Free Sammy Keyes and the Killer Cruise by Wendelin Van Draanen Page A

money?”
    “Well, Bradley was convinced he had great business acumen and made some bad deals; Lucas borrowed heavily against some of his properties to buy others and is upside down on all of them. And Teresa?” Another sigh. “She refused to come up through the ranks and learn from a legitimate designer, and then self-distributed her artistic delusions with disastrous results. Did you see that blouse she was wearing tonight? No wonder nothing sold.”
    We can see them moving slowly down the aisle, apparently looking at everybody’s pictures. Then they stop and Kate says, “I am not looking forward to breaking the restof the news to them, though. They are going to be furious. I wish John could be at my side!”
    “I can’t believe none of them gave it any thought. Especially Teresa. It’s ironic, really.”
    “Yes, it is. And Bradley will almost certainly try to do something about it, but he’ll get nowhere. Hammett Spade was very thorough in preparing the documents.”
    “Is Hammett up to speed on … everything?”
    “Oh, yes.” There’s a moment of silence as they move farther down the aisle, and then Kate says, “Look here!”
    Through the mesh we can sort of see a picture move and then hear Ginger’s voice say, “Oh! That’s cute, actually.” She chuckles. “But what a motley crew, huh?”
    “They were being rather wild tonight, weren’t they?”
    “JT told me that that one is somebody famous. A musician?”
    “Oh, well, that would explain that. The girls were polite enough up in the suite, though, did you notice?”
    “I did.”
    “And they’re both darling, but why those shoes?”
    “Maybe Teresa could help?”
    Kate chuckles. “I take it back. The shoes are perfect.”
    They both bust up and then Kate says, “I could use another martini. Shall we?”
    “You’re avoiding.”
    Kate sighs and we can sort of see the picture slide back into place. “It’s eleven-thirty. Haven’t we had enough for one day?”
    “Rip off the bandage, Kate. Get this over with.”
    Another sigh. “You’re right. They’re all still up. Let’s call a meeting.”
    I look at Marko like, A meeting? Now? and he looks back like, I know, huh?
    Then we both beat it farther down the aisle before we get caught snooping.

NINE
    I’m not sure that I’d ever snooped with an adult before. For one thing, it’s just not natural. And adults are the ones who are always telling you to mind your manners. To sit up straight and fly right.
    Or whatever.
    But the weird thing was that it
wasn’t
weird to be listening through a wall of pictures with Marko. Maybe because we were listening in on people way older than both of us. Or maybe because I knew that under all those years of adulthood, Marko was a spud flinger.
    Or maybe because rock ’n’ rollers get old, but they never really become adults.
    Whatever. The
point
is, it wasn’t weird. And after we rescued Darren and Marissa from wandering aimlessly through the Forest of Cheesy Smiles and Darren paid way too much money for the picture of the four of us in front of the fake ship backdrop, we all went up to our cabins, agreed to meet for breakfast at ten o’clock, and said good night.
    I
was
tired, too, but as Marissa and I are getting ready for bed, I remember.
    Homework.
    “No!” Marissa cries when I mention it. “Just do it tomorrow.”
    “Tomorrow’s my birthday.”
    “It’s after midnight now, so it’s already your birthday! So happy birthday. Now go to bed!”
    I try to tell myself that she’s right—that it’s late and I’m on a
cruise
and who does homework on vacation anyway? But in the back of my mind I keep picturing Ms. Rothhammer’s face when I told her that I was turning over a new leaf so I could get on the college track in high school. I thought she was going to cry from happiness, and believe me, Ms. Rothhammer is not the crying kind. I also keep thinking about how she’d helped me after school the last few weeks, and how many times