Cruise Ship Caper
Author: Tegan Maher
Date: 2019-01-16 05:00:00+00:00
Description: Sunshine, massages, and drinks with little umbrellas in them. That's what cruises are all about, right? Maybe, unless you're a witch with a habit of finding trouble. When Noelle and crew go on a cruise to celebrate the death of the town's biggest bully, they find themselves in the middle of a robbery gone awry. Can they help a new friend get her grandma's pearls - and her life - back before the ship gets back to port? This novella is set in the Witches of Keyhole Lake Mysteries series and falls right after book 1, though it can be read in any order.
Publisher: Magical Words Publishing

Table of Contents

© 2018 Tegan Maher

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Sweet Murder

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Other Books by Tegan Maher

About Tegan

© 2018 Tegan Maher

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, by any means electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system currently in use or yet to be devised.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual people, places, or institutions is entirely coincidental.

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CHAPTER ONE

––––––––

"HURRY UP, LADIES," Anna Mae said, shooing us toward the door of our stateroom. "The all-you-can-eat seafood buffet is open in the main dining room, and then there's a Dolly Parton look-alike contest with singin' and everything." She paused and grabbed an extra room keycard off the entry table and tucked it into her bra.

"You know," Coralee said, raising a brow into her floofy, bleach-blonde bangs, "we all have keycards. You now officially have three—one in your bra, one in your purse, and one in your shoe. Are you that worried about getting locked out?"

A scowl crossed Anna Mae's pixie face. "You can never be too careful. What if y'all lose yours? And my purse gets stolen? I'll still have two. One to give you, and one for me."

I wasn't about to argue with that logic. If it made her feel better to have a hard piece of plastic glued to her boob all night, who was I tell her she was being a worrywart? She'd just gone through an experience that had up-dumped her life, and if carrying extra keycards gave her some security, then she could plaster them to her butt cheeks and forehead for all I cared.

Hank, her husband of seventeen years, had just died, but if that's all that had happened, she'd have been fine. Better than when he was living, even. No, the death hadn't traumatized her. Finding out the disgusting pig had been ruining the lives of good people by ferreting out weaknesses and blackmailing them into poverty and nervous breakdowns had been what did it.

Of course, he'd been blackmailing some pretty powerful bad guys, too, so even after Anna Mae'd made restitution to all the good folks, she was still a wealthy woman. Between the leftover blackmail cash and the half-mil life insurance policy she'd been smart enough to take out on him, she wouldn't have to work another day in her life, though that wasn't her plan.

As a final middle finger to the man who’d tortured her and so many others for nearly two decades, she'd decided to use part of the money he'd hoarded so greedily to take all of us on a cruise. It would have killed him all over again had he been alive to see it, and that made all of us smile a little wider.

In addition to that, I'd witnessed him getting pulled to the inky blackness of his scarily-ever-after eternity, and that gave me even more reason to rejoice. I hadn't shared that with anybody yet, though. Well, except my Aunt Addy, and I'd only told her because she'd been nervous as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs every time a cross wind blew, afraid he was gonna pop back up as a ghost. That would have been awful, so I ended up confessing that I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt he was gone for good just to put her at ease.

I realize you may need a little more information, especially if this is the first you've ever heard of us. To catch you up, my Aunt Addy is a ghost. She'd passed several months before, but had decided to stay behind rather than move on because she was worried about leaving me and my kid sister, Shelby, alone.

Oh, and I'm a witch and so is my cousin Raeann, whom you'll meet in a minute. Coralee runs the local beauty parlor/information dissemination center, and Bobbie Sue’s my godmother, boss, and dear friend. Now you know the basics.

I gave a little smile as the door to our suite clicked shut and Anna Mae patted her cleavage just to make sure the card hadn't mysteriously disappeared in the three seconds it had taken to step across the threshold and into the hallway. Or passageway, I suppose, since we were on a ship.

Coralee sucked in a breath and tapped me on the shoulder when she turned around. The sun was setting over the ocean, and the brilliant pinks, purples, and oranges were breathtaking. We all stood grasping the railing, all-you-can-eat seafood forgotten, as we watched the sun sink below the horizon.

"Wow," Anna Mae said, her voice reverent. "I don't think I've ever seen anything so beautiful."

"Me either," I said, a trace of sadness washing over me when the top edge of the sun disappeared and the grey light of dusk settled over us.

"Holy cow!" Rae exclaimed, pointing to the water as a gusty saltwater breeze blew the edge of her floppy hat up. "Look—dolphins!"

Sure enough, three fins rolled out of the water, then one of them jumped. The ship had barely left port and I'd already witnessed two amazing sights. I glanced around at the awed faces of five of the people I loved most in this world and wouldn't have wished to be anywhere else in the universe right then.

We looked out over the water for a few more minutes, then Coralee's stomach rumbled.

"Sounds like that buffet is calling," she said, pushing away from the railing.

"I'm with you," Bobbie Sue said, her hair wisping around her face. "Let's go find some grub. I ain't had a bite to eat since breakfast this mornin'. My belly thinks my throat's been cut."

I grinned. She may have been wearing a cocktail dress, but she was still my Bobbie Sue.

We chatted on the way to the dining room, watching for more dolphins as we strolled. Halfway there, though, it was too dark to see anything other than the whitecaps created by the ship, so we turned our attention to the decor. We passed shops and two different pools before we finally saw a sign pointing us in the right direction.

Anna Mae pulled out a list of activities as we walked. "What do you ladies want to do most? We could have massages in the morning, or take a cooking class, or even hit the rock-climbing wall." She pointed to the map. "See? Right here, it has a whole list of things to do. We're on the ship all day tomorrow, so we have plenty of time to try a few different things."

I wasn't about to burst her bubble by telling her I was more interested in laying by the pool and doing nothing than I was in trying to squeeze in ten activities. She was, after all, the one who'd paid for it, not to mention the one who needed our support. Besides, I'd never had a massage and wanted to give that a shot. I hadn't had the smoothest sailing lately, either, pardon the pun, and could probably stand to have some knots worked out.

After all, in the course of a week, I'd had a man drop dead in front of me, then been accused of his murder only a few hours afterward. I'd found out how awful some of humanity actually was, and I'd met a great guy I could actually imagine caring about. I'd also had a life-altering windfall of cash that I needed to decide what to do with.

We'd all been through the wringer, and I figured if there was somebody who could rub all that away for a few hours, then I was in.

CHAPTER TWO

––––––––

A COUPLE HOURS LATER, we were sipping fruity cocktails and watching a movie poolside. We'd stopped briefly into the Dolly Parton gig, but were unimpressed and decided to skip out in favor of sitting under the stars to watch the latest action movie. Watching stuff blow up in IMAX against a starry backdrop was just about as good as it got, as far as I was concerned.

Cheri Lynn, the second ghost in our party and a girl I hadn't gotten to know until she'd recently died, sighed. "I've never seen a movie that looks that good."

"You've never been to an IMAX theater?" Raeann asked.

Our gypsy friend shook her head, her raven's-wing hair shimmering around her shoulders. "Nope. I barely had enough money to pay the bills, let alone drive to Eagle Gap to pay twenty bucks to watch a movie."

She'd had a hard row to hoe her entire life, and it was just settling in for me just how tough she'd had it. She'd been another of Hank's victims, but her cost had been much higher than any of ours; she'd lost her life.

"Well all that's changing now," Raeann said, tossing a handful of popcorn into her mouth.

The people behind us shushed us, and considering we were trapped on a boat in the middle of the ocean with them, I figured it was a good idea to play nice. After all, you never knew about people.

A woman in a red sarong strolled over. "Is this seat taken?" she whispered, and I could barely keep from gawking at the bling she was wearing. Diamonds dripped from her ears and adorned her fingers, and a triple strand of pearls with a huge teardrop pearl pendant glistened around her neck. If that ensemble was real, she was wearing more in jewelry than I made in ten years.

"Nope," Anna Mae said, barely taking her eyes off the screen, "Have a seat."

She did, then proceeded to do the one thing that irritated me most—attempted to engage in idle chitchat while we were trying to watch the movie. I did my best to politely convey that I was interested in the flick by answering her in monotone single syllables without taking my eyes off the screen, and she took the hint after a few minutes.

I was so engrossed in the movie that I didn't even notice she'd left until the closing credits rolled. I felt sorta guilty for blowing her off. She'd been by herself, so maybe she was alone with nobody to talk to. Still, a movie wasn't a meet-and-greet.

We decided to check out the several bars the ship offered, and were amazed a couple of times. One of them had tequila poured through an ice sculpture and another had floor-to-ceiling fish tanks, giving the place a surreal feel.

Anna Mae'd had the foresight to buy the drinks package for each of us, so I didn't even have to worry about how much anything cost. Of course, that also meant I was free to drink as much as I wanted, and those tropical drinks went down way smoother than was good for me. By the time we made it back to the room, it was a good thing Anna Mae'd slipped a card into her bra, because none of us were in any condition to dig for one in our bags.

She'd just slipped the card into the slot when some dude rudely rushed past, nearly knocking me over. "Hey, watch it!" Cheri Lynn barked, even though the guy probably couldn't see her. Shoot, he wouldn't have even if she'd been living, because he didn't even pause to look back.

"Jerk," Bobbie Sue muttered as we pushed into the suite and locked the door behind us.

Some people.

CHAPTER THREE

––––––––

MY HEAD FELT LIKE A yarn ball some cat had ripped apart and yakked on the night before. Thankfully, we'd come prepared with Raeann's hangover cure. She was an amazing earth witch and was a whiz at mixing just the right blends to cure what ailed you. That's one of the reasons her coffee shop, Brew4U did so well.

I squinted against the glare of sunshine streaming through the balcony doors, and my stomach rolled when the horizon dipped a little.

Rae was still asleep, so I pilfered through her bag until I found the tin that held the cure. By the time I had the water boiling, Anna Mae, Coralee, and Rae were all sitting around the kitchen bar looking as rough as I felt. Bobbie Sue didn't look quite so bad as she made the coffee, but she wasn't far ahead of us.

"Good morning, everybody!" Cheri Lynn chirped as she popped into sight. "Are y'all ready for a day of sun and fun?" She was wearing a bright yellow bikini underneath a wispy white wrap, along with a floppy hat and huge sunglasses. Apparently the group growl clued her in because she zipped it. At least until she realized what was going on.

"Oh, wow," she said. "Lightweights! Hungover, and it's only your first morning. I told you to pace yourselves!"

Addy popped in and gave a hoot when she saw us. "You five look like somethin' the cat dragged in."

Glancing at others, I couldn't even say anything, because she was right.

I poured us each a cup of the cure and handed them around. Even though Rae'd done her best to find a way to improve the flavor, it still tasted bitter and slightly fishy. I knew from experience to have something ready to chase it with, so I dropped an ice cube into my coffee so it wouldn't peel the skin off my tongue when I took a big swig.

By the time we finished our coffees, we were back to almost normal and ready to discuss the day. We made a second pot of coffee and took the carafe to the balcony.

"I say we start at the pool," I said, watching the water for more dolphins. "I'd love to just relax for a bit."

"Food first," Raeann said. "I'm starving, and I bet they have all the good exotic fruits like kiwis and papayas and fresh pineapple. And there's probably bacon, too."

Spoken like a true southern girl.

Anna Mae had the schedule out, running down it with her peach-tipped nail. "We can do the buffet breakfast, or there are a couple restaurants that are open. Oh, and there's a coffee shop if anybody's interested in that."

"Buffet," Bobbie Sue said. "That way we can try a little bit of everything. That spread last night was killer."

I groaned just thinking of it. I'd pigged out on lobster tails and scallops, and finished up with the dreamiest crème brulee I'd ever eaten. I'd almost taken a fork to the back of the hand when I'd tried to dip into Raeann's once I'd finished mine because it was so good.

"After that, what do y'all wanna do?" Anna Mae asked. "Pool or massage?"

"I don't know how I feel about a stranger rubbin' all over me," Bobbie Sue said, a look of misgiving on her face.

"I'm sorta with you on that one," I admitted, "but I say we try new things. After all, when are we gonna get the chance to do this again?"

She grumbled a little, but agreed.

"I get a massage every time I have to go to Atlanta to get supplies for the shop," Coralee said. "I was a little weirded out at first, too, but once you try it, you'll want one every week. Besides, Bobbie, you work hard. Now it's time to pamper yourself."

That was one of her biggest issues. She owns and runs the best barbecue joint in Georgia with her husband, Earl, and she rarely takes any time for herself. I know, because I work there and see how rundown she gets. She closes one day a week just so they can have some time to breathe, but even then, it wasn't uncommon to find her there doing paperwork. I did what I could when I could to help her out with that, but she needed a real manager, someone who had the time and energy to invest in the place. Someone who wanted to be there for the long haul. That wasn't me, especially now that I had options. Sarah, the other girl who worked there, was raising two small kids and going to the community college, so she wasn't a prime candidate, either.

"She's right," I said. "We're gonna do whatever we want this week. That's the entire reason we're here—we're settin' life aside for a while and spoilin' ourselves."

"Preach it, sister," Coralee said, raising her coffee mug. She was a little better at the whole treat yourself thing because she was hardwired a little differently than Bobbie Sue. She owned the local beauty salon, so she was sorta in that frame of mind all the time. Not to say she didn't work hard, but she believed in her product. Every woman should look her best in order to feel her best.

"Is it just me, or does everybody here seem rich?” Raeann asked. “I feel a little like Cinderella at the ball.”

I thought back to the diamonds dripping off the woman at the movie the night before, and then to all the folks in fancy dress at dinner. "No, it's not just you."

Bobbie Sue snorted. "Shoot, did it ever occur to you that half those folks probably looked at us and thought the same thing? I mean, we were dressed fancy, but ain't none of us hoity-toity rich folks. And even the ones out there who are, put their pants on the same way we do—one leg at a time."

"I know," I said, "but did you see the pearls and diamonds on that woman last night?"

"Sure I did," she replied. "Don't mean they were real, and even if they were, she sure didn't seem to be having a good time. It looked to me like she was lonely and lookin' for somebody to talk to. Money can't buy happiness, sweetie. It may prevent a lot of misery, but you can't buy real friends or a rich life."

That made me feel bad for blowing her off. "Yeah," I said. "You're right. She may have money, but we have each other." I realized what I said and how sickly sweet and cliche it sounded.

"Aww," Cheri Lynn said. "That was the sweetest thing anybody other than my grandmama ever said to me."

The sad part about that was that it was likely true. She hadn't had a good shake at life, and other than her grandma, she hadn't had any support system at all.

Raeann pushed to her feet and took one last look at the view before turning toward the glass doors to the suite. "Enough chatter then, ladies. It's time to eat, drink, and be merry."

"I do like the sound of that," Anna Mae said, following her inside.

I was the last one in, and slid the door shut behind me. While I was getting ready, somebody sighed behind me and I turned to see who it was. There was nothing there, though. I narrowed my eyes and stood still for a second, listening for any further sound. When none came, I shook it off. The ship made all kinds of weird sounds, so maybe that was it. Still, I cast another suspicious glance around the room before I left, and made a note to ask the others if they'd heard anything.

CHAPTER FOUR

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I WAS SURPRISED TO find the main dining room fairly busy since it was almost eleven, but then remembered everybody there was on vacation just like we were. No need to get up early, though there were no doubt plenty of early birds on board too. That made me glad there was a coffeepot in our room, because I needed plenty of caffeine before I could deal with a morning person. Raeann was one of those, but she knew me well enough to steer clear until I had my fix.

The buffet had a ginormous stack of bacon, as well as every other breakfast food known to man. For once, I loaded up on eggs, meat, and fruit rather than pastries and waffles, figuring I'd need something that would stick to my ribs in case we found something to do that didn't involve eating for a bit. I was the last back to the table and had just tucked in when the lady from the night before approached out table.

"Is this seat taken?" she asked, motioning to one of the three empty chairs at our table.

I glanced around the dining room and noted there were no empty tables and remembered what Bobbie Sue had said about her earlier. "Nope," I said, motioning to it. "Have a seat."

She smiled and put her plate on the table, then took a seat.

"I'm April," she said, giving the table a general sweep with her gaze. "April King. Thanks for letting me join you."

Anna Mae was, of course, the first to respond, then the rest of us introduced ourselves and settled into random chitchat as we ate.

"So you're all here together, then? No men?" April looked a little wistful as she absently played with the string of pearls around her neck.

"Yup," Anna Mae said. "This is a man-free vacation. These are my best friends on the planet, and we're celebrating my recent widowhood."

I smiled at the expression on April's face.

"Pardon?" she asked, apparently thinking she'd misunderstood.

"My husband was recently murdered," Anna Mae clarified. "And we're celebrating."

"Oh," she said. "I see." It was obvious she didn't, though. "Did you do it?"

That one was worth a genuine laugh. "No, she didn’t," I answered, unable to avoid taking it a little further. "But the person who did is a dear friend of ours. She did Anna Mae—and the rest of us, for that matter—a huge favor."

April tilted her head and studied each of us, then cast a surreptitious glance over both shoulders and leaned in. "How much does she charge?" she whispered.

Okay, I did not see that one coming and wasn't sure what to say.

Coralee, however, was a fast thinker. "That's what makes her such an amazing friend—she did if for free!"

"You guys are foolin' with me, right?" April asked, leaning back in the chair.

"Only sort of," Coralee said, swallowing the last bite of what had been a huge mountain of french toast. "We actually are celebrating her recent good luck, and our friend really did do it, but it's a little more complicated than that."

"Okay," April said, deflated. "I didn't figure it would be that easy."

The dejected look on her face was both comical and terrifying, at least until a voice boomed behind her. I looked up to see a large man carrying a heaping plate of food our direction.

"April!" he barked, scowling. "Why are you sitting with these ... women?" His nose curled as he passed a judgmental glance around the table.

April's face fell and color stained her cheeks. "There wasn't anywhere else to sit, and these ladies were kind enough to let me join them. I thought you were on conference calls."

"Well I was," he sneered. "After all, somebody has to earn the money. But I finished early so I could get something to eat."

Not so he could spend time with her or take in the sights, but because he was hungry. I was beginning to see why she was so interested in getting rid of him. He and Hank would have been besties. Or maybe he would have looked down on Hank, and Hank would have found a way to either use him or blackmail him. Still, they were two peas in a pod.

It turns out his name was Gerard, though in his one and only weak attempt at being sociable, he informed us we could just call him The King. Addy took serious affront to that. Where we were from, at least for women of her generation, there was only one King. And he wasn't it.

His disposition didn't improve much when we just responded with polite smiles. Bless Anna Mae's heart, she tried a couple times to make civil conversation, but even she gave up after the man only replied by grunting with his mouth full or saying something asinine.

April seemed sweet, though, so we all did our best to be polite when she'd ask questions about us or share a tidbit about herself. Turns out, they were from South Carolina and he had some sort of slick job in finance.

A waitress came by to collect our plates, and when she reached around to take one of Gerard's, he snapped at her. "Did I ask you to take that?"

"No, sir," the server replied, her cheeks flaming as she pulled her hand back. "But it was empty and I was just trying to keep your table clear for you. I'm sorry." I could tell from the fire snapping from her eyes that the apology cost her. I knew exactly what she was feeling, because I'd felt it myself.

I narrowed my eyes at him. Being a waitress—and a decent human being—myself, his attitude got my goat. Coralee and Bobbie Sue both opened their mouths to speak up, but I beat them to it.

"I'm not sure who you think you are, but stop being an ass," I said spooling up for a fight. Nothing ruffled my feathers faster than somebody who was rude to service staff, because the server's only choices were to take it or get fired. "She was just doing her job."

"Her job is to make sure I'm happy," he growled. Though he still had half a plate of food, he stood up so he towered over me. Too bad for him, I'd grown immune to that particular intimidation tactic after dealing with Hank for so long. Besides, I was a Flynn. I wasn't genetically hardwired to back down. I started to tell him a little more about himself, but was shocked when peace-loving Anna Mae spoke up.

"Her job doesn't involve taking flak from entitled bullies," my friend said, her face screwed into an expression I'm pretty sure would have backed a grizzly down. "I'd lay every dollar I have—and trust me, that's a lot of dollars—that she does more honest work in a week than you do in a year. Now sit down and let the girl take your plate! Or better yet, don't sit, just go!"

It wasn't until then that I remembered April. She was still sitting at the table, her face crimson with embarrassment. She was fingering her pearls again, and her eyes were downcast. I had to wonder why such a pretty woman would want to stay in a relationship with a man like that, then remembered Anna Mae's marriage. Hank had done what he could to keep her isolated, and she'd had nowhere to go and nobody to turn to.

The King was about to have an apoplectic fit. "C'mon, April. We're leaving," he said, curling his lip and tossing his napkin on the table. She stood and gave us an apologetic glance, then mouthed I'm sorry and followed him as he stormed out of the dining room.

CHAPTER FIVE

––––––––

AFTER EATING THE REST of our breakfast in peace, we decided to go for it on the massages. I was still a little weirded out by the idea, but the appeal overrode the anxiety. They were busy, so while Bobbie Sue and Coralee were getting their Swedish massages, Anna Mae, Raeann, and I got facials. I was relaxed and my mind was wandering when the noise from that morning popped into my head.

"Have either of you heard any weird noises in the suite?" I asked, moving my lips as little as possible to keep from cracking or smearing the charcoal gloop on my face.

"What do you mean noises?" Raeann mumbled.

Thankfully, our lives idled at what others would consider crazy, so I didn't worry that she'd think I was nuts. "I thought I heard somebody breathing behind me this morning, but when I turned around, nobody was there."

"Huh," she said. "Nope. You sure it wasn't just the AC kickin' on or somethin'?"

"Maybe," I said after giving it some thought. "I hadn't really thought of that."

"It could have been a breeze, too," the woman rubbing the gloop into my face said. "The wind isn't something most first-timers think about. The ship's airtight to a certain degree, but with the glass sliders and what not, it's easy for a gust to slip through the cracks. Plus, the ship creaks a little, then there's the water sounds. You'll hear all kinds of weird noises, but our security is tight. I wouldn't give it another thought."

"I guess you're right," I said, though I was almost certain it hadn't been the wind. Still, I couldn't rule it out, so as long as it remained a one-off, I was okay with it.

"So how are you doin', Anna Mae?" Rae asked a few minutes later, after our faces were rinsed and the girls slathered some type of clear conditioning mask that smelled like coconuts onto us. "You sure seem to be takin' all of this in stride, but are you really?"

I'd wondered the same thing, but figured she was probably either still a little shell shocked or really was just grateful he was gone.

"You know, Raeann," Anna Mae answered without opening her eyes, "now that you mention it, I do feel a little like a fish outta water. I mean, I spent all my adult life with him. I went straight from my parents' to Hank's. I've never lived on my own before. But I figure I'll be much happier livin' with Hank's money than I ever was livin' with him. Plus, I have you girls. And I may open a business, too. Somethin' to keep me busy."

I'd been wondering about that, and she'd mentioned it in passing. "What kind of business would you open?" I asked, trying to keep from touching an itchy spot on my face.

"I don't know," she said. "I love antiques, and we don't have an antique shop in Keyhole. That's been rollin' around in my head a little. I'd probably enjoy a used clothes boutique, too. I just love the giant Goodwill in Atlanta, but the one we have doesn't offer much."

Either one would suit her. For that matter, she was smart and bubbly; I had no doubt anything she did would be a success, and I said as much.

"Thanks, Noelle. That means a lot coming from you."

Just as the girls were rinsing our faces, Bobbie Sue and Coralee came out of the massage area. They both looked like happy, relaxed, wet noodles.

"What did you think?" I asked Bobbie.

She gave me a goofy grin. "I have no idea why I waited this long. From now on, I'm gonna go to Atlanta with Coralee when she goes up to get one, assumin' I can get away. That's gold."

I figured if she was okay with it, then I had nothing to worry about. Still, when I stepped into the room and they handed me a towel and asked me to take my clothes off, a shiver of anxiety skittered down my spine. It reminded me of an appointment with my girlie doctor, except this place had better decor and smelled like exotic oils. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to climb onto the table and put my face in the hole, or what, so I just sat on the edge and awaited further instructions.

My fears were ridiculous though. Ten seconds after she applied the oil and started the massage, I was in hog heaven.

When the half hour was up, all I wanted to do was go take a nap, so I was glad we'd slotted in pool time for the afternoon. That was likely all I'd be able to manage.

CHAPTER SIX

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ON OUR WAY TO THE POOL, we stopped and grabbed drinks. I decided to try the drink of the day, which still tasted mostly like the rumrunners I'd had the day before. I was okay with that, though I did make a note to myself to rein it in a little. Given I had a full day left ahead of me and it was ninety degrees, I figured it was best to pace myself if I didn't want to end up in bed before supper.

The ship had several pools, but we visited three of them before we found one that wasn't full of screaming kids. Not that I had anything against kids, but we were there to relax, and hanging out in an area full of squealing, splashing, crying, and flying pool toys didn't fit that criteria.

We found a great spot next to a nice little umbrella-covered table and spread out towels over the lounge chairs. We jumped into the pool to cool down, then settled in for a nice, peaceful afternoon.

After an hour or so, I realized we were missing somebody.

"Have you guys seen Cheri Lynn since this morning?" Addy'd popped in and out while we were eating and getting our massages, and was currently at the railing watching for dolphins. She'd never seen any before then, and they fascinated her. Cheri Lynn, however, had been gone since that morning. A little sliver of worry slid through me, though I had no idea why. It wasn’t like she could be abducted or hurt.

"Hmm," Coralee said without raising her head from the chair. "Now that you mention it, I haven't. She's probably off people-watching somewhere. You know how she loves to do that."

It was true; Cheri found joy in little things, and studying folks was one of her favorite pastimes. "You're probably right. I just sorta miss her."

"She does grow on you, doesn't she?" Bobbie Sue said. "Makes me wish I'd paid her more mind when she was livin'."

"I knew her," Coralee said, "and she was a different person then than she is now. Or maybe she just doesn't have to put on such a show now. She could be a real snot when she wanted to be."

"Yeah," I said, "but she did the right thing in the end. I have to wonder how much of what she put out there was just a defense mechanism."

Addy had floated back over and took a seat on the end of my lounge chair. "It's hard to tell. I knew her Grandma Tryphena, and she was a bit of an odd duck. Course, she had the sight, so she didn't like to be around folks much. Said their futures screamed at her whether she wanted them to or not, and it was easier to just avoid the hassle altogether."

Cheri Lynn and I hadn't gone to school together because she was a few years younger than me, but I couldn't remember ever seeing her out with friends. Her granny used to bring her to functions we had at the farm, but she'd always kinda stayed on the fringe. I'd thought she was weird, and the adult me was a little ticked at my child self for not trying to be nice to her. I shook it off.

"Well," I said, "she's one of us now, even if it did take longer than it should have. And none of that explains where she's at now." I thought back to the bikini she'd been wearing that morning. "She was excited to hit the pool."

"She'll be along," Raeann said, flipping over onto her belly. "Give the poor girl a break. She's on vacation just like we are. She can't get massages or eat, so if she found somethin' she likes doin', then I'm glad."

We fell silent, and the warmth of the sunshine and lap of the water lulled me into that soft place between sleep and wakefulness. I don't know how much time passed, but a shadow fell across my face, and I got that prickly feeling you get when somebody's in your bubble, or getting close to it. I cracked an eye open to see April staring down at us from a few feet away, chewing on her lip.

"Hi, April," I said, figuring if I acknowledged her, she'd be more apt to get out of my sun.

"Hey, Noelle, ladies," she said, then took a deep breath. "I'm really sorry about this morning. Gerard wasn't exactly on his best behavior."

Bobbie Sue snorted. "Honey, I seriously doubt Gerard has a best behavior setting. He don't strike me as a man who cares about what us little people think."

April sighed and sank onto the empty lounge beside me. "You're right. But I can still apologize for him, because I do have a best behavior setting, and he embarrassed the daylights out of me this morning. You ladies were being nice to me, and he was so rude. He's always so rude."

"Then why are you with him?" Rae asked. There was no accusation in her voice, just curiosity.

"Because I'm a wimp, that's why," she replied, lining up the edges of the folded towel in her lap. I recognized the nervous habit for what it was because my Aunt Beth lined things up when she was fretting about something. I pushed to a sitting position on my chair.

Anna Mae noticed too, and was quick to respond, probably because she'd walked in the same shoes for almost two decades. "Sweetie, you're not weak, but you may not be givin' yourself as much credit as you should." She glanced around at us. "My husband was as bad as they come. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but it isn't. He was a murderer. He took food from little kids and terrorized good people. And I sat by and watched him do it."

"Wait just a minute," Bobbie Sue said. "You didn't know the full extent of what he was doin'. And you couldn't have done anything about it even if you did."

Anna Mae held up a hand. "I knew enough. Not about the worst of it, no, but it's a burden I'll always carry, knowin' maybe I could have done somethin' but didn't."

I sighed and glanced at Addy, who moved to sit beside her. "Honey, you can't do that to yourself."

Of course, Anna Mae couldn't reply because April couldn't see Addy, but she lifted a shoulder and met April's gaze. "I'd be a hypocrite if I told you to find the strength to leave. But you do need to ask yourself if stayin' is really the best for you. You're the only one who can answer that."

April's fingers went to her throat, and I'd have bet money she was reaching for those pearls, but she wasn't wearing them. "Believe me, I've been asking myself that same question for a while now but—"

Whatever she was going to say was interrupted when a young woman dressed in ship attire rushed up to her.

"Mrs. King?" the girl said, out of breath.

"Yes?" April replied, her brow furrowed. Personally, I hoped the woman was there to tell her Mr. King had suffered a major coronary, but then took it back because I didn't want that kind of juju comin' back at me.

"There's been a robbery in your cabin, ma'am," the girl said after glancing around to make sure she wouldn't be overheard. "I'm sorry, but the captain sent out a ship-wide notice via our system along with your picture and asked that we find you and notify you. They're in your cabin now."

April looked between us and the girl, a strange expression on her face. I wondered if she'd hoped for the same news I had.

"Of course," she said. "Has my husband been notified?"

The woman nodded. "He was the one who discovered the theft," she said, "but that's all I know."

Panic streaked across April's face as her fingers went to her throat again. "Oh no," she said. "Grandma's pearls! They're all I have left of her." She turned to follow the girl, but then on impulse turned back toward me. "Will you come with me? I've never had anything like this happen to me, and you said at breakfast your boyfriend was a cop."

I started to say no, but Addy floated over and shooed me up. "Go on, now. She needs somebody, if for no other reason than moral support."

I sighed and cast a longing glance at the pool, then at my half-finished drink sitting on the little table, condensation running in rivulets down the sides of the plastic cup. "Of course I will," I said. "I'm sure everything will turn out just fine. After all, we're locked onto a ship. It's not like whatever was stolen can go far."

Unless of course it was stolen by some sea monster, I supposed. Then all bets were off.

CHAPTER SEVEN

––––––––

IF THE SHIP STAFF WAS trying to keep things quiet, they were fighting a lost cause. Gerard's angry voice boomed through the passageway and I cringed when a couple of haggard men rushed from the room, nearly bumping into us in their haste. The cabin was sheer chaos. Gerard was barking demands at somebody who had to have been the captain, based upon the hat, and a couple of servants were cleaning up broken glass.

April rushed forward, but I hung back to stay out of the way. Instead, I just watched. The poor captain was doing his best to soothe him, but was failing miserably. April tried three times to find out about her Grandma's pearls, but each time, he drowned her out with threats of lawsuits and other non-productive, arm-twisting crap.

After watching it go on for a couple minutes, I'd had enough. I put my fingers to my lips and let loose an ear-piercing whistle that I usually reserved for calling my horses. All eyes shot to me as silence settled.

"There, that's better," I said. Gerard opened his mouth and sucked in a breath to continue his tirade, but I muttered a couple words that zipped his lips and rendered him silent. Usually one or the other was sufficient, but I wasn't taking any chances. For heaven's sake, the man was about to beat his own gums to death and I, for one, was tired of hearing him. From the confused yet relieved look on the captain's face, I wasn't the only one.

"Now," I said, turning to April. "I believe you have some questions for the captain?"

She drew her brows down and tilted her head at her husband.

"Never mind him," I said waving her in the direction of the captain. Holy cow, this was like herding cats. "Just ask your questions."

"Thank you," she said. "Now, Captain, please explain to me what's going on here."

Relieved to finally be dealing with a rational person, the captain nodded. "Your husband called us to report a break-in. When we got here, we found the door damaged, a vase knocked over, and your husband ... in distress."

Distress, huh? That was a much more polite term than I would have been able to come up with. I supposed that's why he was the captain.

"Go on," I said, when his gaze slid back to Gerard, whose eyes had gone wide and just a tad crazy.

"Right," he said, turning back toward April. "He said he came back to the room to find the cabin wide open, along with the door to the safe."

The color drained from her face. "Was everything taken from it?"

"I'm afraid so, ma'am. And he says he forgot his wallet on the bed. That's why he came back to the room, and he says he's missing the card that unlocks the safe."

She sank into a chair, a faraway look on her face. I was afraid she was gonna pass out.

"My Grandma's pearls were in there," she said, tears filling her eyes. “A triple strand with a beautiful teardrop pearl pendant.”

Ah, the ones she’d had on the night before.

"Your husband said there were other jewels in there worth close to a million dollars."

She waved a hand, her eyes still a little out of focus. "Yeah, I suppose so. But he's got all that insured. My Grandma's pearls, though—they're irreplaceable."

The captain stepped forward and placed a hand on her arm. "I'm sorry. We're doing everything we can to find them, but I need to get back so I can institute protocol. We'll review footage and see if we caught anybody on film that didn't have a reason to be down here. That would be the best-case scenario."

"Of course, Captain. Please keep me informed."

The man took one final look at Gerard and hustled from the room like he was escaping from the loony bin.

Once he was gone, I went ahead and unzipped Gerard's lips and loosened up his voice box. It took me all of three seconds to wish I'd left him silent.

He cast me a withering look and turned to April. "While you were out gallivanting, somebody was robbing us blind."

She started to curl in on herself, but I was surprised to see her turn it around and square her shoulders, then put her finger in his face. "You mean, robbed [me blind. What did you lose—a couple watches you only wear to impress other rich people? Some cuff links you probably couldn't identify if you were asked to pick 'em out of a dozen others? I lost my grandma's pearls. So for once in your life, just suck it up. This isn't about you."

Wow. She'd done a much better job of silencing him without using a drop of magic than I ever could have.

"You ready, Noelle?" she asked, turning toward the door. "I've got some pearls to find."

I gave him a satisfied smirk and followed her into the passageway. As Addy'd pointed out, it wasn't like they could go far, so it was just a matter of finding them. Even though I was the least girly-girl woman I knew, even I understood what happened when you got between a girl and her pearls, especially if they were heirlooms. And I wasn't gonna miss that for the world now that my new friend had finally found her sea legs.

CHAPTER EIGHT

––––––––

YOU'D HAVE NEVER GUESSED we'd left when we made it back to the pool. The girls were exactly where we'd left them. The only difference was that the ice had melted in my drink and they all had fresh ones.

"Hey, sugar," Coralee said, taking the towel from her eyes and pushing up onto her elbows. "Did you two get everything all straightened out?"

"Not even close," I replied, then explained what had happened.

"Now we're waiting for the captain to review footage from the security cameras," April said. There's not really much to be done besides that."

Raeann pushed her sunglasses up on her head and squinted up at us. "So basically, you got nothin'."

I nodded. "Seems that way." I wished I could have used some magical mojo, but unfortunately, I didn't have that sort of juice and neither did Raeann. There were some problems not even magic would solve.

"So then, what?" Bobbie Sue asked. "We just have to hope somebody finds them? There has to be something we can do."

April heaved a sigh and dropped onto an empty lounge chair. "I've had those pearls since my sweet sixteen. My great-great-grandfather had them commissioned for my great-great-grandmother for their wedding day. My mama passed them on to me because she had her grandma's pearls. She said it was only fair that we both had a pair. Now it looks like the plan worked out because at least hers will still be passed down."

"Don't go givin' up yet," Rae said. “There's still a chance they'll turn up."

The same server who'd waited on us at breakfast swung by and asked if we wanted anything to drink. When she realized who we were, she paused.

"I recognize you ladies," she said, smiling. "Thanks for taking up for me this morning."  When her gaze landed on April, a brief scowl crossed her face before she plastered on the generic smile that was part of her uniform.

I stifled a smile because I'd done the same thing more times than I could count, but figured I'd make the situation a little better for her. After all, the day went much smoother when you liked the people you waited on.

"Katie," I said after a quick glance at her nametag, "Rest assured that April is nothing like her husband. She thinks he's a tool, too. I'm a server, too, so I felt your pain this morning."

She crinkled her brow and turned to April. "Then why on earth are you married to him?"

April barked out a dry laugh. "Believe me, honey, I ask myself the same question every time he opens his mouth. He wasn't like that when I married him." She paused and tilted her head, considering. "Or maybe he was, and I mistook arrogance for confidence. At any rate, I'm sorry for how he treated you."

"Thank you," Katie replied. "I was serving in the dining room last night. I brought your food out to you, and couldn't help but admire the pearls you were wearing. I was going to say something when I cleared the table, but then things went kinda sideways."

April frowned. "Thanks. They were my grandmother's." She looked up at Katie. "I assume you've heard of the robbery."

It only took the girl a couple seconds to connect the dots. "Oh no! That was you?"

I knew firsthand that nothing ever stayed a secret in a restaurant, or any other workplace for that matter, so I figured we had a gift horse standing right in front of us. "It was. And it kills me, because we know they're on this ship somewhere. Have you heard any theories, or is there anybody you think may have done it?"

"No, but I know who didn't do it. The guy they're accusing."

"They're accusing somebody already?" Coralee asked. "That was quick."

"Yeah, well it only takes ten minutes to go through an hour's worth of security tapes," Katie answered, "and bad news travels fast. The guy they're accusing didn't do it, though."

"Then who did?" I asked. "I know how it works. This is a big ship, but there are only what, a couple hundred employees? That's not that many, and I'm willing to bet y'all are tight. You have to have your suspicions."

Her face flushed, and she reached down to pick up our empties. For a minute, I didn't think she was gonna say anything, but she did. "Like you said, we're like a family here. And even though we take loads of crap, we also make a boatload of money, pardon the pun. There's nobody on this crew who hasn't worked here for at least a few months. And besides, the first thing they do when something like this happens is search our quarters. It's in our contract."

I considered that. "Yeah, but there are a ton of places on this ship to hide a few pieces of jewelry. It would be stupid to hide it in your quarters."

She nodded. "There is, but trust me—none of the staff did it."

"Then why are they accusing this guy?" Bobbie Sue asked.

"Because," Katie said, scowling. "The guy's going through a rough patch. His girlfriend kicked him out because he's never there, and he just spent most of his cash bailing his brother out of some trouble. He needs cash, plus, he was the only one of us in that passageway during the time they say your cabin was robbed."

Raeann reached for her bag and pulled out a bag of chips. "So why do they think it was a member of the crew?” she asked, pulling the bag open. “There has to be at least a thousand people on this ship right now."

Her lips turned upwards in a sardonic smile. "Yeah, that's what we said, too. But apparently guests are above reproach, no offense."

"No," I said, "Actually I am offended, but on your behalf. Are they even going to look at anybody else?"

She shook her head. "I doubt it. His prints were in there, he was in the passageway, and he had motive."

"Yeah," I said, "but how did he get into the safe?"

"That's the kicker," Katie said. "Kevin—the guy they're accusing—was the King's room steward."

"Oh," April exclaimed. "The nice young man who showed us to our room and explained the ins and outs?"

Katie nodded. "Yes, ma'am. That was Kevin. He was filling in that day. Normally, he works in guest services, but his roommate was sick, so he covered for him."

"But just because he was the steward doesn't give him access to the safe, right?" Bobbie Sue asked. "How does that work, anyway? What happens if a guest loses the key? Is there a spare?"

Katie shook her head. "Some ships still use keys or pass codes, but ours is newer, and the safes in the staterooms are accessed using a card. Mr. King stopped Kevin in the hall yesterday and asked if he could get another key card because his wasn't working. They were right near the office, so Kevin told him he'd bring another right down." Her face clouded with anger. "The problem is, Mr. King says that conversation never took place, and the security cameras only show Kevin making a new card."

That was the final piece that snapped the picture into focus for me. "So the working theory is that Kevin made a new card, opened the safe and robbed it, then hid the jewelry somewhere?"

She nodded. "That about sums it up."

"I want to talk to him," I said. I couldn't magic a suspect out of thin air, but I did have a magical bullshit meter that was almost infallible.

CHAPTER NINE

––––––––

IT ONLY TOOK ME ABOUT two minutes to realize Kevin was telling the truth—he didn't do it. I didn't care if they had a mountain of circumstantial evidence against him—they were wrong. Which meant, if we wanted to find April's pearls and clear an innocent kid's name before he lost his job and went to jail, we were gonna have to do it ourselves. The problem was that we had no clue where to start.

The first thing I wanted to do was talk to the captain. I'd seen him when we were boarding and again at dinner the night before, but hadn't spoken with him. He seemed to be a congenial man, at least from a distance, and I was hoping he was reasonable, too.

"What do you know about the captain?" I asked Katie and Kevin.

Kevin was maybe twenty and had that farm-fresh feel, though he was well spoken and carried himself with dignity despite being accused of something he didn't do.

"He's a jerk," both of them answered together.

"But he seems so nice," Anna Mae said. "I talked to him for a bit last night when I was at the buffet. He asked if we were enjoying ourselves so far, and said if we needed anything at all, to let him know."

"Yeah," Katie said. "Translation: If any of my staff aren't kissing your butt, let me know and I'll make their lives a living hell."

That was ... angry. "He's that bad?" I asked.

"Worse," Katie replied. "Though I do have to say he's not big on micromanaging, and he leaves you alone as long as you're doing your job. But if you get a complaint, there are no excuses."

I knew better than anybody that customers weren't always right. As a matter of fact, people had become so entitled that it was hard to take legitimate complaints seriously because they were rare as hen's teeth. Nine times out of ten, people just wanted something for free.

"There's nowhere else to go right now," April said. "You ladies may as well go back to enjoying your vacation. The captain's searching rooms and said he'd let us know if he found anything."

"And I'm off this morning, and Kevin’s suspended," Katie said. "we'll start checking some of the common hidey-holes we have around here to see if somebody stashed them away. We know most of them."

Anna Mae and April had gone with me to talk to Kevin, but the rest of the girls had stayed poolside.

"I'm gonna go back to my cabin and try to take a nap," April said. "This whole thing has exhausted me, and I didn't sleep well." She huffed a breath out her nose and shook her head. "Gerard was on the phone half the night closing some big deal. I swear, I'd love to throw that phone overboard."

"I can’t say I blame you," I said, imagining how irritating it must be. "Good luck. Let us know if you find it."

She nodded and split off from us.

Anna Mae looped her arm through mine.

"You know," she said, "I brought you on vacation so you could actually relax. I know you want to help her, but really, what can you do that the captain and ship authorities can't?"

I sighed. "I know. I just feel bad for her. We don't have many heirlooms in our family, but I can't imagine how I'd feel if I lost the only part of Addy or my mother I had left. At least we tried."

"It's not necessarily over," she said. "Maybe Katie and her friends will find them stashed somewhere, or the captain will figure out who really did it."

"Regardless," I said, "It's a beautiful day and we have cool drinks and sunshine calling our names."

"We do," she said.

I'd just settled back on my pool lounger with another fruity drink to replace the one that had melted to nothing when Cheri Lynn popped in.

"Hey, y'all," she said, and I took the towel off my eyes and looked up at her. She was still wearing her yellow bikini ensemble.

"Hey yourself," I replied. "Where've you been all morning? We were starting to get worried about you."

Her face flushed a little and she broke eye contact. "Just floating around checkin' things out," she said. "You know, people watchin' and stuff."

Addy narrowed her eyes at her. "And stuff? What kinda stuff?"

Still avoiding eye contact, Cheri Lynn muttered, "Just ... stuff." She looked up and smiled. "So, what did y'all do this morning? Anything good? Did you get massages?"

Now I was suspicious. Cheri Lynn was always an open book, and she was like me—a bad liar who generally opted to evade the questions rather try to fib her way out of them.

"We did get massages, which you would have known if you hadn't been MIA all morning," Raeann said, propping herself up on her elbows and pushing her sunglasses up. "Now tell us what kinda stuff you're talkin' about. You're hiding something, so spill."

The pretty ghost pulled in a deep breath and huffed it out. "Fine. It's no big deal. I just found out me and Addy aren't the only living-impaired folks on board."

"Really?" my aunt said, floating closer to her. "How many others are there? I haven’t seen any of them, though that would explain the breathing Noelle thought she heard this morning. I wondered at the time if that was it."

Cheri Lynn lifted a shoulder. "I don't know. I've met four but didn't ask if there were more of them."

There was no reason for her to hide that. It's not like we didn't know ghosts existed, so I didn't understand why she'd been shady about it. Then it dawned on me. "Is one of them perhaps an attractive gentleman? About your age, maybe?"

"No," she scoffed. "He's a few years older than I am."

I grinned at her, and when she realized her mistake, she scowled at me, then gave us all the hairy eyeball. "Fine. I met a guy, and he seems nice. But I've known him all of four hours. Don't go gettin' all weird and scarin' him off."

Addy puffed up, her smile a mile wide. "When do we get to meet him?"

Cheri Lynn turned to her, brows raised in protest. "See? You're gettin' weird already, and he isn't even here. I swear, I wish I'da kept my mouth shut."

Coralee kept a straight face, but her blue eyes were twinkling. "Now sweetie, you know we only want what's best for you. We promise we'll be on our best behavior if you bring him around."

"That's the problem," Cheri Lynn muttered as she faded out. "Even your best behavior is scary."

I laughed, calling out to her, "It's only scary if he can't hack it!"

She replied, but what she said wasn't exactly ladylike. Or unearned, either, if I was being fair.

CHAPTER TEN

––––––––

WE LAZED AROUND FOR another hour until we got hungry again, then hit the buffet near the pool. I tried to keep it light, but just like with all buffets, even a little of this and a little of that added up.

"There are starvin' kids in Africa," Addy said, scowling at me when I set my half-full plate down and leaned back in my chair. "You dished it up, now you eat it."

"I can't," I said. "My eyes were bigger than my belly."

"At least wrap it up and take it back to the room. You can snack on it later."

I sighed, knowing it was useless to argue with her. Besides, she was right; the partial ham sub, potato salad, and chocolate cake would make a fantabulous midnight snack.

"I can't believe you went for a ham sandwich when there’s all that seafood available," Rae said, popping a cocktail shrimp into her mouth.

"I didn't skip the seafood," I replied, reaching over and snatching a shrimp off her plate. "I just ate it first, and the ham sandwich is what was left."

Bobbie Sue pushed her empty plate away and leaned back with a deep, contented breath. "I do have to say, it's nice to have somebody cookin' for me for a change."

She was a hard worker and rarely took a day off from the restaurant. Her husband Earl was the pit master and worked right alongside her, and I'd never seen two people put so much of themselves into a place.

Bobbie'd protested coming on the trip just because she didn't want to leave him stuck with the whole kit and kaboodle, but he'd insisted. Shelby, my little sister, had assured her that she'd help keep things running while we were away. Though she was only sixteen and could be a real pain, she was a good kid at heart and knew that restaurant inside out. I had faith she was pullin' her weight so Earl wasn't doing it all himself. Plus, Sarah was there, and she knew the place like the back of her hand.

"I'm glad you decided to come," Anna Mae said. "It wouldn't have been the same without you."

"I'm glad too," she said, adjusting her bathing suit top. "I never imagined coming on one of these, but I sure am having a good time so far."

Anna Mae laughed. "I don't think any of us ever planned on doing something like this, but here we are."

Coralee hmphed. "I don't know about you all, but I've planned on doing exactly this. It just wasn't in the cards for another few years."

"You're not the least bit worried about your shop?" Raeann asked. I'd had to pry her away from her coffeeshop, though that was a little different. Her business was new, and she didn't really have the cash to hire somebody. We'd twisted Shelby's arm into working there one day so that Angel, Rae's lone employee, could have a day off. Rae's mom, my Aunt Beth, was covering the admin side and, I imagined, happily working her butt off doing everything else, too.

"Nope," Coralee said, pulling the scrunchie from her wrist and twisting her bottle-blonde hair into a messy bun. "Alysse is perfectly capable. The only thing I have to worry about is Belle"—the previous owner and resident ghost—"bossing her into giving everybody a beehive. Belle kept the place runnin' for forty years before she kicked the bucket. I reckon between the two of them, they can keep it afloat for a week."

"I guess I'm gonna run back to the room to put this in the fridge," I said, cutting my eyes at Addy.

"We may as well all load up," Anna Mae said. "That way, we'll have somethin' to munch on when we get back. I wanna go see that comedy show tonight, then maybe hit the casino afterwards. What do you all think?"

We all agreed that was a plan, so we gathered our stuff and made another pass at the buffet, adding a bit more to our plates.

"They do have free room service round the clock, too," Rae said, shaking her head when I added another sandwich wedge to my pile. "So it's not like we're gonna starve."

"I know," I said. "But it's here. And besides, if I wake up hungry, I don't wanna have to wait."

We'd made it almost back to our rooms when the sunshine reflected off something shiny caught on the bottom rung of the railing that ran along the outer perimeter of the ship.

"Hold up," I said, squatting down to see what it was. It was a delicate gold chain, and when I unwrapped it and held it up to get a better look, my stomach sank to the floor. It had a gold nameplate that had a fancy, swirling monogram that said AK, and there were enough diamonds in it to choke a horse. Not little chips, but actual stones.

"AK. That's gotta be April's," Bobbie Sue said, stepping closer to peer at the chain. "The thief must have dropped it when he—or she—was escaping the scene."

Had the situation not been so serious, I would have smiled at her cop talk. She kept shows like Criminal Minds and NCIS running almost non-stop in the kitchen while she was working.

I leaned over the railing hoping to see a triple strand of pearls stuck somewhere else, but all I could see was a row of lifeboats.

Rae looked at me. "Are you thinking what I am?"

I nodded.

"Try it," she said. "You're better at summoning spells than I am, and I didn't pay particular attention to the pearls, so I can't picture them as well as you can."

I drew in a deep breath and looked around to make sure we were still alone. We were. Closing my eyes, I pictured the pearls around April's neck. The dull gleam, the way each one was shaped, the teardrop pendant, then I muttered a few words and held out my hand. The other girls had gathered at the railing and were looking over, waiting for something to happen. Nothing shot into my hand, but something was clanking several feet below us, near the lifeboats.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

––––––––

"THERE!" ANNA MAE SAID, pointing.

Sure enough, several feet below us, a strand of pearls was struggling to fly upward just as I'd coaxed it to do. Only it was tangled with something about halfway between us and the boats and couldn't break free.

"Stop," Addy said, then slipped overboard to go have a look.

She swooped up close to the necklace, then shook her head. "Call off the spell. They're gonna break if it keeps up."

I whispered a few words and the pearls stopped struggling; instead, they dangled from the piece of rope they were tangled in.

"So how do we get them?" Anna Mae asked.

Cheri Lynn had popped in while I was working the spell. "And how do we explain how we found them?" she added.

Lifting a shoulder, Bobbie Sue said, "Simple. Just tell the truth. Sort of. The best fibs are all rooted in truth anyway. Noelle saw the gold necklace, and we did the logical thing and looked overboard. We saw the pearls, end of story."

"Well we can't just leave 'em hanging there," Coralee said. One of us needs to stay here and keep an eye out in case they fall."

"We can do better than that," Raeann said, smiling. She muttered a few words and the pearls jumped to cling to the rope. "At least now they'll stay put," she said, glancing at me. "But one of us needs to be here to release the spell when somebody goes after them."

"All right then,” I said. “I've been to April’s room, but don't know the number. I'll go get her, since I'm the only one who knows where it's at."

"Wait," Bobbie Sue said, sticking out her arm to stop me. "Doesn't it seem odd that a robber dropped two extremely valuable pieces of his loot?"

"Well, I guess when you put it that way, yeah," said Anna Mae.

"I think somebody got rid of them on purpose," Bobbie told us.

"Gotta be," Addy said from over my shoulder. "There's no such thing as coincidence, and one necklace dropped on the deck and another falling overboard at the exact same place is too hinky."

Rae took her turn peering over the railing, then looked at me. "Wait, you think somebody chucked it all overboard? Why?" As soon as the words had left her mouth, I saw realization dawn.

"Because," Coralee said, "it's a lot harder to convert jewelry to full cash value than it is to file an insurance claim if it's stolen. I know, because when I lost my grandmother's diamond-and-ruby brooch, they cut a check without even checking anything other than the police report. And the appraisal was much higher than I’d have got if I’d pawned them or sold them."

I chewed on that, but it didn't seem reasonable that any insurance company would just hand over their money without so much as a second glance. "Not to say the brooch was anything less than priceless," I said, "but we're talking about a lump sum here that amounts to more than all of us make in ten years combined."

She shook her head. "Doesn't matter. It seems like a lot to us, but to the kind of insurance company we're talking about, losing that much money is barely a blip. A rounding error."

Addy had zipped back up and was hovering next to us. "Are you gonna stand there yappin' all day, or are you gonna go get the captain?"

"I was gonna go get April, but I guess you're right—we should get him instead." As bad as I hated to think it, April may have been the one to toss them. After all, I really didn't know her. My only problem was that I had no idea where to find the captain, and it was a massive ship.

"C'mon, ladies," Bobbie Sue said, apparently thinking the same thing I was. "We'll find somebody who works here, and they can help us track him down."

We lucked into running straight into Katie as soon as we made it back to the pool area. She'd just seen him and pointed us in the right direction. Thankfully, he wasn't far, because at that point, we'd practically run from where we'd found the necklaces all the way back to the pool, all of us still carrying plates of food covered with another plate turned upside down over it. I could only imagine how we must have looked to everybody else.

"Sir," Raeann called, but he didn't turn away from the tanned, chic people he was speaking to.

"Try Captain," Addy said, floating ahead of us. "That's likely as good as a first name to him. He's used to listening for it."

"Yeah," Cheri Lynn added. "He's pretty high and mighty about titles, from what I've heard."

I was in a rush, but my brain picked up that she hadn't been around for that conversation when we’d talked to Katie, so she must have heard it elsewhere.

"Who told you that?" I asked, and grinned despite the situation when her shimmery face went pink.

"His name is Rupert, if that's what you're diggin' for," she said, shooting me the stink eye.

"It was, thank you," Raeann said before I could respond. "I didn't ask, but only because Noelle beat me to it."

"Don't you have a robbery, or whatever, to solve?" she asked, scowling at us.

She was right. "Yes," I replied. "We'll revisit this when we have a minute."

"Of course we will," she said, brow raised. "Besides, I was gonna introduce y'all tonight anyway. He loves the casino and wants to play with somebody."

"Play with somebody?" I asked, confused. I held up my hand. "Nevermind. We'll talk later."

We'd almost reached the distinguished man responsible for running the ship. "Captain?" I called.

Addy was right. He turned around as soon as he heard it.

"Yes?" He looked back and forth between us and raised a brow at the droopy plates. He was tactful enough not to say anything, thankfully. "Is everything okay, ladies?"

I wobbled my head back and forth. "With us, yes, but look what I found on the way back to our room." I held up the necklace and he leaned closer to get a better look, his brow furrowed.

"AK?" His gaze darted back up to mine. "Where did you find that?"

"On the passageway deck, stuck on a railing post and dangling over the side," I said. "Maybe halfway between here and our cabin."

He raised his brows. "And that cabin is ..."

"Oh," I said, feeling a little silly. Of course he didn't know which room we were in; there were only a thousand or so on the ship. "Of course, I'm sorry. 8320—a suite stateroom."

"Also," Anna Mae said, "when we looked overboard, we thought we could see more stuck on the lifeboats below."

"Thank you," he said, holding out his hand for the necklace. "I'll take care of it."

Call me cynical, but just because he was the captain didn't mean I was going to hand over a necklace worth a kazillion dollars when I already knew whom it belonged to.

"That's okay," I said. "We were going to April's room anyway. I'm Noelle Flynn. If you'll recall, I was with her yesterday when you were speaking with the Kings in their room."

He gave me the side eye for a second. I figured he was weighing the benefits of causing a fuss to get the necklace from me. Diplomacy ruled the day. "Why don't we go together?"

That worked for me, so I nodded, then turned to the girls. "Do y'all wanna go back to the pool and wait on me, or are you coming with us?"

"Oh, we're coming with you," Cheri Lynn said. I couldn't exactly acknowledge her answer in front of the captain because he'd think I was a donut or two shy of a dozen for talking to thin air. Coralee saved me from that when she repeated what Cheri Lynn said. The other girls nodded in agreement.

"Lead on, Captain," I said. "We have a necklace to deliver."

On our way to April’s cabin, we showed him where we'd found it.

Bobbie Sue leaned over the railing and pointed toward where we knew the pearls were snagged. "And we think we saw something else hanging down there, but we're not positive."

His gaze tracked to where she was pointing and he squinted.

I couldn't see anything, but hoped he'd gloss over the fact that he couldn't either and investigate just in case. I got my wish.

"The boats are accessible, but I want to be there when they pull them in," he said.

I was glad at that point that I'd done the sticking spell because it would have sucked to find the pearls just to have them knocked into the ocean when crew members were trying to save it. Rae or I would have to be there when they pulled it in so we could release the spell, though.

"Since we found it, I'd love to be there when you do that," I said. "I'm dying to see if her grandma's pearls are there."

The captain's expression was troubled. "So am I, young lady. Though if they are, I'm afraid this is an even larger legal issue that it already was."

CHAPTER TWELVE

––––––––

APRIL AND I HAD EXCHANGED numbers earlier, so I called her before we went to her stateroom. I figured there were at least even odds she wasn't there considering how beautiful it was outside. Who'd go on a cruise just to sit in their suite?

We happened to catch her when she was changing clothes, though, and asked her to wait a few minutes.

"Hey, April," I said when she opened the door. "We have some good news." I held up her necklace.

She pulled in a big breath and her eyes widened as she reached out for it. "That's mine," she said. "Where'd you find it?" She looked from me to the captain. "Were my pearls with it?"

"There's a good chance they're in one of the lifeboats," I said. "This one caught my eye when the sun glinted on it." I explained how I'd found it, leaving out the part about trying to magic her pearls for obvious reasons. That wasn't exactly something I advertised. I liked life outside of a straitjacket, thank you very much.

"So we can go check the lifeboats right now?" she asked the captain when I was finished.

"Absolutely," he said. "Let me call security and have them meet us there. Is your husband here?"

April scoffed. "Not hardly. We were at the bar on the upper deck, and I couldn't put up with him anymore. It was like he didn't even care that our stuff was stolen." She shook her head. "Of course, it's no big deal to him. The only reason he has expensive stuff is to impress other rich people and lord his money over poor people."

She held her hand up, letting the blingy necklace swing from her fingers, and looked at it with her lip curled. "And to buy his way out of never being present. He thinks if he buys me expensive crap, he can just talk on his phone all the time and be as rude as he wants. He wasn’t that way when we got married. We weren't rich yet, and he wasn't a jerk, either."

The captain gave her a polite but neutral smile. "Money can change people."

Bobbie Sue huffed. "I don't know so much about that. I think people mostly are who they are. Crappy poor people just ain't got the luxury of bein' hateful whenever they wanna be like crappy rich people do. But give 'em a few extra bucks and watch what happens. All the polish flies right off the turd."

Now that got a genuine smile from the captain. "Well said, Madame." He turned to April. "Shall we?"

"We shall," she said, and stepped out into the hall. "Do you have any idea how it ended up there, Captain?"

He shook his head. "Not yet. We had a suspect, but no real evidence."

I shot a sideways glance at Anna Mae at his use of past tense. She raised a brow but didn't say anything, so I adjusted my backpack straps, then followed along with the group. As we strolled, I wondered when—or if—it was gonna occur to April that her husband may have chucked her granny's pearls overboard to collect the cash.

The more I thought about it, if I had to pick between Kevin and Gerard, dear ole Gerry was already in an orange suit, bribing his knuckle-dragging cellmate with cigarettes for protection. The man was a tool and deserved whatever he got, especially if he did something so low and hurtful.

Four younger guys wearing ship uniforms were waiting for us when we got to the spot, and the captain excused himself to go talk to them. While we waited, April turned to us, her face troubled. "Has it occurred to any of you that unless Poseidon's gone into the jewelry business, there's only one person who'd benefit from tossin' this stuff over the railing?" She pinched her lips together for a couple seconds. "Well, two people, I guess, if you count me."

I tried to take an unbiased look at her. I was decent at reading people when it came to picking the facts from the fiction, and I just didn't see her doing it. Maybe if she was the one holding the financial cards in the relationship, but that was unlikely. "I don't," I assured her. "Even if I didn't like you, I don't see how pitching your jewelry would directly benefit you."

She sighed. "No, it wouldn't. I didn't have a head for business when we got married, and Gerard was so much different back then." One corner of her mouth turned upward in a wry half-smile. "Believe it or not, The King used to go by Gerry and play poker with the boys in our basement. Of course, that was the old house, not the monstrosity we live in now, and they drank Bud Light rather than hundred-year-old scotch." Her eyes took on a faraway look. "I miss those days. I'd give back all the money to go back to them."

"Yeah," I said, dubious, "But do you think that would happen if you lost it all today?"

"Nope," Anna Mae answered for her. "Not to be brutal, but once they have a taste of it, there's no going back. For either of them. They're not the same people they were then."

"Sadly, she's probably right," April said. "He's not the same person, and taking away the money wouldn't change that. For that matter, neither am I. The rose-colored glasses broke a while ago. I don't care so much about the money, but I don't care for him much anymore, either."

The captain said something else to the men and they left, disappearing down the steps located just to our left. He turned back to us and gestured in the direction the men had gone. "We need to go down a floor to gain access to the lifeboats, but it won't be hard. They're just a few feet below the railing. Out of sight, so they don't disturb the view for guests, but easy to get to if we need them."

In the minute or two it took us to get to the spot one level beneath us, the guys had already brought up the boat and were tying it off on the railing. The pearls were still stuck on the rope, right as I'd left them. The men were peering inside the boat and one of them pointed.

"There," he said, pointing to the far side of the boat. "There's something shiny in that crease."

Bobbie Sue was the one to point out the pearls. "Lookie there!" she said, with the appropriate amount of surprise and excitement in her voice. "Your pearls!"

Anna Mae, who was the closest of us to them, reached out and I released the sticky spell as soon as her hands touched them. She pulled them off and handed them to April. "I believe these belong to you."

The immense relief on April's face chased away any remaining traces of doubt I may have had about her innocence. She looked at them in awe. "I didn't think I'd ever see them again.” She pulled Anna Mae into a hug, then did the same to Coralee, who was standing next to her. "Thank you, ladies. You don't know how much this means to me."

I fingered one of the charms hanging on my bracelet, the one Addy'd given me for my sixteenth birthday. I would have been devastated if I'd lost it.

"Some things are worth way more than money," Anna Mae told her.

"There's more than the pearls, though," the captain said, plucking a cuff link out of one of them men's hands. "It looks like about half of what your husband put on the incident report he filed with us is in the boat."

April waved him off. "I don't care about the rest of it. I got what’s important to me."

The captain looked at the diamond-studded man jewelry in his hand. "These aren't cheap though."

"No," April replied, "but they're not worth much either, at least to me." She clasped the pearls around her neck, then patted them. A cloud settled over her face and she frowned. "And I doubt my husband's going to be too excited to see them, either."

The captain pressed his lips together, but didn't say anything. Instead, he turned back toward the men. Two of them were holding the boat steady while two more of them had climbed inside the boat and were running their hands underneath the benches, butts in the air and showing way more moon than was necessary at that time of day in search of pieces that may have slid under them. They didn't find anything else, but the captain stopped them when they started to untie the boat.

"Please check the rest of the boats in this stack, too," he told them.

The one who had been loosening the boat from the railing wrapped the rope back around the hook that held it, then followed his coworkers.

April put her hand on his arm, stopping him. "Guys," she said loud enough for them all to hear her. "Thank you. I know you were just doing what you had to, but it meant a lot to me." She dug into her purse and pulled out her wallet, then pilfered through until she came to her cash. She handed each of them a C-note.

Looking from the bill in his hand to April, the youngest of them said, "Ma'am, you don't have to do that. It was our pleasure." The kid standing next to him shot him a look hot enough to sear the hair off the back of his neck, and I bit my lip to keep from smiling.

"Maybe I don't," she replied, "but it's nothing to me compared to getting my grandma's necklace back."

They thanked her and headed toward the stairs with a little more pep in their steps than they'd had a minute before. That was a nice little bonus they hadn't been expecting, and they hadn't had to do much for it. A win for everyone.

"Aww," Cheri Lynn said, hovering next to April. "That was super sweet of her. Most people wouldn't have thought to do it."

Since we couldn't respond out loud, we just nodded.

April turned to us. "You ladies wanna go to that comedy show with me? I've heard the food is great, and dinner's on me."

Bobbie Sue hooked her arm through April's, smiling. "You had us at free food."

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

––––––––

WE WENT BACK TO OUR room to change for dinner since it was in one of the dressy places. We had a half hour left before we were supposed to meet April, so we had a glass of wine on the balcony and batted around theories about how the jewelry'd gotten in the boat.

"As far as I'm concerned," Coralee said, taking a sip of wine, "it's a no-brainer. Gerard tossed ’em overboard but wasn't bright enough to look over."

"Or maybe he couldn't see," Anna Mae said, thoughtful. "What if he did it last night, but didn't sound the alarm until today?"

"That's an idea," Bobbie Sue agreed, and I could see the gears turning. "He wouldn't have done it in broad daylight. Too risky."

"Yeah," Coralee said, "But wouldn't April have caught him?"

"Not necessarily," Cheri Lynn said. "If you noticed, they aren't sleeping in the same bed. Two of them were rumpled, not just one."

I hadn't noticed that, but it would have made it a lot easier for him to sneak out.

Cheri Lynn, who look snappy in a little black dress—emphasis on little—hovered over a chair. She was adapting well to being a ghost, but said she felt weird floating above us, so she did her best to maintain living positions. "And it's almost impossible to prove, too. I mean, even if they have a record of when the safe was opened, all he has to do is say he was putting something in for the night."

Silence fell for a few minutes while we sipped our wine and enjoyed the view.

"Where's Addy?" Raeann asked. "She hasn't been around since this afternoon." Since she pointed it out, I realized she’d disappeared when we’d gone to get the captain.

Cheri Lynn waved a hand. "She's hangin' out with the other ghosts. There's a little group of older folks who've decided to retire on cruise ships now that they're no longer living and the kids have divvied up their homes and stuff." She frowned. "I feel bad for one of them, because she overheard her kids talking about her, and they didn't have the kindest things to say."

Raeann tilted her head. "What do a bunch of little old dead folks do for fun?"

Cheri Lynn giggled. "You'd be surprised. There's all kinds of eye candy if you haven't noticed, and let me tell you—some of those gals put construction workers to shame with their catcalls and comments."

"Hey," Coralee protested, "Buddy's a construction worker." Buddy was her long-term squeeze.

Cheri Lynn rolled her eyes. "You know what I mean. Not all of them are like that, but they're the most well-known for doing it just because they're visible."

That soothed Coralee's feathers.

"So that's all they do? Float around and give dirty little old men a run for their money?" Bobbie Sue asked, looking dubious. "That doesn't sound like Addy."

"Nah," Cheri Lynn said. "They don't do that much, actually, and there are men, too. It was just the one thing that jumped out at me as funny. They mostly play poker and gossip about what all they've seen on the ship." She pulled a face. "You wouldn't believe some of the stories they have to tell."

Coralee perked up at the mention of gossip. "I knew there had to be good drama on a ship. I just couldn't figure out how to tap into it. I'll get her to dish tonight, if she's around when we get in."

"Oh, she'll be around," Cheri Lynn said. "She wants to catch the comedy show."

"And what about your new flame?" Raeann asked. "Are you gonna introduce us?"

"Actually," she said, biting her bottom lip and looking a little unsure, "I was wondering if now's a good time. He's as anxious to meet you all as you are to meet him."

"Bring him on," Bobbie Sue said. "What are you waitin' for?"

Cheri took a deep breath and smoothed her dress. "Okay, Rupert, come on out."

A man that I could only describe as debonair appeared. He was wearing a tux and was handsome. If I had to guess, I'd say he was in his mid-thirties, or at least he was when he’d died. It was often hard to tell how old a living-impaired man was. Women were easy a lot of the time because they didn't tend to be too fashion-forward, especially if they were older.

Men, on the other hand, have worn basically the same thing for at least forty years. Once you got past the seventies, fashion all blurred together unless they had some kind of serious hang up like parachute pants or butterfly collars. But evening wear? Forget it. That hadn't changed in almost a century. Plus, many younger ghosts kept up with the times.

"Pleased to meet you, Rupert," I said. "So how long have you been on the ship?" That was my go-to way to at least narrow down the decade they died.

He smiled a little, and I figured he knew what I was doing. "Thirty years," he replied. "Give or take. I lose track. And I was thirty-eight when I died. I was on holiday with my brother and the shellfish killed me."

I turned a little green thinking of all the shrimp I'd eaten that morning. A quick glance at the rest of the crew told me their minds had gone the same way.

Rupert held up his hands. "No, no. It's not what you think. I was allergic, and the chef forgot. It was a bad day for him, but a horrible one for me. Though I do feel bad. The poor chap still carries it with him."

We chatted for a few more minutes, then the conversation turned to what we were gonna do that night after the show. Rupert had the most charming British accent, and was pleased to fill us in on what activities were good and which ones were best avoided.

"I'm still all for going to the casino," Coralee said, a gleam in her eye. That girl was a gambler at heart. She spent more on lottery tickets than I did on utilities, though I had to admit, she had better luck than anyone I'd ever met. She regularly hit them for a hundred bucks, and even five hundred or a thousand occasionally. I don't know if she broke even, but it was a good chunk of change to get all at once.

A grin spread across Rupert's face. "You, madam, are a woman after my own heart. Ms. Cheri Lynn said you liked to gamble. Would you mind if we joined you for a bit at the tables?"

"Not at all," Coralee replied, swirling the last drink of her wine before downing it. "I'd enjoy the company." She gave them a little side-eye. "Don't go tellin' me how to play my hands, though."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Rupert said. "Though if you wouldn't mind letting me play a hand or two vicariously, that would be most generous."

I'm sure he didn't mean to, but he gave her the same look a pup does when he's begging for a bite of your steak. Or the one Max, our talking donkey, gave me when I opened the liquor cabinet.

"I'm sure we can work something out," Coralee replied. "Scratching off my lottos will probably be at the top of things I miss the most when I finally punch my ticket, and I hope somebody will humor me, too."

"We do solemnly swear," Raeann said, holding up her right hand. "As long as you leave us the money to buy them for you."

"Wow," Rupert said, awestruck. "You group sure are tight. Not one of my friends could even see me, let alone play poker for me."

"Yeah," Cheri Lynn said, acting all nonchalant and cool. "That's just how we roll."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

––––––––

THE SHOW WAS FANTASTIC, at least until Gerard joined us. Thankfully, he was on the phone most of the time and at least had the manners to excuse himself when he got a call. Or at least he did after Bobbie Sue reminded him it was the polite thing to do. When the bill came, he got a little bent, though.

"Why is everything on one check, and why did they bring it to you?" he growled at April.

She scowled back at him and snatched the check from his hands. "Because they found my pearls, and I told them I'd buy them dinner as a thank you."

"If it's gonna be a problem," I said, my hackles raising a little, "we're grateful, April, but perfectly capable of paying our own way."

"I'm sure you are," she replied, glaring daggers at her husband as she signed the check with a flourish, "but I said dinner was on me, and I meant it."

Rather than argue, Gerard got up and left. He'd been taciturn during the brief periods he wasn't on his phone, so we were glad to see him go.

After we finished our desert, we walked together to the casino. Once there, we all split up. We each had our own games we liked, and we didn't want to be betting against each other in any case.

I caught sight of Coralee at the poker tables a while later when I was on my way from the slots to the blackjack tables. Rupert was watching over her shoulder, and when he said something, she raised a brow, glanced at her tablemates, and acknowledge whatever he’d said with a small nod. I don't know what they were doing, but they looked like they were having fun. I just hoped it wasn't the type that would get them booted out for cheating. The last thing we needed was to have her dragged out of the casino and into the mysterious back room, never to be seen or heard from again.

After I'd been playing for twenty minutes or so, I cast a glance over my shoulder because I felt a presence behind me. Cheri Lynn was hovering there, watching with interest. She had a quizzical look on her face as she watched him deal. I was holding nineteen, and started to hold my hand over my cards to stay.

"Hit it again," she said.

"What? No," I replied, and the dealer gave me an odd look.

"What do you want to do?" he asked, waiting with his hand on the deck.

"Do it," Cheri Lynn said. "Trust me."

"Hit me," I told him, hoping she was right. I was about out of my allotted funds for the night.

Sure enough, he dropped a deuce on top of my ten.

"Blackjack!" he said, then shoved a pile of chips my way.

"Told you," Cheri Lynn said.

Glad I'd gone with her hunch, I pushed a couple chips out for the next hand. She coached me through a few hands, and I won every one. I was starting to get the hairy eyeball from the dealer, so when Cheri Lynn told me to hold, I told him to hit me. I went bust, and gave him the self-deprecating, what are you gonna do shrug, then pretended to think about whether or not I wanted back in for a second before I stacked a couple more chips up for the buy-in.

I played a couple more hands following her "hunches," then started to get even more suspicious than the dealer. I couldn't say anything to her, so after winning a couple more hands then going against her advice and losing one, I pulled my chips toward me and left the table. It was time; I felt sure from the looks he was giving me that I was running short on time before he decided I was cheating somehow.

"How did you do that?" I asked, trying not to move my lips as we walked from the table to the bathroom.

She shrugged. "I don't know. It just all gathers in my head, and I know what's been played. It took me a few minutes to get the hang of it because he's using more than one deck, but it got easier the closer he got to the bottom."

I gave her a look of disbelief. I thought maybe she'd just been using a little of her psychic granny's juju. "You were counting cards?"

Lifting a shoulder, she said, "Sort of, I guess. It's not like I did it on purpose. I've always been extra good with math and numbers, and my mind sorta kept track without me even trying."

Yeah, it was definitely time to get away from the table. Though a couple hands at another table might not hurt. After all, it was for a good cause. I had a teenage sister to raise. And boots to buy.

We played six more hands at the next table. Since it took Cheri a couple hands to get in the groove, I won the first by my own gut, then lost the second and third, so it didn't look quite so fishy when we won the next four. I decided it was time to quit while I was substantially ahead and try my luck at the one-armed bandits. There was no way for me to rig those in my favor, so I figured I'd lose a little in them just because I'd won more than enough to call the night a success.

"You sure you don't want to play a little more?" Cheri Lynn asked with a longing glance back at the blackjack tables.

"Nah," I said, thinking back to my earlier fears of seeing Coralee hauled into the back room. "We better not. Is Rupert still hangin' out with Coralee?"

"Yeah," she said. "I'm glad. It's good to see him interacting with people who aren't dead. And I'm glad he's getting along with her."

I glanced at her and she blushed a little. "You really like him, don't you?"

She smiled that goofy, new-relationship smile. "I do. He's not like other guys I've been with. He's polite and treats me like I'm special."

My heart melted. "Aw, Cheri Lynn. You deserve that. They all should have treated you that way, because you are. That just speaks to what creeps they were. It has nothin' to do with you. You know that, right?"

She sighed. "In my head, I do, but it's hard to get my heart to believe it. He's convincing me, though."

"Is he interested in going back to Keyhole Lake?" I hated to see her get attached just to have him break it off when the ship pulled back into port.

"I don't know," she replied. "We haven't really talked about it. But I'm learning that distance isn't as big an issue for us as it is for you folks still wearing a body. We can pretty much close our eyes and go wherever we want to."

"Seriously?" I said, surprised. "I didn't know that."

"Me either," she said. "Not 'til Rupert and the rest of the crew explained it to me. It's how they go back and visit their families and friends whenever they want."

Well that was handy. "You'll have to explain that to Addy and Belle," I said.

"Addy already knows. She's been practicing all afternoon. She went home and checked on Shelby and Earl."

"No way," I said. "Is everybody doin' okay?"

"Of course. She said Shelby's doin' a fine job helpin' out, and Earl's trainin' an assistant. That's not goin' so well, but knowin' Earl, that's not really a shocker. Nobody'll ever be up to snuff on that grill as far as he’s concerned."

The casino was stuffy. Even with the AC going, there were so many bodies that the air felt heavy. There was a wide deck right outside, so I decided to go get some air.

"Look!" Cheri Lynn cried, excited, after we’d been at the railing for a few minutes. "Did you see that?"

I squinted and looked in the direction she was pointing. The moon was full, so it was easy to see. It took a few seconds of scanning the water before I caught movement. A fin sliced through the surface of the water, then a few feet further on, two dolphins jumped.

"Wow!" I said. "I wish I could catch that on film."

"Yeah," Cheri Lynn agreed. "You know, we really do need to do this more often."

"I wish," I said. "I could get used to this."

We stood in companionable silence for a few minutes, watching the water and admiring the stars. Without urban light, it seemed like there were a million of them, and they all seemed much closer than they did at home. The moon was huge, too. I knew it was just an illusion, but with the breeze ruffling my hair and drying the sweat from the back of my neck, I figured it was about as close to perfect as a night could get.

I thought of a pair of broad shoulders and laughing green eyes. The handsome new sheriff sure was a looker, and I figured I wouldn't mind if he was there with me. Of course, Cheri Lynn was good company too, and I was glad she'd decided to come with us. Maybe she'd finally found her own little slice of happiness.

The rough sound of a male voice barking orders at somebody shattered the moment, and I was irritated by the disruption.

"I don't care what you have to do," the voice said, condescension lacing his tone. "Do what I paid you to do; take care of it."

The man argued back and forth a couple times, and I peeked around the corner of the deck to make sure it was who I thought. Sure enough, Gerard was pacing, his tie askew and his hair rumpled. "I have to have that money when I get back. No excuses. My plan here fell through when a bunch of white-trash rednecks stuck their noses in."

Cheri Lynn's brows slammed together and she narrowed her eyes at him. She was uber defensive of all of us since we'd taken her under our wings. "He better not be talkin' about us," she said. He won't like me if he is."

She swooped over so she could hear him better, but she was wasting her time. His voice was clear as a bell when he said, "Kill him if you have to. I don't care. Just get it done."

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

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I TOOK SEVERAL STEPS back in the direction I'd come and pressed my back against the wall so he wouldn't be able to see me unless he walked all the way around to my side.

He'd gone silent after those words, but I didn't want to chance him finding out I'd overheard him. "Is he gone?" I hissed at Cheri Lynn, who was still peering around the corner.

She shook her head. "No. He's just standing against the railing, looking at the water. C'mon though. I love you, but I sure don't want you to join me on this side. You need to go back into the casino."

There was no way I was disagreeing with that, but I was still quite a distance from the doors. He could still come around and see me, and as soon as I'd thought it, that was exactly what happened. He curled his lip at me. It was a shame he was so ugly inside, because he was a handsome man. A bit of a paunch, but nothing too major. I bet before he'd gone to seed, he'd been a real looker.

"What are you doing here?" he demanded.

"It's a free country," I said, trying to pretend I hadn’t just heard him order a man killed. "I'm not rich like you, but I can still afford to pay for that view." I waved a hand toward the ocean. "And I'm gonna enjoy it wherever and whenever I want.”

I should have stopped at that and gone back inside, but of course my big mouth wouldn’t close once I’d opened it. “You just think you're all that. Get over yourself. You know as well as I do, you're the one who tossed that jewelry overboard. I'm guessing for the insurance money. I don't get it, seeing as you have more money than God almighty himself. And you know how much those pearls mean to April. Shame on you."

"Yeah," he snarled, all pretense of the niceties gone. "And I know how much they're worth to me if the insurance would have paid out on them like it was supposed to."

"So you admit you're the one that tossed them overboard?" I said. That wasn't good. Usually when the bad guy let the good guys in on the plan, it was because he was about to kill them. I backed away from him, drawing magic into my hands just in case.

He tilted his head and stared at me for a second, his face expressionless. When his face wasn't twisted in loathing or anger, I could see what April saw in him. Then a smirk slid into place and he turned one corner of his mouth up.

"Prove it," he said, then straightened his tie, smoothed his hair, and went back into the casino.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

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I LET OUT A BREATH I hadn't even realized I'd been holding.

"Can you believe he just said that?" Cheri Lynn said, doing a quick swoop toward the door he'd gone through. "He just confessed."

"Yeah," I said, "but he's right. I can't prove a thing. They have Kevin in their sites, and if Gerry Boy hollers loud enough, Kevin's toast."

"We can't let that happen." She continued to stare through the door after him.

"Let's get the rest of the girls and go back to the suite," I said. "We need to think of something."

"Should we tell April?"

I thought about it for a second. The guy I'd just been facing had sent shivers down my spine, and I didn't scare easily. "I don't think it's a good idea. She already has her suspicions, but if she confronts him, she may be what gets tossed overboard next."

She went and got Coralee, who was still hanging out with Rupert. They'd moved from the poker tables to the Texas hold ’em area. I tracked down Anna Mae and Bobbie Sue, who'd taken over two of the one-armed bandits and were cheering each other on. I called to Raeann through the psychic link we shared and gave her a rundown. She met us halfway across the floor and we all walked back to the room together. Given the circumstances, I thought it was best we moved as a group.

Once we were back in the room, I called for Addy. When she popped in, I explained to them what had happened.

"Are you kiddin' me?" Bobbie Sue said, a mixture of anger and surprise in her tone. "He actually admitted it?"

"He sure did."

"Then dared you to prove it," Coralee said, shaking her head. "That takes the cake."

"It does," I said, "but he's right. We can't prove it. Even if the security tapes show him leaving his room in the middle of the night, he can just say he went for air."

"I'd like to give him some air for threatening you," Addy growled. "Like the kind he'd get dangling over the keel by his ankles."

Rupert had been quiet, but when the chatter died down, he spoke up. "Are you talking about the chap that dined with you tonight?"

Cheri Lynn nodded. "Yup, that's him."

"And the issue you're discussing took place last night?"

"Far as we can tell," Bobbie Sue said. "We're not positive, but that's what makes the most sense."

"Follow me," he said. "I think I may have just what you need."

He led us all the way back to where we'd found the jewelry. "This is where it happened?"

"It is," I answered. "But I don't see what good that will do."

"Bear with me for just one moment." He swooped toward the railing and examined it, looking around the posts. "There," he said, motioning toward the outer side of one of the rails.

I leaned over, and there was a piece of fabric hooked on a screw. I wasn’t sure how we’d missed it before, other than we hadn’t been looking at the top railings. "What's that?" I asked, wondering how on earth it could be relevant.

"I love this deck because it's high enough to see all the good stuff,” he said, “but not so high you don't have a good view of the water. Just like you, I love watching the dolphins." He smiled. "I've been doing it for thirty years now. You'd think I'd get tired of it, but it never gets old." His smile faded. "Plus, when you die, a lot of things go through your head, and sometimes it's nice to have a quiet spot to think. This is one of the places I like to come to do that."

"That's all well and good, but what's it have to do with Gerard throwing the jewels overboard?" Bobbie Sue asked, then rolled her fingers. "Get to it if you have a point."

"I do," Rupert replied, and I felt sort of bad for him since he wasn't exactly seeing us at our best right then. "That is a scrap from Gerard King's night shirt. I was up here watching the water, and he came rushing out from that passage, looking left and right as if he didn't want to be seen. He leaned over the railing, tossed something overboard, then when he pulled his arm back, the sleeve of his shirt got snagged on that nail."

"But he can just say he was out for a walk, just like we said earlier," I told him, disappointed that we still couldn't connect the dots.

"Au contraire. We can connect him straight to it," he said, then motioned us over to the railing and pointed toward the stern of the ship. "See that camera all the way up toward the stern?"

I squinted, but didn't see anything at first. Then the ship rocked a little and moonlight glinted off the lens. "I see it."

"Well," he said, looking smug. "That camera is to monitor the lifeboats and give the captain a view down the outside of the ship. But as far as Mr. King leaned out to drop the jewelry—I assume that's what I saw him dump—the camera surely caught his arms and hands, and the jewelry."

"Then all we have to do is make the connection between the arms in the video, and the pajamas, which should have a tear in them, and we've got him," Raeann said, smiling. "Rupert, you sure do know how to make a good first impression."

He blushed scarlet, then took Cheri Lynn's hand. "I'm trying, because if I get my wish, you're all going to be seeing a lot of me."

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

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I PUSHED ASIDE THE umbrella in my Mai Tai and took a long pull through the bright-pink bendy straw, then set it down and leaned back into my lounge chair. The sun felt amazing on my face, and the cool ocean breeze tickled across my skin. Some guy playing a steel guitar on the other side of the pool started in on the first few bars of "It's Five O'Clock Somewhere," and I smiled.

The girls, including April, all lounged around me, and we all joined in when the guy started singing, belting out the lyrics like nobody else was listening, because as far as we were concerned, they weren't.

We'd gone straight to the captain first thing that morning, and it hadn't taken him twenty minutes to connect the dots. They'd skipped the whole need for a search warrant because April had gladly handed over the pajamas. Once they'd cuffed him, she'd given him a sound cuff of her own on the head for tossing her pearls overboard, then called her attorney and filed for divorce as soon as they'd hauled him away.

I pulled my sunglasses back down, adjusted the towel I was lying on, and closed my eyes. "So what are you gonna do now?" I asked her.

"I don't know," she said from the chair beside me. "I do know we're in financial trouble, so I guess I'm gonna have to figure that out before I can do much movin' forward. That’s why he was tryin’ to collect the insurance money."

"At least you won't be dealin' with The King while you're tryin' to clean up the mess," Anna Mae said. "Trust me, that makes everything easier. Course, mine died and yours is just in prison, but I'm guessin' it'll be a similar process. He ain't getting out any time soon."

"No," April replied. "He won't. Three counts of insurance fraud totaling over eight mil, and a count each of embezzling, kidnapping, and attempted murder when one of his guys figured it out and threatened to turn him in? Nope, he's out of the way for a good long while, if not forever."

"You know you always have a place with us," Bobbie Sue said from a couple chairs down.

"I do," April said, "And that means a lot. You all don't know how fortunate you are, having each other through thick and thin, no matter what."

The thing was, I knew exactly how fortunate I was. The sun was shining, Buffett was playing in the background, and I was on a luxury ship in the Caribbean with six of the best women I knew.

My luck couldn’t get any better than that.

<<<<>>>>

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I HOPE YOU ENJOYED reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. Keyhole Lake is one of my favorite fictional places on Earth, and I love visiting it in my imagination as often as I can. This book falls right after the first book in the Witches of Keyhole Lake series. If you’d like to read more about Noelle and crew, I’ve included the first chapter of Book 1, Sweet Murder, on the next page, so keep reading.

If you’d be kind enough to give me just another minute of your time to review Cruise Ship Caper, I’d be grateful. It helps other readers decide whether or not my books are for them.

Sweet Murder

Sneak Peek of Chapter 1

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USING THE HEM OF MY apron, I pulled the last batch of blueberry turnovers out of the oven and slid them onto the counter to cool. They were an even, golden brown, and a quick poke with a fork assured me the crust was light and flaky.

Perfect. The customers at Brew4U, my best friend and cousin Raeann's coffee shop, were going to eat them up. And that was good, because right now every few bucks mattered.

Speaking of money—I glanced at the clock on the microwave, and that cold, I’m-gonna-be-late feeling swept over me. As always, time had gotten away from me while I was baking; I only had about fifteen minutes to get to work. Panicked, I turned the oven off with a wave of my hand, then bolted into the laundry room and pulled my server's apron and work shirt out of the dryer. I changed into the tank top on my way through the living room, grabbed my purse, and bolted out the front door.

And nearly face-planted when I tripped over our miniature donkey, Max, who was napping at the bottom of the steps.

"Watch it, you big clod,” he snapped. “Maybe I shall kick you in the head the next time you’re napping." He yawned widely, taking most of the intimidation factor out of the threat.

"If I were sleeping at the bottom of the steps, I'd expect to get kicked in the head," I said over my shoulder as I recovered and headed toward Bessie, my faded blue, shabby-chic 1984 F-150. Yes, shabby-chic is code for "POS." Don't judge me; it's paid for.

And yes, the donkey talks, but we'll get to that a little later. Trust me—after you meet him, you'll be glad for the delay.

I slid into the truck, yelping and lifting my hips when the backs of my thighs hit the searing-hot cracked leather seat. I pushed my apron under my legs and settled back gingerly, then, with an encouraging pat to the dashboard, I cranked the key. Bessie coughed and wheezed a little, but surprised me yet again when she caught and roared to life. Another check in the win column for the day. I backed out of the yard and headed down the driveway to the main road, admiring the late-morning view.

Even with my window down, the temperature inside the truck was just this side of hellfire, so I reached across the seat and cranked the passenger window down, too. Midsummer in southern Georgia was brutal. The AC in the truck had gone out a few months back and, unfortunately, fixing it didn't even make the top twenty on the laundry list of priorities that demanded a chunk of my check.

Still, as I rumbled out of the yard and drove past the horses grazing in the pasture, I figured I didn’t have a whole lot to complain about in the scheme of things. No matter how many times I traveled our mile-long driveway, I never got tired of it. Ancient oak trees draped with Spanish moss lined both sides, forming a canopy of leaves and limbs, and small patches of sunlight dappled the shaded road.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I entered the tunnel of shade and the interior of the truck finally dropped below the melting point of flesh.

Just as I turned onto the main road, I spotted a couple of deer out of the corner of my eye. When I tapped the brakes in case they decided to run out in front of me, the pedal felt spongy. Since my house sat on an overlook outside of town, much of my drive was a steady, winding descent; brakes weren't exactly optional, so I tested them again.

I was coming up on the first of several hairpin turns, so when the pedal went clear to the floor, so did my heart. Cold fingers of panic raced down my spine as I stomped on it again, then a third time, to no avail. The truck picked up speed, and as I bounced and rattled toward my demise over potholes that now felt like craters, I had only one thought: How on earth was Raeann going to finish raising my hellion of a little sister without strangling her or hexing her into a convent?

You heard right—I said "hex." We're witches, which you’d think would have come in handy right about then. You'd be right, except I was too freaked out—and busy trying not to die—to pull any magic together.

I managed to make it around the first curve, but there was another one a quarter-mile ahead. If I dropped off the road there, I would careen about three hundred yards down a steep slope and fly over a cliff into a granite quarry — assuming I didn't meet my maker by smashing headlong into a tree before then.

Adrenaline flooded my body, and I felt like I was wearing boxing gloves as I did my best to wrangle the truck into the turn. I was almost home free when the passenger-side tire dropped off the steep berm, blew with a tremendous bang, and jerked the truck off the road.

After that, it was all over but the crashing.

The truck plowed through the brush at the edge of the road and kept rumbling right on over the edge. My skull thunked off the doorframe and the forward momentum shoved my knees into the dash—in the ’80s, seatbelts weren't quite what they are now. The sound of rocks and bushes scraping the undercarriage harmonized perfectly with the terror raking over my nerves.

My head whipped forward and cracked on the steering wheel, and my seatbelt finally caught. I came so close to a giant oak that it ripped my mirror off and flung it into the truck. I scrunched my eyes shut and threw my arms up to defend my face from the incoming debris.

Then, just when I'd resigned myself to a bone-crushing demise, the truck lurched to an abrupt stop.

For a few seconds, I was afraid to open my eyes, then I was afraid not to. Metal groaned and I reached forward with shaking hands to shut the truck off. I poked my head out the window to see what had stopped my descent to certain death—or at least extreme agony and disfigurement—and saw that a little maple tree about eight inches thick was wedged between my rear bumper and the body of the truck.

Bessie slid a bit, so I didn't waste any more time. I opened the door and jumped from the cab, releasing a sigh of epic proportions as I landed relatively unscathed in the soft grass. I grabbed my purse from the floorboard and just left the door hanging open, scared the movement would send the truck the rest of the way over the hill. The last thing I needed was to completely lose my transportation, and there was no way I had enough magical mojo right then to pull it back up the hill. That trick would have been a stretch on my best day, and this definitely wasn’t that.

I bent over with my palms on my knees, waiting for my body to stop shaking enough to make the trek back toward the road. Once I had a modicum of control over my limbs, I walked up the hill a bit and collapsed onto a butt-sized rock, staring in disbelief at the sight of my beast of a truck dangling halfway down the hill from that one scrawny little maple tree. Something trickled down the side of my face and when I touched my eyebrow, my fingers came away sticky with blood. I hadn't even felt the pain until right then.

I put my head between my knees and thanked the universe for giving me a pass, and sent a grateful push of energy to the little tree. When my hands stopped shaking and my head cleared enough to allow me to think beyond surviving, I reached for my phone and scrolled through my contacts until I found the number for Skeeter's Garage and Appliances.

Don't let the name fool you; he meets all three of my gold-star requirements: he's good, he's honest, and he's cheap.

After three rings, Skeeter himself answered. I'd never been so happy to hear his cheerful twang. I gave him the 411 on what had just happened and told him where I was, grateful for once that I live in a small town where the only directions required were "the curve right above Old Man Bailey's quarry on the way to my place."

I ended the call and had turned to scramble the rest of the way up the hill when the feeling of being watched made the hairs on my nape stand up. I searched the trees and caught a glimpse of sunlight reflecting off something a hundred yards or so up the hill on the other side of the road. My gaze darted toward the glint and I scanned the spot for any other sign of movement, but all stayed still. I decided to stay right where I was, figuring it would be a whole lot harder for some ax-wielding serial killer to drag me up the hill than to just shove me in a van if I was standing conveniently by the road.

Yes, I'm a capable witch, and I live in BFE, Georgia, where the odds of a random serial killer just happening by were about the same as going to Walmart without seeing at least one hairy butt crack. But I wasn't feeling particularly rational at that point.

Pulling as much defensive magic into my hands as I could manage in my frazzled state, just in case, I leaned on a pecan tree and hoped Skeeter would hold true to his promise to get there in "two shakes of a coon's tail" before my paranoia got the better of me.

Little did I know then that just because you're paranoid doesn't mean you're wrong.

Want to keep reading? Sweet Murder is available here.

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Other Books by Tegan Maher

Witches of Keyhole Lake Series

Book 1: Sweet Murder

Book 2: Murder to the Max

Book 3: Murder so Magical

Book 4: Mayhem and Murder

Book 5: Murder and Marinade

Book 6: Hook, Line, and Murder

Book 7: Murder of the Month

Witches of Keyhole Lake Shorts

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Bubble, Bubble, Here Comes Trouble

Witching for a Miracle

Moonshine Valentine

Cori Sloane Witchy Werewolf Mysteries

Howling for Revenge

Dead Man’s Hand

Bad Moon Rising

Enchanted Coast Magical Mystery Series

Deadly Daiquiri

Surfboard Slaying

About Tegan

I was born and raised in the South and even hung my motorcycle helmet in Colorado for a few months. I've always had a touch of wanderlust and have never feared just packing up and going on new adventures, whether in real life or via the pages of a great book.

When I was a little girl, I didn't want to grow up to be a writer—I wanted to raise unicorns and be a superhero. When those gigs fell through, I chose the next best thing: creating my own magical lands filled with adventure, magic, humor, and romance.

I live in Florida with my two dogs. When I'm not writing or reading, I'm riding motorcycles or binge-watching anything magical on Netflix.

I'm eternally grateful for all the people who help make my life what is today - friends, readers, family. No woman is an island.