Chapter 5

Breakfast, of course, was amazing. The buffet contained all manner of delicious food, a staffed omelet bar, and a pastry table that would have been the envy of a fine restaurant.

"Hey Scoob, how many of those muffins have you had? Scoob? Hey, Scooby Doo, I'm talkin' to you!" Shaggy said as he tried to get his dog's diverted attention.

"Sorry," Scooby said as he turned his attention back to the table.

"What are you looking at?"

"Her!" he said, pointing his paw. At another table, a woman sat with a female white and copper Siberian Husky. He practically melted in his seat.

"Good-looking dog there, old pal. Why do you go introduce yourself?"

"Ruh uh!" he said, shaking his head. He was clearly distracted, as food still remained on his plate untouched.

"I think Scooby's in love," Daphne observed. "I think Doc told us they unofficially call this ship 'The Love Boat', or something like that. Must be the sea air, right Fred?"

"Huh? Sorry, I was just thinking about that thing we saw flying through the air last night. I wonder if it was wires."

"I doubt it," Velma offered. "Remember that parachute I found on the deck chair?"

"So someone left a parachute on a chair. They have parasailing here if the weather is right."

"Yeah, but with a BLACK parachute? They always have bright colors."

"You're right - that IS a clue, then."

"These aren't mushrooms, they're toadstools!" a man screamed as he fell out of his chair and to his knees. "Those fools in the kitchen are trying to kill us!" With a swoon he fell over, clutching his stomach, and twitched a few times before laying still.

The dining room fell silent as the chef rushed out of the kitchen to see what the commotion was; it was the same man whose freezer burned up earlier. "What ez that? I kill no one!" he exclaimed before spotting the man on the floor. "I shall call for ze doctor!" he said, disappearing into the kitchen again.

Another passenger, a burly man, rushed over to the the stricken eater. "There's no time - I'll take him to the infirmary myself." He picked up the crumpled man in a fireman's carry and ran out of the room, grunting a little.

Daphne ran into the kitchen to check on the chef, while Velma and Fred examined where the diner had been. "It looks like he got poisoned from his mushroom omelet," she said as she looked carefully over the plate.

Walt and Craig, who had been checking the pastry table, looked over the scene as well. "At least it wasn't one of our pastries," Craig said with relief.

"I don't think it was his omelet either," Walt said as he picked through the meal, pulling out a mushroom.

"I wouldn't touch that; it might be poisonous," Fred warned.

"It could be - if it was a toadstool. But this is a perfectly safe button mushroom. I've studied them when I went camping years ago. They're good eating. Not as big as, say, your Portobello, but..."

"...I don't like any mushrooms," Craig added.

"...but I don't think," he continued as he smelled the fungus "that it was the problem. I'll check the kitchen to be sure."

Doc arrived quickly in the room, accompanied by Julie. "Where is the patient?" he asked, a little out of breath.

"He was just carried to the infirmary," Velma said.

"I just came from there - I didn't see anyone on the way."

"Maybe he went another route," Fred suggested.

"It's straight down the hallway; there IS no other way."

"Now that you mention it, I don't remember seeing that big man that carried him away even IN the room before he got sick. That's really odd."

"Can you describe him?" Julie asked. Velma did so, and Julie went over in her mind all the passengers she greeted before they left. "I didn't see anyone fitting that description, and I was there when the last passenger came aboard. What about the man that got sick?" Velma described him, too. "I met a few that fit that description. It's possible they got lost on the way in the panic." She hurried out of the room to make an announcement to the crew to be on the lookout for the two men, while the others gathered themselves up and left the dining area as the other guests already had.

...

"I'm not suggesting anything," Shaggy said as he and Scooby tried another deck of the ship. The dog might have claimed that he needed exercise to walk off the meal, but Shaggy knew differently. "All I'm saying is that you've taken a sudden interest in exercise."

Scooby knit his eyebrows together and grumbled. What was wrong with just taking a look around? He may not be fooling anyone, but he had to at least try. "Rooking for clues."

"Looking for clues? Well, I guess that sounds like a good excuse. I haven't seen anything yet, have you?"

"Ruh uh."

"Let's keep going." The two plodded along, looking down hallways and into shops. Ahead, they could see the Husky from breakfast coming out of a shop with a red-headed girl of about eleven. The girl and dog turned to come towards them when the girl stopped.

"Oh, look at that dog, Jenna!" the girl said. "He looks like one of those Great Danes we saw on TV." Scooby, looked behind him to see who the girl was talking about, and when he turned around again they were nearly standing together in the narrow hallway. The dog seemed to be panting a little. "Hello. My name is Rosy, and this is my dog Jenna. What's your names?"

"I'm Shaggy, and this is Scooby Doo."

"Pleased to meet you. I'd like to stay and talk, but it's getting too hot for my dog. She likes it where it's cold much better. Nice to meet you!"

"You too, Rosy. Bye." Shaggy waved, and as the two squeezed by Scooby took a deep breath to suck in his stomach. It also allowed him to take in a deep smell of Jenna, and after the two passed he sagged against the wall, letting out a contented sigh. "Too bad they didn't take one of those Alaskan cruises; I bet it's a lot cooler going north than it is going south."

Something clicked in Scooby's head, and he thought for a moment until he got an idea. "Follow me!" he said as he almost dragged Shaggy behind him.

"What are you doing?"

"Shhhh!" he said as he stopped and looked around a corner. Soon it became apparent that they were following Rosy and Jenna, and they did so until the two disappeared into a cabin. The two walked past casually, whistling as though they were going that way all along - just in case they were caught out in the hallway. Nobody came out of the cabin, so they safely made it past. Scooby then hurried over to a map down the hallway and scanned the contents.

"What are you looking for?" Shaggy asked.

"Ice rink."

"The ice rink? Plan to go skating?" he joked, but gave it up when Scooby frowned. He looked at the map and studied the legend and pointed to a spot. "There it is. It looks pretty small."

"Rats okay." Scooby started off again, and Shaggy had to hurry to catch up. They went down a flight of steps and found the room. It was a very small ice rink, with a very small area to put on and remove skates. The air was perceptibly colder here. "Scooby Rooby Roo!" the dog cheered. A tall man in a yellow adventurer's suit and matching yellow hat was coming off the ice with his pet monkey. He said hello before removing his ice skates and leaving.

"Oh, I get it - this is for Jenna, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

"Well, you know where she is now; why not invite her down here?"

"Not me!"

"Okay, I'll go with you, you big chicken." Scooby pretended to caw and Shaggy shook his head. "Let's go before it gets too close for lunch. I don't want to miss a meal even IF they serve food twenty four hours a day."