DaRkUmBrEoN
03-07-2006, 09:48 PM
Writing Cruise Murder Case
First Act: Introduction
“What!” Shaun yelled through the phone horn. He moved his free hand through his hair, and looked at his alarm clock. It was two in the morning, and he had just been woken up by a phone call.
“Joel, how do heck did you get those things?” He sounded like a four year old let loose in a toy store. Joel was a friend of Shaun, or better said, an extremely wealthy and snobby friend, who seemed to be a bit like Casanova. Sure, he had the looks - and the money – but he never seemed to find the right girl for himself.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll be there,” Shaun replied. “Pier 3. 10 o’clock tomorrow night. Ship’s name is St. Victoria. Okay, got that,” he said, while he wrote everything down on a note of paper. “Sure, I’ll tell the others.” Shaun was about to put down the horn, but he had a sudden change of heart. “Oh yeah,” he added, putting the phone back onto his ear, “Next time you decide to freaking call me from God knows where, mind the damned time zones!” With that said, he threw the horn onto the receiver, and went to his bed once again.
The next day at 21:45, Shaun and two of his other friends, Mike and Louise, stood before the boarding stairs of the St. Victoria. Mike was the sober one of the group, as well as the strongest and the smartest. He had a knack for taking care of others, which extended to more than mere first aid skills. Louise, the only girl of the four friends, was the most hot-headed, because she always seemed to get angry at everything either Shaun or Joel did wrong. Though, sometimes it appeared that she knew what was going to happen, before it actually happened. Joel and Shaun always teasingly called her ‘Ms. Psychic’, what always ended up with them being punched somewhere rather hard.
Though, there they now stood, all waiting for the arrival of their friend Joel. It was nothing like him to be this late. Suddenly a familiar voice shouted ‘Hey’ from above. Shaun, Mike and Louise looked up to see who was yelling at them.
“What are you slugs waiting for? Maybe you were waiting for a seagull to swoop down and drop a hand written invitation in your hands?” Joel mocked them. “Come on, get on board. I was waiting for ages!”
But once they got up, a sailor was blocking their way, asking for them to show their tickets. Luckily Joel showed up soon enough, and after explaining the situation, they were shown their cabins. Joel already occupied cabin 14, Shaun got 15, Louise 16 and Mike 17. Once they had dropped their stuff in their cabins, they all went up to the deck to catch some salty sea air.
They were leaning against the railing, watching the July sun slowly drop into the quiet blue ocean. A woman came running up to them, frantically waving her hand. She was Joel’s older sister, an internationally renowned Hollywood actress, whose films always filled up countless cinemas.
“Joel, I didn’t know you’d be here,” she said, hugging her little brother.
“Likewise, Ann” he coughed, almost smothered by her hug.
“And you’ve brought your friends along, I see,” she continued. “You must be Shaun,” she said, giving him the same kind of hug. Shaun was glad when she let him loose, and continued on to Mike. “You’re Mike, right?” she asked, but before he could reply, he was already being smothered just like the other two. “And of course, Louise,” Ann said, giving Louise a hug. When they finally let loose, Ann quickly whispered something in her ear, which made Louise look at Joel and laugh really hard.
“That’s not going to happen, Ann,” Louise laughed. “Not soon, anyways.”
“What’s not going to happen?” Joel asked, wondering what the girls were talking about this time.
“That’s between me and Louise,” Ann giggled, and walked away. “Well, I’m off to my room. Hope you guys enjoy the trip. Louise, don’t forget what I said.”
When his sis had left them, Joel quickly turned around and faced Louise. “Okay, spill the beans. What’s not going to happen?” he frowned.
“As Ann said, it’s between her and me,” Louise replied, and further ignored Joel’s attempts to make her talk.
The lights turned on, once the sun had fully set, and everyone went down to the Grand Dining hall to have some late night snack. Shaun, Mike and Louise glanced at the many celebrities passing them by, still not fully accustomed to the lifestyle of the rich and the, somewhat, famous. Joel, on the other hand, appeared to perfectly blend in, proved by the fact he even shook hands with some of them.
They found a vacant table and made themselves comfortable. Suddenly a couple came up to their table. The man was Mark Spencer, who published the works of Shaun his mother, but Shaun didn’t know the woman next to him.
“Well, if it isn’t young Holmes,” he said, as he pulled up a chair for his partner. “You don’t mind if we join you?”
“Good evening, Mr. Spencer,” Shaun said, introducing the others.
Once he had finished, Mark introduced his partner. “Well, kids, this is my lovely daughter Angela. Though, it would be better if she introduced herself,” he said, leaving his daughter to tell them more about herself.
“Well, I’m Angela,” she said. Some strands of brown hair were hanging before her deep blue eyes. “But I prefer to be called Angie,” she continued. “I’m 24 years old, and currently work as a part-timer with my dad. I’m studying English Literature at Oxford.”
So they chatted for a while, and ate some delicious stuff. Suddenly all the lights were turned off, and the spots were turned on. The fair haired Ann walked to the center of the stage, her astonishing dress waving graciously behind her until she stood still, and turned to the audience.
“Dear guests,” she said through the microphone. “I’m happy to welcome you all to the 30th annual World Literature Cruise. We have several world renowned writers amongst us, whose credentials are too good to tell through a mere microphone. This state of the art cruise ship will take us from where we are docked now all the way to sunny Los Angeles. During our pleasant trip, we’ll each night pray tribute to the grand prize winners in several categories, starting tomorrow night with ‘Best Romance novel’ and ‘Best War novel’. I hope you all have a pleasing night.” With that said, the spots turned off, and the normal lights turned on.
Ann walked off the stage and joined her little brother Joel and his companions. They had a vivid conversation, after they praised Ann for her wonderful speech. When the great clocked struck midnight, the room was cleared, and everyone went either outside or to their rooms.
Shaun wanted to start his tenth lap, when someone standing besides the pool called his name. It was Louise, and she was wearing a pink shirt with a pair of knee high shorts.
“Shaun,” she yelled, probably thinking he had water in his ears, “Ann wants to introduce us to her friends.”
“I’m not deaf,” Shaun answered, climbing out of the pool and putting on his Conan T-shirt. Shaun was a big fan of the anime series Case Closed, and he made sure he never missed an episode.
“Ah, good,” Ann sighed, seeing Louise bring Shaun along. When they had taken a seat, she continued whispering something to a red haired woman and a brown haired man. Mike and Joel exchanged curious looks with Shaun and Louise, but they were cut short by Ann. “Like I said, I’d like to introduce you to some of my closest friends. This beautiful red haired lady over here is Daniella, the most famous actress on the British screen. Her works include movies like Parliament and The Moore of Venice.”
“Glad to make your acquaintance,” Daniella said, smiling almost divinely at the four teens. Joel was almost drooling, but a quick hiss from Louise stopped him from looking like a fool.
“Besides her, sits her multitalented husband Zack,” Ann carried on with the introduction. “Few of his talents are writing great action novels, directing numerous blockbusters, and his amazing skills with a paintbrush.”
“Whazzup!” Zack said, looking at them from under his baseball cap.
“This is my little brother Joel,” Ann introduced the other occupants of the table. “And these are his friends. The young lady is Louise, the boy on her left is Mike, and the absentminded one…” Ann coughed once, trying to get Shaun’s attention. “As I was saying, the other one is Shaun.”
They questioned each other for a while, until a sudden figure showed up at their table. He looked a bit like someone of Arabian origin, but they couldn’t see him well, because the sun was shining in their eyes. Fortunately, the guy stepped aside, so they could finally get a good look at him. He was indeed of Arabian origin, making him seem like something that had just stepped out of a 1001 Arabian Nights picture book.
Ann seemed to recognize him, because she stood up, and started to introduce him, just like she did with Daniella and Zack. “This is another good friend of mine, Tamer. He’s one of the wealthiest Arabian actor-prince. His family owns one of the cities in the Middle East, though, I don’t remember which one.”
Tamer started to shake everyone’s hand, stopping at Louise and Daniella to give them a hand kiss. Once he reached Zack, they just stared at each other, their hands close to their bodies. Suddenly Zack stood up. “I’ll be off... I just remembered that I had a meeting planned,” and thus he left.
Tamer just turned around and waved Zack off. “He’s always busy, whenever he sees me. One would think he didn’t like my aftershave.”
Everyone couldn’t resist laughing at the subtle joke, and after that they just sat there, Tamer lowered himself onto the chair recently occupied by Zack, and there they sat until lunch time.
Mike, Louise, Joel and Shaun ran into Angie near the bar on the second deck, so they decided to lunch together. After ordering some burgers and fries, they sat down at a table with seaside view. They ate while exchanging funny life stories, until Joel frowned and asked: “Who’s that sitting with Zack?”
Angie turned her head to get a better view. “Oh, you mean them? The guy next to Zack is Alex, his publisher. He’s kinda weird, if you asked me. They say he’s busy with strange stuff.”
“Hmm… Interesting,” Shaun mumbled, as he observed the tall blond haired fellow, who was talking to Zack with wide gestures. He was also fascinated by Zack’s tic with a pen. Most people normally use their thumb to click, but he didn’t. Instead Zack seemed to click the pen on his underarm, before he started to write.
“Who’s the girl?” Louise asked.
“That’s Sarah. She’s Zack’s manager. There have been rumors going around the place that Zack was cheating on his wife. Tabloids say it was Sarah, but I don’t know.”
“Tabloids hardly write anything based on pure facts,” Mike noted, and so they continued with their well-deserved lunch.
“Hi,” said a familiar voice behind the teens and Angie. It was Daniella, who was carrying a small box.
“Hi, Daniella,” Joel said dazed, earning him a punch to the kidneys by Louise.
“I wanted to show you something,” Daniella said, putting the box on the table. “It’s something I got from the props department after my last job.”
With graceful gestures she opened the box, revealing an ordinary ballpoint placed upon a velvet cushion.
“This,” she said, “Is the original poisonous pen from The Secretary.”
“I loved that movie,” Louise said, her eyes sparkling at the sight of the pen.
“Thank you,” Daniella said. “It even works, but I safely lock it away most of the times. The only time it’s not locked, is when I lend it out to museums.”
“Hey, do you have two of those pens?” Mike asked, after his eyes fell on a pen sticking out of Daniella’s purse.
“Yeah, the props people made me several fake look-a-likes. Zack has one too,” she answered. “Though, I’ve got to be going. These kinds of cruises are the best place to do some business.” And off she went, hurrying off to the exit on her sneakers.
First Act: Introduction
“What!” Shaun yelled through the phone horn. He moved his free hand through his hair, and looked at his alarm clock. It was two in the morning, and he had just been woken up by a phone call.
“Joel, how do heck did you get those things?” He sounded like a four year old let loose in a toy store. Joel was a friend of Shaun, or better said, an extremely wealthy and snobby friend, who seemed to be a bit like Casanova. Sure, he had the looks - and the money – but he never seemed to find the right girl for himself.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll be there,” Shaun replied. “Pier 3. 10 o’clock tomorrow night. Ship’s name is St. Victoria. Okay, got that,” he said, while he wrote everything down on a note of paper. “Sure, I’ll tell the others.” Shaun was about to put down the horn, but he had a sudden change of heart. “Oh yeah,” he added, putting the phone back onto his ear, “Next time you decide to freaking call me from God knows where, mind the damned time zones!” With that said, he threw the horn onto the receiver, and went to his bed once again.
The next day at 21:45, Shaun and two of his other friends, Mike and Louise, stood before the boarding stairs of the St. Victoria. Mike was the sober one of the group, as well as the strongest and the smartest. He had a knack for taking care of others, which extended to more than mere first aid skills. Louise, the only girl of the four friends, was the most hot-headed, because she always seemed to get angry at everything either Shaun or Joel did wrong. Though, sometimes it appeared that she knew what was going to happen, before it actually happened. Joel and Shaun always teasingly called her ‘Ms. Psychic’, what always ended up with them being punched somewhere rather hard.
Though, there they now stood, all waiting for the arrival of their friend Joel. It was nothing like him to be this late. Suddenly a familiar voice shouted ‘Hey’ from above. Shaun, Mike and Louise looked up to see who was yelling at them.
“What are you slugs waiting for? Maybe you were waiting for a seagull to swoop down and drop a hand written invitation in your hands?” Joel mocked them. “Come on, get on board. I was waiting for ages!”
But once they got up, a sailor was blocking their way, asking for them to show their tickets. Luckily Joel showed up soon enough, and after explaining the situation, they were shown their cabins. Joel already occupied cabin 14, Shaun got 15, Louise 16 and Mike 17. Once they had dropped their stuff in their cabins, they all went up to the deck to catch some salty sea air.
They were leaning against the railing, watching the July sun slowly drop into the quiet blue ocean. A woman came running up to them, frantically waving her hand. She was Joel’s older sister, an internationally renowned Hollywood actress, whose films always filled up countless cinemas.
“Joel, I didn’t know you’d be here,” she said, hugging her little brother.
“Likewise, Ann” he coughed, almost smothered by her hug.
“And you’ve brought your friends along, I see,” she continued. “You must be Shaun,” she said, giving him the same kind of hug. Shaun was glad when she let him loose, and continued on to Mike. “You’re Mike, right?” she asked, but before he could reply, he was already being smothered just like the other two. “And of course, Louise,” Ann said, giving Louise a hug. When they finally let loose, Ann quickly whispered something in her ear, which made Louise look at Joel and laugh really hard.
“That’s not going to happen, Ann,” Louise laughed. “Not soon, anyways.”
“What’s not going to happen?” Joel asked, wondering what the girls were talking about this time.
“That’s between me and Louise,” Ann giggled, and walked away. “Well, I’m off to my room. Hope you guys enjoy the trip. Louise, don’t forget what I said.”
When his sis had left them, Joel quickly turned around and faced Louise. “Okay, spill the beans. What’s not going to happen?” he frowned.
“As Ann said, it’s between her and me,” Louise replied, and further ignored Joel’s attempts to make her talk.
The lights turned on, once the sun had fully set, and everyone went down to the Grand Dining hall to have some late night snack. Shaun, Mike and Louise glanced at the many celebrities passing them by, still not fully accustomed to the lifestyle of the rich and the, somewhat, famous. Joel, on the other hand, appeared to perfectly blend in, proved by the fact he even shook hands with some of them.
They found a vacant table and made themselves comfortable. Suddenly a couple came up to their table. The man was Mark Spencer, who published the works of Shaun his mother, but Shaun didn’t know the woman next to him.
“Well, if it isn’t young Holmes,” he said, as he pulled up a chair for his partner. “You don’t mind if we join you?”
“Good evening, Mr. Spencer,” Shaun said, introducing the others.
Once he had finished, Mark introduced his partner. “Well, kids, this is my lovely daughter Angela. Though, it would be better if she introduced herself,” he said, leaving his daughter to tell them more about herself.
“Well, I’m Angela,” she said. Some strands of brown hair were hanging before her deep blue eyes. “But I prefer to be called Angie,” she continued. “I’m 24 years old, and currently work as a part-timer with my dad. I’m studying English Literature at Oxford.”
So they chatted for a while, and ate some delicious stuff. Suddenly all the lights were turned off, and the spots were turned on. The fair haired Ann walked to the center of the stage, her astonishing dress waving graciously behind her until she stood still, and turned to the audience.
“Dear guests,” she said through the microphone. “I’m happy to welcome you all to the 30th annual World Literature Cruise. We have several world renowned writers amongst us, whose credentials are too good to tell through a mere microphone. This state of the art cruise ship will take us from where we are docked now all the way to sunny Los Angeles. During our pleasant trip, we’ll each night pray tribute to the grand prize winners in several categories, starting tomorrow night with ‘Best Romance novel’ and ‘Best War novel’. I hope you all have a pleasing night.” With that said, the spots turned off, and the normal lights turned on.
Ann walked off the stage and joined her little brother Joel and his companions. They had a vivid conversation, after they praised Ann for her wonderful speech. When the great clocked struck midnight, the room was cleared, and everyone went either outside or to their rooms.
Shaun wanted to start his tenth lap, when someone standing besides the pool called his name. It was Louise, and she was wearing a pink shirt with a pair of knee high shorts.
“Shaun,” she yelled, probably thinking he had water in his ears, “Ann wants to introduce us to her friends.”
“I’m not deaf,” Shaun answered, climbing out of the pool and putting on his Conan T-shirt. Shaun was a big fan of the anime series Case Closed, and he made sure he never missed an episode.
“Ah, good,” Ann sighed, seeing Louise bring Shaun along. When they had taken a seat, she continued whispering something to a red haired woman and a brown haired man. Mike and Joel exchanged curious looks with Shaun and Louise, but they were cut short by Ann. “Like I said, I’d like to introduce you to some of my closest friends. This beautiful red haired lady over here is Daniella, the most famous actress on the British screen. Her works include movies like Parliament and The Moore of Venice.”
“Glad to make your acquaintance,” Daniella said, smiling almost divinely at the four teens. Joel was almost drooling, but a quick hiss from Louise stopped him from looking like a fool.
“Besides her, sits her multitalented husband Zack,” Ann carried on with the introduction. “Few of his talents are writing great action novels, directing numerous blockbusters, and his amazing skills with a paintbrush.”
“Whazzup!” Zack said, looking at them from under his baseball cap.
“This is my little brother Joel,” Ann introduced the other occupants of the table. “And these are his friends. The young lady is Louise, the boy on her left is Mike, and the absentminded one…” Ann coughed once, trying to get Shaun’s attention. “As I was saying, the other one is Shaun.”
They questioned each other for a while, until a sudden figure showed up at their table. He looked a bit like someone of Arabian origin, but they couldn’t see him well, because the sun was shining in their eyes. Fortunately, the guy stepped aside, so they could finally get a good look at him. He was indeed of Arabian origin, making him seem like something that had just stepped out of a 1001 Arabian Nights picture book.
Ann seemed to recognize him, because she stood up, and started to introduce him, just like she did with Daniella and Zack. “This is another good friend of mine, Tamer. He’s one of the wealthiest Arabian actor-prince. His family owns one of the cities in the Middle East, though, I don’t remember which one.”
Tamer started to shake everyone’s hand, stopping at Louise and Daniella to give them a hand kiss. Once he reached Zack, they just stared at each other, their hands close to their bodies. Suddenly Zack stood up. “I’ll be off... I just remembered that I had a meeting planned,” and thus he left.
Tamer just turned around and waved Zack off. “He’s always busy, whenever he sees me. One would think he didn’t like my aftershave.”
Everyone couldn’t resist laughing at the subtle joke, and after that they just sat there, Tamer lowered himself onto the chair recently occupied by Zack, and there they sat until lunch time.
Mike, Louise, Joel and Shaun ran into Angie near the bar on the second deck, so they decided to lunch together. After ordering some burgers and fries, they sat down at a table with seaside view. They ate while exchanging funny life stories, until Joel frowned and asked: “Who’s that sitting with Zack?”
Angie turned her head to get a better view. “Oh, you mean them? The guy next to Zack is Alex, his publisher. He’s kinda weird, if you asked me. They say he’s busy with strange stuff.”
“Hmm… Interesting,” Shaun mumbled, as he observed the tall blond haired fellow, who was talking to Zack with wide gestures. He was also fascinated by Zack’s tic with a pen. Most people normally use their thumb to click, but he didn’t. Instead Zack seemed to click the pen on his underarm, before he started to write.
“Who’s the girl?” Louise asked.
“That’s Sarah. She’s Zack’s manager. There have been rumors going around the place that Zack was cheating on his wife. Tabloids say it was Sarah, but I don’t know.”
“Tabloids hardly write anything based on pure facts,” Mike noted, and so they continued with their well-deserved lunch.
“Hi,” said a familiar voice behind the teens and Angie. It was Daniella, who was carrying a small box.
“Hi, Daniella,” Joel said dazed, earning him a punch to the kidneys by Louise.
“I wanted to show you something,” Daniella said, putting the box on the table. “It’s something I got from the props department after my last job.”
With graceful gestures she opened the box, revealing an ordinary ballpoint placed upon a velvet cushion.
“This,” she said, “Is the original poisonous pen from The Secretary.”
“I loved that movie,” Louise said, her eyes sparkling at the sight of the pen.
“Thank you,” Daniella said. “It even works, but I safely lock it away most of the times. The only time it’s not locked, is when I lend it out to museums.”
“Hey, do you have two of those pens?” Mike asked, after his eyes fell on a pen sticking out of Daniella’s purse.
“Yeah, the props people made me several fake look-a-likes. Zack has one too,” she answered. “Though, I’ve got to be going. These kinds of cruises are the best place to do some business.” And off she went, hurrying off to the exit on her sneakers.