Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 05 - Cruise Conundrum

by A. R. Winters

  I don’t know whether it was from the chloroform or just the shock, but I lay back down and fell fast asleep, knowing that I was safe.

  Chapter 31

  When I finally woke up, my eyes snapped open and I immediately sat upright. I’d been dreaming that a wild-eyed Raina was coming for me again and was trying to fend her off.

  “Hey, hey, it’s all right.”

  And when I heard that voice, I knew it was all right. Deep, rich, and comforting, like a thick old blanket on a snowy evening.

  “Where am…” I blinked and looked around. “ I’m in the sickbay.”

  Ethan took my hand and gave it a squeeze.

  “You are in the sickbay. And you found out who killed Andy… and nearly suffered the same fate yourself.”

  Slowly, as if emerging from sludge, I remembered what had happened in Raina’s cabin. And how she’d nearly killed me.

  “I didn’t realize how crazy she was, Ethan. If I had, I wouldn’t have gone into her room by myself.”

  “I know you wouldn’t have. But luckily, you weren’t really by yourself. You’d told Cece to keep watch.”

  “Did I?”

  That didn’t sound right. It sounded like something Cece had made up to stop me from getting in ‘trouble.’ But my head felt like someone had replaced most of my brain with cotton wool and I wasn’t sure what was right.

  Ethan.

  Ethan, who was holding my hand and running his thumb over the back of it. He was right.

  “Where is she now? Did Cece hurt her?”

  “She’s got a bit of a headache, but otherwise she’s fine. She’s down in the brig now, screaming that she’s so rich she’s going to have me arrested, Swan sued, Andy’s estate transferred to her…” Ethan paused, a sad half-smile on his face, like he felt sorry for her. “She’s lost it, I think.”

  “Maybe she never really had it.”

  Ethan nodded tentatively. “Perhaps she’s always been shielded by her wealth. But no longer. Money can’t protect you from everything.”

  “Yo!” came a voice from the hallway outside my room. It was quickly followed by its owner as Cece walked into the room, a triumphant grin on her face. “Still napping? Siesta time’s over, hon.”

  All she got in response from me was a weak laugh. My mind was operating at the speed of molasses and I couldn’t keep up with Cece right then. Ethan was more with it though.

  “That stuff Raina knocked her out with really did a number on her. Adrienne’s going to be taking it easy until we get back to port.”

  Cece walked over and took the hand that Ethan wasn’t holding, giving it a squeeze that was just as warm and caring as his. I couldn’t have asked for better friends.

  “Well, you just take it easy. If you need anything, holler. Or, like, send me a message. I don’t think even your screams are loud enough to fill the ship.”

  “Will do” I gave her hand a final squeeze. “See you later.”

  “She’s not going far,” said Ethan. “She’s barely left the sickbay since yesterday.”

  “Yesterday?”

  “Yep. You were out a good while. Raina wasn’t messing around.”

  I missed dinner! And breakfast! They were stupid thoughts, but they were the first ones that came into my head. Not that I was hungry. It was the camaraderie with the girls and the romance with Ethan I missed. Well, that, and I guess the food, just a little bit.

  “She’s barely left the sickbay, huh? Be honest—she spent at least half the time making eyes at Dr. Ryan, didn’t she?”

  Ethan chuckled. “Making eyes? More like making out.” Ethan gave my hand another little squeeze when he said making out. My brain was too befuddled to know if it meant anything though. Ethan carried on, “I guess she could only put up with watching you sleep for so long. But she and Sam were both here for you. You’ve got some nice friends, Adrienne. Good ones. Hold onto them.”

  “I’ll try.” My voice sounded surprisingly weary to me and I fought, and failed, to stifle a yawn.

  I shifted in my bed, using my free hand to push myself up a bit straighter. I’d remembered something else, but the memory had come slowly and grudgingly and wasn’t quite complete.

  “What about the burglar guy? The fake housekeeper?”

  Ethan winced and half shook his head.

  “Nothing yet. I went over the tapes, and I passed around a description. None of my security guys have been able to track him down yet. I think he must have a hidey-hole somewhere aboard. Or maybe just another very good disguise.”

  “Not even a name?”

  “Nope. I’ve sent the descriptions I’ve got to some friends of mine in law enforcement—retired navy colleagues. They’re not optimistic though, unless I can give them more to work with. If I only I’d been a bit faster that night…”

  I grasped his hand as firmly as I could. “Hey, you were plenty fast. It was just bad luck that he got away. I was miles behind.”

  I bet that if Ethan had been wearing high heels, I could have kept up with him that night though. Maybe even overtaken him. We wouldn’t have gotten near our quarry, though.

  “Let’s not worry about him for now. There’s nothing we can do about it for the time being. Oh, I’ve got some more good news for you.”

  “Oh?” I tried to conceal my excitement. It’s silly, but I do love a good surprise.

  “During our shore leave, because of what’s happened to you, Swan is going to upgrade your hotel. You’ll be staying at the Hyatt this time.”

  Usually, the junior staff was put up in a cheap and not-very-cheerful hotel on the outskirts of town for our brief periods of shore leave. The officers and senior staff got somewhere much nicer—the Hyatt, come to think of it.

  “Oh, wow. They didn’t have to. And I’ll feel terribly guilty—Sam and Cece will be jealous.”

  “You deserve it after what happened to you.” Ethan looked down at the floor, then up at me again as if suddenly remembering something. “Oh, and by the way, it’s where I’ll be staying too. I was thinking maybe we could do a couple of classic movie marathons?”

  I was nodding and grinning like a fool before he’d even finished speaking. What could be better than a classic movie marathon with a man in uniform? He probably wouldn’t be in his uniform during shore leave in a hotel though. He’d be a man-in-uniform without his uniform. I shook my head to clear it before I got too distracted imagining Ethan without his…

  “Adrienne?”

  “Oh! Yes, I’d love to. I should probably take it easy anyway, right? Movie marathons are probably about my speed for now.”

  “Yep. That’s what the doctor said.”

  BZZZ.

  Ethan pulled out his phone and frowned at it.

  “Sorry, but I’ve got to go. I’m presenting the prize for the photography competition.” I must have looked interested, because Ethan continued, “It was won by Jessica for a photo she took of a butterfly, with the Mayan ruins in the background.”

  “Oh, good for her. Will you be back later?”

  “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Maybe you should try and get some more rest.”

  We were both smiling at each other as Ethan stood up from the bedside chair, our hands still clasped together.

  Ethan gave my hand a final lingering squeeze before releasing it. If it wasn’t just my chemically-addled brain imagining it, it looked like he really was sad to leave.

  And I was sad to see him go.

  Not for long, though.

  Soon after, I was drifting off back to sleep again. But this time, I didn’t dream of Raina.

  Chapter 32

  I didn’t think Cece was ever going to let me live down the fact that she’d been the one to save me. She positively reveled in it.

  We were sitting at the Rusty Anchor, having a celebratory breakfast after returning to port and offloading all the passengers the day before. We’d had to stay aboard an extra day to talk to both the police and a team from corporate HQ.

  The
fact that it was two o’clock in the afternoon didn’t matter. Breakfasts were what the Rusty Anchor did best, and so that’s what we were having, despite the time.

  “I’ve never been a hero before,” mused Cece. “I mean, I always thought heroes were special. But I just never realized how special they are—I mean, I didn’t realize they were as special as me.”

  Sam and I both rolled our eyes at her.

  “How long are you going to keep this up?” I asked her.

  She paused and ran her eyes over me, as if assessing me. I shifted uncomfortably. I didn’t like it when people did that. It brought back bad memories of a whole bunch of beauty queens doing it to me over and over again a couple of cruises back.

  “About sixty years, I guess. That’s your official life expectancy.”

  I smacked her on the arm.

  “Official life expectancy?” asked Sam.

  Cece nodded. “Yep. I am basically a doctor.”

  Sam and I both gave her a whack this time, one on each arm.

  “You are not basically a doctor. You’re dating a doctor.”

  Cece snorted and shook her head. “Oh, we’re doing a lot more than dating. You should see the things—”

  Cece mercifully stopped mid-sentence, yanked her phone out of the little black purse she had on the table, and stared at it.

  “Oh, shoot. I’ve gotta go. He’s booked us a suite.”

  Sam and I looked at each other.

  “Shoot?” we both said to her in unison.

  Cece frowned darkly, annoyed at herself.

  “Man, Kelly’s ruining my vocabulary.” She stood up and squeezed past me to exit the booth. “Later, girls. Try and do at least one thing I would do, okay? Catch you back on the boat next week!”

  We waved her goodbye to as she left to meet Dr. Ryan.

  When she was gone, we turned back to face each other. We were sitting on opposite sides of the booth, a nearly full Bloody Mary in front of each of us. I glanced at Cece’s abandoned glass; somehow, it was empty.

  “So what did Ethan find out?”

  I shook my head.

  “Nothing. He contacted some of his law enforcement friends before we arrived back in port, but he didn’t have enough details to give them. It turns clean-shaven bald men are too generic to easily search for. Especially if you add in that they may be disguised and in fact have hair and a beard.”

  “Let’s just hope we never see that guy again, right?”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, I guess.”

  We were of course talking about the fake housekeeper, who seemed to disappear after the night Ethan chased him. There had been no signs of him since. Of course Ethan asked the captain, but he played as dumb as Jessica. That lead seemed to have gone cold for now. We were no nearer to figuring out who he was or what he was up to.

  “Oh, you’ll get a kick out of this,” said Sam, showing me her phone. “It’s an email from Jessica.”

  “Tell me what it says,” I said, leaning back in my booth. I didn’t want to squint at a small screen. Not until I was back on board and I was getting paid to do it.

  “She and Rick split up. She’s moving in with her tennis coach already. But get this, it turns out he was only a tennis coach as a hobby, to keep him occupied. He’s actually some kind of European count or duke or something—she wasn’t clear. But he’s even richer than Rick was, and he has a castle in Switzerland.”

  “Unbelievable,” I said. “Do you know what happened to Zara and Xavier?”

  Sam nodded. “Yeah. Xavier’s booked a ticket to India, to—and I quote—find himself. Zara’s going to try and sign with a real modeling agency. She says he isn’t going to hold her back anymore.”

  “Wow.”

  I’d been out of the loop since Raina had tried to kill me. The stuff she had tried to knock me out with hadn’t been chloroform; it had been something much worse and it had left me woozy for days. It would have been deadly if I’d inhaled much more of it.

  I’d spent most of the time lying in sickbay. While I convalesced, Ethan had set me up with all the police reports I’d have to file, and I spent most of my time writing up my accounts of what had happened. I didn’t have much time to hang out with the passengers, or even my friends.

  “What are your plans for shore leave?” asked Sam.

  “Umm, I thought I might catch up on some classic movies.”

  She squinted at me. “You hate old movies.”

  “No, I don’t.”

  “Yes, you do! You said if they were any good, they’d still be in movie theaters.”

  “Did I? I don’t remember that.”

  I certainly did remember that. But recently, I’d had a recent change of heart. I couldn’t imagine why.

  “Ethan’s making you watch them, isn’t he?”

  I tried to cover my mouth so she couldn’t see my smile. But I was too slow.

  “Knew it! Don’t let him make you do anything you don’t want to do, Adrienne.”

  I grinned at her.

  “Yes, Mom.”

  She kicked me under the table.

  “What about you?”

  Sam leaned over the table, looked me in the eyes, and said, “If I told you, I’d have to kill you.” Then she sat back in the booth, her drink in one hand, laughing to herself.

  Even though I’d barely had half a drink, I felt like I was drunk. Maybe it was an after-effect of Raina’s poisonous concoction. Maybe it was my near-death experience. Maybe it was just being back on dry land.

  “I’m going to head over to my hotel after this,” I said.

  “Alone?”

  I shook my head.

  “Well, you know, Ethan does just so happen to be staying at the same hotel. He’s going to pick me up here and take me over there. Swan is sending a car for us. I think we’re going to start our movie marathon tonight.”

  Sam snickered. “Yeah, I bet. Text me when you get a moment. If he gives you one.”

  “Oh, I’m sure he’ll give me one,” I said innocently while channeling my inner Cece.

  “Adrienne!” said Sam in mock shock.

  I just sipped my drink and tried to work on stopping myself from smiling so much.

  We continued to laugh until we’d finished our drinks and then said our farewells. It wouldn’t be for long, though.

  We were off on another cruise in less than a week.

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  Sneak Peak: A Berry Deadly Welcome

  Chapter One

  "C ome on, come on." I gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles. My car was out of gas. Rather, my ex-husband's car was out of gas. I had "borrowed" it to make the trip from Chicago, Illinois down to Camden Falls, Kentucky. I'd had to make the trip somehow, and I'd been too broke to buy a bus ticket.

  I rocked back and forth in my seat a couple of times, trying to will my momentum into the car. I knew that wouldn't help it inch forward off the road and into the curbside parking spot, but I did it all the same. I couldn't stop myself.

  "Just a little more!" The engine gagged, coughed, spluttered and then bucked before rattling and d
ying. That was okay, though. When it bucked, the car lurched forward that little bit more that I'd needed to get it off the road. I wasn't going to have to abandon it with its butt end sticking halfway out into the road.

  I eyed the road around me. It was huge. It wasn't eight lanes huge or anything like that. There were only two lanes, one coming and one going, but the main street of little Camden Falls could have accommodated four tractor trailers driving side by side. Even with so much room, the traffic was slow and lazy, cars meandering instead of rushing. There were two and three car-lengths between each car that passed. I was used to seeing cars in Chicago drive headlight to bumper, but that wasn't happening here.

  On top of that, there were almost no people. I eyeballed around thirty or forty people walking around. They walked in small groups or alone, but always spread out with plenty of distance in-between.

  I turned my attention toward a pickup truck that was driving past. The truck's driver nodded his head at me and then lifted his palm in a small side-to-side wave. Panic flooded me, and my heart skittered and jumped as badly as the engine had a moment earlier. My ex probably already had a warrant out for my arrest, and it would be just like him to hire someone to keep an eye out for me.

  I twisted to see if anything was coming from behind and then jumped out of the car. It was a pearl white Mercedes S-Class, and I'd probably never get the chance to drive anything like it again—especially if my ex had me put in jail. If that happened, I wouldn't even need to worry about how I'd look when I renewed my driver's license. I wouldn't need to worry about where my next meal was coming from or where I was going to sleep tonight.

  "Maybe I should get arrested." I couldn't keep the hopefulness out of my voice as I glanced around, but I didn't see any police. "Live to fight another day," I said with a scowl before forcing my features to relax. I didn't want to get wrinkles.

  Popping the trunk of the car, I used all of my not-impressive strength to lift a navy canvas suitcase out of the trunk. Then, I hesitated, looking wistfully between the car keys I held in my hands and the car. With a sigh and a shoulder shrug, I did what I had to do. I clicked the lock button on the key fob, and then tossed the keys into the trunk and slammed the trunk's lid down. I'd gotten this far, but tempting fate wasn't my style.