I sauntered down the hall and hugged the wall until I was out of sight of the rotunda. Then I slipped across to the hallway leading to the library. Well, I had proved one thing—I had managed this without being seen. As I tiptoed carefully over the pieces of armor toward the library I heard something. It sounded almost like an animal either breathing heavily or snarling and my thoughts went instantly to the wild beasts that roamed the grounds. The door was half open and I peered in. Mrs. Goldman was standing with her face in her hands, sobbing her heart out.

Chapter 21

Feeling embarrassed and guilty I backed away, only just avoiding stepping into an armored leg that blocked my path. Was the awful remorse I had just seen because she loved her husband or because she had killed him in a moment of temper and now bitterly regretted it? I found the cavernous bathroom, decorated, as Algie had reported, with banners. When I returned there was still no sign of Darcy and the other men.

“Is my poor Helen still in the library?” Barbara asked.

I nodded. “I could hear her crying.”

“Poor thing. She’s devastated,” Barbara said.

“Devastated?” Mummy looked surprised and amused. “I thought they loathed each other.”

“Oh, no. They were devoted.”

“They had a funny way of showing it,” Mummy said.

“I suppose they did. They fought like cats and dogs since day one, I gather, but they always made up and she adored him in her own way.”

“She lived in New York and he in Los Angeles? That didn’t sound like too much adoration to me,” Mummy said, leaning forward to stub out a cigarette in the crystal ashtray on the table.

“He was taken in by her family the day he stepped off the boat as an immigrant from Europe,” Barbara said. “I think he was very handsome when he was young and he’s always had a presence. He went to work for her father’s boot factory but he was ambitious right from the start. He persuaded Mr. Edison to give him a job in his movie company in New Jersey, and when he thought he’d learned enough, he headed out to Hollywood and started making his own movies. But Helen never liked the West Coast. She wanted to be in New York, near her family, and far away from his long string of mistresses—” She paused, looked up and stared at Stella. But Stella was staring out of the window and apparently quite unaware of her so the gesture was wasted.

“Did they ever have any children?” I asked.