‘I used to watch her,’ said Leotta. ‘I knew about her but she didn’t know about me. That was something I used to hug to myself, a sort of cheap triumph.’ She looked a little sick as she gazed inside herself. ‘So I watched her, cool as ice, and tried to figure what David saw in her and what he saw in me. In the early days I used to ask him about her but he wouldn’t talk. He never talked of her, so I stopped asking.’

‘So you still think she doesn’t know about you?’

‘She might, she might not. I don’t care either way.’

‘And what opinions do you have on Salton’s death?’

‘I think it was as they said at the inquest. He had a heart attack.’

‘Did you know he’d had one before?’

She looked at me for a moment, startled, then stubbed out the cigarette. She waved her hand about the apartment. ‘He had it here – in the bedroom. I thought my heart was going to stop too.’

I frowned and thought that must have been awkward for her. ‘What did you do?’

‘I telephoned his doctor, of course. What else could I do?’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘Oh, I see what you mean. Well, it was a bit tricky and we had to skirt round the edges a bit. Before the doctor arrived, David was able to talk so I got some clothes on him and we made up the story that he’d had the attack in the elevator. I stopped it at my floor and got him into this apartment. It was the only thing we could think of.’

‘Ingenious,’ I commented. ‘But what would he be doing here at all?’

‘Going up to the eighth floor, of course. To see Mr Stern, his lawyer.’

It was my turn to be startled. ‘Stern lives here? Does he know about you?’

‘I don’t know,’ she said. ‘Most likely not. David wouldn’t have talked about me.’

I thought about it, then said, ‘And Mrs Salton – what about her?’

‘I took good care not to be around when she got here,’ said Leotta. ‘I stood the other side of the golf course and watched them take David away in the ambulance, and I only came back when everyone had gone. She telephoned me three or four times but I put on an accent and pretended I was the maid and that Miss Tomsson was out. Miss Tomsson was always out when Mrs Salton called. Then she wrote me a letter thanking me for helping David and after that I heard nothing more.’

‘I see.’

‘That was the last time I saw David.’

I stared at her. ‘You mean you haven’t seen him for nearly eight months?’

‘That’s right. He phoned me a few times but I didn’t see him. We both figured it wouldn’t be any good for either of us.’