Chapter 18 #2
I was armed and will be practicing my agent skills instead of my nursing skills for the rest of the trip.”
“Still!” Chloe said, looking at Wes.
“Oh, God, no!” Edward said. “Someone was shooting at you—”
“No. Actually, someone was shooting at Broderick McClintock,” Wes told him. “But there is a gun somewhere on the ship.”
“My fault. When we dove in to get Broderick—”
“Not your fault. If someone was shooting at Broderick, they’re not a danger to us. And it’s really too bad that they missed!” Edward said.
“Edward!” Sally said softly, placing her hand on his arm.
Wes lowered his head, glad that Edward hadn’t been there when Broderick had been talking all about Amelia’s failure to murder
Sally.
“George, if you guys want to make us happy—” Wes began.
“Gotcha. Edward, Sally, we’re heading to your cabin. No hardship. He has a great suite,” George said.
“All right,” Wes said. He ate one last french fry. “Chloe—”
“Yep. We’re going to wander around the decks and see what we can see and . . . if we can find the gun,” she said.
“You’ll find it when someone uses it to get a bullet into your chest!” Sally told them, worried.
“I don’t think that whoever took the gun wants to hurt anyone else. I think that they were aiming at Broderick,” Chloe assured
them.
“George, you know how to reach us. Please, just lay low. We’ll talk later, and who knows—maybe by tonight we can have a great
dinner of appreciation for the fact that the truth is known and a strange and horrible manipulation has been ended,” Wes said,
rising.
They were about to head away from the table when they heard someone call softly, “Chloe, Wes, wait, please!”
Daniel McClintock was coming toward the table. He truly looked the worst for wear as he approached them, shaking his head,
apologizing.
“I had no idea. I didn’t know, I swear! I was aways hearing that I didn’t work hard enough, that I didn’t put in enough effort . . .
I had no idea, and even now . . .”
He broke off. There were tears in his eyes. He looked over at Edward, Sally and George. “I’m sorry. I am so, so sorry!”
“Daniel, we know you weren’t involved. Chloe saw what they did to you and I found you in the lounge chair,” Wes reminded him. “You can’t be held responsible.”
“But I—I—Broderick is my brother. I should have known. And he . . . Was he going to kill me, too?”
He looked confused, but a moment later, Gina was behind him.
“Daniel! They don’t blame you!” she said softly.
“We don’t blame you, Daniel,” Sally assured him. “We’re just glad that you’re all right, too!”
“I’m so sorry!” he repeated. He shook his head, as if he couldn’t begin to comprehend everything that had happened. “I think . . .
I don’t know. I mean, I don’t know what happened with me, but . . . Celia was in on it! She was married to Jeff, she supposedly
loved him, and he . . . he was supposed to get flushed out to sea!”
Chloe rose and walked over to him, smiling at Gina who stood by his side, and set a hand on his free arm. “Daniel, you’re
going to need some serious therapy. There’s no way you get over something like this easily.”
“I’m so glad my parents are dead! I never thought I’d say that!” Daniel told them.
“It will take time,” Gina said. “But, Daniel, we went through this together. I will be there with you. We will get through
this together.”
Daniel must have had a fairly heavy dose of the drug because he suddenly seemed to veer to the right and had to grip a chair,
even though the waves had died down and the sea had gone calm. It was as if the ocean itself knew that a problem had been
solved.
Well, almost solved. They had to find Chloe’s 3D-printed weapon.
“I’m sorry—” Daniel began again.
“Daniel, if you’re sorry, please, go lie down some more. Take care of yourself!” Wes told him.
“Right, sweetheart, please!” Gina said to him.
Daniel nodded. He tried to smile. “She is incredible, isn’t she?” he asked the others. “And thank God! I lost a brother, but
I might have gained the love of my life,” he added softly, looking at Gina.
“Quite incredible!” Chloe agreed. “Gina—”
“We’re going!” Gina said. “Come on.”
“She forgave me already for what he did to her!” Daniel whispered.
Then they were gone.
“That poor guy,” Edward murmured.
“Yeah,” Chloe agreed. “Hardest for him—and Jeff Henderson, I suppose. Has anyone seen him—”
“He was still down in the hospital when we left,” Edward said. “I guess she got him extra hard, too.”
“Well, life won’t be easy for either of them for a while,” Wes said. “Chloe?”
“Ready!” Chloe said. “Hopefully, we’ll see you at a late last cruise dinner!” she said, then she hooked her arm into Wes’s
and said, “Let’s do this!”
Wes moved quickly, knowing that George would protest in worry again.
“Bottom to top,” Chloe suggested.
And so they moved through the decks, looking for men wearing baseball caps.
“You know,” Chloe said as they searched, “I thought that if it was one of the McClintocks, it might be Daniel. Angry for always
being second fiddle. But . . . he just doesn’t feel the need to rule the world.”
Wes nodded. “And I was thinking at first that it might have been Jeff Henderson who took your gun—except that he couldn’t have because he was on the floor with the rest of you, all ready for disposal.”
Chloe shook her head. “This time, I think we need to think vice versa. It’s someone Broderick hurt, really hurt. Someone who
might be afraid that he won’t really face the full force of the law for what he’s done.”
“I talked to Alonzo. He has every computer geek at our disposal trying to see who on this ship might have a connection to
one of our would-be murderers,” Wes told her.
She nodded.
They moved from deck to deck. In a way, it was surprising to see the amount of people lounging comfortably on the decks, playing
the games, sitting at bars . . . all the things people might normally do on a cruise.
But soon after they’d left the table, Captain Millbrook had come on over the speaker. He started out apologizing profusely,
then explaining that they’d discovered they had a trio of wanted people on board and that ship’s security and federal and
local forces had secured them and all was well. Should anyone need the hospital, it was open to serve their needs from anything
they considered serious to a hangnail. He thanked everyone and explained that they were required to return to port, but that
each and everyone on board would be offered a free trip in the future. He begged everyone to enjoy their last night at sea.
His speech had been good. Better than that, it had been sincere.
“I give up,” Chloe murmured after they’d been walking a long, long time. “I think on this we’re dead right—whoever took the
gun wanted to kill Broderick. They very nearly did. I think I’d really, really like to clean up now!”
He nodded. They had looked, and looked and looked some more.
And she was right.
“Back to our cabin. And if you’re worn out, please—”
She grinned at him. “I’m not that kind of worn out! Just the salt I’m wearing is starting to get itchy!”
“Got an itch, eh?” he teased.
She groaned softly.
They reached their cabin and headed in. Chloe walked to the bedroom to grab clean clothing. Wes dug into his own little closet
to get something to wear; they would head back out. They’d go to dinner.
They—like George and every member of the ship’s security team—would stay on the lookout for the missing gun until they reached
port and could disembark.
He paused, frowning, hearing something like a shuffling sound against their door. He froze for a moment, listening.
Chloe emerged from the bedroom, frowning. She had heard whatever it was, too.
He gave her a nod, indicating she should go to the far side of the door as she opened it.
He pulled out his own 3D-printed weapon, aiming it straight at the door.
He gave her a slight nod. They were ready.
Chloe pushed the door open.
Bryan Jordan stood there. He was holding Chloe’s weapon.
But he wasn’t aiming it at them. He held it to the side.
“Dad, Dad, please!”
Darlene came running down the hall, throwing an arm around her father.
But Bryan was ready to explain himself.
“I just . . . I found this. I needed to give it back. I’m so sorry, I had no right .
. . I just . . . There was something about Chloe today.
I knew . . . I knew that she was involved because she said something exactly the way Jane would have said it and .
. . something, something just tipped me off, or worried me, and .
. . I saw it when I tripped over the bag.
I picked it up. I never meant to use it except if she came after me, Darlene .
. . or anyone! And then . . . Oh, God, I saw them about to take him away and I don’t know what happened to me.
I was afraid he’d get his expensive lawyers and get out of it, and Jane is never coming back, never coming back . . .”
The man, always so friendly and dignified, broke into tears.
Wes stepped forward and swiftly took the gun, nodding to Darlene and saying, “Come on in, please, come on in.”
She ushered her father on in before her.
Bryan lurched, covering his face, and Chloe led him to the couch to take a seat.
Wes looked at Darlene, arching a brow.
Darlene let out a long breath, tears in her eyes, as well.
“He’s talking about Jane, Jane Sewell. He always knew that she didn’t kill anyone and commit suicide. She was my dad’s adopted
sister’s daughter. Well, she was never legally adopted so they didn’t have the same name, but then Jane’s dad died when she
was little and we weren’t even in the same city, but my dad would make sure to see her, make sure she knew that she was loved
and . . . I loved her, too! Please, please, I know he stole your gun, I know that he fired a shot, but . . . please, please
don’t punish him any worse than her death has punished him already!”
“You knew that something might be off on this cruise?” Wes asked her.
Darlene sighed. “We’d booked this cruise over a year ago.
My mom is gone, too, and Dad wanted to do something special for me.
And . . . well, now I think that he might have been watching everyone, seeing if anyone messed up and then .
. . then you and Chloe went overboard to catch Broderick McClintock and he was backing away and .
. . I didn’t even realize he had taken it! ” she finished desperately.
He was an officer of the law, sworn to justice, Wes knew.
But . . .
So far . . .
The man had confessed. No, not really, not in the necessary words. He hadn’t stolen the gun; he’d picked it up. It could have
been lying on the deck.
And he hadn’t said that he’d fired the gun.
Darlene had tried to explain, but that was really all hearsay. And while there were cameras on the ship, they’d already learned
how easily they could be rendered worthless—especially by anyone as computer and mechanically savvy as those in this group.
Wes glanced at Chloe.
Justice. They were sworn to justice. But then again, it would be served.
“Bryan! Listen to me,” he said strongly. He handed the man the gun back. “Put it down. Put it down in the hallway.”
“What?” Bryan asked, his tears soaking his face, but his expression now one of confusion.
“Do what I say, please!”
“Dad!” Darlene implored.
And Bryan Jordan stood and walked to the hallway and set the gun down. Wes picked it up and handed it to Chloe.
She nodded.
“We found it. We found the missing gun in the hallway. All . . . all’s well that ends well.
And I don’t think that you need to worry.
Broderick McClintock went off the deep end when we interrogated him today and it’s all on record.
He will go to prison for life or, God knows, even get the death penalty.
But for us, it’s over. Do you understand?
” he asked, looking from Bryan to Darlene.
“Oh, God! Thank you!”
Bryan Jordan was a big man. His unexpected hug almost sent Wes reeling backward.
He was still sobbing.
“Dad, Dad!” Darlene said softly.
He straightened and nodded.
“Go on, get some rest, and—” Chloe began.
“Therapy, I promise!” Darlene said, and she ushered her dad out of the room.
Wes looked at Chloe, pulling his phone out and putting through a call so that George could inform security they had found
the gun, it had fallen in a hallway.
“Was I wrong? Did I just betray everything that we stand for?” he asked Chloe as he finished the call.
She shook her head. “Wes, you know me. If I objected, I would have said something. No, I . . . I think you did the right thing,
and in this case, doing the right thing mattered most. And then, of course, it’s all ‘as you wish!’”
She made him smile. She was stunning, brilliant, sensual and . . .
Amazing.
“I’m turning the shower on.”
“That’s great! That’s as I wish!” she told him, smiling.
Soon they were in the shower with the hot steamy water washing over them. And he cupped her face in his hands and he kissed
her.
And they kissed. And kissed . . .
And suddenly, she was laughing.
“What?” Wes demanded.
“Ye olde Princess Bride,” she told him. “Something about how since the invention of the kiss, there have only been so many that were the most incredible, something like that! But my darling Wes, this one is maybe the most amazing ever!”
And he laughed, too.
But then the kisses began again, and the heat between them rivaled that of the water until they left it behind . . .
They never did make dinner that night.
*****