Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 05 - Cruise Conundrum Read online

  We had to visit both Xavier and Awesome Andy, and for once, luck was on my side. We’d barely made our way out of the crew section of the ship when who did we run into? None other than Xavier himself. We were in the large atrium, outside the casino and near the International Buffet.

  “Look, it’s Xavier!” Sam, pointed excitedly.

  “So it is. For once, one of Kelly’s little disasters may not be too much of a burden for us after all.”

  “Excuse me? Xavier?”

  He didn’t seem to hear us, even though we were only a little bit behind him.

  “X!” I tried.

  He turned around immediately, a smile on his lips. He really did like being called X rather than Xavier.

  “Good evening, ladies.”

  “We’ve got a small change in schedule tomorrow. I wanted to give you your copy of the amended one. The most important thing to note is that our location has changed from the pool deck to outdoor event space B.”

  “Okay, no problem. Thanks for letting me know. You’ll inform the participants?”

  “Of course,” said Sam with a professional smile. “Are you alone this evening? No Zara?”

  Xavier shook his head. “No, she decided to call it an early night. Said she needed some alone time to recuperate. She says being at sea is exhausting. Told me to go out and make sure I wasn’t back for at least a couple of hours,” he chuckled. “Women need their beauty sleep, right?”

  Sam and I exchange uncertain glances and then nodded at him. After what we’d seen Zara up to earlier that day, the idea of him being kicked out of his room for several hours was somewhat suspicious.

  “All right. I don’t suppose you’ve seen Andy, have you? Are you meeting him now?”

  Xavier held out his phone and tapped at the screen. “Nope. Just got a message from him. It seems that he needs his beauty sleep too! Look at this—” He showed me his phone. “He’s turning in early as well! Looks like I’m a lone wolf tonight.”

  Sam and I exchanged another pair of glances. Both Zara and Andy had gone to bed early? And Xavier was banned from his own room? It wasn’t our job to intrude, but I would have been surprised if Andy and Zara weren’t together right at that very moment.

  “I’m going to go get some fresh air,” said Xavier. “And then maybe grab a cocktail. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  We waved him off before turning back to each other.

  “Zara and Andy, huh? They’re awful, aren’t they?” said Sam.

  “They are awful. Maybe they deserve each other.”

  “Yeah. But poor Xavier.”

  “Mmhmm,” I said noncommittally. He hadn’t exactly endeared himself to me during our first meeting earlier that day.

  “Come on. If Andy isn’t in his room, we’ll just stick this on the door.”

  We walked down one of the brightly lit hallways away from the main atrium, past the Cocktail Club where I’d had a drink with Kelly the night before. I glanced in as we were passing and was surprised to see Greg Washington inside. And he was not alone.

  He was with Jessica’s husband, Rick.

  Indicating for Sam to stop, I jerked my head in the direction of the bar.

  “Do you need a drink?” asked Sam with a curious smile.

  “Not that. Look who it is. It’s Rick. Without his wife. And he’s drinking with Greg.”

  We strolled over toward the bar. We didn’t even have to go inside to hear them. Drunk people are so noisy. Rick definitely seemed to be drunk, working on becoming even more so. Greg was usually the noisiest of any group, but this time, he was being more than outdone by his new drinking companion.

  “… it’s a shcam. Marriage. All of it. Wives, weddings…” he paused to think before continuing, “…ceremonies, bridal showers, batchelor parties… weddings, did I say weddings?”

  “You did. And as a confirmed bachelor, I can’t help but agree,” said Greg, raising a pink drink into the air and clinking it against Rick’s bottle of beer. He took a sip from the straw, resting his elbow on the bar and his chin on his hand as he waited for Rick to continue.

  “She’s an airhead, you know. Only wanted me for my money. Can’t believe I fell for it. I mean, I’d divorce her—but you know how much that would cost me?”

  “A lot?”

  “No. A lot.”

  Sam and I giggled at how little sense Rick was making. But it was also sad. He did seem to be genuinely upset about what had happened between him and his wife.

  “Man, you should have had one of those prenuptial agreements like the Hollywood people do,” said Greg, slapping Rick on the back.

  “I do! I do! I’ve got one!”

  “Then divorce her. Annul it. You won’t have to pay her anything, right?”

  We could see Rick shaking his head sadly.

  “No. I was an idiot. With my prenup, it only kicks in if she cheats on me. And who would cheat with her? She’s a stupid airhead.”

  “Some guys like that,” said Greg, his tone, indicating that he was certainly not one of those kind of guys. I knew that much was true.

  “Yeah, people flirt with her all the time. But I’m sure they’re just being polite.” He paused to hiccup and take another gulp of beer, finishing the bottle. “She such an airhead. Did I say that already?”

  Rick leaned over to put his arm around Greg’s shoulder for some sympathy, but as he did so, he fell clean off the barstool he was sitting on. Luckily for him, Greg wasn’t quite as drunk and put out an arm to catch him as he fell.

  While Greg didn’t completely stop his rapid descent to the floor, he did manage to slow it somewhat. Rick hit the floor with a gentle thump, confusion plain on his face.

  Rick immediately bounced back to his feet, his cheeks red with embarrassment.

  “I think my chair is a bit unshtable.” Rick grabbed his drink off the bar and walked around Greg to sit on a different barstool on the other side of him.

  Once he was seated, he held onto the counter with two hands, making a show of testing whether the new stool was wobbly. It wasn’t. But then again, neither was the last one.

  “You sure you’re all right, man?” asked Greg.

  “I’m fine. Except for my no good wife.”

  “Come on,” I said, pushing Sam gently on the small of her back. “That’s enough unhappy marriages for the moment. Let’s go give this to Andy.”

  As we left the Cocktail Club, the conversation between Greg and Rick carried on but it seemed to be going in circles. Rick kept repeating the same opinions about his wife and the whole institution of marriage over and over, while Greg just agreed sympathetically.

  In retrospect, I think Greg was just there for the free drinks.

  I kind of wished we’d joined him.

  Chapter 12

  I was hoping Andy wouldn’t be in his room. That he would actually be off with Zara.

  Not that I wanted them to be cheating with each other. I just didn’t want to see Andy again.

  “All of their rooms are on this floor,” said Sam in a soft tone. There was always a bit of a hushed atmosphere in the luxury section of the ship. Unless you were with Cece, anyway. “They all got VIP suites.”

  “It’s all right for some, isn’t it?”

  We had already passed by Jessica and Rick’s room, which I had helped Cece clean, and it was only a short walk down the hall to Andy’s.

  “Look at that,” said Sam shaking her head.

  I knew what she meant. Outside Andy’s room was a nameplate, which had been filled in with his name. Only it didn’t have his proper name; it had his nickname. Awesome Andy.

  “I’m surprised no one’s changed it,” I said with a mischievous smile.

  “Yeah? To what?”

  “Take your pick. Arrogant Andy. Annoying Andy. Awful Andy.”

  “Abominable Andy?” suggested Sam.

  “That’s the spirit! Ooh, how about this? Adulterous Andy.”

  We both giggled at that for a moment, and then I sighed, feeli
ng guilty.

  “Maybe I’m being too mean,” I said. “You should’ve heard what he said to me, though. It wasn’t just what he said. It was the way he said it. So condescending.”

  “If he made you feel that way, then he definitely deserves it. You’re one of the nicest people I know. Anyone who makes you feel bad deserves whatever they get.”

  “Thank you. All right. Let’s get this over with.”

  Andy’s door was slightly ajar, so we were pretty sure he was home. Unfortunately.

  “Should we just shove it through the crack?” suggested Sam.

  “Better not. He might miss it if it’s just on the floor. And I know he’d blame me. No, I’ll hand it over to him in person.”

  I pressed the doorbell. Like all of the VIP suites, it was an ornate lion’s head doorbell, with the button right in the center of the lion’s mouth. With the door opened just a crack, we could hear the distant dingdong from the speakers inside the suite, letting him know that he had a guest.

  “Guess he’s going to keep us waiting,” said Sam after about a dozen seconds had passed.

  “Not if I can help it.” I pressed the button again, three times in quick succession.

  I stood there, tapping my foot, arms crossed, waiting for him to show. He didn’t.

  “You don’t suppose he left the door open for Zara, do you?” I said after there was no response.

  Sam snickered. “What, and he’s lying there naked on the bed, waiting for her to let herself in?”

  I shuddered at the thought.

  “Look, the door’s open. Let’s just go and stick it on the big table. He’ll have to see it there. And if he’s waiting in the bedroom, he’ll have to keep waiting.”

  “If he is, let’s go and have a peek.”

  I punched her on the arm. “Let’s not.”

  I pressed the doorbell once more, just in case. Once the ring had faded, there was nothing but silence.

  He definitely wasn’t coming to us.

  “Come on.” Sam pushed the door open and immediately began to walk inside.

  I followed after her. I don’t know what we would have done if the door had been locked. It would have made the night a lot easier, in retrospect. But the door was open, and what happened, happened.

  “Let’s put it over there,” Sam gestured with a finger toward the dining table. “We can prop it up against the flower vase.”

  Sam was halfway across the room before she stopped. A few seconds later, she screamed.

  Not the little yelp you give when you see a mouse scurrying across the floor.

  Not the ouch you give when you grab something way too hot just out of the oven.

  This was a full-on scream.

  And when my best friend screams right in front of me, what do I do? That’s right. I screamed too. It was like an immediate reaction to her outburst. I didn’t even know what I was screaming at, but scream I did.

  Sam raised her arm and pointed to the left-hand side of the room, not to the dining table I’d been looking at.

  There were a pair of sofas on either side of a glass coffee table. But she wasn’t pointing at the sofas. She was pointing at what was on one of them. Or rather who was on it.

  I followed her around and stared at the sofa. Sitting right in the middle of it, so there was room on either side of him for two more people to join him, was Andy. Andy sat open-mouthed and open-eyed, with a single round open wound on his forehead. A bullet hole.

  “He’s… he’s dead,” said Sam needlessly.

  “Yep.” Awesome Andy had left the building.

  “What do we do?” Sam had her hands balled into fists, holding them against her pale cheeks. It looked like she was shivering too.

  Unfortunately, I knew exactly what to do. This wasn’t my first rodeo. With a sigh, I pulled out my phone.

  First things first. Time to call in Ethan. It didn’t look like our ship’s first officer was going to escape having an evening with me, after all.

  “Here we go again…”

  I pressed dial to connect the call and report the murder.

  Chapter 13

  “Well, the photography cruise is ruined, isn’t it?” said Sam, crossing her arms with a frown and an accusatory look toward the body.

  “Maybe,” I said as I gave my own stare of annoyance at the open, lifeless eyes of Andy across the room. Even in death, he was irritating. “But we’ll see what corporate says.”

  “Yeah, but Andy was our expert. I don’t see how it could even continue without him.”

  “Maybe you’re right. But we’ll see…”

  Without needing to say it, Sam and I walked away from Andy back toward the door. Neither of us wanted to stand too close to the body. While I don’t exactly believe in auras or other supernatural things like that, there did seem to be a bad vibe around the body. A kind of coldness seeming to emanate from him—from it.

  “I’ve never discovered a body before,” said Sam with a frown.

  “It’s not much fun, is it?” This wasn’t the first body I had found, unfortunately.

  “Hold on. I think I hear something.”

  Sure enough, several sets of footsteps hurried down the normally serene VIP corridor, presumably toward us. We both looked at the door expectantly, and a moment later, Dr. Ryan and First Officer Ethan Lee flew into the room, with a couple more security guards hurrying in quickly behind them.

  “Adrienne, what happened?”

  I stared at the white shirt of Ethan’s uniform. For once, it wasn’t perfect. There was a tiny red stain that I guessed was marinara sauce or something similar. He always looked so perfect; it was strange to see him even slightly unkempt. He was probably still in the Captain’s Club, hosting the dinner he’d canceled our date for, when we’d interrupted him.

  “Adrienne?”

  “Sorry. It’s been a bit of a long evening.” I’d been in a world of my own, staring at his shirt, apparently more surprised by that stain than the dead body across the room. “We were coming to give Andy a new schedule for tomorrow. The door was open. But then when we came in…” I grimaced, figuring it would suffice. Sam thought otherwise, however, and decided to clarify.

  “He was dead. Sitting on the sofa. It looks like he’s been shot in the head.” Sam was biting her lip, and she had her arms crossed in front of her, pulled up tight against her body as if comforting herself.

  “Did you check the other rooms? To see if anyone’s here?”

  I looked at Sam. She looked back at me with something akin to panic.

  What if there was a murderer in here, hiding, while we’d been waiting? We hadn’t even thought about it. How long had we stood there by the door, waiting, with a possible killer just a few steps away?

  “We didn’t check.”

  Ethan nodded in approval. “Good. You did the right thing. Obviously whoever did this is very dangerous. Searching the rooms would have been foolhardy.”

  Yes, that was definitely what we’d been doing—being safe. It totally wasn’t that we hadn’t even thought about it.

  Ethan turned to his two security guards. “Come with me.”

  Each of them drawing a weapon, they headed into the master bedroom suite.

  Sam and Dr. Ryan and I stood there nervously, hoping we wouldn’t hear any commotion. On tenterhooks, we listened for signs of struggle. Thankfully, they never came.

  “Clear!” said Ethan as he emerged from the master bedroom. “We’ll check the other one now.”

  As with Rick and Jessica’s suite, there were two bedrooms here. Ethan and his men walked across the marble floor, serious expressions on their faces, alert eyes scanning across the room, reaching into every corner, and under every table, as they moved.

  They didn’t spend long in the second bedroom. After a few tense seconds, they were back, Ethan walking toward us at the front and his two men walking side by side behind him. They had all holstered their weapons.

  “There’s no one here. They must have left befo
re you got here. Dr. Ryan, why don’t you have a quick look at the body? We’ll discuss the logistics of getting it down to sickbay. Adrienne, Sam, let’s have a chat.” He turned back to his two men. “Stand outside and make sure no one comes in. If anyone asks what’s going on, tell them it’s confidential. Don’t mention Andy’s death to anyone yet. And no one is to come in. Okay?”

  “Yes, sir!” The two security guards, one man and one woman, both appearing to be in their mid-twenties, replied in unison with sharp salutes. They exited the room and pulled the door until it was almost closed behind them.

  Sam and I followed Ethan across the room and then outside onto the suite’s balcony.

  “We shouldn’t accidentally upset any evidence out here,” said Ethan. “What do we know? Any ideas who would want him dead?”

  I took a moment to breathe in some of the cool night air before answering. It was a fresh evening, and the air somehow felt so much cleaner than what we had been breathing inside. As if the suite had been contaminated by Andy’s untimely death. As if the very atmosphere of the room itself had become toxic. I was glad Ethan had led us outside.

  “Zara.”

  Ethan looked at Sam, her single-word announcement drawing his interest.

  “Zara is dating Xavier, the other guy running the photography cruise,” I explained to Ethan. While he knew Andy and Xavier, I wasn’t sure if he knew Zara yet. He sure would soon.

  “She didn’t like Andy?”

  I shook my head.

  “They’re having an affair,” said Sam. “Well, they were. I bet she’s linked to his death in some way. If it wasn’t her, then maybe she’s the indirect cause. Maybe Xavier found out about them and… put a stop to it?”

  I nodded. That made sense. A jealous boyfriend could’ve killed his love rival.

  “That’s not all, though. There’s Raina, too.”

  Ethan furrowed his brow. “Raina? Traveling alone, right?”

  “Yep.” It was interesting that he decided to describe her as ‘traveling alone’ rather than the fact that she was an attractive woman. I wondered if Ethan had even noticed. Maybe he just had eyes for me, I mused hopefully.