by Leena Clover
Two crew members rushed past, speaking in their walkie talkies.
“There’s barely any room to stand,” Cassie wrinkled her nose. “I can’t wait to get home and swim in our own pool.”
Julie was feeling piqued with all the noise.
“Why don’t we go play trivia in the theater?” Anna suggested. “They have several rounds, each with a different theme.”
None of them jumped at the idea.
“I’m going to check out the gym,” Cassie declared. “I hear they have a big climbing wall and it’s great to burn off some calories. Bobby’s going to have a fit when I climb on the scale after we get back home.”
Meg wanted to go bowling. Julie wanted to check out the library.
Anna put her hands on her hips and glared at them.
“Do you want us to split up and go in four different directions?”
Julie rolled her eyes.
“Are you throwing a tantrum? You should be canoodling with Gino instead of trying to control us.”
Anna informed them that she had sent Gino on an important mission.
“Why don’t we do everything one by one?”
“You mean you’ll climb the wall?” Cassie asked with a twinkle in her eye.
Anna gave in. They trooped back to their suite to change into fitness gear. Julie and Meg were dispatched to go ahead and sign them up at the wall.
When Anna came out of her own room a few minutes later, Cassie was nowhere to be seen. Anna assumed she had gone ahead. For a moment, she was tempted to go back inside and take a nap. But she talked herself into leaving.
“What are you doing here?” she exclaimed when she saw Cassie waiting outside the cabin.
Cassie put a finger on her lips and jerked her neck towards the left, her eyes wide in shock.
Anna saw a couple standing behind the cleaning cart, deep in conversation. The woman’s arms were wound around the man’s neck and his hands were on her waist.
Anna pulled Cassie by the hand and walked in the opposite direction.
“What’s Ricky doing with that maid again?” Cassie whispered urgently. “I thought he was a good guy.”
Anna wanted to know how long Cassie had been standing out there.
“Actually, I was feeling kinda drowsy,” Cassie admitted sheepishly. “I didn’t trust myself to not fall asleep on the couch. So I decided to stand outside. And then I saw them!”
Anna laughed loudly.
“I had the same thought. You think Julie and Meg will forgive us if we don’t turn up to climb that wall?
Cassie had a naughty gleam in her eyes.
“That little sideshow Ricky put up made me gag, Mom. I’m wide awake now. Why don’t we look up that wedding coordinator?”
Anna nodded and they took the elevator up to Deck 14. Cassie asked the woman about Alicia.
“I rarely interact with the housekeeping staff.” The woman turned up her nose. “You might try the cabin supervisor or the human resources manager.”
“And where can we find these people?” Cassie wanted to know.
Five minutes later, they were headed back down, this time to the lower decks. Anna recognized the corridor from when she had visited Chief Bernard’s office. She wondered if Gino was still with him.
The human resources manager was buried in paper. Anna took one look at his harried expression and decided he wasn’t going to be any help. The only useful suggestion he gave them was to hunt down some of Alicia’s friends in the crew mess.
“Why don’t Meg and I take this one?” Cassie suggested on the way to the elevator.
Anna raised a brow and smirked.
“What are you afraid of? I read magazines and stuff, Cassie. I know there is a lot of depravity in such places.”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you,” Cassie muttered.
They took a flight of stairs into the bowels of the ship. Anna sensed they were below the water line and immediately started feeling queasy. A long, endless metal corridor stretched before them.
Cassie took her hand and they walked down, passing many closed doors. Several men and women hurried past them. Anna spotted a girl coming out of a cabin, lugging a basket of laundry and hailed her. She gave them directions to the crew mess.
“It won’t be pretty,” she cautioned. “Are you looking for someone?”
Anna gave a slight nod and Cassie told her about Alicia Todd.
“She’s the maid on Deck 14.”
“I know Alicia.” The girl put her basket down. “She swapped places with me to work the wedding party. Paid me five hundred bucks.”
“Do you know why?” Anna asked.
“It’s not a big secret,” the girl laughed. “Alicia’s been sulking this entire trip.”
Anna and Cassie listened with mouths hanging open as the girl talked about Alicia Todd.
“You mean she’s known Ricky for a long time?”
The girl nodded with relish.
“Sorry about what happened to the bride. I guess she was a friend of yours.”
Cassie told her Jojo had been like the sister she never had.
“What did Alicia hope to achieve by swapping places with you?” Anna wondered. “Wouldn’t it be embarrassing to clean up after the woman who was marrying Ricky?”
“She didn’t say.” The girl picked up her basket again. “Look, I gotta go. My shift starts in an hour and I need to get this load done before that.”
Anna thanked the girl and told her to look them up if she ever traveled to northern California.
Anna followed Cassie up the metal steps and jabbed the button for Deck 14 as soon as they entered the elevator. She wanted to confront the maid right away.
They saw the cleaning cart the moment they stepped off the elevator. Alicia was running the vacuum cleaner and didn’t hear them at first.
“How long have you known Ricky?” Anna demanded. “And why did you hide it from us?”
“I don’t owe you any explanation.” Alicia turned red. “You don’t have any authority on this ship.”
“Why don’t I report you to Chief Bernard?” Anna folded her arms. “Or Captain Romero? Is that good enough for you?”
Alicia put the vacuum down and leaned against the wall, deflated.
“I don’t have a trust fund to fall back on, lady. This job is all I have. So I will appreciate it if you don’t report me to the captain.”
“You can start by telling the truth,” Anna ordered.
Alicia squared her shoulders.
“If loving someone is a crime, I’m guilty.” She began her story. “Ricky and I were high school sweethearts. But we both wanted different things. He was happy being a car mechanic in a small town. I wanted to see the world.”
Alicia had dumped Ricky after graduation. Several years later, she realized she had traversed the globe a dozen times and dated scores of men, but she had never found love. When her contract ended in the summer, she went home with a solid plan. She was going to apologize to Ricky and tell him she still loved him.
“You hadn’t counted on Jojo,” Anna murmured.
“Ricky fell in love with some high society girl. I signed a new contract and came back to work. Imagine my shock when I learned he was getting married right here, on the Empress Cleo.”
“So you juggled the assignments and got yourself posted to this floor,” Cassie finished. “It was all part of your plan, wasn’t it?”
Alicia agreed readily.
“He barely knew her! I thought if I was around Ricky, he would remember the times we spent together and break up with his bride.”
“Is that all?” Anna watched Alicia closely. “Are you sure you didn’t get rid of her?”
Chapter 23
Anna paused to catch her breath for a minute. She and Cassie were finally on their way to the gym, to meet Julie and Meg at the climbing wall.
“They’re gone, Mom.” Cassie told her after she spoke to one of the instructors. “I’m guessing they went back to the suite.�
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Anna told her she would wait for them in the atrium.
“Gino and I were going to meet there. Why don’t you go fetch the girls?”
Cassie agreed reluctantly, on the condition that they would have lunch next. Anna didn’t argue. She was feeling hungry too.
“All this running around has given me an appetite, Cassie.”
Gino was waiting for her at the café. Anna decided against more caffeine and got a sparkling water.
“You won’t believe the morning we’ve had,” she told him, feeling flushed. “But first, we need to figure out where to have lunch.”
Cassie arrived with Meg and Julie a few minutes later.
“What happened to you?” Julie looked cross. “You were the one who wanted to climb that wall.”
“She did very well,” Meg chortled. “We both climbed that twenty foot wall, Anna. It was a hoot.”
Anna asked them what they wanted to eat. Everyone voted for pizza. Anna took Gino’s arm and they trudged to the Italian café, salivating at the thought of hot mozzarella cheese on a savory pie.
“Seafood is fine, but I can’t live without pizza.” Meg attacked the garlic bread the server placed on their table.
“How about dressing up tonight though?” Anna suggested. “We can go to the big dining room and sample the food there.”
Cassie looked at Gino.
“Don’t you two have a dinner date?”
“We can do that tomorrow night,” Anna shrugged.
Family came first for Anna and Gino was totally on board with it. He had come to love Cassie and Meg like his own.
There was more small talk while they waited for the pizzas. Anna sprinkled red pepper flakes and parmesan cheese on her slice and devoted herself to enjoying it.
“Do you want to go first?” Gino asked after they had all demolished a few slices.
Meg and Julie were stunned when they heard about Ricky’s connection to the maid. Gino confessed he hadn’t seen it coming.
“I thought Ricky loved Jojo.” Meg was disillusioned. “He didn’t waste any time falling into another woman’s arms.”
“They have been friends for a long time,” Cassie reasoned. “It’s natural he would gravitate toward someone he knows.”
“How convenient!” Julie scoffed.
She could be relied upon to provide the sardonic voice.
“I know a couple when I see one, Cassie.” Anna grimaced. “Those two didn’t give off a friendly vibe.”
“Let’s talk about what this means,” Julie began. “We have two new suspects, Anna. This changes everything.”
“So you think Ricky planned all this?” Cassie narrowed her eyes. “Marry Jojo and get access to all her money. Dump her after a while, get a big settlement and then marry his real sweetheart, that maid Alicia.”
“Why leave Jojo when she could keep laying the golden egg?” Julie objected. “He and this Alicia could have a clandestine relationship.”
Anna was shaking her head.
“We know they didn’t do either of those things, girls.”
She looked at Gino, her eyes full of fear. He gave her a slight nod.
“We are dealing with murder, Anna,” he spoke up. “Nothing is off the table.”
Anna dared to voice her wildest theory.
“What if this was the plan all along? Ricky and Alicia get rid of Jojo and live happily ever after.”
Gino pointed out the flaw in the argument.
“It would have been a brilliant plan if Ricky pushed Jojo overboard after the wedding. As things stand, he gets nothing.”
“You mean there’s no motive,” Anna sighed.
Cassie was trying to get a word in.
“I heard the bridesmaids talking among themselves, Mom. This whole getting married on a cruise ship thing was Ricky’s idea. Apparently, he thought it was very romantic. Jojo went along with it. They were going to have a grand society reception later, of course.”
Anna steered her back.
“What’s your point?”
“Ricky must have known Alicia worked on the Empress Cleo. I think they planned this a long time ago. This way, he had an accomplice on the ship that nobody knew about. It was pure genius.”
Anna looked longingly at the last slice of pizza. Almost everyone had their eye on it so they decided to order more.
“What if this Alicia lied about seeing Fred Gold that night?” Julie asked. “It’s more likely that she went into the Empress Suite to help Ricky do the dark deed.”
“I bet she moved the cameras too,” Meg piped up. “She would know how to do that, being an employee.”
“We already know she swapped places with another girl to be on Deck 14 that night,” Cassie added.
Gino held up his hand.
“I’m not saying Alicia is innocent. But she’s not lying about Fred Gold.”
Anna asked him what had happened that morning.
“Bernard and I talked to Fred,” Gino began. “Fred admitted he had a nefarious purpose in going to Jojo’s suite that night.”
Everyone stopped talking.
“Fred wanted to sabotage the wedding.”
Anna let out a gasp. “He didn’t like Ricky. Is it because he’s just a car mechanic?”
“That’s not the only reason, according to Fred,” Gino continued. “Ricky doesn’t have an education but Fred was ready to groom him for a leadership role at Gold Labs. Ricky wasn’t interested. As if that wasn’t enough, he was talking Jojo into abandoning her lifestyle and moving to the small town where he lived. What if it was just a ploy to gain Jojo’s trust? He planned to get rid of her all along with Alicia’s help.”
“Love can be blind,” Julie murmured.
“At least Fred thought so,” Gino smiled grimly. “He believed Jojo just had a big crush on Ricky. She would eventually realize she didn’t love him.”
“So he just wanted to buy some time,” Anna summed up.
Cassie had been frowning while Gino spoke.
“I find this hard to believe. Uncle Fred loved Jojo. He always got her anything she asked for. Did he really try to disrupt the wedding?”
“He did it out of love.” Gino drained his iced tea.
The fresh pizza arrived and they served themselves. Anna waited eagerly while Gino sprinkled cheese and herbs on his slice.
“Fred was looking forward to retirement. He wanted to hand over the reins to Jojo. There has always been a Gold at the helm.”
“He thought getting Ricky out of the picture would fix that?” Anna was curious.
“Fred had a soft spot for Logan,” Gino continued. “He had the right pedigree, education and business background. Fred and Jojo’s father had always assumed he would marry Jojo.”
“He thought Jojo would gravitate toward Logan once Ricky was out of her life,” Cassie prompted.
Gino swallowed a bite and nodded.
“Like I said, he just wanted to buy time. His plan was to disrupt the wedding.”
Anna’s mind was racing ahead, wondering what Fred planned to do. Had he intended to bribe Ricky? She abandoned the thought. He would surely have tried that before embarking on the voyage. Maybe he had proof about Ricky’s relationship with Alicia. Blackmail would be an option.
“Was he planning to hurt Ricky?” Meg voiced the option Anna shuddered to think about.
“Nothing that drastic,” Gino smiled. “Fred was looking for the wedding band.”
Julie had polished off her latest slice. She picked up a menu and began looking at dessert options.
“The suspense is killing me, Gino. Get on with it, will you?”
“There are plenty of jewelry stores on the ship,” Meg pointed out. “Jojo could have bought a new ring at any one of them.”
Anna had been thinking the same.
Gino told them it was all about tradition. The wedding band Jojo was going to place on Ricky’s finger was a family heirloom. Fred was confident Jojo would not get married without it.
; “She would’ve thought it was some kind of sign,” Cassie nodded. “Jojo believed in omens. She’s always had a psychic on speed dial.”
“So Fred wanted to play the emotion card.” Anna raised a brow. “It might have worked.”
She didn’t blame Fred Gold. He must have believed he was acting in his child’s best interests.
“Did he see her?” she asked Gino. “Did Fred peep into Jojo’s room?”
Gino shook his head.
“Fred confirmed that Ricky was asleep on the couch. Jojo was nowhere to be seen.”
Anna realized what that meant. Jojo was already gone when Fred Gold went looking for the ring. Hadn’t he wondered where his beloved niece was?
“He blames himself,” Gino gulped. “The man cried like a baby, Anna. He feels he might have saved her if he had raised an alarm that night.”
Anna felt she was running out of suspects. Someone on the ship was going to get away with two murders.
Chapter 24
Anna wanted to clear her head of anything related to the Golds. Meg was dispatched to the atrium to find out what was going on across the ship.
“Look for the most ridiculous thing you ever heard of,” Julie told her.
The Firecrackers rested in their suite, sipping gourmet sparkling water. Meg arrived, looking triumphant. She couldn’t stop grinning.
“What was that?” Anna sputtered.
“Belly Splash contest,” Meg beamed. “We need to hurry. The girl told me it’s very popular and it’s hard to get poolside seats.”
Meg told them there was a good chance they would get wet so they all changed into their bathing suits or bikinis.
Anna hurried along the corridor, surrounded by the girls. The elevators were busy so they took the stairs one deck up. A big crowd of people surrounded the pool.
Cassie clutched Anna’s arm and pointed in the distance. They spotted a fin and wondered if it was a whale. Meg had pushed her way through a group of people and found a spot for them.
“You’re just in time.” A scrawny woman wearing big sunglasses nodded while sipping a frozen drink.
“What’s going to happen?” Julie asked.
The woman laughed and told them they were in for a treat.
