Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 10 - Bed and Breakfast and Cruises

by A. R. Winters

  “When was that?”

  “Well it was the morning after the signup day. The morning of… when it happened.”

  “Right, I see. Well I’m glad you found some support from somewhere.”

  Bernice reached out and squeezed my arm. “But of course it wasn’t just from him. Now you’ve revealed that all the bad things that were happening were just sabotage! Geraldine was grinding me down and trying to make me feel bad. But it was all just dirty tricks.” Bernice smiled at me gratefully. “Now I know I can do it, if I’m not being undermined. I can really be the chair!”

  “You can do it, Bernice, I’m sure of it.”

  “Thanks. Right. I better get on. We’ve got talks to give today! Will you watch some?”

  “I’ve got a pretty busy day, but I’ll see what I can do. I’m sure all the lectures will be fascinating.”

  “Oh they will. There’s Location, Location, Time and then B&B Plus — What More Can We Add? and Beds Are More than Beds and, Vegetarian Guests - Weird Fad or Hot Trend? And more, too!”

  “Goodness, it all sounds so exciting. I’ll let you get on with it and I’ll come by when I can. Have a great day, Bernice.”

  “Thanks to you, I will!”

  As soon as we’d separated Bernice clapped her hands together loudly and got everyone’s attention. She made a loud announcement that the day’s activities were soon to begin and those who had signed up for workshops should get to them and those going to the first lecture should start to make their way over.

  The air and the attendees seemed to be positively bursting with energy and excitement, though I had a feeling it was more from the gossip than the thrill of the planned talks.

  I took a few pictures, and then snuck away to think while I captioned and uploaded them.

  While everyone else might have been convinced that Heidi was the killer, I certainly wasn’t so sure.

  No, I needed to talk to more people to truly get to the bottom of it.

  I checked the day’s schedule again, and saw that the lecture and workshop series ended at 2pm, followed by another session in the Vendor Hall.

  That’s where I needed to be.

  Chapter 21

  After a long, late lunch which I managed to drag out until two o’clock, I was back in the Conference Suite. And this time, I had a new theory.

  The tax return had been niggling me. How had Heidi got her hand on it? The answer seemed to me that it had to be Alex. He’d told Bernice that he would help her with Geraldine. Which meant that when he told me that how much he admired her, and how good she’d been to him, he must have been lying. He was probably trying to avoid becoming a suspect.

  And of course, Alex, as a former employee of Geraldine, was one of the few people who could reasonably have had access to her tax records. Perhaps he’d stolen them when he was still working for her.

  The question was, why had he been telling me that he liked Geraldine? The obvious answer was that he wanted to throw me off the trail. But what trail was it — the murder trail? Or some other petty revenge scheme that he was now trying to cover up, in light of what had ended up happening to Geraldine?

  The Vendor Hall was pretty quiet. Most of the B&B owners had already walked around several times and seen what was on offer. It was likely to be quiet for the rest of the cruise, at least until the last day when people might start making purchases they’d been mulling over before the cruise ended.

  There was one sole exception, however. One stand was doing a thriving business, that of Alex Martinez. While most of the other business owners looked bored, standing idly behind their tables with no one to speak to, Alex’s was positively booming. It didn’t take me long to figure out why.

  The top of his table was loaded with dessert samples. Chocolate mousse seemed to be the treat of the day, and there was a thick crowd of people each trying to get some and then talk his ear off about it.

  I figured he must have persuaded Greg Washington to let him use some of the kitchen facilities in order to produce those samples. There was no way he could have brought them aboard in his suitcases and kept them in his cabin for the last four days.

  Hovering near the back of the crowd, I was wondering how long I would have to wait until I could get a chance to talk to him one on one.

  “Those desserts seem popular,” said someone in my ear. It was Anthea Robinson, another of the Geraldine-esque old-fashioned B&B owners that I’d met before.

  “They do, don’t they? They must be very good.”

  “Or people like free stuff.” Anthea’s voice had an air of disapproval about it. I didn’t think she like free. Possibly not stuff either.

  “Yes, that could be it. I wouldn’t mind trying one though.”

  “Ha!” Anthea’s breath exploded out in a noisy snort. “Yeah, take your life in your hands.”

  I was taken aback by the outburst.

  “I’m sorry?”

  “You won’t catch me eating any of that muck. We’ll be lucky if we don’t see a mass poisoning, you mark my words.”

  “What, really? Why do you say that?”

  Anthea gave me a look of surprise. “Don’t you know? Don’t you listen to anything? Or have you been turning a deaf ear?”

  “If I’ve been turning a deaf ear it’s not been deliberate, I assure you. But my duties keep me busy all over the ship, so I’m sure there’s lots I’ve missed.”

  Anthea gave me a narrow-eyed look. “Right. And you don’t even own a B&B. I suppose you wouldn’t know.”

  I gave her a sheepish grin. Guilty as charged. I did not own a B&B and was from outside their crazy, insular world.

  “Care to enlighten me?” I smiled at her. “I’m terribly nosy.”

  She looked to be considering whether to tell me or not, before making up her mind and leaning in closer toward me.

  “Alex actually used to work for Geraldine.”

  “Yes, I heard that.”

  Anthea’s look darkened. “I thought you didn’t know?”

  “Well I knew that, but I don’t know about any poisoning or whatever it was you were alluding to earlier.”

  Satisfied with that response, she gave a half-nod and continued.

  “He worked for her, but he left on bad terms, because he poisoned her. Geraldine told me she was lucky to be alive — that’s when she was alive, of course — after having him work for her.”

  “Goodness me! What on the seven seas happened? He really poisoned her? And he’s still… here?”

  Anthea nodded. “Oh yes. Food poisoning, you see. Accidental. Supposedly.”

  “Oh, right.” It was less dramatic than I’d been hoping for. Food poisoning was unfortunate, but if that’s what it actually was, it probably wasn’t deliberate. If you were going to poison someone, you really wanted something more reliable than an upset stomach to do away with them.

  “It was probably an accident, wasn’t it?”

  Anthea shrugged. “Even if it was, I still wouldn’t put any of his food near my mouth. Accidental food poisoning is even worse, if you think about it. It means he’s a bad chef.”

  “Poor Geraldine. She met a lot of bad business owners, didn’t she?”

  Anthea gave me a firm nod. “Oh yes, our industry is filled with them. Young people who don’t know what they’re doing. Old people who are past it. Middle-aged people with middle-aged customer service. No, there’s only a few of us who really get it, you know?” She nodded her head forward towards some of her fellow owners. “I doubt there’s more than a couple of competent ones among them.”

  “I had no idea the business was so tough,” I said sympathetically.

  “Oh yes, very tough. And people are always trying to take shortcuts. Using computers. Hiring outside caterers. All of that nonsense. It’s terrible, it really is. Right. I’m going to go, I don’t want to get any closer to those death traps.” She nodded toward the table and the rapidly diminishing supply of delicious looking mousses.

  “Enjoy the rest of the
conference.”

  “Fat chance,” she said with a smile on her face. She seemed to quite pleased by the possibility of not enjoying it, like she thrived on negativity. No wonder she got on so well with Geraldine.

  The crowd around the table began to thin as more and more of the owners grabbed one of the little plastic cups and spoons and departed.

  What Anthea had told me was interesting though. It seemed Geraldine had met rather a lot of supposedly bad business owners. There was Jake, who she claimed sold bad software. Heidi, who she said had bedbugs in her B&B. Louise, who, she had supposedly bailed out more than once. And now on top of all of that, Alex had apparently poisoned her.

  I was already dubious about both the Louise and Heidi accusations, so the claim that Alex had poisoned her — either deliberately or accidentally didn’t ring true either.

  Unless…

  What if that particular accusation was true? What if Alex had tried to poison her, and failed? Maybe this cruise had been chosen for a second attempt, and this time he’d used a more reliable method: a blow to the head.

  I was near the front of the line, though with few people behind me, when my phone began to ring. It was Cece.

  Stepping away from the now much-thinned crowd, I walked over to the middle of the room where it was quieter and answered the phone.

  “What’s up?”

  “Can you come and meet me? I’m done and I need to talk.”

  “What’s up?” I repeated.

  “It’s Ryan. He… he…”

  “What? What did he do, Cece? He didn’t do anything bad did he?”

  Dr. Ryan had always struck me as a perfectly lovely man, so the fact that Cece was upset was concerning.

  “Addi, he… he showed me pictures of his family.”

  I was glad Cece wasn’t there in person because I don’t think I would have been able to hold my smile in. If that was the worst thing he’d done, she was a very lucky girl.

  “And this is a disaster because…?”

  “Just come and meet me. I’ll be at Two Scoops.”

  Before I could answer, Cece hung up the phone. She knew that way I wouldn’t make up some excuse — like, oh I don’t know, I’m busy investigating a murder and hoping to eat some chocolate mousse — and turn her down.

  Well she would just have to wait, I decided. I wanted to talk to Alex first. I shoved the phone into the back pocket of my jeans and turned back to face Alex and his food samples.

  I stared, annoyed. Not only were all the samples gone — I’d already decided I was going to ignore Anthea’s warning and risk my life and try one — but he’d gone too. I walked over, and saw a small sign that had been handwritten on paper and folded in half so that it would stand up. The sign was sitting right in the middle of an empty tray. It read, Sold out! Please come back tomorrow!

  It turned out Cece had won. I was going over to meet her right away after all.

  Chapter 22

  When I got to Two Scoops, Cece was sitting at the corner-most table, staring down glumly into a big, almost empty bowl of melted ice cream soup. On top of the table was her phone, and she was staring at it so intently she didn’t even notice me until I sat down in front of her.

  “Finally.”

  “What’s up? What’s happened?”

  Cece tapped the phone screen to make it light up, and then span it around so it was facing me.

  “Look at this,” she said with something akin to disgust.

  It was a glamorous but formal professional photograph of Ryan’s family. In the center were a distinguished looking couple in their sixties, and they were surrounded by their offspring. There was Ryan, next to his father, in a serious but handsome gray suit, and on the other side was a young woman I took to be his sister. She was wearing a very elegant blue gown and looked like she’d just come from ball or perhaps a dinner at an ambassador’s residence or something equally glamorous.

  “They look nice.”

  Cece’s head whipped up from the phone and her eyes locked on mine.

  “No they don’t. They look…” she frowned as she tried to think of the words. “Upper class. Rich. Distinguished. Successful. Better.”

  So, it was this again. She felt she wasn’t good enough for him.

  “Just because they’re different to you and me doesn’t make them better, Cece. You’re a good person and you don’t need to feel inferior to any one of them.”

  “They belong to a country club that costs more than I earn in a year, just to be a member.”

  “Wait, really?” I was shocked. I’d never considered how much a country club could cost; it wasn’t exactly my scene either.

  “Yep. I could never join. I’d have to be their guest forever.”

  “That’s… that’s not important.” I faltered while I tried to work out how much that country club cost. And was that per person, per per family? Never mind, it didn’t matter. What mattered was Cece’s waning self-confidence. “Who cares about a stupid country club. I bet Ryan doesn’t, does he?”

  Cece jabbed her finger down at the screen, poking her boyfriend’s sister.

  “She was a lawyer, but now she ‘heads up a foundation’, whatever that means.”

  “It means she doesn’t work as hard as us, I expect. Ryan hasn’t said anything about you not being good enough though, has he? I’m sure he hasn’t.”

  I hoped to goodness he hadn’t. Otherwise my support plan would crash and burn before it had even taken off.

  “No… he said they would all like me. But how could they? They’re so… alien.”

  I rubbed her arm and gave her an encouraging smile.

  “They’re just different to you and me, that’s all. And hey, the two of us are pretty different too, right? And we get on. It’ll be the same with them. Just because they’ve got money doesn’t make them better or superior to us.”

  “Tell you what. If they turn out to be as nice as you, I’ll quit complaining.” She stared down at the photo again. “But they won’t be. I can tell. They’ll be judgmental. And that mother will take me aside when Ryan’s not looking and tell me I’m no good, and to leave their son alone so he can find a nice surgeon or a princess or something to marry.”

  “And if that happened, which it won’t, you’ll tell her that he’s already got a princess. You.”

  Cece snorted at that.

  “Princesses don’t chew coconut and pineapple gum.”

  I giggled.

  “I bet they do. I bet they do all kinds of things you don’t imagine them doing. But this isn’t about princesses, it’s about you. You’ve got to be yourself. Usually you’re the most confident, cocky, arrogant—”

  “Hey!” She said interrupting me with a sharp punch to my arm. That meant my words were working.

  “Sorry.” I rubbed at my arm. “I mean, just be yourself, you know? Show them how smart and tough you are. They won’t mess with you. They won’t want to mess with you, they’ll fall in love with you, like everyone else does.”

  Cece leaned over. “Are you saying you’re in love with me, Addi?”

  That earned Cece her own punch to the arm.

  “You’ve got this, okay? When you do go and meet them, just remember they’re no better than you. Okay?”

  She leaned back in the booth, slowly nodding to herself. There was a bit of the familiar confident spark back in her eyes.

  “Okay. I’ll try. It’s just… why are relationships so hard?”

  “Who knows, Cece, who knows. But the payoff will be worth it.”

  “I’m not after him for his money.”

  “That’s not what I meant by payoff! I meant emotional payoff. Happiness. Joy. Contentment. Ch—”

  “—Don’t you dare!” she said, interrupting.

  Maybe it was too early to mention children. It wasn’t something even I’d considered.

  “But just try not to worry, okay?”

  “Yeah. Okay. I’ll try.” She said try like she was angry at the word, almost spit
ting it out. Then her face brightened. “And if they are mean to me, I’ll just blame you for telling me everything would be great.”

  “Umm.”

  “Just kidding. I’ll blame them. Of course.”

  “Glad to hear it. Are you feeling better? There’s a couple of people I need to speak to.”

  Cece nodded.

  “Yeah. Thanks. Now you can let that horrible old dead woman take priority again.”

  I glanced around to make sure no one had overheard her. That was definitely no way to speak of the dead, even if they did pretty much deserve it.

  “Shh! You can’t say things like that.”

  “Just being myself. Like you told me to.”

  I frowned at her. “Don’t be too much of yourself.” I stood up. “Let’s talk some more later. And you should talk to Sam too. I’m sure she’ll say the same as what I did.”

  “Probably. You’re like twins.”

  “Neat, isn’t it?”

  Cece’s only response was a laugh that didn’t necessarily imply agreement.

  “See ya!” She called as I left her sitting in the booth.

  At least she had a smile on her face now.

  ***

  After leaving my cheered friend, I went back down to the Vendor Hall without high hopes. The vendor exhibition had closed for the day and there was no one around apart from a couple of people quietly chatting in the lobby area between the rooms.

  Checking the schedule, I figured out where they likely all were. The cocktail bar. They were to have an optional Past the Yardarm pre-dinner drink together.

  Excellent. Perhaps the introduction of a little alcohol would loosen some lips. And after all, loose lips sink… no, that wasn’t the metaphor I wanted. Loose lips solve murders? That would be my slogan for the evening.

  When I arrived at the cocktail bar a brief wash of memories sent a wave of emotions flooding back. At the entrance was the cloakroom checkin and beyond that a small storage room that I’d once been locked in during a failure of an attempt to spy on the previous captain of the ship.

  I’d been terrified for my life at the time, but now, the whole bar looked so inviting. I smiled at the cloakroom attendant, a young woman about my own age, who didn’t seem to have much to do. She smiled back, but then her attention was drawn by a voice behind me.