Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 11 - Cruise Control

by A. R. Winters

  Unlike those two, however, Holly was willing to relent and spill the beans. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to mislead you.”

  “Again?”

  “I didn’t mean to mislead you again. With the internship history. And, uh, one of the top executives at LightningBlossom being my dad.”

  I shook my head, rubbing my temples. “Why all the secrets?”

  “I didn’t want to be treated any differently. If you knew I was rich and a daughter of some important guy, you’d probably give me a cushy gig to avoid offending him.”

  My shoulders fell. That did seem like something that Kelly would do.

  Holli looked at me with pleading eyes. “Can you keep this a secret, Addy? I don’t want everyone flipping out and giving me or my dad any trouble.”

  “Fine, fine. I’m not going to go shout it to the world.”

  Seeing that I wasn’t coming back, Ethan came up behind me. “So I guess a huge brawl didn't erupt.”

  “No,” John said, “Just a nosy girl sticking her nose where it doesn’t belong.”

  “Wait, I thought you said your family got rich off the Flutter Flyswatter patent,” I said, remembering our earlier conversation. “Why is your last name Heaven?”

  “I changed it.” John stood tall proudly. “I wanted to make it on my own rights as a businessman rather than sailing easy on my grandfather’s legacy.”

  I threw up a finger and a grin. “Ah, so you just used the money you inherited, instead of the name and the money.”

  Ethan gave me a gentle nudge, which meant I had probably gone too far.

  “Think whatever you want to think,” John continued as he walked past us and toward the ship. “I made my own success in life. I played the game and won. It’s more than I can say about a security guard and a Twitter girl.”

  “Dad, quit it!” Holly let out, but John was already well on his way back. “Sorry. I know he can be a little abrasive at times. You know how prideful he is.”

  “Yeah,” Ethan said. “I saw him try to take someone out with a jet ski, so failure isn’t something he deals with well.”

  “Uh-huh. That’s my dad.” Holly started back too. “Thanks for keeping this a secret. I really mean it, you’re the best boss, Addy.”

  It wasn’t long until Ethan and I were alone again. He returned his arm to its rightful place on my shoulder. “Do you think there’s any chance one of them killed Vernon?”

  “Holly? No way. She’s more complicated than the hyperactive girl I first thought she was, but I get the feeling she’s just a rich girl trying to be normal.”

  “And John?”

  We followed the father and daughter’s path, heading back to the ship. A lot of the company’s employees were heading back as well, and the ship’s staff was starting to break stuff down.

  “I’m not so sure about him. Pretty hostile to us, seems to take everything personally. I doubt he took it very well when Vernon’s company changed directions and almost put them out of business.”

  “Not to mention he tried to take Sebastian out during their race.”

  “Yes, but… I think he just really, really wanted to win that race.”

  “Murder via jet ski with lots of lifeguards and witnesses nearby does seem like a bad idea.”

  For the rest of the walk, I simply enjoyed my time with Ethan. There would be plenty of opportunities to fret and angst over this murder and who was responsible for it. Sometimes though, it’s best to enjoy a long walk on the beach.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  F or once, I was able to wake up without some calamity happening outside my door. It was lovely to be able to enjoy natural awakening in my incredibly comfortable bed.

  Since I hadn’t been shocked awake, I had to convince myself that lying there forever wasn’t a viable thing to do. That at some point, I would have to get up. The bathroom, food, friends, there were other things I viewed as quite vital to my life that I could not do from a bed, no matter how comfortable it was.

  So I got up. I did my morning routine. I met up with Sam and Cece, and I decided it had been long enough since I had overindulged in food that I was now ready for more.

  Normally, the three of us would meet for a tolerable breakfast of rubbery eggs and weak coffee in the staff canteen, but because this was a pared-down cruise, the staff cafeteria was closed this morning. So the three of us met at the International Buffet instead, happy to forfeit our usual fare in favor of something yummier.

  The International Buffet wasn’t the finest dining the ship had to offer. But it was a buffet, so it was all about instant gratification—crisp bacon strips and perfectly seasoned eggs.

  It was about me grabbing a plate and loading it up with whatever caught my fancy, which to me meant a lot of things.

  “Everyone around here looks like someone took a sledgehammer to their heads,” Sam said as I sat down. “I know there were some adult beverages available yesterday, but I didn’t expect most of them to be such lightweights about it.”

  Cece was more observant, leaning in to evaluate the nerds. “What we got here is people who aren’t capable of properly dealing with the reality of free and plentiful adult beverages. They probably had to pay high for the harder stuff before, so they likely savored the flavor more.”

  “And our open bar has none of that restraint or will to savor.”

  “Oh, they’ll get used to it. I have. Moderation is key if you’re going to indulge.”

  I looked at her and shook my head. “Cece, you’re not really the epitome of moderation.”

  She smiled, fluttering her eyelashes and appearing like the perfect angel that she totally was.

  Among the crowds of LightningBlossom people, one person in particular caught my eye. Kayleigh Wing, the executive who had made her hatred of Vernon and Monica clear at that very first meeting.

  She was going through the line with a plate like everyone else. She had access to the more exclusive breakfast places, such as the Croissant Club, which in my opinion served the best breakfast on the ship. I would have assumed that was where all the executives would be eating. But maybe Kayleigh didn’t want to deal with her peers right now and settled for eating like a commoner.

  Or maybe she liked buffet food better than the fancy stuff. I didn’t understand how you could, but taste is subjective.

  “What’s up, Addy?” Cece poked me in the shoulder.

  “Kayleigh Wing is down here. She’s the only LightningBlossom exec I haven’t spoken to yet.”

  “You need to interrogate her still?”

  “I try not to call it interrogating, Cece. More like a friendly conversation to see if they let any useful information slip out.”

  “Ah, subtlety. A delicate art.” Cece shot her hand up. “Hey, Kayleigh, why don’t you come sit with us?”

  Kayleigh walked over to us hesitantly and nodded when she recognized me. “Adrienne.”

  I smiled. “Hi, Kayleigh. This is my friend, Cece.”

  I was about to start with some pleasantries, but Cece beat me to it.

  “So Kayleigh, who do you think killed your boss? Was it you?”

  Kayleigh’s head fell back, and she laughed out loud.

  “I thought I said we needed to be subtle, Cece,” I whispered, shoving her.

  “Subtlety takes too long,” Cece muttered back.

  “You know what?” Kayleigh said, pulling out a chair and sitting down at the table with her plate. “Fine. I’ll sit here. I’ll dispel any myths you’ve convinced yourselves about me.”

  “See? It totally worked.” Cece grinned madly at me, so delighted at being proven right.

  “You got moxie, kid.” Kayleigh nodded approvingly. “I’ll give you that. The forthright approach is sometimes what you do want to go with if you want to get ahead in the world. Although accusing someone of murder may be taking it too far.”

  “What? It got you to sit down here and talk, didn’t it?”

  Kayleigh flipped on hand dismissively. “Working in tech has g
otten me used to socially inept people.”

  Cece shook her head. “I didn’t call you out because I didn’t know better. I called you out because I chose to.”

  There was a strange, begrudging respect for Cece I could see forming in Kayleigh. “You also lucked out that I didn’t want to sit with the other execs, nor did I want to deal with the LightningBlossom employees whining about how they want their four-hour workdays back.”

  “However I got the win, I’ll take it.” Cece smugly threw her hands behind her head and leaned back.

  Our guest scooped up some eggs, gulped them down. “Anyway, if you’re trying to ask me who I think did it, I’ve been thinking about that too. And I’m pretty sure it’s that trumped-up masseuse Monica.”

  “Any reason why, beyond the obvious fact that you don’t like her very much?” I said, finally stealing the conversation from Cece.

  “What gave my distaste for her away?” She stirred her eggs a bit more. “Although I will say I’m probably responsible. For indirectly pushing Monica into killing Vernon, not actually killing Vernon myself, mind you.”

  “Go on.” I sat, my chin resting on my folded fingers, listening intently.

  “We weren’t always a massive company with hundreds of employees on the verge of being a billion-dollar IPO. Despite that, Vernon was still a bit of a mystical type. Really into eastern philosophy and practice from the start. Monica made it worse, but the seeds were always there. Our company of about a dozen people had a wellness center. With a masseuse.”

  “And the masseuse was Monica.”

  “Quick to the draw, aren’t we?” She took a bite of sausage. “Monica’s station was fully equipped with plenty of oils to use for her job. More than you’d ever need for as few people as we had working at the time. Monica’s nothing if not ambitious, even in her own little pathetic way. She stole the extra oils constantly and used them for extra work on the side.”

  My right eyebrow shot up. “So she stole some small items from the company. Why does that matter?”

  “Because she kept it under wraps until recently when I noticed this irregularity in our early financial records. So naturally, I was going to tell Vernon soon, just to dampen her influence with him if nothing else. But that’s where the story takes its twist. Monica must have known I knew, so she killed Vernon so he wouldn’t be able to fire her. Pretty cut and dry to me.”

  I glanced at Sam and then Cece before looking back at Kayleigh. “So you think she killed Vernon to stop him from finding out she stole some cheapo massage oils many years ago?”

  “You’re doubting my logic?”

  “It does seem like a bit of an extreme reason to kill someone, yes.”

  “Listen, Monica is a thief. If she’d been hiding all this, what else could she be hiding? Why not her being a murderer too?”

  “It’s a jump to go from shoplifting some oils to murder. I mean, it’s something that’d get you’d slapped with a week in jail, if that, versus a lifetime, or well, worse than that.”

  “Think what you will. It’s her. She’s the only one among us who has a shady history. It’s so obvious. Why isn’t she arrested already?”

  “I need more than that.”

  Kayleigh finished off her plate and stood. “Too bad. I got nothing else for you. I don’t have a lot of faith in you settling this if you miss what’s right in front of your nose.”

  She stormed away, seemingly insulted that I didn’t agree with her wild accusation.

  “Really wish people would take their plate to the trash,” Cece said, staring at her empty dish. “I know it’s meant to be a vacation and all that, but it feels rude to expect someone to clean up for you.”

  Sam crossed her arms. “That’s literally your job, Cece.”

  “It is, but I don’t want to do more of it. Think how much less time I could spend working if everyone pitched in and did their part.”

  I was focused on things more important than slightly decreasing Cece’s workload.

  “She seemed really, really insistent on pinning the blame on Monica.”

  Cece tapped the table a bit. “Strikes you as suspicious?”

  “I understand holding a grudge against someone. I understand not caring what happens to them. But to try to pin a murder on someone for something so apparently minor? It seems pretty suspicious to me.”

  Sam laughed as she said her words. “You think she and Monica were fighting over Vernon and she’s annoyed that Monica won her man?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. The only thing that I got from all of that was that Kayleigh wasn’t being totally honest with me and has plenty more that she’s hiding.”

  Cece nodded. “That woman does rub me the wrong way. Like, hairs on my neck prickling up.”

  “Your gut thinks it’s Kayleigh?”

  Sam nudged me. “I know what you’re thinking: she seems like the type who could be driven to kill. And I know you’re going to go and talk to her some more, but you need to be careful around her.”

  “Sam, this isn’t my first time chasing after murderers. It’s inadvertently becoming my specialty.”

  Cece looked at me seriously. “Please just humor Sam and promise not to be around her alone. For as haughty as she is, she probably would think nothing of taking out a nosy social media girl after she’s dealt with an almost billionaire CEO.”

  Both of them were just telling me in the most roundabout ways to not put myself in harm’s way.

  I did know that if I wanted to get to the bottom of this, I would have to learn more about Kayleigh. Even after that discussion with her, she struck me as a major missing piece of the puzzle.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  Having to work as a back-up liaison to Sam turned out to be a pretty easy job. These people weren’t as needy as some of our previous passengers had been, and there being a whole lot less of them only made things even easier.

  This worked out for me in finding time for my more unofficial duties.

  It was nice that my personal cabin for this trip was in the VIP section too. I could spy on all the potential suspects complete with the excuse that I was just on my way to my room if I got caught.

  Right then, I was feigning indecision, wandering the halls a bit before being drawn toward the sounds of movement.

  It led me to a wide-open door, and I took the opportunity to poke in to see what was going on.

  Despite hyping myself up as a master spy, I still nearly jumped out of my sandals when a man called out to me.

  “Holly?” It was John Heaven.

  “No. Just me, Addy.”

  “Just as well. You can come in.”

  Usually, I wouldn’t accept an invitation from people who had been rude to me in the past, but I figured I needed to find information wherever I could.

  John was sitting at the edge of the bed, exhausted and defeated-looking. “I wanted to apologize about how I’ve been acting recently. It’s been tense lately, and the whole Vernon thing has been screwing with me.”

  I smiled. “Holly gave you a tongue lashing about our conversation earlier, didn’t she?”

  “That’s part of the reason. Really. I’ve come to the conclusion that I have nothing to hide. You know my grudge, and you know my daughter. I figure there’s no point being evasive with you any longer.”

  “So you’re willing to answer some questions?”

  “I suppose so.”

  I had already talked to John a good deal, but there was a lot I still could glean from him. Mainly about one individual. “So… right now I’m trying to find out more about Kayleigh Wing.”

  “Hah!” he said, suddenly and all too loudly.

  “What? Why is that funny?”

  “You’re on the wrong end of that lead.”

  “She sat down with me and gave me the most ridiculous story of why she thinks Monica is the one who did it.”

  He waved his hand at me dismissively. “You’re approaching it wrong. The LightningBlossom executives as a whole aren’t th
e biggest fans of Monica. But to try to flip it and say that it was Kayleigh that did it is a tad ridiculous to me. Maybe she was trying to weaponize you against Monica, but it wasn’t because she killed Vernon.”

  “You seem so convinced.”

  “There’s no way it was Kayleigh. I am certain of that.”

  I scowled. “Why, then?”

  “Because Kayleigh was sweet on Vernon.”

  My only response was a wide-eyed surprise.

  “That’s why she’s so out to get to Monica. Sure, the rest of us don’t like Monica, but it’s nothing like the jealousy Kayleigh feels toward Monica.”

  “Monica was after Vernon too?”

  “I don’t know if she was, but she may well have been. Vernon was taking her advice all the time. She was pushing him more into his eastern stuff, and he was deep in it already. It did little to raise her stock with the rest of us, but Kayleigh? A company masseuse taking her man? She breathed pure hatred at her. If we were talking about Monica’s murder, then yes, it was Kayleigh. But Vernon? No.”

  I tapped my chin as I considered his words. “You don’t think it was a lover’s quarrel? Or maybe Kayleigh killed him in a ‘if she couldn’t have him, no one could’ move?”

  John shook his head decisively. “No. If Vernon had shown any romantic interest in Monica, then maybe, but Vernon wasn’t a romantic in any sense.”

  “He wasn’t interested in either of them?” It wasn’t like Kayleigh or Monica were horribly ugly by any stretch. By any objective measure, both were attractive women.

  “Vernon’s mystical nonsense made him say he was above romantic relationships. That he didn’t need such a bond in his day-to-day life, that he was married to his spirituality.”

  “I’ve heard of being married to abstract concepts before, but how do you marry your own spirituality?”

  John threw his hands up. “I don’t know, kid. If you ask me, Vernon did one too many things that the law wouldn’t approve of. Given his wealth would prevent any trouble, I doubt he had any deterrent from going deeper into his experiments.”