‘As for the surgery, cleaners have been in and out as it’s cleaned twice a day but again, it hasn’t been opened with his own key card recently either,’ Bill adds. ‘I tried putting out a tannoy, but no joy.’ He pauses. ‘With your permission, I’d like to do a muster call, which, as you know, is the best way to be sure whether he’s here or not on a ship of this size.’

Leo nods, his expression becoming more serious. About time. ‘I see,’ he says. I’m under no illusion that he’s particularly worried about Stuart – after everything else that’s happened, this is probably the last thing he needs – someone else going missing.

‘OK. I hear you,’ he continues. ‘Hopefully it will turn out to be a storm in a teacup, a fuss about nothing. But if you really think there’s a danger he’s gone missing, then we will do the muster call. In the meantime, let’s assume that everything is fine and consider it a routine drill.’ He clearly doesn’t want anyone to suspect that yet another person has gone missing. And in his place, neither would I. But finding Stuart is what’s important here, I don’t care about Leo’s reputation. ‘Did you have a time in mind?’ Leo asks.

‘I thought 4 p.m. today if that suits,’ Bill says. ‘Outside of mealtimes, and most people won’t be asleep – we’ll keep it as low impact as possible. That sound OK?’

Leo sighs. ‘Yes. Thank you. We’ll do that and go from there.’

69

Antonio

7 February 2022, 16:00

The Caribbean

My heart leaps into my mouth when I hear the muster siren go off. I know what this one is for – it’s because someone’s noticed Stuart’s gone.

It will have been Alice who noticed he was missing. They tried to keep it quiet, but I think they were kind of a couple. I almost died when she stopped me to talk about the food when I had Stuart in the trolley. But she can’t have suspected anything. Can she? Even if she does, there’s no way I’m telling Lola. Who knows what she might do? She and Alice were friends, but Lola is more ruthless than I’d ever known. If she thinks Alice might stand in the way of her plans, I dread to think what she might do. Or try to make me do.