Everyone in the room had frozen in place, watching the fight. Nina attempted to retaliate by gouging at Patty Anne’s eyes, but Patty Anne kept dodging Nina’s hands, all the while pounding Nina’s head up and down. Then the room surged into motion as Giles and the butler, Dingleby, ran forward to separate the two women. Everyone else, myself included, got up from our seats and converged around the battle scene.
Giles had grabbed Nina, pulling her up off the floor, and Dingleby held Patty Anne. Both women were struggling to break free to go at it again, but Giles and the butler were taller and much stronger than either of them, and they held fast to their separate combatants.
“Nina! Patricia Anne!” Lady Hermione’s voice cut through the babble, and suddenly quiet reigned. I took an involuntary step backward.
“What is the meaning of this outrageous behavior?” Lady Hermione now stood between the two women, and at her signal, Giles and Dingleby released them.
“Why have you subjected us all to such a vulgar display?” Lady Hermione addressed this question to Nina, but Patty Anne Putney answered.
“Murderer! That’s what you are! Look at what you’ve done!” She pointed at the floor, where poor, decapitated Mr. Murbles lay, his head several inches from his plush little body. A bit of stuffing extruded from the neck.
“Nina, how could you do such a vicious thing?” Lady Hermione said, her voice thick with disgust, as Dexter Harbaugh came forward to clasp a sobbing Patty Anne in his arms. He stroked her hair and murmured in her ear in an attempt to comfort her.
Nina massaged the back of her head with one hand. “I’m going to bring charges against that lunatic,” she said, her voice low and angry. Ashford Dunn was attempting to comfort her, but she waved him away. He retreated a few paces and pouted.
“Answer my question, Nina!” Lady Hermione took a step closer to Nina.
“Honestly, Hermione,” she said. “I simply did what all of us have been longing to do. I was tired of pretending to talk to that absurd stuffed animal of hers, and I snapped. Before I knew it, the thing was in my hands and I had ripped its head off. Then she went berserk and attacked me!”
“How could you do such a thing to her, you cow?” Dexter Harbaugh made as if to approach Nina, but Lady Hermione held up a hand. I recalled having heard Harbaugh himself threaten Mr. Murbles yesterday, but now that he was playing the role of sensitive and supportive man, I supposed he had forgotten that little lapse.
“Watch out for that spider, Dexter!” Nina said, raising her voice a bit and pointing somewhere behind Harbaugh.
Startled, Harbaugh released Patty Anne Putney and whirled around. “Where?” His voice had risen at least an octave.
“My mistake.” Nina grinned evilly as Harbaugh turned back to face her, a murderous glint in his eyes.
“You bloody cow,” he said.
“Isn’t it nice, Nina,” I said, “to have all the members of your little fan club all together like this?” Giles quickly smothered a laugh, while the eyes of the company turned to me. I smiled.
Lady Hermione ignored me. “Nina, I’m appalled at your behavior. You will leave this house at once! ”
“I’m afraid, Lady Hermione,” said Robin Chase, “that I must overrule you in that request.”
Unnoticed by the rest of us, Dingleby had slipped away to summon the police.
“Must she really stay here, Detective Inspector?” Lady Hermione had steel in her voice.
Robin was a match for her. “It would be much more convenient, ma’am.”
“As you wish.” Lady Hermione turned back to Nina. “But as soon as the detective inspector allows it, Nina, I want you to leave.”
“Don’t worry, Hermione, dear,” Nina cooed, “I won’t stay a minute longer than I’m forced to.” She smoothed down her dress. “Detective Inspector, I’d like to speak with you about pressing charges for assault.”
“Certainly, Miss Yaknova,” Robin said. “I’ll speak with you now, and then with Miss Putney, if I may.”
He inclined his head toward Patty Anne. She sniffed and nodded, her sobs having ceased.
Robin led Nina from the room as the rest of us watched in silence. Glowering at us all, Ashford Dunn followed them from the room, like a little boy who knows he’s no longer welcome at the party.
Dexter Harbaugh had picked up Mr. Murbles from the floor and was cuddling the stuffed bunny, its head jammed back in place, in his arms. Patty Anne smiled tremulous thanks for his solicitude.
“If you’ll permit me, Dexter,” Lady Hermione said, “one of the maids is quite adept at, er, repairs of this nature.” She held out her hands, and Harbaugh gratefully dumped both pieces of Mr. Murbles into them. “My dear, don’t worry, he’ll be good as new, and very soon.” She waited a moment for Patty Anne’s nod of permission, then sailed from the room, bearing her wounded charge. The few remaining conference attendees trailed after her, leaving just six of us in the room.
Isabella Veryan approached Patty Anne and placed a consoling arm around her shoulders. She drew her toward a sofa while instructing Dexter Harbaugh quietly to fetch a cup of hot, sweet tea.
“My dear, I know this was a terrible shock to you,” Isabella said, making Patty Anne comfortable beside her. “But what on earth precipitated such an act? I know Nina is very temperamental, but I’ve never seen her behave like this.”
Patty Anne’s tearstained face took on a mutinous look. “I’d really prefer not to discuss it, Isabella, if you wouldn’t mind.”
Isabella patted her hand, then released it as Harbaugh approached with the tea. She waited while Patty Anne had a moment to sip at the tea; then she persisted gently. “I know it’s distressing for you, my dear, but surely you can understand why we’re all so concerned.”
Patty Anne appealed to Dexter Harbaugh with her eyes, and he nodded.
“Very well, then,” Patty Anne said. “If you must know, Nina was bullying me. She wanted me to sign with her again, after I had fired her a few months ago. I told her there was no way I would ever work with her again. Mr. Murbles...” and here she threatened to break down again. She took a deep breath and gained control of herself before continuing. “Mr. Murbles and I both despise her and her shabby methods. I told her so, in no uncertain terms, and that’s when ... that’s when...” Her lip trembled, and she could speak no further.
“We quite understand, my dear,” Isabella said soothingly. She looked at George Austen-Hare for a moment, then sought out Dexter Harbaugh. “We all know Nina only too well. You need explain no further.”
I wanted to stamp my foot in frustration. The four of them were privy to something about Nina that I didn’t know. They had all been clients of hers longer than I, and they had all been bigger sellers than I, at least until very recently. What had Nina done to them to deserve such rancor on their part?
Perhaps more important, what had Nina been planning to do to me?
If I knew the answer to that, I reasoned, I might be closer to knowing who had murdered Wanda Harper, and why. Somehow, I figured, the two must be connected.
“Woman ought to be struck off, or some such,” Harbaugh commented, watching Patty Anne through narrowed eyes. She offered yet another tremulous smile to his gruff words. I had begun to see her appeal to a man like Dexter Harbaugh, who despised her weakness at the same time he craved it.
“Yes, after what I’ve seen this weekend, it’s truly amazing to me that Nina keeps any clients whatsoever,” I said, glancing from face to face to gauge the effects of my words. “I certainly won’t have anything more to do with her after this weekend. She’s fired, and that’s that. I can’t imagine that any of you would continue to retain her after the way she’s behaved here this weekend.”
Isabella shifted uncomfortably on the sofa beside Patty Anne. She did not meet my eyes as she responded to my challenge. “Simon, dear boy, I’m afraid that ending a business relationship with Nina is not so simple as you might imagine.”
“Yes, I know that she’ll retain rights to income on certain titles, ones for which she negotiated contracts and so on, but that doesn’t mean one is tied to her forever.”
George Austen-Hare, who had been unaccountably silent for some time, started sputtering and coughing. We all turned to him to see what was the matter. His face had turned an alarming shade of red, and at first I thought he had swallowed something the wrong way and might be choking.
Then I realized he was laughing.
“What’s so funny?” I asked.
It took him a moment, but George mastered himself long enough to sputter, “The only way to get rid of Nina is to kill her.” Then he dissolved into laughter once more, sounding more and more hysterical. Dexter Harbaugh approached him and thumped him hard on the back several times, and George finally subsided.
After that, one could have heard the proverbial pin drop in the room.
Isabella Veryan gazed knowingly at Dexter Harbaugh, who regarded her without blinking. Then one eyebrow arched slightly, and Isabella nodded once, decisively, in return.
“Simon, dear, if you wouldn’t mind, we’d like to talk to you.” Isabella glanced meaningfully in Giles’s direction.
I took the hint. “Giles, if you wouldn’t mind, could you go and continue that research we were talking about earlier?” I wouldn’t have minded having Giles hear whatever they were about to tell me, but if it made them more comfortable to talk to me alone, then I’d play along.
Giles frowned, disappointed at being sent away from the fun, but he acceded to my request with good grace. He knew full well I’d tell him all about it later on anyway.
The moment the door closed behind Giles, Isabella said briskly, “What we’re about to confide, Simon, must not leave this room. Do I have your promise?”
Examining each of their anxious faces in turn, I felt suddenly as if I had stumbled into an Enid Blyton adventure, where all the boys and girls had to swear solemn oaths and all that. Suppressing a grin, I replied, “Certainly, Isabella. I know how to respect confidences.”
“Very well, then,” Isabella said. “I feel it only fair to tell you, and I presume the rest of you are agreeable?” She paused for a moment, listening to the murmurs of assent from Patty Anne, Dexter, and George, before continuing. “None of us has dealt willingly with Nina in recent years, Simon. Though in many ways she is quite a good agent, she has other qualities that make working with her quite a trial.”
Isabella paused again, and before she could resume dancing around the point, I said bluntly, “You mean because she’s been blackmailing all of you?”