Rocio boarded the cruise ship. She had to leave on dry land all the anxiety and stress that tormented her. She was a police investigator but she took her job so seriously that she never rested when she had a case and this last one had taken a few months to solve.

She paced the corridors of the ship alone. She only wondered how such a huge ship could float on the ocean for so long with so many people on board.

-It's a floating city- she thought as she took a sip of a scotch coffee she ordered along with a croissant at a Parisian style coffee shop that was in the ship's mall.

The cruise route was set for 16 days that promised to be unforgettable, according to the publicity. But to Rocio it was all empty and graceless. It felt like a grimace of false smile in front of a gift that you did not like, the memory of what she had lived months ago with that police case haunted her every moment.

On the tenth day sailing in the ocean, she got up and put on her bathing suit. She thought that enjoying the pool would do her good. Besides, this trip had been too expensive for her not to enjoy it. He grabbed his blue towel and sunscreen and went to the playground.

Not even 30 minutes had passed in his lounging on the lounge chair while sunbathing, when he was interrupted by a sailor. The young man looked nervous and indicated that the ship's captain needed to see her urgently.

The captain was dazed and looked worried. He explained to Rocio that the ship's entire stock of coffee had disappeared.

-We had coffee from all over the world: the exquisite Indian coffee, Cuban and Colombian coffee. Coffee to supply the 300 souls on board. When these people wake up tomorrow and they don't even have instant coffee, chaos is going to ensue," shouted the captain in a huff as his white moustaches twitched from side to side.

Rocío sighed, she was wrapped in her blue towel and knew she was facing a new investigation case. She began by questioning everyone who had access to the warehouse. No one noticed anything unusual.

The clues led Rocio to the cabin of some teenagers coming from a southern country. The boys had a thermos with hot coffee, while outside everyone was disheveled, desperate and with a headache from abstinence, the boys were calmly sipping a freshly brewed coffee.

The boys, who were scared out of their wits, explained that it was 500 grams of coffee they bought at the cruise ship supermarket and that they liked to brew their own food.

Rocio had no more clues. She wandered through the corridors of that huge ship and felt like she was in a maze with no way out.

Among the passengers on board there were disputes over the last traces of coffee. One man licked the neck of a lady wearing coffee perfume. The lady hit him on the head with an umbrella.

On deck some boys had a party because they found an antibacterial hand gel made from alcohol with coffee and vanilla essence. They pretended they were drinking scotch coffee while dancing.

Everything was chaos. One of the flight attendants even stole some coffee candy from a child in his lunch box.

Rocio felt dazed by all the commotion. She remembered that the last case on the ground was a failure and she couldn't solve it. Perhaps the end of her laudable career had come.

They found some coffee grounds in the ballroom and it seemed that the trail led to the cabin of a lone man who had come from an island and needed time to reflect. Rocio saw in this suspect a hidden sense of guilt, so she sent the cruise ship guards to search the man's belongings and they found whole, ground beans in the closet.

The man did not say a word. He had lost the love of his life to a terrible disease and he felt so bad that he hoped they would lock him up for something, his life was meaningless anyway.

The culprit was taken in handcuffs to the ship's brig. While all the coffee lovers applauded and celebrated because the culprit would have his punishment and because they were very close to the next port and everyone would have hot coffee.

Rocío was not happy. Something was tight in her chest and for her the culprit was still loose on the ship, perhaps laughing out loud at the detective's incompetence.

The captain organized a toast to thank Rocio. She attended and when the ship docked in port everyone ran to buy the precious dark liquid.

Rocio did not get off. She went to her cabin and lay down on her bed to reflect. She closed her eyes to get some rest. While the captain announced that the ship's voyage would end in two days.

The next few days passed quietly and Rocío continued to worry that her enemy was still at large. They arrived at the port and the ship was soon cleared. The passengers would never forget that trip.

The cleaning staff went cabin by cabin, they needed to get everything ready for the next trip. When they passed cabin 531 they could not open the door.

After several attempts, they pushed hard and the door opened and coffee grounds spilled out all over the corridor.

No one could believe their eyes, for cabin 531 was the cabin occupied by police detective Rocio McCartney.