ELENI
‘How are you feeling?’ she asked. ‘Are you heading up for some breakfast?’
‘Yeah, and coffee. All the coffee.’ He kissed the top of her head. ‘You already been up?’
‘Yep. I’m sorry – I was hungry, and I didn’t want to wake you.’
‘You going to stay here in the cabin while I eat?’
Eleni nodded. ‘I think so. I can wait for you, then we’ll decide what to do on the sail. See you in a bit?’
‘Yeah.’ He gazed at her for a moment. ‘I’m sorry about last night. You know I love you, don’t you?’
‘Of course, Nick.’
‘And?’
‘And … I love you too.’
Back in the cabin alone, Eleni sat on the bed and tried to hold back the tears of frustration and fear that threatened to overwhelm her.
How could this be their last day? How was she still floundering; missing every possible opportunity to bring her plans to fruition?
She took her phone out of her bag and listened to her sister’s message again, out loud this time.
‘Try to stop worrying, sis. I know it’s hard, but – everything’s going fine. Not much longer to go – you can do this.’
Eleni let out a slow breath. And then, in the stillness that came right after the last of the air had left her lungs, she heard it: the soft, almost imperceptible whirring that lasted a second, perhaps less. Then, again, the unmistakeable, familiar feeling of eyes on her.
No. Come on – this is ridiculous. Maybe I’m losing the plot on this boat. I’m hearing things. I’m imagining things. It’s all the stress … the claustrophobia …
There was another whirr.
‘Right, I’ve had enough!’ Eleni yelled out, to no one.
She grabbed a bobble to sweep her hair out of her face into a bun, then jumped up and started moving her hands along the walls of the cabin, systematically, inch by inch.
If someone had hidden something in here to watch her – a secret camera, or a spyhole somewhere disguised as something else – she was bloody well going to find it.
She felt a rush of determination. Here was the old Eleni again: there was no stopping her when she’d made up her mind.
She strode to the wall opposite the bed, where the TV was mounted, running her fingers along its edges. Nothing. Then she headed to the wardrobe, ran her fingers through the immaculately organized clothes.
She sighed, then moved back to the bed, crouching to the ground and reaching underneath the bedframe to feel along its edges. Eleni realized she felt slightly ridiculous.
What the hell am I doing? This is absurd … it’s pure paranoia. Of course there isn’t a sodding spy camera …
She paused, picked up her phone from the bed and typed a quick search into Google, silently appreciating the return of the Wi-Fi.
She scrolled through the first few hits for secret camera and saw nothing of interest. She tapped instead on images – and almost immediately something caught her eye.
She inhaled sharply. Now that she’d seen that picture, it seemed obvious. Why didn’t I think of that before?
Eleni put her phone down and started dragging the chair from the desk in the corner over to the centre of the room, glancing up at the ceiling as she went.
She set the chair down directly underneath the smoke detector, then rolled up the bottoms of her trousers and climbed onto it.
She looked up at the round, white detector above her head, blinking out its intermittent red flash.
She reached for it, then faltered. She had no idea what she was doing – she was no electrician; she’d barely even changed a lightbulb. What am I going to do? Take the bloody thing apart?
She thought back to the picture she’d just seen. It looked practically identical to the contraption screwed into the ceiling. She had to at least try. ‘This is the last place I’m going to look,’ she said aloud.
Eleni twisted the top of the detector, and it sprung loose with a click.
Inside was a tiny, black circular lens, and a small slot holding what looked like a SIM card. This wasn’t a real smoke detector; it was a camera made to look like one.
I fucking knew it.
Eleni stared at it, at first triumphant, before a shadow of horror dawned over her. Who the hell would do this to me? Installing cameras in her private space – it was extreme, not to mention illegal. Furious, she removed the battery from inside the camera and placed it on the bedside table.
Then she narrowed her eyes.
I’ve got a feeling I know exactly who would do this.
And he isn’t going to get away with it.
Her trousers still hitched up, random strands of her hair tumbling out of their messy bun, Eleni stormed out of her cabin into the passageway, then up the stairs to the salon.
The person she was looking for wasn’t there – and as far as she could see, he wasn’t out on the main deck, either.
The sky was darkening, with grey clouds now forming above the Lusso’s bow – perhaps her fellow guests had headed below deck.
She went up another deck to do one last check, was about to enter the sky lounge, when she heard voices above her.
People were gathered on the sun deck, then.
She took the stairs two at a time and burst onto the deck.
What she saw there made her stop in her tracks: sitting in the cushioned area at the bow, Lucy was talking rapidly to Mark – with tears pouring down her cheeks.
She was speaking so fast, and between such racking sobs, that Eleni couldn’t make out most of what she was saying – but she did manage to catch two names: one that she didn’t know, and one that she did.
Alfie. Rory.
‘Oh – shit,’ Eleni blurted. ‘I’m so sorry. I was just looking for—’
‘It’s okay.’ Lucy stopped talking and wiped the tears from her cheeks. She gave a wobbly smile, then frowned as her eyes scanned Eleni, no doubt taking in her red-faced, dishevelled appearance. ‘Are you all right?’
Eleni knew her perfectly manufactured facade had started to drop; she was aware of how she must look right now, wide-eyed and sweating and unkempt and angry. But truth be told, she didn’t give a flying fuck.
Mark looked between the two women for a second, then wrapped Lucy in a long, firm hug. He whispered something in his girlfriend’s ear, then got to his feet.
‘I’ll leave you two to chat for a minute. I think the weather’s going to turn soon, though – Luce, come back inside soon, yeah?’
Lucy waved him off and gestured to the empty space next to her. ‘Do you want to sit down?’
Eleni was torn. She was on a mission to find the spy-cam perpetrator, there was still Rory and Talia to deal with …
and she’d told Nick she’d stay in their cabin.
She didn’t even know Lucy that well; she certainly wouldn’t trust her with any of her worries.
But her colleague was clearly upset, and Eleni didn’t like the idea of leaving her here alone and crying when she evidently wanted to talk.
So she nodded, walked across the deck and sat next to Lucy.
There was a beat of silence, then: ‘Who’s Alfie?’ Eleni asked. ‘Sorry – I heard his name when you were talking to Mark just now. Is he why you’re upset?’
Lucy looked startled. ‘Ah, yes, I …’ Lucy faltered. ‘He’s my brother.’
Her brother? Eleni frowned. ‘Okay.’ This wasn’t what she’d been expecting.
She assumed whatever they were upset about was to do with her and Mark – she’d joined the dots wrongly, and thought Alfie might be ‘the other man’.
But then, surely Mark wouldn’t have hugged Lucy so fiercely if she’d just revealed an affair.
No; clearly, this was a family thing. ‘And … has something happened to him since you’ve been away? Why are you so upset about him?’
‘Something did happen, yes. Not since we’ve been here, but …
Alfie’s got cerebral palsy, and autism, and learning disabilities,’ said Lucy, looking away from Eleni and staring out to sea.
‘He doesn’t talk – he never will – and he needs a lot of help.
A lot of care. It’s been … hard, at times.
’ Lucy turned her eyes to Eleni warily, as if waiting for judgement or dismissal.
But Eleni wasn’t going to give Lucy either of those things.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘That must be tough.’ One of Eleni’s younger cousins was autistic and had a lot of complex needs.
The whole family adored her, but she knew the strain it had placed on her aunt and uncle, caring for her.
She could imagine how hard it was, growing up with a sibling who needed so much support.
Lucy shifted her weight on the cushions. ‘When Alfie’s calm – when he’s happy – he’s the sweetest, kindest, most loving person you’ve ever met. He’s so affectionate; he’s like a big ball of cuddles.’
‘Right …’ Eleni replied. Where is this going? She waited, trying to be patient. She was open to hearing what Lucy needed to say; she wasn’t going to abandon her mid-conversation. But she still had no idea what this was about, and she was losing precious time.
Lucy sniffed. ‘But when he’s not happy – when he’s dysregulated or distressed – he can’t control himself, he does things he’d never mean to do.
He’d never want to hurt anyone – especially not his family.
’ As she spoke, Lucy’s hand moved to rub her upper arm, where the bruise that Eleni had noticed a couple of days earlier was now fading to a greenish yellow.
In an instant, Eleni understood. That bruise – and perhaps many more like it – hadn’t come from clumsy wanderings in the middle of the night; they hadn’t been anything to do with Mark, either.
It was Lucy’s brother who’d hurt her: the person she probably loved most in the world, and who undoubtedly loved her just as much back.
A lump formed in the back of Eleni’s throat; she swallowed it down.
She didn’t know what it was like for Lucy, exactly – she didn’t understand the finer details of her experiences with Alfie – but the realization that someone Lucy loved so much had been harming her, over and over, probably for years …
it was almost too much for Eleni to bear.
She turned back to Lucy, a question still nagging at her. She didn’t want to pry – but there was another name she’d overheard when she came up here, and she still didn’t understand how the pieces joined together. ‘But … what does Alfie – what does all this – have to do with Rory?’
Lucy’s eyes widened in shock; she opened her mouth, looked as though she was about to reply – when an urgent call reached their ears.
‘Lucy – Eleni – sorry to interrupt.’ It was Johanna, calling to them from the spiral staircase. ‘But you need to come indoors right away. It’s not safe out here – any minute now, we’re going to hit the squall.’