Chloe rose and walked over to him, smiling at Gina who stood by his side, and set a hand on his free arm. “Daniel, you’re going to need some serious therapy. There’s no way you get over something like this easily.”
“I’m so glad my parents are dead! I never thought I’d say that!” Daniel told them.
“It will take time,” Gina said. “But, Daniel, we went through this together. I will be there with you. We will get through this together.”
Daniel must have had a fairly heavy dose of the drug because he suddenly seemed to veer to the right and had to grip a chair, even though the waves had died down and the sea had gone calm. It was as if the ocean itself knew that a problem had been solved.
Well, almost solved. They had to find Chloe’s 3D-printed weapon.
“I’m sorry—” Daniel began again.
“Daniel, if you’re sorry, please, go lie down some more. Take care of yourself!” Wes told him.
“Right, sweetheart, please!” Gina said to him.
Daniel nodded. He tried to smile. “She is incredible, isn’t she?” he asked the others. “And thank God! I lost a brother, but I might have gained the love of my life,” he added softly, looking at Gina.
“Quite incredible!” Chloe agreed. “Gina—”
“We’re going!” Gina said. “Come on.”
“She forgave me already for what he did to her!” Daniel whispered.
Then they were gone.
“That poor guy,” Edward murmured.
“Yeah,” Chloe agreed. “Hardest for him—and Jeff Henderson, I suppose. Has anyone seen him—”
“He was still down in the hospital when we left,” Edward said. “I guess she got him extra hard, too.”
“Well, life won’t be easy for either of them for a while,” Wes said. “Chloe?”
“Ready!” Chloe said. “Hopefully, we’ll see you at a late last cruise dinner!” she said, then she hooked her arm into Wes’s and said, “Let’s do this!”
Wes moved quickly, knowing that George would protest in worry again.
“Bottom to top,” Chloe suggested.
And so they moved through the decks, looking for men wearing baseball caps.
“You know,” Chloe said as they searched, “I thought that if it was one of the McClintocks, it might be Daniel. Angry for always being second fiddle. But... he just doesn’t feel the need to rule the world.”
Wes nodded. “And I was thinking at first that it might have been Jeff Henderson who took your gun—except thathe couldn’t have because he was on the floor with the rest of you, all ready for disposal.”
Chloe shook her head. “This time, I think we need to think vice versa. It’s someone Broderick hurt, really hurt. Someone who might be afraid that he won’t really face the full force of the law for what he’s done.”
“I talked to Alonzo. He has every computer geek at our disposal trying to see who on this ship might have a connection to one of our would-be murderers,” Wes told her.
She nodded.
They moved from deck to deck. In a way, it was surprising to see the amount of people lounging comfortably on the decks, playing the games, sitting at bars... all the things people might normally do on a cruise.
But soon after they’d left the table, Captain Millbrook had come on over the speaker. He started out apologizing profusely, then explaining that they’d discovered they had a trio of wanted people on board and that ship’s security and federal and local forces had secured them and all was well. Should anyone need the hospital, it was open to serve their needs from anything they considered serious to a hangnail. He thanked everyone and explained that they were required to return to port, but that each and everyone on board would be offered a free trip in the future. He begged everyone to enjoy their last night at sea.
His speech had been good. Better than that, it had been sincere.
“I give up,” Chloe murmured after they’d been walking a long, long time. “I think on this we’re dead right—whoever took the gun wanted to kill Broderick. They very nearly did. I think I’d really, really like to clean up now!”
