Sam

Cindy looked at me with surprise after I pulled out of our heated kiss and suggested that we get to work.

"Wow, Dude, you sure know how to kill a mood."

I smiled and shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly, but I knew that if I didn't stop, I would not be able to control myself. We've always kissed in public places, but here and now, in private with the bed staring wantonly at me, I don't trust myself. My heated body is practically begging me to lay Cindy down and take my sweet time getting to know every inch of her gorgeous body. Unfortunately, time is not on our side.

Instead, I release her and grab two beers out of the fridge. She gets my laptop and opens the balcony door.

"Ladies first."

She shakes her head and takes the beer that I'm offering before heading out onto the balcony. "At least we can enjoy the beautiful weather and ocean breeze while we work."

I admire the beauty of her blonde locks held tight in a ponytail, whipping around her face like a paintbrush, creating a masterpiece.

I fire up my computer. Cindy will take notes while I check the databases available as a licensed detective. I punch in my password, and we begin to meticulously go through the long list of names that the Captain gave to us. Today is a day at sea. We hope to provide the FBI with a shortlist of suspects when they embark tomorrow morning in Puerto Vallarta.

***

"Okay, so where are we on our list?" I glance over at Cindy, and she has her pen nestled between her plump lips. Damn! I want to be that pen.

She looks up at me. "We have fifteen to go. Want to take a lunch break?"

My stomach growls right on cue, and we both laugh. We've gone through most of the list. The thing about cruise ships is that they hire many different nationalities. We don't have foreign databases available to us, just the United States. We'll do what we can to help the FBI. They'll have to handle the staff members from other countries that we couldn't investigate.

"How about I grab something for us and bring it back here to get this done before dinner?" I offer.

I stand, and she smiles up at me. "Okay. I'll take a grilled chicken sandwich, please, and thank you."

I lean down, happy to take the place of that damn pen, and softly kiss her sweet lips. I linger for just a moment before pulling away. "I'll be right back."

I leave Cindy to organize her notes for the FBI. Right now, it's her scribbled notes that only she can figure out.

I walk out and reflect on our accomplishments since breakfast this morning. So far, we have three suspects. Purser Will Grant, Doctor Paul Williams, and Cruise Director Daniel Marcus. Our process has been relatively simple. First, we run the staff members through the criminal database for priors. Next, we look up previous employers. If they worked for another cruise line, we look up the history of that ship's reported missing persons and then match the dates to the staff working in that same timeframe. If the staff member worked on a cruise line that had missing people reported, Cindy takes note of it.

As expected, just a few of the staff members we've investigated had minor prior criminal records that an employer doing a criminal records check might overlook. It's all been petty stuff like drunk and disorderly, bar fights, and drinking and driving. No one stood out as someone who would abduct women.

However, there's no doubt that several hit our radar regarding being employed when someone went missing on other cruises. Once we complete the investigation of the remaining names, we'll do a more in-depth investigation into the staff members on our shortlist of suspects.

I grab lunch from the buffet and return the tray to my room. I knock with my foot on the door since my hands are full. A moment later, the door opens, and a beautiful smile greets me.

I can't keep the smile that is growing wide on my face. "Room service!"

"Yum! I'll grab the beers."

I take the tray to the small table out on the balcony and set it down. Cindy's behind me, popping the tops off the beer; it's like music to my ears. She hands me my drink, and I take a long drawl of the cold beverage. I sit beside Cindy, who is already seated and has her sandwich ready to take a bite.

I chuckle. "Hungry?"

"Famished," she responds with a full mouth—this girl.

We continue to work through lunch. By late afternoon, we've gone through the remainder of the list. We still have the three names, but we didn't add any more names to the list. Now, we need to dig into their lives a little more.

Cindy has taken a moment to place each suspect's name across the top of a clean sheet of paper. She wrote down each of the cruise lines that employed them and the time and place that people went missing.

"Where do you want to start?" she looks up at me from her paper.

"Who's the first name on your page?" I ask.

"Will Grant, the purser who told Ruth and Debbie that it was too early to report Lucy and Kelly missing. He's been on five previous cruises that have missing people."

"Okay, give me the cruise line and dates one at a time."

***

By the time we finish, Millie and Pete have returned from the pool, showered, dressed, and left for dinner. Cindy wrote all of our findings in her neat handwriting. Here's what we have to give to the FBI in the morning.

Purser William Charles Grant, thirty-one years old, graduated from UCLA with a degree in finance. He was a purser on two cruise lines in the past three years, Norwegian and Princess. Five out of the 80 cruises that he's been on had reports of missing people. Friends or family members witnessed passengers going overboard, and the other two were people who disembarked at a port and were never found. His background has nothing unusual in it that would raise any red flags.

Doctor Paul Randall Williams, thirty-five years old, graduated in the top twenty of his class from Johns Hopkins University. He served his residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He married his college sweetheart, only to be divorced three years later. The divorce took a hit to his financials as well as his mental health. We assume he left John Hopkins to become a ship's doctor for the Norwegian Cruise line to escape his previous life. While he was reported for inappropriate behavior by several nurses and other staff he has worked with, charges were not filed. He's worked for two years on the Norwegian Cruise Line. Out of the forty-two cruises that he's worked on, ten women have mysteriously disappeared.

Cruise Director Daniel Marcus, age twenty-nine, graduated from Florida State University with a degree in Recreation and Leisure. He's worked with Norwegian Cruise Lines since graduating from college five years ago and worked his way up through the ranks to become a Cruise Director. His family background is a bit surprising. He's been quite successful despite his rough upbringing. Out of the 103 cruises that he's worked on, twenty-two people have gone missing. Every single one was a mystery and was chalked up as them going overboard unnoticed.

*****