Page 29 of Love Overboard
“Company,” Emily murmured from the front row. She smacked a fist against her palm. “That’s it.”
Althea shuddered beside her. “The last time I saw that look, they almost made us walk the plank.”
Emily stole a glance at her watch. How much longer till the show ended? She had to return to HQ and draft the new mission.
This one would be groundbreaking. Every bone in her body confirmed it.
CHAPTER 12
“IFOUND A NEW LEAD.”
Collins waggled his eyebrows twice as he smirked around the giant wad of gum in his mouth. People promenaded the deck in everything from sequins to Speedos. An older couple approached from the left in formal clothing, and Jon held up a hand.
“Yes, sir.” He patted Collins on the back. “I’d be happy to show you where the gym is.”
“Gym?” Collins blanched.
Jon shoved him around the corner. They walked down the hall until they came to a recess in the corridor that led to a stairwell. He pushed the detective inside. “What did you find?”
“While you were keeping an eye on the little old ladies in Punta Verdad, I overheard a couple of kitchen workers talking in Spanish.”
“You speak Spanish?”
“A few words. Anyway, they repeatedlechugaat least ten times.”
“Lechuga?” Jon paused. “You mean lettuce?”
“Exactly. Are you fluent?”
“No, but I grew up in Florida. It’s easy to learn a little—Never mind. What does lettuce have to do with anything?”
“It’s street slang. Lettuce can mean marijuana.”
Jon waited for more, but Collins stood silent. “It can also mean ‘lettuce.’ They work in the kitchen. They might’ve been talking about the dinner salads.”
Collins pursed his lips and shook his head. “Trust me. They weren’t talking about dinner. They had that tone in their voice, if you know what I mean.”
Jon censored his first response before answering. How did this guy get recommended? Did the general manager owe Collins a favor? “That’s not much to go on. Even if they were talking about weed, it might have nothing to do with the case. We just left a Mexican port where the government decriminalized marijuana use. Perhaps they made poor recreational choices on their afternoon break. Every major drug bust on Monarch ships involved cocaine.”
“A store can sell more than one product.” Collins stopped smacking his gum and held it between his teeth. “I’m not saying these are the guys, but at least it’s a lead. You got anything better?”
Jon ran a hand through his hair. “No.”
“So we dig into these two and keep our radar on. Agreed?”
He nodded without conviction. He was beginning to think they should hire more detectives. Collins’s less-than-stellar performance gave him little hope for cracking the case. If it were only a few grams of weed, the company wouldn’t call for a full-blown investigation. Someone died. A Monarch Cruises employee. And it was Jon’s job to make sure it never happened again.
Lacey lifted her foot out of the navy pump, then twisted her weary ankle in circles. The massive front counter hid her toes from the customers as she stretched them. In many ways, the MSBuckinghamwas a giant, floating hotel. And tonight, she was on desk duty. It wouldn’t have been half as bad if she hadn’t just spent the afternoon rehashing the past with Jon.
“Thanks again for filling in, Lacey,” her coworker Malaya said for the second time that evening. “Something’s going around the ship, and Francine spent half the morning puking her guts out.”
Lacey made a face. “Don’t worry about it. It’s hard enough to stand for ten hours a day without adding a fever on top of that. You two must have feet of steel.”
“But still, you’re losing time off by helping me. I promise I won’t forget it.”
“How about you do a load of laundry for me this weekend, and we’ll call it even?” Lacey checked a card and typed a new spa request into the computer.
Malaya didn’t answer.
