Chương 3
Reyes stood.
“I need both of you to come with me.”
He indicated Claire and Sophie.
Victoria stepped forward.
“I will be present.”
“No.”
The word came from one of the junior crew members.
He looked startled that he had said it.
So did everyone else.
Reyes spared him a glance, then looked back at Victoria.
“You’ll remain here until the captain speaks with you.”
“I will do no such thing.”
“You may return to your cabin with an escort.”
“I am not a passenger to be managed.”
“Tonight, Mrs. Hale, you are.”
The copper-gowned woman near the bar inhaled softly.
Victoria heard it.
Her head turned.
“Elaine.”
The woman straightened.
Victoria did not need to say more.
Elaine, Claire remembered now, was Elaine Horowitz, a longtime Hale Foundation board member. She had spent dinner praising Victoria’s leadership while tearing a dinner roll into tiny pieces she never ate.
Elaine looked at Sophie.
Then at the pearls.
Then at Victoria.
“I didn’t agree,” she said.
Victoria became completely still.
Elaine’s voice wavered.
“You said everyone agreed. I didn’t.”
Victoria’s stare could have stripped paint.
Elaine looked frightened, but she did not take it back.
A man beside her said, “Neither did I.”
Another guest frowned at him.
“Thomas.”
“What?”
“This is not the time.”
“What exactly would the time be?”
The first fracture in Victoria’s wall of obedience was not dramatic. No one shouted. No one rushed forward to protect Sophie. No one suddenly became brave.
People simply began, one at a time, to discover that someone else had spoken first.
Claire understood that later.
At the time, she only took Sophie’s hand.
“Can she walk down?” Reyes asked.
“Yes,” Sophie said before Claire could answer.
She pushed herself upright with the crutch.
Claire almost reached to support her and stopped.
Sophie hated that.
So Claire let her stand.
The girl adjusted her cardigan, stared at the staircase, and said, “I want my backpack.”
It was such an ordinary demand that Claire nearly cried.
She did not.
They followed Reyes downstairs.
Behind them, the gold-lit lounge remained full of people who had no idea what to do with themselves now that Victoria Hale had been told no.
The ship changed character one deck below.
The carpet ended. Decorative brass disappeared. The corridors narrowed into practical white passageways with nonslip flooring, exposed fire doors, safety signage and the constant subdued vibration of engines moving thousands of tons of steel through black Arctic water.
Sophie’s crutch clicked at irregular intervals.
Claire walked beside her.
Reyes led them past a locked service door, then stopped at a junction where another security officer waited.
Claire recognized the second man from boarding.
He looked uncomfortable.
“Captain’s on the bridge,” he told Reyes. “He wants an incident statement started now.”
Reyes nodded.
“Owen?”
“Still unaccounted for.”
“Search protocol?”
“Started.”
Claire caught the phrase.
“Search protocol?”
Reyes turned.
“We’re locating him.”
“Is there a possibility he went overboard?”
“It’s a possibility we consider whenever we cannot account for someone.”
Sophie looked up.
Claire wished he had phrased it differently.
Reyes noticed.
“We have no reason to think that happened,” he added.
Sophie considered this.
“Would the alarms know?”
Reyes blinked.
“Some systems may help us establish where he’s been.”
Sophie nodded, apparently satisfied.
Claire was not.
The room was at the end of another corridor.
Its door stood open.
A crew member wearing blue gloves was stationed outside.
Sophie stopped walking.
Claire nearly bumped into her.
“What?”
“That’s it.”
Reyes glanced down.
“You’ve been here?”
“No.”
“How do you know?”
Sophie pointed to a strip of yellow tape on the wall outside.
Three tiny cartoon whales had been drawn on it in blue ink.
Claire felt the hair rise on her arms.
“That’s from her backpack,” she said.
“What is?”
“She puts whale stickers on everything. I bought that tape for her birthday invitations.”
Sophie shook her head.
“I drew those.”
Claire looked closer.
Of course she had.
One whale had a crooked tail because Sophie always started drawing from the wrong side.
Reyes’s voice changed.
“Stay here.”
He entered the room.
Claire could see only part of it from the corridor.
It was not a dungeon.
In some ways that made it worse.
There was a narrow daybed bolted to the wall. A small table. A plastic water bottle. Folded blankets. A portable reading lamp. Nothing looked theatrical or overtly sinister.
Then Claire saw Sophie’s cream backpack beneath the table.
Her stomach tightened.
Beside it sat a transparent medication pouch with Sophie Bennett written across the label in black marker.
Claire stepped forward.
The gloved crew member raised a hand.
“Please don’t enter.”
“That’s her medication.”
Reyes turned.
“What medication?”
“Pain medication. Anti-inflammatory. She rarely needs it anymore, but I travel with it.”
“Was it in the backpack?”
“No. It was locked in my cabin.”
Reyes stared at her.
“Are you sure?”
Claire gave him a look.
He nodded.
“Fair question. I had to ask.”
“It was in my cabin.”
Sophie whispered, “My fox too.”
Her stuffed fox lay on the daybed.
The fur around one ear was flattened from years of sleeping under Sophie’s cheek.
Claire had packed it herself.
She walked toward the room again.
The crew member stepped in front of her.
“Ms. Bennett.”
“How did they get into my cabin?”
“We’re determining that.”
“That bag was locked in a cabinet.”
“Claire.”
Reyes said her name quietly.
She looked at him.
“If someone entered your cabin without authorization, we will establish how. But right now I need you not to touch anything.”
Claire folded her arms because her hands had begun shaking.
Sophie leaned around her.
“Why is Fox in there?”
Nobody answered.
The room contained other things.
A packet of crackers Sophie liked.
A toothbrush still in its packaging.
Children’s acetaminophen.
A phone charger.
A clean T-shirt from Sophie’s suitcase.
A spare pair of leggings.
And, placed neatly on the table, a laminated card.
May you like
Reyes picked it up with gloved fingers.
He read.
