The Woman in Suite 11

When Pam returns Lo’s call, she says her ankle is broken and she’s going to Watford for an operation. Lo offers to come by Watford with pajamas or other things Pam might need. Pam says she’ll call Lo when she arrives. After they end the call, the police knock on the suite’s door. They arrest Lo as Carrie hides in the bathroom. The police place Lo’s phone in an evidence bag; as they drive her to the police station, she can hear Judah calling but can’t answer.

Lo is booked and left in a cell. After what seems like a long time, she asks a guard for water. Before he returns with it, Dickers and Wright take her to an interview room. They ask if she wants a lawyer, and she says she doesn’t. They discovered that Lo lied about visiting her mother in a hospital near the Old Manor hotel; the only close one is a burn unit. They also think she lied about when she left the room (because of the key card logs) and about her wedding ring. She isn’t wearing it and explains that she doesn’t regularly wear it.

Then, Dickers shows her that Marcus has a picture of Cole kissing her cheek, but the angle makes it look like he’s kissing her on the mouth. Lo explains that the kiss was not on the mouth, but the officers don’t believe her. Dickers accuses Lo of having affairs with both Marcus and Cole. Lo asks for a lawyer and calls Judah. He doesn’t answer, and they won’t let her text him, as she usually does when he misses a call. They allow her to call Pam, but she doesn’t answer. Lo leaves a message saying she’s been arrested and to contact Judah. Judah doesn’t check voicemail, so if he doesn’t answer, Pam should text or email him.

The officers take Lo back to what’s called a “custody suite.” She thinks about the variety of places that the word “suite” can describe: a plane booking, a hotel room, or a jail cell.

In the scene from the Prologue, Lo has a nightmare in which she’s captive on the ship, and then wakes up in a police cell. Being imprisoned again causes Lo to have a panic attack. She lies on the bed, disassociates, and counts her breaths. When she thinks about being in jail for someone else’s crime, her panic turns into anger. She recovers from her panic attack, sits up, and feels hopeful that she’ll get out of this suite.

In the morning, a lawyer named Daniel Winterbottom, who goes by Dan, arrives. Lo tells him what happened, and he’s outraged at her being arrested with only the photo as evidence. They talk about the hotel door key records, Lo’s past on the Aurora, and how people from the ship were invited to the hotel opening. Dan leaves Lo in the interview room for a while. When he returns, Dickers is with him. Lo has been released on bail, and Dickers reluctantly agrees to allow her to stay in the hotel, as long as she surrenders her passport.

Ben and Cole are in the reception area of the police station. Pam texted Ben, and Judah called Cole. Dan is a friend of Cole’s friend. They all leave the station together.

Lo calls Judah and cries. She can’t tell him about Carrie with the other men close to her, and can’t talk to their kids because it’s five o’clock in the morning in New York. Lo asks Judah to let her hear them sleeping, and he takes the phone to their beds. Judah offers to come to the UK to help, but Lo says he doesn’t need to, and he should stay with the kids. After Lo gets off the call, Dan gives her a copy of the door-lock information from the hotel. Lo thanks him for getting her out of the custody suite, and he returns to his office.

Lo, Cole, and Ben get breakfast at the place Lo went to in the village two days ago. They look at the information Dan gave Lo. It includes the names of the suites, Lark and Chaffinch, and documents the entries with Lo’s card, the maid’s card, and the card the police used. Lo sees that Carrie opened the door when Lo told the police she was at breakfast, which looks suspicious. However, she doesn’t feel comfortable telling Ben and Cole about Carrie. When they look at the door records for Marcus’s room, there doesn’t seem to be an entry time for his killer. After the housekeeper came in and discovered his body, the door was propped open.

Ben wonders if Pieter propped open the door for the killer earlier, but Lo recalls Pieter closing the door when she saw him before breakfast. If Pieter didn’t prop the door, it looks like the housekeeper is the killer, but Lo doesn’t believe she is. As they eat, Lo wonders about Carrie.

Lo returns to the Old Manor hotel and sees that her room has been turned over. Carrie isn’t there, nor is Lo’s suitcase. Lo calls Pam, who has been waiting to go into surgery and hasn’t been allowed to eat. They talk about when Lo should come by, but before they decide, Pam says the nurse has arrived and is taking her to surgery. After Pam hangs up, Lo writes a list of potential suspects with their motives and opportunities.

Only the cleaner has a clear opportunity from the door lock log. Lo considers Pieter the top suspect, but he was at breakfast at the time of the murder. Heinrich and Adeline could have entered Marcus’s suite only if the door lock log was inaccurate or if Pieter left the door open. Carrie had a motive, but was in the bath. The main thing establishing the time of death is Marcus’s room service call.

Lo calls Dan and asks if Pieter could have faked the room service call. Lo recalls that she never heard Marcus answer Pieter the morning of his murder. She only assumed Pieter was talking to Marcus; Pieter could have already killed him at that point. Dan hangs up to follow this lead. Lo changes her list to give Pieter an opportunity as well as a motive.

Under the table, Lo finds a copy of Winnie-the-Pooh: the copy she had on the Aurora. Carrie must have kept it. Carrie wrote a message under the dust jacket, thanking Lo, calling her Pooh, and saying goodbye. It’s signed “Tigger” (282), which was Carrie’s nickname.

Lo takes a bath and goes for a walk in the rain. She sees police officers escorting Pieter away. Heinrich glares at Lo as he passes with Pieter, and this increases her suspicions about Pieter. A few hours later, when Lo is back in her suite, she gets a call. The anonymous caller warns her to watch what she says to the police. She’s certain that Pieter arranged the call to take place while he was in custody.

Then, Lo returns a missed call from Dan. He says the police are releasing Pieter, and he’s coming back to the hotel. Lo asks if she can legally leave the hotel. Dan says she’s allowed to go to her mother’s house. Lo explains that Pam is in a hospital, and Lo might need to get a hotel near it. He says to send him the address when she knows it.

Then, Dan plays a recording of Marcus’s call to room service with bath noises in the background. Lo recognizes his voice from listening to her interview with him. The call was traced to the cordless room phone, which was found at the bottom of Marcus’s tub. Dan wonders if someone on the inside at the hotel is doctoring the door lock log.

After the call, Lo adds an entry into her list about a hotel employee who has an opportunity but whose motive for murder is questionable. Lo realizes that she wrote her list on the back of Ben’s train ticket to the UK, which was at the same time as her and Carrie’s tickets, but in economy. She adds Ben to the list.

At the end of this chapter is a BBC news brief about the police looking to question Lo about Marcus’s murder. This time, their names are included.