Chapter 4 #2
“I guess it was the excitement, people all wanting to see,” Edward replied. “I heard there were a bunch of dolphins near the
ship!” He frowned and shook his head. “I had a great position and then . . .”
“Then the hustle and shove of everyone trying to see?” Chloe asked.
The man’s frown remained. He stared at Wes, narrowing his eyes.
“I couldn’t have . . . I couldn’t have been pushed on purpose!” he said.
His words were passionate.
The expression on his face belied something more behind them. “I guess, I mean, sometimes, the wrong people do get hurt! And
in this business . . . No, I couldn’t have been pushed on purpose!”
“Oh, sir, you’re such a good and giving man,” Chloe murmured.
“Oh! I know, sir, you might be thinking of the people in Fort Lauderdale,” Wes said, as if the idea had just occurred to him.
“That girl who went crazy and shot all the people with her—and then herself!”
The man lowered his head and sighed. “I knew her. I knew her well. Jane Sewell. She was such a sweet and giving person—brilliant! She had amazing and innovative ideas. I’d offered her a job and I believed that she was going to come to work for me! I can’t imagine what happened except . . .”
“Except, sir?” Chloe said.
“Just Edward. Please call me Edward,” the man said. “Jane could be . . . fragile. She was humble. She was in love and . . .
maybe he didn’t love her back. I’m still wondering myself what could have caused her to do such a thing. Again, she was a
beautiful human being, and . . . Oh, seriously, no! I couldn’t be in any danger. What happened had to have been an accident.”
As he spoke, Doctor Kilbride walked back into his room.
“Mr. Thompson, you are a beloved man! I just heard from Milestones. They’re sending in one of their nurses, a young man, and
he’s going to be with you for the next several days.”
“But I’m already feeling so much better—”
“Sir, you took quite a hit to your entire system. I like and admire what Milestones has done. You’re a smart man, sir. You
know that it will be good to have someone dedicated to looking out for you, ready to act and get you back out on deck. No
need to let something trivial become something life-threatening,” Kilbride said.
“I . . . I guess,” Edward said. “I mean, yes, of course, you’re right. I am a lucky man. These two beautiful young people
diving in right after me, and a company that cares enough to send someone to look after me. Thank you, Dr. Kilbride.”
Wes glanced at Chloe. Neither of them wanted to leave the man before the legat agent/nurse arrived, he knew.
“By the way, Edward, we’re so sorry about your friend, Jane Sewell,” Chloe said.
“My heart breaks for those she took with her!” Edward said, shaking his head. “For Jane, of course, too, but all those innocent others . . . I never even knew that she was such an amazing shot. She killed five people before she killed herself. They had no defensive wounds, nothing!”
Chloe glanced over at Wes. He knew that she was curious as to how Edward Thompson knew so much about the investigation. The
deaths were common knowledge; the media had shared that much with the public.
But the specifics had never reached the media.
“Of course, our hearts are heavy for the families involved, for everyone!” Chloe said.
“And we’re sorry that . . . well, that it’s come up,” Wes said.
“Right. Well, I’m still very grateful to be here,” Edward assured them.
“And we’re grateful, too. So!” Wes said. “We won’t speak of tragedies anymore. Sir—I mean Edward—I want you to know just how
very much I learned from your class this morning.” He smiled. “I run my own tight ship. But, as I said at dinner last night,
even dive boats can be so dependent on computers these days. Learning about security—and knowing that just about anything
in the world can be hacked by the right hacker—is tremendously important to me. But while all this happens, learning to be
as safe as possible is invaluable!”
“Thank you,” Edward said. “And Mrs. Douglas, what about you?” the Milestones vice president asked.
“Well,” Chloe said, offering him a tremendous smile, “as you may ascertain, I’m not interested in being safe on a dating app
since I won’t ever be on a dating app. But what I leaned about security for my people—my artists—and my art shows, well, it
was all just wonderful.”
“Celia and Jeff were good instructors?”
“Very good. They know how to teach and keep everyone involved and interested,” Chloe assured him.
“I’m so glad. And I thought that—”
He broke off. Someone was in the waiting room, speaking with one of the nurses. Edward Thompson stared at her, frowning.
He seemed to give himself a mental shake. “Sorry, that’s Amelia Swenson. I thought that she was giving a class this afternoon
in utilizing the internet for business . . .”
Wes recognized Amelia Swenson, naturally, from the intel they’d studied before heading to the ship.
She was in her mid-to-late thirties, about five-five, with curly brown hair cut close around her face. Wearing a flowered
sundress and sandals, appropriate for the ship, she cut an attractive figure. Amelia appeared anxious as she spoke with the
nurse.
“Bring her in, please bring her in!” Edward said.
Wes smiled. “Got it.”
He was happy to meet her and escort her in. She was the one remaining of their six suspects that they’d hadn’t had a chance
to meet yet.
Well, she didn’t look like a murderer.
But who among their suspects did? And just what did a murderer look like?
In his experience . . .
It could be anyone. Absolutely anyone.
He strode out of Edward Thompson’s hospital room and walked over to Amelia and the nurse, nodding to the nurse and greeting
their suspect.
“Miss Swenson! How do you do. I’m Wes Douglas and Mr. Thompson—”
“Oh, Mr. Douglas! What a pleasure!” the woman gushed. “I was on deck! I saw what you and your wife did. I’m here because I
just adore Edward, and I need to see for myself that he’s doing all right!”
“He’s doing well, right in there,” Wes said, indicating the door.
“Oh, thank you!”
She moved ahead of him and started as she saw that Chloe was sitting in a chair by Edward’s bedside. She quicky gathered her
smile again. “And Mrs. Douglas! You were wonderful. You two should receive medals!”
“We’re just happy that everything has turned out okay! Edward needs to be careful for a few days, but he’s going to be just
fine,” Chloe told her.
“Amelia, I’m fine, just fine!” Edward said. “Aren’t you—”
“Yes, teaching this afternoon!” Amelia said. “There was a lot of commotion. We have things rescheduled. Don’t you worry! We’re
all grateful to you and your company, Edward, and we’d never mess up, but I just had to see you!”
Edward smiled at her. “And you see me,” he said. “Thank you, thank you for caring so much. Thanks to my guardian angels here,
I’m doing exceptionally well!”
“Ah, well, that’s such a relief. I mean, you fell! You could have gotten a terrible injury . . . You could have drowned! But
such a fall!” Amelia went on.
“They have an amazing doctor on board, but one of my guardian angels dragged me up and the other was an expert at CPR!” Edward
said.
“No, no, I just happened to have become certified as a lifeguard when I was in college—needed to pay my way through. Well,
my parents helped, but I needed to work, too. Never knew it would prove to be so helpful. I mean, we’re the grateful ones
here. My wife and I have had this cruise planned . . . Never thought it would be so wonderful as to have so many computer
geniuses aboard!” Wes assured her.
“Well, I’m glad we’re all so lucky!” Amelia murmured. She smiled brightly, looking from Wes to Chloe. “Um, I can keep Edward company, if you two young people had something you wanted to do onboard!”
“Oh, we’re just waiting for the next set of classes to start,” Chloe said.
Yes, they were waiting. They weren’t leaving anyone alone here with Edward Thompson.
“I wonder if the doctor wants this many people in the room with you, Edward,” Amelia said.
“I’m sure—” Edward began.
“Not to worry! I will go get ready for my class,” Amelia said. She gave them another bright smile. “You two get to go to the
classes—I get to give them! So, Edward, don’t worry, we all adore you and you will get too many visitors, I fear.”
“Oh, he’ll be all right,” Wes assured her. “Doc Kilbride said that a private nurse is coming from the company to make sure
he doesn’t have any later repercussions from this whatsoever.”
“Oh!” Amelia said. “Well, wow, you are an important man, Edward!”
Edward laughed softly. “No, just a lucky man with lots of good friends.”
Amelia nodded, smiling. “Okay, then, see you later, alligator!”
“In a while, crocodile!” Edward responded, and laughing, Amelia left the room.
“Seriously, you two don’t need to babysit me,” Edward said. “You saved my life, that’s quite enough!”
“Oh, we’re fine,” Wes assured him. “Like Chloe said, we’re just waiting for the new schedule.”
“Daniel and Broderick are very good. The hackers out there must really hate them! They have created one of the most impressive cybersecurity firms known to man. Most of the major companies out there use Bulwark,” Edward told them.
“So important!” Chloe murmured.
Looking to the waiting room, Wes saw that another man had arrived. He met with a nurse and then the doctor came out as well,
greeting him and smiling.
Wes realized that somehow Alonzo—through Edward’s Milestones company, of course—had managed to get their nurse/legat out to
them already. It hadn’t been a full two hours since the event had happened.
But, of course, that was Alonzo. He’d gotten to where he was by being amazingly good and efficient.
“I think the man sent from Milestones is here,” he said.
“Man? They couldn’t send me a pretty nurse, eh?” Edward said lightly. “Just teasing, I’m grateful that they care so much.”
“I’ll go and—” Wes started to say and head out, but he didn’t need to do so. The doctor was already leading the newcomer into
the room.
“Hello!”