Chương 5
“Great.”
“I’m trying to make you feel better.”
“You’re really bad at it.”
“I’m chief stew. Comfort isn’t in the job description.”
Maya almost smiled.
Then her phone buzzed on the table.
She had not realized Tessa had collected it with the rest of her belongings.
A message from one of the bartenders appeared.
Are you okay???
Then another.
holy shit grant has video???
Then a third from an unknown number.
I was in the lounge. I’m sorry.
Maya turned the phone face down.
“Can I tell people?”
Tessa considered.
“Tell them what happened to you. Don’t send footage you don’t have. Don’t guess about Vanessa. Don’t post anything.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Good.”
Maya stared at the black screen of the phone.
After a moment she said, “I want to.”
“I know.”
“I want to put her face everywhere.”
“I know.”
“I want every person who looked at me like I was dirty to watch her put that thing in my bag.”
“I know.”
Tessa’s voice had changed.
Maya looked up.
“You’ve wanted that before.”
Tessa’s eyes moved toward the closed door.
“Different guest. Different yacht.”
“What happened?”
“I kept my job.”
“That isn’t what I asked.”
“No.”
Tessa stood and began wiping a counter that did not need wiping.
Maya understood the conversation was over.
Upstairs, Grant transferred the necklace and its burgundy case to Captain Reyes’s safe.
The process took eight minutes because Daniel insisted on making it boring.
He photographed the case where it had been found. He photographed the clasp. He had Grant put on gloves before touching it. He asked Avery to observe from six feet away and confirm the item appeared to be her family’s necklace without handling it.
Vanessa was not invited.
Avery’s fiancé, Noah Hale, stood near the door with his hands in his pockets.
“This is insane,” he said.
Daniel did not look up from the incident form.
“Yes.”
“Do you think she planned the whole thing?”
Daniel finished writing the time.
“I don’t think for investigators.”
“You are investigating.”
“I’m preserving what happened on my vessel.”
Noah looked at Grant.
“What do you think?”
Grant closed the evidence pouch around the burgundy case.
“I think your future mother-in-law is on video putting the necklace in a crew member’s bag.”
Noah winced.
“You could’ve phrased that differently.”
“I could have.”
Avery looked at him.
“Why would he?”
Noah said nothing.
Daniel locked the safe.
Avery had been rubbing the inside of her left wrist since they left the lounge. A faint red mark had appeared beneath her bracelet.
“My mother doesn’t steal,” she said.
No one replied.
“I know that sounds stupid.”
Grant said, “It doesn’t.”
“She wouldn’t need to.”
“Need isn’t the only reason people do things.”
Avery shook her head.
“I don’t mean the necklace. I mean—this. Planting it.”
Daniel removed his glasses.
“Has she accused staff of theft before?”
Avery looked up.
The delay answered before she did.
“Sometimes things go missing.”
“How often?”
“I don’t know.”
“Enough that you’re choosing your words.”
Noah shifted.
“Avery.”
“No, he’s right.”
She looked toward the safe.
“My grandmother had jewelry stolen during hospice care.”
Grant waited.
“Was anyone charged?”
“No.”
“Was anything recovered?”
“One bracelet, I think. Later. Maybe.”
“How did your mother handle it?”
Avery gave him a tired look.
“How do you think?”
Grant did not answer.
She rubbed her wrist again.
“She hired investigators. She changed the locks twice. She stopped letting some of the caregivers into the house. One woman quit after Mom accused her.”
“Was there evidence?”
“I was in college. I don’t know.”
Daniel said, “And the hotel dinner Maya mentioned?”
Avery frowned.
“I remember a brooch going missing.”
Noah glanced at her.
“You never told me that.”
“Because it was four years ago.”
“Was it found?”
Avery opened her mouth.
Then stopped.
“I don’t know.”
Grant noticed the uncertainty.
“Who would?”
“My mother’s assistant.”
“Is she aboard?”
“Yes.”
“Name?”
“Paige Morrison.”
Grant had seen Paige all evening. Dark green dress. Minimal jewelry. Tablet never far from her hand. The kind of assistant who seemed to occupy the six inches outside Vanessa’s field of attention.
“Where is she?”
Avery looked toward the guest corridor.
“Probably with my mother.”
Daniel put his glasses back on.
“Then we do not go hunting for old explanations until we finish tonight’s facts.”
Grant nodded.
Avery did not.
“I want to talk to her.”
“Your mother?”
“Paige.”
Daniel said, “You can.”
“Now.”
“That’s your decision.”
Avery left.
Noah stayed behind for several seconds.
“Should I go after her?”
Grant looked at him.
“You’re asking the wrong people.”
Noah exhaled.
“Right.”
He followed.
Daniel waited until the door closed.
Then he said, “This is going to become an employment problem before it becomes anything else.”
Grant leaned against the desk.
“You think management will blame Maya?”
“I think management will want the client calm.”
“She was framed.”
“I know.”
“That should simplify things.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You have worked on yachts too long to say that with a straight face.”
Grant did not smile.
The yacht was due to remain offshore until six in the morning before approaching Port Everglades for a scheduled arrival after sunrise. The captain could return sooner if safety required it. At that moment, nobody was physically unsafe.
Daniel also knew that changing the vessel’s plan because of a guest dispute would create a record.
That was not a reason to avoid it.
It was a reason to decide carefully.
“I’m calling management,” he said.
“And?”
“And maritime counsel. Then I’m calling the port contact to ask who they want notified when we arrive.”
Grant nodded.
Daniel watched him.
“What aren’t you saying?”
“Vanessa knew where Maya’s bag was.”
“Yes.”
“She walked directly to it.”
Daniel’s eyes narrowed.
“And?”
“She also looked at the camera before she crouched.”
“You’re sure?”
“No.”
“Then don’t say you are.”
Grant picked up the tablet.
“I want to review the prior ten minutes.”
May you like
“For what?”
“To see whether she checked the corridor first.”
