A warm sun bathe on the deck was just what Fina needed. She tensed and relaxed her muscles, tossing her arms over the arms of the lounge chair. Turning on her side, she looked at Ruby in the adjacent chair. Looking glamorous as always, she had on round sunglasses and an emerald green swimming costume. She was reading the Makhno book, this time more carefully than before.
Although lunch’s séance offered tasty food for thought, they had both turned sluggish due to a natural lull in energy and a hearty meal. Instead of fighting it, Ruby suggested they position themselves on the sundeck in such a way that they might be able to overhear conversations. Conversations about m-o-n-e-y.
Not forgetting their primary task of making contact, either, Ruby thought it a good way to be available for someone to approach them. Fina felt fortunate that Sadie had said she did not need to give Victor lessons that day. She was quite sure he wouldn’t be able to concentrate.
They had been fishing all morning. Now it seemed appropriate that they just let the bait sit, as it were, and see what might come of it.
As if pulled by Ruby and Fina’s invisible magnetism, passengers began to emerge on deck. The pair had decided beforehand that the best course was to ignore everyone who came on deck – unless they initiated conversation.
Fina felt a little hand touch her arm. The first person to take them up on this offer was Victor, of course.
She pushed her sunglasses down and squinted at the little figure by her side. “Yes, Victor?” He held up a miniature pink pig. The pig had a devious, crooked smile and a gleam in his eye, but she decided Victor wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t care.
“Darling pig, Victor,” she said. “Does your pig have a name?”
“Her name is Wendell,” said Victor, looking affectionately at the pig.
Fina sat bolt upright, nearly knocking over her iced tea. Ruby looked over in surprise. Doing her best to calm down so as not to startle Victor into silence, Fina relaxed her shoulders and gently put her hand on Victor’s shoulder.
“What a darling name for a pig, Victor. It is rather unusual for a pet name, however. How did you come up with it?”
Ruby was upright now, sitting on the edge of her lounge chair, straining to listen.
“I heard someone talking about Wendell yesterday and I liked the name.”
Ruby said, “Who was talking about Wendell?”
Victor’s face contorted in the effort of remembrance. Fina could tell he was enjoying the attention and was going to milk this scene for all that it was worth.
“Well, I heard someone mentioning it in the dining room yesterday – while we were making that smashing pea catapult,” he said. Fina approved of his use of the word “smashing”.
“You can’t remember who it was?” asked Fina.
Violet Gibbs came rushing up to Victor, interrupting his concentration. Today she was wearing a pale green poplin afternoon dress. Fina was surprised that Violet could move that quickly, given her sickly condition.
“There you are, Victor,” she said in a half-relieved, half-irritated voice. “We’ve been searching for you all over the ship. We were beginning to get worried. But now that we’ve found you, why don’t you come join us with your pig. Gilbert has a pet cow so perhaps they can play together.”
Removing her sunglasses so she could look directly at Violet, Ruby said, “Victor’s pig is quite charming. Her name is Wendell.” Ruby gave Violet a smile.
Fina’s eyes locked on Violet’s pasty face. Was it just her imagination, or did she see a flicker of her eyelids?
“Yes, charming, quite charming,” she murmured as she led Victor away.
Ruby leaned back on her arms in mock disbelief. “Did I just hear that correctly?”
“Yes, you did, dear Ruby,” responded Fina. She sipped her iced tea which was rapidly becoming hot tea. It was still refreshing.
Sipping her own iced tea through a straw, Ruby said, “Wendell the pig. So he heard someone talking about Wendell, which means that person was talking to someone else about Wendell. Does that mean there are two contacts on the ship?” She let out a sigh of frustration.
“It would seem that way. Should we be looking for pairs?”
“Well, there’s the Gibbses, Emeline and Patricia, Ian and the captain, Lev and Neville, Ian and Balraj—”
“—and Balraj and Dolores. I suppose there might be some other configuration between Lev, Agnes, Sarah, and Neville.”
“That’s a lot of pairs, Feens. I don’t know if that means we can eliminate any pairs connected to Balraj or not. I suppose we can eliminate – temporarily at least – Gibbs and Dolores because they weren’t at dinner as pairs last night.”
Fina held her head, as if it hurt. “I agree, but I’m so overwhelmed by even that list of suspects!”
Ruby nodded. “I agree. I think we need to make a list, but we need to do it out of sight. Let’s go back to our cabin so we can talk about this before dinner. Especially because dinner will provide opportunities to ask more questions.”
Fina scooped up her clutch and wriggled her feet into her sandals.
“Wait,” hissed Ruby in a barely audible voice.
Fina scanned the horizon of the deck. She could see the Gibbses and Victor in one corner – all huddled underneath an umbrella as if they were in some sort of downpour. Except for Gilbert. He seemed to be setting some sort of insect on fire with a looking glass. Fina shuddered. Hopefully he was just looking at something closely.
Beyond that, she could see the outline of the bar toward the ship’s stern. Lev was wiping down the bar and tables.
“What is it?” whispered Fina in disbelief. “It all looks calm to me.”
Ruby gently motioned her head in the direction of the bar.
Neville rushed over to the bar, a large folder under his arm. He didn’t acknowledge Lev’s presence. That was decidedly odd, thought Fina, as Lev was a few tables away from the bar. But he didn’t look up either, though he surely must have heard Neville’s approach. If anything, he began to rub the table even more vigorously than before.
Neville left the folder on the top of the bar and loped down the deck.
Lev looked up from his spotless table, wiped his brow and made his way to the bar. He scooped up the envelope and slid it under his shirt. After gulping down a pink beverage on the bar, he shuffled off toward the stairs.