AT FIVE MINUTES before seven o’clock, Cameron dwick was ready to leave for the cocktail lounge adjacent to the King Arthur Dining Room. He knew it was customary for many passengers to enjoy an aperitif before dinner, but in any case, everyone assigned to the King Arthur had to pass through the lounge. He wanted to be situated where he could follow Lady Exner into the dining room and place himself, if not actually next to her, as near as possible. The companion, he reflected, looked like she was in her mid to late twenties. Would it be smart to play up to her? Cameron considered. Maybe.

Carefully he examined his image in the mirror and frowned at the slight crease on his collar. Nobody knows how to do laundry anymore, he thought. At least the valet had done a decent job pressing his jacket and slacks. He liked to wear the seemingly ageless combination of a blue blazer, light blue shirt, striped tie and khaki pants. His Bally loafers had the gleam of shoes right out of the box. They weren’t new but he was meticulous about every detail of his wardrobe.

He was ready to go. He gave one last admiring glance into the mirror at the deeply tanned good-looking guy he saw there. As always, the litany of praise he heard from women echoed through his head. The blonde at the croupier’s table in Monaco who had slipped him her phone number while her boyfriend lost another hand of blackjack. “Don’t ever stop scowling, Heathcliff,” she’d purred. The rich college kid in London. “Boys my age are so immature. Not like you.” The fiftyish widow he’d latched on to in Portugal. “It’s no fun to go to the casinos alone. My husband was also tall and lean and handsome ...”

He’d soaked in the gushing or whispered admiration while he escorted them to the high-stakes tables and later collected his share of their losses.

But for the last few years he’d realized that his own luck was subtly changing. He hadn’t had a big win in too long. The women didn’t mind paying for dinner or the suite, but they weren’t as free with their cash anymore. He needed major bucks, the kind that would put that sense of being a winner back in his hands when he was dealt the cards. That was why, when this opportunity was presented to him, he’d grabbed it. It must be in the cards, he had thought. It’s linked to my first bonanza.