“From what the steward tells me, they ripped the ship apart looking for it,” Sylvie insisted. “Mrs. Watkins travels frequently on this line,” she explained to everyone at the table. “I must have met her a dozen times. She spends money like water and always books the Camelot Suite.”

“That’s where we’re staying,” Veronica cried. “Regan and I are all alone up there. I was hoping we’d have neighbors, but the suite across the hall is empty.” She puffed on her cigarette. “I’ll have to keep my eye out for the hidden treasure.”

“The steward is convinced that bracelet went off the ship in someone’s luggage,” Sylvie continued. “They’re sure whoever found it kept it. I know it was worth a fortune, but I thought it was awfully garish.”

“Antique jewelry is the only jewelry worth having,” Cameron Hardwick commented. “The real craftsmen died a couple of hundred years ago.”

“I have a friend who deals in antique jewelry who agrees with you,” Dale said. “Do you collect?”

“I have one or two interesting pieces,” Hardwick replied with a knowing smile.

It was only after Mario and Immaculata had finished their horn of plenty, a dessert described on the menu as “a symphony of fresh fruit in puff pastry on raspberry sauce,” and were sipping their cappuccino that Immaculata jumped back into the conversation, picking up where Sylvie had left off.

“There’s nothing worse than being robbed. Such an invasion. Last year when we were visiting Mario Junior and Roz and the children—they live about twenty miles from us—we ended up staying the night. It was an act of God that the car didn’t start. Mario Junior offered to lend us his car but it has a stick shift and big Mario hasn’t driven one of those in thirty years. So we ended up staying in the guest room. That way we could get the car fixed in the morning and be on our way. The munchkins love it when we stay over. That very night our own home was robbed. My neighbor noticed a car parked in front at around eleven o’clock. That was exactly the time we would have arrived if our car had started. Who knows? We could have walked in on them and been killed. I knew something was wrong the minute we pulled in the driveway and there were Mario’s old dentures on the welcome mat. His new ones don’t snap in quite as good, so he keeps the old pair for around the house. They were in his jewelry box with his good cuff links and his solid-gold watch, and you know what? We figured the robbers must have had good teeth and didn’t need them.” She laughed heartily at her own witticism.