Chapter 2 - The White Ribbon.
By late afternoon, the yacht felt less like a vacation and more like a beautifully decorated question.
Lena tried to behave normally.
She changed into a loose white cover-up, ate fruit on the upper deck, and let Noah talk about the coastline as if he had not whispered about locking something away.
He was attentive in all the right ways.
That made her more uneasy, not less.
Every time she looked at him, she wondered which version was real.
The man who remembered how she took her coffee.
The man who sat beside her in the emergency room when she broke her wrist last year.
The man who secretly received black boxes from captains and hid them before she entered the room.
Noah rested an arm along the back of the lounge chair.
“You’ve been quiet.”
“I’m listening to the water.”
“You hate silence.”
“I’m evolving.”
He laughed, but his eyes remained thoughtful.
Lena almost asked him directly.
She almost said she had seen the box and heard the conversation.
Then his phone vibrated on the table.
Noah looked at the screen.
His expression changed so slightly that anyone else might have missed it.
Lena did not.
He stood.
“I need to take this.”
“Business?”
“Unfortunately.”
He walked toward the bow.
Lena watched him until he was out of earshot.
His phone remained pressed to his ear, but his shoulders had gone rigid.
She looked at the empty chair beside her.
A narrow strip of white satin was caught beneath one leg.
Lena bent down and pulled it free.
It was the same ribbon from the black box.
A tiny piece of adhesive clung to one end.
On the other side, in almost invisible silver ink, were three printed characters.
M-12.
She turned it over twice.
It could have been a product code.
It could have meant nothing.
She slipped it into the pocket of her cover-up anyway.
Noah returned two minutes later.
“Sorry.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yes.”
His answer came too quickly.
Lena smiled.
“Good.”
He sat again, and they remained together until Captain Mercer announced that dinner would be served at seven.
At six thirty, Lena told Noah she wanted to shower.
Instead, she waited until he went to the upper deck, then stepped quietly into the main cabin.
The roses were still on the table.
The champagne bucket had been removed.
The black box was nowhere in sight.
Lena moved toward the built-in cabinets along the wall.
The first held glassware.
The second held folded linens.
The third was locked.
She stared at the small brass keyhole.
“Looking for something?”
Captain Mercer’s voice came from behind her.
Lena turned slowly.
He stood at the cabin entrance with his hands loosely clasped behind his back.
“I was looking for sunscreen.”
“In a liquor cabinet?”
She raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve found stranger things on expensive boats.”
A reluctant smile touched his face, then vanished.
“There is sunscreen in the drawer beneath the navigation shelf.”
“Thank you.”
Lena did not move.
Neither did he.
Finally she tapped one finger against the locked cabinet.
“What’s in there?”
“Private property.”
“Whose?”
The captain looked toward the door as if measuring who might overhear.
“Mr. Sterling’s.”
The confirmation should not have surprised her.
It did.
Lena stepped closer.
“Does Noah often ask you to lock his private property away from his girlfriend?”
Captain Mercer’s expression tightened.
“Ms. Whitmore, I would strongly recommend that you ask Mr. Sterling whatever you need to ask him.”
“That sounds like the answer of a man who knows exactly what I need to ask.”
“I know enough to understand that the truth belongs to him.”
The sentence sounded almost sympathetic.
That frightened her more than a lie would have.
Lena lowered her voice.
“Is there someone else?”
The captain’s eyes flickered.
Not guilt.
Surprise.
Then something like sadness.
“No.”
The answer was immediate.
Lena searched his face.
“You’re sure?”
“I am sure of that.”
Relief tried to enter her chest.
It did not get far.
“Then what is he hiding?”
Captain Mercer looked away.
“I cannot answer that.”
Lena gave a humorless laugh.
“Of course you can’t.”
She walked past him toward the hallway.
“Ms. Whitmore.”
She stopped.
The captain’s voice had changed.
It was no longer merely professional.
“If you find something tonight that appears to confirm your worst fear, do not make a decision until you know who put it there.”
Lena turned fully around.
“What does that mean?”
Captain Mercer seemed to regret speaking.
“It means appearances are useful to people who need you frightened.”
Before Lena could question him again, Noah entered from the deck.
“There you are.”
His gaze shifted from Lena to the captain.
“What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Lena said.
Captain Mercer remained silent.
Noah looked unconvinced.
Lena stepped toward him and kissed his cheek.
“I’m going to get ready for dinner.”
She walked to their cabin without looking back.
Once the door was locked, she took the white ribbon from her pocket.
M-12.
She opened the bedside drawer to hide it beneath her passport.
Something metallic clicked against the wood.
Lena froze.
There was a small brass key in the drawer.
She had never seen it before.
A white paper tag was tied around it.
On the tag, someone had written one word in black ink.
May you like
MIDNIGHT.
The Black Gift Box |
