They quickly hurried down the hall to check on their rooms, and Lucy heard their cries of dismay as they discovered the mess.

“My Crème de la Mer,” said Sue, showing Lucy the empty jar. “Two hundred dollars, dumped in the bathtub.”

“Well,” said Lucy, “the tub’s gonna look great.”

Rachel was already starting in the kitchen, dustpan and broom in hand. “The coffee!” she exclaimed, mourning the loss. “That stuff was so delicious!”

After they all pitched in and cleaned up the kitchen, Sue spread out the dinner she’d bought on the way home: rotisserie chickens from a stand on the rue Saint-Antoine, green salad, and a couple of baguettes. “I was going to roast chickens myself, but I ran out of time,” she said, wielding a carving knife.

“How did you all spend the afternoon?” asked Rachel.

“On the Batobus,” said Sid. “It’s a tourist boat on the Seine. You can get on and off.”

“We checked out the Musée d’Orsay. We even got in line, but it was too long and didn’t move, so we gave up and got back on the Batobus,” said Bill. “How did you guys make out at the police headquarters?”

“Bob was there all afternoon,” said Lucy.

“Are you kidding?” asked Sid.

“No, they just kept me sitting there at Lapointe’s desk.”

“Rachel and I waited in the lobby,” said Lucy.

Sue’s eyes widened. “All afternoon? That’s terrible. You deserve a treat, which I happen to have,” she said, unwrapping a beautiful chocolate cake and setting it on the table. “I thought we might need something sweet and chocolaty tonight.”

“It’s too pretty to eat,” said Rachel, admiring the swirls of icing and the fresh raspberries that topped the cake.

“No, it’s not,” said Bob, holding out his plate.

“But you haven’t eaten your dinner,” protested Rachel.

“I’m learning that life is short and unpredictable,” he countered. “I’m eating dessert first.”

After dinner, the friends spent the rest of the evening tidying up their rooms and making lists of things they needed to replace. Lucy found the police had somehow overlooked the bathroom she and Bill used, which was hidden away in a back hall. She remembered her mother once saying that there was nothing a good bath couldn’t make better, so she decided to have a good soak in the big rolltop tub and poured in half a bottle of bubble bath.