Real Mermaids Don't Sell Seashells (15 page)

My mind suddenly flashed to earlier that week when we were Snuba diving and saw a lone scuba diver with the green oxygen tank on his back off in the distance. It had not been a scuba diver after all! It was a merman with a green backpack.

What's in this thing, anyway?
I unzipped the backpack. It was hard to see in the dim light but inside was a bunch of colorful packages wrapped in sealed plastic.

I
have
no
idea, but if I don't deliver it to the bald guy's customer, I'll never get home
, Henry said.

I
think
I
can
help
you. I have some friends up on the pier. Luke!
I rang but I could hear the music getting louder, and I wasn't sure if he could hear me.

Who
are
you
calling?
Henry asked, waving his head back and forth but still unable to see.
You're the only other mer I've come across since I got here. Did you dive into the water to save me? Are you a Webbed One too?

Kind
of,
I rang back.
My
mom's a mermaid and my dad's human so I get to trade in my tail for legs a lot easier than most mers. Wait here.

I swam up to the surface and called out to the gang back on the pier. “Hey, guys!”

“Shh!” Cori brought a finger to her lips and whispered down to me. “There are people around.”

Luke, can you hear me?
I rang in my mer voice as Cori winced at the high-pitched ring.

What
did
you
find?
Luke asked, peering down into the water.

A
mer
is
in
trouble
down
here. He's the guy who got tossed overboard from the cruise ship. Can you guys call your grandpa so he and Bobbie can help him?

We're on it!
Luke motioned to Trey for the phone so he could make the call.

I dove back down into the water to catch my breath and check on Henry. He had pulled the backpack onto his back.

Wait!
I called out.
Where
are
you
going
with
that?

I
was
hoping
you
could
help
me
get
it
to
Se
ñ
or
Frog's before the ship leaves again
, Henry rang.

Forget
about
the
bag.
I explained about Eddie and Bobbie and how they could help him turn back into a human once they got him back to Florida.

But
if
that
bald
guy
finds
out
I
ditched
his
stuff
and
escaped, he'll just come looking for me in Florida. He told me he'd hurt my kids.

You
have
kids?
I asked. In all my time as a mermaid, I'd never met anyone else like me. Someone who was part mer and part human. And now Baldie was threatening them?

Yeah, Alex and Amanda.
Henry's pained expression softened.
They're twins. So I really need to deliver this thing.

The
only
thing
you're going to do is wait here for Bobbie and Eddie to come so they can help you. As far as the backpack? Just leave that part to me.

I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to deliver the backpack like I'd promised Henry, but I picked up the heavy bag from the ocean floor and hooked it onto a spike partway up the pier's pillar before I got out of the water. That way, I could find it again when I had the chance. First, though, I had to get on the cruise ship to figure out if there was a connection between Baldie and Dillon.

If Dillon had a ship pass, was he onboard? Had he been there all week? Was something (or somebody!) keeping him there? I
had
to find out. Kidnapping, smuggling…what else was Baldie capable of? Would he hurt Dillon if he caught him poking around?

Cori and Trey stayed behind to show Bobbie and Eddie where to find Henry once they got there with the sailboat. I'd told Henry to hang out by the surface of the water so he could hear Bobbie and let her lead him back to the shelter of the marina, where she and Eddie could help him.

Meanwhile, Luke and I continued to the cruise ship.

We stood with a group of spectators with Sparkle Wish T-shirts as they milled around the dock, waiting to board the Wonderment cruise ship for the Taylor 'n Tyler concert. An awkward silence stretched between us, neither of us sure how to act after being put in the middle of Trey and Cori's fight earlier. I figured I could kiss that moonlit kiss good-bye.

“So…” I began, trying to break the ice. “How are we going to find our way around once we get in there?”

“I dunno. But are you sure we should do this? This bald guy sounds kinda dangerous,” Luke said. “Besides, how do we even know this Dillon guy is here?”

“We don't,” I replied as I strung the concert pass around my neck. “That's what we're here to find out.”

“Either way, maybe we should call the police,” Luke suggested.

“And tell them what?” I asked. “Like you said, we have no idea if Dillon is actually here.”

“Well, isn't this bald guy trying to smuggle something onto the island? I'm sure that's something the cops would like to know.”

“Think about it,” I said. “How do we explain that we know that? A guy with the tail of a fish told us?”

“Good point,” Luke said. “But we should at least call our parents.”

“Let's just check things out first,” I suggested. “If something's up, I'll be the first to dial the number. But if this turns out to be nothing, all the better. Then my parents can keep enjoying a night out with all their closest friends before their wedding day. Deal?”

“All right. Deal,” Luke agreed reluctantly.

“Now we just have to find our way around,” I said.

“Good news.” Luke pulled out his dad's cell phone. “We have the power of Google on our side. Plus now Cori won't end up pushing Trey into the harbor for playing Angry Birds.”

“Win-win,” I replied.

“What do you need to know?” Luke asked, his finger poised over the phone's screen.

“Maybe you can pull up some information on this particular ship so we know what we're dealing with,” I suggested.

“Already on it,” Luke said, scrolling through his search results.

“I overheard one of the organizers say the concert is on the upper deck,” I said. “We know that at least.”

“And it looks like there are two rows of portholes and three decks with balconies as far as I can tell, so six decks in all,” Luke said.

I scanned the ship to try to find the porthole where I'd seen the bald man throw Henry overboard.

“The porthole where we saw Henry being dumped is on the other side of the ship,” I replied.

“That might be worth a stop on our tour,” Luke said.

“Definitely,” I replied.

A dozen or so Sparkle Wish organizers herded us all behind a roped-off area, and minutes later, several policemen arrived in cruisers, accompanying a long, black limousine.

“That's them!” one of the girls from our group yelled. Sure enough, Taylor 'n Tyler emerged from the back of the limousine, flanked by bodyguards. They turned toward the crowd and waved, flashing their bright white smiles as a group of paparazzi jostled to get a good picture while the police officers managed the crowds behind the rope barriers. After several minutes of posing and waving, Taylor 'n Tyler disappeared up the gangplank to head to the concert on the upper deck.

“Hey, maybe Officer Ensel is on duty here,” Luke said. “Maybe he can clear this whole thing up.”

I searched each officer's face, but none of them was Ensel. “No, none of these guys look familiar.”

“But one of them might know about Dillon's case at least,” Luke said. “It wouldn't hurt to check.”

“Good point. Excuse me!” I called out. A lady cop was adjusting the barriers a little farther along the crowd. She looked my way.

“Can I help you?” she asked.

“Sorry to bother you, but we're wondering about a friend who went missing this week. We had been dealing with Officer Ensel. He told us our friend Dillon had been found, but his mother is still looking for him. I'm sorry I don't know Dillon's last name, we only just met, but we were wondering if you knew where he was.”

The officer looked at me skeptically. “Who was the officer you spoke to again?”

“Ensel,” I replied.

“Carl Ensel?” she asked. “I work at his precinct, and there have been no missing person reports this week.”

“That's weird,” Luke said.

The officer asked me for a few more details about Dillon. She wrote something in her notepad and put it back in her pocket then pulled out a card similar to Officer Ensel's. “I'll look into this, but if you have any other information, please give me a call.”

“Thanks,” I said, tucking the card in my bag. I secretly wondered if anyone was actually interested in looking for Dillon. Ensel didn't seem to be. Kiki and her boyfriend thought he'd just taken off somewhere, and his own mother had taken three days to start getting concerned.

I looked at Luke with raised eyebrows once the officer moved on. But by then, the guides from the Sparkle Wish Club and ship staff had started to lead the spectators up the gangplank onto the ship, so there was no time to talk. Everyone had to swipe their passcards to get on the ship, just like Cori had predicted.

“Please keep the passcard visible at all times and stay with the group,” a Sparkle Wish guide announced.

The hallway leading to the elevators and stairs was jam-packed and Luke reached for my hand. Did that mean we were okay despite what had just happened with Cori and Trey?

We'd finally gotten past the worst of the crowd and reached a landing with a bank of elevators when Luke dropped my hand again.

“That was weird with that officer, right?” I asked, trying not to overanalyze the whole hand-holding thing. Oh, who was I kidding? I kept right on overanalyzing the whole hand-holding thing!

“I know. It doesn't sound like this Ensel guy even looked into Dillon's disappearance,” Luke whispered.

“Officer Ensel told my dad he would try to be discreet. Maybe he kept Dillon's case off the books as a favor.” I was seriously starting to wonder whether we were on a wild-goose chase.

“So should we just drop it?” Luke asked.

“No!” I replied louder than I'd intended. Something just kept nagging at me about the whole situation.

“Didn't think so,” Luke said with a wry smile.

“I mean, we're here already,” I replied, a bit less forcefully. “It wouldn't hurt to take a look around.”

“Do we try to find out about the porthole first?” Luke asked.

“That depends. How far can we get with these pass cards?” I looked at the cruise-ship staff and some of the passengers trying to get through the crowd of newcomers. They all had plastic cards on strings hanging from their necks too.

“Ours won't get us into private cabins or anything, but now that we're on board, we should be able to get to all the public areas. We probably don't want to make it too obvious that we're snooping around though.”

I considered this for a second.

“Let's go to the upper deck where the concert is supposed to be to make it look like we're part of the crowd, then slip out once the concert gets started so we can get the lay of the land,” I said.

The elevators were taking forever and several of the Sparkle Wishers were in wheelchairs, so we headed up the stairs. By the fourth floor, I thought I was going to puke.

“How big is this ship, anyway?”

“Come on. Just two more floors.” Luke laughed, grabbing my arm.

We made it up the last few steps and rested on the upper deck, leaning on the railing over the water. The concert was being held in the middle of the ship, where they had one of the swimming pools covered with a platform for the spectators and a higher platform tricked out with instruments, microphones, and stage lights. Large video screens were already showing one of Taylor 'n Tyler's latest music videos, and the air all around the ship seemed to sparkle with excitement.

Kids streamed past us and headed down to mid-deck to find a spot to view the concert.

I braced my elbows on the ship's railing and looked overboard. I could see the balconies' white railings tucked into the side of the ship for a few decks down, but it was hard to see the portholes from that angle.

“The porthole I saw was way at the back,” I said. “But you can't see it from here, especially with the way the ship curves toward the stern.”

“Perfect for tossing mers overboard,” Luke said.

“Mers with two-ton backpacks,” I added.

“I forgot to ask. What was in that backpack, anyway?” Luke asked.

I thought back to how Bobbie and Eddie had stopped those drug smugglers off the coast of Florida and got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. “I don't know, but I'm thinking they weren't Mickey Mouse watches.”

Suddenly, the music from the stage pumped up and a group of very enthusiastic cruise-ship employees jumped onto the stage and started dancing and clapping.

“Hi, everyone!” a cheery girl in a cruise ship T-shirt called out to the audience. “Welcome to Taylor 'n Tyler's benefit concert for the Sparkle Wish Club. Wonderment Cruiselines has made a donation on behalf of all our crew, and Taylor 'n Tyler are not only here tonight to entertain everyone but have generously matched our donation as well, so more Sparkle Wishers can be granted their wishes!”

A huge cheer rose from the audience. It made me think of how Cori and I had been so annoyed when we thought Taylor 'n Tyler bumped our reservation at the Eutopia. Now, I felt completely horrible, since they were obviously really good guys doing a very good thing for a worthy charity.

“And now, without further ado, here are Taylor 'n Tyler!”

Another huge cheer erupted, and Luke and I were jostled between enthusiastic fans.

This
is
crazy
, I rang to Luke in my mer voice so he could understand me over the noise.

And
pretty
cool. Look!
He pointed to where Taylor 'n Tyler had taken to the stage. They sang and danced to their new single, sending the fans into a frenzy.

Once the concert was in full swing, Luke grabbed my hand again (good sign!) and we casually made our way through the crowd to the edge of the deck where he dropped it again (bad sign!), so we could slip back to the stairwell to try and make it to the floor with the porthole. The sun had set by then and it was nearly dark.

“Can you get your grandpa on the phone again?” I asked Luke once we were safely in the stairwell. “If he and Bobbie have Henry, we could find out a bit more about this Baldie guy.”

“Good idea.” Luke took out the phone and pressed redial then handed the phone to me.

“Hello?” Eddie answered and passed me off to Bobbie.

“Hi, Bobbie, it's Jade. Did you find Henry?” I asked.

“Yes, he's here with us at the marina. Should I call your parents? Where are you?”

I wasn't sure what to say. Mom and Dad were getting married the next day. At least I hoped they were. The whole thing with Henry was handled as far as I was concerned. I just wanted to see if there was any evidence that Dillon was indeed on the ship. If so, I promised myself I would call the police and my parents right away. Baldie had already proven to be a very bad dude, and I had no intention of coming face to face with the guy.

“Oh, no. No need to call my parents but if you see them just tell them Luke and I didn't want to miss the concert so we're on the cruise ship like we'd planned.”

“Trey and Cori should be there soon,” Bobbie said. “They've got my phone if you need them.”

She told me the number so Luke could program it into his dad's phone.

“Good, thanks. I was also wondering if you could ask Henry a few questions. I'm curious if he knows anything else about the bald guy who did this to him. Like what part of the ship does he work in?” I asked.