By the time Ranger finished eating dinner I was dressed and almost ready to go. He was stalling. When I can eat, shower and dress before he can finish eating, there's something wrong. But he has no choice. He's taking me dancing. He said he would and he's going to even if Louisa is there and I have to smack the bejesus out of her.

Eventually he figured out that I wasn't going to let it go because he got up off the couch and made his way to the shower. Cindy Sue came and took our dishes away and we talked for a few minutes about men and their delay tactics.

"You just can't let them get away with it," she said seriously. "My husband has been trying to work that angle with me for six years."

"You're not old enough to be married for six years," I blinked at her.

"Yep…I am. I'm twenty -eight. My husband works in Security here on the ship. We're working on our last cruise now. We've saved enough money to buy a house outright and we'll start having a family soon. I'm really looking forward to it. Jay already has a couple of job offers on the outside. I don't know what I'm going to do yet."

"Get pregnant it sounds like," I grinned.

"Yea," she laughed. "Do you want kids?"

"Oh yea," I sighed. "I didn't know if I did for a long time, but now I know I do. I'd love to have two or four."

"How does he feel about that," she nodded toward the bathroom.

"He has commitment issues," I sighed.

"I do not have commitment issues," Ranger barked from the bedroom.

I rolled my eyes and she grinned at me.

"Well, you guys have fun dancing."

"Yea…have a good night Cindy. We'll try not to bother you for the rest of the night."

"Oh you're no bother. Besides…you may need some pies."

I laughed¸ "you have a point."

"She won't need pie," Ranger said exiting the bedroom in black slacks and a black silk shirt. He was so yummy I think I began to drool right away.

"Oh…I don't know," I sighed. "I think I might need pie."

"I'm going to wear you out. You're going to be too tired to need pie. Tonight…we salsa," he said grabbing my hand and pulling me to him.

"Tonight we salsa," I said over my shoulder to Cindy.

"I'll put a pie in the fridge," She grinned and waved exiting our room.

I sighed. She knew me already. How sad was that?

Ranger shook his head. "You won't need pie."

"We'll see," I said and let him pull me out of the cabin.

When we arrived at the lounge some good salsa music was already playing. We didn't even bother finding a table. We went straight to the dance floor and stayed there for an hour.

"May I cut in," a deep voice interrupted.

I glanced up to see Marshall Enrique DeJesus at Ranger's shoulder.

"Do you want him or me?"

"I've had him. I'll dance with you," he grinned.

"I don't think so Dog," Ranger shook his head tugging me a little closer to his body.

"Come on man…don't be like. There's no ring on her finger."

Ranger glared at him but passed my hand over to him. "Keep it clean. I'm watching you."

"Yea," he said and whirled me off in the other direction.

"Do you really want to dance with me or are you just yanking his chain?"

"I can't find you attractive and want to dance with you," he asked with a grin.

"Right," I shook my head. "If you were a member of the unit, why weren't you invited to the wedding?"

"I was. The invitation is sitting on my desk at home. I was out of town on a case and by the time I got the invitation, it was too late to respond. My momma raised me to have manners."

"I know what you mean," I sighed.

"Anyway…it's only fortune that leads me here now. I'm glad I'm here."

"I think I am too," I smiled.

"Yea," he grinned. "That's good to hear."

"So…are you about to pump me for information or flirt with me?"

"How about a little of both," he flashed his bright white teeth at me. Enrique was a gorgeous guy. He would actually give Ranger a run for his money. If he was in Trenton women would break their necks trying to figure out which man to look at.

"A little bit of both is good."

"Why don't we start by me telling you what great instincts you have?"

"You can do that."

"You were right about both," he sighed. "Hunter was poisoned. His alcohol consumption accelerated his time of death. It was probably in his booze. But we can't tell really. The only thing in his stomach was bourbon and poison."

"Oh man, he had anger issues. I imagine there were plenty of people who wanted him dead."

"Yea…it looks that way. Most of them weren't on this ship though."

"No…probably not," he sighed.

"What about Cable?"

"After talking to his Cabin Stewardess we know there was foul play involved. Whoever killed him had to be in the cabin with him. That limits our suspects. We also think he was shaving at the time he was pushed into the shower. We think that was natural. The rest of it is wrong."

"If he was naked he had to know whoever was in the room with him you know what I mean" I frowned. "Who would he let get that close to him?"

"You'd be surprised how comfortable a military man is with his body."

"Not really," I said with a sigh.

He grinned.

"So…not to change the subject or anything, but have you seen Lester and Marina yet?"

"Ranger told you," he said darkly.

"He said if Lester turned up dead or missing it would probably be you."

"Probably," he agreed.

"If it makes you feel any better…he loves her."

"Oh I know that," he sighed, "and no, it doesn't."

"And he's faithful to her."

"I believe you."

"I mean that God knows he's had every chance to sow his wild oats."

"You're not helping Stephanie," he sighed.

"She loves him," I said gently.

He sighed heavily, "I know. It's just…I know the old Lester and she's my baby sister. Do you know what I mean?"

"Not specifically. I'm the baby and I only have one sister and no brothers. I suppose my Dad probably feels that way."

"I'm sure," he agreed.

"Speaking of my Dad," I grinned as he tapped on Enrique's shoulder.

"May I cut in," He grinned.

"Sure," he smiled.

Daddy danced me away, "was he interrogating you?"

"No…he was sharing information."

"Is that good?"

"It's good," I agreed. "It usually means I'm not a suspect."

"Usually," he raised his brow.

"I'm almost never a suspect," I smiled in reassurance.

"You a suspect," he guffawed. "That would be about ridiculous."

"You're right," I beamed at him. "Hercule Poirot was never the suspect."

"No he wasn't," he agreed. "Is Tank a suspect?"

"I suppose he must be," I sighed, "but Enrique knows he's not good for it. His coworkers, on the other hand, may not be quite so willing to see Tank's innocent right off the bat."

"It will work out."

"I know. We'll figure it out."

Seconds later it was Ranger who cut in.

"Frank…I promised Stephanie that I'd dance with her all night," Ranger grinned.

"To keep you away from Louisa," my father raised a brow at me.

I just grinned.

"Is that why Stephanie," Ranger raised a brow at me.

I glared at him.

"Sorry Frank…I can't talk. I have to salsa now."

"I'll let you get to it then," he grinned and hurried away.

We danced two more dances and I'll be honest, I was starting to get really tired. I'd been on the dance floor for over two hours and there didn't seem to be any evidence that I was going to get to sit down any time soon by the looks of it. At least, I wasn't going to sit if I was going to keep Ranger away from that Chilean tart.

Enrique came by and leaned over and started to say something before Ranger interrupted him.

"Man if you're cutting in again," Ranger shook his head.

"Just come with me," he hissed.

We followed him out the door and up two decks to the pool. There floating in the pool was a man. Not just any man either…it was Points.

"Fuck," Ranger said succinctly.

"That about sums it up."

They were just starting to pull him out of the pool. He was fully clothed, meaning he didn't have on a swim suit. He was face down. When they did pull him out I stood over the doctor while he looked him over.

"There's no apparent trauma," I said to Ranger and Enrique. "Like the other deaths, I have to assume they're hoping this one looks like natural causes or something."

"You don't think it is," Enrique raised a brow.

"He was on lockdown," I reminded him. "Someone in Security was guarding him at all times, wasn't he?"

"Yea," he nodded with a frown.

"How did he get out of his room? Someone had to let him out and yet…do you see anyone here saying 'sorry dude, he said he just wanted to walk on the deck and I thought if I stayed with him it would be all good'?"

Enrique sighed heavily.

"We need to find out who was in charge of guarding him tonight. We also need to know if there's another way for him to get out of the room. You know what I mean? Does anyone know if he was aware of Cable's death?"

"He was not aware," Enrique said.

"Then if the murderer lured him out here, he wouldn't be suspicious or anything that he was about to be the next victim, right? Not only that, but Points wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer if you know what I mean."

"Yea," Enrique agreed.

Ranger had just stood quietly. "Tank was in the lounge."

"Not the whole time," Enrique said softly.

"Were you keeping an eye on him?"

"We lost sight of him for about a half an hour between 2200 and 2300. There's no way for us to know where he was at that time."

I sighed, "He didn't do this. Once again…the scene is too clean. If Tank wanted someone dead, he'd just toss them overboard. Also, what are the odds he could lure Points out of the room without making him suspicious?"

"I agree," he nodded. "But so far, he's the only person we know who has made threats against all the victims who is present."

I sighed. "This is crazy. He didn't do this."

"I believe you, but right now he's all we've got."

"Babe, you've got to get those little grey cells to working. If you don't, this could go horribly wrong."

"I know," I sighed. "I know." I glanced over at the corpse with a frown. "When does his body go ashore?"

"It won't. We'll have an ME onboard first thing in the morning. He'll do the autopsy here in the doctor's surgery. We'll have to send the blood work off tomorrow while we're in Belize."

"I think we'll find marks that will appear on his body later to indicate that he was pushed and held underwater."

"How does that happen?"

"It's a form of latent bruising."

"She's right," the doctor smiled. "It can occur up to three days after the death of the victim."

"So…we have to watch him and see if anything happens?"

"We should," I agreed. "If we want to be able to prove he was murdered that is. I mean, that will prove it one way or the other since we have nada now."

"Then we'll wait," he nodded. "We'll just keep him on ice."

"Does the ship have facilities for this sort of thing?"

"We don't have a morgue per se, but we do have an empty refrigerator. We'll use it."

"Walk in, I assume," I smiled.

"Of course," he smiled.

"All right then," I squatted and looked at his shirt pocket. I borrowed a pen from the doctor's front pocket and pushed into his pocket to look inside, "his room key is in his pocket."

"And…"

"I'm betting he put it there," I said softly before getting to my feet. "On this ship, half the men aboard have their room keys in their shirt pocket. Where's yours Ranger?"

He tapped his shirt pocket.

"That means that in all probability that he left his room of his own free will and he believed he was going be returning to his room."

"That makes sense," Enrique nodded.

"It's one of the few things that does," I sighed. "This whole thing is just creepy. But while you've been studying the passengers, I think it's time for you start looking at the crew."

"Why is that," he asked.

"Because it's common knowledge that Tank's the prime suspect of the other murders on this ship. Nobody would have let him into that cabin willingly."

"That's true," Ranger smiled. "Points sure as hell wouldn't have let him in, especially without Score there."

"True," I agreed.

"But why a crew member," Enrique frowned.

"Because someone who works for the ship would trust another crew member before he'd trust a passenger. I think it's an inside job as it were."

"Shit," he sighed. "Do you know how many crew members are on this ship?"

"About half as many as the passengers if it's true to form," I raised a brow.

"So that's 250 passengers and around 125 crew," he mused.

"That's my best guess."

"I have a lot of work to do."

"Yes and I don't envy you the task."

Ranger flopped back on the bed tiredly at almost three am. "What in the hell is going on?"

"I don't know. But I'm beginning to put something together in my head."

"Yea…like what?"

"Like it's more than one person," I said seriously. "I think maybe it's a couple. I'm pretty sure at least one of them is a woman," I flopped back beside him.

"Why are you so sure about that?"

"Because Cable was naked when he was found and he was shaving and he was confined to his room. The only way that would happen is if there was a woman involved. I'd bet he had already had sex with whoever it was and was planning to do it again."

"That's a good theory," he agreed.

I sat up and headed for the sitting room.

"Where are you going?"

"To get pie," I smiled.

"You don't need pie," he said catching my hand as I started by him.

"Yes I do," I said with a smile and kissed his head. I pulled away, "I really, really do need pie."