by Mel McCoy
After about twenty minutes, Janice returned to the kitchen and called for Ruth. Her voice trembled, and she seemed frantic. Frazzled. She ushered her around the corner, away from everyone.
“Oh my!” Ruth’s brows knit together in concern. “Is everything okay?”
Janice exhaled sharply. “There’s nothing.”
“What do you mean, there’s nothing? I don’t understand.”
“I can’t find anything. There is a schedule book for employee shifts and a schedule book for each dinner and the corresponding recipes. But no desserts are written in for the Mermaid’s Dinner!” Janice slammed the schedule book down on a shelf next to them. “What was he doing all this time he was in his office?” She rubbed her temples. “He was supposed to have all the schedules and the dishes mapped out for the entire duration of the trip. It’s just like him to not plan anything! This is bad. This is really, really bad.”
Ruth let out a long breath. Perhaps his lack of planning and foresight had gotten him fired from his previous job. It would certainly explain why he’d leave a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
Ruth wiped her hands on the apron tied around her waist. “C’mon, dear.” She grabbed Janice by the shoulder to guide her back to Mills’s office. “Maybe he has another book stashed away somewhere, or he hid the recipes in a special place. I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation for all of this. I can’t imagine he didn’t plan everything out for this dinner.”
As they walked toward Chef Mills’s office, Ruth passed Loretta, who was still at their baking station. She gave her a concerned look, and Ruth silently waved at her, as if telling her to not worry. No reason to raise the alarm bells…yet.
“Is everything okay?” Loretta finally asked.
“Yeah. Just make sure everyone stays on task. We are just going to Chef Mills’s office to search for something.”
“Okay.”
Ruth followed Janice to the office. A smaller and more minimalistic office than the chief security officer’s, it contained a desk with drawers, a bulky leather swivel chair, and a computer. There was a second, smaller chair stationed in front of the desk, in case Mills had a visitor. On the adjacent wall sat a bookshelf, stacked with knickknacks and several books.
“Okay,” Ruth said, noting that, because of the size of the office, Janice would have only needed a maximum of five minutes to search. “I’ll start on the left side of the desk, and you search the right side.”
Janice laid Chef Mills’s schedule book down on the visitor’s chair. They got straight to work. Ruth rummaged through the top drawer of his desk, only to find pens, paperclips, and Post-Its with several quick, meaningless notes. “9 p.m. appointment with Karen” was the most notable.
Closing that drawer, Ruth moved on to the bottom-right drawer where she flipped through a bunch of tabbed manilla folders until she came across a blue folder marked, “Petrie Monet’s.” She pulled it out, opening it with curiosity. It had a newspaper clipping of the grand opening of Monet’s restaurant, with a picture of Petrie himself, a short Italian man with eyes full of life. Next to him was his wife, a woman Ruth had never seen before. She had on a wide-brimmed hat, a stunning pearl necklace, and dark sunglasses. Something about her smile felt warm and familiar. And on the other side of Petrie was Chef Mills. The same chiseled face and icy eyes, but he seemed softer. Kinder. The kind of man she’d be happy to meet.
Ruth leafed quickly through a few more pages, scanning each as she went. There were more pictures of the staff and Petrie, and an obituary of Petrie. Died of a heart attack.
“What are you looking at?” Janice asked, hopeful. “Did you find anything?”
“Just a folder of his previous job at Monet’s.”
“Yeah, he never shut up about that place. I think he was really close to the owner, Petrie. It was a shock and a shame what happened. Heart attack, I think.”
“That’s what it says.” Ruth flipped back to the obituary and ran a finger along the lines of text, studying it. “And so young, too. He was barely sixty.”
“A shame, really. And only weeks after he died, his restaurant went up in flames.”
Ruth’s eyes went wide. “I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, they never found the cause. Some say it was arson, but who would do that? His wife had taken over, and she was devastated. First, her husband dies, and then the restaurant goes up in flames.” Janice continued rummaging through her drawer in her attempt to find the Mermaid’s Dinner recipes. “We better keep looking.”
Placing the folder back where she’d found it, Ruth continued her own search, thoughts swirling in her head. She now understood why Chef Mills had come off as abrasive. Dealing with such a tragedy could have that effect on people. She couldn’t imagine losing a friend like that and then losing your job, all in the blink of an eye. His entire life had been flipped upside down.
When Ruth got to the end of the packed filing drawer, something caught her eye. She pulled all the folders toward her to get a better look at what was back there. She squinted, pinching the very corner of whatever it was with her forefinger and thumb. She lifted it up, and Janice asked, “Did you find it?” before doing a double-take at what Ruth held up.
“I don’t suppose this is yours?” Ruth asked, still grasping the lacy black bra.
Chapter 18
Janice’s mouth dropped. “Oh, my gawd!” She inched closer to Ruth and the bra that still dangled from her fingertips. She scoffed. “I knew it!”
“Knew what?”
Janice huffed. “He really is a slimy little worm. That’s what he’s been in here doing! I bet that’s Karen’s. Oh, that weasel! No wonder he didn’t have the recipes ready!”
“Karen? Who’s Karen?”
“The woman who works in the spa.” Janice scrunched up her face in disgust. “Probably giving him more than just a massage.”
Footsteps approached the door to the office, and Loretta walked in. “Hey, not sure what you’d like us to do, but the staff is starting to get a little—Whoa, Lucy!” She let out a whistle. “Whose negligee?” She looked at Janice expectantly.
Janice let out a short breath, rolling her eyes. “No, it’s not mine!”
Loretta put her hands up in defense. “Hey, I don’t judge. I mean, if you can get past Chef Mills’s boisterous ego…” Loretta shrugged. “He wasn’t a bad-looking guy.”
Ruth shook her head at Loretta, a signal for her to stop talking.
Letting out a pitiful moan, Janice plopped down in the leather chair behind the desk. “What am I going to do?”
Ruth dropped the bra back into the drawer, watching Janice as she sulked.
“Who am I kidding,” Janice continued. “He was a genius when it came to dishes. I’m nowhere near as talented as him.”
“Oh, don’t say that.” Ruth placed a hand on her shoulder to provide solace. “You are very talented.”
Janice sighed. “I don’t know how I’m going to pull off a dessert for tonight’s dinner. It’s the most important night of the passengers’ vacation!”
“The cupcakes we did the other night were a huge hit. Maybe we can just do that again.”
Janice shook her head. “I think they would frown on repeating the same desserts night after night.”
“We’ll just do a different type of cupcake.”
“I don’t know.” Janice swiveled in the chair. “Maybe we should try something else.”
Ruth frowned. “We don’t have much time for anything else. Besides, with cupcakes, you can turn them into any type of dessert. Cheesecake, red velvet cake, brownies—”
“Croquembouche,” Loretta added, reminding everyone that they had recently pulled off the impossible.
“And we don’t have to worry about slicing them into pieces or anything,” Ruth said, “which is more time and convenience for not just us, but our guests.” Then Ruth’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I have an idea. We’ll do mermaid-tail cupcakes! You know, to fit the Mermaid’s Dinner theme!”
Loretta’s eyes sparkled. “Yeah! That’s a great idea!”
“I know exactly what we could do!” Ruth clapped her hands together in excitement.
“Well,” Janice said, nodding as if considering the idea, “Eric is working on a mermaid ice sculpture right now. It’s supposed to be big and beautiful. Your idea might actually work.”
Ruth had almost forgotten about Eric, the ice sculptor. There had been a small altercation between Eric and Chef Mills. She wasn’t sure if it was enough to drive a man to kill…Either way, he had most certainly slipped under Ruth’s radar.
“Great,” Ruth said. “We can talk to Eric, see what the sculpture will look like, and come up with a great presentation for the cupcakes. Don’t worry. We’ve got this!”
Janice wore a forced smile, and it turned into a whimper.
“Oh no, Ruth,” Loretta said, stepping closer. “I think you upset her.”
Ruth looked at Loretta. What could she do?
Then Janice burst into tears and buried her face in her hands.
As she put a hand on Janice’s shoulder, Ruth’s voice came out soothing. “Oh, dear. Was it something I said?”
Janice looked up from her hands and shook her head. “No, not at all. I’m just so grateful to have you both. And I’m going to put my trust in you. I’ve just been putting up this veneer, a tough exterior, if you will, just to get ahead here on the ship. I wanted this position so badly, and when Chef Mills took the job, I will admit, I was angry. But I also realized I couldn’t do this without him. I don’t think I was ready. I just wanted to supervise the formal banquet hall. I wouldn’t murder him. I needed him. But now, Officer Humphrey, a friend of mine, is accusing me of murder. He says I’m a prime suspect.”
Ruth recoiled. “What!?” Officer Humphrey had told them that Janice wasn’t even being considered as a suspect. Was he playing some kind of game?
Sniffing back her tears, Janice said, “I always thought Officer Humphrey knew me better than that. We both worked on Conqueror for years. I can’t stand the sight of blood, let alone the idea of murdering someone. I would never do such a horrible thing.” She dabbed her nose again. “Oh, I’m so sorry I’m blubbering like this. I just…with all the work, I haven’t had time to make any friends.”
“Don’t worry, Janice,” Loretta said. “We know you didn’t do it.”
Ruth shook her head, realizing Loretta was the one who’d accused Janice in the first place, and now she was consoling her.
“Janice, if you didn’t do it, do you think this Karen from the spa could have?” Ruth asked. “It did seem like a crime of passion.”
Loretta handed Janice a tissue from a box she’d found on the desk. “Yeah, maybe Karen did it.”
After blowing her nose loudly, Janice discarded the soiled tissue into a nearby trash can, then grabbed another tissue from the box. “No, Karen got into an altercation that evening with one of the girls she works with at the spa. She was locked up in the brig overnight.”
“What?” Ruth and Loretta asked simultaneously.
“When I was accused, I told Officer Humphrey that I suspected a relationship between the two, and he stated that she had a strong alibi.”
Loretta’s lips flatlined. “Yeah. An iron-clad alibi.”
Chapter 19
Ruth and Loretta returned to their station in the kitchen. Loretta gathered the other bakers who were standing around waiting for their orders, while Ruth sketched up her vision of the cupcakes that were to be served with tonight’s formal dinner.
Loretta read over the recipe and studied the sketches. “Wow. They look stunning, and it sounds exquisite! But do you think we’ll be able to pull this off in time?”
Ruth capped her pen. “I don’t know, but there’s too much riding on this dinner. We have to make this work.”
The other bakers nodded, motivated. “We’ll make it work,” and “Let’s do this,” were the only things they said before Ruth started organizing them into teams.
The plan was to develop a divine cupcake that symbolized beauty and elegance. Not only did mermaids embody those traits, but they were also graceful and fun—all the elements of a perfect vacation. And it would match the ice sculpture Eric had been working long and hard on.
First, Ruth divided everyone up. The first group would work on the cake itself. The second would be tasked with the icings needed for the dessert. The third would handle all the decorative elements, like the seashells and the mermaids’ tails that would be placed on top of the cupcakes.
They had decided on making two different types of cupcakes: a vanilla cupcake with toasted coconut and buttercream and a white chiffon cake with crushed vanilla wafers. Both would be topped with white-chocolate seashells.
While everyone got to work, Ruth drew the template for the mermaid’s tail and helped Loretta cut them out of fondant.
“What next?” Loretta asked. Ruth walked over to the waitstaff station, where they kept all the napkins and silverware. She found a drinking straw and came back.
Loretta wore a skeptical look. “A straw? What are you going to do with that?”
“Watch,” Ruth replied with a wink. Pressing the end of the drinking straw into the fondant, she created a half circle. She repeated this several times, creating a texture that looked just like scales.
Loretta put her hands on her hips, shaking her head. “You never cease to amaze me, Ruth.”
Ruth handed her the straw. “You try.”
Taking the straw, Loretta started adding scales to her mermaid tail. “What do you think about Officer Humphrey accusing Janice of killing Chef Mills?”
“I don’t know what to think. It could be a ploy.”
“What?”
“Well, you said it yourself, she could be lying. That could have been Janice’s bra, for all we know.”
“Oh. I suppose, but I don’t think so. Why would Janice admit that Karen has an alibi? Why not throw her under the bus?”
“Good point, but who knows if they are in cahoots together. We don’t even know this woman. I’m counting no one out at this point. All I know is, we better get to the bottom of this, and quick!”
After they were done adding texture to all the tails, Ruth checked on the other staff members and taste-tested the cakes and frostings. She gave them a thumbs up and moved on to her next task: bringing the tails and seashells to life. Ruth and Loretta brushed each tail and ornament with a dry coat of edible pearl dust to give them a little shimmer, as if they were fresh from the sea.
When the cakes were done, Ruth piped a thick layer of buttercream to the top of each cupcake. Then she rolled them gently in either the toasted coconut or the vanilla wafer crumbs to mimic sand. Loretta pressed a mermaid tail into each cake, and they both added the seashell elements in the sand around the tail, as well as candy pearls of various sizes.
When all of the desserts were done, the bakers admired their glimmering beauty.
Janice’s assured footsteps could be heard approaching. When she came into view of the cupcakes, her mouth dropped. “I can’t believe it! They’re stunning.”
One of the bakers handed her a plate with one cupcake of each flavor. She bit into the first one—the toasted coconut—and her eyes went wide. “You’ve done it again. These are not only stunning but delicious!”
Ruth beamed. “Thank you. But I couldn’t have done it without this amazing team.”
Everyone smiled as Janice gave them a nod. “You all have pulled it off. Thank you.” Janice glanced at her clipboard, then returned her gaze to the crew standing before her. “As much as I would love to stand here and taste-test all these cakes, we need to get them ready for presentation. They need to be out before the guests arrive. Ruth, could you and Loretta work with Eric to display these cupcakes with his sculpture, while I work with the dinner staff?”
“Of course.” Ruth realized that there was now a trust between the two women—at least in the kitchen.
“Very well. As for the res
t of you, plate each cake and transfer them onto the wheeling trays so the waitstaff can get them out to the dining area.”
As Janice barked a few more orders, Ruth and Loretta hurried out to the dining room to find Eric. All Ruth could think about was how perfect the opportunity was to talk to him one on one. When they entered the dining room, Eric was already facing two men who were shimmying a large crystal mermaid.
“To the left,” Eric ordered in a thick Italian accent, waving his hand in the direction he meant. “No, no, your other left!”
Ruth walked up to Eric as he continued directing the people moving his sculpture. He was a short, spunky man with a lot of energy. How he managed to do everything he did was beyond Ruth.
“Hi,” Ruth started.
Eric craned his head around her, keeping an eye on his magnificent work of art. “Can’t you see I’m busy?” He ran his hand through his thick black hair.
“I do. But we were advised to see you about the presentation of the desserts.”
“Sorry, but I’m not waitstaff.”
“No, but since our desserts will be presented with your statue, we need to work out a display while ensuring your overall vision is kept in mind. We don’t want to take away from your masterpiece.”
Eric sighed. “Very well, but I can’t help you if I don’t know the desserts. What do we have? A cake? How many tiers?”
“Actually, we prepared cupcakes.”
“Cupcakes?” Eric laughed, and then stopped abruptly when Ruth didn’t join in. “Oh, you’re serious?”
Loretta approached them with a plate of cupcakes.
Eric rubbed his chin. “Huh, not bad.” He turned his attention back to the two men, still adjusting the statue. “Right there! Don’t move it!” Both men let go of the statue and stepped away slowly. “Yes, perfetto!”