Curse of the Arctic Star Read Online Free PDF Page A

trouble?”
    “No, no, no, not at all, sir.” Iris took a quick step backward, clutching the towels to her again. “It’s completely my fault, really. I wasn’t paying enough attention to where I was going.”
    Tobias’s father didn’t look convinced as he looked over at his son. “Well, I hope he’s behaving better than he was earlier today. It seems he’s feeling a little, uh, cranky right now because he didn’t want to come on this cruise.”
    “Yeah.” Tobias scowled. “I wanted to go to Galaxy X. That’s what I call a cool vacation. Not some stupid boat.”
    “That’s enough, son.” His father grabbed Tobias by the arm and pulled him into the room. “Sorry,” headded once more before shutting the door.
    “Wow,” Bess said. “That kid’s pretty obnoxious.”
    “Yeah, we sort of met him earlier.” I glanced at the maid. “Are you okay? What’d he do to scare you?”
    “Nothing.” Iris shrugged. “Like I said, he just startled me. Excuse me, I’d better get back to work.”
    She turned and hurried off down the hall. “Excitement’s over,” Alan announced. “Better get back to my music.” He headed back into the suite.
    But I was still staring off after the maid. “She was acting kind of oddly, wasn’t she?”
    Bess grinned. “First your misplaced bag, and now this?” she teased. “You don’t have to look for mysteries everywhere , Nancy.”
    “Yeah.” George looked at the door to make sure Alan was out of earshot. “It’s not like some eight-year-old is sending threatening e-mails to Brock Walker and planting fake bodies in pools.”
    I smiled. “I guess you’re right.”
    We went back inside. Alan was at the piano again. Bess made a beeline for the luggage.
    “I guess we might as well start unpacking,” she said, picking up her cosmetics case.
    I glanced at my pathetic little carry-on. There didn’t seem to be much point in trying to settle in until Max found my suitcase. Besides, I had more important things to do.
    “You guys go ahead,” I said. “I think I’ll go pick up a toothbrush in one of the onboard shops. Just in case.”
    “But I’m sure Max will—” George began.
    “I know,” I cut her off. “But I feel like taking a walk. I’ll be back soon.”
    As soon as I was away from the suite, I pulled out my phone and texted Becca to see if she was free to talk. She texted back immediately, telling me she was in her office.
    The office turned out to be a small, poorly lit, windowless cabin on one of the lower levels. It was crammed with two large desks and several filing cabinets. Becca was hunched over a laptop at one of the desks, typing frantically. When I knocked softly on the door frame, she glanced up and pushed her hair out of her eyes.
    “Nancy!” she exclaimed. “Come on in. I’m just typingup the daily newsletter.” She hit a button on the keyboard and grimaced. “I’m a little behind, thanks to all the commotion earlier.”
    “Yeah, about that.” I shut the door behind me and perched on the edge of the other desk. “Did you find out anything else about what happened?”
    Becca sighed. “Marcelo and the captain contacted HQ to see what to do. Verity told them to treat it as a prank and just move on.”
    “Verity?” I echoed.
    “Verity Salinas,” Becca said. “She’s the CEO of Superstar Cruises.”
    “Oh, right. I don’t think you mentioned her name before.” I nodded. “So she doesn’t want to involve the local police?”
    Becca shook her head. “She said to let ship security handle it. They already did a little investigating and figured out that the mannequin came from one of the clothing shops on the promenade level. And that pink stuff in the water was drink mix swiped from the snack bar in the kids’ playground area.”
    “Did they figure out who did it?”
    “Not yet.” Becca raked a hand through her hair, making her curls stand up wildly. “But I suppose there’s no real harm done. We offered the newlyweds a free