Chương 3
Tessa lowered her voice.
“You do not need to convince the room.”
Maya whispered, “They already decided.”
“Not all of them.”
Maya looked toward Avery.
Tessa followed her gaze but said nothing.
When Grant returned, the room rearranged itself around him.
People did not physically move much. Attention did.
Vanessa was the first to speak.
“Well?”
Grant stopped near Maya.
He held a black security tablet at his side.
“Captain Reyes is on his way.”
“I asked you a question.”
“I checked the crew storage corridor footage.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
Maya heard herself ask, “And?”
Grant looked at her.
Then at Vanessa.
“I found the placement of the jewelry case.”
Something changed in Vanessa’s eyes.
It was not panic yet.
It was the rapid stillness of someone seeing a door close.
Grant raised the tablet.
The frozen image showed Vanessa crouched beside Maya’s work bag, burgundy case in hand.
Nobody spoke.
A guest near the sofa whispered, “Jesus.”
Maya stared at the screen.
Her mind did not immediately understand what her eyes understood.
Vanessa.
The case.
Her bag.
Vanessa turned her head slightly toward the guests.
That was when her expression finally broke. Not dramatically. Her mouth opened and closed. Her eyes moved toward Avery, then toward the lounge entrance, then toward the people holding phones.
Grant’s voice remained level.
“Vanessa. The camera shows exactly who put it in her bag.”
Maya felt her knees weaken.
Tessa caught her elbow.
Vanessa recovered first.
“That is not what it looks like.”
Nobody answered.
Vanessa pointed at the tablet.
“That is a silent image. You have absolutely no idea what was happening.”
Grant said, “The recording shows you removing the jewelry case from your clutch and placing it inside Maya’s bag.”
“I heard you.”
“Then I’m not sure what part you think we’re misinterpreting.”
Avery stepped forward.
“Mom?”
Vanessa turned toward her daughter.
“Not now.”
“What were you doing?”
“I said not now.”
“Why was the necklace in your hand?”
Vanessa’s voice sharpened.
“Avery.”
That one word worked.
Avery stopped.
Maya watched the reflex between them and understood something she had no language for: this was not the first time Vanessa had ended a conversation by changing her tone.
Grant set the tablet on the bar, screen facing down.
“Until the captain arrives, nobody touches the case, the bag, or the tablet.”
Vanessa gave him a look of pure disbelief.
“You think I’m a criminal?”
“I think we have an incident that needs to be documented.”
“An incident.”
“Yes.”
“You’re protecting her.”
“No.”
“You don’t even know her.”
Grant glanced at Maya.
“That’s true.”
The answer was so simple that Vanessa seemed briefly thrown by it.
Maya appreciated it.
She did not want to be rescued because somebody liked her face. She wanted the facts to stop moving.
A man near the windows cleared his throat.
“We should probably give them some privacy.”
Vanessa spun on him.
“No one is leaving.”
He blinked.
“Vanessa, I wasn’t asking permission.”
He took his wife’s arm and walked toward the aft lounge.
Two other guests followed.
Then three more.
The social spell broke.
People began murmuring, moving, checking phones, collecting wraps from chair backs. The engagement party did not exactly end. It dissolved.
That was worse.
A party could be stopped and explained.
A dissolving party left forty private versions behind.
Avery’s fiancé touched her shoulder.
She shrugged him off.
“Mom, tell me why.”
Vanessa’s confidence came back in pieces.
“I suspected her.”
Maya stared.
“Of what?”
Vanessa ignored her.
Avery said, “Of stealing the necklace?”
“Yes.”
“So you put it in her bag?”
“I needed to know what she would do.”
Maya laughed.
It escaped her before she could stop it.
Everybody looked at her.
The sound was small and ugly and not remotely amused.
“What I would do?” Maya said.
Vanessa’s eyes met hers.
“You were going to take it.”
“You put it there.”
“Because I recognized you.”
The room became very quiet again.
Maya felt a chill along her arms.
“From where?”
Vanessa did not answer.
Captain Daniel Reyes arrived before she had to.
He wore a dark navy captain’s uniform without the formal jacket, sleeves buttoned at the wrist, reading glasses still hanging from the front of his shirt. His hair was more gray than black. He entered with the expression of a man who had been called away from paperwork and found a live electrical cable on the floor.
“Phones down, please.”
A guest said, “Daniel—”
“Please.”
There was enough authority in the second word that most people obeyed.
Daniel looked at the jewelry case, Maya’s spilled belongings, Grant’s tablet, then Vanessa.
“Mrs. Sterling, Grant told me what the recording shows.”
Vanessa lifted her chin.
“Grant has decided he understands something he doesn’t.”
“Then you’ll have a chance to explain.”
“To whom?”
“To me first.”
“You?”
“Yes.”
“I chartered this yacht.”
“Through the owner’s management company.”
“That distinction will be very interesting to them when they hear how you treated me.”
Daniel nodded once.
“They will hear exactly how I treated you.”
Tessa looked down, hiding what might have been the beginning of a smile.
Vanessa saw it.
“So this is funny now?”
“No,” Tessa said.
Maya wished Vanessa would stop looking for enemies. Every time she did, she seemed to create one.
Daniel addressed the remaining guests.
“The party is over for tonight. The aft salon and exterior decks remain available. Staff will assist anyone who wants to return to their cabins.”
Avery said, “I’m staying.”
Daniel looked at her.
“That is your choice.”
Her fiancé stayed too, though he moved a few feet away, suddenly uncertain where he belonged.
Daniel asked Grant, “Preserved?”
“Yes.”
“Original untouched?”
“Yes.”
“Second copy?”
“Yes.”
“Access restricted?”
“Yes.”
Vanessa folded her arms.
“You two are enjoying this procedural performance.”
Daniel looked at her for a moment.
“No, ma’am.”
He did not say more.
That somehow made the answer harsher.
Maya’s legs were beginning to ache from standing in one place.
May you like
Daniel noticed.
“Ms. Collins, sit down.”
