36

After placing what was left of Lu’s body in Flinders’ sleeping chamber, their de facto morgue, the whole crew set out to find the cat. They began the search with confidence. The Investigator was not a large ship, nor were there many hiding places. And yet, they spent several hours searching, but did not find the cat.

No one had eaten that day because of Lu’s death, and after several hours, they slowly began to convene in the galley.

‘We’re going to find Trim,’ Richards said to Ge Ge. ‘He can’t hide forever.’

‘Enough about the damn cat, already,’ said Hood. ‘How are we going to open the storage pod without his key?’

‘I have it,’ said Richards.

Up to this point, the daily meal had been a bright spot in each day. This meal was somber. No one said much, and they parted in silence when the scanty fare was consumed. Lu’s death marked a change in the expedition’s mood. His death made menacing their daily privation.

Ge Ge began to obsess about the cat—even to the point of using bits of his tiny rations as bait in traps of his own manufacture. He often found them sprung, and the bait gone, but he never caught the cat. Richards believed that someone other than the cat was taking the bait. They were all so hungry.