The Wild Culpepper Cruise (2 page)

The ride was a blur. The driver of the minibus broke land speed records getting them to the hotel.

Amos’s dad tried to get him to slow down so they could see some of Miami, but the man did not understand English. Mr. Binder attempted to ask him to slow down in Spanish, but it came out, “Please, sir, can I have a drunk tortilla?”

The driver looked at him strangely and went even faster.

When they arrived at the hotel, the driver put the luggage on the sidewalk and took off at something close to the speed of light.

Amos craned his neck to see the top story of the hotel. “Wow! I hope our room is on the very top.”

Their rooms were on the fifteenth floor. It wasn’t the top, but it did have a balcony overlooking the ocean.

Amos threw his suitcase on the bed. “Come on. Let’s look this joint over.”

Dunc was carefully hanging his clothes in the closet. “In a minute. Let me get unpacked.”

Amos had always thought Dunc was too organized for his own good. He turned on the TV and plopped onto the other bed. The news was on. A reporter was telling about a robbery that had taken place in Fort Lauderdale earlier this morning.

“I’m glad we only stopped in Fort Lauderdale to change planes,” Amos said. “Those guys look mean.”

Dunc was hanging up a T-shirt. He leaned over to see the television. “They’re ugly too. Look at that one. He has a scar down the side of his face. I’d sure hate to meet him in a dark alley.”

Dunc closed his empty suitcase and put it in the closet. “Okay. Let’s go.”

They headed straight for the top of the hotel, where they found a swimming pool and a Jacuzzi. The view of the ocean was spectacular. It was blue as far as you could see.

“Let’s go get our trunks on,” Amos said. “This pool has my name on it.”

They rode the elevator back down and raced the length of the hall to their room.

A tall, extremely thin man was bent over the
door to their room. When he saw them, he turned and walked quickly around the corner.

Dunc grabbed Amos’s arm. “Did you see that?”

“What?”

“That man was trying to break into our room.”

Amos made a face. “Give it a rest. You’re not solving any mysterious crimes on this trip. The guy probably works for the hotel.”

“I don’t know. He sure acted funny.”

“Lighten up. This is a vacation. Save all that detective stuff for when you get home.” Amos unlocked the door. “Last one in the pool is maggot food.”

He grabbed his suitcase. It was locked. “That’s funny. I know I didn’t lock it. I don’t have a key.”

Dunc tried to open it. “Go see if your mom has a hairpin or something we can use to get it open.”

Amos ran across the hall and came back with a long hairpin. He wiggled it in the lock until it popped open.

“Oh.”

“What’s wrong?” Dunc asked.

Amos stared in the suitcase. “This isn’t my stuff.”

“You must have grabbed the wrong bag at the airport.”

“What do I do now?”

“You search it and see if you can find out who it belongs to.” Dunc picked up the phone. “I’ll call the airport and see if they have your bag.”

The clothes obviously belonged to a man. Whoever owned the bag was traveling light. Everything was brand-new. A new set of clothes, new shaving supplies, and a newspaper.

Dunc put the phone back down on the receiver. “The airline doesn’t know what happened to your suitcase. They’re going to check on it. And no one from our flight has reported theirs missing. Did you find any identification?”

Amos shook his head. He picked up the suitcase. “What am I supposed to do with this?”

“The guy at the airport said to hang on to it until he gets back to you.”

“When exactly is that going to be? We’re leaving in the morning. What do they want me to do? Wear the same sweaty clothes for seven days while I drag some strange man’s stuff all over the Caribbean?”

“It’s a good thing you let me hold our tickets,” Dunc said.

“I wish my parents had let you hold theirs. Then they’d be here instead of racing back to the hotel to get them,” Amos said.

Dunc looked at his watch. “They’ll be here. They’ve still got forty-five minutes. While we’re waiting, let’s look around the ship.”

Amos turned around and bumped smack into a little girl.

“I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?”

The little girl straightened her dress and
smoothed her long hair. “No, I’m perfectly fine, thank you.”

Amos started to walk away. She pulled on his sleeve. “My name’s Vanessa. What’s yours? I’m five years old. I go to school. I can write my whole name, and I can count to one thousand without stopping. What’s your friend’s name? I have a cat. Her name is Amanda. We play house. Do you like to play house?”

Amos looked at Dunc. He patted Vanessa on the head. “We have to go now. ’Bye.”

Vanessa grabbed his sleeve again. “I have to stay right here. My mommy said I can’t go anywhere. She wants me to wait for her. You can wait, too, if you want. I have a doll. When my mommy gets back, I’ll ask her if I can show my doll to you.”

Amos uncurled Vanessa’s fingers from his sleeve. “I’d really like to see your doll, but I need to go. Now.”

Dunc laughed. “Does Melissa have competition?”

“Don’t be dumb.”

They walked out on one of the decks. People had already changed to bathing suits and were sitting by the pool sipping drinks with umbrellas stuck on top.

The ship was a floating entertainment center. It had its own gambling casino, movie theater, stage show, three lounges, a banquet hall, shuffleboard, volleyball, video game room, skeet shooting, and mini–shopping mall.

They wandered from room to room exploring. A woman in a blue sailor suit gave them a list of the classes that would be offered aboard ship. They could choose from painting, karate, aerobics, snooker, dancing, snorkeling, and shooting.

Another woman gave them a schedule of floor shows, movies, and sight-seeing tours.

“Didn’t I tell you it was going to be great?” Amos said.

Before Dunc could answer, an announcement came over the ship’s loudspeaker.

“All nonpassengers will please leave the ship at this time. Once again, all nonpassengers are asked to disembark at this time. We are about to set sail.”

Dunc looked at his watch. “Oh, no. It’s time! Let’s find out if your parents made it—come on!”

They raced down the narrow hall to the boarding area.

“I don’t see them anywhere,” Amos said.

A small hand tugged on Amos’s sleeve. When he looked down, he saw Vanessa smiling up at him. “What’s the matter, boy? Did you get lost from your mommy?”

“No—yes. Well, sort of.”

“If you get scared, you can stay with me.”

“Thanks, Vanessa. Not right now. I need to look for my mommy—uh—mom.”

The ship started to pull away from the dock. People were screaming and throwing streamers and confetti.

Amos stared at the shore. “How could this have happened?”

Dunc looked around. “Don’t worry. They’re probably on board somewhere. Let’s go check their cabin.”

Another announcement came over the ship’s loudspeaker: “Will passenger Amos Binder please report to the main deck.”

They climbed back up the stairs.

“I don’t see them,” Amos said.

A woman with a clipboard walked over. “Are you Amos Binder?”

Amos nodded.

“Someone wants to speak to you on the ship-to-shore telephone. Would you follow me, please?”

Amos sat on his bed in the cabin. He rested his chin in one hand. He let out a long sigh and then shifted to the other hand.

Dunc sat on the other bed and watched him.

“Cheer up, Amos. It’s a bad deal that your folks got left behind, but it’s not the end of the world. When they called, they said to go on and have a good time.”

Amos looked at the floor.

“Let me put it another way,” Dunc said. “We have seven days on a luxury cruise in an island paradise without any parental supervision.”

Amos sat up. A grin spread across his face. “Hey, that’s right. We don’t have anybody to answer to. We can do whatever we want.” He frowned and slumped back on the bed.

“Then why do you still look so sad?”

“I don’t feel so hot. I wish this ship would quit rocking.” Amos ran for the bathroom. After a few minutes he yelled through the door. “I’ll just live in here. You go on and have a nice cruise.”

“Don’t be silly, Amos. I’ll go up and see if I can get you some pills for seasickness. Don’t go away.”

“Very funny.”

Dunc locked the door behind him. He took the stairs two at a time. In the mini-mall he found a box of pills, paid for them, and started back down the stairs to their cabin.

A tall, thin man was walking down the hall toward him.

Dunc stared at him.

The man lowered his head and kept on walking.

Dunc ran for the room. “Amos. It’s him! The same man from the hotel. He’s here on the ship.”

Amos’s face had a greenish tint. “Did you get me some pills?”

“Oh, yeah—here.” Dunc handed him the box. “Did you hear what I said?”

Amos gulped the pills and leaned back on the bed. “What are you babbling about?”

“The man. The skinny one at the hotel. He’s here. On this ship,” Dunc said.

“So? It’s a free country. Probably half the people who stayed in that hotel last night are on this ship.”

“Don’t you think it’s strange that he keeps coming around to our room?”

Amos shook his head. “Maybe his room is down this hall.”

Dunc stared out the window.

“Please don’t do that,” Amos said.

“What?”

“Look like that. That look means trouble. Listen, there is absolutely no reason for that man to be interested in us. So get it out of your head.”

Dunc snapped his fingers. “Right. You’re right, Amos. He would have to have a reason to be interested in us.”

He pulled Amos’s look-alike suitcase out of
the closet and poured everything out onto the bed.

“We’ve already searched it. What do you think you’re going to find this time?” Amos asked.

“I don’t know. But that man is interested in us, and I want to know why.” He carefully examined each item except for the few clothes Amos had managed to buy at the hotel.

Everything in the suitcase was new. Even the newspaper was only two days old.

The newspaper.

Dunc yanked it out and started reading. It was a Fort Lauderdale paper. There were several stories on the front page. The one that caught his eye had two pictures below the headline.

“That’s it, then.” Dunc sat on the edge of the bed. “At least now we know who he is.”

“Who?” Amos grabbed the paper.

Dunc pointed at one of the pictures. “That’s the guy. I should have recognized him from the news story on TV.”

Amos read the headline. “ ‘Pair wanted in connection with robbery.’ ” He looked up. “These guys stole a half-million in jewels. We’re getting
into serious stuff now. Are you sure it’s the same guy?”

Dunc nodded. “I’m positive. But there’s something I can’t figure out. Why would they go to so much trouble to get this suitcase back? There’s nothing in it … or is there?” He tore the top edge of the lining loose and felt inside.

“What are you doing? You can’t go around ripping up other people’s suitcases.”

“I’ve seen this trick on TV. Crooks sew stuff in the lining of their suitcase to get it through customs.” Dunc shoved his hand all the way to the bottom of the lining.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” Amos said.

Dunc put the suitcase down. “I don’t understand it. There’s nothing here.”

“It’s a good thing you didn’t tear up the clothes and the shaving stuff, or we wouldn’t have anything to give back to the airline.”

“Of course.” Dunc grabbed the shaving bag. He unzipped it and dumped the contents onto the bed: a razor, a can of shaving cream, and a bottle of aftershave.

He unscrewed the cap on the aftershave and
carefully poured it into a glass. Then he drained the liquid out of the glass.

“Look at this.” Dunc gave the glass to Amos.

It was full of sparkling jewels.