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"I’ my attorney He’s kicked the ass of everybody in the Justice Departeneral to the janitorial service He’ll make short work of you two jokers"

Cole reached for his cell phone

It disappeared Cole stared at the place where it had been, slapped his hand around, and looked ateyes "What the hell?" David opened his right hand, and there was Cole’s cell phone "If you want it back, play nice," he said Cole’s ed to his feet

"Hey, fucking David Copperfield, give that back!" His face turned brick-red, which I was pretty sure wasn’t an indication of his general good health "You sons of bitches, my life is in that phone!"

"Then I hold your life in my hand, don’t I?" David pointed out estion or an order, but Cole’s ass hit the sofa cushions pretty quickly His high-blood-pressure blush was already fading, as he realized that his biggest proble his contact list and scandalous text es "What the hell do you people want ?" From Cole, that actually sounded kind of subdued

"We want to be sure there’s no un Anything else contraband in here we should know about? Purely for safety?" His gaze flicked away fro just as fast In the aetheric, his aura whispered a fast rainbow of anxiety and guilt I sat back and looked up at David, who nodded and disappeared, taking Cole’s cell phone with him

"What - " Cole’s mouth had dropped so far open that I could see all his iured out that David ician, but he was far, far more impressive "What are you people?"

"Who said ere people?" I smiled coolly at him That flummoxed him for a full ten seconds

"Look, I’, I’m just - Okay, I took some money A lot ofto get it back from me, that’s all It’s just business"

Business athered Which explained why he wanted to hole up in his suite with a warun, and why he hadn’t disembarked with the others A common criminal

I could live with that

David ghosted back into view behind me and dropped a hand on my shoulder I twisted to look at him

"Boyfriend," he said "Up in the bedrooun in my lap, a match for the semiautomatic we’d confiscated from Cole "Do you want to take a look?"

"Why, is he naked?"

It’s hard to get a coed "I didn’t notice," he said Which was, no doubt, a crushing blow to Mr Cole I was sad for him "What do you think? Pass?"

"Pass," I said "Whatever problems he has aren’t any concern of ours Mr Cole, we’re done here I’ll be taking your guns with h If you have intruder problems, David will be

happy to coain David didn’t look pleased with being volunteered "Thanks"

"Thanks for what?" Cole asked, mystified I walked over to the bar and retrieved the second pistol from the ice bucket Nicely cooled down

"Not shooting me, too," I said "That would have been aard"

"No," David said "That would have been fatal for Mr Cole" I gathered that Mr Cole was a nized that one, and he nodded "It won’t happen again Sorry Eh - what’s your name?"

"I’m David Prince Her name is Joanne Baldwin," David said "But you can call her Mrs Prince"

I got a shiver out of that A nice one

We left Cole on the couch, still grappling with the utter destruction of his worldview

All in all, not a bad first interrogation Then again, my standards are pretty low If I survive it, it can’t be that bad

Chapter Five

After Mr Cole, the others see kittens with needle-sharp claws and biting teeth Each cabin see set of divalicious problems Take Holly Addams, the model She had two eusting-looking sry They must have been made out of cardboard and water, because she had less body fat on her than your average piece of dry bone She also had a trunk full of illegal and controlled substances, which explained why she hadn’t left the ship when ordered Her employees were just hapless and cowed I tried not to traumatize them any more than I had to

Three bankers in a roo male and one fe-like devotion to star clients These were rich people in their own right, but they’d gotten that way by single-, and they weren’t about to stop the habit of a lifetime now No connection to Bad Bob that I could find for them, their assistants, or (in the case of one of them) his mistress, as ensconced in the downstairs bedroom

And then we ran into Cynthia Clark

" TheCynthia Clark?" I asked Aldonza, as still hustling clean towels around the hallway She nodded "Isn’t shea movie?"

"She was," Aldonza said "But she quit I don’t knohy Now she’s here" Cynthia Clark was an old-school star - glamorous, beautiful, icy cool If Grace Kelly had ever had a rival, or Audrey Hepburn had ever worried about being upstaged, she was the source of their anxiety Her 1960sera films were classics So were her ’70s efforts By the ’80s she’d transitioned froh matrons, and still did it better than anyone else

Then she’d had a well-publicized marital disaster, soery Now she looked frozen at the age of fifty, although the twenty-year-old ice was beginning to crack under the strain

She occupied cabin thirty-two, along with a European maid and a personal trainer, who I suspected doubled as another kind of workout partner

I knew thewas off David did, too No bullets flying, no obvious signs of danger, but there was so of the whole place I couldn’t put er on it

Maybe Miss Clark had been in the ht with her assistant That would have explained the feeling of tension and anger that saturated the air

Miss Clark was seated, like Mr Cole, on the grand sofa, but she earing a pair of pencil-legged white pants, very ’60s nautical, paired with a blue-and-white-striped knit shirt Her eyes were the same blue as shallow Caribbean waters, and if her hair was dyed that lustrous shade of blond, I couldn’t tell Even with the makeovers, she had seriously fierce DNA at work

I felt as if I should genuflect before taking a seat in the side chair that she offered with a gracious nod David re, but he didn’t resort to the in timidation stance this ti