Now, as Carter watches his grandfather tuck his empty satchel beneath the desk in their suite, a tiny seed of suspicion unfurls in his belly.
That crime wall in the Los Angeles office is somehow tied to thisBlack Orchidtrip, and to a killer named Vincent locked in a Nepalese prison, and to two accomplices—one of whom might still be alive, given the question mark, and mention of “no proof.”
Maybe this isn’t just a cruise for Gramps to reconnect with Carter and his mom. Or to lecture about his books. Maybe that crime wall in LA is why they visited the old Greek prison in Athens, where Gramps told him about the Bikini Killer called Vincent.
Gramps has unfinished business.
A few missing chapters.
And something left to hunt.
This for sure is all going into hisList of Suspicious Happenings to Be Investigated by Carter J. Frost.
It’s Criminal:
The Mystery of theBlack Orchid
A Trinity Scott & Gio Rossi True Crime Production
EXT. Santorini Caldera—September 2025
The ocher-red hull of the RVTritonresearch vessel funded by the Harrington Foundation floats upon the cobalt Aegean. Antennae, cranes, and winches bristle against the clear sky. On the deck, specialist divers double-check air tanks, rebreathers, gauges, comms, cables, cameras. At the stern a hydraulic dive platform lowers with a hiss. The first trio of divers pause, then drop backward into the clear water. Bubbles rise like mercurial jewels as they descend to the wreck. Two swim ahead, and the third films from behind.
Underwater
Headlamps cut white cones through the shafts of blue. As the trio descends deeper, deeper, light filtering down from the surface dims. TheTriton’s hull fades into a blot of shadow way above them. Far below the divers the outline of theBlack Orchidbegins to take shape. She’s canted on her side with her stern hanging over the lip of a sheer undersea volcanic cliff. The void below the cliff segues from deep indigo to pitch black—no sign of a bottom.
VO—Trinity Scott
“What you will see and hear about theBlack Orchid’s doomed first—and final—voyage has been gleaned from conflicting witness testimonies, police and court records, surveillance footage that was either retrieved or preserved in the cloud, along withIt’s Criminalinterviews with survivors. Some moments have been reconstructed and reenacted for viewers using available evidence.”
Reenactment—Theo Pappas Crew Cabin—September 19, 2019
A man with smooth olive-toned skin and black hair enters a cramped, windowless crew cabin. There is no natural light. We hear the low and steady hum of engines. The room contains a small bunk, a built-in desk with a chair, a narrow closet, and a compact bathroom with a toilet and shower.
On-Screen Text: Theo Pappas
Theo shuts his cabin door and locks it. He sits at the desk, checks his watch, then opens a laptop. He connects a mouse and launches an app.
His body stiffens as an image appears on his monitor. Quickly, he reaches for his headphones, puts them on. He leans closer to the screen and taps a series of keys on his keyboard.
The image fills the screen.
On Theo’s monitor is live camera footage being fed from one of the elite suites.
Elysium Sky Villa Interior—Retrieved Footage
A large suite fronted with glass comes into the wide-angled view. Sliding doors lead onto a private deck with a plunge pool, a hot tub, and an outdoor shower.
Two women are inside the suite. A third in aBlack Orchidcrew uniform is presently exiting the room. She looks flustered as she shuts the door behind her.
VO—Trinity Scott
“Theo Pappas—a.k.a. ‘Sorin the Magnificent, the Man Who Sees Without Eyes, Unlocker of Secrets and Souls’—knows his girlfriend Roshaan DaSousa inside out. Roshaan has been Theo’s project. He’s intimately familiar with her fears, her needs, her desires, her cultural orientation, her subliminal psychological drivers. Theo believes he might evenknow Roshaan better than she does herself. People, he finds, are often blind to their own emotional drivers. And Theo can see that right now—from the look on her face, from her furtive body language—he’s got a problem developing with Roshaan.”
CONT. Reenactment—Theo Pappas Crew Cabin
Theo pensively rubs the side of his mouth as he studies the footage on his monitor.
