MYSTERY: BRITISH MYSTERY: Missing Hearts (Amateur Sleuth Suspense Thriller) (Cozy Crime Detective Short Stories) (10 page)

She loved this place, Lacy knew, and she was never going to leave it. Not when it was this wonderful.

H
annah has always been
accident prone when it comes to the kitchen, but she is still a good chef and after she gets a job as dessert chef on a cruise ship, she feels that it is a perfect opportunity for a career boost. She has just perfected her chocolate cake, and she is excited to see what everyone thinks.

Initially she loves the ship and everything on it, seeing it as a new adventure. She has some minor incidents, but when a guest she had served chocolate cake to the night before dies, police comes onboard to investigate. Two more deaths later and Hannah is a suspect because the deaths have been linked back to her chocolate cake. Determined to find out what is truly going on, and who is truly responsible, she decides to solve the case herself.

H
annah was exhausted
from working for others in restaurants and often being the first to arrive and the last to leave. Her customers loved the desserts she prepared but her supervisors always found things wrong with what she was doing. It was why she had applied for the position on a new cruise ship when she had seen the posting, and why she was keeping her fingers crossed that she would get it. The thought of making her desserts independently from the restaurant kitchen, even though it would still be served in a specific restaurant onboard, while having enough time to enjoy everything the ship had to offer and the locations it docked at, had her beyond excited even before she heard if she even got the job.

The call had come while she was at work, which wasn’t surprising, and when she got home she quickly played the message. It asked her to call them back, without telling her anything else, but considering it was late at night she knew she had to wait until the following morning. That normally wouldn’t be an issue as she was used to missing almost all phone calls, but in this case she just wanted to know already. Morning couldn’t come fast enough, and when it finally did, she dialed the number she had been given with bated breath. This was it. Either she was going to the Caribbean or she was staying where she was.

Thirty minutes later she was sitting on her couch, gob smacked at the news she had received while trying to decide what to do. Not only had she been offered a job, she would be the main dessert chef at the main restaurant on board. It meant practically every passenger would taste her desserts at one point or another as that restaurant was included in the rooms while the others weren’t. It also meant she was expected on board in three days, when the first cruise to the Caribbean would depart a day later. She knew quitting without notice would infuriate her supervisors, but with a small smirk she did exactly that. Through text message.

She had been told she would get a list of things she would need and where to go to get her uniform, and when she saw the email pop into her inbox she quickly printed the list and started packing. She would be given a private room in the staff quarters but they had warned her the rooms were small and to limit what she brought. She would have a bed, a small wardrobe and two shelves and that was it. Housekeeping, deck hands and kitchen help slept two to a room but as chef she got her own room and for that she was forever grateful.

The three days passed quickly and before Hannah knew it she was standing in front of the ship, smiling widely at the adventure she was about to embark on.

“Standing there isn’t going to change how it looks,” a voice said beside her.

Hannah looked to the side to see a man in jeans and a t-shirt looking at the ship as well. “True, but I’ve never seen one up close. It’s huge.”

“That it is. It’s one of the largest ones in the fleet. What job?”

“Dessert chef. I’m pretty excited.”

“Everyone loves desserts so you’ll probably be pretty popular with the guests. I’m Nick, the Chief Officer. Basically I’m in charge of the deck crew and general operations on deck. I’m second in command on the ship, just below the Captain. Would you like me to show you where to go?”

“Yes please. I’m fairly clueless and they didn’t really tell me.”

“They usually forget. Most people who apply for a job on a cruise ship have at least been close to one before. What made you apply?”

“Hated my job and wanted a change. How about yourself?”

“Good reason. I’ve always wanted to work on a boat and I worked my way up to where I am now. I used to work as a deckhand in college.”

They had reached the walkway now and as Hannah stepped onto it, her suitcase got stuck and she stumbled as she pulled it free. The only thing that kept her from falling off the side was Nick, who easily grabbed her arm with a chuckle. “Careful there, we don’t want you going overboard before we’ve even set sail.”

Hannah just smiled at him, glad when she was safely on board so she really couldn’t cause more accidents, and followed him down to what she assumed were staff quarters. There was a stern looking woman standing at the entrance to a long hallway, glaring at Nick when he approached. “Nick, I see you’re back. Same room as always. And you are?”

“Hannah ma’am. I’m the dessert chef.”

“Ahh yes, I have you in the room next to Nick’s. Last ship I worked on had awful desserts, hopefully yours are better.”

“Hopefully you’ll like what I make. Thank you.”

“Room 210. Avoid the girl in room 240, she wanted your job. Ahh deck hand I presume?” she continued as a younger man walked into the hallway. Hannah accepted the advice and looked for her room, finding it fairly easily and not far down the hallway. Watching the man behind her walk clear to the other end she had a feeling the lower ranked staff was expected to walk further to get to their rooms.

“Staff common area is three doors down. It’s comfortable and has a kitchen. There is a schedule posted above your bed, it’s when meals are served in our common area and when staff meetings are. Since you work in the kitchen, you’ll likely just eat there when you’re there. She was right, avoid Alaina, she’s in 240. She has a jealous streak, and ever since I worked with her on the last ship she has been bragging about how she would get the main dessert job when this one finished. Clearly she didn’t. I would get unpacked and then go to the common area, there are probably refreshments in there and you can meet everyone before the first meeting.”

“Thank you Nick,” Hannah said as she turned around and quickly hoisted her suitcase onto her bed. Unpacking was easy, as she really hadn’t brought all that much beyond what she truly needed, and soon she found herself walking into the common area. Nick was already there, and so were a handful of other people who quickly introduced themselves. She met Alaina, who looked like she had just swallowed dirt when she had shaken Hannah’s hand, and she met a few of the kitchen help. They would be helping her as well and they all seemed nice enough so Hannah was looking forward to getting started. She knew the next day she would be doing a lot of preparation, getting familiar with the kitchen, and starting on some of the desserts. Her restaurant was buffet style to the extent that passengers could get as many desserts as they wanted, but they would be served by a staff member to avoid passengers making a mess out of them. It also allowed desserts to be kept at the right temperature, which Hannah liked as it meant she could serve some chilled if she chose.

She had been doing a lot of experimenting over the past few months and had really perfected her triple chocolate cake, which was served best just slightly warmed. She was excited to see what the passengers would think of it, and hoped it wasn’t a complete disaster. They had asked her for a list of ingredients she’d need for each day, and she had spent almost an entire day doing the math for all of it before supplying them with it. She hoped everything would be there, but if not she was certain they had gotten the basics and she would be able to improvise.

The meeting that evening was basically to hand out a rules sheet and to make sure everyone knew where and to whom to report in the morning. The head chef at Hannah’s restaurant would show her the kitchen she would be using, which had mostly prep stations, baking equipment and ovens instead of stoves and was attached to the main kitchen. She was given a sheet of times that the restaurant would be open, but besides that she could make her own schedule as she knew when she would have to make what to have it ready. While the number of desserts was told to her, she would be responsible for checking to see what was left at the end of each meal so she would know what to make more of and what to make less of. It sounded easy enough to Hannah, and she was excited to get started. After all, the kitchen was where she belonged and not much could go wrong, right?

B
y the end
of her first day she is covered in flour, sugar and who knows what else but all her baking is done. The girl assigned to her kitchen was nice but clearly new, and Hannah had spent half the day showing her how to do things. It didn’t help that anytime Nick came into the kitchen she would trip, stumble, drop something or run into something and she was fairly certain he thought she was the most accident prone person alive. The other girl, Jessie, giggled each time she did but Hannah had no idea if she was giggling because of her accidents or because of Nick. She was fairly certain it was because of Nick, and she had wondered why Nick was in her kitchen so often when he probably had a lot of people to supervise, but as he was pleasant conversation she didn’t complain much.

This cruise was going to be a singles cruise, and while there was a rule against doing pretty much anything with the passengers, that night in the common area many of them were excited about being surrounded by that many single people. Apparently singles cruises were known to be a bit rowdier and a bit more fun that some others, while the couples cruises were the most entertaining. Apparently it was fun to watch a couple when one clearly did not want to be there, or those who had been married for so long they did their own thing. Then you’d have the newlyweds who apparently were the best tippers. Singles cruises were the opposite where everyone was out to have a good time, nobody kept to themselves and everyone was friendly with everyone. Until two guys were interested in the same girl and they would fall all over themselves to impress her, then things got interesting.

Hannah was excited for them to arrive the next morning and decided to get to bed early so she would be ready when they did. She had to frost some of her cakes and put the fresh fruit on the ones that required fresh fruit, but none of that would take a lot of time and she would have plenty of time to observe as people checked in. Her uniform was fairly nice looking, at least so she thought, consisting of a black chef’s vest with the restaurant’s name on it while on the other side it had her title. As long as she kept it relatively clean she was allowed to be seen which meant that in her time off she didn’t have to go change first before going upstairs.

Watching everyone come on board from the top landing, leaning over the railing as she did, she loved the fact that nobody paid attention to her as she watched them. “You know, you could fall over like that,” she heard Nick say behind her.

“Are you stalking me?”

“No, just ensuring the safety of those on deck. This is the best place to watch everyone without them knowing, and it gives you an idea of the people you’ll be seeing on board. I believe we have about three hundred guests on this cruise.”

“Doesn’t the ship hold over four hundred?”

“Yes it does, but it’s a first trip so it’s actually not bad. I take it you are done preparing for dinner?”

“Yes boss,” Hannah said with a grin, attempting to salute but instead knocking her sunglasses askew. Nick righted them for her with a grin.

“Are you sure it’s safe to have you around fire, considering how accident prone you are?”

“I’m not normally this bad, it’s just being in a new place I suppose. So you work the deck crews pretty hard, they were all exhausted last night.”

“I expect the ship to be in excellent shape, and they are getting paid to work.”

“Like I said, you work them pretty hard.”

“I suppose I do. We have a lot of new guys this time around, might as well start them off right. On that note I need to go make sure they aren’t flirting with every girl in line.”

Hannah decided to go walk around the ship a bit more, as she hadn’t really explored it much, and smiled at everyone she passed. They all noticed her uniform and knew she worked on the ship, but apparently she didn’t look like she knew where she was going either because nobody asked her where to go for anything. There were refreshments set up for those who had arrived early and the snack bar was open, but as it would take hours to check in everyone, meals weren’t served until dinner which gave Hannah plenty of time before she had to be back in the restaurant to see what was needed. Some of the deck hands were helping people find their rooms and it was easy to notice they went for the pretty girls first. Having heard it was a singles cruise she had expected mostly younger people, but she was relatively surprised to see that half the guests were middle aged and there were even a few seniors on board. She had to admit that they could be single as well, and it was presumptuous of her to think otherwise. When she saw a younger guy picking up a suitcase for an older lady after finding out their rooms were close together, she realized that on this cruise it didn’t matter, everyone was there to have a good time.

When it was close to the time the restaurant would open Hannah made her way back downstairs and put the final touches on some of her desserts before covertly stationing herself near the dessert area to see what desserts were chosen by whom. She liked to see if people came back for the same dessert a second time as that was more of an endorsement for a particular dessert than someone taking something but not wanting it again. She knew the smaller restaurants, which only had desserts on the menu for people to order and didn’t sell nearly as many did not require Alaina to be there during meal times, and she was the only dessert chef for the three other restaurants on board. Hannah didn’t think she minded too much as she had already seen her flirt with some of the guys, but it also meant substantially less money. Each employee was given a spending card and at the end of the cruise, when they got paid, the amount charged to it would be deducted from their paycheck. It made it much easier as the guests used spending cards as well and this way the same system could be used which simplified things for the staff.

As she was watching the customers Hannah noticed that most customers went for the more exotic cakes as opposed to the basic chocolate and lemon cakes she had prepared. She could understand the logic, as they could get those pretty much anywhere while they couldn’t always get things like Tiramisu. When a younger guy, who took chocolate cake, saw her lurking in the shadows he winked at her. It startled her, and in her sudden movement she knocked into a cart which sent the stack of dessert plates on the cart flying. The girl working the dessert table whirled around and looked at her, apparently having not seen her there yet, before looking at the shattered plates on the floor with a sigh. “You’ll have to clean that up and get someone to get me new ones. What happened?”

“I startled,” Hannah said, looking a bit shamefaced when she realized how ridiculous she must have looked to the guy who had now disappeared. She really had to stop causing these accidents, and she almost glared at Nick when he suddenly appeared.

“I was helping someone just outside the restaurant and heard the noise. Is everything alright?”

“While you’re here, I need new dessert plates and someone to clean this up,” Hannah said, sounding irritated. “I’m done for tonight, I’ll see you all tomorrow.”

“Get some dinner in the common area first,” Nick said easily, pulling out his walkie-talkie. “I think it’s lasagna, it will make everything seem better. Besides, I need to make sure you eat and such so you make it through the entire cruise so please do.”

“I’ll eat but then I’m disappearing. I’ve seen what I needed to see and tomorrow is a new day. I’m sorry Sara, I didn’t meant to knock that over.”

“It’s alright, we’ll get new ones. You’d be amazed how many dishes break around here, it’s not a big deal. Go, enjoy your evening.”

Hannah left, almost tripping over the broken plates, and headed for her room. Unfortunately, she knocked into the same guy again, covering him in his own drink this time. With an apology she quickly got help cleaning it up, and with about ten more apologies she almost ran to her room. She’d had enough for the day and after getting a small plate of lasagna she took it to her room and sat down on her bed with a sigh. She had planned to get up early to start on some things for the next day, which would then give her the afternoons off. Desserts were served at lunch and at dinner, but she could get it mostly done before lunch and then do a few finishing touches for the dinner desserts. With that thought in mind she changed into her pajamas and slid under the covers, ready to get some much needed sleep.