Cruise Chaos: A Humorous Cruise Ship Cozy Mystery (Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries Book 3)

by A. R. Winters

  The box shouted at me open me, open me. Not in words, you understand, but in its action. Or its lack of action. Its attitude. There’s nothing more annoying than an unopened box when you don’t know what’s inside.

  Before I could stop myself, my hand had sneaked into the bag and withdrew the small wooden box. Surprised at myself, I held it in the palm of my hand and stared at it.

  It was a dark wood, and looked old. There was a small brass latch on the front that looked like it wanted to be opened. I obliged it.

  When the clasp was undone, I gently opened the box.

  “What the heck?” I said to myself under my breath.

  I stared at the contents of the box, almost disbelieving what I was seeing.

  I twisted it around in the air, so that I could examine it from all sides.

  Nope.

  I wasn’t mistaken.

  I was definitely seeing what I was seeing.

  But it didn’t make any sense.

  There, laid out in a little velvet holder inside the box, was a gold ring with a small but beautiful diamond.

  The question was: what was Ethan doing with a gold ring on his desk?

  It couldn’t, couldn’t be for me. We’d barely dated.

  It had to be for someone else.

  Trying and failing not to be disappointed, annoyed, or upset, I closed the box, put it back in the bag, scrunched up the top of it again, and then angrily slumped into one of the sofas to wait for his return.

  “First Officer Hot Stuff? More like First Officer Playboy,” I muttered sullenly under my breath.

  Chapter 24

  I sat there stewing while I waited for Ethan to return.

  I wasn’t going to ask him about the ring. Of course I wasn’t. I shouldn’t have looked at the bag on the desk anyway; it was none of my business.

  Maybe he’d found it.

  Maybe it was lost property.

  Maybe he had a girl in every port.

  I punched my knee in annoyance, which achieved almost nothing.

  “Ow,” I muttered to myself.

  The door to the office flew open sending a gust of air across the room. The heavy door swung back and thumped into the rubber stoppers on the wall behind it.

  “Adrienne,” said Ethan urgently as he walked in quickly, a serious look on his face.

  “What?” I asked, doing my best not to narrow my eyes at him.

  “Harley’s gone missing. Edward says they were together on the way to the diner scene, but then she stopped and went to do something. He can’t remember seeing her since. Did you see her in the diner?”

  “I’m sorry. I don’t remember. I didn’t really get a good handle on who all was there. I wasn’t feeling well. She’s really missing?”

  “Edward certainly seems to think so. He was looking for me to tell me when I ran into him in the conference suite.”

  “She’s definitely not in the diner?”

  “Nope. It’s cleared out. Housekeeping are in the diner and the lounge now, cleaning. Harley isn’t there, and she isn’t in her room, and she’s not answering her phone. Edward says she always answers her phone. A hundred percent of the time.”

  Sounded to me like he was doing a good job of pretending to be concerned. It wasn’t the time to make accusations though. We needed to find her.

  I stood up from the sofa, thinking fast.

  “We need to get all the mystery guests together. See if any of them know where she’s gone.”

  “How?” said Ethan with a frown.

  I gave him a small smile. “I can do that. I can send a group message to all the participants’ phones and emails. We’ll get them to all meet in the lounge.”

  He shook his head. “Housekeeping.”

  “Then...” I thought quickly. The only other space we had outside the conference suite was the pool deck. “We’ll get them all to come back to the pool deck. Can you get the floodlights turned on there?”

  Ethan nodded. “Good thinking. You send out the messages—I’ll make sure the lights are turned on and talk to them as they arrive. See you there when you’re ready.”

  Ethan left before me while I tapped away on my phone, quickly sending out messages to everyone. When I was done, I hurried out of the office, without even giving the plastic bag containing the ring a second glance. That had been shoved to the back of my mind for now. There would be time enough to figure that whole mess out later.

  Now I had to either save Harley’s life, or possibly get her arrested for murder.

  When I got to the pool deck, there was nervous chatter going on amongst the passengers. I’d been worried they would think it was another scene for our mystery, but the fact that Ethan had been speaking to them had persuaded them that this was no drill. We really were missing someone.

  I looked around for familiar faces, pleased to see Cece and Samantha had abandoned their dinner plans to join in. I hurried over to them.

  “Any sign of Harley?” I asked them.

  “Nope,” said Cece with a single shake of her head. “No one’s seen her.”

  “She’s just disappeared,” said Samantha.

  “Keep asking around. Let’s try and speak to everyone. Someone must have seen her since Edward saw her last.”

  Unless of course Edward was the last person to see her because he killed her. We were all thinking it, but we wouldn’t say it. Not yet. Not until other possibilities had been exhausted.

  I spotted Mary Mead, the beginner writer, looking around as if confused.

  We didn’t even bother to exchange greetings, but just got straight down to business.

  “I can’t understand it,” said Mary with slumped shoulders and sad eyes. “We were supposed to meet for coffee at the Boulevard Café after the diner scene was over. But she didn’t show.”

  So Harley had plans. That was at least a little bit more information.

  “When was the last time you saw her?”

  “It was after the housekeeper scene. We were chatting, and she said she was going to give me all of the details of Edward’s agent. She was going to give me some tips on how to approach him. But she never showed up.”

  “Did you see her between the scene with the maid and now?”

  “No, I didn’t. I don’t know where she’s got to. I’ll keep looking.”

  I patted her on the shoulder and sent her on her way. As a first-time author, she’d no doubt been excited to get the chance of an introduction to a top literary agent, but now she looked like she’d been stood up for a date.

  Ethan and Edward were around the other side of the pool. They both looked far too pale underneath the bright white floodlights that lit the area. It was usually closed off and dark at night, and with this lighting I could see why.

  I made my way around and hovered nearby, listening but not participating yet. If there was a good opportunity, I’d jump in.

  “...after the unfortunate incident earlier, with the girl who was supposed to be running it all, she was quite out of sorts.” Edward was speaking in a low, almost dispassionate voice. I dug my fingernails into my palms while I concentrated on listening. Was he dispassionate because he didn’t care about her? Or was that just the way he was?

  “And she didn’t say anything about going anywhere?” asked Ethan.

  Edward shook his head. “No. She was just popping back to the room to get something. I don’t know what. Maybe her notebook that she’d been writing clues in. Something like that.”

  “And she never showed up to the diner?”

  He shook his head. “No, she never did.”

  I stared at Edward. There was something wrong. Not in the way he was speaking, but in the way he looked. It took me a moment to put my finger on just what it was. When I finally realized what it was, I let out an “Oh!” in realization.

  Ethan and Edward turned to look at me, both just now realizing that I had sidled up to them.

  “Nothing yet?” I asked them.

  “No,” said Ethan, giving me
a questioning look.

  I shook my head and hurried away.

  The thing that had caught my attention about Edward was that he didn’t have his cane. He always had his brass-handled cane with him. But not this time. What did it mean?

  Walking around the pool, I almost bumped into Greg, who thankfully was no longer wearing his diner chef uniform. The last thing I needed was another panic attack.

  Instead of the chef’s outfit, he was dressed in some orange jeans and a white flannel button-up shirt with a gold chain around his neck. There was no time for formalities, so I just jumped right in.

  “When was the last time you saw her? Did you see her in the diner at all?”

  Greg shook his head. “Nope. I saw her just before though. I popped back to my room before I did my scene, and she was walking away from the diner then.”

  “Where was she going?”

  He put his palms face up. “I don’t know. You know me. I don’t go out of my way to talk to the guests.” He paused as if in thought. “Not the annoying ones, anyway.”

  “Thanks anyway. Edward says she was going back to her room to get her notebook or something. I guess that was when you saw her.”

  “Yeah. What about forming some search parties? It’s pretty dark down here. Maybe something happened to her and she’s unconscious somewhere.”

  I nodded uncertainly. What could happen to a young woman to leave her unconscious? Then I remembered my own panic attack earlier. While it hadn’t knocked me unconscious, it had certainly disabled me for a while. If it hadn’t been for Sam talking me through it, how much worse could it have gotten?

  “Okay, good idea. I’ll tell Ethan.”

  Before I could look for the first officer, a familiar voice greeted me.

  “Hi, Adrienne! It looks like everything’s going great!”

  Kelly Cline the cruise director was walking and talking at the same time as she approached, with one hand raised in a wave and a beaming smile on her face.

  I shook my head at Kelly.

  “No, it’s not. One—”

  She raised her right index finger to her lips.

  “I can see a successful event when I see one. You’ve really got these guests worrying! It’s like they forgot all about the thing this morning.”

  “Kelly,” I said, firmly. “One of our guests is missing.”

  She rubbed her hands together in a rapid motion like she was warming them on a cold day. “Awesome! It sounds really exciting. Can I join in?”

  Grabbing her shoulders, I looked down into her eyes. “This isn’t part of the event.” I wanted to shake her but settled for just a tight shoulder-squeeze. “One of our guests is really missing, and I’m worried about her. We’ve got to search for her!”

  I could see Kelly processing what I’d said. First, she was about to congratulate me again on such an exciting event, but then before she could, her face scrunched up in thought. Finally, her eyebrows shot up and her jaw dropped open.

  “Do you mean—”

  “Yes,” I said with a nod. “This is bad, not good. I’ve got to speak to Ethan Lee now.”

  “Oh, shoot,” said Kelly to herself as I left her, shaking her head and frowning in consternation.

  The first officer had finished talking to Edward Dane and was walking toward me at the same time as I was approaching him.

  “Adrienne. I want them to make groups and search the outside decks. Tell them to look in every shadow, behind every planter, under every pile of pool noodles.”

  That’s what I was going to say! But I couldn’t tell him that now, I’d look ridiculous.

  “Okay, on it. Anything else?”

  He shook his head. “I’m getting the spotlights turned on. You know. Just in case.”

  I nodded with a grimace. The spotlights would go out over the ocean to the sides of the ship and in our wake, looking for people—or bodies—in the water. Of course the diner scene had started over an hour prior, so even if Harley had ended up in the sea, there was little chance of spotting her now. Not that I would say that.

  As I clambered up onto a sun lounger, I wondered idly how many times I’d repeated that action. Perhaps I should tell Swan to get some kind of platform, stage or podium set up, I pondered. Or maybe I should climb up into the lifeguard’s high chair next time.

  “Everyone! Can I have your attention please! We’d like you to form pairs or small groups, and begin to search…”

  After I’d explained what had to be done, there was a murmuring of agreement from everyone, and they swiftly began to disperse around the ship. Worryingly, they seemed just as excited about this as they did the murder-mystery. It was like it was all a game to some of them.

  Walking over to the nearest railing, I peered out into the ocean. During the day, the water was a brilliant azure blue, but at night, it was black as tar and looked as chilling as it must feel.

  Even when the spotlights shot out over the water, all they did was highlight the inconceivable vastness of the ocean. No one could survive out there.

  I was still staring out to sea five minutes later when the cries began to ring out.

  “Here! Over here!”

  “We’ve found someone!”

  My stomach dropped with the next cry.

  “Oh my goodness! She’s dead!

  Chapter 25

  When I arrived at the source of the screaming, there were half a dozen people gathered around a large planter, similar to the one Shaun Anderson had been hiding behind earlier. That seemed so long ago now.

  “She’s not dead,” said an exasperated voice. It took me a moment to place it, then I realized it was Oliver McGinty the bookseller. “She’s been hit on the head, but she’s breathing.”

  With only a modicum of relief, I pushed my way through to the front. There, on the deck was Harley Dane. A low moan emanated from her mouth, confirming for me that not only was she alive, but she was waking up.

  “Don’t move her!” I looked over my shoulder to see Dr. Ryan Wilson, the handsome young ship’s doctor. “Let me examine her!”

  I moved out of the way and helped clear some room for the doctor.

  “Move that planter back!” I said loudly.

  Oliver McGinty and Ethan grabbed the far side of it, dragging it away from Harley and the doctor to make some more room.

  With a loud scraping noise that incongruously made me worry for the surface of the deck, the planter containing a small tree and several fragrant bushes was moved four feet back.

  Something caught my eye.

  While the doctor focused on Harley, I stared at something that had been revealed by the moving of the planter. Something that had been underneath it.

  “Look,” I said, nudging Ethan.

  He took his eyes off of Harley for a moment to examine what I was pointing out.

  “Is that...?”

  Trying not to disturb Dr. Ryan, I skirted around him and stared down at the deck.

  “Yep,” I said to Ethan. “It is. It’s Edward Dane’s cane. And the head of it is bloody.”

  Looking up, I scanned the crowd. Edward was by the front, hovering over the doctor. He stared at me with wild eyes.

  “No!” he shouted. With a panicked look, his head turned left and right as if looking for an escape route.

  But he was too slow.

  “Grab him!” I shouted.

  Ethan took him by the arm. “Mr. Dane? I’d like to have a word with you once the doctor has finished helping your wife.”

  “But... I...” Edward looked around. Everyone was staring at him. He slowly closed his mouth. He didn’t want to speak in front of the crowd.

  “She’s got a nasty head wound, but her breathing is stable,” said Dr. Ryan. He stood up from his crouch. “Could I get some help moving her to sickbay?”

  Shaun Anderson stepped forward. “I’ll help, sir.”

  First Harley was carried away, and then Ethan and Edward left together. Ethan hadn’t handcuffed him, but I supposed there wasn�
�t far that he could run to on a ship like ours anyway.

  I leaned back against the wall of the ship, exhausted. I felt someone nudging my side.

  “Come on,” said Samantha. “Let’s get out of here.”

  Sam stood up straight, and addressed the throng of guests. “You should all go back inside the ship and try and enjoy the rest of your evening. We’ll see you in the lounge tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. sharp. Goodnight everyone!”

  Ignoring the questions and chatter, I let Sam lead me inside.

  What a day.

  I woke up late the next morning, the panic attack and everything else seeming to have taken quite a toll on me.

  “Addy! Addy! Wake up. Time to go to work!”

  Thanks to Sam I wasn’t late, but it meant I didn’t have a chance to speak to Ethan about what he had learned from Edward Dane, or check on the status of Harley.

  Sam had let me sleep in, so I completely missed breakfast, just as I had dinner the night before.

  The dinner date Ethan and I were supposed to have hadn’t happened. He’d sent me an apologetic text message. Of course I hadn’t been surprised; in fact, I’d already put on my pajamas by the time it arrived. I zonked out a few minutes after acknowledging his message and I’d been dead to the world ever since.

  With my head feeling like my brain had been half replaced with cotton wool, and feeling like I’d slept for a month instead of a mere nine hours, I made it to the lounge in the conference suite with barely a minute to spare before we were supposed to begin.

  Thankfully, Greg was there with a food cart, upon which, in pride of place in the center, was a giant urn of coffee. I grabbed what would no doubt be the first of many cups and then pulled out my schedule to check what it was we were supposed to be doing.

  Sam was there with me, but Cece wasn’t. She was doing her ‘real’ job, working for housekeeping.

  “Everyone?” I had to force myself to speak loud enough to get the attention of our guests. “This morning is an important part of our event. You’re going to get the chance to trade clues with other guests, and check your progress. You should find some instructions in your envelopes. Good luck.”