“What do you mean?”
“The police think I’m your date for the evening.”
“Oh, so what? We can’t control what they think.”
“Listen, let me paint a picture for you,” Paige said impatiently. “I believe Stella Lin was murdered, it was a meticulously planned, merciless act. I think the police will get to the bottom of this, and they will certainly ask for a more detailed statement from you.”
He slowed the car down, almost to a crawl. “Oh,” he said, “what’s wrong with my statement? You and I were at the Royal Pheasant Club, we talked about Stella Lin, decided to drop by to see her, we—”
“Your statement is full of holes,” she interrupted. “First, someone knew you were going to meet Stella at the Royal Pheasant Club. That person sent me an anonymous letter. Moreover, if the police check with the maître d’, they’ll find out I went in alone, showed my press pass, and you came later.”
Suddenly, he veered the car to the curb and turned off the engine. “When did you receive that anonymous letter?”
“This afternoon, with the mail.”
“The letter?”
“I tore it into pieces and threw it in the wastebasket.”
He said, “Stella didn’t come to work today. She called the HR manager to say she wouldn’t be coming to the office. Around 10:30, she called me to ask about our reward policy if we recovered all the jewels from the Garrison robbery.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her that would depend on who we were dealing with. You know the situation; we never reward thieves. If we did that, we’d be fencing stolen goods. But if someone gives us a legitimate tip that leads to the recovery of insured property, we’d certainly pay, and handsomely.”
“Did you tell her that?”
“Yes.”
“What did she say?”
“She told me she had some information about the Garrison case that she thought would interest me. I told her that in such a big case, false leads were already rampant. She said she could provide evidence to prove that the person she was negotiating with was trustworthy.”
“In that case,” Paige said, “the origin of the jewel butterfly might be self-evident.”
“Are you saying I can be sure I’ve found the right person to negotiate with?”
