“Not really. Although she did say that it was probably better Penelope wasn’t along. With all the food they serve here, Penelope would have been eating day and night and ended up with a perpetual case of heartburn. Veronica said there’s nothing more frustrating than traveling with someone who’s always sick and complaining.” Regan twirled the cord in her fingers, suddenly uneasy. “Why do you ask?”

“To get right to the point, do you think Veronica might have tried to eliminate Miss Atwater?” Livingston asked.

“Absolutely not.”

“Then let’s put it a different way,” Livingston continued. “From all accounts, Miss Atwater had become something of a nuisance to Lady Exner. Do you think that she might have wanted to make it impossible for Miss Atwater to travel?”

Regan thought to herself, I suppose it’s possible, but replied, “I don’t believe that.”

“I notice some hesitation in your voice, Miss Reilly.”

“It’s not meant to be there. I didn’t even tell her about the arsenic found in Penelope’s system because I didn’t want to worry her. As far as Veronica knows, Penelope is suffering from a case of food poisoning, nothing more.”

“I was over at Llewellyn Hall yesterday and Philip Whitcomb and his fiancee mentioned that Lady Exner had joked about sprinkling a bit of the arsenic on those hors d’oeuvres.”

“Philip mentioned that?” Regan sounded incredulous.

“Well, Miss Twyler brought it up first. Which brings me to another matter. I saw your classmate Claire James yesterday, and again she talked about Athena taking a fancy to Philip. She says Athena had bicycled past Llewellyn Hall to see him. Do you think Philip could have been even a little keen on Athena?”

Regan furrowed her brows. “I really don’t think so, but I just can’t be sure. Athena and I never really did anything together. Claire has a talent for ferreting out that kind of information. She was always in the middle of whatever gossip was going on in the dorm, who was dating whom, whose boyfriend from the States was coming to visit ...”

“That’s rather the impression I get.” Livingston glanced down at his notes. “One final thing. In Miss Popolous’s jacket pocket we found a matchbook from the Bull and Bear with initials and a few numbers on it. We’re trying to track that down and see if we come up with anything useful. Do the initials ‘B.A.’ mean anything to you?”

B.A., Regan thought. B.A. “I don’t think so.”

“How about the numbers three-one-five?”

“No . . .”

“Well, in the meantime I’ve just received the first set of faxes from Greece. Athena’s small home town newspaper in Skoulis is published every Wednesday, which is today, so we should have the translated version of that by tomorrow. Hopefully you’ll have the first lot sometime this morning.”