‘And it wasn’t some sort of jealous white-woman thing, well maybe a little bit, but mostly it was how easily you carried yourself. Sometimes I’ve had to be a cold bitch to get anyone to take me seriously, and other times I’ve had to pretend to be a bimbo to get them to like me. You just turned up, being you, and Chuck was nice to you, and the crew liked you, well more than me at least, and Daniel …’ She trailed off.
‘The point is, you had principles and talent and you wouldn’t let anyone convince you otherwise, and that’s what I want to prove to myself: that I can do that too. So this is my first step.’
‘It’s a very brave one, Agatha, and I appreciate all of it.’ Ore was touched.
Agatha seemed too uncomfortable to dwell on the sentimental. ‘OK, well if you have all that on record, I better be off.’
‘Bye, Agatha.’
The dial tone clicked and Ore stopped the recording,immediately downloading it onto her laptop and scouring through the transcript for the best quotes. She couldn’t wait to update Gail in the morning.
‘Impressive stuff, Ore, this really takes the investigation to a whole new level.’ Ore beamed at Gail’s glowing review. ‘Have you tried Captain Wilsons again? We could probably publish without him, but it would be the cherry on top, or one of Claude’s victims maybe?’
The question brought Ore crashing back down to earth. She should have remembered that Gail was relentless; there was always something that could be better. ‘I haven’t had any luck getting hold of his contact details and Captain Annie doesn’t want to talk,’ she said gingerly.
‘You’re an investigative journalist, Ore, do some digging. Surely the other crew you’re in touch with have his number?’ Ore hadn’t told Gail about Daniel. She’d felt embarrassed that she hadn’t kept things strictly professional.
‘No totally, I’ll try and get hold of him.’
Instead she spent two days tinkering with the article and finding things to do that were exactly not speaking to Daniel. She knew what his answer would be anyway so she didn’t really see the point.
Another unknown number call came through while she was getting ready for bed. She braced herself, as she had been doing recently, in case it was Chuck’s team. She was growing ever more paranoid that they might have gotten wind of the story. When the voice came through, Ore didn’t recognise it.
‘Is this Ore?’
‘Yes speaking, who is this?’
‘It’s Vicky, fromLady Thalassa.’
A beat of silence as Ore prepared herself for the threat.
‘I want to go on the record.’ It was not at all what Ore had expected her to say. And she began to wonder what had happened on the boat after she left. Who had managed to turn all of Chuck’s tight-lipped staff into whistleblowers?
‘OK, let me just set up a recording,’ Ore said, still cautious.
Vicky explained everything, revealing another litany of cases when Chuck had silenced mostly women to protect himself and his friends. Annie of course, but also his ex-wife Patricia, a handful of younger stewardesses that hadn’t lasted, and finally the revelation that Vicky too was a victim. Not just of Chuck, but of Claude too.
‘Why are you telling me all of this now?’ It just didn’t add up for Ore, and she found herself wondering if this was some sort of trap set by Chuck himself.
Vicky sighed loudly. ‘I’ve given years of my life to that man, and I thought a lot about what Daniel said to us all, that we’ve all come to just believe he’s invincible, but that’s just another one of his lies, the most powerful one of all. It’s about time I stop falling for it and tell the truth.’
It took a moment for Vicky’s words to sink in. It was Daniel who had turned the tide on board.Why?Wasn’t he supposed to be doing Chuck’s bidding, and killing her story? She thanked Vicky. It occurred to her that the things Chuck seemed to look for in the women he surrounded himself with – tenacity, intelligence and practical thinking – were the very things that had, in the end, turned them against him.
‘One last thing, Vicky, do you have Daniel’s number?’
She sounded surprised when she said, ‘You haven’t spoken to him?’ but then didn’t wait for an answer before reciting the digits down the line.
Now Ore was impatient to speak to him. ‘Best of luck, Vicky.’ She ended the call and began to dial the number, before she lost her nerve. He answered after two rings.
‘Ore,’ he breathed, and she felt herself melt at the tenderness of that single syllable.
‘So you already have my number then?’
He chuckled at her indignance. ‘I’ve been meaning to call you, for a while.’
‘Why didn’t you?’ Ore asked quietly, shocking herself at how wounded she sounded.
‘After the last time I saw you … I don’t know, I couldn’t explain myself. I just shut down and let you believe that it was about working for Chuck, because it was easier than admitting that I was a coward.’ Ore held her breath, waiting for more.
