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Of course if they had killed the rapper, and we had noticed, we wouldn’t have been able to tell Garth, since the man didn’t speak our language. Then again, it simply stood to reason Odelia and Chase were innocent. Honeymooners engaging in such a heinous crime? They’d have to be crazy to do such a thing.

“Dooley had a great idea,” I said. “What if the killer swallowed the diamond?”

“What if the killer swallowed the diamond?” Odelia immediately echoed. “That way you’d never be able to find it.”

“Until it came out the other end,” Chase added, nodding.

“At which point they’d have to hide it someplace else,” said Garth. “But how to deal with that contingency? There’s no way. No, I think we need to look at motive, and as far as I’m concerned Chiquita and Oren have the best one: they admitted they’re completely broke, and if they can’t find some money soon they’ll have to drop the nice influencer lifestyle and find regular jobs, which I have a feeling won’t sit well with them.”

“What about Ruby?” Chase suggested. “She can’t stop stealing. So maybe she tried to steal the guy’s diamond and he woke up and so she panicked and stabbed him.”

“I don’t buy it,” said Garth, shaking his head. “She may be a kleptomaniac but she’s not crazy enough to try to steal a diamond from a person’s face.”

“Okay, so how about the Biles family?” said Odelia. “Mrs. Biles has financial problems, and so maybe she sent her husband to kill Lil Thug and grab that diamond.”

“Possible. But why take such a risk if her daughter is able to bail her out financially? I mean, if Laura Matz is able to pay for this cruise, she must have money.”

“And willing to spend it on her mom,” Chase added.

“Still, I wouldn’t exclude them from our investigation,” said Odelia.

“Okay,” said Garth, placing his hands on his desk. “So we have our influencers and the Biles family to take a closer look at. I’ll get in touch with local police, and see if they can’t tell us more.” He smiled at his assistants. “I can’t thank you enough. It’s very unusual for me to be dealing with a violent crime like this. Usually it’s people stealing stuff, or getting rowdy and handsy when they’ve had too much to drink.”

“You’ve never dealt with murder before?” asked Odelia.

“Never,” said Garth. “And I’ve been doing this for fifteen years now.”

“So what happens now?” asked Chase.

“Now I’ll talk to the captain and see what he has to say.” He checked his watch. “We’ll be arriving in Kingstown soon, and I’ll have to brief the local authorities there.”

“I thought that since the crime happened in international waters the Barbados authorities were in charge?”

“Yeah, they are, but I have to hand the body of Mr. Thug over to the authorities in the next port so his family can start making the necessary arrangements for his funeral.”

“How about the postmortem?” asked Chase.

“Yeah, that, too,” said Garth, indicating this really was a first for him.

“Better talk to the captain,” said Chase, “and management. And if you need us, just say the word, buddy.”

“Thanks, Chase. I just hope we can wrap this up as soon as possible.”

We walked out of the office and into the bright morning sunshine and immediately my mood lifted, and so, I could tell, did Odelia and Chase’s. This wasn’t exactly what they’d bargained for when they signed up for this cruise. If they wanted to solve crime they could just as well have stayed home.

“So what’s on the schedule for today?” asked Odelia as we strode along the deck in the direction of the stairs.

“You heard Garth. Kingstown,” said Chase.

“Do you think it’s all right if we leave the ship?”

“Of course. If Garth needs us he’ll give us a holler. And babe, it’s not as if this is our investigation. We’re just along for the ride on this one.”

“Which makes for a nice change,” said Odelia with a smile.

And just as we were about to head up to find our own deck, a sharp voice halted our progress and the captain came striding up. He looked eager to have speech with us—or at least with our humans.

“I wanted to thank you for all that you’re doing,” he said, as he pressed Chase’s hand warmly, then grabbed Odelia’s hands and shook them vigorously. “Garth told me you’re assisting him, and I can tell you he’s thanking his lucky stars for such good fortune.”

“Just doing what we can, sir,” said Chase.

“And honeymooners, too, so I’ve been told?”

“Yes, sir, this is our honeymoon,” said Odelia.

“I’m so sorry you had to be faced with such a terrible ordeal.”

“That’s all right,” said Chase.

And as the three of them chatted, I noticed that two familiar faces had settled on a bench nearby, and decided to wander over and see what they were up to. They were David Biles and Laura Matz.

“Where are you going, Max?” asked Dooley as he toddled along.

“Just curious what those two have to say,” I said as we both snuck up on that bench and surreptitiously disappeared underneath.

“We can’t keep doing this, David,” said Laura. “If Mama finds out she’ll kill us.”