Honor had closed her eyes when Vivian mentioned her father, as if she was in pain. “Thank you,” she said, nodding as she slowly opened them. “I’m glad to know that about him.”
Vivian nodded, left with nothing else to say, or maybe too much to say to begin. She turned away without speaking again.
She’d wanted to lose herself on the dance floor for as long as possible. But Honor had broken that spell, and now it was time to find Bea.
Her friend was in the dressing room, shoes kicked off while she lay down on one of the room’s small sofas, her long legs bent at the knees and the hem of her dress bunching around her thighs. Her eyes were closed, but they opened with a snap as Vivian entered. When she saw who it was, she scrambled into a seated position.
“Viv!” She started to say something else, then yawned. “How are you? I tried to come by today, but you weren’t there. Did you… You don’t look like you’re jumping for joy over there. Did you not go to the lodge ball after all?”
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, that already feels so long ago.” Vivian dropped onto the sofa next to Bea, letting her head fall back as she closed her eyes. “We went. Thanks for the dress, by the way. It didn’t…” She winced. “It didn’t make it back with me. So I owe you for that, too.”
“It didn’t—” Bea was staring at her when she opened her eyes. “What does that mean? Viv, what happened?”
Her eyes grew wide as Vivian talked, quickly and quietly, knowing they could be interrupted at any moment. Her summons from Mrs. Wilson, the ball, the gambling, her panicked run through the lodge. She didn’t stop there, barreling on through confronting the commissioner, her growing dread as she realized that neither the wife nor stepson could have been the one to stab Buchanan.
“Leo’s going to show up at some point tonight, and he’s going to be mad as all hell when he finds out I went to talk to his uncle,” Vivian added, dropping her head back again.
“Who cares?” Bea said fiercely. “You’ve got more important things to worry about.”
“I know, but—” Vivian opened her eyes. Bea was one of the only people she would let see her afraid. “It ended up being useless anyway. And I don’t want things to end with him angry at me over something useless.”
“Who says anything is going to end?” Bea demanded.
Vivian’s stomach clenched. She knew her friend meant well. But she needed people to stop pretending that everything was fine, to stop telling her she was wrong to be scared.
Vivian took a breath. “Bea, I’ve only got one more day. Assuming the commissioner doesn’t change his mind and haul me in early. Things could be ending pretty damn soon.”
“And you’re going to use that day,” Bea said, giving her a small shove. “You don’t know that it was useless. That Levinsky fella said he was going to look for whoever it was that showed up to talk to Buchanan, yeah? Maybe he’ll convince someone to start talking—”
“Bea.” Vivian shook her head, laughing a little. “It’s a hell of a day when you’re telling me a cop is going to solve my problems.”
“Well, maybe this’ll be the time it happens!” Bea said as she stood. Stretching out her shoulders, she headed to her dressing table. “Come on,” she added, meeting Vivian’s eyes in the mirror as she bent forward to examine her makeup. “You can’t give up, Viv.”
“I never said I was giving up,” Vivian said, sitting forward. She’d realized earlier, over her silent lunch with that cop Edison, that she’d missed something important. “That’s why I’m here. I need to ask you something.”
“Shoot,” Bea said, reaching for her lipstick.
“The commissioner said that no one on the staff will admit that someone came by that morning, right?” Vivian said, her words coming quickly. “But I know at least one person saw him. Iknowone of the maids came to tell Buchanan that someone was waiting for him because I saw her. If I can talk to her…”
She didn’t need to finish. Bea spun around, her lipstick clattering to the table unnoticed. “God, that’s so simple. Of course you should talk to her. Did you get her name?”
“No,” Vivian said, grimacing. “I know it wasn’t Lena because she showed me in first. The one who came to get him was older. She wasprobably in her fifties, maybe coming up on sixty. And most folks don’t stick out that kind of work that long, right?”
“Viv—”
“So I’m betting she was the only one that age in that house, other than maybe the housekeeper. I mean, it’s hard to say how old she was for sure, because work like that’ll wear you out fast. But if we can—”
“Viv.”
Vivian broke off. Bea was staring at her. “What is it?”
“There’s no one that age working in that house.”
For a moment, Vivian’s mind went blank. “That doesn’t make any sense,” she said, shaking her head. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sure. Half the people barely look old enough to be out of school. There’s no one north of forty except the housekeeper.”
For a moment, nothing felt real, as though Vivian was floating when she expected to be standing on solid ground. “But Isawher.”
