Barbara Sinclair licked her lips.
"I've met her."
"Titania sang me a little song about her husband, whom she said she had overheard talking to Gabriel Linnet about their dealings with the black market. She seemed to think I ought to investigate him. A most unwifely idea, but that wasn't my business. At her suggestion, I went out to Oyster Bay to meet and talk to Milton. Unfortunately, it became rather rapidly clear that Milion and I were not destined to form a great and beautiful friendship. And he didn't want to talk to me at all. In fact, he practically threw me out on my ear."
Simon leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling, as if he could see pictures there.
"I made one rather tragic mistake first, though. I dropped an unfinished quotation that somebody must have finished after I left. Because anyone who heard it finished would have known that I expected Linnet to sing — if he hadn't started singing already. And they would have had a good idea that I was on my way to see Linnet then. Which was very tragic indeed for Gabriel." He blew a carefully constructed smoke-ring. "I did go to innet's, of course; and there I met you. And in due course you gave me a very attractive invitation."
She bowed her head over her hands clenched together between her knees.
"Soon after this," he added, "Fernack was called by some mysterrious amateur sleuth who reported that I'd been seen breaking into Linnet's place. There was also some mention of noises like a fight going on inside."
"I didn't phone anybody except the boy I had a date with. I told you I had to break a date."
"You couldn't have called anybody else by mistake, could you? You couldn't have called your treacherous friend to report that I was duly hooked and under control, so the rest of the plot could go into production as scheduled."
She made no reply except to look up at him again. Tears glistened under her long lashes.