"The only way to figure out who did it is to replay the scene." Hector moved about the table now, slowly, purposefully, towards the two he really had pegged as having done it: Bhawani and Vinay, the mother-son duo who had been acting sus all evening.

"The maid had gone to fetch the Captain earlier, in case Marvin needed to be arrested. When she got back to the bar, Miles gave her a couple of bottles to be delivered to Ms Dhungel's room. The maid had a reason to be up there. Perhaps, she saw something, something that scared her, which is why she's gone into hiding." He paused just behind Bhawani and drummed his hand on the back of her chair. "But you, Bhawani Garcia, the victim's own sister, you were already in Devi's room at the time of the incident.

"And your son Vinay? Once calm and back in the dining, he was seen on the footage, heading after you. He was almost on the deck in question, from where the room is visible, just as you went back into Devi's room with something behind your back. At this time, Devi still appeared unharmed, holding onto the railing outside."

"I didn't stab her, okay." Vinay desperately shook his head. "What would I have stabbed her with?"

"Interesting." Hector's brows rose. "I've never mentioned how she was attacked."

Vinay squirmed in his seat, stammering, "Yo—You mus—must have."

Hector smiled. He was getting somewhere. "It was you, wasn't it, Mr Garcia? You took the opportunity, when the blackout happened on board, to get rid of your aunt? What better way to dispose of her and secure her fortune than to blame the storm?"

"No ... No ..." Vinay cried. "It wasn't me. It wasn't me! By the time I got there she was ... she was already hurt ..."

An audible gasp resounded around the table.

Hector felt a triumphant lurch in his stomach. I'm definitely getting somewhere. "And how did she get hurt, exactly? Was it your mum? Your mum stabbed Devi?"

Vinay gave Bhawani, who now sat there as pale as can be, a painful look. "I don't know ..."

"Yes, you do!" Marvin nearly shouted from the end of the table. "You've been on edge these past few weeks. I knew something was up. You don't need to protect your mum, son. If she did it, she did it. Just tell the truth. I will not have you go to gaol for her."

"Do it!" a few around the table encouraged.

Hector could see the pressure getting to the kid, so he added to it, "If convicted, you're looking at a minimum of twenty-five years to life in prison."

Vinay glanced back and forth between his parents; one imploring him to tell the truth, the other, silently pleading him not to. "I ..."

"If you know who did it, tell us," Hector encouraged. "You were headed in their direction. It's clear on the CCTV footage. By the time the blackout happened, you would have been on the upper deck. When the cameras came back online, you were seen rushing away. If it wasn't you who attacked your aunt, you know who did."

"Leave him alone." Bhawani simpered.

"I ..." Vinay swallowed nervously, all his previous bravado gone. "I ..." In tears, he desperately looked around the room, as if looking for escape or someone to take the blame.

"I think you know very well who did it." Hector pressed on, leaning over the son as menacingly as possible. If he had Hercule Poirot's majestic moustache, he would have stroked it for good measure. "I think you saw your mum attack your aunt with her own khukuri. I bet you even helped throw her overboard before anyone came. Or you saw your aunt get attacked and go overboard, but you did nothing except tell your mum to wait a bit before screaming so you had enough time to get away. Or you attacked her yourself and your mum's covering for you. Which is it, Vinay?"

Bhawani shook her head, staring at her knees. "It was all a mistake ... all of it ..." in Nepali, not that Hector understood a word of it.

"Or, I like this one the best. You got greedy and took matters into your own hands. By the time your mum stumbled back out of the room, still drunk, you had thrown your aunt off the yacht. Since you're her only son, your mum agreed to keep it a secret and pretend it was an accident. Then you learned the next day from the Captain that the CCTV had also blacked out from the storm at that very moment and couldn't see how Devi fell into the sea. You were safe, or you thought you were safe ..." Hector heckled some more, seeing the kid about to crack it.

"No. No..." Vinay looked like a cornered prey.

"Admit it. You tried to kill your aunt for money!"

"No!" Vinay rose from his seat.

"Then it was your mother, wasn't it? You're covering for her ..."

"That's not true." Vinay swallowed. "It's not ... it's..." He glanced at the other guests, seeking support. When none came, he suddenly pointed a finger at their host, Ms Holly Harden, aka Nurse Chaya, playing the maid's role. "It was her! It was her! I saw her running away from the room with something in her hands ... She bumped into me..."

Chaya's eyes went wide with surprise, not that anyone paid attention to her.

" ... maybe it was the knife! The other cops said some expensive jewellery went missing from her room too ... maybe she stole it and they caught her in the act. IT WAS HER!" Vinay spouted. "It's her. Tell him, Mum. Tell him. It was the maid."

To everyone's surprise, and to Chaya's, Bhawani Dhungel-Garcia looked at her and slowly but surely nodded. "I was drunk ... I don't normally drink, and I went into the bathroom to throw up, I think. She was there. Scared me half to death, and ran out ... Maybe she attacked Didi and pushed her into the sea when Di tried to stop her ..."

"It was her. I'm telling you! She was supposed to just drop off the wine. What was she doing in Thulo Mummy's bathroom ...?" Vinay continued to point fingers. "It's her. I saw her. Arrest her. She robbed her, tried to kill her, and blame it on us ..."

Bhawani wiped tears off her cheeks and joined her son in the chorus. "It's her. It has to be ..."

"See, I told you. It's always the maid!" Marvin chimed in, haughtily.

The other guests too stared at Chaya in shock.

"Is that true?"

"Did the maid do it?"

"Can't trust people these days ..."

Chaya rose from her seat, shaking her head, her hands held out before her as if blocking unwanted advance.

"Arrest her! Not us!" Vinay screeched in a panic.

Hector furrowed his brows at Chaya, in thought. That's when it happened, the unexpected.

In a panic of her own, Chaya blew up, forgetting all about her inability to speak, forgetting all about the fact that she was only 'playing the maid'—or was she?

"Why would I attack my own mother?"

Well, that was something. Silence fell in the dining room. Even the woman hiding in the butler's pantry held her breath. What?

"What?" Hector puzzled. "Your mother?"

In the butler's pantry, Devi asked the same in a hush, "Her mother?"

"I ... I ..." Chaya backed up a little, only to be stopped by the chair behind her.

"I thought she couldn't talk?" murmurs flew around the table.

"She can talk?"

"What?"

Wide eyes glared at Chaya then, wider than they had been all night. Guests gawked at each other and then at her.

Hector too froze where he stood and stared, a memory prickling the back of his mind like he knew something but he couldn't quite recall what.

Then finally, someone broke the spell.

Ryan Pecker asked, "Who the fuck are you?" of Chaya.

Chaya looked akin to a deer in the headlights, headlights being the glares of others. "I ..."

Even Devi, so far patient as hell in the butler's pantry pushed the door open a crack and stared at the nurse, something in the back of her mind churning just the same as Hector's. Now that the unexpected had happened, something felt uncomfortably familiar about the nurse, something that said 'She isn't a nurse. She's the ...'

"Maid?" Devi mumbled to self, and she couldn't help it then. She stumbled out of her hiding spot and into the dining hall, frightening the living bejesus out of all, including Hector. "You're the maid!"