“You? You two? I’m not drowning and I didn’t fall overboard! And you’re not attorneys, so just what are you doing here?” she demanded, plopping down and staring at them before quickly adding, “Not that I mind. They won’t let me have a computer in there, no internet connection... One of those guys found me some bad historical book to read, so I guess you’re my entertainment for the day. I’ll start right off. I am going to sue the butts off all these people!”
“Amelia, you’re not drowning, no,” Chloe said. “But we are trying to help you. We’re trying to figure out the truth of what happened because... Amelia, I’m afraid that this can only go down so many ways!”
“What? Are you an attorney when you’re not having some kind of bad artist showing at your gallery?” Amelia asked.
“Her dad’s an attorney,” Wes lied.
Tears suddenly sprang into Amelia’s eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m horrible. It’s just that this is so, so messed up! Okay, the truth. I was jealous of Sally, but I was trying to fight that feeling! I really just wanted to do something nice. Okay, I don’t really read labels. The chocolate looked good. There might have been something in the display about ground nuts, but I was in a shop in Jamaica and I... I don’t really know how they do their warnings or whatever—the ingredient list they had up could have been for several items. And it never occurred to me that any allergy could be so horribly severe!”
Chloe glanced at Wes, who was giving nothing way.
“I guess when we don’t have allergies, we don’t see how severe they can be,” Wes said, shaking his head. “And, Amelia, I just wanted to say thank you, too, for talking to us aboutthis. We figured if we could get a good feel for what really happened, we could explain it all to the captain.”
“We were pretty sure you had no malicious intent!” Chloe told her.
“Well, thank you. And I’m sorry, but... I will have my attorneys go all over this! I came on this cruise to be helpful, because I do have such respect for Edward, but then he turns around over that ridiculous woman and believes that I could have done something to hurt her? I cared for Edward! And this is what I get. A beautiful cruise—spent locked in a tiny little miserable room!”
“Well, I guess it would have helped if you would had gone right to them and apologized, explained that you were just trying to do something nice,” Chloe told her, grimacing.
“Are you kidding!” Amelia said. “You do know that news on a ship this size travels at the speed of sound! I would never have had a chance. I don’t think they had the woman down to the hospital before the whole ship was abuzz with rumors that she had been poisoned! I couldn’t have said a thing at that point that might have changed anything, I just...” She broke off, shaking her head. “I listened to everything. I quickly heard that Sally was going to be all right. And, stupidly, I forgot that there were security cameras all along the hallways and that... Well, I guess it’s good to know that the ship has good security.”
“That’s always good,” Chloe murmured.
“Except that... well, this is ridiculous! Nothing that I’ve supposedly done will stand up in a court of law and they will all be very, very sorry!” Amelia assured them.
That would depend on what was allowed in on a trial, exactly what she was charged with and whether a jury found her credible or not, Chloe thought.
“The whole thing is very unfortunate,” Chloe said, shaking her head sadly.
“Can you get me out of here?” Amelia asked, looking from Chloe to Wes.
“We can talk to the Edward and the captain and see if we can get anywhere,” Wes told her. “I’m so sorry, Amelia, we just don’t have any guarantees. But again, thank you, because we were hoping that we could be helpful, so... we can try!”
“Edward really doesn’t know just how liable he is!” Amelia announced. “I will make mincemeat out of him and his entire company!”
Chloe nodded gravely and unhappily, as did Wes.
But she couldn’t help but wonder.
Was Edward in truth a very lucky man that he’d become so attached to Sally—and that George was on board, with him at every move? Amelia’s venom might have masked something quite a bit deeper.
She was certain that the woman had knowingly found chocolate with nuts so finely ground in the mixture that Sally wouldn’t notice.
Perhaps she had just meant to make her as sick as a dog—so sick that she couldn’t attend classes, meals or anything else with Edward.
Or had she known the severity of the allergy and meant for Sally to die? To what end?
To leave Amelia free to be the shoulder that he leaned on, the person who gave him comfort...
Who managed to always be with him.
“All right, well, we’d best get going,” Wes said. “Again, Amelia, thank you so very much for speaking with us. And, I promise, we’ll do everything in our power to get to the bottom of this.”
His words were real and passionate. They would do everything to get to the bottom of this, but Chloe noted that he didn’t add that they would do everything in their power to get Amelia out of the brig.
Because they didn’t really intend to do that at all.
Chloe rose, thanking Amelia herself.
