Chapter 5 - THE HONEYMOON WAS NEVER OURS
I called security before I called Evelyn back.
Chief Vance arrived with Elena six minutes later, and I repeated every word of the call while Elena wrote it down.
Vance did not look surprised when I told him Evelyn said Gregory had not planned the honeymoon.
That bothered me.
"You already suspected Charles."
"I suspect several things."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the only answer I can give you until I have evidence."
I crossed my arms.
"Then get me evidence."
Vance studied me for a moment, perhaps deciding whether I was angry enough to become difficult.
I was.
"We found the person in the maintenance uniform."
"Who is he?"
"His name is Martin Cole."
"Crew?"
"Former crew."
Elena's head snapped toward him.
"Former?"
"He worked electrical maintenance for the line until eight months ago."
"How did he get on the ship?"
"Passenger ticket under his own name."
"Who paid for it?"
Vance's eyes narrowed.
"We're checking."
"Where is he now?"
"His assigned cabin is empty."
"So the man who may have disabled my camera has disappeared on a ship."
"We are looking for him."
"And Charles?"
"In his cabin."
"Gregory?"
"Medical observation."
I hated how normal those words made everything sound.
The situation had gone from a violent confrontation to a network of people moving around a floating hotel with thousands of hiding places.
Vance told me security would post an officer outside my door overnight.
I asked whether the officer was there to protect me or contain me.
"Protect you."
"Put that in writing."
Elena coughed to hide another smile.
Vance actually smiled this time.
"Your lawyer is rubbing off on you."
"Dana didn't teach me to distrust vague authority."
"The Marines?"
"My mother."
The smile disappeared when he realized I was not joking.
After they left, I tried to sleep.
I lasted eleven minutes.
Every sound in the corridor became a hand on the knob.
Every vibration through the wall became someone entering a neighboring cabin.
I finally sat at the desk, opened the complimentary notebook, and began reconstructing the last year of my life with Gregory.
Dana had told me to write down anything that seemed unimportant at the time.
So I did.
The first date at a steakhouse in Charlotte.
The weekend in Asheville when Gregory became angry because I went for a morning run without telling him.
The apology afterward, complete with flowers and a story about an ex who had once vanished for two days.
The time he asked whether I still kept in touch with people from the Marines.
The time he joked that my military discipline made me "perfect wife material."
The night he suggested I sell my condo because "married people shouldn't need escape routes."
I had laughed.
He had not.
The proposal happened six weeks later.
I wrote until the page blurred.
At 1:38 a.m., the ship phone rang.
I stared at it.
PRIVATE CALLER.
I let it ring four times before answering.
"Evelyn?"
"Yes."
Her voice was barely audible.
"Are you alone?"
"Security is outside my door."
"Good."
"Tell me what you meant."
"Charles chose the cruise."
"Why?"
"Because ships are contained."
My hand tightened around the receiver.
"Contained for what?"
"For conversations people cannot easily walk away from."
"Was Gregory supposed to hit me?"
Silence.
"Evelyn."
"I don't know what Gregory was supposed to do."
"That's a lie."
She breathed in sharply.
"I knew Charles wanted him to make you sign something."
"What?"
"A marital property agreement."
Dana had predicted it.
I felt anger spread through me with surprising calm.
"What did it say?"
"I never saw the final version."
"Final version?"
"There were drafts."
"What did the drafts say?"
"They would have given Gregory control of most assets acquired during the marriage and authority over certain business interests if you separated within the first five years."
"My business interests?"
"Your shares."
I went still.
I was a senior executive at Meridian Axis, a logistics technology company that had grown quietly for six years and was preparing for a major private financing round.
My equity was valuable, but not publicly liquid.
Most people outside the company had no idea what it might eventually be worth.
Gregory knew because I had trusted him.
"How does Charles know about my shares?"
"Gregory told him."
"Why would I ever sign that agreement?"
Evelyn gave a bitter little laugh.
"Because Charles believes everybody signs eventually."
"That is not an answer."
"He doesn't ask once."
The meaning settled between us.
I looked at my own hand, suddenly remembering all the times Gregory had described his father as relentless in business.
"Rebecca Vale."
Evelyn stopped breathing for a second.
"What about her?"
"You know her."
"I knew of her."
"She warned me about you."
Evelyn began to cry exactly as Rebecca predicted.
I felt no sympathy this time.
"Why did she warn me?"
"Because I failed her."
"How?"
"I asked her to stay quiet."
"After Gregory attacked her?"
"After Charles did."
The answer shocked me into silence.
"Charles?"
"Gregory started it."
Evelyn's words came faster now, as though the truth had been pressing against her teeth for years.
"Rebecca was engaged to Gregory."
"He told me her name was Rachel."
"He lies about names when he wants to make people harder to find."
"What happened on the Caribbean Star?"
"Gregory took Rebecca there for what she believed was an engagement celebration."
"And Charles followed."
"Yes."
"Just like this cruise."
"Yes."
I stood and walked to the door, checking the peephole to make sure the security officer was still outside.
He was.
"What did they want Rebecca to sign?"
"A financial agreement involving a company she had inherited from her grandfather."
The pattern was suddenly unmistakable.
"She refused."
"Yes."
"Then Gregory hurt her."
Evelyn sobbed quietly.
"He threatened her, and Charles helped keep her in the suite until she agreed to discuss a settlement."
"That is false imprisonment."
"I know."
"Did you help?"
There was another long silence.
"I brought her water."
The answer was so small and so awful that I had to sit down.
"You brought water to a woman your husband and son were holding against her will."
"I was afraid."
"So was she."
"I know."
"Did you call anyone?"
"No."
"Did you unlock the door?"
"No."
"Did you tell security the truth?"
"Not at first."
"What changed?"
"Rebecca escaped when Gregory left the suite."
"And then?"
"She reported them."
"And you pressured her to withdraw."
Evelyn's crying grew louder.
"Charles said he would destroy Gregory's life if the police became involved."
I almost laughed from disbelief.
"Gregory was one of the people who did it."
"He was my son."
"Rebecca was somebody's daughter."
Evelyn stopped crying.
That sentence landed.
"You're right."
"I don't need you to agree with me."
"What do you need?"
"Tell Chief Vance everything you just told me."
"I can't."
"Then stop calling me."
"Ashlynn, please."
"No."
"Charles has documents."
I paused.
"What documents?"
"The agreement Gregory planned to make you sign."
"Where?"
"In our cabin safe."
"Tell security."
"Charles will deny they are his."
"Let him."
"There is something else with them."
Her voice dropped.
"A letter from Gregory."
"To whom?"
"His father."
"What does it say?"
"I only read the first page."
"Evelyn."
"It says if you resisted, he would make sure everyone believed you were the violent one."
I stopped breathing.
"You saw that?"
"Yes."
"When?"
"Yesterday morning."
"Before our wedding reception ended?"
"Yes."
"And you said nothing."
Her silence was the confession.
I wanted to scream at her.
Instead, I asked the only question that mattered.
"Can you get the letter?"
"Maybe."
"No."
I forced my voice to stay calm.
"Do not steal it, do not bring it to me, and do not touch anything."
"Then how do I help you?"
"Tell security where it is."
"They won't search Charles's safe without cause."
"Your statement is cause."
"You don't understand."
"Then explain it."
"Chief Vance tried to help Rebecca three years ago."
"He told me he was there."
"Charles got him transferred afterward."
That explained Vance's caution.
It also made me wonder how much power Charles believed he still had.
"Why did Vance come back to this ship?"
"I don't know."
The line went silent for a moment.
Then Evelyn whispered urgently.
"Someone is outside my bathroom door."
"Call security."
"I can't."
"Evelyn, call them now."
A male voice shouted something in the background.
I could not make out the words.
Evelyn gasped.
The phone clattered.
Then Charles Hartman's voice came onto the line.
"Ashlynn."
Every hair on my arms rose.
"Where is Evelyn?"
"My wife is confused."
"Put her back on."
"She needs rest."
"Put her back on."
He ignored me.
"You have made a difficult first day of marriage much worse than it needed to be."
"Your son attacked me."
"My son made a mistake."
The casual acknowledgment surprised me.
"So you admit it."
"I admit nothing."
"You just said he made a mistake."
"Marrying someone who turns every private disagreement into a public spectacle is a mistake."
"Is Rebecca Vale a public spectacle too?"
For the first time, Charles went silent.
I knew I had him.
"Good night, Charles."
"Ashlynn."
His voice changed.
The polite businessman disappeared.
"You are on a ship hundreds of miles from anyone who matters to you."
I looked at the security officer through the peephole.
"That sounds like a threat."
"It sounds like geography."
"Thank you for clarifying."
I hung up and immediately called Vance.
When he arrived, he listened to my account, then radioed two officers to cabin 1429.
They found Evelyn alone.
Charles was gone.
So were the documents from the safe.
May you like
And according to the electronic log, the person who opened that safe at 1:52 a.m. used a master override code assigned to the captain's office.
