Chapter 2 - THE WOMAN IN THE WHITE DRESS
Daniel stopped pretending.
Not completely.
But enough.
He sat against the cabin wall while security photographed the room.
The bat.
The lock.
The broken champagne glass.
The red mark around his wrist.
Agent Donnelly asked me to step into the hall.
“What do you know about Rebecca Hale?”
“Nothing.”
“Daniel never mentioned her?”
“No.”
“Did he ever tell you he was married before?”
My stomach dropped.
“He said he had one serious relationship.”
Donnelly handed me another photograph.
Rebecca and Daniel at a courthouse.
Not a cruise.
A wedding.
“He married her four years ago.”
I stared at Daniel through the open cabin door.
He was watching me.
No shame.
Only calculation.
“Was the marriage legal?”
“Yes.”
“Then how did he marry me?”
“Rebecca was declared legally dead eighteen months ago.”
My skin went cold.
Donnelly continued.
“Her body was never found.”
The cruise line had reported that Rebecca probably went overboard after leaving a late-night lounge.
Daniel claimed they argued.
He said she stormed away.
No camera showed her reaching an outer deck.
No camera showed her returning to the cabin.
The investigation went cold.
Then last month, Daniel bought a large life-insurance policy on me.
My signature appeared on the application.
I had never signed it.
“How much?”
“Five million.”
I laughed once.
It did not sound like me.
“Why are you telling me now?”
“Because we needed him to make a move.”
I turned sharply.
“You used me as bait?”
Donnelly’s face tightened.
“No. We began watching him after you were already engaged.”
“Why didn’t you warn me?”
“We did.”
“What?”
“Three anonymous messages.”
I remembered them.
Do you really know Daniel Mercer?
Ask about Rebecca.
Don’t take the cruise.
I had assumed they came from a jealous ex.
Daniel had convinced me of that.
Donnelly said, “We could not disclose an active federal inquiry.”
I stared at her.
“So you let me marry him.”
“We increased ship security. We installed surveillance outside your cabin. We had an agent on board.”
“That is not the same thing as telling me.”
“No.”
At least she did not lie.
Daniel was taken to a secure interview room.
He still insisted the bat was a joke.
A honeymoon prank.
Then the captain’s security chief brought Agent Donnelly a small plastic bag.
Inside was a key card.
Not mine.
Not Daniel’s.
It opened a crew-only maintenance corridor on Deck Nine.
Daniel’s cabin had been on Deck Nine during Rebecca Hale’s disappearance too.
Donnelly looked at him through the glass.
“He kept the same route.”
I asked, “Route to where?”
May you like
She answered:
“To the part of the ship with no passenger cameras.”
