Cruise Conundrum: A Cruise Ship Cozy Mystery (Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries Book 5) Read online

  Cruise Conundrum

  A.R. Winters

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Untitled

  Sneak Peak: A Berry Deadly Welcome

  Chapter Two

  Cruise Conundrum

  Copyright 2019 by A. R. Winters

  www.arwinters.com

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  “You have to trust me,” Cece said emphatically. “These are definitely the best seats in the house.”

  I tried not to look too skeptical. Cece was a good friend of mine, but she was also a bit of a rule-breaker, while I was definitely a rule follower.

  It was almost time for our latest cruise to start, and we were at the staff pre-cruise meeting, waiting for it to kick off. The three of us were in the back row, seated right next to the door. First there was me at the end of the row, then Sam, my best friend from back home, and finally Cece, my friend who works in housekeeping.

  The meeting room was in the staff section of the ship, below the waterline and in a different world from the luxurious accommodations for the passengers far above us.

  Down here, it was all low ceilings, visible pipes, and pure utilitarian design. There was a slightly elevated platform at the front of the meeting room and fixed rows of fold-down plastic chairs for the audience.

  Meetings here were more the we lecture and you listen kind, and normally, they were on par with watching paint dry.

  “Ready for another relaxing cruise?” asked Cece with a glint in her eye.

  “Relaxing? Have we even been on the same ship?” replied Sam.

  “At this point, I’d settle for a cruise half as stressful as the last one,” I said. “Hold on—I think I hear Kelly.”

  From where I sat, I could hear someone in high heels hurrying down the hallway at double speed, each step a loud click that echoed for a few moments.

  The clicks grew closer and closer until they stopped right outside the door. There was silence for a moment and then, like a yellow and black dervish, Kelly burst through the doors with her characteristic manic energy.

  “She looks like a wasp again,” said Cece.

  “No, she doesn’t,” I said, giving her a playful swat. “She looks more like a busy bee.”

  Kelly Cline liked to wear bold, colorful outfits, and today she was wearing a bright yellow figure-hugging dress that stopped just above her knees, accented with a chunky black belt and necklace, and sunflower yellow high heels and several almost neon yellow bracelets decorated with flower heads and petals.

  With her jet black hair and dark eyes, it wasn’t a stretch to say she looked like a wasp or a bee. Since she was always such a busy person, and with a good heart, I thought of her as more of a worker bee than a wasp. Cece tended to be a little more blunt than me, or as she put it, she lived in the real world.

  Kelly hurried down the aisle in the middle of the room, hopped up onto the raised platform with both feet at once, and then spun around, beaming at the staff in attendance.

  “Hi, guys!”

  It was impossible not to return that smile; her enthusiasm and energy were palpable. I glanced at my friends. Sam was smiling at the figure addressing us at the front of the room, while Cece was rolling her eyes. Cece was a much tougher crowd to please than most people and didn’t like to waste time on bureaucracy.

  The audience shouted greetings in response, including Sam and I. Cece mumbled a “Sup,” that would have been completely inaudible at the front of the room.

  “I’ll give her one thing,” said Cece. “She’s a heck of an improvement over the last two cruise directors.”

  This was true—though that wouldn’t be hard. The last two directors had been unpleasant to work with and had both ended up in jail. Kelly, on the other hand, was enthusiastic, friendly and didn’t seem to have a criminal bone in her body.

  “What have we got on the agenda today?”

  We all stared at her. That was kind of her job.

  She clapped her hands together.

  “Good! You don’t know! If you already knew, there’d be no point to this meeting, would there?” Kelly began to pace up and down while she spoke.

  “Three things. First, we have a special event planned for this cruise. Second, a review of the safety rules, which are a requirement, and third, a surprise!”

  “A surprise? What’s the surprise?” hissed Cece in a whisper.

  “If I knew, then it wouldn’t be a surprise,” I whispered back to her.

  Cece turned to Sam who just offered her a shrug.

  “Man, I hate not knowing what’s going to happen. It’d better not be clowns. If she’s got clowns coming in to perform, I’m out of here.”

  I tilted my head at her and gave her a funny look. “Can’t say I see that happening. Do you?”

  “Nope,” said Sam. “The ceiling’s too low in here for them to do any tricks.”

  I couldn’t help but giggle. There were dozens of better reasons: the fact that it would be completely bizarre, that it would be an expensive waste of money, that these meetings never offered entertainment, that Kelly had never shown any inclination toward a love of clowns…

  “Just saying. That’s all,” said Cece with a sniff. She folded her arms in front of her and focused on the front of the room, a mildly suspicious frown on her face.

  “To begin, the special event. As I’m sure you’ve all heard—”

  The three of us exchanged confused glances. None of us knew what she was talking about. Not even Cece, who was usually in the know.

  “—We’re lucky enough to be holding a photography event this cruise. We have special guests Awesome Andy, the world-famous freelance photographer—”

  Looking over at them again, Sam shook her head and Cece shrugged. None of us had heard of this Awesome Andy guy.

  “—and Xavier, the editor of News Today.”

  This time, Cece and Sam looked at me, and I nodded authoritatively. I knew News Today, but I was kind of bluffing about knowing Xavier. The name seemed vaguely familiar, though I couldn’t remember anything about him. But as a former and wannabe-again journalist, I was going to pretend I knew everything news-related.

  “Our passengers are going to listen to some awesome lectures and take part in some fantastic workshops. There’s also a fab photo competition, which we think the guests are going to be really excited about. Are you excited?”

  “Yeah!” I shouted to looks of disdain from Cece. Most of the rest of my colleagues and co-workers in the audience gave more muted sounds of excit
ement.

  “I wouldn’t get too excited,” whispered Cece. “It’ll only lead to extra work and disappointment.”

  I shook my head and decided to ignore her, because I was determined to stay positive. The last few cruises had been semi-disastrous, but this one? It was going to go off without a hitch. I could feel it.

  Kelly went into some detail about the various events that were going to take place during the course of the photography cruise, before displaying on the drop-down projector screen a list of staff names and the roles they were to be filling during this cruise.

  Sam got VIP customer liaison. It was a bit of a hit or miss position; it fully depended on just how important the very important people fancied themselves to be.

  Cece would be doing housekeeping for the VIP section this cruise too. I looked at her as she read it, trying to gauge her reaction.

  “Great,” she said with a little shake of her head. I stared at her, trying to figure out if she was being sarcastic and snarky or was mildly pleased. It was hard to tell with her sometimes.

  “Happy with that?” I whispered.

  “Happy as a clam,” she said with a snort.

  That didn’t clear things up.

  As well as my usual duties as social media manager, I was also given the position of roving photography liaison.

  “What do you think that means?” I asked the girls.

  “I think it means they’ve saddled you with an unlimited amount of work, helping an unlimited amount of people whenever and wherever they want it,” said Cece with a smirk.

  Sam shook her head. “I think it means you get to hang out with the photographers and probably get to attend all their events. Sounds pretty good to me.”

  “Oh, you sweet summer children,” said Cece. “Haven’t I taught you anything yet?”

  I laughed at her. “You’ve taught me plenty. But you haven’t made me completely cynical yet.”

  “Partially cynical?”

  “Mmhmm. I mean, you’ve almost convinced me that this is the best seat in the house already, haven’t you?”

  When I was still a student, I always sat at the front of the room, listening attentively and jumping at the chance to answer any question. But thanks to Cece’s influence, I was slowly becoming a convert to the bad kids’ club.

  Once the job assignments had all been reviewed, Kelly rubbed her hands together and looked out at the audience with a happy smile.

  “Now, guess what’s next?”

  “Is it the surprise?” shouted Cece, glancing toward the door as if to check for men in makeup wearing red noses and cone hats.

  “Nope!” said Kelly, beaming at Cece. “It’s time for the safety review! Woo!”

  “Woo,” said Cece sarcastically.

  No one else in the audience joined in, sarcastically or otherwise.

  A safety briefing was required before every cruise. It’s not that it wasn’t important—of course it was—but when you’d heard it more than a few times, and if you weren’t suffering from amnesia, it did get very boring to have the same talk hammered into your head over and over again.

  “Okay, okay, I know it’s not the most exciting thing. But we’ve got to go through it. First up, fire safety…”

  Kelly began the lecture, accompanied by some blurry slides from the digital projector that looked they were made thirty years ago, printed out, and then re-photographed and put into the presentation.

  “If the photographers see that,” said Cece, pointing at a blurry blob that vaguely resembled a life jacket, “they’re going to quit before we leave the shore.”

  I grinned at her. “I’m sure they wouldn’t. They would probably be excited to flex their skills for someone so obviously in need of their expertise.”

  “You’re such a glass half full kinda girl.”

  The safety section of the talk took about thirty minutes. When it was over, Kelly swiped the back of her hand over her forehead.

  “Phew! Glad that’s over with. Are you ready for the surprise?”

  The audience erupted into hoots and hollers.

  Sam and I smiled in anticipation while Cece arched her eyebrows suspiciously.

  “And the surprise is… there is no third part to this boring meeting. You can all go! Yay!” Kelly immediately began clapping her hands together, and after a brief and stony silence, the audience reluctantly joined in.

  Mild disappointment hung in the air after the thwarted promise of a surprise. There was one exception: a half-Puerto Rican female housekeeper who was seriously enthused.

  “Now that is one awesome surprise!” Cece was already on her feet, clapping happily. “Let’s go!” She turned toward the door, waiting for me and Sam to get up so that we could exit before the rush.

  Baffled by Kelly’s slightly manic sense of humor and Cece’s enthusiasm at a non-existent surprise, we hurried out of the meeting room.

  As we left, I thought to myself that there was something about the beginning of a voyage that gave both the air and the body a frisson of excitement. New people, new sights, new sounds, and new adventures.

  This was going to be a good cruise.

  Chapter 2

  Sam was checking in the VIP guests and guiding them personally to their staterooms while Cece had been tasked with making sure everything remained shipshape out on the deck where people were boarding. The VIPs were boarding first, and the regular guests would be invited aboard after.

  Smartphone in hand, I was trying to capture some interesting pictures of happy guests to sling out onto our various social media feeds. I was just outside the VIP check-in area, watching people as they arrived and targeting the ones who interested me.

  A wealthy dark-haired lady who looked to be about thirty made her way on board. I knew she was wealthy because she was one of the VIP guests, and you have to be wealthy to afford those rooms; they were four figures a night, minimum. And that’s if you got a good deal. Five figures a night wasn’t unheard of for the most posh suites.

  The woman was dressed in ‘designer casual’—just a T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, but all of them had prominent Italian or French designer names clearly displayed on them, as did her leather Italian luggage.

  “Hi! I’m Adrienne. Welcome aboard!” I smiled at her while I spoke, hoping to butter her up so she’d let me stick some pictures of her up online.

  “Hi. You can call me Raina. Because that’s my name.”

  I covered my mouth while I giggled.

  “That’s a lovely name. I’m the ship’s social media manager. Would it be all right if I took a couple of pictures of you?”

  “I thought I was going to be taking the pictures on this cruise—that’s what I signed up for,” she said with a little laugh. “Perhaps you can give me some tips?”

  “Err, I’d be happy to, but I’m not one of the photography experts. I’m more of a phone photographer. I was thinking maybe you could stand with that beautiful leather suitcase over there by the railing? The blue sky and water behind you will look amazing.”

  Raina looked to where I was indicating and slowly nodded. “I see, yes. So you’re considering both the background and the foreground?”

  She really was an amateur by the sounds of it. Maybe I could teach her something about photography, after all.

  “Of course! Yes, just stand there… I think it’ll look better with just one suitcase, so move that other one out the way… fantastic… and smile!”

  After I was done, I turned my phone’s screen toward Raina so that she could see the picture I’d taken.

  “Oh, goodness! I look like I’m in an ad for a cruise!”

  She basically was. That was one of the primary reasons the role of social media manager even existed: to get the ship ‘out there’ as much as possible.

  “Well, you do look the part. Are you a model?”

  I didn’t think she was, but it’s better to overdo the compliments for VIP customers than to underdo them, in my experience.

  “Oh, no. I’
m just a girl on a mini-vacation.”

  Wow. Tens of thousands of dollars for this cruise and it was a mini-vacation for her? I wondered what she would spend on a proper vacation. I couldn’t even imagine.

  “I hope you enjoy your stay with us. I’m sure you’ll learn a lot about photography too.”

  “Thank you. Shall I check in over there?”

  “Yep, that’s right,” I said, smiling at Sam who was ready and waiting for another customer. There were half a dozen people working the VIP check-in, so that as each guest arrived, they could be given personal service and an individual escort to their suite.

  I waved goodbye to Raina and looked for another victim—I mean, subject—to photograph.

  This time, I found two: a cute young couple who also looked to be around thirty years old. They were holding hands, fingers interlocked, and walking close enough together that their shoulders rubbed against each other.

  “Hi guys! Welcome aboard!”

  They looked at each other with smiles on their faces, as if to check the other’s reaction, before turning to me with a matching pair of brilliant grins.

  “Thank you,” said the woman.

  “We’re excited to be aboard. We’re on our honeymoon!” After he’d said it, the new husband turned his head toward his wife and gave her a quick peck.

  “Oh wow, congratulations! You look so cute together. Can I get a picture?”

  “Sure,” they said as one. They unlinked their hands, and put their arms around each other’s waists. Their cheeks were rosy with happiness and it looked like they hadn’t stopped smiling since their wedding.

  “Awesome!” I said after I’d taken their pictures. “I’m Adrienne James, social media manager on the ship. If I can ever help you with anything, don’t hesitate to ask!”