Currents of Vengeance by Arleen Alleman

Author:Arleen Alleman [Arleen Alleman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781465335791
Publisher: Xlibris US
Published: 2012-06-27T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 43

The meeting Tom and Mick had with Roger Ramirez was short and to the point. It was obvious that Roger was giving up information begrudgingly. In fact, he began by acknowledging that he was sharing what was known about the crimes on the ship only because the captain had told him to.

They both knew he harbored resentment toward Tom because he was towing the World of Seas line, blaming Tom for some of the problems last year. And Roger certainly was not happy with Mick for bringing his GAO project on board. At least Tom knew Roger, and at that moment, he was a little more put together than Mick was. So Tom asked the questions and Mick sat back in his chair hearing about half of what was said because he could not keep his mind from wandering back to how badly he was screwing up with Darcy and Rachael.

After curtly acknowledging that there had indeed been a reported rape, Roger became extremely agitated. “What I want to know is how the hell you two even knew about it. We are not telling anyone what happened, and we’re keeping the victim’s identity a secret.”

“Well, I’m sorry to tell you this, Roger, but we know her name is Melanie, and by now I’m sure many other passengers know as well.”

Roger looked as if he was going to explode. He stood and bent over the table, and this got Mick’s attention. “Hold on Roger, don’t get upset with us,” he said. “Tom is just telling you what my friend innocently heard two women talking about.”

Tom leaned back in his chair and Roger sat back down. “I sympathize with your position, Roger, believe me. I’m sure you are thinking that the captain will be very upset when he finds out the rape is getting to be common knowledge . . . and I say that because you and I know it is inevitable. Once passengers get hold of something like this it spreads quickly.”

Roger nodded in agreement. “You are right, but Ms. Cousins—

Melanie—agreed she would not talk about what happened, and I naively believed her. Anyway, the point is we do not even know if the rapist was a crew member or a passenger. I questioned her twice and she just can’t recall many details. The guy wore a mask and only spoke to her in a hoarse whisper . . . but something else is troubling; he sprayed the security camera with paint. This is making me lean toward a crew member.”

Tom asked about the injury she had sustained and Roger shrugged. “Just a deep scratch, it didn’t even need stitches—just a butterfly bandage, but she said the knife was quite big and looked like a kitchen knife. That worries me because it might also point to a crew member.”

“Actually, it would have been almost impossible for a passenger to bring a large knife on board with baggage being X-rayed and all,” Mick added.

Roger thought about that. “Anyone can get their hands on one of our kitchen knives if they want to, I suppose.

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