Madison Johns - Agnes Barton 07 - High Seas Honeymoon

by Madison Johns

  “Are you talking about the one I left upstairs?”

  “Fine, it looks like you don’t have money on you to buy a hat, anyway.”

  “Don’t you have money on you, Eleanor?” Although she didn’t have her purse, I stared at her ample bosom. “You know, like in your bra?”

  “I’m not spending any money this soon. Besides, Mr. Wilson has us on a strict budget.”

  “Really? So the old man is controlling your purse strings. I never knew he had it in him.”

  “Well, there’s no sense in having to wire home for money. I’m sure his granddaughter Millicent wouldn’t appreciate that.”

  “Fine, let’s get this investigation going already.”

  Eleanor led the way and we gazed out to sea for a time until some of the passengers came back from the atrium. Since most of them were older, I half suspected that they also wanted to get away from that loud music. One particular woman wearing white sailor-type pants and a white shirt was red-faced, laughing from where she was standing by the handrail.

  I went over there, thinking about questioning her, until I overheard her say, “This is my eighth year on this cruise ship and it never gets old.”

  I turned in her direction now. “Eighth year, as in you go every year?”

  “No, dear. I live here.”

  “That must cost a fortune,” Eleanor blurted out.

  “One hundred and sixty four thousand a year, to be exact, but what great fun. I can eat to my heart’s content and dance every night. They have dance hosts, you know, for single ladies, or for when your husband doesn’t like to dance. Mine never did.”

  “I’ll have to keep that in mind,” Eleanor said. “I sure like to shake a tail feather.”

  The woman’s brown eyes lit up as she spoke and I admired her silver hair. “I don’t think I could do that much cruising, but your life sure sounds interesting,” I said politely.

  “I’m eighty-six and quite able bodied, so why not? My late husband took me on many cruises and told me never to stop. The way I see it, I’m living the life he would want me to have.”

  “Don’t you miss your family?”

  “Yes, and I visit them whenever I get back to Miami.” She began to whisper, “Actually, before I decided to live on a cruise ship, every time I came home to visit my family, they set me up to go out on another cruise. I knew right then and there that we both needed our space. Can’t blame grown children who are so busy with their families.”

  “Sounds like you have the best of the arrangement.” I laughed. “I’m Agnes and this is my friend, Eleanor.”

  “Nice to meet you girls. I’m Gloria Downey. Hopefully we can catch up later. I’m off to the casino now while most of the younger passengers are in the atrium. I, for one, don’t care for that style of music, do you?”

  “I don’t mind it a little, but not at this volume,” I said. “We’re here looking for my daughter. We’re actually on our honeymoon.”

  Gloria stared at Eleanor and then me, so I quickly added, “Our husbands are taking a nap.”

  “Don’t they always. It’s great to know people our age still get married.” She dabbed at an invisible tear. “It makes me miss my late husband all the more.” Gloria then turned on her heels, making way for the elevator.

  “Where would we ever be able to find Martha?” Eleanor asked.

  “Let’s check down there,” I pointed out. “She has to be here, somewhere.”

  “Living on a cruise ship? Can you imagine, Agnes?” Eleanor asked.

  “No, I can’t really. I don’t think I need that much excitement in my life.”

  We continued down the deck until we passed Leotyne Williams, who was standing under the overhang and out of the sun.

  “What are you doing here by yourself?” I asked.

  “Wondering what you two are up to. Where you two are, trouble isn’t far behind.”

  “H-How do you know about that? I mean, really?”

  Leotyne winced an eye in our direction, her version of a suspicious look. “If you girls need any help, I brought my crystal ball.”

  That’s all we needed, for Leotyne to tell us some clue that would not make a lick of sense to us, like always. I had better things to do then solve a riddle.

  We smiled and excused ourselves without commenting about the crystal ball reference, and continued down the deck, practically running headlong into a worried-looking blonde. “Are you okay, dear?” I asked.

  “I-I’m not sure where my friend is. I’m worried since she’s not the type to wander off.”

  This was a big red flag, could it possibly be that her friend was the one we found dead? “I’m sure she must be around somewhere. It’s a big ship.”

  “I-I know, you’re right.”

  “What is your friend’s name, in case I run across her?”

  “Kacey Crawford. She has long brown hair and has a habit of twirling it in her fingers. We’re here as part of a wedding party.”

  “You don’t say. And how many other bridesmaids are there?”

  “Actually, she is the maid of honor.”

  “I’m Agnes and I’d really like to help you find your friend. What’s your name, dear?”

  “Allie Cox. We’re from Dayton, Ohio. Let me show you where the other girls are.”

  Allie led us to a nervous-looking group of young ladies. These were the same ones who were quite happy not that long ago when we were down on this deck, speaking to Martha. She then introduced us to a redhead, who she said was the bride, Liz Busch.”

  “Are you related to any of the former presidents?” I asked with interest.

  “No, Busch like Busch beer. Or that’s how my dad always told us to tell people.” Liz laughed.

  Liz proceeded to introduce us to the rest of the wedding party. Raven Garret was a vivacious African American in a hot, red bikini and Penny Hodge was a demure-looking woman in a white, one-piece swimsuit.

  “This is Agnes, she wants to help us find our friend.”

  “Thank you. I just can’t understand where she might be,” Liz said.

  “Is Kacey the type of girl that would take off with anyone?”

  “Not at all. We agreed that we’d stay together.”

  “She did say that she wanted to change out of her swimsuit,” Raven said. “She was getting as red as a lobster.”

  “And what deck are you on?”

  “The fourth.”

  Hmm, she was on the fifth deck and not the fourth. “Was she speaking to anyone that you can remember?”

  “We spoke to plenty of other passengers,” Liz said. “But nobody struck me as odd, or someone that Kacey would meet up with. The ship has barely left port.”

  “Actually, I think we’re further out than we might think. And there’s nobody that would wish to harm her?” I immediately regretted asking that, as they stared wide-mouthed at me.

  “What my friend meant was, she didn’t have any problems at home that would cause her to become depressed enough to behave recklessly?” Eleanor asked.

  Liz’s eyes became quite round. “Oh, no. Nothing like that. Everyone loves Kacey.”

  “Do you happen to have a picture?” I asked.

  Phones appeared in the hands of the bridal party and when I inspected the photos, it was hard to tell if that was the woman we’d seen before or not.

  “We’ll keep an eye out in case we see her and we’ll be sure to tell her to contact you,” I said.

  “Thanks,” Liz said. “I’ve been planning this wedding for a year and I want to see it go off without a hitch. My father wasn’t too happy about the expense, but he didn’t want me to be disappointed.”

  “I hope I can meet your fiancé,” I said. “He’s one lucky man.”

  Liz slipped on a pair of sunglasses. “Thanks, but hopefully we can find something to eat. My sugar is feeling low.”

  “Don’t let us stop you,” Eleanor said. “It’s important not to let that sugar get too low.”

  Chapter Four
>
  Liz led the wedding party away and up the deck.

  “Earth to Agnes,” Eleanor said, as she waved a hand right in front of my face.

  “Would you stop doing that,” I said, batting it away.

  “I thought I lost you for a minute. What are you thinking?”

  “I wish I knew if their missing friend might be the woman we found upstairs. Hard to tell by those pictures.”

  “Well, she has dark hair like the woman on our deck.”

  “I know, but that’s hardly enough to go on. We’ll just keep our ears open and ask Martha for help.”

  Just then, Martha came sashaying toward us. “What are you old birds doing on my deck again? I thought we agreed to stay on our own decks unless we were downstairs eating.”

  “And miss seeing your shining face, Martha? You look a little sunburned already.”

  “So does that friend of yours. You should know by now not to let Eleanor out in direct sunlight for too long.”

  “That’s what I told her,” Eleanor said and smirked.

  “You so did not, but go ahead and blame me for everything like you have a wont to do.”

  “I was just kidding, Agnes. No need to get postal on me.”

  “If I was going—”

  “Go on your own deck if you want to argue. I have a headache.”

  “That music too loud for you, Martha?” I asked. “That’s a switch.”

  “I know. I’ll admit that it was a little too much even for me.” She frowned. “So, why do I get the feeling you want something from me?”

  “Because she does.” Eleanor laughed. “It seems that we’ve found—”

  “We aren’t sure just yet, Eleanor.” I softly elbowed her. “We just heard that wedding party on this deck has a missing matron of honor. Remember the group that was walking past the last time we were down here?”

  Martha pushed a lounge chair underneath the overhang and out of the sun, sitting down and pulling lotion out of her bag. “Oh, the Busch party. I met them earlier. Which one is missing?”

  “Kacey Crawford.”

  Martha pouted. “That’s too bad. I hope the girl didn’t get herself into any trouble.” She glanced around and then whispered, “She had some clown hanging all over her until she told him to get lost.”

  That got my attention. “What did he look like?”

  “Tall, dark, and creepy. I couldn’t help but notice he seemed to be following that wedding party and then singled Kacey out.”

  “So, you met the wedding party?”

  “Yes, but don’t ask me for specifics, I wasn’t paying that much attention. I couldn’t even tell you where there were from.”

  “Okay, well keep your ears open and let us know if she shows up or if you see anything else out of the way down here.”

  Martha chuckled now. “You want me to take part in your investigation, don’t you?”

  “We’re not on a case. I just couldn’t help but overhear a woman is possibly missing is all.”

  “It doesn’t bother me, but don’t leave me out of the loop. What’s really happening here, Mother?”

  Eleanor and I sidled up to Martha and I whispered, “We sort of found a body that disappeared before the security personnel came up to check it out.”

  “And you didn’t keep your eye on the deceased the entire time, like you usually do?”

  “No, we couldn’t.”

  “Someone on the stairwell came chasing after us and we hid in my room,” Eleanor said.

  Martha laughed. “Security must think that you’re off your rockers.”

  “That and the captain. Hopefully he’ll find something on the security tapes,” I said.

  “That seems unlikely. I mean, if I was someone who planned to commit a crime, I’d try to figure out a way to disable the cameras.”

  Martha sure mirrored my thoughts. “I’m not sure how I’ll find out if the cameras were disabled or not.”

  “Check them out.”

  “Can you come with us?”

  “No. I’m with the ladies of the Sunrise Side Lifelong Learning, don’t forget, but I’ll keep my ears open and if I hear about anymore missing passengers, I’ll give you a call.”

  “Thanks, Martha. We should be able to handle checking out the cameras, I hope.”

  We walked away and passed the other ladies of the group that Martha was with. Pearl and Ruby gave us dirty looks, but I tried not to let it get to me.

  “What’s up with them?” Eleanor asked. “They’re looking at us like we stole their men or something.”

  “Well, did you, Eleanor?”

  “Did I what?”

  “You know, you sort of had a habit of flirting with the husbands back in Tawas.”

  “Oh, great. I hope you’re not referring to Frank Alton, again. That’s old news. I never meant anything by it, really. I just enjoyed riling up Dorothy Alton.”

  I froze at the sight of a very familiar-looking couple coming off the elevator. “Do you see what I see, Eleanor?”

  “Yes, it’s Frank and Dorothy Alton, let’s run for it, before—”

  “Oh, Frank. Look who it is. Agnes and Eleanor.”

  Frank fiddled with his hearing aid now. “Wh-What did you say, Dorothy?”

  She pointed a boney finger at us. “Look, Frank.”

  Frank looked up and just shook his head. “So, that’s the reason you insisted that we go on this cruise.”

  “Well…” Dorothy began to pout, which always seemed to work with her husband. “I didn’t want to be the only one on a cruise. Not trying to be mean here, but Frank, you’re not much company with the way you keep that hearing aid turned down all the time.”

  “Nice to see you, Dorothy and Frank. Fancy meeting you here. You should catch up with Martha and the ladies from the Sunrise Side Lifelong Learning group. Why, Leotyne Williams is even here,” I said.

  Frank nudged Dorothy in the ribs. “You know, the group you got us kicked out of.”

  Dorothy turned on Frank. “I did not. I just made a few suggestions about how the group would be more fun.”

  “Denise is running the group just fine. You can’t just demand changes be made just to suit you.”

  “Frank, I didn’t mean to.”

  Eleanor and I snaked our way to the elevator while Dorothy and Frank were arguing, and by the time Dorothy noticed we were on the move, the elevator door had closed.

  “That was close,” I said. “I certainly didn’t want to be in their company for the rest of the day.”

  Eleanor grinned now. “I told you how much of a pest Dorothy can be at times.”

  “I thought you were just saying that because you didn’t get along with her.”

  “That’s changed sometime ago. If we run into her again, how about we give her something to do investigation-wise. That ought to keep them busy.”

  “She was helpful that one time, but let’s just hope we can duck away from them for most of the trip, anyway. I don’t mind having dinner with them on occasion, but we’ll never get anything done with them hanging around.”

  When the elevator stopped at the fifth deck and the doors opened, Andrew and Mr. Wilson were standing there.

  “I told you they didn’t go far,” Mr. Wilson whistled in his screechy voice.

  “So, where did you two sneak of to?” Andrew asked. “I missed waking up to your beautiful face.”

  I made my way up the hall to our room while Eleanor went into the room she shared with Wilson. I used the facilities and dabbed on a bit of lipstick, retrieving sunscreen from my purse and applying it.

  Andrew sat across from me the entire time with that questionable look on his face. “So, where were you really?”

  “Did you know Frank and Dorothy Alton are here? We just saw them on the fourth deck, you know, the one Martha is on,” I said, stalling.

  “With that group from Tawas?”

  “No. I think they came here solo.”

  “And you’ll have me believe you were just visitin
g Martha on her deck?”

  “Exactly. You can go down there and ask her if you like, but you should be able to trust me more than that.”

  “I should is right, but I just know you’re up to something.”

  There was a knock on the door and Andrew answered it. Eleanor and Wilson ushered themselves in and he sat down. Mr. Wilson was using his walker now.

  “What’s going on?” Eleanor asked. “You both look like you were in the middle of something.”

  “We were. I don’t suppose you’ll fess up about what you two are up to?” Andrew asked.

  Eleanor stared at me and shrugged. “Agnes, tell him.”

  “Eleanor!” I shouted. “You promised.”

  “I didn’t exactly promise anything. It will make me feel bad keeping secrets from our new husbands.”

  Mr. Wilson just shook his head. “You shouldn’t act shocked, Andrew. You should know how our gals are.”

  Andrew sighed. “Somehow, I think I need to take a seat, too,” he said, as he plopped down on the bed. “Just tell me. I promise not to overreact.”

  I wish I could believe Andrew, but I knew him all too well. “Fine, Eleanor and I found a body on this deck at the end of the hall earlier.”

  “But when I checked to see if someone was on the stairs, I was sure someone was coming after us, so Agnes and I took shelter in our room. Luckily, he didn’t catch up to us.”

  Andrew groaned. “Did you actually see someone on the stairs?”

  “No, but I heard something that sounded like footsteps.”

  “And it never occurred to you that plenty of people use the stairs, that whoever it was might not have been coming after you at all?”

  Eleanor’s mouth formed a big O. “I didn’t think about that. I guess I was a little nervous after we found the body that I panicked.”

  “And then?”

  “That’s when it gets strange,” I said. “I called downstairs and security came up.”

  “And Captain Hamilton, don’t forget, Agnes.”

  “Would you let me tell the story, Eleanor?”

  “Sorry, I was just trying to help. No reason to get cross with me.”

  “I’m sorry, Eleanor. I didn’t mean to. I’m just on edge now.”

  “Are you planning to tell me what happened when security came up?” Andrew asked.