Calmer Cruises

by WINTERS, A. R.

  And honestly, I was probably the one who should have been second guessing. As much as I grumbled about the classes, I really had enjoyed them for the most part. I was certainly feeling more fit and active during this cruise than I had in a long time, and that was saying something since my job required me to walk from one end of the ship to the other multiple times each day.

  We left the Boulevard Cafe and made the short walk over to the ice cream shop. The seating area overlooked the decks below in the Grand Atrium, and it was the perfect place for people watching.

  Or for being watched.

  As soon as we stopped to stand in line at the ice cream counter, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Someone was watching us. There’s just no mistaking that feeling.

  I didn’t want to be too obvious, but I tried to casually glance around while Sam and Cece placed their orders. It was only after we’d all received our ice cream cones and had moved to one of the side tables to sit down that I was able to see who had been watching us.

  “Looks like we have some company here,” I mumbled beneath my breath as I cut my eyes toward a table on the opposite side of the seating area.

  Sam and Cece both had several great, wonderful qualities between the two of them. Subtlety, unfortunately, wasn’t usually one of those qualities. They both whipped their heads over to look at where I’d indicated, and then Sam gasped aloud.

  “Petal and Babs Holliday? Seriously?” she stage whispered so loudly that I was certain everyone within a ten foot radius could have heard.

  “That’s an interesting combo,” Cece observed. “I wouldn’t have guessed the two of them to be buddies.”

  I nodded. “Especially since Babs’ deceased husband had been financing Petal’s biggest competitor.”

  “Do you think they saw us?” Sam asked.

  “Oh yeah,” I answered, still doing my best not to look that direction. “They definitely saw us. I could feel them staring when we were standing up there in the line.”

  Sam paused a beat, then grinned. “Do you think we should go over there and say hello?”

  I snorted. “Remember what happened the last time we did that?”

  “Yeah, but Tomek isn’t with them this time…”

  “I think you should go over there.” Cece eagerly nodded. “I didn’t get to see the thing that happened with Tomek at the buffet, so this will be the next best thing.”

  I could only shake my head. “Sorry we can’t provide your post-lunch entertainment, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.” I risked one of my first looks over to their table since we’d been sitting down. “And judging from the way Petal keeps throwing nervous glances this way, I doubt she would be thrilled to talk to us here.”

  Petal definitely looked uncomfortable, but Babs was still smiling and talking as if nothing had happened. Maybe their meeting really was as simple and innocent as it might seem at first glance—just two women enjoying some ice cream together.

  Or maybe there was something more to it. I didn’t know enough to be sure, and I obviously had to be careful about who I asked. Sam and Cece were safe to talk to, of course. But beyond our small group and Ethan? I just had to be careful.

  “Don’t look now,” Cece murmured into her ice cream. “But I think Kelly is on her way over here.”

  Of course I had to look.

  Sam and Cece’s lack of subtlety was clearly rubbing off on me.

  Kelly gave a big wave and a relieved sigh as she approached our table. “Addi, I was just looking for you! How is everything going?” She turned to Sam before I could answer. “Have the guests been saying anything about… you know… the incident?”

  Sam shook her head. “I haven’t heard anything yet, surprisingly.”

  “I haven’t, either” Cece added.

  Kelly took a deep breath and exhaled loudly. “Thank goodness. It will be a PR nightmare once word gets out, and I just don’t have the time to deal with it right now. I feel like the captain and I have been running around putting out fires all morning.” She turned back to me. “Anyway, how’s everything going? I saw some of those pictures you posted from lunch yesterday—delicious! You seem to be generating some good buzz for the buffet, so that’s always a good thing.”

  “I try,” I nodded. “The chefs do all the hard work, though. I just have to throw it on a plate and add a couple of filters.”

  She made a dismissive gesture. “Oh, I know you do a lot more than that. The captain has noticed, too. I’m sure he’d rather give out compliments himself, though. If only he wasn’t so busy. I feel like I’ve barely even seen him at all.”

  Which really said a lot, considering she was the captain’s right hand woman. “Maybe he just needs a project to focus on—maybe something you could help him with?”

  Kelly instantly lit up. “Now that’s a good idea! What could I do that wouldn’t pull him away from the important work of…” Her voice trailed off as she looked around. “Well, I’m sure I don’t need to say it out loud.”

  Under any other circumstances, it might have been comical to hear Kelly trying to be discreet. Unfortunately, she had good reason not to say the words murder investigation out loud, especially in such a public place.

  “What if the project tied in with the current situation?” I mused out loud. “Maybe something like… safety preparations or procedures to follow when there’s an untimely death on board?”

  Her eyes went wide as she practically jumped up out of her seat. “That’s perfect, Addi! You’ll all have to excuse me. I need to find the captain and get started on this project right away.”

  She was gone before we could say anything else. Sam, Cece, and I just looked at each other and slowly shook our heads. “She’s a force of nature,” I said, smiling.

  “Do you think the captain will go for a project like that?” Cece asked.

  I shrugged. “Who knows? I’m just here to take pretty photos.”

  And maybe, hopefully, to solve a murder.

  Chapter Sixteen

  The officers’ lounge was completely deserted as Ethan and I walked in together.

  “Are you sure it’s okay for me to be in here?” I asked, taking his arm as we walked over to a small table with a view of the ocean. Not that we could see much at that hour aside from the bright stars in the sky and the tops of the waves below breaking in the moonlight, but it was still pretty romantic.

  “It’ll be fine,” he assured me, pulling out a chair for me before taking the opposite one for himself. “You’re my guest in here tonight. It’s not like anyone is going to come in and kick you out. Besides…” He paused with a grin. “We’re the only ones here. Most everyone else has already had their dinner, so we’ll probably have the place to ourselves for as long as we want.”

  “As long as we want?” I raised my eyebrows. “Or until someone calls you away to deal with an emergency?”

  He put his arms up in a mock surrender. “Hey, I can’t help it if I’m a popular guy.” Then he sighed and shook his head as his smile faded a little. “But I know our jobs get in the way sometimes—especially mine—and I appreciate how patient you are about it.”

  I had to admit that it wasn’t always easy to be so patient. In a perfect world, he and I would have had a lot more time for candle-lit dinners and romantic strolls on the beach while the passengers were out on shore excursions. But we didn’t live in a perfect world, and I knew what Ethan’s job duties were when we started dating.

  But even though we had to plan our time together eons in advance, and it was always subject to change at a moment’s notice, I did appreciate how dedicated Ethan was to his job and to the ship.

  “It makes me enjoy our time together even more,” I replied. “At least we don’t take nice, quiet times like this for granted.”

  “Never,” he shook his head. “Did you want a glass of wine before we eat?”

  “Oh, wow, you really are breaking all the rules tonight, Mr. Head of Security.”

  He l
aughed. “It’s not against the rules to have a glass of wine with dinner. It’s practically required in some parts of the world.”

  “You don’t have to convince me.” I smiled as he stood up and walked over to the refrigerator that was tucked behind some fancy wooden paneling. “You guys have all the nice amenities in here. It makes the crew lounge look like a high school cafeteria.”

  Ethan snorted as he poured two glasses of wine and carried them back over to our table. “It’s been a while since I’ve been to the crew lounge, but I definitely remember it being nicer than my high school cafeteria.” He gave me a mischievous grin. “But not much nicer.”

  I reached out over the table and took his hand as we both raised our glasses. “To a nice, quiet date night with no interruptions.”

  He glanced toward the lounge door. “You realize you’ve just tempted fate, right?”

  “I thought you didn’t believe in things like fate? Things you can’t see and touch and feel?”

  “Well, maybe you’re rubbing off on me a little. All I’m saying is, I’d be willing to bet five bucks that someone comes through that door looking for one of us any minute.”

  I grimaced because I knew as well as he did how likely it was to happen. And not because I’d tempted fate or whatever, but because—like he’d said—he was a popular guy.

  A popular guy with a couple of very important jobs on board this ship.

  “So,” I paused to take a sip of wine. “Do you want to hear what I’ve learned about Rock Holliday’s death?”

  Ethan’s eyes went wide then narrowed. “Wait a second. You want to talk about work? On our date night?”

  I couldn’t help but smile at those questions. “Well, it isn’t technically work for me because it isn’t technically my job to find out what happened. And anyway, are you really going to pretend like you aren’t dying to know?”

  He couldn’t deny it. The sparkle in his eyes and the way he leaned forward in his seat told me everything I needed to know. I knew how seriously he took his job as head of security and how badly he wanted to solve the murder—just like he knew he could trust me to do whatever I could to help.

  Without waiting for him to answer, I started telling him about how I’d spoken with Shakti and Petal then had followed up with Petal’s assistant, Tomek.

  “And how do you feel about each of them?” he asked.

  “I… am not sure,” I confessed. “I think they each have pretty strong motives to want Rock out of their lives for good, but I haven’t really found any proof that might make me narrow that list down yet.”

  “And then there’s Rock’s widow, Babs,” Ethan added. “I’m not entirely convinced she’s innocent, either.”

  “Right,” I nodded. “And there are other possibilities, like Shakti’s assistant, Tara, or even someone we haven’t thought about yet.”

  That was the biggest obstacle, in my opinion. On a ship with thousands of passengers, there were just so many possible suspects. Too many, really.

  And when most of our current suspects happened to be high-profile VIP passengers? That made things even more complicated. Accusing one of them wrongfully would be a public relations nightmare—not to mention a quick and embarrassing end to some of our careers.

  “Well, if anyone can charm these people into talking, you can,” Ethan said with a smile. “We’ll just have to dig a little deeper until we have some more facts.”

  “Oh, I did find out a few other interesting bits of information,” I said, leaning in even though there was nobody else around to hear the gossip I was about to share. “Like the fact that Petal isn’t quite what she pretends to be.”

  “Really?” His eyebrows shot up. “What do you mean?”

  “In her classes, she preaches all about how wonderful it is to live a healthy, vegan lifestyle and that we should be spending our time going out in the community telling everyone how wonderful their lives would be if they followed her example.” I shook my head disapprovingly. “Turns out she orders hamburgers, steaks, and roast beef by the pound when nobody is looking!”

  Ethan blinked.

  Then snorted.

  Then laughed.

  “Wait, what?” He took a moment to compose himself, only to burst out laughing all over again. “Why would she lie about something like that? Who would even care?”

  “You and I wouldn’t care,” I answered. “But the people who spend thousands of dollars to follow her example would probably care a lot that she isn’t practicing what she preaches.”

  Ethan took another sip of wine and sighed. “That is pretty crazy—and was certainly a good laugh. But it’s not the kind of evidence we can build a murder case around.”

  “No, I don’t think so, either. And like you said, who cares? Probably nobody outside her inner circle. But if she has such an easy time lying to the people closest to her…”

  “Ah, yeah, I see what you mean.” He nodded. “We should keep an eye on her, at least. And Shakti, too.”

  “I agree,” I said, raising my half-empty wine glass again. “Now, enough murder talk, hm? We should go find something to eat while we still have a little time to ourselves.”

  Just as I finished speaking, the lounge door opened, and the captain walked in. Ethan and I scrambled to our feet as a look of relief washed over the captain’s face.

  “Thank goodness I’ve found you both here,” he said, though he was mostly looking at Ethan. He turned to me and frowned. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything…”

  I forced a smile and hid my sigh. “No, sir. We were actually just finishing up here.”

  Ethan shot me an apologetic look. “Actually, sir, we were just about to—”

  “Oh, good,” the captain interrupted, motioning for Ethan to follow as he started moving back toward the door. “As long as you aren’t busy, I was hoping you could join me for a quick planning session. Something top secret.” He cast a look back over his shoulder in my direction and whispered so loudly into Ethan’s ear that I had to struggle not to laugh. “Emergency planning procedures in case of a murder on board. Completely hush-hush.”

  “Yes, sir,” Ethan replied and then looked back to me and mouthed, “I’m sorry.”

  I tossed him a quick wink and waved goodbye. I couldn’t even be upset if I’d wanted to. We’d predicted an interruption just like that, after all.

  At least we’d had a nice glass of wine and a full conversation all by ourselves. That was rare enough to feel special.

  Now, I just had to get something to eat.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Did I feel bad for finishing my day by eating ice cream for the second time in the past eight hours? No.

  Well, maybe a tiny bit.

  But since my date night with Ethan had been cut short and I’d had a full, relatively healthy dinner by myself at the buffet’s salad bar, I figured I’d earned a sweet treat. And since I was by myself as I walked back from the ice cream stand to my cabin, nobody else even needed to know.

  I paused on the outdoor promenade deck that connected the forward half of the ship to the aft. The pool had closed at sunset, and the area behind me was nice and peaceful. Standing at the railing, with the ocean spreading out in front of me as far as I could see, it really did feel like paradise.

  These were the moments I enjoyed most aboard the ship—these peaceful, perfect moments when I could stop and appreciate just how beautiful my surroundings were. I was lucky enough to work on board a floating tropical fantasy land, and even though I had no plans to leave the Swan of the Seas anytime soon, I knew I’d be taking tons of wonderful memories with me when that time finally came.

  I sighed and smiled to myself as I finished my ice cream cone and tossed my napkin in the nearby garbage bin. The only thing that could have made this night and this amazing view better would have been the chance to share it with Ethan.

  But he was busy, and there would be plenty of other perfect nights. And honestly, I could only expect so much of the head of secu
rity’s time while he was conducting a murder investigation.

  “Okay,” I said to myself. “Time to call it a night.”

  I’d only taken a couple of steps toward the door that would lead back inside to the bank of elevators when I heard a strange noise behind me.

  Sort of like a quiet, mewling noise.

  My first thought was that someone had smuggled a kitten on board and it had somehow gotten loose. I stopped and turned to look toward the pool, cocking my head to the side as I listened for the noise again.

  “Who would try to bring a kitten on a cruise ship?” I muttered to myself. “And why?”

  I peered into the darkness, unable to see very far. There was nobody around, no noise other than the lapping of the ocean.

  If the kitten was scared and hiding, there was no way I was going to be able to find it. But I couldn’t just leave the poor thing out here exposed to the elements and the strong ocean breeze.

  I took a step toward the pool and heard the noise again, this time a little louder. I was beginning to question myself. What exactly was that noise in the darkness? Was it a kitten? Was it an animal? I couldn’t be sure.

  “Hello?” I called out into the dark as I took another step.

  I was starting to feel a little nervous as I stood there, knowing that whatever it was could probably see me even though I couldn’t see it. “Hello? Kitty? Or… is someone there?”

  I stopped in my tracks as I heard the noise again.

  And then, a different sound. “Help me… help…”

  There was no mistaking the high-pitched voice for a kitten that time. Someone was out there in the darkness. Someone who needed help.

  The hairs on the back of my arms stood up. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

  I wanted to turn back and call for more help, but maybe then I’d be too late to help whoever needed it. So I took a deep breath and ignored the shiver creeping down my spine.