Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 05 - Cruise Conundrum

by A. R. Winters

  “What about her? Did she have some kind of issue with Andy?”

  “There was something going on between her and him. I don’t know if he had an affair with her as well, but she was really interested in him. I heard her offer him six figures for some kind of business proposition.”

  “Six figures? What kind of proposition? He’s only a photographer, isn’t he?”

  “Yeah,” I said nodding. “That’s why I found the offer so surprising. You don’t exactly expect a photographer to make that much, right?”

  “I wouldn’t have thought so,” said Ethan shaking his head. “Anything else?”

  “Yeah. I saw her coming out of Andy’s room the other day. Yesterday. When we—Cece and I—knocked on his door a moment after, he thought we were Raina. He shouted that he wasn’t interested.”

  “Wasn’t interested?”

  “Right. He claimed he wasn’t interested in the business proposition. But Cece thinks it was something else. She thinks it wasn’t exactly business that she was propositioning him with.”

  Ethan’s eyebrows shot up. “Really? Six figures? Him.”

  “That’s what I said. But Cece thinks I’m naïve.”

  “If you’re being naïve, then I’m just as unworldly as you. Six figures…” He was shaking his head in disbelief. And probably we were right. Cece was the one who likely had it all wrong.

  “I’d be surprised if he could get six dollars,” said Sam with a frown.

  “I said that too!”

  I was just about to repeat Cece’s joke about Sam being willing to pay something for the pleasure of Andy’s company. But with him sitting on the sofa inside with a bullet in his head, it didn’t somehow seem appropriate. Shame. I would’ve enjoyed teasing Sam the same way Cece got me.

  “Did you hear something?” said Ethan, tilting his head back toward the inside of the cabin. “It sounded like screaming!”

  I hadn’t been paying attention to the inside. I’d been listening to the gentle evening breeze in the background, and of course Sam and Ethan. But now that he mentioned it, there did seem to be some kind of commotion.

  With a worried frown, Ethan walked back inside through the sliding french doors, and I followed along with Sam. Now we could hear better.

  “Let me in! Let me in! Let me in!” came the shrieking voice from outside.

  Although it was completely inappropriate, I couldn’t help but smile. It was Kelly, throwing a tantrum at being denied entry. I guessed Ethan’s security guards had taken him a little too literally at his word.

  “It’s okay,” called Ethan across the room toward the front door. “You can let her in. She’s the cruise manager.” He turned back to us. “I called her on my way over here, but I guess I forgot to mention it to my guys.”

  He shook his head ruefully.

  We met Kelly by the entrance to the room, our three bodies blocking her view of the sofa where Andy was still sitting while Dr. Ryan continued his cursory examination.

  Kelly was red-faced, though it wasn’t as red as the bright red dress she was wearing, nor the bright red lipstick she had on.

  She’d been wearing all lime green when I saw her earlier. I guess she’d gone back to her room, undressed, and gotten her outfit ready for the next day. When Ethan called, she put on tomorrow’s clothing. At least I hoped that’s what happened, and that she didn’t decide to put on blood red clothing to match the hole in Andy’s head. I shuddered at the thought of it.

  “What’s happening?” She stepped to the right, a few brisk sidesteps, trying to peer around us at what was behind.

  “Andy’s dead. You don’t want to look. Trust me.”

  Kelly cocked her head at me for a moment, and then with half a dozen quick steps she slipped between us and stared at the sofa. I barely managed to cover my ears before the scream that I was expecting erupted from between her lips. Ethan and Sam were a bit too slow, and they both winced as they put their own hands against their own heads just a bit too late.

  After ten seconds or so, Kelly regained control of herself and stopped screaming. When she turned around, her red face had gone ashen.

  “Awesome Andy… He’s dead…”

  “Shot through the head,” said Sam.

  Kelly started shaking her head to herself, and saying under her breath, “Oh no, oh no, oh no. Shoot, shoot, shoot.”

  Shoot was indeed what someone had done. I didn’t tell her, though. I thought it might bring on another scream and I’d had just about enough screaming for one evening.

  While she kept repeating the two phrases alternately, my phone buzzed as I received a message.

  I pulled it out and looked at the screen. It was from Cece. Hey! Did you just ruin my HOT date with another one of your bodies? Not fair!

  The end of the message was filled with angry emojis. Three whole lines of them.

  I had to stop myself from smirking as I put the phone back into my pocket. Despite the tragic situation, I couldn’t help but be amused by Cece’s response.

  When I looked up again, Kelly had stopped her panicked chant and now had her hands on her hips and a determined look on her face.

  “Adrienne! Sam!”

  “Yes?”

  “We have to keep this a secret. We can’t tell the passengers that Andy’s been murdered. People will think this ship is cursed if they hear that. You’re going to have to tell all the photography passengers that Andy is very sick. So sick he can’t even get out of bed—”

  “Or off the sofa?” suggested Sam. She earned an angry glare from Kelly in response.

  “This can’t get out on social media, Adrienne. Okay?”

  “Well, I can assure you I won’t be putting up pictures of the body,” I said with a nod.

  Kelly seemed pleased with that.

  “Why couldn’t things just go smoothly for once?” she groaned. “It’s like I’m cursed, isn’t it? Do you think I’m cursed? Is it me causing these deaths?”

  “No, Kelly, it’s just some bad—”

  “I knew it!” Her hands moved from her hips to her head, clutching it. “I’m cursed. How many more are going to die because of me?”

  While I grabbed Kelly’s shoulders to try and squeeze and shake some sense into her, Sam put a hand over her own mouth. I knew why. She was covering up the fact that she was about to start giggling at Kelly’s reaction.

  I squeezed the cruise director’s petite shoulders hard. “You’re not cursed. It’s just a string of bad luck. It’s got nothing to do with you. We need you to make sure everything keeps sailing along smoothly. Okay? You’re doing great, really!”

  Kelly looked me in the eyes and gave me a minuscule nod. I hadn’t been able to convince her entirely.

  But I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that she wasn’t cursed. There’d been a murder even before she even came aboard as director. If anything was cursed, it was the ship. Or me.

  Chapter 14

  T he clean-up took a while, but Ethan and the rest of his team, including Dr. Ryan, were getting it down to a fine art.

  After photographs of the body and the scene had been taken, and whatever evidence could be gathered had been gathered, Awesome Andy was placed into a black body bag. I tried to think of a pun to send him off with but couldn’t quite there. Adieu Andy just didn’t have the right ring to it, I thought with a frown.

  They didn’t want the other passengers seeing Andy’s departure, so the body bag was first placed onto a medical stretcher from the sickbay. They then covered up the bag with stacks of sheets and towels over the top of him, so that it didn’t look like a dead body was being transported.

  I didn’t know what they’d actually say if a passenger asked why a stretcher was being used to transport towels and sheets by a security guard, but I was sure they’d think of something.

  After that, everyone was sworn to secrecy and then the room was locked up. A Do Not Disturb sign was hung on the door, and word was passed to the housekeeping staff that the room would no longer
need cleaning for the rest of the cruise.

  It was ‘lucky’ that it had happened in Andy’s suite, because when things like this happened in public spaces, they had to be sealed off for the duration of the cruise, which that inevitably led to questions. But a passenger staying in his room? No one would even notice, apart from the photography passengers, who would be given an excuse.

  “If Xavier is going to be taking over most of Andy’s role, then he needs to be informed of the truth at least,” said Ethan. “Let’s go tell him what’s happened together. I want to see how he reacts.”

  “Good idea. I’m curious too.”

  Xavier was the most likely suspect, so we would have to pay careful attention to his behavior. If he seemed incredibly guilty, then of course we would have to take him in for questioning, and the whole photography cruise would have to be abandoned. If he seemed convincingly innocent, then the cruise would be able to continue as originally planned, with some modifications of course.

  By the time we arrived at Xavier’s suite, it was after eleven o’clock. Despite the late hour, Ethan and I were both wide awake. It was funny how a little murder could get the adrenaline pumping. It was better than caffeine, though not nearly as marketable.

  When Xavier opened the door, he was wearing navy blue pajamas with a golden X monogrammed into the left breast pocket. He was bleary-eyed, and we had clearly woken him up. Or he was doing a very good impression of someone who had just been unexpectedly awakened.

  “Sorry to disturb you at this late hour, sir. Could we come in and talk to you for a moment?” Seeing the hesitation on his face, Ethan added, “It’s important. May we?”

  Ethan had a way of asking questions that precluded the recipient from giving any answer apart from the one that Ethan wanted him to give. In this case, Xavier was already nodding and ushering us in before I think he had even realized what he was doing.

  Ethan made straight for the dining table near the sliding french doors to the balcony. This suite was exactly like the one we had just left, although this one didn’t have a dead body in it. Most likely, anyway. I walked behind Ethan, with Xavier closing the door and trailing behind me.

  Ethan pulled out the seat at the head of the table and sat down after pulling another chair out on the balcony side of the table for me, and another for Xavier on his other side.

  “What on earth is going on?” asked Xavier when we were all seated. “It’s a bit late for social calls.”

  “It is. As you’ve guessed, it’s not a social call. I’m afraid something terrible has happened. Something tragic.”

  “What?” Xavier’s eyebrows had gone up in alarm.

  “Is Zara here?” asked Ethan before he continued.

  Xavier shook his head. “She left me a message. She woke up, and now she’s gone for a walk.” He looked at me. “So much for her early night!”

  Isn’t that interesting? Out on her own at this time of night. And she was the one that had wanted to turn in early, wasn’t she? Just like Andy. He had definitely had an early night, though. A permanent one.

  “It’s a funny time to go for a walk,” said Ethan.

  Xavier shrugged. “She gets insomnia sometimes. Are you here to ask me about Zara?”

  I shook my head at him.

  “It’s Andy,” said Ethan. He didn’t beat about the bush. “He’s dead.”

  “Dead? Like dead dead?”

  “I’m afraid so.”

  “Awesome Andy?”

  “That’s right. Awesome Andy is dead.”

  “Awesome Andy, the photographer, who I saw just a few hours ago, is dead?”

  It’s interesting how people take the news of death. A lot of the time people don’t believe it. They need it confirmed to them half a dozen times before they can begin to process it. Sometimes more. Despite the fact that death comes for us all someday, the living always seemed to be surprised by it.

  “Andy was found dead in his suite earlier this evening. And unfortunately, it looks like someone killed him.”

  Xavier was rubbing both temples with his fingertips. He was wide awake now but seemed to be confused by the news.

  “You were quite close with him, weren’t you?” I asked.

  Xavier nodded hesitantly. “You know, we worked in the same industry. And yes, we were friends, I suppose. But you know how it is—we all call each other ‘friends,’ but a lot of the time we’re not that close.”

  “So you weren’t close to Andy, then?”

  Xavier shrugged. “We were friendly. We worked together sometimes. But we weren’t exactly close like best friends are. More like good acquaintances. He was someone I’d go for a drink with now and then, especially if we were working on a magazine issue together.”

  “And the same goes for Zara?”

  I certainly knew the answer to this question, as did Ethan, but I wasn’t sure if Xavier did.

  “I don’t think she’s as familiar with him. He’s photographed her a couple of times, but she didn’t work with him as much as I have over the years.”

  If he knew about Zara and Andy’s affair, he was very good at hiding it.

  “When was the last time you saw him?”

  Xavier paused before answering, as if making sure that what he was saying was precisely right. “It was earlier this evening. As I told Adrienne earlier—he’d said he wanted an early night. I didn’t see him after that.”

  Ethan looked at me and gave a half-nod, a signal that we were done questioning Xavier for now. We hadn’t learned much, but we’d seen his reaction to the news, and it didn’t seem suspicious. I didn’t think so, at least. It was time to get to the other matter at hand: the inconvenience caused by Andy’s untimely passing.

  “Xavier, with Andy no longer with us, would you be able to cover his events? I think there are a couple of workshops, and the competition, and… well, you know better than me.”

  Xavier sucked in a breath between his teeth. “I suppose I could do most of it. Perhaps Zara can help me with judging the photo competition. And maybe one of your members of staff?”

  “Yes, I’m sure we can rustle someone up. But do you think you can manage the workshops and the lectures?”

  “If you give me his notes, I’m sure I’ll be able to handle it. It isn’t exactly what I signed up for, and I’m not the photographer that Andy was. Although I’m not the best technical photographer, I do of course know all about what the result should look like. I have to choose them for the magazines, after all.”

  Kelly would be relieved. She’d had another panic attack over what she would do if Xavier refused to cover for Andy. At least that particular disaster didn’t look like it was going to unfold.

  There was a beep, and the door lock whirred as someone outside scanned their key card and the door obligingly opened itself.

  “Hello?” said Zara tentatively as she stepped into the room.

  She was wearing designer trainers, expensive looking shorts, and a hoodie also made by a famous Italian brand. She certainly looked like she was dressed for a walk. How I imagined young rich girls dressed for an evening stroll, anyway.

  We had discussed it beforehand, and we thought it would be necessary to tell Zara what happened as well. Although we needed to keep Andy’s death a secret, some people needed to be informed. Trying to get Xavier to keep it a secret from his girlfriend didn’t seem like a plan likely to succeed.

  “Hello, Zara. Could you come and join us, please? We have some unfortunate news.”

  She walked across the room, her clean sneakers squeaking on the marble floor, before she sat down next to her boyfriend.

  This time Ethan explained what had happened, in a series of short, sharp, simple sentences. His eyes were locked on her the entire time, as were mine.

  When she heard the news, her jaw dropped open, and her hand flew up to cover her mouth. She started shaking her head, whispering, “No, no, no,” in a low voice.

  Xavier wrapped an arm around her and gave her a supportive sq
ueeze. It didn’t seem to help her much. She started to sniffle and, as tears rolled down her cheeks, she began to sob.

  She seemed genuinely upset. More so than Xavier.

  But that was to be expected. She was having an affair with Andy, after all.

  I wondered if Xavier would be suspicious about her reaction, or whether he’d just write it off as one of her closer-to-the-surface sensitivities.

  “Do you know anyone who may have wanted to harm Andy?” asked Ethan when her sniffling had subsided somewhat.

  “No, I don’t know who would want to hurt him. Especially on board the ship. The only people he knew were his friends. Us.”

  “And Raina,” I said.

  “Who’s that?” asked Zara, punctuated by more sniffles.

  “Never mind.”

  Zara and Raina must not have known each other. Or at least Zara was pretending she didn’t.

  Ethan and I explained to her the importance of maintaining secrecy. If anyone asked, they were to say that Andy was ill and stuck in bed. He probably wouldn’t be able to participate in the rest of the cruise at all.

  She agreed without complaint, though I didn’t suppose she’d really had all that much time to think it through either.

  It was almost midnight by the time we were done. Ethan pushed back his chair and stood up. I followed suit, giving Xavier and Zara a tight, sympathetic smile.

  “Try and get some rest. And remember, we need to keep this confidential. It will assist in the investigation. Can I count on you?”

  Xavier and Zara, clutching each other’s hands, nodded and agreed.

  When we left the suite, they were both sitting at the dining table, talking to each other in hushed tones. Their conversation mostly seemed to consist of them each telling each other that they didn’t believe it. That they couldn’t believe Andy was gone.

  Outside the suite, when the door was safely closed and locked behind us, Ethan turned to me. “What do you think?”

  “It’s hard to say. They both seemed genuinely shocked.”

  “And upset,” said Ethan with a frown.

  I guess he had been hoping for a confession. It certainly would’ve made his life easier. And mine.