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“All right, here’s my theory. First Lance told you that he’s aware of Collins, right?”
“Right.”
“But then he stated that Collins is unknown to him or the Agency?”
“Right.”
“I deduce that, on one of these two occasions, Lance was lying.”
Stone broke up. “Dino,” he said, “I don’t know how you manage a sex life when she’s making you laugh all the time.”
“If you were having sex with Dino all the time,” Viv said, “you’d laugh, too.”
Stone threw up his hands. “I’m getting out of this one and staying out.” He waved at a waiter for the check.
6
Stone said good nightto the Bacchettis at the rear side door, where Dino’s car awaited, then he continued through the bar, where he was surprised to see John Collins’s widow, Vanessa Morgan, paying her dinner check at the bar.
“Good evening,” he said.
“Oh, good evening. I didn’t see you earlier,” she said. She signed her credit card receipt.
“I was having dinner with some friends in the back dining room,” he replied. “Tell me, have you been a widow long enough for me to invite you to have a drink at my house?”
“Of course,” she said. “Seeing other people’s homes is my business.” They walked out the front door, where Fred gother into the Bentley and Stone followed. “Why is that your business?” Stone asked.
“Because next week a magazine about interior design debuts, and I am its editor. Its name isIndoors and Out.I’ve worked in the fashion business for years, and this is a fashion magazine about décor. All the houses and apartments in the first issue are from homes I’ve visited.”
They arrived at the house, and Stone took her in through the front door. She stood in the living room and looked around. “I can get your house into our second issue.”
“Thank you,” Stone replied, “but I’m not ready to invite the public into my home.” He took her into his study and poured them both a cognac, while she settled into the sofa.
“This is such a perfect room for a bachelor,” she said.
“Widower.” He told her about his marriage to Arrington Calder and her death.
“My condolences,” she said.
“Thank you.”
“It’s odd that our respective spouses died the same way.”
“Sort of,” Stone said. “My wife was killed by a former lover. Was there someone like that in John’s past who might be the culprit?”
“Perhaps,” she said. “Our marriage and his work were such that his time away from me was a blank slate.”
“Have you ever met Lance Cabot?”
“Cabot was the surname that John mentioned as his superior. Could that be Lance?”
“Very possibly. He is the director of the Agency, and he very much resembles the description of the man who visited you and left John’s insurance and pension papers.”
“Would the director of the Agency personally deliver paperwork?”
“He might, to an Agency widow.”
“How odd.”
