Chapter 15
Fifteen
It was easy enough to get in to see Amelia, Chloe thought, though she was unhappy that anyone, including the captain, a man
she considered to be honest and respectable, knew who they were and why they were on the ship. Obviously, he knew about George,
too, but was probably grateful to the man.
And to them, of course. But the only secret that remained a secret was one that was never shared—yes, they knew that.
Still, they returned to their cabin first, just as they had said. Then Wes had George connect them with Captain Millbrook.
The man came to the cabin himself, serious and grim, thanking them first for their service. “Although,” he said, “I should
have known, with the way you’ve saved us from many situations that might have caused chaos!”
“Just doing our jobs, sir, but—”
“I swear, under pain of death, I will not give you away!” he promised.
“Hopefully, it will never come to that!” Wes murmured. “But, Captain, you’ve questioned Amelia Swenson. What do you feel the truth to be?”
Captain Millbrook shook his head. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. She claims she just meant to be nice. That they—Edward’s
group of internet speakers and teachers—were one big family and that Edward evidently cared about Sally, and she wanted her
to feel welcome. But she’s also slipped up a few times in her story to various people. She didn’t know that there were nuts
in the chocolate or she knew, and she just wanted Sally to get sick enough to get away from Edward. A number of people seem
to believe that she has a thing for Edward and that Sally got in her way.”
“But what do you think?” Wes asked.
Millbrook shrugged. “Okay, I think that she did willingly try to make the woman sick. Whether she wanted her to die or not,
I don’t know. And, of course, it was a risky action because Sally does carry her EpiPen. She might have used it right away,
except, of course, she didn’t know what she was eating. So, was it an attempt at murder? Or just an attempt to get a rival
out of the way? I don’t know. Either way, what she did was criminal and she’ll wait it out in the brig.”
“Thank you,” Chloe told him.
“And I figured if I came for you myself and we were stopped or seen, I’d just pretend that I was giving you a tour of the
ship. You have behaved in an amazing manner, so no one might doubt the fact that I’d want to give you a bit of special treatment.”
“Good plan, Captain,” Wes assured him. “Thank you. Shall we?”
“The brig is one deck below the hospital, spa and loungers,” Millbrook told them. “Next to the waste collection. Not the prettiest
part of the ship.”
He was right. They hit the elevators, running into no one at first, but then seeing Darlene and her father with a small group of college-aged kids.
“Captain! And, of course, our new dear friends!” Bryan Jordan said. “Nice to run into you. I thought you two were out for
the night!” he added, addressing Chloe and Wes.
“I’m just giving them a bit of a walkabout,” Captain Millbrook explained. “Figured they should see the ship and enjoy a bit
of special treatment.”
“Oh, they deserve it!” Darlene said.
“You know the cool kids!” one of Darlene’s friends teased.
“Okay, okay, I’ll introduce you all!” Darlene said. She pointed out the two girls and the young man who accompanied them.
“Marla, Nancy and Lennie!”
“So, I’m being a good dad!” Bryan said. “Taking these guys for facials. Something a dad can do for a girl.”
“Hey, a facial is good for guys—even guys who play football!” Lennie explained.
“I hope you’re getting a group discount!” Captain Millbrook told Bryan lightly.
“I’ll need to ask!” Bryan said.
The elevator reached the spa floor and Bryan looked back, holding the door.
“So, you all are heading to stowage?” he asked. “Or the mechanical deck—”
“The parts of the ship no one sees!” Millbrook explained dramatically with a smile.
“Yeah, believe it or not, I wanted to know what you did with all the garbage for this many people on a ship,” Chloe told him.
Bryan laughed. “Enjoy!” he told them.
He followed his group on down the hallway and the elevator doors closed behind him, bringing them down below.
It was impressive to see that, even in the so-called bowels of the ship, everything was neat and tidy—as pristine as garbage could be.
Millbrook described the different sections of recycling, of what was done on the ship and what was brought where to be recycled or become part of a landfill somewhere.
The security offices were down there, too, perhaps naturally. Just as in a police station, one went through the reception
and offices to get to the brig.
By then, they’d casually met many of the security personnel on the ship and, of course, everyone in the place paid heed as
Millbrook walked in.
Millbrook explained their purpose and said that he’d be waiting for Chloe and Wes to have their conversation.
“Can’t say I’m giving you a tour if I’m not with you!” Millbrook explained.
Chloe and Wes thanked him and one of the officers, Doyle Stratton, looked at them ruefully. “We don’t have much of an interrogation
room. But Ms. Swenson’s accommodations here just include a decent enough cot, sink and toilet, so I’ll bring her to you in
our little office area for such conversations.”
They thanked him as he nodded, indicating they should follow him. He pointed out a door to the left as he moved forward.
Before entering the little room with the desk where they’d question—no, no, chat with—Amelia, Chloe noted that at the end
of the hallway where Stratton was headed, there was a heavy metal door with a small barred window. They could see that there
was an electronic keypad to lock and unlock the door. But it was an impressive two-tiered system. Stratton also had to use
a key.
When they were holding someone on this ship, they intended to hold them.
She followed Wes into the room with the desk. It was small, as Stratton had told them, but not terrible. A very simple desk sat in the middle with two chairs on either side. There was no one-way mirror in the room, just bare walls.
She and Wes took chairs and Amelia, still looking like a pouting child, was brought in.
“You? You two? I’m not drowning and I didn’t fall overboard! And you’re not attorneys, so just what are you doing here?” she
demanded, plopping down and staring at them before quickly adding, “Not that I mind. They won’t let me have a computer in
there, no internet connection . . . One of those guys found me some bad historical book to read, so I guess you’re my entertainment
for the day. I’ll start right off. I am going to sue the butts off all these people!”
“Amelia, you’re not drowning, no,” Chloe said. “But we are trying to help you. We’re trying to figure out the truth of what
happened because . . . Amelia, I’m afraid that this can only go down so many ways!”
“What? Are you an attorney when you’re not having some kind of bad artist showing at your gallery?” Amelia asked.
“Her dad’s an attorney,” Wes lied.
Tears suddenly sprang into Amelia’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m horrible. It’s just that this is so, so messed up! Okay, the truth.
I was jealous of Sally, but I was trying to fight that feeling! I really just wanted to do something nice. Okay, I don’t really
read labels. The chocolate looked good. There might have been something in the display about ground nuts, but I was in a shop
in Jamaica and I . . . I don’t really know how they do their warnings or whatever—the ingredient list they had up could have
been for several items. And it never occurred to me that any allergy could be so horribly severe!”
Chloe glanced at Wes, who was giving nothing way.
“I guess when we don’t have allergies, we don’t see how severe they can be,” Wes said, shaking his head. “And, Amelia, I just wanted to say thank you, too, for talking to us about this. We figured if we could get a good feel for what really happened, we could explain it all to the captain.”
“We were pretty sure you had no malicious intent!” Chloe told her.
“Well, thank you. And I’m sorry, but . . . I will have my attorneys go all over this! I came on this cruise to be helpful,
because I do have such respect for Edward, but then he turns around over that ridiculous woman and believes that I could have
done something to hurt her? I cared for Edward! And this is what I get. A beautiful cruise—spent locked in a tiny little miserable
room!”
“Well, I guess it would have helped if you would had gone right to them and apologized, explained that you were just trying
to do something nice,” Chloe told her, grimacing.
“Are you kidding!” Amelia said. “You do know that news on a ship this size travels at the speed of sound! I would never have
had a chance. I don’t think they had the woman down to the hospital before the whole ship was abuzz with rumors that she had
been poisoned! I couldn’t have said a thing at that point that might have changed anything, I just . . .” She broke off, shaking
her head. “I listened to everything. I quickly heard that Sally was going to be all right. And, stupidly, I forgot that there
were security cameras all along the hallways and that . . . Well, I guess it’s good to know that the ship has good security.”
“That’s always good,” Chloe murmured.
“Except that . . . well, this is ridiculous! Nothing that I’ve supposedly done will stand up in a court of law and they will
all be very, very sorry!” Amelia assured them.
That would depend on what was allowed in on a trial, exactly what she was charged with and whether a jury found her credible
or not, Chloe thought.
“The whole thing is very unfortunate,” Chloe said, shaking her head sadly.
“Can you get me out of here?” Amelia asked, looking from Chloe to Wes.
“We can talk to the Edward and the captain and see if we can get anywhere,” Wes told her. “I’m so sorry, Amelia, we just don’t
have any guarantees. But again, thank you, because we were hoping that we could be helpful, so . . . we can try!”