Cruise Ship Cozy Mysteries 05 - Cruise Conundrum by A.R. Winters

Author:A.R. Winters
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2019-06-04T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

Ethan and I met in the ship’s Italian restaurant for dinner. It was a cute little place, done up in a rustic style, with wagon wheels on the wall, bottles of wine for candleholders on the table, and the delicious aroma of garlic-infused food drifting throughout.

We scored a seat near the open plan kitchen, where we could see chefs inside rolling out fresh pasta before they cut and shaped it.

Another chef working as the pizza maker was rolling out his dough, throwing it in the air and building pizzas quicker than I can make cereal. An unfair comparison though, as I wasn’t a professional pourer of cereal.

When the chef was done with each pizza, he dropped it on the end of a long metal shovel and tossed them into the wood-burning pizza oven.

“How was your day?” I asked Ethan once we were seated and water had been poured.

“Oh, you know. There’s so much I’m supposed to be doing on the ship, but I have to keep handing certain duties off to other people, because of the—” Ethan lowered his voice and leaned in close to me, the piney scent of his woody aftershave hitting me pleasantly “—murder.”

I scanned the room, nervous, but no one else had heard him.

So far, the secret had been kept under wraps, but I worried for how long that would be the case.

I ran through the list of people who knew about it already. There were Sam and me, Ethan and Dr. Ryan, at least two security guards, and then Raina, Xavier, and Zara too who all knew about the death.

Oh, and of course we told Cece.

They say the only way two people can keep a secret is if one of them is dead, so with nine of us… I shuddered to think.

“You didn’t find anything else of interest in Andy’s room, then?”

That morning, Ethan and his team had returned to Andy’s cabin to conduct a thorough examination of the crime scene.

“Afraid not. There was no sign of struggle, and no incriminating evidence. Nothing. I think if we solve this one, it’s got to come from the people, not from physical clues.”

I nodded. “It seems to me that Xavier has the best reason. But Zara was out of her room at the time and seemed to have had the best opportunity. And of course I know Raina had a disagreement with Andy, but it was only over pictures. I couldn’t imagine it would lead to… what happened.”

“I know. I think we’re going to have to keep our ears open, and watch everyone very carefully. And it could be anyone else, too. While he wasn’t a major celebrity, a few people on board would’ve at least known of him, even if they hadn’t met him previously.”

We stopped talking for a moment when the waiter brought over a half bottle of wine, quickly followed by another waiter with our order of garlic bread, which we were going to share as a light appetizer.

“I love the garlic bread in here,” said Ethan, picking up a slice.

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