Mystery on the High Seas - A Max Flummox story

Part 1

Private Investigator Max Flummox ambled onto the deck of The Oceanic Wonder, complete with his characteristic limp and cane. This was the life. Finally, after a year of consistently flowing cases, he was on a well-deserved break. His diagnosed ADD meant that he tended to hyperfocus on cases and, while all that was great, had left him worn out.

His sidekick, Benny Bloop, soon joined him, babbling as usual in an overly-exuberant voice. 

"Max! Check out the infinity pool on the other end of this deck! It's the widest and deepest ever!" Benny ran towards his boss almost as fast as Usain Bolt. The cruise janitors had just mopped the deck; he promptly stumbled and fell, landing with his butt on the floor. 

"Ow!" He groaned, rubbing his behind in earnest. 

"Oh, Benny..." Max sighed. "Can't you, for once, not cause a commotion wherever you go? I'm on a break!!"

Benny gathered himself and stood up, his pants thoroughly wet. Max gazed at his yellow and red-dotted underwear and grinned. 

At least the boy was entertaining.  

Part 2

A swim in the said infinity pool left the gumshoes ravenous.

"Buffet dinner?" Benny got out of the pool in wet swim trunks, promptly splashing Max unceremoniously as he passed. 

"Benny! I know I'm wet, but I still don't appreciate the shock."

"Here -" he handed Benny a towel. "Dry yourself, for goodness' sake!"

After a quick shower, they headed into the ship's revolving restaurant for its signature buffet. Extra-large oysters, escargot, rum steak, caviar, and gourmet sausages assailed Benny's senses, and he, as usual, filled his plate to its peak. He carried the food to the table, leaving a small trail of sausages behind. 

Max shook his head, flummoxed by Benny's constant faux pas. 

Dinner was quiet, except for Benny's constant slurping and the splashing sounds of ketchup all over his napkin. 

Max had no time to chide Benny for his poor manners, because the ship's Captain, Major Simon Sideswipe, approached him and tapped his shoulder. 

"Yes, captain. May we help you?" Max smiled professionally. 

"Indeed, I'm sideswiped. A necklace belonging to one of our wealthiest passengers, Mrs. Goldstein, has gone missing. I need your help to find it, " he said, looking around rather secretively. 

Max, apart from his furrowed brows, gave him a wide smile. "We'll keep it discreet. Mrs. Georgia Goldfinger, I take it? She must be one of your wealthiest clients." 

"Yes, apart from that, we don't want to scare the passengers, you see."Major Sideswipe swiped his arms for effect. 

"Understood. Benny here will give me a hand, and he'll be as discreet as I am."

He watched his sidekick gobbling sausages two at a time and suddenly wasn't so sure. 

Part 3

The daring duo got to work at once, scouring the restaurant for anyone who might have had motives to access Mrs. Goldstein's room, and hence, her necklace. Benny was a little too obvious; his lack of height forced him to stand on a nearby chair to survey the room.

Benny jumped off the chair,  stepping a little too hard on his ankles. 

"Ow. But boss - " he gestured to the rest of the room "- I might have an idea of who to approach. "Why don't we try that gentleman over there?'"

"Who, Mr. Nelson Nerves?Have to admit that's a good idea. He seems a little too edgy. It's as if he's trying to hide something."

They walked over to Nelson. "Mr. Nerves," Max began,

"Could we have a minute?"

"What is it? I'm incredibly busy," Nelson continued to walk at a frantic pace, trying to avoid Max. Bumbling Benny, meanwhile, bumped into a table and dropped the voice recorder that he had been holding to capture an interviewee's voice. 

"This is regarding Mrs. Georgia Goldfinger's missing necklace. We're  interviewing as many passengers as possible. Where were you when dinner started this evening?'

Nelson shifted his feet uneasily.  " I was here, like  everyone else." His eyes darted all over the room. 

"Did you notice anyone leave the room during the concert put up by the cruise personnel this evening?"

"Well," He looked up for a quick moment as if hit by a sudden idea. "I did see Ms. Shelia Scarlett leave the room for a while during the performance. I guessed that it must have been to powder her nose." 

 Max nodded. "Thank you, sir. Could we let you know if we need your help?" The terse, sharp private detective raised his eyebrows. 

"S...Sure," Nelson Nerves stammered, eagerly wanting to put an end to the conversation. 

Max grinned. "Thank you, Mr. Nerves. We'll be getting right back to you."

Part 4

As Nelson left the room, he motioned to Benny, who was still fumbling with the recorder. "Pay attention, will you? I think we may have our first suspect. Mr. Nerves seemed a little too highly strung while we were talking to him."

"I agree, boss," Benny said, allowing the recording he had captured to loop continuously.

Max, doing his surname justice, became a little flummoxed. Impulsivity, brought on by his ADD, kicked in and brought on the tantrums."Turn that off, will you! Look around for another person to interview!"

"Well," excitedly motioning to a lady in red who was looking around somewhat furtively. His hand swept against the fire alarm against the wall, promptly causing it to ring incessantly.

Max, already beet red, covered his ears with his fingers. "Benny...!"

Fortunately, a nearby waiter turned the alarm off and assured the passengers that there was no need to panic. 

Max and Benny went over to the furtive lady in red. "Miss, could we speak with you for a minute?" he smiled while gauging her reaction carefully.

"Well..." she shifted about uneasily. "Okay. What is it you need to know? My name's Sheila Scarlett." She offered Max her hand. 

Benny had left the room, leaving a trail of crumbs from the bread that he was eating in his wake. Max gritted his teeth and smiled. 

"Well, Miss Scarlett, as you may know, Georgia Goldfinger's valuable pearl necklace has gone missing. Did you happen to see anyone leave during dinner yesterday?"

"Umm," she looked about the room, then back at Max. "I did see Nelson Nerves go out of the room for a while. I think it was to answer that annoying phone of his," she continued to look about the room.

"Thank you, Miss Scarlett. We'll be getting in touch with you."

Max watched her leave the restaurant for her cabin, then smiled to himself. The game was certainly afoot, but there was still one person he had to speak with first. 

Part 5

Max, true to his condition, spent three hours in his cabin thinking about Mrs. Goldfinger's priceless possession. He was also a little overwhelmed by Benny's constant clumsiness. decided to take a short break by returning to his cabin and conferring with Benny. 

He found the cabin empty. Where was his bumblefoot sidekick?

The answer came sooner than he expected. Bungling Benny stumbled through the door, looking a little disheveled. 

Max, wringing his hands, didn't want to ask.

After letting Benny settle down, he gave Benny a tap on the head. "Did you manage to discover anything?"

"Well, not bad, actually.  Here." He tapped 'play' on this voice recorder. 

The voices he recorded belong to Miss Scarlett and Mr. Nerves. 

"It will be safer here," Miss Scarlett was saying. 

"No. Let's find a way to get it off the ship as soon as possible."

Max raised his eyebrows. "Hmm. Did you find out anything else?"

"Well, I noticed that the magician's hat seems different from the others. It seems a little wider than what other magicians usually wear."

"Ah," Max looked a little less flummoxed than usual. "Benny, " I think I know where Mrs. Goldfinger's necklace is. Come, we've got work to do."

Part 6

Benny tried frantically to keep his false beard on straight. "Boss," he complained to an equally overwhelmed Max, "Why are we dressed like this?"

"All will be unveiled, Benny. Just be the stagehand you're supposed to be." 

Benny, confused as usual, grabs a broom and proceeds to sweep the stage, oblivious to the performance going on. Max heard sniggers among the audience. Seeing a space behind the curtain, Max pulled him behind.

"You're an idiot at times, you know?" he chided. 

Benny, confused as usual, stammered. "B...but you asked me to..." 

"Never mind," Max watched the magician, who was performing sleight-of-hand. "Watch what he does."

The magician asked an audience member, a well-dressed lady with a diamond ring on her finger, to come onstage. 

"Hi, ma'am." He said smoothly. "What's your name?"

"Gabriela," she giggled nervously.

"Ah, Gabriela my dear. I see that you've valuable possession," he nodded at her ring. "I'm going to make it disappear. "

He got her to take off her ring, then covered it with his hat.

"Count to three. When I lift the hat, you won't see your ring."

He promptly lifted the hat. The glorious diamond-studded ring was no more.

"Now," the magician smiled reassuringly, "don't worry. It will reappear once I put my hat back in that same spot." 

He did so and counted to three. He lifted the hat again. 

There was the diamond ring. The volunteer could not help but sigh of relief. The magician put it on her finger, amid raucous audience applause. 

Part 7

They weren't the only ones onstage though. Max appeared from behind the curtain, gait a little unsteady as usual, but purposeful nonetheless. The room grew silent, with curious eyes glued on him. 

"Ma'am," he picked up the ring on the table. "You may want to think twice before taking this back."

"Now why would I want to do that?" The magician's volunteer's annoyance was palpable. 

"Look at it carefully. Does the stone gleam?"

"Now that I think of it....." She looked the ring over again. "No. It's dull. I just had mine polished."

"This, my friends," said Max, enjoying the drama "Is made of plain glass." He set it on the table carefully. 

The magician's eyes darted over the room, looking for an opportunity to exit. 

"How did you know?" He raised his hands in surrender upon looking at the sealed exits. 

"My assistant, bumbling bloop as he is at times, is a remarkable sleuth," Max intoned. Benny glowed. An officer came onstage. Accompanying them were Mr. Nelson Nerves and Ms. Sheila Scarlett. "His messily set up but effective surveillance recorder picked up a conversation between these two. And," he paused dramatically and spoke to the officer. "You'll find a compartment in his oversized hat. Benny also discovered that his cabin has an extra, carefully hidden one below the dresser. You'll find the necklace there."

The magician walked backward and down a cheetah-like run. Benny, praised and still trying to be a hero, chased him dutifully. 

The perpetrator had run onto the deck, with Benny and the officer in hot pursuit. The officer was thankfully a sprightly older man who still had quite a run in him. With a leap, he landed on top of the offending magician and handcuffed him. 

He had not noticed Benny, who was just a step behind. His sprightly arm knocked Max's off-the-wall assistant and sent him rocket launch overboard. 

Max had arrived on deck by this time. "Tsk tsk," he sighed, as deckhands threw a float to Benny, who was valiantly trying to tread water. As the group pulled him up onto the deck, he gave Benny a pat on the shoulder. "Silly as you look, I'm proud of you. Good work, and a raise it is." 

Benny grinned.