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She managed to get Agatha on the phone, even though it seemed to take forever, and was struck by how listless and downcast she sounded. Prison wasn’t doing her any favors, as was to be expected, of course.

“I talked to Tucker yesterday,” she announced, “and he told me he was out all night with his friends on the night of the murder.”

There was a momentary silence on the other side, then:“Oh, thank God.”

“I checked and I see no reason to doubt his statement, so I think he’s in the clear.”

She heard the distinct sounds of a woman sobbing, and was satisfied her hunch had proved correct.“Is that why you didn’t defend yourself, Agatha?” she asked softly. “Because you were afraid Tucker might be involved?”

“Yes,” she said finally. “I thought maybe he’d decided to punish the woman he held responsible for his parents’ separation and things had gotten out of hand. Astra could be very cold and caustic, and really drive people up the wall. If Tucker had gone there that night to confront her, andshe had used that attitude on him, who knows what would have happened. He could have flown off the handle and stuck that knife into her in a fit of rage.”

“Well, that didn’t happen, so I guess you have no reason now to sit there in that police station and let Inspector Giblet tell all kinds of nonsense about you.”

“Oscar suggested a lawyer, but I’ve been postponing a meeting to discuss my case.”

“Arrange for that meeting as soon as possible. You need to protest your innocence, Agatha, and the more vigorous the better.”

“Oh, I will,” said the woman gratefully. “And Odelia? Thank you so much.”

“That’s all right. I just wondered why you wouldn’t put up more of a fight, and then I got it. Took me long enough, though, I have to say.”

“Can you give Tucker a message from me?”

“I can do you one better: I told him to go and pay you a visit. I’m sure with the help of your new lawyer, Giblet won’t be able to deny you a visit from your son.”

“Oh, that would be wonderful,” said Agatha. “I really want to see him.”

“I’ll remind him,” Odelia assured the woman. “Oh, and Agatha—hang in there.”

“I will. Are you any closer to finding out the truth?”

“Not yet, but I have a feeling I’m getting closer.” Slowly but surely. “We almost caught that cat burglar last night, and Barnabas Sheffield thinks he’s our killer.”

“And what do you think?”

She hesitated.“I’m not sure. There’s every chance he’s involved, though. But we have to catch him first, and confront him with the facts.” Which could happen at any moment, if Barney was to be believed. He now had his entire staff scouring the hotel looking for the guy, so it was only a matter of time before they caught him. Unless of course he was a member of that same staff, in which case they might never catch the culprit. “The problem is that knife. Your knife.”

“Oh, that’s right. It’s one of the reasons I was so worried about Tucker. Because I gave him that knife as a present.”

“You did?”

“Yes. He was in my room one day and saw it lying around and asked if he could have it. You know what boys are like. They love that kind of stuff.”

“And so he took it?”

“He did, yes. Though I have no idea what he did with it. You’ll have to ask him.”

“Thanks, I will.”

She ended the conversation with a few words of encouragement, and was gratified to discover that already Agatha’s mood was much improved after the good news she’d received.

Her next course of action was to go up to Tucker’s room and give him the message from the young man’s mother.

She was lucky that Tucker was in, though when he came to the door he was looking extremely bedraggled and had clearly been awakened from a deep sleep.

“What is it now?” he asked, stifling a yawn.

He was barefoot, and still in the clothes he’d tumbled into bed with last night—or early this morning, as was probably the case.

“I just talked to your mom,” said Odelia, detecting a powerful whiff of alcohol on the man’s breath. “And she wants you to pay her a visit. She’s going to arrange things with her lawyer so that you’re cleared to go.”

“Oh, that’s great,” said Tucker without much excitement. Clearly this was not the son who would have killed a woman out of anger because she came between his mom and his dad. Tucker apparently couldn’t care less about all of that.

From behind the kid, a woman’s voice now sounded. “Tucker? When are you coming back to bed?”

“Soon!” he yelled back.

“Who are you talking to?” the same voice demanded. “If it’s one of your girlfriends, I’ll—”

“It’s room service. Now go back to bed!”

“Room service?” asked Odelia with a slight grin.

“Hey, she’s great, but she’s also pretty jealous,” he said, then shrugged. “Abandonment issues, what can I say?”

“So are you going to visit your mother? She needs you, Tucker. She hasn’t been coping well being locked up with limited access to her family.”

“Yeah, I’ll visit her,” said Tucker. “The only reason I haven’t is because that Gibber or whatever his name is said I couldn’t.”