Margaux said a few words that would have made Miss Marple swoon, and then she said, “She surprised me by sitting down at my table.I wanted her to go away.She refused.That’s all.”
“Why did she sit down at your table?”
“Because she wanted to talk to me.”Margaux smiled, the expression hard.“Just like everybody else at this conference, Vivienne wanted an agent.”
“I thought youwereher agent.So, what?You ended your professional association after Vivienne was arrested?”
“Are you kidding me?Yes, I ended it.Do you have any idea what happened to the rest of us?”She drew a deep breath and leaned forward in her chair.“I’m being sued.Me.And that’s not to mention the agency and several of the publishers.By men and women Vivienne put in prison, all of them claiming that she lied, that they’re wrongly imprisoned, that their civil rights have been violated.”
“That sounds—”
“It doesn’t matter that, contractually, I’m indemnified against that kind of thing.It doesn’t matter that it’s not my fault Vivienne was a lying psychopath.Ididn’t write the books.”
“If you’re indemnified,” Bobby asked, “shouldn’t the courts dismiss the lawsuits?”
“Yes.And they will.Eventually.Until then, it’s costing me a friggin’ fortune.And that’s not to mention the writers who dropped me.Up and disappeared.They wouldn’t answer calls.They wouldn’t return emails.Do you know what one of them did?They ended things by sending me a letter via certified mail.A Dear John letter.”She sat back—her posture still perfect, but now somehow fatigued.Shaking her head, she said, “The last two years.”
“That’s why you’re here,” Bobby said.“To find new writers.”
“It’s insane,” Margaux said.“It’s like I’ve been blackballed.Do you know what it’s like, being an agent?The emails never stop.It’s this constant deluge of queries, synopses, pitch packages.There isnevera shortage of writers who want an agent.A lot of them want an agent just to say they have an agent, and you wouldn’t believe what a waste of time that is.Want to guess what it’s been like the last two years?”
“Crickets,” I said.
With a grim shake of her head, Margaux looked away, and her shell cracked.It only lasted a moment, but the hurt and frustration there seemed real and deep.Then her face smoothed out again, and she turned back to us.“So, events like these are helpful.I talk to writersbeforethey have a chance to google me.I sign a few.And I’ve always had an eye for talent.”
“Do you find anyone good?”Bobby asked.
“Here and there,” Margaux said dryly.“I’ve already gotten one this weekend—that’s enough, if he pans out, to make it worth it.”
“So, when Vivienne said she wanted representation again—” I began.
“I told her to shove off.”
(Er, that’skind ofwhat she said.)
“Why would she come back to you?”Bobby asked.“Why not find a new agent?There’s got to be someone else—someone less experienced, someone desperate, someone who would see her as a real opportunity?”
“I don’t know,” Margaux said stiffly.“Vivienne said we had worked well together.”
“Did you?”I asked.
A bitter laugh escaped her.“If you call ignoring my feedback, going behind my back with editors, and in general ignoring me ‘working well together,’ then yes, I suppose we did.”
“Do you have any idea why Vivienne might have gone to the grotto?”I said.
Margaux pursed her lips.“Do you know, that’s the strangest thing?I’ve been wondering that all day.Vivienne was so smart.She fooled all of us for a long time, but it was more than that.She spent years—decades—solving murders, facing down killers, and keeping herself alive while she did it.And she didn’t do that by being stupid.”
“So, why go out to a dark, distant spot on campus with no cameras?”I asked.
Margaux was quiet again.Around us, the buzz of dozens of different conversations made the air crawl, but we’d fallen into a pocket of silence, and everything else was far away.
“I think,” Margaux finally said, “that Vivienne either trusted the wrong person, or she was too clever for her own good.Maybe both.”
“Any idea who?”
Margaux opened her mouth.And then she stopped and offered a tight-lipped smile and shook her head.
“Where did you go after you argued with Vivienne?”I asked.
