Cruising for Murder: Myrtle Clover #10

Chapter Four

Myrtle put on a pair of dressy black slacks and a turquoise top. When she was smoothing down the top over the slacks, she heard a crinkling sound coming from one of her pockets. She reached her hand in with a frown. The slacks had been laundered before the trip so why was there paper in the pocket now?

She pulled out a torn-off bit of legal paper with a highly recognizable but nearly illegible scrawl on it. "Wanda!" she muttered to herself. Myrtle found her reading glasses and plopped down on the small sofa to peer at the paper under the light.

The paper said: sumtimz drinkin iz dedli.

"What on earth?" murmured Myrtle. She remembered that Wanda had spent a good deal of time in Myrtle's bedroom area where her packing was taking place.

There was a light tap on her door and Myrtle opened it to Miles.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

Myrtle grunted. "In a second. Here, look at this." She passed him her reading glasses and the note.

Miles, looking rather unusual with flowered reading glasses on, studied the paper. "Wanda's handiwork, I presume. Where did you find it? Is she employing carrier pigeons to deliver now?"

"It was in my pant pocket," said Myrtle with some consternation. "I'm guessing that she stuck a message in there when she left us to use the restroom."

"What do you think it means?" asked Miles. "Do you suppose that she's talking about the drunken Randolph? He's the only person I've seen so far that constantly overindulges."

"I guess. But why tell us about it? It's not like something we don't know, either—drinking is bad for you," said Myrtle.

"Yes, but she doesn't stop with the 'bad for you.' Wanda says it's deadly. So do you think we are supposed to warn Randolph to take it easy with the liquor? Or warn someone around him?" asked Miles.

"And what exactly are we supposed to say? That a functionally illiterate psychic from the American South stuffed a ratty piece of paper in my pocket before we left? That her prophecy indicates Randolph might die from drink? They'd think we were nuts. Besides, it doesn't specifically mention Randolph. No, I think we just keep our eyes open and think about it," said Myrtle. "And now I'm ready to gape at one of our favorite Tomorrow's Promise actors."

There were many, many people who'd apparently decided that the filming constituted the very best on offer for the shipboard entertainment that night. It was interesting to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the process. And it was interesting to see this actor get direction or take breaks or generally just act like a real person. But it was tedious. There were many different takes.

During one of the breaks, Myrtle said, "I think I'm going to take a restroom break and not come back. I've seen everything I need to see. And I don't think we're going to be able to run into Bettina or anyone else in this madness. There are so many people attending that there's no way to find anyone."