Weep No More, My Lady

any more discussion.

Elizabeth watched as, with a practiced eye, Min surveyed the surroundings. Woe to a waiter who did not have the proper demeanor, who rattled, or spilled, or brushed against the chair of a guest. The thought struck her that it was not like Min to invite Sammy to join her table. Was it possible that Min had guessed there was a special reason she had waited to see Sammy, and wanted to know what it was?

And was it possible that Sammy had shrewdly avoided that trap?

'I'm sorry I'm late.' Alvirah Meehan yanked out the chair before the waiter could help her. 'The cosmetician did a special makeup after I got dressed,' she said, beaming. 'How do you like it?'

Alvirah was wearing a scoop-necked beige caftan with intricate brown beading. It looked very expensive. 'I bought this in the boutique,' she explained. 'You have lovely things there. And I bought every single product the makeup woman suggested. She was so helpful.'

As Helmut came to the table, Elizabeth studied Min's face with amusement. One was invited to join Min and Helmut-something which Mrs. Meehan did not understand. Min could explain that and place her at another table. On the other hand, Mrs. Meehan was in the most expensive bungalow in the Spa; she was clearly buying everything in sight, and offending her could be very foolish. A strained smile tugged at the corners of Min's lips. 'You look charming,' she told Alvirah. 'Tomorrow I shall personally help you select other outfits.'

'That's very nice of you.' Alvirah fiddled with her sunburst pin and turned to Helmut. 'Baron, I have to tell you I was re-reading your ad-you know, the one you have framed in the bungalows.'

'Yes?'

Elizabeth wondered if it was just her imagination that made Helmut suddenly seem wary.

'Well, let me tell you that everything you say about the place is true. Remember how the ad says, 'At the end of a week here, you will feel as free and untroubled as a butterfly floating on a cloud?'

'The ad reads something like that, yes.'

'But you wrote it-didn't you tell me that?'

'I had some input, I said. We have an agency.'

'Nonsense, Helmut. Mrs. Meehan obviously agrees with the text of the ad. Yes, Mrs. Meehan, my husband is very creative. He personally writes the daily greeting, and ten years ago when we converted the hotel into the Spa, he simply would not accept the advertising copy we were given, and rewrote it himself. That ad won many awards, which is why we have a framed copy in every bungalow.'

'It certainly made important people want to come here,' Alvirah told them. 'How I wish I'd been a fly on the wall to listen to all of them… She beamed at Helmut. 'Or a butterfly floating on a cloud.'

* * *

They were eating the low-calorie mousse when it dawned on Elizabeth how skillfully Mrs. Meehan had drawn out Helmut and Min. They had told her stories Elizabeth had never heard before: about an eccentric millionaire who had arrived on opening day on his bicycle, with his Rolls-Royce majestically trailing him, or about how a chartered plane had been sent from Arabia to pick up a fortune in jewels that one of a sheikh's four wives had left behind on a table near the pool…

As they were about to leave the table, Alvirah posed her final question: 'Who was the most exciting guest you've ever had?'

Without hesitation, without even looking at each other, they answered 'Leila LaSalle.'

For some reason, Elizabeth shivered.

* * *

Elizabeth did not linger for coffee or the musical program. As soon as she reached her bungalow, she phoned Sammy. There was no answer in her apartment. Puzzled, she dialed Sammy's office.

Sammy's voice had an excited urgency to it when she answered. ' Elizabeth, I nearly fainted when Min told me you were here. No, I'm perfectly all right. I'll be right over.'

Ten minutes later, Elizabeth flung open the door of her bungalow and threw her arms around the frail, fiercely loyal woman who had shared with her the last years of Leila's life.

Sitting opposite each other on the matching sofas, they took each other's measure. Elizabeth was shocked to see how much Dora had changed. 'I know,' Dora said with a wry smile. 'I don't look that hot.'

'You don't look well, Sammy,' Elizabeth said. 'How's it really going?'

Dora shrugged. 'I still feel so guilty. You were away, and couldn't see the day-to-day change in Leila. When she came to visit me in the hospital, I could see it. Something was destroying her, but she wouldn't talk about it. I ought to have contacted you. I feel I let her down so terribly. And now it's as if I have to find out what happened. I can't let it rest until I do.'

Elizabeth felt tears begin to spill from her eyes. 'Now don't you dare get me started,' she said. 'For the entire first year I had to carry dark glasses with me. I just never knew when I'd start crying. I used to call the glasses my grief equipment.'

She clasped her hands together. 'Sammy, tell me. Is there any chance I'm wrong about Ted? I was not mistaken about the time, and if he pushed Leila off that terrace he has to pay for it. But is it possible he was trying to hold her? Why was she so upset? Why was she drinking? You heard her talk about how disgusted she was with people who drank too much. That night, a few minutes before she died, I was nasty to her. I tried to do what she used to do to Mama-shock her, make her see what she was doing to herself. Maybe if I'd been more sympathetic. Sammy, if I'd only asked her why!'

In a spontaneous gesture they moved together. Dora's thin arms encircled Elizabeth, felt the trembling in the slender young body and remembered the teenager who had so worshiped her big sister.

'Oh, Sparrow,' she said, unthinkingly using Leila's name for Elizabeth, 'what would Leila think about the two of us going on like this?'

'She'd say, 'Quit moaning and do something about it.' ' Elizabeth dabbed at her eyes and managed a smile.

'Exactly.' With quick, nervous movements, Dora smoothed the thin strands of hair that always wanted to slip out from her bun. 'Let's backtrack. Had Leila started to act upset before you left on the tour?'

Elizabeth frowned as she tried to focus, to weed out extraneous memories. 'It was just before I left that Leila's divorce had come through. She'd been with her accountant. It was the first time in years I'd seen her worried about money. She said something like 'Sparrow, I've made an awful lot of loot, and honest to God, now I'm on thin ice.'

'I told her that two deadbeat husbands had put her in that bind, but I didn't consider being about to marry a multimillionaire like Ted being on thin ice. And she said something like 'Ted really does love me, doesn't he?' I told her to, for God's sake, get off that line. I said, 'You keep doubting him and you'll drive him away. He's nuts about you. Now go earn the four million bucks he just invested in you!''

'What did she say?' Dora asked.

'She started to laugh-you know that big, gorgeous laugh of hers-and she said, 'As usual, you're right, Sparrow.' She was terribly excited about the play.'

'And then when you were gone, and I was sick, and Ted was traveling, someone began a campaign to destroy her.' Dora reached into the pocket of her cardigan. 'Today the letter I wrote you about was stolen from my desk. But just before you phoned I found another one in Leila's mail. She never got to read it either-it was still sealed-but it speaks for itself.'

Horrified, Elizabeth read and reread the uneven, carelessly pasted words:

Leila,

Why won't you admit Ted is trying to Dump you? His new girl is getting tired of waiting. That four million Dollars