A Cuppa Cruise Conundrum: A Cozy Mystery (Sweet Home Mystery Series Book 7)

by Constance Barker

  Finally the captain smiled charmingly at me. His entire demeanor changed as he touched my shoulder and nodded. "For the bride to be, of course."

  He shot Alec a glare before he disappeared out the door.

  Alec let out a loud breath.

  When the Captain poked his head back in Alec started. Fredericks ignored the boy this time and focused on Eli.

  "I have the security footage if you want to see it. Doesn't show much. Toe on the Promenade deck alone at four in the morning. I scanned all the footage since we left. It also shows a teenager letting the boat go. I think it was probably a prank."

  "That's a dangerous prank," I said.

  "Yes, it is. If something happened and we needed that lifeboat it could be very dangerous. I'll keep looking for the teenager but the footage didn't give me a good look."

  "Thanks for letting me know," Eli said.

  The captain pulled the door closed again. At least Toe had an alibi. I saw the muscle in Eli's jaw twitch. I knew he wasn't pleased that the captain looked at the footage without him. Of course Eli could always go to the captain's office and look at it but there was no telling if the footage had been tampered with or not. If the person was trying to frame Toe and the captain confirmed Toe's alibi then I doubted the tapes had been messed with.

  With the captain gone Alec relaxed. He leaned back in his chair and smiled at us.

  "Eli, before we do this can I talk to you in the hallway?"

  "Sure."

  Chapter Eight

  “What’s up?” Eli asked.

  “Before we talked to him I wanted to tell you what I learned about Alec.”

  Eli nodded and waited for me to continue. I didn’t want to cloud his judgment about what kind of man Alec was but I thought he should have all the information possible before speaking to him.

  I filled him in about Alec cheating on Sarah and supposedly being violent. Even though Alec appeared afraid of the captain that didn’t mean the deckhand wasn’t a violent person. He might stick to picking on people he thought were weaker than he was. If what Sarah said was true. It was harder to tell with the crew since I didn’t know them like I knew most of the Sweet Home folks.

  “Good to know,” Eli said.

  Eli opened the door and held it for me as we went back into the room. Alec sat a little straighter in his chair and glared at me. His posture changed from frightened of the captain to disdain for me and I had no idea why.

  "Know everything now do you?" he asked me.

  "I had to speak to the officer outside," I said, reminding Alec of the fact that Eli was a police officer.

  "You have to hear my side of it man," Alec said to Eli.

  Eli took one of the chairs and sat facing Alec. I stood behind Eli closest to the door. The outburst of violence Sarah mentioned stuck in my head and I wanted to be out of the line of fire if Alec lost his temper. Which he seemed to only do with women. He was all smiles and buddy buddy with Eli.

  The deckhand looked at his hands and shoved the cut filled fists into his pockets. Cuts from what? Hitting someone? Or maybe something. If he'd damaged something on the ship there would be a repair request I was sure. But if he'd hit someone they might cover for him.

  "So tell me your side," Eli said.

  Alec huffed and shifted in his chair shooting me a scathing look. "I know what that lying little witch told you but she cheated on me!"

  "Is that right?" Eli asked.

  "Yes. More than once."

  "And you never cheated on her?" I asked.

  Alec rewarded me with another hostile look and a clenching of his jaw. I moved behind Eli a little more. Eli shifted in his chair so he was directly in front of me and he leaned closer to Alec.

  "Well, did you cheat on her?" Eli said.

  Alec looked down and pushed some dust around on the floor with the toe of his boot. "Only once. She cheated on me lots of times."

  "I see." Eli leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest.

  "I love her!"

  I shot Alec a questioning look and I heard Eli chuckle under his breath.

  "You love her? How old are you?"

  "Nineteen. What does age have to do with anything? I can fall in love at nineteen. Just because I'm a little young doesn't mean I don't love her."

  "Where did you meet? On the ship?"

  Alec nodded. "This was supposed to be a fun thing to do in my gap year. Figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I was going to tell her I decided to stay, learn the job, get my credentials."

  "But she cheated on you?" Eli asked.

  "Yes."

  "And that made you angry?"

  "Of course. Wouldn't you be angry if she cheated on you?" He pointed at me.

  Eli and I had no secrets and no reason to stray from each other. I couldn't imagine why someone would choose to be with someone and then cheat. If you weren't happy why not just leave? The few scandalous affairs in Sweet Home always left me perplexed.

  "I would be hurt and angry," Eli admitted.

  "See. So you can't believe everything Sarah says. Cheaters are liars."

  "So you're saying she's a liar?" Eli asked. "What has she lied about?"

  "I don't know what she said to you but she lied to me. If she can lie to me and make me believe it, why would she tell you the truth?"

  "You don't even know what we asked her."

  "What did you ask then?"

  "If Margery had any enemies. Remember the chef? Killed by someone on board this ship."

  Alec slumped into his chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "If she said the chef didn't have enemies she was probably right."

  "Okay, good. But then why would someone kill her? Maybe someone got angry that Sarah confided in Margery about a violent boyfriend?"

  "No way man! You can't pin this on me. I liked Margery. She's the one who told me who Sarah was cheating with."

  "And who was that?" I asked.

  I thought he might not tell us since I asked the question not Eli.

  "The captain."

  Really? Go on…

  "Help us understand, Alec. If the captain was cheating with Sarah why were you afraid of him? Wouldn't you be angry?"

  Alec retreated into himself, shifted his weight in the chair and avoided eye contact with us. Was there another reason the deckhand would fear the captain? Sure he ran the ship and could fire anyone but why would Alec worry about that?

  "You seem to be more worried about yourself than finding out what happened to Margery," Eli said.

  "I liked Margery but I don't want to get fired."

  "Fired for what?" I asked.

  Alec shot me a look that said, ya right, like I'd tell you. This kid was getting on my last nerve. I wanted to boot him from here to Havana.

  "Unless you've done something wrong he's not going to fire you. Have you done something wrong?" I asked.

  "I didn't kill Margery if that's what you're thinking. I had no reason to hurt her. She was tight with Sarah but she told me things too."

  "Are you covering for someone then? That's the only thing I can think of. Is that person worth getting in trouble for?"

  "Maybe."

  Finally we were getting somewhere. Getting information out of a sullen nineteen year old angry with his cheating girlfriend was like talking to a brick wall. Except I’d have a better conversation with the wall.

  "Mikey already told us he got drunk last night and had you take over."

  Alec's face relaxed now that the burden of keeping the engineer's secret had vanished.

  "He's a good guy. He was just upset about Toe being on board."

  At least Alec didn't say Toe's name like it was poison.

  "Why would he be so worried about that?" I asked. "Toe is an old boyfriend. They were just friends now."

  "You say just friends, Mikey says bed buddies."

  I gasped at the accusation. I knew Toe would not be dallying with Margery. Not after all the fuss at Christmas when two women liked him so much that
one ended up trying to kill the other. He didn't always see the way the senior ladies in Sweet Home looked at him but he wasn't about to make the mistake of gallivanting around. I was sure he only had eyes for Essie now. If we could just convince her to go out with him and label it a date. But baby steps. Okay…back to the sleuthing.

  "They were not seeing each other," I said.

  Alec shrugged that indifferent shrug of youth that drove one crazy with the lack of caring. I half expected him to come back with a "whatever". If he did, Eli would have to hold me back from whomping him a new one.

  "Well, Mikey thought she was cheating on him. If not that Toe guy than who?"

  Who indeed.

  "Is Mikey a violent drunk?" Eli asked.

  Alec shook his head. "I've never seen him hurt anyone."

  "Just because you haven't seen it doesn't mean he doesn't get violent."

  "He doesn't."

  "Then what is he like when he's been drinking?"

  Alec sat up straighter in his chair and stared at a piece of lint on his uniform, pushing it around with his finger before plucking it off and flicking it into the air.

  "Not violent, that's for sure. He told me he passed out."

  "So you don't know for sure where he was last night after he turned things over to you?" Eli asked.

  "Not technically. But he wouldn't kill Margery. I know that much."

  "If no one would kill her why is she dead?"

  Alec shrugged. His face hardened and I suspected we wouldn't get anything else out of him. Not that we'd learned much at all so far.

  If the gossip was right, almost every crewmember was having an affair with someone else while also seeing someone on the crew. How could they all work like that? How could they trust each other if they were wondering every day if the person working beside them was sleeping with their significant other? Even if it wasn't true, the rumors had to hurt. For such a supposedly tight knit group, there was a lot of figurative backstabbing.

  ***

  A little later Eli and I sat at a table poolside with Jules waiting for the rest of the gang to show up. Mr. And Mrs Carver were still guarding the hallway to our old cabins to make sure no one tried to disturb anything. Most of the other Sweet Home folks were enjoying the ship’s amenities.

  Essie, Hildie, Harvey and Toe showed up a few minutes later decked out in beachwear. I scooted over to make room for them at the table. While the guys sat Essie and Hildie went to the bar.

  “Did you find out anything?” Toe asked.

  The hopeful expression on his face made me want to spill everything we’d learned but it wouldn’t be fair to my aunts to start without them. Besides, I’d just have to start from the beginning because they wouldn’t want to miss out on any detail no matter how small.

  "We should wait until they get back to discuss anything," I said before anyone could start spilling the beans.

  “I hope you’re keeping me in suspense for good news,” Toe said.

  “Don’t worry. That’s all I’m saying until they get back.”

  I wanted to know everything each of them had found out. Jules had spent most of her time with Patrick on the bridge hopefully grilling him for information. Though I suspected there was less grilling and more cajoling. And probably a few kisses. It was nice to see her so happy about a guy. It had been a while since she'd dated anyone. Divorce could do that to you I guessed.

  She never complained about not having a man in her life and she was always happy about my relationship with Eli. She'd helped him plan his proposal. I'd been totally surprised that day. And I wanted her to be as happy as I was. Could she be that happy with a guy who was always sailing off somewhere? How much could she trust him? So far I hadn't heard any gossip about Patrick fooling around with anyone but that didn't mean he wasn't.

  I shoved the thoughts out of my head. Jules was a good judge of character and if she trusted him so would I. Until he gave me a reason not to.

  A few minutes later my aunts arrived back at the table carrying trays with coffee and muffins. My stomach grumbled at the sight of the chocolate chip muffins.

  We all took one and grabbed one of the steaming cups of coffee. I took a sip of the hot liquid and savored the caffeine. I didn't know how I was still awake after getting almost no sleep. Adrenaline was the only thing I could think of.

  Toe bit into his muffin and chewed thoughtfully. "Not as good as yours," he said to Essie.

  Essie actually blushed. Or maybe it was the sun burning her skin. That had to be it because Essie didn't blush when a man paid her a compliment.

  "You're just saying that," she said and swatted his arm playfully.

  "So what did everyone learn?" Hildie asked.

  Eli and I revealed what we'd found out from Mikey and Alec. I told everyone what else I'd learned from Sarah.

  "It was one of her own knives that killed her?" Jules asked.

  "That's the way it looks. Unless there's another knife missing somewhere. I doubt someone would have been able to smuggle one on board," I said.

  "We still don't know where the knife is. I doubt they would plant it in Toe's room now. Besides, we've had someone guarding the hall since it happened," Eli said.

  "Does her murder have anything to do with the musical beds?" I asked.

  "You think she was killed over an affair?" Harvey asked.

  "Maybe. Sarah was cheating on Alec with the captain. Margery was seeing Mikey but also someone else according to Alec. But maybe he threw that in there to throw suspicion somewhere else."

  "I can't keep it all straight. Who knew there would be this much scandal on such a small ship," Jules said.

  "Agreed. If Margery was seeing someone else besides the engineer, we need to confirm it was the captain," I said.

  There was no reason Alec would lie about who Margery was seeing that I knew of unless he was offering up Fredericks to shift suspicion from someone else. Himself perhaps? Sarah had said he was cheating on her but didn’t say who with. I dismissed the thought. If Alec was cheating he would be fooling around with someone closer to his own age.

  "Do you think she really did?" Toe asked.

  Toe knew her better than any of us, and if he found out it was in her nature to cheat how would that make him feel about his relationship with her? Had there been signs of cheating that he ignored? I didn't even know how serious they'd been. Maybe it was just a casual thing.

  "I don't know but Alec seemed to think she had."

  Jules perked up and it had nothing to do with the coffee she'd already finished drinking. "Spending the day with Patrick has been enlightening. I think Alec was telling the truth."

  We all turned to stare at Jules who grinned at the attention. "Patrick said the captain had numerous affairs. Not one or two. Numerous."

  That information perked me up. If two women on the same ship were sleeping with the captain, married captain, what were the chances that one of them would end up dead?

  Chapter Nine

  "Jules, think you can keep the captain on the bridge?" I asked.

  "I think so. Why? What are you going to do?"

  Eli speared me with a gaze. "Yes dear, what do you have planned?"

  "We are going to the captain's office to check those security tapes."

  "Ever wonder why they're called tapes when they're digital or DVD now?" Jules asked.

  I laughed. We all did. Tension had been building and it felt good to let it out. "Probably because they used to be tapes. Sounds better."

  "Okay, I'll keep him busy as long as I can but what if he insists on leaving?"

  "Send someone to warn us."

  "We'll do that," Essie said pointing to Hildie.

  "That sounds good," I said. "Now we just need to figure out a way to get in."

  "That's where I come in," Eli said. "Security knows I'm investigating the case with the captain. I'll tell them he sent me to get the footage."

  I felt like we should be in a huddle and yell break. Instead we all downed the r
est of our coffee, gobbled the rest of our muffin,s and split up to perform our tasks.

  A few minutes later Eli and I stood inside the captain's office trying to figure out where he'd put the security footage. The security guard had been more than happy to let us into the cabin when Eli told him it was part of the investigation and showed him his badge. It wasn't a lie. We just neglected to tell him the captain was a suspect.