Dancer, Prancer, and a Vixen

 

All Aboard

Hi there, I'm Johnny A-Train.

My 20-piece big-band, The Loco-Motions, was booked to play for a 10-day Arctic Cruise aboard the magnificent new "Great Northern Lights" (GNL) for its maiden voyage. Nadja Voskov, a former classmate of mine at Julliard, and a much heralded graduate of the Julliard School of Dance, would also be on the voyage as guest artist with her Pacific Rim Dance Company.

 

Craziness

GNL's maiden voyage had been billed as a Big Band Dance Cruise, and the Loco-Motions fit the bill perfectly. We specialize in Jitterbug and Lindy Hop, but we play everything from Argentine Tango to Zydeco. Delilah, who is the band's female vocalist, and the love of my life, and I, had been invited to stay with Nadja and her husband Mark at their elegant, expansive, and expensive home on Seattle's Mercer Island.

That first evening, sometime during our welcoming party, the Pacific Rim Company's female principal dancer was murdered. She was found stabbed to death behind the house, down by the shoreline of Lake Washington, a knife still in her neck. The mayhem followed us to our ports-of-call and aboard ship into the Arctic Circle.

Here We Go Again

A few years back, I'd been made the patsy in a frame-up involving murders which had occured during my shows. I became personally involved when it looked as if I were the guilty party. Not bragging, but I'd been tagged as a damned good sleuth for the help I gave the FBI and the New Orleans PD in solving the case. Help my ass, the alphabet agencies took the credit, but it was Big Mace, my buddy Bruce, and I who corraled the sicko behind it all. Now, here aboard ship I couldn't just sit on the sidelines and watch, so I jumped in and almost paid the ultimate price for doing so.

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