Curse of the Arctic Star by Carolyn Keene Read Free Book Online Page A

up. Leaving her to get dressed, Bess and I returned to the main room. I quickly gulped downsome coffee while she scribbled a note for Alan.
    “I’m telling him we’re checking out the spa facilities to see if we can get facials this morning,” she told me. “That should sound girly enough that he won’t want to join us.”
    “No. But he might wonder why George wanted to join us,” I joked just as George emerged, yawning and tousled, with damp hair from the shower and dressed in shorts and a River Heights University T-shirt.
    “Huh? What’d you say?” she demanded sleepily.
    “Never mind. Let’s get out of here.” I grabbed a jelly doughnut, stuffed it in her hand, then aimed her toward the door.
    When we emerged from the suite, the hallway was empty except for a maid sweeping nearby. It was Iris from the day before.
    “Hi.” I smiled at her as we passed. “Excuse us.”
    “Guess she must be assigned to Tobias’s cabin, like Max is to ours,” Bess whispered as we hurried around the corner.
    “Yeah.” I grimaced. “Poor thing.”
    I forgot about the maid as I led the way toward the elevators. “Where are we going?” George asked, sounding marginally more awake as she finished the last bite of doughnut and licked jelly and powdered sugar off her fingers.
    “Becca’s office,” I replied. “I’m hoping it’s still early enough to catch her there. I want to finish our talk and maybe get a look at that threatening e-mail she got before the cruise. I know it’s a stretch, but I might be able to tell if it was written by the same person who left me that note yesterday.”
    But when we knocked on Becca’s door, there was no answer. I texted her and got a reply back within a minute or two.
    “Where is she?” Bess asked as I scanned the message.
    “She’s hosting some kind of VIP breakfast reception,” I said with a sigh. “Says she’ll be tied up for the next hour or two at least. Oh well.”
    “Does that mean I got up at the crack of dawn for nothing?” George complained.
    I ignored that. “Let’s go check out the pool,” Isaid. “Maybe we missed a clue yesterday.”
    But that was another dead end. When we reached the pool area, it was spotless. Any trace of “blood” was gone from the water, which sparkled like glass beneath the early morning sun. Every trash receptacle was empty and appeared to have been bleached clean. Even the pool chairs were arranged in perfect lines.
    Bess glanced into the same trash bin where George and I had found that drink mix container. “If there were any clues, they’ve definitely been cleaned up by now,” she commented. “The cleaning staff here mean business!”
    “Yeah.” My shoulders slumped as I considered what to do next. “Maybe we should try the kitchen. Last night I heard arguing . . . .”
    I filled them in on that snippet of argument I’d overheard as we walked. George looked dubious.
    “Do you really think some random squabble is part of our case?” she asked.
    I shrugged. “Probably not. But you never know. We’re not exactly swimming in useful clues right now, in case you haven’t noticed.”
    The main dining room was hushed and empty as we passed. But we heard the sounds of activity coming from a door right across the hall.
    “That’s the café,” Bess said. “It’s where we’re supposed to eat breakfast and lunch. Dinner, too, if we don’t feel like being so formal.”
    “What?” George yelped. “You didn’t tell me that before you forced me to dress up like I was entering some girly-girl beauty pageant.”
    “Give it a rest,” I told her. “Wearing a dress for a couple of hours didn’t kill you, did it?”
    I glanced into the café, which in this case seemed to be short for cafeteria. The setting was much less formal than the dining room, with passengers choosing their food from a long buffet line, then finding seats wherever they pleased. There were quite a few early risers in there, helping themselves to