Chapter 2: The Missing Phone
Chapter 2: The Missing Phone
The deckhand’s name was Mason Reed.
He was twenty-seven, recently hired, and sweating despite the cool night air.
Captain Hayes searched his pockets.
Wallet.
Keys.
A folded stack of cash.
No phone.
“What did you throw into the water?” Ethan asked again.
Mason looked at Victoria.
It was quick.
Less than a second.
But Ethan saw it.
Victoria did too.
“You’re frightening him,” she said. “This is ridiculous.”
Ethan stepped closer to Mason.
“How much did she pay you?”
Mason’s face drained of color.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Ethan took the cash from the captain and counted it.
Ten thousand dollars.
Fresh bank straps.
Victoria laughed softly.
“Half the crew is paid in cash during private charters.”
“This isn’t a charter,” Captain Hayes said.
The entire corridor fell silent.
Victoria turned toward him.
The captain’s jaw tightened.
“I hired every person aboard this vessel,” he continued. “Mason was not scheduled for tonight.”
Ethan looked at Mason.
“Who brought you aboard?”
Mason stared at the floor.
Margaret spoke from behind Ethan.
“The other man called him Leo.”
Mason’s head snapped up.
Ethan caught the reaction.
“Who is Leo?”
“No one.”
Ethan grabbed the radio.
“Search every cabin, supply room, and maintenance compartment. Find anyone not listed on the official manifest.”
Victoria stepped closer.
“Ethan, listen to yourself. You’re turning a family misunderstanding into a police raid.”
“My mother was beaten.”
“She fell!”
“Then why did Mason throw his phone into the ocean?”
Victoria opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
A steward rushed down the stairs.
“Mr. Cole, we found someone.”
Two crewmen dragged a broad-shouldered man into the corridor. He wore a black maintenance uniform, but there was no yacht logo on his chest.
Margaret recoiled.
“That’s him.”
The man smiled.
“Mrs. Cole must be mistaken.”
“She isn’t,” Ethan said.
The man’s gaze moved toward Victoria.
Unlike Mason, he didn’t look afraid.
He looked amused.
“Search him,” Ethan ordered.
Captain Hayes found a key card, a syringe in a sealed medical pouch, and a handwritten note.
Ethan unfolded the paper.
It contained five words:
DOSE HER BEFORE THE TRANSFER.
Ethan looked up.
“What transfer?”
No one answered.
Then Margaret began coughing.
Her body folded forward.
The cracked cup slipped from her hand and shattered against the steel floor.
A thin white residue clung to the bottom.
Captain Hayes stared at it in horror.
“That wasn’t water.”
Ethan caught his mother before her head struck the floor.
Her eyes rolled back.
Victoria whispered one sentence.
May you like
“She wasn’t supposed to drink that yet.”
Everyone heard her.
