Killer Cruise

by A. R. Winters

  She shook her head. “Not so far.”

  “Cece, I found out who it was that broke into my room.”

  “Do we know them?”

  “Yep,” I said with a tight smile. Cece was looking at me expectantly. “It was Sylvia.”

  “Sylvia? She broke into your room with her keycard?”

  “Yeah.”

  Cece seemed to be thinking, and she raised her hand to her mouth to bite nervously at a nail. She soon spit it out when she got a taste of the rubber cleaning glove. She shook her head in surprise and wiped her mouth on her cleaning apron.

  “Do you know where I can find her? She should be finished with a tour pretty soon. Where does she hang out?”

  “You want to find her? Is that wise? She may be the killer, Adrienne. Dangerous.”

  I shrugged. “Yeah, well, I’m dangerous too.”

  She raised a corner of her mouth in an amused smirk. “Okay, hon, if you say so.” She put her hand on her hip. “She’ll be in the gym. The staff gym near the mess. That’s where she spends her free mornings. Want me to come with?”

  I shook my head. “Nah, I’m just going to have a chat with her. We don’t want to intimidate her.”

  “Watch out for flying brass lamps.”

  I laughed. “Yeah. If she’s on the treadmill holding several pounds of solid brass, I’ll be sure to stand back.”

  “You do that. Good luck, Adrienne.”

  “Thanks. Oh, and if you see the first officer, tell him I was heading to the lagoon pool. The big one.”

  “Ha. Will do. You don’t want to go on a gym date with Hot Stuff?”

  I shook my head “Annoying Stuff, more like. That’s what we should call him. He’s forbidden me from talking to Sylvia.”

  Cece appraised me anew. “Ooh, a rule breaker. What a rebel.” After a brief pause and a head nod, she said, “I like it.”

  After leaving Cece to get back to work, I hurried as quickly as I could toward the nearest service elevator to get down to the crew living and recreation section where the gym was located. Although I hadn’t actually used the gym facilities myself—tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow—I did know its general location.

  “Excuse me? Excuse me?”

  Hiding my frustration, I put on a smile for whoever it was interrupting me. I’d almost made it to the elevator.

  It was a mother and young daughter, and a flash of familiarity came over me. They’d been in the doctor’s office when Cece and I arrived to ask him about Murphy’s body.

  “Hello!”

  “You do the social media, right?”

  “Yep, guilty as charged,” I said. I must have had guilt on my mind.

  “Sandy here wants to be a famous video logger when she grows up. She’s always watching those videos online.”

  I nodded. Her and a million other kids. Maybe a hundred million.

  “Would you be able to take her picture? And put it online, on the ship’s website?”

  Both the little girl and her mother were watching me with wide, excited eyes. I couldn’t just blow them off and scurry away.

  “Oh! Of course! Sandy, isn’t it?”

  She nodded up at me, her blonde locks falling in her eyes and then quickly being brushed away with nimble little fingers.

  “Well, Sandy, why don’t you come just over here so that the sun is shining on you? It’ll make your hair glow.”

  I nudged her toward a large window where we would both be bathed in sunlight.

  “Are you going onto Grand Cayman today?”

  The mother nodded at me. “Oh, yes. Can you believe we’ve been to two different countries in a week? Is it nice there?”

  “I haven’t actually had the pleasure, but I heard it’s great.” I crouched down and held out my phone so I could take a portrait picture. “Sandy, give me your biggest, bestest smile!”

  She cocked her head at me. “Actually, it’s best, not bestest,” she corrected. While I frowned at the little smart aleck’s correction, she smiled like a child beauty pageant contestant and I got a couple of great pictures of her.

  “Sandy’s very photogenic,” I said to her mom.

  She nodded. “She is, isn’t she? Hold on.” Sandy’s mother tossed her bag onto the floor near the wall, and then crouched down next to her. “Get one with me, too!”

  The two of them both smiled so brightly I worried they might blind me. I took half a dozen more pictures of them, and annoyingly they looked great in all of them. Whenever pictures are taken of me, I look great in approximately zero percent of them.

  “When will the pictures go online? Can you do it now?”

  “Umm, it’ll be this afternoon.” I was taking a mental inventory of all the other things I had to do first—like solving a murder.

  The woman’s gorgeous smile fell into a frown.

  “I have to follow a schedule,” I said, not entirely untruthfully.

  Her expression brightened. “We’ll let you get to it. We’ll be checking as soon as we get back to the ship. Come along, Sandy! Let’s go to Grand Cayman.”

  With a smile and a wave, they headed off for their day trip.

  Just as I was about to hurry off myself, I saw that something had fallen out of the mother’s bag when she had tossed it against the wall. They had already rounded the corner and I didn’t have time to go chasing them.

  I bent over and saw that it was in fact a syringe. For a moment I frowned, then I recalled that the child was diabetic. It was empty, but what if it was important? I picked it up and rushed in the direction they’d gone, but they were lost among the other passengers.

  “Sandy?” I called out as loudly as I could.

  A few heads turned in my direction, but none of them were Sandy or her mother.

  “Ugh.” Muttering under my breath, I dropped the syringe into the chest pocket of my uniform blouse. The point of the needle had a plastic cap over it, so there was no danger of poking myself with it. Hopefully, Sandy and her mom had extra syringes in the bag, or they’d think to come back to the ship to get one if they needed it.

  Now, it was time to find Sylvia.

  The staff gym was similar in size to the gym I used to go to back home, but it had much newer equipment.

  The walls were covered in mirrors, making it feel larger and brighter than it actually was. There were no windows to the outside because we were near the center of the ship and below sea level; however, there were a couple of windows to the hallways that ran along either side of the gym.

  I peered through the windows before I entered, and my heart leaped when I saw that Sylvia was indeed where Cece said she would be. I hadn’t doubted Cece’s knowledge, but I was worried that Sylvia may not have been following her usual routine now that she had some new activities to occupy her time, like breaking into my room and probably turning over the Murphy’s room. Perhaps a side-order of murder too.

  Pushing my shoulders back and keeping my back straight—Grandma always told me it would make me more confident—I walked into the gym and headed toward the treadmills that ran along the right-hand wall, near the door.

  The place smelled of lemon air freshener, and it pulsed with fast music and the loud hum of Sylvia’s treadmill, the one closest to the entrance. The rest of the gym was empty as almost every staff member was working. It was the evening, and to a lesser extent early morning, when it got busy.

  Sylvia was wearing an expensive looking charcoal-gray tracksuit—a designer one that I had seen female celebrities wearing on a number of occasions. As I approached her, I almost giggled. There, sticking out the center pocket of her tracksuit jacket, was a white piece of paper that had been rolled up. It looked suspiciously like the deposit slip.

  “Too easy,” I whispered under my breath.

  “What!?” shouted Sylvia. Startled, I realized that she was staring at me in the mirror that was directly in front of her.

  Sylvia slapped the large STOP button in front of her, and as the machine rapidly began to slow, she turned arou
nd and began to walk backward while she glared at me.

  “What do you want?”

  If I hadn’t already been suspicious, I would have been after that. There was no ‘Adrienne darling’ this time, only what appeared to be defensive annoyance.

  “I know, Sylvia.” I gave her a look as cold as my tone.

  “Know? Know what?” She gripped the two arm supports on either side of her. I could see her knuckles turning white.

  “I know you broke into my room.”

  Sylvia laughed loudly, but it was a fake, forced chuckle.

  “I didn’t break into your room. I used my keycard. I had reason to believe that you had been tampering with evidence related to the death of Patrick Murphy.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. I—”

  “Adrienne!” she shouted over me, interrupting. “Do you remember I found you in Murphy’s cabin? And do you remember what you said? That you were taking some pictures of that cleaner girl, working? It was garbage. Lies. I know for a fact that it was you that found the dead body. Did you really think I wouldn’t find out? And that I wouldn’t put two and two together?”

  I gulped. Although Cece and I hadn’t talked about it, in the back of my mind it had been a concern. I supposed I’d been relying on the fact that Sylvia was too proud and self-important to care which lowly employee it was that found the body.

  “So, I know you were lying about why you were in the room.”

  I glared at her, shaking my head. “Fine. But we were there trying to find out what happened. My friend is locked up and we were looking for evidence as to who committed the crime. And now we know who it was.”

  Sylvia cocked her head. “You do? Who?”

  “You! You broke into my room, and you broke into Murphy’s room again and searched it.”

  “No! I had nothing to do with his death.”

  I leaned forward toward Sylvia, our eyes locked together, and in a very low voice I said, “Yes, you did. You killed him, and then you broke into his room again, to steal...” My hands moving at lightning speed, I snatched the roll of paper from her tracksuit pocket. “This!” I shouted triumphantly.

  Sylvia’s hands flew out almost as fast as mine to snatch it back. But I was quicker. I jumped back and had unrolled the paper to confirm it was what I thought it was.

  “Give that back!”

  “Or what? You’ll kill me too?” I shook my head at her as I assessed her. What would happen if she attacked me? She looked to be quite a bit fitter and stronger than me. But hopefully I was faster...

  Sylvia took a deep breath, smiled at me, and when she spoke again it was in a more measured tone.

  “Adrienne, darling, look. This is all a misunderstanding. Do you see?”

  “No. If you didn’t kill Murphy, you’d better explain this all right now.”

  She seemed to be trying very hard to control her emotions, and largely, she succeeded.

  “I... I hope you can keep this to yourself. The thing is, Murphy, he and I had a kind of relationship.”

  “An affair?”

  She shook her head. “Oh goodness no. With him? Please. No, an arrangement. A business arrangement.”

  “Really? You and him were in business together?”

  She shook her head again. “Not like that. The thing is, I found him with some money, once. A large amount of money. He was depositing the money into bank accounts here, in Grand Cayman.”

  “I take it this is money he shouldn’t have had?”

  Sylvia shrugged. “He said it was from his business. That his partner was very difficult about distributing their profits, and he had to take matters into his own hands to get what was rightfully his. He said it was a secret though, and he’d give me a little bit of the money if I kept his secret.”

  “Sounds an awful lot like embezzlement to me.”

  “Does it? It all sounded very reasonable when he explained it to me.”

  I snorted. I bet it did. Anything can sound reasonable if you stand to profit greatly from it being reasonable—and not at all if you find it not to be.

  “That was the nature and extent of our business relationship. He brought his money to Grand Cayman, and he gave me a little gift each time as a thank you for not telling on him.”

  “Yeah, no. That’s either blackmail or bribery, depending on how much of what you’re saying isn’t being phrased to make you look good.”

  She was shaking her head at me as if I was too dumb to understand what she was explaining. As if it was perfectly reasonable for a businessman to secretly take thousands of dollars from a business, bribe cruise ship staff, and then stash it away in the Caymans.

  “Give me back the deposit slip, please, Adrienne.”

  I shook my head. “No. Now what happened to Murphy?”

  “I don’t know! Someone killed him! But it certainly wasn’t me. Why would I? He was my gravy train!”

  “He’s dead, and you broke into his cabin, and mine. It looks very bad for you, Sylvia.”

  She shook her head adamantly. “But it couldn’t be me, do you see? I would lose out on all the money. You should look at his business partner.”

  “Carl?”

  She nodded her head forcefully, as if she could convince me to drop the whole investigation into her through the power of her neck muscles.

  “Yes! Carl! Murphy was taking money out of their business. And then he shows up on the very same cruise! A coincidence? I think not! It must have been him. Do you see?”

  I glared at her. If she was telling the truth—which I wasn’t convinced of in the slightest—it did make sense that Carl would have been mad at Murphy. But mad enough to kill?

  “How much did Murphy take?”

  “I don’t know exactly, but it’s been going on for at least two years that I know of. Four cruises to the Caymans a year. At least a couple of hundred thousand each time.”

  So, millions. Millions of dollars. Would that be enough to make his business partner kill him? Maybe. People certainly get killed over a lot less.

  “And how much was he bribing you with?”

  She grimaced. “Bribe is an ugly word, Adrienne. He was merely paying me for my services.”

  “What services?” I said with eyebrows raised.

  “The service of being quiet, and maintaining his secret. Do you see?”

  A deep familiar voice began to speak and I shuddered. I’d be in for it now.

  “That is not a service, Sylvia. That is a bribe,” said Ethan Lee, stepping into the room. “Apart from the illegality of the matter, it’s also against the company rules for staff to charge customers additional fees for services they provide outside of those offered by Swan Cruises. So, even if it were true that you were engaging in a business transaction, it would be a fireable offense.”

  “But I needed the money, do you see?” Sylvia stepped off the treadmill and glanced around the room as if searching for additional exits. There were none.

  “Sylvia, I’m relieving you of your duties immediately until a full disciplinary hearing can be held. We will also be contacting the police and providing them with any assistance they request, if they decide to investigate and prosecute you.”

  She sniffed. “This is outrageous. I was simply trying to provide good customer service for a VIP guest. There’s no need for your disciplinary committee. You can’t fire me, because I quit, do you see? I shall disembark the ship immediately.” She stepped past me. “Excuse me.”

  Ethan Lee was standing in front of the door and he did not budge.

  “I said excuse me!”

  “No. You’re not going anywhere until this has been resolved.”

  “You can’t stop me! It’s a free country!”

  “Sylvia, you’re going to the brig.”

  She blinked repeatedly, outraged by his statement.

  “No! You can’t! I’m the cruise director!”

  As if on cue, a uniformed security guard appeared at the door. Ethan had obviously called for backup as soon as h
e found out Sylvia’s location.

  “Help me secure her hands behind her back, and we’ll escort her to the holding cells.”

  “No! I shall not be held captive!”

  Ethan and the younger officer managed to get her hands behind her back, and they used a pair of handcuffs to secure them.

  “Unhand me! Release me! I demand it! This instant! Adrienne, tell them!”

  “Come on, you know the way,” said Ethan as he nudged her toward the door.

  “Adrienne! I command you to help me!”

  I shook my head at her.

  “I’m not going anywhere!”

  Sylvia let her legs fall limp, but before she could crash into the floor, she was grabbed under the arms by the two men.

  “You’re not going to make this easy for us, are you?”

  “No! I am not! Get off me! Leave me alone!”

  As Sylvia refused to cooperate, they had to physically drag her out of the room.

  Just before they exited, Ethan looked over his shoulder at me.

  “Adrienne! Don’t go... argh...”

  Sylvia had headbutted him and wore a manic look of satisfaction on her face, highlighted by a streak of lipstick which went up from one corner of her mouth up to near her eye.

  Ethan Lee never got to finish what he was trying to say to me as he dragged her away.

  Which was just as well, as I was almost certainly going to ignore it.

  Chapter 30

  I sat on a weight bench while debating what to do next. Sylvia was even more insane than I had realized, but I didn't think she had killed Murphy. She liked his money too much.

  If money was the motivation, then Carl was the obvious suspect—though if someone else had figured out a way to access Murphy’s accounts in the Caymans, then it could be anyone.

  But when you're deep into an investigation, you go with the most likely explanation first, and that meant I had to speak to Carl. Now.

  I rushed out of the gym and headed toward the front of the ship where I would get a service elevator up to the VIP cabin section.

  Something gnawed at me. Was I going to run straight into a death trap? If Carl was the killer...

  I shook my head. I'd tell Cece where I was going. If I didn't come back, she'd know what was up.