Betrayal By The Sea

by Kathi Daley

  I had just finished styling my hair when I heard a commotion coming from the stateroom next door. I had no idea who was staying in it, but from the yelling and sounds of things crashing to the floor, someone in there was upset about something. The arguing grew louder, and I seriously considered going out into the hallway and knocking on the door, when the fighting abruptly stopped. I paused and listened, then heard a door open and close. I supposed one of the people involved in the altercation had decided to take off for some fresh air, which was a good thing, because the way it had sounded, the fight had accelerated to the point where someone was going to get hurt.

  “Seems the neighbors had a tiff,” I said to Trevor, who had just showered and was waiting for me on our private deck when I returned to the living area.

  “I heard.”

  “Do you know whose room is next to us?” I asked.

  “Lance and Lucy.”

  I shrugged. “Maybe Lucy really was messing around with Bret and Lance found out.”

  Trevor shook his head. “I don’t think that yelling was from a lovers’ quarrel. I saw Lucy earlier, so I know she is on board, and I saw Lance with the group who went ashore this morning. If it was Lucy next door, I doubt it was Lance she was fighting with.”

  I picked up a pair of earrings I’d left on the sofa table and slipped them into my ears. “I suppose the fight could have been work-related. From the gossip I overheard last night, Lucy seems to have quite a bit of decision-making power. I’d also say she isn’t all that popular.” I paused to consider what I’d just said. “Although,” I added, “we did see Bret and Lucy heading into the room at the end of the hallway last night. I know we both agreed that just because the women whose conversation I was listening in on seemed to think that Bret and Lucy were messing around, that didn’t necessarily mean they were. On the other hand, it doesn’t mean they definitely aren’t.”

  “I found out that the stateroom at the end of the hallway is occupied by Harris and his wife,” Trevor told me. “I don’t think that Bret and Lucy were heading in there to mess around. I imagine they needed to speak with Harris about something work-related. If you remember, Harris was not in the lounge last night. I imagine he may have already retired to his suite.”

  “I guess that makes sense, but how do you know that room is being occupied by Harris and his wife?” I asked.

  “Bret and another man named Clint Redmond came into the gym after you left. I chatted with them for a few minutes. They were curious about who we were, so I explained how we came to be on the cruise. Apparently, according to them, there are four executive suites on this deck. Harris and his wife have the one at the end of the hallway; Evan Weston, the vice president of the company, and his wife, Claudia, have the suite next to the Hamiltons; the suite next to theirs is occupied by Lucy Loveland and her plus-one, Lance Simpson; and we are at this end of the hallway. The men I spoke to have been speculating that we must be some sort of big-dollar clients of the firm because we managed to end up with the fourth executive suite, while the other guests are all assigned to staterooms on the deck below us, which are very nice but not as nice or as large as the ones on this deck.”

  “So why were we given this suite?” I wondered.

  “It was actually assigned to Ty. I suspect he traded with us because this suite is larger and has a bedroom separate from the seating area and a foldout sofa.”

  It made sense that he’d give Trev and me the larger room because we weren’t a couple and therefore wouldn’t be sharing a bed. “So, if the stateroom next door has been assigned to Lucy and Lance, and Lance went ashore while Lucy stayed behind, at least one of the individuals involved in the argument must have been Lucy. Could she have been arguing with Bret?”

  “I really don’t know,” Trevor said. “What I do know is that whatever is going on in there isn’t any of our business. Let’s head out and soak up some of this wonderful sunshine.”

  “That sounds like a good idea.” I picked up my pool bag, my book, and my big, floppy hat. I opened the bag to check for suntan lotion, ChapStick, a brush, and my earphones. I dropped in my book and wallet, slipped on a pair of sunglasses, and went to the door.

  “Do you still want to head up to the top deck?” Trevor asked as we exited the room.

  I nodded. “I ran into Ty and Mac earlier. They actually emerged from their room and are going to meet us by the pool.”

  “Sounds good. The pool is heated, so I might even take a swim later. I overheard someone talking about the fact that it was filled with saltwater pumped in from the ocean. I suppose it must be filtered and purified because it seems to be crystal clear, but I like the idea of swimming in water taken directly from the sea.”

  “I didn’t know ships used seawater any longer, although I suppose if they have a water filtration system in place they might. I think I’ll spend the afternoon reading rather than swimming. I just did my hair and I’d hate to get it wet.”

  “This is a vacation. You could just pull up your hair and not worry about styling it,” Trevor suggested.

  “I could, but there are a few dressy events such as the cocktail reception this evening. Do you remember what time it is scheduled?”

  “I didn’t pay attention. The reception is for Hamilton employees. I wasn’t planning to attend.”

  “I know it is mandatory for the employees and probably isn’t for us, but we were included in the invitation. I figured it would be polite to go, at least for a little while.”

  “We can ask Ty if he knows what time it is taking place,” Trevor said. “He has a handle on things better than we do.”

  “Let’s ask him if he knows if the dress is formal or causal. I would assume formal, but I would hate to show up in an evening gown and then find out that the theme is Hawaiian luau or something else much less formal.”

  “I think a Hawaiian theme would be a hoot, but I get your point.”

  Chapter 4

  The thing that struck me as the oddest about the get-together that evening was that while the bar was open, the food lovely, and the room packed, no one seemed to be having a good time. In general, everyone just sat around sipping their cocktails and looking miserable. Ty seemed to think that Harris Hamilton, who had yet to arrive, was using the event as a platform for a state-of-the-company address, and by the look on everyone’s faces, they weren’t expecting the news he had to deliver to be at all positive. I had a feeling that something had occurred at some point between last evening, when everyone seemed to have been having a wonderful time, and now, when they looked as if they were waiting for the executioner to arrive to start chopping off heads.

  I glanced at Mac, who frowned. The room was much too quiet for me to ask her what she thought about whatever was going on, but from her raised brows, it appeared as if she too had picked up on the unusual vibe.

  The room had been set up with tables seating four people each. There were two tables in the front of the room reserved for specific guests. I’d spent the day memorizing everyone’s name and role, so I knew that table one was occupied by Dotty Hamilton, Harris’s wife, as well as the company’s vice president, Evan Weston, and his wife, Claudia. There was one empty chair at that table, which, I assumed, was reserved for Harris Hamilton, when he finally showed up.

  The second table, also placed front and center but to the left of the one where Dotty already sat with the others, was occupied by Lisa Long, Evan’s assistant, and her date, Brody Newsome. There were two empty seats at that table. Based on who was missing, I assumed the seats were reserved for Lucy and Lance.

  There were three tables just behind the two reserved tables. Ty, Mac, Trevor, and I sat at the one on the left, account reps Shelley Aberdeen and Clint Redmond sat at the table in the center with their spouses, Vinnie Aberdeen and Yvonne Redmond, and all the way to the right was a table occupied by account rep Connie Overland and her husband, Jason, and account rep Bret Nolan and his date, Cynthia Davis.

  “I don’t see why spouses need to at
tend this browbeating every year,” Yvonne said to her husband in a voice loud enough to be overheard in the quiet room.

  Clint sent his wife a stern look before answering. “If you don’t want to come to the meeting, you don’t have to come on the cruise. We both know it is a package deal.”

  “You were tied up in a meeting all day when you should have been ashore with me. I think attending that last-minute meeting should have gotten you off the hook for this always endless event.”

  I couldn’t help but notice the look Clint sent his wife. She didn’t seem happy, but she did stop complaining, although I didn’t think that either husband or wife were enjoying themselves.

  Cynthia voiced her opinion. “If you ask me, while the last-minute meetings and mandatory receptions are a real pain, it is totally worth it. I mean, the spa treatments alone would cost a fortune if you had to pay for them. I’ve signed up for three tomorrow and two when we arrive at Vancouver.”

  “The spa treatments offered along the way are nice, but I’m not sure they are worth it from where I am sitting. Of course, Hamilton never picks on you, so you can enjoy the ride without the hassle,” Connie answered.

  “Hamilton picks on every single one of his employees,” Shelley countered. “Verbal abuse is part of the package you sign up for when you accept a job at Hamilton Investments. As far as I’m concerned, if you can’t take the heat, you should get out of the kitchen.”

  I glanced at Dotty Hamilton, who had to have heard the conversation taking place around her, but she simply stared off into the distance, never saying a word or even having an expression on her face. It seemed odd to me that the wife of the man everyone was talking about wouldn’t be affected by the things his employees said about him one way or another.

  “Being asked to come on the cruise is far from a guaranteed thing,” Evan Weston reminded the others. “If you don’t want to attend and are unwilling to put in a few hours of work and a little inconvenience while you are here, you should step aside and allow other employees who would jump at the chance to be invited the opportunity.”

  So there were more employees than spots on the cruise, which again made me wonder why Harris had given the tickets that had become available when two employees who were planning to attend were fired to Ty. Why wouldn’t he simply offer the tickets to two people who hadn’t made the original cut?

  “Shh,” Shelley said. “Here comes the boss now. Hopefully, he will keep this short and sweet.”

  “Lucy isn’t with him,” Connie whispered. “When she wasn’t here already, I assumed that she was with Harris, going over any last-minute details he had.”

  “Lance isn’t here either,” Clint pointed out.

  “Maybe Lucy is busy making things up to Lance after the way she treated him last night,” Connie snickered.

  Yvonne snorted, but then stifled her grin. “Lance is used to Lucy’s loosey-goosey ways. I doubt he even noticed.”

  I watched the president of the company head to the front of the room. He took a moment to look to each table, almost as if he was taking attendance, before he began to speak. “I want to start by thanking you all for being on time this evening. I’m sure you know how important it is that everyone is in attendance for this very important reception.” Harris paused and cleared his throat. He glanced at his wife, who seemed to be more interested in the fly on the wall than her husband’s speech. “I guess you may be wondering about Lucy’s absence. I’m afraid she had a family emergency and needed to leave the cruise.” He smiled, but I could see the tension in his eyes. “You all know how I depend on her, but I’m sure I’ll be able to muddle through.”

  It was at this point that most of the guests began whispering to the others at their table. It seemed rude to me, though it didn’t seem to faze Harris; he simply cleared his throat and then continued, reminding the group of the goals and objectives they had set at the last employee retreat and the success or failure of each of them in reaching those goals in the time they had allotted themselves. While it was true that he called out a couple of the account reps who had failed to meet their objectives by name, Harris’s speech didn’t seem overly cruel or demeaning to me. After the gossip that had been going around before he arrived, I was expecting a lot worse. One of the account reps asked about the employees who had been fired, wondering whether they would be replaced. Apparently, Harris did not plan to replace them, explaining that their accounts would be divided among the reps who remained after the next round of cuts. That seemed to get everyone talking once more. Evidently, the news of additional cuts was not a subject that had previously been discussed.

  I looked toward the table where Evan sat. It would seem to me that if employee cuts were on the horizon, he at least would have been part of the decision-making in that regard, but from the look of annoyance on his face, I suspected he was as surprised as anyone. Harris spoke for just seven more minutes before he ended the presentation and wished everyone a wonderful cruise. After he finished his speech, he left the room immediately.

  “Well, that was unexpected,” I heard Shelley say.

  “Last year’s speech went on and on for over an hour,” Yvonne agreed.

  “I wonder if Harris wasn’t feeling well,” Lisa suggested. “He did look a little pale.”

  “I’m sure he’s fine,” Evan assured the others. “He probably just didn’t want to take up a lot of our time.” Evan rose. “I think I will go and check on him, though.”

  He bent over and said something to his wife, who whispered something in Dotty’s ear. Both women stood up as well, and then the three of them left the room.

  “Okay,” Bret said, once upper management was gone. “Let’s get hammered.”

  From the cheers and the fact that everyone in the room left their tables and headed toward the bar, it looked as if Bret’s suggestion had met with all-around approval.

  I glanced at Ty when it was just the four of us left in the dining room. “Something is going on.”

  He nodded. “I had the same feeling. From the conversation we overheard prior to Harris’s arrival, I figured we were in for a long, drawn-out speech, but it almost seemed as if the speech was over before he even got started.”

  “Maybe Harris really is ill,” Mac said. “He did look pale.”

  “Perhaps,” I agreed.

  “And what was the deal with his wife?” Trevor asked. “She was here, as I’m sure she was expected to be, but she looked as if she was almost in a trance.”

  I couldn’t disagree. The woman had looked as if she was totally out of it. I turned to Ty. “How many employees would you say Hamilton Investments has?”

  He tilted his head, thinking. “I guess around thirty or thirty-five. Maybe less after the layoffs.”

  “You said that Harris offered you tickets for the cruise after his assistant came in to let him know that he had four extras because of two employees having been recently fired. Didn’t you find it odd that he offered them to you rather than to one of the other employees who hadn’t been invited already?” I asked.

  Ty shook his head. “Not really. The cruise is a perk offered to upper management. As far as I know, only the executive committee and senior account reps are ever invited. This year’s trip is being attended by the president and the vice president, the assistants to the president and the vice president, the five senior account reps, and all their plus-ones. Prior to my being offered four tickets, there were three other account reps who’d been invited. Two of the three were the ones who were fired for reasons I am not privy to, and the third, who is married to one of the fired reps, quit when her husband was dismissed. I would imagine that if Harris had offered those tickets to someone who was not part of the management team, it could have become awkward for everyone. Especially if a promotion to management wasn’t part of the invitation.”

  I supposed I could understand that. It would be important to keep to clearly defined roles. “You mentioned layoffs. Had there been others before or after the two account r
eps were fired?”

  Ty shook his head. “When I first started working with Hamilton, he had close to fifty employees. That was two, actually almost three years ago. Since then, the company has downsized several times. When I spoke to Harris six or seven months ago, he told me that the company was doing better and that he was looking to expand, but then, when I asked for an employee list once the computer updates were completed, so that I could check in with each user, there were seven or eight names crossed off the list I’d been given when I started prepping for the update. I was told the personnel associated with those names had been laid off, but I wasn’t offered any more of an explanation than that.”

  “Was that before you found out that the employees whose tickets you were offered had been fired?”

  Ty nodded. “About a week before. I suppose the company might have suffered another downturn and needed to scale back once again. Tell me, is there a particular reason you are interested in all this?”

  I shook my head. “Not really. I guess I’m just curious, and I’ve been picking up an odd vibe almost since the moment we boarded the ship.”

  “I’ve never worked for a corporation the size of Hamilton Investments, so I can’t speak with any authority about what might be considered normal employee relations, but I agree with Amanda,” Trevor said. “There is an underlying hostility that seems to be present even in social situations.”

  “I think it might be a natural thing for employees to hate their boss or others who are in a position of power above them,” Mac said. “And if there have been layoffs, that is bound to have everyone feeling somewhat nervous.”

  “Mac’s right,” I said. “We don’t have the background, so we really can’t understand the culture of the company, and even if we could, I don’t suppose it is any of our business. I’m sorry I brought any of this up. Let’s see if we can hunt up some food. The others are more interested in the bar, but so far, the food on this cruise has been some of the best I’ve ever had.”