Thirteen Diamonds

time, starting with the person to his left and moving clockwise around the table.”
    “His left or her left,” Sandra said. She still worried about sexist pronouns.
    “Before that,” Mark said. “Where does the dealer get the cards?”
    I had to think about that. “Ordinarily, the cards are shuffled by the player to the dealer's left, who then places the deck on the table at the dealer's left hand. The dealerperson picks up the cards and offers them to the person on his/her right to cut. After the cards are cut the dealer deals them.”
    Mark got a chuckle out of my phrasing, even if Sandra didn't. He said, “So three people actually handle the cards before the deal. And I believe you said this was the first deal of the afternoon so the cards must have just been taken out of a box.”
    “Actually, the cards were sitting on the table already. Wesley, our president, took the decks out of the box when he set up the tables.”
    “But they were shuffled afterward, so that eliminates Wesley from the picture. Since this was the first hand, the activities you just mentioned: shuffle, cut and deal must have happened one right after another, bang-bang-bang.”
    “True.”
    Mark scratched his head. “Gerald was the dealer. Tell me who was sitting to the left and right of Gerald.”
    “Ida sat on his left and Ellen, whom you haven't met yet, sat on his right.”
    “Two ladies. Actually, in a case like this it would have been easier for one of the two other than the dealer to make the switch. And the fact that they are ladies actually gives them an advantage.”
    “I don't see why being ladies gives them an advantage,” Sandra said.
    “Because ladies carry purses. In addition, Gerald, as the dealer, would have attention focused on him while he was dealing, making it difficult for him to dispose of the switched deck. Here is a possible scenario: One of the two ladies, either the shuffler or the cutter, has another deck and a purse sitting in her lap. At the crucial moment she creates a diversion, directing people's attention away from her, sweeps the deck from the table into her purse and substitutes the other deck, all in the blink of an eye if she's been practicing.”
    “Wouldn't the person making the switch need an accomplice to create the diversion?” Sandra asked.
    “Probably not. Because timing is so critical it's better for the switcher to create the diversion herself because she knows exactly when to do it. All she has to do is to say something that gets people to look away from her.”
    Our young waitress arrived to take our dessert orders. She offered us a choice of cake, ice cream or fruit. I usually ordered an apple or an orange, figuring that I ate enough rich desserts of my own baking.
    Mark said, “Does the cake taste as good as you look?”
    The girl smiled, self-consciously, and drawled, in a local accent, “It tastes yummy. I had some, myself.”
    Sandra frowned and I surmised that Mark's engaging manner with women was still a sticking point with her.
    While we waited for dessert, I took the kids on the rest of our rounds. We went to the table where Ellen sat with another woman. I was concerned about how she would receive me so I just said, “Ellen, I'm taking a count of bridge players for tomorrow. Are you planning to be there?”
    She said yes without smiling so I didn't introduce Sandra and Mark. We went to the table where Harriet and two other women were eating. She also said that she would be present at the bridge club. I did introduce Sandra and Mark to her and we got introduced to her dinner mates, in turn.
    Before we left, I said, “By the way, Harriet, would you like to be my partner tomorrow? I think it's a good idea to change partners once in a while and I've always wanted to play with you.”
    “I'd like that very much,” Harriet said. “I usually played with Gerald while he...was alive. Since then I've been playing with Laura. Confidentially,” she lowered her voice as though people were listening, “I don't like the way she bids.”
    “We'll sic Tess on her,” I said. “Tess will straighten her out.”
    When we returned to our table I glanced at Mark to get his reaction. He said, “I can't eliminate either one of them on the basis of size. I'd like to see them stand up.”
    “If we wait long enough, they'll do that,” I said. “What about hair color?” Ellen had reddish-brown hair; Harriet's hair was white.
    “Remember, the woman I delivered the lobster to wore