Captain Bo feigned shock. He gathered the passengers in the saloon and pointed to the chart. “This is a tragedy,” he said. “But we are law-abiding folk. No one leaves until we find the killer.” He smiled thinly. “And to help us, I’ve rearranged the seating. New assignments at sundown.”
It began when Captain Beauregard “Bo” LaGrange, the showboat’s dandy impresario, unveiled the new saloon seating for the grand reopening. He’d painted a massive, gilded chart on a mahogany board: ninety-two seats arranged in a horseshoe around the stage. Each seat was assigned to a specific passenger for the voyage from Natchez to New Orleans. seating chart for general jackson showboat
Bo screamed and dove overboard. The Mississippi swallowed him whole. But the Accountant simply shrugged, wiped the chart clean, and began reassigning seats for the next voyage. After all, a showboat without a captain is just a coffin floating downstream. Captain Bo feigned shock
The showboat cast off at dusk. The first night was a blur of champagne and cancan dancers. But by the second morning, the seating chart began to sing. “But we are law-abiding folk
Now the passengers understood. The seating chart wasn’t just a map of tables. It was a hit list. And the killer was rearranging it in real time.
And the seating chart, as the river rats whispered, was a death warrant.