“Anything is possible,” Mummy said.

I observed her with interest. Darcy must have had good reason to suspect her and yet she was bringing up the very events that might throw suspicion onto her. But I still couldn’t believe she could have killed Cy Goldman. She owed her current and continued stardom to him, and she was his mistress as well. Why upset the applecart? Unless Mr. Goldman had decided, following that row before dinner, to break up with her. Maybe he’d had some kind of threat from his wife—a divorce with lots of alimony? I stared across the room at Stella’s elegant back, now draped in a dark mink stole. I simply couldn’t imagine her as the infamous cat burglar, crawling along ledges, leaping over rooftops, fearless, willing to take any risks. Impossible, I thought.

“Get that down you, old man. You’ll feel better.” Craig accepted the glass of scotch that Charlie handed him. Belinda shook her head and came to sit beside me.

“Mr. Goldman really was murdered?” she whispered.

I nodded. “No doubt about it.”

“Just my luck,” she said. “When I think I’m getting somewhere a door slams in my face. And I don’t think I seem to be going anywhere with Craig either.”

“He said you were having fun in the pool.”

“His sort of fun, maybe.” She made a face, then she wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m freezing,” she said, “and all my clothes are down at your little cottage. I’m not going down there in the dark. But I must look a complete fright.”

I smiled at her. How typical of Belinda that she was worrying about her looks when a murderer was on the loose. “Craig’s jumper actually rather suits you. Very sexy.”

“You think so?” she asked. “It didn’t seem to turn on Craig.”

“So he didn’t try to get fresh with you?”

She leaned close to me and whispered, “Darling, we both stripped off and he has a body like a Greek god and he dived into the pool like Tarzan and I got in too and then guess what?”

“I don’t know. What? Is it fit for my innocent ears?”

“He challenged me to a swimming race. Can you believe it? Me, of all people. You know how I swim. I hate getting my face wet.”

“Did you take on the challenge then?”

“I did point out that we were alone and naked and he said this wasn’t the time or place, out of respect to our host, who was also his boss.”

I tried not to smirk.

“I did mention Mr. Goldman brought his mistress with him, quite openly. But Craig said that they were always very discreet and he expected his stars to be models of decorum.”

“Oh dear,” I said, “how very frustrating for you.”