Unfortunately for Qwill, Melinda Goodwinter is also part of the group, which makes Qwilll extremely uncomfortable. Melinda does well to make a complete nuisance of herself by constantly coming on to Qwill. Suddenly she stops her act, apologizes, and is much more ladylike. Qwill wonders why, but he doesn't question it too much, as he is just glad she is finally behaving herself.
One morning, Qwill wakes up to screaming down the hall. He runs down to Polly and Irma's room only to find Polly as the source of the screams; she had woken up to find Irma dead in her bed. Melinda diagnoses a fatal heart attack, and she leaves the tour to accompany the body back to Pickax. Saddened, the weary travelers are determined to carry on with the trip, so they pack their bags and wait for their driver to arrive. But he doesn't. So they pack the bus themselves, grab Irma's itinerary, and head out on their own. When they arrive at their stop for the evening, they find that Grace Utley's luggage, filled with her flashy collection of fabulously expensive jewelry, is missing, along with their driver.
When Qwill arrives home (early, with Polly, since the trip was no longer any fun) Koko and Yum Yum work together to provide clues to the fishy things that are going on: Yum Yum supplying emery boards, Koko yowling at words and voices in recorded tapes of Scotland and stealing the nine of pentacles in Mildred's tarot deck.