The public address system which had speakers throughout the ship burst into life.
'Captain to the Bridge, Captain to the Bridge' the voice commanded. The Captain jumped to his feet and rushed out to go to the Bridge.
Dave was torn, should he follow after the Captain or stay with Eliot and Neil. 'Simon stay here and keep an eye on these two' Dave said as he rushed after the Captain.
*
In the night Ray had snuck out on deck and punched a hole in the bottom of a lifeboat. He used a screwdriver and hammer to put a series of small holes in the tough fibreglass hull in a circle and then pushed out a bigger hole. The noise of the banging had not attracted any attention and Ray snuck back inside the superstructure and went into hiding.
Ray returned to the lifeboat as dawn broke and prepared it for launch by releasing the chains. Ray checked that this was the lifeboat he had put the hole in so that it would sink and opened the hatch and climbed in.
*
The Captain arrived on the Bridge and found the majority of the Bridge Crew on the Bridge Wing looking out behind the ship.
'What's going on?' the Captain demanded to know.
'Ray Reid just climbed into the lifeboat, Captain. He's going to launch and escape!' the Radio Officer Mark Chelmsford said hurriedly to the Captain.
The Captain looked on in horror and then thought of sending some crew down to stop him then realised that Ray wouldn't get very far and they would soon round him up. The Captain thought it odd that he had decided to escape now and not do it during the night when it was dark.
'What's happening Cap?' Dave asked as he finally arrived on the Bridge Wing between breaths as he tried to recover from the run up the many flights of stairs.
The Captain was about to respond when there was a loud noise and Dave's eyes and everyone else naturally turned toward the sound. They all looked on in horror as the lifeboat slid down its runners and landed in the sea and bobbed like a cork then flattened out onto its keel and they could just make out Ray inside the lifeboat.
'Full stop' the Captain roared to the crewman on duty and he immediately sent the signal to the engine room and a further thirty second went by before the engines stopped. The ship weighed over 250,000 tonnes and had been travelling at over 17 miles per hour. It would be miles before the ship came to a complete stop and many miles more as they tried to turn. The Captain realised this a little slowly as he was so shocked by the rapid turn of events.
'Launch the RIB' he bellowed and the crewman at the controls issued orders over the PA system and crewmen ran out of deck a minute later.
'Why has he not started the engine and tried to escape?' Dave asked the group watching. Then with horror it slowly dawned on them all that the lifeboat was starting to ride very heavily in the water. The lifeboat was sinking!
The Captain heard the silence come over the crew on the Bridge Wing and could tell from their strained expression that something was going on. He looked over the Bridge Wing and saw immediately that the lifeboat was sinking. It would take another five to ten minutes to launch the RIB and by then they would be some distance from the lifeboat. They might be too slow to save Ray.
'Go down there man and hurry up the crew launching the RIB' the Captain bellowed at one of the crewmen watching. The man ran off at pace, he was fit and young he might make the difference.
The wind at that moment picked up and caused the sea swell to grow and it quickly overtook the front of the lifeboat. It was going to sink within minutes but the Captain kept the crew working on launching the RIB. Maybe they'll make it just in time!
*
Jamie Gregory sat in his cabin, a cabin he'd briefly shared with Joseph Smith before his tragic death. He'd heard that Ray Reid had confessed to murdering Joe but then managed to escape. Jamie was so pleased the finger of suspicion had left him but now equally worried that there was a dangerous murderer loose on the ship somewhere! As he sat and pondered his life the song Message in a Bottle by The Police played quietly on his tape deck and Jamie wished someone would have a message of advice for him.
Jamie selfishly thought about what would happen to him now. He'd told the Captain and the Chief Officer that he was a cross-dresser. Jamie had then denied he was gay but he doubted this claim would be believed. How long would it be until the entire crew knew his secret now it was out? Jamie assumed that the Captain would tell the Second Officer, Neil Farmer and he was well known to be a hard bastard and would take delight in humiliating Jamie.
Jamie figured they would be a long way from the coast now which would mean he was stuck on board the ship with a bunch of men who once they knew his secret would hate him and possibly harm him. It was a bleak picture and then on top of that there was a murderer hiding out somewhere on board...Ray Reid. Life for Jamie was not getting any better!
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Floating Lies and Sinking Truth - P1 COMPLETE
Mystery / ThrillerIt's July 1980 and one of the crew go missing on the first day out on a new voyage. Did they jump ship or were they pushed? Were they murdered? If so by who and why? If he is dead and we never find the body we'll probably never know! If his body...
