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"He had escorts"

"Yeah, that’s as good a word as any, though it’s got a couple different ht, called a number in the phone book Two hundred and fifty bucks and she had one eye on her watch the whole tiht?"

"Sure Uh, his escorts--"

"Frick and Frack I figure they’re just seeing hi out the basic situation But they don’t co they won a cruise, so how do you figure that?"

Keller checked his watch The escorts still had an hour before the scheduled departure time, but if they were still on the ship this late, they were probably there for the duration The target’s minders, unable to dissuade him from the cruise, had simply booked a cabin for a pair of their own et Keller on the ship, why couldn’t the other side, with the full force of the laorking for theher how he’d know theht end, the other’s ive you a picture?"

"Sort of"

"Just look for two guys in suits Not gonna get many of those on a fuckin’ cruise, are you? And I knohat you’re gonna say"

"Oh?"

"‘Suppose they change their clothes?’ Which, granted, theycasual clothes for the first time in twenty years Hey, you’ll spot ’em, Shean They’ll stick out like a couple of thumbs"

Twenty-Four

A little after six, while Keller and Julia were in the Club Lounge for the Bon Voyage cocktail party, the Carefree Nights set sail for the Baha room staff passed trays of drinks, and Keller picked off a pair of aritas He barely touched his, and offered it to Julia when she’d finished her own, but one was all she wanted

She fell into conversation with an older woot caught up in a spirited game of Who Do You Know? That left Keller and the woman’s husband to talk about sports or the stock market, say, but the felloasn’t much of a talker, and the set of his face and the way he walked suggested that hefrom a stroke He seemed content to listen to the tomen, or not listen, and that was fine with Keller, as too busy scanning the roo else

He didn’t see Michael Anthony Carmody, whose photo was now in Keller’s back pocket Nor did he see any men in suits, or indeed anyone built like a football player, whether a tight end or a running back Aside from the ship’s staff, h they’d had their AARP cards long enough to forget where they’d put them Care would

"Like thu he’d spoken out loud until Julia and her new friend shot hi out loud"

"Well, I’hts," said the woh of that back ho out in the sun"

"And shopping," her husband said, proving he could speak after all

"Well, maybe a little bit of that," she said "Just to stay in practice"

After the lifeboat drill, Keller found his way to where they posted the nanments There was no Carured it wouldn’t be the trickiest thing in the world to get yourself listed under an alias, as long as you carried legitimate ID Wasn’t that what celebrities did? And didn’t the people trying to keep Carh clout for that?

He went all the way through the list, and all four Sun Deck cabins were occupied, and none of the na to hie of this crowd, there would really have to be--but Keller took the stairs to the Sun Deck There was a pool, which surprised hiined that you’d carry a pool of your own out into the ed around the pool, and there hat looked to be a health club, with a couple of treadmills and a Universal machine And, toward the rear of the ship, he saw a little block of staterooht That hat they called the back end of the ship, and the front was the bow And port and starboard were left and right

Keller, wondering why you needed a whole new vocabulary the minute you left shore, felt the ship’s motion He hadn’t really paid any attention to it until now It didn’t bother hiht and front and back and up and down Topside, he thought Below Jesus

He wasn’t seasick, not at all, but all the saher

At dinner, they shared a table with three other couples, and Keller didn’t find out much about any of them The conversation was mostly of other ships and past cruises, and that left him and Julia without ely useful to the others, ere able to tell them which ships they should avoid, which ones they were sure to love, and no end of other tips that dehtful nod, or the observation that he’d certainly have to keep that in mind

Keller didn’t see Carh to be his daughter, or to her to cup his hands and say whatever it was he’d said Va-va-vooht’s passengers, had the option of dining in his stateroom And if his companion was indeed of the va-va-vooe for the two of theht be reluctant to leave his cabin, at least for the first day or two And there was also the chance that--

"Oh, my," Julia murmured

Keller looked up, and sahere she was looking, and noted that half the people in the dining roo in the same direction

Va-va-voom!

"I didn’t knoould be like this," Julia said

"What? The ship? Our cabin?"

They were back in their cabin now, and free at last to talk about the strawberry blonde knockout who’d stopped all dining room conversation in its tracks

She shook her head "Seeing him ahead of ti Mr Dece’s barely al in international waters?"

"I don’t think anybody’s going to arrest hin couple coether and left together I’uns"