Had she screamed as the waves closed over her? Had she tried to call out, as the salt water flooded her lungs, her chest laboring as the cold bit harder and the oxygen leached from her blood, and she sank deeper and deeper . . . ?
And her body, drifting through the cold silent blackness of the deep ocean, white as bone, the fishes nibbling at her eyes, her hair floating in the current like a stream of dark smoke . . . All that I was thinking of, too, though I didn’t say it.
“Don’t,” Ben said. “Don’t let your imagination run away with you, Lo.”
“I know what it’s like,” I said, as he opened the door. “Don’t you see? I know what she must have felt like, when someone came for her in the middle of the night. That’s why I have to find out who did this to her.”
And because if I didn’t find out, they might come for me next.
- CHAPTER 16 -
Chloe and Tina were waiting in the spa when I arrived. Tina was leaning over the counter, reading something on the laptop Eva had left open behind the desk, and Chloe was ensconced deep in a luxuriously upholstered vintage leather chair, playing on her phone. I was surprised to see that without her makeup on, she looked completely different—the huge smoky eyes and jutting cheekbones of last night looking somehow faded and flat by the light of day.
She caught me looking at her in the mirror and grinned.
“Apparently I’m down for a facial, so I took it off. I told you, I’m quite the makeup artist.”
“Oh, I didn’t . . .” I trailed off, feeling myself blush.
“Contouring,” Chloe said. She swung the chair around to face me and winked. “Honestly, it’ll change your life. I could turn you into anyone from Kim Kardashian to Natalie Portman with what I’ve got in my cabin.”
I was just about to make a joking reply, when I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye, and I saw with a shock that one of the full-length mirrors behind the desk was moving, swinging inwards. Another door? Seriously, how many concealed entrances did this boat have?
Tina’s head jerked up from the laptop as Eva came through the gap, smiling politely.
“Can I help you, Miss West?” she asked. “We keep our client lists and confidential information on that computer, so I’m afraid we don’t allow guests to use it. If you wish to use a computer, Camilla Lidman will be delighted to arrange one for your cabin.”
Tina straightened awkwardly and turned the laptop to face the desk again.
“Sorry, darling.” She had the grace to look slightly shamefaced. “I, ah . . . was just looking for the list of treatments.”
Since there was a full list in the press pack, it was a slightly lame excuse.
“I would be delighted to give you a printout,” Eva said. There was no hint of coolness in her tone, but she looked at Tina rather appraisingly. “We have the usual types of massage and therapies, facials, pedicures, and so on. The manicures and hair treatments take place in this room.” She indicated the chair that Chloe was perching on.
I was just wondering where the other treatments took place, as there was only one chair in the spa, and no more room on the upper deck as far as I could make out—the hot tub and the sauna took up most of the rest of the space—when the deck door swung open and, somewhat to my surprise, Anne Bullmer came in. She looked a little better than last night, her skin less sallow, her face somehow slightly less drawn, but her dark eyes were circled with deep shadows as though she hadn’t slept.
“I’m sorry,” she said, breathlessly, trying to smile. “It takes me so long on the stairs at the moment.”
“Here.” Chloe stood up hastily and tried to edge out of the way into an unoccupied corner of the room. “Have my seat.”
“There’s no need,” Anne said. Chloe began to insist, but Eva cut across their polite exchange with a smile.
“We’re heading to the treatment rooms now, in any case, ladies. Lady Bullmer, if you would like to take a seat here. Miss West, Ms. Blacklock, and Mrs. Jenssen, shall we make our way down?”
Down? Before I could wonder what that meant, she opened the mirrored door behind the desk—a touch at the frame sent it swinging inwards—and we began to descend a set of narrow, dark stairs, one after the other.