“Yeah. Wild time. Really wild.”

She couldn’t be positive, but she thought she caught the scent of pot, mixing with the Thai food. She couldn’t help it. She had to ask, “You enjoy going to events like that? A masquerade ball?”

He laughed, “No.” He motioned to his girlfriend. “That was for the little lady. She actually won it on a radio call-in show, didn’t you, Blossom?”

She nodded.

He beamed at her, “She’s good at trivia. She actually answered a question about Hamilton. She loves that musical. She’s nuts about it.”

Diana smiled, feigning interest, “That’s great. You won the whole trip?”

“Yeah. Whole thing. All expenses paid.”

Interesting. Now, swinging it on back to the topic at hand . . . She couldn’t find a good segue, and by now, she was tired and hungry, so she simply blurted, “I lost a necklace. And I wanted to know about how you lost your Rolex. That was yours, right?”

“Yeah, dude. Don’t remind me. It was a gift from my parents, when I graduated high school. They thought if I had a watch . . . I’d … I don’t know . . . be responsible suddenly or something. Trade in my surfboard for a real job or something. Anyway,” he laughed. “Didn’t happen. The ‘rents are gonna be buggin’ when they find out I lost it.”

“Lost it? Or had it stolen?”

A wide smile spread over his face, and he shrugged sheepishly, “All right. You got me. I don’t know. Wasn’t exactly coherent most of the night. Met a bunch of people, and we kind of went a little crazy.” He looked over at the girl, “Right, Blossom?”

The girl gave an uninterested shrug and pulled a long string of gum out of her mouth.

“Anyway, that’s why I didn’t bother filing a report with the police. I think it’s long gone. I spent most of the night puking in a fountain. It’s probably in there, a home for fish or something. I told security at the ball, and they said they’d keep an eye out for it. But that’s it. I don’t think I’m getting it back. Man, my dad’s gonna murder me.”

Suddenly, Diana flashed back to that group of drunken young people who’d rushed out of the doors of the balcony, arms linked, knocking her to the ground. She vaguely remembered the blonde girl, hair done up in ringlets, and a tall guy, in the center of the fray. “I think I remember you,” she said. “You were out on the balcony where that man was later found dead, right?”

His face fell. “We missed all the commotion about that. We were in the garden by then.”

She replayed his words in her head, and another thing hit Diana. “Wait . . . you spoke to security. You didn’t file a report with the police?”

He shook his head and started to speak, when something came over him. “That’s a good point, dude. If I didn’t tell anyone but security, how’d you know about it?”