"Champneis didn't arrive in England till Thursday," offered Hopkins, "so that lets him out."
"I do think this is the most heartless and reprehensible conversation," Marta said. "Let's talk of something else."
"Yes, do," said Judy. "It's a profitless subject. Especially since you, of course, murdered her yourself."
"I!" Marta stood motionless in an aura of bewildered silence. Then the moment broke.
"Of course!" Clement said. "You wanted the part she was due to play in the new film! We'd forgotten that!"
"Well, if we're looking for motives, Clement, my sweet, you were raving mad with fury because she refused to be photographed by you. If I remember rightly, she said your works were like spilt gravy."
"Clement wouldn't drown her. He'd poison her," Judy said. "With a box of chocolates, Borgia-wise. No, come to think of it, Lejeune did it, in case he'd have to act with her. He's the virile type. His father was a butcher, and he probably inherited a callous mentality! Or how about Coyne? He would have killed her on the Bars of Iron set, if no one had been looking." She apparently had forgotten about Jason.
"Will you all kindly stop this silly chatter!" Marta said, with angry emphasis. "I know that after three days a shock wears off. But Christine was a friend of ours, and it's disgusting to make a game of the death of a person we all liked."
"Hooey!" said Judy, rudely. She had consumed her fifth drink. "Not one of us cared a brass farthing for her. Most of us are tickled to death she's out of the way."