Chapter 14 #2
As soon as they reached the room, Wes pulled out his phone. He nodded to Chloe who knew that he was calling George.
“Four minutes while you talk this time!” she told him.
She headed into the shower, not stopping to get clean, dry clothing. He smiled to himself. They both knew they had no time.
But neither was she going to pretend that him seeing her in a towel was any kind of a problem now.
George answered Wes’s call immediately.
“You can talk?” Wes asked.
“Yeah, cool, beautiful day. Edward and Sally are fine. In loungers, but talking about a late lunch or early dinner,” George
told him, and Wes knew that he was with Edward and Sally, smiling and pretending it was a casual conversation while moving
away a bit so that he could speak.
“Amelia was indignant, insisted she was innocent, confronted with the ship’s security footage, then swore she was just trying to be nice, and she didn’t know that she had given Sally chocolate that had nuts in it.
Claimed she bought the chocolate in Jamaica and had no idea what it contained, then pretended she didn’t know that Sally was allergic to nuts.
She started demanding a lawyer, claiming we had no proof she was trying to do anything to anyone except be nice.
Okay, so the crime occurred at sea, but this ship’s registry is in the USA, the company owns the island, but it’s small, very few facilities, and the captain is going by the fact that there is a United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and because Sally might have died twice under suspicious circumstances, he’s holding Amelia until they investigate further.
She is being held in the brig, though she’s threatened every lawsuit known to man, sworn that while the corporation may have billions, they’ll be penniless by the time she’s done with them.
Good thing Captain Millbrook is no pushover.
He’s explained that for the safety of others he must investigate further before he can set her free on the ship with so many other passengers. ”
“I’d like to figure out a way to talk to her,” Wes murmured. “Find out—”
“If she’s an idiot or involved with other events, you know, like pushing Edward Thompson overboard?” George asked dryly.
“Yeah, though the two don’t jive, unless . . .”
“I know. I’ve thought that myself.”
“Unless, of course, Amelia needed to get rid of Sally so that she could get closer to Edward and cause another accident.”
“Right.”
“So . . .”
“You can talk to her,” George told him. His voice lowered further as he said, “You’re going to need to speak with Assistant Director Alonzo, Wes.
You’re in your cabin. Give him a call. As you know, this call and that one can’t be traced.
” His voice suddenly went up again. “Glad to hear that despite your few difficulties, it was an amazing dive! Yeah, Edward,” he said, indicating that the man was close enough to him to hear anything that was said.
“Great! Edward and Sally are talking about casual dining again—late, late lunch or early dinner! Okay, see you soon.”
George ended the call.
Wes immediately called Alonzo, who answered on the first ring as he’d been expecting Wes to call in.
“Talked to George—what do we need to know?” Wes asked.
“Well, I don’t like this any more than you’re going to, but it came from over my head. Apparently, Captain Millbrook is friends
with a few of our senators and he hasn’t been liking what’s been going on during his cruise. In turn, they called in favors
to a few people who knew that we were handling the rash of tech-related deaths. In the end, we had to inform him that we had
investigators undercover on the ship. He’s a good man and the information will go no further. I can’t see and don’t know the
different personalities on board but I trust you and Chloe to use excellent judgment. You figure out how you want to play
it. But if you want to speak to this woman, Amelia Swenson, he will see to it that you’re able to do so. Act as a friend who
has access to the best criminal attorneys in the world, perhaps. Your call. And keep me posted. Again, we’re looking at a
situation with twists and turns that could mean just about anything. Keep me posted.”
“Will do.”
As he ended the call, Chloe emerged from the shower wrapped in a clean towel.
He looked at her unhappily.
“Good news or bad news?” he asked her.
She frowned. “Bad first, I guess.”
“The captain knows who we are. Alonzo was instructed by those higher up in the chain to let him know because he reported to
very powerful friends that he’s extremely unhappy about things going on during his cruise.”
“Oh. All right, from what I’ve seen—”
“He’s a good man who would never intentionally give anything away. But secrets stay secret only when they’re secrets that
aren’t shared, so we’ll now need to be triply vigilant. The good news: he’ll get us—or one of us, at least—in to speak with
Amelia,” he told her. “And uh, on the lighter side, you are quite fetching in a towel. But George informed me that Edward
and Sally are ready to have a lovely late lunch or early dinner—”
“I’m getting dressed. So, we go and have a meal. Then Amelia?”
He nodded. “We need a little time to figure out how to play it. Alonzo suggested that we pretend we know some great lawyers.
I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way where we come across as just trying to help her because we believe that she did
it, but that she wasn’t really trying to do anything truly evil to anyone and we’re trying to make the captain understand
that so he’ll get her out of the brig.”
“I think I like that idea,” Chloe said. “Oh, and we can pull the string that we were the ones to get Edward out of the water
and even save Sally’s life.”
“Great. Okay, I’m going in. Get some clothes on!”
“Aye, aye, sir!”
Chloe disappeared in the bedroom. He headed into the shower.
“Don’t look so anxious!” she told him when he emerged.
He smiled. “I won’t, I promise. I’m going to be intrigued to discover just what more Edward is going to have to say now. See,
I’m intrigued for what we’re doing.”
She smiled at that, but it faded quickly.
“She may be good, as in really good. Pretending that she’s all innocent, but she’s screwed up, if so.
From what I’ve gathered so far, she’s completely guilt-free as in she just wanted to do something nice for Sally, or she knew there were nuts in the chocolate, but she just wanted to make Sally sick. ”
“I am anxious to talk to her myself, but . . . I won’t look anxious. I promise. No big pile of anxiety!”
“Shall we?” Chloe asked, indicating the door.
He made his usual gallant gesture in opening it and she headed out into the hall. But as they walked, she took his arm and
said, “I’m worried about Darlene.”
“I know. I am, too.”
“Someone tampered with her air hose.”
“Almost certainly.”
“Well, it couldn’t have been Celia. She was attached to the wreck!”
“But she could have planned to be attached to the ship so that someone could get by Darlene with no one noticing.”
“Yep.”
“Ah, time to turn back into a charming social couple,” Wes warned her.
Celia and Jeff were heading along the hallway, too, showered and ready to join the others in the little group they had formed.
“Hey, hungry?” Jeff asked, reaching them as the elevator arrived. “I know I’m starving!”
“I must admit, yes, starving,” Wes agreed.
“Men are pathetic!” Celia said. “We’ve barely missed a single meal! And, may I remind you that the brochure about the excursions
warned that the dive trip was straight there after breakfast, but back a little late for lunch.”
“A little late!” Wes groaned.
“It’s almost dinner,” Jeff said.
“I think it is dinner, except maybe later we can have a late-night snack. But not too late. I think this is going to be another early night for me. I mean tomorrow, we’re at sea all day.
We can sleep late, eat breakfast late, lie around all day—and dance and explore the casino again at night!
” Celia said. “And, wow, Chloe, you did so great at that Buffalo game the other night! You could play all night if you wanted!”
Chloe laughed. “Well, as you said, that will be tomorrow night! Being in the water the way we were . . .” She shrugged. “It
tires me out!”
“Physical activity. It will do it every time,” Jeff said. “Hey! Have you heard anything more about Amelia Swenson?”
“No,” Wes lied. “But I did talk to George briefly. Can’t help it, I feel the need to check on Edward and Sally, so . . . I
gave him a call. He just said that they were heading to the restaurant and hung up quickly, so I figured we’ll find out more
when we see them.”
“I can’t imagine what Edward is going through. I mean, on the one hand, he’s so crazy about Sally so he must be furious. But
he’s also the one who arranged for Amelia to be one of the instructors, speakers, teachers, or whatever we are on this, so . . .”
Jeff murmured, looking at Celia and breaking off.
“He’s got to be upset all around,” Celia said.
“So, the captain questioned her,” Jeff murmured. “Well, I guess we’ll find out!”
They were about to find out, as Jeff said, because when they arrived at the casual restaurant, Edward, George and Sally were
already at a table along with Daniel and Broderick and Gina—and Darlene and her father, Bryan, as well. While the tables usually
seated ten, Edward had apparently asked for an extra chair so that there was space for them all.
“And I thought we were fast!” Wes said.
They headed over to the table where four seats waited for them.
“Thought you’d never get here!” Broderick said.
“And we thought we were faster than rockets!” Wes told him.
“Don’t let him give you any grief—they’ve been seated for about all of thirty seconds!” Edward told them. He smiled. “But it’s nice, really nice! We’re back together here. Okay, in my mind, the hot dogs are just hot dogs, but the pizza is pretty good.”
“Pizza will work for me,” Chloe offered.