Page 16 (1/2)

Including the sreed with hi-in-here-safely part, hiding fro myself and the baby insideprecisely--this place, Asher, the baby,that I meant what I said

I threw up a couple ret, and returned to my perch on the bed The ocean raced by outside the closed balcony doors, waves sharply drawn like carved stone

When room service arrived I tipped them all the money left in Asher’s wallet as a small act of rebellion

I set the room service trays out--sandwiches and cheese platters and cookies, anything that ood over the course of the next day--and left all the silver lids on, so I wouldn’t have to smell all of them at once I carefully tested reed with everything but the salt I licked the fry clean, and chunked it into the trash can afterward

I was licking the salt off another fry when I saw soed, tu like a snowflake, outside my n to the sea

I raced to the balcony doors and flung them open Cold salt air smacked me like a wall My bare feet slid across the short space to the railing, slick with condensation fro,to see where he’d fallen Trying to prove that I’d seen hi ocean beneath the Maraschino was the color of the , really

But I knew I’d seen ato pull up the memory precisely, to slow it down and really see it I pictured the railing like a , like a protozoan darting beneath

Where did he come from? And why? I leaned out and looked up, in case anyone else was staring down like me, but I couldn’t see past the botto out on ain

I carefully stepped back inside my room and called the front desk

I couldn’t make a decent report, as I wasn’t even sure who I’d seen, just that I’d seen so to be considerate, but I knew I sounded insane

"I just saw a o overboard You need to stop the boat I’m in room six thirty-one He fell down froreen shirt on"

"Please calm down, Mrs Stonefield," she said Of course Asher had booked our rooue not to correct her "We’ll be looking into things," she went on

"He ht still be alive--" I said before I stopped to ponder the odds Could anyone survive the fall? How high up had he started, anyhow? And how much would the water have felt like ce out at the ocean through the balcony doors, as though Ithere It didn’t look like ere plowing through the waves any more slowly

"We’ve already sent out a tender boat--"

"Soed to call in faster than me?

"Uh--" The wo to me--or she wasn’t And there’d been another reason for a search boat to already be out in the sea

"How one overboard?"

The woman cleared her throat "I’m sorry, I can’t tell you official ship’s business Please trust that we’re looking into things, though, Mrs Stonefield, honestly we are" And the line clicked dead

I tried calling back, but the line was busy and went to hold ave up in disgust

Maybe they couldn’t stop the ship if ere going to outrace the storet the sick people safely off That was better than thinking that they didn’t care--or that they were already overwhelmed I went out on the balcony for a second look

The ship hadn’t even tried to slon, but even if it had, ould be the point? I assumed cruise ships were like trains: It would take the Maraschino , and after that, who kne er to turn around? The ocean outside was as wild as it had been the day before, when I’d been pushing Claire Knowing it had taken so, even hungry