Striding to his desk, he threw himself in the chair.
‘Has Morgan Lowell’s file arrived yet?’ he asked Brianna.
She came towards him and he tried not to let his gaze drop to the sway of her hips. All damned day, he’d found himself checking her out. He’d even stopped asking himself what the hell was wrong with him because he knew.
Lust.
Untrammelled, bloody, lust. From the easily controlled attraction he’d felt when he’d first met her, it now threatened to drown him with every single breath he took in her presence.
She held out the information he’d asked for and he tried not to stare at the delicate bones of her wrist.
‘What do we know about him?’ he asked briskly.
‘He’s married; no children; his wife lives with his parents. As far as we can tell, he’s the sole provider for his family. And he’s been with the company the last four years. He came straight from the navy, where he was a commander.’
‘I know all of that.’ He flicked past the personal details to the work history and paused, a tingle of unease whispering down his spine. ‘It says here he’s refused to take leave in the last three years. And he’s been married...just over three years. Why would a newly wedded man not want to be with his wife?’
‘Perhaps he had something to prove, or something to hide,’ came the stark, terse response.
Surprised, he glanced up. Unease slid through her blue eyes before she lowered them. He continued to stare, and right before his eyes his normally serenely professional PA became increasingly...flustered. The intrigue that had dogged him since seeing that damned tattoo on her ankle rose even higher.
He sat back in his chair. ‘Interesting observation, Moneypenny. What makes you say that?’
She bit her lip and blood roared through his veins. ‘I...didn’t mean anything by it. Certainly nothing based on solid fact.’
‘But you said it anyway. Instinctive or not, you suspect there’s something else going on here, no?’
She shrugged. ‘It was just a general comment, gleaned from observing natural human behaviour. Most people fall into one of those two categories. It could be that Captain Lowell falls into both.’ She firmed her lips as if she wanted to prevent any more words from spilling out.
‘What do you mean?’ he asked. Impatience grew when she just shook her head. ‘Come on, you have a theory. Let’s hear it.’
‘I just think the fact that both Lowell and his two deputies are missing is highly questionable. I can’t think why all three would be away from the bridge and not respond when the alarm was raised.’
Ice slammed into his chest. ‘The investigators think it was human error but you think it was deliberate?’ Reactivating the tablet, he flicked through the rest of Morgan Lowell’s work history but nothing in there threw up any red flags.
On paper, his missing captain was an extremely competent leader with solid credentials who’d piloted the Pantelides tanker efficiently for the last four years.
On paper.
Sakis knew first-hand that ‘on paper’ meant nothing when it came right down to it.
On paper Alexandrou Pantelides, his father, had been an honourable, hard-working and generous father to those who hadn’t known better. Only Sakis, his brothers and mother had known it was a façade he presented to the world. It was only when a scorned lover had tipped off a hungry journalist who’d chosen to dig a little deeper that the truth had emerged. A truth that had unearthed a rotten trough full of discarded mistresses and shady business dealings that had overnight heaped humiliation and devastation on the innocent.