“Hey Ros, can you pass the sunscreen?” Asked Higgins.

“Yeah, here you go.” Said Roswell.

“Where’d Slinky and Matter run off to?” Higgins asked.

“Hm? Oh, I’m not sure but don’t worry about it. Just relax man. The boss gave us this vacation to unwind and destress.” Roswell said.

The breeze was warm as it wafted across the deck of a cruise ship that the detectives boarded a day ago by order of Chief Rhys. People were swimming in the pool, playing games in the arcade and eating tons of food in the food court. Roswell and Higgins were lounging on the deck getting some sun while Slinky was playing some games in the arcade while Matter made a new home in the food court stuffing himself full of food. It was a peaceful trip that would last for two more days but the peace would soon come to an abrupt pause when a scream was heard down below deck. Being the closest, Matter reluctantly stepped away from his food heaven and went to see where the scream came from. He saw a woman run towards him in one of the hallways and crashed into him.

“Woah. What’s got you shakin’ like a leaf?” Matter asked.

The woman shakily said “T-there was a dead body sticking out of the boiler room.”

“Man, just when I thought I’d have a nice vacation.” Said Matter.

The woman rushed away and Matter contacted the other guys.

“Hey we’ve got a situation down here boys.” Matter said.

“What’s going on?” Roswell asked.

“Well, first of all I was told that I could only have a maximum of three ice cream cones a day which is just criminal.” Complained Matter.

“Bro, get to the real problem.” Slinky said.

“Oh, well there was a dead guy in the boiler room.” Said Matter.

“Listen string cheese, you need to lead with that.” Higgins said.

They all convened in front of the boiler room where a body of a man was limp on the threshold of the door.

“Slinky, what can you deduce?” Asked Roswell.

“It’s clearly murder and whoever killed him left the murder weapon in the body.” Slinky said as gently shifted the body and pointed out a knife sticking out of the man’s chest.

“Let’s split up to cover more ground.” Higgins suggested.

“I’ll head to the bridge to inform the captain.” Slinky said.

“If you can get the captain to get everyone in their rooms then I can start checking some of the most likely suspects.” Roswell said.

“Alright then I’ll take Matter with me and check out some of the areas on the boat to see if we can figure out where the knife came from.” Higgins said.

Slinky peeled off and went to the bridge and found the captain speaking to some of the crewmates.

“Sir, I’m detective Slinky of the SCPD. There’s been a murder below deck in the boiler room and I’d like for you to make an announcement to have everyone return to their rooms.” Slinky explained.

“Well I can’t argue with that badge.” The captain said.

The captain turned around and leaned over a microphone as he pressed a button.

“Attention passengers, due to some unfortunate circumstances, we ask you to please return to your rooms until further notice as an investigation is underway. We want to keep your experience on this cruise as peaceful and relaxing as possible so as soon as we are able, we will let you know when you can leave your rooms and resume your activities. I hope this small incident doesn’t dampen your feelings toward Fennel Breeze Cruise Line but we’d be more than happy to compensate for having to put a pause on your vacation for us. We thank you for your cooperation and will update you as soon as possible.” Said the captain over the speakers.

Meanwhile, Higgins and Matter made their way to the pool bar and looked around.

“I’m not seeing any knives here.” Matter said.

“I’d be shocked if there were. It’s a pool bar so they don’t need knives.” Said Higgins.

“Hey you never know if you need one. I mean what if you brought a dinner meal with you but didn’t have any way of cutting it? A pool knife bar would be pretty handy then.” Matter said.

Higgins rolled his eyes and they both left for the food court.

Roswell knocked on several doors but no one knew anything about the guy in the boiler room.

“Hi there, did you happen to know the men who work in the boiler room by chance?” Roswell asked.

“No sorry. That room over there has some staff from the arcade. They might know something.” Said a man inside his room.

Roswell walked over and knocked on the door.

“Hello?” asked a girl.

“Hey, I’m detective Roswell of the SCPD. I was hoping that you could help me answer some questions.” Roswell asked.

“Oh, sure. How can I help?” The girl asked.

“Do you know any of the boiler room guys?” Asked Roswell.

“Yeah we usually get together for our breaks. I haven’t seen Greg or Drake lately though.” She answered.

“Who are they?” Roswell said.

Greg Mundy works on the engines and Drake Fundy does the routine checks. Usually we end up taking a break together since Drake and I both love the calzone cafe and Greg likes the chicken hut right next to it but I didn’t see them today.” The girl explained.

“Thanks a lot. This is really helpful.” Roswell said as he left and contacted the others.

“Hey guys, I’m sending you some information that I got on some suspects.” Sai Roswell.

“Matter and I are on our way to the food court now so we’ll check out those restaurants.” Higgins said.

“I’ll pay a visit to this Greg guy and see what he’s been up to which leaves Drake to you Roswell.” Slinky said.

“Sounds like a plan.” Roswell said before hanging up.

At the food court, Higgins inspected the chicken hut while Matter took a look at the calzone cafe. After searching for a while Higgins joined Matter at the cafe and began to help him look since Matter got distracted by the calzones.

“So you didn’t find anything?” Matter said with a mouthful of calzone.

“No, most of the meals at the hut don't require a knife to cut.” Higgins explained.

“I gotcha. Well, let me finish this delicious calzone and I’ll help you.” Matter said.

After rummaging through the kitchen, Matter found some silverware sets that waiters bring to the tables.

“Hey, what about this?” Matter asked as he unwrapped one of the silverware sets revealing a knife.

“Nice work! That looks just like the one in our guy's body. So whoever killed him definitely was here.” Higgins said.

After reaching Drake Fundy’s room, Roswell knocked on the door but there was no answer. Just then, a man across the hall opened his door and called out to Roswell.

“Hey, just so you know, I haven’t seen Drake come back to his room so he must be still in the boiler room.” The man said.

Roswell thought for a moment and then held out a photo of the dead guy’s face and asked “Is this Drake?”

“Yeah that’s him. Um, is he Ok?” The man asked. 

“Don’t worry about it. Go back into your room and thanks for the information.” Roswell said.

He made his way back to the boiler room and examined the body more closely. He then took a look around the boiler room and noticed some blood on a clipboard that was on the ground with the papers on it all crumpled up. On one of the tables he also saw an opened silverware set that was missing its knife.

He contacted Slinky and said “Hey man, it looks like our dead guy is actually Drake Fundy. Be wary when you talk with Greg.”

“Understood.” Slinky said as he approached Greg’s door.

He knocked and a man opened the door apprehensively.

“Hey, I’m Slinky of the SCPD and I just wanted to ask you a few questions.” Slinky said.

“Oh, uh sure.” The man said.

“Are you Greg Mundy?” Slinky asked.

“Yeah that’s me.” Greg said.

Before Slinky could continue, Higgins called him. Slinky excused himself for a moment and answered.

“What’s up Higs?” Asked Slinky.

“It looks like the knife was from the calzone hut. They are almost an exact match. Also I don’t think Matter is going to leave anytime soon.” Higgins explained.

“Good to know and also good luck with that.” Slinky said before returning to Greg.

“Sorry about that. So were you working with anyone else in the boiler room today like Mr. Fundy?” Slinky said.

“Well yeah Drake and I usually work together a lot since he’s the supervisor.” Said Greg.

“I see, and have you been anywhere else besides the boiler room today?” Said Slinky.

“Well, Drake was pretty busy today so I told him I’d go get him some food when I took my break and got him a calzone at the calzone cafe since it’s his favorite and got myself some chicken at the chicken hut.” Greg explained.

“Interesting. The calzone cafe you say?” Slinky said.

Greg began to look worried and then punched Slinky in the face. He scrambled out of the room and began to run down the hallway. Slinky regained his composure and pulled out a taser and shot Greg in the back. Greg stopped in his tracks and stiffened up before falling to the ground.

“Guys I need some backup here. I’ve got the perp.” Slinky said as he contacted the rest of the guys. They met Slinky near Greg’s room in the hallway and found Slinky on the ground holding Greg.

“Well, how about that? Looks like you found our guy.” Roswell said.

“Nicely done my man.” Higgins said.

Higgins nudged Matter who was still eating a calzone before looking up and giving him a thumbs up.

“Ros, would you like to do the honors of explaining the whole situation?” Slinky said.

“Sure. From the clipboard that I found in the boiler room, Drake was performing frequent routine checks. Too frequent. Enough to perhaps get on someone's nerve. But that’s not quite enough. You see, Drake and Greg would take breaks with another staff girl but she preferred to eat with Drake at the calzone cafe. I would deduce that Greg wasn’t too happy about that especially if he had strong feelings towards her. So, how could you take Drake out of the picture? Well by tricking him into thinking he was getting food and instead eliminating him with the utensils from his favorite calzone cafe. Too bad he was sloppy with it and a woman saw the body tumble out of the room who ran into Matter.” Roswell explained.

“That about sums it up.” Slinky said.

They put Greg into a holding cell on the ship and wrapped Drake’s body to be buried once they got back to land. Roswell informed the staff girl about Drake and Greg and Slinky told the captain that the coast was clear to let everyone out of their rooms. Later on, they were all laying by the pool tanning themselves.

“Our vacation is back on.” Higgins said.

“I’m glad we took care of that murder quickly.” Said Slinky.

“Enough talking, you two. I’m trying to take a nap.” Roswell said.

The cruise boat was bustling again with people doing all sorts of activities above and below deck. The next few days were perfect and the detectives all enjoyed the rest of their vacation before returning to land and getting back to work.