by Ivy Dawson
“Sorry, ladies,” he said, putting on his coat and grabbing his bag. “Duty calls.”
“I don’t know,” Carey admitted casually. “Why don’t we try and look at footage from the hallways around the club that night? We might find someone acting suspicious.”
“There were hundreds of people walking around in those corridors,” Shae reminded her, “and we don’t know what we’re looking for. It could’ve been anyone. Besides, everyone started running out when the gun went off.”
“Okay, maybe we can look for people dropping things into the ocean. I mean, that’s the best way to get rid of a gun.”
“We could,” Shae nodded, “but unless the person was waving the gun around, I don’t think we’ll see anything. People drop things into the ocean all the time. Last week, I busted a teenage girl trying to throw away a necklace. Turns out she watched Titanic the night before and wanted to get rid of the necklace her ex-boyfriend gave her. The other day, this man just tossed his soda can over the railing.”
“People suck,” Carey said, wrinkling her face in disgust. “I didn’t think it was that common. I thought that someone throwing something overboard would look suspicious.”
“Not really,” Shae said, shrugging apologetically.
Shae’s phone began to ring, and she held up a finger to excuse herself. She walked out onto the deck, and quickly listened to what Dr. Zooberg had to say. She couldn’t have been gone for a minute, but when she got back, Carey was gone.
Shae frowned, but then she heard whispering coming from the nurses’ supply closet. She walked over and leaned on the door, wondering why Carey was hiding her phone call.
“I know, I miss you too. Don’t worry, I’ll see you in a bit. No, I don’t think I can see you before you leave. It’s too risky.”
Shae heard Carey whisper a quick goodbye, and she quickly left the room before her friend could catch her eavesdropping. She waited a few seconds before walking in.
“Who was it?” Carey asked innocently.
“Dr. Zooberg,” Shae said. “Apparently they found Emmie in her room. She’s unconscious. I think we need to get up there.”
“We do,” Carey agreed with a serious expression.
While they quickly made their way up to Emmie’s cabin, Shae couldn’t help but wonder who Carey had been talking to. Why did she feel the need to hide the conversation? And what was so risky about seeing this particular person?
These thoughts and more were pushed from her mind when they reached Emmie’s corridor. It looked like an accident scene. Zooberg and his nurses were wheeling Emmie out of her room, while staff politely asked guests to leave.
A man in an expensive suit was yelling at Mark, who for once looked humble and a little frightened. When his eyes landed on Shae, he glared at her as if she was to blame for the entire mess. Knowing him, he’d probably find a way to pin it on her.
“Shae,” Mark called, waving her over. “This is Matteo Nadal, Emmie’s father.”
“I’m sorry,” Shae said sincerely, walking up to him. “I don’t know what happened, the doctor just called me. Is she okay?”
“No,” he snapped, adjusting his cufflinks and glaring at her. “My daughter is dying. And the way she’s been treated on this vessel is appalling. What is wrong with you people? Gunshots in a club? Suicide in the prison? You’ll be hearing from my lawyers.”
“We can assure you that’s not necessary, sir,” Mark sputtered, the color draining from his face.
“I disagree,” Shae said quickly. “I feel that you’re entitled to investigate what happened here. Your daughter hasn’t had a pleasant time, and you deserve to know why. May I suggest starting with her friend, Helen Popov?”
“Are you accusing my daughter’s friend of causing all this?” Matteo’s eyes narrowed at her, and she shook her head firmly.
“No, but something started with her. Helen brought Emmie here, and everything started with Helen. Please understand, our resources are limited. We’re trying our best to keep all our guests safe, and your daughter is a priority.”
“It doesn’t look like it,” he growled. “When I got to her room, she was like that. I had to call for help, and I just arrived.”
“That must’ve been a shock, and I’m sorry,” Shae said sincerely. “However, your daughter is a very private person. She didn’t want us to know what was wrong with her, and most of us were unaware of her disease. I was with her less than an hour ago. She was perfectly fine then. I was just on my way to come and talk to her again.”
“We’ve got proof,” Mark said quickly, “if you think she’s lying.”
“No,” Matteo said, shaking his head. “I’m going to pay you to look into this. Obviously, you’re capable of doing this. Tell me what you need, and I’ll help you find out everything about this Helen woman.”
“Her name is Helen Popov,” Shae said with a grateful smile, “and she’s the key to this whole mess.”
Chapter 9
“What do you think you’re doing?” Mark hissed, turning on her with a vicious glare. “You’re done. You’re so fired. I’m going to draw up those papers now.”
“Go ahead,” Shae said confidently, “then you can explain to Matteo why you fired the one capable person onboard.”
Mark jerked as though she’d slapped him and narrowed his eyes at her. His whole face soured as though he was sucking on a lemon. A small shiver of delight went through Shae. She finally stood up to him, and it felt amazing.
“This isn’t over,” he told her furiously. He turned on his heel and left before she had a chance to say anything.
“Hey,” Carey said suddenly, looking down at her phone in concern. “I need to go.”
“Where are you going?” Shae asked curiously, wondering if Carey was going to meet up with the mysterious caller.
“I’m meeting up with the guy from this morning,” Carey sighed, a dreamy expression on her face. “He’s going to take me out for lunch.”
“Things are getting serious,” Shae said happily. “Go have fun, I’ll meet you in your room. There are a few things I want to check on.”
Carey nodded dreamily and walked off; her expression dazed. Shae stood there for a moment, watching her friend walk away. Then she shook her head and made her way to Carey’s cabin. On the way, she bumped into Alexa.
“Hi,” Alexa said sheepishly.
“Hello,” Shae said stiffly, keeping her guard up.
“I’m sorry…” Alexa said at the same time Shae said: “About yesterday…”
They both kept quiet to let the other speak, but then they both burst out laughing at the awkwardness around them.
“I’m sorry about yesterday, I was feeling overwhelmed and then I thought that you didn’t trust me enough. It was crazy, and I didn’t mean to yell at you or anything.”
“It’s okay,” Shae said honestly. “I shouldn’t have dismissed your theory so quickly. I do trust you to find clues and interrogate people.”
“Okay,” Alexa said, smiling widely, “we’re good then. Where’s Carey? I heard she hasn’t left your side for a minute.”
“She’s off with her new boyfriend,” Shae said in amusement.
“New boyfriend?” Alexa echoed. “That was fast. Is he handsome?”
“Let me show you,” Shae decided. “They only met this morning, but they’ve hit it off. She’s thinking of naming their kids already.”
“Do you know where they are?” Alexa asked in confusion.
“I think they should be on the main deck,” Shae shrugged. “It shouldn’t be that hard to find them.”
The two walked to the main deck in companionable silence. Shae felt grateful that the awkwardness between the two of them had disappeared. A few minutes later, they’d scoured the main deck, but there was no sign of Carey or her mysterious new crush.
“I’m a little worried,” Shae admitted, looking around. “I don’t see her. But maybe they went for lunch or something.”
“Well, let me try
and search her key card, then we can see where she went,” Alexa suggested, walking over the reception desk. It only took a few seconds to find Carey’s key card, but when she found it, she looked up at Shae with a questioning look.
“What is it?” Shae asked urgently. “Where is she?”
“She’s down in corridor F,” Alexa explained, “but that’s not the weird part. Her room is being paid for by someone else.”
“Maybe someone loaned her the money for this trip,” Shae suggested, shrugging her shoulders, “or maybe she used a different card.”
“No,” Alexa said slowly, “the person who’s paying for her trip is also on the ship. He used a different card, but they’re both under the same name. Maybe she already knew this guy before they met this morning?”
“Then why wouldn’t she tell me about him?” Shae asked, frowning slightly. Carey usually told her everything. “Where is the guy’s cabin?”
“In corridor F,” Alexa said, twisting the computer screen so that Shae could look for herself. Every corridor had a locked door and had to be opened using the guest’s key card. If your key card couldn’t access a door, then you weren’t allowed in. It was simple way to keep people out of sensitive areas and keep track of all the guests.
“You know what, Carey’s an adult, she knows what she’s doing. We can ask her about it later,” Shae decided. “Come on, she said we can wait for her in her cabin.”
“What do you want to do there?” Alexa asked curiously.
“The guest cabins have better internet access,” Shae explained. “I want to do some research.”
Once they were in Carey’s cabin, Shae took out her own laptop, but noticed that the battery was dead. She quickly put hers on charge and opened Carey’s laptop. They’d used each other’s devices before, and she was sure that Carey wouldn’t mind.
When she started the computer, she noticed that a few tabs were open on the internet browser, so Shae made sure not to go into any of them. She typed in ‘Helen Popov’ and started going through the woman’s social media page.
“Hey, this is weird,” Shae said suddenly, causing Alexa to look up from her cellphone. “Helen’s social media presence only started about a year and a half ago. There’s nothing about her from before that. It’s like she only started existing around that time.”
“That is weird,” Alexa said in surprise. “People usually have a lot more presence online. I mean, where was she before then? Do you think she deleted everything from before that time?”
“Why would she go through all that effort?” Shae asked thoughtfully. “And even if she did try, there’s no way she’d be able to delete everything.”
“Oh, I know,” Alexa said darkly. “There are still pictures from my junior prom floating around somewhere. It’s a mess.”
“Well, now I know what I’m going to do when I’m bored,” Shae said with a chuckle. “Can you look through some of her pictures and see if you can find anything?”
Alexa nodded and started scrolling on her phone. As Shae was searching through the internet, a sudden notification popped up on Carey’s computer. Shae was so surprised, she accidentally clicked on the message.
It led her to Carey’s email inbox. The latest message was a warning from the bank. Before she could close the window, Shae’s eye caught the subject line of the message. Carey was in deep trouble with the bank. She was hooked. She quickly skimmed through the message, her heart aching for Carey.
They were about to foreclose on her apartment, but even that wouldn’t be enough to cancel her debt. Shae wondered what she had done to land herself in so much debt. Carey had a good job and was usually very careful with her money. This was the first time she’d been on vacation in years.
Concern for her friend motivated Shae to click on one of the tabs which was open on Carey’s bank page. She had to log in again, but Carey’s information was already filled in. The opened page caused Shae to gasp out loud.
“What is it?” Alexa asked curiously, walking over and sitting down next to Shae on the bed. “Whoa, how does someone do that?”
“I don’t know,” Shae said worriedly.
“Well, that’s not all,” Alexa admitted heavily. “I’ve found a few strange things on Helen’s social media. Look, she’s being followed by like nine hundred people, but she’s only following fifty people back. One of them is a private account with only one follower, and that’s Helen.”
“It might be her secret account,” Shae said, taking Alexa’s phone to look at it the mysterious profile. “I wonder if we could try and get in.” She clicked on ‘log in’ then copied the username and tried a few different passwords. Each password they tried failed, and eventually they had to give up. They weren’t going to get into the secret profile.
“Okay, I’m calling it,” Alexa sighed, taking her phone back and going back to Helen’s social media. “I’ll just look through some of her pictures. Maybe we find something weird.”
Shae nodded and turned back to Carey’s computer. She wondered how she could best approach her friend with all the questions she had. All the information she had was from snooping, and she didn’t want Carey to feel as though Shae was spying on her. It was a horrible feeling.
When she caught sight of the time, she bolted upright and started grabbing her things.
“I’m late for my shift,” Shae explained hurriedly. “If I don’t work today, the captain’s going to fire me. I’ll meet you back here later.”
“Okay,” Alexa said distantly, still scrolling through her phone.
It didn’t take long to get to the photo booth, but by the time she got there, she was already a few minutes late. Her manager tapped on his watch and shook his head disapprovingly.
An hour into her shift, Shae was done with life. Her back ached from crouching, and she was tired of taking the same picture over and over again. She was about to ask for a break when she noticed Mark and Captain Tim marching toward her with serious expressions.
She grimaced and threw herself into her work, dragging out the photoshoot for as long as possible. Eventually, the mother got annoyed and left. Shae let out a frustrated sigh. Now there was nothing standing between her and the captain’s troubled expression.
“We need to talk,” he told her gravely. Shae nodded seriously and followed them to a secluded area. From the corner of her eye, she noticed Carey walking hand-in-hand with the handsome man from earlier that morning.
“What’s wrong, Captain?” she asked in a subdued tone.
“You haven’t stopped investigating this murder,” the captain sighed heavily. “Young lady, I like you. You work hard and you’re reliable, but I can’t stand for disobedience.”
“What’s going on?” Carey asked suddenly, appearing next to Shae. Her boyfriend was nowhere to be seen, and Shae frowned curiously.
“I’m sorry, but I need to talk to Shae privately.”
“Whatever you want to say to Shae, you can say to me. There are no secrets between us.”
“Well,” Captain Tim hesitated, but Shae nodded somberly. She knew what was coming next and needed moral support for what he was about to say to her. “I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to terminate your contract, Shae.”
“You’re joking,” Carey scoffed. “You can’t do that.”
“Actually,” Mark said with a smug grin that Shae wanted to smack off his face, “we can. She’s still on probation. We’re allowed to terminate her contract. She’ll have to disembark at the next port.”
“After all that she’s done for you?” Carey asked incredulously.
“I explained that I can’t have disobedience onboard my ship,” Captain Tim explained patiently. He was a kind man, but his words left no room for argument. That didn’t stop Carey from trying. Shae felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, but she was too upset to check who was messaging her.
The news wasn’t unexpected, but she was still having trouble processing it all. Her mind was racing with everything that she had to sort ou
t and organize. Where would she go? What would she do?
“Did this idiot tell you what she said to Matteo Nadal?” Carey asked, her voice getting high-pitched. “She saved both of you from him. Is this how you’re going to thank her?”
Suddenly, Shae’s phone started vibrating incessantly, which drew an irritated look from Captain Tim. She sheepishly took out her phone and frowned when she saw what was happening.
“Matteo was going to sue you all, but then she jumped in. You should be on your knees thanking her, not firing her!” Carey ranted.
“Carey,” Shae said slowly, putting a hand on her arm. “How did you know Helen?”
Chapter 10
Carey froze, her eyes widened, and she turned to look at Shae with a shocked expression. Shae was starting to feel a pit of dread opening up in her stomach. She didn’t have a good feeling about this.
Mark and the captain looked at each other with guarded expressions, and Mark crossed his arms threateningly.
“I don’t…. I mean, I didn’t know… What are you talking about?” Carey asked, her eyes filled with fear.
“This,” Shae said harshly, showing Carey the picture on her phone, “is what I’m talking about.” It was a picture of Helen sunbathing next to a luxurious pool, and in the background, Carey was talking to a waiter. Carey looked up and noticed how everyone was looking at her.
“I,” Carey started, but then she took a deep breath and shook her head. It was obvious that she was looking for the right words to say. “We sort of knew each other.”
“Carey, you need to tell us the truth. We found more evidence, and we need you to start talking,” Shae said firmly, quickly typing a message to Alexa.
“Like what?” Carey sneered. “So I knew Helen, that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Why didn’t you ever tell us that you knew her?” Captain Tim asked curiously. “You must’ve recognized who we were talking about. It’s not as if that’s a suspicious fact. I’m sure that Helen knew a lot of people.”
“Unless you had something to hide about your past with her,” Mark said, narrowing his eyes, and stepping in front of her as if he expected her to try and run away.