“Three years and five months,” she replied, unable to keep a note of pride out of her voice. “I was working at his record company, and I heard he needed a secretary. Of course, the job has grown a lot since I took over. Now I organize his schedule completely.”

This time my sympathy was all for Jett. Again, I switched the subject, hoping to catch her off guard. “When I told you about

Gloria refused to meet my eyes. “Everyone knew she’d been a drug addict,” she mumbled. “It was the obvious conclusion. We all knew she’d be back on the drugs again as soon as she got half a chance.”

“And did you help to give her that half a chance?” I demanded, leaning over Gloria to study the assorted nuts, so close I could smell her fresh lemony perfume.

“No!” she cried desperately.

“Somebody did, Gloria,” I insisted.

“Well, it wasn’t me. You’ve got to believe me,” she pleaded. “If she was doing drugs, she was doing it of her own free will. Why else would she steal my syringes?”

Chapter   19

I just stood staring at Gloria, who looked back at me with a mixture of triumph and defiance in her eyes. “What do you mean?” I finally gasped.

“Somebody has been stealing my syringes over the last four weeks or so,” she said.

“What syringes?” I almost howled in my frustration. The snacks section had never seen drama like this.

“I’m a diabetic. I have to inject myself with insulin. I keep a supply of disposable syringes in my room. On three or four occasions, I’ve noticed that there were a couple missing. I have to keep a close eye on them, because I daren’t run out.”

I took a deep breath. “So why did you assume that Moira was responsible?”

She shrugged. The shopping was forgotten now. We’d gravitated to the end of the aisle, and neither of us was showing any inclination to hit the soft drinks.

Gloria dropped her voice and said, “Well, who else would want needles except a drug addict? And in spite of what you might think about the rock business, nobody in the house is a junkie. Jett just wouldn’t stand for it. He’s got very strict views on the subject. I know some of the others sneak away and do some coke, but none of them are stupid enough to get into heroin. Especially after what happened when Moira got hooked.”

“Any other reason why you were sure it was Moira?” I asked.

“Well, for one thing, they’d never gone missing before she moved in. Then one day I came upstairs and caught her with her hand on my doorknob. She said she’d just knocked to see if she

“And did she borrow a book?”

“Yes,” Gloria acknowledged reluctantly. “The new Judith Krantz.”

“Was she in the habit of borrowing books from you?”