“Beth, shine your phone on these tethers.”
I start to sort through them, running my hand along each line as Beth illuminates them with her phone flashlight. There’s still a chanceNojan could be connected to one. Nojan made it clear at the start of our trip that there would always be several tether lines connected to the ship—enough for each of us to hook onto our life vests.
I find each tether that’s connected to the five of us on board and move them aside. Then, I run my hand through one more rope until I find the metal hook at the end.
“Have you found him?” Gigi pokes her head out of the companionway.
“No,” Emma responds as she and Adam reach the cockpit, “but the radio mic is missing from the helm.”
“Are you kidding me?” Gigi cries.
“Check the radio inside,” Adam tells her. “Is the microphone still attached?”
Gigi ducks inside, and the four of us wait in silence.
“It’s gone,” she yells, coming back up the steps.
I swivel toward Adam. “What about the life raft? Doesn’t it have its own communication equipment?”
“Yes, that’s right, it does.” He steps onto the cockpit’s bench and grips a shroud before moving toward the bow.
I crouch down and lift the last rope tether and run my hand along it until it slips through my grip. I pick it up again and hold it up to the light. Beth gasps, staring at the end.
“The life raft’s gone,” Adam says, returning to the cockpit.
“Nojanabandonedus?” Gigi exclaims from the companionway.
“Guys!” I lift the end of the rope. “I think I found Nojan’s tether.” Beth shines a light on the cleanly frayed end. “It looks like someone cut it.”
Chapter Nineteen
Present: Day Five at Sea
No one says anything as a wave crashes against the starboard hull and the wind howls through the mainsail rigging like a scream—even though we’re all thinking the same thing. Nojan didn’t fall overboard by accident. And he didn’t abandon us on purpose using the life raft. He was murdered.
“Cut it?” Gigi shrieks. “Like killed him?”
Beth and I huddle near the back of the cockpit cover with the others, staring at the frayed tether in silence as another lightning bolt brightens the sky. My mind flashes to Emma holding her pocketknife at the dinette before we went to bed. We all brought them. In the wake of Gigi finding the note from “Courtney,” we never tossed them overboard.
“Who would do that?” Adam asks, tearing his wide eyes from the tether to the four of us.
“You would,” Emma says.
I turn to Emma, whose narrowed gaze is directed straight at Adam.
“You were the only one up here. We were all asleep when Nojan went overboard. And if Gigi didn’t hire you for your looks, then how’d you even get this job? Who are you? You’re not a sailor, and don’t bullshit me. I sailed enough growing up to see your mistakes.”
Adam sighs, lowering his gaze to the floor. My heart sinks.
“Okay. I have a little sailing experience, but not a lot. The first officer who was scheduled for this trip got sick the day before our departure, and Nojan knew I could use the cash. I convinced him to take me as a last-minute replacement.” Adam straightens, looking at Emma. “But I didn’t kill him! Why on earth would I do that? I needed him here as much as you do.” His gaze falls to the cut rope still in my hand. “Someone cut that line. But it wasn’t me.”
The other women look skeptical, but when I appraise him, I sense a spark of honesty. “His story makes sense,” I say. “If he’s not a trained sailor, why would he endanger his own life by killing the captain in the middle of a storm?”
My gaze travels to Emma. Of all of us, she’s the one with the most sailing experience. I think of the video that recently went viral of her screaming at a contractor. And Emma’s argument on the phone that Beth and I overheard through our stateroom wall. Her temper seems to be getting worse with age. But is she capable of murder? And what would be her motive in killing the captain?
“What about Starlink?” Gigi asks. “Shouldn’t we still have internet?”
I turn to Gigi and note that Beth seems to be scrutinizing her the same way I was appraising Emma. “Not without power,” I say.
