18. Captain’s Confrontation
T o his astonishment, Poppy was in the surveillance room with Captain Hamill.
“What are you doing here?!” Isaiah demanded.
Davide immediately went to the captain’s side, while the security guards who had escorted them waited outside.
“How nice of you both to join us. Ms Roe is here with me because she was found searching the lounge deck, despite the area being cordoned off to guests,” Captain Hamill informed him while Poppy stared at the floor.
“Sorry for causing trouble, but I lost a charm from my charm bracelet last night, and I wanted to look for it,” she told them, holding up her wrist to show the captain, who didn’t look amused.
“I found it and was about to leave the area when your charming head of security, Colter, decided to drag me here.”
“I have enough to deal with without guests going where they shouldn’t,” Colter said, looking away from the surveillance screens as Poppy mentioned him. Isaiah glared at him, hoping for his sake that when Poppy said ‘dragged’, it wasn’t meant in the literal sense.
“Are you alright? Did he put his hands on you?” he asked her. The thought of anyone touching her made him grind his teeth.
“I’m fine. He didn’t touch me,” Poppy assured him, waving her hands frantically like she was afraid Isaiah would lose his temper.
“Ms Roe wouldn’t have been dragged anywhere if she had followed the rules and not crossed the caution tape,” Captain Hamill said impatiently, dismissing Colter from the surveillance room.
“I waited to ask a security guard to see if they would look for the charm for me, but there was no one around. I figured since your security team told me I’d made up last night’s incident, there should be no reason why I couldn’t look around the jacuzzis,” Poppy said.
“And it only took me a moment to find it.”
“Lost charm or not, you crossed into an alleged crime scene without any care for the evidence you disrupted.” Captain Hamill’s eyes narrowed as she ran out of patience.
“Despite your promises not to get involved in ship business, you can’t seem to leave crime scenes alone, and your bodyguard was caught trying to sneak into the infirmary. ”
Poppy stared at Isaiah in surprise. He hadn’t shared his plans to search for Joshua with her because she would have insisted on joining him; he’d hoped she would get time to relax with Mina and recover after witnessing what had happened to Calliope and Joshua.
Judging by her scowl, he’d made the wrong decision and would likely face her wrath later.
On the other hand, she hadn’t informed him of her plans to search the lounge deck, so he could argue that they were even.
“You’ll assist in the investigation from now on,” the captain was saying.
“Eckells claims it would be beneficial if we all worked together due to your connection to the victims. All the evidence we’ve gathered from the murders of Calliope and Joshua will be sent to a lab in Amalfi on the coast of Italy once we dock, and the local police have agreed to rush it, so we should get answers before we reach our final destination. ”
Isaiah flinched as Poppy paled.
“Joshua’s dead?” she gasped, looking at Isaiah for answers. He hated that this was how she’d found out.
Captain Hamill shuffled uncomfortably. “I’m sorry, Ms Roe. I assumed you already knew.”
“When? Joshua was alive when I left to get help. Why would I assume he was dead?” Poppy argued.
The hurt in her voice cut Isaiah; he took her hand to calm her down.
Thankfully, she didn’t pull away.Isaiah caught Davide glancing between them, clearly noting that something more than a professional relationship had developed between them, but now wasn’t the time to discuss their romantic situation.
“I’m sorry, Ms Roe, but we did everything possible to help him. There was too much damage done,” Captain Hamill said, clearly sorry for putting her foot in it.
“If your crew had spent less time convincing me that I was crazy and listened to me, he might still be alive!” Poppy snapped, gripping Isaiah’s hand tighter.
“I can assure you there was no delay in getting him help. My crew merely detained you so we could work to help him. We didn’t have the equipment we needed.”
“You said something about docking? Are we cutting the trip short?” Poppy asked.
Captain Hamill explained the situation with the labs and the plan for the storm.
“Why don’t we just remain in Italy? Why risk continuing the trip?” Poppy asked.
“If you wish to remain in Italy, that’s up to you. We will arrange suitable accommodation for you, and you will remain informed of the investigation.”
“I don’t see why you would want us to come back. If the killer is after me and we disembark, then your precious ship is safe. You’ll be able to cover up Calliope and Joshua’s death with a nice and tidy slip-and-fall, like Patrice,” Poppy snarled.
The captain stood a little straighter, as though trying to contain her reaction. Everyone in the room knew Poppy was right; the killer would surely follow if they left the ship. Even if Davide wanted to help them trap the killer on board, it didn’t mean the captain did.
“It did cross my mind to kick you both off when we docked, since my priority is the safety of my ship. However, you’re our guests, and it is up to you whether you wish to stay or leave.
If you stay, so will the killer, and I want them to pay for what they’ve done aboard my ship,” Captain Hamill said.
“This person killed a member of my crew and two of my guests– guests I promised to keep safe. Regardless of what you believe or what you decide, these crimes won’t be swept under anything.
If you decide to stay behind, so will the killer, but you’ll have the protection of the local police and, hopefully, a name and a face when the results come in.
All that matters now is making it to port and getting the evidence to the lab.
Everything else is another day’s problem. ”
“You really want to work with us now?” Poppy asked suspiciously.
“What? You suddenly don’t want our help?” Davide asked, as though she was the unreasonable one.
“You can’t blame her for struggling to trust your motives. You did try to gaslight her into believing she didn’t find her friend clinging to life only last night.” Isaiah didn’t bother to hide his irritation.
“We were already dealing with one crisis. We needed to avoid a panic. We’re sorry for the hurt we’ve caused you, and we’ll do everything possible to bring this person to justice.
Still, we need your help.” Davide was much more amiable than the captain.
Both Poppy and Captain Hamill had one thing in common: pride.
Davide looked to Isaiah for help. They needed to come together, even if there was still blood in the water.
“A good show of faith would be to show us last night’s surveillance,” Isaiah said, trying to put them all on an even playing field. Poppy nodded in agreement.
“Fair enough. I’ll bring up the footage just before Poppy appears on the lounge deck.” Davide scrolled through the video until the screen focused on Poppy’s arrival on the observation deck. Joshua and the culprit had only been a short flight of stairs below.
“I heard a scuffle, or what I think was Joshua being pushed into the jacuzzi, so maybe scroll back to catch them arriving,” Poppy said as they stood behind Davide, watching the screens on the wall.
“There! Stop,” Isaiah said. He frowned; Joshua was clearly in focus, but a second figure was hazy. “I thought Eagle Eye software didn’t appear grainy like this.” He squinted at the pair.
“I think Joshua is with a woman? They look like they’re arguing, but why is the camera focusing on him, not her?” Poppy asked.
“We weren’t lying last night when we said something corrupted the footage.
We think she must be wearing something that’s messing with the software.
” Davide sighed. “Eagle Eye warned us about the weakness in their system. The AI system has trouble reading a certain shade of green, but only those who run the system and purchase it know the fault. The software can still assess the person it’s targeting – height, weight and body temperature– so we can only assume it’s a woman. ”
“We can also assume she knows about the ship’s surveillance to take such precautions. We’ve had security watching these monitors twenty-four hours a day; as soon as the footage started to lose focus, we sent a team to investigate,” Captain Hamill added.
Isaiah guessed that was how they had cleaned up the scene so fast. They’d been lying in wait until Poppy went to get help.
“It could have been a woman wearing a green dress, then? Can’t we scan the rest of the footage looking for a blurry figure?” Isaiah asked. “Dark hairs were found on Calliope. She got a handful of the killer’s hair in the struggle.”
“We tried to follow her movements, but just watch,” Captain Hamill said, motioning for Davide to continue the playback.
Silently, the group watched Joshua frantically pacing by the grainy figure. Isaiah wished there was audio. He felt Poppy clutch his hand tighter as Joshua turned to walk away. The grainy figure followed, clouding the image, and seconds later, Joshua was down by the jacuzzi.
Isaiah glanced at the other monitor as Poppy arrived on the observation deck.
The grainy figure rolled the injured and bleeding Joshua into the jacuzzi and, as expected, tried to hold his head under the water before Poppy came running.
Isaiah held his breath, watching the killer waiting under the short stairs as Poppy tried to help Joshua.
If Poppy had turned around, she would have come face-to-face with the murderer.
Instead, she’d struggled to keep Joshua’s head above water and hadn’t noticed the killer sneak out of their hiding spot and back inside the door.