It took them thirty minutes to find an old-fashioned trunk full of clothes fashionable about twenty years before.
“These are gorgeous.” Kate pulled out a sky blue cashmere dress and a Chanel bag.
“Only the best for our Nadine.”
Sara was leaning so far over the trunk she was half inside it. She was tossing clothes out to Byon and Kate. When she got to the bottom of the trunk, she had to brace herself at the side, but she came up with a red leather portfolio.
“That’s it!” Byon clutched it to his chest.
“A ‘box’ of papers?” Sara said. “And blue or green? That is from Asprey’s. So who gave it to you?”
“Willa for Christmas.”
“I could have guessed,” Sara said.
Byon sat down on the top of a trunk and opened the clasp of the beautiful portfolio and began flipping through the pages inside. “They’re all here.” He sighed. “That means Nicky never read them. No one did.” He looked like he might cry.
“Good!” Sara said. “Then no one can plagiarize them. We need to go over it all and see if there a
re any clues in there.”
“They’re all plays.” He sounded as though that was a superior form of writing.
“The easy way out,” Sara said. “No having to bother with scenery descriptions and literary glue.” At their blank expressions, she said, “You know, getting people from one place to another. Standing or sitting? I used to use toy figures to keep up with who was where. Sex scenes were like directing traffic on an eight-lane highway, with everyone moving at a hundred miles per hour.”
Byon’s eyebrows were raised high. “Really? Maybe I should read one. Just for reference, that is. I could—”
“So what is in your plays?” Kate asked.
“I tried to write everyone’s part in that night.” He paused. “But back then, I thought it was all a joke. Diana and the groomsman had run off together. Quite amusing but not new. But after the little photo display...”
“Now it’s different,” Sara said. “What you wrote back then is very important.”
Byon smiled at that.
“Willa said she’d walk us through what she did that night,” Kate said.
“Poor Clive,” Byon muttered. “She followed him endlessly. Today it’s called stalking.”
“She was trying to please Nicky,” Sara said. “Trying to please all of you. She was terrified of being thrown out of your nasty little group.”
“We couldn’t afford to toss her out,” Byon said. “Literally. She fed us.” His head came up from the case. “And she bought lovely things for us. If only we could look back at that time. We could—”
Sara was smiling. Glad he was finally understanding.
“A play,” he said. “With actors!” He blinked a few times. “Jack looks like Sean.”
“And the others are here.”
They were looking at each other with wide eyes and heaving breasts.
“Is this writer sex?” Kate asked but they didn’t answer.
“They will see only their own part.” Sara was so out of breath her chest was like a runner’s. “Do you know enough?”
“Not by a mile. Jack can get Nadine to tell all.”
“Willa will love ratting on Clive.”