Me and Otto got to Henry Clark’s door. I pointed down the hall. “My room’s just over there!” I whispered.

Otto did one of his famous death stares. “Shut up and let’s get this over with.”

“How do we open it?” I asked, ignoring his comment.

Otto shrugged. He took his card out of his pant pocket and swiped it against the sensor. The door opened with a click. He turned and smirked at me.

“Whatever.” I muttered.

We walked in.

The room smelled musty, like someone hadn’t cleaned the room in a long time. That didn’t make sense since the cleaning crew should have cleaned the room yesterday.

The room was dark, lighted only by the safety lights in the hallway. I took my phone out of my pocket and turned on the flashlight.

I saw the bed and gagged. There was a gigantic bloodstain there.

I heard Otto close the door.

“So, he was killed right there?” I asked.

“I guess.” Otto said.

“Chang told us to take pictures of things that are important.” I said. “What would that be?”

“Maybe just take pictures of everything?” Otto suggested.

“That won’t work.” I said. “I’m almost out of storage.”

“How many pictures do you take?”

“That doesn’t matter.” I said. I took a couple of steps forward. I felt the squishy texture of the carpet under my feet. I snapped a picture of the bed. “What else looks important to you?” I asked, getting anxious to leave.

The light from my phone moved around the room.

“Anything that looks out of place, I guess.” Otto said.

“Well, what looks out of place to you?” I asked.

“There’s a card on the floor.” Otto said.

“So?”

“It looks pretty out of place.”

“Okay.” I said. I backed away from the bed and almost tripped on something.

“You okay?” Otto asked.

“Yeah.” I said. I put the light on the thing that I had tripped on. It was just his suitcase. “Where’s the card?” I asked.

I took I picture of the card, and me and Otto pondered whether or not to bring it with us as well.

“I think we should bring it,” Otto said finally, and used his jacket sleeve to pick it up. “Just in case there are fingerprints,” He explained.

“Let’s get out of here.” I said, and the two of us hurried off.

Octavio Jordan Jr

Octavio and Liberty were with Corey Byrd and Milo Chang in the dining hall. The morning light filtered through the window, and Octavio nibbled on a bran muffin.

Milo had Liberty’s phone in his hands and was flipping from the picture of the bed to the card. The card was a joker and didn’t seem to be unusual of any kind.

Milo looked at the joker on the table. He picked it up with a pair of tweezers. He examined it carefully.

“The unsub didn’t have a need to add this card to the scene.” Milo said. “So why?”

“It’s like the D.C. Sniper.” Corey said. “They put a death card at their murders.”

“So this unsub wants to play games.” Milo said. “This card connects to him in some way.”

“And we just need to find out how.” Liberty said.

“I’m sorry,” Milo laughed. “We?”

Octavio winced. Uh-oh.

“Yeah.” Liberty said. “We. Me and Otto helped you find this card, and now you’re acting like you found it yourself. We helped you. You need to let us stay.”

Corey looked at Milo. “She has a point, you know.”

Milo sighed. “All right. We need to talk privately.”

“That I can give you.” Liberty said. She flashed Octavio a grin.

Octavio didn’t know what to do. He had been secretly hoping that Liberty would just give up and let law enforcement do their thing. He should have known better. Liberty never gives up.

Octavio and Liberty walked away, and Milo and Corey started to have a heated conversation. Despite himself, Octavio strained his ears to listen. They seemed to be talking about the murder, not whether or not to let him and Liberty help with solving the murder.

Milo said something that caught Octavio’s attention. Maybe it’s a good thing that Clark is dead. Those words rang over and over in Octavio’s mind. How could Milo think that? How could anybody’s murder be a good thing?

Octavio remembered something that had happened on the first day on this ship. It was when he had met the victim.

-

Floor 11

11:00 am

The first day of the cruise

-

Octavio walked past the painting of a big fat guy and turned the corner. He had earbuds on and was listening to his playlist. He had his folder, his sketchbook, and multiple pieces of paper in his hands.

Octavio bumped into someone as he walked. He dropped his papers and they scattered all over the floor.

The man muttered something under his breath and kept walking. Octavio bent down and started to pick up his papers. A family walked past him. A pudgy man came from the other way. Suddenly he was right beside Octavio, helping him pick up the papers.

“I hate it when I drop my papers.” He explained.

Octavio Jordan Jr

Octavio walked up to Milo and Corey.

“How could you say that?” He said.

Milo didn’t seem to be nervous about the fact that Octavio had heard their conversation. “You don’t know what he’s done.”

“Does that matter?” Octavio asked. “He’s dead!”

Milo pursed his lips, as if trying to conjure up a response. “Some people aren’t who they seem.”

“So now you’re saying that he’s a criminal?” Octavio asked. “Wow.”

“Well, maybe he is!” Milo said.

Apsen Hunt

Aspen Hunt looked at that teenage boy confront the two men. That kid, along with the girl, must have been tricking Hunt in some way. She had seen them leave the crime scene late last night, and she went in herself. The suitcase was in the wrong place. Hunt needed to teach those kids a lesson.

When Hunt looked over in the kid’s direction again, the two men had left. How had she not noticed that? Eh, that didn’t matter. But she did know that this was her chance.

She stood up, bringing her coffee cup with her. She walked over to the two children.

“Hello,” She said. “My name is Aspen Hunt. I’m investigating the murder that happened two days ago.”

The two kids were standing by the buffet bar, right next to the cereal. The boy looked like he wanted to hide behind the big container.

“I just wanted to talk to you about tampering with evidence.” Hunt continued. “You see, I saw you two leaving the crime scene last night.”

“What crime scene?” The girl asked innocently.

Hunt looked at the girl. “Really?”

“Sorry.”

“Anyway,” Hunt said. “I cannot have you two looking inside of the room. That will contaminate the things there.”

The boy nodded. “Have you seen the second crime scene?”

Hunt paused. “There was another?”

The boy shrugged. “They said it could’ve been suicide.”

Hunt slowly nodded. “All right. I’ll check that out. Thank you.” She said. “And don’t forget what I told you.”

Milo Chang

“Somebody saw you?” Milo asked.

Liberty Gray nodded. “Yeah.” She said. “She told us that she was investigating the murder.”

“Did you tell her anything?” Milo said.

“Yeah.” She said. “Otto told her about the second murder.”

Milo winced. “That may not have been a good idea.”

“Why?” Octavio asked. He still seemed on edge since he blew up about Henry Clark in the dining hall. But the kid really had no idea who Clark was.

“Because we don’t know how this unsub is going to react if his murders get on the media.” Milo said.

Milo and the two kids were on the top level of the cruise, getting some fresh air. Milo couldn’t help but feel stressed. They had five more days to find this unsub and they were getting nowhere.

“Why don’t you two head back down?” Milo said. “You guys came on this cruise for time with your families, right? Why don’t you spend some time with them?”

Liberty looked like she wanted to say something but changed her mind. Octavio nodded and the two of them headed back down the stairs. Milo looked and saw Corey passing by the two kids. He smiled at them and asked a question, though Milo was too far away to hear it. He saw Liberty respond. Corey kept walking towards Milo, and now he could see that there was somebody behind him.

“Hey.” Corey said. “Chang, this is Dr. Juniper Rice. She majored in criminology and sociology, and I’ve known her ever since high school.”

“Nice to meet you.” Milo said.

Dr. Rice was of average height, with blue jeans and a white T-shirt that said: SHHHHH! She had light brown hair that went down to well below her shoulders. She had a pair of black sunglasses on her head.

“Anyway,” Byrd continued. “Juniper has had a lot of experience with this type of stuff, so I was thinking that she could help.”

Milo couldn’t help but feel offended. He and Corey also had experience, that was why they were in the field. “That would be great.” He lied. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to use the restroom.” He started to walk to the door that led to the stairs, and he was aware of Corey following him. Milo and Corey got to the stairs and the door shut behind them.

“She has a lot of experience?” Milo demanded. “We have experience. That’s why we’re here.”

“No, we’re here because of Clark.” Corey said flatly. “And because of the things he’s done. We’ve barely had to deal with murders.”

“So?” Milo said. “We can learn. We know that Clark was a narcissist. What would make him become a target for murder?”

“His career.” Corey said.

“Definitely.” Milo said. The two of them stopped talking momentarily as a grandma with two kids walked by. “Anything else?”

“Maybe the unsub was a colleague, or a client.” Corey said. “He was doing something that made Clark nervous, so he killed him.”

“What do you think about the hanged James Doe?” Milo asked, using the name James Doe as an unidentified victim.

“I think that it wasn't our unsub.” Corey said.

“Why?” Milo asked.

“I don’t know, I just have a hunch. That he’s not done with his killing spree just yet.”

“We can’t just base things off of hunches.” Milo said.

“I know, but if we talked to Juniper about it- “

“Seriously?” Milo said. “This group has gotten too big, especially with the kids.”

Corey sighed. “Yeah. You think they’re going to be okay?”

Milo was still a little heated. “Well, if anything does happen to them, it’ll be your fault.” Milo regretted what he said immediately after those words came out of his mouth. “That’s not what I- “

“I know.” Corey said. His expression turned hard. “I get it.”