Luke realized he should never have brought Regan’s name into the conversation. After the psychic session that afternoon, Nora had been a wreck. He had finally managed to talk some sense into her, and now it was about to start all over again. “Honey, it’ll be just a few more days on the ship and then she’ll be back at work, dealing with real criminals again. That’s when we’re allowed to worry. Not when she’s minding a harmless old woman in the best suite on the ship.” He hugged her. “Now go back to thinking about who she should have married.”

Nora laughed reluctantly and gave him a playful punch. “All right, you. But I’ll be relieved when we are all off this ship.”

“Me too. I’m anxious to hear her opinion of my version of a green room.”

Regan followed Veronica out of their suite. Not expecting to cruise home, Regan had not brought many dressy clothes on her trip. Clad in a deceptively simple black cocktail dress, she provided quite a contrast to Veronica’s silver taffeta ball gown, the rejected outfit of the night before. All I need is a white apron and people will think I’m her traveling maid, Regan thought.

As the elevator door closed on the hoop of Veronica’s dress, Regan pushed all the buttons in a frantic effort to save the dress from being ruined. She needn’t have worried. When she finally managed to free Veronica’s glad rags from the groaning, buzzing, jammed door, the hoop immediately sprang back into its original shape. It’s crush-proof, Regan thought with amazement. That must have been ghosts of the fashion police trying to destroy it.

“Eeewwww,” Veronica cried. “Thank you, Regan. I’m so glad it didn’t rip.”

Rip, Regan thought. That thing is made of U.S. Steel. “No problem at all. You look so pretty, Veronica.”

“And so do you, my dear. But I would love to take you shopping and really dress you with some oomph. For example, you’d look lovely in a dress like this. Would you believe I bought it off the peg?”

Yes, Regan thought.

Gavin entered the Queen’s Room with a nervous air. The band was playing softly in the background. The Captain and his senior management team, spit and polished in their dress whites, were ready to meet and greet the first-class passengers. The ship’s photographer had his equipment set up, ready to snap passengers as they flanked the Captain. It was a great money-maker on these cruise lines. Even though the photos were outrageously priced, not many tourists could resist buying these mementos of their trip that went on sale as fast as the photography staff could get them out on display. Some people bought them to get their highly unflattering likenesses out of the display case where they were subject to the scrutiny of their fellow travelers.