Twenty minutes later, I stood beside Captain Martin and Domingo, holding my still damp but now mostly clean dog in my arms.For once, the normally active dog was happy to be held still and pressed against my warmth, tucking her head into my neck and snuffling with content.She was a handful and heavy, now that she had grown.
Once everyone had gathered, Dinesh began to speak.
“Mr White’s dog was found in distress this morning, trapped in a crate that had been nailed shut, in the galley, buried under supplies.She was soaked with seawater and slime, and her jaw held shut with seaweed wrapped around it.She could barely make enough noise for Simon to find her.”
Domingo, who was standing beside me, gave me a grave look and made the sign of the cross over his chest.
“In the galley?”Lahiri queried.
“What does Domingo have to say about it?”Hale asked.
Domingo stood taller and glared at the man who had spoken.
“I’m as puzzled as you are,” he said.“Do you think I would have done such a thing?How dare you!”
“Domingo did not do this deed,” Captain Martin stated with confidence.“But someone did.”
“Who was on watch last night?”Dinesh asked, his eyes intense and his stance firm as he crossed his arms and glared.
Three reluctant hands went up.
“Well?”Dinesh barked.
“Didn’t see nothin’, or hear nothin’, Captain.I swear.”Black said.“And it weren’t us.We would never harm her.”
“We were at our posts all night,” Darcy corroborated.
Fiddle-playing, poetic Darcy wouldn’t hurt a fucking fly.I knew that much.
“I see,” said the captain.
The rage wafted off him, but he spoke in a cool and steady voice.
“When I find the man, or men, who carried this out, who thought that trapping a gentle creature in a wooden box like that… When I discoverwho did this, I will take…appropriate disciplinary measures.”
I quailed to think what those might be.I’d never seen him this angry.
“Get out of my sight, the lot of you.”
He took my hand and tugged me towards our chambers.I gazed helplessly at Domingo who followed us down the steps.
Dinesh pushed his door open and dragged me into our rooms, then turned to Domingo, who had followed.
“No.I’d like to be alone with my husband.”
Domingo froze.Then his eyes narrowed, and he straightened to his full height.
“Dinesh, I need to talk some sense into you.”
They stared at each other for a long moment, whilst I kept silent.The captain retained my hand in a vice-like grip.
“I don’t think any of the men did that,” Domingo stated.
Dinesh was silent.He let go of me and raised his hands into the air.“Then give me another explanation.It must have been one of the crew.How else could she have been taken and placed into that box?Tell me that!”
Domingo’s sober gaze went back and forth between mine and Dinesh’s.
“You’re asking the wrong question,” Domingo said, perching on the edge of Dinesh’s war table, careful not to upset the map or the boats.
