Below The Deck
GENDARMERIE MARITIME DE POLYNéSIE FRAN?AISE
INTERVIEW EXCERPT ONE
Interview subject: Brett Marchant – First Officer on board Lusso di Mare charter
Interview conducted by Chief of Police Henri Robert
M Robert: Monsieur Marchant, can you tell me what your first impression was of the guests when they arrived on the Lusso di Mare?
M Marchant: Sure. I actually kinda liked them.
It’s not that often we get guests who are sort of …
normal, everyday people. You know, not, like, super-rich?
Most of our charters are for insanely wealthy power couples and tech moguls bringing along supermodels and shit.
I knew the primary had a bit of cash, but everyone else was just, like, regular people.
There for a party and a great holiday – a once-in-a-lifetime experience type thing.
M Robert: The primary? You mean Mr Ashworth?
M Marchant: Yeah, sorry, superyacht vocab – that’s what we call the people who pay for the charter. He seemed okay too, at first. Friendly, didn’t speak to the crew like sh— sorry, like dirt. He made some corny jokes here and there, but I didn’t mind him.
M Robert: It’s okay; you can curse. And what was the crew’s general mental state that first day?
M Marchant: Our mental state? What, like, were we worried or something?
I mean, no, that first day, everyone was fine – probably better than fine.
We felt good – excited, well-rested. Everything was ready to go – the boat was clean and fully stocked, the skies were clear.
Captain Taylor had all the anchoring spots booked and we’d had our briefings about the guests.
All the guests seemed pretty happy and easy-going when they first arrived too.
M Robert: So you didn’t pick up on any tensions between the guests – or among the crew – on day one? Nothing to raise alarm bells?
M Marchant: Well, I wasn’t, like, hovering around the guests all day like the stews do.
I’m on the bridge a lot of the time, with the captain.
So maybe I missed something. But to me, they all seemed good.
Sam had that cut to his foot, but it wasn’t serious – Michaela cleaned it up for him.
Lucy was a little sick, and we offered her some meds.
But everyone perked up anyway when they had a few drinks in them.
M Robert: So there was nothing to suggest that events would unfold as they did?
M Marchant: You’re asking me, did I have any idea that we’d end up with a dead body …
with a murderer on board? That these … these nice people would end up killing each other on their luxury freakin’ holiday?
No, man – fuck, no. No one, no one on this entire fucking planet, could have predicted that.