He stepped forward and held out his hand. ‘My name is Rocco.’ He had a strong Italian accent. ‘All my life, I’ve wanted to meet you, Signora Graceland. I’ve seen every film you’ve ever been in and I think you’re wonderful.’ He sounded as though he meant it, and for a moment, I saw Maggie’s lips tighten. Presumably, toyboy compliments were to be reserved for the partner of the hour.
Alice gave him a big smile, shook his hand and then glanced back at Maggie. ‘Now tell me straight, Maggie: did you train him to say that?’
Maggie McBride shook her head. ‘No, he did it all by himself.’ She could have been talking about a prize poodle that had just learned to stand on its hind legs. ‘He has a thing about beautiful women.’
I distinctly saw Dirk Foster roll his eyes, before he politely excused himself and headed off in the direction of the two elderly men. I decided to follow his example, shot both women a smile, and turned away, just in time to almost bump into a couple who had emerged from a nearby room. I recognised them as Carlos Rodriguez, the famous director, and Greg Gupta, scriptwriter par excellence. I held up an apologetic hand.
‘Sorry to bump into you, gentlemen. I’m Dan.’
Rodriguez produced a conspiratorial grin. ‘No problem. Greg and I saw you making a break for freedom. Maggie can have that effect on the unwary.’ His accent was pure California.
Gupta grinned as well. ‘They don’t call her the man-eater for nothing.’ He held out his hand toward me. ‘Hi, I’m Greg, and this is Carlos.’
We all shook hands as Oscar finally managed to tear himself away from Alice and wandered over to say hello while I explained what I was doing here. To my surprise, Gupta already knew more about me than I had expected.
‘Selena was talking about you just the other day.’ He turned to Rodriguez. ‘This guy’s a dynamite private eye, and Selena told me he saved her life. Would you believe that?’
I was then forced to give them a brief summary of how I had met Selena Gardner, but I had to admit that I hadn’t actually stepped into the line of fire to save her life. ‘Yes, I helped the Florence police to catch the killer, but there’s only one hero around here and that’s Oscar.’ I pointed down and he wagged his tail proudly. This wasn’t news to him.
We stood and chatted, mainly about murder mystery parties – they had a lot more experience of them than I did – before I nudged the conversation on to the other guests. ‘Do you guys know Dirk Foster well? I may be wrong, but I got the feeling he maybe doesn’t really want to be here.’
The two men eyed each other before Gupta replied. ‘To be honest, we were surprised to see him here as well.’ He lowered his voice and leant towards me. ‘Maybe you don’t know that he and Alice had a thing together back in the mists of time, or do you?’
This was certainly news to me, so I shook my head and he elaborated. ‘We’re talking twenty years ago or more. It was one of those whirlwind Hollywood romances back in the days before everything was all over social media, and the studio did a pretty good job of hushing it up. Alice and Dirk were playing opposite each other in a romcom calledSantiago or Bust.’ He andRodriguez exchanged glances again before both adopted the same facial expression of distaste. ‘Let’s be charitable and just say it wasn’t the best movie ever made.’
Rodriguez caught my eye and winked. ‘On a scale of one to ten, we’re talking about minus five.’
I found it fascinating that Alice had chosen to invite her former boyfriend. Was this with a view to rekindling that romance? If so, the fact that he wasn’t looking too happy to be here made me think that maybe he didn’t feel the same way. I was just going to ask for more detail when Gupta obligingly provided it.
‘Nobody knows for sure, but they say the romance only lasted a matter of months, maybe even just weeks. What’s sure is that when it broke down, it came complete with more insults and recrimination – on both sides – than the average catfight. Alice disappeared off the scene for a full year afterwards. There were voices saying that she’d gone to a spiritual retreat in India, and others swearing blind they’d seen her working in a leper colony in Africa. Wherever it was that she went, when she finally reappeared, she refused to talk to Dirk or even acknowledge his existence, and they’ve never worked together since. The word on the street is that Desmond Norman’s studios have offered them an astronomical sum if they agree to star in a movie together but, so far, no joy. They’ve still been keeping their distance. That’s why we were so surprised to see him here.’ He suddenly switched topic to the beauties of Venice and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Alice approaching.
‘Hi, guys, I’m so glad you could come.’ She gave them a smile that looked pretty sincere, but I wasn’t totally convinced. Did she have a problem with these men as well? Gupta answered for both of them while Rodriguez looked decidedly uncomfortable.
‘Hi, Alice, long time no see. We were just saying a few months ago how it was time we came back to Venice and did the city properly. We were here two years ago for the film festival, but neither of us got much time off. We’re booked into the Danieli from Monday for the rest of next week and we plan on seeing everything that needs seeing.’
‘What do you think of my new best friend?’ For a moment, I thought Alice might be referring to me but then saw the direction in which her hand was pointing. ‘Isn’t he gorgeous? I keep meaning to get myself another dog since Mimi died and I’ve been putting it off for too long.’ She reached down and stroked Oscar’s head affectionately before glancing up at me. ‘I don’t suppose you’d feel like leaving him with me, would you, Dan?’
I shook my head. ‘Sorry, Alice, but where I go, he goes. We’re joined at the hip.’
Another couple emerged from their room and as they came along the terrace towards us, I sensed an increase in tension in our hostess. The two newcomers were a distinguished-looking grey-haired gentleman, who looked to be in his seventies. He was leaning heavily on a walking stick, and at his side was a woman probably around the same age, with unnaturally blonde hair, and she looked far less frail than her husband. This had to be Alastair Groves, Alice’s former agent, and his wife, Sandra, although the photo I had seen of him online had shown him as far more fit and mobile. I wondered what had happened. Clearly, Alice already knew.
‘Alastair, how’re you feeling? Was the flight terribly uncomfortable?’ She threw a couple of air kisses at him before doing the same to his wife. In spite of her expression of concern for his health and the kisses – none of which came anywhere near hitting the mark – I got the distinct feeling that her greetingtowards both was forced, and Mrs Groves, in particular, looked far from thrilled to be here. Once again, I couldn’t help wondering why on earth Alice had thought of inviting people to her party that she didn’t like – and why they had accepted her invitation. Something didn’t add up.
Groves sounded weary when he answered. ‘Alice, hi. Today was a short flight up from Rome, so it was okay. The worst was when we came over from the States earlier in the week, and I had to do the whole flight lying flat.’ I wondered what had happened to him. Maybe a hip transplant or something like that?
Alice still had her welcoming smile on her face – but even though she was a very good actress, I sensed that it was wearing thin. Nevertheless, she still managed to sound solicitous when she replied.
‘I’m so sorry to hear that. Hopefully, you’ll be comfortable here. At least there aren’t any cars here on the island. Did the cops manage to catch the driver who did this to you?’ As he shook his head, she glanced at me and explained. ‘Alastair was involved in a hit and run. He’s lucky to be alive.’
That answered that. During my online research, I hadn’t seen any mention of this, but I had discovered that Alastair Groves was one of the top three agents in Hollywood, with a string of A-listers on his books, and I found myself wondering why Alice had severed relations with him. I’d been able to find very little information about his wife, except for the fact that they had apparently met at university and had now been married for over fifty years – a rarity in Hollywood.
Alice stepped back after greeting them, and there was an awkward silence for a few moments before, by tacit agreement, the new arrivals turned and went off. Alice waited until they were out of earshot before murmuring in my ear. ‘The car accidentcouldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.’ And then she wafted off to talk to some of the others.
I looked down at Oscar, who was watching her leave with a wistful expression on his face, the end of his tail wagging slowly, and it occurred to me that he was probably one of the few guests genuinely happy to be here.
Not the ideal ingredients for a cosy house party.
12
