik asked in his command voice, putting out a hand to help me up.
I, in turn, pulled up Missy. ‘Think so.’
‘Did we derail?’ Missy was rubbing her butt, probably where she’d landed.
‘Is there any place to derail to?’ I asked, thinking of Flagler’s railroad trestle. ‘I mean, without being at least partially submerged?’
‘Is everyone all right?’ Pavlik called out again.
Boyce was getting to his feet. ‘I’m fine, although I’m not as sure about the espresso machine.’
‘We’ve lost a few bottles from the bar,’ Pete the bartender reported, ‘but I’m OK.’
Both Audra Edmonds and her agent appeared shaken but also unhurt. Carson was holding his hands out like a skater trying to keep from falling or, more likely in his case, touching anything.
‘I’ll check on the others,’ I said to Pavlik. I crossed the eerily quiet vestibule to stick my head into the dining car. ‘Any injuries in here?’
‘Just bounced around a bit,’ Prudence said. She was braced in the aisle, pearls askew and her dress ripped at the hem, as if she’d stepped on it while trying to steady herself.
Markus and the rest of the group that had been chowing down in the passenger car were filing in behind her. Greta had a smudge of icing on her nose.
‘What happened?’ a sleepy-looking Rosemary Darlington appeared and, behind her, Danny.
‘We’re not sure,’ I said. ‘But—’
The vestibule door opened behind me, admitting Pavlik. Now everybody started firing questions. Or comments.
‘Did something blow up? I thought I heard an explosion.’
‘Don’t be silly. We must have run into something.’
‘Or, perhaps, might the engineer have had a heart attack, thereby rendering him unconscious and leaving us hopelessly stranded in the Everglades?’
This last soliloquy was delivered by Harvey, whose palm was dramatically placed over his checkered heart.
Sheesh. No wonder Broadway had spit him back out.
Pavlik held his hands up in twin stop signs. ‘I’m going forward to the locomotive to investigate. In the meantime, everybody please stay where you are.’
I touched Pavlik’s arm. ‘Speaking of the engineer, are you at all surprised he didn’t come to check on his passengers?’
‘I am. Though maybe he already has his hands full.’ My sheriff looked grim as he continued on toward what was now the front – or east-facing – end of the train.
I went back the other direction, retreating to the club car, where Boyce was hoisting his espresso brewer back into place.
I helped him settle it on the bar and then leaned down to pick up the metal frothing pitcher. ‘You didn’t get burned, did you?’
‘Not a bit, thank you. I’d finished brewing the last of the espresso and was letting things cool down. You need a hand there, Pete?’ he called over to the young bartender.
Pete turned around from the closet behind his bar, a bottle in each hand. ‘No, I’m good. Luckily, we have reinforcements.’ He raised the liquor over his head.
‘Something tells me we’re going to need it,’ I said. ‘Or at least some people will.’ God forbid anyone think that would include me.
‘What happened?’ the bartender asked. ‘Did one of the passengers pull the brake?’
‘The brake?’ I repeated. The thought had never occurred to me.
‘Right here. I saw the thing when I boarded and asked about it.’ Pete pointed to a cord dangling from the ceiling. At the end of it was a red ball and on the wall next to it a sign warned, ‘For emergency use only.’
‘Each car has one,’ Pete explained. ‘But you’re only supposed to pull it if someone gets caught in a door or dragged or something. The train stops right where you are – in its tracks.’ He smiled at his railroad joke. Cute kid.
‘As we just did,’ I said.
‘Correct.’ Pete was straightening the bottles on the back bar. ‘So if the guy next to you is having a heart attack or something, it’s the last thing you want to do because it could take even longer for help to come.’