Page 12 of Tiki Hut Tragedy
Removing her cell phone from her pocket, Millie turned the flashlight on and beamed it at the panel. “They all look the same.” She flipped a switch. A loud buzzing sound ensued. She quickly shut it off.
“I think this one controls the lights.” Cat gritted her teeth and pushed the button. The lights came back on. “Much better.”
“Hey.” Cameron appeared in the doorway. He wasn’t alone. Donovan, the ship’s purser, stood by his side. “What’s going on?”
“Cat and I are trying to turn the Superhero super annoying song off.”
“I’m here for the same reason,” Donovan said. “Passengers are lining up down at Guest Services complaining about the music.”
“I swung by there on my way here. We have a lot of unhappy campers, and for good reason,” Millie said. “We need to shut it off and pretty darn quick.”
“I thought.” Cameron scratched his forehead. “You didn’t request this song to play on repeat, Millie?”
“No way.” It dawned on her what had happened. “Don’t tell me Hannah from the Belly Busters tracked you down and told you I asked you to play this.”
Cameron began sifting through the papers on his desk. “Here it is.” He handed Millie a slip of paper with the ship’s logo at the top. It was a handwritten note requesting the annoying song to be played every fifteen minutes.
“I didn’t write this.”
“I…uh…it was taped to the door when I got back from my break a couple of hours ago. I thought about radioing you to ask why, but then I got busy, so I just added it to the lineup.” Cameron told them he wasn’t a fan either. “I didn’t realize it would irritate so many people.”
“Well, it has, and it does,” Donovan said.
Cameron flipped a switch. The song stopped. “Sorry about the confusion.”
“Who would have done such a thing?”
“Hannah from the Belly Busters group. I’ll go chat with her.” Millie cleared her throat and spun around.
“Hang on.” Donovan stopped her. “Aside from being annoying, it was a harmless prank. The Belly Busters paid big bucks for this cruise, scheduling a whole host of events we’re charging them extra for. We need to handle the situation with kid gloves.”
“You sound like Andy,” Millie joked. “Always keeping an eye on the bottom line.”
“Perhaps we can compromise and offer to play it a few times a day,” he suggested.
“Donovan…the voice of reason. I hate to get off on the wrong foot with this group. You’re right. They’ve invested a lot of money in this cruise, and I want it to go smoothly.”
With a promise from Cameron to cut back on the number of times the song was played, Millie headed to the conference rooms, having checked the schedule and discovered the group was once again meeting there.
She hovered in the doorway, watching as servers made their rounds, offering appetizers and beverages. Millie scanned the room, finally finding Astrid standing in the corner chatting with the top contenders—Dixie, Gail and Wendy. Hannah, head and shoulders above the rest, stood front and center.
Millie zigzagged through the crowd and tapped the redhead on the shoulder.
Hannah swung around. “Hello again.”
“Hello.” Millie placed her hands behind her back. “I see the meet and greet is going well.”
“Except for the munchies.” Dixie held up a mini pizza. “Somebody skimped on the food.”
“This is a light appetizer get-together,” Millie explained. “Early dining starts in a couple of hours.”
“How can we practice eating if you feed us tiny portions?”
Wendy elbowed Astrid. “I hope you got a decent discount on this event.”
Millie could feel the tips of her ears burn. “Again, this is a pre-dinner party, not a full-blown pig out.”
Hannah’s jaw dropped. “Are you calling us pigs?”
