Page 56 of Midnight

Then she gasped.

Their cabin had been ransacked.

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Someone shouted her name. She was standing in the doorway, paralysed. Was the perpetrator still in the room? Maybe behind the door of the bathroom?

She didn’t want to step inside to find out.

‘Olivia!’

Finally she turned to see Patty and Janine at the end of the hallway. Patty was the one who’d called her name. ‘What’s wrong?’ she asked. ‘We saw you leave the auction and thought we’d make sure everything was—’

But Olivia didn’t need to answer. The pair caught up and could see the destruction for themselves.

‘Oh my God.’ Patty’s hand flew to her mouth.

‘Shit,’ said Janine. ‘Has anything been taken?’

Olivia finally managed to speak. ‘I don’t know. I just found it like this. I haven’t been inside yet. I don’t even know if there’s someone still in there …’

Patty took hold of Olivia’s hand. ‘We’ll go in together. Come on. Janine, go tell a crew member. We need them to know we’ve been robbed.’

‘Sure,’ said Janine, jogging back up the hallway.

Olivia leaned down and picked up her shirt from the floor, the one that was blocking the door, and hugged it to her chest. Patty took the lead, firmly stepping through. ‘Hello? Anyone here?’

There was no answer, and she walked further in, picking her way across the strewn clothes, books and electronics.‘It’s not so bad,’ she said, scooping some clothes off the floor. ‘Olivia, is this yours?’ She held up a cardigan.

‘Yes,’ she replied, surveying the wreckage. Cupboard doors were thrown open and her suitcase lay on its side, the lining ripped and torn. Her mattress was on its side, the pillow on the ground. ‘It’s … all mine.’

‘Oh, honey.’ Patty put her arm around Olivia’s back, squeezing her tight. ‘I’m so sorry. I think you’re right.’

‘Holy shit.’ Annalise appeared in their doorway. She leaped straight to her bed, but her laptop was under her pillow where she had left it. She breathed a sigh of relief. She turned to Olivia. ‘Anything missing?’

‘I don’t know.’ With the help of the other women, she picked up all the clothes from the floor, folding them into the drawers. Still in the pocket of her suitcase, she found her passport. ‘I just don’t get it. It’s not like I have anything expensive with me.’

‘You’re a major part of the art showcase. You heard the money being thrown around out there. Maybe someone assumed you’d have something valuable?’ Patty said.

‘Well, they were wrong.’

Olivia hugged her arms around her waist. In her cabin, with these three women who had become her friends, she had felt safe. But now that space had been violated.

There was a knock on their cabin door that made them all jump.

‘Didn’t mean to scare you, ladies. What’s happened?’ It was Liam.

‘He was the first crew member that I came across,’ said Janine by way of explanation.

‘I radioed Elisabet too, so she’ll be here soon. The auction just ended,’ said Liam. ‘Blimey. What a mess.’

‘Yes. And it looks like it was just my stuff that’s been taken.’

‘Oh, really?’ asked Janine.

‘Double-check for yourself, but I think so.’

‘Anything missing?’ Liam asked.

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