“I was sitting right behind you! Mr. Grison, will you listen to me for just a minute, please?”
He nodded. “Of course I will.”
“You were asking for women. You said you needed women who’d pretend to be prisoners to back up Soriano’s claim that there were good-looking women who’d be at the mercy of the hijackers if they’d throw in with him.”
“Correct.”
“And afterward the women might have to fight. That—I’m not your Chelle Blue.”
Skip smiled. “I was surprised when you volunteered. Surprised and very pleased.”
“I was going to wait until you asked me. I thought that when nobody would, you’d call on me. You know, what about you, Susan? And then I’d stand up and say something brave, only Virginia put her hand up. There was this big muscular woman sitting with me, and she hadn’t volunteered but Virginia had. Is her name really Virginia?”
“On this ship, as I said.”
Susan hesitated, fingered her revolver, and returned it to its holster. “She said Virginia was the social director. Then I put my hand up and she did too—the woman beside me. When you came in here you asked me whether I knew this lady was the social director, and I lied. I lied to you! I lied because I didn’t want you to think I’d done it.”
“I understand, and nobody’s going to lynch you. You may leave if you like.”
Susan shook her head and sat down.
Skip walked the length of the room, turned, and spoke. “A moment ago Rick said that two of the people who had come with Mick were here now. In a sense, three were—the third being Mick himself.” He paused.
“I don’t suspect any of you, and I need to make that clear. Mick and Susan are people I’ve worked with for years, three years plus in Mick’s case and even longer for Susan. Rick himself looked a little more suspicious. For one thing, he’s tall. Some of the witnesses to Virginia’s stabbing said her attacker was tall.”
Tooley added, “Two out of three, actually.”
“For another, he was eager to get in to see Chelle. By that time he could easily have learned that Virginia was Chelle’s mother. If his bomb failed, something he learned from Chelle might be quite useful.”
Johnson grinned. “I’d never realized that I was such a Machiavellian character.”
“It didn’t take long for me to see how unlikely he was. He not only had a gun—all of us have guns now—but he had a license for it. The steak knife strongly suggests that Virginia’s attacker was unarmed when he sat eating in the restaurant. Rick’s gun suggested another reason.”
Returning to the front of the room, Skip held it up. “Look carefully. Chelle’s, which is probably a later model, has ambidextrous safeties. This one doesn’t. The safety is on the right side, where it would be operated by the thumb of the left hand. Here, compare it to mine.”
“They’re reversible,” Johnson told him. “I had the battalion armorer change mine.”
Tooley said, “I take it that Virginia’s wound is on the right side. I should have checked that.”
“I’ve seen it, and it is. On the right side, high up. She wears heels, as you may have noticed. The man who stabbed her need not have been freakishly tall, but he was certainly above average height.”
“You’ve got a gun in your hand,” Tooley remarked, “and nobody else has one except Susan. I take it you’re about to name the bomber.”
Skip returned his gun to the table. “I’m not. I wish I were. I got you together—Chelle would be here too if she weren’t so badly hurt—so I could tell you what I know and ask your help. You brought eleven people south with you, Mick?”
Tooley cleared his throat. “That’s right. Eleven including Susan and Rick.”
“Leaving nine. One of those nine almost certainly planted the bomb. Susan, you and Rick were with them before Soriano sailed, and afterward on the boat. Who do you think is most likely? I realize that—”
“Skip!” Vanessa interrupted him. “I must talk to you, darling.”
There was a knock at the door.
REFLECTION 11: The Ring
Thought and speech come easily to me. Action is hard. That’s a new realization; for so many years I thought myself a man of action. Yes, I filed appeals and sent others—always others—scurrying around in search of witnesses. I did those things and thought that I acted. More than once, I simply asked Susan or Mrs. Rosso to do them.
Our seamen are men of action. So are Soriano and his mercenaries. What of the men from Boswash whom Mick will list for me?
I think of them as men because Mick says they’re all men. Susan was the only woman. Can they all be men of action? The man we seek is a man of action surely. He learned very quickly that Vanessa was the social director and planted his bomb as soon as he could get away from the rest.
Although he may have learned it when he learned that Vanessa was on this ship. Why not? NB: Call Zygmunt. Who asked questions at the offices of the cruise line? Name and description.
I was a man of action while I carried my submachine gun. When I think back on what I did then I know it’s the truth. This pistol doesn’t have the same effect, perhaps because I’ve never shot anyone with it. Will I shoot the bomber when I find him?
Only if I must. I will shoot him and he will die, which was what he wanted when he joined the ring. They won’t try me for machine-gunning hijackers; they’d be laughed out of court. But if I shoot him? Say that it’s Rick.…
And it may well be Rick; a left-handed man could have stabbed her from one side; we’d have to know the direction of the wound.
Rick’s a veteran, and honorably discharged. He would have to have an honorable discharge to get that license. They’ll certainly want to try me for that, nor can I fault them for it.
* * *
The submachine gun is under my bed. I would never have believed that I would sleep with a submachine gun under the bed.
What else?
The suicide ring, of course, although it will be difficult. We lack the name of a single member.
We lack that, but Reanimation has it, Reanimation has one name at least, though Reanimation will not surrender it easily. Find the name of the employee they’re looking for—surely they’re looking for her by now—and trace her associates. One or more are on this ship. Two would seem more likely, and there could easily be three. Ask Mick. Did two or three enlist together? Did any of the men he enlisted appear to know each other? We must learn those things.
There’s more. The police will suspect certain persons of belonging to suicide rings. With luck, Zygmunt may be able to learn their names, or some of them. Mick said he could give me the service numbers of his men as well as their names. That suggests that none used aliases, though it doesn’t prove it. Have the numbers checked; the Public Service Administration will provide names.
When I shut my eyes I see the ruin blocking the corridor. I smell the smoke. There were no screams save Vanessa’s. She was on her way to her office, she said, when she stopped at the infirmary to talk to Chelle.
I see the dead hand, the nail polish and the ring with the big watery stone. Did the young woman I spoke to there have a ring like that?
I wish I could remember.
How pretty she was!
12. JANE SIMS
“Sit down, Don.” Skip indicated a chair. “Would you like something to eat? Or a drink? The first-class kitchen’s supposed to be a bit better than second class. It may not be true, but that’s what they say. I’d think the bars are probably about the same.”
“Dos Equis, sir, if it’s not too much trouble.”
“Of course not. I’ll have one, too.” Skip picked up the telephone and ordered.