Page 24 of Waylaid in Whittier (Cruise Director Millie Mysteries #5)

Within minutes of wrapping up her early morning staff meeting, Millie’s radio went off. “Millie, do you copy?”

“Go ahead Sharky.”

“Where are you?”

“Finishing my staff meeting. What’s up?”

“Elvira is MIA.”

“MIA on board the ship?”

“Yeah. Can you meet me at my cabin?”

“I’m on my way.” Millie took the side stairs to deck one, where the crew’s quarters and Sharky’s cabin were located.

She found him standing in his doorway, a concerned expression on his face. He quickly ushered her inside. “Thanks for getting here so fast. I can’t find Elvira.”

Millie’s eyes flitted around the cabin, taking note of Sharky’s messy living quarters. “Did someone ransack your place and kidnap her?”

“I know my cabin looks a little rough. I haven’t done my monthly cleaning and now with Elvira’s stuff here it’s even messier.”

Fin stalked over and rubbed up against Millie’s leg. She scooped him up. He promptly began purring. “Good morning, Fin.”

Sharky patted his head. “This is the calmest he’s been since Elvira got here.”

“Fin doesn’t like her?”

Sharky shrugged. “Nope. I think he might be a little jealous.”

“Poor Fin-ster,” she cooed. “You can come and stay with Scout if you want.”

“I might take you up on that. The two aren’t hitting it off.”

Millie set him on the floor. “Back to Elvira. What’s going on?”

“Remember when Reef said she was acting squirrely and secretive?” He didn’t wait for her to reply. “She offered to run down to the dining room and grab some breakfast sandwiches while I took a shower.”

“Which isn’t something I would consider out of the ordinary,” Millie pointed out.

“She left and never came back. She’s been gone for over an hour. I’ve tried calling and texting her multiple times. She’s not answering her phone.”

“Do you think something happened to her?”

“I hope not.”

Millie remembered Reef’s other comment about how she’d freaked out when he tried helping her with her bags and mentioned exploring the ship’s maintenance area. “Is it possible she brought something on board she doesn’t want you to know about?”

“I hate to admit it, but I was thinking the same thing. She spent the whole night talking about the Mount Baldie site.” He twirled his finger next to his forehead. “She’s obsessed with finding gold.”

“You knew that. She even found some nuggets,” Millie reminded him. “Did she show them to you?”

“Yeah. They were kinda small, but I guess she’s convinced there are more where those came from.”

“Maybe she showed you a few nuggets, but not all of them.”

“Could be. All I know is she’s super-obsessed, even more than normal.”

“Let’s start searching. If her comment to Reef was a clue about where she may have gone, at least we have a general vicinity of where to start looking for her.”

Reaching the main drag, the “I-95 corridor,” the pair split up, each going in opposite directions.

Millie swung by the crewmember’s dining room first, followed by the lounge. Thinking Elvira may have decided to use the employee work stations where the computers were located, she looked there next.

Backtracking, she ran into Suharto, the gangway supervisor. “Good morning, Millie. It is very early in the morning for you to be in my neck of the woods.”

“I’m looking for Sharky’s girlfriend, Elvira Cobb.” She gave Suharto a brief description of the woman.

“I remember her. Reef met her at the gangway,” Suharto said. “She was very…protective of her belongings.”

“Was there anything she brought on board that struck you as suspicious?” Millie asked.

“To be honest, I noticed she had a few unusual items.”

“Such as?”

“She had a bag of rocks.”

Millie’s scalp tingled. “Rocks?”

“Yes. They were in a special black bag.” Suharto told her the crewmember working at the scanning equipment had called him over. “She allowed me to look in the bag. It had dirty rocks.”

“Interesting.”

“I let her bring them through. It was very odd, and she seemed happy when she cleared security.”

“I bet. Do you know where she went after she left?”

“Reef was with her. I believe he escorted her to Sharky’s cabin,” Suharto said.

Millie thanked him and watched him walk away. Something told her Elvira hadn’t brought a pile of “rocks” with her. More like a pile of unwashed gold…gold she didn’t want Sharky to know about.

She tapped her lower lip. If she put herself in Elvira’s shoes, where would she hide the bag?

Thinking Sharky, who knew every square inch of the ship, might have a better idea where the best hiding spots were located, she radioed him, asking him to meet her in front of his office.

He showed up less than a minute later, looking even more stressed out.

“Any luck?”

“Nope. She’s still not answering my calls. How about you?”

Millie told him what Suharto had said. “I don’t think they were rocks. I think she brought unwashed gold on board and hid it before we got back last night, or maybe even this morning while you were taking a shower.”

“I can picture her doing something along those lines.”

“Putting yourself in her shoes and not being familiar with the layout of the ship, where do you think she might hide her gold?”

“There’s a coupla spots. Knowing Elvira, she would avoid the recycling center.”

“Thinking someone might incinerate or crush her gold in the compactor,” Millie said.

“Yep. The only other spots I can think of are the pipe tunnel or the duct keel. We’re closest to the pipe tunnel. We’ll try looking there first.”

Millie kept pace with Sharky, both moving at a fast clip along the corridor to the other end of the ship.

He abruptly stopped in front of a metal door, only about half the size of a standard door. He eased it open, revealing a surprisingly spacious room filled with pipes.

She stepped over the threshold and paused, giving her eyes a chance to adjust to the lack of light.

“Elvira?” Sharky’s voice echoed loudly in the cavernous area.

No answer.

“She’s not here.” He turned to go.

Millie stopped him. “Hang on. While we’re here, we should check for potential hiding spots.”

Sharky showed her several easy-to-reach spots, all of which were empty. He tapped the side wall. “If Elvira was sneaking around in here, she wouldn’t get my phone calls. The metal would block the signal.”

“Excellent point. To me, this means there’s a good chance she’s been scurrying about somewhere down here hiding her stuff. You mentioned the duct keel.”

“Which is where we’re heading next.” Sharky escorted Millie out of the pipe tunnel, through a maze of corridors to another door, similar in size and shape to the one they’d just exited.

He flung it open and straddled the lower ledge. “Watch your step.”

“Thanks.”

Massive metal pipes ran the length of the room for as far as the eye could see. Metal runners ran horizontally, supporting the bulky pipes and offering plenty of hiding spots.

“Elvira?” Sharky called out.

No one answered.

“At the risk of sounding stupid, what exactly is this place?”

“The duct keel carries the fuel lines, hydraulic lines, stuff like that.” Sharky climbed over a metal runner. “Chances are she wouldn’t go too far down the pipeline.”

“I’ll start looking over here.” Millie veered left and began checking the nooks and crannies, while Sharky scoured the other side.

“Hey, Millie.”

Millie ran to the other side and found Sharky holding a black bag. “Ten bucks says we found Elvira’s stash.”