“It’s too gaudy, Bess,” George said. “Want some cheese and crackers?”
Bess shook her head and examined her hand carefully. “I think it’ll work with the right lighting.” She jumped out of bed. “Where have you two been?”
“George was doing laps, and I was having a very interesting conversation with Craig Oliver,” Nancy said.
“Really?” Bess said. “I hope you let him have it!”
“Well, not exactly,” Nancy said.
“Did I break up an important … conversation?” George interjected. “Tell us about it, Nancy.”
“You didn’t break up anything, George! Please,” Nancy said. “Craig was explaining to me why he hasn’t been seeing as much of Amber as he thought he would.”
“Why?” Bess and George asked together.
“His job on this ship is just a cover. He’s really a detective,” Nancy said. “I can’t tell you much more than that, except that I’ve been cleared to help him with the investigation.”
“Cleared?” Bess said. “Hmm. Sounds like government work to me.”
“Well, it’s not the kind of government work you might be thinking of, but it does involve crossing international borders,” Nancy explained. “Anyway, you’ll just have to trust me.”
“Okay,” Bess and George said in unison.
The cousins were used to Nancy’s having to be secretive sometimes about what she was involved in, to protect the integrity of the case. And they both knew that when everything was over, she’d let them know all the details.
“You’ll be helping too, though,” Nancy said, “with something very important.”
“What?” George asked.
“Craig said the case is more complicated than he thought when he invited Amber to come on this cruise,” Nancy explained, “so he wants me to help keep Amber occupied. He doesn’t want her to be so lonely and thinking about why he isn’t around. I’ll need your help for that.”
“Well, that should be pretty easy,” Bess said. “I like Amber. There are plenty of things we can do together.”
“Maybe she likes to swim,” George added. “It would be easy to kill a lot of time in the pool!”
“I think we should play it by ear,” Nancy said. “We’ll probably have to do a lot of improvising.”
“I have an idea,” Bess said. She walked over to the telephone and rang Amber’s room. “Hi, Amber, it’s Bess Marvin. If you and Craig aren’t doing anything now, let’s go window-shopping! Okay … Great. I’ll be there in half an hour.” She hung up the phone. “I think I called at just the right time. I’m sure she’d been crying. She jumped at the chance to get out of the room.” Bess shook her head. “I feel so sorry for her. She must be miserable.”
Right then the telephone rang.
“I hope that’s not Amber calling me back to cancel,” Bess said.
Nancy picked up the receiver. “Hello. Oh, hi, Craig. What’s up?”
“Meet me by the elevators in five minutes,” Craig said.
“Okay,” Nancy said. “I’ll be right there.” She hung up and told her friends what her short conversation was all about.
“He’s not wasting any time putting you to work, is he?” George said.
“I guess not—but I did tell him I’d help as much as I could,” Nancy replied. “I’ll be back in a sec.”
Craig was already at the elevators when Nancy showed up.
“I couldn’t finish our conversation earlier because your friend came by,” Craig said.
“I understand,” Nancy said.
“There are three male passengers who fit the profile of a jewel thief,” Craig began. He pulled a piece of paper from his shirt pocket. “I’ve written out their names and cabin numbers for you.” He handed Nancy the piece of paper.
Nancy scanned the list, reading it aloud. “John Fulcrum, deck 4, cabin 438; William Canton, deck 3, cabin 307; and Robert Jordan (married), deck 2, cabin 202.” Nancy looked up at Craig. “What are these profiles you have?” she asked.
“Government agencies, including Interpol, have profiles for all kinds of criminals,” he said. “These three men fit the bill for this jewel thief.” Craig gave her a physical description of all three men.
“Amazing,” Nancy said. “Okay, so what do you want me to do?”
“I can’t tail these men everywhere. I have to work at my job sometimes to keep my cover, and I have to keep Amber happy,” Craig said. “So I’ve figured out a plan. When I have to do something else, you’ll take over. We’ll use our cell phones.” He handed Nancy a slip of paper with his number on it. “If you’ll give me your number, I can call you and tell you when I need you. When I’m where I can tail these men, then I’ll call you and tell you that you can stop for a while. I think it’ll work.”
Nancy wrote out her cell phone number and handed it to Craig.
“They’ve all pretty much settled into a routine,” Craig said. “That’s normal. Even jewel thieves fall into their own cruise ship routines. So that’ll make it a little easier for us to decide when to be where. We’ll sort of know what to expect from them.”
“Okay,” Nancy said. “I’ll do what I can.”
When she got back to the suite, Bess and George were ready for lunch.
“We’re starving,” Bess said. “You can tell us everything Craig said over lunch.”
