“I won’t be gone long,” Regan said. “With any luck your sense of smell will hold out until I get back.”

“I’ll do my best,” Janey said. Then her face brightened. “I just thought of a line I’ve always loved.”

“What’s that?” Regan asked.

“A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet.”

“Beautiful,” Regan muttered. And then she thought of the name of the perfume she was particularly taken by. Lethal Injection. I can’t wait to see the bottle that stuff comes in, she thought.

60

At the 13th Precinct, Detective Ronald Brier greeted Regan like an old friend. She had called ahead to see if he’d be there. The New York World was on his desk.

“I understand you had quite a night.”

“Oh yes.” Regan nodded and pointed to the newspaper. “Wait till that reporter finds out about the little visit to Nat’s apartment last night.”

“She already has.”

“Already?”

“She came by this morning and was digging around for recent incidents in Gramercy Park. Boy, was she shocked when she read in the reports about what happened to you.”

“Oh, great,” Regan said.

“I know. But I’ve got some good news. They’re doing a rush job on the fingerprints that we lifted from Ben Carney’s and Nat Pemrod’s apartments last night.”

“What about the red box the diamonds were in?”

He shook his head. “They’re working on it. But it looks like all the prints are smudged.”

Regan pulled several lists out of her purse. “Here are the names of the people who were guests at the singles party, the student butlers, and everyone who lives and works at the club, including Lydia Sevatura, the woman who owns the dating service. There was some question about her after she received this windfall from her neighbor in Hoboken. I was hoping you could check it out.”

Brier took the list from her. “You don’t have a social security number or date of birth for her either, so it will take time. But she did rent the Settlers’ Club apartment, so we’ll be able to find out something.”

“There’s even more of a reason to check those names out other than the break-ins,” Regan explained. “I’m really beginning to believe that Nat Pemrod was murdered.”

Brier looked at her.

“I know that no one thought so the other night. But a lot of things are suspicious. First the diamonds owned by Nat and Ben were missing. Then the break-ins at both Nat’s and Ben’s apartments. Now the maid tells me that not only did Nat never take a bath, but special appliquéd towels that he never used, because they belonged to his dead wife and he didn’t want to ruin them, are also missing.”

“Towels are missing?” Brier asked.