Girl Overboard by Sandra Block

Author:Sandra Block [Block, Sandra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2022-05-03T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

We wind our way down to a hidden labyrinth in the ship, a series of small rooms like the study rooms at my school library. I wonder if they took Bryce here too. The inspector opens the door to a hot lemon-yellow room. He motions for me to sit, then sits across from me. A fake LCD fish tank burbles on the wall, the same kind as in our stateroom, adding a certain absurdity to the proceedings.

“Just so you know,” the inspector says, “you are not in any trouble here. We’re doing a lot of interviews, and even more when we get back to Bermuda.” He gives me a smile, but it drops when I don’t return it. “We are just doing our best to find out what happened to your friend. Okay?”

“Okay,” I say, not feeling any better about this. The back of my bra itches with dried sweat. I know I must smell disgusting.

“So…let’s start with when you saw her last?” he asks, his pad open and pen at the ready.

“Tuesday night,” I say, without having to think about it. “After the White Party, we went swimming.”

“When was the exact time you saw her last?” he asks, writing.

My fingers start tapping out a rhythm. “Ten thirty, maybe? Ten forty-five?” Then my stomach lets out an embarrassing grumble. I didn’t eat much before the run, and now I’ve missed lunch, so I am famished.

The inspector kindly ignores this, then consults his pad strewn with illegible scribbling. “Where was she going? Back to her room?”

I shake my head. “She got a message from Bryce to meet her. So, I assume she did. And…I never saw her again after that.” The fish burble again, one staring right at me with its cartoony eyes. “I think he was the last one to see her alive. So…” I let the implication hang.

“Bryce says they were in his cabin…,” the inspector says, leaving an ellipsis for what they were doing. “And then she left. He didn’t know where she went.”

Ten thousand dollars. I found ten thousand dollars in her safe.

Inspector Curtis pushes his chair back from the table, assuming a casual posture. “Is it possible she left the cruise after meeting with Bryce? Maybe…decided to go back into Bermuda for the night while you were still docked, for instance?” He searches me. “Did she mention this at all?”

My fingers tap again, and I pull my hand off the table to stop them. “No, she didn’t tell me, but it’s possible. I mean, she was kind of…adventurous.”

The inspector briskly flips a sheet of his notebook. “Her aunt and uncle think she might have done so.”

I think my mouth actually falls open. “That’s not what they told me. They told me she was onboard. That she was sick with the flu. Quarantining, basically.”

The inspector purses his lips. “Yes, they said they didn’t want to worry you. But she had made insinuations to them that she was going to run away to Bermuda.”

“Oh, okay,” I answer, puzzled but on the other hand thrilled with this news.

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