“Julie?” Maggie smiled.
“Julie, the cruise director from Love Boat,” Mike said, smiling.
“If Julie was a petite black woman from Nigeria…” Maggie added, remembering the country listed on her nametag.
“You two are showing your age,” Joanie said.
“I don’t know, Joanie, we might actually be on the Love Boat,” Mike said, tilting his head toward the side of the room where David and Kimberly sat.
“That’s what I said.” Joanie shook her head, “I think we need to take a look at those two. Together they could have easily executed the scheme.”
“Or they are just really good friends,” Maggie said, also tilting her head. She watched as David gently put his hand on Kimberly’s knee. Kimberly looked across the room. She spotted Maggie looking at her. Maggie quickly turned to Mike, but not before she suffered a narrow-eyed glance from Kimberly.
“Hey Mike, fancy seeing you here!”
A tall, imposing man dressed in a ship’s officer’s uniform sat himself down in the empty chair across from Mike.
Mike reached his hand out. “Randolph,” he acknowledged.
The man took Mike’s hand and pulled Mike to his feet. He delivered a testosterone-induced man hug across the table. The next moment he noticed Maggie and Joanie sitting at the table. “Jeez, Mike, you don’t seem like the cruise type.”
“Actually, I’m on the job,” Mike said, nervously looking around. He located John still standing at the excursion table, and Kim and David at the high top. It seemed like none of them had witnessed the exchanges of familiarity between himself and Randolph.
Randolph noted the action and nodded in understanding.
“More importantly, what the heck are you doing here?” Mike pointed to the ship’s uniform.
“I retired from Palm Beach a few months after you left, but I knew I couldn’t stay home and watch the boob tube all day, so I took the job as head of security on this ship.”
“How do you like it?” Mike asked.
“I love it. How about you? What are you doing these days?”
“I have a little P-I thing going on in North Carolina,” Mike said. Again he looked around, making sure they were still out of earshot of the rest of the group.
“That’s right, man, I heard what happened. I’m so sorry about your ex-wife. How is Zoey doing?”
“She’s doing okay, typical teenage girl.”
“Yikes,” Randolph said. He took a seat next to Mike.
“Hey, Randolph, if you don’t mind, can we keep our relationship and my background on the down-low. I’m looking into something, and I’m undercover.”
“Mike, I don’t like the sound of that. Remember, this is my job here. I’ll tell you what, you come to see me in the morning and you can fill me in on the details. If I can help, I will, but if it’s something too—”
Mike interrupted him. “I promise you it’s nothing but information-gathering. I’ll be happy to fill you in tomorrow morning.”
“Okay. So now I need to know, who are these two beautiful ladies?” Randolph pointed to Maggie and Joanie.
“This is Maggie. She’s assisting me with the case. And this is my sister Joanie.”
Mike nodded, smiling to the women.
“Maggie, Joanie,” Mike said, “this is Detective Randolph Edwards.”
“Former detective,” Randolph said, staring a little too hard at Maggie. “You look so familiar…” He put his fist to his chin until a big smile appeared. “You’re one of those ladies from the country club who showed up for your interrogation at the station in a limo.
Maggie nodded. “My friend Britney rented the limo so we could do happy hour afterward, but yeah, that’s me.” She looked at Mike, narrowing her eyes. “Was that an interrogation?”
Randolph looked more confused. He moved his finger back and forth, from Mike to Maggie. . “You two together?”
“No!” they said in unison, a little too loudly.
“Just friends,” Mike said in a calm voice.
“Unbelievable,” Joanie said, rolling her eyes.
Randolph then turned his attention to Joanie. “I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said, smiling.
“I’d rather hear your stories about my brother, if you don’t mind,” Joanie replied.
“We’ve had some real adventures. I can tell you that,” Randolph said.
“Really?” Maggie raised her eyebrows.
Joanie leaned forward. “Please share.”
Randolph turned back to Mike. “Remember that time you were dating that young girl? I forget her name. Jenna or something like that?”
“Yeah, something like that,” Mike said, “but maybe we can share stories later.”
“Oh no, keep going,” Joanie urged.
Randolph turned to her. “I was on a call in Delray, right near Jenna’s place. I was pretty sure Mike said she was out of town. Mike and I were even going to meet for a beer later that afternoon, so I called Mike. ‘I thought your girl was out of town,’ I said.
‘What do you mean? She is supposed to be at Ocean Isle with her mother,’ he said. ‘Her car is in her driveway along with an older pickup.’ He didn’t even let me finish. He hung up. He stopped and picked up a couple of egg biscuits and showed up at her house. He had a key, so he went right on in. I’m not sure why he stopped for the egg biscuits. Why did you?” he asked Mike.
“I don’t know, I think it was just an excuse to stop by. Honestly? I wasn’t thinking too clear at that point,” he said. “I stood at the closed bedroom door for a few minutes. I could hear the shower running, but when it stopped, I pushed the door open and walked in. Jenna was just walking out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel. There was a guy in his whitey-tightys sitting on the end of her bed…obviously, they must have just been finishing up whatever they were doing.
“I could have just shot a gig and left, but I had two biscuits in my hand, so I threw them both across the room at the guy, missing on purpose.”
“Can you believe he wasted a perfectly good biscuit?” Mike said.
“Why did you miss on purpose?” Joanie asked.
“If I would have hit the guy in the eye and damaged a retina or something, he could have filed a complaint. It would have been determined to be an assault since I’m an officer of the law, not a good career move.”
“Let’s back up a bit,” Maggie said. “What’s a gig?”
“Shooting the bird, you know, flipping them off with the middle finger,” Mike said as if she should know.
“Never heard of it, must be another Southern thing.”
Maggie sat back. She noticed David and Kimberly were heading back to their table. Mike also noticed.
“Hey Randolph, if you don’t mind, we’ll come by your office and fill you in on what we’re investigating,” Mike said tilting his head towards the door.
“Absolutely,” he stood. “It was nice meeting you folks. Have a safe and memorable trip. Randolph stood, and Mike followed suit.
“I’ll be right back,” Mike said to the girls.
He followed Randolph to the entrance. He disappeared for a few minutes; when he reappeared he sat back down next to Maggie.
“Who was that guy?” Kimberly asked as she took the seat he had vacated earlier.
“Head of security,” Mike said, looking around to avoid more questions.
“He was sure sitting here for a long time,” Kimberly said.
Just then John walked up.
“There are some pretty fun excursions,” John said, but Kimberly stayed focused on Mike before finally giving up. “You guys need to hurry up and sign up before all the good stuff is full,” John continued.
“Great idea.” Joanie stood. “I’ll go take care of excursions if you all trust me.”
“I’ll go with you.” David looked up from his phone. He had been looking at it ever since he and Kimberly had approached the table.
“Anybody want to go to the casino after this?” John asked th
e group.
“I’m in,” Maggie said.
“Me too,” Mike said.
John put his hand behind his ear. “I can already hear the blackjack table calling me….”
“We should be in international waters any minute, so we can head down now if you all want,” Mike suggested. “I’m going to hit the craps table.”
“I’ll meet you down there,” Joanie said. She turned and motioned to David. Together they walked over to sign everyone up for a selection of exciting excursions.
“I want to change,” Maggie said. She pulled at the bottom of her shirt.
Mike smiled. “You don’t like the shirts?”
“It’s not that I don’t like them…” Maggie began.
“I love my shirt,” John said.
“I think it’s hilarious,” Mike added.
“Of course you do,” Maggie said, “but I’m going to change and meet you guys in the casino.”
“Do you want me to go with you?” Mike asked.
“No, I’m good. You go see what you can do at the craps table.”
*
Maggie made her way up the elevator. When the doors opened on Deck 11, she jumped in surprise. Randolph stood just outside the elevator, waiting to get on.
“Funny meeting you here,” he said, smiling wide.
She smiled, holding the door for him. “Yeah, what a coincidence.”
“See you tomorrow,” he said as the door closed.
She used her key card to unlock the door to the suite. Ralph was arranging the decorative pillows on the couch.
“What was Randolph doing here?” Maggie asked.
“Who do you mean?” Ralph sounded confused.
“Wasn’t the head of the ship’s security just here?”
“Not that I’m aware of,” Ralph said.
He turned his back to her and disappeared into the kitchen. “Do you need a drink?” he called from around the corner.
“No, thank you.”
Maggie turned, confused, and went into her room. Her suitcase was sitting on a luggage holder near the bed closest to the wall. Ralph had separated the large bed into two separate twin beds and moved a side table between the two. She dug through her clothes and pulled out one of the new shirts she had purchased. She put the T-shirt she was wearing into the trash bin.
Chapter 8
Casino
The casino was alive with activity. All the card tables were occupied, except for two or three chairs at the higher stakes tables. Maggie walked through the labyrinth of slot machines, which whistled, rang, and beeped different musical octaves as she passed. She spotted Mike by the roulette table. John had already settled in at the craps table.
Maggie began to sneeze when a woman blew cigarette smoke toward her.
“Bless you.”
It was Joanie’s voice directly behind her.
“Thank you,” Maggie said. She sneezed again “It’s the cigarette smoke.”
“Yeah, since this is the only indoor smoking area, it gets pretty thick,” Joanie said. “Let’s go over here”—she pointed—“the air scrubbers will kick in soon.”
Mike looked over and spotted Maggie. She pointed out where Joanie suggested they move, and he nodded.
Maggie sneezed again as she followed Joanie to a space near the cashiers’ cages. Jules, the cruise director, was sitting at a low table, a laptop set neatly in front of her.
“Hey ladies.”
Jules smiled wide, exposing a mouth full of beautiful straight white teeth. Maggie had always been envious of people with perfect teeth. She had spent so much money trying to perfect her own, but nothing was good enough. She had spent thousands. Now she wished for the small gap between her front teeth.
“Hi Jules,” Joanie said.
“You ladies want to sign up for the slot tournament?” Jules asked. “The grand prize is ten thousand dollars, and we have lots of other prizes, including five thousand for second place and a free cruise for the top five places.”
Maggie smiled and turned to Joanie. “I don’t know…”
Joanie’s face lit up. “I think we should do it!”
Maggie raised her eyebrow. “Okay, I guess…What do we have to do?”
“It’s twenty dollars to enter, but you get twenty dollars free play in the casino, so if you were going to gamble, it’s basically free. The first round starts Tuesday. All I need is your sea cards.”
Maggie lifted her lanyard over her head and handed it to Jules. Jules took it and typed the info into the computer. As soon as Jules handed it back, Joanie passed hers across the table.
“Hey, ladies.” David and Kimberly were suddenly standing behind them. “Why aren’t you gambling?”
“We’re signing up for the slot tournament,” Maggie said.
“I want to do that.” Kimberly abruptly elbowed past David.
“You just give her your card.” Maggie pointed to the card hanging from her lanyard. She had already placed it back around her neck.
“Are you going to do it?” Kimberly asked David.
“I think I’ll let you girls have all the fun. I’m not much of a gambler,” David said.
“You don’t have to do anything but push a button,” Joanie said.
“I’m going to skip it this time,” David said as Kimberly handed over her sail card to Jules.
Joanie put her lanyard back over her head. “You’re missing out,” she said. “I’m going to see what I can do with my twenty-dollar credit in the Wheel of Fortune machine over there.
She walked away, leaving Maggie with David and Kimberly.
“This is going to be such fun,” Kimberly said, taking her card back.
“Remember to be here about ten minutes before two to get familiar with the rules and a practice round. We start right at two. Good luck, ladies,” Jules said.
“Thank you,” Kimberly replied. She turned her back on Maggie and grabbed David’s arm. “David, come help me figure out the machines.”
Maggie looked toward the craps table. John now stood at the head of the table. Mike was standing to the side, bent over, placing chips at various spots on the layout.
Maggie ordered a glass of wine from one of the servers roaming around balancing small trays in one hand and taking drink orders. The servers’ multitasking ensured the gamblers had no reason to leave their machines or betting tables. The smoke had dissipated as the smoking woman had moved to a different slot machine and the air handler was doing its job. Maggie stood behind Mike and peered over toward John.
Trays of colored chips rested in front of each player. A man holding a long flexible stick was manipulating the dice around the table while two others, one on each side, were busy collecting the losing bets and distributing the winnings. It all seemed to move so fast. Maggie was having a hard time understanding the basics.
“How do these people keep track of everything that’s going on?” she said aloud. She did, not expect an answer, but a tall gentleman standing next to her decided he would be her craps encyclopedia. He started talking about pass lines, shooters, boxcars, and Michael Jordan.
His explanations just confused her further. Maggie smiled and shook her head, feigning understanding while tuning his voice out. Her wine finally showed up. She decided to go ahead and order another because she knew one wouldn’t be enough.
Mike finally noticed Maggie behind him. He reached back for her. She moved next to him, filling the spot vacated by a frustrated gambler.
“How are you doing?” Mike asked.
“Great, how about you?” She pointed to his half-full tray of light green chips.
“I’m about even, but John, over there, is killing it. He rolled a seven on his first roll and has hit big on the table.”
Maggie recalled something the tall man had said. “I thought seven was bad,” she said, surprised that she had actually been paying attention.
“It’s good if it’s the first roll. I’m surprised you didn’t hear the cheers when it happened.”
“I was busy signing up for the slots tournament,” she said. “Plus the noise from all these machines is a little overwhelming.”
“Sweet, another old Mike.”
Mike smiled as the dealers piled a stack of chips in front of him. He reached down and stacked them sideways in the tray in front of his, leaving his original bet in place.
“ ‘Another old Mike’?” Maggie asked.
“A four and a five, Michael Jordan’s number,” Mike said.
“It looks like John is doing pretty good.”
Maggie pointed to four piles of chips being pushed John’s way as the stickman delivered the dice back to his hands. The players around the table were stacking chips all across the layout. The action once again became a frenzy, making Maggie dizzy. Mike set a few chips at three locations.
“I’ll bet there’s more than twenty thousand dollars in chips in front of him,” Mike said.
“What?”
“He started with a pretty big stack in the beginning. I saw a bunch of hundreds come out of his pocket. He laid it out there like it was nothing. Seemed a little bold for a security guard.”
“It does seem like a lot of cash for a security guard, even if he is the head of security.”
“With an ex-wife,” Mike added just as John rolled again.
“I’m going to get out of here,” Maggie said. “I’m feeling a little claustrophobic.”
“And up pops the devil!” Mike said as both dealers swept all the chips toward them, leaving a clean board. The players were quiet as the dealers started restacking the colored chips.
“What happened?” Maggie asked.
“He rolled a seven.” He bent over now, placing more chips across the board.
Maggie rolled her eyes. “I’ll see you later. Keep an eye on the suspect.”
She turned to leave. She was met by a server, who traded her empty wine glass for a full one. She looked around and saw Joanie at a machine watching the wolves and princesses pop up, and lines zigzagging across the screen.
Maggie continued weaving through the slot machines, making her way toward the exit, when she spotted Kimberly sitting at a progressive slot machine. David was leaning over her. Maggie peered over as she walked by. It looked like Kimberly had $125 in credits.
Undercover Cruise (A Maggie McFarlin Mystery Book 2) Page 6