The Haunted Cruise

By Zoé Daoust

The Haunted Cruise

Hi! My name is Aby Miller. I’m here to tell you about the time I solved the mystery of the Haunted Cruise.  

First, let me tell you a bit about myself. I’m a 14-year-old detective, with long, wavy, brown hair and mocha brown eyes. (I’m pretty cute!) I love mysteries and travelling, although I don’t love how my little sister, Brielle, follows me everywhere. Speaking of her, she’s kind of cute too, like a miniature me! She’s 12 and has shoulder length, curly brown hair and big hazel eyes. I had to tell you about her because she was there during the whole mystery. 

And what an adventure we had. 

It all began when my friend Claire called me to tell me there were some strange things 

happening on the cruise ship she works on, The S.S. Beacon Hill. She explained to me that first there were threatening emails to the bands that were coming to play on the cruise. Then she started receiving them too! (She’s a greeter for guests) And then one more really weird thing….the salt and pepper were mixed up (what’s the point of that?). Someone clearly wanted to mess stuff up on the cruise, although I didn’t yet know why. I said I would come to figure it out. Unfortunately, I was stuck with my sister because my parents were away on a holiday in France. 

We packed our bags and took a taxi to a hotel right near the port the ship was leaving from. Lucky for us it just happened the hotel had a few extra rooms that day.

We arrived and met Mark, a friend of Claire’s, and he showed us to the hotel we would be staying at for the night until it was time to leave on the cruise. 

“What a crumby room!!” Brielle exclaimed as she closed the door, taking a good look around. “Oh my gosh, is that an old burger under the pillow?” She said, looking vaguely nauseous. 

“Oh quit your complaining, it's only for one night and then we get to go on a cruise!” I told her. We tried to make the best of it and settled in for the night but Brielle insisted on sleeping in my bed instead of sharing with the mouldy burger. “Big chicken,” I murmured as I fell asleep. 

The next morning Mark met us outside the hotel to take us to the docks. It was a quick 10-minute walk to the ship but seemed longer dragging all of our luggage. Man, I need to work out more.

     We all boarded the ship and Claire spotted us, jogging over to greet us. She quickly showed us to our room before rushing back to the doors to greet the guests.

“Woah! What an awesome room!” Brielle cried excitedly, eyes dragging across the queen-sized beds with big, fluffy down pillows, the humongous basket of fluffy blankets and the all-you-can-eat buffet advertisements lying on the nightstand. She flopped on the bed and heaved a sigh, “This is the life!” 

“Bee! We can’t relax yet, we need to talk about what Claire said. The whole reason we’re here is to solve the mystery. She was getting death threats for god’s sake!”

“Claire isn’t even done her shift for another two hours,  I think we can chill for a bit,” she said without even opening her eyes.

She had a point, but still, I argued, “Okay, fine, but we can explore before she’s done, get a lay of the land, figure out the basics of the ship. Might help us solve the mystery faster. We can relax after, okay?”

She sat up, frowning at me but began putting her stuff away, “Fine. We can unpack and then explore. BUT, you have to take me swimming at some point today, okay?”

“Deal.” 

Once we were unpacked we went to explore the ship. We walked up and down each hallway, glancing in the open doorways, and found the dining room, the kitchen, the captain’s room, the bar, and a bunch of other packers within the next couple of hours. 

On the 2nd floor, we found the big, free-for-use pool and hot tub. Brielle really wanted to go swimming, and we’d yet to have a moment to talk to Claire since she was still on shift for half an hour and we’d already explored most of the main areas, so we went back to our room and changed. 

 As we entered Brielle shrieked and pointed at the pool. I looked an saw a body floating face-down in the deep end. The scream echoed off the poolroom’s walls as I we stood there in shock for a moment. 

“Oh my god.”

My brain caught up with the situation and I ran to dial security using the emergency phone by the door. 

A second or two later security arrived and quickly dove in to attempt a rescue. One of the older ladies realised we were still there and ushered us out of the room, citing it was for our own good. 

We may have been forced to leave but I knew I would be back to investigate.   

      It was getting close to lunch so we went back to the cafe after changing back into our regular clothes. I needed to think about this new piece of the mystery. Brielle saw all the food in the buffet and ran directly for the line. I asked her to just grab me a sandwich cause I wasn’t too hungry after such a sight. She reached the buffet tables, took one sandwich off the platters and smashed to the ground. I screamed her name and ran to see what happened as chaos erupted around the cafe. 

As I lowered myself to the ground to check on my sister I saw what was causing the panic. No wonder she fainted, I thought. A huge spider was crawling on the food. Another part of the mystery, I wondered. Someone was out to clear this ship, but why? 

Just then, a little boy came running in, pushing through the crowd.  “There you are, Johnny!” He said smiling fondly. He scooped it up and placed it on his shoulders as security filled the room, having been called when my sister hit the ground. 

I looked at him. 

He looked at me. 

“...You have a tarantula as a pet.”   

“I do, he’s great.” He replied, grinning at the chaos. Security appeared with an older man in tow. “This one yours?” They asked. 

“Yup, thanks so much,” His dad(?) replied gently pulling Johnny and the boy closer and locking the spider up in its cage. He introduced himself as Mr. Daniel Dite, father to the tarantula boy, who was apparently named Phillip. I shook his hand and asked him to try to keep the spider in his cage.

Security finished checking my sister out, clearing her to continue her regular activities(apparently they really did double as medics?) as soon as she felt ready. As they cleared from view, Brielle realised the spider was still there and edged closer to me, shivering in disgust and fear. 

We returned to our table and had a light lunch as we tried to relax from the chaos of the morning.

    When we finished lunch we went to see if we could look for clues in the pool area.  Lucky for us security had stepped out to eat!  Quietly we entered the room and shut the door behind us.  We searched for clues everywhere!  Brielle found a clue in the garbage can, it was a bottle of dark red liquid….some kind of fruit smoothie.  Next we saw the body on the side of the pool.  Brielle was scared but something looked odd.  When I got closer I saw that it was a mannequin probably from one of the clothing stores on the ship!  Weird!  “Why would someone put a mannequin in a pool and try to make it look like a dead body?”  I asked out loud.  Suddenly we heard footsteps approaching.  It was security returning.   We quickly exited out the back door and into the hallway.  

   We decided to investigate all of the onboard stores to see where this “body” came from. After checking 3 stores out, we noticed a pile of clothing on the floor of a display window.  We spoke to the clerk and she said “ Our mannequin disappeared this morning along with all of the money in our cash register!”    “Hmm, there is definitely something going on here.” I thought.  I told Brielle to follow me to our room to talk this out.  

   Back in our room we examined the facts.  Brielle took notes for me.  “Let’s see...first those emails against the band...but why?  To sabotage the ship so people wouldn’t want to sail maybe?  Next...emails against Claire ...why?  Because she is a  great greeter and keeps everyone happy and organized…. maybe the culprit is a competitor?.... Next...a “dead body”..... missing money…..hmmmmm”  I said as paced the cabin….  

    Brielle chimed in with “Sounds like someone doesn’t want this cruise to be successful.”    “ I agree, let’s get Claire to run a background check on every guest and every employee”  I said…

Let’s go have some fun while we wait for the results. 

     A few hours later we found out that there were a group of “guests” that were actually employees of a rival cruise company and they were trying to sabotage the ship in hopes of recruiting all the best employees and a little cash on the side.  

“I knew it!” I said as I read the report.  “You mean I knew it!” said Brielle laughing.  “We both knew it!” I smiled.  Maybe sisters aren’t so bad after all.  

    So security was informed and they took the group into custody and they were detained until the cruise was over.  As for my sister and I, we had an awesome vacation and it was free!  You have to love a good mystery, especially when it comes with a great buffet!  And that my friends, was the mystery of the haunted cruise.    

The End

By Zoé Daoust