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“If they abandoned ship,” Gamay said, “they’d have had to leave their steamer trunks behind But strands of pearls and diamond-studded bracelets are easier to carry”

“I’d bring reed “But why leave a ship that was obviously not sinking?”

“No idea,” Gamay admitted as they made their way back to the main stairwell

“Should we go down one more level?” Elena asked

Ga like et to the bottom of this”

Down they went, checking the smaller cabins that lay on the next deck

“Crew stations,” Elena noted, studying the craements

“Or steerage,” Garant passengers Fortunately, she wasn’t loaded to the gills when she left Durban”

They searched persistently But beyond the everyday itereat historical interest, there was little to explain what ht have happened

That began to change when Gamay forced open the next door

The space was larger but no less crauess, based on the look of the beds and storage cabinets “Ship’s infirmary”

She stepped into the coht Elena fanned out to the left They’d gone several paces when Elena let out a gasp

Gaht at a skull with desiccated skin stretched across it, a tangle of wispy gray hair on top and the bristles of what had once been a thick handlebar mustache on the upper lip Another body rested beside it

Gamay crouched beside them for a closer look The man wore a uniform “He’s a crewman,” she said “Or at least he was”

A sht have been a fore the boilers stoked A hole in his shirt led to a hole in the torn and dried skin Ga she’d had upon discovering the body on the Ethernet