Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 04 - Beauty Queens and Cruises Read online

  BEAUTY QUEENS AND CRUISES

  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

  Untitled

  Sneak Peak: A Berry Deadly Welcome

  Chapter Two

  Beauty Queens and Cruises

  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

  “Baby, I’m back!” I announced as I pushed open the heavy metal door to my cabin.

  I was feeling good.

  I had managed to get my old job back as the ship’s social media manager, and we were about to embark on what was sure to be a quieter cruise than the last few.

  “Hey!” said my blonde-haired, blue-eyed best friend and cabin mate who I had been certain wasn’t yet aboard. “I just saw you yesterday. Are you already trying to butter me up with pet names?”

  I froze in the doorway. My cheeks were blazing hot as I laid eyes on Sam. I hadn’t known she was going to be on board yet. If I had, I wouldn’t have embarrassed myself talking like that.

  “Sorry, didn’t think you were here yet. I thought you were still picking up supplies…?”

  Sam sat up straight where she lay on the top bunk. The bottom one was mine. As I walked into the room, she looked down on me from her position on high.

  “Unlike some people, it doesn’t take me all day to do a little shopping.”

  Yeah, right. She usually spent way longer than I did making decisions whenever we went shopping. Even window shopping took hours with her.

  "Ha ha," I said with a little shake of my head. I pulled open the tiny closet and put my suitcase inside. I would unpack later, after I had a chance to unwind. "You all set for this cruise?”

  "Yep. Anything special with this one?" Sam asked, swinging her legs back and forth over the side of her bed.

  "Not as far as I know," I said with a shrug. I was looking forward to a more relaxing cruise, as the last couple had been somewhat stressful. Celebrity chefs and a murder mystery that turned into a real murder had been more than exhausting. "Hopefully we'll just have old people looking for a quiet, relaxing time."

  "Yep. Here's to a stress-free cruise." Sam held out a hand, in which she held an imaginary glass. I lifted up my own imaginary glass.

  "Clink," I said.

  "Clink," Sam said.

  We both downed our imaginary drinks. Mine was actually only an imaginary orange juice as it was a bit too early in the day for alcohol. Even imaginary alcohol. I didn't tell Sam though, because she'd only tease me.

  "Hey... Are you worried about... you know?"

  That sobered us both right up.

  A little over a year ago, I was the victim of a kidnapping. I had thought that awful time in my life was over and done with, but since I’d been working on the cruise ship, someone had been deliberately reminding me of my past: leaving suggestive notes and postcards, and even changing the decor of an event space to remind me of what had happened.

  “I’m not worried,” I said with a little quiver in my voice. “They should be worried.”

  Sam gripped the edge of the bed and then hopped down onto the floor next to me.

  “Yes, they should be. They’ve got you and me to contend with.”

  “Thanks,” I said as I gratefully accepted a one-armed hug from Sam.

  During this trip, I was hoping to get access to the records of everyone who had been onboard during the previous cruises, to get one step closer to figuring out just who it was that had been messing with me.

  The only problem with my plan was that in order to get access to the records, I’d need to ask Hot Stuff aka Ethan Lee aka the ship’s first officer who I was kinda sorta dating at the moment. A few casual dates, anyway.

  The only problem with that was it meant putting all my trust in him. And I wasn’t quite sure if I was ready to do that just yet.

  “What’s on your schedule for today?”

  “Nothing special,” I said, though I had a nagging feeling that I was possibly forgetting something. “I’ll snap some pictures of arriving passengers and post some sickly-sweet inspirational quotes to go with them.”

  BZZZ went my phone.

  I pulled it out of my pocket and looked at the screen. From behind the phone, I could see Sam snickering at me.

  “Forget something?”

  “Yeah,” I said with a lopsided smile. “Apparently I’ve got a meeting with Kelly Cline? It completely slipped my mind.”

  Sam squeezed my arm. “You better hurry up. I’m sure she has, like, a trillion things to worry about without you being late.”

  We both laughed at her spot-on Kelly impression. Kelly Cline was the cruise director and although she was nice, she seemed impossibly busy yet somehow on the edge of losing control of everything.

  “I’m sure that now she’s had a chance to settle into the role, she’ll be a lot calmer,” I said somewhat hopefully.

  “Yeah,” said Sam with such sincerity I believed her. “And maybe they’ll promote me to captain.”

  “Have some faith. I’m sure she’s fine.” I walked over to the door and pulled it back open. “See you later,” I said over my shoulder.

  According to the schedule on my phone, I had ten minutes to get to the meeting. It was in the cruise director’s office, which was now Kelly Cline’s as she had been promoted from Acting Cruise Director to the real position itself. The office was several decks above, and a good little trek away from where our cabin was located, so I had to hurry.

  Walking briskly through the lower decks, I saw plenty of familiar faces as I made my way through the staff and crew areas of the ship. They kept most of us below the waterline, in the darker, noisier part of the ship. Down here, it was all metal surfaces with their echoing sounds, low ceilings, and a general air of almost claustrophobic efficiency. While the ship was big, they used every last inch they could to maximize profits, and the sections for us worker bees never felt roomy enough.

  After several cruises, I was starting to get familiar with most of the regular staff and crew, if only by face if not by name. But as I was approaching a service elevator that would take me up above the waterline, I saw an unfamiliar face.

  Outside of the elevator, a man in a male housekeeper’s uniform was mopping the floor and whistling to himself as he stared down at the floor. He didn’t even look up as I approached, seemingly focused on making sure every inch of the deck was perfectly mopped.

  “Hello!” I said as I pressed the elevator button. It was already on my floor, so the door immediately began to slide open.

  The man didn’t answer me with a word; he just lifted his hand and tipped a dark blue bas
eball hat in my direction. I stared at him for a moment, surprised by his apparent rudeness. His skin was tanned dark, and he had thick wavy hair and a french cut beard.

  I shook my head to myself. Some people.

  Couldn’t he even say hello? New members of staff should try and be friendly to the old hands, at least in my opinion. But since this was only my fourth cruise, I wasn’t sure if I counted as an old hand just yet.

  After I stepped inside, the doors closed behind me as I jabbed the button for the floor I wanted. The elevator clicked and clanked and then whirred as it pulled me up from the bowels of the ship to the world above.

  When I stepped outside of the elevator, it was like I was in another world. The elevator let me out into a hallway in the customer-facing part of the ship, and so instead of cramped metal chic, I was greeted by all the splendor that Swan lavished on its guests. Plush carpeting, plaster walls, roomy ceilings, and most importantly, fresh air.

  With a spring in my step I followed the hallway, and after several turns, I arrived at the section of the ship that housed the senior staff offices.

  As I walked toward the cruise director’s office, I could hear raised voices.

  I was hoping the noise might be coming from one of Kelly’s neighbors, but it wasn’t.

  Standing right outside the closed door, I tried to listen to what was going on, without appearing like I was listening in. Anyone could walk by at any moment, and I didn’t want to be caught with my ear shoved up against the door.

  The office was soundproofed well enough that I couldn’t make out anything beyond the muffled shouting. It sounded like an angry man and an angry woman exchanging barbs of some sort. I didn’t think the woman was Kelly though; her voice was quite high-pitched and the muffled woman sounded lower than her range.

  I leaned my head closer, considering pressing my ear against it to really listen in properly, when the door suddenly swung open. I quickly turned my head so it didn’t look like I had been attempting to eavesdrop. I was pretty sure I got away with it.

  “Adrienne!” said Kelly Cline.

  She was a small, slim lady about my own age with long, straight black hair and a penchant for dressing in bright colors. Today, she wore a lime green dress that hugged her figure, matching lime green heels, an emerald necklace, and four green plastic bracelets on each of her wrists.

  I blinked in surprise when I saw her eyes. They were also green, instead of the usual brown. She had put in colored contact lenses to match the rest of her outfit, I realized.

  “She shouldn’t be on this ship!” shouted the male voice from inside the office.

  Kelly visibly winced.

  “Is everything okay in there?” I asked, trying to peek in behind her.

  I was right: it was a man and a woman shouting at each other, and they both looked incredibly irate.

  “Ye-es,” said Kelly hesitantly. “I’ve just got to… get someone. You’ll be all right to start the meeting without me, won’t you?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “Thanks!” said Kelly loudly and brightly before I could finish what I was saying. “Back in a jiff!”

  Before I could stop her, she had hurried away, her little legs moving at double speed down the hallway as she went to fetch whoever she needed, abandoning her office to the two yellers.

  “You never knew anything, anyway!” yelled the woman from inside.

  Tentatively, I began to enter. The problem with starting the meeting without her was that she had neglected to tell me what this meeting was about. Judging by the state of the two people already there, it would be a while before anything productive could take place anyway.

  Perhaps I could start by calming them down and figuring out who they were.

  Chapter 2

  A s I stepped inside the cruise director’s office, the two occupants initially remained oblivious to me. I took a moment to size them up, hoping I could figure out who they were and what I was supposed to be meeting with them about.

  The man looked to be in his forties, but as I stared at him I realized that he was actually probably considerably older. He had lightly tanned skin and immaculately cut and coiffed hair. His khaki pants, blue shirt, and brown loafers had the look of deliberately chosen and worn ‘casual’ wear.

  The woman with whom he was arguing also clearly took a lot of pride in her appearance. She had big permed hair, a solid layer of makeup that would look better under stage lights than closeup, a thick coat of red lipstick, and she was wearing a purple dress that seemed too formal for a meeting in a cruise director’s office.

  “Hello?” I said tentatively when I sensed a brief lull in their acrimonious discussion.

  Two pairs of eyes turned to me and immediately began to judge. I felt like a slab of meat as I saw them scan me, from top to bottom with narrowed eyes and expressions of displeasure, shock, and dismay. I fully expected one of them to whip out a label saying “REJECT” and stick it on me. It was like being in high school, but the cool kids were as old as your parents.

  “Hello?” said the woman, cocking her head, as if wondering what possible reason someone like me would be talking to someone like her. “Can we help you?”

  I didn’t like that very much.

  “Hello,” I said firmly. “Have you two finished squabbling?” I put my hands on my hips and gave them both a stern look. They may have had a couple of decades on me, but from the way they’d been arguing, I suspected I might have them beat in the maturity department.

  The man folded his arms in front of his chest.

  “We’re not squabbling. I was just explaining something to Autumn here.”

  She frowned at him and then turned to me. “Don’t listen to him. He wasn’t explaining anything. He was whining because—”

  I could see that the man was about to unleash another vitriolic outburst at the woman so I had to intervene.

  “I’m sure we can figure it all out respectfully. Now, could you tell me what it is that you’re here for?”

  There was silence as the two of them looked at each other with incredulous expressions, before turning back to face me.

  “What do you mean, ‘what we’re here for?’”

  Uhhh. I’d let slip the fact that I had no idea what was going on. And they didn’t seem too pleased about it.

  “The cruise director, Kelly Cline, hasn’t yet fully briefed me on… your situation.”

  They shared another look of disbelief. I think in their united disdain for me, they got over their earlier argument—or at least postponed it for now.

  “Well, who do you think we are?” said the bouffant-haired lady.

  They obviously thought they were important, but I didn’t recognize either of them. I decided to take a stab at it, anyway.

  “Are you chefs? Or maybe writers?”

  Like psychic twins, the two of them turned to look at each other once again, with perfectly matching shakes of their head.

  “Is this some kind of joke?” said the woman. “I’m Autumn Meadow, and this is—”

  “Martin Wood,” finished the man.

  I continued to stare at them, unsure whether they were done. I had rather been hoping for some explanation as to why I should care who they were—their jobs, or positions, or reasons for being aboard.

  “That’s the Autumn Meadow,” said the lady with a stern expression.

  “And I’m the Martin Wood,” mimicked the man.

  “Great. Glad we cleared that up,” I said, putting my hands on my hips. “I’m the Adrienne James, social media manager.”

  “The Adrienne James?” said the Autumn Meadow with a furrowed brow.

  “I don’t think I’ve heard of you,” said the Martin Wood.

  “Then I’m as famous as you two.” While they tried to figure that out, I moved on before what I had said could properly register with them. “Now, do you know what this meeting is supposed to be about?”

  “Presumably we’re going over the schedule of the event,” said Au
tumn.

  “Yes, you should be telling us where it’s all going to be held, room allocations, who our assistants are going to be. That kind of information.”

  I pursed my lips and nodded my head seriously, still none the wiser as to what it was we were going to be working on together.

  “Right. And what exactly is the event?”

  More outrageous expressions were exchanged between the pair.

  “Surely you know? We told you our names, remember? I’m the—”

  Martin interrupted Autumn.

  “I don’t think she knows who we are!”

  “Unbelievable,” said Autumn, putting her hands on her hips and rolling her eyes. “Where are you from?”

  “Umm. Cornridge, Nebraska.” I wasn’t sure what the relevance to that question would be.

  “Right. And you never…” Autumn paused mid-sentence, ran her eyes over me again, gave a little shake of her head, and then seemed to rephrase what she was saying. “And obviously you never competed.”

  “Obviously,” said Martin with an amused smirk.

  “I suppose if you were never able to compete, you might not know who we are.”

  “Compete in what?” The frustration was settling in by now. “Competitions for who can avoid answering questions the best?”

  “No…” said Autumn.

  “Beauty pageants!” they both said at once in an almost shout.

  Ah.

  Well now, that explained a lot.

  “Hi guys! I’m back,” said Kelly Cline as she burst into the room, a lime green tornado of hurrying feet. This time, she wasn’t alone. Following right behind her was Sam. When she saw me, my friend gave a shrug. She hadn’t expected to be here either.

  “How’s it going?” Kelly asked the three of us with a winning smile, and curious, blinking green eyes.

  “She doesn’t know who we are,” said Autumn, giving me a cold look.

  “Sorry about that.” Kelly turned to me. “I forgot to send you the email, didn’t I?”

  “Yeah, I think so. Can you tell me what exactly is going on?”

  Kelly hurried across the room and sat down behind her desk. She indicated for the rest of us to sit in the chairs in front of her. We did as we were told, though I noticed the two beauty pageant people exchanging yet another pair of annoyed looks.