by Matt Lincoln
“Adrian,” the kid replied. “Adrian Fowler.”
“How old are you, Adrian?” I asked as I leaned back in my seat. The basic wooden chairs that had been set up on the stage to do the interviews weren’t all that comfortable, and after hours of sitting here, my back was starting to hurt.
“Sixteen,” he replied.
“And your mom is okay with you speaking to me?” I prompted. Technically, it was legal for law enforcement to question minors without their parents present. The idea that it wasn’t was just a TV myth. Still, it was always better to be extra careful when kids were involved.
“She's fine,” Adrian huffed impatiently. “She’d just freaking out because she and my dad left my sister and me alone yesterday, and now she feels guilty.”
“Were you and your sister in danger?” I asked, curious as to why the mom might feel guilty.
“Not really,” Adrian grumbled before hesitating. “I mean, kind of, I guess. I panicked yesterday and thought my little sister was going to die, and then my mom got scared, and now she’s acting all crazy--”
“Whoa,” I cut him off. “Hold on a second. Why did you think your sister was going to die? Why don’t we go back and start at the beginning?”
“Sorry,” Adrian mumbled as he looked down at the ground. “So, we were in the dining room, my sister and me. She ate like three plates of food and drank like four cups of soda, and then, of course, she had to go to the bathroom. So I took her, and that’s when the first weird thing happened.”
“What weird thing?” I asked.
“This guy,” he explained, his face twisting into an expression of mild disgust, as though he’d just smelled something bad. “Complete weirdo was standing right in front of the women’s bathroom, just staring toward the entrance. Probably wouldn’t have noticed him if my sister hadn’t been in there.”
“Did the man do anything strange?” I asked. “Why did you think he was weird?”
“No, he didn’t do anything,” he replied. “And it was just this vibe, you know? I just didn’t like that he was hanging around outside, especially while my little sister was in there.”
“Alright,” I replied. That was a little strange, though that in itself wasn’t enough to really consider a lead. “What happened after that?”
“Well… I got distracted,” Adrian mumbled sheepishly. “But, anyway, I was looking at my phone, and suddenly, I heard my sister scream. I went into the girl’s bathroom, and there was this lady in there on the ground. I knew she was dead, so I grabbed my sister and took her out of there.”
“How did you know she was dead?” I asked. So far, excluding the strange man he’d described, his testimony of the events wasn’t all that different from all the other ones I’d heard. Something about this kid’s story struck a chord in me, though. Maybe it was just a gut intuition, but I had a feeling there was something important here.
“I shook her to see if she was just passed out drunk or something,” he replied. As he spoke, his eyes went blank, and his face turned pale, and I could see his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed nervously. “Her eyes were open. They were open, but… I could tell she wasn’t looking at me or at anything.”
The kid shuddered, and I felt a pang of sympathy for him. I’d seen enough bodies on this job to understand exactly what he was talking about. It wasn’t something anyone should ever have to see, but especially not a civilian, and especially not some sixteen-year-old kid.
“So you took your sister away?” I gently nudged him back to reality. “So she wouldn’t see? That was very caring of you.”
“Yeah, I guess.” Adrian cleared his throat. “Anyway, we, uh… we went back to the dining room to look for help, and that’s when more people started falling over. They were having seizures. Shaking, you know, like people with epilepsy do? But then they just laid there on the ground, not moving.”
“That must have been scary,” I replied. The kid had been all huffs and groans when he’d walked in here against his mother’s wishes. Now, as he recalled what happened, his demeanor appeared to have changed completely.
“Yeah,” he mumbled. “Everyone was screaming, freaking out. Then someone said that the food was poisoned. That’s when I got really scared, ‘cause Kendra had pigged out and eaten all that food earlier.”
“You thought that she was--”
“Yeah,” he interrupted me before I could continue, his eyes red-rimmed and watery. I understood now just how horrifying the ordeal must have been for him. No wonder the mom felt so guilty. “But, anyway, that’s not the weird thing I told the cops about. That guy, I think I saw him again a little while after that.”
“The guy?” I repeated. “You mean the one that was standing outside the women’s bathroom?”
“Yeah.” Adrian nodded. “I grabbed Kendra and walked through the main lobby to the elevators. I could see down at the floor beneath us, and I saw this man. I don’t know if it was the same man, but now that I think about it, it could have been him.”
“Right,” I replied. The kid’s story was getting a little jumbled. Understandable, considering what he’d been through. Eyewitness testimonies tended to be unreliable at the best of times, let alone when someone was recovering from a traumatic event. “What did the man do?”
“He went to check on someone who was on the ground,” he replied. “This woman was shaking, and he ran up to her, bent down, and looked at her, but then he just got up and left.”
“He just left her there?” I asked, alarm bells ringing in my head.
“Yeah,” Adrian replied, frowning at the memory. “He took off, too. Like, he ran in the other direction.”
Something cold settled in the pit of my stomach. That was a peculiar response, to say the least. Why would someone leave a friend or loved one behind like that? Of course, it was possible that the man was just an unrelated bystander, but caring enough to check on a stranger only to immediately bolt a second later didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
“And you think this was the same man you saw earlier?” I asked him. Standing by the women’s bathroom might have been a coincidence, but that coupled with the later sighting might indicate that what he was actually doing was standing guard outside the bathroom. If that was the case, then this was definitely someone we needed to find.
“I think so,” he replied, his voice wavering. “I mean maybe. We were pretty high up in the elevator. He was wearing the same kind of clothes, though. Dark t-shirt, dark pants, brown hair.”
“Do you remember any other details about him?” I pressed for more. Dark clothes and brown hair were both vague enough that there was no way we’d be able to make a positive identification off that alone. “Maybe his age? Height? Build?”
“Uh, he was old,” Adrian replied as he looked up at the ceiling in thought. “Like maybe your age.”
I almost winced at that. I knew the kid hadn’t meant it as an insult, but damn. Then again, at sixteen, I was sure all adults seemed old to him.
“Anything else?” I prompted.
“He wasn’t really muscular, but not really skinny either,” Adrian hummed. “Kind of a medium build, I guess? I don’t really remember how tall he was, sorry.” He frowned and rubbed the back of his neck as though he felt bad about not being able to provide more detail.
“It’s alright,” I reassured him. “Honestly, you’ve been a huge help. I’ve learned more in the past ten minutes than I did in the past four hours.”
“Seriously?” He brightened up at once. “Good. I hope you catch the bad guys or whatever it is you’re looking for. Anyway, I should go back before my mom freaks out anymore.”
“Thank you for speaking with me, Adrian,” I replied as he got up.
Adrian nodded once before shuffling off toward the end of the stage. He hopped down instead of taking the stairs, and I watched as he ambled back to where his mom and sister were sitting. The mom still looked annoyed, but her face softened as soon as the kid started talking to her. The three of them
all got up to leave a moment later, and as they did, I got up as well. Even though there were still people left to question, I wanted to act on this tip as soon as possible. We might find footage of the man who the kid had seen and crosscheck him against the list of passengers.
I turned around to look toward the other end of the stage where Holm was. He was just finishing up speaking to a woman. As she got up to leave, I saw him roll his neck from side to side, clearly as sore as I was. Before anyone else could be sent back through the curtain to speak with him, I quickly walked over to where he was sitting.
“Hey,” I greeted him. “I think I’ve got something.”
“You do?” Holm asked, standing up at once. “Awesome. I was beginning to think we were going to spend the rest of the night sitting here listening to the exact same account.”
“Yeah,” I replied as I motioned for him to follow me off the stage. “This kid I talked to says he saw a man that was acting suspiciously around two different women, both of whom were among the victims.”
“You think that’s our trafficker?” Holm asked as we walked up to Barnes, who was helping to direct the guests for questioning.
“Maybe,” I replied before turning to Barnes.
“Is everything alright?” he asked, likely noting the serious expression on my face.
“We need to review the ship’s security cameras,” I informed him. “We might have a lead.”
“I’ll make it happen,” Barnes replied before walking briskly over to Captain Havisham, who was speaking with one of the crew members.
“I wonder how they’re doing with that manifest back at the office,” Holm mused aloud. “Even if we do spot the guy, it won’t do us much good unless we can cross-reference him against the list of passengers.”
“We’ll worry about that if and when we find him,” I replied.
Barnes returned just a few minutes later with the captain and another man in tow.
“I can take you to the security room,” the captain said before turning to the other man. “This is Mr. Hayes. He’s one of our lead security personnel. He’ll be able to help you find the information that you need.”
After he finished with the short introduction, he indicated for us to follow him with a nudge of his head. He led us out of the crowded ballroom and back into the main part of the ship before taking us almost all the way back to the bridge where we’d first spoken. It wasn’t until we were almost there that he suddenly veered to the right and stepped through a plain, nondescript door tucked into a corner of the ship marked “Staff Only.”
The moment we stepped through the door, the interior changed instantly. In contrast to the grandeur and elegance of the main foyer of the ship, the small hallway we entered was plain and utilitarian. The walls were painted a stark white, and the floor was plain concrete.
“Right through here,” he said as he directed us a little way down another hallway. “This is the main security room. We have security stations posted around the rest of the ship, of course, but this is where all the monitors are.”
The room we stepped into was small, dark, and absolutely packed with screens. Two rows of them were mounted on the left wall, one on top of the other. Each monitor displayed nine different camera screens, and for a moment, I nearly got dizzy trying to look at them all. There was a desk in front of the larger screens as well, packed with computer monitors displaying even more security cam feeds.
“So, what are we looking for?” Hayes asked as he leaned down over one of the computers and inputted some kind of passcode.
“A man,” I replied as I looked up at the cameras. Aside from one camera, which had a view of the ballroom, the rest of the ship looked eerily empty. “Medium build, late thirties to early forties, wearing dark clothes and with brown hair. One of the witnesses spotted him yesterday at around ten in the evening outside one of the bathrooms and then again in one of the elevators.”
“Which bathroom?” He looked up at me. “We’ve got a couple dozen on board.”
“He said that it was right outside one of the dining rooms,” I replied. “And that it was near the main lobby.”
“The main lobby?” Hayes repeated, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. “Maybe he meant the grand rotunda. That’s the very center of the ship, and it’s where everything connects. There’s a large dining room just off there. There are a few bathrooms in that area, though.”
“Let’s check them all,” I replied, resigning myself to being here for a while as well.
It was slow going, combing through all the footage. The ship looked remarkably different when there were people actually in it, but that only made it harder to actually pull anyone out of the crowd. Because of that, we couldn’t really risk going through the footage too fast in case we missed something.
“Stop!” I called out as I caught sight of someone familiar. I pointed at one of the screens on the left side of the monitor. “That’s the kid I talked to. This must have been when he was taking his sister to the bathroom.”
“Looks like he’s heading toward the left bathroom on the ground floor,” Hayes muttered as he quickly changed to another view. The kid showed up again from a different angle. I watched as the little girl who was trailing after him suddenly stopped in front of the bathroom doors.
“That’s it.” I frowned in confusion. “They’re at the bathroom, but I don’t see anyone. The kid said the guy was lurking right out front.”
“Look there,” Holm alerted me as he pointed toward the bottom corner of the screen. Standing just out of view, almost completely obscured by a wall, was the dark figure of a man.
“Dammit,” I gritted out. “That’s gotta be him, but we can’t see him from this angle. Do you have another one?”
“Afraid not,” Hayes grumbled. “We have to be careful about security cameras around bathrooms to make sure they’re not accidentally pointed inside. There are a lot of blind spots in these areas because of that.”
“Of course,” I sighed sarcastically. I continued to watch as the kid leaned back against the wall before looking up at the man several times. The footage was a bit fuzzy, but it was still clear from his body language that the kid felt uncomfortable about the man. Hayes fast-forwarded past a few minutes of the kid just looking at his phone and then went back to normal speed when he suddenly ran inside.
“That must be when he heard his sister scream,” I noted as I continued to watch. My eyes went wide with surprise when just a second later, the man stepped cautiously toward the bathroom as well. He was wearing dark clothes and had dark hair, just as the kid had said, but from this angle, I could only see the back of his head.
“Come on, turn around,” I urged him. All we needed was one good image of his face, and we’d be that much closer to solving this. To my dismay, he only peeked inside the bathroom for a second before retreating and then taking off to the left, his face hidden from sight the entire time.
I groaned in frustration as Hayes quickly shifted to other views in an attempt to follow the man and get a better image, but to no avail. It seemed like luck was on this man’s side because every time we managed to find him, either his back was turned or the footage was way too far away for us to make out any of his facial features.
“Kid said that he saw the guy by the elevator, right?” Hayes muttered as he switched from one camera angle to another to stay on top of the man as he moved. “That will definitely be near here, then.” He pulled one of the feeds up onto one of the large monitors mounted on the wall.
I could see down into a large, circular room, heavily gilded and luxuriously decorated. I could see the elevator at the top of the screen, in the very middle. I could also see a rush of people scrambling around in a panic across the floor.
“There’s the kid,” I noted as I spotted Adrian. He was carrying his sister now and booking it straight for the elevator doors. I kept my eyes peeled. According to the kid’s testimony, the man should be right behind.
“There!” Holm c
alled as he pointed toward the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. I still couldn’t see his face from this angle, but it was undoubtedly the same man. This time, however, he wasn’t alone.
“He’s got someone with him,” I pointed out.
That someone was a woman, thin and short, wearing a long-sleeve black shirt and a pair of jeans. He dragged her roughly by the arm in a manner that probably would have called a lot of attention had everyone else not been too busy panicking to notice. I watched with alarm as the woman suddenly fell to her knees. The man kept his grip on her arm and yanked her up off the floor like a ragdoll. She quickly went limp, though, and a moment later, he dropped her when she began to convulse.
“There!” I yelled as the man finally turned around, his face visible on camera for the first time. Hayes paused the feed at once. The motion blur made it difficult to make out his features, but it was the best we’d seen so far. “We’ve got him. Make a copy of this and send it back to our office. Our techs might be able to clean the image up a little better.”
“Got it,” he replied as he clicked something rapidly into the keyboard in front of him before starting the video back up. Just as the kid had said, the man took a moment to lean down and examine the woman. Then he took a quick look around before turning and running off at a fast pace.
“That has to be our guy,” Holm asserted as Hayes began to flip through other camera angles, presumably in an attempt to find out exactly where he’d gone. “Or one of our guys, at least. First, he’s spotted outside the bathroom where one victim was found dead. Then he’s seen forcefully manhandling another one right before she died? This guy is involved.”
“No doubt,” I agreed with him before turning to the captain. “Captain Havisham--”
“Sergeant!” The door to the security room suddenly burst open to reveal a uniformed officer.
“Dallas?” Barnes frowned at him in confusion. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve got a problem,” the officer huffed as he regained his breath. It was obvious from his posture and the way he was breathing that he must have run here. “I tried your radio, but you didn’t pick up.”
