The colonel shrugged, “We found no sign of the actual ship, but her crew, well, they were …” he struggled to find words. He had seen the photos of what they had found, and it had shaken him to his very core.

He summoned his strength and soldiered on, “It appears there was a severe fire aboard the King’s Transom, though caused by what, we cannot tell at this time. Though we could not find the ship itself, the crew were …. I am afraid there were no survivors.”

He did not stop, he did not want to dwell on the image in his mind. He had one piece of information that was not completely terrible, and he wanted to move on to it.

“As I said before, the one remaining EPIRB signal that led us to the site was actually attached to a bag.” he said, and then nodded to his assistant who stood and hurriedly left the room, returning a moment later with a large orange dry bag. Its attached life jacket, striped with soot like the rest of the floating debris and carnage, had been removed.

“You will understand that, for purposes of our investigation, we will have to ask you to stay in the area for the next few days while we complete our investigation. That said, in the absence of the actual vessel, said investigation will be … well … anyway.”

He paused again. After a moment’s silence, he nodded to his assistant who handed the bag to Madeline.

The colonel stood, slowly, saying, “Here it is,” his sober tone displaying how little satisfaction he expected the bag to give them.

“Actually, it was the contents of the bag that led us to Ms. Cavanagh.” he said, pausing for just a second more.

“Maybe I should leave this with you?” he said, finally, and turned to leave. Saying as he reached the door, “We will be just outside. Please let us know if you need anything at all.”

The assistant wordlessly followed him, closing the door with a sympathetic nod.

* * *

The bag contained various items that they both recognized instantly as the shocking findings they had spent the previous night discussing. It was black comedy to Neal that the bag seemed so innocuous to the uneducated eye. The fact that they had been handed this by a government official without hesitation might have been funny to them both … on any other day.

Amongst the CD case, file folders, and rolled sheaf of printed photographs he found an envelope. On its outside, Neal read:

‘To the reader of this message, I ask that you please place the contents of this bag in the hands of Madeline Cavanagh. She will be staying in the Ately Guest House in Kodikkarai. If you are not with the Indian Coast Guard, then I have no doubt Madeline will reward you well for the return of this bag’s contents, which, though materially worthless, will be of great value to her.

Your servant,