Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 11 - Cruise Control

by A. R. Winters

  Cece, though, stood up and stared at her intern with harsh judgment. “Are you sure? Did you double-check? Triple-check? Quadruple check? Quintuple-check?”

  “I did.”

  “Mopped the bathrooms? Vacuumed the carpets? Changed the sheets? Made towel ducks?”

  “Are the towel ducks necessary?”

  “Absolutely. Go back and do the ducks now.”

  He nodded. “I did do the ducks. I was wondering if they were necessary.”

  This poor boy was getting micromanaged to oblivion, yet he stood there, his expression neutral and not questioning why he had to do everything as Cece sat up here sipping a fruity drink.

  Sam didn’t have the same perspective as I did though. “Brock, blink twice if you need rescuing from this abusive relationship.”

  “This what?” He cocked his head.

  “Never mind then. If you enjoy all this, who am I to get involved?”

  Brock nodded and smiled. “Cleaning is very zen to me. I find some place all messy, put my mind to it, and it comes out refreshed, renewed, and ready to face its next challenge in life.”

  “You know what they say, Sam,” I added between drink sips. “Find something you love doing and you’ll never work a day in your life.”

  “See?” Cece said, hands on her hips. “I’m doing him a favor. I’m like, Mother Theresa or someone like that.”

  “I don’t know how you manage to be so selfless, Cece. It’s amazing.”

  Cece picked up her drink and finished it in one gulp. “Brock, my good man, why don’t you clean our glasses by topping them off with fresh refills?”

  The big man shrugged. “Yes, Ms. Blake. I don’t understand why this ship expects it of the housekeepers, but I’ll get right on it.”

  Brock scooped up our glasses and headed down into the ship to find the bar and claim our next drinks for us.

  Cece collapsed back onto the pool chair. “Intern managed. All right. How goes the extra work asked of you, Addy? You ready to dramatically point your finger at anyone yet?”

  “I wish,” I said. “Every time I get a lead, it seems to go nowhere. It’s down to only a handful of people who could have done it, but I started with two handfuls so it isn’t that much of a narrowing.”

  “A fifty percent reduction of potential suspects.” Sam pointed out.

  “I was thinking it was the person who convinced Vernon to have the cameras turned off, but apparently that was Ivan and, well, Ivan is dead.”

  “So much for that. I don’t know. Look at who benefits?”

  “That’s the first thing I investigated, and it doesn’t help narrow it down. Everyone benefits from Vernon dying. He was the dam in the river that was stopping a massive influx of cash to everyone in the company. If greed was the only motive, then they were all equally guilty.

  Sam bounced her head on the chair. “So no leads at all?”

  “Probably a woman? Didn’t do the super obvious thing of tossing the body into the water below? Or wanted to make us think it was a woman?”

  “Or maybe they’re just stupid,” Cece added.

  “Yes. Or that. There’s some personal stuff too. Unrequited love, ambitions, hopes for failure, but nothing that does anything beyond give them even more motive for wanting Vernon to buy the farm.”

  Cece stared at me, her befuddlement clear. “Buy the farm?”

  “It’s a thing we say. In Nebraska, anyway.”

  “Where does buying a farm come into all of this? Isn’t Vernon rich enough to, like, buy a bunch of farms?”

  Sam rubbed her temples as Cece ranted. “It means Vernon is dead, Cece. Buying the farm is a euphemism for death.”

  “It is? That’s a weird saying. What next? You’re going to tell me kicking a box is one too?”

  “Actually…”

  Sam threw up her hand. “Uh, let’s not.”

  “You’re no fun.”

  Brock returned, tray in hand, carrying our drinks like a good housekeeper does. Because Cece had convinced him that this was part of his duties.

  “Uh, Ms. Blake, I have your drinks here, but, um…”

  He handed out the beverages. Cece looked cross with him. “What did you do, Brock?”

  “Remember how you said I should avoid walking in on passengers?”

  “Generally, yes?”

  “Does that apply if they’re doing a private thing in public?”

  Cece again cocked an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

  “That Sebastian guy from the barbecue was making out with Monica Butterhat. I apologized, but they yelled at me anyway. Ms. Butterhat always yells at me when she sees me.”

  Well, that was just rude of Monica.

  “Brock,” Cece said, her tone softening, “as a housekeeper, your only duty is to knock before entering. If someone is doing some PDA, that’s not on you.”

  “PDA?”

  “Public display of affection. So yes, this time, you did nothing wrong.”

  Brock bowed slightly. “Thank you, Ms. Blake.”

  “Don’t you dare get complacent, though. I’m still watching you.” She did the ‘watching you’ gesture at him.

  “Yes, Ms. Blake.”

  Sebastian having a thing with Monica was news to me. It seemed like high school gossip, but it was making some gears turn in my head.

  “Where are you going, Addy?” Sam said as I got up off the chair.

  “I need to take a quick walk to clear my head, then I’m due for dinner with Ethan.”

  She sighed. “I wish I had a hot guy to eat dinner with. Preferably one skilled in water aerobics.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  T he buffet’s food was plentiful and delicious. You’d think I’d be bored of all that food by now—but no, I wasn’t! And tonight, I decided the food had the potential for experimentation. I had created what I was tentatively calling ‘The Ark.’

  Lo mein topped with two spoonfuls of diced steak, chicken, pork, turkey, salmon, and fried shrimp. Every animal that was available at the buffet this time. All of it was well mixed to get everything nice and saucy.

  “That’s… that’s a lot of food, Addy,” Ethan said as I sat down, my plate a towering mess of meat and noodles.

  “Yeah. My imagination got the best of me.” I looked at him, and he didn’t have a plate made yet. “Wanna share?”

  “I’m being recruited for another culinary adventure, huh?”

  “There are starving children out there. I would hate for us to have to throw away food.”

  He popped up, grabbed another clean plate, and I dumped some of my monstrosity onto his dish.

  The buffet was never the most romantic of places to have a dinner date with Ethan, but seeing him experience this weird combination of food along with me was enough for me. Not everything needed to be candlelight and roses to be a lovely, memorable night.

  Although don’t get me wrong, candlelight dinners and roses were definitely nice.

  “So, I found out a weird bit of information today,” I said, twisting my lo mein onto my fork and taking a bite. It was… good. The sum was less than its parts, but it was more than still edible.

  Ethan was taking a more conservative approach, eating the bits and pieces out of the lo mein before taking in the noodles wholly. “Oh? How interesting are we talking about?”

  “So it’s third-hand information because I only heard it from Cece’s intern, but supposedly Sebastian and Monica are a thing.”

  “Romantically?”

  I nodded. “He caught them in a most definitely romantic embrace.”

  “Really?” Ethan stopped eating to focus on his thoughts. “Here I was, thinking Monica and Vernon were an item with their whole new age thing.”

  “Nope. From what I understand, Vernon didn’t do romance, as much as it annoyed the two lady LightningBlossom execs.”

  “Odd, but sure. Makes Monica’s switch from Vernon to Sebastian feel weird.”

  “Not so much if you think she’s chasing somet
hing they both share. Money. Power.”

  Ethan nodded as he slurped another bunch of noodles. “How do you think this relates to the murder then? Sebastian wasn’t even on the ship when it happened. I haven’t considered him as a suspect since he had a watertight alibi.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe Monica is an attack dog for him? We usually focus on one killer, but if Sebastian conspired with Monica, he’s just as guilty even if Monica was the hatchet man. Er, hatchet woman.”

  “Possible.”

  “Still feels off to me. Partially because Kayleigh is kind of a jerk and I don’t want to just accept that she’s right about something.”

  “Blaming Monica?”

  “It feels like she’d blame Monica for an unexpected rainstorm, or for her coffee not being the perfect temperature.”

  “Even jerks can have broken clock moments, Addy.”

  “Well, yeah. It doesn’t mean I have to particularly like that fact, though.”

  The scarfing of food continued, and soon we both cleaned our plates. “What did you think?” I said, looking at his clean plate outside a stray piece of pork.

  “I’m glad I don’t have to worry about protein for about two weeks now, I’ll say that much.”

  “Excuse me for not caring about balancing macros in my wild imagination.”

  We disposed of our plates at the proper place and headed toward the buffet’s door, only for Ethan to stop me. “Well, speak of the devil.”

  He pointed over to the other side of the room and sitting at a table were Sebastian and Monica, across from one another, chatting away.

  “Let’s be fair, Ethan. You should use a plural. They’re both devils.”

  “What do you say we go over and say hello? A little couple-to-couple talk?”

  “Sounds productive. Let’s go.”

  Hand in hand, putting on our best gee-golly couple look we approached them.

  They both looked very much surprised when we came into their presence.

  “Hello there,” I said brightly. “I didn’t realize that you two were together.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  “Excuse me?” Monica said, her voice rising. “We’re not a couple. It’s rude of you to assume that.”

  “Pardon. I saw you two eating a meal together.”

  Ethan grabbed two chairs for us and pushed them up to their table, us invading their conversation and giving them no opportunity to refuse.

  I went on. “It seemed like the natural thing. You two sure look like you could be a couple.”

  “Perish the thought,” Sebastian said, glaring at us. They didn’t like what we were doing but also weren’t rude enough to up and leave as we arrived. The arms race of politeness. It was a game I was all too familiar with. “Monica and I were discussing the future of the company, and how we want to shape its future.”

  “I’m so disappointed in you, Adrienne,” Monica said, wiping her face with the napkin and standing up. “As a working woman, you more than anyone should know the challenges we face, and how quick people are to accuse us and assume that we are schmoozing our way to the top instead of putting in the hard work.”

  “Well, sorry,” I apologized. “I didn’t mean to be rude. We just thought you’d like to chat with another couple. Everyone on these cruises is usually single and looking to hook up, so a conversation free of that can be a good change of pace.”

  “There is no coupling going on here,” Sebastian said, following Monica’s lead. “We were simply enjoying a meal together as we discussed business. And your rudeness has ruined my appetite, thank you very much.”

  “We’ll talk about business later, Sebastian,” Monica said, clearing her throat and looking to end the conversation as swiftly as possible. “Where we won’t be rudely interrupted. I should have a word with your supervisor.”

  Each of them stormed off, in separate directions, as if desperately trying to make a point.

  “Well, that went over as well as a sack of bricks,” Ethan said, leaning on the table and seeing the partially eaten food that was left behind.

  The rest of the people at the buffet were looking our way. My rudeness was on open display, the girl who ran off their bosses for no apparent reason.

  I flashed a guilty smile and tried not to pay attention to them. If I did that too much, no one would want to talk to me.

  That would make finding the truth even harder.

  “Here I was, thinking we’d be able to guilt trip them into talking for a bit. Maybe get something useful. I guess I can’t expect Midwestern manners out of the technical elite.”

  “I don’t know,” Ethan said. “It says something that took off so quickly. It screams they have something to hide, something they really don’t want us to know about.”

  Brock didn’t lie to Sam, Cece, and me when he said he saw them making out. He had absolutely no reason to, and he actually thought he would get in trouble for seeing it.

  I pondered justifications that made sense. If there was an edict that prevented dating within the company, Monica and Sebastian would be high-ranking and important enough to not have to obey the rule if they didn’t want to.

  Ambition. The word echoed in my mind in Ivan’s voice. About how the woman was more than about money, that she was about power. She was in Vernon’s ear to get promoted to an executive position from a masseuse, and now she was right in Sebastian’s ear, him being the new ultimate power of LightningBlossom.

  Ivan said she wanted to be a billionaire power broker, and being the head of a soon-to-be booming tech company was as effective a way of reaching that level as anything else.

  I jumped to my feet, Ethan reaching for my hand. “Where are you going?”

  “Monica. I need to talk to her.”

  “Don’t you run off alone. You know what we discussed.”

  “I think I need to be alone for this. I’ll try and talk to her woman-to-woman, to see if she’ll open up to that.”

  “Just like the couple to couple talk worked out for us, Addy.”

  I looked at Ethan sternly. “Trust me. I have a feeling.”

  With a deep breath, he let go of my hand and let me chase after. Knowing him, he wouldn’t be too far behind in case I needed him.

  “Monica! Monica! Wait up!” I yelled as I sprinted behind her. She didn’t gain that much ground from the buffet over me, but she wasn’t stopping either, still marching along the decks of the ship.

  “Haven’t you bothered me enough? Aren’t you supposed to be caring for my comfort, anyway? You’re doing a poor job of it right now.”

  I was walking with her, matching her pace.

  There were still lots of people around, people who would remember if I made a fool of myself again. I had to take a risk though, regardless of how badly I’d damage my reputation. I was on the brink of something major.

  “Are you sure you want to continue to deny you being with Sebastian? I have it from a really good source that the two of you are together, and besides…”

  “Besides what?” She stopped, her eyes meeting mine, clearly trying to intimidate me.

  “If you admit your relationship with Sebastian, you can start trying to shift the blame.”

  She threw her hands up. “What blame? What are you even talking about? I really am going to talk to your manager about this.”

  “Well, uh, the whole thing where you’re the one who killed Vernon Nunn.”

  Her mouth dropped agape, and she stopped dead in her tracks.

  “I mean, it clearly was all Sebastian’s plan, right?”

  She shook her head, scoffing at me, and started walking again. “You have nothing. If you’re going to be spreading such ludicrous lies, Swan won’t keep paying you for much longer.”

  I kept up with her. “Well, I don’t know for sure right now, but…”

  “So you’re just throwing them out baselessly on top of it? Ridiculous!”

  I needed a bluff. A gamble. I wasn’t a fan of lying, but I had already played my hand
. I had to ride it out and hope I didn’t lose. “Oh, not baseless. It’s only my guess on everything that’s happened. We’ll know for sure soon enough.”

  “And you’re expecting to know how? Going to call the psychic hotline?”

  “Oh, no. The cameras will tell us.”

  She stopped again. “The cameras are off, idiot. They’ve been off the whole trip.”

  “Well…” I smirked, putting on my best acting performance. “They’re not fully online, yes, but I wouldn’t say that they were off.”

  She glared. “What do you mean they weren’t off?”

  “Swan was willing to make concessions for Vernon, but at the same time, it didn’t want to get in trouble for violating safety standards. So the security cameras were simply unattached to the ship’s network. They’re still recording. Each of them has a memory card inside them.”

  A bald-faced lie, at least as far as I knew. I assumed the cameras were magic, and I didn’t have any clue how they actually worked.

  She took a step back from me, her complexion going pale. “The cameras were supposed to be off. That was one of our late CEO’s very clear demands. If they weren’t, you’ll be hearing from LightningBlossom’s lawyers.”

  “Maybe, but I’m not the one in charge of Swan’s legal department. I’m here to tell you that right now the ship’s security is manually reviewing the footage saved in the cameras in the VIP area. They’re good enough cameras that they should be able to spot everyone who went into Vernon's room from midnight to when Holly discovered him.”

  Another blatant lie. I was pretty sure our cameras were mediocre, and from what I’d seen the few times I was in the security room, the most you could see were vague details like build, skin and hair color, and a few other broad details. Nothing foolproof.

  Blatant as it was, it was working. She couldn’t keep a stone-cold face about all of this.

  Having encountered too many murderers in my life, I knew when someone was caught dead to rights.

  “So what’s going to happen,” I continued, increasingly gaining more confidence, “is that the video is going to show you going into Vernon’s room, then you leaving. And all the suspicion will be squarely on you, the woman with a strong motive for wanting to be rid of poor Vernon, if only for your boyfriend.”