Chapter Seven: Surveillance, Strategy, and an Exit Bag Plan

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Over two days aboard the Queen Mary 2, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice, and Natalie establish surveillance on Lazarov. Billie and Helen pose as wealthy divorcées, attending watercolor classes, yoga, and other shipboard activities. Mary Alice and Natalie mingle in the Chart Room, gathering gossip and observing passengers. Mary Alice debriefs Billie: Lazarov is not a joiner—he skips most entertainment, spends time reading in his suite or the Chart Room, and recently bought three books. He conversed with an elderly couple about pears (or bears) but revealed nothing useful. His security is minimal: one bodyguard in a cheap suit, lodged two decks below.

Billie confesses a nagging unease about Lazarov—his Anglophilia, his teak yacht, his teddy-bear persona—something she cannot articulate. Mary Alice dismisses the feeling, confident that Lazarov has no idea they are on his trail. The team then weighs the pros and cons of killing at sea: easy evidence disposal but being trapped with the body. They settle on a quiet death in his suite, relying on a ship’s doctor unlikely to probe for foul play.

Mary Alice suggests an exit bag (a plastic suffocation sack paired with nitrogen) as the method. To use it, they must either enter his suite or be waiting inside. The bodyguard is a factor; they plan to drug him, and Natalie may have suitable substances in her kit. Mary Alice falls asleep mid-discussion; after she leaves, Billie steps onto her balcony, lights a cigarette, and thinks of Taverner in Greece. She accepts that there is nowhere else she would rather be than right here, preparing to kill.

Key Events

The team establishes round-the-clock surveillance of Lazarov over two days.
Mary Alice reports that Lazarov avoids ship activities, reads, and keeps to himself.
Billie voices an intuitive suspicion that Lazarov is different from previous targets.
The group debates the logistics of a murder at sea: body disposal, medical examination, and timing.
They decide on an exit bag method in Lazarov’s own suite.
The bodyguard is identified as a potential obstacle; Natalie’s stash may provide a sedative.
Mary Alice falls asleep during planning; Billie later reflects on her commitment to the mission.

Character Development

Billie: Her intuition about Lazarov—a “strange little flicker” she cannot explain—shows her seasoned instincts. Despite two years off the job, she settles back into the role with a sense of belonging, symbolized by her mother’s silver lighter and her final thought that there is nowhere else she’d rather be.
Mary Alice: Blunt and cheerful, she uses ageist humor (“We are the youngest people on board by a mile”) while also defending the team’s age. Her confidence that Lazarov is unaware of them underscores her experience, but Billie’s doubt hints at potential blind spots.
Natalie (mentioned): Her off-screen role as the team’s chemist (fanny pack of drugs) reinforces her practical, resourceful nature.
Helen: Largely in the background during this chapter but participates in the cover identities.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Age and expertise: The women use their age to blend in (posing as retired divorcées) and leverage their accumulated skills to outmaneuver a younger, slower bodyguard. Mary Alice’s banter about the elderly passengers highlights the irony that they are the “youngest” on board, while their true power comes from decades of experience.
Intuition versus evidence: Billie cannot rationalize her unease about Lazarov, yet the narrative validates her gut feeling. The tension between hard facts and instinct drives the planning.
Ship as sealed environment: The Queen Mary 2 is both a luxury playground and a trap. The team must weigh the benefits of an ocean for evidence disposal against the risk of being trapped with the body. The ship’s doctor becomes a wildcard, potentially overlooking murder to avoid bad publicity.
Disguise and performance: Billie and Helen adopt personas (monied divorcées) that allow them to move freely. The chapter emphasizes the theatrical nature of their work—watercolor classes, yoga “pretzels,” and samba threesomes.

Why This Chapter Matters

This chapter shifts the narrative from reconnaissance to active planning. It solidifies the team’s strategy for executing Lazarov, introduces the exit bag as the chosen method, and exposes Billie’s unspoken doubts. The shipboard setting heightens the stakes: if anything goes wrong, there is no easy escape. Billie’s closing reflection—that she belongs on this mission—reaffirms her identity as a killer and sets the stage for the execution to come.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Billie feel that something is “off” about Lazarov, and how does Mary Alice respond?

Billie senses that Lazarov’s Anglophilia and personal style—teak yacht, teddy bear, love of Agatha Christie—do not match his father’s more brutal reputation. Mary Alice dismisses the feeling, pointing out that Lazarov has no reason to know they are following him. The exchange shows Billie’s intuition versus Mary Alice’s reliance on observable facts.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of killing Lazarov at sea, according to the chapter?

Advantages include easy evidence disposal (the ocean) and no quick escape for the victim. Disadvantages include being confined to the ship with the body, making the four women prime suspects if foul play is suspected. They must time the murder so that the ship is far from both New York and England, and they must be off the vessel before a postmortem is conducted.

3. How does the chapter use the ship’s doctor as a plot device?

The doctor is assumed to be unambitious and unlikely to investigate a natural-seeming death, because a murder investigation would create negative publicity for the cruise line. The team counts on the doctor’s complacency to allow them to escape without suspicion. This reliance on a predictable institutional response adds tension: if the doctor proves more diligent, the plan could collapse.