'Dougie promised me you weren't vegetarian,' Stella said a few minutes later as she served Gemma's plate with perfectly prepared veal scaloppini, fresh asparagus, and a saffron rice timbale- at least that's what Gemma thought it was, having seen something similar on a cooking program once.
'Dougie' blushed to the roots of his hair. 'Stella, you know how much I hate it when you call me that.'
'Sorry.' Stella smiled at him over the candles, unrepentant. 'But we are among friends, after all. Gemma, tell me about your new home.'
As Gemma launched into a description of the house's attributes and furnishings, Stella interrupted with, 'You'll need linens, won't you? You'll have to come to our shop. Two-hundred-thirty-thread count, from Portugal. They're yummy. You'll have to iron them, of course, but we have lavender linen water, just the thing for it.'
'Um, where is the shop exactly?' Gemma murmured. Even if she could afford Stella's sheets, where on earth did the silly woman think she would find time to iron them? Stella began on the virtues of Portuguese lace, but Gemma listened with only half her attention, as Kincaid had begun filling Cullen in on the day's developments.
'So if this jogger was indeed the killer,' Cullen was saying earnestly, 'he'd have had to dispose of the bloody clothes a good distance away- we've searched the immediate neighborhood with a fine-tooth comb- and that would have meant changing socks as well as shoes, and not leaving a smidgen of trace evidence in his car.'
Out of the corner of her eye, Gemma saw Stella pale.
'If this development makes Arrowood a less than likely prospect,' Cullen continued, 'where does that leave us?' He seemed oblivious to his girlfriend's growing discomfort.
'Alex Dunn has a fairly watertight alibi, and so does Otto Popov, unless everyone in his cafe is conspiring to cover up for him, including Alex.' Gemma pushed the rice around on her plate as she thought. 'But what about the Arrowood boys? You've been working on that angle, haven't you, Doug?'
Cullen gave an exaggerated sigh that Gemma suspected was for Stella's benefit. 'I've interviewed every guest at the party they attended that night. The only way Sean or Richard Arrowood could have murdered Dawn would have been by hiring a professional killer. And as for that, I can't see Richard having the nerve, or Sean the motivation.'
'No evidence of drugs or debt on Sean's part?' Kincaid asked.
'Just a long history of cleaning up his brother's messes. But I can't see his loyalty to Richard extending to murdering his stepmother to get Richard out of a scrape.'
Into the discouraged silence that followed this pronouncement, Kincaid said, 'There must be something we've missed- someone else whose path crossed Dawn's-'
'There is the vet,' interrupted Gemma. 'Gavin Farley. Remember my telling you that Farley's assistant, Bryony, said he had a row with Dawn the day she died?'
'And Bryony had no idea what the row was about?'
'None, other than the fact that Farley liked to flirt with Dawn, although Dawn didn't encourage it. When I interviewed the man, he denied arguing with her at all.'
'So either Bryony or Farley is lying?'
Gemma nodded. 'I'd put my money on Farley. It's at least worth seeing where he was on the night of Dawn's murder.'
'You're leaving out Hoffman, again.' Doug pushed his spectacles firmly up. 'What connection could a veterinarian possibly have had with the Hoffman woman? She didn't even have a pet.'
Kincaid expertly balanced the last bite of his veal on his fork. 'We know nothing about the man at this point. I say we start by seeing what we can dig up on him. Doug, you can make that your project-'
Depositing her silverware on her plate with a clatter, Stella pushed away her half-eaten dinner with a brittle smile. 'I must say, this evening
Fern cursed as she tripped over something bulky and hard on her sitting room floor. She edged forward, fumbling for the light switch.
Illumination revealed a box containing old children's toys, a tricycle, and- was that really a weathervane?- set down willy-nilly in the center of the room. That meant her father had been and gone again, no doubt to squander the proceeds of his day's trading at the pub. For a moment she considered leaving the box where it was, but decided she couldn't risk his falling over it when he came in. Instead, she shoved it to one side, then retreated to her room and slammed the door.
Once inside, she sat on the edge of her bed, looking round at the neat shelves and storage boxes with her usual sense of relief. This was her island in the storm of her father's chaos; here her silver was arranged and catalogued, and nothing was ever, ever out of place.
She could have moved out years ago, of course, as her mum had done, and left him to his own devices. It wasn't that she couldn't afford to live on her own; she made a reasonable living with her trading, enough for a little studio or maisonette, maybe not in Notting Hill itself, but at least on the fringe.
But then who would get her dad his tea, or look after him when he'd had a night on the tiles? Or make certain the rent and the rates got paid? As much as she liked Marc Mitchell, she'd no desire to see her dad frequenting Marc's soup kitchen, and she had no doubt that was where he'd end up.
Of course, if she ever got into a serious relationship, she'd have to come up with another solution, and it had occurred to her that her refusal to give up on Alex gave her an easy out. Unrequited affection required no action, nor any tough decisions. Had she loved him as much when she thought he loved her?
Shying away from the question, she got out her laptop and began entering the day's transactions. She liked keeping track of her merchandise, and of what sold and what didn't. 'Prissy accountancy,' her dad called it. She argued that it was merely practical, but the truth was that it made her feel secure.
Tonight, however, nothing kept her mind off Alex. She was worried about his safety and frustrated by the fact that she could do nothing to remedy the situation- nor could she talk to him about it, as she had discovered that morning in the arcade.
They'd always been comfortable together; even after Dawn came on the scene, they had still managed to get through Saturday trading with a certain amount of shoptalk and banter. But today had been awful, a long, awkward day of aborted conversations and unaccustomed silences, after which Alex had locked up on the stroke of five and hurried out as if he couldn't bear another moment of her company.
Then, an hour later, he had rung her at home, hesitantly asking if she'd come round to his flat.
Baffled by his behavior, but determined not to jump at his beck and call, she'd made a date for nine o'clock. But as the time passed she grew increasingly uneasy, and as she walked up the hill to his mews, she had to make herself slow her pace. When she arrived to find him looking just as usual, she felt a ridiculous surge of relief.
'Coffee?' he asked cheerfully. 'No alcohol for me, I'm afraid, but if you'd rather I can give you a glass of wine.'
'No, coffee's fine.' She wasn't sure she wanted to know why he wasn't drinking, and he didn't volunteer any explanation. She stood silently as he made the coffee in his drip pot, then watched in shock as he put one of his treasured Clarice Cliff coffeepots and two matching cups on a tray. This was not stuff you
'Alex, what are you thinking of? You can't seriously mean to drink out of those?'
'And why not? I distinctly remember you serving punch out of a Georgian bowl at your friend Alicia's wedding.'
'Yeah, but that's different. You can't really hurt silver. But this stuff…'
'So what do you suggest I save it for? Isn't this special occasion enough?'
'Oh, please. I seem to recall us having coffee out of polystyrene cups this morning. Since when is having a cup of coffee with me an occasion?'
'Now.'
Staring at him, she said, 'Okay, cut the bullshit, Alex. What's this really about?'
'It's not bullshit. I mean, you don't know, do you? When something might- Anyway, there is something I wanted to say, and it's… awkward. I never thanked you for what you did last Saturday. I don't know what I'd have
