Page 12 of Too Far To Sea
Switching cameras, he followed her progress as she hobbled along to the buffet line, leaning heavily on her crutches while trying to balance a plate in one hand. Where were the workers? The dining staff had crew assigned to help those who might have difficulty navigating the buffet. McKay looked for the radio number for the dining officer and stopped when a crew member stepped up to assist Miss Knight. He frowned that she shouldn’t have gotten that far without help.
The security satellite phone rang. Martina answered and handed it to McKay. “Alan Hastings, for you.”
McKay took the phone. “Mr. Hastings?—”
“Alan, please. My father, Jethro, is Mr. Hastings.”
“Thanks for returning my call. I need to confirm that you do have an employee on board, and she is not on duty.”
“Why do you think we have an employee on your ship?” McKay summarized the phone alert and his conversation with Miss Knight.
“Were you on the Panama Canal cruise?”
“Yes, as was the security chief, hence our concern.”
“Understandable. I can confirm Miss Knight’s conversation with
a staff member through our app. She is on PTO. And Hastings has no security work on any of your cruise lines.” Alan’s voice was firm and friendly. “Our apologies for contacting her through our app and alarming you. I’ll have to have my wife look into the app glitch.”
“If she is on paid time off, why did you contact her?”
“Um,” Alan paused. “Dana’s main principles are minors. Not all of them follow predictable patterns. Is that enough for you?”
McKay pictured someone trying to act as security personnel for his niece. “I think I understand. One more question. Miss Knight is on crutches. True or false?”
Alan laughed at this. “Sadly she is, work related injury. One with no principal threat involved. So we can all laugh at the unlikelihood of the accident.”
McKay waited a moment for any more disclosures. There were none. “Thank you so much for your time.”
“No problem. Sorry we gave you a scare.”
“It was the first time I’d seen the name Hastings Security outside of our training videos since Panama.”
“You use that scenario for training too?”
McKay smiled. “We learned so much that day.”
After ending the call, Martina came to stand behind him. “Should I keep eyes on that woman still?”
“No, need.” Shame. McKay didn’t mind watching her. She’d been polite to the dining crew members and seemed confident even when dining alone. In his years working for the cruise line, McKay had never come close to even thinking about a passenger in a romantic way. He took one last look at the buffet room camera before standing. “She’s not a threat.”
McKay texted Alvaro a summary of his discoveries.
Alvaro: Not 100% convinced. PTSD. Monitor from time to time. Her future brother-in-law is a titled and wealthy Brit.
McKay: Will do. Returning to regular duties.
Alvaro sent a thumbs up emoji.
Before leaving the room, McKay scanned the rest of the monitors, looking for signs of trouble. On embarkation day, passengers started drinking earlier than most days. The bar overlooking the main pool was more crowded than normal. A walk through the bars and restaurants might flush out anyone who needed to change to a seat in a food venue.
He hadn’t made it halfway through his rounds when he spotted her on the upper deck. Miss Knight leaned against the railing, her crutches propped up beside her, staring out at the horizon where the sinking sun painted the sky in vibrant hues of orange and pink.
He should keep walking. He had actual security concerns to address. Instead, he found himself moving toward her.
“Beautiful sunset, isn’t it?” he said, trying to sound casual as he joined her by the railing.
“Oh—hi,” She smoothed a hand over her windswept hair. “Yeah, it’s beautiful out here.”
