Syd left my side and got down on the floor to embrace Maria. Maria pushed her face into Syd's shoulder, her loud cries fading to quiet whimpers.

"Ms. Campbell, I'm deeply sorry for this tragic loss. The captain has ordered us to turn the ship around so we can search for Mr. Ferreira. Since we're now in US waters, the Coast Guard is also responding to assist with the search," the crew member said, still looking down at Maria. "Please know we're doing everything in our power to help."

“Thank you, sir. If we get any more information, we’ll inform a crew member right away.” I said, putting my hands in my pockets.

“You’re Mr. Morningstar, correct? Thank you, I'll inform the other staff to expect to hear from either you or anyone close to Mr. Ferreira.” Putting his hat back on his head, he walked in my direction.

“Yup, that’s me.” I said before the crew member left, he put a hand on my shoulder momentarily before he walked away.

Syd looked over to me. "We should take her back to our cabin, so she doesn't have to go back in there."

Maria was no longer crying. Instead, she just stared blankly at nothing. She looked like a shell of the vibrant woman we'd met at the beginning of this trip. The person she loved most was gone.

I simply nodded, and the three of us walked back to our cabin together.

When we made it to the cabin, Syd laid Maria down on the bed and tucked her under the covers. When Syd looked over at me, I used sign language to tell her, ‘team meeting.’. This was one of our secret codes we came up with at the start of our relationship. Syd looked back over at Maria and then joined me in the bathroom, shutting the door behind her.

"Are you okay? It seemed like you and Cesar got close over the last few days, so you must be taking this pretty hard too," Syd said, concern filling her eyes.

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said, unable to meet her gaze. "But something isn't sitting right with me. This whole situation just feels off."

“Your right, it just doesn’t make any sense. I didn’t talk to Cesar as much, but I know how much he cared about Maria, and I’m confident he would never do something to hurt her intentionally like this,” Syd said, her hands automatically starting to French braid her hair—something she always did when nerves got the better of her.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. I’m going to look into it more. If I find anything, I’ll make sure to text you.” I said. Leaving the bathroom, Syd sat in the chair next to the bed. Maria was fast asleep; judging from how the pillow was soaked, she must’ve cried herself to sleep. Grabbing my laptop, I gave Syd a kiss goodbye and left the cabin.

It wasn't easy, but after some searching, I finally figured out which security company the cruise line uses. Once I was in the system, I looked through all the cameras, trying to find the cameras near Cesar and Maria’s cabin. The security camera really helped with finding the killer at the hotel, and this ship is littered with cameras. One of them definitely saw what happened.

It took some time, but I found the cameras in the hallway of their cabin and the cameras that were around the balcony.

Starting with the hallway footage, I searched for when Maria and Cesar went into their cabin after dinner. Once I found them entering their room, I sped up the recording to 5x. The activity was relatively low, with just room service deliveries and guests returning to their cabins for the night.

Nothing unusual happened until a woman in a crop top and sweatpants walked into the cabin next to Cesar's room, carrying a book. Based on the picture Cesar had shown me, this had to be Beatrix. About an hour later, two women stumbled toward the other room next to Cesar's. The less drunk woman was practically carrying her completely wasted friend, fumbling with the room key to get the door open. The more sober woman matched Cesar's picture of Anya.

All the star players are accounted for; now it's time to see when the murder occurred.

With the video still at 5x speed, I waited to see who would be the first to leave the cabin; to my dismay, the girls were pretty active. Beatrix left her room multiple times, each time holding her lighter and cigarettes in one hand. 

Anya left with her friend, escorted her somewhere, then came back alone with snacks and a bottle of wine. About an hour later, she ran out of her room urgently and never returned. Rather than waste time tracking her through every camera on the ship, I thought it would be smarter to go straight to the balcony footage. If she were guilty, that's where the proof would be.

Cesar and Maria remained in their room the entire night.

For the rest of the night, no one left their rooms. It wasn't until morning that Maria emerged, screaming for Cesar. A knot of dread began forming in my stomach.

This can't be real. Was that suicide note actually from him? Did he really jump? No, someone could have pushed him. I need to check the balcony footage.

When I switched to the balcony camera, a few raindrops blurred the view, but I could clearly see Cesar climbing along the outside of the balcony railing. He successfully made it to another balcony, though from this angle, I couldn't tell which room he'd entered.

Some time passes before he climbs over, and he makes his way towards the other room. Then he scales into the room and goes inside.

As I fast-forwarded the video, the storm intensified. More raindrops covered the camera lens, blocking my view of both the balcony and the ocean below.

I caught a glimpse of Cesar's silhouette tumbling through the air, his limbs sprawled helplessly, before hearing the splash below. Even though I couldn't see what happened, I felt relieved that he didn't jump voluntarily. Someone planning suicide wouldn't scream like that.

Either he slipped off the wet railing during the storm, or someone pushed him. I needed to know which.

Using the timeframe between when Cesar climbed over and when he fell, I searched through other camera feeds for a clearer view. After checking several angles, I found one that was only slightly obstructed by rain.

From this new angle, I watched Cesar climb over his balcony railing and shimmy to the adjacent room. I fast-forwarded the video to when he climbed back over the railing, heading toward his own room. But then he stopped. He appeared to say something angrily, then turned around and started moving back toward the room he'd just left.

That's when it happened. Hands suddenly reached out from the shadows and shoved him off the railing. The camera angle didn't show the person's face, but when I zoomed in, I could clearly see their wrist. They wore a distinctive silver bangle bracelet decorated with black roses connected by thorny stems that wrapped around the wrist. I took a screenshot of the bracelet and sent it to my phone.

Even though I learned Cesar was murdered, I feel like I had more questions than when I started.

Why did they push him?

From my understanding, Cesar made it clear that he told them these were just little flings, so I need to know what motive she had for killing him.

Why did Cesar go back?

What reason did he have to go back if his intentions were to truly break things off? Did he forget something?

I need to question each suspect about a motive and to find the owner of that bracelet.