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“Trust me, babe,” said Odelia with a smile. “We’d never forgive ourselves if Ruby proves to be innocent, and we allowed her to be dragged off to prison.”

“She won’t be dragged off to prison. She’s a minor.”

“Still.”

“Oh, all right,” he grumbled, earning himself a peck on the lips for his trouble.

“Odelia is right, Max,” said Dooley. “Ruby just found love in the arms of a croupier, and now this? We can’t let that happen.”

24

“So if it wasn’t the assistant, then who was it, Max?” asked Dooley.

“I have absolutely no idea,” I said. “All I know is that it wasn’t Ruby, because if it wasn’t she who stole that earring but the killer, in order to implicate Ruby, then the murderer is still among us, and he or she’s the one who broke into Garth’s office this afternoon.”

“But they were all ashore this afternoon,” said Dooley. “Everyone was.”

“Clearly someone wasn’t,” I said. “And now all we need to do is find out who.”

“It must be a woman. Only women wear earrings.”

“Some men do, too, Dooley.”

We were back in the cabin, where Odelia and Chase were getting ready for dinner. There was another concert on the boat that night, and in spite of the circumstances they were eager to go. They’d agreed not to let this murder business ruin their vacation, and so it was up to me and Dooley to crack this case. And Garth, of course, since it was his job. Though when Odelia had offered him my theory, he wasn’t impressed. And it wasn’t hard to see why: he had a killer in jail, and didn’t need the aggravation of having to track down another one.

I had asked Odelia to check who’d gone ashore that afternoon and who hadn’t, and she promised she’d look into it.

We left the cabin and headed out for dinner. Dooley and I would return afterward—neither of us had any interest in this concert, and after the harrowing events of today we had decided to stay in that evening.

At any rate, there was no cat choir to attend, so we might as well catch up on our much-needed sleep.

Dinner was a languid affair. Ruby and her parents still looked a little shell-shocked after their near brush with the law, and they didn’t talk much amongst themselves. The influencers must have had another falling-out, for they weren’t speaking. Not to each other, and not to anyone else either. And the Biles family were also very quiet.

“So who was aboard and who was ashore?” I asked Odelia.

“Oren went ashore but Chiquita stayed on the boat,” said Odelia as she tried not to move her lips too much as she talked me through the roster of suspects. “She suffered a migraine attack again and took a pill and slept in her cabin.”

“Okay,” I said, glancing over to the influencers, who were swallowing down their food with little relish.

“The Ketterings went ashore, except for Ruby, but then we already knew that.”

“Uh-huh.”

“And the Biles family…” She had to shut up, then, for a waiter approached, offering to pour them some more wine.

There were many different restaurants on the ship, one for breakfast, one for lunch and several for dinner, and the atmosphere was pleasant and relaxed but also slightly more formal than for lunch or breakfast. There was even a dress code: no swimwear and no flip-flops. Which was a good thing, I felt, for if I saw one more hairy back or a pair of hairy legs I’d lose my appetite, and I imagined many people felt the same way.

The waiter passed on, and Odelia bent over to me again.“David and Laura went ashore as near as I can tell, but Bertha wasn’t feeling well and stayed in her cabin all afternoon.”

“Poor woman,” said Dooley. “It must be hard for her with that wheelchair.”

“Yeah, not all the shops and restaurants in these port towns are wheelchair accessible,” said Odelia.

“Oh, I didn’t mean that,” said Dooley. “I mean it must be hard to sleep in a wheelchair. Sitting up.”

“I’m sure Bertha sleeps in a bed just like the rest of us,” I said.

Dooley frowned.“She takes her wheelchair to bed? But how?”

“Dooley, the woman isn’t glued to that chair, you know. She can get in and out of that thing whenever she wants to—with a little help from Adele or her husband or daughter, of course.”

“Oh, right,” he said, and stared intently at Mrs. Biles, presumably trying to picture the scene.

Salvatore waved at us from underneath his table. Mrs. Biles or Adele had tied his leash to the table so he wouldn’t wander off, but he didn’t seem to mind.

Dinner came to an end, and Odelia and Chase escorted us back to the cabin, then went out again to enjoy the concert.

Dooley and I settled in with the tablet computer, which Odelia had set up so we could skype with our friends if we felt like it. Harriet and Brutus must have stepped out, though, for they were offline.

So I started surfing a little on the tablet, googling the different members of our company who could possibly have taken that earring and planted it in Ruby’s bedroom.