Murder Mystery Cruise
By Littlesilverstar, silverstar222b@yahoo.com
Female detective finds that murder isn't just a theme

NOTE: The protagonist of this story, Detective Sara Ramos, is a character
in one of my other stories, Assassin by Night.

Detective Sara Ramos reclined lazily in a comfortable chair, reading an
Agatha Christie mystery.  Although at 36 years old she was one of the
police department's younger detectives, she was already recognized as one
of the brightest minds they had to offer.  Recently, she and two of her
colleagues had cracked the case of a female vigilante who baited men into
attacking her and then killed them.  That case had involved large amounts
of nighttime stakeout work, and she was still recuperating from the effect
it had had on her sleeping schedule.  Relaxing with an Agatha Christie
mystery, her favorite author, was just what she needed.

The phone suddenly rang. "Hello?" she said as she picked it up.

"Hey, Sara, it's me," came the voice of her best friend, Melanie O'Connor.
"What's up? Are you doing anything this Saturday?"

"Mmm, no real plans for that," she answered. "Why?"

"Great!" said Melanie. "Because I've got the opportunity of a lifetime for
you."

"Oh no, not another blind date," said Sara. "Remember the last time you
said 'opportunity of a lifetime,' and he turned out to be..."

"I know, I know," said Melanie. "But this isn't a blind date.  This 
Saturday, I'm going to be the hostess at a murder mystery cruise and
dinner! The boat leaves at 3 in the afternoon, and while it's still light
everyone can enjoy the sights.  Then, at dinnertime, the 'murder' will be
committed and all the guests will have to figure out who did it before the
boat gets back to the dock at 9:30.  Now, normally each guest has to pay
$50 for this, but because I'm the hostess they're letting me bring one
guest for free, and I chose you.  It's perfect for you!"

Sara smiled. "That's sweet of you, Mel.  But aren't those things a little
...well, cheesy?"

"Oh, lighten up, Sara," said Melanie. "You take your work WAY too seriously.
Come and have some fun for once.  You need a break, anyway."

"All right, I guess I could use the break," she said. "Thanks for getting
this for me."

"Just what friends do," said Melanie. "I'll see you at Pier 23 at 3 this
Saturday then!"

And so that was how Detective Sara Ramos found herself, at a little before
three that Saturday afternoon, parking her car in a lot near the port and
heading for Pier 23, where a boat and a murder awaited.  Her choice of
attire - black miniskirt, knee-high black boots, and tight white long-
sleeved top - showed off her athletic and muscular but still sexily
feminine figure.  Her shoulder-length dark brown hair was in a neat
ponytail.  At 5'7" and 132 pounds, she was smaller than most of the perps
she had to arrest, but was more than capable of kicking their asses if the
need arose. She especially liked the miniskirt and boots combination
because it showed off her muscular thighs.

Sara approached the sign that read "Pier 23." A large blue-and-white boat
was docked near the sign.  At the bottom of the ramp to the boat, Melanie
was waiting.

"Sara! So glad you could make it," she said, giving her friend a hug.
Melanie was a tall, athletic woman in her mid-thirties with shoulder-length
blonde hair.  She was dressed in jeans and a white blouse.

"Mel, good to see you," said Sara, hugging her friend back.

"Come on board and I'll introduce you to the other guests," said Melanie.
As the two women boarded the boat, Melanie leaned over and whispered to her
friend. "Except for me and the two actors who play the murderer and the 
victim, nobody knows how the murder goes.  Not even the boat captain," she
said, nodding at a grizzled man in his sixties wearing a blue coat and a
captian's peaked cap. "I'll bet that since you're a real detective, you'll
be the first one to figure it out!" she continued.

Sara smiled. "Well, it'll be embarrassing if someone figures it out before
me," she said.  By now, they had reached the top of the ramp and were on
the boat itself, where the other guests were waiting.  Melanie looked
around. "Is everybody here? No, we're still missing one - oh, here he is,"
she said as a thin, surfer-type young man with blond hair came hurrying on
board. 

"All right, everybody's here!" said Melanie. "Good afternoon, everyone, 
and welcome to our murder mystery cruise and dinner.  I'm your hostess,
Melanie O'Connor." She nodded towards the boat captain, who was visible
through the windows of the engine room, starting the boat up. "And that's 
our pilot, Captain Harvey.  We'll be going around the Harbor Islands and
into Little Bay, then swing around southward and come back the long way.
While it's still daylight, we should be able to get a good view of the
islands and some sea life.  If we're lucky, we might even see some gray
whales.  Dinner will be at 6:30 and I'd advise y'all to be careful around
dinnertime, because I have a feeling that a murder might occur." As she 
said this, she winked. "We should be back at the dock at around 9:30. Now,
are there any questions?"

There were none.  Melanie smiled. "All right," she said.  The boat was now
getting underway. "I'll let y'all go wandering off in just a second, but
first I think it'd be nice for everyone to briefly introduce themselves.
Just say your name and what you do for a living." She nodded to the thin
blond man. "Why don't you start and we can go in a circle from there."

"My name's Nick and I'm a lifeguard down at Rocky Beach," he said.

The next person in the circle was a tall, gray-haired man in his sixties.
"I'm George, and I'm a doctor at Central Hospital."

Next in line were two very attractive women.  The first, a tall, slender,
tanned girl with long blonde hair, said, "I'm Kelly, and I'm a waitress at
Wilson's Diner."

The second hottie, a petite brunette with a very fit body, said, "My name's
Ashley, and I'm an aerobics instructor."

A plain-looking, brown-haired man of medium height was next. "I'm Bill, and
I'm a mechanic," he said.

The tall, handsome, dark-haired man who was next in the circle said, "My
name's Tom, and I'm an accountant."

Second last was a middle-aged, slightly overweight woman with light brown
hair. "I'm Janet, and I'm in real estate," she said.

Finally, it was Sara's turn. "My name's Sara, and I'm a police officer," she
said.  She had decided to use the more generic term police officer, rather 
than detective, to have less of an impact on the other passengers.  Still, 
her declaration brought plenty of stares, smiles, and lighthearted comments.

"Nice to know all of you!" said Melanie, with a wink at Sara. "All right,
make yourselves comfortable and don't hesitate to ask me if you need 
anything.  Thank you and have an enjoyable flight...I mean boat ride."

As the boat motored steadily away from the shore, the passengers drifted
slowly to the railings to enjoy the view.  Kelly and Ashley were chattering
happily at the stern of the boat, evidently discovering they had a lot in
common.  Sara noticed Janet observing them with a look of jealousy in her
eyes.  She also noticed Tom looking at the two hotties, but when she looked
more closely she realized that his eyes were focused on Kelly.

The next few hours went very well. The sky was clear and the ocean was calm.
The greenery of the harbor islands was beautiful, and the passengers saw
many sea birds, seals, and even a gray whale.

Sara made sure to talk at least once with each of the others.  She found
that Nick, George, Kelly, and Ashley were friendly and talkative.  Janet
seemed to be a resentful person with a chip on her shoulder.  Bill and the
captain she both found rather creepy.  And Tom was a little strange - one
second he'd be friendly, and the next he'd look as if his mind was a million
miles away.  But all eight of them had been curious about her police work
and asked her lots of questions about it.  

Melanie came out on the deck. "Dinner will be starting in 15 minutes," she
announced. "Since there's only one washroom on board, I'd advise y'all to
start using it now if you don't want to wait in a long line later.  And
remember...keep your eyes open because a murder just might happen very soon!
Get those magnifying glasses and fingerprint kits ready!"

Some of the passengers headed for the washroom.  Melanie walked over to 
Sara. "How do you like it so far?" she asked.

"It's great," said Sara. "Thanks for inviting me.  I'm really enjoying the
ocean air and the break from work.  Although I must say, I already have
some idea of who the actors are."

"Damn you, you smart brunette," said Melanie teasingly, tossing her blonde
hair. "If you do know, you won't spoil it too early, right?"

"Of course not," said Sara as she playfully slapped her friend on the butt.
"I'd never ruin something for a friend."

"You're so sweet," said Melanie. "I gotta finish getting the dinner ready.
Catch you in a few."

Looking inside the boat's dining room, Sara saw a large, round table with a
white tablecloth.  The plates, glasses, and utensils were already set.  The
food was not out yet, but she could smell it coming from the kitchen.

She went into the washroom and freshened up quickly, then walked out to the
stern of the boat, her ponytail blowing in the wind as she enjoyed the view
and the breeze.  She closed her eyes and became lost in her thoughts.

Suddenly, a horrible, high-pitched scream pierced the air.  Sara opened her
eyes and turned around, walking quickly around the boat's cabin.  Near the
boat's bow, Ashley was bent over the unmoving form of Kelly. "She's...she's
dead!" said Ashley.

The captain and Tom came hurrying over to the body, examining it closely.
Melanie came racing out of the cabin, staring at Kelly's body. "What?!" she 
said. "This wasn't supposed to happen!" Sara stared at her friend, puzzled.
Melanie noticed her staring. "This isn't part of the show!" she said. "She
wasn't supposed to be the..." She trailed off and hurried to examine the
body.  Kelly's chest was stained with blood.  Real blood.

George, the doctor, came hurrying up. "Let me look at her," he said.  He
examined the body briefly, then said, "No doubt about it, she's dead. There
was a single stab wound to the chest.  She can't have been dead more than a
few minutes." After examining it, he covered the body with a blanket.

Nick, Bill, and Janet then came running up.  Everyone seemed shocked that a
real murder could have occurred.  Ashley and Tom both leaned over the side 
and threw up.  Sara, her police training kicking in, spoke up.

"All right, everybody, listen up," she said. "Everyone needs to stay calm 
and also stay right here for the time being.  Nobody touch or move the body.
Captain, I need you to call the police - um, I am the police, but we need

more police.  The boat's radio's in the engine room, right?"

The captain looked at her intensely. "The radio's dead," he said in his deep,
rough voice. "It was workin' fine when we headed out, but when I tried to
put in a call 'bout 20 minutes ago, it was dead.  I told Ms. O'Connor about
it." Melanie nodded.

Sara frowned. "All right then," she said. "Anyone with a cell phone...do 
they work this far out?"

Nick and Bill already had theirs out. "Nope," said Nick.  Bill nodded in
agreement.

"Then we'll just have to head for port as fast as possible and when we get 
in range, we can call the police and have them meet us at the dock," said
Sara.  She stared up at the captain, who simply stared back at her for a
few seconds, then nodded. "Right," he said.

"Put it on autopilot," she called after him.  A moment later, the boat's
engines throttled up to full power and its heading changed.  The captain
then came back out on the deck.

Sara looked at everyone one by one. "Did anybody see anything?" she asked.
"Anything at all?" They all shook their heads. From talking to each of them,
she discovered that at the time of the murder, they were all either looking
at the ocean, using the washroom, talking to each other, or standing in the
dining room smelling the food.  Nobody had seen anybody doing anything
suspicious, and nobody had a complete alibi.

Melanie spoke up. "It's really ironic," she said. "Kelly was the one who was
supposed to be the murderer for our mystery.  And the person who was going
to play the victim was..."

"Wait, let me guess," said Sara. She turned to Tom. "Was it you?" she asked.

Tom's mouth dropped open in shock, while Melanie just smiled in amazement.
"How did you know?" he asked.

"Don't feel bad," said Sara, managing a forced smile in this grim situation.
"There was nothing wrong with your acting.  It's just that as a police 
officer who's done undercover work, I've also had to play the character of
someone else.  I have to invent a new career for myself, and I've found that
if I give myself an interesting job, people ask me lots of questions about
it - questions that are sometimes hard to answer.  So I just give myself a
boring job, like an accountant or a waitress (the ones you and Kelly used).
It works.  People don't ask questions about it, and it makes the undercover
work a whole lot easier.  Of course, there was also the fact that I thought
you were too good-looking to be an accountant, and Kelly was too good-
looking to be a waitress.  Except at Hooters."

Tom managed a laugh.  Some of the others laughed too. "All right, I see it
now," he said. "Can you use those detective skills of yours to solve this
real murder?"

"I'll do my best," she said. "But real murders are very different from 
murder mystery dinner murders." She turned to address the whole group.
"All right, everybody, listen up and listen very carefully," she said. "We
not only have a murder on our hands, but we have a murderer right here on
this boat.  One of us standing here in this group is a cold-blooded killer.
Now, I know that for those of you who don't know me, it's plausible in your
minds that I'm a suspect too.  I understand that, but I want to assure you
as best I can that it wasn't me and that I'll do everything I can to solve
this case.  Please bear with me here.  I want to speak with our hostess
alone first - we know each other and we're best friends.  After that, I 
also want to do a more in-depth interview with each of you individually. 
Everybody should try to keep an eye on each other and nobody should go off 
where no one else can see them. There's a murderer on this boat and it's 
entirely possible that he or she will kill again." Nods of agreement came 
from the others.  Sara and Melanie went into the dining room to talk.

Sara ran her fingers through her hair.  She had seven suspects to sift 
through - Nick, George, Ashley, Bill, Tom, Janet, and Captain Harvey.  She
knew Melanie couldn't have done it - they had been best friends for years
and knew everything about each other.  Sara wanted to talk to Melanie first 
to see if she had any useful information about the others.  She squeezed 
her friend's hand. "Are you all right?" she asked.

"I'll be all right," said Melanie. "I can't believe this happened, though."

"I know," said Sara. "But we have to figure out which of those seven people
out there murdered Kelly, before he or she tries anything else.  Now, you
met Tom and the captain before the others.  Do you know anything about them
that could help?"

"Well, Tom's an actor, of course," said Melanie. "He's not famous or 
anything, but I think he's reasonably successful.  Kelly was the same.  I
think they might have worked together on projects before, but they're not
close or anything."

"Tom's pretty high on my list of suspects," said Sara. "I saw him staring at
Kelly a lot all day.  Of course, it could have had something to do with the
performance, but it's also possible that there's some history between them
that could provide a motive for him.  Let's keep in mind that as far as we
know, he's the only one on this boat who knew Kelly beforehand."

"That makes sense," said Melanie. "What did you want to know about the 
captain? He's a little weird, but I can't see him murdering anyone."

"I guess I'm a little biased with him because I think he's creepy, but he's
as likely as anyone else on this boat to be the killer," replied Sara. "Oh,
and when he said the radio was dead, did you check it yourself?"

"Yeah, it really was dead," said Melanie. "I guess he could have busted it
himself, but so could anyone else.  The engine room door wasn't locked and
the captain wasn't in there all the time." She paused. "Okay, so far we have
one person who might have a motive, and one person who seems creepy but
doesn't seem to have any motive.  What about the others?"

"Well, George is also pretty high on my suspect list right now," said Sara.

"George? That nice old doctor?" asked Melanie. "Why?"

"Because of the stab wound," answered Sara. "I've seen a lot of stabbings in
my line of work, and they're usually not as neat and easy as they are in
movies.  Usually, it takes a lot of stabs to kill someone.  But Kelly was
killed with a single, clean stab to the heart, suggesting that she was 
killed by someone who knew exactly where to stab.  Someone like a doctor."

"I see," said Melanie. "But he doesn't seem to have any motive.  Who else 
might make a good suspect?"

"I'd say Janet's also a pretty good one," said Sara. "I think she, Tom, and
George are the most likely suspects right now.  I saw her glaring angrily at
Kelly and Ashley earlier today.  I think she's really jealous that they're
more attractive than her.  Maybe, out here on this boat, with the theme of
murder in the air, she just snapped and killed Kelly."

"That sounds pretty extreme," said Melanie.

"It does sound extreme, when you look at it," agreed the detective. "But we
have to remember this: Out of all the people on this boat, Janet is the only

one who we know to have been mad at Kelly."

The blonde nodded. "Three more to go," she said. "Nick, Bill, and Ashley."

"They're low on my list right now," said Sara. "Bill's kind of creepy too,
and he's an unattractive guy.  He might have had a similar reason as Janet's,
being jealous that he could never be with a girl like Kelly.  But we never
saw him mad at her.  Nick, I can't think of anything against him right now,
unless he has some secret that we don't know about.  The same with Ashley.
In fact, I'd put Ashley at the bottom of my list right now.  She and Kelly
were getting along great and from what I saw between them, it was genuine
friendship."

"That's it about the suspects," said Melanie. "Now about the murder weapon.
I guess the killer threw the knife overboard after he or she did it." 

"And also used a knife from the table right here," added Sara, indicating
the dining room table, where one of the knives was indeed missing from a
place setting. "Untraceable on two levels.  Using a knife from right here
could indicate a crime of passion, a spur-of-the-moment kind of thing.  Of
course, it's also possible that the murderer knew there would be knives
aboard a dinner cruise and planned ahead for it." She put her head in her
hands. "No easy answers," she sighed.  She looked out the window at the
others.  Some were talking and some were simply staring off into space. "I
guess I'd better start talking to them now," she said.

"I'll watch your back," said Melanie. "The killer could panic at any moment."

"Thanks," said Sara, managing a smile. "It's nice to have a tough chick for 
a best friend."

"Same here," said Melanie, smiling back.

They went out onto the deck.  Sara, after failing to decide whether to start
her interrogations with the most likely suspects or the least likely ones,
decided to just do them randomly.

She started with the captain.  She discovered that Harvey was his last name
and his first name was Robert.  He seemed hostile and annoyed at her 
questioning.  The captain said that he had been in his job for decades, and
she certainly believed that.  He denied knowing any of the passengers 
beforehand and said that he usually took people fishing, and that this was 
his first time doing the murder mystery gig.  When asked about the radio, he
said that he had had occasional problems with it.  He said that he was in
the engine room at the time of the murder.

George was next to be interviewed by Sara.  He said he was a cardiologist
and that he had come on the boat as an escape from the hectic life at the
hospital.  In contrast to the captain, he was friendly and polite as he was
being questioned.  However, he became nervous when she asked if he had seen
any stab wound cases come to the hospital, to which George admitted that he
had.  He said that at the time the murder was committed, he had been staring
at the ocean looking for more gray whales, and had come running to the body
when he heard Ashley shouting.  He said that when he saw Kelly's bloody
chest, it brought him bad memories from the hospital.

Nick was next in line.  He was friendly, but did not appear to be too bright.
He loved surfing, the ocean, and all kinds of water sports.  At no time
during the interrogation did he appear to become nervous.  He said that at
the time of the murder, he and Bill had both been walking in and out of the
dining room because they were hungry and wanted to smell the food.

Sara talked to Bill next.  He seemed friendlier than he had been earlier in
the day.  He corroborated Nick's story that they had both been hungry and
were walking in and out of the dining room.  A devoted mechanic, he said he
liked cars because fixing them was a challenge, but one with set rules.  He
said he remembered feeling sick when he saw the blood on Kelly's chest.

After that, it was Janet's turn.  She, like the captain, seemed sullen and
irritated by Sara's questioning.  From what she said about her job, she
didn't seem to enjoy it very much.  In fact, she seemed to be a grumpy
person overall.  She denied feeling any resentment towards Kelly, but
shifted her eyes away when she said it.  She said that at the time of the
murder, she had been talking to Tom.  She blushed as she said it, leading
Sara to believe that Janet had been trying to flirt with him.  She said that
they had only talked for about a minute, so it was still easily possible
that either she or Tom had committed the murder.

Sara went directly to Tom after Janet.  He said that he had indeed been
talking to Janet, but only for a minute. He appeared to be trying very hard
to be friendly during the interview, but it was clear that he was very
nervous.  Tom said that he had appeared in commercials and had had bit parts
in movies and a few small appearances on TV shows.  He said that he and 
Kelly had appeared in a couple of commercials together.  He denied knowing
very much about her and seemed to become exceptionally nervous whenever her
name was mentioned.

Finally, Sara came to Ashley.  She had been the one to find the body.  She
said that she had been walking up and down the length of the boat when she
saw Kelly lying there, dead.  Ashley seemed very nervous as Sara looked at
her face.  She then turned away and looked out over the ocean.  Sara put a
hand on Ashley's shoulder.

"She seemed like such a cool chick," said Ashley quietly. "We really hit it
off.  Most of the other women I know are so catty and jealous, and it's hard
for me to make female friends.  But Kelly, she was so nice and open.  And
then, to find her dead like that, seeing the blood covering her chest..." 
Ashley pressed her face onto the detective's shoulder.  Sara held her 
comfortingly.

"We were talking about going out for drinks after the boat ride," continued
Ashley softly.  She glanced over at Melanie. "It must be nice to have a best
friend like that," she said. "You're a detective and I know we're all 
suspects, but it must be really nice to have at least one other person on
board who you know everything about, who you know you can trust."

Sara smiled. "Yes, it is," she said.

"Did you grow up together?" asked Ashley.

"No, actually," said Sara. "I've lived in this town all my life, but Melanie
grew up in New York City.  She was a stewardess for several years.  About
eight years ago, she decided to switch to hostessing jobs that didn't 
require so much travel, and she settled down here.  That's when we met.
We're the same age and we found that we have a lot in common."

Ashley looked surprised. "Really?" she said. "I would have thought you grew
up together.  But since you didn't..." (her voice dropped to a whisper)
"...isn't it possible that you don't know her as well as you think you do?
Isn't it possible that she has some dark secret from her past?"

Sara laughed. "Melanie? Dark secrets? No offense, Ashley, but I think you've
been reading too many corny detective stories."

"I'm just saying," said Ashley. "Are we done here?"

"Yes," said Sara.  She thought to herself.  Could there be something in what 
Ashley had said? Could Melanie really have some dark secret? Then, she shook 
her head.  What evidence did she have for that? Just because they hadn't 
grown up together? "Dammit, Ashley, you made me paranoid," she said to 
herself.  And another thing.  Was it just more paranoia, or did she know
Ashley from somewhere? Her face seemed vaguely familiar.

Melanie came over to her. "So, what do you think now?" she asked.

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say it was Tom," said Sara. "But it could be
anyone.  Oh, and you saw Nick and Bill going in and out of the dining room,
right?"

"Yeah," said Melanie. "But I was going back and forth from the kitchen, so
it's possible that someone else could have snuck into the dining room while
me, Bill, and Nick were all out of it and taken a knife.  Or anyone could 
have stolen a knife from the kitchen earlier.  Nothing was locked.  Or maybe
the killer even brought his or her own knife, stabbed Kelly, threw the knife
overboard, and then stole a knife from the dining room and threw that 
overboard too just to cast suspicion on Bill and Nick. So many possibilities
and so many suspects."

"Definitely," said Sara.  She paused, then said in a low voice, "You know,
Ashley even thought I should suspect you, when I told her that we didn't 
grow up together.  She said you might have some deep dark scary secret from
your past."

Melanie laughed. "Really? She must really be a conspiracy theorist or
something.  I guess she's hurting after finding Kelly dead, so I'll
sympathize with her and refrain from kicking her ass." She paused. "So what
do we do now?"

"I think I'll try my cell phone now," said Sara.  She found that it worked
now and put in a call to the police, arranging for them to meet the boat at
Pier 23. She then turned back to her friend. "We've talked to everyone else,
but I think now it's time to find out a little more about our murder 
victim." They walked over to Kelly's corpse.  Sara reached into Kelly's
pockets, being careful to leave the blanket covering her completely 
undisturbed.  The others crowded around and watched with interest.

"Dude, are you going to search us too?" asked Nick.

"That would be a negative, dude," replied Sara. "When the police meet the
boat at the dock, they'll search everyone.  Even me.  It'd be kind of
redundant to search everyone now.  Besides, it's pretty obvious that the
killer threw the murder weapon overboard." She pulled the items out of 
Kelly's pockets and laid them on the deck.  There was a wallet, a pocket
knife, a keychain, a folded piece of paper, and...

Sara held up the small plastic packet filled with a white powder that she
had found in Kelly's pocket.  She opened it, sniffed it, and tasted a 
little. "Cocaine," she proclaimed.

"Well, well, well," said Janet in a bitter, mocking voice. "Looks like
Little Miss Hot Blonde Actress was a coke addict.  Not so hot now, is she?"

"Shut up, bitch," snarled Ashley. "Show some respect for the dead, or I'll
kick your fat ass." She flexed her biceps, which were quite large for a
petite girl, to make her point.

As Janet was about to make an angry retort, Sara stepped in. "Knock it off,
both of you," she said.  She glared at Janet, then at Ashley.  Suddenly,
something clicked.  She remembered where she had seen Ashley before.

"I arrested you five years ago," she said to Ashley, who looked as if she
was tempted to jump overboard. "You had cocaine and marijuana in your 
pockets." She turned to Janet. "Don't say a word," said Sara. "This is no
time for pointless gloating." She then turned back to Ashley.

"All right, I admit it," sighed Ashley. "I used to do drugs.  I was a wild
party girl.  Then I got arrested.  I did my time, went to rehab, got cleaned
up.  I got myself a nice gig as an aerobics instructor and I've been clean
ever since." She looked at Sara. "I didn't even recognize you at first, but
when you questioned me the second time I remembered you.  I was afraid you'd
finger me as the prime suspect because I have a criminal record." Her voice
rose in pitch and volume. "But that was just some stupid drugs when I was a
stupid little girl! I had no idea that Kelly was doing drugs, and I didn't 
kill her!" She looked at the faces around her.  A few were sympathetic, but 
more were accusatory.

Tom spoke up, relieving Ashley, as some of the pressure was taken off her.
"I've suspected for a while that Kelly was into this stuff," he said. "But I
didn't know for sure until now."

Sara frowned. "You should have told me that earlier," she said.  She sighed,
then opened the folded piece of paper, reading it quickly.

"What does it say?" asked George.

"It's a letter she was writing to a friend," she said. "She's worried about
some guy stalking her.  She mentions getting plastic surgery, and says that
the stalker wrote her that he was 'imitating her' and also got plastic
surgery.  She refers to the stalker only as J.W."

"Doesn't seem like it's anyone on this boat then," said Melanie. "No one on

board has a last name that begins with W."

"There's one person whose first name begins with J," said Ashley, looking
pointedly at Janet.

"Oh no you don't, bitch," growled Janet. "I'm not a lesbian stalker and even
if I was, I wouldn't want anything to do with that slutty whore."

"Oh yeah, bitch?" said Ashley. "Does the letter even say that the stalker is
a guy?"

"Both of you, cool it," snapped Sara.  She flexed her large biceps, which
stretched the tight sleeves of her long-sleeved top, to make her point. 
"Yes, the letter says the stalker is male.  But that's not gloating material
for either of you.  We're all still suspects here.  And there's at least a
small possibility that whoever murdered Kelly is not the stalker that she
mentioned in her letter." She turned to face the group.

"We're still in danger," she said. "Each new bit of evidence that we find
likely makes the killer more desperate. But if we stick together, we should
be okay." She looked at her watch. "We should be back at the dock in about
45 minutes," she said. "The police will be waiting there.  We'll be safe
when we get there, but I'm afraid that unless we manage to solve the case
out here, we're all going to be in for a long night of questioning.  If
anybody knows anything that could help, make sure to come to me with it."
She glared pointedly at Tom when she said this.

The semi-meeting then dispersed, with some of the passengers talking amongst
themselves, while others sat by themselves.  The captain went back to the
engine room, his frame visible through the windows.  Sara and Melanie held
a discussion in low voices.

"Well, that was a surprise," said Melanie.

"Yeah," agreed Sara. "But Tom's still on the top of my suspect list."

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say Janet was the killer," said Melanie.
"She really rubs me the wrong way.  I can just see her snapping and losing
it with Kelly."

"Janet's pretty high on the list," agreed Sara. "But now, Ashley's moved
from the bottom up to number three or four, at least.  If she's innocent,
the drug thing would be a pretty good coincidence. I've seen people willing
to commit crimes against anyone for drugs, even their friends." She sighed.
"Stay calm for me, Mel," she said. "With Ashley and Janet ready to go at 
it, and Tom being a Nervous Nelly who keeps secrets, I need you with me."

"Don't worry," said Melanie. "Calm is my middle name."

Sara patted her friend on the back, then sat in a comfortable deck chair to
look over her notes and try to find a clue in them.  She was just beginning
this task when Ashley approached her. "Can I talk to you for a minute?" she
asked.

"Sure.  What's up?" said Sara.

Ashley swallowed nervously. "I hope you're still not mad at me for what
happened five years ago," she said. "I've changed.  I really have."

"I'm not mad at all," said Sara. "What's in the past is in the past.  You
did your time and you got clean.  I'm not holding a grudge.  What I'm
focused on is what's happened now, with Kelly."

"But you still suspect me pretty bad, don't you?" asked Ashley. "Tell me, 
honestly.  Where am I on your list of suspects?"

"In all honesty, Ashley, you're near the middle," said Sara.  Ashley looked
somewhat relieved. "Thanks," she said as she strolled back towards the bow.
Sara smiled to herself, then went back to reviewing her notes.  

Something kept gnawing at the back of her mind.  Something that Melanie had 
said.  Something that was very important to the case, but she couldn't quite
put her finger on it until...

"I've got it!" she said to herself.  That was what it was! This new piece of
evidence pointed strongly to one suspect in particular.  She went quickly to
the notes for that suspect.  She read them over and over...and found
something! It all fit! The murderer had to be that one!

Sara got to her feet excitedly. "Attention, everyone," she called out 
loudly. "Will everyone come over here, please?" The others made their way
over to her. "I have a very important announcement to make," she continued.
"I've discovered who the killer is." Everyone stared at her.

"You're the murderer," said Sara as she pointed her finger directly at...

WHO WAS THE MURDERER?

If you think you know who the murderer is, please send your suspect and why
you think he or she did it to silverstar222b@yahoo.com.  I will post the
conclusion of the story in a few days.  The conclusion will include the
solution to the mystery, as well as a fight scene between Sara and the 
killer.

Good luck!