She wiped her cheek “Good night to all.” A brief smile and then she left. After Kate poured coffee, she disappeared as well. The ensuing silence was awkward. Rina asked how it went with Lance Terry. Decker gave her a synopsis of the conversation with the two young men.

Rina said, “Interesting that Livingston just happened to be there.”

“It looked suspicious at first,” Decker said. “But I believed Terry when he said he called Livingston down.” A pause. “I still think he’s holding back.”

“Totally,” Oliver said. “I’m wondering why he really left the school. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d have a breakdown even if his ex-girlfriend was murdered. Furthermore, it was his final year of college.”

McAdams said, “Maybe someone threatened him?”

“Yeah,” Oliver concurred, “I think someone spooked him good.”

Decker said, “We know that Terry didn’t kill her. His alibi checked out. So did Sobel’s. But were they involved in the murder?”

“Don’t see it,” Oliver said.

“Why not?” McAdams said.

“Just a gut feeling based on experience. Do you disagree?”

“Not necessarily. I’m just trying to figure out your conclusions logically.”

“That’s a mistake,” Oliver said.

Decker said, “I believe Sobel when he says he hadn’t seen Angeline for a long time. For now he’s out of the picture. Terry’s another story. I think something scared him enough to drop out of school and come running to the safety of home.”

“At least they didn’t shoot him,” McAdams said.

“True. If someone had, he would have phoned the police.” Decker sipped coffee. “We have a recent link of Lance to Angeline. The Petroshkovich book. But did he know that she was razoring out the prints?”

“He seemed genuinely surprised,” Oliver said. “But the point is, even if Terry didn’t know what she was up to, maybe someone saw them go into the library together. Maybe that someone thought they were up to mischief.”

“So you think the murders had to do with the Petroshkovich book?” Rina said.

“No,” Decker said. “The murders had to do with something very big and I don’t see the Petroshkovich book as being that big. But it does point the finger at another forgery that Angeline was involved in.”

Oliver said, “How did she reproduce the pictures if she never checked out the book? She would have had to have seen the originals, right?”

“Of course,” Decker said. “The book was coowned by Pretoria College in Marylebone. If we checked out the reference library there, do you think we’d find John Latham’s name on a sign-up sheet?”

Oliver said, “He took the plates, gave them to her, and she put the phony ones back when Terry checked the book out for her.”

“I’ll call Pretoria in the morning,” McAdams said.