Chapter 17 #3
They heard a sudden clanking sound and turned. Broderick was seated at the back, wrenching as hard as he could at the chain
holding him to the rail.
“I’ll say this for the man, he doesn’t give up!” Wes murmured.
Chloe shook her head. “They just wanted power! For that, they killed so many people.”
“Greed has always been a major motive,” Wes commented.
“They will be tried in a federal court,” Chloe murmured.
“And maybe in state courts, too,” Wes told her. “But our part is done. I know that Edward was angry enough, that he wouldn’t
have minded if one of us would have shot to kill when Amelia wouldn’t drop her weapon, but . . .”
“We’re not judges and we’re not on the jury,” Chloe said. “We’ve done all that we came to do, except . . .”
“You still can’t figure out why anyone would go so far, right? Or how—looking at the hateful dynamic that even seems to go
through the threesome—they managed what they managed.”
They were drawing up to the ship and great chains and ladders were being cast down to them.
Wes didn’t move. Chloe knew that he was waiting.
Broderick would try to escape again, even in chains.
And he did fight, but the ship’s crew had the situation now. They got him back on the ship.
Chloe and Wes came up, as well. Captain Millbrook was waiting for them. George, looking a bit under the weather still, was
with him.
He was upset.
“I failed you!” he told them.
“George, I got hit with one of those needles, too,” Chloe told him quickly. “I’m just glad to see you up and—”
“I’m good and Kilbride is coming around, too. Like the security officer. They got the three of us, first . . . Man, I turned
my back for two seconds! I was trying to figure out what the hell was going on and . . . forgive me!”
“George!” Wes assured him. “We’re good; the trio has been taken down. And we weren’t alone. We had security officers, and we wouldn’t have known where we were going, what they were up to . . . It’s all over. Take care of yourself!”
“Here’s what’s good. I don’t need to be with Amelia and her poor, sick stomach anymore!” George told him. “Edward, great man.
And this whole thing . . . Well, thank God it’s over. Almost over.”
The ship’s security officers were having a bad time getting Broderick along the deck.
“The brig isn’t that big,” Chloe murmured.
“Oh, they deserve to be on top of each other, but it won’t be that long,” Captain Millbrook said, joining them. “The chopper
will be here to get them soon. And personally, I can’t wait. As soon as it gets them, I need to make a major announcement
and . . . Well, along with law enforcement, the cruise line’s lawyers have all been warned about what’s been happening, too.”
He hesitated. “I can’t thank you two enough,” he told them.
“Sir, we were just doing our jobs,” she assured him.
“Well, you did them to an amazing level!” Millbrook said. “And please believe that you are welcome on our ships anytime, gratis,
of course, and that you should come on a cruise when you’re not on duty.”
“That would be great,” Chloe assured him.
“After the paperwork, the court dates . . .” Wes reminded her.
“Of course,” Chloe said. “And now—”
“When they’ve got Broderick McClintock duly locked up, chained and shackled, whatever, I want to talk to him,” Wes said.
“Now would be the time,” McClintock said. “I want him off the ship! In chains, of course. I’ll call ahead and they’ll have him in that little room where you spoke with Amelia previously.”
“Thank you,” Wes told him. He turned to Chloe. “You don’t have to come with me. You can go and take a shower—”
“Oh, no. I’m happy to talk to him with you. Maybe . . . I don’t know. Try to understand why anyone would do what they did,
exactly who did what.”
“We need to take the elevator back down to the security level—where you were forced before,” he reminded her.
“And I’m fine with that!” she assured him.
She was. It was over; it had ended with them being alive and well.
She was quiet in the elevator, and she knew that Wes glanced at her, concerned.
“I’m fine, really, I swear!” she told him.
“And thankfully, we went to the right and not the left!” he said. “Strange, how coming to talk to Amelia—you know, having
the captain give us a tour of the ship—turned out to work well for us today. I knew where I was going and how to hang back . . .
Things do happen for a reason.”
They reached the security offices and were gravely led in to speak with Broderick.
He stared at them with such hatred in his eyes that they seemed to burn.
“They should be here for you soon,” Wes said, pulling out a chair for Chloe, letting her take a seat before he did so himself.
“So, what the hell do you want?” Broderick demanded.
“Well, I guess we just wanted to figure out how you did it all! I mean, really, an amazing plan. But Edward isn’t the real
power behind his company—” Wes began.
Broderick started to laugh. “You don’t know anything. The man has been buying more and more stock. With his position there and what he owns . . . he’s got the power, trust me!”
“But why the others?” Chloe asked him.
“It’s a commercial world!” Broderick told them, as if they didn’t grasp the truth of anything at all.
“Right. Of course. Eliminate all the competition? But is that even possible in today’s world?” Wes asked.
“For me? It would have been. I just discovered too late that I was working with two idiots,” Broderick said, shaking his head.
“So,” Wes said. “Amelia was supposed to see to it that Sally died. That way, she could get closer to Edward?”
“She’s an idiot. Couldn’t do anything right,” Broderick said wearily.
“And yet, hm. She messed up a little, but . . . you left your brother up on deck!” Chloe reminded him.
He groaned. “That was Celia’s fault! She was supposed to hit him with enough not just to paralyze, but to kill. Drugs are
tricky—she did all right most of the time. We had to get them pliant to get them down to where we needed them to be, so we
had to see that it was slow-acting. Now, the great thing is that most people don’t want to see another person—especially one
they like—knifed through the heart.” He smiled at Chloe. “That’s why you were all so obedient! Still capable of walking until
the drug really set in—but then out like lights to be disposed of like the trash you are!”
“Oh, yeah, your plans and the execution of them were brilliant,” Wes told him. “Except, of course, that they failed in the
end.”
“I didn’t fail!” Broderick thundered. “The idiots around me failed. If I could have done this by myself, it would have been
done properly.”
“Yeah, I guess that’s what I really want to know,” Wes said. “All the people who died in different states—especially that large group in Broward. Did you do that by yourself, or did you have help—”
“Celia is my queen of drugs!” he told them. “Amelia . . . well, she was just clean up, to help with everything else that was
needed, causing cameras to go down, that kind of thing. Her real challenge was here on the ship—and she screwed it all up!”
“So, you are the one who shot and killed all those people,” Wes said.
Broderick smiled. “And I came very close to killing you, too. I had you in the water! Except of course,” he added, giving
Chloe a sneer, “girlie here managed to give you a hand.”
Chloe smiled and looked at Wes. “I’m so glad I was able to offer my assistance.”
“You never had her, you know,” Wes told Broderick. “She was just waiting. I mean, you did see that she blew Amelia’s wrist
to shreds, making her drop her weapon.”
“At that point, sorry, I didn’t see a thing. I gave up on my hapless partners, knew that I had to save myself.”
“Yeah, but you kind of failed at that!” Wes told him. “Well, thank you. This conversation is going to help a lot when you
get to trial.”
The man frowned. “What? What the hell do you have to do with that?”
“I guess we were never properly introduced!” Wes told him. “I’m a Fed. Special Agent Wesley Law. And this is FDLE Special
Agent Chloe McMurray. We’ve been tailing you the whole time,” he said pleasantly. “And trust me, Mr. McClintock, we’ll be
seeing you in court where this conversation, legally taped, will be very helpful.”
Chloe thought the man was going to rip his arm off, he’d become so enraged by Wes’s words.
Wes just shrugged and opened the door so that he and Chloe could leave the room.
“Man, am I glad that they’re coming for him!” Wes said. “He hid it so well—the man is an animal!”
“Scientifically, Wes, we’re all animals!” Chloe told him.
They checked out with the security officers who were on duty and headed on out.
“A real beer?” Wes asked her.
She smiled. “Shower first. I think that somehow I’m feeling really dirty, and that’s not from our dip in the ocean! Oh, and
we need to get our stuff from where we dumped it on the deck.”
“Good idea,” he told her.
They headed to the open-deck area where they had left their things. The same security officer was there, and he nodded gravely
to them.
“Thought you’d be coming back for this stuff,” he told them. “Kept an eye on it for you!”
“Thanks,” Wes told him. “Appreciate it!”
“Now, shower,” Chloe said.
“Shower. And you know . . .”
“I know what?”
“We have time, we’ve done our duty . . .”
“Right?” she said, waiting.
“We could share a shower,” he suggested.
She grinned. “We don’t have to pretend to be a married couple anymore. We just told the main killer who we really are.”
“I didn’t want to shower with you as your fake husband. I wanted to shower with you as you, and me as me,” he said quietly. “And, of course, I’m hoping that maybe you’d like to shower with me as me, because I need to wash off all this salt water—”
Chloe smiled. They hadn’t met through classes, through friends . . . They hadn’t even met online.
But she hadn’t met anyone who attracted her as much, who made her laugh, feel comfortable—made her happy!—in forever and ever.
And while they had met “at work,” they didn’t work for the same agency. There was no reason they couldn’t enjoy one another.
As themselves. Except, of course, if they did wind up going separate ways, she would feel as if she had lost a part of herself.
The best “husband” ever.
“Well, as long as you don’t take up too much room!” she told him, making him laugh.
They headed back to the cabin where she set her bag down. As she did so, she was surprised to see that it was open. And when
she looked into it . . .
No. She dumped everything out. It has to be a mistake . . .
There wasn’t.
“What’s the matter?” Wes asked her.
“My 3D-printed gun! I had it when we ran up and dumped our clothes and all to jump in the water.”
“The security guard said—”
“I know! But my weapon is gone, Wes!” Chloe told him in distress.
“All right. Okay. Amelia, Broderick and Celia are being held, about to head off to the mainland to be charged. It might have
fallen out. We just need to find it. There are little kids on board this ship. Come on, we’ll head back. The shower can wait.”
She nodded.
But if it had fallen out, wouldn’t someone have seen it, reported it? Wouldn’t the security officer have been concerned . . .
Maybe he took it, afraid of it falling into the wrong hands, and forgot to tell them.
“Come on,” Wes repeated.
She nodded and followed him out. They hurried to the deck where they’d dropped their things, but nothing was there. A different
security officer was on duty.
Wes started to explain, but before he could begin, he saw that Captain Millbrook was coming toward them.
“The chopper from the Feds will be here in ten. I thought that maybe you’d want to see the people you apprehended gone for
good,” he told them.
“Not a bad idea,” Wes said. “We’ve a problem, though. When we went after Broderick McClintock, someone took Chloe’s weapon
out of her bag.”
“I’ll get security on it immediately,” Millbrook assured them. “It’s a serious matter, of course. But first . . . come to
the helipad with me, no work on your part. Just watch them go,” Millbrook said. “Then we can get on finding your gun,” he
told Chloe. “3D-printed plastic, I believe.”
Chloe nodded and thanked him.
“Come along, then!”
They headed to the yacht’s small helipad and stood next to the captain. The man hadn’t lied; they’d barely arrived before
they could hear the helicopter and then, within minutes, it had set down.
Feds stepped out of the aircraft.
Amelia, Celia and Broderick were brought up, all cuffed, Broderick still screaming at anyone near him, calling them all idiot
sheep.
Both women were shuffled into the helicopter.
And it was then that the sound of a shot exploded through the air. It was followed by a second sharp retort.
A bullet had slammed into the side of the helicopter, just missing Broderick McClintock.
Officers, the captain and half the people around them shouted, “Get down!”
Broderick was forced to his knees.
As everyone ran for cover, Feds, ship’s security, the captain and Wes and Chloe all searched for the direction the shot had
come from, searching for the shooter.
Because Chloe knew they had to find the person. Because she was certain she now knew what had happened to her gun.
But this time . . .
It seems that someone is trying to kill the known killer!