Page 10 of Deadly Waves

4

Four

Mandy’s smilewas bright when James introduced her to the cruise line’s owner. Will Davenport was in his mid-fifties, but he looked younger. The only thing giving away his true age was the gray hair lining his temples. He gave Mandy an appreciative look as she shook his hand, lingering on her legs a little longer than James felt comfortable with.

James reminded himself that his wife was an attractive woman and it wasn’t unusual for men to stare at her. That didn’t mean he liked it.

“I’ve heard so much about you,” Will said, beaming as he pumped Mandy’s hand. “Your husband can’t stop raving about you.”

Mandy cast a sidelong look at James. “Yes, well, I think he might be fonder of me than other people are and he forgets no one other than him is interested in hearing about me nonstop. You’ll have to forgive him.”

“Oh, from where I’m standing, he sold you short,” Will said.

James didn’t like his smile. “I never sell my wife short.

“That was a joke,” Mandy prodded, slipping her hand into his as Will shot James an odd look. “You’ll have to excuse my husband. We’ve all been so excited for this trip that he didn’t get any rest last night. That makes him cranky.”

“Oh, I’m glad you’re pleased,” Will said, strolling down the deck and smiling at Mandy as he ran his fingertips over the railing. “Do you like your room?”

“I love it,” Mandy enthused. “That floor is … amazing. Do you really think I might be able to see sharks?”

Will chuckled, delighted. “It’s funny,” he said. “That was the first thing your husband asked me when heard about the rooms. He wanted to know if anyone saw sharks. We’ve only taken a few test runs – two overnight, in fact – but sharks have been sighted multiple times. Someone even saw a Great White shark.”

Mandy gripped James’ hand so tightly that she almost cut off circulation because she was so excited. Whatever mild annoyance James felt at Will checking out Mandy’s legs vacated when he saw her childlike smile. This trip was for her, he reminded himself. Sure, the money was nice. Ultimately he took the job because of the room, though. He couldn’t kid himself that it was for any other reason. He knew the window would be enough to make it a trip of a lifetime for her.

“I love sharks,” Mandy said. “I hope I get to see some.”

“Take some photos through the window if you do,” Will suggested. “I would love to use them for our brochures if possible.”

“Oh, I’m going to be taking photos. The Kardashians will be taking selfie lessons from me if I manage to get a shark close to that window.”

James pressed his lips together to keep from laughing as he turned his attention to Will. “This boat is magnificent,” he said. “You said this was something of a test voyage, though. How does that work? We didn’t really get into too many details over the phone.”

“Basically we’re dealing with family, friends, and contest winners,” Will replied. “The boat is about two-thirds full, but we have the entire staff handy. The entire point of this trip is to work out any kinks. That includes service and room kinks as well as security problems.”

“You had another security company handle things initially, right?” Grady asked, an arm around Sophie’s back as he ushered her forward. Despite himself, he was curious about the security set-up. He was eager for fun in the sun, but he also prided himself on a job well done.

“We did,” Will confirmed, bobbing his head. “We had a test run on another ship with that company.”

“What happened to them?”

Mandy glanced at James, unsure if Grady should be pressing the new boss in that manner. James didn’t appear bothered by the question, though, so she wisely kept her mouth shut. She was a little curious herself.

“We had a slight problem with the owner, Martin Kayhill,” Will replied. “Part of the job when running security on a cruise line is to protect the merchandise. There are a lot of jewelers who pay for the privilege to sell to a captive audience, so to speak.

“On our previous run, one of those jewelers had fifty grand in gems go missing,” he continued. “Now, I can’t prove it, but I think either Kayhill or one of his men left with the baubles. Even if they’re innocent, though, they were in charge of security and fell down on the job. I had to pay out of pocket to keep my insurance rate from skyrocketing.”

“What do you want Hardy Brothers Security to do?” Sophie asked, taking Mandy by surprise with her fortitude until she reminded herself that the woman was a reporter and that made her curious by nature. “Do you expect them to run security on every cruise? How is that going to work?”

“We’re not technically running cruise security,” James answered. “We’re here to detect faults in the security.”

“He’s hiring another security firm to run the day-to-day operations,” Grady explained. “That’s not technically what we do. We don’t provide protection in that manner. We do, however, run security system checks.”

“Think of us like a third-party fact-checker, so to speak,” James said. “Someone else is doing the security. They’re like the first party. Will here is the owner. He’s the second party. We’re the third party sent in to point out if we see any holes in the security and then recommend how we would fix them.”

“It’s honestly very important,” Will added. “With the amount of jewels we’ll be ferrying on and off, we need to make sure all of our bases are covered. The other issue we run into is crime. I’m sure you’ve seen some of those news shows where they covered murders on cruise ships, right?”

Mandy nodded. “I saw one where a woman was on her honeymoon and they think she had help tossing her husband off the balcony. His body was never found because the ocean is so big.”