Murder Takes a Vacation

The next day, Danny escorts Mrs. Blossom and Elinor around the Marais, showing them the vintage clothing shops. Reluctant to buy more clothes, Mrs. Blossom finally consents to a couple of scarves. Later, she discovers that Danny has added a pair of black chiffon pants to her bag—not shoplifted, she hopes. 

Back at the ship, she goes to the upper deck to relax, and meets Pat Siemen, a friendly, elegant lady about her own age who radiates “real […] to-the-manor-born wealth” (118). Despite her exquisite clothes, aristocratic manners, and large diamond ring, Pat is very approachable and down-to-earth, and Mrs. Blossom can’t help envying her beauty and thinness as well as her breezy, jolly manner. 

When Pat rises to go back to her cabin, Mrs. Blossom marvels at her perfect posture but also notices that she uses a cane. Before parting, Pat notes that they are “kindred spirits,” a reference to the Anne of Green Gables books. Mrs. Blossom asks which of them is Anne and which is her friend Diana. Pat replies, “There’s no reason we can’t both be Annes. […] I think everyone should be the main character in their life, after all” (122).

Back in her cabin, Mrs. Blossom worries anew about Danny’s presence on the ship, and she wonders if someone might still be following her to find the Quqnoz statue. Nervous about another possible search of her room, she puts the pillbox concealing her diamond earrings (and the gummies) in her cabin safe. 

After dinner, she leaves the dining room early to give Elinor some time with Marko. On deck, she meets Paul, who has come out to smoke a cigar, and they exchange light banter about travel. Paul asks if she’s going on the daytrip to Versailles the next day, and she regretfully tells him that she can’t, since she’s going on a “special” solo trip, one that could be the highlight of her vacation. She and Paul end their conversation on a first-name basis.

Danny finds Mrs. Blossom dining alone at the onboard bistro Pat recommended, and he asks about her plans for the day. Most of the passengers are visiting Versailles, but Mrs. Blossom has her own plans. When Danny bluntly expresses his boredom with the cruise’s tourist-friendly day trips, she accuses him of being rude and snobbish, and he quickly apologizes. 

Placated, she tells him that she’s arranged to go to Vétheuil, to see the house where Joan Mitchell lived and painted. Believing that she herself was born without talent, Mrs. Blossom has long admired prodigies like Mitchell, who could both paint and ice skate. Since Elinor plans to visit Versailles with Marko, Mrs. Blossom will be touring Vétheuil alone. Danny offers to come along, but she still does not trust him: The day before, she tried Googling the Quqnoz statue, and nothing came up.

Finally, she agrees to let him accompany her, mostly for his fluency in French, which she thinks could be useful. However, she still refuses to tell him how she first became interested in Joan Mitchell’s art, since it coincided with a painful chapter of her life. After visiting Mitchell’s and Monet’s houses, she and Danny discuss the fleeting nature of fame and quiz each other on which actors would play them in a movie. In a candid moment, Mrs. Blossom vents her anger at “the world”—and specifically, her mother—for judging her harshly for her weight. 

As they wait in a café for their driver to arrive, Mrs. Blossom is knocked violently to the floor by a man who tries to steal her purse. Danny calls for help, and the would-be thief flees empty-handed. However, she wonders if Danny, who stepped out to make a phone call just before the attack, may have set her up. 

Sternly, she demands that Danny show her his FBI identification. Sheepishly, Danny admits that he lied: He’s a private investigator hired by an insurance company to track down the Quqnoz. He explains that after the museum that housed the bird was destroyed in a suspicious fire, the insurance company paid the owners $4 million for its loss. Recently, however, the company determined that the statue was stolen before the fire. Danny admits that he’s been following Mrs. Blossom because, in view of her contact with Allan and the odd incidents surrounding her, she appears to be his best hope of locating the Quqnoz. Also, he says, she clearly needs protection. Mrs. Blossom, dismayed that Danny has turned out to be a shill for a greedy insurance company rather than a government agent, orders him to steer clear of her.

Looking through her purse, Mrs. Blossom discovers a GPS tracker. Suspecting Danny, she decides to leave it there for the time being: If Danny keeps “popping up” wherever she goes, she’ll know that he planted it. On FaceTime with her friend Tess Monaghan, the Baltimore private investigator she’s done work for, Mrs. Blossom shares the strange events of the past week. 

After some research, Tess tells her that the central figure of the Quqnoz saga seems to be a rich heiress named Constance Saylor. Constance, she says, lost most of her inheritance in bad investments like the small museum on her estate, which had trouble maintaining its nonprofit status and finally burned down. Though the fire was found to have been deliberately set by the handyman, the insurance company paid out the claim. Later, it tried to reopen the case, but by then Constance Saylor had apparently drowned in a boating accident on Lake Lugano, leaving no assets behind. Constance’s lawyer, Tess says, was Allan Turner.

Two months ago, she continues, not long after his parole from prison, the handyman/arsonist died in a gas explosion in his home. As for the Quqnoz, the only possible record is an old news article about Constance Saylor from the early 1970s, in which a small statue of a bird can be seen behind her in the photo. Before ending her conversation with Tess, Mrs. Blossom asks her to do a background check on Danny Johnson. 

Afterward, she meets Pat Siemen on the upper deck, and Pat shows off her large diamond ring, which she says is closely connected with the memory of a great love. She also tells Mrs. Blossom that she hasn’t been eating in the dining room because she tries to avoid crowds. Before she leaves, she extracts a promise from Mrs. Blossom to invite her onto her stateroom’s private balcony, which she covets.

When Mrs. Blossom rejoins Elinor, her friend tells her about her progress with Marko, which she hopes leads to sex. At dinner, Paul does not appear, which saddens Mrs. Blossom. Moodily, she looks back on the one time she was unfaithful to her husband, the year she turned 40. A man named Michael Calista pursued her romantically after meeting her at an ice cream stand. Finally, she slept with him at a motel, after which he promptly “ghosted” her. 

Harold’s furtive looks of “sad wistfulness” still haunt her, a sign that he suspected her affair. Though it was almost 30 years ago, she still reproaches herself. After Harold’s death, she looked Michael Calista up on Facebook and learned that he had a wife and children all along. On impulse, she reached out and agreed to meet him for lunch, but he stood her up. Feeling used all over again, she had wandered into the Baltimore Museum of Art, where she discovered the works of Joan Mitchell.

Mrs. Blossom opens some of the online articles Tess sent her about Constance Saylor, who appears to have been sharp-featured, “beetle-browed,” and full-figured, as well as miserable-looking. According to one article, the insurance company believed the Quqnoz statue was stolen prior to the fire because its sapphire ornaments did not turn up in the museum’s charred ruins. 

Later that night, Elinor returns from her date with Marko, which did not go well: Marko never tried to kiss her, which left her feeling awkward and confused. Elinor also thinks it’s strange that Marko is sharing a stateroom with his sister. Mrs. Blossom ponders how “unfair” it is that Elinor has always attracted lots of men, while she herself only found true love once—and then betrayed him.

The next day, Elinor and Marko hold hands and “traipse” along the paths of Giverny. Mrs. Blossom watches, trying to stifle her envy. As she pauses to take a photo of Monet’s celebrated water lilies, Paul approaches and asks to join her. As they stroll, he tells her that his wife recently died, and his kids sent him on this cruise to “cheer” him up. Gazing into her eyes, he adds, “I think it’s working” (164). At lunch, he has champagne and a dozen raw oysters. He tells Mrs. Blossom he’ll join her again at the stopover at Les Andelys, but he disappoints her by not showing up. 

Drifting away from the tour group, Mrs. Blossom wanders into a café. When Danny walks in, she feels certain that he is tracking her with the GPS device in her purse. He asks why she’s mad at him, arguing that his job as an insurance investigator is not that different from that of an FBI agent. As Danny expounds on the historical significance of Les Andelys and the cruelty of Richard the Lionheart, Mrs. Blossom surreptitiously takes a photo of him to send to Tess. 

Back on board, as Elinor and Marko continue their budding romance, Mrs. Blossom looks for Paul, whom she has not seen since lunch. Letting Elinor and Marko use her stateroom for a “date,” Mrs. Blossom descends to the Gold Deck, where Paul’s cabin is, and sees a DO NOT DISTURB sign on his door. Seeing no light beneath the door, she scribbles a brief note asking after his health and pushes it under. 

Back in her room, Elinor tells her she didn’t manage to get intimate with Marko, who seemed distracted and was in the bathroom for a long time. Mrs. Blossom wishes Elinor would console her about Paul’s absence, but that was never their dynamic. Too often, she has felt like a sidekick: Thelma Ritter to Elinor’s Grace Kelly. However, she realizes that even if her romance with Paul doesn’t pan out, at least she’s made a new female friend: Pat Siemen, who has advised her to be the “main character” in her life. Friendships, she thinks, last longer than infatuations, but as she tries to fall asleep, she worries about Paul and hopes the oysters didn’t make him sick.