CHAPTER 2 THE DEAD WOMAN'S BADGE
THE DEAD WOMAN'S BADGE
The dead woman's name was Elise Camden.
Captain Shaw said it before the security officer finished pulling the personnel file onto his tablet.
She did not sound surprised by the name.
She sounded angry.
That frightened me more.
"Who was she?" I asked.
The captain looked at Lena before answering.
"A nurse contracted through our maritime medical provider."
"And she died six months ago?"
"According to the company."
"According to you?"
Captain Shaw's mouth flattened.
"According to a death certificate I was shown after she failed to report for a scheduled rotation."
Lena stepped closer to the tablet.
"Cause of death?"
"Single-vehicle accident outside Jacksonville."
"Did you know her?"
"She worked three voyages under my command."
"Did Natalie Rowe sail on one of them?"
The captain did not need to check.
"Yes."
The air in the service corridor seemed to shrink.
A missing woman.
A dead nurse.
My husband.
One brass key.
And now a stolen badge belonging to a woman who had been on Natalie's ship.
Lena asked the security officer to seal Equipment 614 and pull every access record for the lower decks.
Then she turned to me.
"Back to your cabin."
"No."
"That was not a suggestion."
"Then arrest me."
Captain Shaw closed her eyes for half a second.
Lena stared at me.
"You are not helping."
"Neither is putting me in the room someone already entered with a dead woman's badge."
That landed.
Lena glanced toward the captain.
"We move her."
Captain Shaw nodded.
"Officer's guest quarters near the bridge."
I folded my arms.
"And Grant?"
"Secure holding room on Deck Two."
"Who has access?"
"Four security officers and me."
"Medical?"
Captain Shaw looked at me sharply.
"Only if requested."
"Do not request it."
Lena gave me a warning look.
"Mara."
"A dead nurse's badge was used to enter my cabin."
"We understand that."
"Do you?"
I pointed at the tablet.
"Because someone on this ship either had access to an old credential database or kept Elise Camden's badge after she died."
The security officer shifted uncomfortably.
"Badges are supposed to be deactivated and destroyed."
"Supposed to be."
Captain Shaw's eyes hardened.
"Pull the destruction record."
The officer tapped his screen.
"I'll have it in ten minutes."
"Have it in five."
We left the maintenance corridor.
On the way up, I asked Lena how long she had been investigating Grant.
She said eight months.
That answer made me stop on the stairs.
"Eight months?"
She turned.
"Yes."
"I met him eleven months ago."
"We know."
"You watched him date me for eight months and said nothing?"
Her face changed.
Not guilt exactly.
Something close.
"We didn't know he was targeting you."
"You knew he was dating me."
"Not until six weeks ago."
I laughed once.
There was no humor in it.
"Six weeks is still six weeks."
"We did not have probable cause to tell you he was connected to a missing-person case."
"You could have warned me without handing me a case file."
"And if you confronted him, he might have disappeared."
"So I was acceptable risk."
"No."
"That is what you just said."
Lena came down one step so we were eye to eye.
"What I said is that we were building a case against a man who had never been charged with a crime."
"While he planned my honeymoon."
"We did not know about the policy until yesterday."
"And the bat?"
"This afternoon."
"When?"
"Forty minutes before sailing."
That stopped me.
"How?"
"A sporting goods store flagged a large cash purchase after the clerk recognized Grant from a bulletin we circulated."
"A bulletin you circulated because you thought he might be dangerous."
Lena did not answer.
I continued climbing.
I had learned a long time ago that anger is useful only if you decide what to do with it.
At that moment, I wanted to use mine to put my fist through a steel wall.
Instead, I memorized every word Lena had said.
We reached Deck Six.
A steward pushing towels moved aside for us.
He smiled politely.
I looked at his badge.
Thomas Bell.
His photograph matched his face.
The detail should have been meaningless.
It was not anymore.
Every badge had become a question.
Every uniform had become camouflage.
The officer's guest room assigned to me was smaller than our honeymoon cabin and had no balcony.
I preferred it immediately.
One door.
One small porthole that did not open.
No connecting room.
A chair with a clear view of the entrance.
Old habits again.
Lena watched me study the room.
"You really were administrative?"
"Sometimes."
"That is not an answer."
"It is the answer you are getting."
She almost smiled.
Then her phone buzzed.
The smile vanished.
"They found the badge record."
"Destroyed?"
"Marked destroyed."
"Who signed it?"
"Elise Camden."
I stared at her.
"She signed for destruction of her own badge?"
"Two days after her recorded date of death."
Captain Shaw arrived before I could say anything else.
She carried a printed report.
"There is more."
She placed it on the desk.
Elise Camden had not just worked on Natalie's voyage.
She had been assigned to the medical center the night Natalie disappeared.
I read the duty log.
02:10 - Passenger Natalie Rowe treated for nausea and anxiety.
02:34 - Discharged to cabin.
03:05 - Medical escort requested.
03:17 - Escort canceled by attending nurse E. Camden.
04:22 - Passenger reported missing by companion.
Companion.
My eyes went to the line beneath.
Grant Halston.
He had told investigators Natalie never returned to their cabin after visiting a nightclub.
The medical log proved she had.
"Did investigators have this?"
Captain Shaw looked furious with herself.
"They had a different version."
"Different how?"
"The archived copy says Natalie was discharged at 02:34 and left unaccompanied."
"This one says an escort was requested."
"Yes."
"Where did this copy come from?"
"A backup server that was offline during the original inquiry."
Lena leaned over the report.
"Why was it offline?"
"Hardware replacement."
"Convenient."
"I am aware."
I tapped the line showing the canceled escort.
"Who could alter the primary medical log?"
"Medical supervisor, systems administrator, or the contractor's central office."
"Not Grant."
"No."
The conspiracy had just grown another set of hands.
Lena called her team.
Within minutes, two agents were working from a secure conference room near the bridge.
They pulled Elise Camden's death certificate.
The crash had occurred on a rural road at 3:11 in the morning.
No witnesses.
Vehicle fire.
Identification based on dental records.
The reporting deputy had retired four months later.
The medical examiner who signed the certificate had moved overseas.
Every line looked ordinary alone.
Together, they formed a pattern I did not like.
"Was there DNA?"
Lena shook her head.
"Not listed."
"Personal effects?"
"Watch, necklace, hospital ID card."
"Hospital ID card."
"Not cruise credential."
Captain Shaw picked up her radio.
"I want every person aboard who worked with Camden interviewed."
Lena stopped her.
"Quietly."
"Why?"
"Because if one of them is involved, I don't want them knowing what we found."
The captain did not like being told how to run her ship.
I could see it.
But she nodded.
"Quietly."
For the next hour, I sat in the guest room while people moved through the corridor outside.
The ship continued toward Saint Aurelia.
Passengers went to dinner.
Music drifted faintly through ventilation ducts.
Somewhere above us, hundreds of people were celebrating anniversaries, birthdays, engagements, and vacations.
My honeymoon had become a federal crime scene before the first night was over.
I should have been shaking.
Instead, I was making lists.
Grant's lies.
The policy.
Victor Salazar.
Natalie.
Elise.
The stolen badge.
The changed cruise reservation.
Equipment 614.
And the most important question.
Why had Grant changed ships three days ago?
I called Lena.
She answered on the second ring.
"What did the Meridian Star itinerary include that this ship does not?"
Silence.
Then papers moved.
"Mara, why?"
"Grant told me to ask what happens at Saint Aurelia."
"I remember."
"Maybe the important part is what does not happen there."
Another pause.
"Hold on."
I heard typing.
"Meridian Star sails south after Saint Aurelia. This ship turns east."
"Ports?"
"Meridian calls at San Cordoba and Black Reef."
"This ship?"
"Port Celeste and Martinique."
"Anything unusual about Black Reef?"
"Private anchorage. Tender access only."
"Security cameras?"
"Minimal."
That was enough.
Grant had originally booked a ship that would stop at a private anchorage with minimal surveillance.
Then he changed ships three days ago.
Why?
Something had forced him to abandon the better location.
"Check whether Meridian changed its Black Reef call."
Lena typed again.
"Canceled four days ago due weather damage at the pier."
There it was.
Grant's honeymoon plan had not changed because he preferred our ship.
It changed because the location he intended to use had disappeared from the itinerary.
He had improvised.
That explained the sloppy bat purchase.
The last-minute key.
The maintenance compartment.
Maybe even the person who entered our cabin.
He had been forced off a prepared script.
Improvisation creates mistakes.
Lena understood at the same moment.
"He was going to do something at Black Reef."
"Yes."
"And when the stop was canceled, he moved the plan here."
"Or someone moved it for him."
The room went quiet.
A soft scrape came from the other side of my door.
I looked toward it.
"Lena."
"What?"
"Someone is outside."
I set the phone down without ending the call.
The scrape came again.
Paper against carpet.
I moved to the side of the door.
No footsteps.
No knock.
After ten seconds, I opened it.
The corridor was empty.
A folded piece of ship stationery lay on the floor.
I picked it up by one corner.
Four words had been written in block letters.
NATALIE ROWE IS ALIVE.
My pulse kicked once.
Below that was a second line.
STOP DIGGING OR SHE WON'T BE.
I heard Lena shouting my name through the phone.
I was still staring at the note when the fire alarm sounded.
Red lights began flashing in the corridor.
Crew doors opened.
Passengers farther down the hall started shouting.
Captain Shaw's voice came over the speakers ordering everyone to remain calm.
Then Lena's voice came through my phone.
"Mara, Grant's holding room just lost power."
I looked at the note again.
The threat had not been delivered to scare me away.
May you like
It had been delivered to make sure I was looking in the wrong direction.
Because while everyone watched the fire alarm, somebody was opening Grant's door.
