The Woman in Cabin Ten Ch. 19-21

Okay, so I went and saw Crazy Rich Asians today and boy, was that a trip and a half.

I loved it.

Secretly, I love romance novels.

I mean it's not much of a secret, I admit, but wow, do I love them. Like, Hallmark levels of sap sometimes too. We shall not speak about the Hallmark channel and how it makes its way onto my television way too often these days.

But I've read the series this movie is based off of - well it's based on the first one, so I have hopes for the sequels! And I loved them so, so much so I was super excited and also worried because movies never live up to the books. And sure, there are differences and some things that got left out that I would have loved to have seen, but I know you can't fit everything in and things that work on paper don't work on the screen, yadayadayada. I liked a couple of the changes a lot and I realized that I've never seen mahjongg actually played in my life. I've only ever done the little matching game thing on the phone and it is apparently not like that at all. Which makes sense.

Still, it was fun and so lovely and everyone who gets a chance should go see it.

Anyway.

All I'm saying is that I had a pretty crappy week this past week with work being insane and some personal stuff.

*sigh*

Adulting.

But Crazy Rich Asians cheered me up and now I'm writing about murder and watching Tremors and not Avengers Infinity War because I don't need that kind of pain in my life right now, thank you.

Fuck Thanos.

Moving on to the murder!

Okay, so we start with Lo getting back to her room and eating the food that's been left for her.

Which, I know that she asked for food and that if we don't eat we die and all but 1) if there is a murderer on the boat and you've been running around telling everyone that you semi-witnessed their murder, maybe eating randomly left out food is a bad idea? and 2) Prawn and hard-boiled egg on rye sounds awful and I don't know why that is a thing that exists. Kill it with fire.

We go over the fact that Cole, Alexander and Archer were all at least one time in the same room as murdered girl, maybe? If it is her. Even though Lo seems sure, she also can't exactly remember the girls face anymore so maybe not? And hallelujah she's realizing that maybe she can't trust Ben! 184 pages in and she thinks that maybe he has his own reasons for lying to her.

Jesus.

Archer's alibi is dependent on Ben, and Ben's alibi is dependent on Ben and on Lo's trust in him which I have said is over the top and he doesn't deserve it.

Also, still no WiFi connection.

I'm with you Lo, this seems suspicious.

But then again, you're out in the middle of the ocean, so maybe not?

I'm not swanky enough to go on a boat like this but I also kind of think that they'd have their own internet provision. Like...if I turn it on, my phone acts as a hotspot and lo, I have internet. So....

Lo decides to go talk to Lord Bullmer without Ben, thank you, but of course he's not in. His wife Anne answers the door and she's been crying.

Lo wants to ask what's wrong, but there's the perfectly understandable problem of asking someone that you definitely do not know, who you know has been very ill, what's wrong. I'm sure that some people would, but I, for one, was raised to know that internal problems stayed internal. You don't ask someone else about their business unless they volunteer and you surely do not volunteer your own business.

So unless Anne Bullmer collapses coughing blood, I too would ignore her tears and just try to get on with my business. Because it's none of my business and I will leave her with her dignity.

And then Lo asks her about her treatment, which makes me cringe, please, no, we were doing so well with not asking people inappropriate questions...

Lord Bullmer is apparently in the hottub, so after Lo shames us all with her terrible terribleness she bops on up there to find Bullmer, Cole, Chloe and Lars all in the tube doing some sort of mad polar bear thing? Where it's super hot in the tub and the air is cold and there's also a cold shower that they hop out into and then back into the tub? Crazy people.

Bullmer doesn't want to wait to hear whatever Lo has come to say, so in front of the other three she tells him the story. Lars is a dick about it, so fuck you Lars, and Cole breaks his champagne glass conveniently.

Listen, man, you and Chloe are having an affair, so I really hope it's not you who's the murderer because I kind of like you and Chloe.

Bullmer takes charge, gets people to treat Cole's hand and then comes to talk to Lo about what she heard in the dining room. He takes it well? Or at least has a great deal of control over himself and pumps her for all the details he can get. After he's heard the story a couple of times he breaks to let Lo rest, let the crew set up the dining room and to go ponder all of this.

He also seems to take Lo's shaming by Nilsson (I mean is it shaming? Dismissal, at the very least) because of her drinking and the drugs she takes and the break in badly but that could just be lip service. There's something...slimy about Bullmer. Maybe it's just rich douche syndrome.

Lo runs into Ben (UGH) and tells him about Bullmer, etc. Then Ben tells her that Cole, when he was cutting up his hand, accidentally knocked his camera into the water so the SD card, you know, the one with the picture of murder girl? Is ruined.

*taps fingers*

I mean that's suspicious.

So Cole could have knocked it into the water by accident. Or on purpose because...something else was on the card? Sure you can delete those things but they can generally bring them back if they really need to and just saying you lost it if questions come up looks extra suspicious. Or someone else knocked it in the water and Cole is just assuming that he did it because that makes sense to him? Like you can't remember doing the thing, but you probably did do the thing because it happened and the theoretical story makes sense.

Hah! But no, Lo remembers that the camera was on the deck before the accident, so it definitely wasn't accidentally dropped into the tub.

Excellent.

Also, they will be in Trondheim the next day, and as we know from the blurbs, Lo vanishes the day they go into Trondheim.

Intersting happenings at dinner:

Karla maybe hints that someone *was* in the cabin, like someone let a friend use it, but then she denies that anyone was there or that she's saying anything of the sort and hey, maybe don't get us all fired because we need these jobs, thanks.

Cole is in pain, drunk, and upset about his camera. He's hoping to get some of the pictures back from an expert he knows (supposedly) but nothing is happening at the moment. Also, some of the other pics he had on that card were from a gentlemen's club called the Magellan - Archer belongs to it, as does Bullmer.

Bullmer was called away with an emergency. But I assume he's still on the boat, since there wasn't another boat that pulled up alongside or a helicopter or whatever.

Anne Bullmer has some pretty bad bruising, which could be from the chemo. Or not. *frowns*

Owen White is there as a potential investor, but he's not buying. The guy who was supposed to be in cabin 10, Solberg, was another potential investor, but his house was broken into and so he stayed home to be with his wife and children.

ALSO BEN IS STILL A FUCKING TOOL

He tried to save a seat for Lo, but she sat elsewhere, so now he's being a dick and then when she tells him that hey, you lied, so maybe I don't trust you, he's all butt hurt about it like it's all about him and oh, hey, he's such a nice guy but she's just *wounding* him by not accepting his help and friendship and damn, fuck you Ben.

Lo gets back to her cabin, leaving Ben outside LIKE A DICK and takes a bath.

When she gets out, she checks that Ben is gone, then goes to get her phone and realizes that it's gone out of her purse.

ALSO, the veranda doors don't lock from the outside. WHICH IS A PROBLEM.

I'm with you Lo.

Safety measure, sure.

But now I, too, do not feel safe in this room. Because there is a footprint and the phone is gone and someone definitely snuck into the room while she was in the bath.

And she's all, 'I just have to make it to Trondheim' but if she does go missing in Trondheim then this is not true and everything is about to be worse.

We break for another insert. This one from a web forum, a lot like the ones that really exist for true crime fans and arm chair detectives, so called.

Bit of a thread about the disappearance of Lo and someone anonymously claiming to be a family friend saying that hey, Lo was taking anti-depressants and was maybe suicidal and others talking about how the ex (BEN) or her boyfriend (poor innocent Jude) are likely involved and then of course Jude gets involved and then the thread gets shut down because that's how the internet rolls.