“That’s because they were the ones who knew Pamela, and Alex was obviously in a relationship with her, as casual as he may claim it was. It doesn’t look good for him, Lucy.”
I wasn’t particularly bothered about Alex one way or the other. I thought he was an entitled twit, but if he hadn’t killed Pamela, I didn’t want to see him punished for it. “Here’s what I’m thinking. What about his father?”
“You think Hugo killed Pamela?”
“I don’t think anything. I’m just throwing out ideas here. But what if he didn’t want to bring down the standards of the family? He was obviously a strict father, and that wife sure looked like a snob. In fact, if she’d been anywhere in the area, I’d have tried to pin the murder on her. She wouldn’t want an American divorcee marrying her precious son. I mean, Pamela might have a lot of money, but they don’t need money.”
“So you’re suggesting that Hugo Percival Brown murdered his son’s friend because he thought the son was getting too close to her?”
“Well, maybe he knows more about the relationship than we do? Maybe Alex was more serious about her than he’s letting on. This whole ‘we were just having fun’ thing might be a smokescreen.”
He took his time answering. Finally, he shook his head. “The timing doesn’t work. We were with Hugo when his wife telephoned.”
Okay, I tried not to feel disappointed, because I wasn’t trying to pin a murder on anyone who didn’t deserve it. Still, I had liked my new theory. “It’s that whole chivalry thing that I keep coming back to and the way the body was displayed. If chivalry is about saving people from bad things, then perhaps he was trying to save his son from a bad marriage.”
“He’s a very ambitious man, is Hugo. I wouldn’t necessarily put murder past him if it would serve his purposes, but he’s proved himself more ruthless in the business world than in his personal life.”
“And you said he had an alibi?”
“Yes. His wife phoned at ten o’clock, remember.”
“Are you sure it was his wife?”
“Yes. He’d warned us she would. They always speak at ten when they’re apart. I have extremely good hearing, Lucy. I recognized her voice. She was telling him that she was thinking about firing her hairdresser, if you must know. She feels, now his salon is so famous—thanks, apparently, to her—that he’s become too controlling.”
Okay, that totally sounded like wife and husband conversation. And exactly the sort of thing that Alex’s mother would focus on. “And how long was the conversation?”
“Well, he left the room to speak with her. And returned I would say about twenty or twenty-five minutes later.”
“You’re right. The timing doesn’t work.”
His eyes glinted with amusement. “You sound disappointed.”
“Are you sure it’s not Lochlan Balfour?” I was quite willing to move on and try out different perpetrators.
“It could be Lochlan Balfour. As you say, he was the only one who was actually a Knight of the Garter. But I can’t imagine why he’d display her body that way. And I can’t find a plausible motive.”
“But you were separated for a time?”
“We were. While Hugo was speaking to his wife, Lochlan and Henry went to look at the Picasso at the end of the hall.” He seemed like there was more to say, so I waited. “Henry’s convinced it’s a fake and wanted Lochlan’s opinion.”
“I feel like everyone was running all over the place that night. Don’t people ever sit down and eat dinner properly anymore?”
“Well, it was a very long dinner. And, of course, Lochlan and I weren’t as interested in the food as some of the others.”
“Right.” He took the term food sensitivities to new heights. I remembered something and pulled a crumpled paper out of my jeans pocket. “Miles left this behind. It’s the map showing him how to get to the wine that night.”
Everyone was looking at me as though waiting for the rest of the sentence. Waiting for me to finish my idea. It was still fuzzy and unformed. I wasn’t even sure if it made any sense. “I know that Miles and Charles both went to the wine cellar to get the wine. I just wonder if we should time how long that takes.”
Theodore looked at me curiously. “You suspect Miles?”
“Not really. But that Charles, I didn’t like him at all. He struck me as a cocky womanizer.”
Theodore gave a kind of snarky laugh. “I think you could say that about all the members of the Gargoyle Club.” He didn’t look at Rafe, but he didn’t have to. I tried to hide my smirk.
Rafe replied anyway, “In my day, we were a little better behaved.”
I doubted very much that was true, but I didn’t want to get sidetracked. I showed them all the printout. “I hear this wine cellar is pretty intense.”
None of them looked very impressed with it. I supposed being their age and vampires, they’d seen cellars, wine and otherwise, that were a lot more grand than this. “Well, it looked impressive to me. Anyway, I still think it’s worth going in there and tracing their steps and timing how long it takes. You see, Charles didn’t walk back with Miles. He went out the downstairs door.”
Rafe put up his hands. Nyx headbutted his forearm until he went back to stroking her. “Again, what was his motive to murder Pamela?”
“I don’t know. But if the timing works, then maybe we can start looking into him more carefully.”
Rafe seemed to be thinking. “I could get into that wine cellar.”
“Rafe, I don’t want to go breaking in and sneaking around in the night.”
“No. In the daytime. Hugo and I were talking about wines. He offered to sell me a case of Château Margaux.”
“Really? He has a better wine cellar than you?”
He looked at me as though half my brain might be missing. “Of course not. However, he did manage to
