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"This is a really excellent trip in that way," she added, turning back to me again. "All those single men! Most of the tours I go on are filled with older widows like me. Cathy wants Cliff, so he's out for me. That Emile is single, you know, and about the right age, and very distinguished and foreign. But maybe not my type. What do you think?"

I chose not to answer that one.

"Marlene has her eye on him, too--Emile, I mean," Susie went on, barely stopping for breath. "I wish she'd exercise a little more control over her daughter, by the way, but I guess she's still recovering from the divorce: It sounded particularly nasty. Her husband walked out and took up with someone not much older than Chastity. Not that that's so unusual. Still, not very nice. Maybe she's too depressed to notice her daughter's behavior. There's something wrong with that girl, though. Now Briars . . ."

She paused for barely a second. "He's cute as a bug's ear. Too young for me, but how about you? You don't have anybody, do you? I'm pretty sure he's divorced, or soon to be, anyway. You could do a lot worse. Don't you think it's time you got over your divorce and moved on? There's Rick, of course, but he's too young for all of us, no matter what his real age. What about Ben? Good job. Harvard. You don't think he's you-know-what, do you, the way Jimmy does? Not that I care, but it does affect his eligibility."

"I have no idea," I said, managing to break into this torrent of words. "You'd better get going, though, if you want to catch up to Nora, and not miss breakfast!" My, that woman could talk, and such a meddler! Had I actually told her I was divorced? I supposed I had, that first evening. Perhaps it was the jet lag. I had to admire her determination, though, as I watched her lumber off after Nora, who, if we could have seen her at all, would be a tiny speck in the distance. And her gall. I had been wondering myself about the relationship between Nora and Cliff, but would never have dared ask. In fact, once I'd seen Kristi's insinuations, I'd have died rather than ask any one in the group a personal question.

"I think either Briars or Emile is for you," Susie called back to me. "Save me one of those buns with the melted chocolate inside, will you? Or maybe two. They're kind of small."

I was sorry in a way that I hadn't managed to steer Susie toward the hotel so that she could find the notebook. If anybody would spot it, it was Susie; nothing escaped her eagle eye. It was clear, however, that she was going to soldier on behind Nora. Alone, I circled back to the hotel, and, hoping to avoid another set-to with Briars as he left, cute as a bug's ear though he might be, entered the grounds through another gate, at the far end of the garden. I then walked slowly along a path that took me through the orange grove toward the pool, savoring the day.

Mist rose from the warm water, and as the sun climbed higher, the brightly colored chairs and umbrellas beside the pool were reflected in the still water, a perfect little world in reverse. I stopped for a moment to look. A pair of slacks and a golf shirt were neatly folded on one of the chairs, a pair of sandals nearby, and a towel lay beside the pool.

I realized then what deficiency would undoubtedly appear next on The List, the one right after Boring Ruins!! It was Dead Body in Swimming Pool!!!!!

Rick Reynolds, clad in emerald-green swimming trunks, brand new, no doubt, lay on the bottom at the shallow end, a slight haze of red slowly dispersing in the water above his head. I knew he was dead even before I got to him.

4

"W HAT DID YOU SEE?" Hasdrubal asked the boy. Outside, the sea was getting rougher, the sky darker, and the boy, unaccustomed to a life at sea, had to steady himself.

"Nothing," he said.

The captain looked at him intently.

"Nothing!" the boy exclaimed defiantly.

"But something frightened you," Hasdrubal said.

The boy shifted his weight slightly to adjust to the roll of the ship. "A shadow," he said. "It was only a shadow."

"Tell me about this shadow," the captain said quietly. He noticed the boy eyeing the food on his table. "First, eat," he said, ladling the cereal into a bowl.

"I heard a cry," the boy said finally. "I took shelter, it was raining a little, and I was cold, so I pulled my robe up to cover my head and face and took shelter as best I could. The cry--" He paused for a moment. "It sounded bad. I knew something terrible had happened. Then there was the sound of something falling. But I was afraid to go out and look in the dark. Just when it got to be light, I crawled out and stood up, and Abdelmelqart was there."

"Did he look exactly as he did when I first saw him?"

"Not exactly," the boy said reluctantly. The captain waited. "He was closer to the cedar box. Mago--" The boy stopped.

Too frightened to say anything bad about Mago, Hasdrubal thought with a sigh. "Mago moved the body when he took the silver pendant. How did he move him? How was Abdelmelqart lying when you first saw him?"

"Face down," the boy said. "Mago rolled him over to take the pendant."

Face down, was it? Hasdrubal thought. And with a blow to the back of the head. Rather difficult to do, wouldn't it be? To fall back and hit one's head, but to end up face down.

"And the shadow?"

"It was still dark," the boy said. "And raining. I thought I saw something, a shadow, a man, moving away. But I'm sure I was mistaken," he added miserably. "I called out, and the others came. It was too late, though. He was dead."

"Think carefully," Hasdrubal said. "Where did the others come from?"

"From all over," the boy said in a surprised tone. "Some from the bow, some from the quarterdeck at the stern . . ."

"And Mago?"

"The stern, I think," the boy said. "Although I can't be sure. The dead man . . . the rain, I don't know."

"And the one the crew calls the stranger? The custodian of the special cargo?"

"I don't recall seeing him at all," the boy said.

The captain took two silver coins from a little sack he carried around his neck. "I have a task for you," he said to the boy, "for which I will pay you handsomely."

The boy's eyes widened as he realized the coins were for him.

"You have the run of the ship. I want you to search it, everywhere you can."

"For what?" the boy asked.

"For two things. Two coins," Hasdrubal said, "two objects I require. When you find them, I want you to leave them where they are, but to come immediately and tell me exactly where you found them. The first is a short-sword. Do you know what they look like? The swords used by the mercenaries from the western lands who fight in the armies of Qart Hadasht?" The boy nodded, and the captain continued. "This one has a fine carving of a horse's head on the hilt."

The boy nodded. "And the other?"

"I'm not sure. A strong piece of wood, perhaps, something heavy." He paused for a moment. "Something with blood on it. I want you to find the weapon that was used to kill Abdelmelqart."