“Well, the answer to your question is a tiny percentage, perhaps half a dozen occasions, starting in college. I’m very particular about whom I sleep with, regardless of gender, and generally speaking, I’ve found a great many more qualified males than females. Does my occasional attraction to women disturb you?”

“No, I can perfectly understand how someone could be attracted to women.”

She laughed. “But not to men?”

“That’s much more difficult to understand.”

“I’ll grant you that,” she replied, then returned her attention to arousing him.

19

The following morning Stone rang Hampshire police headquarters and asked for Deputy Chief Inspector Holmes. He was first informed that the gentleman was now chief inspector, then connected. He invited Holmes to lunch that day, and his invitation was accepted.

Stone recalled that Holmes appreciated old sherry, and he found a very good example of a dry Oloroso in Windward’s cellar and asked the cook to order Dover sole. When Holmes arrived he was plied first with the sherry, then with the sole and a bread pudding.

Having sufficiently relaxed his guest, Stone got to the point. “Chief Inspector, I have a problem to which I hope you can suggest a solution.”

“I would be pleased to offer my advice, Mr. Barrington. What seems to be the problem?”

“I have a houseguest at the moment, a Ms. Gala Wilde, who is a Hollywood screenwriter and a person of some substance. She has, since her divorce a year ago, been troubled by the unwanted attentions of her former husband, a man of Russian birth named Boris Tirov.”

“The film producer?”

Stone was surprised that Holmes had heard of him. “Yes.”

“I thought the most recent in his series of thrillers was disappointing.”

“Perhaps you are right,” Stone said, “and that could, in fact, be a contributing factor in his attentions to his former wife—an ego thing, perhaps.” This didn’t make any sense to Stone, but Holmes apparently thought it did.

“Ah, yes,” he said. “And what form are his attentions taking?”

“He has pursued her relentlessly, even though they live in different cities—he in Los Angeles, she in Santa Fe, New Mexico—and he has even followed her to England, on the pretense of doing business here.”

“I am aware that Mr. Tirov sometimes films at Pinewood Studios,” Holmes said.

“He has followed her to this house by boat,” Stone said, “and has even intruded upon the dock of Dame Felicity Devonshire, where he was repelled by her armed security people. Dame Felicity was alarmed to hear that he has connections to the Russian mob.”

“Ah, yes, I had heard that. I am astonished to hear that he would intrude upon your privacy here, and especially upon that of Dame Felicity. Do you think he understands who she is?”

“I’ve no way of knowing that,” Stone admitted, “but I was surprised to hear that he had to be repelled by her guards.”