A Cuppa Cruise Conundrum: A Cozy Mystery (Sweet Home Mystery Series Book 7)

by Constance Barker

  After shuffling through papers on the desk and going through a few drawers, Eli found a set of DVDs in a filing cabinet. They weren't marked so I hoped they were the ones we were looking for. I cringed at the idea we'd found the captain's stash of something unseemly.

  Did his wife suspect the affairs? One affair would be hard enough to lie about but numerous ones? How did he keep the lies straight? And where did he find the time? Being a ship’s captain would require a good portion of his time, probably more than enough to keep him from spending any length of time with one woman let alone numerous women. He was a freaking Casanova!

  Since his wife wasn’t on board I turned my thoughts to the mistresses. How many of them knew about each other? On a small ship, it would be hard to keep a secret like that as evidenced by us finding out. It obviously wasn’t a secret from some of the deckhands.

  The computer was on with the desktop showing. Maybe next time the captain would lock his screen before walking away. Of course when the computer was in your office and you locked the room when you left why would you take security precautions for your computer?

  Eli hit the button to eject the DVD tray. He popped one of the disks into it and tapped it to close the tray. The auto play feature kicked in asking if we wanted to play the video on it. Eli clicked the button and security footage splashed on screen. The video quality wasn't good especially since the deck was in shadows. It showed passengers walking by, couples holding hands, kids skipping along, crew members strolling by and greeting passengers. We fast-forwarded through hours of routine unremarkable every day stuff. When we got to the footage from around the time of the murder, Eli hit the play button again.

  On screen a teenager strolled along the deck trying to look nonchalant but succeeded in looking conspicuous. He was careful not to look at the camera and wore a hoodie style sweatshirt with the hood pulled over his head. Despite the poor quality and the inadequate light, we could still see him very deliberately drop something in the lifeboat then release the boat. With no one else on the deck at the time, he strolled back through the doors and out of the camera's view.

  "He could be any of the teenagers on board," I said.

  "Could be but I think it's someone who either works here or has been on a cruise before."

  While going through the lists of people to make sure everyone was accounted for, it didn't mention repeat passengers. The person in the video knew where the camera was and was careful to avoid looking at it.

  "So that was most likely the knife used to kill Margery but why drop it in a lifeboat?" I asked.

  "Maybe he meant to drop it overboard and missed. Then just released the boat instead. It would have been hard for him to get into the boat to retrieve the knife and then get back out again."

  "True. This way at least the murder weapon isn't on board."

  There was the possibility that the lifeboat could take on water if there was a wave. Or it could flip over. Water would splash inside possibly washing away evidence. I was pretty sure that the killer would have wiped it down anyway.

  "Now we talk to the captain," Eli said.

  I nodded and followed him out of the office.

  ***

  On the way to the bridge we popped into the pool area to find the deckhand. I'd glanced at his schedule earlier and knew he would be there checking the pool filters. We found him crouched over one of the filters in the deep end.

  "Alec, if you see Sarah could you tell her to go to the bridge as soon as possible?"

  The deckhand looked up, startled from his task of checking the chlorine level. He eyed me suspiciously then looked at Eli who nodded. Alec sighed.

  "Fine, whatever."

  There it was! As long as he told the stewardess to go to the bridge I didn't care how sullen he was.

  On our way out of the pool area I spotted my aunts with Toe and Harvey. They sat at our usual table most likely discussing the case. As Eli and I approached, Essie looked up and scooted over to make room for us.

  “We’re on our way to see the captain,” I said.

  “So the security footage gave you a clue?” Hildie said.

  “You could say that. Nothing concrete yet but a good theory,” Eli said.

  “Want to tag along? I’d like to find Jules too. I told the deckhand to give Sarah a message to report to the bridge,” I said.

  Harvey smiled. “Can’t wait to see the fireworks.”

  The four of them got up and joined Eli and me on our quest to reach the bridge.

  “I think Jules was going to window shop.”

  Great. Our path to the elevator would take us through the main area of the ship where all the shops were. If she wasn’t inside one we should be able to find her. I wanted all of us there when we confronted the captain. That was if he'd actually listened to me and took over for Patrick.

  We arrived at the elevator and Jules and Patrick were in the main lobby strolling past the shops. That meant Fredericks had taken my advice and was at the helm. We’d need Patrick to come with us just in case. I wondered if Patrick was going to buy Jules something. How serious was he about her after only a day? I watched them together and she had a smile on her face that made my cheeks hurt. I grinned. She deserved to be happy and I wouldn’t interfere unless she expressed any concerns to me. There was no harm in a shipboard romance. If she wanted to continue the relationship once we got home, I would support that too unless she needed me to talk her out of it.

  I rushed over to Jules and tapped her on the shoulder. She whirled around, the smile growing if that was even possible.

  "Is there news?" she asked.

  I filled her in on the security footage. "We're going to see the captain now. Wanna come? I'll need someone to help rile up the cruise director."

  "Count us in," she said and looked at Patrick. He nodded.

  They followed me over to the elevator where Eli was holding the doors open. He was getting disgruntled groans from a few passengers. All of us hurried into the cab and I hit the button for the bridge. I wondered if Sarah would be there already or arrive while we were talking to the captain. It would be best to wait until she arrived. I wanted to see the look on her face when we revealed what we found out.

  Walking down the corridor to the bridge I felt like we should be walking in slow motion to victory music. We flanked each other taking up the entire width of the hall. It was a good thing no one wanted to get through the corridor.

  At the bridge Patrick went first and we followed him in. The captain looked up and frowned.

  "The bridge isn't a place for civilians," he said.

  "We have news about the investigation," Eli offered.

  The captain nodded at Patrick then stepped away from the helm so the first mate could take over. Before we could get started Sarah arrived, taking in the people in the room with surprise lighting her face.

  "The bridge is a little crowded," she said.

  "They say they have news about Margery's death," the captain said.

  "Good. I'll be glad when this is over."

  "My office isn't large enough for all of us," the captain said darting accusatory looks at my aunts, Toe, Henry and Jules.

  "We can stay here," I said.

  "We found out some fascinating things about Margery," Eli said.

  "Really?" Sarah asked. "She was such a quiet person I didn't think there was anything fascinating about her."

  I turned to the captain. "Isn't it true that you were seeing Margery?"

  He waved his hand in front of my face his wedding ring glinting under the lights. "I'm a married man."

  "No one is arguing that fact," Eli said. "You didn't answer her question."

  His gaze darted out the window at the expanse of sea in front of the ship. "Of course not. I love my wife."

  Sarah gasped. Her sweet, innocent smile faded and her eyes narrowed.

  "So you knew he was seeing the chef but you're angry that he loves his wife?" I asked Sarah.

  "I didn't know he was seeing t
he chef," she denied.

  "She's a liar! She knew I was seeing Margery,” the captain said.

  "How many women were you seeing?" Sarah asked as she turned towards the captain. "I can't believe I fell for that cliché line about trouble with your wife."

  “That’s not important right now,” I said.

  “Lily is right,” Eli said. “We’re only interested in one other woman the captain was sleeping with.”

  Based on Patrick's accounts of the captain's antics he was seeing at least one more woman on board. I guessed he was seeing other women in various ports as well. I doubted he only sailed this course. The cruise line had quite a few ports of call. Of course I couldn't be sure unless I researched the ship more and it didn't really matter at this point unless more of his girlfriends were on board.

  "Sarah, you're an ambitious woman. Did you think sleeping with the captain would further your career?"

  "Now you're accusing me of seeing the captain?"

  "A little bird told us you cheated on Alec. With the captain."

  "Of course he would tell you that to cover for his own infidelities."

  "Now you're denying stepping out on that little hooligan?" the captain asked.

  “So you were seeing Sarah?” I asked.

  In a ‘he said, she said situation’ the person who fared better was the one who came clean first. I watched the captain think the situation through. He didn't have a lot of options right now. Dropping the bombshell about the knife would force one of them to rat out the other.

  “Not saying yes, not saying no.” The captain’s authoritative demeanor faded in front of my eyes.

  “Should we tell them what else we found?” I asked Eli.

  "We recovered the knife used to kill the chef," Eli said.

  The captain coughed and shuffled his feet. "Really? Kudos to you finding it. No easy feat even on a small ship."

  "With a little bit of powder and a makeup brush we should be able to detect prints on it. Eli will run them through a handy app on his phone."

  The captain coughed. “You have an app on your phone that detects fingerprints?”

  Eli took his phone out of his pocket and waved it in front of the captain. “Yes sir. Technology keeps growing by leaps and bounds.”

  The captain hung his head. “I’m afraid I did it.”

  Sarah gasped again and shot daggers at him with narrowed eyes.

  "Shut up, Fredericks."

  "I used the knife but Sarah convinced me to. Margery threatened to tell my wife about the affairs if I didn't dump Sarah."

  "You were being blackmailed to dump one mistress by another mistress? Good grief,” I said shaking my head.

  Sarah clenched her hands at her sides. "You said you loved me. You were supposed to leave your wife and stop seeing Margery!"

  While at the helm Patrick had dialed security so two guards stood at the entrance to the bridge. All doors in and out were covered so Nate and Sarah had nowhere to go. If Sarah lunged for the captain the rest of us could easily slip out of the way to make room for the guards.

  "You saw an opportunity with Toe on board didn't you?" I asked Sarah.

  The captain nodded. "She thought it would be easy to frame him. She talked me into killing Margery. She even told me what knife would be the best one. It wasn't my idea."

  "But you didn't say no," I said.

  Chapter Ten

  After a good night's sleep and a leisurely morning I sat in one of the lounge chairs by the pool with my family and friends eating lunch. We’d pulled two tables together so we could all sit comfortably without knocking someone’s fork out of their hand while we ate. Now that the killers were in the ship's brig, the rest of the cruise could proceed as normal. Most of the passengers still had no idea what had gone on, at least as far as we knew. The kitchen staff were taking over for Margery and doing a great job so far.

  When we started the investigation I thought that I'd never get a good night's sleep on the cruise. The idea of getting a good night's sleep and a whole lot of relaxing seemed foreign the moment we saw Margery's body slumped against Toe's door.

  My stomach grumbled and my mouth watered at the lunch sitting in front of me. Even though I'd had a decent breakfast, I felt my whole schedule was out of whack. I popped a French fry into my mouth and savored the taste. I had no idea what coating the new chef had used but I would crave these fries for months after the cruise if I didn't find out.

  "Felt so good to sleep without a care in the world for a change," Essie said.

  Everyone nodded.

  "My bed was so comfortable I could have stayed there all day," Jules said.

  I spotted Patrick approaching from the other side of the pool. I didn't have to look at Jules to know she'd spotted him too. The second he stepped onto the deck she straightened, fluffed her hair, and pinned a smile on her face. I'd never seen her fluff her hair for a guy before. She must really like him. I took in his face as he walked toward her. The smile on his face reached his eyes. I hoped he wasn't like some of the other crewmembers on board and would stick to one woman at a time.

  "Tonight is supposed to be the party," Jules said.

  I took a sip of my coffee. "I don't think we should go ahead with it." As much as I was looking forward to dancing the night away with my friends, and seeing Eli's face when I showed up in my new dress, I didn't think it was a good idea after the woman who put it together had been murdered.

  "Hey, Jules," Patrick said. He kissed her cheek lightly. He pulled out one of the empty chairs and focused on me. "You should have the party, Lily. I've rearranged it for tomorrow to give everyone a chance to rest up. Margery would want you to have it."

  I put my fork down and thought about it for a minute. Most of the Sweet Home people didn’t know what was going on and would wonder why the party had been cancelled. I didn't want to get into it, rehashing everything now that the crime and the investigation was behind us.

  "What do you think, Lily?" Eli asked.

  "We could still have it I guess." I turned to Patrick. "You really think she'd want us to have it?"

  "I know she would. No matter what kind of person she was in her personal life, she prided herself on doing an excellent job at work."

  "Okay then. Party tomorrow."

  Patrick stood and pushed his chair back in. He kissed Jules' cheek again. I watched her hand actually twitch as she fought not to cup her face with her palm where his lips had just been. She had it bad. Had I been like this when Eli and I started dating?

  "See you tonight at the show."

  She blushed and nodded. When he disappeared through the door leading out of the pool deck she looked at me.

  "You have a date?"

  "Maybe. Okay, yes." She shimmied in her chair and giggled. “The ship has a magician as entertainer. We’re going to the show. Patrick is going to introduce me to the magician. Then maybe drinks and dancing afterward.”

  If she’d been standing she would have twirled around the room with visions of Cinderella in her head. It was nice to see her so happy.

  I loved teasing her but I refrained for the moment. "I hope you have a good time."

  "That's all you have to say?" Essie said. "I think some teasing is in order."

  With the cheating motif still fresh in everyone's minds I didn't want to go there. Jules deserved to be happy and I didn't want to rain on her parade. She was a big girl and could take care of herself. If she was having doubts she would come to me and ask for advice. Until then, I would keep my mouth shut about the actual relationship for now.

  "Teasing will come later when she brings him to the party," I said. "You are bringing him aren't you? We must grill him."

  "No grilling!" Jules said.

  I laughed. "Not promising anything."

  "Promise me you won't be too hard on him," Jules pleaded.

  "Promise. He likes you so he's already tops in my book."

  I watched the rest of the group waiting for them to say something but they al
l just grinned. Eli wolfed down his burger and fries like he hadn't eaten in days. And he kind of hadn't. The seasickness was gone now and he was savoring being able to eat again without feeling queasy. After finishing his fries, he chomped on the dill pickle on the side of his plate. I ate a few more fries then pushed my plate away. He raised an eyebrow at me and I nodded. He dug into the fries I'd left behind.