Murder takes a bow, p.1
Murder Takes a Bow, page 1
Murder Takes a Bow
An Olivia Morgan Cruise Ship Mystery
Wendy Neugent
SWH Media, LLC
For my grandma, Violet Rose.
Thank you for passing down your love of reading to me and for all of the grocery bags filled with mystery books that you shared with me over the years.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, events, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2022 by Wendy Neugent
All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.
Contents
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14
15. Chapter 15
16. Chapter 16
17. Chapter 17
18. Chapter 18
19. Chapter 19
20. Chapter 20
21. Chapter 21
22. Chapter 22
23. Chapter 23
24. Chapter 24
25. Chapter 25
About Author
Also By Wendy Neugent
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Happy Reading!
Wendy
Olivia glanced at the line of on-boarding passengers at the elevators and sighed.
She only had ten minutes to get to her cabin, drop her bags, and get up to the lifeboat drill.
A passenger walked in front of her and grazed her foot with his suitcase. Another passenger bumped into her while looking up at the dramatically lit ceiling five decks above. The atrium’s smoky mirrored walls, marble tiled floor, and dramatic art were eye catching.
She should have used the crew gangway instead of venturing into the chaotic lobby.
Lounges and shops lined the side of the atrium. A wide, sweeping stairway circled the bank of elevators, and tired travelers filled the seating area.
A long line of passengers were waiting for help with their accounts or room keys at the purser’s desk.
One mother sat next to her three kids. They were bouncing on the couch like a trampoline. The mother asked them to stop. She looked defeated, but too tired to do anything about it, when they didn’t.
A tuxedoed man sat at a grand piano in the middle of the atrium playing jazz. The heavy sweet scent from the huge flower arrangement on the piano wafted over Olivia as she walked by.
Couples and families waited to get their pictures taken in front of a painted backdrop with a cartoon version of the ship. The ship’s photographer, Martin hurriedly posed each group, handing them an orange life ring with ‘S. S. Starlight’ written on it.
“Cheese!” the passengers shouted in unison as his flash went off.
The photographer took the life ring back and rushed them away from the backdrop. He glanced at the long line waiting for their picture to be taken, as he directed the next group to take their place.
Joseph, a cabin steward, pushed his overloaded brass luggage cart through the crowded lobby.
Olivia backed out of his way and smiled at him as he passed by. He gave her an exhausted half smile. The stewards had been working all night, picking up luggage from the last group of passengers and getting it ready to be taken off the ship as soon as they had docked. They reversed the process in the afternoon as the passengers embarked. In between they had to get the cabins ready for the new arrivals.
A passenger cut in front of Joseph.
Joseph stopped abruptly to avoid running into him. The luggage on the cart swayed.
Joseph reached up and tried to stop the luggage from collapsing, but he couldn’t stop the precariously balanced suitcases from falling off the cart.
One hit the leg of the photographer’s tripod, knocking the camera. Joseph grabbed the tripod before the camera fell.
Martin charged towards Joseph. He stood in front of Joseph’s face, speaking in a low, threatening voice. “What is wrong with you, you idiot?”
Martin grabbed the tripod out of Joseph’s grasp.
“I’m terribly sorry, sir. It was an accident.”
“Sorry isn’t good enough. You could have broken my extremely expensive camera.” Martin poked Joseph in the chest with his finger. “I’m going to report you to your supervisor.”
Joseph picked up a fallen suitcase and stacked it back up on the luggage cart.
“Look at me when I am talking to you.”
“Yes, sir.” Joseph sighed as he stopped and turned toward the photographer.
“Pick up the suitcases and do not walk near my equipment again.” Martin glared at Joseph.
Olivia walked towards them and grabbed a purple suitcase off the floor and handed it to Joseph. “Here, let me help you pick up the luggage.”
“Oh no, ma’am! I will get it. This is not your job.”
“I don’t mind. Life is better when we help each other.” Olivia looked pointedly at Martin.
Martin began to say something, but Olivia gave him a look that dared him to try. He grunted and turned away towards the next group of passengers waiting to get their picture taken.
Olivia waited while Joseph picked up the last piece of luggage, threw it on top of the luggage cart, and began making his way through the crowd.
Olivia pushed open a heavy crew door that blended into the wall and ducked down a narrow passage. Crew members were racing up and down the hall. They all knew where they were going and walked with purpose instead of milling about like the new passengers. The utilitarian gray metal walls of the narrow passageway stood in stark contrast to the luxurious atrium.
Olivia ran down the crew stairs, her footsteps echoing off the metal walls. She popped out into the passageway right next to her cabin door. She put down her bags, got her key card out of her wallet and slid it into the lock. The lights flashed green as the lock clicked open. She pushed on the handle to open her cabin door. Holding it open with her foot, she picked up her bags and dragged them in.
Her door shut behind her with a thunk.
She threw the bags on her bed.
“Hey, Baby! How was your day?”
“Hey, Baby!”
“I missed my guy. I bought you some snacks,” said Olivia.
“Mmmm, snacks!”
“I got almost everything on my list. I should be able to get the rest in Nassau. What did you do today?”
Chico turned away and peered out the porthole, whistling quietly to himself.
“Ok, then. If you are going to ignore me, I won’t give you this.”
“Treat?”
“Yeah, I thought that would get your attention. Here you go.”
“I love you!”
“I love you, too. Give me a kiss.”
Chico shook his wings and strained towards Olivia.
Olivia reached down. “Step up.”
Chico lifted his foot towards her. She picked him up off his perch.
“That’s my boy,”
Chico made kissing sounds as she pet his green and yellow neck feathers.
“Let’s change your water. I bought newspapers to change your cage, too.”
Olivia unpacked her shopping bags. She’d been able to get Chico’s favorite pellets and treats at the pet store. She pulled the two matching notebooks Peter had asked for out of her shopping bag.
“I hope these are right, Chico. Peter didn’t tell me if I should get black or blue notebooks.”
Olivia took the notebooks to the desk.
She noticed an envelope with her name on it sitting on the desk.
Her cabin steward usually slipped her mail under the door. He rarely brought it into the cabin.
She picked up the envelope and tore it open.
Olivia sunk down into the desk chair as she read the letter, gasping as the air left her lungs.
Chico squawked.
“Oh buddy, we are in big trouble.”
A deep British voice came on over the intercom. “Welcome aboard the Starlight of the Seas. I’m Tristan Waterson and I am your cruise director. We are so glad that you have chosen to cruise with Axis Cruise Line. I look forward to meeting you all at the Bon voyage party, but before we can leave port, every passenger needs to attend our lifeboat drill. Please bring a life jacket for every person in your party. Make your way to the Lido deck, deck 11, now.
Olivia jumped as the ship’s horn blasted.
She sat in stunned silence.
A knock at her door brought her back to reality. She opened the door, half expecting it to be Peter, laughing at his joke. Instead, Hayley, her best friend and the singer from the revue show, stood in the doorway.
“Hey, you ready to go up to the lif eboat drill? We’re going to be late to our muster station.”
On autopilot, Olivia grabbed her life jacket and followed Hayley up the stairs.
She mouthed the lifeboat drill steps along with the cruise staff member giving the speech.
Olivia knew what to do in case of an emergency on the cruise ship.
She did not know what to do with the current emergency in her life.
When the lifeboat drill was over, Olivia followed Hayley to the Calypso bar for their traditional post lifeboat drill cocktail.
They had their choice of seats in the lounge. Most of the passengers were at the Bon Voyage celebration. The bartender swiped their ID cards and they carried their frosty pink cocktails over to their regular table by the window. They liked to watch the ship leave port. Hayley spun her chair to face the window, waiting for the ship to pull away from the dock.
Olivia looked down at her frozen cocktail. Reality came crashing down on her.
Peter was gone.
After ten years of him telling her they’d get married and have a normal life after they got off ships, he’d left her.
Just like that.
She was alone. She was stuck on the ship with their show scheduled in a few days.
No magician, just her, the magic assistant.
Her tears welled up and overflowed down her cheek.
She put down her drink and pushed it away.
Hayley turned back towards Olivia.
“Can you believe we get paid to do this? Whoa, are you crying? What’s going on? Are you ok?” asked Hayley.
“I’m absolutely not ok. Peter’s gone.”
“Gone? He missed the ship?”
“No, like gone, gone. He left me.”
“What? You can’t be serious,”
“Seriously.” Olivia shook her head. “He’s gone.”
Olivia handed Hayley the letter.
Hayley read the terse note. She paused, looked at Olivia, and then read it again. “That sucker. What the heck?”
“He didn’t even give me a reason. He just blew our life up.”
“He didn’t even have the backbone to tell you in person? I can’t believe he did this. Actually, you know what? I can believe it.” Hayley pounded the table with her fist. “What a worthless scum bucket. I always thought there was something not quite right about him. You are better off without him.”
“I’m not better off! I love him.”
“I know you do. I’m sorry I said that. I’m just so angry with him for hurting you.” Hayley rubbed Olivia’s back.
“My entire life is wrapped up in his. We’ve lived together, worked together, we’ve done everything together. I don’t know what I am going to do without him.”
“You will be ok. I promise”
“On top of everything, he left me on the ship. We have months left on our contract. I can’t stay on the ship. But I can’t sign off until I get the paperwork done to get the illusions off the manifest so I can ship them home. And I have to get the vet scheduled to sign Chico off.”
Olivia’s voice quavered, tears welled up again.
“Oh! I don’t even have a home to ship them to! Tristan is going to be livid that he doesn’t have a magic act. He’s going to kick me off the ship when he finds out Peter is gone. What am I going to do about Chico? Oh, Hayley. I don’t know what to do. This is a disaster.”
Hayley picked her Bahama Mama up and took a sip. “Well, I guess we need to make sure Tristan doesn’t find out.”
“What do you mean? Of course, Tristan needs to know. He needs to call the entertainment director and get a different act flown out to replace us.” Olivia’s hand shook as she reached for her drink.
She took a big sip of the frozen drink and grimaced. She grabbed her aching forehead.“Ah! Brain freeze!”
“Put your tongue on the roof of your mouth. It’ll fix the brain freeze. What I meant is that Tristan doesn’t need to find out because he has a magic act.”
“Hayley, did they already replace us? Did Peter tell them he was leaving, and they brought on another act?”
“No, silly, what I mean is that you are the magic act. You don’t need Peter. You are the one who does most of the magic while he just stands there waving his arms around like he’s doing something amazing. I’ve watched you doing all the hard stuff.”
“Peter does the hard stuff. He’s the one that talks to the audience. I could never do the talking part.”
“I’ve watched you perform your show. You are running your tail off, keeping the show going, jumping in and out of boxes, twisting yourself like a pretzel, changing costumes. What does Peter do? Tells some jokes and tries to look mysterious while you are doing all the heavy lifting. Personally, I have always thought it was ridiculous that he got top billing when you were doing everything, and looking beautiful while doing it, I might add.”
“I can’t do it alone no matter what, so it doesn’t really matter what I did before. It’s not like I can put flaming spears through myself while I’m in the box.”
“No, you’re right, you can’t do it by yourself. But, we can!”
“What are you talking about?”
“What I’m talking about is that I can wave my arms better than Peter did. Plus, I’m way prettier than him. I’ll be your lovely assistant.”
Olivia tried to wrap her head around Hayley’s proposal.
The intense rumble of the ship’s engines startled her.
The anchor clunked as it was raised up.
The ship inched away from the dock.
Hayley shrugged. “You’re not getting off the ship. We’re leaving port. You can’t leave without Chico. So, what other option do you have?”
Olivia closed her eyes and tried to go through the list of illusions they had. Could she and Hayley put enough of them together to do an actual show? What other choice did she have?
Hayley reached across the table and took Olivia’s hand in hers. “I’ll help you. We’ll do it together. It’ll be fun, I promise.”
“Fun? Not sure how it will be fun, but I’m also not sure what other choice I have.”
“It will be fun. You always have fun with me, right?”
Olivia laughed, some of the tension leaving her shoulders. Hayley was right. “I do always have fun with you.”
“Of course, you do.” Hayley pretended to fluff her hair.
Olivia laughed. The clouds lifted a little for the first time since she had read Peter’s letter. “Thank you for helping me.”
Hayley grabbed a bar napkin and a pen and handed them to Olivia. “Of course! Ok, so what do we do now? Should we make a list of your tricks and figure out which ones we’re going to do?”
“Yes, that is a good first step. Then we need to go to the theatre and pull out the tricks to practice. We’re going to need to go through my costumes too, and see which ones fit you.”
“Oh goody! I love your costumes. You know that there isn’t anything I like better than sequins and feathers.”
Olivia wrote down a list of the tricks she thought they might be able to pull off.
“We need to plan out the order of the show. I guess we can still open with Chico. I did that trick all by myself, anyway. But what are we going to do when I need to change costumes? I can’t have them close the curtain and have nothing going on while I’m gone for a couple of minutes.”
“True, that would be pretty boring for the audience. I have an idea. Chico loves singing with me. Maybe he and I can sing a song together while you’re getting ready for the next trick.”
“That’s a great idea! I love it. And Chico will totally love it. He adores you and loves singing with you.”
“He and I sing together all the time anyway, so it won’t take too much practice to add that to the act.”
Olivia breathed a sigh of relief. They might actually make this work.
“Ok, let’s head backstage and pull out the illusions.”
They walked down to the theatre, dodging passengers leaving the Bon Voyage party. In front of the theatre, they passed the bulletin board with pictures of the headlining entertainers and the production show cast. Olivia looked at the picture of her and Peter. She glared at his smiling face. She made a mental note that she and Hayley would need to get new pictures taken for the board.
The assistant cruise director’s voice boomed over the sound system. ‘Not after, but B4.’
