“No, Mom. That’s neat. Congrats.”

“And, Pauline, your uncle is having the time of his life.”

Daddy grunted. “Male host.”

I smiled. You dog, you, Uncle Walt. “Glad it’s keeping him busy. Does he even see his friend Mrs. Kolinsky?”

Like the nuns used to do in Catholic grammar school, Mother tucked the hanky into the sleeve of her sparkly robin’s-egg blue dress. Goldie must have helped her pick it out. “No. She hooked up with a gang of women, and they are apparently having a ball too.”

Did Mother just say, “Hooked up?” I couldn’t speak for a few seconds. The air out at sea surely didn’t have enough oxygen in it for senior citizens.

Finally I said, “Oh. That’s great. I’m so glad you are all having such a good-”

“When are you going to start having a good time and stop working?” Mother asked, or make that nagged. “You have a choice between Mr. Jagger and that nice Mr. Hunter.”

“Mom, I’m having a ball.” I refused to discuss specifics, and I refused to explain that I hadn’t even started my nursing job here yet, but had been working my case all this time. I shut my eyes, and suddenly the deep dark sea floated below. My eyelids flew open, and I grabbed on to the nearest thing I could-my mother’s arm.

“What? What is wrong with you? You’re in some kind of trouble with that darn job. Aren’t you, Pauline Sokol?”

Yikes. When she used my surname, I was in trouble. With her. I let go. “Mom,” I looked back and forth to see that Jagger and Hunter each had a pile of chips in front of them-of equal size. Wow. I’d missed the rivalry hand. “Mom, I’m not in trouble. I have to work on Monday, so I’m having fun today and tomorrow.”

For several minutes I stood and watched Jagger and Hunter wheeling and dealing until Jagger’s pile had three more chips than Hunter’s.

Whoa boy.

Eleven

Betty flew up from being snuggled in her bed when I opened the door. “Oh. I’m so sorry,” I whispered, although she was fully awake. I guessed she still wasn’t used to having a roommate.

She waved a hand at me and flopped back down. “How are you doing?”

Not really in the mood for a conversation, but telling myself that I was working 24/7 and maybe something Betty would say might help my case, I sat on the chair by my bed, flung off my shoes and said, “I’m doing.” I couldn’t tell her about nearly falling off the ship tonight, so instead I told her about the card game-and how Hunter and one of the “hosts” duked it out until the end.

“Hunter lost that much? Golly. I’d hate to be the guy who beat him. Hunter hates to lose.”

“Ha. Most men do.”

Betty looked over my head as if in thought. I almost turned around to see if something or someone was behind me.

“Right-oh. Most men surely do.” She pulled the covers over her shoulders.

“I’ll let you get some sleep. Sorry I woke you. You working the morning shift?”

“I am.” She yawned.

I wanted to tell her about Jackie’s stuff and ask her what else she knew about Remy. I didn’t want Betty annoyed with me though. If someone kept me awake, I had the tendency to get a bit grouchy. But Betty was so very proper and British, I decided I’d go for it. “Oh, hey, Betty.”

“Um?”

I had no idea what to ask her and didn’t want to lose the window of opportunity before she nodded off, so I came right out with, “What do you think happened to Remy Girard?”

If I thought others had looked at me oddly over the last few days, Betty had just outdone all of them. Now I felt like a fool. Why on earth would I come out with a question about Remy?

I had to work on my segues.

While she kept staring at me, I clarified, or at least tried to, with, “The reason I asked out of the blue like this is that I saw a man at the casino that kinda looked like him.”

Betty pulled the covers higher. I couldn’t see her face and didn’t want to see the look of disgust and annoyance she probably was giving me-proper British or not.

“You think you saw Remy Girard?”

“Oh-” I laughed. “Oh, no. I know it wasn’t him, he just reminded me of him.”

“How do you know what he looked like?”

Yikes. Betty was a bit like the FBI making me feel guilty for no reason, as if I was the one being questioned here instead of the other way around. “Oh, well, one time Jackie-” I paused for a moment then finished with, “-showed me a picture. She had it under her pillow. I understand they were dating.”

“Jackie didn’t have relationships. She merely slept around to please herself. She never cared about anyone else except Jackie.”

Harsh words for the dead!

There had to be something going on between Jackie and Betty. But if it were something like Betty being jealous, that didn’t help me with Jackie maybe being involved in medical-insurance fraud.

“I have to tell you, Betty, Jackie didn’t really welcome me aboard. I wonder if she didn’t have a very good life back home.”

Betty looked at me, shut her eyes and remained silent.

Great. She must have fallen asleep. I sat there a few seconds, not knowing what to do. Talk and wake her or let her go and get some sleep myself. I went with the last thought and got up to go get undressed in the bathroom.

Before I made it to the door, Betty said, “Poor girl. Her mother left her father and two sisters when Jackie was only eleven. The other girls were much older, able to make lives for themselves. Jackie’s father spent more time at the local pub than at their flat. She practically had to raise herself-and didn’t do that great of a job, I might add.”

The night was catching up to me, not to mention the golden liquid’s effects on my brain, so I leaned against the wall and said, “I could see why. Poor thing.”

Betty hadn’t gotten up. She actually remained tucked in with her eyes shut. Odd, but at least she was giving me some info on Jackie. Now that I knew her background and that she’d gotten that advance on her paycheck, Jackie went to the head of the line for fraud suspicion.

Betty continued, “At least she made it through nursing school-”

“With Remy,” I added, but Betty opened one eye and gave me a look of “what the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“But as far as she’s…she had told me, her life was beastly and that’s why she worked on ships. Not close to her sisters. No land connections really. No permanent home. No one to care or worry about…her.”

“How about you, Betty? Do you have a land connection?”

“Me mum and three sisters live in London. My life started out quite different than how it came to be. Nurses are poorly paid, so I joined the cruise line and…well, I really love it. So I’ve stayed. I especially like the Golden Dolphin. Most of the crew speaks English-which isn’t always the case, and the captain is a decent bloke. That makes a huge difference. If something doesn’t go right, he works it out. He’s not all mouth and trousers like some are.”

Mouth? Trousers? Was she talking anatomy, wardrobe or about the captain? I stood, silent, not knowing what to say.

“Oh-” She shut her eyes, turned toward the wall and said, “All talk and no action.”

I smiled. “Yeah. I knew that was what you meant,” I lied, but Betty must have already dozed off. I wasn’t that good a liar anyway.

When I finally woke and looked over at Betty’s bed, it was empty and very neatly made. That reminded me that Sunday was my last free day, so I turned over and fell back to sleep.

After waking at nearly ten, I got up, showered, dressed and spent the day with my family.

Turned out to be the longest day of the trip.

But it came and went without incident-and, unfortunately without progress on my case. I noticed Jagger and Uncle Walt around the ship several times with their “dates.” Despite the dirty looks given to me from the singles around Jagger, I managed to pull him aside and fill him in on what I found out about Jackie.