“These are actually pretty good, Vee. Very good sense of composition and color. You have a great eye. It’s good to see you making art again.” They leaf through the images.

“I’ve made a dozen so far and I can’t stop myself, can’t stop my hands. It’s a fixation at this point.”

“You should make a website, put these on T-shirts or something. Try to sell them.”

“That’s exactly the idea,” I say quietly and they nod.

“Let me know if you need my help.”

Quinn unlatches the drop leaf table and sets it as Sam serves us the duck with rice and green beans. We haven’t been digging in for long when they ask how our little journalism project is going.

“Vera is on a Tom Newburn manhunt,” Quinn says. “I’d say she’s mad that he’s already dead so she can’t murder him herself.”

Sam raises their eyebrow at me and I spear some duck, moist and pink. “I keep learning these things. I go to two events with Page and everyone is babbling to me.” I tell them what Shirley and Colin said, about my visit to Brandon Newburn. Their eyes shine.

“OMG you are such a Sherlock. You need to find out more about these alleged threesomes! One of the wild things about this story, so far, is that no one can get any info on Tom, his business practices, his life. You could crack that right open! These people obviously don’t mind having you around if they’re tolerating you at events.”

“Except Vera isn’t spending time with Page anymore,” Quinn says, shaking some salt onto his green beans.

“She hasn’t invited me anywhere since we went to the book party together. And neither have any of Odilie’s friends,” I explain to Sam.

They shake their head. “You have to invite yourself. Insert yourself. You’re supposed to be becoming besties with her, remember? And the cherry on top is that the more you spend time with her, the more inside access you may have to Tom. I bet you these friends of his are guilty of something. Like it’s making them itch and they know you don’t want the media attention, so they’ll just babble to you.”

“Easy there,” Quinn says. “This is Vera’s life, not your HBO Adrian Lyne and Wine.”