Lindsay snorted with a mockery of laughter. “Oh, yeah? When your company’s so strapped for cash you’ve had to take out a second mortgage on your home?”

Polson tilted her head on one side. “You really have done your homework, haven’t you? And two weeks ago, you’re right, the thought of losing the Darkliners TV deal would have rendered me near suicidal, if not homicidal. And then a deal we thought was dead rose from the grave. A Hollywood producer called to say they’d finally got the green light for a film adaptation of someone else’s work. And that means even more in financial terms to this agency than the Varnavides deal.”

Lindsay’s stomach seemed to hollow as the agent’s words sank in. “You expect me to believe that?” she tried, knowing it was a last-gasp bluff.

“I’ve got a file of signed contracts and faxes that demonstrate the truth of what I’m saying,” she said, not unsympathetically. “I’m not prepared to show you, since I have no conviction that you would treat it confidentially. But I’m perfectly prepared to show it to the police, should you be inclined to make yourself look foolish by involving them.”

Lindsay took a deep breath and stood up. “I seem to have wasted your time as well as my own,” she said, unable to keep an edge of bitterness out of her voice.

Polson gave her a look of shrewd appraisal. “I wouldn’t beat yourself up too much. I know you blame me for telling the police about Meredith, but I was upset. I don’t know Meredith very well, and it seemed to me she had a motive. I applaud what you’re trying to do and if I can help, I will. I’m sorry I was so unhelpful before.”

If she’d wanted to make Lindsay feel worse, she couldn’t have found a better way to do it. “Mmm,” she mumbled, looking everywhere but at Penny’s picture or her agent. “Okay.”

“There are more motives than money,” Catriona said. “There’s reputation for a start. Maybe Heart of Glass trashed somebody who lives by their name.”

Lindsay found a self-pitying smile from somewhere. “Like an agent, you mean?”

“It’s about an editor.”

Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Back on the street in the suffocating late morning heat, Lindsay walked through the sweating tourist crowds towards Leicester Square, pondering Catriona Polson’s final suggestion. Whatever Meredith felt about Baz, she was going to have to have another confrontation with the editor. But Lindsay needed all the ammunition she could lay her hands on before then, and since Heart of Glass might contain some of the answers, it seemed sensible to wait until she’d spoken to Sophie and discovered whether there were any extant copies that the killer hadn’t taken.