A Birth day

Jack looked at Angus and then to Marcus " I guessed as much" he said then heard Micahel and nodded as he left to quickly head down to the news stand. Once there he picked up the paper and spoke to the seller who did indeed just tell him what Michael had said that it was owned by wealth people and they had been out with their guests when it exploded.

Jess chuckled "Sorry about him he just wants to rush in," she said and looked to Tara with Angus then the girls " Girls why don't we head to teh hotel and freshen up, and leave Michael, Jack and Angus to do their work," she said softly " you can bring those pastries too, I can smell them from here and they're making my tummy rumble." she looked to Angus trying to calm everyone down a little also the office was filling up fast with people.

"I know," Angus said. "I'd like to set a fire under them myself, but it won't help. It only can be done so fast. Frustrating, I know. Thanks, Jess."

Michael scooped up all the paperwork and looked at Tyler. "I'm taking this along. It's going to be useful. Have you recovered anything from the site yet?"

"We sent a tug out the moment we heard of a problem. Supposedly a few things but that boat hasn't come back in yet. They're looking for any sign of survivors. Muggle Italian coast guard ships are still there as well," Tyler said.

"Who's on the bridge of our ship?" Angus wanted to know there was a competent man on the bridge.

"Gervaise Dumont," Tyler said. "He's already here and up on the bridge. He came the moment we called."

"Good," Angus said. "At least I won't have to pilot the ship."

"He said you and he were friends," Tyler said.

"We are. Gervaise is one best captains I know," Angus said. "And the crew?"

"Handpicked for this by Gervaise."

"Good," Angus said. He turned to the rest of them. "Let's go get our cabins and you can get acquainted with the lay of the ship and the equipment and the crew." Marcus picked up his bag and Angus's and he followed Angus out of the ship office, down the street to the pier and then down to the proper slip to get onto what was, for all purposes, a small private cruise ship. Angus looked up the gangplank to see Gervaise standing with a clipboard up on deck talking to some crew members.

"Ahoy!" Angus called to Gervaise. "Permission to board, Captain!" Gervaise turned and saw Angus and broke into a wide grin.

"Permission granted!" Gervaise called back. Angus motioned to Michael and Jack and Marcus and he led the way up the gangplank. Gervaise wrapped Angus into a big hug. He looked at Angus. "We will find him, you know, mon ami. We will bring him back alive."

"I know," Angus said. "These are my mates, and some of the fiercest fighters you'll ever see. This is Michael Tremaine, Marcus Belby, and Jack Black Heart."

"Well met, Gentlemen. I'll have the porter take you to your quarters. Angus, you have the owner's suite of course, and..."

"I will be staying with Angus," Marcus said. Angus looked at him questioningly. "Robert's orders. I am to remain with you at all times, no exceptions. I have slept in worse places than a sofa."

"I guess he's going to be in my suite with me, then," Angus said. "though, I don't know why."

"Michael and Jack, you both have an Admiral's suite. The stateroom locations have been somewhat reconfigured. You're all on deck three, which is actually this deck. Your staterooms are across the hall from Angus's," Gervaise said. "Our porter for this cruise is Pierre. He'll take care of anything you need while you're on board." Angus motioned to them to follow along, as Pierre led the way onboard and then to the staterooms. Pierre opened the door to the owners' suite and then to the admirals' staterooms for Michael and Jack.

"If there is anything I can get for you, please let me know," Pierre said. "There is a fitness center and a spa one deck down. Well, here." He handed each of them a brochure that had a ship's map on it so they could find their way around. "This is usually helpful for the first day or so."

Jess chuckled and nodded then lead Tara and the girls acrss the road to the hotel Entering she ehaded for an elevator to take them to their suit. Once inside she placed an order for some Camomile tea as she set about calming down Tara and the girls. Switching on the tv she turned it to a movie .

Jack returned with a news paper and handed it to Michael " he pretty much said waht you said." he said to Michael. Following Angus to board the yacht he nodded to Gervaise as he was introduced. Then followed him to where there rooms were. Walking in he looked around and placed the wet suits on the bed infront of him.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I thought," Michael said. "Is there a fireplace on this tub?"

"Not a real one, but there is an electric one in the main salon," Angus said.

"As long as I can reach Robert, we're good," Michael said.

"Do you suspect something?"

"Yes. I do. "Do me a favor. Go ask Gervaise if he knows if they have recovered any personal items that might have belonged to the passengers. Or any bodies. I'll wager there are no bodies at all, so sign of anyone at all."

"You think this wasn't an accident," Angus said.

"I'm almost entirely sure it wasn't," Michael said. "I think this is all a set up."

"What for?"

"If I'm right? It's most likely either for Robert's benefit or yours or both," Michael said.

"Well, what are you thinking? Spit it out."

"I think the couple was Tom and Suzanne, and their guests were their thugs. Now, if I'm right, they could have killed Evan, but I see no profit in that for them. I think he's probably in their hands somewhere, and I think they ported out, with Evan before the ship blew."

"If they've hurt him, they'll wish they'd gone down with the damned ship," Angus scowled.

"We just saw a baby announcement congratulating them, though,' Angus frowned.

"Well, I think either they had the baby several days ago and didn't announce it til now. or they put their own birth announcement out and attributed it to someone else in order to try to create an alibi of sorts."

"I'm still gonna kill 'em," Angus said. "So we're going to spend endless days combing the sea and not finding him.

"Well, I didn't say that. I think there's still a possibility we'll find Evan out here somehow. I'm still working on that part," Michael said.

Jack listened to Michael talking and nodded when Angus became a bit annoyed at Suzzane and Gelding " I agree it's sick to do that" he said, " Im going with it was all a trick just to get you out there." Jack said folding his arms as he stood with them. He paused and looked to Michael "If they ported likely place would be their estate or some place they own , right?" he asked " or would that be too obvious." he lent back on the door frame as he watched the two men.

Jess had pored some tea for every one and smiled as she had with out them seeing added a little calming potion to the tea as she felt Tara and the girls could use it. " so tell me what you know" she asked hoping some bit of information slipped Taras mind when she contacted Angus or even the girls knew something Tara didn't.

"Well, I suppose they could have just popped home, but that seems unlikely to me," Michael said. "I mean, think about it. They've gone to great lengths to set this up, to get Angus or Robert out here for some reason. There certainly are cheaper and easier wild goose chases than this. No, there's a reason we're heading out into the middle of the Mediterranean. I just don't know why yet. Are there dangerous species in the water here, Angus?"

"Aside from sharks, barracudas, man-o-wars, stingrays, scorpion fish, asps,..." Angus began.

"Sorry I asked," Michael said. "Great. Just ducky. So not for amateurs, then."

"Not really," Angus said.

"Comb through the newspapers. Let's see what else we can find. And see if Gervaise knows of any shipwrecks or anything unusual in the last couple of months or so," Michael said. Angus went out on deck and had a talk with Gervaise. It was while he was talking with Gervaise that they got the word that all was ready and they could set sail. Angus went to the bridge with Gervaise, and Gervaise ordered the crew to cast off. Angus watched Gervaise take command of the bridge while the helmsman steered the ship out of the dock and headed for open waters.

"I don't know all that much," Tara said. "Evan had just gotten home from the winery, and we were at supper when he got a call on his muggle phone that there was a dinner cruise scheduled and some of the crew had gotten sick. They were short handed, and with no notice at all. Evan didn't feel he had a choice. He left straight away to go help serve the dinner on the dinner cruise, and he expected he'd certainly be home by midnight or so at the latest. That's really all I know. He hardly ever got those sorts of calls, but he usually went if he thought he could help."

Jess sat and listened to Tara tell her side of what happened now she thought about it " so who has his number and have you contacted the crew who called in sick?" she askded " might be some where to start looking, they could have been paid off and if so we might find out by who." she said but then stopped her self "give me a moment, let me talk to Angus" she said and opened a floo. " Angus , michael or Marcus you there?" she asked but got Jack. She explained to him what Tara had told her and Jack promised to pass in the information.

Jack walked up to the wheel house and saw Angus with Gervaise getting ready to set sail " just spoke to Jess, Tara said some of the men called in sick, enough that Evan had to stand in, she wants to know if she should contact them and find out if they were paid to fake being sick?" he asked as he felt the Yaght start to pull away from its moor.

"Yeah. That's basically what Tara told me when she called me. Jess's probably not going to be able to do that until we get the names from Michael. Michael took the file on last night's cruise and brought it with him," Angus said. "And I'm sure they called Evan's cell phone, so I don't know that we'll get the number of who called until we find Evan or his phone. We'll get the names from Michael, and she can start checking on them and their work records with the charter office first. She can ask Tyler to help her contact the crew members who called off. They won't know her, but they should know Tyler. She might not get far since she's not a Donohue, but if Tyler helps her, she might be able to get some information. It can't hurt. She shouldn't go too far from Tara, though. If we suspect Suzanne and Tom are up to something, we need to make sure that Evan's family stays safe."

Michael went to the salon himself and he opened a floo to Robert and told Robert what little they knew. Robert said he would use some of his contacts to see if there was anything his sources might be able to tell them about either Tom and Suzanne or any goings on in the Mediterranean. Robert didn't like the sounds of any of it. He warned Michael to tell everyone to be on guard and use the utmost caution to make sure that they themselves weren't the targets of this set up.

Jack heard Angus and nodded "Yeah she said Tara said it was on his muggle phone that they called in." he thought about Angus's words and nodded "and Don't worry she'll keep them safe," he said and smiled to him then looked out the window at the ocean in front of the ship.

Jess staid with Tara and the girls making sure the door wa locked from teh inside incase any one they didn't know tried something. Opening the floo to Tyler she spoke to him about the names of the nem who calle in sick and talking to them about if they were realy sick or paid off and if so who by. " I'll leave it with you Tyler but keep me posted, thank you " she said and signed off returning to the main loundge area and siting with Tara who she could see was looking calmer now.

As Angus was standing on the bridge, the porter notified Angus that there was a floo call in the salon. Angus went to answer it. He saw Robert's face in the electric fireplace.

"Robert? Have you got something?"

"A couple things," Robert said. "First, Edward knows. He and Simone returned home from their lunch, and I told them. They're on their way to the estate. They're going to leave Caprice with Rosaria and Carlo and then head straight to the ship office. Second, I did some digging about Suzanne, and I was able to substantiate that she did, in fact, give birth to a baby girl, but it was five days ago. Our informants believe that Gelding hired a nanny to care for the child, which seems like a wise choice to me, given how unbalanced Suzanne can be, but, theoretically, it is completely possible that they were on ship last night. And there's another thing that I'm doing some deep digging into. Apparently, Gelding has rented an estate within an hour's drive of Edward's."

"Why?" Angus frowned.

"Well, I'm trying to find that out. It's a coastal place with it's own dock, and apparently he has also made a rental deal on a couple diving boats."

"Diving boats? Then why did he need to rent a yacht last night from us?" Angus asked.

"That does beg the question, doesn't it?" Robert asked. "Why would you bother renting another one of what you already have. And, there's something else. He's made absolutely no movement that we can detect in his primary business. No recruiting of customers, no movements at all to get new kids. None of that."

"Well, that is something like the planet falling off its axis. What the heck is he into now?"

"That's exactly what I want to know," Robert said.

"Why does it sound to me like we are venturing into something extremely dangerous?"

"I think we are," Robert replied. "Definitely. Kate and I are packing our bags and I'm passing the word on to the rest of the first string. I think we may all soon be ending up there with you. My gut says we're into a whole new adventure. Be very, very careful. Those Mediterranean waters are starting to look very dark indeed."

"Absolutely. We stand forewarned and forearmed," Angus said. He disconnected his call and put in a separate call to Jess. "Jess, I just talked with Robert. Edward knows, and I'm sure he'll be there before long. Robert has news, though. Gelding has rented an estate about an hour away from you, and he's also rented two diving boats, and no, we don't know why yet. Plus, Suzanne had a baby--a half sister to Ruby and Jessie and the boys. Her name is Alli, which is a Finnish name meaning Diamond. I don't think that's coincidence. It's very possible that it was Tom and Suzanne who rented the ship from us last night, but we don't know why yet. And--Robert says Gelding has not made one single move to either recruit new customers or to get more children. None at all. I wouldn't be surprised if Robert and the others didn't end up there at the hotel with you before supper time today. Gelding is definitely up to something. I know we told you to be careful, but I think you need to double down on that. If you think, at any point, that your safety is compromised, apparate out and go right to Edward's estate."