Calmer Cruises

by WINTERS, A. R.

  “I think she killed him.”

  It was the first time I’d said the words out loud.

  I hadn’t really meant to let it slip right there and then, but I couldn’t help it. After my conversation with Shakti earlier, I was more convinced than ever that Babs was behind the murder. If she didn’t do it herself, she was almost certainly the one who organized it.

  Ethan took a quick look around and then leaned in close. “That’s a big accusation to make, Addi. Are you sure you—”

  He choked back his words before he could finish. And even I was rendered speechless as Babs Holliday herself sauntered past our table holding hands with her new boyfriend.

  “Did you see that?” I hissed, even though we had obviously just witnessed the same thing. I was pretty sure everyone on the ship had seen Babs with her new fling by that point. “I said her name and then she popped up. It’s like she has some kind of sixth sense for getting attention.”

  “Okay, well let’s just calm down and think this through rationally… Addi?”

  I wanted to calm down. I wanted to think rationally. I wanted to sit back down in my chair when I felt Ethan’s hand on my arm.

  But I couldn’t. Not after what I’d learned. Not when Babs was acting so recklessly. This wasn’t a time for rational thought. This was the time to catch a killer.

  I was up out of my seat and moving after her before I’d even realized what I was doing. Ethan tried to stop me but I brushed his hand away. My entire field of vision was centered on Babs and her boyfriend, and there wasn’t anything that could stop me from confronting her about what she’d done.

  “Babs,” I called out after her. “Babs Holliday. We need to talk.”

  I could hear Ethan behind me calling for me to wait, but I didn’t want to lose another minute. In fact, it was probably for the best that we were confronting her in public, since there would be witnesses if she tried to pull anything sneaky like she had out on the deck the night she attacked me.

  She turned around at the sound of her name and gave me a confused look at first. Her confusion quickly gave way to an eye-roll and an annoyed sigh as recognition clearly set in.

  “I don’t have time to talk to you right now,” she said. “I’ve already helped you as much as I can. Now, if you’ll please excuse me, we’re running late for—”

  “This will only take a moment,” I interrupted. I squared my shoulders and stood my ground. I wasn’t going to be intimidated by her. Not when I had the upper hand. I had the truth on my side, after all. “I think you left something out when you told us about the night your husband was killed.”

  Her eyes went wide and she gasped. From the corner of my eye, I could see people from the nearby tables stop talking as they turned to watch.

  “Addi…” Ethan was just over my shoulder. “Please. Let’s not do this here.”

  Babs gave me a scornful look. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve already told you everything I know.”

  “You told us that you went to bed early. You said you slept all the way through until the next morning, but that wasn’t true, was it?” I narrowed my eyes as I pointed a finger at her. “You followed Rock up to that lookout deck, didn’t you?”

  “Addi, please,” Ethan tried again, but I wouldn’t be stopped. Not when I was so close to the truth.

  “You pushed him,” I said. “You wanted control of his money. You didn’t like his decision to put so much of his fortune—your fortune—behind Roar Power. You thought he was wrong. You thought you could do better.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” she scoffed as she rolled her eyes again. But she didn’t sound so confident anymore. “I would never—”

  “Is it ridiculous?” I raised an eyebrow. “Or is it exactly what someone would do if they wanted to get their rich husband out of the picture to make way for the handsome young boyfriend?” I nodded as she gasped. “That’s right. I know all about the affair you’ve been having. And now you even have the nerve to flaunt it openly!”

  I had to pause to take a breath. I was so full of righteous anger that I was shaking. I wasn’t the only one, though. Babs huffed out a breath and took a step toward me.

  “How dare you,” she whispered, but it sounded like a yell to my ears. “What went on in my marriage is none of your business. So what if I had a boyfriend? Is that against the law? Does it make me a criminal to want to be loved? I didn’t kill Rock—and I couldn’t have. I was on the phone with Patrick all night.” She nudged her boyfriend. “Tell her, Patrick. You can even check the phone records.”

  I opened my mouth to say something else, but no words came out. Was there really a possibility that she might be innocent? After everything I’d learned—the boyfriend, the money, the yoga business… Was I wrong about her?

  The thought caught me off guard, and Babs took advantage of my silence to turn the tables on me.

  “I’ll have your job over this,” she threatened. “I’ll sue. You, and you,” she pointed at Ethan. “I’ll sue for defamation and for wrongful death on behalf of my husband. You can expect to hear from my lawyers.”

  “I…” I swallowed hard. Babs turned and started to walk away before I could come up with anything to say. I turned to Ethan. “I don’t know what to say…”

  “I think you’d better lay low for a while and let me handle this one.”

  He didn’t sound angry, thankfully. But he did sound disappointed, and that was even worse. Without another word to me, he turned and hurried after Babs. I had to hope he’d be able to smooth things over after what I’d just done.

  Both of our jobs depended on it.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “I’m sorry,” were the first words out of my mouth when I let Ethan into my room. “I should have kept my mouth shut like you wanted. I… I just saw her there and I lost it. It must be all the stress and adrenaline getting to me.”

  He stepped inside my room and gave me a hug. “I know. And it’s okay. After everything you’ve been through, I can’t even blame you.”

  I blinked as I looked up at him. “You can’t? You’re not angry?”

  He took a deep breath and scrubbed a hand down his face. “Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t love having to chase after Babs Holliday and beg her forgiveness. That wasn’t the high point of my day.” He gave me a sympathetic smile. “But no, of course I’m not angry. You did what you thought was right, and I respect that.”

  “Even though I was wrong?”

  Ethan shrugged. “As far as I’m concerned, she’s still a suspect. I’m not crossing anyone off that list until we have the killer in custody.” He sat down in the armchair near my bed and sighed. “But I think we should probably back off Babs for the time being. I’m pretty confident things are smoothed over now, but I don’t want to put that theory to the test. I’m sure she has some very good lawyers that wouldn’t mind having a big fat settlement check from our company.”

  “I’m sure,” I nodded. “And message received. I’ll back off.” I flopped down onto my bed even though I was still fully dressed. “I can’t believe I did that. I still don’t know what I was thinking.”

  “You thought you were right.” He reached over the short distance and gave my foot a gentle squeeze. “And your heart was in the right place. Like I said, I can’t fault you for the conclusion you came to.” He grinned again. “But in the future, I’d maybe try to work on that delivery.”

  I laughed. The first time I’d even considered laughing all afternoon. Thank goodness for Ethan. Not only for saving my job—and no doubt keeping me from getting sued—but for always being my rock when things got rough. I hoped he knew how much I appreciated him.

  “Thank you,” I said, just in case he needed a reminder. “I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been there to fix things. Like usual.”

  “That’s my job,” he said, tossing me a wink. “And honestly, you’ve done your fair share of helping me out of tight jams, too. So I think we’re pretty close
to even by now.”

  “I guess so.” I propped myself up on my elbow and quirked a brow. “So what did you say to her, anyway? How did you get her to calm down? I’m pretty sure there was smoke coming out of her ears when she stormed off and left me standing there.”

  Ethan exhaled and made a noise that was somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. “Trust me, you don’t even want to know. Let’s just say that Babs Holliday will have a lot of free cruise vouchers to use for the foreseeable future.”

  I winced. “Ouch. That’s… a lot.”

  “Worth it as long as we can all go back to some semblance of normalcy,” Ethan replied.

  “Yeah, that would be nice. Really nice.”

  Maybe things would calm down after this trip. Maybe we could take some time off for a little bit of rest and relaxation between cruise bookings.

  But honestly?

  I wasn’t even sure if I remembered what normal was like.

  I took another look around the cocktail lounge and sighed. It had been two hours since I’d spoken to Ethan, and all I wanted was for this day to be over.

  I’d tried going to sleep but couldn’t.

  I’d tried texting Sam and Cece to go out for drinks, but they were both busy.

  I’d tried watching TV but couldn’t take my mind off everything that had happened. I had too much pent-up anxiety and nervous energy, so what did I do?

  The only logical thing, of course. I went down to the cocktail lounge by myself to have a daiquiri and people watch—and vowed to run the other direction if I happened to see Babs Holliday.

  Thankfully, I hadn’t seen any sign of her or her boyfriend, but there were still plenty of other familiar faces at the nearby tables. And I felt like they were all looking back at me as I scanned the room for at least the tenth time since I’d taken my seat.

  There was a scattering of Roar Power trainees in one corner and some Breathe Light people in the other. Petal and Tomek were sharing a table in the middle of the room, because of course they were. Anything for a little more attention, right? I tried not to be cynical, but things certainly were going well for them.

  Near them, but still far enough away to be decidedly on her own, was Tara. For several minutes, I stayed still and watched, idly wondering what might happen if Tara and Petal got into an argument. Would their followers immediately join in? Would it be an all-out brawl?

  After deciding that there probably wasn’t going to be a brawl and that Tara looked just as bored and miserable as I felt, I picked up my drink and walked over to Tara’s table.

  “Is, um, anyone sitting here?” I asked, nodding toward the empty chair across from her.

  She looked surprised at my question but covered it quickly. “No, go ahead. I probably won’t be here much longer, though.”

  “Perfect, that makes two of us.” I smiled even though I was second-guessing my decision to sit at her table. I’d only spoken to her once, after all. She might not even remember me.

  “Adrienne, right?”

  Okay, so maybe she did remember me.

  I nodded. “That’s right. You have a good memory.” I took a sip of my drink. “Will Guru Shakti be joining you here later?”

  Her eyes widened at my question, and I instantly wished I hadn’t asked. Even though I was pretty sure Tara and Shakti’s relationship went way beyond student and teacher, I was also pretty sure that most of the Roar Power group pretended to look the other way when it came to their guru and his number one pupil.

  To my surprise, though, she covered up her surprise and simply shrugged nonchalantly. “He’s meditating right now. He probably won’t leave his room again for the rest of the night.”

  “Oh, right,” I said as if that was the most normal answer in the world. Was he really going to meditate all night? Was that what she meant? Would it be rude if I asked?

  I wasn’t sure about any of it, but I also didn’t want to keep sticking my foot in my mouth.

  “He has a lot to think about,” she continued. “I’m sure you heard about what happened…”

  I froze with my drink midway to my mouth. “Um… I’m not sure. I’ve had a pretty crazy couple of days myself. I should probably try some of that meditation, honestly.”

  Her lips twitched, and I thought for a moment she was going to smile. Instead, she sighed and said, “We had some people quit our program today. Normally, that wouldn’t be such a big deal, but—”

  “But they joined the other group,” I finished for her. “Yeah, I guess I did hear something about that.”

  “Exactly. And then our financial backer—”

  “Babs?”

  “Right. Babs. So the guru is pretty upset.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “I told him not to worry. I tried reminding him of when we first started, how things were simple and we stuck to the message—that’s the thing that drew people in originally. That’s what got Rock Holliday’s attention. The passion Shakti had back then.” She shook her head. “Anyway, I should probably go. I’ll say too much if I stay here and this is quite a public spot.”

  I gave her a sympathetic smile. “I can relate.” From the corner of my eye, I could see Petal and Tomek watching us like a couple of hawks. There was no doubt in my mind that they’d been hanging on every word that had come out of Tara’s mouth. They were probably planning a celebration as we spoke. “You should let the guru know that I got an anonymous tip about Rock’s killer,” I said as Tara started to stand up.

  “Oh?” She paused a moment, then smiled. It was the first time I’d seen her smile all evening. “That’s some good news, at least. I’m sure Shakti will be pleased. Rock’s passing has certainly been difficult for us.”

  I was bluffing, unfortunately. After my disastrous run-in with Babs, there was no way I was going to publicly accuse anyone else. But since I’d mostly ruled Shakti out, that left Petal and Tomek as the two likely suspects. If I could make them squirm a little, so much the better.

  “I hope so,” I nodded. “It’s only a matter of time before we catch the person. There are only so many places they can hide on a ship in the middle of the ocean.”

  “You’re right about that. I’ll leave you to it, then.” She gave a small wave. “Good luck.”

  I raised my glass. “Thanks. See you around.”

  Once she was gone, I risked a look back over my shoulder. Petal and Tomek had their heads together, whispering back and forth.

  Good.

  Mission accomplished. At least the day hadn’t been a total bust.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  I was pretty satisfied with myself.

  It wasn’t much, but making Petal and Tomek sweat a little was probably as close to a win as I was going to get before the end of the night.

  Except I was the one starting to sweat when I looked up again and saw both of them standing up from their table and walking toward mine.

  And now that Tara was gone, I didn’t even have the benefit of pretending I was too busy to talk to them.

  I was a sitting duck, and they looked like a couple of wolves with their toothy smiles that didn’t quite reach their eyes.

  “Adrienne,” Petal opened her arms wide in an over-the-top greeting. “I thought I spotted you over here. It’s so good to see you again.”

  I couldn’t have hidden my surprise if I’d tried. “Thanks,” I said as I felt my eyebrows knit together. “Good to see you, too—now that I’ve finally recovered from that morning yoga session.”

  Petal and Tomek both laughed and sat down at my table even though I hadn’t technically invited them. “That was a grueling one, wasn’t it?” Tomek nodded. “We were trying a few new things. This is a really exciting time for us and you got to experience it firsthand.”

  They made it sound like something I should have commemorated with a plaque or at least a selfie, but I was pretty sure that Babs Holliday had provided the real excitement for the two of them.

  “Don’t worry, though,” Petal added before I could reply. “We w
on’t be straying too far from our core principles like some other programs have. We know what works for us. But there’s no harm in exploring new things every once in a while.” She glanced over at her assistant. “Right, Tomek?”

  “That’s absolutely right,” he answered immediately. I got the impression that he would have answered that way no matter what the question had been.

  To be fair, he was her assistant, and it probably wasn’t a great job strategy to disagree with his boss very often… particularly when his boss seemed to need quite a bit of positive reinforcement throughout the day.

  But there was something more to their relationship. Tomek wasn’t just an employee. He seemed to be a true fan of Petal’s. Maybe a super fan.

  Maybe a stalker.

  Maybe an obsessive stalker.

  Okay, maybe not an obsessive stalker.

  Definitely super fan status, though.

  “So,” I looked from Petal to Tomek and back again. “What’s up? What can I do for you?”

  I honestly couldn’t imagine why they had both decided to join me at my table, but after our last run in, I was pretty sure it wasn’t just because they’d missed talking to me.

  “I just wanted to see how your investigation was coming along,” Petal answered as a knowing smile crept across her lips. “I spoke with Mrs. Halliday earlier.” She sighed and shook her head. “I could have told you it wasn’t her. The woman has nothing but love in her heart, I can promise you that much.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” I mumbled. “And no, our head of security hasn’t formally charged anyone with the murder yet, but I think he has his suspicions.” I paused and held her gaze for a moment before adding, “I know I have mine.”

  Petal’s eyes narrowed, as she inhaled a sharp breath and stood up abruptly. “Well, I should be going. I have some meditating to do.”

  Who knew these yoga instructors did so much meditating?

  She swept away in her flowing, silky kaftan, only turning once she was halfway to the door to snap her fingers in Tomek’s direction. “Are you coming, Tomek?”