Betty sat on my bed. “We really don’t have any details, Pauline. Remy wasn’t very happy the last few months.”

Jackie grunted.

Betty turned to Jackie. “Well, he wasn’t. No thanks to you.” Then to me: “He might have jumped ship in Bermuda. We really don’t know. Captain Duarte simply told the staff that Remy was no longer working here and would be replaced.”

With me. Yikes!

Jackie looked at Betty and gave her a “so there, I got my way” kinda grin, then said, “I’m tired.”

Betty ignored Jackie and looked at me. “I shall show you around the casualty now.”

My eyes widened. “There’s already been a casualty!” I hoped my friends and family were all right.

Jackie chuckled. “Bloody British with their own words. She means the ER, or actually the infirmary, as I call it.”

Whoa, boy. “Ah. Great, Betty. Lead the way.”

On the way out I noticed that Betty gave Jackie a look that said, “Freaking French.” I only hoped I’d get along better with the two of them or I might not be able to concentrate on my jobs-nursing and investigating.

I also added finding out more about Remy Girard to my list.

Across the hallway was a set of double glass doors with MEDICAL CENTER written in black-and-gold lettering. Upon entering, I thought, This dolphin décor has been a bit overdone. The place looked more like a lounge than an infirmary.

At a violet-and-lime reception desk sat a young man dressed like us. Betty introduced him as one of the nurses. Enrico “Rico” Bono was Italian (but had lived in the United States since age nine) and was damn good-looking. Think Al Pacino minus a few years. Rico jumped up, hurried around the desk and took me into his arms. Yikes!

“Welcome aboard, Pauline.”

He spoke like a regular American, kinda New York meets New Orleans, but the deep tone of his voice had me thinking I’d heard a sexy accent or maybe it was just because his breath tickled my neck as he spoke.

I looked at Betty. “Is it hot in here?”

She grinned. “Rico is on duty, so I’ll show you around.”

With that he let go but not after whispering in my ear, “I’ll see you later, amore.”

I didn’t need an Italian/American dictionary for that term.

Betty’s tour included the main nursing station and the one ICU room with all the equipment up to date. Tubes, wires and extra lights hung from the walls around the hospital bed. On the nearby crash cart stood a monitor and defibrillator. IV bags stood at the ready, hanging on nearby metal poles.

“Looks like the ER back home,” I said.

“Precisely,” Betty added then showed me all the supplies in a small closet near the porthole. Green, peach and beige-stripped drapes hung from the sides of the porthole, making it appear more like a real window. The walls were painted a mint green, which gave them an air of comfort.

I sure hoped this room wouldn’t be needed on my cruise.

“Those glass doors lead to a hallway where a lift will take you to the upper deck if a patient needs to be taken out by a helicopter. The pool has to be drained so no one gets electrocuted. Quite a bloomin’ procedure.”

“Hope it’s not needed on this trip,” I said.

“That’s it for physical setup. Feel free to poke around yourself.”

Just what I wanted to hear.

She continued, “Let me show you the procedure manual. Everything is spelled out quite nicely. Then I’ll show you the schedule.”

She pronounced it “shed yool.” I had to smile. Seemed as if Betty could insult me too, and I wouldn’t care. But she was so sweet, I doubted I’d have to worry. It was so much fun meeting people from other countries.

“On this line we work twelve-hour shifts. That way we are off more. More free time to sightsee or rest.”

Or investigate, I thought. “Sounds perfect.”

“You know we also treat all the crew. Three hundred of them. This is their only means of receiving routine medical care along with emergency care as needed.”

I nodded, but hadn’t been aware of that. Of course, what little Fabio could tell me about this job was…frankly, nothing much, other than I was to find out who was committing fraud and to save him money.

“You have a few days to review the procedures. We run things a bit differently on this line, but we do follow all the Healthcare Guidelines for Cruise Ship Medical Facilities. You’ll start Monday at seven A.M. for your shift with Jackie.”

Opportune moment here. “With Jackie? Hmm. She been here long?”

Betty hesitated. A telltale sign in the investigative field-however, I had no clue as to what it meant. I’d find out.

“Jackie’s been on and off cruise ships-different lines-for years. I don’t remember the last land job that she had. She probably doesn’t either.”

Interesting. “So she basically has no home port?” I thought that sounded very nautical, as if I knew what I was talking about.

“Jackie is…well, she’s…yes, she really doesn’t have a place to call home. She travels a lot.”

“Kinda sad. I imagine she misses her family and friends. Not married?”

Betty gave me a “what the bloody hell are you so interested in Jackie” kind of look, but ever-so-properly said, “Married about three times that I know of. Right now she’s single, except for her boyfriend, Claude.”

The way she said boyfriend made my eyebrows rise. “Is he on the crew?”

“Claude. Claude Bernard, her latest, is the crew’s purser.”

“Crew’s purser?”

“Sorry. I forgot you are not up on the ship lingo. Crew’s purser provides administrative support. Claude does the crew paperwork and assists in all crew matters. He also makes sure we keep our quarters in reasonable order.”

I chuckled. “Guess I don’t have to worry about that too much if Jackie is-”

“-Doesn’t matter who sleeps with whom, Pauline, we still have to follow the rules.”

Yikes! Put in my place, I fumbled for words. “Sorry,” was all I could come up with.

“Anything else?” she asked.

I know she meant about the room, but said, “Did Jackie and Remy have a thing going?”

Betty hesitated. “He loved her.”

That was it? In my book, that was enough. Hmm. He loved her, but Betty didn’t say how Jackie had felt about him. Jackie certainly hadn’t looked too upset talking about her “friend,” and now she was already dating someone else. Interesting.

“Well, back to the tour,” Betty said. “I relieve Rico in a few hours.”

“Oh, sorry. Didn’t mean to take up so much of your time off.”

She waved a hand in the air as if I really hadn’t and proceeded to show me the medications, which were mostly used in the management of common medical emergencies. Lots of cardiac meds, vascular, respiratory and plenty more. The ship looked very well equipped, and Betty seemed her usual pleasant self as long as Jackie’s name wasn’t mentioned.

“This area is where we keep all the laboratory (which sounded so British when Betty said it) equipment and in that room is the X-ray machine.”

Chills raced up my spine. I’d had a bad experience in an X-ray room with a past case-actually, a dead body had the bad experience.

“Of course, the most popular drugs we hand out are antiemetics like meclizine, our drug of choice, and Dramamine. Seasickness and all.” She chuckled. “We stick on a few plasters.” She chuckled again.

Betty was quite jovial.

“‘Bandages,’ as you Americans say,” she clarified.

I had a sudden craving for tea and crumpets.

“I’m guessing the cruise line makes a bundle on those drugs.” I studied Betty’s reaction.

“Oh, no. Those are gratis.”

Damn. “Makes sense. Guess if too many patients get seasick, the popularity of future cruises diminishes.” Now I chuckled.

“Correct.”

“So what about the other meds and treatments? How do we know how much to charge? How does that work?”

“Not to worry, Pauline. There is a staff receptionist that handles that type of thing. Medical staff don’t stick their noses into billing.”