My eyes drifted to Callie’s balcony.Had she come back to her room yet?It felt wrong not to check on her.It was the neighborly thing to do, and my mother hadn’t raised me to be unneighborly.
The partition between our balconies was barely three feet tall, a slim sheet of aluminum more for territory division than privacy or security.It wasn’t exactly Fort Knox.I swung a leg over, straddling it awkwardly before swinging my other leg over.
Easy peasy.
The curtains behind her sliding glass door were drawn open, and a bedside lamp cast a warm glow inside.Clothes were scattered haphazardly across the floor and strewn over the bed and couch.I knocked on the glass.
No answer.
I told myself to turn around.I’d checked.She wasn’t there.My job was done.But my hand was already on the handle.
It wasn’t locked.
That had to be a sign, right?If I wasn’t supposed to go inside, the door would’ve been locked.A voice in my head called me out for the blatant nonsense, but it didn’t matter.I couldn’t shake the feeling something was wrong.What if Callie had slipped and hit her head in the shower?What if she was hurt?Or what if she wasn’t the culprit, and whoever killed Sebastian, had injured Callie as well.
It wasn’t a great excuse, but it was good enough for me.
I slid the door open and stepped inside.“Callie?”I said quietly.“Are you in here?Are you hurt?Do you need help?”
Silence answered.
The emerald-green dress Callie had worn to dinner was crumpled on the floor near the bed, a pair of heels overturned near the closet.Sebastian’s wine-stained shirt was still on him when Ezra pulled his body from the pool, which told me he probably never returned to the room after dinner.But Callie’s dress on the floor, said she had.So where had he gone after dinner?He mentioned meeting producers to pitch his show idea.Would he have gone without changing into something clean?Maybe.He hadn’t seemed embarrassed by his streaky, uneven spray tan.Why would he care about a stain on his shirt?
The bathroom door stood wide open.The counter was littered with an explosion of makeup, cleansers, lotions, and beauty products.A curling iron was balanced upright in a bagless wastebin.Not a bad way to avoid burning yourself, I supposed.I went back out into the main part of the suite and began actively hunting for scented items.Maybe I could catch a memory that would reveal all.
“Nora Black!”Gilly hissed from the open balcony door.“What in the world are you doing?”
“Looking around,” I said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Your investigation might not get you kicked off the ship, but breaking and entering definitely will.Get out of there before someone catches you.”
“Entering,” I corrected her.
“What?”
“You said breaking and entering.The door wasn’t locked, so I didn’t break anything.I just entered.”
“Semantics, really?”Gilly’s expression was half-exasperation, half-amusement.“You’re better than that.”
I shrugged.“Am I, though?”
She pursed her lips, trying and failing to hide a smile.“This isn’t funny.”
I spread my hands in front of me, palms up.“I agree.”
“Stop it,” she said, but her voice wavered with suppressed giggles.
I gave her a pointed look.“Come in and help, or go back to your room.”
“You’re not the boss of me,” she huffed, craning her neck to peek inside.“What exactly would I be helping with?”
“Look for anything that has a strong odor I can focus on.”
She arched her brow at me.“Like dirty boxer shorts?”
I made a face and stuck out my tongue.“Gross.No.Whatever vision I’d get from that, I don’t want it.Like, ever.”I swiped the air in front of me as if I could erase the thought.
Gilly laughed.“Just trying to meet your investigative needs.”
