Alice looked up from him. ‘I told you I would write him into the plot for tomorrow night, didn’t I? I thought he would make a good sniffer dog. What do you think?’
‘Yes, he’s good at sniffing stuff out.’ I could have added that he was best at sniffing food and other dogs’ backsides, but I left it at that for now.
The famous actor continued to stroke my happy Labrador as she gave me my instructions. ‘The actors for the murder mystery are coming this evening at six. I trust you’ll be able to make it.’
‘Of course. If it’s all right with you, I’ll give Oscar a little walk around the island first and then I need to pop back into townquickly to see somebody on behalf of a friend of mine in Florence.’
She looked up. ‘You’re not thinking of bringing them here, are you? I’d rather not have any more people wandering around, trampling my plants. This weekend’s going to be bad enough.’
‘Don’t worry, I’m just picking up a parcel for a friend. I won’t be away for long and I certainly won’t mention that you’re here.’
I toyed with the idea of asking her what she was writing but then decided that this, just like her efforts to reverse the ageing process, was none of my business, so I returned to the matter in hand.
‘When are the guests arriving?’
‘Mary has the details, but I believe most are arriving tomorrow in the course of the morning, in time for lunch. She’ll show you to your room now, if you like.’ She finally relinquished Oscar, stood up and gave me some unexpected and unwelcome news. ‘If it isn’t there already, you’ll be getting your costume later today.’
‘You want me to dress up?’ I hadn’t been expecting this and I had a sinking feeling as the thought struck home. Her answer did nothing to reassure me.
‘We’re all going to dress up.’ She caught my eye. ‘Don’t worry, Valentina tells me she’s confident your costume will fit – she made it after seeing you last week. I’d like you to wear it this evening when the actors come. We’re going to have a full dress rehearsal.’
The sinking feeling had just about reached my feet by now. ‘Dressed up as what?’
‘What do you think? Here in Venice, it has to beCarnevalecharacters. Renaissance clothes, masks, lots of silk, lace and tassels.’
For Venetians, the February carnival is the high spot of theyear, with glittering events, parties, carnival processions on land and water, and the famous masked balls where people travel from all over the world to don masks and join in the celebrations.
I stifled a sigh. With a fiancée who lived and breathed the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, I had already found myself being squeezed – and I do mean squeezed – into tights and pantaloons on several occasions in the past and I was under no illusions as to how ridiculous I looked. Still, it sounded as though I didn’t have any choice, so I took a deep breath and accepted my fate with as much grace as I could muster.
‘That sounds great. Thank you.’
7
FRIDAY AFTERNOON
I found Mary sitting on the terrace and I followed Oscar – once I’d been able to persuade him to abandon Alice Graceland – as he trotted across to renew his acquaintance with Mary. She looked up as she saw me approach. ‘Did you get the guest list?’
‘Yes, thanks, and I recognise the names of some of them, but not all. For instance, who’s Maggie McBride?’
‘She’s the widow of Caspar McBride, the oil billionaire. Since he died years ago, she’s been involved in the production – by which I mean the financing – of numerous big-budget movies.’ She shot me a grin. ‘According to Miss Graceland, very few movies get made these days without Maggie McBride’s approval or participation. When it comes to movie producers, you don’t get much bigger than that.’
‘Unless you’re Desmond Norman.’
‘Quite. These two are arguably the most important producers in Hollywood today.’
‘Alice Graceland definitely knows the right people.’ Mary nodded in agreement and I glanced down at the list again. ‘Thereare a few other names I didn’t recognise. Who are Jack Sloane and Greg Gupta?’
‘Jack Sloane occupies legendary status in Hollywood, but he isn’t that well known outside that world. He’s a talent scout and, in the course of his career, he’s been casting director for some of the biggest film companies and responsible for discovering some of the biggest stars in the movie world today. When I was writing my thesis, I made a special study of him and one of the things I discovered is that there’s a saying in Hollywood that his cell phone number is one of the most closely guarded secrets in the universe – far more secret than the recipe for Coca-Cola or the existence of aliens among us. If Jack picks you, you go far, so the queue of hopefuls outside his door goes around the block two or three times.’
‘And Greg Gupta?’
‘He’s one of the most popular scriptwriters of the moment and very successful. He and Carlos Rodriguez, the director, are a couple.’
‘I see.’ I glanced down the list of names again. ‘And what about Alastair Groves and his wife? Their names aren’t familiar to me.’
‘He’s an interesting choice.’ Mary took a surreptitious glance around, but we were alone. ‘He’s an agent, a theatrical agent. He represented Miss Graceland for a number of years back at the start of her career, until they parted company a long time ago.’
‘And she has a different agent nowadays?’
