Page 16 of You Can Trust Me

“And where have you already looked for her?” Now he’s talking to me again.

“I checked this room and Florence’s room and then I called Jacob, who called you.”

He pinches his lips with his fingers, nodding slowly. “I see. Do you have a way to contact her while she’s on board the ship?” He waves his hands for emphasis as he speaks.

“Yeah, we paid for the Wi-Fi package. I’ve tried to call her and send her a message, but I’ve gotten no response.”

“Did you try the company app? Sometimes it goes through easier than—”

“Yes. I tried everything.”

“Good. Good.” He clicks his tongue. “Did you check the dining room? Would she have gone down for a morning coffee, perhaps?”

“She wouldn’t have gone anywhere without telling me!” I shout, losing my temper finally. “Why aren’t you doing anything? Why aren’t we searching for her? How much longer are we going to stand here twiddling our thumbs while my wife is missing? We should be calling the police.”

He pauses, drawing in a long breath. “Sir, while you are on board,Iam the police. I will help you find your wife, but I need to know where to look. I need to understand where she’s been, where she might go, and where we should look first. I’m sure this is all just a misunderstanding, and I can appreciate how frustrated and worried you must be, but please, trust me when I say I know what I’m doing and will do everything in my power to help you. Do you have a photo of her, so I can share it with the crew?”

I pull out my phone and find a photo. If I had more time, I might find one I know she’d prefer, but I don’t. I don’t have time for any of this.

“Thank you,” he says once he’s helped me locate his phone contact in the app to send it. “Now, you wait here. Call me if she returns or if you get a hold of her before I contact you. There’s an option for the security office on your phone.” He gestures toward the landline phone on the wall that I used to contact Jacob earlier. “Just press the button. It goes directly to my team. I’m going to alert the captain and crew, and we’re going to do a full search of the ship, top to bottom.”

“I want to help,” I say quickly.

“You can help by waiting here,” he says with little room to negotiate. “We have protocols for this. As soon as we locate her, you will be notified.”

I step back into the room just before he pulls the door closed and feel Florence’s arm wrap around my waist. I let her lead me to the bed, where she sits down next to me.

“They’ll find her,” she whispers, brushing the hair back from my face. “They will. You heard them.”

I nod. I did hear. He’d saidwhenthey find her, notif.It is the one piece of hope I am clinging to.

* * *

Three excruciating hours pass, with each set of footsteps down the hall lighting my body on fire, each voice carrying through the walls causing my heart to skip a beat before Diego and Jacob return.

When they do, I know instantly—without having to look behind them for a sign of her—that she’s not with them.

“You didn’t find her.” I can hardly utter the words.

Diego’s eyes fall to the ground, but he recovers quickly, appearing unaffected. “No, sir. We’ve searched everywhere on the ship that she could possibly be. Every area accessible to guests. We called her name on the intercom system multiple times. She isn’t here.”

“What does that mean?” It’s as if there’s no oxygen left in the room. No oxygen left in my lungs. “If she’s not here, where is she?”

“We arrived at our port this morning at seven. It’s possible she already disembarked.”

“You’re saying you think she left the ship?” I look around, trying to decipher if it’s as ridiculous as it sounds to me. “Without me? She just walked off?”

“Wouldn’t you have records of that?” Florence asks. “In the safety briefing, they mentioned they’d scan our passes.” She waves her lanyard.

“Yes,” Diego says. “We do scan the passes of each guest as they leave the ship. Of course. As of right now, however, we don’t have any record that Mrs. Barlowe disembarked—”

“Well, then why would you say that?” I ask, cutting him off.

“We don’t have any record, but itispossible there was a glitch, or she managed to slip past without getting her key card scanned. It has happened in the past, though it’s certainly not common.”

“Why would she do that?” I demand. “Why would she leave without telling me where she was going?”

“I’m not saying she did. Only that it’s possible. She may have sent you a message that you haven’t received due to a lack of cellular service.”

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