The Cruise Connection by Peter Kerr

Author:Peter Kerr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Accent Press Ltd
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

A LITTLE LATER – IN THE SHIP’S ‘STARDUST LOUNGE’ …

When Bob finally got round to quizzing Andy Green about happenings aboard the Ostentania prior to and after Rab Dykes’s disappearance, a steady stream of passengers had started drifting two-by-two into the Stardust Lounge to take advantage of today’s ‘Happy Hour’ cocktail special. In thoughtful keeping with the ship’s current position off the Moroccan coast, the bargain concoction of the moment had been accorded the evocative name of Crème de Casablanca Casbah by its creator, head barman Pedro ‘Speedy’ Gonzales himself. Andy, chuffed to bits that he could remember the recipe, had been keen to divulge its secrets to Bob, but had only got as far as ‘date liqueur and soured camel’s milk’ when Bob’s still-delicate stomach prompted him to insist that the revelation be abruptly terminated.

Speedy, hot from boosting bingo booze sales in Crusoe’s Palace, was now entertaining the gathering clientele with a snappy mixology show of bottle-juggling at the other end of the bar. This allowed Andy Green an opportunity to devote his attention to what his real boss wanted to know about matters relating to his current undercover mission.

The first thing Bob asked him was how wee Rab Dykes had got on with other passengers.

Andy’s reply was that he’d never really noticed Rab all that much. He’d just been another face in the sea of faces that ebbed and flowed on the other side of the bar when it was busy. Not that Rab had been a particularly frequent visitor to the Stardust Lounge, anyway. There was always a hard core of regular barflies, who could be relied on to make nightly appearances, but Rab Dykes, like most passengers, had apparently preferred to spread his presence more equally of an evening about the rest of the ship’s various attractions. Andy’s main recollection of Rab Dykes was that he’d been a cheery, if fairly noisy, wee bloke, who seemed to mix easily and get along well with others.

Only once had Andy noticed Rab deviate from these apparently good-natured ways. That had been when an exchange of views about football with a group of other passengers had become a bit heated, as it inevitably does in bars as the night rolls on and the drinks flow faster. On this particular occasion, the cruise comedian, Lex ‘Laugh-a-Minute’ McGinn, had come into the lounge at the end of his late-night variety spot in the ship’s Neptune Theatre. Despite one of the standard terms of cruise-ship entertainers’ contracts being that they should never enter into public discussion with passengers on the taboo subjects of politics and religion, Lex McGinn had seen fit to do just that. The political and religious elements of the ensuing debate hadn’t been all that profound, as far as Andy could remember, although the sensitive subject of football had been skilfully annexed by the two main protagonists. For openers, McGinn had stated that all supporters of Glasgow Rangers were Union Jack-waving Proddie shites, with wee Rab

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