“Really!” Chloe added, looking at Wes. She was very afraid that the woman might get herself hurt.
Or worse, killed.
As they were speaking, Chloe noticed that George and Edward were just a few people down the line behind them.
“Hey!” she said, waving to the pair.
“So, we’re just off to a lovely lunch and you people are climbing a waterfall today, eh?” Edward called.
“We’re going to go get wet,” Wes called. “Sally is going out for lunch. Maybe...”
Chloe knew that somehow—she wasn’t sure how—but that Wes’s simple words had alerted George to the fact that they were worried about the woman.
But it wasn’t George who answered.
It was Edward.
“Sally! We’re just going to lunch and then back aboard the ship, all at a leisurely gait! You’re welcome to join us!” he said.
“How lovely!” Sally said. “Thank you so very much. I’d be delighted to join you!”
“Wonderful. Then we’ll meet—” Edward began.
“I’ll just slide back there right now—the people between us will be happy to have one less person in line ahead of them!” she said.
With a brilliant smile, she thanked Chloe and Wes for being so friendly and headed on back to join Edward and George.
George gave them a wave.
Wes nodded.
Chloe looked at Wes. She moved closer, keeping her voice low as before. “Great, Markowitz leaving the ship, Sally convinced something is up—” she began.
“Chloe, I’m sure that many people are suspicious,” Wes said.
“But it didn’t come up at all before. Now...”
“Now, most people probably believe that sad and tragic as it may have been, one woman went a little crazy. The only way the other deaths have been connected is through federal investigations, so...”
“You have people who may also be part of something like a Sally’s Wednesday Sherlockians—and others who were in law enforcement of some kind at some time,” Chloe said.
He nodded. “It just makes what we’re doing all the more important.”
“You think that Edward and Sally will really be all right with George?” she asked.
“I do. A, the man is an experienced agent. B, he’s also a nurse—suspicious of any dangers that those not in the health profession might skip over entirely. Yeah, I think they’re okay with George,” Wes assured her.
Off the ship, they had a chance to bid goodbye to Edward and George and head for their bus.
And they got lucky. While Celia and Jeff Henderson were seated at the front of the bus several rows ahead of them, they wound up with Daniel and Broderick McClintock in the seats directly behind them.
They had a bus driver and a tour guide. At first, the guide spoke, welcoming them to Jamaica, describing the country’s history and how it, like so many places, had its first European visitor be Christopher Columbus, on his second trip to the New World in 1494.
But there was, of course, a history before that.
People known as the Redware People because of their pottery were the first known inhabitants of the island, circa 300 to 600 AD. Next up, the Arawak arrived, followed by the Spanish and the English; the native peoples fled to the mountains along with many of those who had been enslaved. Spanish rule became English rule.
Their guide went through the centuries quickly, giving them a general overview of the island, ending with Jamaica’s Independence in 1962 and talking about the beauty and the many splendors of the island.
