Chapter 8 - The Woman in 1218
Lena moved faster than anyone else in the room.
She locked the wheelchair brakes, called for a stretcher, and began checking the woman's pupils before Danner finished asking her name.
"Nicole Mercer."
A junior medic read it from the passenger bracelet.
"Cabin 1218."
I stood against the wall while they transferred her.
A thin line of blood ran from her hairline toward her ear.
It was not a dramatic injury.
That made it more frightening.
Small injuries often came with large stories.
"What happened?"
Danner asked the crew member who brought her in.
The crew member was young, maybe twenty-two, with a housekeeping badge clipped crookedly to his shirt.
"Found her near Service Stairwell C."
"Alone?"
"Yes, sir."
"Conscious?"
"Not really."
He looked at Nicole.
"She kept saying she slipped."
I turned toward him.
"She told me she recorded my husband with the bat."
The crew member's face changed.
Danner noticed.
"Did she say anything to you about a recording?"
"No, sir."
"Did you see a phone?"
"No."
Danner looked at Nicole's silver clutch sitting on the lower shelf of the wheelchair.
He picked it up carefully.
"Lena, can I inventory this?"
"Not until she is stable."
"I need to know whether the phone is inside."
Lena did not look up.
"Then wait thirty seconds."
Danner did.
Blake arrived nineteen seconds later.
I counted.
He stopped in the doorway.
"What happened?"
Danner looked at him.
"Guest injury."
Blake's eyes landed on Nicole.
Something flickered across his face.
Recognition.
Not concern.
Recognition.
"Where was she found?"
"Why?"
Danner's question was immediate.
Blake shrugged.
"Need it for the report."
"Service Stairwell C."
Blake's mouth tightened.
"Camera there?"
I watched him.
So did Danner.
"You tell me," Danner said.
Blake looked annoyed.
"I don't know every camera on the ship."
"You knew enough to be in technical control during the outage."
The room went silent.
Blake stared at him.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means I checked your access log."
"I was troubleshooting a guest complaint."
"Which guest?"
Blake said nothing.
Danner stepped closer.
"Name."
"I do not remember."
Danner almost smiled.
"Then I guess we will check the work order."
Blake's jaw tightened.
He looked at me.
"You have been busy."
"You have too."
Lena interrupted us.
"Out."
Nobody moved.
She looked up.
"All of you except Ashlynn."
Blake laughed.
"She is not family."
Nicole's eyes opened.
They were unfocused.
Her hand moved weakly across the sheet.
"Ash..."
I stepped closer.
"I'm here."
Nicole blinked at me.
"Phone."
Danner lifted the clutch.
"We are looking for it."
Nicole shook her head.
"Not there."
Her voice was barely a whisper.
"Photo."
I leaned closer.
"What photo?"
"Ship photo."
Her eyes closed again.
"Code."
Lena looked at me.
"Do you know what she means?"
"No."
Danner opened the clutch after Lena nodded.
Inside were lipstick, a room key, a folded receipt, and a pair of reading glasses.
No phone.
The folded receipt was from the ship's photography studio.
Danner unfolded it.
There was a handwritten six-digit number near the bottom.
"Could be an order code."
I looked at Nicole.
"Or a password."
Blake stepped forward.
"Give me the receipt."
Danner turned his body slightly and blocked him.
"No."
Blake stared.
"Excuse me?"
"You're off this incident."
"You cannot do that."
"I just did."
"Captain will reverse it."
"Then let him."
Blake's eyes moved between Danner and me.
Then he left without another word.
I waited until the door closed.
"He knew her."
Danner nodded.
"I saw it."
"Check whether his keycard opened Stairwell C."
"Already asked control."
"And?"
"No answer yet."
Lena dimmed the lights around Nicole's bed.
"She needs imaging."
"Can you do it here?"
"Yes."
"Will she be alone?"
Lena looked at me.
"Not anymore."
Danner tucked the photography receipt into a clear evidence sleeve.
"I am going to the photo studio."
"I am coming."
He shook his head.
"No."
"She gave the clue to me."
"You are supposed to be under observation."
"For a condition your nurse says I do not have."
Danner looked toward Lena.
Lena folded her arms.
"Clinically, she is fine."
"You are both making my job impossible."
"Your job was impossible before we met."
That finally made him laugh.
It lasted less than a second.
"Fine."
He pointed at me.
"You stay beside me."
"Gladly."
We left Nicole under Lena's care and took a crew elevator down two decks.
The passenger corridors were nearly empty.
Most people were asleep.
The ship itself was not.
Machines hummed behind walls.
Water moved against the hull.
A distant piano played somewhere above us, absurdly normal.
The photography studio was closed.
Danner unlocked it.
Rows of display screens showed smiling passengers posing beside staircases, railings, and fake nautical backdrops.
For a moment I hated every image.
Everyone looked safe.
Danner switched on a terminal.
"Order code?"
I read the six digits from the receipt.
He typed them.
A gallery appeared under Nicole's cabin number.
There were twenty-seven photographs.
Dinner portraits.
Embarkation pictures.
A photograph of Nicole standing beside a life ring.
Then one image that made me stop breathing.
Gregory was in the background.
The photographer had been taking Nicole's picture near the embarkation atrium.
Thirty feet behind her, Gregory stood beside an open luggage cart.
He was holding the aluminum bat.
Not hidden.
Not inside the suitcase.
Holding it openly while speaking to someone whose face was blocked by a column.
"Zoom in."
Danner enlarged the image.
Gregory's face sharpened.
The bat was unmistakable.
A second photograph, taken two seconds later, showed the other person stepping partly into view.
Blake.
I felt cold spread across my chest.
Danner stared at the screen.
"Son of a bitch."
Gregory was handing the bat to Blake.
Or Blake was handing it to Gregory.
The still image could not prove direction.
But it proved contact.
It proved Blake knew about the bat before the ship left Florida.
"Download both."
Danner reached for a blank drive.
The terminal froze.
We looked at each other.
The screen went black.
"No."
Danner hit the keyboard.
Nothing.
A message appeared.
REMOTE ADMINISTRATION IN PROGRESS.
Then the gallery vanished.
I heard footsteps outside the studio.
Danner turned off the monitor.
"Back room."
"No."
"Ashlynn."
"If someone comes in and we hide, they own the story."
He looked at me.
I pointed toward the security camera above the studio entrance.
"Is that one working?"
Danner checked the small indicator light.
"Yes."
"Then we stay where it can see us."
The door opened.
Captain Avery entered.
Blake stood behind him.
Of course he did.
"Chief Danner."
The captain's face was furious.
"Explain why you removed a restricted guest from medical observation."
Danner stepped between us.
"Because a witness identified evidence relevant to the assault."
Avery looked at me.
"Mrs. Hartman, you need to return to medical."
"We found photographs of Gregory holding the bat before departure."
The captain went still.
Blake did not.
"Where?"
He asked too quickly.
I looked at him.
"Interested?"
Danner continued.
"One photo also shows Officer Blake beside him."
Avery turned slowly.
"Is that true?"
Blake laughed.
"No."
"We just saw it."
"Then show him."
Danner turned back to the terminal.
He woke the screen.
The gallery was gone.
Avery's face hardened.
Blake smiled.
"Convenient."
I looked toward the security camera above us.
"Pull the studio footage."
The captain sighed.
"Mrs. Hartman -"
"It will show what was on the screen."
Danner looked up.
"The angle catches the monitor reflection in the glass wall."
Avery's eyes narrowed.
"Fine."
He looked at Danner.
"Return her to medical and preserve everything."
Blake stepped forward.
"Captain -"
"Everything."
Avery's voice sharpened.
For the first time, Blake looked genuinely worried.
We left the studio together.
The elevator ride back was silent.
When the medical deck doors opened, Lena was waiting.
Her face told me something had gone wrong.
"Nicole?"
"Stable."
"Then what?"
Lena held out a tablet.
"Her chart was changed while we were downstairs."
Danner took it.
"Changed how?"
"The injury note now says she fell while intoxicated."
"Was she intoxicated?"
"Blood alcohol is zero."
I looked at the screen.
The chart included an order for a sedative Nicole had never been prescribed.
"Who entered it?"
Lena's face tightened.
"Dr. Hale's account."
Danner swore.
"Where is Hale?"
"Missing."
"Missing?"
"No one has seen him in forty minutes."
A sound came from Nicole's room.
We turned.
Nicole was awake.
Her face was pale.
Her voice shook.
"Ashlynn."
I went to her.
"I'm here."
She reached for my hand.
"The pictures are not the video."
"Where is the video?"
Nicole swallowed.
"Cloud."
"Password?"
"The photo code."
I nodded.
"We have it."
Her grip tightened.
"There is sound."
"What did they say?"
Nicole's eyes filled with fear.
"Your husband asked if the camera would be dark long enough."
My pulse thudded once.
"And Blake said yes."
She took a shallow breath.
"Then another man said something."
"Who?"
"Older."
"Charles?"
Nicole nodded weakly.
"What did he say?"
Her eyes met mine.
"He said make sure she swings back."
The words chilled the room.
It had never been enough for Gregory to threaten me.
They needed me to defend myself.
They needed bruises on him.
They needed a story.
Then Nicole whispered one more sentence.
May you like
"And they said if you did not swing back, they had another plan."
