Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 11 - Cruise Control

by A. R. Winters

  “So,” I said, wanting to get through them before they ran off to the volleyball nets. “How’s it feel knowing that you’re going to be ludicrously wealthy?”

  Her eyes locked on mine. “Hmm? What makes you say that?”

  “Sebastian. His whole spiel up there seems to me like he’s going to run the company, unlike Vernon. I think you all were waiting for some big IPO payday?”

  “Money isn’t everything, Addy. There’s more to cherish in life, that’s what Vernon was trying to teach us all.”

  I crossed my arms, hesitant to believe her. “Then what’s more important than money to you?”

  Monica then proceeded to throw her arms out and spin around, gesturing to everything around her. “All of this. All of this is more important.”

  Of course. She was the one who bought into Vernon’s vision. The others derided her as a masseuse, so maybe her philosophy was so very different than the others. The beach, the ocean, the world, some sort of environmentally conscious ‘one with the universe’ belief. I wouldn’t have said I disagreed with such things, but I also wasn’t in line to stumble upon a million-dollar windfall.

  “Everyone seems to be moving on from Vernon’s death a pretty soon,” I said, hoping that it would provoke her to add something useful to the conversation.

  “The others are heartless is all. Me? I know Vernon wouldn’t want too much mourning over him. He’d want people to find their happiness and move on quickly, him dying just being part of a natural cycle.”

  Ah, the natural part of life where one is strangled by a zip tie. “So, just, throwing it out there. You seemed to be more friendly with Vernon, like, closer to him than the others. Would you know anyone whose disdain for him would have shifted to murder?”

  “So you’re asking me who I think did it?”

  I nodded.

  “John Heaven. That angel investor turned into a devil on Vernon’s shoulder. He helped the company get off the ground, with it originally being something that wouldn’t be a competitor to his own company. Then, well, Vernon took it someplace else, and it was competing with his original HeavenCorp. The prospects of the new company have made HeavenCorp near-obsolete and he might have to close up shop for it. But now, with Vernon gone…”

  “Doesn’t he have a massive share in LightningBlossom? Even if his own company becomes less successful, Vernon’s company doing gangbusters means he’s going to get rich anyway.”

  Monica’s eyebrows rose. “Didn’t I just tell you that money wasn’t everything?”

  “I thought it was the main reason for getting into business.”

  “There are lots of reasons. I have my own. For John? He’s got a bit of a competitive streak. Look over there.”

  Sam was talking over the PA, her voice booming over the beach. “And now we begin the... pardon me if I say this wrong… First Annual Vernon Nunn Memorial Company World Championship. To begin the festivities, everyone, please take a look at the edge of the water now.”

  Floating under a banner with ‘Company World Championships’ scribbled onto it were two jet skis. One was manned by Sebastian, who had traded his Hawaiian shirt for a life vest, and the other by John Heaven, clad in similar safety gear.

  “LightningBlossom’s very own CEO, Sebastian Hawk, will be competing with the man who helped give birth to LightningBlossom, Mr. John Heaven. They have agreed to a jet ski race to kick off today’s events.”

  John was gripping the handles on the jet ski tightly, looking toward Sebastian with intensity. Sebastian, on the other hand, seemed far less bothered by the situation, waving to the employees and trying to come off as the cool celebrity CEO, complete with sunglasses that I didn’t expect would make it through the race.

  A woman on the coast was holding a starting pistol, with Sam counting down over the PA. “Three, two, one… go!” Her voice was accompanied by the loud bang of the pistol.

  John immediately darted forward and picked up the easy lead. From what I gathered from afar, they were racing around a big rock in the distance, but trouble was brewing well before that.

  Sebastian soon caught up and was edging forward to take his lead. For a time, John simply tried to power forward to regain his lead. I didn’t fully understand the physics of jet skis and how you raced them, but they both seemed to be riding the same model. That suggested to me that if they just both held down the gas, they’d go the same speed.

  John must have realized that as well, as he took a different tack.

  He rammed Sebastian’s craft. Sebastian’s glance toward him was one of surprise, but he didn’t lose that much of his lead. Then he did it again, and kept pushing it, anything to knock Sebastian off course.

  I could be wrong on the finer details of jet ski racing, but I didn’t think ramming was a traditional tactic. It seemed more dangerous than anything else, the collisions throwing Sebastian slightly off balance, and then shaking him enough that his sunglasses flew off his head and plunged into the sea below.

  I called that.

  John still wasn’t gaining any significant ground… err, water. He threw himself into a direct dash, his craft aiming to knock Sebastian off course once and for all.

  Sebastian caught a helpful wave and launched himself out of the way, and John went flying into a smaller ocean rock, colliding with it. His craft was shaking so hard that he couldn’t hold on anymore and he flew into the water, with the jet ski skirting off into the distance.

  With his only opponent removed from the race, Sebastian rode to an easy win. “The New CEO of LightningBlossom rides the waves to a commanding victory!”

  John had to have lifeguards swim out to help him. He was spiteful, but eventually they rescued him as well as his jet ski and brought it back to shore.

  “What did I tell you?” Monica said to me back on shore, after John and his jet ski had been rescued. “Just a wee bit of a competitive streak.”

  John was yelling at the lifeguards and people around him, saying various words that weren’t meant for polite company.

  “Losing is the greatest shame for him, even if nothing is on the line. How do you think he feels about LightningBlossom shutting down his own creation?”

  Monica slapped me on the back before leading her crew off to prepare for the next event.

  Killing someone for being more successful than you seemed a bit extreme to me. Although if I discounted every slight as too extreme for murder, I’d never have a motive to go on.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  T he groups gathered around a volleyball net, with Monica’s Dragons taking on whatever Ivan’s team was.

  “We’re the Binary Brothers,” he said after I greeted him. “No, it isn’t sexist. As you can see, I have no women on my team.”

  “I wasn’t going to say anything, but okay.”

  Ivan side-eyed me as he played coach. “What are you doing here, anyway? You still poking around about the Vernon thing?”

  “I’m not going around throwing around accusations or anything. Right now, I’m trying to find a pulse on your corporate culture.”

  “I would hardly call this a culture, but I suppose you need to call it something.”

  The game was underway, and it was very clear to me that none of these people had played volleyball since high school gym class. “Spike!” one shouted, which was clearly just them returning the ball with a light strike.

  “Set!” another said as one of the few women, this one on Monica’s team, served the ball. I’m pretty sure set was a tennis thing and it wasn’t even used in volleyball.

  It was a bit of a disaster.

  “Come on! Dragon blood! Dragon energy!” Monica shouted at her team.

  In a battle of the untalented against the untalented, simple energy seemed to be the key to victory. Monica’s team was pulling ahead, and Ivan didn’t take it well.

  “Figures,” he muttered to me as he watched from the sidelines. “She probably gave them some sort of magic potions to make them more energetic.”

>   “Magic potions? Are you saying she’s drugging her team?”

  He scratched his head in thought. “I can’t really say. All that Oriental medicine stuff seems to be malarkey. Placebos and all. Whatever it is, though, it’s working, and I want to call it cheating.”

  “Because she gave them green tea?”

  “Oh, it’s more than green tea. Monica over there? While the rest of us have respectable degrees in cybersecurity or accounting, her credentials are from some Far East school. I believe it was in Taiwan, but my memory isn’t perfect. She’s got a fancy degree from there, it’s on her wall in her office, framed and everything. Go ask her. She’ll tell you how she’s one of the few westerners they taught about it. It’s a point of pride for her.” He turned from me to shake his fist at his team. “Oh, come on! That was coming at our side at like three miles an hour! Hit the ball back, you buffoons!”

  I stood next to him, stroking my chin. His focus was mostly on the game, and I was still holding out that it’d make his tongue loose. “I’ll take your word on it. Definitely changes what I thought, though. I thought she was only a masseuse who Vernon promoted and that’s why people look down on her.”

  “Bah. Put your back into it! You hit like a girl!” So much for him not being sexist. “Oh, that’s just Kayleigh,” he said to me. “Really hates Monica the most. John’s not a fan, but his distaste pales before Kayleigh’s. Benedict and I think it’s funny.”

  “So you don’t hate Monica?”

  “Hardly. Used to date her even, and I got her foot in the door with LightningBlossom.”

  “What happened between you two?”

  “It’s more of a who happened between us. Stop trying to kick the ball, you fool! This isn’t soccer! Vernon convinced her to break up with me, the bastard.” His words were split between telling me his story and trying to coach his team.

  Now this was getting somewhere. Jealousy was a good path to follow when it came to these sorts of things. “So you hated him?”

  Ivan froze in place. He broke his attention from the game and turned to face me. “I did not kill him, if that’s what you’re thinking about.”

  There was only one source of the information I was about to use, but nothing wagered, nothing gained. “Some of the others said they heard a fight happening in Vernon’s room the night of. Said they were pretty sure it was you in a war of words with him.”

  He was pale and breathed slowly. “I did not kill him. I did go to see him. I did have a verbal fight with him. But I am not a violent man in the slightest. I tried to get Monica back, and he intervened again. It’s bad enough he was so troublesome as a CEO, but getting involved in my relationships? He claimed there was bad energy between me and Monica, and that’s why he forbade our relationship. Encouraged Monica to find someone more attuned to her energy signatures.”

  “So, Typical Vernon stuff?”

  “Yes. Want to know the funniest part? I’ve started to think about it and I think the crazy man had a point. Monica and I? We were never going to work out.”

  “I have to say, the thought of you two together strikes me as a bit of an odd couple. You’re some tech guy, and she’s a bit of a hippie, like Vernon.”

  “A hippie like Vernon? Hardly. She was just kissing up to him. Wouldn’t be surprised if it was more and she was seeing him behind my back.”

  “You think Vernon and Monica were involved?”

  “I can’t say for sure. But that woman’s much more ambitious than she lets on. When the LightningBlossom IPO money comes through, I’m tempted to retire early and coast on that money for the rest of my days. Monica? She could never do that. It’s why I think we were destined to drift apart eventually, even without Vernon’s interference.”

  My mind flashed back to Monica doing her playful spin, gesturing to everything around her. I thought it was just an appreciation for nature, but maybe she meant something different, such as the people, or maybe the company itself.

  “She has dreams of being a top of the world billionaire. World-changing power. Lofty goals for a person who started in Taiwanese folk medicine, but we all have our paths.”

  “Times up!” Monica shouted. “Got destroyed didn’t you, Bini Bros? Down by what, four points?”

  Ivan turned back to the game. “You’re doping your players! Cheater!”

  The teams walked off the field, the next set of teams taking their place. Ivan left me without much more than that, probably realizing I was interrogating him. Monica passed me by as well, trying to read my posture on what I just talked to Ivan about. She was rightfully suspicious of us, with the murder investigation going on and all that.

  When they all passed, I headed back toward the shore and saw the next person I needed to ask some questions.

  John Heaven was lounging on a beachside chair, sipping his beverage out of a green coconut, properly fancy with pink miniature umbrellas also poking out of it. He was nice and cozy under a not-so-miniature umbrella that blocked out the worst of the sun.

  I sat down on the chair next to him. “You took a nasty spill out there on the water. You all right?”

  “Nothing is more bruised than my ego. Little dizzy too, I suppose.” He rubbed his head, a small bandage on his forehead under his hair. I was no doctor, but my guess was that he had a mild concussion. Nothing serious, as he seemed pretty lucid and wasn’t slurring his speech.

  “You tried to tackle Sebastian off his jet ski with yours. What did you expect to happen?”

  “T-bone maneuver. Besides, killing that nimrod would have been wonderful.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. It was a weird thing to say with a recently-murdered CEO.

  “No. I didn’t kill Vernon,” John said, his expression disdainful of me. “Just saying that Vernon’s corpse could lead the company better than that fool.”

  Sebastian was in the full swing of a volleyball game, choosing to play instead of simply acting as a coach. He was getting along well with his team. “Why do you say that? He seems likable and confident.”

  “He can seem like a lot of things. It just stings. My own company trounced by a dead man and then a living idiot, all propped up by my own foolishness. If I were a bad guy, it’d be poetic justice, but since I’m not, it’s simply infuriating.”

  “Sebastian was Deputy CEO, though. I figured he had to be competent to get that high.”

  “Yeah, he was a smart executive. Was is the key term. Then he started taking notes from that woman.” He glanced toward Monica, his face scrunching as he thought of her. “Just like Vernon, he’ll be influenced by her mystical nonsense and run it into the ground. Sure, he’ll get the IPO off the ground and have a huge payday. The simple inertia is too strong for him to derail that. Time will pass, though, and the stock will fall, destined to never reach the heights that it was truly meant to reach.”

  “Isn’t that what you want, though? For the company to fail?”

  “I wanted it to fail long before it started to put my own under. Vernon didn’t get where he was by merit. He got there by pure luck.”

  “Guess you have every reason to want LightningBlossom to fail.”

  John’s eyes narrowed at me, and then he sat up straight. “Who are you again? Why am I wasting my time talking to you? Shame on you, exploiting a man with a head wound.”

  “What? I was just asking questions and checking on you.”

  “I already have someone checking on me, and they aren’t trying to play Kid Cop.”

  “Do you need more… Addy? What are you doing here?”

  Holly. She was carrying a glass of water and set it down next to John.

  “Oh, I was just going. Checking on him. He took a nasty spill and I was concerned.”

  “Me too. Don’t worry, I’m looking after him and will be sure to tell the doctors if something bad happens.” She leaned in on John, checking his bandage, saying something quiet to him. John patted her on the back.

  I tried to stop my eyebrows from shooting up—Holly seemed to
be flirting with him quite blatantly. He was old enough to be her father, but they were also both adults, so I wasn’t going to judge. “Right. You two take care and don’t fall off any more jet skis. I’m going to go watch some games and pass the time until my favorite event comes up.”

  “Oh, you’re an ultimate frisbee fan too?”

  “Ultimate frisbee? I guess that’s a thing. No, I’m talking about what comes after that.”

  “That’s the last event, Addy.”

  “I’m all about that beach barbecue, Holly. It makes burning my feet in the sand oh so worth it.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  M eat landing on a hot grill from afar was a sensual joy. There was the sizzling of the flesh, the smell of seasonings blowing into the wind, the sight of the steam rising up as well as the sheer quantity of food beautifully strewn about the massive grills.

  Greg Washington, a flamboyant and extremely capable chef, was leading a team of the ship’s cooks in flipping burgers, marinating things, adding a little bit of extra seasoning to it, among other things, all adding to the absolute scrumptiousness that was in front of me.

  On top of the obvious hot dogs and hamburgers, there were also steaks, lamb chops, chicken in various forms, sausages, and so much more. I could feel my arteries joyfully clogging just looking at all of it.

  Of course, there were veggie burgers and vegetable skewers available for vegetarians and vegans, as well as salad stations for those who wanted to keep their diet healthier.

  As a good Nebraskan girl, my mother raised me to appreciate the deliciousness of all food equally. I would be sampling a good bit of everything. Probably even the vegetarian options too, because those looked really, really good as well.

  “You okay there, Addy?” Cece waved a hand in front of my face to get my attention. “You were daydreaming looking at Greg grilling.”

  I snapped out of my delectable dream and pulled myself back to reality. I had found a table in the corner of the picnic area. Cece already made her way over to me, stuck with the unfortunate duty of cleaning up as the games happened.