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"Only," said Lady Ina, "A
"You don't think it was an accident?" I said.
"Come out of the trenches, boy. The war's over. Of course it wasn't an accident. She killed David with malice aforethought. She's a murderess. The police know that."
"Then how did she get away with it?"
"Because the family wanted her to. David's family. And, as it happened in Newport, old Mrs. Hopkins had the power to prevail. Have you ever met David's mother? Hilda Hopkins?"
"I saw her once last summer in Southampton. She was buying a pair of te
"She is. That's why A
A
"But it could have been an accident. If one goes by the papers. As I remember, they'd just come home from a di
"That's what she said. That's what her lawyer said. That's what the police said. And that's what the papers said… even the Times. But that isn't what happened." And Ina, inhaling like a skin diver, began: "Once upon a time a jazzy little carrot-top killer rolled into town from Wheeling or Logan-somewhere in West Virginia. She was eighteen, she'd been brought up in some country-slum way, and she had already been married and divorced; or she said she'd been married a month or two to a marine and divorced him when he disappeared (keep that in mind: it's an important clue). Her name was A
"I'm sure it was David's first experience with anything less primitive than a belly rub with his prep-school roomie. He went bonkers, not that one can blame him; I know some very grown-up Mr. Cool Balls who've gone bonkers over A
"It was then that A
She studied French and had a French butler and campaigned for the Best Dressed List by lunching with Eleanor Lambert and inviting her for weekends. She learned about furniture and fabrics from Sister Parish and Billy Baldwin; and little Henry Geldzahler was pleased to come to tea (Tea! A
"But the deciding element in her success, leaving aside the fact she'd married a great Newport name, was the duchess. A