“It was Amelia!” Daniel supplied. “Edward is so upset. He’s the one who asked her to be on the cruise, to speak to people and all.”
“And, of course... wow!” Broderick said. “Why? Why on earth would she put stuff in someone’s chocolate like that? Why give her the chocolate—”
“Silly boy!” Daniel said. “Jealousy. Amelia was horrendously jealous of Sally! That was evident. I think Amelia believed that she was going to get to be Edward’s plus-one. And then, go figure, Edward falls for a slightly older woman and there’s Amelia... Poor Amelia! Just out of the running.”
“Daniel, don’t be mean!” Gina murmured.
“Mean?” he demanded. “Amelia almost killed Sally! She probably meant to kill her, get her out of the way so she could go after Edward again. And I’m being mean?”
“I can’t believe that Amelia meant to kill her,” Gina argued. “She probably thought that she could make her sick or maybe give her an ugly rash... I don’t imagine that she realized how smitten poor Edward is and that he’d sit by her side no matter what. Because that’s what real caring is!”
“Exactly. Edward cares for the woman, and cares deeply,” Wes murmured.
Chloe realized that she liked Gina more and more. The girl had a real heart beating in her body. Beautiful inside and outside, as the saying went.
But...
While the morning had kept her from thinking about the night in which she and Wes has sounprofessionallyindulged, Gina’s words made her think about the world on a more personal level, about herself, about that night, their incredible intimacy...
And Wes.
She couldn’t blame it on alcohol since they’d indulged in nothing but nonalcoholic beer since they’d been on the trip. But she didn’t want to blame it on anything. She couldn’t remember when she’d met anyone like Wes. Yes, they were pretending. They were undercover; they had taken on different identities for the cruise. There was always discussion about the real role of undercover work, especially when some agents lived a double identity for months or even years when they were trying to break into cartels or other criminal enterprises.
Last night, she had made choices as herself, realizing they’d both been oh-so-professionally fighting a mutual attraction. And that could mean...
She realized that if she’d thought of it as a one-night stand, it never would have happened. Just as she enjoyed seeing the genuine person behind Gina’s beautiful face, every day she was with Wes made her both respect and admire him more.
And now...
She couldn’t help it, though she knew that what they were doing was the right thing. Unless they uncovered the clue that would solve the many homicides that had taken place, they had to keep playing the game. And, as suggested, Amelia might just be an incompetent and jealous woman. She hadn’t handled the concept of being questioned with the irritation and feigned innocence of a hardened criminal. And still...
She might be in on whatever was going on. A pawn in a game being played by clever minds.
Maybe it wasn’t just jealousy that had caused her to take such actions. Maybe whoever was running the conspiracy feared Sally—because of her armchair crime-fighting friends. That was possible—far-fetched, but possible.
“She’ll be in the brig!” Daniel said.
“Does our ship have a brig?” Celia asked. “I mean—”
“It has a brig,” Daniel assured her. “She’ll be processed back at the Port of Miami. Attempted murder!”
“Maybe it’s just attemptedsickness,” Chloe said.
“Ah! Another bleeding heart among us!” Daniel told her. He quickly glanced at Wes. “And I mean that as a nice thing!”
“Well, anyway!” Broderick said. “Here we are, on a bus again!”
“Yeah, but just for a few minutes,” Celia told him. “The place is close!”
And it was.
As they left the bus, they were escorted into something that resembled a classroom—or was a classroom, dive-style. They filed in with other passengers, all excited about thelittle dive boats they were about to get on. It wasn’t a training dive, sometimes done from the beaches of certain ports, but a dive for those who were certified to various depths and degrees, as only certified and experienced divers were allowed to sign up.
There were others from the ship that Chloe of course recognized by then, including Darlene Jordan, her father, Bryan, and a few others they had met on board. Twelve passengers in all had signed up for the diving excursion. It was a limited choice; first come, first serve.
A man in his forties—wearing a light wet suit much like Chloe’s own—headed to the front of the class. He appeared fit and able and a little bit weathered. But then, such a man probably spent his life in the sun and the elements.
“Hello and welcome to the Dive the Santa Teresa Excursion!” he told them. “I’m Percy Williams, your guide today. We’ll also have Sammy Beck with us. I’ll be leading and he’ll be following up behind us, making sure no one gets lost. Now! I know for many of you, the shipwreck is the prime piece of this dive. Yes, she is amazing and how she came to be here, so close to our reef, is equally amazing. So! The ship left a port that you cruisers might know, the Port of Lisbon, Portugal. Portugal was a major seafaring nation with Henry the Navigator starting a determined effort sailing around Africa, circa 1419, and making their way by voyages to India. Then, of course, came the discovery that the world wasn’t at all flat, that there was a New World to be discovered. And it was in 1500 that a Portuguese nobleman, Pedro Álvares Cabral found Brazil! Fast forward to the year 1545 and Santa Teresa left the Port of Lisbon. A beautiful ship, just a decade old and she’d been at sea several years. As usual, she crossed the Atlantic easily, heading for several ports in the Caribbean when behold! Something happened, something knownto explorers, pirates and anyone who traveled to these parts. A storm arose, a massive storm, the kind we know of today with the power to almost level cities! And so, she tossed, she turned... she sank! Neither she nor any of her crew or cargo made it to any port. Not even she, brave valiant ship that she was, could survive the onslaught of that storm. And so, she went down. Down, down, down to the bottom of the sea.”
