The Third Man

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--SQUIDS POV--

Both our eyes were wide as the ocean with fear and shock.
"Courtney.. Courtney Holt she-"
"Oh my god.."
"Our boss is dead just after she fired us, and she was texting me.. This looks so bad! We have to turn back, we have to go home we haven't got a choice."
"We can't just go back now, we'd miss the funeral anyway."
"Well what else are we supposed to do! I literally was on the phone to her half an hour ago! She was alive! Fully alive! If this is suicide then I'm getting arrested."
"Stamps we have made it this far. I am not turning back."
"Well I am!"
"Joe we are in this together! You said it yourself! We are going to stay on this boat until we orbit the Earth and arrive back in England that way! Courtney gave us this challenge, do it for her!" I yelled, we were both shaking with fear and tense with disbelief.
We stood in silence on the top deck for at least ten minutes before Joe asked me where we were.
"Just north of Somalia, wanna stop by?"
"Not at all." He replied,
"Thought so." I responded. Standing up and trying to spot any sight of land. I felt deserted, abandoned.. Left in this ocean to die.

"Do you reckon she still would have died if we never did this." Joe asked with a dull tired voice.
"Did what?"
"The Boat Trip."
"Who knows.." I sighed. "We're just friends on a boat, what do we have to do with this.."
"Just friends.." Joe repeated. I gave him a saddened look before Joe's phone rang.
Neither of us knew quite what to do: Joe was too terrified to speak to anyone else but me, and I was just upset.
"Give me the phone." I told him, he looked at me, "I said give me the phone."

"Hello?" I asked. Feeling dead inside, drunk with fatigue and despair.
"Hello is that Joseph Garrett?"
"No this is David Spencer, I can pass a message if you like."
"This is important and confidential information." He said.
"Joseph Garrett did not make any attempt to hurt or make Courtney feel threatened if that's what you're wondering. I was a witness, I heard the conversation that they had- the phone call was on my phone." I looked over at Joe whose eyes we turning red with fear, and tears were beginning to fall as he covered his mouth at the other side of the boat.
"Do you have any evidence of this?"
"Unless I can recover the phone call, no. I can't." I responded.
"Can I please speak to Mr Garrett."
I took another look at Joe, he looked so guilty and broken. He wouldn't be able to speak even if he tried.
"No." I said, "no you can't."
"-Mr Spencer-"
"I would never put a man through that. I would never humiliate an already broken man. That's like burning money in front of a homeless man, or eating dinner in front of starving children. It's cruel. I wouldn't do that to him."
The man was silent for a moment before he said,
"I am arresting you in suspicion of murdering Courtney Holt."
"She collapsed! She must have had some kind of illness! You must have security cameras- I'm not even in the UK!"
"We will be arresting you-"
"Well good luck finding me." I said, looking to Joe who nodded as I dropped the phone, stood on it before throwing it into the ocean so the call would not be tracked.

I sat down beside Joe who was slowly breaking down and put my arm around his neck, staring out into space.
"Sooner or later they're gonna find out where we are." Joe sighed,
"But we didn't do anything! We're perfectly innocent!"
"Thanks." Joe gulped,
"What for?"
"Not making me speak there.. That would have been awkward."
"Well.. I guess I just hate seeing you this way."
Stampy widened his eyes and took a breath in, "how do I just man up?"
"God don't ask me I'm the one who couldn't stop crying about a ten year old girl that I've never even met!"
That got Stampy to smile a bit.
"-Sorry about your phone by the way." I added. Stampy chuckled,
"Yeh that was bloody expensive mate."
"It wasn't an iPhone 7 was it?"
"Nah, 6 something."
"Alright, so it's not waterproof?"
"Nah." He laughed,
"I'll get you another one soon." I told him, smiling.
Stampy laughed at the word "soon".

We continued to sit in silence for a while as the sun set.
"Hey who was that guy who shot Eva?" Stampy asked, it was an awkward question, a risky and tense question that I wasn't that comfortable taking about.
"I- I never really found out, I guess."
"We've got his face on camera footage.. We could try and find out who he is."
"Do you really want to go down that route? I know you want revenge and all but do we want to be seen as a stalker as well as 'murderers'?"
Then a loud, foreign, male voice blasted from various parts of the boat,
"No I don't think you do."

I looked at Stampy in shock,
"Did you say that?!" I gasped,
"Are you saying you didn't?!"
"Stamps there's only two of us on the boat.."

"Yes." The voice growled again, "and there still is only two but when I was onboard I fiddled with the speaker settings, oh and also I set up a few of my own cameras."

"Wait.." I knew that voice..

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