by A. E. Radley
Mara relayed the message and handed the radio back to Caroline. She gestured to her laptop. “What was his name?”
“Diego Ortega,” Caroline said. “Googling him won’t help. It won’t change anything.”
“I’m curious,” Mara replied. “And sorry. I know you really liked her.”
Caroline sniffed, examining her appearance in the hallway mirror to see how bad the damage was. “It’s not your fault, I just… fell for her. Harder than I expected. It’s my fault.”
Mara tapped the name into the laptop while Caroline tried to make herself presentable for the short walk to her own cabin.
“Well, I’m still sorry. You deserved to find someone.”
Caroline hummed noncommittally.
Just one more day, she reminded herself. And then this nightmare sailing will be over.
A Liability
Annie had never been on deck ten before, but that was apparently where Diego’s room was and that was where they were going. He hadn’t said a word to her since they left the dining room. He held her hand, painfully tightly, and led her to his stateroom.
She had thought that they’d go back to her room and that she might be able to contact Elvin and get help, but that brief light at the end of the tunnel was extinguished when Diego pressed the elevator button for deck ten.
They stopped outside a room. Diego practically threw her hand to one side, got his pass card, and opened the door. He put his hand on Annie’s back and shoved her into the room.
She stumbled, almost falling to the floor but catching herself on the desk. “Diego,” she tried.
He raised his hand to silence her before stepping into the room. He waited a couple of seconds, allowing the door to slam behind them, and then he backhanded her across the face. He’d never struck her before, but Annie had always known he was capable of it.
He grabbed her arm and threw her towards the sofa.
“You think you can run? From me?” he demanded.
“No, I—”
“Think you can tell someone everything that you think you saw that day?”
“No, I’d never—” She stood up to explain.
He punched her. Annie never saw it coming. She was shocked at how lightning fast his fist came at her. And then shocked at how painful it was. White-hot pain seared through her skull. How any movie could portray someone being punched multiple times suddenly seemed ridiculous. She had no idea the action could be so excruciating.
He paced the room, fury radiating from him. Annie remained in a ball in front of the sofa, not wanting to get in his way again.
“If you’d come to me,” he said, “if you’d spoken to me, rather than this foolish running away, I could have helped you.”
Annie knew Diego well enough to know that wasn’t true. She’d seen too many people from the inner circle disappear to believe that he’d have allowed her to live.
“Who have you spoken to?” he demanded.
“No one.”
He surged towards her. “Liar!”
“I haven’t!” Annie shouted back. The pain in her face dramatically reduced her fear of answering him back. She knew she needed to fight for her life now. He was capable of anything, and she’d only experienced a tiny amount of his rage so far.
He ran a frustrated hand over his mouth, staring down at her and attempting to figure her out. “What is this Serena Rubio business? You know her?”
Annie shook her head ever so lightly, aware that every movement felt like a needle forcing her bones apart. “I bumped into her at the station, this was her idea. I never wanted to do it.”
Diego perched on the sofa. He patted the seat, requesting she come and sit beside her. Once she hesitantly did, he placed a large but gentle hand on her back.
“My little Annie,” he said softly. “I have great love for you, you know.”
Annie knew that was a lie. They’d had a passionate affair at first. She’d been brave enough to talk back to him and he’d liked that. And she’d liked him for a while, he’d been charming and fun to be around. But that fizzled out quickly and Annie had become more of a sister-figure to him, a part of his entourage but not a lot more.
This meant she knew him well. She’d watched Diego for years; this softer persona was the one he used to keep people calm before he inflicted whatever punishment he deemed fit.
There was no way he’d take Annie home and forgive her. Not after what she saw, she was too much of a liability. And, of course, there was the matter of her running away.
She’d had a good run, but she knew that it was undeniably the end of the line. Screaming for help wouldn’t do much good; Diego would silence her in seconds. His effortless charm had allowed him to get away with worse than murdering a nobody like Annie.
She couldn’t see a way out and wondered if she was getting what she deserved.
Annie Peck
“Captain? Doctor Perry is calling for you again,” the duty officer called across the security command centre.
“Take a message,” Caroline instructed them without looking up from the engine output screen.
Mara had called twice since Caroline had arrived on the bridge. Caroline hadn’t taken the call either time. She told herself that she wasn’t being petty, she was busy. She’d decided to remain on the bridge for the delayed sail-away that evening.
The distraction of work wasn’t doing much to take her mind off of events.
“We have clearance to depart,” Thomas said. “Finally.”
The port authority had decided to punish them for the problems with paperwork and the late departure. Even Caroline’s goodwill earned over years of working with, and buttering up, the port director was useless. He’d managed to be as awkward as possible and come up with problem after problem to delay them.
Caroline made a mental note to pick him up a case of wine from La Spezia on the next sailing and go see him personally to beg forgiveness. She knew his ego would feel appropriately stroked if she did, which would mean easier sailings in and out of Napoli in the future.
Cruise ships were like big bullies who came into the ports, demanding so much in a short space of time. They disrupted the ordinary workings of many ports, caused pollution, and were perceived as uncaring of anything but profit.
Caroline had learnt long ago that creating personal connections with the port staff meant they didn’t see it as Fortuna arriving in port, they saw it as Caroline doing so. After the system issues, she’d have to rebuild that relationship.
“Sector four-one has left that door open again,” Thomas noted. He turned to the crewman beside him and asked them to call down to the area and have the door closed.
“Again?” Caroline asked.
“Yes, twice earlier today and once ten minutes ago,” Thomas said. “We have a maintenance call booked for tomorrow in case it’s a dodgy sensor or lock. Getting sick of seeing it on the panel.”
“I think we need to have another memo sent to all staff about the importance of keeping certain areas secure,” Caroline said. “It’s gotten lax lately.”
“I’ve had twenty reports today,” Thomas said. “It’s more than lax.”
“Start disciplining,” Caroline instructed him. “We can’t have doors left open or unlocked.”
“Um, Captain?”
Caroline turned around.
One of the security team who guarded the bridge stood in the doorway to the command centre. “Doctor Perry is here to see you.”
“Here?” Caroline confirmed. To her knowledge, Mara had never been on the bridge.
“Yes, she’s requesting access.”
Caroline breezed past the woman, through the bridge, and to the door which was being held slightly ajar by another security guard. Mara stood outside the door, in the secure corridor, rolling her eyes.
“Let her in,” Caroline said.
Mara edged around him, her laptop clutched to her chest. Caroline gestured to the side of the bridge where leather armchairs were set up for
guests to watch the best view on the ship.
“What is it?” Caroline asked, her arms folded across her chest.
Mara opened her laptop, placing it on her palm for Caroline to see. “I was looking up Diego Ortega,” she started.
“I don’t care.” Caroline started to walk away.
“You will,” Mara said with certainty.
Caroline paused and slowly returned to look at the laptop.
Mara clicked on a browser window and brought up a picture of Diego and Serena. They were at a party on a beach, smiling and laughing at something out of shot.
“I’m so happy for them,” Caroline deadpanned. “Anything else?”
“Put the sarcasm away, this is serious,” Mara instructed.
She clicked on another browser window, bringing up an Instagram account. “This is from the same party. I found some of the same people. You can see Diego’s back in this picture. Agree?”
Caroline squinted. “Yes, that’s him.”
Mara clicked on another browser window. “So, from that Instagram account, I found a Facebook page. This is the account of the same woman. Here she is with…”
Caroline looked from the picture to Mara and back to the picture. “Serena.”
“No. The woman in this picture is not Serena Rubio.” Mara clicked to another picture. “This picture is tagged as someone called Annie Peck. And here is Annie’s profile.”
Mara clicked on the link, and a Facebook profile page appeared. Caroline frowned. It said Annie Peck, but the photos were Serena Rubio.
“A pseudonym?” Caroline asked, knowing that many celebrities used them.
“That’s what I thought at first. Then I did a deeper dive. Annie Peck has an extensive social media presence, she’s definitely a real person. And there’s a video of her performing karaoke. She cannot sing. At all.”
“Coincidence?” Caroline asked, still looking at the photos on the Facebook page.
“I don’t think that both Serena Rubio and Annie Peck, who look identical, know Diego Ortega. In fact, I couldn’t find a single thing connecting Serena Rubio and Diego, but there was plenty connecting Annie Peck and Diego. Then I did this.”
Mara clicked some more buttons, and a series of pictures appeared. The women in the pictures looked similar, but side by side it was clear that they were not the same woman.
“Left, Serena. Right, Annie,” Mara explained. “They are different people. And the woman aboard is not Serena Rubio. She is definitely Annie Peck.”
It wasn’t the first time that Caroline had dealt with identity theft, but it was the first time that she had been personally and completely taken in by it. Caroline tried to keep herself together. She was on the bridge, and while no one was actively watching them, she could feel their eyes on her.
“Right,” she said.
There was nothing else she could say. Mara was looking at her, awaiting a reply to see if Caroline had heard her words. She’d heard them, but it would take a lot longer to process them.
“So, she’s a fraud.” Caroline swallowed. She couldn’t believe she’d been so completely taken in by Serena. Annie. Whoever it was. The woman she’d kissed and started to imagine a life with. Anger sparked; she wanted to lash out but knew better.
“Caroline, I’m worried,” Mara whispered. “She’s something to do with Diego Ortega; I looked him up, and he is not a nice man. I’ve done a very deep dive into Annie’s social media accounts, and she doesn’t seem the kind of person who would do this sort of thing. Honestly, going back years. She works with charities; she blogs about books she has read. Identity thief, she is not. And to what end? Why does anyone pretend to be a famous opera singer in an enclosed space? It’s a massive risk.”
“Criminals get a kick out of this kind of thing. Fooling people,” Caroline explained.
“I know this is more your area of expertise than mine, but I don’t think so,” Mara said. “Something is going on here, and it isn’t Annie deciding to pretend to be an opera singer for a week.”
Caroline jutted her head towards the security command centre, and both women entered the space behind the bridge. Caroline picked up the phone and asked to be put through to the stateroom attendant for Serena’s room.
“What are you going to do?” Mara asked softly, not wanting to attract too much attention from the other people working in the room.
“See if she is in her room and then have her arrested,” Caroline said. The call was connected, and Elvin introduced himself. “Oh, yes, Elvin, do you know if Serena Rubio is in her room?”
Elvin said he would go and check.
“She might be in trouble,” Mara said.
“Then the brig would be the best place for her,” Caroline pointed out, covering the mouthpiece in case Elvin was still by the phone.
“I know she hurt you—”
“She’s an identity thief, Mara. This isn’t anything personal; it’s standard procedure.” Caroline held the phone in an iron grip and stared at one of the screens.
She couldn’t believe she had been taken in by this woman. She hadn’t figured out what the play was yet; perhaps she wanted money, or maybe it was to blackmail her to courier contraband aboard the ship for her boyfriend Diego, or maybe just for a laugh. She honestly couldn’t fathom her reasoning.
She’d been played, but it had felt so real. And now it was crumbling down around Caroline quicker than she could cope with.
“Captain? Are we still departing?” Thomas asked, unaware of the disaster she was dealing with.
“Yes, carry on, Thomas,” Caroline instructed.
She wasn’t going to delay departure any longer, even if it would be easier to chuck Annie Peck off the ship in Napoli rather than keep her in the brig for the remainder of the trip. They were late, and they needed to get going.
“Captain West?” Elvin said on the line.
“Go ahead, Elvin.”
“The room… it’s been turned upside down. Miss Serena isn’t there.”
Caroline felt her blood run cold. “Thank you, Elvin. I’ll take it from here.”
She hung up the call and picked up the phone again. She connected to the switchboard and asked for the stateroom attendant for Diego Ortega’s room. A few moments later she was connected.
“I need you to go and check if Mr Ortega is in the room. I just need to know if he is there, nothing more. Send some free Champagne on my compliments as an excuse,” Caroline said.
The attendant agreed and said they would be back shortly.
Caroline held the phone and waited.
All around her, the bridge was coming to life as the intricate task of moving the enormous ship from its mooring began. From starting the process to the ship actually moving took around thirty minutes. Caroline was already mentally calculating how much extra fuel they would need to burn to catch up to the schedule. She’d have a lot of explaining to do in her next report.
Beside her Mara tapped away on her laptop, presumably doing further research. Caroline took a couple of breaths, trying to stay calm. She was too stressed to figure out what the scam was; she needed to relax a little. Nothing was making any sense, and she couldn’t calm herself enough to try to piece together what she did know.
For the first time in her career aboard Fortuna, she wanted to get off the ship and go to Serenity. The idea of climbing into bed and tuning everything out sounded like utter bliss.
“Captain? There is no one in the room, but there has been a fight. The furniture has been turned over, a mirror is broken, and there is blood on the carpet,” the attendant reported.
A Responsibility for Safety
Caroline briefed her head of security, Dan Lovell, on the situation and instructed him that she wanted a ship-wide search for both Diego Ortega and Serena Rubio. She also wanted a complete log of both of their movements for the past six hours.
She needed to piece together the puzzle and figure out what was happening. Her hurt and anger had to be pushed to one side so she
could do her job. Getting the situation under control was her primary goal, figuring out what the situation actually was could wait.
She made her way to Diego’s room. Hearing that there was blood present had shaken her. Anger tore through her at the thought of the sheer number of bold-faced lies Annie Peck had told her, but residual feelings lingered. The thought of her being injured caused Caroline’s hands to shake as she marched through the hallways towards the stateroom.
Security officers were posted outside the door. One stepped aside, and the other opened the door for Caroline to enter.
The door closed behind her, and the sound of it clicking shut swallowed Caroline’s gasp. Dan looked up from the broken glass he was studying; it spread across a large swath of the floorspace.
Could all of that have come from just one mirror? she wondered.
“Hell of a tussle in here,” Dan stated. He stood up and pointed to the chair which had been tossed onto the bed. “I think he used that to incapacitate her, there’s blood on the leg. And then more blood in the glass here.”
“No one saw anything?” Caroline asked in astonishment. The ship was nearly full, there were people everywhere. She refused to believe that no one saw or heard anything.
“No reports. We’re searching the CCTV as quickly as we can. It happened when two of the big shows were on; they easily suck up three thousand people.” Dan continued to look around the room. “He wasn’t planning on staying long.”
Caroline frowned, looking around the room for whatever had told Dan that.
“Didn’t bring anything aboard with him,” Dan explained, with a nod towards the wardrobe. “There’s only hand luggage in here.”
“We only have one more day, then we’re back in Barcelona,” Caroline said.
“True, but he brought nothing. No toiletries, for example. He purchased his ticket an hour before boarding. It all seems very last-minute.”
“Everything about this is giving me a headache,” Caroline confessed.
