Tidal Rage by David Evans (best big ereader .TXT) 📗

compiling the statements, and after dinner was brought to them in the conference room, Ghislaine would use her translator app on her iPad to confirm the meaning of some of the Latvian and Filipino words that she had not clearly understood during the interviews. Stahmer would upload the files. The last job was to download statements of the interviews Ghislaine had completed.

By the time they had berthed back at the home port of Genoa, they had only two more interviews to undertake, one of which was with Sebastian.

Stahmer found him intriguing and arrogant, as he switched between eight different languages to see if he could catch out the translator. Stahmer told him on four occasions to keep it in English to save time, but to no avail.

Most of the men they had interviewed had kept their gazes normally between Ghislaine’s cleavage, but Sebastian was different; he seemed to look at her hair, Stahmer established, as the air conditioning blew strands back and forth across her face, and his eyes appeared to be following the flow.

But in the end, it was an interview like all the rest; fact finding. Kipling’s five little soldiers: where, what, how, why and when.

Ghislaine did remark at the end of the interview that she found Sebastian strange, and his gaze uncomfortable, and commented that she thought he was wearing some kind of wig.

Sebastian’s interview lasted one and a half hours. Like many others, he had been a little strange, but none of his answers pointed a finger directly at him. While he was listed as a person of interest , he joined a list of theirteen of his crew mates.

Stahmer and Ghislaine collected their interview notes and moved on to their next interviewee Ricky Villa, a dancer from Brazil, who neither looked at Ghislaine’s hair or bust, just his own fingernails, his hands, and when possible, other parts of his body, to confirm his own beauty.

With their work on board complete, Stahmer and Ghislaine held a two-hour debriefing with Sean Wright and the captain, explaining that most of the work would now be undertaken in the Geneva office where they had compiled the data. With the help of Speedy Gonzales, they would now go through an elimination process. While making no promises to identify the perpetrator, they could certainly eliminate a good majority of the employees.

Stahmer informed Sean Wright that they had ruled out any involvement by the cruise passengers, as Fabienne had told them the previous night that the closed-circuit television images on one camera had been wiped. Secondly, the closed-circuit television room was deep in the bowels of the ship, and in staff-only areas, with a key or fob access only. It was someone who worked the Classical Canta Libra on board.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Several days after Hoagie was killed, Cutler had turned up, having sought solace in a bottle of bourbon and Cathy’s bed in Seattle. Cutler had lost agents before, and no doubt would lose them again, but Hoagie’s demise hit him hard, as he had taken him off the reservation. Cathy had put him on a plane to Miami and spoken with Cheryl to ensure he was picked dup at the airport. She worried he was about to regress to the months he spent grieving for his sister and parents. Her strategy was that his colleagues would be feeling upset, so he would have to pull himself together to support them.

Cutler felt as though he was six years old, as he sat uneasily in the soft leather chair. Cheryl Ross sat across the office from him, leaning forward, trying to understand the implications of what she had just heard. The atmosphere was dark and electric, which mirrored the weather that day in Everglade City.

The conversation had been long and drawn out. Cheryl had a hundred and one questions as to why Cutler had omitted to tell her he had carried on investigating the Werner affair after he had left the Secret Service. They were supposed to be partners, and partners do not act like that, she had reprimanded.

The matter of the set-up money for MIDAS was not mentioned, as Cutler did not want to involve her in any future litigation if it ever got out. Plus, he was taking enough flak for one day; deservedly, he thought. Cheryl’s anger did not improve when he told her he had used the Geneva office to assist in surveillance.

Then his phone vibrated. He looked down at it and saw Cortez’s identification appear on the phone. He looked at his phone and then glanced at Cheryl and shrugged his shoulders.

Cortez spoke only two words, “Code Blue.” They had set up a code system beforehand. In essence, Code White was, ‘I need you here quickly.’ Code Green was, ‘Everything is okay.’ Code Blue was, ‘Get here as fast as you can, and don’t come alone.’

Cutler clicked off the phone just as the thunder and lightning filled the room, and the constant splatter of rain began to pour from the heavens.

“I know I haven’t been totally honest, and I do regret that. I like to think I was protecting you from it. But after Hoagie, maybe I have been misleading myself, as well as everyone else.”

“If you have an open case it is our case, not just yours. Do you think I would have tried to stop you?” Cheryl probed, during their first argument together.

“I accept that, but at the moment I have Cortez, and he needs help. That was what the phone call was about. And I am going to need assistance,” Cutler replied hastily.

“Tuck?” she asked worriedly.

“I’m not stupid, Cheryl. I know you have a thing together, so maybe we both have been a little short on honesty. And no, not Tuck this time. I am going to take Manfred Shultz. No doubt I’m going to need you and Fabienne to help as well.”