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know your attacker had, and it might tell us something about him. Was it a dagger?”
    “Isn’t that just a knife you stab people with?”
    “A dagger is double-edged. It’s made for stabbing. Knives are made for cutting, for the most part. When people are stabbed, it’s usually a kitchen knife. Often it’s part of a set, a set that will be one knife short. It was the stabbing that made you give up the apartment I gave you?”
    “That’s right. Because I was in the hospital the first night. After I got out, I thought, they’ll be looking for me and by this time they may have found my apartment. You’re not checking out my breasts.”
    “Sorry. I didn’t know you wanted me to.”
    “Well, I wouldn’t want you to stare, but it would be nice if you noticed them.”
    “I have. Who is ‘they’?”
    “People from the company that brought me back, from the Reanimation Corporation.”
    “Do they have a good reason to want you dead? What is it?”
    “You haven’t been making the payments. You told me you haven’t. Why are you looking at me like that?”
    “Lots of reasons.” Skip wanted to pace and did, only slightly impeded by the roll of the ship. “In the first place, I didn’t tell you I hadn’t been making the payments. I said I was going to stop.”
    He pressed a button to light the dial of his watch. “Today is Tuesday. When were you stabbed?”
    “It was a Wednesday, I think.”
    “A week ago? This is important. Wednesday of last week?”
    “Don’t be silly, we sailed the next day. It was two weeks ago.”
    “You spent Wednesday night in the hospital. What about Thursday?”
    “That,” Vanessa said primly, “is none of your affair.”
    “Friday? Will you tell me that?”
    “Certainly. In my cabin on this ship. The social director doesn’t wait until the passengers come to get on board. There were all sorts of things I had to do to get ready. My assistant had never done this before. Neither had I, but I told her I had and that gave her confidence. Confidence is very important.”
    “Go on.”
    “After that I taught her all about dances and balls and dress codes, and we talked about shuffleboard and badminton tournaments. She’s a good diver, so we decided to have diving contests, too, and a putting tournament. You need things for people of all ages, but especially for older people because there are more of them. Then there’s dress-up night every Friday. We’ve a man who takes your picture, and dress-up night is good for his business. He pays, naturally, and he’s got to—”
    Skip said, “I understand, and I won’t ask any more questions about your sleeping arrangements.”
    “Well, I wish you would. Because after we made our plans my assistant’s Girl Friday came and we had to start all over with her. And I wanted to say that two of the officers are very nice, but they are—you know—taken. My little cabin isn’t as comfortable as yours, but it’s not too bad. Would you like to see it?”
    “No.”
    “Well, it’s ten ninety-one J. I know you think you and Chelle will make it up, and I hope you’re right. But until you do?”
    “No,” Skip repeated.
    “Besides, a little variety can be quite nice. You’ll see. You know, I thought of taking you there straightaway when we left my office. I ought to have, but you’d have worried about people listening, and this is more romantic anyway.”
    “You didn’t think your office had been bugged.”
    Vanessa shook her head. “Why should they? They’d just try to kill me, wouldn’t they?”
    “I don’t know.” Skip paused, considering. “In the first place, the time line is all wrong. On Friday, two days after you were stabbed, I called Reanimation and told them I might take them to court. It got me an appointment just before lunch with a vice president named Feuer. I went straight back to the building, and your apartment had been thoroughly searched.”
    “How did they know I lived there?”
    “That’s just it.