The act of scrubbing her scalpseemed to stir up questions and worries.
She found herself thinking aboutwhat Detektiv Erlich had said about whether London herself could possibly havecommitted the murder.
“Not by herself, I suppose.”
Of course he’d been consideringthe possibility that London and Audrey had killed him together. And given howthe victim had angered them both by throwing beer on them, she couldn’t exactlyblame Erlich for harboring such a suspicion.
And now London found herselfwondering something herself.
What about Audrey?
The last time she’d seen her, thewoman had just had another altercation with Herr Forstmann. And now London felta bit unsettled by something Audrey had said about the soon-to-be-victim.
“I don’t think he’ll be rude to anyone from now on.”
At the time she hadn’t known what Audrey had meant by that.
And she still didn’t know.
Had Audrey been hinting at something worse than a good scolding?
Don’t be ridiculous, London told herself as she rinsed thelather out of hair.
But was it so ridiculous?
London couldn’t help imagining how things might have unfolded.Detektiv Erlich had suggested that the killer might have hit Herr Forstmannover the head, then hauled his unconscious body up the steps to the platformand put him in the chair and pulled the lever to dunk him.
Could Audrey have done all that on her own?
Audrey was a good bit bigger and taller than London, and sheseemed like an exceptionally strong woman. And London knew virtually nothingabout her except that she was grouchy and temperamental.
As much as she hated to think that any of her passengers were capableof murder, she couldn’t discount the possibility. It also occurred to her thatshe didn’t even know whether Audrey had come back to the ship or not.
London decided she’d better get dressed and find out if the womanwas on board. She came out of the bathroom and took out a clean uniform and putit on. But before she headed out the door, her cell phone rang.
Her heart sank as she saw that she’d received a text from noneother than Jeremy Lapham, the CEO of Epoch World Cruise Lines. London was surethat Captain Hays must have notified him of the murder by now.
His message was short and terse.
“We must have a video chat. Now.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
London’s hands were shaking as she opened up her laptop on thetable.
“This isn’t going to be easy,” she said to Sir Reggie, who sat onthe floor looking up at her with apparent concern.
She wondered if Mr. Lapham was going to hold her responsible forturning up at the scene of too many murders. That kind of thing couldn’t begood for the tourism business.
She took a deep breath and opened the conference program
The CEO of Epoch World Cruise Lines appeared.
Or at least part of him did.
Although London had spoken to her boss on the phone a few timessince the Nachtmusik had started its journey, this was the first videochat she’d had with him since he’d first offered her the job of socialdirector.
The view of him was the same as she’d had back then— just hisneck and his cleft chin and a pair of thin lips. He had tilted his webcamtilted so she couldn’t see his eyes, but she again had a clear view of anextremely fluffy black and white cat that lay comfortably in the man’s lap.
She could actually hear the sound of purring as Mr. Laphamstroked the animal with long, slender fingers.
She still had no idea why the CEO chose to appear in thispeculiar manner. If he was trying to project an aura of mystery, she had toadmit he was succeeding.
“Hello, London Rose,” he said in a soft voice not unlike the purrof his cat.
“Hello, Mr. Lapham,” London said.
“The captain tells me there’sbeen another death,” Mr. Lapham said, getting right to the point.
“I’m afraid so, sir,” London said.
“Another murder?”
“It looks like it.”
“But not another passenger, I’mtold. Well, that’s a small blessing, I suppose.”
He added with a resigned-soundingsigh, “I’m afraid this wasn’t entirely unexpected.”
London felt a jolt of surprise.
A possible murder—notunexpected? she wondered.
Mr. Lapham continued, “I suppose Ishould have warned you that there might be more trouble ahead. But I’d kepthoping for the best. And I’m sorry to say, I may have played my own unwittingrole in this unfortunate development.”
“Uh, Mr. Lapham,” Londonsputtered, “how could you possibly hold yourself in any way responsible forwhat happened today?”
“Let me try to explain,” Mr.Lapham said. “Like you and everybody else, I’ve been rather—what is the word I’mlooking for?—gobsmacked by the events of the last few days. Two murders!They came as a complete surprise to me. It forced me into making a major decision.”
Uh-oh, London thought. Maybe the trip is being cut short.
The thin lips twitched slightly,but were still silent.
Or maybe I am about to befired.
Finally the CEO spoke again.
“I decided it was time to switchastrologers.”
London’s eyes widened.
Is he joking? she wondered.
Mr. Lapham continued, “Noelle, myastrologer of some thirty years, has been highly reliable in the past. She evenpredicted the recent downturn of my ocean cruise line business. And she assuredme that now was an opportune time to launch a smaller-scale European rivertravel enterprise.”
He sighed again.
“Alas, Noelle hasn’t kept up withthe times. She simply didn’t take into account the discovery of Eris in 2005,much less the dwarf planet’s rather impish influence on my birth sign of Aries.Eris has brought a fair amount of strife and discord into the equation. I’msure you can understand my concern.”
London wondered whether she wasexpected to reply, but she had no idea what to say.
Then the CEO continued, “Alex, mynew astrologer, has brought my chart up to date, but I’m afraid I’ve got somedamage control to attend to.”
“Damage control?” London managedto ask.
“I’m talking about businessmatters. Hopefully I can make some better-informed decisions in the nearfuture. I’ll keep you in the loop, I promise. In the meantime … well, I fearyou might have some rather bumpy times. I’m dreadfully sorry.”
London didn’t know what to say fora few seconds.
“Mr. Lapham, you
