Page 46 of Too Far To Sea
“Miss Dana Knight, correct?” The officer opened her tablet.
“Yes.”
“I’m Martina. I’ll save you some time. The video caught him jumping, no there is a better English word…” The officer’s face scrunched up. “Lunging. That’s the word for it. He was lunging at you. I am surprised you to—” She paused for a moment before saying, “You know what I mean. Sorry, I was just speaking Tagalog with my friends in the crew lounge and my brain isn’t back in English mode.”
“Pinned him to the wall?”
“Yes. I have not seen many women do something like that unless they were a superhero in a movie. You work for a security company, right?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Is that where you learned to defend yourself like that?”
“Yes. The original owner’s wife and her daughter are passionate about women defending themselves. They’ve developed several techniques to help women use her natural structure to their advantage.”
Martina leaned forward, clearly intrigued. “That sounds fascinating. I need a course like that. Even though we have some CCTV footage, I am supposed to ask you what happened.”
It wasn’t a question, but Dana answered anyway. “I was returning to my cabin and saw Amy-Kate. Which struck me as odd as she twisted her ankle earlier today. She turned the corner just beyond my new cabin. I wasn’t going to keep following her, but then I heard her say my name. As soon as I realized she was talking to my sister’s fiancé…” Dana censored out her emotions. “I confronted them.” Saying her reasons out loud, Dana wondered if she was justified in her actions. “Chandler lunged at me with a raised fist, and I defended myself.”
“Understandable—if I caught my sister’s fiancé cheating, I’d be upset, too.” Martina looked down at her tablet. “That seemsto be all I have to ask you. You are free to go. You know your way out of here?”
“Yes.” Dana glanced at the two closed doors. It’s odd that Martina didn’t ask her more questions. Wasn’t she the one in trouble? Chandler didn’t actually hit her, he just tried. Why would McKay need to talk to Amy-Kate longer than Martina interrogated her? Not that it was much of an integration. It barely qualified for taking a statement. Not a single follow-up question. They must rely heavily on the CCTV. Amy-Kate hadn’t been aggressive.
McKay responding as quickly as he had made sense. He’d barely left her. But the Chief Security Officer Alvaro and Martina, who was a single bar officer, also being that close? Odd coincidence or something else?
A wave of exhaustion hit her as the adrenaline wore off. She had bigger concerns now. What would she tell Cheyanne?
McKay handed Amy-Kate another tissue and tried to mask his disgust. “Do you know who told Chandler about the meeting place?”
Through her tears, Amy-Kate sniffled, wiping her eyes. “I—I don’t know.”
“It’s okay, take your time.” It had taken long enough to get Amy-Kate to divulge that the meeting place was chosen because Chandler knew there were not security cameras there.
“He told me he paid handsomely for it... I’d complained because I felt cheap sneak—sneak—sneaking around.” She wailed and burst into sobs.
McKay pushed the tissue box in front of her. He’d seen better acting in first day rehearsals.
Between shuddering breaths, Amy-Kate managed to speak. “Dana’s going to tell Chey and ruin everything.”
Maybe she knew more. “Ruin what?”
“He was getting me an apartment in London. Now the wedding will be off, and Chandler’s father will?—”
There were no words. McKay hoped his face remained neutral. Was he hearing correctly? Cheyanne’s fiancé was setting up Amy-Kate to be his mistress, and she was fine with the plan. He couldn’t ask. It had nothing to do with ship security. “Do you know when Chandler paid this person?”
She stopped her fake sobs and looked at him, eyes narrowing. “What does that have to do with anything?”
“As ship’s security, we don’t care what you are doing in your private life as long as it is consensual. However, I am very concerned that someone is selling the location of our CCTV blind spots to Chandler and perhaps others.”
“Oh.” Amy-Kate looked down at her hands. “I don’t know when he arranged it for sure, but he texted me the day before we flew to London that he had found a place for us to meet. I thought he purchased another room.”
“When did he tell you the location?”
“The first night we were on board, he showed me the place. Very disappointing if you ask me. He said he didn’t want the temptation of a suite.”
Not very helpful information, even if it did explain why someone as well off as Chandler would pay someone for just a corner. Apparently, the man had a modicum of honor and didn’t get a room for his mistress the week before the wedding. “Thank you for your help, Amy-Kate. You may return to your suite.”
An odd look came over Amy-Kate’s face. “Chey is going to kick me out. Where will I go? Are there any more rooms on the ship?”
