by Ava Dunne
“Not often. I spent a week at Kripalu with a woman I was dating once, but that’s about it.” He tapped his leg. “You were right. It helped. Do you mind if I take class again? Does it make you nervous?”
“Not at all.”
“Thanks.” He gave me a smile, that, for some reason, made me blush.
“Hey, when’s your next class?” Harmonia stuck her head around the doorframe as I disinfected mats and tried to figure out where I could place them to dry. She glanced at Duncan, a question in her eyes. He gave her a wave and walked past her, out of the room.
“6:30. During the first dinner seating.”
“Come take a swim. You brought a suit, didn’t you? It’s gorgeous out; we might as well take advantage of it.”
“That sounds good,” I said. “Let me run and change. Meet you up there? I’ve got a pounding headache; I bet a swim would help.” I stared at the pile of towels accumulating. I gathered them up and stuffed them in a cabinet. “I need a laundry basket, too.” I sighed. “Meet you up there.”
“In a few minutes,” Harmonia nodded. “I’m glad you told Cooke what was going on. Now he’s your bodyguard? You could do worse.”
“No. He’s taking class for his leg.”
“His leg. Right. See you up there.” Harmonia vanished.
As I locked the studio, I spotted Andrew coming out of the gym. “Hi, there,” I said. “Hope no one had a heart attack in the sauna.”
“No. Checking in with a friend,” said Andrew. “How are things with you?”
“Well, pretty much everyone’s mad at me, even though I made it clear I’m not taking over Geri’s little side blackmailing business, and I have no time to do laundry.”
“Pay someone in housekeeping to take care of it; that’s what most of us do,” Andrew said. He backtracked as he realized what I’d said. “What do you mean, blackmailing?”
“You didn’t know?”
“Um, no.”
“Here everyone’s telling me everyone knows everything.” I couldn’t keep the frustration out of my voice.
“No one knows everything,” Andrew corrected. “They just pretend they do. Geri was blackmailing people?”
“Yeah. They keep coming up to me, throwing money at me.”
“Who? For what?”
I looked at him. “I’m not going to gossip about anyone. And I’m not taking the money.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean, I just never thought that Geri, wow.” Andrew rubbed a hand across his jaw. “That’s intense.”
“It’s frustrating, that’s what it is.”
“You think that’s why she died? Someone she was blackmailing murdered her?”
“I don’t know. It makes sense, though, doesn’t it?”
“I guess. I knew Geri wasn’t a very nice person, but I never thought she was that devious. Wow. Poor Gary.”
“Was she serious about Gary?”
“Geri had her flings here and there, especially with Viktor Horvat, the second officer, but Gary had it bad for her. He’s one of the ship’s electricians.” Andrew looked at me. “If you’re not going to take over for Geri, best thing you can do is stay quiet.”
“Someone murdered her.”
“Because of what she knew. It’s over now. Unless you keep poking around and making that person nervous.”
“That’s what —” I caught myself before I uttered Ewan’s name.
Andrew stared at her intently. “What?”
“Nothing.” I shook my head.
“Look, I’ve got to get showered, changed, and back up to the clinic. People always get a dicky stomach right before or right after lunch and dinner. But we’ll catch up later, okay?”
“Not sure about that, I’ve got a Moonlight Yoga class on the Sun Deck.”
He grinned at me. “Maybe I’ll come and see you in action.”
I blushed. I was doing that far too often on this gig. I headed back to my cabin. As I trotted down the spiral staircase, I realized this was where Geri took her fatal fall. I slowed down, wondering if I could feel the woman’s presence. A life ended here. No matter what mistakes Geri made, what enemies she had, her life ended on a sticky floor at the bottom of a staircase. It was sad. The wrongness ate at me.
Two giggling waitstaff dashed past me, up the stairs. I straightened and finished the trek to my cabin. I changed into my suit, covered up with a batik sundress, and hurried up the staircases to the crew pool. Harmonia was there, wearing a dark red bikini. I felt awkward in my turquoise one-piece, although I’d loved it when I bought it.
“That color looks great on you,” said Harmonia, as I slipped out of the dress, revealing the suit.
“Thanks. I feel a little old-fashioned.” I looked around at the other crewmembers, including a statuesque blonde in the tiniest white bikini I’d ever seen. I recognized her as the woman with Duncan the previous night. If she was crew, what was she doing on the Lido Deck with Duncan? “Wow. That’s more like a suggestion than a suit.”
Harmonia giggled. “That’s Veronika. She likes to make a statement. Race you? Ten laps?”
“Sounds good.” We dove in together, and, dodging the other crew members, started doing laps. The pool was almost empty. Most of the restaurant workers were preparing for the dinner services, and the housekeeping staff was on standby to do bed turndowns and room straightenings as soon as passengers left their rooms for dinner.
I relished gliding through the water, the even strokes, the flow. Harmonia was right; this was what I needed. Each lap made me feel stronger, more grounded. I realized how little I’d swum in the past few months, and wondered how I could get pool time back into my schedule. While I was on the ship, maybe I could make this a nightly excursion. Otherwise. . .
I was dimly aware of another form swimming beside me. Harmonia was on my left, a few feet ahead, which was just fine with me; I didn’t need to win. But there was a larger form on the right. I glanced over as I took in air, and knew it was male, but wasn’t sure who it was. It wasn’t until I finished the tenth lap and a long, tanned arm reached out to help me up that I realized it was Sebastian.
“Beatcha!” Harmonia sung out.
“Yeah, you’re good,” I gasped, accepting Sebastian’s helping hand out of the water.
“I was on the swim team in high school and college,” Harmonia admitted.
“You’re no slouch yourself,” said Sebastian.
“Thank you,” I said. “ Harmonia, you were right. This was exactly what I needed. What are you doing here, Sebastian?”
He didn’t pretend not to understand. “I was worried about you.”
“Me?” I felt the surprise and the wave of pleasure that rose behind it. “Why?”
“It seemed like a pretty intense conversation between you and Drummond.”
“It was. But it’s fine.”
“If it’s not, you’ll tell me, okay? I’ll take care of it.”
It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him I could take care of myself. Instead, I said, “Thank you.”
“Ah, there you are, darling, just the way I like you. Half naked and wet.” Veronika, the blonde in the teeny, tiny bikini draped herself over Sebastian.
“Thanks, Sebastian. Thanks, Harmonia. This was a great idea. Gotta run and get ready for my 6:30.” I turned and fled, not sure why the sight of Veronika attached to Sebastian, and his arm around her waist, disturbed me so much.
CHAPTER EIGHT
THIRTY-FIVE PEOPLE ATTENDED THE 6:30 yoga class, giving the studio a full, satisfying ambiance. No Duncan. I glowed with satisfaction at the many compliments received after the class. I disinfected the mats (again), bundled all the towels up, and headed to Zero Deck to the Laundromat. All the machines were full, as usual, so I slipped Merhati another twenty.
Sebastian joined me as I headed back up to the crew dining room. “You eat?”
“I’m dashing upstairs to grab a bite. I don’t have another class until Moonlight Yoga at 10.”
“You dead on your feet ye
t?”
“A little sore,” I acknowledged. “I haven’t had a chance to wander the ship yet. I hoped I could stick my head into the Tiki Bar, the Supper Club, and the Casino and get a better idea of what was going on.”
“Drinking, dancing, and gambling, in that order,” Sebastian retorted.
“Well, yeah, but I wanted to get a better sense of it all.”
“You can mash it all together in the crew bar,” Sebastian said. “There’s a party tonight.”
“Are you always such a cynic?”
“Most days.”
“Merhati likes you,” I hazarded.
“I’m lucky, or she’d be charging me fifty dollars to run my clothes through the machine,” Sebastian laughed. “It’s a good sideline for them, it’s not like they’re earning much down there, and none of us have time to do our own laundry.”
“Why doesn’t management add more machines?”
“Why should they?” Sebastian countered. “It’s about the guests, not the staff.”
“The staff is necessary to keep the passengers happy.”
“There are plenty of guests that are determined to be unhappy, no matter what the staff does,” Sebastian informed me.
We grabbed a quiet table in the corner, and I was surprised at how much we laughed during dinner. Sebastian’s humor was quiet and unexpected, and not at other crewmembers’ expense. A stark contract to the prevalent gossipy sarcasm. An even starker contrast to Jack, and I felt guilty that I’d ever thought the two men were similar.
We discussed family. Sebastian’s parents lived in New Mexico, with his brother about forty miles away. They were just outside Santa Fe; my mom lived in Taos. We thought the synchronicity was fun. His sister lived in Los Angeles, working as an entertainment lawyer. I talked about my mother, my sisters, and skirted around my brother’s details. I ached as I realized how much I missed them, even Edwina. I pretended not to notice the stares that others in the crew dining room sent their way. If it didn’t bother Sebastian, I wouldn’t let it bother me.
After dinner, I dashed up to the guest shops. No luck finding a drying rack or a laundry basket. The crew shop didn’t have them, either. I bought a notebook and started a list of things I wanted to remember to buy or change. I took a tangent to poke my nose into the Tiki Bar, which suffered from an overload of kitschy cuteness, where I spotted Stella and Bartholomew talking to the diamond-wearing woman from yoga and her male companion. The Tiki Bar looked fun, and I wished I could stop in and have a drink, especially after Stella recognized me and waved. I waved back with a regretful smile and moved on.
I glanced into the Supper Club and recognized one of the costumed dancers as the woman who’d assumed I was Geri’s successor. She and a similarly-costumed man danced together, gliding across the floor like characters out of a glamour-era Hollywood movie. I wanted to flag her down, reassure her that she didn’t have to worry about payments, but the woman looked so happy floating across the floor. I didn’t want to mar the joy. The dance floor was full; Neil with his companion; Bassio, dancing with an attractive older woman who’d dyed her hair a shocking shade of red. Bassio winked at me over the woman’s head and I smiled back, not wanting to cause a problem. After a few minutes’ observation, I realized I could pick out all the hosts from their looks and the way they moved.
I returned to my room, where I put a cool washcloth on my forehead and lay down for a nap, setting the alarm.
To my surprise, I slept, waking up in time to change clothes and get the towels back from the laundry (tipping the young woman who handed them over). I stood for a minute in the yoga studio, wishing I’d figured out how to transport mats and blocks and props up to the Sun Deck ahead of time.
“Need a hand?”
I gave a squeak of surprise and turned to see Sebastian lounging in the doorway. “Yes, actually, thank you. I was so eager to teach up on the Sun Deck that I neglected to plan how to transport things.”
Sebastian grinned and held out different colored cloth bags. “Laundry bags,” he suggested. “We can fill them up with gear and sling them over our shoulders.”
“How clever!” I laughed. “That’s a great idea. Did you borrow them from Merhati?”
“No, I had them in my cabin,” said Sebastian. “I tend to accumulate laundry bags.” He winked at me. “It’s called filling them up, buying more, filling them up until I run out of clothes and am forced to take them to the laundry.”
“I’m beginning to wish Geri kept a log,” I murmured, as we packed up the yoga gear.
Sebastian gave me a quizzical stare. “A log of what?”
“Who she was blackmailing and why.” I glanced at him. “You think she might have worked with one of the hosts to get information on passengers? They’re the mostly likely to gain passenger confidences.” I wondered if Bassio would know. If I could convince him to tell me.
“I never saw her interact with the hosts. But I spent as little time around Geri as possible.”
“You’re not surprised that Geri was a blackmailer?”
“Not particularly.” Sebastian shrugged. “One way or the other, it wasn’t any of my business.”
“Did she ever try to get money from you?”
Sebastian gave a bark of a laugh that somehow lacked humor. “She wasn’t that stupid,” he said.
…
It was a beautiful night, with the waxing crescent moon. The brisk breeze made me glad I wore a long-sleeved shirt. Or did I shiver from the memory of my rosemary-scented attacker? Some of the regulars were there — Lydia, Luke, Melodie, Joshua. Stella and Bartholomew Orsini both participated. A couple of girls, full of too much champagne, joined the class, giggling whenever they fell out of the poses. Sebastian, Andrew, and Duncan hovered around the parameter. The group was larger than I expected, but so was the number of spectators. I wasn’t sure how I felt about yoga used for entertainment by non-participants. We heard laughter and water splashing from the pool down on the Lido Deck. As we lay in savasana at the end of the class, strains from the Supper Club’s big band floated up to us, a languorous tune, perfect to cool down.
“Wasn’t that just the most fun?” Stella enthused.
“I never thought I would enjoy a yoga class, but I enjoyed this one,” said Bartholomew. “Care to join us for a nightcap?”
“I’ve got to put this gear away,” I said.
“We’ll help,” Stella offered.
“I’m actually not allowed to have a drink with you,” I confessed.
“That’s positively medieval,” said Bartholomew. “Especially after we came to your aid when you were attacked.”
“Regulations,” I explained. “I’m sorry. I really would like to sit and chat with you sometime.”
“Air kiss, air kiss, wouldn’t want to get you into trouble, we’re going to go spend money in the Casino.” Bartholomew took his wife’s arm.
“I’m changing first,” Stella said. “When I make an entrance, I want it to be for the right reasons.”
“Those two,” I shook my head as they moved off. “They make me feel like I’m intruding into a Noel Coward scenario.”
“Real characters,” Sebastian agreed. Something in his voice made me give him another look. His expression reminded me of Duncan’s, earlier in the day, also in response to the Orsinis. There was a hardness in his eyes; before I could ask him about it, Andrew interrupted.
“That class looked great, Soph,” he said. “Drink in the CB?”
“I’m going to put this stuff away and go to the party,” I replied.
Andrew looked from her to Sebastian and back again. “Another time, then,” he said, his tone noticeably cooler. He turned and walked away.
“What was that about?” I groaned. “I’m too tired for drama.”
Sebastian grinned as he helped me back up the gear. “Welcome to cruise life. One big drama after another.”
…
The crew bar was decorated with chili pepper lights and oddly-colored streamers
left over from previous passenger events. 80′s club music piped over the speakers, but, as more and more of the musicians on the ship finished up their stints, they arrived toting instruments. Pretty soon, Big Band sound filled the space. Once the entertainers arrived after their show, the party really took off.
“Come on, girl,” London, one of the show’s dancers, grabbed my hand.
“I’m not much of a dancer,” I protested.
“But you like it?” he coaxed.
“I do,” I conceded. “I love it.”
“Then let’s dance.” London swirled me onto the floor.
To our delight, I let him lead and picked up the steps quickly, and we flew around the floor. I was aware of plenty of others orbiting around us. I caught sight of the cocktail waitress who’d been crying in the bathroom; she was in the arms of a handsome man, laughing and dancing, seemingly recovered. I thought I caught a glimpse of Chief Bakshi by the door, but the next swirl around, he was gone. Bassio filched me from London.
“You’re done for the night?” I gasped.
“Just getting started,” he teased.
“Was Geri friendly with any of the hosts?” I asked, as Bassio pulled me close.
“She thought we were scum,” Bassio said. He whirled me out and then back. “She thought we were overpriced prostitutes. Only none of us cared what she thought.” Bassio dipped me. He lifted me, and I gave a little squeal. “In retaliation, we weren’t allowed to take yoga.”
“That’s where we’re different,” I said. “I welcome you any time you want to show up.”
Bassio swirled me out and reeled me back in for a nuzzle. “You’re different from Geri in every possible way.”
London claimed me back. Sebastian purloined me from London. “I’m not much of a dancer, but you look like you’re having so much fun, I can’t resist.”
“I am having fun.” As I whirled, I caught sight of Harmonia and Xerses, who I recognized from posters as the ship’s illusionist, caught up and close, giggling together.
“Good,” said Sebastian. Before he could say anything else, someone I didn’t know swept me up and we twirled around the room. At one point, I thought I caught a whiff of rosemary. I snapped my head around, but couldn’t figure out who it was.
