Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 06 - Cruise Millions Read online

We soon finished our drinks, and Ethan offered to walk me back to my cabin.

  As we strolled through the ship, which was almost eerily quiet at that time of night, I felt like I was ten pounds lighter than when we last got together. Telling him all about my past, and the secrets I’d been bottling up inside had lifted a weight from my shoulders that I hadn’t realized was there.

  We walked through the ship, hand in hand, until we got to my cabin.

  “Good night, Adrienne,” he said to me with a smile.

  Ethan stood right in front of me, both our hands clasped together now.

  I darted a few shy glances up at him.

  “Good night, Ethan.”

  He held his steady gaze on me.

  I didn’t reach for the door. He didn’t turn and walk away.

  Instead, we both just stared into each other’s eyes, as if really seeing them for the first time. In a way, we were.

  We had unburdened ourselves of our secrets and now we were looking at the real person underneath. There were no longer any misty walls of secrets between us.

  Slowly, he lowered his head.

  I rose up on my tiptoes to meet him.

  Our lips met, if only for a few seconds. Seconds that stretched into infinity.

  He was warm, soft, and strong. Confident but vulnerable.

  We finally broke apart.

  “Good night, Adrienne.”

  And this time, we did part. I didn’t walk into my room—I floated. At least that’s what it felt like.

  And I enjoyed the best night’s sleep I had yet to have aboard the Swan of the Seas.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The next morning, Sam and I had breakfast together. Ethan was still dealing with the fallout from Lesley’s death, and he was dedicating his mornings to all the reports that head office had requested. We ate some rubbery eggs in the staff mess before heading to the morning’s Claim Your Million event.

  “Today should be right up your alley,” said Sam as we approached the conference room the event was being held in.

  “Oh yeah?” I was intrigued. Most of the wannabe-millionaire events weren’t really my cup of tea.

  “Yeah. Today’s topic is all about social media.”

  “Great.” I was unenthused. Despite it being my job, I wasn’t actually all that interested in the world of social media. I’d trained as a journalist, and it was still my actual passion. But there was a lot less call for journalists these days then there was for social media managers.

  The world had changed, and not necessarily for the better.

  As usual, we could hear the event long before we arrived. The thudding dance music was just the thing you wanted to hear first thing in the morning. If you were insane. I suspected a lot of the Claim participants were.

  When we entered the room, it was worse than usual. Paul had decided that everyone needed to boost their morning energy by jumping around.

  “Oh my!” I said.

  It wasn’t loud enough for Sam to hear me though. Not only was the music loud, the sounds of dozens of people jumping up and down and swinging their arms in the air while shouting completely drowned me out. It was like a cross between a nightclub and an evangelical church.

  I checked the time on my phone, waiting for nine o’clock to roll around. As soon as it did, right on cue, Paul Parker burst out from the edge of the small stage and did another giant leap into the middle. The music cut out, people stopped jumping, and the event was really ready to begin.

  “I can feel the energy in this room. All of you—you’re bursting with millionaire power! I could put any of you in the boardroom of any top company in the world right now, and you would blow them away! What do you think? Should we rename this Claim Your Billion?”

  The audience cheered, and Sam and I rolled our eyes.

  “Today we’ll be talking about some real groundbreaking, cutting edge stuff from the new millennium.”

  “New millennium?” said Sam under her breath. “It’s two decades old already.”

  We both laughed, but we were the only ones.

  “Adrienne James!” My cheeks went red. I felt like I was back in school and chatting with Sam when we were supposed to be paying attention to the teacher.

  “I think you’re in trouble” said Sam, giving me a nudge in the ribs.

  “Yes?” I called up to the front of the room.

  “Why don’t you come and join me on stage?”

  I gave Sam a panicked look. It was like being called up to the front of the classroom to hand over a note to the teacher or tell them what you were talking about. I thought that part of my life was over.

  “Do I have to?” I called back to Paul.

  The audience all laughed at me and I felt my cheeks burning bright red. Sam gave me a little push in the back and I found myself doing as I was told, stepping toward the stage.

  “Adrienne James is the ship’s social media manager and so she is in many ways an expert. I’m hoping she’s going to be able to offer you a few words of her extensive knowledge about social media, and give you some tips on how to use it.”

  I breathed a sigh of relief as I finally understood why I was being brought up onto the stage. But he hadn’t told me he was going to do this, and I had nothing prepared. I knew my job, and I knew my business, but it’s nice to have a bit of advance notice when you’re going to be asked to present to a large crowd.

  I put two hands up on the stage to help me climb up, and when I was standing, I let out a sigh from the exertion. A sigh that was picked up by the mic that Paul was thrusting into my face and filled the room. At the back, I could see Sam giggling.

  It was going to be one of those days, wasn’t it?

  I was pleased to see Cece, though. She was sitting toward the middle of the room, giving me an encouraging smile. At least she hadn’t given up on her dreams yet.

  “Okay, Adrienne James, take it away. Tell us everything you know about social media, and give everyone some tips for using it.”

  “Thank you, Paul. I’m afraid I won’t have time to tell you everything I know about social media—I could write a book about it—there is one topic I’d like to talk to you all about.” The idea had come to me while I was walking to the front of the room. There was one little topic within the realm of social media that I thought would be interesting. But not just interesting, it might help me with the investigation.

  I scanned the room before I began, making sure that the investors were there as well. Sure enough, Stan and Alejandro were both sitting in the crowd, watching me up on the stage.

  “If you use social media, then you’ll probably know some of what I’m about to tell you. But I want you to think about it in a slightly different way. Okay, let’s begin.” I paused to make sure everyone was paying attention, especially the investors. “Tell me, do you follow anyone who isn’t a personal friend, colleague, or family member on social media?”

  The audience roared out affirmative answers. It was actually nice having an enthusiastic audience. Even though I didn’t enjoy Paul Parker’s methods, he had gotten the crowd enthused and willing to participate.

  “So what kinds of people do you follow?”

  The crowd began to shout out names of various celebrities and brand names. A lot of them were one and the same: celebrities who had their own brands. I let them shout for about half a minute before calming the audience by lowering my palms in front of me. When they had quieted down, I continued.

  “Why?” I let the single word hang in the air while they gave me confused looks. It was a too vague a question for them to be able to shout out an answer to immediately. “Why do you follow celebrities?”

  “To see what they’re wearing!” shouted one woman.

  “To see their houses!” yelled someone else.

  “To see who they’re dating!” called another.

  “That’s right. But what’s really happening is that you want to know them. You want to know them like you know your friends, like you know your
family. Don’t you?” I asked.

  I heard shouts of agreement with my idea.

  “But what would you think if you were following a Hollywood starlet, and she posted pictures of her and her boyfriend, but then you found out the boyfriend was fake? What if she’d hired a male model just to pose for her pictures? How would that make you feel?”

  “Betrayed!”

  “Cheated!”

  “Angry!”

  “Mad!”

  I nodded back to each reaction as they were called out and gave encouraging smiles.

  “That’s right. And that’s the most important thing you all need to understand about social media. You need to be authentic.” I paused to let my words sink in. This time, there were no shouts and screams, but thoughtful silence as they processed the word ‘authentic.’

  “That’s the key to long-term success on social media. Authenticity. You’ve got to be real. Do you see what I mean?” I ran my eyes over the crowd until they locked onto one person: Alejandro Ciudad.

  “These days, it’s easy to set up a fake profile and to lie online. But do you know what else is easy? Finding these people out. Discovering who’s a fake, who’s a liar, who’s exaggerating, and who’s claiming to be someone that they are not.”

  Even from my position up on the stage at the front of the room, I could see Alejandro paling. He ducked his head down, so he wasn’t looking at me, and after a couple of seconds of staring at the floor, he stood up and left the room. I needed to wrap things up quickly so I could chase after him.

  “There are all kinds of ways to check if someone is telling the truth. So that’s what I really want to tell you all this morning: if you act fake online, you’re going to get found out. You need to be authentic. That doesn’t mean you have to show every aspect of your life—you can pick and choose what you’re willing to share—but make sure that what you do share is the real you. Be authentic. Engage with your fans. They want a connection with you—the real you. Not a fake you. Thank you, everyone.”

  I handed back the microphone to Paul Parker, who immediately tucked it under his arm and started an energetic round of applause. Of course the audience followed their guru’s lead, and I felt buoyed by the crowds' response to my off-the-cuff speech.

  I walked down the center aisle toward Sam, who was at the back of the room, applauding along with everyone else and flashing a million-dollar smile. She was proud of me. And I was too. But not just because of the success of my little talk.

  The way Alejandro had reacted, he knew he was busted. But what would he do next?

  While I was walking back, Paul Parker began to speak to his audience again. “Thanks very much to Adrienne James for that fascinating speech. I think she really dug into something important there: authenticity. Later today, I’m going to show you some really good ways to invent your own authentic profile. Some tips and tricks to design the kind of authentic persona that you really want to portray.”

  It sounded a lot like he was going to teach them the exact opposite of what I just said. Still, I had bigger fish to fry. A fake real estate investor fish.

  “Back in a bit. I’ve got to do something.”

  I left Sam and hurried out the back of the room, hoping to catch up with Alejandro and see what he had to say for himself. I burst through the back doors, intending to rush out of the conference suite and catch Alejandro by the elevators.

  What I wasn’t expecting, was for there to be a man right in front of the other side of the door. A portly man carrying a giant inflatable palm tree.

  I tried to stop myself from crashing into Milton McPherson as soon as I saw him. Unfortunately, my efforts weren’t enough and I put my hand out to stop myself. My palm went right under his rib cage. The palm tree he’d been clutching flew up into the air, and Milton dramatically collapsed forward.

  Milton’s collapse knocked me off balance, and I found myself lying on the floor, my head propping the door to the conference room open.

  Milton clutched his stomach and hovered over me like a tree about to topple. His face was red with outrage. His inflatable palm tree tumbled to the floor beside me.

  “Sorry!” I shouted, using one hand to hold the door while I used the other to try and push myself to my feet.

  Milton had started to catch his breath. Just enough to begin to berate me.

  “You again! You’re a saboteur, aren’t you? You’re always there. You know I’ve got the best product and you’re trying to stop me!”

  People in the conference center started turning around to see what was happening. Some of them rose to their feet and headed toward us.

  Paul Parker stopped whatever he was saying on the stage, as a commotion broke out at the back of the room.

  “I know what you’re up to! You and Cece are trying to get me in trouble with Paul!”

  “What’s going on?” said Helen Johannsen, peering down at me and shaking her head with disappointment. “You again. You almost redeemed yourself on the stage, but you’re back to your old troublemaking tricks, aren’t you?”

  “She is!” confirmed Milton, whose words were still breathy. “She’s trying to sabotage us because she’s jealous of us millionaires!”

  “What’s going on?” Paul Parker himself had joined us. He was running his eyes across the scene, and noticing several different people glaring at me.

  “Shoot, shoot, shoot! What’s happening? Oh, please, not another disaster.”

  I buried my head in my hands. Now Kelly was here too.

  “Milton, it’s all right. No damage has been done, right?” said Paul Parker, patting Milton on the shoulder in an attempt to reassure him.

  “She’s a saboteur,” repeated Milton, though with less fervor than before.

  “I know, I know.” Paul Parker was being sympathetic to him, but it was at my expense and I didn’t particularly enjoy it. But I enjoyed it more than what happened next.

  “Kelly?” Paul said.

  The cruise director was standing next to Paul now, with her hands on her hips and concern on her face as she tried to figure out what was going on. She had come from the direction of the elevators and had obviously missed my excellent speech and less than excellent tumble into Milton McPherson.

  “Yes?” asked Kelly.

  “I think it might be best if the social media manager,” he glanced in my direction, “spent her time covering some of the other events on the ship. Perhaps someone else could take the pictures, or whatever, for us? Claim Your Million is a serious, life-changing program, and constant disruptions are jeopardizing the success of the event.”

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Kelly said.

  She turned to me and her eyes were filled with sympathy. I just sighed and shook my head at her.

  I’d had enough of Claim Your Million. With everyone staring at me, I marched to the elevator. I was sure Alejandro was long gone, but I knew he was harboring some serious secrets.

  I was going to reveal them and clear Cece’s name.

  Chapter Nineteen

  After the highs and lows of my latest foray into public speaking I needed a little time to myself. I enjoyed a coffee at Minnie’s Boulevard Café while I planned what to do next.

  Alejandro.

  The way he’d run out of the room when I mentioned how easy it was to fake identities online these days was just too suspicious for it to be anything other than a sign of guilt.

  I had to find him and get the truth out of him.

  “Is everything all right? You look worried,” asked Minnie as I handed her my staff ID to swipe for the bill.

  “I guess I’ve got a lot on my plate. But I’m sure everything will be all right. I’m worried about my friend and I’m trying to help her, but I don’t know if it’s working.” I didn’t want to tell Minnie about the whole passenger-being-murdered thing, so I just alluded to Cece’s situation that had arisen from it.

  Minnie’s smile wasn’t just kind, it was heartfelt. “Everything will work out just fine. You’
re a good girl, Adrienne, and you always do what’s right. Your friend will be out of her jam in no time.”

  “Thanks, Minnie.”

  She peered over my shoulder. “Looks like someone’s coming for you.”

  I glanced over my shoulder and when I saw who it was, I turned back to Minnie and winced. She laughed in understanding.

  “Good luck.”

  “Thanks,” I said to her, and I really meant it. “I’ll need it.”

  I turned around, forcing a smile as I greeted Helen Johannsen.

  “Ah, social media girl,” she said, lifting one hand as though summoning her butler. “Just the person I wanted to see.”

  “Oh?” She hadn’t been friendly with me recently, so the fact that she was hunting me down didn’t seem to bode well.

  “Come. Let’s get out of here.” Helen seemed to suppress a shudder as she ran her eye around the small interior of the Boulevard Café.

  Waving goodbye to Minnie, I followed Helen outside, past the tables and chairs and planters of the outside area of the café and around a corner to a small sun deck. I was tempted to make my excuse and leave, but I was genuinely curious as to what she wanted with me.

  “Sit, sit, sit,” said Helen, indicating a bench.

  We sat down, side-by-side, looking out across the ocean. I couldn’t help but think how peaceful it was out there. Unlike on the ship. The sea was as calm as a mill pond today, and there was a gentle breeze to cool us off.

  “What can I do for you?” I tried to mask the suspicion in my voice, but I don’t think I did a very good job. Luckily, Helen Johannsen wasn’t the kind of person who paid much attention to what people she deemed beneath her had to say.

  “Before you embarrassed yourself, you gave quite an interesting talk earlier.” She looked at me expectantly.

  “Gee, thanks,” I said with all the enthusiasm I could muster for her weak compliment.

  “As you know, I have a groundbreaking product.” Helen held up her coffee mug for me to admire again.

  “Yes…”

  “I think it’s going to be very big on social media, after I win the Spiders’ investment.”