Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 05 - Cruise Conundrum Read online

  “That’s weird, isn’t it? But I guess it’s kind of good in a way.”

  “Good? How’s it good?”

  I pulled the chair out from under the metal desk that was attached to the wall opposite the bunk beds and sat down on it. Sam was now sitting up in her bed, her back against the wall on her side of the room, her head dangerously close to touching the ceiling above.

  “Before, we were worried that he was the guy stalking you, right? But it looks more like he’s stalking the captain. And you haven’t got any other strange postcards, or anything like that lately, have you?”

  “You could be right,” I said. “There hasn’t been anything on this cruise related to my… the events of last summer, have there?”

  “I’ve always thought there was something a bit strange about this captain,” said Sam, shaking her head and biting her bottom lip. “Don’t you think so?”

  “You know I do. And Ethan doesn’t like him much either. And of course there’s the rumors Kelly told me about. Ethan is supposed to be keeping an eye on the captain though.”

  “I think we should all keep an eye on him.”

  “I think so too. Maybe more than an eye. Maybe I should try talking to him again as well.”

  None of my previous chats with the captain had been all that successful. Perhaps it was time to try again.

  “Try and be subtle if you do.”

  “Subtle’s my middle name.”

  I decided to call it a night then for real, since I was supposed to be meeting Ethan again for another breakfast date in the morning.

  “See you in the morning, Sam.”

  “Don’t you dare wake me up this time.”

  Laughing, I began to get ready for bed.

  Chapter 18

  T he next morning, bright and early and fresh as a daisy, I went to meet Ethan.

  Well, maybe not quite as fresh as a daisy, but as fresh as a social media manager who’d gotten only an adequate night’s sleep. Unsurprisingly, Ethan looked fantastic, as if he’d slept like a baby and woken up in time to exercise and freshen up for the day ahead.

  “Wonderful morning, isn’t it?” he asked me as he pulled out the seat for me. We were sitting in the exact same place as we had before, the window seat in the Croissant Club.

  “It is lovely. Did you go for a run this morning?”

  “Sure did. Right around the ship, half a dozen times. I know it’s not much, but I do what I can.”

  Not much!

  “I just went for a walk myself.” Yeah, a walk from my cabin to breakfast.

  “They say walking is one of the best forms of exercise.”

  I mumbled noncommittally. My walk would barely register as exercise.

  “Easy day today, huh? Port day.”

  I nodded along. It was indeed a port day.

  The passengers would soon be disembarking to go and explore the Mayan ruins. I had done it myself on my last cruise, and luckily there was no need for me to accompany the passengers this time. It meant I could catch up on a few of the social media posts I hadn’t been putting out, and of course think about what had happened to Amorous Andy, and try and figure out what to do.

  We ordered the same breakfast as before, and before I knew it, we had hot coffees in front of us, along with a freshly squeezed glass of orange juice each.

  “Don’t look now, but I think we’re getting some company.”

  I looked. Of course I looked. You don’t say ‘don’t look now’ and expect someone not to look, do you?

  When I saw who it was, I commanded a pleasant smile to present itself on my face and stood up. I figured it’s what you were supposed to do when the captain comes, right?

  It was good timing. During the night, I had been debating about what to tell Ethan, but now I wouldn’t have to make that decision. This way, I could get an answer straight from the horse’s mouth. As soon as I told the horse what I saw.

  “Good morning, Ethan, Adrienne.”

  “Good morning, Captain,” I said. “I’m glad we ran into you! I wanted to tell you something.”

  Both Ethan and the captain gave me curious looks. I wondered if that curiosity would only lead to more questions, though.

  “Last night, I was walking back to my cabin when I saw someone.” I looked at Ethan. “The man who was dressed like a housekeeper on the last cruise, but wasn’t one.”

  Ethan slowly nodded his head, a serious look on his face.

  During the last cruise, we had also found a firearm and a few different ship uniforms all hidden away in the housekeeping laundry room. We hadn’t directly tied them to this fake housekeeper, but he was our strongest suspect. I wasn’t sure how much of that Ethan had told the captain, though.

  “Sounds very mysterious,” said the captain warily. He glanced to his left and right, as if looking for an excuse to disappear. But I wasn’t going to give him time for that.

  “He’s dressed as a guest now. No uniform. But last night, I followed him—”

  “You shouldn’t be following people late at night,” said the captain with a frown.

  It’s a free country, isn’t it? I thought to myself. In the end, I decided to ignore the comment. What was done was done now, anyway.

  “I followed him, and he went into your cabin.” I looked pointedly at the captain as I said it, and was pleased to catch a flash of worried surprise on his face.

  “What?” said the two men simultaneously.

  “He used a key card and let himself into your cabin. I don’t know what he was doing in there, but from the sounds of it, it sounded like he was having a good look around. I could hear rummaging.”

  “Rummaging?” asked Ethan.

  I nodded back at him. “Yep, sounded like drawers being opened, furniture being moved around. That kind of thing. Like he was looking for something. I mean, I didn’t see, he had the door closed, but that’s what it sounded like.”

  The captain was wringing his hands together, and then with self-conscious awareness, he shoved his hands behind his back. “I’m sure it was just a mistake.”

  Yeah, right. What kind of mistake could that be? He accidentally forgot he wasn’t the captain of the ship, let himself into the captain’s cabin, and only after a thorough search realized he was in the wrong room?

  “It looked like he knew what he was doing.” I shrugged, giving the captain an out. It was Ethan who was supposed to be investigating the captain, not me, and at least this would give him something to work with. I’d let him take over for the time being.

  “He was probably just there to clean,” said the captain. “I think I mentioned something to housekeeping about them missing something earlier. You said you saw him in a uniform before, right?”

  I nodded, slowly and methodically, clenching my jaw tighter by the second. I knew that man was no housekeeper. I’d already discussed it with Cece, and she assured me there was no one in her housekeeping department who resembled him at all.

  “There’s so many guests and staff members, I can’t keep track of them all. I’m sure there’s a perfectly innocent explanation for it all.” The captain gave us an unconvincing smile, and I could see Ethan eyeing him with suspicion. “Have a good morning.”

  “You too, sir.”

  The captain had already turned and started to walk away from us, out of the Croissant Club, before Ethan’s words even reached him.

  I leaned back in my chair, arms crossed in front of my chest.

  “Adrienne, is that true?”

  “Yep. I was going to tell you, but then the captain just appeared. I figured, why wait?”

  Ethan frowned, opened his mouth, closed it again, and then picked up his coffee and took a long, slow sip. He placed it back down on the table.

  “This could be something serious. You know, you probably shouldn’t follow strange men on your own and spy on them. You could get hurt.”

  “All right,” I said with a nod, “Next time I’ll wake you up so that you can protect me.” I finished wit
h a mischievous grin.

  “Yeah, you do that.”

  “But of course, I would’ve interrupted your handsome sleep. And you wouldn’t be so fresh as you are now.”

  Ethan looked down self-consciously, as if examining his sparkling white and gold uniform. He gave me an abashed smile. “Don’t worry about interrupting my sleep. You can keep me up any time.”

  “Is that so?” I raised my eyebrows and wiggled them a little. We both laughed. Just then, the waiter arrived with our food, and we wasted no time digging in.

  “But seriously, please let me know if you’re going to follow strange men around. I’ll get jealous otherwise.”

  I giggled around a mouthful of egg and smoked salmon, trying not to spit any of it out.

  “Okay, no more following strange men.”

  The rest of our breakfast passed in a comfortable, more relaxed manner than it had the previous time. I’d revealed something about the captain to Ethan, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was. I had a feeling he was going to be a touch more open with me in the future now. And I guess I would with him.

  Not that I was going to spill all the beans about my past yet.

  All things in good time.

  And as I brought another forkful of those delicious eggs to my mouth, now it was time for eating, not revealing.

  Chapter 19

  A fter I left Ethan to get back to his menial job of basically running the ship, I got to my own very important work: writing some fluff pieces for the company’s website and social media posts.

  While I was up to date on sending out photos to the various media streams, I had neglected to write any ‘articles’ during this cruise. Though calling what I produced articles was a bit of a stretch.

  “Common Photography Mistakes,” I read my title to myself while typing. This one was going to be the classic: a listicle, an article that consisted of a list of items and brief, amusing comments about each item on the list. They were one of the easiest kinds of articles to write, and also one of the most popular ones that people liked to read online.

  I wasn’t quite sure how many points I was going to make yet though. Top seven photo errors? Top ten? I’d seen some similar articles online that went up to top one hundred. That meant one hundred clicks as people worked there way through it, plus some pages were just ads. I wasn’t about to produce something of that magnitude though. No, seven items on my list would be enough. I entered my title:

  “Top Seven Photography Mistakes—Improve Your Pictures Today!”

  I stared at the screen. The exclamation point made it sound a bit too chirpy. But when I deleted it, it looked too boring. Maybe I needed to come up with another title.

  Half an hour later, I hadn’t gotten much further. I’d added and removed the exclamation point several times and made a couple of notes for my list, but my article wasn’t done. It was rather disheartening, since it was going to be the kind of article that people read in under a minute. Shame I couldn’t write it in under a minute, I thought.

  BZZ.

  Relief! Sweet relief!

  My eyes flicked over to the phone sitting on top of the metal desk, and I smiled when I saw it was a message from Cece. It wasn’t an email notification of some junk mail I’d signed up for or a message from the higher-ups. It was my friend. That kind of message was always welcome when you’re busy trying to procrastinate.

  I opened up the message: You’ve got to come see this in Rick and Jessica’s room. Hurry!

  Ooh. This sounded promising. Last time, when I had gone to help Cece, we’d found out that Rick and Jessica were sleeping in separate bedrooms and had been seriously arguing. What could Cece have found this time?

  An interesting possibility flitted across my mind. Could Amorous Andy have been having an affair with Jessica, too? He didn’t seem to be shy about hooking up with unhappily taken women. Would the dastardly dog have had time to start such an affair during the two days he was alive during the cruise?

  Yes. Yes, he probably would have. But did he?

  I slammed the lid of my laptop shut and left it on the desk, shoved my phone into my jeans pocket, and headed over to the VIP suites section of the ship at double speed. I was excited to see what Cece had found.

  Although I didn’t remember the exact room number, it was easy to find because Cece’s cleaning cart was parked outside the cabin, and there was a sign hanging from the door reading “Cleaning in Progress.” The same sign that Rick and Jessica had ignored the last time we were in the room together.

  “Cece?” I called into the room as I entered. “Where are you?”

  “Master bedroom, waiting for you, honey,” said Cece in an alluring voice.

  I snickered as I walked across the large open plan living area, a mirror image of the room in which we found Andy. I couldn’t help but stare at the sofa as I went by; it was exactly like the one that Andy had been found on. I shuddered as I thought of him sitting there, a neat little red hole in his head.

  “Check it out.” Cece pointed at the bed, upon which were a couple of dozen pieces of paper, which had been previously torn up and now reassembled.

  “Been working on a jigsaw puzzle?” I asked her.

  “Yep. Found it in the trash can. That’s where all the best stuff comes from.”

  I gave her a gentle push in the arm in amusement. It wasn’t the first time Cece had found something intriguing in the trash.

  I stared down at the bed. Cece had reassembled the pieces from a photograph, re-creating the rectangular piece of letter paper used to print it out. It wasn’t a professional photo printing, but one done on a regular home or office printer. Maybe even one of the ones we had in the ship’s business center, in fact.

  I stared at the picture, frowning. What was wrong with people? Why did they have to be so dishonest all the time?

  The photograph was of Jessica, sitting in a car, outside a hotel. Only she wasn’t alone; she was with a man. A man who wasn’t Rick. A man who she happened to be lip-locked with. And this was no innocent air kiss, this was an amorous embrace with what looked like full on tongue-twisting.

  “That’s not Rick.”

  “Right. I guess that’s why it was torn up and hidden at the bottom of the trash can.”

  “Why would she have a picture like that in the first place? It would only get her in trouble.”

  “That’s exactly what I was thinking. So that’s why I went through the trash again.”

  Clearly, Cece had been successful in her next dumpster dive too. Or trash can dive, as it was in this case.

  “What else did you find?”

  “Take a look at this.”

  Cece reached into the front of her apron, which contained a large pocket I knew she usually kept her phone in, as well as her gloves when she needed to take them off for a quick moment. This time, from its cavernous interior, when she withdrew her hand it was full of scraps of paper.

  “I’ve got another jigsaw puzzle for us to work on.”

  She opened her hand, and dozens of little scraps of paper covered in light blue ink snowed down onto the bed.

  “Let’s get to work, then,” I said, as I peered down at the bits of paper.

  Like with all puzzles, we started with the edges and the corners. Once we had those, it was actually surprisingly easy to put the rest of the pieces together. It quickly became apparent that what we were reassembling was a handwritten note of some kind.

  Since it was made up of actual words, it was simple to work out where each one went, as they normally contained enough scraps of a word for it to be obvious where they were supposed to connect. In under two minutes, we had the torn-up letter reassembled on the bed just below the photograph.

  “Well, well, well, would you look at that?” Cece gave a low whistle.

  “That is very interesting.”

  It was a short note. Short but not sweet.

  Do you want Rick to see this? You’re late with the usual payment. Make it if you want to stay married.
This is your final and only warning. Time’s nearly up.

  “What do you think of that then? Do you think it’s someone on the ship? Or did she bring it with her?”asked Cece.

  “The person who wrote it is no longer with us.”

  Cece narrowed her eyes at me. “How do you know who wrote it?”

  It was a bit of a lucky coincidence that I knew the answer to that question. But I pointed down at the note.

  “This ink is an unusual color, right? A light aquamarine blue. And the writing? Look at it. Who writes like that?”

  “I have no idea who writes like that.” Cece had an angry edge behind her voice. She hated being in the dark about anything. As this was highly entertaining to me, I kept her there as long as I could.

  “No. But I do. At least I’m pretty certain. We just need to confirm it.”

  I went to leave the room, indicating for Cece to follow me, but she wasn’t having that. She grabbed me by the shoulder.

  “Oh no you don’t! You’re not teasing me like that! Tell me!”

  She was like a kid who couldn’t wait for a surprise, a child who got angry at the very idea of waiting ‘til Christmas Day to open their presents. I could just imagine her as a little girl, demanding a surprise be ruined so that she could find out what it was immediately.

  “Okay, okay. I’m pretty sure that was Andy’s writing. I saw him write something before, but we need to go and check, to make sure.”

  That was a good point, actually. I turned and went back to the bed, pulled out my phone, and took photos of both the re-created note and the photograph.

  “Come on. We’ve got to find Greg.”

  “Greg Washington?”

  “Do you know any other Gregs?”

  “Sure, I used to know a guy called Greg the Stud. We used to call him that because he—”

  “I mean on board the ship.”

  “No, I guess not, but you’ve got to hear about Greg the Stud, you won’t believe how b—”

  “Later! Come on.”

  Before we left the room, we gathered up all the scraps and put them back into Cece’s large apron pocket. It would be even quicker to reassemble them next time, if we needed to, now that we knew exactly what they were.