“And? Had he?”
Theodore shook his head, looking annoyed. “I could never prove it. But I think he was guilty.”
Sylvia spoke up next. “Well, I try not to be a woman who kisses and tells, but I was rather friendly with Vikram’s…good heavens, it must be his great-grandfather. The Maharaja of Pune.” She looked rather coy. “The rubies that man gave me. One of the nicest gifts I’ve ever received from a gentleman.” The way she said it, I suspected there were quite a number of other very nice gifts. Sylvia had enjoyed her time in the spotlight. And out of it.
“And he gave me my Matisse.” She said it the same way she’d have said he gave her a pair of bedroom slippers.
No one else looked surprised, but I think I squealed. “He gave you a Matisse?”
“Oh, yes. It hangs in my flat in Paris. I’ll take you there sometime.”
“He gave you a Matisse.”
She smiled with great smugness. “Gertrude Stein was terribly annoyed. She’d had her eye on it herself. One of his first paintings of the dancing women. It’s lovely. Of course, in those days, you could pick up a Matisse or a Picasso for a song. Now they’re very collectible.”
Very collectible wasn’t how I’d have put works that hung in the great art galleries of the world. But I was getting sidetracked. “Okay. You’re on Vikram.” I looked around. “Who else?”
Hester said, “Well, obviously, Carlos should investigate Gabriel Parkinson.”
We all looked at her. “He’s half Colombian.” She said it as though she was saying “duh.”
Carlos looked quite surprised. He turned to her. “Hester, I’m Spanish. This young man is from South America.”
She rolled her eyes. “I know that. I know where Colombia is.” Which suggested to me that she probably didn’t. “But you both speak Spanish, don’t you?”
Okay, she had a point there. “Fine. I will see what I can find out about this Gabriel Parkinson. And you will help me.” Which of course was exactly what Hester had wanted, so her irritation turned to satisfaction.
Dr. Weaver said that he would look into Charles’s background.
Theodore looked at the list. “What about this Miles Thompson?”
I said, “I’ll take care of Miles. I know him. We were together in the production for A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Theodore, you remember. You were a set painter for that production.”
“Good Lord. Was he the young fellow who played Lysander?”
“That’s right.”
“We had him down as the murderer at one point.”
“Yes. But he didn’t do it. He was innocent.”
“Are you sure you’re up for this, Lucy? Perhaps you’re a little too close to him. Are you certain that you could be impartial?”
“I wouldn’t shield him for murder, if that’s what you mean. Miles is a nice guy, but let’s face it, he’s a player. He was supposedly in love with Sophia Bazzano. Now she’s history.”
Theodore looked quite disappointed. “Do you mean to tell me, after all that poor, young woman went through, they split up?”
His lack of loyalty to Sophia didn’t look very good on Miles.
“What an utter cad,” Theodore said. That was half the fun of hanging around with a bunch of vampires. They said things like, “What an utter cad.”
But as charming as the sentiment was, it was sort of true. Still, Miles was my friend. “Maybe Sophia broke up with him.”
“We can only hope.”
Having finally agreed that I could be the one to talk to Miles, Theodore said, “That only leaves Alexander Percival Brown.”
Rafe said, “I’ve known his father for years. I’ve known the family ever since he was born. I can look into him.”
Theodore gave him the same look he’d given me. “You’re hardly an impartial observer.”
Rafe stood up and stared down at Theodore sitting suddenly uncomfortably on his chair, knitting needles abandoned. “If Alexander had anything to do with the young woman’s murder, believe me, I will inform you of it.”
“Fine,” Theodore said, looking somewhat nervous.
Once again, Sylvia broke the awkward silence. “Excellent. I only wish there were more that we could do. Still, I shall enjoy finding out more about the maharaja’s family. Lucy, what’s the great-grandson like?”
“Gorgeous. Excellent manners. Really, really charming.”
She nodded, looking pleased. “Very much like his great-grandfather then. You know, Lucy, you could do a great deal worse than to—”
Rafe interrupted, looking thunderous. “Lucy will not be chasing after some overbred Oxonian who could be a murderer. Is that clear?”
Chapter 11
He might have been looking at Sylvia, but I suspected his words were intended for me.
I was half tempted to take offense at his controlling manner, except that I knew how much Rafe cared for me. Besides, I wasn’t interested in Vikram. But a girl could look, couldn’t she?
There were a couple of people I knew who might have stayed in touch with Pamela. I chose to start with Sarah Levinson, as she had been one of the key organizers of our tenth anniversary high school reunion. I hadn’t been able to attend, obviously, since I was living in England, but I was pretty sure that Sarah kept up with everybody. I sent her a quick email, and she got back to me flatteringly quickly. I said it had been such a long time since I had caught up with anybody from back home that I wondered if she had some time to Skype. She sounded delighted to hear from me, and we set a time the following day for my evening and her afternoon.
If anyone would know what Pamela had been up to in the ten years since we had left school, Sarah would. Or if not knowing herself, she’d know someone who did.
Of course, since I hadn’t attended my tenth year high school reunion, and I knew what a gossip Sarah was, I dressed myself and did my makeup and hair for my Skype catchup chat, putting almost as much effort as I would have had I actually gone to the
