Aruban Nights (Coastal Fury Book 19) Read online

  “This doesn’t look like enough people to man an entire ship,” I mentioned to Havisham. “At least not one this big.”

  “Well, this actually isn’t all of our staff,” he admitted. “Though the majority did stay here, some chose to book flights back home rather than wait for the ship to be cleared to leave.”

  “I see,” I replied as I looked back out over the crowd. That was definitely disappointing to hear. What if one of the people that had left had witnessed something significant? There’d be no way of knowing now, unfortunately.

  “Well, now that everyone is gathered here,” Havisham turned to look at me, “how would you like to proceed? Do you intend to interview every single person?”

  “I don’t think that’s practical,” I replied. “I think it’d be better for us to ask anyone who thinks they saw something suspicious to come forward, especially anything that occurred on the day that they docked in Aruba. I also think we should set up something like we had before, behind the curtain, so they’ll be able to come up anonymously.”

  “Anonymously?” Havisham repeated, clearly confused.

  “I think they’ll be more likely to talk if they can do it privately,” I explained.

  “Why is that?” Havisham bristled. “Do you think one of my staff has something to do with this?”

  That is a possibility, I thought to myself, though I didn’t say that to the captain. He seemed more willing to cooperate with us today than he had yesterday, so there was no point in getting on his bad side.

  “No one wants to be the first one up,” I explained further. “It doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re guilty. They might just not want to step up in front of a crowd full of people. Now that the pressure is off, they’ll be more likely to speak up about something they noticed.”

  “I suppose you have a point,” Havisham conceded, relaxing a little. “Alright then, I’ll ask them.”

  He walked away and went up to the stage before calling for everyone’s attention. As he addressed them and delivered our message, I looked out over the crowd to check their reactions. The majority seemed confused or surprised, which were normal responses to this kind of situation. A few seemed annoyed, like they felt the request was too much of a bother for them. No one seemed particularly scared or nervous, though, which was good because it meant they didn’t feel guilty, but also bad because it meant we didn’t have any more suspects or leads to follow.

  For now, our best chance was to hope that someone had seen something and that they’d be willing to come and talk to us.

  8

  Ethan

  Of course, my hunch turned out to be correct. Though most of the staff dispersed and went their separate ways, a few either lagged behind or slowly came meandering back once the crowd was gone. Unfortunately, most of what they had to say was either stuff we already knew or things that really didn’t have anything to do with the case.

  “I’m telling you, they were smoking marijuana in there!” one particularly uptight housekeeper declared. Apparently, he had noticed two teenagers sneaking into one of the bathrooms the night the ship left Aruba. While I had no reason to doubt her story, it wasn’t actually pertinent to what had happened with the traffickers. “Do you think they were involved? They were using drugs. They might have been involved in what happened!”

  I seriously doubt that, I thought to myself. A couple of kids sneaking off to smoke a joint was hardly comparable to a large-scale drug trafficking op.

  “I’ll make sure we look into it,” I replied vaguely. That seemed to satisfy her because she smiled as she stood up from her chair to leave. Holm tossed me a disbelieving glance as she did.

  As she left, I noticed someone standing just on the other side of the curtain, peeking in through the small opening.

  “Can I help you?” I called.

  The person standing there went stock-still before cautiously pulling the curtain open. It was a young guy, skinny with wispy hair and wearing glasses.

  “Uh, hey,” he mumbled as he shuffled awkwardly across the stage toward us. “You said you wanted to talk to people who had noticed anything strange the night we were in Aruba?”

  “That’s right,” I replied as I leaned forward in my chair to offer him my full attention. “Did you see something? Why don’t you have a seat?”

  “Sure,” he mumbled as he sat down in front of Holm and me. “I mean, I think I saw something. I didn’t pay that much attention at the time, but looking back, I think it might have been something important.”

  “Tell us about it,” Holm encouraged him.

  “Well, there was this couple in one of the dining rooms where I work as a server,” he explained. “I was walking through, and I heard the lady say that she was hungry. I was about to stop and ask if anyone had helped her, but before I could, the guy with her got in her face and told her to shut up really aggressively.”

  “Aggressive in what way?” I asked. “Did he physically grab her?”

  “No.” The server shook his head. “He just leaned in really close and stuck his finger out at her. He said that she wasn’t allowed to eat and to just sit there quietly.”

  “She wasn’t allowed to?” I emphasized. That in itself sounded awful, but it also fit what we knew about the traffickers. Gabby had also been told she wasn’t allowed to eat.

  “That’s what he said,” the young man replied, his face twisting in disgust. “I couldn’t believe it. Who speaks to a girl like that? And the guy was eating plenty! Anyway, I thought he was a complete tool, but I didn’t think he was doing anything illegal, you know? I just thought it was a really toxic couple.” He looked down at the ground as he fiddled with his fingers. “Now that I think about it, though, the girl looked kind of off. Sick, I guess. Maybe if I’d done something back then…”

  “There’s no point in thinking like that now,” I responded as he trailed off. “You couldn’t have known what was really going on, and you’re right. Unfortunately, there was nothing illegal about what you saw happening, on the surface at least.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that passenger, would you?” Holm asked, though even he didn’t sound very hopeful.

  “Not really,” the guy replied with a shrug. “I saw a hundred guests every day. I think I’d remember his face if I saw him again, though. The dining rooms have security cameras. If we check, I might spot him.”

  “That’s not a bad idea.” I turned to look at Holm.

  “I agree,” he replied before turning back to the kid. “Alright, let’s go see.”

  I got up and led the way out of the ballroom, back toward the bridge to speak to the captain and ask to review the security footage again. Luckily, we didn’t have to go all the way there because we ran into Havisham just outside the ballroom.

  “I was just coming to check on how things were going,” he said as he came to a stop in front of us.

  “They’re going well, actually,” I replied as I turned to look at the kid. “He says he might have seen one of the traffickers. We were just about to ask to see the security footage again.”

  “Oh?” Havisham turned to look at the server. “I don’t believe we’ve had the pleasure of meeting. Captain Havisham.”

  “I know,” the kid replied before turning beet red. “Sorry, I just meant that I already knew because I work here. I’m Julian Fabers.”

  “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Julian,” the captain replied kindly before taking his radio speaker off his belt. “Now, let me just call for Mr. Hayes. I’m fairly certain he’s on the ship somewhere. He went out earlier, but he should have been back by now.”

  He stepped away from us for a moment to say something into his radio. A few moments later, he returned.

  “Mr. Hayes will meet us down in the security room,” the captain informed us before turning to lead the way back to the same room full of monitors we’d been in the day prior. By this point, we’d spent so much time walking back and forth around the ship that it was starting
to become familiar to me. In my time as a SEAL, I’d spent a lot of time on boats, but never on a vessel this large. I imagined that it must be stressful for the security guards on board to have to keep watch over such a large space. The thing was practically the size of a small town.

  Havisham only knocked once on the door before pushing it open. I could see at once that Hayes was already inside, clicking away at one of the computers.

  “Getting a head start?” Havisham asked him as the four of us piled into the small room.

  “Just getting everything pulled up,” Hayes replied as he turned to look at us. “You said you wanted to see the footage from the day we stopped in Aruba, right? It’s still a lot, approximately sixteen hours if I only count the time we were docked. Did you want to see footage from after we’d left as well?”

  “I guess that depends,” I replied as I looked at Julian. “Around what time was it when you witnessed that altercation?”

  “It was after the dinner rush was already over,” he replied as he scrunched his eyebrows together in thought. “It had been a while since my shift started. Probably around nine?”

  “The ship was still in port at that hour,” Hayes remarked as he quickly fast-forwarded through the video files. “I’ll focus on footage from around that time. Which dining room was it?”

  “The Main Dining Room,” he replied. “On floor two.”

  “Alright,” Hayes muttered as he pulled several angles up onto the screens mounted on the wall at the front of the room. “We’ve got about five different angles on that dining room. Where did this altercation you mentioned take place?”

  “Uhh…” Julian muttered as his eyes roved over the screens before he finally pointed at one on the right. “There. I remember it was close to the bar. I was taking a different table their drinks when I overheard him talking to that girl.”

  “Okay,” Hayes replied as he zoomed in on that particular camera. The image became slightly blurry and distorted as he did, but it was still clear enough to make out the faces of the people in the video. “You see him?”

  Julian shook his head, and for a few minutes, the room was silent as we all watched the video play at a slightly sped-up pace.

  “There!” he suddenly exclaimed just as a tall man wearing a dingy tan shirt and a dark pair of pants walked into the frame. He was dragging a woman beside him by the arm, and even from this distance, I could see how hard his fingers dug into her skin. “That’s them. The man and the woman I saw.”

  Hayes put the video back on normal speed, and as I watched, I was surprised to notice two other women walking closely behind the pair.

  “Were those other girls with them, too?” I asked Julian as I watched the man in the video point over to an adjacent table. The two other girls sat down without a word.

  “I don’t know,” he replied in a flustered tone. “Maybe? I didn’t even notice them sitting there.”

  “That’s probably the point,” I muttered bitterly.

  It was a sad reality that the reason so many people who were trafficked never got help was that their abusers were good at making them blend in. No one was going to stop and pay attention to two young women sitting together at a table. Heck, the only reason Julian noticed anything was up was because he just happened to overhear the man speaking to them in a threatening manner.

  It was difficult to watch as the three young women just sat still while the guy stuffed his own face. After a few minutes, the scene played out exactly as Julian had described. He walked by their table carrying a round tray full of drinks and faltered slightly at something the man said. In the video, I could see Julian’s expression darken with concern before he walked away to deliver the drinks to their recipients.

  As I continued to watch, my blood boiling with anger, I noticed something strange about the man in the video.

  “Can you zoom in on the guy’s face?” I asked Hayes.

  “I can try,” he replied as he paused the video and started to get closer. “It’s going to look worse the closer I get, though.”

  “What’s up?” Holm asked me.

  “I don’t think this is Andre,” I replied as I stepped as close as I could to the screen. “It’s hard to tell from this angle, but I think this man is taller than the one I chased on the dock. His hair looks lighter, too.”

  “Let me go back a few frames,” Hayes offered as he reversed to an earlier point in the video. “There’s a better angle of his face here.”

  I squinted my eyes at the screen as Hayes zoomed in on the guy’s face. It was close enough that the image had started to pixelate and become garbled, but I could still tell that this was a completely different man.

  “That’s definitely not him,” I sighed, disappointed at the discovery. This meant that we weren’t any closer to finding Andre, and now, we had another perp to contend with.

  “Gabby did say that there were other girls in the apartment she was taken to,” Holm noted. “I’m guessing this is a different group that was also being used as drug mules.”

  “I think you’re right,” I agreed as I turned back to Hayes. “Can we try following him on the cameras? I want to see what room he goes back to.”

  “I’m on it,” Hayes replied as he started the video back up. He fast-forwarded through the entire time they were in the dining room and only stopped when the man got up. The three girls with him all stood as well and followed him out.

  “Let’s see where you’re going,” Hayes muttered as he quickly switched camera angles in an attempt to keep his eyes on the man. It was actually impressive how seamlessly he was able to do it.

  “You know the ship’s security cameras pretty well, huh?” I asked as we watched the man walk through the ship.

  “I’ve been working in security for a long time,” he said with a chuckle. “By this point, I’ve practically got eyes on the back of my head. First thing I do on any new job is to memorize the layout of whatever it is I’m watching over. Makes things like this a lot easier.”

  I watched as the man made his way up the elevator with the women before arriving on the fourth floor of rooms.

  “I’m afraid this is as far as we can go,” Hayes informed us. “There are security cameras on either end of the hall, but none in the middle.”

  “Crap,” I muttered as I strained my eyes to see where he was going. I counted the number of doors from the elevator until he stopped. “Seventh door on the left side. Which room is that?”

  “I don’t know off the top of my head,” Havisham replied, “but we can go and have a look.”

  “Let’s do that,” I replied before looking at Hayes. “Thanks for the help.”

  “No problem,” he replied. “I just hope you catch the sick freaks that did this.”

  “We’re working on it,” Holm replied before the four of us stepped out of the security room again.

  “You don’t have to stay with us, Julian.” I turned to the young man once we were back out in the main part of the ship. Actually, it would be better if he didn’t stick around if we were going to be poking around looking for evidence. “Your testimony was extremely helpful, but you can head back now if you want.”

  “Right,” he replied, his shoulders relaxing immediately. “I’ll head back to my quarters then. Good luck with everything.”

  “Thanks,” I replied as I shook his hand once more before he took off.

  “Shall we head up then?” Havisham asked once he was gone.

  “Let’s go,” I replied, and the three of us headed over to the elevators. We followed the same path that we’d watched the suspect take, all the way up to the fourth floor. Once we were there, I counted seven rooms as we walked down the hall.

  “Six-twenty-seven,” I read the number out loud as I turned to address Havisham. “Could we get the records for the passenger that was in this room?”

  “Of course,” he replied as he dug his phone out of his pocket to call someone. As he did, I turned back to the door and opened it with the key that I’d
been given earlier.

  I half-expected to find the room in a state similar to Andre’s, with lines of coke on the table and a duffle bag full of incriminating evidence lying on the floor. Unfortunately, it looked as though whoever was in here had been a little more careful than Andre. Aside from some empty beer bottles and a few random pieces of trash, the room looked completely empty. Still, I immediately began to rifle through every drawer in the room, even checking inside the tiny closet and small ensuite bathroom for anything that might have been left behind.

  “Looks like it’s a bust,” Holm sighed with disappointment after he’d finished shaking out the sheets on the bed. “You find anything?”

  “No,” I grumbled, frustrated at the total lack of clues. For now, all we could do was hope that we could pull something off the passenger records for the room.

  Somehow, though, I doubted things would be that easy.

  9

  Ethan

  “Everything points to California,” I muttered as I took a long sip of coffee.

  It was the day after we’d checked out the ship for the second time, and Holm and I were back in the office, sitting at our desks and discussing what our next steps should be. The passenger records for the room we’d searched had come back to a Devon Jones living in southern California. Apparently, he’d used a credit card to pay for the room, as well as the two adjacent rooms. It was, of course, possible that he’d used a stolen credit card, but that, plus the fact that Gabby had told us she was originally from California and had been held captive there, gave us two distinct reasons to look in that direction.

  “What about Aruba?” Holm argued as he took a long sip of his own coffee. “I mean, we’ve confirmed that Aruba’s where the drugs came from. Maybe that should be our focus.”