Chapter Nine #3
“I’m also heading to my cabin-slash-room!” Amelia told them. “And what to do with all my free time! Ah, decisions, decisions!”
“Cooking class is in the big galley, Leisure Deck!” Celia told Chloe. “See you there!”
Chloe made her way out of the dining area, heading for the elevators. As she did so, she smiled at those she passed, said hello to those here and there she had met casually aboard the ship or when they’d been at the falls in Jamaica.
She wondered again how they were ever going to catch a killer on the cruise. A killer? Killers?
And did they need to worry about everyone on the ship who had anything to do with the classes?
What the hell is the motive for it all? Simple greed? Simple greed could cost so many lives!
She’d had a class once on serial killers. It was estimated that twenty-five to fifty were active in the United States at any
time. But that was a different animal than the killer or killers they were seeking. The deaths were targeted.
“Hey!”
When she entered the galley area where the classes would take place, Chloe was greeted by Darlene Jordan, the young student
she had met on the bus trip to the falls.
“Hey, so . . . you’re learning to cook, too?” Chloe asked her, grinning.
“Yeah,” Darlene told her. “I’m not in a dorm. My friends and I have an apartment with two bedrooms, two of us per bedroom.”
She grimaced and smiled. “Keeps us on the straight and narrow as far as getting too close to the wrong boys, but sometimes . . .
Anyway! Even state schools can be expensive, and we all try to take a night creating some kind of dinner. Maybe I can get
good!”
Chloe laughed. “Yeah, I remember. My folks helped, but, yeah, if you want any spending money while you’re in school, you need
to be careful. Unless you’re born filthy rich. I wasn’t.”
“But I guess you do all right now?” Darlene asked her.
“I’m happy. I love art. And Wes has his business . . . We get along.”
“But no kids yet?”
“Not yet. But since we are both established in what we do, they might be on the horizon!”
Darlene nodded. “I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do when I graduate. Mass communication! Once upon a time, I
wanted a job with the best newspaper out there. Now, social media is huge! I’m trying to figure out if I can get off the ground
as an influencer who tells the news—just the news. Not my opinion of the news, but what has actually happened. I feel like
everything is skewed these days. I don’t want to do that!”
“I will be very impressed, and wherever you are, I’ll be keeping an eye out for you!” Chloe assured her.
“I’d love to get out there with one big story. I mean, I’ve got different channels now on various apps, I’ve done video—I’m
really good with my phone—to get a lot of what goes on during one of these trips and I have a following . . .” She broke off,
shrugging. “And, of course,” she added softly, “I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not—most people haven’t, they’re just here
for the classes—they have signs up asking that no pictures or video be taken. And I had wanted to get a lot of what was going
on in these classes! I mean, you heard about what happened to those computer folk in Broward County, right?”
Chloe felt an instant pang of unease.
Darlene was such a bright, attractive and eager young woman.
And if they were right and a killer was on the ship, just like Sally with her “Sherlockians,” Darlene could be putting herself
in danger.
“What happened was absolutely horrible, but we must let the police and other law enforcement deal with it,” Chloe said. “Darlene,
seriously—”
“You made it!”
The call from halfway across the room alerted Chloe to the fact that Celia Henderson had arrived.
“I made it!” Chloe said, laughing. “I was here first! You were the one who had to return to her cabin!”
“She’s so cool!” Darlene, still close to Chloe, murmured.
“She knows her stuff!” Chloe agreed, and she spoke quickly, hoping to end it all before Celia reached them. “Please, kid,
be careful. Whoever was behind it all, that person—or those persons—are dangerous!”
She did speak quickly enough; she had finished her warning while Celia was still several feet away.
But Darlene wasn’t done.
She greeted Celia enthusiastically, complimenting her on her classes, on all that she had learned from her and Jeff.
“And it’s so important for me!” Darlene said. “I’m going to be a journalist, maybe live, maybe on paper, maybe both! But I
was just telling Chloe how I wanted to get the news out there, news, not skewed news, about what’s happening, what’s fun,
dog shows, you name it—and what’s deadly serious, like those murders in Broward County!”
“Right! Using trustworthy apps, seeing what information you disclose about yourself will be very important. You’re not going
to want people to know where to find you if you’re doing hard-hitting reporting!” Celia said.
“I was just warning her to be careful!” Chloe said sweetly.
Amelia was behind Celia then and she looked around the woman.
“Hey! They just told us to pick our places! If we’re going to get good spots in the center of the room, we need to move!”
she said.
“Amelia’s favorite—we’re heading to the bakery part of this deal,” Celia said. “Why not? I can actually kind of cook! But desserts are fun, and I’m supposed to be having fun when we’re not giving classes.”
“Desserts sound good to me!” Chloe assured her.
As Amelia had advised, they were already moving.
But Chloe was thoughtful, trying to appear as if nothing more than dessert was filling her mind.
There was something different about Celia since she’d seen her last, but Chloe couldn’t figure out what it was.
And since both Amelia and Darlene wound up between her and Celia when they moved up their tables to start their lesson, she
didn’t get a chance to figure it out.
The bakery chef welcomed them all, thanking them for being there, assuring them that their reward was getting to eat what
they cooked.
They were creating bananas Foster!
“Ingredients!” he announced. “Always using the freshest ingredients in any creation is of the utmost importance! Now, on a
ship that isn’t easy, but thankfully, we have a demanding master chef aboard, so will be working with the finest ingredients
possible! And now, a creation from a city where delicious food is a given, our recipe is straight from the finest chefs in
the incredible city of New Orleans!
The lesson began. They worked, they listened and each and every one of them created bananas Foster.
Nothing in the least bit dangerous was said during the work. Darlene did note that she wasn’t sure that bananas Foster passed
for dinner, but she was sure going to impress her roommates.
It was an intensive workshop, flambéing their bananas, creating the look of their plates, arranging the rum sauce and bananas
over the ice cream.
It was a great idea for such a class since there was no oven time when everyone just sat around.
Instead, they were soon eating their creations and enjoying coffee, sodas, cocktails, beer or wine provided to go along with
their culinary delicacies.
And it was finally, when they were sitting, eating and chatting, that Chloe realized what was bothering her.
Celia was wearing more makeup. A lot more makeup.
And despite that, Chloe could see that she was wearing it to cover the bruising on her face. She didn’t quite have a black
eye, but there was some dark bruising around her right eye, almost invisible beneath the foundation.
Chloe waited until Amelia and Darlene had risen, offering to refill their coffee cups since the four of them had determined
that coffee went best with the dessert and if they wanted to have a full day of fun at sea, they should leave the alcohol
for later.
But when they were gone, Chloe leaned forward, looking at Celia just as any concerned friend might.
“Celia! What happened?” she asked in a low whisper.
“With what? I did nothing wrong. My dessert is delicious!” Celia said.
Chloe shook her head. “Celia! I can see it. You have a bruise on your face. Oh, no, no—Jeff didn’t freak out at something
and slug you in the eye, did he?”
“No!” Celia said, horrified at the idea. “No, no, of course not. Never. I—I’m a klutz! I was hurrying up—I’d forgotten to
get my premier pass. You know that thing that says we’re cleared for all the classes and upgrades—and I was hurrying and . . .
Well, of course, that was dumb because I slipped and fell against the door and . . . and, oh, no, of course not! Jeff would
never!”
“Should you see the doctor?” Chloe asked.
“No, no, I’m fine, really. I promise.”
“And you tripped?” Chloe asked. She was purposely letting Celia know that she didn’t believe her.
“I tripped! That’s it!” Celia said.
Darlene and Amelia returned to the table with coffee. They talked and laughed a few minutes more, and then it was time for
the experience to be over—to give the galley back to the real chefs.
When they exited the galley, Edward’s class had ended as well and Edward, Wes, George, Sally and both McClintock brothers
were standing outside the doorway, talking and waiting.
Chloe determined that it was time to shake things up.
She greeted them with a friendly smile, as did the others. But she managed to get close to Jeff and say, “You know, I may
look skinny and all, but I must say, if I ever knew of a man taking his fist to a woman, I’d knock his socks off!”
Jeff stared at her and then Celia with dismay.
And Wes came up to her, taking her arm. “Cabin!” There was a growl in his voice. “Cabin, now!” He gave himself a visible shake
and smile and told the others. “We’re going to go slip into something more comfortable and find some lounge chairs!” he announced.
It was obvious, however, that his hold on her was strong as they started to move away.
Chloe bowed her head and secretly smiled.
Because as they walked away, she heard Daniel McClintock tell the others. “Oh, boy! They are a married couple, for real! Troubled
waters at last!”
Edward told him, “Oh, yeah, but they’ll solve it fast. That couple is real, of course, but so lovey-dovey, too! A great married
couple!”