Page 51 of Below the Deck

CASE NUMBER: 247849

POLICE EXHIBIT SEVEN

Transcript of call between Captain Taylor and operator at CROSS Papeete

10/06/2026 16:40

Operator: This is CROSS Papeete. Go ahead.

Caller: This is Captain Taylor on theLusso di Mare, currently at sea, fifteen nautical miles east of Raiatea. We’ve sustained a passenger injury on board during a pretty rough squall. Can I request immediate medical assistance on arrival into Raiatea, please?

Operator: Location copied,Lusso di Mare. Can you please confirm the condition of your casualty?

Caller: Of course. A guest slipped on interior stairs while moving during some heavy rolling. Some bleeding to the right temple and right side of the face. The passenger is conscious and … … but a little disorientated.

Operator: The line’s a little patchy, Captain, but understood. Please keep the casualty lying flat, apply pressure to the wound, and monitor consciousness. And contact us immediately if there’s any change. Are there any additional casualties at present?

Caller: No. All other are secure in our

Operator: Captain? You’re breaking up. We’re alerting local emergency response at Raiatea Marina and medical team for dockside transfer. What’s your ETA to port?

Operator: Captain?

Operator:Lusso? Captain Taylor? Damn – I’ve lost her.

[TRANSCRIPT ENDS]

TALIA

Talia gripped the underside of the sofa beneath her thighs and braced herself. With an abruptthump, the wind began to hammer at the doors leading out to the main deck. She glanced across the room and saw the rain hitting the windows sideways in thick, heavy sheets.

Just get through it. Only an hour and we’ll be on land.

She was desperate to go below deck, close the door to her cabin and keep her distance from the others until they reached Raiatea. But now the weather had started to turn, and Johanna was insisting everyone stayed together in the salon. The timing couldn’t be worse. Still shivering, she was sitting here, clutching on for dear life, trapped in the same room as the man she’d wanted so badly to escape from.

She held on more tightly as the yacht tilted to one side now; an electronic humming sound rose in volume from the engine room two decks beneath her. TheLussosounded it like it was straining to stay upright. Through the panoramic windows, the normally flat horizon was rising and dipping again as theswells lifted the yacht’s bow, then lowered it again, like a slow, graceful nod.

She studied her fellow guests. Sam kept glancing at her, then staring at his phone, typing and swiping. Lucy was clutching Mark’s hand, which he’d wrapped around her shoulder; her other hand held the sick bowl close. Mark was watching his girlfriend closely; clearly, he was less affected by the rough seas than either Lucy or Talia herself. As she looked on, Mark’s eyes drifted towards his phone. He moved his arm from around Lucy, wrapped his palms around the edge of the screen and began to scroll.

Talia’s phone vibrated in the handbag on her lap. She yearned to check it, but there were too many eyes on her.That bloody phone.She’d never had such an intense relationship with an inanimate object in her life. The endless checking for WhatsApp messages; the Google searches on how to turn on read receipts and how to hide texts without deleting them. The countless occasions she’d turned the thing off, or locked it in a cabinet to try to stop herself from reading through her chat history again and again, her fingers itching to swipe and scroll.

Sometimes, she’d just sit and reread the texts she couldn’t bring herself to delete, see the fake name she’d saved him under:Amanda Tennis Club, and feel the rush of dopamine flood her system. They sent each other photos – intimate ones: Talia finding a quiet hour in the day while Rory was at work to pick out her most flattering lingerie and take selfies that she deleted the moment they’d been opened. He’d return the favour by sending photos back of the impact she’d had on his body.

She could recall every detail in those images now – and, of course, in the picture he’d sent two months ago that hadchanged everything. The picture he’d sent that had shown her how wrong she’d got it all. How badly she’d messed up.

Talia remembered her surprise when the notification popped up with a photo attached, only hours after they’d seen each other. They never usually messaged right after meeting. As soon as they’d both come and she’d peeled herself away from him, the shame of what she’d done would hit her in a brutal, crushing wave. She’d spend the next twenty-four hours in a state of overwhelming guilt, trying to make up for her appalling betrayal by taking extra special care of Rory with smiles and home-made dinners and streams of ego-massaging compliments.

But that day, when Talia saw he’d sent a photo, she knew she had to open it. It was an image of a white and gold luxury yacht – the same yacht she was now sitting on, dipping and rolling in a South Pacific squall. Underneath it were the words:Our first holiday?

The audacity of him.How dare he?He should have turned the opportunity down, not even considered it. She’d tried to reason with him – she’d called him straight away to try to beg him, plead with him not to accept the invitation. When he hadn’t picked up – because of course he hadn’t; they had a rule never to call each other without planning the time in advance – she’d left him a voice note, saying it was too dangerous, that it was reckless for both of them. That he simply couldn’t come on the trip.

Because what else could she have done? Getting him to change his mind had been her only option. Rory would never have accepted her not wanting to go – she’d shown so much enthusiasm about the trip already, and he knew she’d had the dates booked in for months by then. Equally, if she’d tried totalk to Rory about who he’d invited along – to get her husband to offer the place to someone else – he’d have been baffled, or worse, suspicious: it was none of her business who came on his bonus trips.

She’d got a response to her voice note five minutes later.You’re joking, right? Turn down the trip of a lifetime – and with you on board? No chance.And then another:Don’t even try to talk me out of it. Nothing’s going to stop me from coming.

So she’d had no choice in the end. Going ahead with it was her only option. She’d had to come on the trip, with both her husband and her secret lover on board. She’d had to share the same living space as both men, breathe the same air.

She’d given in to just one electrifying, thrilling moment with him – right here in the salon on their second night here. And look what had happened! They’d been so stupid, right underneath the cameras; the crew had almost certainly seen it. That momentary slip could have cost her everything.