As he climbed the staircase back to his cabin, he felt content that his plans were complete. Turning onto his deck he almost bumped into a couple of giggling heavily made-up girls who batted their Tammy Faye Bakker eyes at him in admiration. Too bad I can’t follow up with one of them to pass the time, he thought as he strode into the mini-corridor outside his door, and heard his phone ringing. Hurriedly he pulled his key out of his pocket and dashed inside.

The call was from Oxford.

Chapter 30

I CAN’T BELIEVE it’s only Tuesday, Regan thought as she led Veronica into the Knights Lounge for bingo. She had seen the expression on her mother’s face when the psychic became apoplectic. It was a Maalox moment for Nora.

Regan felt guilty about worrying her mother when she was supposed to be having a relaxing time on vacation. “I don’t care how old you are, when we’re under the same roof, I worry when you get in late,” Nora would always say. “When you’re in California, I don’t know what you’re up to and that’s fine.” Then she’d added, “But I do pray a lot.”

I never should have accepted this job, Regan decided. I’m itching to work on Athena’s case. I should have flown straight to New Jersey and dug out my journal. One night Athena had talked a lot about the last summer she’d spent with her aunt and uncle and cousins. She didn’t talk only about the murder. I wrote down everything she told me.

“Regan dear, why don’t we take this table here?” Veronica pointed to a low round table on the corner of the dance floor, surrounded by four seats. “Seeing as this is the Knights Lounge, maybe a few in shining armor will join us.”

“Oh, I think the salt air would probably bother them too much, Veronica.” Regan grinned, thinking back to the visit she and Kit had made to the armor factory in Graz, Austria. Kit had asked the tour guide if the factory had closed down because no knights had been sighted by the female population in hundreds of years.

As they sat down in the maroon-upholstered swivel seats, Regan spotted Kenneth and Dale entering the lounge. She jumped up and called them over. “I never thought I’d see you two here.”

“Oh, why not?” Dale answered cheerfully. “It’s clouded over outside, so we figured we’d come in, have a drink, and hopefully win a few bucks.”

“Oh, lovely,” Veronica chirped. “Do sit down.”

“Only if you pick out my playing cards, Lady Exner,” Dale said. “I know you have that magic touch. The only thing Kenneth and I ever won was a six-month subscription to a Spanish-language newspaper, and needless to say, ’hola’ and ’adiós, amigos’ are the only words we understand.”