I held the wrapped pill in my palm. He had spoken to me in that same gentle voice each time he handed me one. I asked the medic to note what Lucas had said, and Valery asked him to leave.
His footsteps finally moved away.
The captain called through the medic’s radio. The security officer had found that the footage was deleted using a crew account while Valery was with me and the medic was being called. The captain was checking who had access to that account. For now, he was keeping Lucas and his parents away from the suite and had informed them that the yacht would meet a patrol vessel.
I sent Dad another message. I’m with the ship’s medic and a steward named Valery. The captain is returning to port. I still have one pill Lucas gave me.
His reply came quickly. Your mother is safe with me. Give the pill to the medic and ask him to document it. We’ve told the authorities what Lucas said about us.
I handed the wrapped pill over. The medic placed it in a labeled container and sealed it in front of Valery and me. He explained that he could not identify it aboard the yacht, but he would transfer it with his notes when we reached investigators.
The storm worsened as evening fell. Water swept against the windows, and the yacht changed course. I could feel the turn even while sitting still. Valery brought me a blanket and stayed where I could see her.
“Why did you come back for me?” I asked.
“I was worried when he refused a doctor yesterday,” she said. “I should have insisted then.”
“You came back today.”
She nodded, but her eyes went to the door. She had taken a risk by telling the captain what I said. If Lucas persuaded anyone that I was confused, he could try to make her account sound like a misunderstanding too.
The medic checked me again and said my condition appeared stable, though I remained drowsy. He wanted me evaluated on shore. I wanted that as well; I needed to know what I had been given over the past three days.
A little after ten, the security officer radioed the captain again. His investigation of the deleted footage had led to a tablet assigned to the yacht’s guest office. Roderick had asked to use that office earlier in the evening. The captain instructed the officer to secure the tablet without confronting him alone.
The medic turned down the radio, but I had heard enough. Roderick might have removed the recording, and the captain was gathering evidence. All I had to do was stay in the suite until help arrived.
Then the yacht slowed sharply. The captain’s voice came over the radio: the patrol vessel was approaching, and its crew would board as soon as conditions allowed.
Valery crossed to the window. Through the rain, she could see a light moving toward us. I stood beside her, holding the wall as we waited.
The lock on the suite door clicked behind us. Neither Valery nor the medic had touched it.
Part 5: The Person at the Door
Valery moved between me and the suite door. The medic reached for his radio.
The door opened a few inches, then stopped against the security latch. Roderick stood outside, rainwater on the shoulders of his jacket.
“The captain sent me,” he said. “We need to move her before the patrol crew boards.”
“The captain would have radioed us,” the medic replied.
Roderick looked past him at me. “Lucas says you’re frightened. We can explain everything once you’re somewhere quiet.”
I stepped back. The medication still made it hard to think quickly, but I could hear footsteps running along the corridor. Roderick glanced toward them and pushed at the door. The latch held.
“Step away from the suite,” someone called.
The captain came into view with the security officer. Roderick let go of the door. He began telling them he had only come to check on his daughter-in-law, but the captain cut him off.
“I told you to remain in the lounge,” he said. “You will go back there with my officer.”
Roderick looked at me once more before he went. I could not tell whether he knew about the emergency message or had simply hoped to reach me before anyone else did. Either way, he had come to the locked suite while a patrol vessel approached.
The captain checked that the latch had not been damaged. “The boarding team is here,” he told us. “They’ll take statements aboard and arrange medical care.”
Soon after, two officers from the patrol vessel entered the suite. They spoke to me separately from Lucas and his parents. I told them what I had heard, when Lucas had given me the pills, and what Roderick had just said at the door. The medic gave them his notes and the sealed pill container.
One officer asked about the communicator. I showed her the message I had sent my father and its timestamp. I also gave her the photograph of the pills on the bedside table. She copied both into the record and asked me to keep the device available.
The patrol crew took me off the yacht that night with the medic’s help. Valery came too, to give her account. From the boarding boat, I could see the yacht’s deck lights through the rain. I kept expecting Lucas to appear at the rail and call my name, but he did not.
My parents met us on shore. Dad held me so tightly that I had to remind him I was still dizzy. Mom put her coat around my shoulders and told me they had postponed their trip after receiving his call. Only then did I feel certain they were safe.
At the hospital, clinicians examined me and took samples for testing. An investigator came the next morning, after I had slept, and asked me to go through the conversation below deck again. She did not promise an immediate arrest or tell me the case was settled. She said the yacht, the medication, the deleted footage, and the documents Lucas had mentioned would all need careful review.
I asked what had happened to Lucas.
“He and his parents are being questioned,” she said. “We’re also looking into the crew account used to delete the recording.”
I had thought of little else since hearing that the footage was gone. “Do you know who used it?”
“We know which tablet accessed the system.” She closed her notebook. “We’ll need more evidence to establish who was holding it.”
After she left, Dad brought me a folder from our family attorney. It contained copies of the documents I had signed before the wedding. I recognized my signature, but one page described authority over assets far beyond the travel arrangements Lucas had explained to me.
I was still reading it when Dad’s phone rang. He listened, then sat down beside the bed.
“The attorney checked the witness named on that page,” he said. “She says she has never met you.”
