A Cruise to Die For (An Alix London Mystery) by Aaron Elkins, Charlotte Elkins Page A

Lakeside
.”
    The simple four-by-six card beside the painting agreed with him.
Édouard Manet, 1861, Le Déjeuner au Bord du Lac.
An engraved brass plate nailed to the bottom of the gilt frame simply said, “Manet, 1832–1883.” The canvas was fairly large, about three feet by four.
    Edward sighed. “I
love
Manet.”
    Alix nodded. Manet was one of her favorites too. One of the two men most often credited with being the father of Impressionism (the other being Claude Monet), he was a lifelong individualist, a man whorejected labels, refusing to refer to himself as an Impressionist or as anything else. Besides which, in her opinion, some of his paintings were among the most beautiful and appealing artworks that had ever been created.
    Le Déjeuner au Bord du Lac
was a handsome early work, a quiet pastoral scene showing a decorous middle-class family of three—a man, a woman, a girl of eight or ten—picnicking beside a lake with their beached rowboat a few yards behind them. Alix had been taken with its photograph in the catalog and had looked forward to standing before the real thing, as she was doing now.
    But as she took it in, she felt the beginnings of a fluttery, uneasy feeling in her stomach, and she knew what that implied. She stared harder at the painting, almost scowling at it.
    “Is something the matter?” Edward asked.
    “I don’t… I’m not… there’s something… Edward, does this look all right to you?”
    “All right?” He paled, literally paled. “My God, did they do something to it?” She could see his eyes dart wildly over the surface.
    “No, no,” she assured him, “I don’t mean it’s been damaged. No, the condition looks perfect.”
    He wasn’t much soothed. “Then
what
?” His voice shot up to an unbecoming near-screech.
    “Well, I don’t know,” she said lamely. “It’s just that something doesn’t seem right about it. I can’t put my finger on it—yet.”
    “Alix, you’re making me very nervous here. What do you mean, not right?”
    “I’m sorry, Edward. Look, I was probably just imagining it. Something must have hit me wrong. It was an overnight flight, you know… jet lag… I don’t know. Please, forget I said anything. Just ignore it.” She finished with an apologetic shrug.
    Edward remained decidedly unsoothed. “I’m trying to see what it is about it that disturbs you, and frankly… ”He shook his head.
    Alix caught a glimpse of Artemis stealing a discreet glance at her watch. “Oh, Artemis, I’m sorry. Why don’t you show me my stateroom now? Edward, I’ll see you up at the reception?”
    “Yes, yes, I’m going there now,” he said absently, continuing to stare moodily at the painting.
I’ve offended him
, she thought.
That didn’t take long. A mere five minutes aboard the ship, and I’ve already antagonized my first person.
    But that didn’t change the feeling in her stomach.
Something wasn’t right.

10

    S he followed Artemis down the forward corridor, over more of the same ultra-soft beige carpet that had been in the salon, to a door on the port side, which Artemis opened for her.
    “Whoa,” Alix murmured. She’d known to expect something spacious and well appointed, but this place was the size of her entire apartment in Seattle and outfitted like a layout in a designer showroom.
    “I hope you’ll be comfortable here,” Artemis said with a perfectly straight face.
    “It seems quite nice,” replied Alix with what she hoped was an appropriate nonchalance.
    Artemis presented her with the key card, offered to help her unpack, told her that she could be called upon at any time for anything Alix needed or desired, wished her a memorable journey and left, softly closing the door behind her.
    Memorable
, Alix thought with a wry laugh. It was already memorable, and it hadn’t even started. That sense of something being “off” about that Manet was still with her, but maybe she was better off leaving it till morning when she’d be